Wednesday, December 24, 2014

December

"December is Christmas...
With each setting of the sun,
 and the rising and setting of the moon 
and stars in the dark sky, the wonder grows.
 It is not so much in color as in absence of color, 
less in sound than in absence of sound, 
not at all in fragrance but in absence of fragrance;
 that is of the earthly color, sound and fragrance. 
Each day there seems less of all that has been familiar
 in the earlier months of the year, 
and more that is new though not strange.
 Gradually the world becomes another place, 
suffused by gentle radiance, 
cupped in innocence and infinite wisdom, 
carried aloft by unseen winds which bear it
 closer and closer to the Source of all wonder."

Gladys Hasty Carroll

Thursday, November 27, 2014

November

"November is a russet apple with a glint of gold in
it's rough brown skin,
 one dry leaf clinging to its blackened stem, 
 a brisk spicy flavor at its core. 
It is cider working in dark barrels,
 reddish brown sawdust blanketing the sills,
 amber-eyed cows chewing all day in the stanchions.
 It is stately fowl on yard parade in brown and gray feathers 
and red combs, and many brown eggs in the barn cellar nests at night. 
It is grey crocks filled with barberry sauce
 and great cubes of translucent pumpkin, 
scarlet cranberries drying in the open chamber
. A lamp or lantern held high in the dark dairy
 reveals a mosaic of jellies, preserves, shrubs, 
wines, bottled herbs and yellow cream rising in shallow pans."

Gladys Hasty Carroll

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

October


October is age regal and triumphant, 
the impartial judge on the bench,
 the dowager duchess, wise, strong, 
and in excellent health, 
bearing easily the weight of velvet robes 
which change with shifting light from deep blue
 to plum color and crimson,
 of heavy chains, heavy pins, 
heavy rings all of gold, 
all of the great keys which this month
 is the keeper of the coin of the realm
 secreted in the robe's capacious pockets."
Gladys Hasty Carroll

Monday, September 29, 2014

September

"September is a banner of soft purple 
and metallic gold proudly 
suspended across the sky...
The sand y roads are bordered deep 
in goldenrod and wild asters.
Sweet apples and Porters are yellow
 in the orchards and blue
pearmains are ripening.
 Maple trees are touched with yellow
 from the first frost.
Pumpkins are drawn by the cartload 
from the fields and stacked beside the barn."
Gladys Hasty Carroll

Sunday, September 14, 2014

3rd Birthday

It was a monster truck bash,
and it had to be green!
That's what my 3 year old
grandson wanted!





He drove the truck up and down the frosting hill
and that made him very happy:) 

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

August (A Little Late)

"August is hot. Opulent, tired, thirsty, hot...
She asks no questions about the purpose of life,
is heavy with answers as a cow with milk
 coming up the pasture lane at days end.
 A child is to play and get into mischief
 and do his chores and eat and sleep and grow...
August is the meeting place of the currents of the year.
She feels the meeting within her,
the waters from many directions 
surging into a mighty eddy;
but she is not shaken by it, 
encompasses it calmly
 as she carried her children to full term 
despite their struggles to find a way out
 of the pocket in which she held them
 until it was time for them to go.
She is even faintly amused by the surging
 and eddying as she was by the struggles of her unborn."

Gladys Hasty Carroll

Thursday, August 28, 2014

Outfit for a Little Lass

This coat and bloomers was made
for a very special little lady
Juniper Kate
 who was born on her 
Great-Great Grandma's
( My Mom)
Birthday.
The coat is called a Brunch Coat
and the fabric was one I was saving for
some special project.

Thursday, August 21, 2014

One Year Birthday

The month has flown by and I still haven't posted 
Beckham's
one year birthday!
I did a Camping Theme
 With a tent and campfire cake...
 The cutest bear ever for the don't feed the bears sign...
 Lanterns, sticks and pinecones.
 The birthday boy did not think it appropriate to 
eat with his fingers,
he requested a fork and carefully
ate one forkful at a time!
His older brother however put his whole
face on top of a s'more bar
and had marsh mallows stuck to his face:)
It

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

July

"July is the beginning of the year's prime of life...
The long days roll by on greased axles,
laden with tall grass, new-cut and drying in the sun,
the corn knee-high and ready for hoeing,
potatoes, squashes and pumpkins in bloom,
sweet peas climbing up chicken wire to cover the shed wall
with pink, white, red and lavender,
pond lilies starring every spring-fed pool of water
and filling a washtub under the dooryard tree.
The nights are short and the dark is thin and soft,
a-twinkle with  fireflies,
heavy with the heat of the sun 
which has scarcely gone down
when the east begins to brighten,
and rich with the smell of fruit and flowers and swamp
and the sea on the other side of the mountain."
Gladys Hasty Carroll

Monday, July 14, 2014

Porch #1

This is my front porch...
or is it the back porch...
maybe it is actually the side porch!
Anyway it is where I walk in when I
park my car:)




I just love a porch.

Monday, July 7, 2014

New Look in the Booth

I've been working hard to get 
a lot of new items into my booth
at Rusty.
It was a super fun way to create
and I love the little bit country,
little bit rock and roll:)





Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Chairs with a Story

I was asked by a lovely young bride to redo the seats
on some chairs her parents had given her for
her first apartment with her groom.
The chairs had been in her parents attic.
 So I took off the old seats, tightened the rickety
spindles and legs and recovered them.
I used a monogram that she had on her wedding invite
and put that on the seat.
When the brides mom saw them she told how
once upon a time when she was getting married
she and her groom found these chairs 
at a garage sale and proudly brought them
 to their very first apartment.
They didn't mind that they were a little bedraggled
because they were THEIRS!
Isn't that the neatest thing?
I'm so glad I got to be part of the story...

