~Simple Fall Decor~

Happy Wednesday all!

I'm so thankful for another gorgeous sunny and warm day.  It's 65 deg F and headed for 70 something!  You can't ask for much better weather at the end of September than that.

Our youngest daughter will arrive tomorrow, we are excited about her visit.  We are going to take her to visit the Black Hills in South Dakota.  My husband is in bad need of a vacation and so we will be gone for a few days, not many.  If I disappear again, you will know why.

I have decorated my favorite little spaces in the kitchen for Fall, so orange and red are now in evidence.

 I took a lot of "stuff" out of my kitchen, I can only take clutter for so long, then it has to go.  God made us all so different, didn't he.  Some love lots of beautiful decor everywhere, some love just a minimal amount.  I'm somewhere in between, I think. 

 

While I was gone earlier this month, my husband bought me a new toy, a MacBook Air! 

I am having fun getting used to it and I prepared this post on it today.  It also has a nice photo program where I did this.

It has so many wonderful features, I will get acquainted with them all eventually.

Have a lovely day my friends!

~Wishing You Much Love In Your Heart...Sweet Peace In Your Soul...And  Joy In Your Life...

Always~ 

~A Linen Slipcover~

Hello my friends!  We are still enjoying beautiful warm, sunny days here in Manitoba.  What a blessing.

While I was at my daughter's house, she pulled out some lovely linen fabric that she had purchased to make a slipcover for her footstool and whipped this out very quickly.  She had purchased the footstool for its lovely lines, rather than for the fabric that covered the top of it.

This is the before:

 By the way, she found that sofa on Craigslist for $200.00.  It originally came from Macy's.  It's very solid.

This is the after of the footstool:

 A closer view:

You can see a bit of the wood under the slipcover, she likes the peek-a boo effect.

 She laid the piece of fabric on top of the footstool wrong side out and cut it about three inches longer on each side than the padded area.  Then she made darts on each corner and pinned it, pulling it tight to fit the top of the footstool snugly.  Then she sewed the darts.  For the side pieces she simply measured each side and doubled the fabric over, sewed each end and then sewed it to the slipcover.  Does that make sense?  Then she finished the raw edges with her serger.  It is very simple but nice, it fits her style of decor perfectly.  And linen is so nice to work with and always looks good.

 I think it turned out very nicely.  It is snug enough that the kids can sit on it and it stays in place fairly well.

Have a lovely day and please let me know that you have stopped by.

~Wishing You Much Love In Your Heart...Sweet Peace In Your Soul...And  Joy In Your Life ~ 

~Always~ 

 I will leave you with a beautiful bouquet of dahlias.  They grow so beautifully on the West Coast.

 

I'm Back!

Yes, I am back, I had an opportunity to visit my dear daughters and I jumped at it.

  

 I flew away to BC.

We had a busy and fun time.

What did we do?  Well, lets see...we went hiking...no photos of that today, I will do a post on it another day.

We went to the beach in White Rock...

Grandson enjoyed climbing on the rocks.

we picked blackberries...

Granddaughter enjoyed picking.

We visited my aunt Ruby and uncle Egon.  Aunt Ruby is my mother's older sister.

We went shopping at IKEA!

My daughter enjoys IKEA as much as I do, not so sure about her husband and son.

So many wonderful things to see.

 We visited a historical home built on the edge of the water in the state of Washington.  The view above is what they saw from the windows of this house.  I could live with that, how about you?

Even the outbuildings were attractive.

I love these windows and the window box.  No one lives there anymore, it is owned by the city or state, not sure which.

Thank you to all of those who came over from Ann's blog "On Sutton Place", you, along with my friends, made the post before this one my most popular one yet.  A special thanks to Ann for featuring my little cottage, you are so sweet dear Ann.

I missed all of you, (thank you to those who checked up on me) and I'm so glad to be able to blog again.  I have more photos to show you, some gorgeous beach cottages from White Rock and a trip to an antique store, just to mention a few.

See you soon!

~Wishing You Much Love In Your Heart...Sweet Peace In Your Soul...And  Joy In Your Life ~ 

~Always~ 

This is a shot of the Rocky Mountains, we flew over these mountains for about an hour.  The range is SO vast!

