Making Our Homes Warm And Inviting

I was reading Brenda's Sunday Afternoon Tea post, and it made me want to write this post.  You see Brenda, and I have a lot of the same beliefs about our homes being havens for our families, our guests, and ourselves!

 I believe that while we should not be obsessed with our homes, we should make our homes as special and wonderful as we can.  I like to use thrifted silver, flowers, tea cups....

 I also love to use old birdhouses and inexpensive plates like this red checked one.

 This photo of the light over the sink in the kitchen was taken tonight.  I love the ivy, the name photo, the beautiful wood trim that my husband put up.

Our home makes us happy.  The things we have in our home, the photos, the books, the china, all work together to remind us of wonderful times together, and they continue to help us make new memories, to help us to reach out and welcome others into our home and into our family life.

I believe that as a believer our homes should be places of beauty and creativity, after all we are made in His image and He is the Creator of Beauty!

My home will not look like yours, and it shouldn't.  Your home should reflect the interests and items that your family finds beautiful, fun, and that you want to share with others.

Isn't that great?

So what kinds of things do you like to surround yourself with?

Back To Normal?

Well, what passes for normal in my neck of the woods anyway!  I am happy to be able to get back to some fun activities that were sadly neglected the last year and a half!

I bought yarn last week and have started a wrap for myself.  I am hoping to take it to Scotland in August, so I'll have to knit quickly. It probably won't be finished but I like to be busy with my hands so I am enjoying the work.

It's a deep blackberry color and I love it!

I am already thinking ahead to Christmas (shhh, don't tell) because I have decided to make a lot of my gifts this year.  

Look what I found in the dollar bin at our local craft store..

Two luscious skeins of a coral chenille!  Won't that make a girl happy?  I can envision a nice scarf or a cute hat.  I wished they had more of this - I dug through and this was all they had!

Okay, so enough Christmas talk for now, but feel free to comment and tell me if you are working on anything handmade or semi handmade for you know what!

These Three

had a great trip down to their youth conference.

We had updates all along the way and photos of lots of eating in the car!

Thank you for your prayers for them.  They are all pretty special and at their young ages of 21, 19, and 19, they love Jesus and want to walk in His ways.

I'm excited to hear all He is going to do in their lives.  

I'm already missing the girls, and I have it on good authority Ben's family is missing him.  His little brother Asher loved doing FaceTime with them yesterday and kept saying "Let's call Ben."  He loved seeing them.  

What a blessing technology is!  

While I'm In The Store Tomorrow

I will be longing to read these!

Dee Henderson's latest book, the July/August issue of Victoria, and  Eat Fat Lose Fat by Dr. Mary Enig and Sally Fallon the authors of Nourishing Traditions.

I may pack them along tomorrow, but I think I will be busy on the last day of Fab Fashion.  

Happy Summer!

It's officially summer!

We are waiting for Camp Geezer to open their pool, and then we'll be all set!

Today we are heading to Chick-fil-A to get our free breakfast entree's and then we have some shopping and errands to do.

We have two more days in our store and then it is closed.  It's been such a good sanctifying tool in our lives, and we are grateful.  

I am looking forward to being able to be home again and to show my cottage some love!  It needs it!

Blue Heaven

I have been looking for these jars everywhere! They are the vintage style jars that the Ball Canning Company makes.   I finally had decided I was just going to have to buy them from Amazon and pay for shipping.

While waiting for my hair appointment time the other day, I popped into Christmas Tree Shops to look around.  Well, these were the best find that day!  

I love them and they were inexpensive at only $9.99 for 6 jars.  I am a happy girl.  I bought two sets. 

I love to use canning jars to drink out of, or to put fresh cut flowers in from the garden.  They make taking a salad to work easy for my girls, and we just enjoy their color.

Do you use canning jars for decor or the table?  Do you have the new 'vintage' style.



*photos courtesy of Lindsay Rabe

Vee's Note Card Party for June 2013

These photos were taken by my daughter Lindsay of her horse Sandy and of our 2 week old chicks.  I've long wanted to try scripture or other verse with her photos!  Note Cards are a great way to do this!

