Y’all! My youngest of five graduated from high school this week! It was really an exciting Graduation for many reasons. It was our LAST at Pelham High School. We have had a student enrolled at Pelham High School since 2002. That is eighteen consecutive years! And we are finished!

This was a strange graduation since it almost didn’t happen due to the Covid-19 pandemic. We are one of the lucky high schools who actually had a somewhat traditional cermony for our Seniors. Kudos to Pelham High School for pulling this off and giving our kids a last hurrah!

I thought I would share some of our graduation photos from our past graduates. Unfortunately, I’ve not been able to locate my graduation photo or Mr. Blu’s. I”ll find them at some point an update this post. I do have a feeling that a friend or two might pull out their yearbooks and share a couple in the meantime!

Congratulations V!

Along with V’s picture, I’m sharing my other four children’s graduation photos.

Graduation Festivities During a Pandemic

Because of the Pandemic, PHS only permitted four guests per family. This would be the first time any of the siblings missed any major sibling events. Unfortunately, II and her wife could not travel from Texas. And I and his family were still under strict quarantine. So we had the perfect (not perfect) number of tickets for graduation.

We were sure to include them.

And the ceremony was livestreamed so everyone got to watch The Last Edinger graduate!

The Family Graduation Archives

Here are some other grads from our family album.

My dad carried this picture of my Mom in his wallet.

Dad also had this picture of his sister, Louise. Dad was child number 4 of 8 and Aunt Louise was child number 5. He talked about Aunt Louise alot over the last few years. And Ironically, Pop passed away on June 21, 2019 and Aunt Louise joined him exactly one month later on July 21, 2019. Those two!!

My dad didn’t graduate from high school. He left school to work and help support his family. So I was surprised when I found these pictures.

Then I remembered seeing this…

It was Pop’s 8th grade diploma from Gesu School. The photos were from this milestone.

My mother-in-law didn’t graduate from high school either. She left school shortly after 9th grade to work. I always thought this was her senior picture. But I suppose it was from 9th grade.

The next few pictures are quite amazing. We don’t know alot about Mr. Blu’s dad’s family history. I’m not even sure if I’ve ever seen any childhood pictures of Art. So when we found his high school yearbook, I was very excited. Inside, carefully tucked away were momentos from his high school years.

For a second, the siblings thought that the youngest Edinger went rogue! But if you look closely, his second finger is masked into the background of the chair.

Here is the actual picture!

Farewell Pelham High School!

Congratulations to all of the 2020 Graduates! We celebrate YOU!

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Yesterday I ran to Tractor Supply Company in Montevallo for dog food. On the way there I passed the Alabama National Cemetery. I simply love to walk through old cemeteries, especially those with antique headstones and monuments. I still get chills thinking about my visits to Arlington National Cemetery as well. Being the daughter of a veteran, I have developed a great reverance for our patriots, our American heroes. Honor and respect were a large part of my childhood. We are a family that always celebrated Memorial Day, the Fourth of July, and Labor Day.

So having just returned home from my Dad’s beautiful cemetery service where the Army sent a honor guard to perform the graveside ceremony, my reverence for our military was particularly high. Why not? I pulled into the cemetery, parked and walked through the rows of pristine white stones. Some had flags. Some had flowers. I felt the solidarity and unity of these resting souls who were devoted soldiers of our beloved nation. I was surrounded by American heroes!

A View to Remember

I took a few photos with my phone. I read a few of the inscriptions on the markers. There were mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, husbands and wives, nieces and nephews, grandmoms and grandpops. Each marker was inline with the ones next to, behind, and in front of it. The vivid rows of grass were pristine and made the markers seem to glow in the Alabama sun.

A New Friend

I paid my respects and headed back to my van. It had rained the previous day and as my luck would go, I stepped right into a patch of mud. I was wiping my shoe against the grass and didn’t notice the dignified man as he approached. “I’m so sorry it’s a little muddy today,” he said, in a truly sincere voice. Surprised by his sudden appearance and even more by the regret in his voice, I told him it was ok as it was just a little mud.

