Project: Advent

Purposefully skipping over the last several months (because I’m NOT ready to relive events to write about them yet) I bring to you a more current event...
An Advent Calendar Project!

Every year we, the Relief Society Presidency, like to give a small Christmas gift to the women at church after a short holiday program. But this year nothing sounded right, especially at only $1.00 per person.

I looked to the topic “Preparing Our Hearts for Christ” for ideas. And in doing so, landed on making January advent calendars. We would create something that might help the women remember and carry out the challenge in the new year. Each little tag contains a quote, scripture, or a small task for the person reading it.

When I presented the idea to the presidency they all LOVED it. We knew however, the creation of such beauties would require a lot of work—to which we agreed would be worth it. (An agreement we had to remind ourselves of when we realized each one was going to take almost an hour to assemble. To say nothing of the time it took to prepare each element for assembly. We made 35.)

I wish I’d taken a picture of my living room while the crafting was going on. It was a fun mess. And all the completed mobiles were hanging on anything we could find to hold them.

To transport the mobiles to church I did this which worked out splendidly:

And decorate the room, I cut more branches to stick into jars and gathered nuts from the PLETHORA that fell out of our tree this year. We cut extra hearts to hang and sprinkle on the tables.

And lucky us...the ceiling was such that we could lift the tiles and hook each mobile to the metal grid.  YESSSS!

It’s hard to capture in a photo, but the room was cute and had a fun vibe. The women LOVED the decorations and advents and enjoyed picking out which one they wanted.
It was so pleasing to receive such a positive reaction to the mobiles, it made the hours of tying and folding and punching and cutting completely worth it! And I hope what’s written inside each tag is valuable in helping each woman strengthen her personal relationship with and understanding of the Lord.
Now...what do we do next year?!

Atlanta Botanical Garden

The Botanical Gardens in Atlanta surprised me—they're impressive and have quite the leg-up on the Fort Worth Gardens and Dallas as well.

Above: An elevated path amongst the canopy of a forested area.
Below: Impressive potted containers—huge!

Below: A Chihuly installation. There are several of his works around the gardens. (This guy has got to be wealthy, we run into his glasswork everywhere!)

Dear Fort Worth, please take note: At the Atlanta Botanical gardens, a Scarecrow competition takes place and it was on full display for Halloween. What a fantastic idea! There are a few people, I think, who would enjoy doing this enough team up with me and submit an entry, or become my competition. (My mom, Lysha, Heidi, Larissa, Laurel...?) There were SO MANY great ideas. Here are two:

Not what you would expect right? Don't worry, there were enough gory ones to placate that side of you as well. 

Below: Don't you just love variegated foliage? Look at this! The leaves are SO interesting. Though, I'm not sure I care for variegation as viewed on an entire plant. It's much better when studied leaf by leaf.

The featured temporary installations were Alice in Wonderland themed (mingled with other, permanent collections of animals.) 

The gardens also have an orchid greenhouse. I've never seen such a variety before of orchids before—didn't know they could be so diverse!

We also ran into a "jungle" greenhouse and a "desert" greenhouse (no photos though.)

 

It was just a relaxing experience. I enjoyed it particularly because it was a respite from the emotional toll of being floxed. I was also physically feeling pretty good that day (you can tell because I can actually carry my own purse)—we were nearing the end of my treatments and our stay in Georgia. I would go back to enjoy the garden again anytime.

The World of Coca-Cola

The World of Coca-Cola museum in Atlanta is decidedly better than the Dr. Pepper museum in Texas, Sorry Adam. Here you will, "journey through the storied history of the iconic beverage brand, interact with a variety of exhibits, and sample beverages from around the world."

Below: Although Adam may be a trucker for Coka-cola, he is still stubbornly brandishing his true allegiance.

The vault where the secret of the recipe is kept. (Probably not though.)

Though it's not huge, there are some fun things to do at the museum. There's a movie theater with moving seats, the opportunity to have your picture taken with the polar bear, sampling a TON of different soft-drinks from around the world etc.

The museum is just one of those things you should do while in Atlanta. And once you've done it, you don't really need to do it again—until you're with someone who hasn't been yet.

 

The Smith's 300 Acre Cotton Plantation

I've never been to an old southern plantation before. So, on another outing while in Georgia, Adam and I  stopped at the Smith Plantation in Roswell. We were the only ones there that day which resulted in a private tour!

According to Roswell.gov: "In 1838, the Smith family and 30 of their slaves left two struggling plantations along the Georgia coast to make a new start with 300 acres of cotton farmland north of the Roswell Square, GA. Their home, built by slave labor in 1845, was preserved by three generations of the Smith family and is now open to the public as a museum."

It was a smaller home than I imagined but well-dressed inside. And the property is complete with outbuildings, so altogether it was impressive. The buildings included:

• Servants quarters
  
• Cookhouse
• Smokehouse
• Corn crib
• Barn
• Carriage house
• Well
• Spring house

Above is the Carriage house. Below is the Spring House—a small stream runs through it, thus keeping it cool enough to preserving food.

Below is the cookhouse. Inside two women (hired actors) who were dressed in costumes as servants of the time period, there, they cooked over open flames. (It was SO HOT that day too!)

Below, a guest room entrance from the back porch.

Mamie Cotton, the cook who spent 54 years of her life working for the family lived in the house until her death until 1994—which makes me happy. Here's why:

"The Smiths also hired a cook, Mamie Cotton who spent 54 years of her life working for the Smith family. After Arthur's death in 1960, Mamie Cotton moved into the Smith's home to take care of an ailing Mary, who became ill in her last years. Mary died on New Year’s Day 1981, and the Smith estate was entrusted to Josephine Skinner, niece of Mary Norvell Smith. In 1985 the Skinner family sold the house and grounds to the City of Roswell in order for the home to become a house museum. The City also used the Smith property to construct a new municipal complex. The sale was completed in the 1985 with the stipulation that Mamie Cotton would be able to live out the rest of her life here. Tours of the home began in 1992, while Mamie was still a resident, until her death in 1994."