Happy Easter!

He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you. And they departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy; and did run to bring his disciples word. And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail. And they came and held him by the feet, and worshipped him. Then said Jesus unto them, Be not afraid: go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see me.Bible: Matthew, 28. 6

I will be very busy this weekend preparing to Easter Sunday! I will be having all our family for dinner after church. I love Easter, it is my favorite holiday !

I will not be online until Sunday night, so I will leave you with a few photos of our Easter decor!

Easter Blessings!

Linda

Spring has Sprung!

Happy first day of Spring everyone! It's sunny but cool here in SW Virginia today and we have high wind warnings, but such is March around here.

I have been listening carefully every night waiting for the first sounds of the "peepers" that come to our little pond to mate. Night before last I thought I heard one and ran outside to see. They are back! I love the trill mating sound that fills the spring air at night, it can lull me asleep in a minute. Last year we had about 20 of the little frogs in our pond, last night I counted only 3. I'm sure the rest are on their way.

I have been getting together my menus and shopping for our Easter celebration Sunday. I will be hosting dinner for about 15 people. We are having Baked Ham, Zesty Meatballs, Potato cheese casserole, broccoli casserole, green beans, cole slaw, deviled eggs, pickled beets, stuffed cerely, homemade rolls, Chocolate "Peeps" cake, and lemon meringue pie. Okay, I am starving just typing that out! We have a tradition in our family that has been going on for at least 4 generations. The week before Easter my grandmother, father, and myself will make beet pickled eggs. This tradion started with my great grandmother. She would take the boiled eggs and put into a pink depression glass cookie jar and pour the liquid from pickled beets over them. Then my grandmother inherited the pink cookie jar and she used it for many years before she passed it on to my Dad. I called him last week and he had just put his eggs in. I haven't inherited the pink jar yet so I bought a green depression glass cookie jar just like it. Mine are in there now and will be brought out for dinner Easter day.

Wishing everyone a Happy Spring

Linda

8 Things About Me

Nancy over at http://morthanenough.wordpress.com tagged me to write 8 things about my self. I really had a hard time with this, as I guess there is really nothing "special" about me, but here goes:

1. I love to be outside gardening. Unless its freezing cold out, I will find a reason to be outside everyday and play in the dirt.

2. I collect small dolls. By small I mean under 6 inches tall. I have always liked little dolls even when I was a child. I wouldn't have anything to do with a baby doll.

3. I have back problems resulting from a freak car accident when I was six. A drunk driver crossed both lanes of traffic and hit my mom's car while it was parked in my aunts driveway. I was in the back seat laying down at the time and was thrown onto the "hump" that ran through the middle of the car. The driver got a hand slap and was told never to do it again.

4. I clearly remember the first time I ever saw broccoli. It was in first grade and I went home and told my parents that they served miniature trees for lunch. LOL!

5. My mother died from Leukemia when I was 16 years old. She was 37. Fortunately, we had a wonderful father, and alot of support from my Grandmother and Great Aunt.

6. I once turned flips all the way down the church aisle before my Dad could catch me. We had gone to a friends church and the people there spoke in tongues and would fall onto the floor and roll. I thought I should do it too! I was about 4 years old.

7. I have been married to the most wonderful man on Earth for almost 28 years! And have the greatest 16 year old son that's ever lived! (I may be a little prejudiced on that!)

8. I am a Christian and gave my life to Jesus when I was 15 years old. It was the best decision I have ever made.

So there you have it, eight dull facts about me! I tag anyone who would like to play along!

Blessings

Linda

Top O The Mornin' to Ya!

Happy St. Patricks Day! I guess its true that everyone is a little Irish on St. Patricks Day.

Grandma and I went out shopping Saturday and found her a new Easter suit. My Grandma is 95 years old and very tiny, so clothes shopping can be a chore, but we found one she liked in the first store we went in. A pretty lilac colored suit.

Yesterday afternoon I went out and checked the gardens to see if they were to wet to plant and they were:( Hopefully they will dry out before the next rain comes on Thursday. I would like to get my lettuce and radishes planted.

And speaking on gardens, would you look at the adorable "potting" apron that MammyT sent to me! Do you see the manilla envelope sticking out of the pocket? That has columbine seeds in it! She is such a sweet person, check her blog out at http://morthanenough.wordpress.com/.

Hope everyone has a blessed day!

