via Loralee Lewis

My heart is breaking for all these people.  I can't even imagine what they are going through.  There have been so many tragedies in the US lately.  I am praying for all those in Oklahoma, especially all those who lost loved ones.  All those mommies and daddies who sent their children off to school and will never see them again.  

Matthew 11:25-30
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Lamentations 3:31-32 For the Lord will not  cast off forever, but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; for he does not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men.

Read more: http://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/20-bible-verses-to-comfort-the-hurting/#ixzz2TwCFOGIo

A New Vignette

I've been working on a little vignette for my living room sofa table.  I find vignettes so hard for some reason.  I guess I can't call "stylist" among my abilities.  I pour over pictures and try to put all the elements together and I still find them lacking.  

I added fresh flowers and Violá, balance (which I love) and beauty.  

BTW, I made that moss ball in the middle urn.  It was really easy.  I bought a sheet of moss and a 10' styrofoam ball from Joann's.  I cut the moss into strips and then into triangles.  The triangles help the moss lay flat on the round surface.  I then hot glued the moss to the ball.  I then got embroidery floss in two colors of green and wrapped the ball, hot glueing the ends to the ball.  All in all it took about 1 hr.

When I went to Joann's to purchase the styrofoam ball, I was shocked by the price.  $30 for the 10in and $16 for the 8 in.  The problem was, the 8 in was way smaller than the 10.  So, I used a 40% off coupon to purchase the strofoam ball.  Now, I had stopped by Joann's on a whim and didn't have my coupons with me ( I never have my coupons with me, I'm the worst at remembering to bring them from home).  So I have to share with you my latest find, that has saved me a lot of money, "The Joann's App" for my phone.  I just opened it up, found the 40% off reg. priced item coupon and saved $12. 

Items needed:

Moss Ball

Hot glue and hot glue gun

2 skeins embroidery floss in different greens

10' styrofoam ball

Sheet of moss

The Great Gatsby - LOVED IT!

 So I finally got around to seeing The Great Gatsby and I could see it again and again and again.  I heard so many bad reviews, (the production is overblown and takes away from the story).  I got plenty of story and I enjoyed every lavish costume, every magnificent jewel and every overblown set.  It was a feast for the senses.  Does that make me shallow?  Maybe it just makes the film critics arrogant and unable to enjoy any movie that isn't sad, "real" and has Meryl Streep in it.  I bet they really liked it, but can't admit it!  Everyone played their part and I totally bought in. I thought they were great.

Carrie Mulligan was devine.  I loved every detail about her.  Her Tiffany jewels were extraordinary and that little pixie haircut showed off the most amazing headdresses and scarves. 

Tiffany lent them jewelry and silver from their archives.  The use of pearls made my heart skip a beat.  Look at that hand jewelry, tiara and the gorgeous pearl necklace below.  Leo looked the best I've seen him in years.  Toby McGuire was so believable as the naive friend and narrator.  Joel Edgerton was the villain and he angered you.  

The roaring 20's was a time of great prosperity right after the World War I.  Jazz was breaking though and dancing consumed the nation.  People were out of control, letting their hair down so to speak after such rationing, death and destruction.  The women had just earned the right to vote and women felt freer than ever. Hemlines were up and they cut their hair short.   Prohibition was in full force and gave parties and night clubs an air of danger and reckless rule breaking. 

If you would like to see more of the Tiffany jewelry, click here for a look at Tiffany's windows in New York. 

I can't even imagine dressing like this everyday.  The dresses were unbelievable.  Incredible detail.  All the men were dressed by Brooks Brothers and if you go into their stores, they have all the suits for sale, even the pink one.  Rich, sophisticated and decadent are the words I would use to describe the characters, except Nick.  Nick was sweet, naive, trusting and loyal. The sets were a visual feast: the houses, the rooms, the furniture, the scenery, the cars, the jewelry and the clothes.  An Art Deco explosion.  You can see how beautiful the movement was when captured in it's own time. The party scenes were over the top and not my cup of tea, but I enjoyed seeing them.  I loved the billowing curtain scene at the beginning of the movie, when you meet  Daisy.  I've seen so many opulent mansions by the sea that belonged to the tycoons of yesteryear, and they have all had the wall of floor to ceiling doors that open up to the water.  I have imagined this scene at each of them.  I also loved that Gatsby gave all those parties in hopes that Daisy would go to at least one.  He longed to be back in her life, but wanted it to be by happenstance, not showing how eager he was.  How his house faced hers, yet the body of water stood between them.  I felt Nick's awkwardness and how uncomfortable he was in the hotel scene. It ends sad, bittersweet and you just want to shake your head at the waste of it all (but I didn't cry, I just felt melancholy). I read the book in high school and I'm going to read it next.  I think you have to have more life experience to understand and "get" the books you read in high school.  When your 15 or 16 you can't identify with the characters and story lines

as much as you do now.  I've just added this movie to a list of my favorites.  

I Love My Dogs

Gus

My dogs LOVE to go to the dog park.  In fact, we can't even say the words, "dog park" without them going berserk and yes, that describes their emotions accurately!  We have to say "the DP" and we can't say the word "go" or it's all over.  They run to the door, Gus starts jumping and making his excited barking/screaming monkey noise and Daisy barks.  They will sit perfectly still while you put on their leashes, though, they're not dumb.  Everyone loves Gus' long hair, especially when he runs.  They call him the "Fabio" of the dog park. 

