Blues at the Beach, a Blues Journal, and thanks...

Hi friends!

First of all, many sincere thanks for your prayers for my Sister-in-Law and her family after the loss of her mother. Sharon and her family is doing well considering - now the road through grief to healing begins... Again, many thanks sweet friends!

Secondly, I wanted to share some photos from last weekend's visit with our dear anniversary-celebrating friends from Colorado - Sue and Bill (love and miss you guys!!!). We had a wonderful stay at our sweet B&B in Kemah (The Clipper House Inn), and a lovely time at the shore and on the Strand in Galveston! As I was going through the photos from the beach and our room at the B&B, I noticed a distinct blue theme emerging. I loved all the colors together, so I will just post them in a row with no commentary.

Finally, I wanted to post a couple of photos of an altered journal I made as part of my Blog Birthday Giveaway - Myrna (the sweet winner) blogged about it here. The Decorating Journal has a blue theme, so I thought the photos would blend well with all the other blues

. So, here we go...with no further commentary...

Please say a prayer...

Hello friends,

If you have a moment, I would appreciate it if you could say a prayer for my sister -in-law Sharon (my brother's wife) and her family. Her mother passed away Monday. She was just 72. She had been in declining health overall, but no one expected this rapid decline. It was quite a shock. Sharon's family has been a part of ours for 27 years and we will all miss Helen....

Thank you sweet friends.

Colorado Company Coming!

Howdy friends,

We're excitedly gearing up for the arrival of my Colorado BFF Sue and her sweet hubby Bill who are flying down tonight to celebrate their anniversary with us for 4 glorious days!! Sue and Bill had a family wedding to attend on the very same day as our wedding last year, so they've never met my sweet hubby Johnny - needless to say we are all looking forward to this opportunity to share hugs all around and get all caught up !

As part of our activities, we are heading to the Kemah Boardwalk, as well as to The Strand in Galveston - lots of fun stuff to see and do. While we're in Kemah, we will be staying at the same wonderful Bed & Breakfast where sweetie and I stayed back in April. We'll be staying in the same adorable cottage we stayed in before (see photo below)..and Sue and Bill will be in their own equally adorable cottage just next door - such fun!!

It'll be so great to get down to the beach - we haven't been all Summer. And it will be especially great for my land-locked friends to see the glory of the ocean...

But mostly we just want to RELAX and talk....a LOT!! (oh our poor hubbies - Susie and I can do some talkin'!!) We will no doubt be giving God lots of glory for His incredible goodness to us all!!

I'll be back to the blog Sunday evening/Monday morning and hope to share lots of photos and highlights from the visit. I also have a new little blog project to share, an award to post, and exciting illustration news - all coming your way soon! Bless you as always for stopping by!

The Cookbooks are Available to Order!!

Wanna Order a Cookbook??!!

Photo, courtesy of the wonderful Miss Holly at Crown Laid Down
(she's the genius behind the cookbook project!!)

Hi friends!

Well, the Siesta Fiesta Cookbooks (the one I won the cover art contest for) are ready and are being printed and Holly is taking orders!!! You can click HERE or on the cookbook image at the top of my sidebar to send her an email order form. They are priced at $18 plus $6 shipping (shipping will be more for more than 2 cookbooks). This cookbook is a whopping 338 pages (97 pages of desserts alone!) It is also graced with photos and imagery, as well as sayings and anecdotes from the Siestas who provided the hundreds of recipes (click here to see some photos of the interior)!

Best of all, ALL of the proceeds of the cookbook sales go to building water wells through Life Outreach International in honor of Beth Moore and the Living Proof Ministries staff! You may recall that earlier I had stated the cookbooks would be $13.50, but since then there was an issue with the printer that made the base cost go up. Holly was determined that there still be $5 from each sale go to the well ministry, thus the price increase - I was more than OK with spending more per copy...it's quite a cookbook!

Hey, if you'd like to spread the word on your blog about this Great Cookbook for a Great Cause, click here for the information!

"Like cold water to a weary soul is good news from a distant land."
(Proverbs 25:25)

Shopkeeping, and Other Things...

"Shopkeeping"

I like the sound of that word. It may be a bit of a stretch for what I do when I rearrange and merchandise my little space at the antique shop, but I'll keep calling it that anyway. :o) This past Sunday (one of my 2 days per month that I have to work in the shop) was very slow, so I had time to do a bit of revamping and re-fluffing...and I managed to snap a few photos to share. I had a few new pieces to integrate, but mostly I wanted to swap the merchandise on two of the walls just to keep it looking fresh and hopefully bring some new focus on some pieces I've had there for a while.

(click any image to see it much larger)

**Edited to add: I am never able to get my photos clickable to see them larger no matter what I do...I even tested it this time and posted the post with just a couple of photos on it and was able to click them and see them larger...but when I posted the entire post, none of them are clickable!! Arghhh!!!!! I upload them through Blogger and this time I did medium format (which I would never have done if I knew they wouldn't be clickable)...anyway, if you have any advice, I'd love to hear it...I've also tried uploading the photos to my illustration web domain and just used the URLs through blogger...and I've had mixed results at best. Please help!!!**

Here's what the "blue" section looked like previously...it was OK, but I knew it was time for a change...

So, what I did was, I pulled all the stuff from the "pink and turquoise" section, and moved it to where the blue stuff had been...

These wall sconces were a really quick, easy redo - a coat of paint and teacups and saucers glued on as candle holders...


Here's what they looked like before...

As I said before, I swapped the pink and blue sections...here's how the pink section looked before I moved it- again, not too bad - just needed a little change of scenery...


Here's what the "new" blue section now looks like (btw - we sold the 2 corner units this weekend...they buyers are picking them up in a week or so, so we'll be revamping all of this again very soon)...