I offered my hand and introduced myself as I asked, “Are you the caretaker of this wonderful place?” He replied with a laugh, “I’m Woody, and I am the the director here.” He told me that he walks the grounds in the mornings and ensures the reverence of the cemetery. He was sweaty and muddy, the sure sign of a hands-on kind of guy. He continued, “Then I go back into the office and put on the suit and take care of that side of the business.”

I don’t remember his last name and some of the exact details of our converstion escape my memory, but we chatted for about ten minutes. During that time, Woody told me that there are many sections to the cemetery. There are over 8,000 individuals buried here. There is an honor area, an area for cremated individuals, and few other special areas that again I don’t recall. I should have taken notes but I was caught up in the way this man spoke, the pride in his voice, the honor with which he spoke of even the smallest details at this hallowed, honorable site.

A Little History

 Woody offered that servicemen and women were buried here along with their spouses. They had just buried a young man from Calera. And they were responsible for many types of services and many unique services as well. He told me of a young soldier who, back in 1956, was on his way to Okinawa when his plane went down and everyone on board was killed. The young man’s mother would never accept that her son had perished. Thus, his 7 siblings had never laid their brother to rest. Not too long ago, after the mother had passed, the siblings came to Woody and requested his help in honoring their brother. A ceremony was conducted and honors bestowed on the memory of this young soldier. Woody described the sight of the remaining siblings some 60 years later standing graveside with each of their hands on the casket. My heart reacted and a smile crossed my face. And I realized, I was speaking to an angel!

Caretaker of our Patriots

Angels come in many forms, in many shapes, in many sizes and many ages. They are purposely placed in our lives at the right time for a very specific purpose. You see, I’ve had some experience with angels recently. I’ll be writing more about them soon. But in this moment, in this place, I was in awe at the power this man could channel. There pride was in every word he spoke. He was not only the literal caretaker of this lovely, reverent place. He was caretaker of so much more, He was the ultimate director and the perfect person for the task of ensuring the dignified and honorable repose of our heroes.

I’m certain that, had I stayed an hour, Woody would regale me with an unending recount of similar stories. A man like Woody remembers every detail, every name, and takes great pride in sharing them daily. It’s his honor and his duty. I’m so thankful that I turned into what appeared to be just a small yet official cemetery poignantly located on Rt. 119 between Alabaster and Montevallo. And today, as I don my Red White and Blue, I’m thankful for angels like Woody at the Alabama National Cemetery who make it their life’s mission to protect the dignity, to ensure the repose, and to honor the memory of our precious veterans who secured the freedom we enjoy today through their service years ago.

So, if you ever find yourself on Rt. 119 traveling between Alabaster and Montevallo Alabama, pull on in to the Alabama National Cemetary. Shake Woody’s hand. And thank him for his service.

You can find more information on the Alabama National Cemetery on their website HERE or on their Facebook page.

Below I am including some pictures of my favorite service men and women.

Jay Garvey
US Army
SJB Family

Bernard Aloysius Strain
US Navy
Lyceum Avenue Family

I am still gathering pictures of my other favorite veterans in uniform so please check back for an update of these heroes.

The post An Impromptu Visit to American Heroes at Alabama National Cemetery appeared first on Shop at Blu.

You might remember that last October was our first huge vintage show when we participated in The Market on Chapel Hill.  You can read about the show HERE.  This was so much fun!  We met so many wonderful folks.  Since that market was in Montgomery Alabama, many of our shopping friends stop by to visit us at The Blue Building Antiques in Alabaster, AL.  We enjoyed the event so much that we will be doing several other shows this year starting with Vintage Market Days in Mobile AL over St. Patrick’s Day weekend.  I will tell you more about that event later.

