Turning 49 & Alex's wedding

I'm turning 49 on Monday.

I was going to do a post about this phenomena, along with the trials and tribulations of being almost 50.

For one, I don't really look like this anymore:

Amazing how much your face changes in 7 years. 

I still style my hair like this, but I certainly look older now.

So, I was on a quest for pictures of what I look like now and in doing so, I came across this one of me and Annie taken a few months ago, before we went out to dinner with my mom.

Annie is back to bleaching her hair.

She'll learn ;)

Anyway, I noticed two things about this picture.

I don't have my shoes on yet and I'm wearing a dress that reminded me of the fact that I hadn't talked about my own son's wedding.

Bad mom!

Actually the fact is, it happened when I wasn't really blogging much and for some reason I thought I had posted about it.

Apparently not!

So, anyway, I flew out to Minneapolis on May 12th (Mother's Day weekend) to witness my son and his lovely bride Heather get married.

My kid married a beautiful girl and she loves him and he loves her, which is all I can really ask for.

Of course there was the mother son dance.

And then like all weddings... it was over before we knew it.

So, I'm turning 49.

My son is happily married.

Annie is going to college.

And I live in a house that I adore.

Getting old might not be so bad after all ;)

xo

rue

Where I've been

Well, busy living life mostly.

Don't think for a minute that I didn't miss all of you (I did!), but I really needed to step away and just 'be'.

I'm sure you've all been there at some point.

Anyway, I didn't mean to be gone so long, but time got away from me and I neglected this poor blog and all of you, so for that I apologize.

I truly do.

So, what exactly has been going on here?

Well, we watched the leaves change....

then fall...

had our first snow...

and I lit the first fire of the season.

Annie and I celebrated our birthdays in November.

I can't believe she's 21!

For the occasion, my mom, my brother, his wife, Annie and I all went to Las Vegas.

We were so busy that all I managed to take were these awful pictures of the views from our rooms...

and the two outfits I wore to dinner.

Thank goodness for my sister-in-law that managed to take quite a few photos of our adventures while we were there:

We also carved pumpkins.

and I spent time with friends.

What about Bubba?

 Well, he did a lot of sleeping...

and begging ;)

And these days Mini mostly sleeps.

Poor old girl.

There were beautiful sunrises...

and lovely full moons.

We've trimmed the tree...

and now we're waiting for Santa.

And I'm ready to ring in the New Year with a new hairdo ;)

So that's what I've been up to :)

How about all of you?

I'll be checking in on you very soon.

xo

rue

The yellow dining room

Last time I showed you the living room and promised to show you my newly painted dining room in a day or two, but I was distracted by a few things. 

One of which I'll share at the end of this post ;)

So here it is...

I chose the next color up from the living room color, which is a little lighter. It's called Behr's Whisper Yellow, which I also used in my bedroom.

Here are the three rooms together now that they've all been painted in different shades of yellow...

Looking into the office...

Looking into the kitchen...

Just like I did in the living room, I used Behr's Sagey for inside the cabinets.

I think it all flows pretty nicely and it's much more cheerful in the house now :)

So what have I been up to, since I last posted?

Well, quite a few things, but the most important was my daughter, Annie's birthday.

She wanted something simple this year so there was just three of us... Annie, her friend Nikki and me. For dinner we had, at her request, filet mignon, garlic mashed potatoes and steamed artichokes with marbled brownies for dessert.

The flowers were one of my gifts to her.

My baby is now 20 years old.

Amazing how time flies.

xo

rue

PS

I promise I'll get to your questions on my last couple of posts, answer your emails, and visit you soon.

It's just been a whirlwind of activity around here, with going out of town, birthdays and cleaning and this is the first time I've been able to sit down long enough to post.

Oh and snow... but I'll share that soon ;)

Kat's birthday

One of my very best friends, Kat turned 60 this past week, so I had her over for a nice quiet dinner.

She's not one for big shindigs ;)

I used my matching vintage table mats and napkins, my great grandmother's silver (that I use everyday) and some vintage wine glasses.

For the flowers, I used her gift, which was a miniature rose bush.

It came in that little burlap bag.

Pretty cute, huh?

Anyway, she's an avid gardener, so I knew she'd like it :)

Here she is laughing after she blew the candles on her birthday poundcake.

She didn't think about the fact that there was powdered sugar all over it and blew pretty hard, so it went everywhere lol 

Note to self...

No powered sugar next time ;)

A few other things about this picture... 

I'd give you the recipe for the poundcake, but sadly it wasn't that great. I should have stuck to my old recipe. Oh well... Kat said she liked it and took most of it home.

Also, it looks like Annie is flipping off the camera, but I'm pretty sure she's just doing something weird with her hands.

Or at least I hope.

And lastly, she didn't use her phone during dinner, but she was just about to take off again to her friend's house and sat back down real quick for the blowing out of the candles. 

Let's not even discuss the coke can on the table. 

She knows better.

Kids...

Ahem.

And here we are:

Two peas in a pod.

I love her dearly :)

Dearly enough to have my picture taken with her, which most of you know I'm not a fan of.

If you're reading this Kat....

Happy Birthday again my sweet friend.

Love you!

And please don't kill me for sharing your pictures or your age ;)

xo

rue



PS

Thank you all so much for all your kind words about me on my feature and welcome to all my new visitors.

It's so nice to meet you!

I'll be visiting those of you with blogs and replying on the last couple of posts to those that don't, as soon as I can.

Thank you again!!