Keep Looking Up!

Source *** So if you’re serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don’t shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ—that’s where the action is. See things from his perspective.
Colossians 3: 1–2  The Message ~~~
On my walk today, it was all I could do to look up and look around because the ground is so uneven and broken by a long, hard winter. I felt that I needed to watch my feet lest I fall. If I hadn't looked up, though, I would have missed all that there was to see. Now imagine if, in my Christian walk, I never looked to Christ. I'd miss everything.   Keep looking up!

Pressing Questions for Ya...Very

...if you have a moment that is. My sister has a pressing question for you. She keeps asking if I have asked my "people" yet. Ha! I know that you are just as eager as anything to respond so I have decided to ask ten questions and hers is in there. I wouldn't want to embarrass her by your knowing what her deep question might be. 
Most are either/or questions, yes or no questions; no substitutions allowed.

1. In a pinch for supper (and unable to have take-out) would it be cereal or scrambled eggs? 2. Would you prefer to swim or hike? 3. Do you prefer coffee or tea? 4. Do you ever remove labels from clothing, towels, mattresses, pillows?  5. Would you like to live somewhere else? 6. Have you ever vacationed out of the country you live in? 7. If you had to watch a movie this afternoon would it be Saving Private Ryan or Saving Mr. Banks? 8. Egg salad sandwiches or chicken salad sandwiches? 9. Cats or dogs? 10. Do you enjoy a thunderstorm? Please copy and paste 1–10 in the comment box or, if truly pressed for time, just answer #4. ☺
A happy weekend to you...
Comments are closed. *The Results are In!*

Soap 'n' Such

Judy sent me a sweet little package in the mail: Sandalwood Vanilla soap, a chocolate bar, and an encouraging note.

~sweet gifts~ Judy blogs at Cranberry Morning and she has an Etsy shop called Soap 'n' Such. If you love homemade soaps that smell delightful, lather beautifully, and do not contain harsh chemicals and additives, this is a fun place to shop. Thank you so much, Judy! The sandalwood fragrance smells even better than I remembered!
~~~
If you were to just go by photos today, you might think that you had landed on a November morning because my camera battery croaked while on my morning walk and all I have to show for it is last year's frosted maple leaf. 

 ~taken this morning~
Of course, I saw ducks on the wing and heard them quacking, a female cardinal singing her song, squirrels chipping, traffic moving, the river roaring, and the rumble of the school bus as it rolled on by. I am very out of shape from a winter of slugdom. I am trying to take an early morning walk before seven every day. I prefer little traffic and no other walkers. Such a recluse I am! It's only been a week, but I am going a little further every day.
Have a great day! 

Kid's Apron and Fairy Blog Mother Tip

Last Saturday, I don't know how Kim or I ever got a thing done because we were having fun chatting back and forth via email about aprons. She had written this Apron Inspirations post and mentioned how she would test a pattern. Well that led to my testing a pattern and pretty soon, I was back in the apron business.     

I have made a kid's apron before, but *the kid didn't care for it. It didn't have an adjustable neck and it was uncomfortable to take off over his head. This apron eliminates that little problem and will hopefully grow with him for a few years. This is made from half a tea towel. I modified the front to three inches on either side of the dividing line and six inches on the sides. I used the following video tutorials from the Missouri Quilt Company.    Apron Tutorial pt 1 Apron Tutorial pt 2 (Jenny showed the process for an adult apron without mentioning the changes for a kid's apron. Wrong. She mentions it on the PDF download *here.* And I was off by an inch. It should be three inches and seven inches.)
*Oh dear. "The Kid" still doesn't care for it. "Nonni, this makes me feel like a baby. I am seven!" I took a deep breath and moved on to Plan B: some other darling will wear this apron. 
~~~
My fairy blog mother Linda visited over the weekend and made a suggestion that I loved once I understood what she was saying. She mentioned that my background was not covering the width of her computer. Now I had always noticed that I couldn't see the background on my iPad, but since I could see it on my PC, I didn't think I needed to try what she was recommending. Then I changed my mind deciding that if some could and some couldn't, what difference did it make if I tried to make it better. Besides, Linda makes it so easy to understand.  
Anywho, Linda has an easy solution and you'll find it in her tutorials *on her sidebar.* It's called How to Make Your Background Wider. And the side bonus for me was that I can now see my background on my iPad. I like that. Don't forget to look around at the other tutorials —— they're good ones!
Thank you, Fairy Blog Mother!
Have you ever made an apron? Do you have a favorite? Why? Tell me about it. Oh, can you see your background on your iPad?

