Just a glimpse

View from a boat

Mr. T and I were able to take a badly needed overnight getaway this past week.  I hope to post more pictures, perhaps tomorrow, but wanted to just put up a glimpse today.  The getaway was short and much of the time was spent with friends, but we felt that God expanded our time and that we packed a lot of refreshment into it.  We are very thankful for the opportunity to get away, even briefly!

View from our B&B

Vintage strawberries

It's been awhile since I shared any photos of my strawberry collection, which seems to just grow and grow.  People very frequently give me strawberry items as gifts.  A few things in my collection could be classified as vintage (and one or two are antiques) so I thought I would share some of those today.  (I'm realizing there are yet more I haven't taken pictures of yet!)  To simplify my post and save time, I will just post pictures and captions.  These are all older photos.

Little vintage dish given me by a friend; vintage doily.

I use this mug, probably from the 1970s or early 1980s, to hold pens and pencils.

There are a few items in this photo, but the antique bowl is what I wish to show you.

Years ago a friend gave me this antique cookie plate that belonged to her mother.

This pretty strawberry crock holds utensils.

This tray is from the 1960s or 1970s

Little vintage sugar bowl with the same red doily

I think this ceramic cookie jar is vintage too.

My sister-in-law found these McCoy items in cleaning out a house.  They match a crock that I already owned!

The back of a hot pad made by my friend J. using a vintage pattern and vintage feedsack fabric.

Front of the same hotpad

This hot pad is not vintage, but the embroidered design may be.  My friend Ruth found the partially stitched design and used it to create a gift for me!

I have several of these linen towels from the 1950s

Hope you've enjoyed these vintage strawberry things as much as I do.  Linking up today with Share Your Cup Thursday andVintage Charm.

Stacking them up

During this recent bout of eldercare, I've had very little time to do any real crafting.  It's had to be mini projects that could be done in bits and pieces of time while waiting here and there.  I simply can't stand to be idle while I'm sitting and waiting, so I've crocheted.  I've made a couple of dishcloths, but mostly it has been these lovely double-thick hot pads for the table.

Recently, my friend Sandy saw me crocheting and observed that I must have quite a stack of hot pads by now.  Actually, I told her, it's not as many as one might think.  These are worked on in tiny increments of time.  I just checked to see how many I've done, and it's nine.  Only nine.  Nine hot pads for the gift stash.  Nine that I wouldn't have on hand, if I hadn't taken those few minutes here and there.

For those who may be interested in the pattern, you can find it here: Scalloped Potholder.    I will warn you, though,  that making these, trying out different color combinations with the cotton yarn, is somewhat addictive.  Here's how the ones that I have done stack up:

The ombre here is called "Freshly Pressed".

This twist yarn is called "Candy Sprinkles Twists"

The ombre here is "Cool Waters"

These include "Country Sage" ombre

This ombre is called "Lotus Blossom".

I'm sharing today with Sandi's No Place Like Home and Bernideen’s Tea Time, Cottage and Garden Blog Party.  Also linking up with Share Your Cup Thursday  and the Show and Tell Link Party at Flamingo Toes.

Quote of the week

Drops of dew edge these wild strawberry leaves like rhinestones!

Lately I've been trying to spend some time going through my Yahoo Inbox -- I have saved emails going back a couple of years.  I like to go through, read, pin, then delete ideas I've saved.  Slow work, and not something I get to every day, but it feels satisfying when I can accomplish a little bit.  Today I came upon these very true words from a blog post by Sarah Beals at Joy-Filled Days.

"When your weeks are the busiest, I’m telling you, it’s important to notice the little things of beauty all around you. God is such an amazing Creator and His beautiful creation is a feast for the eyes and a reminder of His watch care in the smallest details of life."

Wow!  Is that not so true?  I've noticed that so often in this busy season of eldercare, when my mind is overloaded and there's little energy or time to spare, God will draw my attention to something beautiful He has made: dew on leaves or cobwebs; a starry night sky; a deer or a bear crossing a quiet country road; delicate, spicy-scented ferns; wild roses -- oh, there are so many lovely things to see.  And every one is a reminder of the care and attention to detail on the part of our Creator God.  A powerful reminder that this same God, the God of the universe, cares for every detail of our lives. 

I want to note also that in my link to Sarah's blog above, I linked to this specific post: Friday Favs, where you will find some wonderful hospitality tips and some tried-and-true recipes.  Sarah is a busy mom, foster mom, and pastor's wife, as well as an artist and writer, and anything she posts is well worth the read. Her practical tips in this post are a great encouragement.

Hope this quote is a blessing to you today.  It surely was a blessing to me!

Simple summer decor

This time around I am keeping my summer hutch fairly simple.  Often I will decorate it with strawberry items from my collection in June and July, then for August I will switch to seashore-themed items.  For the past couple of years I have just kept the strawberry items up all summer.  It works because my kitchen has a strawberry theme year round!

Eventually I would like to start a small collection of patriotic or red, white, and blue items to use in my July decorating, but that's a future project.

This year I have incorporated some strawberry things into my hutch but have not used them exclusively.  I so enjoyed the look of jadeite and milk glass for spring that I kept it up for summer.  I'll simply show a few pictures and add captions.

A closer look at two of the shelves

I absolutely adore this little blue strawberry bowl which my daughter found in an antique mall in Idaho.  I recently acquired the pretty blue Fire King mug in the Kimberly pattern.  Love how it looks with my blue strawberry bowl!

