With Heartfelt Thank Yous...

I have been so remiss in thanking so many of you, my wonderful blogging friends, for the words of encouragement, happy thoughts and smiles you offer me each day. So, please accept this very warm, and most sincere, thank you. I adore you all...love you all. I also want to thank several of you who have been so extra sweet of late. I seem to be moving backwards many days and have yet to get all the photos processed and posted, SO, I am going to say thank you to YOU anyhoo. Okay? To Rosemary...Wow. How can I tell you just how much I adore this crown? Rosemary makes some of the most enchanting treasures you have ever seen! I recently asked about ordering a tiny crown for one of my rabbits...she did not allow me to order it, rather, she gifted me with this precious, original piece of art. I will get those photos up soon but I did so want to say my thanks to all of you who have offered such gifts to me. Thank you Rosemary...thank you so much...from the bottom of my heart. To Rosie...I have purchased a few delightful items from this talented lady and she always includes something delicious as a surprise. Grace, even as I type, is wearing the adorable belt Rosie crafted. There have been other sweet gifts for Grace and I want you to know Rosie, that each one is treasured. The lovely Rosie is creative and talented and ever so generous. To Robin...I bought a wonderful vintage bunny cake form from Robin but she also included one very extra special surprise inside the box. A sand dollar from the beaches of Oregon. Robin? You can not know how much it meant to me. Just a few days before your box arrived, one of the cats had knocked over my bowl of shells and my well loved sand dollar (From a beach in North Carolina) was shattered. You can guess how tickled I was to receive this gift from sweet Robin. Thank you SO much! To Mary...One day, one of those dreary, early Spring Mondays, a box arrived at Rabbit Run Cottage. Such precious delights were safely tucked inside the pretty tissue...delicious goodies, pretty treasures and, oh yes, the most wonderful framed vintage rabbit picture! Old Peter himself and oh what a smile he put on my face! A *Just Because* gift from the charming Mary. Now, how sweet is that? Thank you so much Mary! To Kathy...Talented Kathy makes the most enchanting hearts and birds and I am lucky to have a few of those. Inside each box, Kathy included, as gifts, some of her sweet tags or Pom Poms. Each box is so sweetly packed and pure pleasure to open! Thank you to dear Kathy! To Cassie...I have been blessed to receive treasures from Cassie in the past. I was lucky to win one of her *fantabulous* (and yes, I have deemed this to be a real word) giveaways last Fall. Oh my. You can not imagine the goodies packed inside the most artfully decorated box! I can not wait until October rolls around this year just so I can have fun playing! More recently, Cassie sent me a most glorious vintage tin just because I had admired it! Is that sweet or what? Not too long ago I ordered a lovely French Girl print and a flag banner from Cassie. They are wonderful of course but, also enclosed, was a sweet gift for our Grace. A notepad to hang on her bedroom door! She LOVED it Cassie and sat down straight away and wrote away. "Brothers Stay Out!" I do believe was the first message! Thank you for everything! I have also received the most glorious pieces of wonder from Jennifer at the Painted Cottage, Penny and Becky. Each one of these ladies has a shop that will treat each of your senses to wonder and magic...my home is far more beautiful thanks to your shops! To Andi...Have I ever truly said thank you for your handmade, and oh so pretty, cards? You have a gift for this and I have saved each one. Small treasures, creative works of art! I hope you know how much I love them. And last but not least, to Mama P...You coy little devil! Grace loved the papers and folders and wow. She was so tickled. You knew her so well didn't you? It was so unexpected and so sweet. Thank you, you, wonderful you! Each one of these ladies is creative and talented. I am always inspired when I see their art forms... All, save for Andi (and she could if she had time but wow is she busy!) & Mama P. (and she should have a site to sell that book she MUST write someday!) have etsy or ebay shops and/or *right on their blog* links to purchase their fancies and finery! Yes, I NEED to write thank you notes, as does Grace. Till we get off our tushies and do what we should, please know that we appreciate each loving thought and gift. I appreciate each one of you who actually takes the time to visit me here and read my silly drivel. It still surprises me that anyone does but I am so, so glad you do. I feel honored to know each one of you, to call you my friends. I think of you all so often, pray for you, keep each of you in my heart. Blogging has enriched my life more that I can ever express. Bless you all...thank you all.

Love and Hugs, Susie Q

Giveaways And Snow And Hellos And Thank Yous And Blogging Weekends....

This has been my entire diet for days now!

