Saturday Spotlight: Life Behind the Blogger

Benita from Chasing Quaintness

 Saturday Spotlight: Life Behind the Blogger is a feature done each Saturday that introduces you to a blogger you may already know or a new blogger for you to get to know. This feature gives you a peak into the personal life of the blogger.  Getting to know the special person behind the beautiful blog.

There is so much talent and inspiration in blogland so enjoy getting to know these talented bloggers each Saturday.

Good Saturday to all of you.  This week in Spotlight I have a fairly new person to blogging.  She just started up her blog this year.  I love that she reached out to me as a new blogger and said yes to doing Spotlight.  I told her Spotlight is a good way to have bloggers find her and get to know her.  So enjoy reading and getting to know Benita from Chasing Quaintness.

I cannot tell you all how thrilled I am to be on Kris’s Spotlight Saturday!  I wasn’t quite sure how to write about me, so I decided to use facts and filler.

My first blog post was January 31, 2015.  I was terrified.  I’m still terrified!

I’m Alabama born and raised.  I do not like the colors orange and blue. ;-)

I moved from Birmingham to Dallas in 2011 and from Dallas to Nashville in November 2014.  The hubby is giving me a tour of the country – in no particular order.

I’m currently in menopause.  It started when I was 2 years old.  I don’t remember reading about the curse of menopause in the Bible.  I think it was skipped --  on purpose.

I’ve been married to the current hubster for 7 years.  We met at a “haunted barn”.   We wanted to get married on Halloween and have everyone attend in costume.  The bestie nixed that so we got married on the 4^th of July. We like that the entire United States celebrates our wedding anniversary!  Here is a photo from our wedding…sheesh, look how skinny.  Menopause took care of that! 

Menopause started 6 months after we were married…send my hubby gifts and lots of “poor guy” messages.  He doesn’t know the “real me” only the menopausal maniac I’ve become.  He is 10 years younger and doesn’t deserve a menopausal wife, but… here we are.  Sorry about our faces...my little Samsung camera automatically airbrushes your face.  I don't understand why it thinks everyone's face has wrinkles!

I’m a pinner not a tweeter.  I can’t say anything in 140 characters or less.

I’m a girly girl.  I don’t like to get dirty.  Maybe that’s why my craft projects fail.

I wear gloves for everything…washing dishes, dusting, vacuuming, painting, potting plants, watering plants, mopping the floors, washing my car, emptying the trash…you get the picture.  The gloves are pink.

I will not play sports.  The fear of a breaking a nail is just too great.  I do ride a bike.

I’ve never had a broken bone, but when I was little my dad ran over me with the car.  My aunt opened the car door while we were going somewhere and I fell out.  To this day I remember being embarrassed in the ER because the doctors and nurses saw my panties when they cut my pants off.  I was about 5 or 6…all that drama over a little (a lot of) blood.

I chewed gum during my entire wedding.  I was nervous.

Some strange men joined my bachelorette party – I was chewing gum.

One kept trying to kiss me.

I finally let him kiss my cheek after those men  gave me money…..as a wedding gift. The new hubby-to-be was not happy when he saw all the photos.

I like getting people to pose for unusual family photos - like this...

 And this.  The young girl in this photo, who looks like she’s about 17 was 12…yep, 12.

I didn’t look like that at 12…this is what I looked like…UGH…that nose…that hair…those freckles, those eyebrows.  I saw someone from school many years after graduation.  She asked if I had a nose job...nope.  She said "you must have grown into it then."  Yep!  I still laugh.

I have 2 boys and 2 step-children – 1 boy, 1 girl.

And one granddaughter.

The first time around I was married for 25 years. The first hubby died during the divorce ordeal…at my feet.  I was confused as to whether I was a widow or divorcee.  I still don’t know, but that was 11 years ago.  I’ve moved on.

I’ve been to New York City and Las Vegas twice. 

I’ve been out of the country once.

I’m a Marilyn Monroe, not Marilyn Manson fan (go ahead, Google him).  I miss Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, William Powell, Henry Fonda, Frank Sinatra, Mel Torme, Dean Martin (this list could take a few days).

My youngest son has Loeys-Dietz Syndrome (similar to Marfan’s). We've spent many years in hospitals and doctor's offices.  He almost died once.

