Happy Birthday, Sweet 16!

Rachel is 16 today!

I thought it would be fun to show you some photos of her through the years.  I don't have the younger ones all scanned yet but I do have these.

 Rachel at about age 10 with her cousin Ethan.  

Rachel with Tim at Fort Necessity.

 Rachel with her cousin Kaitlin.

 She is a lover of books.  We are especially enjoying the author Lisa T. Bergren's books right now.

 Beauty, inside and out.

 Musician

Owner of her first 'real' cello!

This girl is quiet, but has depths to her soul. Once you know her, she is fun and goofy, too.  She loves the cello, horses, babies, her dog Sadie.  She is eager to go get her driving permit on Tuesday!

She is a gift to our family and we are grateful for her.

Blast From The Past!

Emma messaged me last night wanting the link to this video they made about 5 years ago.  Tim and I had been away a few days for our anniversary, and they decided to make this little movie for us.




Untitled from Deanna Rabe on Vimeo.


Can you tell we had recently watched Brigadoon?  

Oh this makes me laugh so much seeing each personality!  Can you tell they have no jigging experience? Lol!

Love this so much!

A Bit of This and That

I hope I am not boring you, with photos of my garden.  My spring blooming flowers are just so delightful, that I want to share them.

 The pale pink peonies are in bloom.  These are so stunning.

 Zepherine Drouhin in the dusky light the other evening.

 During the day - it has more blooms than this now!  So beautiful!

The peonies really open up inside the house!

I started a few projects, too.

 Our plastic deck chairs were in need of being repainted.  They have been red for about 4 or 5 years and I was in need of change!  Rachel and I chose this Krylon color called Sea Glass.  It is so beautiful.  

This is a plant holder that has been hanging outside on the deck.

 It has been in need of paint too.  So I got out my chalk paint and gave it a coat.

Here it is back in it's place.

All it needs now are some plants!

This jar candle holder out in the front garden could use some paint too.  It is nailed on and I think I am going to need Tim to get it off the fence for me so I can paint it.

I love having lights in the garden, and a wee tea light is sweet!

Today we are headed to my parents house to mulch.  I need to be heading out in just a few minutes, but first I must make my bed, run a brush through my hair and gather some items to make lunch over there!

Have a great day, friends!

Tea With A Friend

Last week I was blessed to have tea with a friend.  We go to church together, but we had been missing time to connect due to busy schedules, and my calling dances for the kids after church.

We went to a delightful tea shop called "The Tea Trolley" in Delta, PA.  

We ate delightful sandwiches, petite desserts and the best scones.  I ate off plan for this meal and didn't regret it for one minute!

I drank a small pot of Darjeeling, and my friend Jennifer drank a pot of Birthday, which was specially blended of black tea, caramel and vanilla to celebrate the shops 5th birthday.  I tasted some of her tea and bought two ounces of loose leaf to bring home to enjoy.  I made a small pot tonight and drank a cuppa sitting on my front steps during the blue hour.

 You can see some of the loose leaf tea that escaped by strainer.

Sorry for the graininess.

Garden: Peonies

Peonies are the joy of my springtime garden!  

 They make me ridiculously happy.

 They smell divine

I cut four today and brought them in.  They are beautiful to behold.

The pale pink peonies will be in bloom in a few days.  

More beauty to come!

Memorial Day

Source

"Our cheer goes back to them, the valiant dead! Laurels and roses on their graves to-day, lilies and laurels over them we lay, and violets o'er each unforgotten head." -- Richard Hovey

The greatest glory of a free-born people is to transmit that freedom to their children.  -- William Havard

Garden: What's Blooming In May

The flower garden inside the picket fence is growing well!  Tim and  I trimmed the two boxwoods and my Goldmound Spirea two weeks ago and they are looking good.  Amazing how it made the garden look more tidy right away!

 In between Tim's work with his new business and his regular job, he managed to repaint the lamppost, and the light fixtures on the outside of the house.  They had been up for 14 years in all sorts of weather and it was time to either repaint them or replace them.  Repainting was the best choice as we still liked the look of them.  Having a fresh coat of paint has made a huge improvement!

 The Iris are looking good with the lamppost and the gold mound spirea.

 The spirea got a good trim this year too, and I love it's chartreuse leaves.  It'll be blooming soon as well.

 I have these lovely, tiny white iris in my garden but it looks as if I am only getting one bloom this year.  Sad.

 The Zephirine Drouhin climbing rose is blooming with more blooms to come!  I love to look out my front window and see it trailing on the picket fence!

 It's such a pretty, little rose!

 Kay gave me bleeding heart from her garden and it is growing well!  I love bleeding heart!