The Philly Home and Garden Show was Friday, February 17  through Sunday,  February 19, 217 .  We made these 24 inch Farmhouse Decor Clocks at the Make It Take It station.  We did 3 classes of 15, one each day.

We were super excited to have two fabulous sponsors.  HomeRight sent us Finish Max Paint Sprayers to demo and give away.  We had four participants go home with new paint sprayers!  Everyone had the chance to try using this lightweight and easy to use paint sprayer!  Folks were absolutely loving the spray shelters as well!  The HomeRight spray shelter comes in two sizes to accomodate large or small projects!

Thanks to HomeRight we will also be giving away a new HomeRight Finish Max paint sprayer at the end of this post!  See the Rafflecopter to enter.

Our second sponsor was Plaid Enterprises, you might know their products…Folk Art and Apple Barrel paint!  Plaid graciously supplied us with stencils, paint, brushes, and stencil glue for all of the classes!  They have a seemingly endless supply of craft items to fill your needs.  Let me just say that their stencil glue was the bomb!

Our first class was Friday Feb 17 at 4:00 PM.  I have to admit that I was a little nervous.  I’ve never done a class at a big event.  I had some wonderful helpers in 3 of my best buds from high school.  Meet Lisa, Mickey and Susan!

Here are some of our wonderful class participants hard at work:

Saturday brought a whole new crew of helpers.  Here are Shelly, Germaine and Lisa, more of my wonderful friends from grade school and high school.

Some candid shots from Saturdays class (photo credit to Shelly):

And lastly, here are pictures from our Sunday class.  Special thanks to my grade school friend, Dana, and my 3 cousins Maureen, Kathleen,  and Michele who were incredibly wonderful helpers!

And of course, my number one helper was in rare form.  He kept the funnel cake booth in business for 3 days!

I kept him very busy!  Pop picked all of the winners for the HomeRight giveaways!

The absolute highlight of the show for me was meeting Jeff Lewis from BRAVO’s Flippin’ Out!  

Gage must have sensed how horrible I am at selfies so he took charge! Thank God!

What a phenomenal event this was!  Once again, a huge thank you to HomeRight and Plaid Enterprises for providing the wonderful tools and giveaways for this show.  Please take a minute to check out their websites and their wonderful products!  If you are a DIY addict like me, these two companies have the products to make you happy and your life easier!

And for our grand finale, we are giving away a HomeRight Finish Max Paint Sprayer!  Enter starting March 4 through March 20, 2017 via the Rafflecopter below. Winner will be announced on March 21st.

We extended the giveaway through April 8.  And the winner was Kelly W!  She had claimed her prize and promises to post some picks of her projects!

Thank you to everyone who participated!

Here is a link (affiliate) should you wish to purchase your own Finish Max!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Wow!  What a crazy few weeks!  The Market on Chapel Hill 2016 was on Saturday, October 1.  It was a crazy exciting week before the market.  Pop and I had planned to fly to Philadelphia for a wedding.  Just 2 days before we left, my godmother passed away.  As fate would have it, her funeral was the day before the wedding and at the same church.  We are so very grateful that we could attend this beautiful celebration of a wonderful life.  And we are immeasurably grateful for my cousins for inviting us!  Had we not received the wedding invitation, we most likely would not have been able to attend the funeral.  I am always amazed at how The Big Guy takes care of our hearts!

This market was my first in 15 years so I was excited and nervous!  And it was a big one-by invite only!  How exciting is that!!!!  Right??!!  You can read about the history of this vintage market in this article I wrote for a local paper.  I had done shows when we lived in Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Virginia.  But those shows were on a small scale and more like local neighborhood festivals.  The Market on Chapel Hill is an upscale vintage market.  Don’t get me wrong, we have lots of beautiful antiques and vintage items at The Blue Building.  But, to be participating in a vintage market with the likes of Olde Tyme Marketplace, Savy City Farmer, Thistlewood Farms, Farmhouse Frocks, Coastal Charm, The Little Golden Fox, Susie Harris, just to name a few…well, that is rather intimidating so my heart was aflutter!

