Blue Monday/ Whole Lotta (Blue) Love

It's Monday again already. Ugh. The one good thing about Mondays though, is that in blogland, it's Blue Monday and time to share something blue! You can find more Blue Monday posts at Smiling Sally's blog.

This was just an incredibly beautiful weekend! You couldn't have asked for any better weather. Even though this is northern Ohio, it was sunny, the skies were clear, and the temp got up into the 80s! That's practically unheard of for mid-October!

This was the kind of weather that made me feel so happy and so blessed to live on this beautiful earth. I swear, its intoxicating! I sat on my deck and spent a good amount of time just gazing up at these incredible blue skies framed in the changing leaves of the trees in my yard. Just look at this!

This got me thinking about something else blue. No, not something to be blue about, but something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue!

My daughter and her boyfriend are now officially engaged!

They have fallen upon some very rough times lately. This area is rife with layoffs and job losses. Both my daughter and her fiance have lost their jobs, in part to illness (on Tara's part) and just plain bad luck(on Mike's part) and a little bit of irresponsibility (on both's part). Thus there were no funds for a ring. Or even a wedding for that matter! Tara really wanted a ring, but would still have been willing to get married without one.

Well, last week was the final day of sales before the closing of our local K-Mart. Jewelry was 90% off. I looked in the case and WOW! I saw a beautiful ring! I called Mike and asked him if he wanted me to go ahead and get it. He said he wasn't able to pay me for it now, but I told him no problem, that he can pay me when he has the funds or can work it off. Just look what I got for $27! Ok, it's not a diamond, but its a gorgeous cubic zirconia and it is real gold. You can see the tag (and a bit of blue!) with the orginal price. Looks like lots of other people looked at it first. Must have been meant for me to buy it! Mike gave her the ring today and she is thrilled!.

Tara knew she could no longer afford the wedding dress that she had picked out this summer. She figured that maybe she could find a nice prom dress on sale to use as a wedding dress, but was having no luck. She browsed eBay and found this dress in her size. It was listed for only $75, brand new with the tags still attached! No one bid on it, so it came up for auction again. It was listed again with a starting bid of $75, or Buy It Now for $200. Keep in mind that this was a $425 dress!
I called her the morning that the auction ended to tell her that it ended and someone bought the dress. She was so disappointed when I told her it sold...until I told her that it sold to me!
It arrived in the mail on Tuesday! She saw it for the first time on Friday, and loves it! It will need taken in at the bodice. It's so generous there that it was even too big for my big melons! The little flowers look gold here, but they are actually a silvery white!

Speaking of silver, my daughter has chosen silver and ice blue as her colors! She still hopes for a December wedding, though Mike says they both need to be working because otherwise they really don't have money to be spending on a wedding. Well, the plans thus far are to have the wedding here with just family. There will be a potluck with everyone bringing food. Oh. My. Goodness. Am I nuts to have offered this! I am not Suzy Homemaker. I'm just not. I have a very lived in (read messy) house that I struggle to keep up with. But we can do this.

I was browsing the Dollar Tree this weekend, and found some decorations that would be in keeping with the theme of a Christmas wedding! There were lots of ornaments in silver and blue, so I snatched some up! Not sure how we will use them yet, perhaps to decorate the formal living room, or maybe to use as table decorations!

I love this blue and silver ribbon! And I love all the ornaments too!



Wish me luck over the next two months, especially for the kids. Tara starts a job waitressing tomorrow. Mike hasn't found anything yet, but is looking. They have lost their trailer and are living with one of his relatives, and they might lose the car. They really need a lot of prayers right now. In the midst of all this, you are probably wondering why I am wanting them to go ahead and get married. Well, they are living together already, and I would really like to see the sanctity of marriage on their union. I figure that at least they will be husband and wife through all of this. They've been together for over a year and are really in love with each other.

Besides, isn't getting an engagement ring AND a wedding dress for the grand total of $102 some kind of sign? Just kidding there.

Hope you all have a great Blue Monday!