When they are at the dog park, they always have the biggest smiles on their faces!  They are so happy.  Daisy is like the Walmart Greeter, she greets each and every dog as they come in and socializes with everyone.  Daisy usually ends up making some old lady mad because she will put her dirty paws in the clean water bowls.  I fill them up constantly when I'm there. By the way, I recently had Daisy's DNA tested and her genealogy surprised us:  Laborador and Austrailan Sheepdog.  I knew there was some kind of sheepdog in there because she is a herder. Gus usually finds one dog that he will play with.  He will run and run (he loves to be chased). 

We recently started taking my little grand puppy, Aslan.  He loves all the people, but he is not so sure about the other dogs.  He is totally submissive to the dogs and stays close to me most of the time.  He is venturing out and about, usually to greet a person.  He is now 26lbs.  He is becoming so big and boy is he smart. 

 I puppy sit him 2 or 3 times a week and he is a little trouble maker.  Always getting into something or pushing Gus around, but I miss him when he's not here.

 He is a digger, so he cannot be left alone in the garden.

 He finds absolutely every. little. thing. that will get him in trouble, but he is such a love bug that you just have to forgive him!

I have had dogs my whole life and I couldn't imagine a life without them - ever!  They are so sweet, loving, accepting and comforting.

Above is a cute little Vine video that my daughter Katie made while we where having tea on Mother's Day.  It's called, "How to drink tea".  It's a great insight into her sense of humor.  Just click on it to start or stop.  You can follow Katie on vine:  Katie Gore

My daughter, Alyssa, arranged for a beautiful afternoon at the Montage in Beverly Hills where we all had tea as a gift to me. 

We celebrated on Saturday so the crowds wouldn't be too big, the drive wouldn't be too long and the kids could spend Mother's Day with their significant other's mother.  

The Montage Tea boasts "hand painted" china and it was very beautiful.  Alyssa, Katie and I ordered the Passionberry tea, Delaney ordered the Coconut Sunrise, Greg-Russian Caravan, HH-English Breakfast and Michael- Yunnan Black.  I like the passionberry tea plain, but Katie said it tasted like candle water until she doctored it up.  Ummm, I don't know when she has tasted candle water. 

There are various kinds of tea service you can order, most of us went with the traditional, Katie and Alyssa went with the Royal (came with Champagne) and Greg ordered the Gent's tea which comes with house scotch, sliders, pie and cake.  It actually was a hit and HH wished he would have gotten it. 

There were also sandwiches that featured salmon.  Greg said the salmon tasted better than the salmon that  he caught last year in Alaska. It was all very tasty.  You can see the menu here.  

We were sat in a living room like setting and it did make it hard to eat.  I guess their table's are not big enough for a large crowd.   

I don't know why this came out blurry.  I definitely need a new camera.  I had a lot of blurry pics and they weren't all taken by me or I would blame the operator. 

Greg and Alyssa

After tea we went outside and took pictures by the fountain.

My three beautiful daughters.  They are so different, buy yet they are so alike.

We pestered some poor guy to take our picture as a family.  It was a great day and I love each and every one of these kids.  I'm so blessed and proud to be a part of their lives.

Black Tie Gala

 Here we are all dressed up for the black-tie gala.  The Handsome Husband sure looks fantastic in his tux.  He loves his tux.  This year we got him a silver with navy polka dot tie to wear.  I'm a natural at tying a bow tie, got it the first try!  The sun was really bright and it was nice and warm.  Katie came by on her way home from work and took a couple of pictures of us.

 Can I just tell you that those shoes were killing my feet!  By the end of cocktail hour, I could barely stand in them.  I took the pretty baubles off the toe and threw the shoes away when I got home.  I've worn them for 3 years now and I guess they have seen better days.

 HH wants us all to see how unexpected and bold the material is that lines his tux.  He just loves it.

 This is one of my favorite pictures.  Notice how when we smile our eyes practically shut!

Ok, I got a little carried away with the smiling.  Truth is, Katie was cracking us up.  I had tears in my eyes from the laughter.  

The Montage

 We spent a couple of days at The Montage Hotel and Resort in Laguna Beach curtesey of my husband's company, he qualified as an Exceptional Producer.  He has qualified 4 out of the 5 years he has worked there.   We are so proud of him.  They take really good care of you while you are at the resort, providing breakfast, lunch and dinner.  On the second night we attended a black tie gala where the producer's receive their awards.  

 The hotel and grounds are beautiful.  The service is amazing.  The hotel is built in the Craftsman style and the lobby is gorgeous.  The lobby is on the fourth floor and the views are incredible.

 We had perfect weather and ate all our meals outdoors (except for the black tie dinner).  Something I found really interesting was that in order to keep all the birds away from the food and the pool, they take a falcon out several times a day and walk him around the grounds.  They put him on a tall stick with a crossbar on it and he sits up on the crossbar and they walk him around the perimeter of the restaurants and pool.  It works really well.

 This is The Studio Cafe restaurant.  It is the nicest restaurant in So Orange County.  The service is amazing and the food is good, but the view is to die for.  Right on a bluff overlooking the beach.  Incredible.

 This is the view from the hotel.

 There is a beautiful path that stretches the length of the property.  It is planted with amazing color, succulents and trees.  The owner of The Montage has a house on the property right along this path.

On the first night, after the cocktail party and dinner, we came back to our room to find this nice cheese board, crackers and Pelligrino from my handsome husband's company in our room.  We had chocolates and fresh bottles of water on our bedside tables every night.  We got complimentary massages and activities while we were there.  I feel very blessed to have been able to enjoy this weekend with HH and that his hard work is recognized by his company.