"...of Life, Love and Super Cool Knitted Stuff !!! "

My sweet friend Miss Antoinette of Practical Simplicity ~ For His Glory made this card for me. Isn't it super cute and so sweet? I LOVE it..I thought it would be a good start to my blog post.

Hi everyone...oh my goodness...today I started that mystery knitted dishcloth from "Rachel's Knitting Corner" that I was telling you all about. Click here to see what's been knitted up so far. She posts new instructions every day.

Each day she gives you a few more rows to knit...and I can say, at least for me, that this is just as exciting as waiting for a new episode of LOST :) :) :) I can't wait for the next post...and I'll be haunting my blogger dashboard all night!!  So I knitted the first four days this afternoon...but I'll show you the progress, so that you get an idea of how this goes. These look really easy. You all should join in on the fun with me...Please visit Rebecca and tell her I sent you!!!

So here goes...day by day...

Day One - still have no idea what type of dishcloth this will turn out to be yet!!!!


Day Two ~ I see a bit of pattern starting to form. Now I'm really curious and I'm thoroughly hooked on this knit along!!! Mystery dishcloth knit along...is all that and a slice of bread!!!!


Day Three ~ Oh, it reminds me of a lattice pie crust...yummy. for some reason, the pictures came out yellow. My lighting isn't the best today.


Day 4 - this is where it ends for today...at least until the next post comes out with more knitting instructions. I can't wait. This is the knitting equivalent of watching "LOST" for me...this is so cool!!!!

I'll be blogging every day there's new instructions for this mystery knitted dishcloth...You don't understand how cool this is...:) :) :) Maybe you do....hee hee hee hee :) :) :)

Apropos knitting, my sweet friend Miss Antoinette sent me some handknit dishcloths!!! Click here to visit her blog "Practical Simplicity ~ For His Glory. She also has a super cool photography blog called "Practical Simplicity Photography" Click here to visit that site. This is a young woman who loves Jesus. She also loves cool crafty things like I do :) :) :) I think you'll enjoy visiting her. Make sure and tell her that I sent you!!!

This is what I saw when I opened the sweet package....a lovely set of handknit dishclothes...and a card to go with it :) :) :) :)

I knew the dishcloths were coming. However, I wasn't expecting her to tie it with that lovely green ribbon or include a card!!! So cool...!!! Miss Antoinette, I LOVE my gift. I have your dishcloths ready...and will mail them within the next few days!!!  She wrote me a really nice note and the photo at the top of this blog post today, is the card she made for me :) :)


Here are the two dishcloths lovingly tied with a mint green satin ribbon!!! These are so well made. Miss  Antoinette makes and sells these on her Etsy store. Go over to her blog and ask for details if you're interested. These are really sweet!!!


I love the vintage look and they match...do you notice that the center and edging coordinate with each other? This is so awesome...They're so pretty that I"m not sure I will use them...because I want to admire them all day long!!!

Now I'm inspired to knit some more dishcloths, just so I can give them away. That sounds really cool. I get paid tomorrow, so I"m off to Joann's to buy some more cotton yarn :) :) :) Oh, like roses...more is more when it comes to yarn!!! There's no such thing as too much yarn...at least not yet :) :)

What do you all like to do? What brings you joy?

That's about it for the moment. It looks like today is a "two-for" Thursday...at least as far as blogging is concerned :) :) :) I started knitting some Victorian lace edging out of DARK RED crochet cotton. Agggh...what have I gotten myself into. Do any of you ladies have any experience with knitting lace? I want to make cute lace edgings for my bookcase. Why the color red instead of white? Not sure...maybe it was too much coffee the day I went crochet cotton shopping.

Okay...My head is swimming with ideas again!!! Gotta pray on it and think over it!!! That's the news from Oregon for this evening. Extra love and hugs, Heather :) :) :)

..For The Love of Coffee, Soap, Knitting and Rainy Days!!!

Hi everyone...oh boy....I'm so thankful to God for a job at this point in time, even if it's not "sure" whether it'll continue past Christmas or not.  God is good and I'm learning how to be a good steward of my money..although I will readily admit that I still struggle with spending money on fancy coffee drinks. The coffee is good...and so are the baristas. They are really nice to my dad and I..

Anyway, I just had to get some things out of my head and onto a blog post.  My sweet friend Gerry over at Gerry's Soap N Stuff sent me two lovely bars of handmade soap the other day!!!!  Click here to visit her blog.  She's a really sweet lady who knows all there is to know about making homemade soap.  Take a look at the photo below...

