Sacred Harp Singing in Seattle

I had a new experience this past weekend. I went to my first Sacred Harp Singing. This style of singing is not to preform, but for the enjoyment of the singers themselves. The tradition goes back to the beginnings of our country and the need for people to learn to sing harmonies. Why? Well there were no or little instuments. So songs were written in part for people to sing. I have been to alot of singing events in my life, but nothing like this. The sound is heavenly, litterly. If you can stand in the middle where you can see the leader of this song is, you can get the full experience of the sound. So, I am hooked! It is AMAZING!!!
I will be making more trips to these singings, as they are all over the US and Europe. They are predominate in the south. If you have a chance check it out at: www.awakemysoul.com
It is also called Shape note singings or fasola.

Valentine Cake for My Sweetie

Here is my Valentine for my honey buns...he loves sweets...so this is what I gave him. He loved it! I had a piece too, even though I am not eating sugar these days. But we celebrated together, so I sat and had some with him. But back on my no sugar again today. I am heading out of town and there is a promise of a feast where Iam going, so I will need to behave myself!

Wire photo display

This wire photo holder is a Martha Stewart product. I bought it by mail order some years ago (Martha's pre-prison days) from her catalog. I liked that catalog and I saved them! They had some good decorating ideas in them as well as things for sale. Anyways...it is a great way to display some old photos and have easy access to them. I can just take one down for a project here and there. You can't really see the wire holder because I obviously have it totally covered up. This is in my office and very handy for my picture projects.

Vintage Tea Party Invitation

I found this little handmade tea party invitation in a book I got at the thrift shop. I love paper craft, so I thought I would use it as a sample and make some up for the next tea party I am having. Oh, I know you can buy nice ones these days...but they just aren't the same as the handmade ones. This was a Japanese tea, so they used a Japanese style cup for this. I will probably add a handle and make it more Victorian. But the basic idea is darling and worth repeating!

February Banner

We made these February banners last year in a Mary Janes Farm Chapter meeting that I hosted in my home. I kept mine to use again this year, so it is hanging on the front of the refrigerator. I copied a page out of an old book onto parchment like paper, then I scalloped the edges, glued it onto red paper, and embellished it. It has little festooning flowers on the corners with red glass glitter highlighting parts of the page. Last was a red tinsel pipe cleaner as the hanger. This old book had pretty pages for each month of the year.

Life is not measured...

Life is not measure by the number of breaths we take,
but by the moments that take our breath away.

This plaque was a gift to me from my son, Zach and his wife, Tina for my birthday. I have loved this saying when I have seen it around. I think the warm colors used on the matting and frame are great and will fit into my home very nicely. It will be hung in our office above the window. Once I get it hung I will reshoot it and show you. Thanks so much Zach & Tina.

Old Victorian Standup Valentines

These two old Valentines had belonged to Tim's grandma, his dad's mom. She had a nice little box of them collected from her childhood.
So last night Tim's mom gave me these two for a birthday gift. One of these is from a girl with the last name Atkinson, which is my children's last name. So she felt it appropriate they go to me. They are very delicate. These are the standup style, with three separate lithographed pieces that fold down flat. I love old Valentines, so this will be a nice addition to my collection. These are probably the oldest ones I have. Thanks mom in law. I love it when she gives me old things that had been in the family. I will treaure these always.

Me and My Sweety

Here is Tim and I at Nate's Pizza last night. We do love each other and have worked very hard to make our marriage work. God has been good to us.

Happy Momma with Her Darlin' Sons

Here I am with my great sons, Zach, on left, and Tyler on right. This is after we had Nate's Pizza for my birthday dinner. I try to get my kids to let me get pictures at every event and I am so glad I do this. Then I can pick through them once I get home and see them on the computer screen. I like to have a lot of pictures to choose from. We took about ten of the three of us, but this one we all had our eyes open and are smiling...yeah it really takes that many shots sometimes to get a good one! I am proud of my boys!
No daughters here tonight, one working and one in Alaska, sadly.

It has arrived!

