Hi everyone,
I hope you had a wonderful weekend… hopefully warmer than ours was. It was bitter cold around here the last few days and it’s supposed to get down to 18 degrees tonight and tomorrow’s high is only supposed to be 24! BBRRRR!
A very big thank you to the winner of Molly’s dress tonight! I LOVE happy customers and I think she will be! :o)
Today I’m going to show you some pictures from Sissy, who just got back from a trip to Helen, Georgia! She and her hubby have been going there for many years and it looks like a really fun place to visit! (I’m not sure I got all the pictures in the right order, Sissy, but I hope I did!)
Hi, Jeanne,
Helen is a replica of an Alpine Village. There has even been a Hallmark movie made in Helen.
In 1988, before we were together, Peyton bought a time share in Helen at a place called Loreley for the first Friday in January. The place is lovely. We walked in with no steps to a kitchen and a living room with a balcony looking over the Chattahoochee River. Also, we look out for places to play and have cooking parties. In the summer they have a place for slides into the water and floating down the river in tubes. There is a lot to do all the time, and the town has many shops, most having goods with Alpine or German kinds of things, and many of the restaurants have German food, as well as other places to eat. Photo of Helen as you approach.
They decorate everywhere for Christmas and leave the decor out until the end of January. Here are some at night and in daytime, here are a LOT more..
We loved going to the indoor pool for our exercise and there is an outdoor pool as well for warmer times.
Here is the front of our place and some inside… Sometimes we have snow. We put a large cardboard on the balcony table every year and put food out for the birds. We love watching them. Here are a few outdoor photos of some of the other Loreley places, they have a lot of different sizes. Also showing the outdoor pool.
There are so many great places there, other towns nearby with shops and many hand made things.
I hope Y’all enjoy this and some of you may decide to go.
What a really fun place to visit, Sissy! I can see why you’d want to go back again and again. It looks so peaceful and easy going. I might have to do a little investigating and see if I can’t find out which Hallmark movie was made there and then watch it!
Well, I couldn’t resist looking up what movie was made there in Helen GA, and I found this link, you might want to take a peek at…
Thank you Sissy and Peyton for your pictures. Loved the birdie one!
See you tomorrow,
Blessings, Jeanne
Oh, how lovely to see pictures of Helen, GA! I was there once, many years ago (late 1990s, I think), when I visited my girlfriend Liz, who lived just outside of Atlanta at the time. She showed me around some; of course, the first place we went was Babyland General Hospital, home of the Cabbage Patch Kids! They have since built a new Babyland, but I haven’t been back to Georgia since (and Liz and her husband live back in the Seattle area now). Anyway, one of the other places Liz took me was to Helen, and it was so lovely there! We had a great time. Of course, it was summer, so no Christmas decorations then.
Nice to see a picture of you in that lovely shell-shaped pool, Sissy, and is that Peyton outside your time-share? I think I recognize him from that one time we met, years ago!
I always wondered, when you mentioned putting a large cardboard out for the bird seed, why–but then I saw the picture, and of course you’d have to do something like that, since the table has a mesh top! Smart thinking! And what a beautiful cardinal you caught, having a snack there! We don’t get cardinals out here at all, and I miss that.
Thanks so much for sharing pictures!
Great to know that you went to Helen with your friend, Charlotte!
Yes that is Peyton, it was an older picture, that is why he has on a mask, that year there was Covid and we only went out to eat once the whole time. Years ago we went one week in January and one in the Spring. It is really lovely in the Spring. We never went in summer, too crowded for us.
Oh, Sissy, I LOVE your pictures! Helen is one place where I would want to go in a heartbeat, since I am mostly German, but will never make it to Germany at the rate I am going! This would be a good alternative, and really not so far away! I absolutely love the German architecture of the town, and your timeshare is adorable! So much better than the plain, square box type places you see so much now. Your fireplace looks so inviting!
The Christmas lights are just beautiful, and I think the second picture looks exactly like what a town square in Germany must look like! What beautiful surroundings too, and I can see why you and Peyton love it there! Is that a creek that runs through the town? Just lovely!