And yes! This will be a rambling and scattered post! You figured out that from the headline right? You are all keen minds today! Hi to all my sweet friends and thank you for your prayers and dear wishes. I still feel awful so will not be on here much...I am a MAJOR big baby when it comes to stomach issues. YUCK! Thank you to Billy for being so good and yes. He has been really an angel to me of late. Not that he isn't MOST of the time...well...mostly anyway...well, there are SOME days ya know...ahem. I miss you all and miss blogging and my house is a mess and I have not held up my responsibility with my Church board duties (the minutes were due Sunday and I have yet to type them...I couldn't, I swear...and I worry about being a let down. See what a foo foo head I am?). You should hear the dreams I have been having...I doubt I could even begin to write down all the details suffice to say they are wild and weird and, hm. Maybe I should not really tell anyone this. Scratch that. My dreams have all been perfectly normal. Uh huh. N.O.R.M.A.L. But what IS normal anyway? Uh oh. I can now hear Mama Gump clearly in my head...is THAT normal? Please remember that you do NOT have to be a One Heart One World giveaway participant to enter the giveaway! I know there are a few of you, some I know very well, who have yet to enter mine. Now, perhaps you are thinking you have enough *stuff* or that Valentine's Day will be over when you get these things. There is always next year you silly head! And can we ever really have enough useless stuff? Nah...so add a comment, something like, "Okay Sue, Get off my back. I entered already!" and you just might win my superdeduper, um, snazzy, exciting...okay. Pretty mundane, bordering on not much, giveaway! Yippee! And it snowed last night, about 5 inches. Not enough to keep Bill home but Grace is here and happy as can be. She is making Valentine's Day gifts and writing her class party cards. Dan is here typing up his term paper too and the pets are all under various blankets and throws. Now, no one has mentioned it in awhile and it will be Memorial Day before we know it. It WILL! Do any of you still want to try for a Memorial Day Bloggy Babe Weekend? Was St. Louis still an option that would work for the most people? Center of the country an all... I would be happy to arrange a block of rooms in a hotel if I had a general idea how many would come. Keep in mind that a room can always be canceled later, but to get a block arranged, I have to give them a general #. And then you all would have to call in and make your reservations. Any ideas or input is VERY welcome and ever so wanted. I am easy as can be, I just so want to be able to see as many of you as possible! Let me know okay? You can email me or leave a message via comment here...let's DO this thing!! I wanted to post something we saw last week during Grace's teacher meetings. I had not seen this one and loved it...it seemed appropriate for a Wintry day like today. Thank you again for being so sweet (Not that this was a surprise to me!) Stay well and smile, a lot okay?

Love to you all. Susie Q

Thanks And Giving Thanks For All Of You

Oh how I have missed you all. Straight away I want to thank each and every one of you for your prayers and good thoughts you have offered during my mother's illness. I also want to thank all of you who were so loving and so dear both to me and to Bill in recent days. I know I can never thank you enough. I have so much to catch up on both at your blogs and here on mine but I do so want to go ahead and express my most heartfelt thanks to each of you. I do not know what I have done to deserve having such special people in my life but I am eternally grateful for each and every one of you. Thank you to Sheila in Canada for the most wonderful package and oh how much it warmed me to receive it. I will be sharing pictures with all of you in the coming days but did want Sheila to know how much I adore her and how thankful I am to have her in my life. Oh dear Cassie! I am so late in thanking you and will post the pictures of your amazing package this week as well. I can never fully express the delight I had in opening each and every treasure! You are a blessing to me! And Sandy at Quill Cottage! I was simply bowled over by all the delicious things included in your give away box! I will also have pictures up of these sweet prizes soon but want you to know how grateful I am. What a treat for me to have this arrive during a week of trials! It brought me many smiles... as did the love from all of you. I will never be able to thank you warmly enough, well enough or to truly express my gratitude. I will be having a give away later this week...a Thanksgiving Giveaway...as a way to let you all know how very thankful I am for my blogging friendships. I will post the give away at the end of the week and have a lot of pictures to share as well. Till tomorrow I send you hugs aplenty and lots of love.

A Happy Heart!

I have been away on a little weekend trip so I am late with many thank yous and a birthday greeting! I will wrote a more appropriate thank post this week but do want you all to know how much I appreciate the sweet birthday gifts, cards, cyber cards and messages. I hope you all now how much each one means to me. I also want to send greetings to the lovely Kara. It was HER birthday on Saturday! May this be a year filled with joy and love and special moments pretty lady! Thank you also to Cassie at Mockingbird Hill and Sandy at Quill Cottage. I won their giveaways in the last 2 days and can not tell you how thrilled I am! A better thank you will be posted soon. Just know how much I care about each and every one of you. My life has been made richer because of each of you. My love and hugs to you all.

It Was On Sale...Really! I Swear!

