GIVEAWAY............Hands of Friendship............!!!!

Hello Dear Friends!!

I know I have been promising a giveaway! So I will be having FOUR!!! That's right four total!! This is number one and two. You all mean so much, and I wanted to give extra chances. The first giveaway will be for these two pendants. Hand of Friendship I and II. This giveaway is for ANYONE!! You do NOT have to be a follower. Just leave a comment. I will provide a button so if you want to post it you will get an extra entry to win, but it's NOT required. The next drawing will be for followers ONLY. I love you guys. I appreciate EVERYONE whether you follow or not, and your comments and kindness mean so much.

DRAWING HELD OCTOBER 23rd 2010

WHAT are you making Wednesday?.................

Hello All!

I hope you are all feeling happy and healthy!! I am so inspired by all the beauty I see in your homes, creations, blogs and lives !!!!! What a gift you are. To your families, friends, homes, animals and people you hardly know, like me. I thank you for it. This week is a picture of one of the boxes I made awhile ago for a bead swap. It is a plastic snap container. It has vintage rhinestones and seam binding on the outside, and a variety of glass, lampwork, and crystal beads inside. My partner wanted aqua and purple. Thanks so much for dropping by and saying hello!

.Autumn Is Almost Here.......A LATE FREE Image Friday.

Hi Dear Friends!

Autumn is one of my favorite times of year. Spring is the other. I love everything about this Season, it ignites the senses!! The riotous color of leaves, so bright and beautiful. As a child I enjoyed the crackly sound they made when you walked on them. The smell of woodsmoke always brings back memories, the thin wisps rising from chimneys. Pumpkins, mums and scarecrows perched on door steps to welcome family and guests alike. Who doesn't thrill at the sight of a giant harvest moon??

However my most favorite, is the kitchen arts. My step-mom makes the BEST pumpkin bread ever!! It's a beautiful loaf, a rich orange color, moist and redolent with spices, it's synonymous with the fall. Let's not forget pumpkin butter, another delicious treat. Especially yummy on whole grain bread, maybe with a little smear of cream cheese. Remember the joy of those crisp and juicy apples. Pies, fritters, applesauce, cider and apple butter. Of course it wouldn't be Fall if we didn't mention the savory soups and stews. Whether you make them in a crock pot or they simmer away on the back of your stove. The whole house is perfumed with their yummy goodness.

So for those of you who like to share your Autumn bounty, whether a jar of preserves or spiced nuts, here are some labels for you to dress up your jars. I hope your season is warm and wonderful!!

Right click to enlarge, then left click to save................

A (Belated) "WHAT" are you you making Wednesday??

Hello Wonderful Bloggers!!

As usual I am behind!! It just takes me forever to get things done. I often don't get around to, or feel like, plucking my eyebrows until I realize (or one of my son's oh-so-kindly-points out my resemblance to Bert from Sesame Street) I am looking like a Sasquatch!

The picture (*sigh* still no camera) of this weeks offering is courtesy of Paula and her wonderfully wild tag swap. I sent it to her as a hostess gift. You can't see all the little western charms, but there's a hat, cactus, six shooter, etc. Vintage brass and colorful buttons, and some charms created by yours truly. Mosey on over and say Howdy if you get a chance. She's downright friendly. Thanks again Miss Paula!!

What are YOU making??? I'd love to see!

A LATE FREE Image Friday........................

Hi Dear Friends! I am sorry I am late in this post, as well as catching up on your lovely blogs. Here are a few images that include "MOTHER" my own mom would have been 63 on 09-09-10. I miss her. I hope you are having a WONDERFUL weekend too!

WHAT are you making Wednesday?.................

Hello Lovely Blogger Friends!!

I hope you are all recuperating from a long weekend of "rest". This weeks post features a lovely tag made my Cindy of Whimsical Musings. She turned one of the images from here into one of her lovely works!! Please visit her. She has a Show Your Creative Spirit link up going on! The other pictures are tags courtesy of Paula's Palace of Altered Art I made them for her oh-so-fun Wild West tag swap!! Stop in and say "Howdy".

