Andre Chreky, the salon spa

Happy belated Thanksgiving 🦃! It was a busy day for us with a trip to Mount Olivet cemetery in DC followed by a hike near our home in Great Falls Park, Virginia, with our dogs, Pinto and Tucker,🐕‍🦺🐾, and then a yummy meal 🥘 with Andre‘s brother, Daniel, his fabulous wife, Paula, and their amazing sons, cousins, and extended family. We are grateful for all that we have and wish everyone a happy holiday season ❤️!

Amazing visit from this feathered friend 🦅! Happy Wednesday 😊!

Oh, hello there 🐺! Spotted this morning in the front yard and a little too close for comfort 😳!!!

Pumpkins for sale 🎃!

Morning mist…

Today’s catch 🦀🦀🦀!!!

Pit stop 🛑 between Fez and Marrakesh! Isn’t it amazing how the seagull blends with the background?

We’ve known the fabulous Cassidy family for 25+ years! We were so honored to celebrate Corinne‘s wedding👰🏻‍♀️🤵🏻 in Olney, MD today. Congratulations Corinne and Chris 🎉🎉🎉! We wish you a lifetime of happiness ❤️!!!

The famous tree climbing goats of Morocco 🇲🇦🐐!!! How many can you count?

Taxi anyone 🐪?

Meet Lillian‘s adorable cat, Harry! Today is the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals, and we are giving thanks that she is still alive. Harry went missing a week ago and was gone for five days near Great Falls Park. Our amazing neighbor, Helen, spotted her Friday morning and after an hour of chasing her in the woods, we were finally able to catch her. But the adventure continued and Harry had to be rushed to the Hope Center Saturday night because of a blockage in her intestine. We’re so grateful to the doctors and techs who took amazing care of her and she is home safe and sound tonight 🙏🐱😇!!!

What a good looking group 📸! Look at those smiles 😊😊😊!!! This is Andre‘s first vacation in 5+ years! He and his brother, Daniel, three nephews, and two grand nephews just landed ✈️ in Morocco 🇲🇦 to visit his older brother, Moise, in Fes and nephew, Dov, in Marrakech!

Podcasts are new territory for us but we are definitely hooked! We just discovered Anderson Cooper’s “All There Is” podcast and it is a must listen! Anderson explores loss and grief through his own experiences but also through others like Stephen Colbert. One episode is released each week and today’s is titled Sadness Isn’t an Enemy. Check out https://www.cnn.com/audio/podcasts/all-there-is-with-anderson-cooper

Martha Stewart was asked by Andy Cohen, “What is your failsafe host gift to bring to a party?“ Martha replied, “A dozen eggs from my own chicken coop!“ The eggs our hens lay are organic and delicious 🥚😋!

Evening view 🌅

Fall 🍁🍂has officially arrived and our good friend, Betsy Fisher, is hosting a pop-up sale 🏷 this weekend. It starts today 🗓 and runs through Sunday at The Woman’s Club of Chevy Chase. You’ll be able to shop 🛍 for fabulous fall fashions and accessories and meet Betsy and the designers in person 💃🏻!

And she’s off ✈️! We just dropped Lillian and her amazing pooch Pip 🐶 at the airport. She starts her second tour in Zimbabwe 🇿🇼 as a foreign service officer. Our hearts are full because we were able to spend six weeks with her ❤️. We are counting the days for her marathon in Valencia on December 4!

We’re so grateful 🙏 to our wonderful friend, Julie, who reminded us that the new Bivalent Booster is available 💉! We were able to get same-day appointments today at our local Safeway 🛒 in Virginia. We had no reaction and it took less than five minutes ⏰. We love ❤️ this ad from Governor Hogan!

Lillian managed to sneak in a quick trip ✈️ to Zion National Park and the Grand Canyon while she was home 🏡. She’s training for the Valencia Marathon on December 4th 🏃🏻‍♀️🇪🇸!

It’s and we are remembering our fabulous annual fundraising event Salon-A-Thon 💇‍♀️💇🏻. It was our second year hosting the event in 2000 and we raised over $50,000 in 24 hours for Children’s Hospital 🏥❤️! It was the largest gift to Bob Levey’s Washington Post Children’s Hospital campaign!

We moved the contents 📦 of my mother’s storage unit from Pennsylvania to Virginia and discovered this wedding photo 📷. I remember her telling me that she bought her dress from Priscilla of Boston and how much she loved it 👰🏻‍♀️! My father looks so handsome in his uniform! We miss them both and wish they were still here ❤️🙏.

We spent July and August planting a pollinator garden🏡 and filled it with butterfly bushes (pugster blue), salvia (black and bloom), coneflowers (pow wow wild berry), and hardy geranium (rozanne). We had lots of bees🐝 and butterflies🦋 but never expected goldfinches! Did you know that goldfinches🦜represent good luck🍀, joy❤️, and the rewards that kindness and hard work bring!

Sunday is grocery shopping day 🛒 and we’re so happy 😀 that Lidl has expanded! Trader Joe’s is still #1 in our book but Lidl is definitely running a close second. The bakery is the bomb and we’re obsessed with the French baguettes 🥖🇫🇷, chocolate croissants 🥐 and Portugese egg custard tarts 🥮!!!

Lunchtime🍴!!! We love ordering the salmon teriyaki bento box 🍱 at Izumi Sushi in Great Falls!

My mother always said, “A simple life is a happy life.“ She definitely got it right!

We get so much inspiration ✨ from nature and love 💕 when our crape myrtle tree 🌳 is in bloom.

It’s🌟family date night🌟and we just made our first visit to the amazing Jeni’s ice cream store🍦in the Boro@Tyson’s Corner! All we can say is WOWZA🤩🔥🙌!!!

Success🎉🎉🎉!!!! Our first attempt at fig jam was a big win🫙🏆. Happy Labor Day 🇺🇸!

The fig trees are so happy this summer👨‍🌾🌳! Tomorrow we’re making fig jam… stay tuned!

The U.S. Open 🇺🇸is in full swing and we are cheering 📣 for Serena and Venus Williams! We can’t believe that it was back in 1999 that Chris Evert visited the salon and helped Isabel with her PE assignment 🏫🎾🙏!