Brenda's Photo Challenge...

{photo collage I put together this morning}


I am so sorry I have not got my post up until now. It has been a stressful few days. Can't go into details but..
I am also sorry I don't have the links up for the other participants yet. You can beat me with a wet noodle if you would feel better. LoL

I will get this done, but please go to Donna's Made in Heaven's site for the links. {You will find her link on my favorites.} There are some amazing women who participate in these challenges and their photos are equally amazing. My ability to link still will not work on my posts! Has this happened to anyone but me? How did you get it fixed?

The theme this week is Patriotism...

I love the colors of our flag and decided to show my love of our country through my colors...I hope you like them..

I read Sharon's post a few minutes ago about her country and was moved by her words.
I love my country very much as well. I thought of the magnificent beauty of America. The rivers and mountains and prairies...The desserts and farmlands. The churches that are works of art in themselves. The freedom we have. I feel blessed to live here.



{White lace curtain at an antique shop I went to with Mom}

Didn't buy anything but I really love to look..





{Flowers at a bakery}

I think the red petunias compliment the verbena very well . The man who owns the bakery said the verbena resowed itself
from last year.

I hope you all have a beautiful weekend. ~Nita~

Tonight's song, Secret Garden by Bruce Springsteen
1st video 1st clip

Inspiration....

{A miniature tin full of glitter}

This antique aspirin tin came from a beloved friend.

The faded patina of green and brown soothes my heart..

The glitter recently put into it makes it full of magic...

We need things in our lives that add magic..Yard sales..New art supplies..New crayons..New material..A leaf in the shape of a heart..

Magazines that give us ideas.

I have notebooks full of ideas and quotes that I collect. Ideas for projects I want to do. Pages torn from magazines with ideas for home improvement.

I collect color samples that I want to use to paint each room and put them into my idea notebooks.

One picture can inspire me to change a whole room.

I look for ideas everywhere...

I look for inspiration in nature and also from people.

There are so many wonderful blogs that inspire me. Everyone who leaves a comment, that has a blog, I visit. And I always find something on every single site that is an inspiration..

Look for your inspiration today..It is out there.

~Nita~

Tonight's song, Chasing Pavement by Adele

1st video, 1st clip

Please listen to this it is beautiful..So is she. Her voice reminds me very much of Amy Winehouse

Pictures of Summer....

{Pictures I took over this past weekend}

Please click on photos for a better view...


{Mimosa in Mom's front yard...}

The fragrance of the Mimosa floats across the yard and down the block. It's fragrance is so wonderful it intoxicates the most hardened of hearts..The flowers were made from fairy dreams...


I saw an old acquaintance today that I thought at one time, was my friend.

She really wasn't..She was a user of the worst sort.

You know the kind. The ones who use you to get ahead. The ones who act like your friend to your face, then you find out that they have been talking about you behind your back.

I was pretty sad after seeing her. I thought why? Why do people have to be users? People who you have given your friendship to, and your heart. People you have shared secrets with, and Just when you let your guard down they turned on you.
My idea of a true friend is someone who does not let others talk about you to them.

{Glorious Mimosa}
They say that is my friend, I really don't want to hear what you have to say about her.
That is a friend..

People who are there for you in your darkest hour. That is a friend.

I have made more friends through my blog then I could have ever hoped for. You all have been there to help me through losing John. You have been there to encourage my creativity without false pretenses! You have prayed for me...
I feel blessed to have found this world of women who are so wonderful in every way.
I want to be there for you to my friends. You who visit me and leave me comments.

The last few months it has been hard to be there..But I am trying.


You don't know how much you make a difference in my life. How you have helped me through my darkest days..

{Purple Cone flower}

I went for a walk with my friend Annie tonight and told her about seeing the old acquaintance and the sadness I felt about it. She told me some words of wisdom she has learned through the years.
She said that we live and we learn. And that when it comes down to the end of our life it is really between us and God.

We can love people but we can't make them love us.
We can't make someone feel something they don't posses.

{ Queen Anne's lace on country road}


Some people are so barren of love all they can do is use others. They live for themselves. {They} are {their}
priority.

To me that is no way to live.
If you put yourself first all the time, it is a truly selfish way to live. At the end of your life when {you} are all {you} have left..That is truly alone.

{front of green barn}


I can remember many times being there for this person when she needed me.

But thinking back...I really can't remember her being there for me.
When my brother died..
When John died..


But I am making friends more all the time. True friends..I have made friends at church that have really been there.

I agree with Annie's advice, We learn from our mistakes.



{little green barn}



I hope you like the photos. I took them over the weekend, and just enjoyed being outside.



Elizabeth and I had a pretty good weekend. The sadness is always there..But we are trying hard to find happiness in each day. It was my first 4Th of July without John. I was really sad on that day..
But, John would have wanted us to try to be happy.. I miss him though. So much..
{yellow day lily...}



This is a quote I am leaving you with:

True friends are like diamonds
precious but rare

False friends
are like
autumn leaves
found everywhere.

~Nita~

Tonight's song, The Story of a Girl By 3 Doors Down
1st video, 3rd clip

Time To Be Careful...

I got this photo at the salvage facility. A rusted broken down caboose from an old train.

I loved it..

Time to be careful..

We never realize how fragile we are until something fells us. Until we lay wounded and broken in spirit, and we think beyond repair.

But in our weak and fragile state God is our strength..

Through losses that hurt so bad they should kill us. We survive to our dismay at times..But life is about surviving, About overcoming.

We learn to overcome or we go under.

We have to fight through our pain. I write this today to encourage myself as well as you who are reading it.

I wake up sometimes so sad and full of despair over losing John that it is hard to face the day.

I woke up that way today.. It has been 5 Months today that he has been gone.

It is so hard without him. It is hard because I still need him. I never will stop needing him. He was my best friend.

But we go on. If anyone out there is having a hard time be encouraged today that you can make it.

You will make it.

We all have our own private hells. But you will survive, and turn the sorrow you have into something beautiful.

~Nita~

Today's song, Broken by Lifehouse

1st video, 1st clip

with a broken heart that's still beating...

{please click on photo for a better view}

These are the flowers of the tobacco tree also known as a cigar tree. The reason they are called cigar trees or tobacco trees is the huge seed pods that come on them in late Summer.

They look like giant cigars. These trees are very common here in the Midwest.

When I was little my cousin and my sister and I tried to smoke the seed pods that looked like cigars. It was awful!

I remember climbing these trees at my aunt's house. She had twin Tobacco trees sitting next to each other and I would pretend I was Tarzan and jump from one to the other. I was the biggest daredevil you ever met. And was as wild as a March hare.

One day, me and my cousin Linnie and my sister were sitting in the Tobacco tree and we were taking the giant leaves and using them to fan ourselves. We were pretty little..And we just sat in that tree for a couple of hours talking about what it was going to be like when we grew up..

I miss times like those. The camaraderie of having close childhood cousins who were also best friends. And I miss how the endless Summer days of our childhood held us close together.

But we grow up and apart..It seems. Forgive my nostalgia..It is just the Summer that does it to me.

P.s i just saw the first fireflies of the season 3 nights ago..I was so excited.

~Nita~

Tonight's song, The Ballad of Billy Jo McKay by Shawn Mullins

1st video, 1st clip

If you have a chance please listen to this. I love it..