...and I had this gift card that was burning a hole in my pocket...hm. Has anyone really ever had anything actually BURN a hole in their pocket? I mean, with heat and flames and ashes and "OUCH! MY POCKET JUST IGNITED!" emanating from their lips? Just asking... I fell in love with his pretty, bunny face. Let's all sing, Bunny Face, you've got the cutest little bunny face...no? Okay. Can I hum it at least? Well, see, Macy's is having this huge Fall Home Sale and it was marked waaay down and I had this gift card burning a hole...Ooh. Deja Vu. Um, what? He is sweet isn't he? Yes, he IS a he. He told me so. I surely have been AWOL haven't I. I have been a terrible blog friend, just really lousy at visiting of late. I have been able to pop into a few blogs but left very few comments. I will make up for this transgression somehow. I promise! I am staying with my nephew while his Mom and Dad get a much needed vacation. Today they are near the Grand Canyon so they better be taking a lot of pictures for me! I have been staying at their house so I can keep Boo on his routine as much as possible. (For anyone who is new here, my sweet nephew is Autistic) A HUGE Thank you to Sheila and Jen for giving me the heads up about today's Oprah show. I will be watching! Bill gets Grace off to school here while I get Boo up and drive him to his school. Then I come back here and do a little work. Then it is off to pick up Boo and take him to his sitter's (Again, routine is VERY important!). Back home to do laundry, clean, baby my pets... Grace gets home and we do homework. Then she has her down time while I finish up around here. Then it is off to Mom's, pick her up and then get Boo. Back to Boo's house, wait for Bill and then we do dinner together. About 7:30, Bill takes Mom home, then he and Grace go home while I am being soaked by a 4 year old bathing beauty. Oh isn't it a hoot when Auntie Sue gets soggy! This IS comedy baby! At 9 pm I am usually still trying to get a squirming and laughing 4 year old into bed. 4 year old thinks it is so funny to have the still dripping Auntie Sue chase him down the hall...whoopie...after much wrangling (I always wanted to be a cowboy after all), we read a story and he goes off to sleep. Auntie Sue dries off and changes her clothes and sits down to read the morning newspaper. I haven't been sleeping well there, maybe because I miss their doggie "Haley". When it is so still at night, I really miss her presence. I may take Kipper with me tonight...hey Kip? What do you think? Now, 2 HUGE thank yous are in order! Dear Chris at Cats On My Quilts sent me the most wonderful gift! She had a Charles and Diana mug that had been owned by her Mother. After seeing my Royal Family collection, she decided it would be at home in Rabbit Run Cottage. Chris? Thank you from the bottom of my heart. It will be a cherished part of my collection and I will think about both you and your Mother when I see it. Chris is a special lady who lives in a beautiful part if the world! Please pay her a visit soon! And Donna at The Decorated House ...I purchased one of her delightful bunny Halloween prints and she included one of her oh so sweet Halloween tags too! If you have not yet seen Donna's blog or etsy shop, go straight away! She is a designer extraordinaire! Thank you for such a quick delivery of the bunny print (which will be framed by this weekend!) and the wonderful tag!

Donna's items are under copy write protection!

Apologies, Thank Yous And Salutations!

Okay, I DO apologize for posting such a lengthy list. I got carried away... I just am having serious computer withdrawal pains. I was using another computer and threw this list on just for fun. Seriously, it IS too long! Just ignore this little bit of self indulgence! But hey, the part about me NOT being elegant is so true. SO, SO true. If there are 10 women in a room, I will be the one that spills her drink, trips on the wrinkle in the carpet, laughs too loud, breaks the heel off her shoe and drops her hot appetizer down her blouse. I will be easy to spot! Gosh, I can not visit most of you and can not post photos. I had such a lovely weekend attending a house tour and our city's "World A'Fair" and so want to share those photos with you all. Hopefully this problem will be rectified soon. I am in dire straights. *gulp* Dire...and I do not mean the band. Nope. I also have a photo of the ever so special art piece that Lisa (Oceandreamer) sent to my Grace. I want to share that wth you. I saved it for a very special day. Lisa? You can not imagine how thrilled Grace was to find her "Fairy" card! She had 5 primary teeth extracted by a pediatric oral surgeon last Friday. It was difficult as they just did not wish to leave her mouth! She had a hard time throwing off the meds too. But all is well now and gosh. When she found that card and the gold dollars, well, she actually said it was "all worth it!" Thank you dear Lisa....thank you with all my heart. I do miss you all and hope to be back visiting all of your sweet blog homes soon. Take care of yourselves! Be good...stay well. Sending hugs to you all...

Susie Q

A Surprise And An Announcement!

What a very sweet surprise! A little package appeared on our porch today, just ahead of the storms. Inside was this precious gift and the sweetest card. Andi said she had found this little treasure in an antique shop and it had begged to live with me. I decided to add the pink egg as a small Easter touch. Andi, you are just so dear and thoughtful. Thank you from the bottom of my heart! What a special new piece for my collection.

Grace and I decided that we had so many names in our hat that we would draw 2! The first name she pulled out of the hat (a very jaunty red fire helmet that belonged to my late Father)

was.......may I have drum roll please?.......

It was Sheila whose blog is titled, "From Me To You".

The next name pulled was.......okay, I'll hurry. The drummer is getting really tired......

Dawn B. from the blog, "Be Inspired, I Am".

And, once again, thanks to ALL of you who visit me here, who leave comments and who make my life just so much brighter. I so love dropping in on your blogs many times a week and continuing to be inspired, awed, tickled, enlightened and just plain *DElighted*. I can not tell you how much this blogging community has meant to me.

I am grateful for it, for each of you, for the opportunity to share and create and just plain have fun. If anything I post gives you a giggle from time to time then *I* am the lucky one. Thanks to you all....many, many special blessings are wished for each and every one of you.

Hugs,

Susie Q