I love my lifelong friends (we all went to church and school together).  I HATE having my picture taken but do not miss an opportunity to pose when it’s a good hair day – those silly girls totally messed up this picture, but I rocked it (good hair day and not too big in the mouth area).

I’ve been a photographer for about 20+ years.

The hubby and I love plays.  Our first play to see together was The Full Monty.  I. HAD. NO. IDEA what it was about (honestly) because I had never seen the movie.  We sat at a table next to the stage - I didn’t see the ending…my eyes were covered.  The hubby did and described it in great detail…all the way home!

Now you know more than you EVER wanted to know about me!

Kris, thank you so very much for the Spotlight Saturday post!  You are a sweetheart!
Benita (http://chasingquaintness.blogspot.com)

Thank you Benita for sharing about yourself and life with all of us.  Hop over to Benita's blog and say Hi.  Have a wonderful week end.

Kris

Happy Friday

Just wanted to pop in and say Hi.  We are enjoying our vacation this week in Florida.

Had to open with a picture of my granddaughter Abby taking possession of her princess room.

We had dinner last night at a place out on the lake and the peeps with boats that live on the lake pull up to the restartuant for dinner.  So fun.

After dinner we walk down on the shore to see the most beautiful sunset.  Sorry these were all taken from my cell phone but it was just so gorgeous.  Lovely warm evening with a cool breeze coming off the lake.

Having a wonderful week visiting with family and just chillin.

We are visiting these two today!!!!!
Come back tomorrow for Spotlight.
Have a wonderful week end.
Kris

Deck Sanctuary

Thought I would show you the beginnings of my summer deck.  This deck becomes another room in our home during the summer months.  This is where I love to hang out on my lounge chair and read and soak up sun and also where Terry and I sit and have a nice El Fresco dinner on occasion.

I love this little bistro set I found at Walmart for $89.  It is the perfect size table for eating out on this small deck.  Does not take up a lot of room yet still allows for 4 people to eat.  The umbrella is smaller too and just shades the table and not all my flowers like a big umbrella does.  I am hoping to find a nice crochet table cloth at the flea markets to bling up the umbrella a little bit.

This is my little sanctuary.  I have my slipcovered lounger and I can read and soak up some sun on a pretty summer day.

Love being out here on a sunny blue sky day.

Cute pillows, a great garden hat and good magazines always!

I am so happy I have two vintage bikes.  This is the front yard bike. 

This is the back deck vintage bike.     Love to dress them up with flowers for summer.

I have this old chippy and rusty park bench out on the deck.  

A lot of you that have been following me know I love to mix in vintage salvage pieces with my flowers.  Old chippy windows and this piece of old door with the Potting Shed sign painted on it.  It hangs over an old picket fence potting table.

Down off the deck is my flower beds where I put in the 3 knock out rose plants Terry gave me for Mother's Day.

I even take a little time to decorate Terry's shed area.  I have had this little fire truck for a few years and love to put a plant in it outside his shed.  We live in a lake town so I loved when I found this Cottage rental sign a few years ago.

Love to sit and enjoy a summer night sunset from the deck.

Adding a PS here.  Since I did up the pictures for this post I had a "mental health" day with a friend on Friday.  We went to Morris the cute town I talk about often that has really sweet shops.  One of my favorite shops is Vintage and I found this vintage crochet table cloth to put on top of the red umbrella to bling her up just a little bit.  

I have this attached on the corners of the umbrella through the netting so I can easily take it off to wash it when it gets dirty after a rain.  For now I am loving this piece.  It is a wee bit small but it does hide the glaring red of the umbrella a little bit.  Still on the hunt for cute chair pads for the chairs.

Hope you enjoyed the garden tour of the back deck.  I still have time to decorate and play back here but I am enjoying the beginnings of my summer deck.

A sweet thank you to my daughters and friends that gifted me gift cards to my favorite nursery Johansens Farms for my birthday and mom's day.  With Terry still not finding a fire chief position and with being on a tight budget,  I worried how I was going to have my flowers this year so the gift cards were such a blessing to have to start out my summer flowers.  I feel so blessed.
:)

Have a wonderful week.  We are leaving for a trip to visit my mom in Florida this week.  I will be taking a little blog break while I am gone.  I will have Spotlight on Saturday for you to meet and get to know a new blogger.  So be sure to come by for that.  Happy Memorial Day.