Getting Ready

One of The Blue Building Antiques and Consignment dealers, Kelly, agreed to do the market with me.  So for the 2 months prior to the market, we were tucking away treasures for this show.  I did a little preview post on items we put aside for the market.  You can read about them HERE.  My store is 8,000 square feet of what we call “Elegant Clutter”.  But if you stop by, on any given day, you will find tons of items waiting to be processed for sale and logged for consignment.  Every nook and cranny is filled with items.  There just isn’t alot of space for storage.  So about a week before the market, I started staging items for the show in one area of the store.  Well, darn if those items didn’t start selling!  Yes, it’s a good thing, but we had to continue picking for the show right up until the day before!

Vendors set up on the Friday before the market.  On Thursday, I picked up a rental truck.  Originally I reserved a 16 foot truck with a small lift gate.  My experience in moving large furniture, but mostly MY AGE, told me a lift gate is critical!  I upgraded to a 26 foot truck after my friends KariAnne of Thistlewood Farms and Lucy from Lucy Inspired asked me to bring them some tables and display pieces for the space they would be sharing at the market.  

Kelly and I started loading our large pieces of furniture.  We started at 10 AM and continued until about 6:30 PM.  One piece and one box at a time were loaded.  We alternated waiting on customers and we chatted about our set up plan for the next day.  By 6:30 PM we were exhausted.  So we went home to rest!  Our plan was to meet at 7:30 AM the next morning.  We would finish loading and depart for Montgomery AL by 8:30 AM.

On Our Way!

Well, we pulled out at 10:15 AM and arrived at The Waters at 11:15 AM.  It took a little maneuvering and some waiting our turn to unload but by 1:30 PM, Kelly and I were filling our sweet space at The Market on Chapel Hill!

Help Arrives!

Around 2:00, my friend Nancy, who blogs at Cobani Bleu, arrived from Nashville to help.  Nancy shops The Market on Chapel Hill every year so she was excited to help us in our debut!  By 3:30, fellow Blu dealer Tammy had arrived, our final team member!

We hustled and arranged and coordinated and primped and by 6:30 PM, the space was ready!  We headed out to dinner to relax and chat about the plan for market day!

We were up early and back at our space by 7:30 AM to finalize pricing.  We each grabbed some coffee and enjoyed a few minutes of shopping just before the market opened at 9 AM.

Here are some pictures of our space:

Shopping Highlights

And here are some photos of the some of the other vendors including Old Tyme Marketplace, Coastal Charm, Savy City Farmer and Little Golden Fox.  

Special Guests and Special Customers

What an exciting adventure this was!  Thanks to everyone who came down to see us including Gina Luker from The Shabby Creek Cottage and our loyal customers Katie and Sabrina who stop by every year!  

A great big thank you to the community at The Waters for hosting another top notch show!  To all of the new and old friends of The Blue Building who made the market such an incredible experience for us…we can’t wait ’til next year! 

In the meantime, come visit us in Alabaster!  We are open everyday but Monday!  Stop in any time!

My ANGELS in Blu!

DEDICATION

This post is dedicated to the memory of my wonderful aunt and godmother, Kathleen M. McCloskey.  I love you Aunt Kath!  Behave yourself up there with Mom and the crew!  Until we meet again…Go Lassie Go!

The post The Market on Chapel Hill 2016-Our first vintage Market appeared first on Shop at Blu.

