Artsy Blessing!

Good Thursday all my crafty friends! It is a B-E-A-utiful day here in my part of the world! Beautiful blue skies abound and a brilliant cool snap in the air!! I ABSOLUTELY love it! My favorite tree at the front of my home has started to drop leaves and I am uber excited! FAVE time is here! :)))))

I am just getting to a slow down point to be able to do a post. I have been extremely busy this week playing catch up from being off for several days. I was so blessed to get to do a myriad of things over this past weekend and I'll share a little here with you today!

I left out last Thursday with some great pals of mine up to Charlotte, NC for a Women of Faith Conference! We had a ball with wonderful fellowship, dining, worship and amazing speakers! It truly was a great trip!

I was so blessed by the trip from start to finish, but mainly because I got to go with my bestie and two other pals! I couldn't have asked for better traveling companions!! I loved Charlotte, it is just a beautiful little town with surrounding communities that are just precious! The Women of Faith Conference was spectacular and an amazing experience to be sure! I thank Grace Baptist Church for allowing me the opportunity to take part with their fabulous ladies group!

While making the travel preparations, it dawned on me that one of my FAVORITE artists, Donna Downey had a studio up that way and sure enough when I got online and checked it out, she was ONLY 20 minutes away from where we were staying!! Woot, Woot!!! How could I go ALL that way and not go see her studio and potentially see Donna herself! Well, my fabulous traveling companions were more than happy to oblige! I did get to go, but SADDDDLLLYYY, I did not get to see Donna! When we got there the precious young lady behind the counter, Amber, said "ohh, you just missed Donna, she had to go pick up the kiddos!" EEEEEEEKKKK!! I was brought down a notch to be sure, but it was probably just as well, because I was already like a 12 year old amazed at my surroundings. Imagine, if you will, if she had been there!!!! Yikes!!! Donna.....you were spared!!! LOL

From the minute I walked in, until I left, I was in awe! Her artwork is GORGEOUS and little Ms. Amber was too, too kind to crazy old me! She accommodated my every silly whim and tried to understand how a 50 something year old lady could so easily revert back to a 12 year old!! LOL I picked up some great deals and some new "Donna goodies" and made sure to get to see the infamous bathroom!!! To top it all off, I told poor Amber, that since Donna wasn't there, that by proxy she had to take a picture with me! She, of course, obliged shortly before escorting me out of the studio!!! LOL She really was a precious young lady! I had a ball, and am so thankful for being able to go see her studio in person!!

While I was there I had another luxury of getting to see my brother and sister-in-law! Haven't seen my brother in almost four years, so it was an emotional and awesome visit! We went and ate an amazing brunch at LaPeep and spent several stolen hours visiting, reminiscing and taking each other in, not knowing when the next time we would see each other! I miss him terribly and wish he lived closer, but was so extremely blessed for the time we did get to see each other. Time has a way of getting away from you, so needless to say our time together was very short, in my book anyway! My gal pals enjoyed meeting he and my sister-in-law and it was treasured time to be sure.

I continue to be so very thankful for all I have and alI God places before me! I know that just as easily, my life could have been so different, but God "chose" this life for me and I do not take it lightly! I have amazing family and friends the He chose to surround me with and on top of it all so many of you lovely, lovely online friends that I have come to know and love in cyberspace! I live, cup FULLY loaded!

We are off to the Georgia National Fair this weekend with a car load of kiddos for sure!! You can betcha there will be an onslaught of crazy photos to come!!

Have an AWESOME weekend my friends! :)