These are the two lovely handmade soaps from Gerry...lovingly styled with my cloth knit from real sugar cane fibres!!! Oh, this soap smells to GOOD!!!!

Gerry asked me one day if she could send me a couple of bars. YES!!!! Gerry, thank you!!! When this arrived in the mail, it was the highlight of my day :) ;) :) :)  The white bar of soap on the right is the "Easy 2 Pounds of Soap" recipe.  The pink bar  has "black raspberry vanilla" fragrance oil in it and some palm oil.  Let me tell you...it's hard to put it down, because it smells so good!!! Pay Gerry a visit and tell her I said "hello" :) :) :)

The cloth that the soaps are sitting on is that yarn made from 100% sugar cane fibres. Yes, sugar can!!!!  Here's a link to the yarn that I bought.  When I can afford it, I like to shop at The Web*sters.  It's my favorite knitting store in Ashland, Oregon. It comes in hanks and is super difficult to wind into a ball...but it's so worth it. Ladies, this yarn is luxury..It drapes so nicely. It's a real dream. it was a little difficult to knit with because the yarn reminds me of really slick mercerized cotton..HOWEVER, with patience, you'll really like it. I knit in garter stitch (knitting on every row) to make this rectangular cloth. I actually use it at work to put my coffee mug on. It looks pretty and serves as a shield if my coffee spills..

I've been praying for some warm, muggy Oregon summer rain for awhile now.  Oregon can be really hot during the summer.  The humidty can really be oppressive sometimes, but there's beauty in that, because oppressive heat, usually means a nice summer rainstorm somewhere down the line.  We finally got one a couple of days ago.  Here's what the skies looked like outside my front door at about 4 p.m. on Tuesday. This is for real and I did nothing to touch up those photos. Don't those clouds look majestic and threatening all at the same time?


This photo was the skies above the apartment parking lot.

Now it only rained that one day where I lived...and it wasn't much of a rainstorm at all. Honestly, I do feel I got cheated just a little with the rain :) :) When I purchased the local newspaper the following Wednesday, there were some photos of flooding in some parts of the county. So some people did suffer some rain damage from the storm. That was surprising because in my town it seemed "relatively" calm in comparison.


These are what the clouds looked like outside my front door.  I think I may have taken this photo while on the way to the grocery store.  The clouds have these beautiful highlights with the dark rain clouds overhead...This photo is also untouched, completely natural. Isn't God's creation amazing?

This is a little bit of what it looked like while it was raining.  I'm hoping we will get some more rain later this summer.  This was the best photo I could take for all of you :) :)

I took this photo after my dad and I returned from the grocery store. By that time some of the dark clouds had dissipated, but it was still raining.

There's this one church near my home that I love to drive by because it has this really tall flower bush with these bright, bright magenta flowers. Does anyone know what they're called? A couple of weeks ago this bush looked dead..then yesterday, my dad and I drive by and we see this...

Isn't this intense color? This is a close-up of this flower bush. I don't know what it's called...but it sure is beautiful and it was in full bloom.

The following photo is of the flower bush. I don't think it's a tree, although the church's landscaper has it fashioned like a tree with these stakes.  It was in full bloom of color. I tried to get a really clear, detailed photo and it was impossible...even with lowering the exposure on my digital camera. Then I smiled at the thought that God could/would create a flower so brilliant that taking a photo is impossible, no matter what the weather is like outside :) :) :)


If you know what kind of flower this is, please let me know. Don't you just love all the color?  It's insanely beautiful!!!!

My dad is a really sweet man and here's a funny story that I shared with my Facebook friends yesterday.  My dad went to the grocery store yesterday morning to pick up a couple of things. He actually went to buy me some generic Epsom salts because my feet had been experiencing some swelling. So I'm going to try soaking them in this stuff and see if it helps. Anyway, when he comes home he surprises me with this beautiful bouquet of one dozen brightly colored roses with some lovely accents. See the photo below...


Isn't this gorgeous? My dad gave these to me yesterday!!!

