{Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real}~~ January 25, 2014

Another week has gone past and it's time for {phfr}!

{Pretty}

In the bleak mid-winter, flowers from the grocery store can be such a pick-me-up!  These sit in a big mason jar on our kitchen table.

{Happy}

This is my next sewing project.  I'm not very accomplished, but I know more than I used to, and I do like sewing for my granddaughter.  Children's clothes are small enough that they don't overwhelm me.  The green fabric is for the dress and the blue is for the appliques.  I think I'll do the big polka dots.  I'm a sucker for polka dots!

{Funny}

Speaking of Arane, I/we video chat with her everyday.  For some reason, last Sunday evening we pulled out our instruments and played for her.  You can see her look of intense interest on the computer screen.  (Okay, so it's not that funny, but it's the best I could do this week.)

{Real}

This winter has been colder and snowier than any I can remember, even those from my childhood which have been exaggerated in my memory.  And here on the prairie the wind gets to sweeping down those plains with great ferocity!  Dave took this picture of blowing snow on a rural highway between our town and the next one down the road.

Don't worry~ he pulled over to take the picture.

This is our backyard taken from the warmth of the kitchen.  I wasn't crazy enough to go outside to take it.  See the swing?  Blowin' in the wind.

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{Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real}~ January 18, 2014

It's time for {phfr}!

{Pretty}

Lots of pretties this week, all Christmas presents from my lovely and talented daughters.

My firstborn, Elizabeth, has been teaching herself to sew, beginning with simple things at first, of course.  She made these pretty pillowcases for her dad and me~

She did a great job and I love the vintage print!  These were in our stockings (I think).  I love bed linens, table linens, kitchen linens, etc., etc., of any sort, and these are perfect!

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

As you already know if you've read my blog for very long, Hannah is very crafty and skilled at handcrafts.  She was practically born with a needle and a pair of scissors in her hands.  She had been working on the project you see below all autumn, but little did I know it was for me!  I had wished (even out loud) that it was for me, but Hannah assured me it wasn't.  So imagine my delight when I opened it on Christmas!

Hannah and I have both been learning Greek (from Dave :) ).  I think she had fun doing this in Greek, and we both enjoy the fact that we can translate it.  It's verse one from the prologue to John's Gospel and is one of my very favorite places in Scripture:  "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."

The walls are a soft yellow.  No matter what camera I use and
what the light is like, it never photographs as its true color.

Here's a close-up so you can see Hannah's perfect, tiny stitches!

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Lizzie, Justin, and Arane gave each of us (Dave, Hannah, and me) a mug along with homemade hot chocolate mix and chocolate-covered marshmallows.  So good, and the mugs are nice and big! They are too pretty to hide in a cabinet, so today Dave drilled holes for the hooks and we got them hung up.  They are so bright and cheery!

I don't know whose mug is whose . . . I, for one, can't decide which I like best.

{Happy}

This man makes me very happy~

So I think it's only fair that I try to make him happy with things like this~

Low-carb banana bread!

{Funny}

It's been snowing today like crazy (again!) and the clusters of berries on our bush are wearing tall, funny snowcaps~

{Real}

I have a new camera and I love it!  My in-laws very generously gave each of us some money for Christmas, and I used mine on a new camera.  My old one had five megapixels, which I didn't know what so pitiful until I began to look at new models and they all had sixteen or even twenty! And I got one for low light, too, since that seemed to be the cause of so many of my blurry pictures before.  I {real}-ly like my new camera!

{Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real}~ January 9, 2014

Has it really been a month since I lasted posted?  I certainly won't win any blogger-of-the-year awards at this rate!

We had a lovely Christmas.  Lizzie, Justin, and Arane were here for ten days!  We spent a lot of time quietly staying home, but with an eighteen-month-old on the premises, the days were anything but slow-paced.  It was delightful to once again see Christmas through the eyes of a small child and be reminded of the wonder.

