Coming in like a lion..

And it's not even March yet! These photos are from the tornado that touched down last Wednesday about 9 miles from my house. There were 10 reported tornadoes that touched down in Georgia and one person died. So I don't mess around when they say "Tornado Warning for Oglethorpe County" - this also has to do with the fact that I lived through a tornado in 1994 in Floyd County (where I grew up). Debbie (my pupper) and I were in the hall closet with our bike helmets on and yes we did look ridiculous ;). Dan was at a convention in Columbus, GA which is about 3 hours away so we were on our own.

I remember growing up and my mom pulling us out of bed and making us get in the hall with a mattress over our heads and sitting in the hallway at school with our heads tucked between our legs. Tornado warnings were a regular occurrence every spring and they always terrified me. It's one of the reasons I am now obsessed with the weather.

It really just broke my heart to see these huge, old trees lying on the ground. The house above had a backyard full of downed, large pecan and oak trees. They also had a glass sun porch that was shattered to bits and were missing quite a few shingles from their roof. I'm certain they feel lucky that their house is still standing. There was also some sort of shed in their backyard that didn't fair nearly as well.

This poor tree was HUGE. If I had to guess I would have said it was well over 200 years old and sadly it didn't make it through a direct hit from an F1 twister. There was also an F5 (the strongest recording on the fujita scale with winds up to 318 mph) tornado that briefly touched down in the next county over and completely demolished a home. Luckily they had a storm shelter under ground so the entire family survived. Scary stuff!

Get your bike helmets on folks and hang on - spring is on the way!

Inside Scoop

I've added a few new yummy stones to the little loft shop today including these absolutely gorgeous Peridot octagons! They are perfectly eye clean and sure to please!
And these smooth, earthy Botswana Agate briolettes! Love these!

I may also add a few other new goodies including some stunning Chrome Diopside briolettes and Tsavorite Garnet smooth briolettes. I also have some rather lovely Peridot marquises too.. I went on a green shopping spree! I haven't quite made up mind though whether I want to share those or just be greedy and keep them all! ;)

You may have also noticed I've been doing a bit of remodeling in my shops. I've been re-working a few photos and cleaning up my shop announcement and sections. Just trying to tidy up a bit for spring!

Hope your Wednesday finds you well! =)

Just because..

These are the cutest people ever and I could squish them all to bits so I had to share!

This is Dan, Debbie and Squiggs (aka Jackson) basking in the sunlight this past Sunday morning and I caught them in just the right moment when Debbie was laying a big, wet kiss right on Squiggs' face!

Dan is probably going to kill me for posting this on my blog since he has a bit of bed head and is in his snowman jammies but how could I not share this?! They're all so darn cute and I'm a lucky gal to be surrounded by all this adorableness (I think I just made up that word ;)!

Until next time... =)

Edgar says...

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Hope everyone has a weekend filled with love with those you care about! =)