A few more things; a summer mug, silver baby cup, strawberry sugar shaker

Front-door wreath: simple with daisies and American flags

Closer look

Baker's rack

Strawberry book-page banners I made a few years back

Strawberry banner at a window

Hope you've enjoyed this peek at my simple summer decorating.  Happy Summer, everyone!

I am linking up today with Sandi's No Place Like Home and Bernideen’s Tea Time, Cottage and Garden Blog Party.

Happy Fourth of July!

I hope that all of my readers will enjoy a great day of celebrating the Glorious Fourth with family and/or friends!  We will be attending a 4th of July picnic later in the day, with fireworks to follow in the evening. 

For something a little different today, I am going to share the July 4 page from my summer devotional book for kids, This Land is Our Land.  This book has a patriotic theme and also allows kids to "visit" each state of the USA to learn a few interesting facts about each one.  So here's today's page:

 "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage."  (Galatians 5:1)

It's the Fourth of July -- America's Independence Day!  On this day, we celebrate the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.  This important paper was signed on July 4, 1776, and it declared our country to be free and independent from being ruled by England. Because our independence was won by way of war with England, we celebrate with fireworks, which remind us of gunfire and "bombs bursting in air" as our national anthem says. 
 
We are thinking today about the state of Michigan, and it’s a great place to celebrate July 4th. One of the neatest places to celebrate is on Mackinac Island, where they have an Old Fashioned Fourth of July.  An old Revolutionary War fort is on this island. At the fort, there will be military demonstrations, gun salutes, and patriotic music all day long.  

At 10 a.m., every 4th of July, there is a stone-skipping tournament on Mackinac Island. This year is the 48th one. You can watch this interesting contest or even skip stones yourself. If you get hungry, there will be an All-American Picnic served on the Fort Mackinac parade ground. The food will be served by the Grand Hotel and will include barbecued ribs, grilled chicken, hamburgers, hot dogs, corn on the cob, salads, and desserts. At dusk, you will be able to watch spectacular fireworks over the Round Island Lighthouse. What a wonderful way to celebrate our country’s independence!
 
Our verse today is a good reminder that as Christians, we have been set free from sin. How were we set free? We were set free from sin by the death of Jesus on the cross. He paid the price for our sins, but it cost Him His life. Are we thankful and grateful to Jesus for dying so that we could be free? If we are, we will want to live in a way that pleases Him. We will not want to get tangled up with our old sins again.

* Thank Jesus for dying on the cross for you. Thank Him that he has made you free from sin.  Ask God to help you live in ways that please Him and are a good testimony to others.  Ask Him to help you not to get tangled up with your old sins. *

Hope you have enjoyed this somewhat different post.  Happy Independence Day!

Christmas in July at my Christmas kitchen!

Yes, I may regret this (but I don't think so!): I am celebrating Christmas in July at my Christmas blog, Mrs. T's Christmas Kitchen!

So far I have scheduled a few posts and published two.  There are likely to be poems, recipe, craft, decorating and gift ideas, scans of vintage Christmas cards, ideas for planning ahead (you do realize there are only 175 days left until Christmas, right?) and more. Why not head on over to my Christmas kitchen and see what's cooking?

Taught of the Lord

I thought I would share just one more Scripture post, this one from my quiet time yesterday.  Again for June 30, the passage in the Scripture writing challenge I was doing was just one verse, so I decided to spend a little extra time in God's Word and SOAP the verse, which was Isaiah 54:13.  It was a blessing to me, so I thought I would share it today.

S (Scripture)=  "And all thy children shall be taught of the LORD, and great shall be the peace of thy children."

O (Observation)= We always have to be careful not to take a verse out of context.  This looks like a simple encouragement to parents to teach their children of the Lord, but it is something quite different.  This verse is speaking of a time yet future when Israel will be restored to her privileged relationship with the LORD.  All of her children will be taught of Him.  Accordingly, Israel will be blessed with great peace, rather than the turmoil that has resulted from the nation's long history of disobeying God.  Righteousness will prevail.

A (Application)=  Even though this verse is absolutely speaking of Israel, I do see some ways in which I may apply it to my Christian life.  As God's children, we need to be taught of the Lord.  Often this takes the form of being taught God's Word by a pastor or Sunday School teacher (and it's vital that we avail ourselves of such teaching).  But we also need to be spending time in God's Word on our own, allowing Him to teach us as we learn and apply His Word.  We can't say we have really learned something until we've begun applying it to our lives.

And as we learn and grow in the Lord, we have great peace in Him.  As God told Israel in Isaiah 48:18, "Oh, that thou hadst hearkened to My commandments!  Then had thy peace been like a river ...".  I'm also reminded of Psalm 119:165: "Great peace have they that love Thy law, and nothing shall offend them [or, literally, 'they shall have no stumbling block']."  Loving God's Word means obeying it.  And obedience always brings blessing.

P (Prayer)= "Lord, I thank and praise you today for Your Word!  I thank You that I have the unfathomable, undeserved blessing of owning multiple copies of the Bible in my own language, and that I have the freedom to hear Your Word taught and to study it for myself.  I pray that You will help me to apply its principles to my everyday life, and I thank You that the Bible has the answers to all the issues of life.  I praise You for the peace and joy that is ours as we live and walk in obedience to Your Word, and I thank You for how You will help me to do this.  In Jesus' name, Amen."

Have you used the SOAP method of Bible study?  It's not the only method of Bible study I use, but it's a good and very helpful one, especially for short passages of Scripture.  The longer days and somewhat slower pace of summer are perfect for fitting in some extra time in God's Word.  I love to have my quiet time outdoors in summer!