Fashion Friday and Most Precious Moments

Yay! Its Friday! What a week! So glad to be cruising into Friday with you!

So what are your plans for this fabulous weekend? I’m looking forward to some serious R&R.And, I need to go through and clean my closet again. Seems like every couple of months it looks like a tornado went through there. It always feels so nice right after I clean it, too.

Well, its a Fashion Friday, so I’m kicking it off Boho style with this
super comfy and fun white and black embroidered peasant blouse. The sleeves are nice and full, and the top just has an easy breezy kind of feel to it.

I’m carrying a cheerful little black and white flowered clutch, (from Nordstrom on sale right now, yay!), and the shoes are good ole’ Clarks! The black jeans are a Macy’s brand called “Style Q”. And my happy little Stella and Dot Luna necklace is shining so proudly!

Next I have a great trophy jacket that feels a little bit like a military jacket.

I love the silver buttons!

This bag is a beautiful structured crossbody with giant grommets in the strap. I like the square shape and the silver brads on it go well with the jacket buttons. This was a well planned splurge, my first Rebecca Minkoff, “The Midnighter” (what a great name!) purchased on sale (a price matching from Nordstrom) along with some notes earned on previous purchases, brought it down to a number where I said “yes!”.

I just had to put that bust of Lincoln behind me… his jacket looks a little bit like mine!

This next one is one of the comfiest shirts I own.

I call it, “Coffee Sunday After Noon”.  (where did I come up with that?) I love the big bold font (even I don’t need my glasses to see it), the colors, the softness like a favorite blankey, and the message. Every Sunday after church I put on a nice pot of coffee and the vibe is total chillax at our house! Sundays are simply wonderful!

Kasey even senses it… a time for bonding. I love the groovy vibe. Rush hour stops everywhere for a siesta, and we cherish each other, let dreams be born and take form, and for a moment we focus on the amazing blessing and mystery of life! I am sporting some Alex and Ani bracelets with this top, I love the sentimental feeling each piece brings.

I think I’ve shared this with you before, but this year leading up to Christmastime, I wanted to do something to mark the blessing of the women I grew up with in my family, and so I started little by little in September, and I purchased Alex and Ani bracelets for each of the ladies from my generation and my family. I wanted to do something to tell these women loud and clear that I am so very glad my life has crossed with theirs. It truly is a gift. How God chose to put me with my mom… and with my sisters… in all the expanse of time and space. It is a breathtaking miracle! So for each beautiful lady I got them an Alex and Ani birthstone bracelet, because I am so grateful they were born. I got them a silver bracelet because like silver they have walked through the fires of life, and yet they are only more beautiful and refined. And I got them a charm bracelet that says “A mother’s love is true north, always guiding the way home.” I wrote each one of them a letter filled with the words I could express about what our journey together has meant. These are things I wanted to mark in time, so they would know how precious they are to me, and how grateful I am for them.

I know, I’m a little on the mushy side. But our mom, my mom is the tying connector for that. Isn’t it amazing how in the midst of the chaos, the joys and sorrows, ups and downs of this whirlwind of life, there are these jewels along the way that stand out so precious they make you simply gasp at the beauty? If we can spend some time gazing at them, even if from loved ones we’ve said goodbye to for now, the memories are most precious and priceless works of art in the halls of our lives.

I wanted to share a beautiful story with you. Below is a picture of my Mama and her two sisters. From left to right, her sister Mary Jane, in the middle, her little sister Linda Louise, and my mom on the right, Joyce Elaine.

I look at this picture and my heart just melts looking at those beautiful young faces so full of hopes and dreams.

My mom was born into the time in this world where things turned upside down, the Depression and followed by WW2. She lived and remembers food rationing, victory gardens (they had one they drove to out in Sylvania, Ohio), the war effort, a host of very serious challenges the world went through, on top of just the normal challenges of life. And yet that was when her journey began with these two other beautiful little girls. They journeyed together. The joys and the sorrows, blessed with a beautiful loving mother (my grandmother) who could sew a dress out of just about anything and make you feel like it was a store bought dress! Life was hard but they knew they had each other to make this journey. And that journey made them stronger and forged them together. Each of these beauties had their own very difficult journeys, but they would be there for each other in any way they could. They never turned their back, they never closed their eyes. They stepped in with whatever they had to support each other, with love, food, clothing, medicine, helping hands, whatever was needed.

My mom told me about a time when she had to have surgery. It was a scary time, she was so very sick. She was about 40 years old, and she lay in the hospital bed feeling so weak and yet trying to stay strong with 6 kids at home waiting and wondering when would Mama be back. And her sister Mary Jane walked in through the door of that hospital to visit her. Mary Jane had a journey of tremendous challenge and heartache in life, yet God had created her with a sense of humor and laughter. The smile and sparkle in her eye was never gone for long.

