Happy Mother's Day!!!!

My Mother's Day-Saturday

I gave the boys fair warning that I wanted to have Mother's Day on Saturday when the restaurants aren't as busy and all the businesses I wanted to visit would be open. So when I got ready to go Paul was...well, we won't go there...Justin was too busy cleaning up after a huge party at his house the night before, and Matt said (in that wonderful, whiny voice), "It's too far.". So off I went, feelings hurt and all. It didn't take too long before I realized how much better it was that they didn't come although a friend or two would have been fun. I'd been wanting to go to the Offray/Berwick Ribbon Outlet in Hagerstown for the longest time. It's almost to Pennsylvania but way worth it. It's funny...Todo, we aren't in Texas anymore...in Pennsylvania one day, almost there and into Virginia the next. It takes two or three days to get out of Texas and you can spit to the next state around here. Okay, back to the outlet. It was so worth the drive. Unreal. P.S. Tomorrow when the boys are back at school/work I shall drag out all my bags and show photos of what I acquired and some of what I'm doing with them. I have used ribbon in my art work for the whole 7 years now and there's no telling how much money I've spent on it. I was thinking just that while I was rummaging through bin after bin of ribbon yesterday. Most 10 yard rolls are $2-3. Sure, there were some ribbons I see all the time, but there were also many I use all the time, and a lot of ones I haven't seen much if at all that I loved. There's a big box where you take a zip lock bag and stuff it full at 35 cents per bag! I was focused and discriminating; I've learned the hard way that having too much of anything is not a good deal. And I can always go back. Can't wait to show you the huge bundle I got for a song.

Next, but most important on my list, was to visit the cottage's new digs in Leesburg.

My natural GPS took me directly there without a single turn around, a record! I poked around a bit outside but just as I was taking the photo-after-next, there to greet me with a big surprised smile was...

...Ann!, one of the two dynamic duo of Ann and Linda, proprietresses of the cottage.

You just know if you are greeted by Ann and a bucket of such beautiful flowers that you are in for a big treat.

Their signature pink wagon is waiting too.

I don't want to give all the goodies away, but just enough to pique your interest, make you chomp at the bit, and get over there.

Don't drive over there just for this phone 'cause it ain't there no more. You can see it tomorrow in my other party pics. The phone rang while I was standing there and a sweet little birdie voice on the phone instructed me to take it home. I always comply with sweet little birdie voices.

I'm only showing just a hint at some of the smaller vignettes. Two big floors of nothing but eye candy, no eye contact allowed, and, thank goodness, no whiny voices or pressure to hurry (I had left that at home). These ladies have eyes for perfection and the great talent of staging, making this place so wonderful and inspiring. It's one of those places that is so glorious that you must take a piece of it home like a souvenir. I said in my previous post about them that it's like an amusement park for grown ups and I stand by that statement even more.

mmmmmmmmmmmmmm...

...think Homer Simpson drooling on the couch...mmmmmm...

...I'm thinking bliss...bags in hand and a little hungry, Ann directed me to Market Street Station for a snack. The original idea was to have lunch at Lightfoot, my favorite in town, but I didn't feel like dining alone so I headed to Market Street.

It reminded me so much of The Barnyard in Carmel; lots of levels and flowers and neat shops and restaurants. I ended up at the place where she'd sent me, the name of which escapes me at the moment. Fortified with a pecan bar, black bottom cup cake, and Odwalla I started to weave my way out of town after taking the photos of the Station.

On my way out...

...I saw this tiny restaurant and just had to share.

On my way to Leesburg and the cottage I had sped past Luckett's out of loyalty to my friends at the cottage and wanting to go there most of all. I was at peace with the fact that I would miss going there but on my way home I saw that there were cars in the parking lot so I took a chance.

Now, I blogged about the cottage and Luckett's way back when near the beginning of this blog so I'll go over some info again. Lucketts is a tiny town, one street which is Highway 15, and is lined with antiques places. One of them is Luckett's. It includes the big photo above-the big two story building-and an acre or so of the above outbuildings, each one a little shop of its own. Total funk and fun. I got there after 5 but went in because the door was open and many other folks were in there strolling around.

