Saturday, December 4, 2010

J is for Joy...

It was so wonderful to spend time up in Wisconsin with my dad.

Thank you all again for your prayers, support, kind words prior, during and after his 5 heart bypasses.
It is such a Joy to know that the surgery is behind him and he continues to recover.

I pray you all had as Joyful a time with your families this past Thanksgiving.

Here are a few photos while we were at my dad's home. I will only post a few here. And later, I'll get more beautiful photos in a slideshow.

My last post shows us only one month ago when we were visiting with my hubby's family who all live in Hawaii...beautiful warm tropical temperatures.

My hubby and I arrived at my dad's and it wasn't too cold...there was only a teeny-tiny bit of evidence of snow that had fallen previously... But on the second morning that we were up at my dad's (just a month later)...we look out the window to see the beautiful new fallen snow! Amazing :o)

~taken from the lake looking up to my dad's home~


~this the picture window from the living room~
(looking out onto the lake)

 ~this was taken from inside the house~
(looking out my dad's bedroom window onto the front deck)

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Thanksgiving Day
An early dinner at Whitetail Lodge.



 Dinner in this gorgeous location with great neighbor friends.


 The log's used to construct this building are real! They were huge!


And it was so good to stop on our way up north and spend the night at the home (after the 15 hour drive to their home, it was a good stop, before another 12 or so drive from there to my dad's) of our daughter (Girly~Twirly, aka the LuckiestMrs., aka Dr. B) and her hubby (Awesome J, aka the LuckiestMrs' Mr, aka Dr. B :o).
...and then also spend time, eat an amazing Thanksgiving part II meal, and spend the night on our return drive back to Georgia with them, our other daughter (Girly~Whirly), our son (Heartbreaker) and our son-in-law's parents at their home. 

**********
Here are a few orders that I was able to get done before we left.  Thank you for your interest and orders. 
Will post more again.

Nancy ordered this frog for her second grandson.  Her first grandson has one that was a giraffe drawn with his name.
"This sketch turned put as beautiful as the last one and I was so surprised at how quickly it arrived. Thank you so much--I love it."
***** 
This one I was able to ship out from the post office in my dad's hometown. (I hoped that since he lives closer to Canada, it would not take as long as the last orders I shipped to Canada from our home in southern Georgia. ...and wow! It surely was a lot faster! Shipped it on Nov 24th, received it on Dec 2nd.)
Stephanie ordered this for a gift to her husband to display in her husband's Pharmacy.

"I received it today!!  It is SO AMAZING!  I love it so much and I KNOW that my husband will love it.  You have been so great to deal with and I knew right from the start that I could trust you.

Thank you for sharing your talents and for being the great person that you are!  I'll be ordering more art from you in the future and I will definitely let others know about you!!"

*****
These two sent to Tracy in Canada took so much longer. Shipped out Oct 23rd from Georgia...into Foreign Customs on Oct 29th, and arrived on Nov 11th.

Tracy ordered this one in memory of their precious unborn granddaughter.

(color may not be the same as the original, since I took this and the previously shown frog with my camera...our scanner does not scan the color)

and this Eagle was her second order.

"...What a strong tube that is,it protected every thing!
I love love love the drawings!!!
What wonderful gifts they will make this Christmas,the Eagles beak is perfect!
The rose is more than I expected, the colours are perfectly done,just the right colour red.and thank you for adding all the names...thank you so much."

I ship all the orders in a heavy weight shipping tube; however, I do ship orders sent outside of the continental United States in an additional PVC tube within the sturdy heavy weight tube, for extra protection from crushing or water damage.

**********

Linking on with:
Jenny's
for this week's letter "J".
**********

J is for Joy and also for Jesus! 
Our family enjoys celebrating the birth of Jesus.
(My hubby was also born on Dec 25th :o)

Hope all of you are enJoying this special time of the year with your loved ones.
Thank you for your time in leaving your comments. I will be sure to come and return your visit.

(My dad does not have a computer up at his place, so I did not do any computer-related things, such as blogging...so I do appreciate all of you checking in and I look forward to catching up :o)
**********
Now, it is catch-up time around the house, back to work cleaning pearly whites, drawing orders, and getting Christmas gifts wrapped and sent.

**********
Oh! One more thing...it gives me Joy when I am able to get computer-related things to work...so with the awesome help from Addy, another dear blogger, fellow-etsyer (she creates yummy cakes), fellow Georgia resident, I was able to change my ridiculously lo-o-ong facebook url for my new facebook business page to something short and sweet...well...at least, shorter.

Please take a look. And if you have a facebook account, please become one of my page's "fans" by hitting the "LIKE" button for my page:  www.facebook.com/PersonalizedSketches  ...this will be where I eventually will post more past orders into separate categorized albums.

