The 2008 Olympics have begun!

The Opening Ceremonies did not disappoint last night. The show was world class and China took this opportunity to show the world their greatest resource is their people. From the 2008 precision drummers who were in complete unision to the little girl flying the kite to the atheletes of the world marching in so full of pride to the lighting of the Olympic Cauldron- breathtaking beyond belief! The above pictures show the lighting!
Two websites to visit as you enjoy the world coming together to cheer- the offical website for the games : http://en.beijing2008.cn/ where you can see all the pictures of the Opening Ceremonies. You can also show our team how proud we are of them and cheer them on! http://www.americascheer.com/

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Mothers and Daughters

I’ve decided that it doesn’t matter how old you are or how old your child is, you’ll still fight over clothes and hair. My darling daughter Katie ( Katherine Willard Flanagan) is 27 1/2 years old. She literally travels the world on her own ( just returned from 4 weeks of travel to Viet Nam), is an incredibly responsible young adult working for a great organization called the Leadership Academy in Brevard, NC working with high school kids. Katie is about as good a child as you can imagine. I’m very , very lucky to have her as my daughter. But we’re still mother and child- no matter what our age!

Katie was home this past week from her travels before she heads back to her school this week. There was only one thing I wanted to accomplish while she was here- to have our pictures taken professionally by the absolutely amazing photographer, Christine Hall. This is something I never did with Katie growing up, I have tons of pictures of her that I took with my little disposable Kodak camera, but never by a professional . The past few years I’ve seen in various homes of young famlies here on Tybee truly spectacular professional photos of their families. I don’t yearn for much in life ( having pretty much everything I want and need) but pictures of a happy family are something I did envy. You saw Christine’s work with the picture of Danny the cupcake eating dog titled Pure Bliss. You’ve hopefully read my earlier blogs and if you’ve been to her website, you’ve seen the family, wedding and portrait work she does. She finds a way to capture the essence of your family or whoever she’s taking a picture of…. She’s also Paula Deen’s family photographer of choice and there is one picture of Paula with her grandson , Jack that is just so precious on her website.

So… Katie agreed, but wasn’t very excited about the pictures, but said yes because she’s a good daughter. And the preparation began- I wanted Katie to be herself, but also wanted our outfits to not clash.. Katie is a true bohemian and the first outfit didn’t work. Not a happy camper. Then we had the hair “discussion”. She had taken these gorgeous antique hair clips and twisted her hair in the clips. Would have been great for a night out, but not for a picture with her middle aged mom. So we “discussed and discussed” the hair and she took out the hair clips making her feelings known very strongly. I told you- doesn’t matter the age, you and your mom are still going to fight about what you’re wearing, how your hair looks and yes, even the make up!

We loaded up the dogs and drove down to the location for the shoot. We are in the south, in the dead middle of summer and 100% humidity… You figure it out. Hot and sweaty. Christine was professinal, wonderful and took some amazing pictures! Even Katie agreed it was a very fun experience . Christine has a blog on her website and blogged about us on her Monday August 4th blog. You can see some of the pictures and see more of her photography go to http://www.christinehallphotography.com/ and then go to blog. The above picture is one of the pictures she took. Isn’t this a gorgeous picture of Katie?
Thank you Christine for EVERYTHING! We can’t wait to see all the rest of the pictures from the shot. And to any of you looking for a memory to last forever, contact Christine for your own pictures!

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Thursday on the Island

A typical day on our little coastal sea island:

  • Squirty the loggerhead sea turtle was released on the beach with hundreds of people cheering him on. Squirty said goodbye to the land and hello to the sea and went right to the ocean and swam off to enjoy the rest of his life as the wild sea creature that he is…. The Burton 4H Center will be receiving another baby turtle in the near future to raise and help educate the 100’s of children who attend the camp. We’ll be posting pictures of the release soon on this blog.
  • Fiddler Crabs at Fiddler on the Creek Cottage! I needed to stop by the cottage and went out to the dock and deck to admire the incredible beauty of the salt marsh. There all over the deck flooring were Fiddler Crabs! It was low tide and the little guys were all over the marsh mud and crawled up the dock. So much fun to see!
  • Storm clouds- summer storms are here, big black clouds rolling in and much needed rain fell on the island. Hot, hot, hot all week, the temputure hit 100 and with the heat index, over 105…..
  • Met with some of our exceptional City of Tybee team- we’re working on the grand opening for the Tybee Bark Parks ( new names for our dog parks) and Bryan and Chantell shared with me some of the other very exciting plans for the City….. I will DEFINETLY be sharing the updates with everyone soon as more details are firmed up. Be assured that the city officals are working hard to make this community the best she can be!
  • Helped out at Sea Side Sisters Coastal Cottage shop today. The shop looks better then ever and is still filled with wonderful beachy treats for yourself or your home.
  • And- countdown to the Summer Olympics! Tommorrow night is the opening ceremony! One of the true high lights of my life was attending with my family the Opening Ceremony of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. We had nose bled seats but it truly did not matter. I’ll never forget that evening as long as I live!
  • See everyone tommorrow at Douglas unveiling of Rhapel the Magnificient Sea Turtle!

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Ralphael the Magnificent Flying Turtle Un Veiling

One of our most unique artists on the island, Ralph Douglas Jones, is hard at work on his newest creation, a life size sea turtle . Ralphael the Magnificent is made of antique cooper pieces from roofs, downspouts and other found pieces of cooper material. Douglas is very well known in art circles for creating art from anything he can find. He’s best know for his fish- fish made from old muscial instruments, water skies, pieces of board- you name it!
His wonderful open air gallery is located right beside SeaSide Sisters Coastal Cottage shop on Highway 80 when you first come on the island.

The un veiling and welcome to the world party for Ralphael will be held Friday August 8th, 2008 from 5PM- 8PM at his Gallery. The actual un veiling will be at 6PM. Popcycles will be served! You’ll be home in time for the Opening Ceremonies for the Summer Olympics which starts right at 8PM on NBC. ( 08-08-2008 this was intentional, in the Chinese Cultural, the number 8 is a very lucky number!)

Check back with us- we’ll have pictures of Ralphael on the blog very soon! http://www.fisharttybee.com/ or call Douglas @ 912 713 8647 for more details.

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