Your pools look very nice and inviting, and I think you are a brave one to wear a swimsuit! I would not be caught dead in one now, and you even got photographed in one! You are one brave lady!
I completely understand putting a piece of cardboard out to throw birdseed on, because we do the same thing on our deck. Bird feeders are so much trouble, and always need filling, especially when the weather is bad or snowy! Love the birds there, and even the squirrel, although those little burglars get to the birdseed before the birds many times!
I looked up the attachment that Jeanne included and hur pictures mirror the ones they show! I am going to try to find that movie, if only to see more of the town! Thank you so much for showing us your little piece of Heaven!
Wow, Linda, I just looked up the movie that Jeanne found and what a lot of more photos of Helen! So glad she added that!
The photo of the squirrel I put there but you didn’t show me out there with the broom scaring him away, LOL!
Last year we had a man staying below us in another house. I didn’t know he was there and sitting out side below. He began yelling at me, ” I have bird seed in my coffee “. It was our last day so I had to stop putting out seed a day early. He didn’t see or hear me laughing!
As for the wearing a swim suit I have been wearing them all my life. I know that my body is not lovely at my age, but at the YMCA there are a lot of sizes, and many of them are much heavier that I am. The Helen indoor pool is either just us there or a few kids and they could care less how we look.
I do hope you can get to Helen. If you look it up on line you can find out a lot about it and wear to stay.
Awwww, Sissy, thank you for sharing these pictures. Now I know hubbs and I will love to visit Helen, hopefully next November. It is beautiful. I love your condo area too with the indoor pool. Okay, now I truly understand your sadness about ending this yearly adventure.
You can just think often those deep friendships and happy days.
Speaking of cold, it has been COLD here. Today is the first day it is going up to 40º and it is going to be sunny. It was very cloudy and so cold the past few days, just brrrrr. My daughter in Richmond had sleet and rain all day yesterday.
Yesterday hubbs and I went to the old house and I packed up a lot of glass ware and crystal d’arc glasses to give to Blue Ridge Hospice. I also have a lot of picture frames and other household things.
We are almost done but really, this is the time to move it and get this beast on the market 😁😁
I am so happy for the buyer of your dress, Jeanne, this one is a happy cutie for sure.
I hope all of you have a happy fun day.
Jeanne, thank you for showing my photos and especially adding the pictures of the movie. That added a so many more photos!
We are having to go to Savannah to my back pain doc this afternoon. I have to get another shot on Friday, but I needed to ask him if it was for the the pinched nerve shot for which I don’t need one.. He did a good job on that already.
I hope some of you will get to Helen. If you plan to go let me know. I can tell you some things you shouldn’t miss.
Dear Sissy, your photos are lovely! Thank you for sharing them. I am a big “armchair” traveler and I really enjoy seeing other folks’ photos.
I can imagine sitting by the fireplace, in the photo, and sipping on a cup of tea.
First, a big congrats to Jeanne and Molly on a great sale. Wow!
What a wonderful way to start the day with Sissy’s fun pics of Helen. Seeing the birds was a treat as well since we don’t have Cardinals here in CA. Glad that they discovered the feed. Sorry to hear about the guy below getting some seeds in his coffee. Woops! 🙂 Looks like a lot of fun activities to do and shopping too. Thanks for sharing the fun pics Sissy and Jeanne.
I was finally able to take off one fleece jacket yesterday as it has warmed up nicely. Only in the high 50’s, I think, but seeing people running around in their shorts at Costco, made me laugh. It’s been so nice to have some sun. It’s great sitting out on the deck in the sun and warming up.
Keep warm Jeanne, as that is a really cold temp that you are experiencing. Not fun at all.
I forgot! It’s National Popcorn Day today! Hope you can enjoy! 🙂
And another lapse on my part. There are lots of things that can be done around here on the day of service for Martin Luther King. I hope everyone finds something helpful to do today.
Thank you, Sissy, for sharing the photos of your time spent in Georgia! If I could travel, that would be a place in the U.S., I would want to see in person! And I may have seen that particular movie, but plan to look for it again now that I know it was filmed there.
