A Most Wonderful Gift And A Special Friend

One of the greatest blessings of this new blog culture is the ability to meet and become friends with others all over the world. When I first began to post and to read the blogs written by others I found Bonnie at Calamity Jane's Cottage. In a relatively short time (since April), she and I have become friends. I don't say that lightly. It feels to me like Bonnie is a neighbor - you know the kind I mean? The kind you drop in on for coffee and she's tickled you're there. The kind you can call and say, "oh I'm so aggravated at my husband, or my kids, or the mail person," and she will know that it's just for the moment and nothing major. In her case, it's not really a drop in but it seems that way. Last week when I got home from the visit to my sister that resulted in a huge car repair bill Bonnie sent me a present. Not just any present, not just a small present. Bonnie sent me a HUGE present. After scurrying around to find the scissors, cutting off the tape, and opening the box, here is what I found. Bonnie made me this beautiful purse. And ya'll she personalized it! If you've read my blog like Bonnie has you will know that a) my initials are MB, 2) I am a Christian first and foremost, but I am not 3) an angel, and my confessions prove it! However, you will note on the hands of the angel her 4) fingernails. One of my confessions was to wearing fake fingernails for the last 20 years. However, I took them off about 6 weeks and am still suffering from the post-acrylic yucky looking nails. :(

I am a 5) stitcher, both embroidery and quilting, and 6) I live on a lake. Bonnie included all of those on my purse - she does beautiful machine embroidery!

When I opened my purse up I found a makeup bag to match, also with my initials on it and it was filled with chocolate. Chocolate is a good thing!

And she included some other gifts - a seam ripper, a package of Mary Engelbright needles, fat quarters of fall fabrics (and I've already used some of them in a wall hanging!) and a Romantic Home magazine.

I've carried my new purse everywhere since it arrived on Saturday and gotten compliments from a ton of women. And, of course, I'd love to take credit for it but I don't. No, not even once! I'm sending them all Bonnie's way - and you too. If you're interested. She has a fabulous on-line shop (www.calamityjanescottage.com/) with lots of wonderful things, including aprons, purses, children's outfits, china, oh all kinds of things you will definitely want. If you want a purse personalized for someone she can do it! This purse would make a fabulous diaper bag and would be so cute with the baby and mama's name on it. It's big enough that I think you could even use it for a sewing or knitting tote. What a great gift!

Awards and a Couple of GiveAways

Isn't that the cutest award? Janie at Southern Lagniappe sent this to me. She's a sweetheart and you'll love reading her blog. She has wonderful pictures of all kinds of things southern that I just love to see.

This wonderful award came from Tracy P. at The Journey. I love it! Thank you so much Tracy. Tracy is a cute young thing (I'm almost 62 Tracy so to me most people are cute young things!) and I love her stories about her children. Especially this one.

I sat here for the longest trying to decide who I would pass these awards to but I cannot choose! I'm like a child in a candy store, reading my blog list over and over choosing first this one and then that one. Do I want to pick the Tootsie Roll Pop or the Butterfinger, the Hersheys with Almonds or the Snickers? So I'm simply going to say I love my Blog Friends...the serious ones and the funny ones, the ones having family problems and the ones who are looking back at a lifetime of memories, the ones who would love just 10 minutes away from their mischief making little ones and the ones who long for a child's arms, the young and the old, the joyful and the sad, the tired and the energetic. You have made my days to be joyful and I have been blessed by the way you have welcomed me into your hearts and your homes. To each of you I give this Friendship Award and this I Love Your Blog Award and also my heart.

Anna at Around the Quilt Block is celebrating her 32nd birthday (she's a mere child!) with a giveaway. Just look at all of this wonderful stuff she's giving! I know you want to hop on over there and comment so you get a chance to win.

And this wonderful giveaway is from Deana at Sugarshop. Fabric, girls, is like gold to those of us who are addicted to quilts or aprons!

A Lesson Learned

I had the most interesting day today. I'm not sure you'll think it so, but I did. I learned a lesson today that I don't want to forget. Be patient, I'll get to it.

It's been really hot here for a couple of weeks. Really hot. Did I say it's been hot here lately? As much as possible I've stayed in because even though I hate the cold this heat has been rough. Earlier in the week I visited by phone with an old friend - I haven't seen her in over a year but we talk once or twice a month. She always asks if I'm coming her way any time soon; it's about an hours drive for me and I do go occasionally to run errands there that I can't do here. I told her that I'd try to come up today and would stop to see her. Yesterday I tried hard to back out of it. It's hot for heaven's sake. I kept telling myself I didn't need to go, my errands could wait, gas is so expensive, it might be cooler next week. But when I got up this morning it was just on my heart that I wanted/needed to see her. So off I went.

Now I don't want to be all pious or self grandizing or anything. Before I went to visit with her I went to the quilt shop. :) I found a perfect color fabric for the backing to this quilt. And a couple of fat quarters. Or five. It could have been five.

And I also stopped by a store that was advertising they were buying gold. Do you think this might have been a pawn shop? It didn't look like one and I've never been in one but it could have been. They only had jewelry though. No guitars or bicycles or televisions or stuff like that. Do you know the price of gold now? Good grief! I had some broken necklaces, a couple of single earrings (I think earrings are like socks - something must eat just one!), an anklet and ring I bought in the Bahamas years ago and never wore (I just can't see an almost 62 year old woman in an anklet, can you?), you know, odds & ends. They paid me $275 for that stuff that was broken or that I hated or hadn't worn in 10 years! I am rollin' in dough! I digress.

Then I went to see my friend. We talked and talked and talked for an hour and a half without breathing I think. I always go to see this friend and she never comes to me because there is an Interstate Highway connecting us. She has a terrible fear of driving or even being in a car on an Interstate. You see, her precious 29 year old daughter died on a highway just like that one about 10 years ago. Today we/she talked and talked about her daughter; things she said, the kind of person she was, what her friends said about her, things she had said to her mother before she died. That kind of stuff. I think maybe there are a lot of people who won't mention her daughter by name in their conversations, who don't give this precious mother the chance to talk about her child. It's really easy to be apprehensive about mentioning someone who died; we don't want to bring up painful memories. But the thing is, those memories are always there whether or not we bring them up. When someone mentions my mother or my dad to me I might or might not want to talk about them, but I'm always grateful that they are mentioned because I haven't forgotten. No, I haven't forgotten. Apparently, today my friend was ready to talk. I've never lost a child and, please God, I pray I never will. But I know that I would never want my child to be forgotten. I would want to know that people remember and have loving thoughts about my child. The lesson I learned today is that sometimes God nudges us to do things and we don't realize it's Him nudging us. I didn't know that she needed a visit today but God knew. And He loved her so much that He prodded me to get up and go. I stalled but He persevered. Isn't He just amazing?

P.S. If you think about someone today and think, "I ought to call her." then do it. Just do it. If you think about someone today and think, "I wonder how she is; I haven't talked to her in a while." Call her. God might be nudging you too.