Signature for blog

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

There you are! I wondered where you were :-) I missed your posts!

Your Thanksgiving looks like it was wonderful!

I just liked you on Facebook :-)

GratefulPrayerThankfulHeart said...

So happy that your dad continues to recover! Loved seeing the photos you posted and hearing of the good family times you enjoyed.

Lovely art work too!
Kindly, Lorraine

Bacardi Mama said...

I'm so sorry to hear about your dad, but very happy to hear he is doing well. I'm so behind on blog reading! Life here has been hectic and stressful lately. I'm hoping for it to calm down once we are on Christmas vacation from school. Have a wonderful week.

Debbie Petras said...

Maria, I loved to see the photos of your dad's home and the Thanksgiving celebration. I'm glad he is doing well. I'm sure it was good for you to see him with your own eyes after he went through his bypass surgery. Glad to read that you are now home too.

As always your art is amazing! I don't know how you manage to do it all along with full time work. Kuddos to you!

Sending blog hugs across the miles,
Debbie

More Than Words said...

Hi Maria! It sounds like you had a wonderful Thanksgiving break! I love the picture of you and your father. I bet he just loves it when you visit him! Beautiful place!

Katie said...

I am so glad you were able to spend time with your Dad. Family is so important!

Laurie said...

So glad your dad is recovering well! I loved looking at all your pictures - the house on the lake looks like such a beautiful and peaceful place! I hope to someday have a lakehouse - it's both mine and my husband's dream!

Leslee said...

Oh dear! Maria, I am such a bad bloggie friend! I completly missed the blog about your Dad but I am so grateful that he seems to be healing well!

Headed now to read about your trip to HI!!!

How wonderful to have your trip 'home' a visit with both girls & hubby's!

Along These Lines ... said...

Lovely home to be in this time of the year.

sarah said...

good morning maria! thanks for stopping by! i love your blog! mine is always a work in progress... sorta like my life... i had to change my background and all my music for Christmas! happy happy magical time of year! i will be back to visit soon! blessings..s...

xinex said...

Great pics, Maria! I am glad you got to visit your dad. Your artwork is beautiful as usual!...Christine

Ames said...

It is a great thing to have one's parents still with them. Cherish every moment you can. Mine have both passed on and I miss them greatly! One thing we didn't get to finish was learning about our heritage. My father so enjoyed sharing it with us and we were hungry to learn it. He was taken too soon.
Your artwork is amazing! I love how you incorporate the name into the subject matter. I'll have to go through your Etsy store and browse.
Blessing to you and yours and thanks for stopping by my blog!~Ames

Lola said...

Hi again!

Bit late visiting this time unfortunately - due to work pressures!

Great post as always.

Wishing you a great week ahead & looking forward to *seeing* you again next time

LOLA:)

Bearly Sane said...

Thanks for stopping by Maria...I have been a bit slack catching up of late...tis the silly season for me. Happy to hear your dad's recoving well and that you had a lovely thanksgiving with your family. Love the new illustrations and the touch of colour on the rose illustration is beautiful.
Warmest Hugs,
Sandi @ Ess D'Ess Bears and Bearly Sane Studio

Jo said...

It does sound like it was a good trip ... love the logs at the lodge, it all looks so homey and comfortable ... especially with the snow outside!

Vivek said...

Hi Maria,

How are you and everyone in your family.
Good to hear that your father is doing well.

And the your Dad's home is very Awesome , Only saw this kind of Home in Hollywood flicks ..lovely.

And I'm coming to your sphere after a long time , was busy in ...extra work related activities.

Great Picture and paintings ..loved them :)

Have a great week ahead.. :)

Keep smiling
Take care.

With Love
Vivek

Jen Price said...

What beautiful pics of your dad's house! The artwork in color is very beautiful!

PERMANENT POSIES said...

What a great Joyful post for the letter J. So glad that your dad is doing well and that you got to spend some time with him. J is for Jesus at my house too!

tracy said...

Hello Dear Maria
I guess I should have checked your blog before sending you the e-mail:))
Thank you agian for creating such beauiful art work.Yes it did take a while to get to Canada, but well worth the wait!!! I will be presenting them as gifts at Christmas time...I know my daughter and her husband will very touched when I present the picture of the rose to them. Even though we never met sweet Crimson our hearts loved her.
As you know I and Mr. B love our eagles, and my hubby will love the art especially done with our family name....Thank you so much...and "J" really is for joy!!!
So glad to hear your dad is doing well,lovely family photos, that trully is a joyfilled time...
Hugs Tracy

Jenny said...

Maria, It's so good to hear your Dad continues to do a little better every day!

What a lovely gift to have snow during your visit. I bet that was truly magical especially since you must never see it where you live.

Thanks for linking.

You are always a joy to visit.

A+

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