From Ampa with Love

Today is Daddy-O’s birthday and we are wishing him a wonderful day!  I want to take a minute to share two stories with y’all.

As I’ve written about ad nauseam, it’s been a rough couple of weeks around here (but that’s turned around).   Well, Mother was scheduled to return to Savannah this Tuesday evening (after one failed attempt to leave her pitiful first born.)  Honey was going to drive her half-way to Savannah, meeting up with Daddy-O at some point.  Late Tuesday afternoon we were sitting in the kitchen waiting on the call from Honey that he was on his way home from work to retrieve her when none other than Daddy-O himself walks through the door.  I was completely floored, thrilled and overwhelmed with love.  He just needed to see me with his own two eyes.  They stayed the night, took me to breakfast the next morning and then headed home.  And that, my friends, is just one example of what a fine man my father is.  I just must be the luckiest gal in the world.  <3

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Now, my second Daddy-O story started last year when Honey and I were in Savannah for my reunion.  I found myself in Daddy-O’s closet for the first time in forever.  Hmmm….  at any rate, until that moment I had totally forgotten about his collection of Disney cross stitch.  He had sorcerer Mickey, Donald and more, all made by his own two hands.  I have vivid memories of him sitting in his chair at night working on a cross stitch as a child.  At one point he hand made all of the ornaments for our Christmas tree.  He also did the Tech Tower for me when I went to college and then the ZTA sorority crest when I pledged.  These are treasures I will always love.  I mentioned seeing the Disney collection to Daddy-O on my return and since then he’s been working on patterns for each of his Grands.  (Do y’all see the photo bomber?)

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He made each of them their favorite Disney character.  Cookie and CeeCee got Mickey, John got Donald, and Bird choose Pluto.

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The littles loved them *almost* as much as I did.  Such a sweet, sweet treasure!  These patterns are nearly as old as I am, otherwise I would share the source.

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We got right to work adding John’s Donald to his gallery wall. {Tour the room here}

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I love how it fits right in among other precious family photos, quotes and odds and ends.

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Cookie’s gallery wall is pretty much maxed out, so his cross stitch was placed on his bedside table.  Not that he’s ever spent a night sleeping in here :-)  {Tour the room here}

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I love this sweet little table that tells a story about Whit.  He loves Mickey, Star Wars, books and his brother.

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I love decorating our home with things like these more than anything I could ever find in a store, catalog or designer show house.  It’s what makes a house a home.  OUR home.

Thank you, Daddy-O, for giving the boys something they will surely have forever!  We hope you have an amazing birthday and are so glad we got to hug your neck this week!!!
xoxo

Brother’s Room  |  Big Boy Room

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13 thoughts on “From Ampa with Love

  1. Will you be putting your RULES FOR SOUTHERN GENTLEMEN on your etsy page? Side note… I live in Decatur. Last night at our schools curriculum night we were very crowded so I took a seat on the floor all the while thinking to myself “where are the southern gentlemen”? Not one man offered a seat to us moms! Rude!

  2. Aren’t Daddy’s wonderful??!!! My daughter recently experienced her first heartbreak and my daddy promptly asked her to go to town with him (we live way out in the country). She went and came home with a bouquet of flowers, her favorite ice cream and a loaf of French bread, which happens to be her absolute favorite. I cried, and told him he was my hero. Such a small gesture really made my daughter feel so much better, and know that all was not lost and everything would soon be right with her world.
    Happy, Happy Birthday Daddy-o!!!

  3. Your dad sounds like a peach of a guy! You are indeed a lucky girl.

    I am a Zeta also (Gamma Iota/Univ of Florida), and would love to do a xstitch crest for my college roomate. This year is the 45th anniversary of our initiation, and we attended our sorority reunion this summer, rooming together for the first time in decades (yes, we are old, but young at heart). Anyway, I’m off to try and find a pattern for the Zeta crest – thanks for a great idea.

  4. Amanda, you are certainly one lucky girl to have such a sweet father! I adore the cross stitched Disney characters. I am with you about having your home filled with things that tell the story of your family. You certainly can’t buy that from a catalog. We had the interior of our home painted recently, and I am bound and determined to only hang family treasures or parts of our story back on the walls. It will be a work in progress for the rest of our lives! Blessings, Angela

  5. Happy Birthday to your sweet Dad, and I’m very impressed with his cross stitching skills. I go in waves of cross stitching and seeing this post makes me want to start a project. It’s relaxing, until you miss a square or an entire line and then it’s not so relaxing. What wonderful pieces of art for your children to have. Hope you’re feeling better; emergency surgery is NO fun! Have a wonderful weekend.

  6. Wishing you all the best on your birthday, Daddy-O! You are truly the kind of daddy and grandfather every child deserves. I’m so glad that my daughters and granddaughter have an amazing Dad and Grandbig much like you in their lives. Now, to teach him how to cross stitch!!

    Amanda, do you think your father minds that we all refer to him as Daddy-O?

  7. Your Daddy-O stories are some of my favorite posts on your blog. As a long-time cross-stitcher myself, this one endeared me immediately. Imagine what a wonderful world we would live in if everyone had a father like yours.

  8. Thank you so much for the giveaway; I am so excited! An email to you is on the way.
    What a sweet Daddy! I remember cross-stitching my own sorority crest for my Tri Sigma little sister quite a few years ago!

  9. “I love decorating our home with things like these more than anything I could ever find in a store, catalog or designer show house. It’s what makes a house a home. OUR home.”

    This is what makes your home beautiful. What treasures from Ampa!

    Happy Birthday Daddy-O!!

  10. such a sweet post! I’m very lucky I live 3 doors (or about a city block since we live in the country) from my parents.

    Thanks so much for hosting the give away! I’m so excited I’m a winner!

  11. This brought tears to my eyes! I am also lucky to have a Dad that is such a sweetheart. The first story sounds just like something he would do.

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