🦅 Happy Birthday Griffin 🦁

"Happy birthday, baby."

Blue Dahlia

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FALL INTO THE STORY of GRIFFIN ENTRANCE

🦁

Wild One First Birthday Party Theme

The Best Ideas for KIDS

🦅

Eagle mini cheese balls

Hallmark

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"A griffin."

"Good eye."

"Symbol of strength—and vigilance."

She turned her head, cocked it so that she could see his face. 

"You know the

oddest things, Jack. But yeah, that's why I chose it."

Captive Star

Ways your parents' behaviors shaped who you are today

When she'd run out of steam, Stella rubbed her hands over her face. "Goddamn it."

"That's a lot of bitching, whining, and venom to pack into a quarter of an hour. 

She sounds like a very talented woman."

It took Stella a minute—a minute where she let her hands slide into her lap 

so she could stare into Roz's face. Then she let her own head fall back 

with a peal of laughter.

"Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, she's loaded with talent. Thanks."

"No problem. My mama spent most of her time—at least the time 

we were on earth together—sighing wistfully over her health. Not 

that she meant to complain, so she said. I very nearly put that on her 

tombstone. 'Not That I Mean to Complain.'"

"I could put 'I Don't Ask for Much' on my mother's."

"There you go. Mine made such an impression on me that I went 

hell-bent in the opposite direction. I could probably cut off a limb, 

and you wouldn't hear a whimper out of me."

"God, I guess I've done the same with mine. 

I'll have to think about that later." 

Blue Dahlia

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By Humyra khandoker - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=76617469

Whether your parents were your best friends or you barely knew them, 

your relationship with Mom and Dad had an impact on who you are today.

MSN

Oh 👶

“Can we say baby shower? A double-the-fun theme,” Hope decided. 

“Or what comes

in pairs, sets of two. Something like that. 

I’ll work on it. We should schedule it in early

October, just to be safe.”

“Baby shower.” Clare sighed. “More and more real.” 

The Perfect Hope

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Host a Baby Shower Everyone Will Love

A baby shower  is all about celebrating the mama-to-be,
and what better way to do that than with a fat slice of cake and
a cup of baby shower punch?

30 Adorable Baby Shower Cakes

Baby Shower Etiquette

Easy Appetizers

Creative Baby Shower Themes

The Best Games to Play During a Baby Shower

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"Mrs. Haggerty? Our Mrs. Haggerty was there?"

"Not only, but she won the song title game. You have to write down the most song titles with 'baby' in it.

You'll never guess one she wrote down."

"Okay. I give."

"'Baby Got Back.'"

Now he grinned. "Get out. Mrs. Haggerty wrote down a rap song?"

"Then rapped it."

"Now you're lying."

"She did. Or at least a couple lines. I nearly peed my pants."

Blue Dahlia

4 Easy DIY Structures to Accentuate the Garden

"But I've got to build me an arbor tomorrow, out in my yard. I could

use a couple of Saturday slaves."

"We can be slaves." Luke tugged on Logan's pant leg.

"I know what an arbor is, too. It's a thing stuff grows on."

"There you go, then, I've got a couple of expert slaves.

We'll see what your mama says."

Blue Dahlia

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Build a Sturdy Arbor

A weekend’s work and a few pieces of lumber yield a handsome home for vines

Build A Copper Pipe Trellis

Simple techniques transform plumbing pipes into functional garden structures

Build a Rustic Tuteur

Branches, glue, screws, and string are all it takes to put an informal spin on this classic structure

Build a Bamboo Trellis

Ten dollars and two hours later you’ll be wishing you had more vines

Patio Designs to Get You Thinking About Summer

"I've been toying with redoing the patio."

"First I've heard of it," Jolene muttered.

"I saw them putting on one of those herringbone patterns out of bricks 

on one of the home shows. I liked the look of it. You know how to handle that sort of thing?"

"Done a few like it. I can take a look at what you've got now if you want."

"That'd be just fine." Will pushed back from the table.

Blue Dahlia

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You won’t want to go back inside after seeing these patios.

Family Handyman

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"What are you doing planting oleander for my father?"

"My job. Putting in a new patio, too. Your stepmama's already talking about getting new furniture for out there. And a fountain. Seems to me a woman can't see a flat surface without wanting to buy something to put on it. They were still talking about it when I left the other night."

Blue Dahlia

Ford Resurrects a Legend

She stepped out with him, then studied the black Mustang. "You own a car."

