Before and After

Sister Kerry handed this down to Mom who handed it down to me:

An hour later...



Farm Stand and Pumpkins in an Old Silver Ice Bucket

Okay, okay I know I'm rushing it, but according to the farm stand it IS fall:

Although I think we have some spelling issues...

I love farm stands.

I found some really interesting pumpkins which were in the shape and size of an acorn squash.  I put them in an old silver ice bucket I picked up at Goodwill last week.  It wasn't until I got it home and polished it that I noticed it had my initial on it.

Edenton, North Carolina

It is official.  I am in love with this little town on the sound, 70 miles south of good ole Portsmouth.  I headed off with bike in tow and found my new favorite spot in the whole, wide world.

I love the expression on King Frog's face.  I love used bookstores in general.  The wonderful thing about this one is that the books are displayed and organized just as though they were being sold in a retail bookstore.  Tidy, non-dusty, and lovingly placed.  I bought three.

Also wonderful was the availability of a sugar-free latte

I seriously want to own this store and fill if full of antique linens and the refurbished Victrola cabinet I found discarded on a trash heap.  More on that when I finish it.

Here's an adorable clock.  The clock has not been placed there to look retro.  It was placed there to look modern and became retro and hip.

Lighthouse...stunning

I loved the colors and the scroll work on this commercial building:

This Victorian gingerbreading looked like lace to me.

And the lovely gardens

But wait, there's MORE!  (in the post below)

Edenton, NC, Part 2

Fortified with some good coffee, and okay I admit it, a few home baked chocolate chip cookies, I headed out of town where agriculture is still king.  Imagine this if you can with the addition of peanuts processing in a little factory, all intensely "Mr. Peanut" wafting as I rode mile after mile.  These horses and the donkey looked at me gravely.

This barn was around the next bend in the road.

And a cotton field

Cotton pretty much the same in the field as it looks inside your Vitamin-C bottle

Peddled all the way back to town then past this park

And headed here

for a cup of beef with vegetable soup and an entree of crab-stuffed mushrooms.  Yum-o!

http://www.watermansgrill.com/

Bloom Where You Are Planted

This post is for all of us who, whatever the circumtances, feel that we are not able to operate in our giftings because our present conditions aren't perfect. I can't write because I don't have an office. I can't practice hospitality because my house is small. I can't bless my home with a graceful appearance because I am on a limited budget.  Good news...getting the dishes out of the sink is free!  I can't give to God because my husband doesn't want to tithe.

Here is Staff Sgt. Angie Johson and the Sidewinders band in a Middle Eastern war zone operating in their giftings and blessing other service members with their stirring rendition of Adele's smash hit "Rolling in the Deep." Rock on in your fatigues, sister friend.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=LcbI1BLAxkY

Here is construction worker Gary Russo, singing Sinatra at the job site. Douby douby doooo, dude.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/01/gary-russo-nyc-construction-worker-sings-sinatra_n_915583.html

This little light of mine? I'm gonna let it shine. Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine. Bloom where you're planted, people.

A Dreadful Anniversary

I have no words for what this ten year anniversary means.  Instead, I will link you to the blog of a police officer who was there.  This is his first-hand acccount.  God bless our country.  And please remember to pray for first responders throughout our country and for the families of the first responders who died that day.

http://officerstanding.blogspot.com/

On Peace

I've been pondering the meaning of peace lately.  I've felt the lack of peace keenly over the last year or so, probaby longer. I have a restive spirit.  I long to develop that inner core of calmness and stability, but find my feathers all too ruffled, all too disturbed by people, events, and circumstances which I cannot control. 

A monk went to his abbot complaining of his dificulties.   "My feet get burned on the hot sand, " he complained.  "My feet are bruised by the pebbles on the pathways.  I cut the sole of my foot on broken glass in the kitchen."  The abbot responded, "My brother, you can put leather over the whole world or you can put sandals on your own feet." I'm seeking to put sandals on my feet, so to speak.

The world looks at peace like this (from Dictionary.com):

peace

   /pis/ Show Spelled [pees] Show IPA noun, interjection, verb, peaced, peac·ing.

noun

1.

the normal, nonwarring condition of a nation, group of nations, or the world.

