A little change...

 

I think this sign should be in my driveway. Since we moved in the new place in October I have been continually moving things around, rearranging decor, shifting this or that from here to there. Another change took place this weekend.

 

You will remember that my friend Phyllis issued a Pinterest Challenge and I couldn't decide what to do. I finally realized it wasn't about a BIG project or concept. It was simply about selecting an idea and following through. So I did. I keep seeing these adorable shelves with color themes on them. This was my inspiration for my project.

 

 

I was sitting at my desk thinking I would love to do a shelf with some pinks and blues. My office has blue curtains and I have tons of pink and blue flowered tea sets in my office. I happened to glance over and realize that I already had white shelves in there.

 

 

I haven't been happy with all the pictures on it. They are too squished together and the shelf is kind of high over my printer so I couldn't really see them good. I wanted to move the pictures to my big bookcases where they would be easier to see. So I took everything off and moved the top shelf down closer to the bottom shelf.

 

Then I went around the house and collected some blue and pink items that could be moved from where they were. I put everything on the shelves and here was the end result.

 

Major difference. I love it and it didn't cause my one single penny. I had everything right here in the house. Thanks Phyllis. I passed my first challenge.

 

But as I was trying to find what Pinterest I wanted to recreate, I remembered I had already done one. I had found this on Pinterest a couple of weeks ago.

 

I thought it was a great idea for my Thirty One portable office. So I ran out to Staples and bought a black plastic hanging file organizer with folders for $12.00 and came home and picked out which Organizing Utility tote I wanted to be my portable office. I put the black tray in it, made my files and put pens and door prize slips in the front pockets and my calculator in a side pocket and this was the end result. I love it.

My next challenge is going to be to redo the kitchen table. Right now, it has it's "winter clothes" still on. I'm scouting around for ideas on changing it for spring. Hope to get that accomplished this week.

 

 

Yours, mine, ours

But now, thus says the LORD, who created you, O Jacob, And He who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; You are Mine - Isaiah 43:1-3

There are times when I love the word MY. Times when I am at rock bottom and MY God shows up to pull me through. MY Lord comes and moves the mountains. MY Saviour eases my pain and brings me peace. MY Father shows me mercy and grace.

We each have our own personal relationship with God. We each know how we feel about Him. We know He loves us and we know He is there for us. And there are times, when we feel like He is the only one we can turn to; the only one who understands.

And I believe it is okay to have those MY moments with the Lord. But I also feel like we should understand that He also belongs to others. We should witness and let others know what He is doing in our lives. We should be willing to share the stories of His miracles, His grace, His mercy.

So even though there are times where I want Him to stop what He is doing and wrap His arms around me and hold me tight, I understand that He is not just mine. He is yours, He is mine, He is ours.

Pinterest Challenge

My dear friend Phyllis has issued a challenge to her Facebook friends. This is what her post said...

Pinterest - I know we all love it (for the most part) but here's a challenge. Why don't we all pick one of our pins for the month of March and complete the project! I think I will do this once a month in the hopes of actually doing more than just collecting the pins, anyone care to join me?

I really like that idea so I'm on board with it. I am going to select one of my favorite pins and try to accomplish it this month. Whether it is a new recipe, a craft project or a home decor project. Which brings me to another challenge...which pin do I pick?

I would love to do something like this....

But I would have to buy every single item, which could get rather expensive. So I thought maybe I could try something like this...

But I'm not sure where I would sit it once I did it. I also like this idea...

But that feels like a cop-out because there is not a lot of challenge in recreating it. And I don't know what to do with it once I did make it. So I looked long and hard to come up with ideas. I see so many things I like that it is hard to pick just one. Sometimes I see an idea in one that I want to combine with an idea in another and then add something I saw in yet another....you see my problem.

One thing that keeps inspiring me though is white shelves

Other things I like are unique items used as flower vases...

I also like seeing letters setting around on shelves...

And I like little signs...

And I like milk glass....

And depression glass...

So having said all that has set my mind a spinnin'. I have two white shelves in my office. I think I will head out to a few antique store today, a couple of thrift shops and AC Moore to see what I can come up with. This will be my challenge for the month. To take several ideas from Pinterest and combine them into one and create my own pin. I'll keep you posted on the process.

