Impetus ~ that’s all it takes

Hi Folks ~ I hope you all had a good weekend. From reading blogs I’ve seen that a lot of you have snow, snow and more snow. Your temps of – degrees are mind boggling. I don’t see how you handle it. I’ve read about your staying warm and cozy, making soups and breads and working on indoor projects or crafts. Although one dear blogging friend had a catastrophe as frozen water pipes unthawed and burst causing her living room ceiling to fall to the floor, creating one big mess. Keep dear Sandra in your prayers as she deals with this and the chores and critters she takes care of on her farm, Thistle Cove Farm.

The temps did drop here a week ago Sunday, down to 42 and felt like it was 36. The only plants I did something about was putting most of the orchids in a sheltered area. Ferns got burned, but they’ll come back, never fear. They just look awful being all brown.

Thank you all so much for your encouraging words.  Being a widow has certainly changed my world. The past few weeks I’ve been having ‘down’ thoughts of what is my life about now. Nothing seems worth doing. I lost my job 2 years ago, and I don’t have my dear love here to share everything with like we did. He knew me inside and out, he loved me, he encouraged me, we were a team. As a believer in Jesus as my Savior, I am to do all things as to Him, not just for myself. That kind of puts a different slant on things. He is with me at all times, so, may I do all that I do with joy and thanksgiving for each new day I am blessed with. Each day is a gift and I can either squander it or make the best of it and move forward with graciousness. I choose the latter.

I’ve been watching you-tube videos, reading blogs and being inspired. Well, yesterday morning I was given a lovely gift from the ‘butterfly lady’ at church. She was doing some redecorating in her kitchen, and the piece she gave me she felt just belonged in Plum Cottage. I opened up her gift after I got home and I just kept smiling as tears filled my eyes. It is perfect and I love it. It was the ‘impetus’ I needed to make a change in my living room. ‘Impetus’ ~  the force that makes something happen.

Isn’t this beautiful?

My mind started thinking on how to change the ‘faux’ mantle and the wall above it, and I looked forward to getting up this morning to start working on the project.

Here is a ‘before’ photo this morning. There is a huge TV under the ‘faux’ mantle, an old top I pulled out of storage. I screwed a 1x1 inch strip to the wall at the level it needed to be to rest the back of piece on.  The front rests on the TV. I don’t watch it, and it’s too dang heavy and big for me to move it out, so I camouflaged it. I did that project in October of 2013. I liked the look, but that was done in the throes of grief, now that I’m into my 5th year I needed a lighter, happier look.

I put on my accoustic Spanish guitar playlist on you-tube, lit a nicely scented candle and got to work. I shopped my little cottage for a new look with this space with my lovely gift front and center so to speak.

Below is the ‘after’ look.

The two pineneedle framed paintings were painted by my dear husband’s grandmother, Mama, and Papa, grandfather, made the pineneedle framework around them. Pineneedles collected from this property. Mama taught herself to paint in her 60-70’s I think . She also taught my dear husband, and I am thankful for the love and encouragement she gave to him as a young teen.

Two shell floral pieces, don’t remember where we got these, flea market or yard sale.

The two amber/pink vases were bought at a yard sale many, many years ago.

I’m not sure where we got the bronze deer. They used to have riders, which were sort of a lid, we only had one rider. I believe they were inscense burners.

I bought the pink Himalayan salt lamp last year. It has a dimmer switch which is great for setting different moods. They are supposed to have good health benefits.

Everytime I look at this display now, I smile and am thankful for so much.

Have you ever watched ‘The Secret Millionaire’ show? This will make you feel thankful for your blessings, no matter the size. I have been thinking about ‘how’ can I, living on my very limited income, help others and have felt burdened. Then I got an upliting piece in my email yesterday or this morning.

“We can make a difference and huge differences.

Every Christian woman has access to a tremendous source of power—PRAYER.”

We may not always see answers to our prayers, but we can know that God is working in every situation and hears our prayers. So, when you see or hear of a need, pray.

***

Before I end this post, here are some roses for you.

‘Crepuscule’

‘Granada’

 

Pink ‘Drift’

Unknown

Below is the latest heart that I am working on.

This is what I did with the little weaving I made from my ‘Weave-It’ loom.

A little pin-cushion.

I made another weaving and thought it was going to be just fine, but three sides came out with the nice scalloped edge, and the fourth was awful. I tried again, the same thing, so for now I’ve given up. I have a new blogging friend through this. She told me she also had the same problem with one side and has also given up. Maybe someone out there can help remedy the problem for us.

Ok, that’s it from Plum Cottage.