Jokes, Visits, Birdsong

Early this morning I was out listening to bird song. I can not, for the life of me, tell one from another. Yes, I hear the spring call from the chickadees... fee bee fee bee or, if you prefer, phoebe phoebe. There's the incessant rat-a-tap-tap from woodpeckers and the mourning doves are cooing. 
When I hoped to learn some common calls, I added the Merlin ID app from Cornell. I'm still hopeless. So thank you to those who told me that the birdsong yesterday was cardinals or robins. I'll have to keep a sharper look-out for them, perhaps find the binoculars.
~~~
Yesterday, my sister came and took me out to lunch and then for a bit of grocery shopping. Oddly enough, she cannot find some items in her corner just thirty miles away so she stocks up while here. Anyone else having trouble finding what you want? I shop Wal*Mart for the savings, but many items go missing on me. It's an ongoing frustration.
April Fool's is not a big thing around here, but when I saw Lovella's post at Mennonite Girls Can Cook yesterday, I knew that I would give it a nod.

It didn't fool him too much.

He may have enjoyed being fooled.

Remember when people gathered around the radio? Television? Now they gather around the Kindle.

The grapes were so good! What are they doing here? Oh, this was our snack while gathered around the Kindle.

Enjoy this day!

Much Too Ugly to See or What Makes Me Smile

The winter of 2007–2008 was a rough one. That's the year that I ran a contest to see when the last of the snow would be gone. Amazingly, it was all gone by April 22.  Just documenting this year to see if I might trust that it will be all gone in three weeks. It may be too much to hope for.

John is just there making coffee. Coffee makes me smile.

Valiant daffodils make me smile.

Walls of dirt...not so much.

Luge Memories make me smile and wonder if there might not be one more ride  this season...

~Bird Song After All~

Now, for getting to the end, this is the awakening of spring in time lapse photography lasting just a little over a minute. The fern got me!

Source for iPad users
For those in the northern tier, have you seen any signs of spring?
No April Fool's jokes were told in this post. ☺ Have a happy day!

Another Month in the Can

Seems I am very good at saying the wrong thing and offending my friends. Please pay me no mind. My opinion on some things varies from one day to the next. Is blogging work? Yes and No. Two blogging buddies said it best so I quote them...

I love your blog, Vee. But it's not your blog I'm coming to visit with, it's YOU, my friend.

~Lorrie 

Blogging is real work...and the pay is in friendships and shared ideas and encouragement rather than in dollars and cents. 

~Judy Isn't that great? I could not say it any better.
~~~ March in this corner was an extension of February January. Very cold. Very snowy. We tried to make the best of it and found ourselves unable to hit the mark. So we are truly winter-weary, Vitamin D deprived (and you know what that does to a person), and our pockets are empty from having had to fill the oil tank one too many times.☺     All the same, when I think about March 2014, I will think of John maintaining that wonderful luge for the grands and how much fun they had. Now that was infectious.
These photos have not been shared before, though they will certainly look familiar.

Linking to Cheryl's Gathering the Moments. Learn more by clicking on the sidebar button. It's a great way to finish out a month. Thank you for hosting, Cheryl!  

This Morning

What an intriguing scene waited just beyond my kitchen windowsill... The morning sun was striking the power lines that follow the river.  (The green you see is my little ivy plant inside.)

