Introducing MilandDil Designs

I’m back…Shinnyupatree (Teresa’s head elf) doing a guest blog for Teresa. Such a busy year for me with lots going on…seems like I can’t find enough hours in the day, week, month, can you relate?

Teresa suggested I share one of the exciting things I’ve started doing since my last post.  So I’m introducing you to MilandDil Designs .…a floral design business I’ve started on Etsy.

Mil – that’s me mother-in-law, and one of my daughters-in-law – that’s Dil.  My designing partner DIL is named Olga and she is going to nursing school.  My other DIL is already an RN in the NICU at a local hospital.

I wanted a way for Olga to get a little extra tuition money for her nursing school…something that allowed her to spend time with her little one, Lilliana …my 15 month old granddaughter.  And yes, just in Grammy style, here’s a picture… or two…maybe just three and I’ll stop. That’s Olga with Lilliana, her little Russian-looking photo, and her unruly curly hair.

Our design skills compliment each other…I say I know enough to be dangerous. No formal design training, no floral training…just a love for beautiful things and somehow that is translated into creations that can at times be a little quirky.  I don’t follow rules (no surprise if you ask my husband). Things don’t have to necessarily be symmetrical or balanced. In fact, I’m continually looking for ways to be a little bit different… a creation that has my signature. 

Olga on the other hand has had formal floral training and she has learned the rules for floral design.  It makes me laugh when she says she wants to “do it the way I do it”…and yet anything she does is fantastic. We’re learning from each other…the young teaching the old, the old teaching the young.

The summer is slowly fading…hot temperatures here in Louisiana can only mean one thing – Fall and Christmas are right around the corner. So here are pictures of a couple of my Christmas creations currently for sale on Etsy.

Thanks to Teresa for giving me a chance to promote our little business.  I’ll still be her right-hand elf this year during tree season…so look forward to more of our antics. And MERRY CHRISTMAS!

A FEW FUN DAYS BEFORE SURGERY

AUSTIN SURROUNDED BY A LOT OF LOVE

Gray thinks its funny….


I will update after surgery on Thursday….Thanks for all your prayers.


And for a laugh….Jack, AKA, Woody is designing a new clothing line….called “I choose my clothes”!  Coming soon to a store near you.

                              

PLEASE PRAY

Rarely do I post the same thing on both blogs but this post merits it.
 
You will not waste a prayer on our family this week.  Austin, (Dana and Greg’s oldest little) is having heart surgery in Little Rock on Thursday morning. 
It’s a surgery that they have known was in their future since Austin was small, but they had hoped it was still a a few years off.

Because of some blood pressure problems this last year and some other blood work numbers, the pediatric cardiologist decided the time is now. The doctors at Children's Hospital in Little Rock agreed.

I am sure it is a routine surgery that they do everyday in this hospital (they do not even do it here) but when it’s your boy having it, it becomes anything but routine.  It becomes anxiety and sleepless nights.
 
First thing this morning I saw Greg’s middle of the night FB post and knew he was worried and sleep was not happening.  He and Dana along with Austin, Gray and Parker left today.  Parker was in tow to keep Austin preoccupied and they are all spending a couple of days in Hot Springs at an amusement/water park.  Jack, Jack aka Woody, Amanda and I will meet up with them in Little Rock on Wednesday and spend the rest of the week.  The surgery is Thursday morning.
 
It’s a scary thing to hand your child off to a doctor that you have never even met ( all the consulting is between his doctors here and the ones there).
    


Austin and his new dog MAX





My beautiful daughter-in-love Dana….I am a fan of two pair of glasses….for me it is reading and sunglasses. Dana just does not have her contacts in.

 





My Boy that loves his family with a love that is rare.  He speaks it daily.  He lives it daily.


 

Austin, very intent at Chucky Cheese!




AUSTIN and his BEST BUDDY, PARKER! We are counting on Parker to keep Austin's mind off the surgery the next few days.

 
 
                        
            THE FAMILY

Thanks in advance for your prayers. After Jacks stroke last October, the blog community blew me away.  

I went back and read all those comments and emails today.

Bloggers by the 100’s that checked in everyday..and I have only blogged for a two and half years.  I know people prayed.
 
At that time I had no idea that the stat counter existed but now that I can go back and read it, many of those first 7 or 8 days, I had over 500 hits each day.  And they could not have been because they were reading a fun
Disney post.  Forever I will be grateful to you.
 
Now I am asking you to pray for
My Boys’ Boy.

Please pray that the surgery has no complications, fixes the problem, that Austin does not experience any fear this week and that Dana and Greg have a peace…that same peace we experienced that hard week in October.
Holiday posts coming soon....plus a guest poster...