For A Good Cause

There are a lot of things I hate about social media, but the one thing I do love is that outlets like FB, Twitter, and blogs sometime allow us the ability to stick together, or reach out and help someone we've never even met.  We see that time and time again in the blog world, where we bolster one another in times of joy, sorrow, and especially need.  So it was no surprise when I visited Cindy at Fat Cow Studio and saw a post about one of her FB friends who is in need.

Now I don't know Cindy's friend Amy from Junk Love & Co., but I really don't need to.  The important thing is that Amy's father in law and son were in a terrible accident and her son is in a PICU (pediatric intensive care unit) in Vegas.  Scary times as you can imagine for any parent.  And as you can also imagine, the bills will be mounting.

Being the clever and industrious community that we are through our blogs and FB, another friend of Amy and her family jumped in to action and has organized an online FB auction to try and raise funds to help this family out in their time of need.

Her name is Barbara, and she is known as the Shabby Cowgirl .  Through her efforts, she has gathered a whole host of great auction items that will be up for grabs today between 12 pm PST until 7 pm PST.

I've donated a 12 x 12 wrapped canvas to the auction.  You can pick the artwork, one of the ones you see featured in this post, one from my last post, or anything from my website HERE. 

The choice is yours, but no matter what you pick, the money will be for a good cause and that always makes buying something even more fun.  And please spread the word, the more we can get this out there the more money we can raise for this family!

My thoughts go out to Amy and her family, and I wish both her father in law and her sweet son a very speedy recovery from their accident!

To preview the items and place your bids, click HERE.   Remember the auction is today only starting at 12:00 noon PST until 7:00 pm PST...so don't wait!   

           

Iris

It was a lovely weekend here at LTHS.  On Friday evening, we went out in the kayaks for the first time this year.  It was the earliest we've ever been out in them since we moved in nearly 5 years ago, and although the water temps were still quite chilly, the air temps were just too good to pass up.

Saturday, our daughter Angelfish and her dear friend "S" came for a quick visit and we had lunch at a favorite restaurant.  It was wonderful to have everyone together for lunch, including our son. 

After our daughter and her friend headed back up the road, our son Bugs decided he and a friend would spend the night at our cabin, so Mr. Tide and I settled in for a quiet evening alone with a movie and big bowls of soup.

If you knew me in real life you would say, "what, you ate soup?!"  You see I sort of hate soup, but as the day wore on it got colder and it was rainy, so soup sounded good to me...a rarity. 

The movie we watched was not for the fainthearted as the subject matter is about the atrocities of WWII, but it was so well done and well worth watching, I highly recommend it!  It, stars Kristin Scott Thomas (such a wonderful actress) and it is called Sarah's Key.   HERE is a link to the trailer for the movie and just be forewarned that you will want a few tissues close by when you watch it.

Today was somewhat dreary, with showers off and on and much lower temps than we've had the past few weeks, but I won't complain, we've been very fortunate to have had incredible weather for this time of year.

And that weather has given us so many beautiful flowers, including this lone Iris that Mr. Tide cut and brought in for me to photograph.  I wish you could smell it, the scent is beyond amazing.  

I hope you each have a wonderful week, and if you do watch Sarah's Key, I'd love to hear what you think of it.

Lenten Rose

These beautiful shade loving plants are also known as Hellebores but I prefer to call them Lenten Roses.

The silver moon variety, which I have, start out as a lovely shade of cream and then mature to a dusty rose color.  They are called Lenten Roses because their blooms coincide with Lent, making them one of the first flowers to bloom in the late winter garden.

If planted in a nice shady spot with fertile soil, these perennials will spread like wildfire and give both you and your shade garden plenty of early blooming beauty while everything else is still sleeping.  And their blooms last for a very long time making them perfect for photo ops, so I think they are just about perfect.

Do you grow Hellebores aka Lenten Roses in your garden?

Opinions and A Giveaway

So I'm finding these new watermarks are kind of obnoxious and a bit of a pain to create, but such is life I guess.  Until I can figure out an even better way to protect my images, this will have to suffice I'm afraid!

I have a big favor to ask though, but it also means you'll be entered to win something.  I was wondering if you would be so kind as to take a look at these images and pick your favorites.  They are grouped in pairs and each one of the pairs has the same "look" to them.  Some are more vintage'y, while others just have a soft romantic look to them.

  I'll call these SET #1

This is the first set with a vintage look and some writing on them.

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 Set #2

This next set has a softer feel to them and there is less going on, but each has a stamp to give them a little interest.

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Set #3

Set 3 is even more simple with no writing at all, and just a painterly quality to bring out the beauty of the flowers.

So, what do you think?  Do you like set #1, #2, #3...and what do you like best, or dislike most about any of the sets?

As a thank you for taking the time to tell me which set you like the best or like the least, I will draw a winner from the comments and send him or her 5 x 7's of the set you like the best.

I will draw a name on Thursday and let the winner know on Friday.  Thank you for taking the time to give me some feedback, I really appreciate it!

Lisianthus Love

Happiness is a weekend complete with a $5 bunch of purple Lisianthus!  Happy Weekend Everyone!