 Yes, that is a lot of snow!

A lot of dirty snow, but look beyond that, the telephone poles, and the sign, to the light display. It was magical. 
Now, after a day a week of fiddling with the blog, it's time to do some housework. Funny how I can pretend that blogging is real work. ☺
Have a relaxing and blessed weekend...

Spilling the Beans

I have openly been talking about you here...just flat out spilling whatever it is that you've been telling me either behind the scenes in email or even in comments. Let's finish out the week in that vein, shall we? I think I am learning a few important things.
Yesterday, in comments, Ellen said that she never knows what she'll find here. She said it very nicely, too, referring back to a line from Forrest Gump. No, she did not say, "Shrimp is the fruit of the sea. You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, saute it. Dey's uh, shrimp-kabobs, shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo. Pan fried, deep fried, stir fried..." Thank goodness. Because if I were describing this blog that's as good a metaphor as it gets.
So what am I to take from Ellen's comment? Perhaps that I should, after nearly seven years of blogging, say right up front what a person can expect to find here. If I only knew. Sigh. I'm open to suggestions because I'm getting ready to change my profile picture and all that profile commentary that I used to think was cute, but doesn't actually say anything.
I live with my beloved and a small cat in a small town, in a small neighborhood, in a small house, at the edge of a bird sanctuary, also small.This blog is award and word verification free. ☺ (The yellow arrow? It returns you to the top quickly from any point on the page.)
Then, same friend who gave me what-for about the aged sheet music background, let me know that my sidebar looks a fright. Cluttered. People don't like to see that. It's like walking into a home and seeing game pieces on the furniture or little socks tossed willy-nilly into corners or books stacked precariously or old coffee mugs that need taking to the sink or goldfish crunched on the carpet (cracker goldfish that is). Pardon me, that was way too easy to describe. Ahem. So, perhaps I will get rid of all those inspirational posts and maybe lower things to the footer, though I am keeping my followers list in the sidebar. ( Aside: Thank you to all who have recently followed. If I can find you, I ordinarily follow back. Qoogle+ can = a pain. [Yes, I know that I misspelled that.])
So, if you wander in here and things have changed, yet again, please think nothing of it. I'm only taking your suggestions to heart. I'm starting with that sub-header(√).  I can't bear to see my name in lights that large. 

What's the latest best thing you've done on your blog?

Soap and Suds

~thank you, Diane!~

Just when I need a blogging topic, a knock comes at the door. Either that or I'm very good with the yakety-yak.

Diane is one of my favorite names. Do I sound like a certain talk-show host? Well, it's true — Diane is one of my favorite names because I have so many friends who share that name. This Diane blogs privately and oh, I can't wait until her husband retires so she may blog in the open. ☺ Then you'll get a proper introduction.

 One of her favorite Etsy stores is Mudlucious and Puddlewonderful. (I am really going to try to remember that name; once the melting in my yard begins, it'll be so delightfully euphemistic.) Anyway, I recently won a giveaway and was allowed to choose two soaps. Choosing soaps is so much fun! It's like selecting candy bars without the calories.

You may find that connection odd, but once my cousin and I ate a sliver of Ivory soap while we were having a bath. My mother was called to the phone and left two otherwise intelligent looking four-year-olds in the tub while she took the call. When she returned, she wondered where the soap had gone. °Hiccup.° Oh my. We were both some kind of sick. Just in case you've ever wondered, I have also eaten a plate of sand. Don't ask!

Now where was I? Oh. The name Diane. (That is where I was, right?) One of my other Dianes Diana commented yesterday that she can not always tell that she is visiting my blog. Hence yet another blog header and the large name below the header. It's a look and not one I'm sure that will last, but if anyone mistakes me for Pioneer Woman, it won't be my fault. Hahahahahaha...

Okay. Enough shenanigans. Have a fun day!

There's A Blizzard Over There!

Tulips...gotta love'em. As you can see, I'm still practicing with the square size. I've not got Lynda's method down pat, but I can, at least, get the square on. 