My father is more likely to give me a good Christian book or a nice cup of coffee from The Human Bean. I can think of only two other times in my entire life he's ever given me flowers. Today is a new day folks. I asked him about the roses. He said that when he was at the grocery store, the cashier asked him if he wanted the flowers. Apparently, they can't sell flowers that are a day old...and so it was either give them to my dad or throw them away. Well, my grandmother didn't raise no dummy...so my dad took the flowers home and gave them to me :) :) They are long-stemmed roses. I put them in my antique vintage pitcher.  There was nothing else available and in an effort to use what I already have, this fit the bill perfectly..Aren't they beautiful?

This is my first attempt at styling a floral arrangement.  It doesn't match the pink/cherry table runner, but that's okay...It's all pretty and the flowers still looking really, really good!!!

I'm thinking about keeping some sort of flowers in there all the time now. It really brightens up the dining room area.  What do you think?  I think they are really cheery and bright!!! There is never such a thing as too many roses. ...nope, in this case, more is more!!!

Oh, I found this really super cute blog site awhile back called Rachel's Knitting Corner. I don't remember which one of you dear ladies directed me to this blog...but I'm in knitting heaven. Click here to visit this nice lady's blog site. She's a knitter...and I LOVE knitting. Anyway, every month she has a mystery dishcloth to knit. This current dishcloth project started on August 16th. Every day she posts a few more rows to knit and eventually, by the end of the month, you have a completed dishcloth with a fun mystery pattern that's revealed as you knit it. So I'm going to knit this current dishcloth.

Now there are already 4 days worth of posts. I 'll post about it tomorrow and include a link with my progress. If you knit, maybe you'd consider joining this blog or following the pattern and knitting a dishcloth of your own. Mystery dishcloths....I'm lovin' it!!!  She also has links to past projects..and with every day's new post, she includes all the previous knitting instructions leading up to that point!!!

That's about it for today. I hope you don't mind my "spaghetti" thinking today...starting at one point, going off on a tangent and stopping at the end of the original point. There's just so much I wanted to share with you all.

I've also realized that I haven't done much with budgeting and some other things lately. So I apologize for getting a little off track...but lately I just feel the need to post about what's on my heart. Oh, thank you so much for all the nice comments you have been leaving me here. I read every one and they've been much appreciated..especially since I started working. What really touches my heart is reading how you  ladies look forward to reading my blog..That makes me smile...really!!!!  I love Jesus Christ and just want to be a person that makes people feel good when they visit and feel good afterwards too...so when I read your comments about my blog, it was so unexpected and very touching. I'm wild with delight :) :) :)

That's the news from Oregon today. Lots of love and hugs, Heather :) 

My Sixth Tea Time Tuesday & Teapot and Tea Things Tuesday for August 17th, 2010

Happy Monday everyone !!! Here are my tea things for today....enjoy :) :)

Now this first cup is one that I purchased a few weeks ago at Goodwill or St. Vincent de Paul. It was only $0.69..I can't remember now, but it was really cheap :) :) In any case, I snapped it right up because it's so beautiful. This would be perfect for tea or coffee. Oh, and when you see the other two cups, you'll understand why I had to purchase this one.



There's a beautiful design of pears on this side. Notice the ring of leaves at the base and the inside rim of the cup? How beautiful is that? I love those "secret surprise" details !!!

I seem to really love all sorts of tea things...I especially love tea cups that have beautiful detail on the inside of the cup!!! It's like a special surprise!!


This is the design on the other side of the teacup.

Okay, here's a photo of the backstamp. I have to be honest here, the backstamp did make me laugh a little...but it's such a beautiful teacup!!

You don't see many tea cups made in India...but that would make sense, since some teas are grown there!! I think it makes my cup even more special :) :) :)

Now this next photo will show my recently acquired tea cup/coffee cup along with the other two matching tea cups. The other two cups I purchased at a TJ Maxx back in 2004. So when I saw the first cup I pictured...it was like this "Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy...This is unreal...so cool" :) :) What are the odds that I'd find a matching cup 6 years later? That's awesome!! Have you ever had experiences like that?

The two tea cups in front are the ones I purchased at a TJ Maxx back around 2004.  Notice how they're a little more straight up and down, while the one in the background has more curves...plus a vintage tea strainer :)


Here's that same vine detail on the inside rim of these tea cups!!! It's the same beautiful design. In fact, when I purchased these originally, I bought them for the vine design on the inside rim and no other reason :) :) :)

This is the front of one of the teacups. It matches the tea cup/coffee cup EXACTLY...how cute is that?


The front design matches perfectly.....


