Speaking of surprises, I received a wonderful surprise in the mail from Charlotte, the winner of my first random giveaway. Charlotte is a quilter and very gifted and talented at that! She sent me this beautiful prim table topper that she made.
When I found this package in my mailbox, I knew I wasn't expecting anything and was so surprised by her thoughtfulness to send a gift to me as a thank you for the gifts she won in my drawing. I felt like I had won and I did. I received not only a beautiful handmade gift, but the gift of a new found friend. In her e-mail, she included pictures of some of the many quilted items that she's made and they are oh, so beautiful! I'm hoping she'll join us in blogland so you can meet her and see her incredible works of art. Thank you again from the bottom of my heart, Charlotte!
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In between raindrops, while shopping one day, I stopped in to my local Goodwill store and found these two items.
The stoneware jug was $4.99 and the cutting board was .99 cents. I don't know about your area, but I find the prices at our GW to be somewhat high, although it was a good deal for the jug. I've seen them in antique shops for much more. I've sanded down the cutting board and am planning on painting it (hopefully today). I've got lots of small projects that are in need of painting. I was waiting for the weather to dry out but I think I'll use my dining room table today instead. :)
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Since Saturday was one of our only sunny day in a very long stretch of rain, I did get outside to peek around in the flower gardens and get a little weeding done.
This little wooden step stool I rescued out of our burn pile last fall. My hubby brought it home from a job because it was unsafe to stand on but it's not unsafe to put a birdhouse on! As you can see, our flowers still haven't opened. The plant on the left is spiderwort and on the right is a daylilly.
This garden is only a couple of years old so there's still lots of room for growth. I planted some flower seeds in the front in all that blank space and though you can't see them in the picture, they are starting to grow. Hopefully they'll survive all this rain and not rot.
This is the same garden from the other end. It's a little more "grown" on this end. Our lily's will hopefully be opening soon too.
This little Eastern Bluebird was keeping me company on Saturday.
I think he's taken up residence in a birdhouse we have hanging in our weeping cherry tree.
These two gardens are in the front of the house outside our kitchen. The stone wall garden is still incomplete and it leads to our still incomplete pond. LOL! My hubby and I are the king and queen of incomplete projects!
This is one of my favorite planters and it seems to be holding up well to all this rain.
This is just the other side of the garden in front of the kitchen. Every fall and spring I dig stuff up and move it somewhere else. That's what happened on this side of the garden last fall, so this spring I've planted some sweet annie, moved some baby Japanese Iris' that were springing up all throughout the garden, some sunflowers that the squirrels plant for us each year and some green foliage plant that came out of another one of my hubby's jobs. I love to get other people's throwaways, even if I don't know what they are.
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Lastly, the part of my post about aging. As we enter into July which is also my birthday month, I'll be 42 this year. I don't think of my age creeping up on me and I'll never be one of those women who try to hide or refuse my age, but I have noticed that over the past few years my clothes have been "growing" because I have been growing! I used to buzz around the house all day, cleaning and keeping busy. In the past few years, thanks to depression and my ever inactive hypothyroid issues, I just don't DO what I used to do and the weight is overtaking me! I finally got to the point where I'm tired of having to go out and buy new clothes (especially in a time when $$ is tight and we really can't afford a new wardrobe.) I (once again) am jumping on the treadmill bandwagon to try to lose a few extra pounds.
We've had the treadmill for a number of years and I always seem to go in spurts with using it. Our road is not a safe road to walk on so I'm stuck in the basement on the treadmill staring at an all white concrete wall. Because it's concrete, I can't put nails in and hang things.
Our basement, like many other projects is completely unfinished so it's dark and depressing to go down there. I need all the encouragement I can muster up to make myself go down there each day. One day, I was walking on the treadmill, feeling like I just wanted to give up, the Lord's word, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthen's me" came to my mind. I repeated it over and over in my head and each time it had more power and more meaning to it. "ALL THINGS", not some things. I got so inspired to put a little eye candy and some words of encouragement into an old 16x24 inch frame that I had sitting in the basement.
If you click on the picture, you'll get a blown up image so you can see it better. The other scripture verses I chose are "Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that the Holy Spirit lives in you." 1 Cor. 3:16 And "Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You were bought with a price, therefore honor God with your body." 1 Cor. 6:19-20
So, if my body is a temple for the Holy Spirit who dwells in me as a gift from God, shouldn't I want to take care of it? I don't know about you, but this was exremely encouraging for me. I never thought of my body in that way even though I've read these scriptures before. I'm so thankful that the Holy Spirit finally laid the truth on my heart and helped me understand God's word better.
Well, I guess that's all for today. I hope you get to enjoy some warm sunny weather over the 4th of July if I don't talk to you sooner. Thanks for stopping by to visit me. I look forward to seeing and hearing from all of you! Hugs~ Birgit
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