 These are my peonies in the front garden.  The best smell ever.  I have pale pink peonies in the back of the house that are gorgeous too!

This isn't the best photo but I wanted to show you my new french lavender!  It has taken to its new home and has two blooms on it right now.  This is growing behind the spirea and the purple blooms look beautiful against the chartreuse leaves of the spirea.

There is more to come in the next few months.  Feverfew, Black-eyed Susans, Echinacea, poppies, daylilies.  

I love this beautiful time of year in the garden.  Always something to enjoy and also to cut and bring in to the house!

What's growing in your flower gardens?

Sight And Sound Theatres - Joseph!

Photo from after the show.  The employees can give tours to their guests.  Here are many people on the stage.  This is how the set pieces are stored before, during and after the shows.

Last night the kids and I had the privilege again, of going to an employee premier of a show at Sight and Sound.  I have no photos of the show, of course, but I wish you each could have been with me to see it.

It is amazing.  Joseph first premiered in 2010 and ran for two seasons here in Lancaster, and then ran two seasons in Branson.  It is my favorite show, and having kids who work there, I was so blessed to see it several times.

They did dress rehearsals this week.  Six run throughs of the whole show.  Lindsay would text me things like, "The actor playing Joseph has a great voice" or "The actor playing Potiphar reminds me of Ben Kingsley."  She was there working animals in the show though, she will soon be leaving her job there.

She was right.  The actor playing Joseph is amazing.  He is a great singer and a wonderful actor.  We were sitting on the floor level and close to the stage and you could see every facial expression and interaction.  His character goes from a 17 year old boy to the time Joseph was in leadership in Egypt, no one more powerful than he, except Pharaoh.  

There are amazing songs in this show.  There is the bitterness of brothers who know that their father loves his sons from wife Rachel more than he loves them, sons whose hearts are not after God's heart.  There is jealousy, and then hatred and a desire to be rid of Joseph.  There is a young man who faithfully serves God, in spite of his hard circumstances.  Who struggles with coming face to face with the brothers who sold him into slavery, and yet who was able to forgive them and see God's hand in putting him into these circumstances.  

One of my favorite songs is when, the brothers are headed back to Egypt with Benjamin, and they sing of "making what was wrong now right."  They want to go forward as honorable men.

The show has been updated a bit, there is new choreography and a new song, but the message of walking upright before the Lord, and of forgiveness are powerful!

Here is a song from the original cast recording of Joseph.  He has just had one of his dreams - the one of the stars, sun and moon bowing down to him.



If you are coming to Lancaster before Christmas, I hope you'll make this show a MUST on your things to see and do!  It will touch your heart.  

Tea Time: New Tea Cups

Rachel gifted me with two new tea cups for Mother's Day.  We found them at our favorite local store, Fresh Vintage by Amy, in Strasburg.

 There are so many things to love about this tea cup.

The colors, that ruffled edge

 The faint mark says, "Prussia" on it.

I love the unique handle.

This one is striking with the green color.

It has a delicate embossed detail at the bottom of the cup.

I love the beautiful pattern on this one.

 I love Johnson Brothers patterns.

Pretty handle too, even if it is out of focus.

I haven't posted any tea related things lately.  One of my Royal Albert teapots got a crack in it near the handle and now is only on display, instead of usable.  

I'm linking with other Tea minded ladies

Share Your Cup
Rose Chintz Cottage - Tea Time Tuesday
Tea Cup Tuesday
Friends Sharing Tea

My Latest Chalk Paint Project

I'm learning new things about using chalk paint, every time I paint. I am a fan of Annie Sloan chalk paint and love the many colors that are available.  I was able to purchase two new colors with some money that was gifted to me for Mother's Day.  I chose Old White and French Linen.

We have lots of wood furniture - oak mostly - that we have had for many years.  They are in really good shape but need a bit of freshening up, and you all know by now how I love to change things up around here!

I decided to do one of my end tables in French Linen.  It is a grey tone, and it is not a color I have used in my home before, but I have seen many project painted in this color and new I would like it.  It has a vintage feel.

 I lightly distressed just the edges of the table top.

I bought 300 grit sandpaper and after I waxed the table I used the sandpaper and got a very soft to the touch finish!

I took these photos in the afternoon with the sun streaming through the windows.  At night with just the ambient lighting the color is much darker.

I will be doing more projects with this color in the future.  Have you used chalk paint before?  I know that Dotsie has.  She did a wonderful buffet for her dining room recently.  

Now to figure out what to use the Old White on.....

For more information on chalk paint check out my Pinterest board Chalk Paint.