She came in to my mom’s room, and she leaned over her older sister in that hospital bed and kissed her on the forehead. My mom says this beautiful fragrance filled the air and even though she was so sick it roused her attention and she said in a tiny voice, “Mary Jane you smell so good to me! What is that beautiful fragrance?” And Mary Jane told her it was a perfume called “Most Precious” by Giorgio. Mary Jane visited and kept that courageous smile and literally infused courage and love into my mom at her weakest. She walked out of the door of that hospital, after seeing her big sister so frail. She went straight to the store and purchased a bottle of “Most Precious” by Giorgio and brought it straight back to my mother’s bedside. She wanted to do something, anything for her dear sister to say “I love you, please don’t ever doubt it.”  It was imperative. Mary Jane did not have alot of money. The fact that she had a bottle of that perfume herself meant there had already been sacrifice. But that she went out immediately to buy a second bottle as if a driving force compelled her, “I have got to get that perfume for my sister”, well it speaks volumes because they simply had to watch every penny. She came back straightaway to the hospital room with such joy and gave my mom that bottle of “Most Precious”.

A little still remains in that bottle. It is in my mother’s top drawer of her dresser, and she sees it every day and thinks of her life and her sisters Mary Jane and Linda that are “Most Precious” in her heart. Mary Jane has gone home to be with the Lord now some ten years ago. My mother is now 86, her baby sister Linda is living in Texas but they talk on the phone and Linda creates beautiful cards and writes poetry and sends them to my mom, and they are right alongside the bottle of “Most Precious”, daily reminders of how blessed she is.

I share these things with you because they capture my heart. I stop and think, “This is the treasure, don’t miss it.” Let your heart be creative. Let yourself lavish someone even if its as simple as baking them cookies or calling them out of the blue to simply cheer them up. They will hang up the phone and cherish that memory maybe for a lifetime.

I love this picture, though it is missing a few beautiful faces, but it captures a moment in my life, my journey of precious women to me that I get to do my life with. I know each of us has those beautiful souls, and sometimes if you look at them, really look at them, it can be positively dazzling.

So I encourage you, let them know. Those times where you step away from your own pain or loneliness or business or incredible blessing… to enter someone else’s world and help hold them up if even for a moment will never ever be forgotten in the story of one’s life. Isn’t it just overwhelming sometimes what a beautiful thing love is? It is truly Most Precious!

Love Always,

Amy

The best and most beautiful things in this world cannot be seen or even heard, but must be felt with the heart. ~Helen Keller

 

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4 comments

  1. Dear Amy,

    Oh how you commend yourself to cyberspace with this blog and how you enrich its travelers that come upon it. Your heart is full of love for sure, but is also full of stories born from the love, experience, and insights of a big close-knit, spiritual family. I can see that one day you might assess your weekly posts and compose them into a book of short stories, or into a book. I love your writing and have found that I now associate Friday with you. ? Now that is something. The happy, anticipated day that ends the workweek is also celebrated with your telling contributions.

    My 80 year old mom, Jeanne, told of driving, with her parents and siblings, to the country (Sylvania) from their home in Toledo. I’m grateful for her honest recounting of the WWII newsreels she would see at the theater, between movies, when she was a child. We are one generation that can ensure the truth of the war is not forgotten. She and her sister are still so close, but states apart. I spent childhood summers at my Aunt’s house, the Tiedke “Mansion” on Door St. with lots of cousins, running around on the massive side lawn, in our pajamas, catching fireflie. Today, Facebook helps us to stay in touch. Cyberspace.

    The photo of your mom is most precious. I just said that, and realized the perfume name was the same! I love that she held onto the bottle as a keepsake, because I know that a mother of 6 cannot keep everything that is precious to her. She has it and the memory of her beloved sister to go with it. (And that photo of her and her sister’s is a gift that looks like an old valentine.) My great Aunt Judy had similar perfume bottles on her bureau from the early days of her marriage. I loved smelling them and thinking of how old they were.

    And you rock that black and white tunic. Plus, you are making me reconsider jewelry. I’ve never been into wearing it. Well, you are something of a model, because I just might have to try a few pieces after seeing it in you.

    Take care, Amy. Thanks for a heartwarming start to the day. Looking forward to next week.

    Tricia

    1. Oh Tricia, what a story you have! Isn’t it precious to know those things our parents went through? I can imagine you with all your cousins on that lawn on Door St. I’m sure there is a very good chance our folks knew each other. And I remember Tiedke’s as well! I called my mom yesterday to get her permission before I shared that story, and she was happy to know it might encourage people. Thank you for all your kind words. I love love love getting a chance to share things that lift hearts and help us remember where our roots are. I’m working on the fashion thing… you would laugh out loud if you saw or heard some of my blunders. But I am having so much fun! Have a super weekend, Tricia! Love, Amy

  2. I’m laying here in the hotel room with your niece Meg and your great-niece Sophia. First chance I’ve had all day to take the time to enjoy your blog. Like Tricia, I just love when I get the notification that my gorgeous sister has posted her Friday blog. Our memories are so very sweet….precious to me. I am smiling with a teeny hint of tears in my eyes, perfect ending to a beautiful day. Thanks again for the fun Friday read. Love you more ❤️