.....and so does the design on the other side of this tea cup :)

Here's the backstamp on the bottom of the tea cup. It's just like the first backstamp I showed you, except it's in red. There's also a date missing...normally found right above the icon of the tree...saying that this particular line was established sometime in the 1700s...

Here's the "sibling" tea cup...related and very similar in style and tone..Now I do have tea cups that have slight imperfections in them...this one has a couple of chips...literally...but I still think it's very beautiful :) :) I'll show you later what I use this cup for...HINT, it's not for tea...

I don't remember  how the "chips" happened.  I just know it was something I dropped on it while trying to wash dishes one day. I was a bit sad...but I did find a new use for it. Don't you love those purply plums?


Here's the detail on the other side of the "plum" tea cup :) :)

One of the things I used this cup for was a pretty container for my pens and pencils!!! Lately I've used it for some of my earrings.  At the time, I didn't have a jewelry box for my earrings. I still don't...I prefer this. It has more style!!! Here's just an idea of what you can use a tea cup for besides tea...especially if it's not suitable for drinking anymore...


I made that blue bracelet that's surrounding the tea cup along with the matching blue earrings. It wasn't easy since I was a beginner...but it was fun.  I wear those earrings quite a bit!!! I like sparkly...a LOT when it comes to earrings..OKay..enough...back to tea :) :) :)

I love everyones tea displays...so different and ALL are beautiful, girlie, feminine, romantic etc...all the good things :) :) Here a couple of my own attempts at "styling" a tea cup :) :) It was quite fun. So I may have to try that some more in the future :) :) :)

 

Those are my tea things for today :) :) :) I pray you enjoyed your visit.I can't wait to see what everyone shares today :)

 

Oh, my friend Gerry at Gerry's Soap N Stuff sent me the loveliest gift of homemade soap. Oh, it's luxury, ladies....so nice and smells so GOOD. I'll share a photo of her nice gift on Wednesday :) :)

 

This morning, I felt like I was going to throw up. I was really nervous today and NOT looking forward to getting on the phones. Sometimes making outbound sales calls can be challenging. It's not the rejection...that I can handle. It's a normal part of the job. What makes me sad is when people yell at me for no good reason..anyway, I had some concerns this morning...God worked a miracle today. My first "official" day back on the phones went really WELL.

 

It's been since April 2009 since my co-workers and I have done the outbound calls...but it went so WELL. Customers were nice and no one yelled at me. God answered my prayer for nice customers today :) :)

 

Oh, I could go on and on...and remember, I do try and keep work life and private life seperate...but I thought you'd want to know about my "first day back at school...oops, "work"...but you understand :) :)

 

If you're experiencing hot weather where you're at...I'm sorry. It's so hot here in Oregon at ca. 104 F/40C...it's almost beastly. Literally these high temperatures are wiping me out. It makes having an air conditioner at home...two air conditioners (one upstairs and one downstairs) a double blessing from God. It's wonderful!!! Stay cool everyone!!!

 

That's the news from Oregon today. Love and hugs, Heather

Memory Verse for Sunday - August 15th, 2010

Feel free to borrow this photo and share it with your friends on Facebook or on your blogs. Please link the photo back to my blog.Thanks :) :) :) Do you recognize the hyndrangeas? Beautiful!!!

Happy Sunday everyone...Oh, I was going to write a lot and I think I'm just going to post the verse for today. In fact, I may keep it simple like that every Sunday..:) :) :)

I'm excited and nervous about work tomorrow. It'll be my first real day on the phones. It'll be great!!!

Oh, go over and read Linda's blog Prairie Flower Farm. It's her wedding anniversary on August 16th...and the story she shares is just amazing.  It really brings home how God can make beauty out of ashes...AND this is a great love story between husband and wife and with  Jesus Christ!! Her and her hubby love Jesus Christ!!! Go check it out!!!

Well, that's the news from Oregon today. Love and hugs, Heather :) :) :)

365 day photo challenge from Saturday, August 7th, 2010 till Friday, August 13th, 2010.

