A New Card

This is another of my latest cards. I put a card through the Cuttlebug machine to get the embossing on it. Added a white oval die cut and some paper punched "pine" boughs. In the center is an image of a pretty woman. Its all embellished with Swarovsky crystals and glittery ribbon.

Giving Thanks

I am thankful for my life, family, friends, my warm home, a good job, plentiful food, good health and for having found the kindest most loving man to marry next month. Life is good. Thank you Lord!

Happy Thanksgiving to you!

Hand Made Card

I love making cards. Here is one I made this past week using a pretty blue card blank, some snowflake print paper that I embossed with my Cuttlebug, a gold paper doily, glittery blue ribbon and a vintage angel print. It's a very simple design. Its all held together with a glue stick and double-sided tape.

Dinning out - slow down and savor

I can't think of a lovelier way to spend an evening than dinning out in a nice, comfy restaurant with family and friends. That was our experience Friday night at a local steakhouse. Joining us was my brother, his dear wife and their exchange student from Greenland. Needless to say, we had a very pleasant experience.

I think Friday evenings should always be set aside for dining out. At week's end I can think of no nicer way to begin the weekend.

When we dine out, the timer on the stove doesn't matter, the food is cooked to your preference and each person can order whatever savory dishes on the menu tempt their individual palates.

In many ways, dinning out is what meals of times past were like around our own dinner tables simply because we not only enjoy a good meal, but also great conversation and there is no real rush for it to end. Most times we dine by soft light (even candlelight) while pleasant music orchestrates our conversations that are embellished with laughter. We hear each word and taste each bite while a waiter serves the food and asks about refills. We linger, we savor, we enjoy. We should bring some of that dining experience home.

I have found such joy in simple things

I Have Found Such Joy

I have found such joy in simple things;

A plain, clean room, a nut-brown loaf of bread,

A cup of milk, a kettle as it sings,

The shelter of a roof above my head,

And in a leaf-laced square along the floor,

Where yellow sunlight glimmers through a door.

I have found such joy in things that fill

My quiet days: a curtain's blowing grace,

A potted plant upon my window sill,

A rose, fresh-cut and placed within a vase;

A table cleared, a lamp beside a chair,

And books I long have loved beside me there.

Oh, I have found such joys I wish I might

Tell every woman who goes seeking far

For some elusive, feverish delight,

That very close to home the great joys are:

The elemental things--old as the race,

Yet never, through the ages, commonplace.

--Grace Noll Crowell

Higher

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth

Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung High in the sunlit silence.

Hov'ring there
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.

Up, up the long delirious, burning blue,
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew -

And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untresspassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.

--Pilot Officer Gillespie Magee

Evening Under the Texas Sky

Venus, Jupiter and a little bit of electricity

Night

The sun descending in the western
The evening star does shine
The birds are silent in their nest
And I must seek for mine
The moon, like a flower,
In heaven's high bower,
With silent delight
Sits and smiles on the night.

--William Blake

Pasture Gate Silhouette

An Old Fashioned Thanksgiving

Only one week away, its time to start preparing for that famous Thanksgiving Dinner we so enjoy. This year we are going to my brother and sister-in-law's house in the country.
I'm bringing the homemade cranberry sauce (no canned sauce will do at all) pumpkin pies, and
the sweet potatoes--along with anything else I feel like making. And I love the cooking part as well as the eating part. What are your plans for Thanksgiving?

Less Than Perfect - But Still Lovely

This proud mule deer buck is missing one of the points on his antlers. However I appreciate how regal he looks in spite of it. He knows he lost that part of his antler doing something brave!

Beautiful Stillness

The Canada Geese migration is in full swing.

They look lovely silhouetted against the evening sky with a setting sun.

There is something special about a Sunday evening. This November Sunday evening was so beautifully peaceful as I stood on some ranch land not far from where I live. As the city lights began to glimmer on the horizon, the silence was broken by the sounds of a flock of Canada geese on their way to bed down on a nearby playa lake.

Vintage Guestbook

I paid a visit to my favorite antiques mall yesterday morning--looking for something and nothing. (just browsing the many thousands wonderful treasures). I found a stack of old books to rummage through and behold! I found a very special book. I have been looking for the perfect wedding guest book and found a vintage (yet unused) wedding guest and scrapbook with illustrations from Frances Brundage. It's just gorgeous and I'm thrilled. I couldn't get it to the cashier fast enough.

Just a few illustrations from inside the book

What I like about it is that its not only a guest book but a scrap book keepsake

Detail

Thanks to my little bird for holding the pages open. (and thank you Dale for taking the photos)

Beautiful Note Cards

I was surfing around on Tip Nut and came across a link to some amazingly beautiful handcrafted "thank you" note cards" Click right here and be amazed at how lovely they are.

Photograph of ballet dancer Cleo de Merode

New Beginnings - Starting Over

Sometimes I think back on the past with pleasure and sometimes I think back on the more recent past with pain. I have many regrets and I often wish for "do overs", but we all know that we must accept the past and go forward.

I never thought I'd be married three times in my life. But due to circumstances beyond my control--abandonment and death, I find myself about to take the vows of love and commitment one last time. The right one.

There is an old saying "The third time's a charm" and I find this to be true. I have been truly blessed with the love of my perfect soul mate...the one that God chose especially for me. I must admit I never felt that with the first two times down the isle.

This man is different. He makes my heart do things it has never done before--smile, yearn, feel content, giddy and full of anxiousness to get a new life started. Soon. What a nice Christmas gift I'm giving myself this year.

I can't top that one.