I grabbed the morning glory vine from the top of the china cabinet and used it to bring a little interest to the frame...as well as reinforce the blue theme...



Hopefully this arrangement will bring some fresh focus to both the frame and the round plaster relief plaque...

And I have had more fun doing different things with these little wall pockets...this time they are holding blue china saucers...

and here's a little redo of the shelf....

Now that the lamp is on this wall, I could actually plug it in which I hope will help sell it. (we aren't allowed to use power strips or extension cords in the shop, so the lamp has been off since I've had it in the shop....until now)

Oh, and the metal shelf it's on - I grabbed that out of my Mom's back yard...nice and rusty and shabby...


I finally put my notecard sets in the shop just to try them out...we'll see how they do... I dressed the boxes up just a tad with ric rac and ribbon....oh, please disregard my hokey little sign there...I didn't have time to make one properly on the computer so it's kinda homely...

Finally, I got this tall old shoe rack at a thrift shop for $5 on Saturday - it works perfectly as a display piece for my vintage linens....now more of them can be seen at once instead of being folded up as they had been previously...
July was a better month at the shop over all and I am encouraged by better sales in mine and in other's sections (I wasn't in the red this month on rent vs. sales)...so, we'll see how August goes...? Hopefully this little touch of shopkeeping will help...

BTW, I can't wait to show you what I've been gathering and preparing for Fall...should be fun!

Oh, and yes, some of these items here and others you've never seen yet will be available very soon on our upcoming little online boutique adventure - can't wait!!!

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Other Things...

We only thought that this little problem was getting better....this photo was from March when sweet hubby had orthopaedic surgery after severely injuring his finger at an Easter family gathering...

This is it today in the bright red cast...last Thursday, poor sweet hubby had to once again have surgery because the finger had dislocated again. This time the surgeon put pins in the finger to get it and keep it straight...it will be in a cast for about 6 weeks. Ugh. My sweetie is tough though and he says this doesn't hurt nearly as much as the first go-round...(I about fainted when I saw the pins in it today when we went to have the cast put on....yikes! Johnny thought it looked great because it was so much straighter than before!) But hopefully this will heal properly and sweetie will be able get at least limited use out of his finger again...as an electrician, his hands are pretty important to say the least, so we're praying for a full and quick recovery!

"Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer."
(Romans 12:12 )

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There's LOTs more going on that I'll share over the next day or two (an award, new illustration projects and more), but I'm heading off to bed for now. Thanks so much for coming by...it's always a joy to have you here!!

Already August?!

Happy, Happy August!!

My oh my, August came so fast for me that it's already the 6th and I'm just now posting my welcome-to-August post. Whoooshhh!! Oh, and my August illustration from the Calendar (above) is so serene looking...it is definitely a stylized version of real life...at least my real life. I actually have 2 green chairs like the one in the illustration (they were my Grandparent's)...but they are soaking wet and covered with pine needles, leaves and dirt following the good soaking we got yesterday from Tropical Storm Edouard. Oh and I wouldn't set a tea cup and blueberry muffin on my back porch table to save my life - it is, ahem, quite dirty...I can't blame that on the storm...just on my aversion to wiping it down every two or three days which is what it would take to remotely keep it clean...

You see, we live, basically, in a rain forest...I'm exaggerating of course, but it takes incredible vigilance (which I don't have) to keep my semi-covered porch clean in this soggy, wet, mosquito and tree-infested place. (Relax, I love trees, I just get frustrated that they insist on "shedding" all over my porch!) Oh how I sometimes envy the folks who live in dry climates who can actually put things like pillows and chandeliers and throws and silver tea sets and glass trays and such on their porches and leave them there for more than just a photo shoot...wouldn't that be nice...


Hey, that's OK. I love our life here - even if it is devoid of muffins-on-the -porch....I wouldn't trade it for anyplace, anywhere, because love lives here...in our home and in our hearts....




In celebration of August, I did want to share a couple of things that are special to me about this month in general, and this month in 2008 in particular. August is the month of morning glories - which I simply adore! Here are some photos of real,actual morning glories that I grew in Colorado...

BTW, if you like morning glories, check out Karla Dornacher's clip art/scrapbook graphic downloads here and here - just over-the-top adorable, practical, and very inspirational!

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Later in the month, my dear friend Sue (the sweetie I drew the FROG illustration for) and her awesome Hubby Bill are coming here from Colorado to celebrate their anniversary with Johnny and I for 4 glorious days!! We are SO excited to host them - oh what fun we will have!! (more on that later in the month) Well, it just so happens that I call Sue "Morning Glory" or "MG" for short. How I came to call her MG is a long story, but it involves spending many glorious early mornings (we are both morning people) at her lovely home on her lovely porch enjoying sharing our friendship and our faith over coffee. I really miss those times with her - they were magical. I guess I'd better get busy cleaning up my scruffy porch so that when she comes we can at least sit out there in relative cleanliness and enjoy our coffee. Too bad it'll probably be 100 degrees with 90% humidity though...oh well...the friendship and faith we share are the most important things...they won't wilt in the heat...

"Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you." Psalm 143:8

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I'd love to hear what YOU love about August, wherever you may be...!

And We Have a Winner!!

I am tickled to announce that the winner of the Just Bee 'n Me 3rd Blog Birthday Giveaway is....

Myrna of More than Heirlooms!!!!

I hope you will go pay my sweet BFF Myrna a visit...
she is just the nicest gal...

But more than that, she is an incredibly talented collage artist...

...and her home is just lovely....she regularly shares her decorating ideas and vignettes from around her wonderful home (like this glimpse of her cozy, beautiful porch)...

Warmest Congratulations Myrna!! I'm so glad we've met on this blogging adventure together!!

And many thanks too to all of you who participated - I appreciate you more than you can imagine!