Have a nice week ~ FlowerLady

COLD weather coming

Good Saturday morning Folks, well it’s that here in my part of the world. It is warm and humid right now, but that’s all about to change as rain is coming and that will bring the cold.  Tonight it is supposed to get down to 42 and feel like it is 36. Now, that will BE COLD here at Plum Cottage. At least I kept my radiant heat, portable heater down from the attic, it’s just hidden behind a chair in the living room. DH and I used to get this out of the attic together, one in the attic, handing it down to the one on the cottage floor. Last year a young man came and got the heater down for me and I decided to just leave it down from now on. We found this heater curbside over 35 years ago and it is fantastic.  It is quiet, and puts out the heat. (Of course, my cottage is tiny, around 675 sq. ft. with low ceilings.)

I’m thinking about some kind of homemade soup, just don’t know what and bread made in the bread machine.

There is going to be some bad weather for California with flooding, and then snow storms in the south. Be safe, dry and warm.

I took some photos of flowers and hope you will all enjoy them.

The first two are of azaleas.

This is Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow.

And Ruby Hibiscus. These flowers always bring a smile when I see them. There are several volunteer plants giving me much enjoyment.

The other day it was 58 when I headed out to mow around 8 a.m. and it felt wonderful. I also trimmed some low hanging branches that were hanging over the driveway. I worked outside for about 2 1/2 hours, and my back was cramping up after that, so I quit. There is still weed wacking to do, but that is for another day.

These limbs are all from the neighbor’s trees. They grow fast and have to be trimmed a couple of times a year. My DH used to keep this all in check on our side, using a ladder and his saws-all. I would then cut things up smaller and haul it all out front to be picked up. I drive a Ford Econoline van, and the limbs were hanging down too close for comfort. I’ve talked with 2 different tree trimmers who were going to call me back, they both know what the job is as they have been here, and I’ve not heard a peep out of either one.

I bought a new Fiskar pole saw with a pruner and a tree saw attachment a year or so ago, both the pruner and the saw are pieces of poop. Flimsy and the rope on the pruner part disintegrated in no time. Sheesh! I like industrial type tools, ones that will LAST, not have to be replaced in a short period of time. I do have an older pole cutter/pruner that I love, but the blades need to be sharpened and it doesn’t have a tree saw blade to change out with.

So working with what I have, I got brave, got out my newish ladder that I just love,  and got out my hand tree saw and my hand pruners, prayed, climbed the ladder and began the job. (I now wear a little fanny pack that holds my smart phone in case something should happen to me while I’m out working. This was suggested by my sis-in-law Sue.)

Here’s the before. I only cut limbs I could reach.

Below I marked the branches in gold so that you can see what I cut.

This is after, although it might be hard to tell what I did because of all that is still growing. The power company will come along eventually, as the limbs that are growing up straight are almost to the power lines. I think they did it last year. (I ‘love’ my ladder.)

Now for some more flowers.

A tiny orchid bloom.

Crepuscule blooms

I think this is ‘Homere’.

An unknown.

I believe this is a Drift rose in coral. I loved how the sunlight was hitting this.

This is the view from my window in my little creative space. Lots of butterflies visit the patio area because I have filled the space with butterfly attracting plants. Most of the red flowers you see here are Pentas. Different butterflies visit throughout the day. I also saw a hummingbird the other day sipping nectar from a flower not shown in this view. By the time I grabbed my camera it had zoomed off. The plant next to the window is Whirling Butterflies and is not in bloom at the moment. It’s like a fuschia color and I love the blooms dancing in the breeze.

In 2016 I had two blogging friends take up weaving on a loom. Their creations have inspired me to learn this craft myself. I only have two of these little weaving looms, larger one pictured below. The other is tinier than the one shown below and they are hard to work with. Plus I don’t like how the edges turned out. I had to go around and sew the loops together to keep it from coming apart. So obviously I did something wrong. But, I want to really learn to weave on a loom. I’m a beginner on a limited budget and want something well-made and not too large. So, any of you weavers out there please give me some suggestions, I would appreciate it.

Ok, that’s it for now.

Happy January ~ FlowerLady

Cats & hearts

Hello Friends ~ Here it is Wednesday afternoon the 4th of January. I’m sipping on a cup of green tea, sweetened with local palmetto honey, served with an almond poppy seed muffin.  This little break is hitting the spot. The muffins are from a box mix bought at Aldi’s on special, so not something they carry all of the time. Delicious and light. I set this little vignette up just for the photo, muffin is now gone and the tea cup is now on it’s coaster on my desk by the keyboard.

The heart above is finished except for

sewing on a back and stuffing it into a little pillow.