Hi everyone, I'm back!!! Yeah...I'm so happy to be here!!! Really and truly. I've missed blogging. I started back to work at Harry & David last Monday. This whole week has been retraining and learning some new things too. It's been exciting, but also busy and tiring...but a good kind of busy and tired :) :) :)

Here's the next installment in my photo series.  This week I have more "bonus" photos for the days I wasn't able to photograph anything. This upcoming week I'll have more time. I'll explain as I go :) :)

BONUS PHOTO Saturday ~ August 8th, 2010  This is "verbenia".  It was such an intense blue, that it was "glowing" and I literally couldn't get a clear photograph, no matter how hard I tried. Isn't God great with colors? :) :) :) :)
It was really good to see everyone again.  There was a small group of 20...18 ladies and two gentleman...and I've been working with these wonderful people for just over two years now. It was almost like the first day of school. We are all excited to see who would be there. We had a lot of fun chatting and getting caught up. Of course, we are all very grateful to be back at work.


Sunday - August 8th, 2010 This was a teeny tiny little yellow flower peeking  through all that bark-mulch in the parking lot at Albertsons grocdery store. This was the only living thing in that entire island in the parking lot.  I had to snap a photo because this little flower was struggling for life and clinging on with every ounce of strength. I love this little flower..struggling but still beautiful!!!!


Monday ~ August 9th, 2010 This is an old-fashioned smudge pot used for keeping orchard fruit warm. This was actually redecorated by someone at Harry & David. I love the vintage feel to it..and it's what it very typical for this region of Southern Oregon...the Roayl Riviera Pears..some of the trees are almost 100 years old and still producing tasty fruit. Yes, I do love pears!!!!

Tuesday ~ August 10th, 2010 Some ducks over at the duck pond at work.  I love it that my job provides this beautiful pond for ducks and humands alike to enjoy!!! I tried to get a photo of all the ducklings..teeny tiny duck babies...but they got scared and swam away...so it's just the adults today!!!

BONUS PHOTO Wednesday ~ August 11th, 2010 This was a photo taken at the phone museum in Jacksonville, Oregon.  I just added "sepia" tones to it, to make it look vintage.  I really love the old typewriter. It's got some class and style!!!

BONUS PHOTO  Thursday ~ August 12th, 2010 A beautiful orange flower in a softer focus!!!!

BONUS PHOTO for Friday ~ August 13th, 2010.  I added some "glow" to this photo, although you almost can't see it..but it does make the colors come alive a little bit more :) :) I love hyndrangeas.

I didn't want to go into too much detail about work...mainly because I'm one of those people who loves to keep my work life and my private life seperate!!  I will say this, that I'm excited about some of the improvements in the computer system. It will enable me to take better care of my customers and to make their shopping experience a happy one. It's so fun to talk to so many different people.  Every day is literally so different!!!

The one prayer request I would have is for hours.  The one thing that is certain in this business is change.  So my co-workers and I were counting on full-time hours every week. It looks like it'll only be about 16 hours for the next few weeks, until it draws closer to the CHRISTmas season :) :) :) Yes, we do say "Merry Christmas" at Harry & David :) :) :)  So, all my "plans" went out the window...but then I'm reminded of a couple of things... 1) If you want to make God laugh, than tell Him your plans...and I'm thinking He's having a gentle laugh at me...I know I'm laughing at myself right now :) :) :) 2) God will provide and this will be another great opportunity to see what God can do in a situation where I'm totally incapable..especially now!!! I'm going to bloom where I'm planted...and I"ll use this as an opportunity to be even wiser with the resources God has given me. Hopefully I can use that to encourage someone else later on down the road. In any case, I would covet your prayers because many of my co-workers, while they understand the "why's", it still puts a strain on everyones budgets. Thank goodness we all know how to laugh about it all :) :)

WELCOME TO: Holly at Banner Haus News. Click here to visit her site. She has some great free images and other cool stuff to look at!!! I don't remember which blogger friend directed me to her site...but today's post has a great image for fall...so cute. Check it out!!!

I've been working on a knitting project...just a simple square cloth made from a yarn by Araucania...It's 100% sugar cane fibres. It's like silk and so shiny. I'll make sure to post a photo of it when it's finished. In any case, I'm making the square cloth as a "placemat" for my travel coffee mug when I"m at work. It beautifies my work space and serves as a way to clean up any potential coffee spills..not that I'm a messy coffee drinker...no way...messy eater, sometimes...but very neat with precious coffee :) :)

Well, that's about it for the moment. It's been super hot weather-wise this week. So the air conditioner has been coming in handy.  Last night was especially warm...even at midnight. I slept with my bedroom window open because it has a lovely screen. That's a small blessing that I'm thankful to God to have!!!!  I was sick last night and went to bed at 9:30 p.m. I feel much better now!!!  My dad made me a special "Daddy Breakfast"...so that always cheers me up!!!