Things I remember from Junior High Literature...

It is the bane of our existence in Junior High School.

It is the very thing we are told to dread.

It is that moment when we hang our head in defeat.

It is known as Literature class.

No child should have to suffer from numerous recounting of Charles Dickens, William Shakespeare or Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Oh, but we must! We struggled with the great authors of Literature and we read the winding poetry of Elizabeth Barrett Browning and William Wadsworth Longfellow.

As we sat in class, we would not wonder, as Hemingway did, "For whom the bell tolls.." We would wonder WHEN would the bell toll releasing us from this nightmare.

What good does it do? What do we really bring away from such classes. I had Literature classes from 7th grade through 12 grade. I can sum up everything I learned in this one blog....

How do I love the, let me count the ways - Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Beware the Ides of March - William Shakespeare

Water, water everywhere and all the boards did shrink. Water, water everywhere; nor any drop to drink. - Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Quoth the raven evermore - Edgar Allen Poe

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. - Charles Dickens

Romeo, Romeo. Wherefore art thou Romeo? - William Shakespeare

Well, therein lies my literary knowledge.

In all reality, I did love my literature classes. I loved reading the old novels and the classics. Yes, I may not have learned as much from them as I did from Math or English, but with my love for reading, they did hold my interest. Far more than dissecting frogs or determining how atoms work.

Happy March 1st

March. It is finally here. Will it come in like a lion and go out like a lamb? Last night, we had some pretty rough winds and rains coming through. Of course, most of February was filled with rough winds so not sure if that bodes well for March or not.

Time to move out of winter and into spring. Time for rebirth. Time for spring cleaning. Yuck, not so sure I enjoy the spring cleaning part, but I do love spring. But I do love watching my trees come to life at the new place. I just wish I knew what they were. I first thought they were dogwoods. Then I started thinking they were Bradford Pear. Then a few days ago, the buds looked like they could be Redbuds. Then yesterday evening I was back to thinking dogwood and now this morning I leaning toward Bradford Pear. Help. I'm getting impatient to know what they are. We have three of them in a row and we moved in last fall when they were just dead leaves. The tips were really deep red/pink now some are white. Can't wait to see what we get.

I visited the website of bizarre holidays and observances to see what is going on for the month of March. Did you know that March is....

National Peanut Month (support your local peanut farmer and buy a bag of nuts)

National Kite Month (no that doesn't mean you can tell somebody to go fly a kite, it means we should literally all go fly our kites.)

Optimism Month (and I'm sure the pessimist among us are saying, "No it's not.")

Sing With Your Child Month (I like this one, all though my children are grown. Not so sure they want to sing with Mommy anymore.)

National Umbrella Month (I have a question. If April is so well know for showers, why is March Umbrella month?)

And my favorite. One I am sure all of my fellow bloggers will love NATIONAL CRAFT MONTH. Woo hoo!

This first week of the month is Write a letter of Appreciation week. Allow me to start.....

U

That is my letter of appreciation. I appreciate yoU. I appreciate you for being such faithful followers and for your wonderful supportive comments.

It is also Universal Human Beings Week. A week to be kind to our fellow humans. A time to show goodwill and friendship. Not a time to try to bring others down. A time to be supportive.

And March 1st is World Compliment Day so give somebody a heartfelt, sincere compliment today.

Today is also Pig Day. Not sure if you should love a pig, eat like a pig or enjoy some bacon, but whatever, just know that to day is Pig Day.

Today is also Plan a Solo Vacation Day. OOkkkkkkaaaaayyyyy. Not sure why you would want a solo vacation. I love to get away and there are times when I would love to just go off somewhere by myself. But when I get there, I would be lonely and would be thinking of all the wonderful things I would enjoy doing if I wasn't flying solo. Nope, I'll just plan a Duo Vacation Day for me and hubby.

World Book Day. Now here is a holiday I can get into. Do you think I should take the day off and read all day? Or should I head to the local book exchange and trade in some of my books to get some new ones?

But my absolute most favorite day in March is St. Patrick's Day, March 17th. That is the day I was blessed with my very first grandson, Christian Garret. That precious little baby will become a teenager this year. Where have the years gone.



A little Knit and Purl....

