Mother's Day Weekend - 2024

Another weekend - another moment in time captured through photos and memories that will be cherished. April seems like it flew by and May is clipping along at top speed too! Time is absolutely flying by this year (then again, I feel like I say that every year). 

The weekend started pretty gray - check out those strange, swirling clouds that I took a picture of on the way out of the community on Friday morning! Regardless of the gloomy start to the weekend, work went smoothly and then I headed home to chill for the weekend - Ryan and I had dinner with my parents and their life group from church, then we just chilled, decompressed from work and watched some TV before crashing for the evening. It was a really love, really chill start to the weekend! 

Saturday morning didn't start too early, thank goodness! I took my Mom to the nail salon and we both got pedicures; I also got my nails done again, and I love them! On our way home, we stopped in at a semi-new pastry shop in Front Royal called Melania's, which was the most chic little shop with some of the loveliest pastry's, cookies and chocolate creations I've ever seen! We purchased a few items and confirmed we'd absolutely be back in again - this place is fabulous! 

After a quick lunch at the house, Ryan and I joined my parents for the annual Flower & Garden Sale at the Virginia State Arboretum; which feels like it's also an annual Mother's Day Weekend event, ha-ha! The event has nurseries, garden centers and all things outdoors on display, vendors lining the gorgeous wide open space of the arboretum - including food trucks offering kettle corn, coffee, fried goodies and more! Like my especially delicious Honey Blueberry Frappuccino - so divine!

Have you ever seen such beautiful flowers and plants? Ryan and I thoroughly enjoyed peering at all the plants, taking in gorgeous wood carvings and pottery, sipping some iced coffee and checking out each and every pup that passed us as we explored the booths. 

My Mom loaded up one of the little red wagons that the arboretum had on hand - she got purple, golden yellow and green plants (they were all green, I suppose) to spruce up the yard for the Spring. I can confirm that these lovely plants are now thriving in the front yard and look spectacular! 

Mother's Day was a lovely day; for the most part, thankfully some lingering clouds that started the day cleared out by lunchtime! We attended the last service of the day and then took the scenic route across the mountains to Luray to have brunch at the Mimslyn Inn. It's becoming a bit of a tradition it would seem - since we went there last year too! 

We had a leisurely drive home and spent the afternoon doing a whole lot of nothing; which was nice. I did get some reading done, spent some time sorting through clothes and things to be sold at the upcoming yard sale this weekend and also spent some time with Ryan. It was; all in all, a nice day. Even if the weekends always seem like they pass too quickly!

Please enjoy this little snapshot of my plant windowsill in my office - this was taken on Monday morning; I hope that I will have some additional blooms in the weeks to come! 

You Haven't Lived If...

You haven't met a Corgi at a Lavender Farm in Northern Virginia... I mean, I'm getting ahead of myself, but I stand by what I said. I got to have a lovely three day weekend this past weekend and it was a wonderful way to kick off May! I slept until almost 8:30 on Friday morning - and if that's not a sign that I needed to make up some sleep - I don't know what is! 

Those pictures aren't actually from Friday - and neither is the one below. I cannot remember if I shared that a co-worker sold me the replica Nationals World Series ring that they gave out at a recent game! Her son attended the game and was happy to sell it to me for $20, which was an offer I gladly took him up on! I'll have to find somewhere to add it to my collection, but I cannot wait for it to have a home with my Nationals collection! It will be the centerpiece of the collection; as it should be! 

Friday - since I had the day off - I convinced my parents to join me for a trip to Luckett's Store in Leesburg! Luckett's is filled with tons of gorgeous antiques, unique finds and all around interesting items to peruse. They have several different shops and an outdoor area that has tons of lawn and garden items, including glorious plants... some of which are planted in a very unique way! 

The cocktail napkins are hilarious - but what was NOT hilarious was the gigantic murder hornet in one of the rooms of the store! It was easily the largest hornet I've ever seen and therefore, I declared it to be a murder hornet. I didn't ever really want to meet a murder hornet in real life, but here we are. I truly love so many of the items in the shop(s) that make up Luckett's and I love getting to explore. 

As I mentioned - the flowers at Luckett's are gorgeous and some of them are planted in things I'd have never thought to use as a planter! Look at the old VW Bug that has been turned into a lovely vase, filled with flowers spilling out of it! What could be more unique? Oh wait....

That's right! It's a horse made entirely out of succulents! Have you ever seen such a thing? I had not and I don't know if I'd ever begin to attempt one on my own, ha-ha! And the bright pink flowers that look like they are spiraling out toward the heavens... well that's a Dahlia and I certainly didn't know that. 

After lunch at Roots in Luckettsville, we headed toward home but made a stop at the Blooming Hill Lavender Farm in Purcellville. It was here that I had the pleasure of meeting two lovely corgis - one named Poppy and one whose name I failed to get, ha-ha! They were absolutely the cutest little guys and I have to say that I'd surely love to get a corgi in the future! I cannot resist their wiggly little butts!

We were about a month ahead of the lavender being in bloom - but the place still smelled heavenly and it would be an easy drive back when the lavender does bloom, in all it's purple glory! The farm is on someone's personal property and her home is a lavender/blue shade, and everything around the house is done up in shades of lavender, blues and purples - in short, it was an absolutely beautiful location! I would absolutely recommend checking out Blooming Hill Lavender, if only because you'll get to meet some corgis! 

Friday evening I took part in a small portion of the annual Shenandoah Apple Blossom Festival; we joined my parents and some friends from church to watch the fireworks on Friday night! They started them a little early because rain was rolling into the area, but we were still able to watch quite an incredible fireworks show - all from the back deck of friends! It was great! And then - I slept like the dead on Friday night! 

The rest of the weekend wasn't much to write home about - it rained all day Saturday, so Ryan and I spent a large chunk of the day running errands. And Sunday started out drizzly but by the time church and our group leader meeting was completed, the sun had come out. We ran some other errands, enjoyed spending some time together and closed out the weekend grilling with my parents. I cannot believe the first weekend of May is in the books! 

And I met corgis!