Well, I got a wonderful surprise on my birthday, yesterday, in the mail. A large envelope was carrying my DAR certificate. So other than the swearing in, which will happen on Friday the 15th, I am officially a member. I have my national number. All of my hours of research have paid off for me. In this picture I am holding the certificate and sitting at my desk, which is where the greatest part of the research too place.
You can the screen saver on my laptop has an old market on it. This market was owned and ran by my grandparents in Chico, California back in the 1940's. It is still there, although my grandparents have moved on to heaven.
Behind me (you cannot see it in this picture) is the three drawer laterial filing cabinet that holds my genealogy files. It has been a blessing because of it's convenience. The book shelf you can see behind me is an old lawyer's book shelf. It is missing the glass pull down doors, but I love it anyway. I got it at a yard sale for $100.00 a few years back.

Pumping Iron

The iron foot peddle that is! Tim is testing it to make sure it works.

My Hubby's Hands

Here is a picture of Tim working on the belt of my treadle sewing machine. I love that he can do lots of things...he is quite handy! And he loves me too...what more can a woman want? Thanks to my hunk a burnin' love...tee hee...that's what I call him. :)
God has blessed me with him...and I am so grateful!

My Treadle Sewing Machine

Isn't she lovely? I think she is a beaut. She has not had a working belt on her since I have owned her, so I have not been able to use her. But last night my dear hubby got the leather piece I had bought and started to make the belt usable. The wire staple was missing, so he made one using a nail, but that was too thick. So he found that a large paper clip worked to bring the leather together to make a 'belt.' Wallah...it seemed to work.
Now, I was gone most of the day so I did not get to try to sew with the machine. But tomorrow is a new day and I am planning to give it a whirl. (I was born in 54 and I will turn 54 tomorrow.)
I have the blocks for a family quilt that need to be put together. So I am a thinkin' I will use this machine to sew those pieces into a quilt. How quaint.
I love the old fashioned ways of doing things, so using this machine is right down my alley.
I will let you know how it goes.
This machine has some lovely detail on it's front. Click on the picture to see it better. The drawers have wood branches around the handles. I found this old treadle at a yard sale about seven or so years ago. I paid $35.00 for it.
I am very excited to be able to get her running again.

Costco Goes Green

The bag on the right is one of a pack of three I got at Costco a few weeks ago. These bags hold a good bunch of food. They sell in a pack of 3 for about $3.50, if I remember right. These are easier to handle than the boxes you usually get your food put into at Costco. But I tried to use them at Walmart the other day and found they are not the best for what I buy there. I had selected a bunch of canned goods for stocking the pantry. But that bag was like carrying a ton of bricks when it is full of canned goods! So I quickly decided that was not the way to go, unless you want to use them for the big packs of tp or paper towel.
The bag on the left is the one from Super 1 Foods that I found today. The Costco bag looks to be about twice the size of the green Super One bag, but it will really hold about four times as much. See my post about the green bag.
Anywho...these are my tips of the day! Kinda silly, huh?

Going Green

For a few months now I have been carrying my own cloth bags into the grocery store (well, when I remember to take them). Then today when I went to Super 1's 8am to 8pm sale-they had these bags stacked up at the check out. So I asked about them and they were only .25 today. So I bought 12 of them, figuring when I do a major shopping I usually use about 12 bags. The price goes up to a $1.00 tomorrow, or so the cashier told me. So being the bargain shopper that I am I got them today. The nice thing about these bags are that they have a piece of cardboard in the bottom and they stand up. My other cloth bags are hard to load with groceries because they are limp and you have to hold them open and load at the same time. It usually frustrates me by the time I have them full of food.
So these will stay in my SUV and I will always be ready for shopping.

Ice Cream Truck in high snow

Here is my ice cream truck with snow all around it. It keeps snowing here everyday, keeping Tim on his toes with the shoveling. But this gives him some exercise, so it is okay. This is a slow time for him as far as work goes and the snow does not help. Nobody has windows installed in this weather, nor much else done. But God provides. So we do not worry. The snow is beautiful and we need to enjoy it while we have it...before we know it the heat of summer will be upon us. Then we will complain about that.