I almost forgot to mention a very IMPORTANT PARTY/GIVEAWAY over at Prairie Flower Farm. Linda is having a super fun giveaway that ends on the 20th of August. Check out the button on my sidebar for more info on the giveaway. Otherwise you can click here to visit her blog :) :) :) There are some great things AND she's been running this fun "write your own story" piece for the last few days. So you'll want to check that out, have some laughs, be encouraged and just feel really good for being there :) :) I love me a good giveaway and I'll enter anything and everything because it's so much fun!!! So pop on over and tell Linda that I sent you and say "hello"!!!!

I'm off to work on my post for Sunday!!! I hope you all had a great week. You were missed and THANK YOU for leaving so many comments on my blog!!! It really made my day...coming home tired from work and then seeing so many greetings on my blog :) :) :) Way cool!!!!

That's the news from Oregon today. Extra love and hugs, Heather :) :) :)

My Fifth Tea Time Tuesday & Teapot and Tea Things Tuesday for August 11th, 2010 !!!

Hi everyone...oh, thank you, thank you, thank you for all of your prayers for work. Today went really well and I was very happy to be there!!! I'll write about it more later this week...but I wanted to get out my next tea post...because well, tea....it's just as important as breathing!!! Oh, funny story, I think I was supposed to be AT WORK at 7 a.m. for retraining...NOPE...I got the time way OFF...it was actually 8 a.m. so when my team leader saw me she was very surprised..OH, I'd been waiting at work since 6:40 a.m. Well, rest assured I won't be making that same mistake again. The blessing is that I got some uninterrupted knitting time !!

Okay...let's have a cup of tea, shall we? Now this was a lonely little tea cup I found a couple weeks ago at a yard sale. This yard sale was right across the street from the hospital, so there was no parking in front of the house. However, my dad and I just parked across the street in the hospital parking lot. You'll understand why I just had to buy this sweet little cup. It's more the shape of a coffee cup...but you know what...just like there's oodles of different varieties of tea, there are oodles of varieties of lovely teacups. It's "Wedgwood"...so I figure I earned a pass :) :)

Here's my Peter Rabbit Christmas china tea cup from Wedgwood!!! I LOVE the Beatrix Potter stories and "The Tale of Peter Rabbit" is my favorite.

Now the cup didn't have a price on it...but I had posted a really cute Campbell's soup bowl with matching lid that I'd purchased at the same yard sale. It was only $0.25...so I figured I could ask the same for the cup...:) :) :) So now I'm the proud owner of an orphaned Peter Pan china teacup :) :) :) Here's another view of the cup...It had quite a lot of detail on it!!! It's a Christmas teacup...:) :) :)


I really don't know anyone who doesn't love Beatrix Potter. Oh, and her books, she had them designed small on purpose, so that precious little hands could have books that fit and were kid-friendly :) :) :)

Here's the view on the other side of the cup. It says "Merry Christmas" in two spots and Peter Rabbit is doing something different in each image :) :) :)



The backstamp was lovely, cleary and had lots of detail. Check it out. I don't know about you, but now I want to start collecting Beatrix Potter items...this is so cute!!!

Oh, the day my dad and I had to go to this local church pantry was hard. It took us LITERALLY almost THREE hours to finally get some much needed food...BUT that's okay, because it was well-organised, clean etc...AND here's one of the small blessings from that long day. There was a table of random items...all FREE. So I waited until the wolf pack..I mean, ladies, cleared away..and I decided to take a look. Here was this lovely plate hiding underneath one very ugly bag...Oh, I think God meant this plate for me on that day...Look at it...with all the delicate pink roses and vines. Wouldn't this be especially nice with a chubby slice of cake or better, cheesecake? What's your favorite tea time dessert?

I think one of you dear people has a plate or teacup just like this. I thought someone posted something similar to this awhile back..


This is the backstamp. It's very simple and slightly faded. It had a crown at the top and says "Vienna..Austria. That's it. If anyone knows anything more about this particular design, please let me know :) :)

Now the floral design on this plate is unique...because it's not symmetrical or even...you'll notice there's some "irregularities" on purpose...the common element that ties it all together are those lovely pink roses with the green vines!!! It caught my attention. This plate was FREE.  Here's a couple close-up pictures of the detail on this lovely plate!!! I'm going to make this my dessert plate :) :)

 

 

Oh, today was my first day back at work for Harry & David. I was layed off in February along with all my friends. There was a small group of us that went back for three weeks at Mother's Day...otherwise, we've all been job hunting!!