Another Day in Paradise

Hello my friends!  

When I turned on the radio this morning I heard the commentator say "Welcome to another day in Paradise."  They were referring to the weather, today is another gorgeous sunny day.  Yesterday the temps were in the 80's,and they will be in the 80's again today.

Today is my 21st wedding anniversary.  

I tried on my wedding dress this morning and I was able to get it on and take a few photographs.  Last year at this time I would not have been able to fit it, but I lost 10 lbs. this Spring and Summer and it fits! 

I love the lace detailing on the front, back and the cuffs.

So sorry for the blurred images, but I wanted you to see the pretty pleats on it.

I was one very happy girl the first time that I wore this.  I had been divorced for three years with two children, and I was working seven days a week just to keep food on the table and a roof over our heads.

I met Ray at our church camp.  I was very impressed with his kind demeanor and his gentle ways.  You see, previously I had been married to a very abusive, and totally selfish man.  I had asked God to allow me to find and marry a man who was the opposite to that man in every way.  When Ray asked me to marry him, I was over the moon with happiness.  He is truly the man that I prayed that God would send me.

Our first seven years of marriage were very traumatic.  We lost all four of our parents to disease, we struggled to put a blended family together and never did accomplish it.  He had two children and I had two, also.
Ray struggled with his health, he was unable to work at all most of those years due to fibermyalgia and cfs and several other things happened that kept life very unsettled.  Needless to say we spent those years grief stricken and hurting.
Lastly, my daughter, who lived with us, came down with cancer and we struggled to keep her alive for those many months of treatment and recovery.  Once she had completely recovered, life finally settled down.  Things have been pretty settled since then and we are so grateful!
Through it all God was by our side, strengthening us, encouraging us and sometimes carrying us.  
I learned that God will stay by our side if we allow Him to and He will prove His love to us again and again if we will allow Him to.  God has brought complete healing to my emotions and troubled soul.  It took a few years, but I feel whole today, thanks to my wonderful Savior, Jesus Christ.

God has given me a wonderful, kind and gentle husband and my heart is filled to overflowing with gratitude today.

~Wishing You Much Love In Your Heart...Sweet Peace In Your Soul...And  Joy In Your Life ~ 

~Always~ 

~A New Purse~

What a busy weekend we came through!  My husband finally had a day off and we went shopping together, something we haven't done in six months.

And I had my nine and ten year old grandkids with me yesterday.  We had a lot of fun. 

I saw a photo of a purse that I really like and I have wanted to make, so I took a couple of hours yesterday and finally made it.  I used a small polk-a-dot fabric for the lining and it has several inside pockets.  It seems that the purses that I buy never have enough and I dislike having all of my purse paraphernalia dumped together in the bottom of my purse, so  hopefully all the pockets will remedy that.  There is even a pen pocket in it.  Don't you hate searching through your purse for a pen?

Remember the apron that I made recently?

I used the leftover fabric on this purse.  I made up my own pattern, so this purse cost me just a couple of dollars!  You can't get much better than that.

That's what I've been up to, what have you been up to?

We are enjoying another beautiful sunny, but cooler day!  I hope you are too.

~Wishing You Much Love In Your Heart...Sweet Peace In Your Soul...And  Joy In Your Life ~ 

~Always~ 

End of Summer Loveliness

While perusing BHG's website and their vast store of images, I came across a few that you may have seen before, hopefully you won't mind seeing them again, if you have.  This is a mobile home that a very creative lady made look like a darling little cottage.  I am a sucker for lovely cottage images any day of the week.

This has to be my very most favorite make-over ever.

I love the map and this little kitchen booth.  If I ever re-do a kitchen again, I really want one of those in it.

The rest are random cottage images that I found at BHG.

Speaking of cottages, have you seen September's Cottage of the Month at The Old Painted Cottage?  The Secret Garden Cottage is featured this month, go have a look.

Next is a photo that a friend of mine took of me and her little one.  She entitled it "Making Friends".  The little one has the sweetest little head of strawberry-blonde hair.  She had pulled out what her mommy had put in it, so it was standing on end, I think it is so cute.

With that I wish you all a wonderful long weekend!

I hope you will have sunny days and fair evenings.

Hugs,