{Pretty}

A few days the temperature approached 50, so we managed some good outside time.

The big girl in this picture is pretty too!

{Happy}

Dave made Arane this kitchen set and she loved it!  She spent lots of happy time playing with it, and her mother tells me once home she had to be dragged away from it for trivial things like meals and sleep.

She preferred the sink to be out instead of in.  It got in the way of dropping things down the hole.

She's happy to be sitting on Daddy's lap, clutching a bag of M&M's in each hand.

Arane and her "papa", happy as two clams . . .

{Funny}

A day or two after Christmas, Arane discovered my pantry and spent long periods there playing with plastic spoons, cups, ice cream buckets, and canning rings.  (She was supervised the whole time so she wouldn't accidentally get into something she shouldn't.)  She made a shambles of the organization, but she had a great time!  And really, when all was said and done, it only took a few minutes to get things back in order.

This would be a nice picture if it weren't for the star sprouting from Justin's head . . .

What we didn't know when this picture was taken was that baby #2 was on the way!  Hurray!

{Real}

We were smack dab in the middle of that arctic freeze.  One day the high was -15!  Lots of snow . . . lots of reasons to stay home . . . There was ice on the inside of the threshold to our front door, and the storm windows in the growlery were spectacular!

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{Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real}~ December 8, 2013

Happy Advent!  Alas, I have no Thanksgiving pictures to share.  We were traveling for my nephew's wedding, and I didn't bring a camera.  Actually, I forgot it.  Actually, it never crossed my mind to bring it.  I'm such a failure as a photographer . . . So let's just move on to Advent, shall we?

{Pretty}

My parents gave us this nativity set in the first few years of our marriage.  I have always loved it for its understated elegance and simplicity, and every year it occupies a prominent place in our home. Baby Jesus will make his appearance on Christmas Eve.

{Happy}

Hannah knitted this lovely shawl for my birthday.  It's a beautiful deep teal.  Since I couldn't model it *and* take a picture at the same time, this will have to do.  I really like the fringe!

{Funny}

Our new phone book came in the mail this week.  Here it is in all its diminutive glory.  (The Altoids tin is for scale.)  It measures 5.5 x 9 inches and boasts a whopping 64 pages, white and yellow.  There are some inconveniences to living in a small town, but there are also many advantages.  For one, I have never lived in a place with more community spirit. For another, it's the safest place we have ever lived.  Also, I never knew the wonders of a farm store till I moved here.  No, that's not sarcasm.  Ours is a great place, carrying everything from guns and ammo to animal feed to clothing to canning supplies.  Big R, where have you been all my life??


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*~*~*~* Thanks for stopping by! *~*~*~*

{Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real}~ November 17, 2013

It's time for {phfr} again! After my dismal photographic efforts the past couple weeks, I made sure to take more pictures this week.

{Pretty}

What you see before you are some of my birthday presents.  The canning jars are from my dearly beloved.  (Yes, he knew just what I wanted!)  One is gallon sized and holds coconut flour.  The others (there are six of them! :) ) are half-gallon and hold a variety of items~ popcorn, oats, brown sugar, and other essentials.

The butter dish is from Elizabeth, Justin, and Arane.  I love its round shape!  They bought it when we were visiting last summer and sent it home with Dave, unbeknownst to me.  He safely and secretly squirreled it away until it was the proper time.  Isn't it pretty?

I neglected to take pictures of the beautiful shawl Hannah knitted for me.  Maybe next week?

{Happy}

I was happy to find a low-carb banana bread recipe at Elana's Pantry.  Though we aren't paleo, I try to keep things fairly low-carb for Dave, who gets migraines otherwise.  I had a couple bananas that were beyond just eating as they were, so I went in search of a recipe in which I could use almond or coconut flour.  This recipe is moist and not too sweet.  I only had two bananas (the recipe calls for three), so I used two extra tablespoons of honey. It came out great!  Hannah liked it too, so this recipe is a keeper.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The last of the turnips (a low-carb alternative to potatoes)~

These were the last things in the garden, and they had to come out because we were forecast to get some of this:

{Real}

Yep!  The first snow of the year, even before all the leaves had fallen.  It wasn't much and it didn't last long, but it sure was pretty while it lasted.  And now today, we have high winds and temperatures in the low 70's . . . That's life in the Midwest. :)

Thanks for stopping by! 

{Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real}~ November 10, 2013

Linking up with Leila again this week for {pretty, happy, funny, real} . . .

{Pretty}

I forgot to show you this.  I put this together last spring using Cottage Thoughts free printables. I just printed it, trimmed it, and cemented it to scrapbook paper I already had. I already had the frames too, and I painted them with leftover black paint.  This favorite verse from a favorite hymn is a daily reminder to live in God's grace.

I used scrapbook paper because the printables are not a standard size and
needed mats to fit my frames, but I didn't want to spend money on mats.

These are hanging in our windowless hallway.  It's so hard to take a decent picture of them!  (Obviously, I failed.)  The walls are really not bright yellow.

For your edification, here is Fernando Ortega singing "Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing."

{Happy}

Dave did some work with the compost pile not long ago.  It's hard to believe that anything is ever really happening in a compost pile, but when he dug below recent layers there was all this lovely dirt, full of worms, which he has been working into some of our garden beds.

 {Funny}

I dug sweet potatoes last week.  Goodness, do they ever taste good!  Some of them are puny and scrawny, but there have been some whoppers too, like this one:

The quarter is for scale.

This is the record-holder for the year. Someone said it looked like a chubby critter with an eye and a nose!

{Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real}~ November 3, 2013

I know it is pretty pathetic that I can't seem to post regularly except for {phfr}.  It weren't for Leila and her intrepid band of daughters, this blog would probably be completely dead.  As it is, it is merely on long-term life support.  So for my family members and the two or three faithful friends who are still reading, here goes. :)

{Pretty}

It had been so long since I'd sewn anything that when I found myself with a spare hour last night, I hied myself directly to the sewing room and shut the door.  I'm not a very accomplished seamstress, but I do enjoy it.  It was so good to cut into fabric and hear the whir of the sewing machine again.  Since I didn't have much time, I opted to make a couple potholders with fabric I bought a year ago.  These can be whipped out in practically no time following instructions from Kelly, who appears to be no longer blogging.  A few years ago she put out four issues of a perfectly delightful digital quarterly magazine for young girls called Seasonal Delights.  The instructions were in the first issue.  I printed all the magazines, thankfully, since I don't think they are available online anymore. These hotpads were the first things I made and launched my slow and un-illustrious career as a seamstress. But I needed some new ones and last night was the perfect time to make a couple.

Aren't they pretty?

{Happy}

I know, I know, more jars of stuff I've canned.  Ho hum.  This time it's homemade vegetable/beef soup.  We were out, and it  makes me happy to have jars of homemade soup on the shelf for lunches or for supper on busy days.  And the little popping sounds the lids make when they are sealing properly are very cheerful!

I'll just show one picture of my jars because, well, let's face it~ once you've seen one, you've
 seen 'em all.  I did add vinegar to the water, but I got water marks anyway . . .

{Real}

A few weeks ago we got the last of the fall raspberries.  I'm always so struck by the beauty of the red berries in my blue-and-white bowl, especially in the sunshine.  So I stuck my bowl on top of a stack of books near a window to take pictures.  In the pile of otherwise erudite books is the first from the dreaded Left Behind series.  Dave is reading it because it's being made into a movie and he wants to be prepared for parishioners who have seen it or want to make a church field trip to see it.  The Lutheran view of the end times is not what is found in Left Behind, hence the need for advanced prep.  Otherwise, the picture is quite pretty, don't you think?

Too pretty not to post!

Thanks for stopping by!