Yes, she told me to take her home but since she didn't use that little birdie voice, I only took her picture home. How cool though? There is a lot of inspiration there. Our own Tammy of Sweet Finds at The Pink Cabbage used to have a space there and she definitely has the sweet, cool, funk, fun, pretty down like they do here.

This one whistled to me but, as it had a sold sign on it, I couldn't buy it. I briefly thought of "delivering" it to the buyer, using that natural GPS I have and, oh my bad if it went on the fritz before I got home with it, but I was a good girl as usual in these cases and left it there for the rightful owner.

Cute little pink vignette. Good thing I didn't take close notice of that round pink table while I was there as I believe it would have glombed on and insisted in going home with me when I "need" no such thing or have anywhere to put it. I zoomed the prize tag while I was editing these photos and I think it said $65...I still have no where to put it and I HAVE LOOKED. I did pick up a couple of "smalls" and as I was checking out I asked the girls what time they close. They said, "Five.", it was 6 so I blessed and thanked them. Luckett's is a ho' just like the rest of us dealers.

Right next door is a cute little yellow building with all trimmings being red with white dots including the doors. This is the arbor which one uses to wind around to the shop.

I've still never been inside the pink silo attached to the barn shop. When I went by yesterday they were sticking to their "closed at 5" rule. Oh well, gotta have something to look forward to next time...as if you have to make something up!

Trip to Philly

Well it turned out that I didn't need as many meds as I was worried about, the trip was really great in some ways and was really a bust in others. I had been thinking bumping up and down in a yellow bus 4 hours each way when in fact it was one of those luxury tour buses that have a potty inside and video screens. Here's Matt and my other charge, Da Quan across the isle from me. I shared my side with (you can see his eyebrow here) Oliver. I narrowly missed being seated with The Mom from Hell. We were in the second row and she was further back and seated with an adult man. She said it was too tight and she needed to be further up. I used Oliver by saying that he had moved up to where we were so he could sit with the boys instead of in the middle of all girl. It worked! My plan went off without a hitch. I read my Marthas and did cross word puzzles and even had a little nap.

No one tried to bother me a bit. The kids watch viddies and played with their electronic whatsits.

Philly is a beautiful city so full of history and fab old architecture. Little note here: I accidentally deleted all the pictures from the first half of the trip which was the bust part because it was a WALKING tour and it was POURING RAIN THE WHOLE TIME. I did have some cool photos of our umbrella tents where we had huge clusters of umbrellas altogether to form a tent. We had arrive a little late because of the rain traffic so we had to rush through several of the neat stuff. And some of the neat stuff we only got to see half of because of rushing. We waited in line outside for 40 minutes in the, yes, pouring rain to see the liberty bell then had to leave right before getting in as we had to meet the buses at 1:00 to go to The Franklin Institute for lunch and the other half of the tour. We missed the bus tour part because, as our tour guide informed us, a police officer had been killed in the line that week and the funeral was occurring so we were detoured away from the historic area because of that. I did enjoy seeing all the brownstones and, of course (because every time I go pretty much anywhere), I decided we should move there.

After lunching in the cafeteria at The Franklin Institute we were on our own to explore all three floors. Still during the "deleted photo series" the guys got to do space shuttle simulation, touch a 50,000 year old meteor, see a Lego model of Philadelphia, see how a full sized train engine operates, and so much more.

This is a model of The Institute.

While the guys went inside here, I finally sat down, discovered that I had accidentally deleted all the previous photos, and worked on my camera until it was back to working order.

They discovered all sorts of aspects of air movement and flight.

Camera still not back to complete normal, this was the best I could get of the beautiful, four story pendulum in the middle of the building.

As our time was nearing the end, we finally found the most popular spot, the sports area. Lots of simulations; surfing, rock climbing, racing, professional pitching, etc. It was a little wild in there so I thought we'd gotten there just in time. We still had almost an hour in there.

All in all it was a great trip but not exactly what we were expecting or what we went there to see. So, darn, we'll just have to go back again soon!