Friends are a blessing....

My husband and I have a great wealth of friends. I have inherited by marriage a group of people my husband has been friends with for many years. (I just married him for his friends - lol) They are a varied lot - a teacher, one restores antique cars, one works in the health industry, one manages an apartment building, one has a design firm. We have breakfast the third Sunday of every month but not everybody comes to every breakfast, life gets in the way. We catch up on what everyone is doing, tell stories on each other and just enjoy the friendship. I have so many stories attached to this group, they've provided some of the best times I've had. We had a party once and a couple we had invited was worried about an elderly family member. So, they flipped a coin to see who would stay home and who would go to the party. She won. Since it was a pot luck and she hadn't had time to cook, she stopped and picked up a large bag of M&Ms. We still tease her about the time it took to paint the little Ms on each piece of candy. We're an unforgiving bunch and she's an easy target, but a warm and wonderful woman who has a heart as big as Australia. We had brunch on Sunday with another member who recently lost her husband. We miss him very much this time of year, they waited until very late in life to find each other; it's so sad they had so little time together. This year we lost our train enthusiast who died after a long illness. "Bob" was a marvelous man with a terrific sense of humor and the world is a dimmer place because he's not here. I offer this card to my friends - thank you for the friendship, the laughs, the warmth.

How cute is this little darlin'? I've been a big fan of Penny Black for - oh, about a drawerful now - and I'm thrilled that Cindy at Stamping Scrapping.com is now carrying them.

Paper: Olivia Paper Pad, Bazzill; Stamp: Penny Black Betsy Bluebell; Distress Ink: Barn Door, Worn Lipstick; Spellbinder Classic Rectangles Small; Spica: Lipstick, Clear; 3d Crystal Lacquer: Jade, Ivory; Copics: [Skin R20, E00, E01][Hair E35, E34, E33][Dress R37, R000][Balloons: [YG03, YG01][Y18, Y02][Socks R00][Outline NO]