What lovely pictures. I wish we were still doing road trips because this place would be on my way to my sister who spends her winters in Florida. The movie that was filmed there was a Lifetime movie called “A Taste of Christmas”. I have always loved the Hallmark and Lifetime holiday movies but David never seemed to want to see them. This year I can’t get him to watch anything else even though the holidays are over. We have a lot of catching up to do. They are all great movies and I’ll have to do a search and see if “A Taste of Christmas” is still available to watch.
Congratulations on another successful auction. It was a lovely ensemble.
Thank you for showing the lovely pictures, Sissy. It certainly looks like a charming town. I’m glad you got to enjoy many years there.
Well, that is interesting. The movie I found that was filmed there was “Christmas Love Letter” so there must have been two!
Very cold in the mid teens and windy here. A movie, kitties, and popcorn sound like a good choice for this evening.
Dear Jeanne and my Sofa Sisters, in the spirit of friendship, I wish you all a happy Martin Luther King Day!
And the same to you!
Lovely spot for a bit of a visit! And looks like a few birds look forward to visits too😊
What a very pretty town, Sissy. It was lovely to see your photos.
Jeanne we had 18 yesterday too but it was Celsius not Fahrenheit lol. Yesterday and today are an oasis of sun between the rain. The rain is causing devastating floods up north and more to come. Gone are the days of endless sunshine in Jan and Feb, now the North seems to get flooding every January. We are just getting the rain which is frustrating but better than floods! We managed to get the washing dry yesterday which was a relief after nearly a week and we don’t have a drier. Even if we could afford one we have nowhere to put it.
Jeanne did you get the photos I sent of Christmas day?
Have a lovely day everyone
I’m kind of late in answering with my comment, but I so enjoyed seeing Sissy‘s pictures of Helen. I honestly have never heard of this town and it sounds delightful and like a nice place to go visit or even live there. thank you for sending Jeannie the pictures to share with us.
I recently had my wrist surgery, so I am speaking versus tapping the screen. either way I make too many mistakes, but I just wanted to let Sissy know I enjoyed her pictures.
And my wrist is doing better, but In between taking pain medication, it’s pretty painful. Not to mention that it’s my right hand that I write with and it’s difficult to do a lot of things on my own. My husband has been a big help to me in all sorts of things that I’m not able to do without this right arm.
And I agree with Joy for Martin Luther Day- It’s a good time to do something nice for someone else.
Well, I’m very glad that you had successful wrist surgery. Except for the pain. Yikes, I hope it heals quickly and you can get back to using your hand to type and write soon. Be thinking of you and get well soon.
Hi everyone,
After I saw the pictures of Helen Georgia, I had to find the movie “A Taste of Christmas “and watch it… I did and it was very sweet… then I kept the TV on and saw another Christmas movie coming on…”Christmas Love Letter” and just a little bit into the movie they were zooming on the main street in the town they were coming into. It had the same road sign as in the other movie, “Alpine Helen”, so I looked up this movie and found it, too, was made in Helen, Georgia. A Taste of Christmas was made in 2020 and Christmas Love Letter was made in 2019… I guess back to back movies in Sissy’s favorite small town.
Now I have to finish watching this one.
Bye, Jeanne
Hi Jeanne, congrats on the auction! Sissy thanks for sharing your photos of Helen. I can certainly see why you loved going there. What a fun and special place it is. Also, congratulations on winning Anne’s pretty sweater, I know your Meadow girl will love wearing it!
It’s a winter wonder land here! yikes Lockport schools are already closed for Tuesday… I remember waking up early (5am) on snowy days to turn on my am radio, praying when they read the school closings my school was amongst them. Ohh those were the days! LOL
I’m hoping the snow doesn’t fly after Thursday because this is estate sale weekend. If you’re curious here is the advertisement from Early bird estate sales for my parents’ things… I was gob smacked at the amount for stuff! yikes I guess when you empty all the closets and cabinets and put it all out there it’s a bit overwhelming!
https://www.estatesales.net/NY/Grand-Island/14072/4780053
they lived on Grand Island. I you click on the ad it opens up to lots of photos.
Hugs
Ingrid