I headed south to Pike Road AL on Friday for my annual work day (I say that jokingly cause this was anything but work) in helping the bloggers and vendors set up their spaces for The Market on Chapel Hill.  For the past 2 years, my first stop was at Miss Mustard Seed.  And I was so tickled to be able to help Marian and her assistant, Kriste, again this year.  Since there was less ironstone to unpack, I arranged the MMSMP display!  Yes, my friends, it DID look particularly splendid on Saturday!  Thank you!  All of that milk paint, bonding agent, hemp oil (in 3 fabulous sizes), tough coat, and wax was strategically and lovingly place into position by ME!  Can you believe I neglected to take a photo of such beauty??  Marian to the rescue…she certainly thinks of everything!

It is always a treat to watch Marian via her blog Miss Mustardseed start to piece together her displays several months in advance.  A piece here, some ironstone there, a vintage scale newly acquired…And it really is quite magical watching it all fall into place on the Friday before The Market on Chapel Hill.

Here are a few of my favs from the weekend:

I was particularly excited to see this vintage cubby!  If only I had a place for it!

And, as always, Ironstone!

Well, for a great portion of Friday and all of Saturday, I was an Urban Farmgirl!  Mary has such wonderful merchandise…a perfect mix of antiques, vintage, and handcrafted.  It was a treat to spend some time with a truly gifted entrepenuer.  Mary carries quite a few lines of items handcrafted by local artisans from her native Chicago area…handmade purses, signs, pillows and these wonderful pumpkins:

How about this antique printer’s cabinet??   Swoon!  This was the very first piece that sold!

Many of my favorites bloggers returned this year.  Here are some shots of Lucy’s Inspired.

Lucy has started bringing some architectural pieces to her shows.  These are in high demand!  How great are these??!!!

And of course, you know who loves Lucy…right?  Here’s the pic that we submitted to Lucy for her contest “What would you wear with your Lucy’s Locket?”

Pop won!  So now he sports his very own Lucy’s Locket!

Another favorite of mine is Coastal Charm spearheaded by the lovely Linda Sikes.  Linda looked particularly proud this weekend as she was accompanied by her beautiful daughter Mary Clare and her wonderful husband.  Linda has several spaces at Antiques at the Loop in Mobile, AL.   What a talent for throwing vignettes together!

Several of the ladies who live in The Waters, the wonderful community that hosts this fabulous market, returned with wonderful furniture and accessories.  Here are a few pictures of their fabulous items:

The Waters resident Robin and her hubby had a fabulous supply of original watercolors on hand.  But this little guy was the show stopper!

Returning for her third year was Cara of Little Golden Fox.  Every year, her inventory just gets better.  Here are some of my favs:

Of all people, I know that if you snooze you lose at these shows.  I fell in love with this primitive bust and the beautiful tall wrought iron piece in the picture below.  But I hesitated and those babies were gone!

Here’s Cara and her beautiful daughter with a lucky customer!

And another of her small but wonderful treasures:

New to The Market on Chapel Hill this year is Olde Tyme Marketplace.  Beth and Rusty were an absolute joy to chat with and their space was filled with spectacular items.

I was overwhelmed!  Such wonderful vintage finds!  Authentic huge farmhouse signs, old metal drawers, windows, beautiful farm tables…and then I was stopped in my tracks!  There it was!  It called my name!  Over and over and over!  Do you see it???

On the right front corner of the table???   Seven years ago when I took over my store, The Blue Building, there was a beautiful antique trophy on consignment.  It was only about 10 inches tall but it was the bomb!  I sold it and have been kicking myself ever since!  Everywhere I go I have search for vintage trophies.  They are soooo hard to find!  And there it was!  Right in front of me!  The piece-de-resistance!  A gorgeous loving cup!  19 inches tall!  With “Paris” engraved on the front!  I screamed!  Right there under the tent!  I hugged Beth!  It was meant to be!  But could I bring my thrifty little self to pay actual RETAIL price for something????  4 hours (probably more) I debated!  I couldn’t stop thinking about it!  She was just sitting there, waiting for me!  And then it hit me…when would I EVER find another????   And just like that…she was mine!  Worth every single penny!