In other news, I am working on a new header suitable for Easter. I say this by way of warning. (Apparently, I change my header so often that some get whiplash.) I'm sticking with a theme —— a tea-filled tea cup. I have been blessed with so many and I enjoy using them. Here's a hint of things to come; hopefully, by this afternoon.

This should also explain the new lace background. Maybe.

Let's see...what else? Oh I am busily decorating for Easter. It's not my turn to host Easter, but I do have two grandsons who are newly interested in the Easter story so I hope that we shall make an Easter garden together *like the one that a young friend made last year.*

A storm is passing by very close; it is snowing just a few miles down the road, but has not and may not reach here.

Source ~Please forgive me, I am olden and love a good old-fashioned gospel quartet.~   Life's storms affect us in many ways. They can buffet our finances, our health, our mental stability, our family relationships, even our nation. With a blizzard just on our doorstep...I can feel the chill, hear the howling wind, and can see the ominous gray...this song has been on my mind. 
If you'd like to read the lyrics, you can find them here. The verse for me that causes a hot tear to sting:
Many times satan whispers, "There is no need to try,
For there's no end of sorrow, there's no hope by and by"
But I know Thou art with me, and tomorrow I'll rise
Where the storms never darken the skies.
Well, I should probably get back to header making or decorating or something. I know that I'll still be humming this, though. It's a real ear worm.
A beautiful day to you!

Not Waterlogued

Now that is a real Monet mess. And if Debbie comes in here suggesting that Monet and mess mean the same thing... ☺ I did it by using the oil painting option in Photoscape. I don't think it has the same quality as the program we've been seeing in Blogdom.

