Just To Say I'm Happy

Yep, I'm happy.  Dozens of particular reasons. Here are a few...

God's awesome love...

His protection in difficult circumstances...

Freedom from fear...

Victory, in Him, over our enemies...

The power of His promises...

Abiding, safe, in His loving arms...

Yep, I'm happy today...and oh so grateful....

I pray for a joy-filled, fear-free week for all of you!

"The joy of the Lord is your strength."
Nehemiah 8:10

Happy, Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving Friends!!

For faith,

family, 

friends,

and

freedom,

I am forever grateful...

I hope you all have a wonderful, peaceful, joyous Thanksgiving holiday!! May the love and grace of God fill your hearts and homes anew, and may gratitude freely flow!

Kathryn & Andrew's Wedding Photos

(click any image to enlarge)

On November 7th, 2009, we were excited and honored to attend the wedding of my nephew Andrew to his bride Kathryn. It was a beautiful, fun wedding and reception/dance. We had a wonderful time and were so very proud of these two young people who have dedicated their marriage to the Lord...we wish them all the very best!!

Here are a few other family snaps from the event...

My sweet Daddy and Mom - the proud paternal grandparents of the groom...Andrew was their first grandchild

 

My older brother Rick and wonderful sister-in-law Sharon, the proud parents of the groom - their first born...

My awesome niece Avery, sister of the groom and a groomsman from the wedding party...

My younger brother Dave and his wonderful girlfriend Kelly and her beautiful daughter Destiny...

...yep, Kelly caught the bouquet!!! We think there is another wedding brewing!!  More to come...!!!

...even though it's in the poster above, I couldn't resist showing this sweet photo of one of the flower girls again (niece of the bride)...wouldn't you twirl in a fluffy dress like that too!!

...ain't weddings grand?

Clipart Kit & Calendars & More Christmas!

Howdy Y'all!! I'm happy to announce the availability of my newest downloadable clipart kit:

'Tis the Season to be Freezin'!

Click the title above to link to the kit in my Digital Boutique. It's only $4.99 for 18 cute "sticker-doodle" images, 4 word art selections, and 6 whimsical, coordinated background papers, and can be used for so many different crafty projects, scrapbooking fun, cardmaking and more! I hope you enjoy it!! And there are more Christmas kits in the works...please stay tuned!

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I am also happy to announce that I have re-issued my 2 Scripture calendars for 2010, and they are all ready to go BEFORE Christmas!!! These are the same calendars from the past two years and the interior images are the same (I did however change the cover on the "Cup RunnethOver" calendar), but they are still new to so many of you...I hope you will be able to share them as part of your gift-giving this Christmas...they make a great practical, affordable and inspirational gifts for your friends and family. And if you love the images, but don't need a calendar, all 24 images are available as notecards as well...

"My Cup Runneth Over" 2010 Scripture Calendar

"Wisdom & Whimsy" 2010 Scripture Calendar

Click the link below each calendar image to see ordering information and to preview all the images in each calendar. Here is the link to my entire CafePress shop so you can see other goodies, including the matching notecards for each calendar...

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Finally, here's a quick pictoral update on our space at Whispering Willow. (sorry, but I just had to use a flash on most of the photos...it was just too dim otherwise) I added set of Moss Rose china to the big china cabinet and added a bit of Christmas greenery too. Since these photos were taken I added a small lamp to one of the shelves in the china cabinet to add some much needed light...

We sold the buffet/sideboard we had near the back of our space so we had to do a bit of shifting and adding...this vintage maple tea cart holds some of the items that had been on the buffet...

In the space where the buffet had been, we added this adorable little vintage white drop-leaf table and 4 chairs - these are from 1960 and provided the perfect setting for our selection of vintage red and white Christmas china and assorted goodies...  The table and chairs went on layaway the day we put them out, so, it's back to Craigslist for something new...

I painted the little pillow years ago...

Thanks for coming along with me on this little tour of the latest happenings in my life. I will have photos to share from my nephew's wedding as well, but I'll do a separate post for those... and I HOPE to have more time in the coming days to visit with you at your place - I have so missed keeping up with your news and your creative ideas lately...we'll definitely be in touch soon...

Meanwhile, have a glorious Thursday and a terrific weekend if I don't talk to you again beforehand!

Hugs & Blessings!!

Happy Birthday Maddie!

It seems like just yesterday when you were this tiny little chewing machine, not even big enough to jump up onto the ottoman yet...and here you are now, a 2 year old (a teenager already in dog years), just as cute and cuddly and wonderful as ever!

Thanks for the sweet, simple joys you bring us every day...and not just us, but our whole family and everyone that meets you. You are special Maddie...and we thank God for the gift of you!! Happy 2nd Birthday!!

Shop Space Expands and Goes Christmas!

Hi Y'all!!  Sweet Hubby and I are preparing to head to Beaumont to celebrate my Nephew's wedding, but before we leave, I just had to share photos of our completely transformed, expanded, decked out for Christmas space at Whispering Willow Gifts & Antiques (Tomball, TX). We were going to expand half again as much, but Mom and Dad have decided to pitch in and sell some items here as well, so now our space has actually doubled! The entire shop has expanded into 1800 more square feet and has been completely reconfigured...it is SO much easier to walk through and enjoy now...we are loving it! And we are thrilled that our space is right by the front door...the photo above is the first thing you see as you walk in to the shop. This is wonderful, but it also challenges us to keep it looking great and well stocked as it is a first impression.

 I want to write about each photo, but I am really short on time, so it'll be more like a little photo gallery with the occasional comment...enjoy! (Click any photo to enlarge)

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The yummy 12 place setting pink rose china you see in these photos ("Celebrate 2345 - Japan" is the notation on the china)...got it all for $10 at a garage sale!!!  I still can't believe they sold all this for that....amazing...  Also, the dining table, three chairs, big china hutch and two corner units were a Craigslist find we picked up last week for cheap. In these photos, the hutch is still empty....but later in the day yesterday we finally got three glass shelves from a glass store that it was missing and loaded it up with another set of china...I'll have to take and share photos of it all when we return...

To the right of the table is the shabby yellow antique pie safe we bought through Craigslist...I dressed it garden-style for Christmas...

We moved the sideboard (seen previously decorated for Fall) to the left side of our space and decorated it with a more traditional Christmas mix...  The chair you see is part of the dining set in the earlier photos...Mom, Dad and I worked together to clean them up and recover the seats with the nice black and cream check...

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I hope you enjoyed that little tour...  I'll be back with more photos early next week. We still have a fair amount of floor space to fill with more goodies...for example, I can't wait to show you the cute little shabby white drop leaf table and 4 chairs that we're going to add to the space and decorate retro red and white Christmas...plus the finished china hutch!  It's really all coming together! It has been A LOT of work (thanks Mom, Dad, and Hubby!!!!!), but I can't remember when I've had this much fun (oh yeah, decorating the studio was the same kind of fun!) Now we just need the right customers to come through and fall in love with what we have here so we can go shopping all over again for more stuff!!

"Roll your works upon the Lord [commit and trust them wholly to Him; He will cause your thoughts to become agreeable to His will, and] so shall your plans be established and succeed." 

Proverbs 16:3 (Amplified Bible)

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Have a very blessed, safe weekend friends! See y'all after the wedding!!