Wednesday Link Love

Just put this up tonight, waiting for some little friends to visit so we can mark their names on our giant tape measure. Want one?

Go ahead and make a file for next years Valentines- or maybe you can think of fun ways to use this or this for some other occasion.

Check out this great stamp in Amy’s shop.

If you make these for someone you love, do you think they will ever ever forget the day you did and served them up?

Darn, I wish I had had this recipe on World Nutella Day!

Aren’t these great?! Could they be any simpler?

My son is traveling with these guys over spring break to do service projects and some concerts

I see some cherry blossom garland in my future!

Today is the birthday of my dear friend Beth. Beth is truly one of the brightest most energetic and creative people I’ve ever known. She has been my encourager, my muse, and she is who I want to be when I grow up. Happy Birthday Beth!

“props”

Several years ago when I entered into that peri-menopausal state where I could not order or contain my thoughts, I began to explore new ways to spend time in prayer and meditation.    I don’t even remember who introduced me to the finger labyrinth, but it has been a welcome friend for me.   I visualize different things as I trace its familiar corridors.  Sometimes I visualize myself walking past and away from the distractions of this world, or I envision all of the beloved saints and loved ones lining the corridors, pushing me on in my journey to the center.   If I am agitated or anxious,  as my fingers move along toward that special place in the center (which I call the lap of God!) I literally see myself leaving behind all of that stuff, moving to a place of peace and joy.  When a friend is going through something so horrible that I can’t even put prayer into words, I scoop up my beloved and carry them through the labyrinth, setting them down right there in the center of God’s great love. 

I began using prayer beads in much the same way.   Pictured here are my “at home” beads and my office beads.   Each bead represents someone I pray for regularly and is a reminder and a link between me and my family and friends and the larger world> Something about holding that tiny pebble of a bead helps me to better hold them in my heart.

Years ago during Lent we used a simple meditation bell to call us into a time of silence.  I’ve wanted one since then and it took me until the last few weeks to get my act together to find one.  Nine bucks at Amazon? Sold!  Loving it!

Anyway, if you are like me and need something physical to hold onto to anchor you to others, I recommend you put together your own little cast of colors and textures  

While snapping the above pictures, couldn’t resist a photo of a little tiny corner in my office.  I work in a busy clinic for folks who are living with and/or are affected by HIV.  There are not very many little pockets of whimsy in the clinic , so I created my own so that I never have to look far to see something I truly love.   Every little item has a story!

Music Monday (on Tuesday!)

Weather permitting, I'm seeing Mitch on Friday night and I am sooo pumped. Louisvillians, he will be at Rudyard Kipling and it will be a great evening.

And, with each swallow, time is sublimed.

Friday night the Mean Moms got together for dinner and therapy at our usual hangout, a Vietnamese Restaurant.  It was cold, and we all came from harried days.  The first one to arrive had ordered hot tea, and was quick to change the order to a pot when we arrived.  That simple cup of tea was the perfect transition from the clamor of the day into the great comfort of good friends.  Just that morning I had read this wonderful paragraph in “The Elegance of the Hedgehog” by Muriel Barbery.

The tea ritual: such a precise repetition of the same gestures and the same tastes; accesion to simple, authentic and refined sensations, a license given to all, at little cost, to become aristocrats of taste, because tea is the beverage of the wealthy and of the poor; the tea ritual, therefore, has the extraordinary virtue of introducing into the absurdity of our lives an aperture of serene harmony.  Yes, the world may aspire to vacuousness, lost souls mourn beauty, insignificance surrounds us.  Then let us drink a cup of tea.  Silence descends, one hears the wind outside, autumn leaves rustle and take flight, the cat sleeps in a warm pool of light.  And with each swallow, time is sublimed.

My youngest savors a cup of tea every night just before bedtime, and is always kind enough to offer to fix me a cup.  I think I need to start enjoying the luxury of a cup of hot tea!

Thrift Store Haul

K needed some suspenders in order to dress like a geek some day this week, so we scheduled a thrift store outing for today. I get excited just pulling in the parking lot, wondering what I will find. She found suspenders. I found some spring table linens- we use a table cloth a day and about 6 or 8 napkins so I’m always on the lookout.

I’m not sure what this hammered metal stuff is called, but it brings back some childhood memory, and this was such a sweet little tray.

I couldn’t pass this sweet little picture by. It says on the back that Ruth Rae embroidered it in 1984. All of those stitches and french knots. I just couldn’t leave it there.

And I love this picture frame made of rolled magazine pages!

Wednesday Link Love

I love every quilt in this post, but I love this one the most- and she found it at a thrift store! Why can’t I find something like this at my thrift store?!

Katie knows how to make a great Valentine!

Chalkboard paint…….again. I just love that stuff!

I’m not saying that I could make it, but it does look like an

easy knock-off.

I’m a sucker for tags. That said, I’m loving this LOVE set.

If only I had seen these back in the years when I always went to an Oscar party.

Antique Mommy has this lovely post. Check it out!

It’s not too late to whip up one of these!

Snow Day

So, we had a snow day today!  The office was closed and I had this great chunk of unplanned time to piddle and I loved it!  I had a million little fun things I wanted to do, and got about 200,000 of them done, including this little project. 

I saw this quote the other day- it’s from a movie I have never seen- and I thought how well it summed up my love for DH, K, S, and C.   YOU ARE WHAT I NEVER KNEW I ALWAYS WANTED

How could I have ever known that they were just what I had always wanted, when they are so much more than I could have even dreamed of?