I promised Penny that I'd let her know when the ivy rooted. I just noticed yesterday afternoon that it had done. That is a pretty quick result — four days to a week. Not bad! 
Can you believe that next Tuesday is April Fool's Day? I can't. I do know this: March has been pretty much a joke. We are now learning that the monster storm will be passing out to sea, though it will nail those in Washington County (Downeast). Then, or so we're told, there will be a warming trend that cannot be stopped. 
~~~ On his way home Sunday, two baguettes and a biscuit fell from a neighbor's tree and landed with a thud on the hood of John's truck. Short of our neighbor's tossing bread into his tree, we are not exactly sure how it got up there. (After thinking long and hard, John thinks it may have been a crow.) Though we, of course, have no intention of eating this bread, it has caused us to think about divine provision and, depending on the age of the baguettes, perhaps divine protection. ☺ 
That's it from here. What is the oddest thing that has happened to you lately?
P.S. Oops. Forgot to say that Shabby Blogs returned at some point yesterday. Thanks, Pat, for telling me! So I tested both the backgrounds at the PC and I think my friend was right. The notes are probably fine for autumn, but seemed a bit "heavy" after having enjoyed the lace for the day. On the other hand, the lace is not quite "it" either. I'll keep looking.

Of Graphics and Backgrounds and Such

The email read something like this: Thank goodness you got rid of that old, brown background with the musical notes. It was depressing!
Got rid of? Depressing? I had not gotten rid of anything and I had no idea that anyone found whatever I had not gotten rid of "depressing." I really loved it. Really loved it.
So I left my iPad and fired up the PC and, sure enough, the background was gone and the little icon to Shabby Blogs was broken. I don't know what happened to Shabby Blogs; I do know that the owner had put the site up for sale. I hope that it will be back. 
In the meantime, my friend thoughtfully included two links to background sites: *The Digital Bakery* (the background I am using comes from there)and *Vintage Made for You.*
Yesterday, she sent me this funny, which I have already shared with some of you. I know that you might wish to stick in your own state or province.

Obviously, Charlie is visiting a "green" state. Ha!

Just to prove that we are in need of a little humor here...

~taken 3-22-2014~

We never know when "the luge" will be too slippery to use. It's a day by day thing lately. Today it will be too slippery, but Saturday afternoon, after three inches of snow fell, it was great. The boys talked their dad into bringing them over so they could have more time on the hill. How they have enjoyed that thing! And, good news for them, looks as if a rather large storm is on its way. Sigh.

Lastly, I would be remiss if I did not say a thank you to my dear friend Karen Harvey Cox at A Scrapbook of Inspiration for this darling little graphic made for me. It is so adorable; I love it!

As you can see, I'm using it for my "home" button. By the way, do you have a "home" page or button or something that allows your readers to return to your home page without having to scroll all the way to the bottom? 

My friend is not the only one who can stick her oar in. 

A great week to you!

P.S. For all you birthday girls out there... This was in my sister's email one day recently

~in my imagination~

Waiting

The first sign of spring —— green moss on a tree!

Never cut a tree down in the wintertime. Never make a negative decision in a low time. Never make your most important decisions when you are in your worst moods. Wait. Be patient. The storm will pass. The spring will come. ~Robert Schuller

Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord. ~Psalm 27: 14

Blessings this Sunday and all week through... 
reminder: comments are always closed on Sunday morning posts

Thank You

Abby (Little Birdie Blessings) has done it again. Yesterday, a beautiful package arrived so delightfully presented that I nearly didn't want to open it.

Look at that beautiful crocheted rickrack trim in yellow! Oh and that sweet bird sticker!

This sweet card was created by Abby's friend Darlene.

Inside were this book and vintage bookmark.

The book fell open to this page and it was soooo good that I thought I'd share. 

Last week, Abby sent the Isaiah verse bookmark and a birthday card. Thought I'd tuck them in, too. I'm sensing a theme here! (See the blue satin edging? I just found that inside the envelope this morning. Bonus!)

A closer look at the bookmarks...

Abby, thank you for all the times you have blessed me. If I were ever to doubt the love of God, I could just remember them and know that He has given me such a friend as you.
And, dear friend, thank you for reading here today: so many blogs; so little time. 
A beautiful spring weekend to you!

P.S. All photos were taken using the iPad camera for its handy little "square" option. I am still practicing Lynda's methods and hope to improve. See yesterday's post if this makes no sense. ☺

Copying Lynda

Now the photo above is something I might typically do. There's a whole lot going on. The camera probably is confused; I'm confused; you might be confused as well. By way of explanation, I am growing ivy in an assortment of vases and old bottles. I'm cheap frugal. That and I need to see some green.

I usually try not to crop my photos preferring to fill the frame. I resize them, but keep the proportions without cropping. If I do crop (rare), I try to get them back to the same ratios as they would have been from the camera, though resized.

Here I am trying to blatantly copy my friend Lynda who does crop. Lynda is a wonderful photographer whose work I have long admired and  have purchased. If you knew how cheap frugal I am, you'd appreciate what that means —— I really love her work.

  

And again with the copying or trying to... Thing is, you can try it for yourself because Lynda has provided wonderful explanations on the post titled Random Bits and How I Edit My Photos. Once there you will also find a link to a former post explaining her photography. Lynda blogs at Simple Things. Go see!

  Here's another thing I might typically do: take a picture of the grand, fresh in from sledding, and leave him out of it. Ai yi yi!
A happy day to you...  

Spring Surprise

I do love a joke. Woke up to a great one!

 Eight inches of new snow on the first day of spring. Hahahhahahaha...

 It's official: we're buried in it.

Are we discouraged? No! We have our trusty sleds and will make the best of it.
Thanks to Teachers' Workshop days, I have the added benefit of some grandboys who will keep me hopping for the next two days. After sledding, we're pondering baking some gingerbread boys, if only we can talk Jake into not thinking of them as Christmas cookies.
Any snow in your corner? How about a haboob dust storm?

P.S. Thanks to all who participated in the Note Card Party. You brought spring and good cheer. When I was checking again last night, I saw how well you got around and visited one another and it truly warmed my heart. ♥