The Gift of Age

In this day and age of "Beauty Miracles" lipo, pulls, tucks, pinches, lasers, and scalpels, every magazine, TV show, and ad tells us we need to look "young." Even if we are decades out of our 20's and firmly settled in middle age, such as I am. Although I loathe to admit it, I am guilty of wanting to look younger, although I feel 100 years old!!

Yet there is a part of me that thinks we should embrace our age and love ourselves as we are. I no longer have any grandparents, yet I loved them as they were. My grandfather's green eyes crinkled at the corners when he smiled. I remember with great fondness seeing his work worn and calloused hands shaping the granite or marble he turned into beautiful markers. Whether wrapped around his coffee cup or clasped in prayer, I wouldn't wish them to look younger. My grandmother's hair turned white early. She had it "done" each week. She wore red lipstick and was very striking. She didn't try to color or change her hair, she didn't need to. I would have been aghast if either of them had suggested changing anything!! To me they were perfect!

It seems that our old people are no longer valued and respected as in the past. Lovely grey haired grandma's who stirred up soups or read stories, their hands covered in now delicate and paper thin skin. Whose gentle and aged faces were beautiful. The lines showing where years of smiles have been. Grandfathers like mine who would read me stories, and let me stay up late watching westerns until my eyes burned. Thinning hair still combed in the same style for years. His deep, rich, voice singing the songs of the "Inks Spots" to me.

Yes, I miss seeing little old ladies with hats firmly placed on their blue hair shopping at Five and Dimes. Always in dresses with their clip on earrings. They always had the smell of old time powder or perfume. I miss men holding open doors, making sure the lady always walked on the inside on the sidewalk, or helping her with her coat. Things I try and teach my own sons.

It instills great joy in me when I see two old people holding hands. Having a great love that has spanned years. The kind that has outlived fads, hard times and great changes. I hope for all of you love of family, friends, lack of want, and good health!

"REMEMBER THE GIFT OF OLD AGE IS NOT A PRESENT EVERYONE GETS."

FREE image Friday

Reading..... 'Riting .......'Rithmetic....... Taught to the tune of a hickory stick............

I know school has started for some children already. Many making the trip for the first time. Their fresh scrubbed faces, pink cheeked and wide eyed, waiting to see that that big yellow bus. Mothers or Fathers, often teary eyed, nodding to them that it will be alright, as they take those first tentative steps through the swinging door.

The feel of fancy new backpacks, and little hands that haven't quite outgrown their baby-ishness hugging pencils. Their sound scratching across crinkly new paper. I don't think we ever forget the smell of crayons, no matter how old we get. Let's not forget the "I Love You" notes from mom, found in pockets, perhaps with a special treat.

Gone are the days of apples polished till they shown, sitting on a Teacher's desk. I haven't seen, or smelled paste in years! Yet I would recognize it anywhere, even now.

Here are a few images I hope you can use. Whether your children are off to school, or you are taking a trip there down Memory Lane. Just don't forget it's your turn to clean the blackboard!

To Adam and Eve Home was Paradise. To Us Paradise is Home.

I just wanted to share a tiny bit of my bedroom with you. This is a view of my soft pink dresser. (Why yes, that DARLING baby pic is me! TeeHee!) I MUST have candles and oil lamps, especially in the Fall and Winter. I love food scents, (go figure) pumpkin, cinnamon and spice, cloves, banana bread. In addition the warmth of a flame always makes me think of the comfort it must have brought in the time before electricity. The crystal lamp was a splurge bought years ago. The pretty pink vase and flowers are from my mom's home. I have a large white mosquito net over my bed that puddles to the floor. Just for looks, not mosquitoes! The last picture is a view through the netting at night. Thanks for the visit, and stop by and see me again!