Linda

Easter Decorations

I love weekends where I don't have to be anywhere at a certain time and can just "piddle" all weekend. Those weekends are few, but that makes them more special.

This weekend I spent almost every waking hour in my craft/sewing room. I made a blouse and a pair of shorts! Both turned out good but not really photo worthy. I also made another duck which I turned into a pick and stuck into my ivy. This one was made out of the dark colored linen I found at the thrift store last week.

I am loving those Tilda books that I have bought recently. The crafts are pretty and very easy to make. I made two of the hearts with the bunny applique on them.

I went outside and cut several small tree branches and brought them in and stuck them in this old crock that I have. I added the eggs ornaments that I made last week and set it in the middle of the table.

Of course no weekend is complete without some paper crafting! So I made some paper blossoms to stick into the glass baskets I have on the table in den.

I certainly got my craft "fix" this weekend! I cut out a purple skirt that I didn't get sewed( is that a word or should it be sewn?) up, but I hope to work on it some this week.

I have discovered that I have lost my side bar with all the blogs I visit:( Anyone know how I can get that back without redoing the whole thing?

Hope everyone has a great day!

Missing

If you were a ceramic chocolate bunny and a dozen plastic glittery eggs, where would you be hiding in my house????? I have looked everywhere and they are no where to be found. I looked in the house attic, the garage attic, the pool house attic, and in the hidey hole under the stairs. No luck. Should a ceramic chocolate bunny with a basket of glittery eggs come hopping near you, please send them home.

Thanks

Friday Show and Tell

TGIF! Kelli at http://kellishouse.blogspot.com/ is hosting Show and Tell.

This week I would like to show you some of the Easter crafts I have been making. Easter is my favorite holiday!

This little funny bunny was made following a pattern in the Create and Decorate magazine. She was really simple to make and alot of fun to decorate. The flowers are millenary flowers that I bought at a auction sale. She is made from a damask napkin that my Grandmother gave me, so that makes her even more special.This little duck was made from the same damask napkin. (They were big!) I used the pattern in my new Tilda craft book called Springtime crafts. This was super easy to make and I love how it turned out.

Last but not least in this fabric egg also made from the Tilda book. Again super easy. The only thing that took very long of this was sewing the beads on. Last night I made 8 of these eggs in all different colors, one is blue with guitars on it for Yngwie! Isn't that a cute little stand? I found that yesterday at the thrift store for .25

No big plans for the week-end, thank goodness. I have kept the house pretty clean all week so I won't will guilty about sewing alot this week-end. If the garden isn't too muddy, I hope to get it cleaned out and tilled up enough to get some onions planted. I can't hardly wait until SPRING!

Blessings

Linda

Deal of the Day or Trust your Intuition!

This past week I made a Easter rabbit from one of my favorite magazines called Create and Decorate. (I will share her tomorrow for Show and Tell). If you like to do crafts, check this magazine out. It's a little hard to find. I got my first one at Barnes & Noble then subscribed to it. Anyway, I love how the rabbit turned out, but thought I would like it even better if I had made it out of linen fabric. So, at lunch today I thought I would run over to the local fabric store and get some. As I was leaving a little voice in my head said "go to the Rescue Mission thrift store". (Yes, I'm hearing voices, so what!). So I turn toward the thrift store instead. When I get there I see they have set up an entire area with fabric. Guess what I got? 3 yards of cream colored linen for $1.00 and 2 yards of oatmeal colored linen for $1.00! Of course, I had to buy about 7 more pieces of fabric as well. It was all priced between .50 and 1.50.

Then as I was walking down the aisle I looked over in the toy bin and couldn't believe what I saw! Three Barbies from the 1970's! The photo above is not the ones I bought but the ones I bought are just like them. There were probably 20 Barbies in the bin and I asked the clerk how much they were and she said .25 each. I took them all! Plus 2 big bags of Barbie clothes for $1.00 per bag. I will keep the 3 old Barbies and give the others and the clothes to Yngwie's friends sister. She loves Barbies.

I love a good deal! The girls at work call me the "Thrift Store Queen" I wear that title proudly!

Blessings

Linda

Easter Dress #2

As I mentioned, I am showing some of the wonderful handmade dresses that my Aunt Doris in California would make for me for Easter.

Green must have been her favorite color as several of the dress she made was the color.

