Old Farm & Sunset

Someone we know owns this old farm. They don't live in the house, but I think it's been in their family for many years. We drove by it today and I just had to take some photos! I took them with my cell phone, in the rain to boot, so the pix aren't that great but I wanted to share them nonetheless.

This old wagon sits in the side yard.

In the barn, I saw the remains of this old rocking chair and old linolium flooring.

This sign was in the barn too. I have no idea what a sea oat is, but I loved the sign!

Outside the old barn

Another old wagon. This one is in the back yard

Old railroad ties rack hanging at the back door.

This is sitting on the front porch

Light fixture at front door.

I took the sunset pic a few nights ago here at home. This is overlooking a neighbors field. Took this with my cell phone too.

Simple Woman's Daybook

FOR TODAY March 26, 2009...

Outside my window...things look so much clearer because my niece cleaned the windows, storm windows and screens today! Makes me want to sing the Sunday School song, "Let the sunshine in...face it with a grin...smilers never lose and frowners never win..." lol

I am thinking...that having my 23 year old niece here this week to help me catch up on housecleaning and things has given this tired mom of an 8 month old very busy baby girl a much needed boost!

I am thankful for...my Godly husband. I am blessed beyond measure to have him. We'll celebrate our 16th anniversary July 3.

From the kitchen...the dishwasher running and sparkling clean countertops, all done by my hubby as I napped this evening!

I am wearing...my comfy red white & blue pajamas

I am creating...my baby's first scrapbook

I am going...out for dinner in a few minutes with hubby & baby.

I am reading... "Love Letters" by 4 authors compiled into one book...plus lots of gardening magazines!

I am hoping...I can fit into the bridesmaid outfit that I have to wear in May!

I am hearing...the song "The Scarlet Purple Robe" by southern gospel group The Lewis Family. My little one sleeps to that. It is on repeat 24/7. It's a song about Jesus Christ "who wears a crown of thorns blood stained red and a scarlet purple robe." As a newborn, this song was often the only thing to calm my screaming baby!

Around the house...are my baby's toys...I think there's a little something of hers in each room!

One of my favorite things...is blogging. I love to blog and read others thoughts as well.

A few plans for the rest of the week: catch up on laundry, catch up on pen pals, go to church on Sunday.
Here is picture thought I am sharing...

My niece Hannah and my little one Ryleigh
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Visit the Simple Woman's Daybook here
to learn how to get your own Daybook

Spring Cleaning

My 23 year old niece Hannah is here all this week. She is helping me declutter & clean the house. WOOHOO!! With an 8 month old baby, it seems like I don't get much done these days! lol

She's on her way with a truckload to the Goodwill. We've hauled a ton of stuff out to the garage. I think we've pretty much got the decluttering done, so now the cleaning begins. Yehaw! lol

She's been helping me so much with Ryleigh too. I've had a couple naps this week and I've had a shower 2 days in a ROW!!!!! LOL

We bought Ry a high chair and Hannah put that together for us too.



Fred's been taking advantage of the warmer weather and has been doing some landscaping in front of our living room window. It's a 79 foot space across the front of the living room and around the porch. Here's the start of the project:


I'm so anxious to plant things in it! We can't plant until after Mother's Day around here, but that will be here before we know it! Ahhhhhhh!!!! My very first Mother's Day...at 38 years old! Er...young! LOL

One Hot Mama

I recently found this picture of my mom. It was taken in 1979. I was 8 so she would have been 34. She looks pretty cute in her little white pants! LOL Mom is now almost 63. Where does time go???

Zinged up my front doors...

We have a big covered front porch and have two 'front' doors. They were both the same color as the siding...gray...and blended in so much that they were blah.

So...since it was 74* yesterday, I zinged up the doors by painting them to match our shutters! I love how they turned out!

I want to sweep the porch real good before I put the rugs back down.