 

It was so good to see everyone again. Here's the blessing...we all worked in the outbound telemarketing department and I know what most people tend to think of telemarketers. However, we are never pushy...NEVER...and besides, I know the product VERY WELL, so it's one I can confidently tell people about, because I use it...well, eat, is a better word...those Royal Riviera pears...yummy!!!

 

When the department was eliminated two years ago, we all went back to just taking inbound calls and handling customer service issues. Praise comes in the strangest of directions sometimes...the new CEO of the company recognized the value of our department & the money we were able to earn...so he brought our department back. It's a blessing in so many, many ways...the first one being a regular paycheck and pretty much guaranteed 40 hours per week of work. Not everyone gets that...

 

Well, I'm getting ahead of myself and I'm going to talk about it some more later this week.  I'm really praying for a good attitude at work...and that God would keep my heart open to learn something new. I will say this...I don't know where you are at in your working lives, whether it's at home, outside of the home... :) :)...there are skills that are important no matter where you work...honesty, integrity, faithfulness, being on time etc.. :) :) :)

 

Oh, okay...that's not tea related..BUT Harry & David does sell some lovey tea things in their stores and online...so I'll be adding some of that to my collection soon :) :)

 

Thanks so much for stopping by for tea and letting me babble on about work :) :) It's been a real good thing for me...and came at just the perfect time...Hmm..God's timing is ALWAYS perfect!!!

 

WELCOME TO: Teresa of Grammy Girlfriend. Click here to check out her blog. Teresa, thanks for joining my blog and leaving a lovely comment :) :) Your blog is delightful...LOVE the background, too :) :) :)

 

Love and hugs to you all...I hope you have a great week!!! That's the news from Oregon, Heather :)

Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho, It's Off To Work I Go & Scripture Memory Verse

Feel free to borrow this and share it on Facebook or on your blogs. Please link the photo back to my blog. Thanks ;) :) :)

Happy Sunday everyone,  I hope you are all having a really great day so far. It's only 7:11 a.m. here and it's already starting to warm up. I plan on taking a walk later today and catching some sunshine. It's good for the hair...makes your hair pretty :) :) :) It's all about the Vitamin D :) :) :) I read somewhere that Vitamin D helps in hair growth. My hair is about chin length and I want it LONG, LONG, LONG...so sunshine is essential :) :) :)

I'm getting my outfit ready for tomorrow. I found a really cute, LONG denim skirt to wear. It's hard to find a long straight skirt...but it was worth the search. The denim skirt will go with just about everything in my closet. So that will help with what to wear :) :)

Oh, I'm excited and I'm nervous with anticipation all at the same time.  It will be good to see all of my work friends again....all of them are women with the exception of a couple of guys.

This really sweet photo is courtesy of Prairie Flower Farm. Click here to pay Linda a visit. She has a really cool "Write your own story..." post. Click on the link for that on my sidebar :) :) :)

Linda, over at Prairie Flower Farm, is having a really fun activity called "Write your own story..." If you click on the button right above the Prairie Flower Farm button on my sidebar, it'll take you directly to that post. She starts it off for us, and it's our job to finish the story :) :) It looks like a lot of fun. I'm definitely going to have to participate :) :) :)

I didn't get a lot of crafting done yesterday except for another dishcloth :) :) :) It looks a bit unconventional, but it will work :) :) :) That means I was a little off in my brick stitch count while knitting. I was also too far along in the project and didn't want to undo it all. So I continued on and fixed it from that point. It actually looks kind of cool :) :) :)

I'll still be participating in the Tuesday tea parties, showing off tea things etc.  Scripture memory verse on Sunday is a given!!!!  After that, I'm not sure when I'll be able to post since I'll be working a full 40 hours a week.  Praise God for a job...I'll be able to take care of so many things that have waited a long time...like getting  a haircut!!! So I hope you all will still read my blog. I'll still be posting things :) :) :)

You ladies are awesome. Thanks so much for all the prayers, encouragement, godly wisdom...all of it!!! I've not only been encouraged but I learn a lot, too!!...besides, you all are fabulous :) :) :) That's the news from Oregon for this morning. Extra bunches of love and hugs, Heather :)