This photo is from 1971 and I am 10 years old. My sister and I have matching mint green dotted swiss dresses. My mom is in the middle with the blue and white checked coat that she made. The only time she ever wore this coat was to church. Never anywhere else.

Check out that console TV in the background along with the gold drapes! I remember when we got that tv it was around 1967-1968. It was our first color TV and it came on Saturday morning when the cartoons were on. I was totally mesmerized! I had never seen a color TV before. I also see a seashell vase that my uncle brought us back from the exotic and ever so far away state of Florida!

I love to look at the objects in the background of photos. My scrapbooking buddies are always trying to get me to "crop out" objects in the background of my photos, but I usually won't. I want Yngwie to look at the photos when he is middle aged and laugh about our decor!

Blessings

Linda

Easter "Baskets" (kinda)

Good Morning everyone.

Seems as if I have been neglecting my blog lately, but I have been busy crafting and cooking, and cleaning out flower beds, getting ready for SPRING!

The ladies in my family are big coffee drinkers. The minute one us walk into each others house, we will put the coffee pot on. So, this year I made cup and saucer Easter "baskets"

I found the cups and saucers at the thrift store for 50 cent. I filled them with Easter grass, then added some silk flowers, and egg pick, and a votive candle. Then I filled the saucer with jelly beans and wrapped them up! They look so cheery sitting in ymy craft room. I will get to enjoy them until Easter day.

Then I got busy on the "baskets" for the girls at work. Again, the thrift store had just what I wanted. I bought the stuffed bunnies for .50 each. The I found the flower pots at the dollar store. Walmart already has tons of Easter candy out and I found these Russell Stover Chocolate bunnies in beautiful pastel colors. I added some pencils, some bunny purse size tissues, and an Easter egg with some jelly jeans in them. I haven't wrapped them yet because I want to get a little more candy to fill in the empty spaces.
The front flower beds and the flower beds around the pond are now leaf free and are ready to greet the warmer days of Spring. I cleaned a little around the pool garden, but there is so much left to do. I haven't even begun to clean out the vegetable garden. They are the main order of business this week if the weather cooperates. I am also going to turn my herb garden into a Peter Rabbit garden this year. Be on the look-out for further posts about that garden. My head is spinning with all the ideas I have for this garden. Hurry Spring!

Blessings

Linda

Easter Dress #1

While going through old photos, I came across several pictures of me at Easter. Easter was a big deal in our house. It meant a new dress, white gloves, patent leather shoes, a pretty corsage and sometimes even a new hat! Several times, my great aunt Doris, who live in California, would make my dress. She would phone my mom and mom would take my measurements while she was on the phone with Aunt Doris. Aunt Doris would then select the fabric, make the dress, and send it across the country to Virginia. It would always fit! I was so excited to see that box in the spring knowing it was a new dress made just for me! The above is a photo taken of her when she was in her teens. She was quite the flapper with that cloche hat!

I remember the dress in this picture so well! It was white satin underneath with a chiffon overlay that was white with green flowers. She also made the green coat to match. My Dad always got all of us a corsage for Easter and this one appears to be a rosebud. Check out that "bun" on top of my head. I almost always wanted a bun when I dressed up! LOL

I have a few more photos of the "made just for me" Easter dresses that I will share during the Easter season, which incidently, is my favorite holiday.

Blessings

Linda

Old Photos

This weekend I was going through some old picture and came across this one. This is dated January 1967. I would have been 6 years old. This picture just shouts 1960's! Check out the gray formica table with the white and gray vinyl chairs. How about that Coppertone refrigerator? The red, white and black tea kettle and pots cafe curtains were just lovely! I do believe that is a TV dinner I was eating, way before microwaves you put these frozen delights in the oven and 30 minutes later, you were dining in style! I also notice the depression glass milk glass, though at that time we wouldn't have known it was valuable. There are also some brown melmac coffee cups on the table, Mom must have had someone over for coffee.

In the lower right corner, I spot the "vaporizer". Just looking at it brings back the smell of the Vicks salve that you put in it.

This looks like a typical day in my life in 1967. I have no idea why my mom or dad would have taken this photo, but I'm glad they did. Just a photo of every day life. A very simple, uncomplicated life. Something I yearn for as an adult. Confucius said "Life is simple, but we insist on making it complicated". How true!

Blessings

Linda

Good Morning!