For Sale or Trade

I have two HUGE dolls that I'd like to sell or trade. I paid about $50 each for them, so I think I'd like to get $25 each, plus shipping. They are quite heavy, so I think shipping would be about $20-$22 for both in the same box. However, if you only want one, just let me know.

The first one is a black doll that is about 35" tall. Her face, hands & feet are stiffened & grubbied.
She has yarn braids. She is holding a pineapple and she's wearing a cheesecloth apron. She's got bog 'ol feet! lol Stitched nose & mouth

This next doll is about 28" tall. She has a stitched nose & huge lips! lol Wooden button prim necklace.Her dress is blue & burgundy & tan. Tan & burgundy homespun bloomers.

For this pic below, I opened the tape measure to 1 foot so you can get a picture in your mind of how tall they are. They both have sand in their bottoms so they sit up on their own. =)

I am open to selling them together OR separate. I'm also willing to trade. Things I like include:

Stamping & scrapbooking supplies
Cricut cartridges
Altered art items
LOTS of things....I'll have to do some thinking and add to the list! lol
CANDLES! I LOVE candles! lol

I found two more things to sell or trade! lol

The above is a print of prim raggedys! No frame...just a print. I have two.
I'll take $5 for each, which includes shipping. Unless you want the dolls above too, then I'll take $2 per print. Make sense? lol The prints are 1 foot wide and 5" tall.

Here's a smaller framed version. It's 9.25" X 5.25", frame included. $7, which includes postage. If I include it in a box with the doll(s), price is $3.50.
Buy or trade!

Spring at Target!

I needed to get out of the house today so baby Ry and I walked around Target. We found ourselves in the Easter section and ooooooo the colors of spring were all around us! I couldn't resist taking some pix w/ my cell phone!

Bring on the springtime!!

Question about sewing

There's something I want for Ryleigh but don't want to pay a ton of money for...so I went and bought myself some fabric and a sewing machine! I'm not gonna tell you what it is I'm making....I'll be posting pix!! LOL

My question is....what's the trick to getting your thread to go smoothly on the bobbin? I think I wasted half a spool of thread yesterday trying to get it right!
I continued to hold the tail end of the thread while the bobbin was spinning the new thread on. Am I supposed to let go of it? I tried to go slow and easy on the foot pedal, but....lol
All the thread ends up at the bottom of the bobbin in a big wad. Help! I "sew" have no clue what I've doing! hahaha
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Additional Pic:OK, see how terrible the thread is on the bobbin? Also, see how horrible the stitches are on the piece of fabric? The piece you see is the underside of my project. Is this happening because the bobbin is such a mess?
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Justina has been kind enough to send me personal emails about my sewing mess, so I'm going to share them here in case anyone else needs help. Or, maybe it's just me?? LOL
I mean, have you ever seen such a mess of thread?? I was so exasperated yesterday, that I got up from the table where I'm "sewing", walked into the kitchen to get something...came back to the sewing table and realized I'd strung thread somehow from one room to the other and back!! The hubby comes home and walks into something in the "air" and says "What in the world??" yep, it was a web of tangled pink thread from the dining room to the kitchen. I mean, Really! Am I the only one talented enough to use up a whole spool of thread in like, 15 minutes?? Then, later, hubby walks around with a trail of pink thread stuck to his shoe like toilet paper! hahahaha
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Justina wrote: Yikes! I'd say unravel all that thread and start over... Yes the underside may look like that because your bobbin is a HUGE (I may say) MESS! LOL! When you get it all nice looking on the bobbin, try again. If it still looks like that you may have to adjust the tension. send me a pic of the sewing machine.. the tension is most likely a knob on the front with numbers. I always have mine set at 3. Also when you put your bobbin in it's holder that goes underneath the needle plate thingie.. take the thread and guide it through (it should kind of slip underneath a metal clip thingie:0) make sure you give your thread a tug. The bobbin should turn counter clockwise. :0) confused yet?



