Scouting Shots and Petal Pushers

I hope you all enjoyed Kim from Savvy Southern Style's guest post yesterday!  Thank you again Kim for having such a great sense of style and for being such a wonderful friend and blog buddy!

And thank you all for your nice emails and comments about my health!  I'm sorry to hear that so many of you have suffered the pain caused by kidney stones, but the advice you've given me, and knowing others out there can relate is very comforting!

On Friday, I took it easy all morning long and by the afternoon I was feeling well enough to go to a photo shoot I had scheduled for late in the afternoon.  This was a magazine scouting shoot of an amazing home that I had written about a few years ago for a regional magazine.  I wish I could show you this house, but let me just say that not only is the house spectacular, but the owners are some of the nicest people on the planet!  

I had a great time taking photos and chatting with one of the owners, Anna, about everything from organic gardening to design and decor...and you know how I love talking about those topics!   Anna has a great sense of style, and she's very knowledgeable about so many things.  And she even gave me some fresh organic lettuce from her beautiful garden to bring home...thank you Anna for the wonderful conversation and for the yummy leaf lettuce!

After I was done shooting the interior, I headed outside to take some shots of the exterior and the beautiful landscaping!  Along the front portion of their home is a flower bed filled with hydrangeas.  I love hydrangeas and how they change color depending on the pH level of the soil they are planted in...they can range from pale pink, to lavender, to electric blue, all within the same plant sometimes.

It's funny, before I left for the shoot I had commented on my friend Connie's blog, Hartwood Roses, about her beautiful pale pink hydrangeas and then here I was face to face with these beauties so I had to snap a few pictures to share with all of you!

I'm always smitten by flowers and how delicate and beautiful they are.   I also love how much they can change the appearance of an exterior and make it so much more inviting!  Mr. Tide and I have been doing some landscaping ourselves lately and even the addition of just a few flowering plants can dramatically improve the look of almost any home.

And you have to love a plant like the hydrangea that gives you such a show and asks so little in return.  They really are fairly carefree!  And I have to admit that any flower that can adapt to it's environment, can change color and still be beautiful is a plant I can admire.

After my photo shoot, Mr. Tide and I went to a small resort town nearby to grab something to eat.  Due to some adrenal and thyroid issues I've had over the last few years I'm very good about eating healthy and almost exclusively organic.  But tonight we were both really tired and actually went through a drive-thru!  Once again we were reminded why we NEVER eat fast food...yuck!

I took my camera along with me like I do when I go anywhere, but tonight I just wanted to walk along the waterfront and enjoy the scenery instead of documenting it!  We did meet another avid amateur photographer, and I even gave him a few blog addresses to check out, so we may have another blog convert!

Thank you again for all of your wonderful support and kind words these past few days and everyday!  I may not get to reply to each and every comment, but please know that I do read and enjoy them all and they mean the world to me!  And as a way to say thank you to all of you for always being there, check back soon when I'll have another little something to give away to 2 lucky winners!  

Enjoy your weekend!