Kris

:)

Parties:
Share your creativity Party
make it pretty monday
Linda's Show and Share Tuesday
Inspire Me Tuesday
WOW

Spotlight: Life behind the Blogger

Poppy from Poppy View

 Saturday Spotlight: Life Behind the Blogger is a feature done each Saturday that introduces you to a blogger you may already know or a new blogger for you to get to know. This feature gives you a peak into the personal life of the blogger.  Getting to know the special person behind the beautiful blog.

There is so much talent and inspiration in blogland so enjoy getting to know these talented bloggers each Saturday.

Happy Saturday Everyone.  I am loving this opportunity to invite you to meet and get to know Poppy.  This blogger lives in Crete, Greece one of the prettiest  country's on the planet.  Her views from her home are right out of a picture.  Poppy is so lucky to live and be surrounded by such beauty.  Please take a little time to read and get to know Poppy from Poppy View.

Our butter yellow home sits across a vineyard,

 now sprouting shiny, new grape leaves.

Hello everyone, my name is Poppy, and I am the author of two blogs. Welcome to my home, high in the hilly, Cretan countryside. I am thrilled to be visiting with you today, and would like to thank our sweet and talented hostess, Kris, for inviting me!

From our rooftop terrace: vineyards, olive groves, and mountain ranges.

For the past three years, I have been writing about my life in our charming, Mediterranean village, over at my first blog, Poppy View, where my adventures around the picturesque mountains and meadows, excursions to beautiful, pastoral places, 

and days spent at the seaside, inspire me to share my thoughts and feelings with my wonderful readers, some of whom have become treasured friends, even though we've never actually met in person.

While my husband built our home, I designed and decorated it to reflect my love of both French country and English cottage flair - the perfect duo, since I was born and raised in Canada, a land that has been greatly influenced by these two nations, both culturally and historically, and one I miss terribly, every day, as three years ago, my daughter moved to my hometown of Toronto, to find work, where my parents, siblings, and their families all live. 

''Don't Know Why''

(click to listen)

Although I have a degree in English Literature, and having mainly taught ESL to Greek students, here on the island, I have also had the pleasure of singing professionally, while on an amateur level, I've acted in and directed community theatre productions. 

 

I spend my free time photographing the glorious landscape around me, cooking, gardening, baking, and blogging. I've always been interested in painting, and just bought myself some watercolours and brushes, hoping to capture our pretty countryside on canvas, too.

My second blog, Poppyprosodies is one I created just over a year ago, which I've completely devoted to my poems. It's a place where I can develop my writing skills, and interact with others who share the same passion for poetic expression. Creating, whether it be a craft, music, art, or writing, in my opinion, is essential for everyday joie de vivre!

Well, I've enjoyed 'spilling the beans' on what goes on 'behind the scenes' of my two blogs, so that you may have a better idea about the woman behind them. Thanks again, Kris, and everyone, for reading! In closing, I leave you with one of my poems, which presents some thoughts and feelings on the aging.

Have a lovely weekend!

xoxo

Poppy

  Raindrop Roses

Roses on my table,

floating in a puddle of dew,

petals layered next to savouries,

and a bittersweet, Greek brew.

  Posing on my dresser,

 claiming centre stage,

  they're luscious leading ladies

among gentlemen jars of sage.

They sparkle in the sunlight,

eclipsed only by a gingham shade,

 basking smugly in the fleeting limelight,

until their striking beauty fades.

Too much sun for a starlet,

can the process of aging start,
 wilting her vibrant spirit,
and breaking her tender heart.

Left with traces of her brilliance,

(when youth beamed on her face,

 allowing her to upstage those
 tattered, and time embraced),
 she, now uprooted, muted and diluted,
was replaced by fresh cut hopefuls
in a curvy, half-full vase.

Thank you Poppy for doing Spotlight.  It was so much fun to get to know you better.  Love your talented poetry and your beautiful home country.  Take a few minutes to hop over to Poppy's blog and introduce yourself.