Here it is close-up. Ribbon roses which started out as cream and I colored them with my alcohol markers for coloring silk ribbon. There are seed beads, bugle beeds and fresh water pearls. Plus the rose cameo in the center, and mother-of-pearl buttons. I crocheted the border using Perle cotton. French knots and chain stitch done with embroidery floss. It is approximately 7 1/2 inches wide by 6 1/4 inches high.

Now for my first new project of the year, painting the black metal hearts that are hanging outside on my front wall.

This photo below was taken right after the cottage was painted last March, so no plants set back up yet. My ‘creative space’ is in that little bumpout room, 6’x8’.

Before

After ~ hearts painted aqua.

Now for some cats. These are Zebra longwing cats.

These cats are devouring a passion vine that I got at Butterfly World last year. There were LOTS of these cats in various stages of growth, but when I went out later, there were quite a bit fewer and I saw a lizard close by.

This was a bloom in October. The vine looks pretty shabby right now, but there is new growth and there are flower buds on it as well. The cats don’t eat those, just the leaves.

The cats turn into our state butterfly pictured below sipping nectar from Hamelia paten blooms, a favorite of theirs.

Another cat featured in this post, is Miss Tork.

Yesterday I was reading a gardening, widow friend’s blog, Gladsome Lights, and she metioned a little book she was given for Christmas. It sounded like one I would love to read, so I went to Amazon and found a used, but in very good condition book for $2, plus $3.99 shipping, so I ordered it. My first purchase of this year. I am looking forward to reading this and enjoying the woodcut prints inside.

Yesterday morning a light rain fell on my gardens, today a heavier one fell, neither lasting very long, but both better than nothing.

I need to mow, so hopefully will have some dry grass to do so before it grows too much higher.

Well, that’s it for now. Thank you all for your kind comments, they mean a lot.

Enjoy every moment you are blessed with, count your blessings, learn lessons from mistakes, love & forgive others.

FlowerLady

Joy in little things

Good evening Friends ~ I hope you all survived seeing in the New Year. I was in bed around 9, lots of fireworks woke me up around midnight. I am thankful for this new year and thank God for this first day of it.

Yesterday I washed a load of laundry and while hanging the laundry out to dry, I noticed a bit of ‘shell rock’ in what looked like to me, the shape of a heart. I bent down and picked it up and yes, it was a heart shape. I slipped it into my pocket and continued hanging out the laundry.

I forgot about the rock until I felt it in my pocket later. I took it out and put it on the lamp base of lamp I just moved from my ‘creative space’ to the living room. This morning I decided to take a picture of it because it was a gift to me from my heavenly Father, and I was just so happy with it. He knows my love of hearts, He also knows my dear husband would bring them to me when he found them. Well, as I was taking the picture, I noticed something that I could hardly believe. I raced, all of 6 feet from the living room to my creative space, sat in my chair, pulled up my art program, downloaded the photo and my own personal heart/seat of emotions, just became overflowing with love and thanksgiving.

There in this shell rock heart is a stylized ‘M’, (at least that’s how it jumps out at me),

which is the first initial of my dear husband’s first name.

I find this little ‘heart gem’ on the last day of 2016,

and see my dear husband’s initial in it on the first day of 2017.

God showed His great love for me in this small piece of fossilized earth, part of His creation that is ancient. To others it wouldn’t even look like a heart, just a rock on the ground. If you start looking for hearts, if you are into them, you will find some. It’s a great way to start a ‘free’ collection from the creator of the universe, be it rocks, leaves, pieces of wood, etc.

***

This morning one of my lady church family friends gave me the little devotional by Sarah Young, “Jesus Always”. In today’s reading was this:

“Search for signs of My loving Presence as you journey along the path of Life. Look for the little pleasures I have strewn alongside your pathway – sometimes in surprising places – and thank Me for each one. Your thankfulness will keep you close to Me and help you find Joy in your journey.”

Wow, I certainly felt this was meant just for me today.

***

I was given the book “Jesus Calling” on Valentine’s Day 2013, 2 months after my dear husband left this planet to be with God, by a sweet friend. For my birthday in March of 2015, I was given the book “Jesus Today” by another sweet friend. Today I was blessed with this latest book by Sarah Young, “Jesus Always” by a new sweet friend. These books are written based on scripture, but written as if Jesus Himself is talking to you. Scripture references are included at the bottom of each day’s reading. I recommend any and all of these to those searching for a closer relationship with our God, the Great Creator and Savior of the world, Jesus.

What a wonderful way to start this new year for me. May you all feel God’s love surrounding you and drawing you to Him.

Have a fantastic 1st week of this new year. Be thankful. All won’t be a bed of roses, we weren’t promised that, but we are promised that God will be with us through every step of our journey in this life.

Love, hugs & prayers to all of you ~ FlowerLady