Join us every month at Vee's!



It's so fun!

Winner Announced, Lindsay's Dream Job and The Goodness of God

I got my man to draw the winner of the Hand Milled Soap.

 The winner is....

 Jaclyn Hicks!  I'm so excited for you to get to use this wonderful soap!  Email me with your contact information and I'll get the soap mailed off this week!

******************************************************
In other news I wanted to share about Lindsay and her dream job.

Lindsay has always been an animal lover - it's a part of her DNA I think.  Horses, dogs, cats, birds, chickens, you name it - she is interested and loving it!

Here are a series of photos she took yesterday of her horse Sandy.  You can tell when Lindsay whistles for her and she turns and comes to her.

She has worked since a young teen at first a corn maze and then at
 Sight and Sound Theatres in concessions.  She has wonderful customer service skills, and has excelled in her position.  But she hasn't loved it nor did she love working in our shoppe.

After we decided to close our business, she noticed a job opening at her work in the animal handling department. 

 Seriously.  

They use live animals in all their shows and have a whole department that trains and cares for the animals.  She applied and they called her right away with "We were so excited to see your application!"  Apparently this job had been listed for 2 months!  They interviewed her right away, and though they had made a job offer to another person, they offered her a job as well!  Full time!

She gets to work with horses, camels, a young Brahma bull, parrots, llama's, dogs, sheep....

She even has costumes she has to wear at two different times in the show.  She leads a governor on horse back into Nod, then later retrieves a donkey from the set.  Out of sight, she retrieves animals during the loading the ark scene, haltering llama's and taking them back to the holding area...she is responsible for sending Noah's dog out to him on stage in the ark...

Can I just say that she is in heaven?  She is using her considerable skills already and is getting on the job training as well.  Every night there are stories of the horses worked with, camels that she is doing ground work with, a near catastrophe in the back of the ark when some sheep ran under the camels' legs to get to their food, and the camel freaked out!  Never a dull moment!

This job is so *her*.  Completely.

We are thanking God for providing meaningful work for her using the gifts and interests he has instilled in her.  

Oh, and when they do Moses next year?  She'll be driving a chariot onstage during the show...she is really beside herself with excitement!

Here at home she is busy with the horses and giving riding lessons on Mondays, our rooster and hen take her attention as do the chicks we bought.

Now here are two photos that are just plain cute and show off my granddaughter who turned three on Saturday!

I am so thankful for these days of blessing and joy.  I try to stay focused on the Lord's goodness in the midst of struggle, and his leading in times of uncertainty.  This is where we find daily joys.  He is good, He has a plan, and He is working His plan for my life.  I can and do trust Him with it.

Hand Milled Soap Giveaway!

I have amazing friends.  

Becky makes fantastic candles - You can find her at her Etsy store here.  I know some of you know her and buy her candles, they are the greatest!

Now I want to introduce you to my friends who make soap! 

 John and Bonnie have been making soap for their family for several years and keeping all the amazing goodness to themselves.  Becky had the idea of them try to match some of her candle scents with their soap.  I told them I'd sell it in our store and voila!  A business was born - Laurel Hill Naturals.

This soap is wonderful.  In fact we love it so much that I had to hide the bars for the giveaway from Lindsay!  She is out of her last bar of the Citrus and was looking for more!

The ingredients are simple - listed on the back of the soaps.  It lathers beautifully and smells great!

Because I love you I want you to experience the delightfulness of their soap as well.

There are four bars to give away - Lavendar Vanilla, Citrus, Oatmeal and Unscented.  Winner takes all!

Leave a comment if you want to be entered to win.  Feel free to spread the word, or not if you want a better chance at winning!  

I'll draw the winner on Monday!

I Am An Older Woman

That's quite a statement isn't it?  It's very true.  I'll be 50 this year in the Autumn.

I've been doing a bit of pondering and have come to realize that I am glad I am older.  There is comfort and peace having some wisdom that comes from walking with the Lord, of being in a happy and satisfying marriage, and raising a family.  I am a grandma, too, of one sweet little girl who will be three this Saturday.

