My very longest and dearest friend, Sarah, and I spent Saturday morning together celebrating her birthday. We met at the Antique Mall and enjoyed the next 2 hours roaming in and out of antique booths. We had so much fun! I found an antique book called "The King's Daughters" for one of my teenage daughters for Christmas. It has a red embossed cloth cover and was only $2.00. I have learned to love books from my Mom who has passed that love down to me! I was happy as a little lark and would have walked around that day as if on a cloud just from that little 'book' find. But..... I happened to spy a real blue fox fur stole in one booth. Of course, I had to try it on! And of course, the color was perfect for me! And the price was perfect, too! I bought it! I was having so much fun that it felt like MY birthday! Sarah found a little boy's leather belt with a brass 'bull' buckle. She was happy to find that for one of her boys for Christmas. I wanted to find some vintage buttons for my sewing and Linda was so very helpful. She showed me 2 booths with fun, pretty buttons and I so enjoyed sifting through all of the packages. I ended up going home with 3 nice little packages of pretty buttons. It really was feeling like my birthday! I hope Sarah was having as much fun as I was! She said she was. I think she was happy just to see me having so much fun! So then Sarah and I spotted a vintage feather boa wreath that we thought was so sweet. I said "I shoud just make that myself," which is what I usually say but have learned that I do not always get the darn thing made! So as we are wandering, Sarah spies a white vintage feather boa in another booth. So I add that to my growing pile. (I could get 2 wreaths made out of that 1 boa!) We turn the corner and we spy this gorgeous oil painting in a gorgeaus antique frame and I absolutely fell in love with it! I would love to hang this beautiful painting above my fireplace! Of course, it is priced way beyond my budget at this time, but I could not stop thinking about this painting! It reminds me of one of my favorite poems that I posted earlier, 'The Lamb." It is called "The Little Shepherdess" and the original painting was done by Johann Baptist Hofner in 1866. (I went home and did a little research!) At one time it was auctioned at Christie's of London, so I had to check out their site, too! I have learned to appreciate art as a homeschooling mom and expose it to my children through books and art calendars, but now I really want some on my wall! Sarah is actually quite knowledgeable about oil paintings. She knew right away that the painting in the antique mall was not the original but was a copy of the original painted by someone else. I was so impressed! So now, I am enjoying educating myself on fine art! I don't really need the original as it is just but a dream. I would be very happy with a fake that looked real! This is so far my favorite painting: This is a picture of the original painting that I found on the internet. The reason I love it is because, to me, it reflects God's love for His children and I love children and I love lambs and I love nature and I LOVE this painting! Sarah and I had a good day! It really felt like MY birthday!