If any of you have never been to visit Seasonal Delights Quarterly http://sdquarterly.com/ than you don't know what you have been missing. Kelli and Phillip have a lovely website filled with recipes, crafts, poems, etc. They also include bonus recipes or crafts in between issues. Which is where I found the directions for these beautiful Valentine fans.These were so much fun to make. The most time consuming part is cutting out all the fan "blades", but after that it's pure fun decorating them. I am giving these fans, along with a small box of candy, to the girls at my office. One is also going to my Grandmother and another to my sister.

This one is my favorite! Mostly because it's purple but I also love the beaded fob at the bottom.

It's been very windy and cold here this week-end and the downed electrical wires have caused some fires in surrounding counties. Please pray that these are contained quickly and without harming anyone.

Have a great day!

Linda

Friday Show and Tell

Kelli over at http://kellishouse.blogspot.com/ hosts Show and Tell each Friday. Click on over to her blog and join the fun.

This week I would like to show you a few of my favorite pins. (Sorry for the bad photos, not use whats wrong with my camera.)

The silver angel and the back onyx pins belonged to my great grandmother. My Grandmother gave them to me for my 16th birthday.

This pin really isn't too old, but it is one of my very favorite. It can be worn as a pin or a necklace. It belonged to my mom, who passed away in 1977. She got it at a Sarah Coventry Jewelry party. Anyone remember those?

The cameo, black filigree, silver leaf, and etched amythest pins I picked up at yard sales and auctions.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Blessings

Linda

This and That

The weather here has gone from one extreme to the other. One day it is freezing cold and the next day it's in the 70's! I guess my bulbs have become confused as my hyacinths and resurrection lillies are starting to poke though the mulch. I covered them up a little more as we still have a month or so more of cold weather.

Last week went I went to Lowes I bought a few more packs of seeds. I have some kind of seedmania going on. I can't stop buying seeds! I have never had swiss chard before so I decided I would give it a try. It looks so pretty on the package. I really hope the Bells of Ireland do well because they totally captivated me with their pretty picture on the pack. My family love beets but I have never had any of the gold ones, so into the garden they will go. I have started a new kind of gardening journal, that I will show you when I get some pics. Hopefully this will help me remember what worked and what didn't in my garden.

With Valentines Day right around the corner, I have put out some of my vintage valentines and post cards. I love the colors on these and the little boys eyes move.

I am trying to think of something other than candy to get for my husband and son for Valentines Day other than candy. Anyone have any ideas for "guy" gifts?

Hope everyone has a blessed day!

Linda

A Hint of Spring

I bought this pot of hyacinths last week and they were just barely budding. This week they are almost fully opened. What a wonderful fragrance they send thru the house. Just a hint of Spring!

Blessings

Linda

Friday Show and Tell

Good Morning! Kelli at http://kellishouse.blogspot.com/ is hosting Show and Tell Friday. Click over and join the fun.

Today I would like to show you 4 of my most favorite books. I am definitely a bookworm and am on the lookout for books everytime I go to a thrift store or yard sale.

The first book is a very worn copy of The Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening by J.I. Rodale and Staff. This copy is dated 1959. This is my gardening "Bible"! You can look up anything garden related alphabetically. I spend untold hours during the winter reading this book.

The second book is a really cute book by Rebecca McCann, called the Cheerful Cherub. My copy is dated 1947. This book is filled with absolutely adorable pictures of the Cherub with cute little poems for any occasion.

One of my favorite little poems is called Food:

"When work seems rather dull to me

and life is not so sweet,

One thing at least can bring me joy

I simply love to eat"

The third book is a very beautfiul book by Howard Chandler Christy called "The American Girl". This book was in a box of books that I bought at an auction once for $1.00 for the entire box of books. This copy is dated 1906.

The book has photos very much like the "Gibson" girls. There is a section called The American Girl in the Coiuntry, The Debutane, The Bride, etc. The photos is this book are just beautiful.

The last book is another very beautiful book. It is called The Song and Garden Birds of North America. It was put our by National Geographic and mine copy is dated 1964.
The color photos is this book are frame worthy. It shows photos and descriptions of practically every bird in this country and at the back of the book there is a little booklet that has some very flimsy vinyl records that plays the birds songs. I have played the little record and it is so neat!
I hope you enjoyed my Show and Tell!

Hope everyone has a wonderful and blessed weekend!

Linda