I was talking the other day about not being able to crochet. I was bemoaning the fact that I just can't learn. But you know what, since I CAN knit, why do I always worry about not crocheting. Why don't I just knit. I have tons and tons of beautiful yarn. Any time I would knit, I would just knit scarves. Not because I couldn't do anything else, it was just habit to do a scarf.

 

 

I learned to knit in Home Ec in the 8th or 9th grade. We had so many weeks of sewing, so many weeks of cooking and then we had so many weeks in a class that taught us how to embroidery and how to knit. At the end of each section we had a big "show". The sewing class modeled what they made, the cooking class made the food to serve (I still have the chocolate sheath cake recipe from that class and make it all the time.) And the craft class displayed their embroidery and knitting. I remember when it was my turn in the craft class, I embroidered pillow cases and I knitted a pair of Mary Jane house shoes, a lot like these only a different color.



Kinda hard to believe I can make a pair of house shoes, but I can't master making a little square dishcloth in crochet. But guess what I found? Patterns on how to knit a dishcloth. So I think I will breakout the old knitting needles and see what I can do.



I know my family is cracking up hysterically right now. What I failed to tell you is that when I knit, I am slow. Oh, I'm not slow on the actual knitting part, I can fly through that. I am slow on the getting started and sticking with it. I might knit an hour or two and put the project up and get back to it in a day month year or two. Yes that is right. It once took me almost 4 years to finish a scarf that was only about 6" wide and 3' long. What can I say, I am a procrastinator on knitting. But in my defense, I did do one for my grandson when he was only 2 and I got it finished in less than a week. Of course, he was 2 so it wasn't very big. Just saying I can finish something when I want to. I am almost afraid to tell my hubby I am going to start knitting again because he usually laughs so hard he loses his breath. But I really really want to make these dish cloths.



Once I have masterd the dishclothes, I'm going to tackle some potholders.



I'll keep you posted.

Going back in time.....

There are so many things that trigger memories of home and growing up in the 50's and 60's. Here are some things that always take me back in time.

We had an old formica table and chairs a lot like this one. Only the chairs had the same pattern as the table (I think).

Mom had the entire set of these. She had the wood spice rack with all the little people faces on the spice jars. It had a wooden fork and spoon that hung on the side of it.

Mom used to have Stanley Parties and this was one of the hostess gifts she run. It hung over Daddy's chair for years and years.

She had a set of these on her dresser, one on each end. I grew up thinking you had to have a matching set of lamps on your dresser, and I still do.

She had a set of these mixing bowls. I have a yellow one that my hubby had when we got married. My sister has two of them and we are both trying to complete a set. Mom always made peanut butter cookie dough that you had to chill for three hours in the yellow bowl. The red was always for making her homemade chocolate cake icing and the blue was for cornbread. Rachel and I cannot remember what the green was for and neither can Mom.

Oh, how we loved Tupperware. Mom had a ton of the stuff. She may still have some of it for all I know. I used to have this pitcher and this set of bowls, but through all the yard sales phases of my life, I have sold many things I regret getting rid of.

My aunt Louise had a set of these. I don't believe her pitcher looked like this. I think she had the short stubby round pitcher, but I couldn't find a picture of it. But I loved drinking out of these aluminum glasses. It kept your drink so cold.

Oh, my how telephones have changed over the years. I miss our old black rotary phone. If I pass one in an antique store, I just have to pick up the receiver and dial it for memories sake.

And what teenage girl didn't dream of having her own princess phone.

Of course, it was so unique when you could get a wall phone in your kitchen. Wow, we were so impressed. I remember Mom bought an extra long cord for the receiver and we would stretch it around the corner into the little room Dad had built on the back of the house so we could talk in private.

 And do you remember the old refrigerators with One door. Then you had a drop down or swing out plastic door for the freezer. There was never enough room in the freezer for hardly anything.

Mom had one of these wringer washers. Well, actually I think she went through two or three in my lifetime before they got city water and she was able to get a "real" washer and dryer. I was married by the time that happened. Prior to that, it was the old wringer washer, a galvanized tub on legs to rinse in and then hang the clothes on the line....even in winter.

 Oh, what a wonderful walk down memory lane. I for one am glad that we now have cell phones and that refrigerators have bigger freezers.