2.

( often initial capital letter ) an agreement or treaty between warring or antagonistic nations, groups, etc., to end hostilities and abstain from further fighting or antagonism: the Peace of Ryswick.

3.

a state of mutual harmony between people or groups, especially in personal relations: Try to live in peace with your neighbors.

4.

the normal freedom from civil commotion and violence of a community; public order and security: He was arrested for being drunk and disturbing the peace.

5.

cessation of or freedom from any strife or dissension

Jesus said,"I leave you peace, my peace I give you" in John 14.    Here's what it says in the Amplied Version about peace:   Peace I leave with you; My [own] peace I now give and bequeath to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. [Stop allowing yourselves to be agitated and disturbed; and do not permit yourselves to be fearful and intimidated and cowardly and unsettled.]

Isn't that great?  Isn't that so much better than an "absence of hostilities."  Please note that Jesus didn't say, "I give this to you if you're perfect."  He didn't say, "You can have this if you cross off all the items on your To Do List."  He didn't suggest, "Hey, as long as everyone else is doing what YOU think they should, then you'll be peaceful."  He said, "I bequeath you my peace."  Think about that, not the peace of the world...he gave us HIS peace.

My grandmother bequeathed a Georgian tea service to me.  It is precious both in monetary value, but even more so in its personal value to me in the memories we shared.  So precious, in fact, that you can see it in the top picture on this blog. 

I was in California when my beloved Helen died.  Once I settled down here in Virginia, I drove to my father's home where he had carefully stored this treasure for me.  I had to accept what Helen left to me.

So, also, I have to accept Jesus' peace.  I have to recognize when I have no peace, such as this morning after I sent a snarky email today in response to an even snarkier email I received.  I felt no peace afterwards.  Thankfully, I was able to "unsend" it befor the recipient opened it.  I'm learning to recognize when my peace is stolen and to take immediate action to get it back. Soon, I hope not even to leave that sense of peace so I don't have to return to it.

Remember, the Bible says, "stop letting yourself be agitated or disturbed or unsettled."  Check that out.  You let yourself be unsettled.  You let yourself.

Be the peace you seek.

The Autumn Leaves Drift Past My Window...

Well, not quite yet, but the pumpkin lattes are back at Starbucks, so it must be time to get the autumn-y vignettes going.

My challenge this time was not to spend any money.  And I didn't.  Autumn is a time of gathering and harvest.  So I harvested pinecones on an evening walk and placed them in this Goodwill tureen that is usually in the dining room.  And then I hunted other items I already had from closets and other hidey holes.

The shoes were thrifted at a Goodwill in the Blue Ridge mountains while on vacation.

The two fall plates were thrifted, the bird came from The Dollar Store, and I found the key and the other rusted implement you see in the first pic in my yard while gardening.

No vignette is complete at Chez 256 without a Scrabble tile label.

I bought cloche several years ago from a wonderful shop whose front windows are filled with European kitchen-based antiques called The Kitchen Koop.  KK is the kind of place you can while away a work day lunch hour and immerse yourself in cookbooks, kitchen gadgets, and gourmet coffee.

And don't foget...

Signs, signs, everywhere a sign

Signs, signs, everywhere a sign
Blockin' out the scenary
Breakin' my mind
Do this, don't do that
Can't you read the sign?

All these vintage signs were on one barn that now serves as a garage up in the historic area of Richmond.  How cool are these?  Esso changed its name to Exxon in the United States in 1972.

I'd like a vintage bread sign for my kitchen, and I think the one I saw below on Etsy will do nicely



Richmond Again

I'm not sure what draws me to Richmond, exactly.  A good portion of the attraction is neighborhood after neighborhood of magnificent architecture; Victorian splendor with turrets and row houses with dental molding...

Or maybe it is the unique doorways...

 Or the tiny front yards lush with ivy and flowers...

Or the quaint-looking businesses which wouldn't be caught dead in a strip mall.

Or the old churches...

Or the moving poetic dreaminess of its residents...Can't you tell it is a town of intellectuals, refined people, as well as the home of two major universities as exemplified here: