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{Pretty}
Christmas tree at a local restaurant.
An ornament wreath made by my friend Sarah
beautiful, clean ice!
[Funny}
Mel found gluten free beer at Hofbrauhaus!
{Happy}
Working on my 2016 power sheets with a cup of peppermint tea and the Three Good Fairies.
{Real}
This is what's left behind after a puck hits the glass, going at the speed of a slapshot. Yikes!
Pretty
Well, hello, All Saints' Day rose against the rectory wall! You're so pretty!
Vive La France! the mantlepiece at a local French restaurant.
{Happy}
ne of the best parts of fall--the annual edition of Jane Austen Knits!
{Real}
My writing notes for NaNoWriMo--this is a revised character list on the right, and the left is what I thought the book was going to do. By the scratches, you can see that didn't happen. :)
Linking up with Like Mother, Like Daughter
So last weekend, I went to the wedding of one of my high school friends. So I give you: Wedding PFHR!
{Pretty}
This is where the wedding took place--it was an Orthodox service in a Catholic church. But this church! Pretty awesome, huh? The windows above the altar represent the seven sacraments, and the virtues are painted all around the church. At the very top, you can see two of the four evangelists (all four are there, just no in my photo). It's a Franciscan church, run by Franciscan friars, but it's named St. Benedict's, so in the painting above the altar you have the twelve apostles and St. Francis and St. Benedict.
{Funny}
I call it, "Flower Girl With Pig."
{Happy}
Lydia (another Flower Girl) and me at the reception. Isn't she darling?
The cake was so good, people. And yes, my friend plays the piano. Really well.
{Real}
Indiana on the drive home.
(Also, if you don't get the title reference: I give you....)
Linking up with Like Mother, Like Daughter.
{Pretty, Happy, Real}
I spent last weekend in retreat. It was the annual Lay Dominican retreat, which is held every October, either here in Columbus or in Cincinnati, and chapter members from four states come and spend the weekend together. I've been to St. Therese's (this retreat house) many times for silent retreats, but never for our Lay Dominican Regional Retreat. I'm going to write more about the retreat experience tomorrow, but here are some of the photos from the weekend.
Our Lady of Lourdes in the retreat house grotto.
St. Therese Reliquary off the main chapel.
The chapel before vespers.
Back wall of the chapel
Linking up with Like Mother, Like Daughter.
{Pretty}
The view of Boston Harbor from our hotel room.
Our Lady of Fatima in the North End.
The lights in Cantina Italiana, where we had Sunday lunch. Love them!
{Funny}
Les Miserables for babies? Why not?
Downton Abbey Tea.....above Boston Tea Party Tea.
{Happy}
Dinner at Legal Sea Foods Long Wharf on Saturday night.
{Real}
Heading home with my trusty Vera carryons. :)
Linking up with Like Mother, Like Daughter.
{Pretty}
OK, yes, I live in the Midwest. But I love Southern Living, and this cover is just too pretty! Yay Fall!
{Funny}
Dinosaurs at the supermarket? Funny.
{Happy}
The book manuscript has been sent off to its first publisher! Yayyyyyyy!
(Want to help increase its chances of being published? Read here.)
{Real}
So yesterday exterminators were looking at my townhouse. No, I do not have bugs. A person a few doors down does, and since our houses are all connected in groups of six, every house had to be inspected and/or treated. This involved taking everything off the kitchen and bathroom counters and moving all the furniture out from the walls. You can imagine how functional my place was, after all that.Not so much.
I had a lot to do yesterday, so I decided to get up early and decamp to the local Starbucks to write and work while the exterminators "inspected" my house. So here's my lovely setup, and it really was quite lovely; I got a lot of work done before I went to drop off the manuscript and have lunch with my mom.
Linking up with Like Mother, Like Daughter!
Pretty
The pumpkin display outside one of the local Whole Foods stores. How many pies do you think we'd get out of all these? I also love the little basket of squash.
I really love fall. I'm not a huge pumpkin fan, though, but these were just so pretty, all arranged together outside the store on a lovely First Day of Fall!
Funny
Guys, this is just SO funny, and since I'm distantly related to Cardinal Wuerl, I can use this for my funny, right? I geek out whenever a pope comes to D.C. now because it's total Distant Cousin Mania time!
Happy
This is our CCD classroom door this year. Sr. Paulina, who came to the US from Poland a few months ago, has been helping in our class (partially to help improve her English), and she is greatly gifted with a laminator and some construction paper! I love what she did to our door.
(I don't know why the little guy looks so oddly squished--but take my word for it, he doesn't look like that!)
This is one of my few fall decorations. While my mom is the Queen of All Household Decorating Things--you should see the house at Christmas!--I don't have as many decorations. I did, however, pick this guy up at Hallmark as part of their 12 months of ornaments series, along with this guy:
See the little kitty? And I have my Seasonal Angel, too, who's out in her full glory.