I am not the same woman I was when I was 24 and newly married...and I thank God for that!  He has taken my life and made it into what He had planned for me.  

Philippians 2:13- for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.

I sometimes find myself feeling caught in the middle - I have adult kids and younger ones still.  I wonder what kind of blogger am I?  Am I a Mommy blogger?  A house blogger?  A granny blogger?  Can I be all of the above?

I have found myself recently reading some new to me blogs and some older ones I don't often read and I don't think I fit into the above categories.  I am not youngish or hip, I am not one who can spend lots of time and money to follow the trends of home decorating.

I guess I will just be me.

Almost 50.

Raising a family still. 

Loving my husband.

Being a good friend.

Offering hospitality.

Encouraging others, hopefully.

And by His grace, following Him.

Fathers and Daughters

Tonight Tim and the girls and Nate and Kamryn are headed to a father/daughter ice cream social!

It has a 1950's theme - the height of the soda fountain era!

There will be cute girls in 50's fashions, dad's looking like, well, dads, a cute photobooth area for great photos, a quiz on ice cream treats, lots of great ice cream and toppings! 

My friend Amy's husband is responsible for the food and decor, so of course that means that Amy's doing it and I volunteered to help!  She is also taking photos of dads and daughters tonight.  

It's going to be fun.  All the girls are at church are excited to spend special fun time with their dads!

Photos tomorrow!

Flower Arranging Creekside Cottage Style

 Cheryl, at Thinking About Home, posted about Flower Arrangements the other day.  She is doing a read through of Edith Schaeffer's wonderful book Hidden Art also called The Hidden Art of Homemaking.  Cheryl talked about how she doesn't have a green thumb but uses herbs etc, in her home for arrangements.  It is a wonderful idea and one I'd like to try when our herbs get going well.

I am not one to do formal arrangements here at the cottage.  I tend to go out and cut whatever is blooming and put them all in a jar or vase or even, at times, a small bowl.  

The arrangement at the top of this post is what I clipped today from the back of our cottage.  Small pink climbing roses, one small white climbing rose, two pale pink peonies, and some purple flowers, that I don't remember the name of.
 

 Being able to bring the beauty of a garden into my house is a joy to me.  It is a joy to see my daughters do this as well.  In the summer we will have day lily's, coneflower, daisies, black eyed susan's and spirea to add to the mix.  I'm hoping for some lavender but so far we've not had success with it from seed.  I am sowing some hollyhock seeds this week, and planting a red morning glory.

 I've learned to choose easy to grow perennials that pack a punch visually, since I want to have flowers and gardens but do not have lots of time to care for them.

 Peonies are stunning and so easy to grow.  I saw some one has called them 'field roses' and I like that.  They are gorgeous like roses and yet not in need of tons of care.  Plant them, they grow - leave some flowers on the bush to go to seed and they will come back the next year.

For this sweet arrangement I literally cut and gathered them in my hand.  Brought them in, and plopped them into the vase.

I believe that with decorating or flower arranging that you can't make a mistake if you use what you love.  

Wee Chooks

I just love the name that Aussie's call chickens - Chooks.  

This wee gal is one of seven Black Australorps we ordered.  We also ordered on Silver Laced Wyandotte but she did not make it sadly. 

Kyle wanted to name one of them Larry Boy - but we informed him that they are hens and not roosters.  I guess he just likes those super suction ears!

No names yet.

The day before the chicks arrived our neighbor gave us his Rhode Island Red hens (2 of them) and our rooster Cash is lonely no longer.  Can I just tell you what a hilarious sight it is to watch a rooster run?  Oh man, it makes me laugh every time.  He is a happy camper.  The hens seem to be tolerating him.  Lindsay is wanting to breed them, so she is hoping one of them will get broody.

There is never a dull moment around here.

I guess that is what happens when you encourage your children to be life long learners....

Isn't she cute?

They are getting their wee feathers on their wings.  They are about 4 days old.  It will be fun to watch them grow!

Peony Heaven

Enjoying them while they last!