"This is not merely a car, and to call it such is very female."

"And to say that is very sexist. Okay, if it's not a car, what is it?"

"It's a machine."

"I stand corrected."

Blue Dahlia

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By Stahlkocher - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, 
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=308499

Steve McQueen's speed machine gets a muscle-y 480hp upgrade.

The Mustang Bullitt is cool. But it would be cool whether it was called the Bullitt or the 5.0 SVO or the GT Dark Green Edition. Its coolness is innate and not tied to the time Steve McQueen ripped up the streets of San Francisco in a mean green Mustang back in 1968.

Popular Mechanics

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"So, you're into classic cars."

He settled behind the wheel. The minute he turned the key the radio exploded with Marvin Gaye. Byron turned it down to a murmur before cruising through the lot.

"Sixty-five Mustang with a 289 V-8. A car like this isn't just a mode of transportation. It's a commitment."

"Really?" She liked the creamy white bucket seats, the trained-panther ride, but couldn't think of anything more impractical than owning a car older than she was. "Don't you have to spend a lot of time babying it, finding parts?''

"That's the commitment. Runs like a dream," he added with an affectionate stroke to the dash as he merged into traffic.

Holding the Dream

A Fulfilling Career

The story Nora Roberts likes to tell of her transformation from harried homemaker to 
published novelist reads like something from one of her novels: 
Stuck at home with her two young sons during a 1979 snowstorm, 
the Silver Spring native started writing longhand, 
and the epiphany hit: 
“ ‘This is it . This is the thing I am meant to do.’ 


Nora Roberts @ WP

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By Melchisedek ABAKA [CC BY-SA 4.0 

(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], from Wikimedia Commons47

Why Having a Fulfilling Career Makes Me a Better Mother

Before I became a mother, I was a woman with my own dreams, ambitions, and creative desires, just like anyone else. Then when my son was born, the role of motherhood was thrust upon me and all of a sudden I had two new identities to cater to, but how would I manage both without sacrificing one for the other? 

MY DOMAINE

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She needed this job. 
Not just for the salary—and it was generous—but for the structure, 
for the challenge, for the doing. Doing more, she knew, than circling the wheel
she'd fallen into back home.

She needed a life, something more than clocking time, drawing a paycheck 
that would be soaked up by bills. 
She needed, however self-help-book it sounded, 
something that fulfilled and challenged her.

Blue Dahlia

Are newborns ugly?

Max saw photos of a newborn with a bright thatch of red hair and skin as white as cream, 
and an expression on her little face that seemed to say, 

“What the hell am I doing here?”

Remember When

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By Evan-Amos - Own work, Public Domain, 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=33824000

Research says newborns rated 'less cute' than older babies

t turns out that adults find the faces of babies most appealing at around the six-month mark, says new research from Brock University.

MEDICALXRESS

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Logan studied the tiny form bunking in a patch of dappled sunlight. 
He'd seen babies before, even had his share of personal contact with them. 
To him, newborns bore a strange resemblance to fish. Something about the eyes, he thought. 
And this one had all that black hair going for her, so she looked like a human sea creature. 
Sort of exotic and otherworldly.

If Gavin had been around, and Hayley out of hearing distance, he'd have suggested that this particular baby looked something like the offspring of Aquaman and Wonder Woman.

The kid would've gotten it.

Babies always intimidated him. 
Something about the way they looked right back at you, 
as if they knew a hell of a lot more than you did and 
were going to tolerate you until they got big enough 
to handle things on their own.

Blue Dahlia

The red revolution

'Titian knew what he was doing when he painted that color.'  

Blue Dahlia

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New book celebrates all things ginger and what it really means to have crimson locks

A new book, Ginger Pride – A Red-Headed History Of The World, examines what makes red hair so special – and confirms they really are a unique breed.

The Sunday Post

Mentions in Nora's Books

"Last night, when I got home, and went in to check on the boys. I heard her first. 
She sings some sort of lullaby."

" 'Lavender's Blue.' It's what you could call her trademark." 

Taking out small clippers, Roz trimmed off a weak side stem. 
"She's never spoken that I've heard, or heard of, but she sings to the children 
of the house at night."

" 'Lavender's Blue.' Yes, that's it. I heard her."

Blue Dahlia

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"Lavender's Blue" (sometimes called "Lavender Blue") is an English folk song and nursery rhyme dating to the 17th century. It has been recorded in various forms since the 20th century and some pop versions have been hits in the US and UK charts.

(wikipedia)