Have a wonderful rest of the week end.

Kris

:)

Every Day Blessings

Hi Everyone.  Today is not about decor crazy or new summer flowers or a new yummy recipe but about a very special story.

If you have a few minutes sit down and read this lovely story and think about this teacher's words and then go out and enjoy or notice something small, simple and cherish this moment in your life.

source

Lisa Beamer on Good Morning America - If you remember,   

she's the wife of Todd Beamer who said 'Let's Roll!' and 

helped take down the plane over Pennsylvania that was 

heading for Washington, DC back on 9/11. 

  

She said it's the little things that she misses most about 

Todd, such as hearing the garage door open as he came 

home, and her children running to meet him. 

  

Lisa recalled this story: "I had a very special teacher in 

high school many years ago whose husband died suddenly 

of a heart attack. About a week after his death, she shared 

some of her insight with a classroom of students. As the 

late afternoon sunlight came streaming in through the 

classroom windows and the class was nearly over, she 

moved a few things a side on the edge of her desk and   

sat down there. 

  

With a gentle look of reflection on her face, she paused 

and said, 'Class is over, I would like to share with all of you, 

a thought that is unrelated to class, but which I feel is very 

important. Each of us is put here on earth to learn, share, 

love, appreciate and give of ourselves. None of us knows 

when this fantastic experience will end. 

It can be taken away at any moment. 

  

Perhaps this is God's way of telling us that we must make 

the most out of every single day. Her eyes, beginning to 

water, she went on, 'So I would like you all to make me 

a promise. From now on, on your way to school, or on 

your way home, find something beautiful to notice. 

  

It doesn't have to be something you see, it could be a 

scent, perhaps of freshly baked bread wafting out of 

someone's house, or it could be the sound of the breeze 

slightly rustling the leaves in the trees, or the way the 

morning light catches one autumn leaf as it falls gently 

to the ground. Please look for these things, and cherish 

them. For, although it may sound trite to some, these 

things are the "stuff" of life. The little things we are put 

here on earth to enjoy. The things we often take for 

granted. 

  

The class was completely quiet. We all picked up our 

books and filed out of the room silently. That afternoon, 

I noticed more things on my way home from school than 

I had that whole semester. Every once in a while, I think 

of that teacher and remember what an impression she 

made on all of us, and I try to appreciate all of those 

things that sometimes we all overlook. 

  

Take notice of something special you see on your lunch 

hour today. Go barefoot. Or walk on the beach at sunset. 

Stop off on the way home tonight to get a double dip ice 

cream cone. For as we get older, it is not the things we 

did that we often regret, but the things we didn't do. 

  

If you like this, please pass it on to a friend, 

or quietly reflect on this for yourself. 

"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, 

but by the moments that take our breath away." 

  

HAVE A GREAT DAY! 

The nicest place to be is in someone's thoughts. 

The safest place to be is in someone's prayers, 

and the very best place to be is.... 

right here in the moment.

I enjoy each and every one of your sweet visits and comments to my blog.   May you find a simple little "stuff of life" today to make you smile.

Have a great rest of the week.  Enjoy the beautiful week end to come.  Join me back here on Saturday for a new blogger for you to get to know in Spotlight.

Kris

:)

 

Before and After

I wanted to show you this bench that I got for Mother's Day from my girls and what I did with it.

My two daughters gifted me this lovely bench from Home Goods for Mom's Day.  I had thought about putting it at the end of the bed in my guest room.
But then,  I thought about re loving this bench a little bit and having it for seating in my dining room.

So I painted the legs white to match the chair legs of my dining chairs.  Easy enough to do.

Then I got out more of the gray and white check fabric and the tablecloth ruffle left from doing the chairs you can see that post here.

So I added the gray and white check Ikea fabric to the bench with a staple gun and then stapled the ruffle under the bottom of the bench.

So now this sweet little bench that was gifted to me has been re loved into additional seating in my dining room.

Have a great start to the new week ahead.
Kris
:)

Parties:
Make It Pretty Monday
Winthrop Chronicles
Home Stories from A-Z
Mod Mix Monday
Brenda's Tweak it Tuesday
Wow
Favorite Things Blog Hop