I am so excited!

I am really happy to have just learned I won Wendy Blight's contest for Karen Ehman's book "A Life that Says Welcome"....I tried to post a comment, Wendy, if you reading this, on your blog thanking you...but it wouldn't go through...anyway, I did send you my mailing address to your email address. I am excited to get this book (and thanks to Karen for offering it!) as I do want to dream up more ways for hospitality! Tim and I are working on painting our living room and it's almost done, and that is something that has held me back for awhile about inviting people over. You have to understand that it was WAY overdue to paint in that room, and our living/dining area is one big rectangle room, so all entertaining is done there. We have an old house built in 1921. It has a lot of character! Some things I love about it are the built-in china cabinent and two window seats upstairs and downstairs. But I haven't wanted to invite any friends over for dinner or a tea party or anything until we get the walls painted. I wanted to go for a little color, but my husband wanted to stick with Antique White so that's what we did. It's okay. The room doesn't have a lot of natural light so that the white, which is soft and creamy, is probably a good choice.

Speaking of tea parties, a co-worker and I have organized a tea party coming up on October 24th. We both love tea parties, and there's a tea shop in town that has new owners, so we invited 12 ladies we know who love tea parties too (most of them go to our church...actually, two of my co-workers and I attend the same church). So far, we have 6 who can make it for sure. We have made reservations for the "light luncheon tea" at the Hawthorn Tea Room. It consists of fruit, choice of scone, choice of tea sandwich and pot of tea per person. I think you get three choices for the scones and the sandwiches. It's $12.50 per person, plus tax/tip. When you make reservations for a larger group, you have to all have the same tea "set". The most inexpensive one is pot of tea and scone for $8.00 and I think the most expensive one is $25 or so per person. We thought we'd go for the light luncheon one to check it out. I have been to this particular tea room in 2006, but there were different owners then, so I am anxious to check this one out. There are two gals who own/run it, and the one I spoke to on the phone sounded very nice. They also have a little gift shop and lots of flavors of teas. So it should be a fun time. I am trying to think of maybe some little fall favors or something to give each one of our guests, Karen's book might have something in there that would be helpful.

I have been going through a time of missing having a 'best friend' for a girl-friend. Yes, I love my husband and he is my "best boy friend" on earth (and Jesus is my best best friend and Lord and savior and everything!) but my 'best girl friends' I've had in life are either moved away to a different state or city or just not available with a lot going on in their own lives (divorce, remarriage, etc.)....for awhile I had felt kind of sorry for myself about not having a best friend in the flesh I could call up and go do things with...but then I realized that I have a LOT of friends who are people I work with all day, church friends who I have called lately and gone to lunch or something with, former classmates from highschool who I have gotten together with over the summer and again next week to go to lunch, blog friends, penpal friends, email friends....family, there are a lot. I am really doing a lot of what I want to do for socializing with other gals, but I have decided to give the longing for a 'best girlfriend' over to Jesus and let Him handle it....he knows the desires of my heart, and that I'd love to have a good Christian girl friend to get together with that we both have a lot in common. I will trust Him for that!