OK- I've made a beautiful bobbin full of thread, thanks to guiding the thread on with my left hand. I adjusted the tension on the bobbin holder thingie per the instructional manuel. I adjusted the top thread tension as well. I STILL get the wads of thread on the bottom of the fabric!!! HELP!

A more serious post...

If you're not in the mood for a more serious post, just pass this post right on by! lol

As a child, I had very severe leg pains. I was finally diagnosed with juvenile arthritis, but for a long time we were told it was "growing pains". I remember being 5, 6 and 7 and lying in bed, writhing in pain while my mom rubbed my legs. The 24 hours before a storm were the worse. Still to this day I have horrible leg pain a day or two before a T-storm comes.

Growing pains are, well, very painful sometimes.

For years now, every time I pray, somewhere in my prayer I say, "Lord, create within me a clean heart. Renew within me a right spirit. Make me more like You." I never ever pray without saying this, a tiny bit out of habit but more so out of a sincere desire to be pure in heart and to be Christ-like.

Little did I know that praying to be more Christ-like would cause such growing pains.

A few years ago, we found ourselves in a situation that was clothed in turmoil in many different ways. Some at the surface, some under the surface. We held on as long as we could and then began praying for God to remove us from this situation because the people causing the turmoil had no intentions of changing. We prayed to be removed from the situation. God said no. We continued serving and continued asking. In the meantime, this person causing the turmoil wrecked havoc in many ways that affected many people. As I prayed for this person, I prayed about the qualities in this person that I did NOT like (no one did!) and it was like God turned His mirror around, so that I could see into it. And after praying for this other person and all these things in this persons life that I didn't like, I looked up into the mirror and I saw myself. WHAT?? I expected to see this other person, not myself!! I wasn't praying about me! And as I looked into that "mirror" I saw so many of the qualities in my own life that I didn't like in the other person's life! And the growing pains began.

As I began to pray about these things in my own life and make a concentrated effort to change, the pain was great. It was unexpected. It hurt my feelings. It shook me up. But, I had, after all prayed hundreds of times, "Lord, make me more like You."

This continued on for 3 years until finally, the Lord removed us from the situation. And even though we're removed from it, the pain still lingers.

The time since has been filled with pain as we try to sort out things in our minds and hearts of the why's and how's and wish we could've's and so forth. It's going to take time. Sometimes we say in frustration that we should have just removed ourselves from the situation, but then we recall that we prayed about it and God said to stay and so, we take comfort in the fact that we were obedient.

I heard something today on the radio that really helped me. A lady said, "God doesn't waste your pain. Something will come out of your pain that gives Him honor!"

This lady said 3 years ago, she lost her farmer husband of 46 years in a tragic accident. He died in a grain bin. She said one thing she's learned through this tragedy is that God will not waste the pain we go through. He will use it for His glory.

Once again, I find someone in my life who has some real issues that are affecting everyone and everything. This person is the way he/she is because of pain from the past, but my goodness, it makes life difficult now. And, once again, as I pray for the things in this person's life that are causing the pain and that are the results of the pain, I find myself looking back into that same old mirror and seeing things I didn't want to see in myself and the growing pains start all over again.

But this time, I'll go through the pain remembering that He won't let me feel these growing pains for nothing and maybe in a little while, I'll be just a little more like Him.
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Our assistant pastor, Tim Pedigo wrote a song that sort of became a prayer of mine over a decade ago. It's called "Make me in Your image". The lyrics are:

Looking in the mirror of Your Word it's plain to see
That I don't always measure up to what I should be
I take a few steps forward and it seems I'm gaining ground
So easily I falter and again I'm falling down
Lord I want to be a witness and I want to prove I'm strong
But I find each day the strength I have comes from you alone
So I give myself away
Lord, do what You must do
Take my life and make me more like You.