Have I mentioned how much I love The Market on Chapel Hill???   Imagine what YOU could find!  See you next year…put it on your list of musts!  You most certainly will NOT be disappointed!

The post The Market on Chapel Hill 2015 Recap appeared first on Shop at Blu.

Hats off to Layla from The Lettered Cottage and the wonderful group of ladies affectionately known as The Pike Road Ladies for hosting such a phenomenal event.

While last year The Chapel Market was a great success, this year was even more exciting! There were double the number of vendors! There was delicious catered food!  There were incredible buys and the vendors absolutely outdid themselves with their displays!  There were milk paint and chalk paint presentations!  I could not get enough of the vintage finds and pretty little things!  Seriously, I think I walked through the market about 20 times just looking and soaking in the inspiration!

Here is the lovely Layla, on the left:

Those other two beauties in the photo above were my companions for two days!  I had the pleasure of helping KariAnne from Thistlewood Farms and Laura from Finding Home with their booth.  Let me tell you that these girls are even MORE fabulous in person!

This is the Chapel before the excitement began:

I arrived at Pike Road on Friday morning.  I had offered to help Marian, Miss Mustard Seed with her booth setup and lend her a table for check out.  First on my mind was a photo op with the one and only Miss Mustard Seed.  Last year, I was so caught up in the excitement of helping her all day that I realized (too late, on the ride home) that I had never gotten a picture with her!

So, first things first:

Marian has got this market stuff down to a science.   She and her sweet assistant Kriste had done a preliminary layout in her studio back in Pennsylvania so all of us avid readers could get a preview of her space.  I helped unwrap ironstone, and if you know Marian–there was A TON of ironstone! Once everything was unwrapped, Marian simply fluttered around placing items in their perfect place.  Sadly, it only took about 2 hours for the entire booth to be unpacked and ready for shoppers!  I say sadly because my work was done…in 2 hours!!!  I enjoyed every second!

When you walked into The Chapel Market, the first booth you came to belonged to Thistlewood Farms and Finding Home.  I don’t know how it came to be, but there could be no better greeters than the vibrant and trendy combo of KariAnne and Laura.  The remainder of the day on Friday was spent helping these sweet blog friends set up their booth space.  We laughed and priced and laughed and staged and laughed and staged and priced and rolled t-shirts…which I got to model on Saturday!

The Chapel Market started early Saturday with the quaint community joining in the fun.  How about these beauties:

I visited with Kara Fox of Little Golden Fox.  Kara is MMSCP retailer.  We met last year helping Marian with her sales. This year Kara had her own booth!

I helped Lucy of Lucy’s Inspired for just a few minutes…I had to get my hands on some of that beautiful handmade jewelry!  She has the coolest industrial theme and she rocks it right into her jewelry.  So talented and creative.

Isn’t she gorgeous

?

The Urban Farmgirl caravan traveled all the way from Illinois.  Her space was rocking ALL DAY!

You can see why!

There are always a few people you meet at these events who stand out.  One of those was sweet Linda of Coastal Charm.  We chatted about the business, about trade shows, about merchandise, furniture, etc.  It was a pleasure to run into Linda throughout the day and I know we will be hitting some more Alabama shows soon!

Isn’t she darlin’?

And her booth…wowzer!

Southern Accents Architectural and their salvaged items never disappoint!

Littleville Blue is located in Cullman AL and Lordy!  Did Teresa and Rena put on a show!

Shaunna West of Perfectly Imperfect had an incredible booth set up with chalk paint and milk paint for sale.  It was fun to listen to Marian give one on one instructions to first time customers…if only they knew!  And Shaunna’s crew never fails to create the largest and most incredible displays.  Where do they find these mammoth displays.

All in all, it was a fun filled day of meeting folks and making connections, wandering through vintage heaven, sharing stories, and absorbing inspiration!  I am soooo excited to get back to Blu and Yellow and get to work!  But I am secretly wishing that The Chapel Market 2015 was just around the corner!

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