The next ornament in the series is a Turkey--they're all designed to look like cupcakes. The first one, for August, was a crab on sand, which was adorable.
Real
This is part of the Radiology Department at "The Resort"--aka, my hospital. Since the new addition was built, there is a fancy new "imaging" department, which has taken over most of the traffic that used to come here, when this was Main Radiology for clinics, the ER, inpatients, you name it. I have spent a lot of time in these hallways--sometimes in a bed, sometimes in a wheelchair, sometimes under my own power. After transplant, I came down here every morning around 6 AM for a chest x-ray. It was hard to walk back then--I needed breaks. Can you imagine needing breaks to walk a few feet? It's sort of unbelievable now.
The only things down here anymore are the regular radiology rooms, and the bone density scanner. The CT scans and nuclear medicine have been moved to the new digs. But this part of the hospital is still a part of my life, because this is where I go for my chest x-rays now before my transplant clinic appointments.
So I'm probably never going to escape these walls, or that tile pattern--but at least when I'm down here now, it's not an emergency. It's routine.
{Pretty}
My Penguin Drop Caps collection. Normally I alphabetize my books by author within genre, but these are designed to be displayed together. I just love the spot of color they add to the shelf and my living room.
{Happy}
Homemade Pizza for St. Dominic's Day. I really don't eat pizza anymore, but I felt the urge to do it last week, and this is pretty healthy, all things considered. No grease, for starters! And deliciously summery.
{Real}
The weekly planning, which I do on Saturday. Since I teach CCD on Sundays (we start in two weeks, yikes!), I don't like to do weekly planning then, because I'm beat. So Saturday is my day for weekly planning, grocery list making, and meal deciding.
(No funny this week--I got nothing!)
~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~
{Pretty}
So, if you've ever been to Columbus, you've probably heard of German Village. If you haven't, now you have! Essentially, it's an area directly south of downtown that was home to many of the city's German settlers in the 19th century. Thanks to preservation efforts, many of the original buildings and infrastructure have been preserved (like that brick sidewalk--but be careful!), making it an adorable part of town, but also one that is a great combination of restaurants, shops, and residences.
Recently, the weather has been perfect--maybe 80 for a high--so I've gone to the coffee shop on German Village's "main drag" and done my writing and reading there (much of today's Emma post was written with this view in front of me!). It's lovely really any time of year (except winter. Winter on cobblestones? Not good.), but when the weather is perfect, it's sort of magical.
{Funny}
So while I was writing, a young woman (probably college age) came by with this adorable dog. She wanted to pop into the shop to get a coffee. "Do you mind if I tie my dog up here?"
"Nope!"
So I had a little friend for a few minutes while her owner got her coffee. People passing by loved her and thought she was mine, which, as we know, she is not--but she was super cute.
{Happy}
Last weekend was the annual Irish Festival held in the suburb of Dublin. I don't go every year, but this year the weather was too perfect to miss it. So I drove up and treated myself to some Irish music, dance, and general culture (and yummy food). The second photo from the right is of the amazing group Cassie and Maggie MacDonald--if you like Celtic music, check them out.
And the giant bug? That's Stinger, the Blue Jackets' (our NHL team) mascot. He was distributing St. Patrick's Day themed Blue Jackets t-shirts and getting us excited about the upcoming season.
My planning list for a dinner party I threw on Monday, complete with mail and notes on the back of envelopes. Eventually, this table was cleared off, dusted, and polished....but not when this photo was taken!
~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~
Every Thursday, at Like Mother, Like Daughter!
I've never done this before, because I normally don't take enough pictures every week to do this weekly. But I sure did when I was on vacation, so here we go!
{pretty}
There's a lot of pretty here, guys. Edel+ Charleston= pretty overload. So let me walk you thought it.
Carolina Jam Cake with lovely, simple flowers at Hominy Grill. The cake has caramel icing. Say no more, people.
This lovely St. Therese necklace made by the Fantastic (And Cincinnati-based!) On This Day Designs.
Goodies from the conference: St. Thomas card (also from On This Day), a St. Catherine of Siena medal, and a lovely print from Hatch Prints. Dominican power was strong!
The cutest houses--and wonderful restaurants!
Seriously, a hat shop! A REAL HAT SHOP! With such a pretty sign.
{funny}
Super funny ladies, they are: Kelly Mantoan and Mary Lenaburg.
{happy}
That about sums up happy, right?
{real}
L-R: The tomatoes at the Charleston Farmers' Market; buttermilk fried chicken at Poogan's Porch (DIVINITY), and Passion fruit iced tea, so I don't melt in Charleston humidity.