Weekend Ramblings...

Rambling around this weekend, collecting random beauty, and a few interesting somethings to show you...

I love the idea of this flannel and cotton print "memory game". This is from my all time favorite sewing/knitting/crochet blog called Purl Bee. If you have never visited Purl Bee, it is worth a visit just to see the colorful blog header - it is eye candy of the best sort. And prepare to find at least ten projects that you will want to do, because this site is a treasure chest.


This is also on my list of things to try this summer: hand quilting. The picture above is from the sewing blog of Anna Maria Horner, and all those stitches you see are hand-done, with batting in between two layers of fabric. I want to start out small, like this, with just a pillow. I need to find the perfect graphic print fabric...the above fabric is absolutely beautiful. Makes me want to be a textile artist/designer.


I have a wooden toolbox almost just like this. And I have hydrangeas. This image is from the blog Dreamy Whites.


I threw this image in just because. Because I love the gray yarn. And because I am totally enjoying knitting, even in the summertime, which surprises me because I thought I might only enjoy it in fall and winter, but I am loving working on my fall and winter gifts ahead of time, and yes, I just made a massive run-on sentence on purpose....


Oh, those plank walls. I want them. I seriously want them.


I'm making gifts like this - just finished one, in fact. I think this ear warmer headband thingey is adorable. Can't remember where I found this image, though...I do know that Rachel at Maybe Matilda sells headbands like this, and the crochet pattern to make them. And Maybe Matilda is my favorite new discovery...such a delightful blog! My daughter Hannah found her first, and now I love her too!


More gray yarn beauty...and that antique typewriter...so much to love about this image. Great hand made blanket and pillow, and even better photo composition.

I hope you are enjoying your Memorial Day weekend! We've a full house over here - along with the joys and the trials inherent to that scenario. Mixed bag, lemme tell you. Easy it is not. Without the gospel perfuming our ways and informing our decisions and affecting the very seat of our emotions, we would have kicked one another to the curb a long time ago. Our family is no different than yours.

The gospel affects not just my destiny, it affects my day. It makes me hang in there, because Calvary love is my example. "Tough love" is important - been there, done that, got the T-shirt. But "tough love" is only as effective as the tender Calvary-love that supports the whole relationship. If there is no relationship, "tough love" is a moot point. No one cares. No one is listening.

So, like I have said many times before, don't picture life here at the cottage as "Leave It To Beaver". We are more like "The Waltons", only with a heavy dose of dysfunction, and the momma is a crack head, and John Boy can be mean as hell sometimes.

But at the end of the day, we are still together, and we will stay that way if it kills us.

Indeed it may.