Chorus-
Make me in Your image
Wash me white as snow
Purify this heart of mine
Lord, I'm giving You control
Let me be a vessel
One that's worthy to be used
Make me in Your image, Lord, make me more like You

Help me to look forward
With my eyes upon the prize
And keep Your holy purpose always focused in my mind.
Help me catch the vision of what You would have me be
And realize I'm not just here to fulfill my hopes and dreams
I give up my ambitions for the cause I've found in You
I willingly laid down my life for what You've have me do
So with all my heart I say
Do what only you can do
Take my life and make me more like you


Make me in Your image
Wash me white as snow
Purify this heart of mine
Lord, I'm giving You control
Let me be a vessel
One that's worthy to be used
Make me in Your image, make me more like You

Take all my treasures
Make my heart new
I just want to be more like You

Make me in Your image
Wash me white as snow
Purify this heart of mine
Lord, I'm giving You control
Let me be a vessel
One that's worthy to be used
Make me in Your image, Lord, make me more like You

A minister put together a one man drama set to this song. You can see it here: video
The minister doing the drama is Terry Vik. The man singing is my assistant Pastor, Tim Pedigo.

Time away & A Giveaway & A Selling Blog!!

Hubby, baby & I went away for a couple days to Nashville, IN. It's about 2 hours south of us. It isn't far from where I grew up. It's an artist village full of fantastic shops!

The motel or "inn" we stayed in was a place we've stayed before. We had a separate living room and kitchen, so because of the extra space we had, we invited my mom, sister and Grandpa up to see us on Sunday afternoon. They hadn't seen Ryleigh since Christmas, so it was a lot of fun!

Then, the next day I surprised my mom by showing up at her apartment in Bloomington so that she could see Ryleigh again. Grandpa was there. He is 95, I believe. Here he is with my baby girl, his great-granddaughter. He always says she's a "cute little feller!" lol

Grandpa is my last living grandparent. He is a WWII Navy veteran. He has the funniest sense of humor!!

The above table and chairs is the exact spot hubby and I had our first date...it was in September 1991! It's at a little restaurant in Nashville and we ate there again today. AHHH...the memories!! That first date, we sat there for 3 hours...talking and talking and talking. It was wonderful! Right afterwards, we took a horse and carriage ride around town.
This July, we'll celebrate our 16th wedding anniversary!

The above photo is of the outside of my favorite shop in Nashville. It's called Michael's Flower Shop. I'm always SO inspired when I go in there. It's a total sensory overload experience that never fails to encourage and inspire me. This photo was taken on the side of the shop. There's a little trail that wonders around back.


This is the countertop at Michael's! They cut out photos from magazines and redo the counter every season! This is only a small portion of it! It's FAB!

A small glimpse of a section in Michael's.

Stacks and stacks of quilts in Michael's.

Loved these dark red pieces in Michael's.

Some Easter goodies in Michaels

Loved the sun coming in through the window. The sun just made these glass bottles and vases sing!

A snowman corner in Michael's.

Prim stitcheries all lined up

This corner held an eclectic mix of things. I couldn't resist taking a photo of this bright and funky chandelier!

Another bright chandelier mixed in with some Easter goodies

A corner of prim/country Raggedies

The front entrance to the shop

My Michael's purchase: a wool penny rug and ornament:


The photo below is of the Story Inn. It was built in 1851. It still serves FABULOUS food! Please take a minute and read about the Inn here

The next 2 pix are the outside of another favorite shop. It was closed so I didn't get
to go in this trip.

Next 3 pix were taken outside the General Store.

We always eat at the Artist Colony Inn. The decor is awesome! We sat by the roaring fire and by the window shown below in the second photo.

As always, we had a wonderful time away. But, it's always good to come home!
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Making Lemonade Design Team has an awesome giveaway going on! Check it out here!
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And, my final piece of news for the day is I've started a selling blog! I'll be closing my web site in a day or so and I'll be listing my items on my selling blog. It's called Peterson Creek Mercantile. I hope you'll check it out!