Friday, June 27, 2014

New Projects

I have been very inspired lately
by ideas for my booth.
Not sure if the customers will be as
excited as I am...
but I can hope.
This was a very ugly canvas of a flower
that I got at a sale.
Loved painting over it and starting fresh with
this look and color.
 The horse is an American Girls size
but I painted it and glittered and glammed it up!

Friday, June 20, 2014

Prairie Aprons

I am in love with my new apron designs!
I call them Prairie aprons and 
will be selling them in Rusty G.

 The one above I used a vintage napkin for the 
front and also a ruffled piece on the side 
which doesn't show in the picture.


Wednesday, June 18, 2014

June

"All the smells of winter are washed away 
by the flood tide of the perfumes of June--
an incomparable blend of a thousand flowers
 caressed by the sun, 
of fruit springing from bud in the orchard,
 of roots thickening in loose, rich soil, 
of sea turn, swamp mist, running brooks,
 birch and pine. 
The outdoors comes in and there is no indoors...
Small children, barefoot, roam at will,
 wading brooks, peering into muskrat holes,
feeding small birds in the hollows of trees, 
following woods trails, digging sand banks. 
Women's fingers are pink-stained at night
from the picking and hulling
 which bring strawberry short-cake to the table."
Gladys Hasty Carroll

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Iconic in Turquoise

I beg pardon y'all if  I offend the purists
on this post;)
I bought an old pair of cowboy boots...
very cheap and too big for me

But I really "needed" a Turquoise pair, 
not to wear but to display in my bedroom.
So out came my Annie Sloan chalk paint
and now they have pride of place in my room!

Now I really wish they did fit!

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

9 Months and Stolen My Heart



We call him Beckham boy...
and he is the snuggliest, most expressive
little munchkin!

Saturday, May 31, 2014

How Many Miracles?

How many miracles can we ask God for? 
Is there a limit to His mercy
and His grace?
If we ask do we expect to receive what
our minds think is best or what God thinks is best?
These are the questions I have been thinking
a lot about in the past few months and 
especially tonight as our church
faces another night of prayer.
Our Pastor has gone into surgery
for a liver transplant...and we wait
with anxious hearts and prayers for 
just one more miracle!
In his family we have prayed for a 
miracle of release from drug addiction
and his son has been clean over 2 years...
in his family we prayed for his other son
to survive leukemia, pancreatitis,
pain med withdrawal, broken tibia,
ongoing healing...
He has made it 2 years in remission despite
all the complications.
For our pastor we prayed that his liver cancer 
would be healed,
and tonight he gets a new liver...
if God wills it to be so and all goes well.
How many miracles can we ask for
 in one family? 

I don't know-- but what I do know is that there
are no limits set for us in His Word.
He makes it plain that we ought to pray and
ask without ceasing, with faith and in His will.
We should pray even if our faith is as small 
as a mustard seed and He will do
as we ask...according to His will.
So tonight I ask He who knows best for
 just one MORE miracle,
for this family that I have come to know 
and love in such a special way.

I love you Pastor H and Family

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

May

"May is the tender promise we know will come true.
If in the earlier months any of us has doubted that
God loves his children, every one, we doubt no longer.
The sun has come back and rises north of the mountain,
gently flooding the windows of the east chamber
 as it comes up, and casting a soft light
 on the brown kitchen wall
behind the supper table as it goes down.
The grass is green and growing and the cattle are out.
One night at milking time a 
new calf is brought up from the pasture.
The seed is in and the long rows of twin leaves rise from the earth.
The apple trees are in rosy bloom, the blossoms of 
wild pear and cherry like white torches 
against the dark woods and the stone wall.
Day and night the air is bright and sweet 
with the scent of budding fruit, 
the flash of wings, and the song
of birds building nests among the flowers.
The whistle of the whippoorwill is a bugle call to summer."
Gladys Hasty Carroll


Thursday, May 15, 2014

2 Years

Today was a hard day-again.
It was Logan's funeral day.
And it is a day that stands alone in the halls
of pain in my own life.
2 years ago today my husband left for rehab
in CA and from that point on we have 
been separated.
He chose to live in bondage to a substance
and I chose to remove myself from the daily pain
and chaos that had been my life for 10 years
before that day.

This was before...trying so hard to make life
better and easier so he could maintain
sobriety and live a happy life.

This is now...living alone and trying so hard to make 
life better and easier for myself
so I can maintain joy filled, godly living
and be content.
Did I make the right decision?
Did I do enough?
Do I know what the future holds?
Will addiction rob me and my children of 
the man we all love?
These are the hard and unanswerable questions
that I face each and every day.
When I think I am okay and things are better
then something comes along that brings it
all into sharp focus again and I realize
afresh that the pain still hurts just as much,
the tears are just as bitter
and the wound still is not healed.

But...
Gods faithfulness and grace meets me
every day fresh and real,
His love tenderly pours the Balm of Gilead
into my wounded heart and it IS enough
to face each day, not the future with
it's fears and sorrows, but for today.
I will trust that He who says He came to bring 
life abundant means what He says!

Sunday, May 11, 2014

Silent Sorrow

This is an extremely difficult subject
that I am addressing in this post.
My heart is full of tears.
Another dear and precious friend lost
her 24 year old son this week-
but he did not go from joy to joy.
He was on a silent and sorrowful path and 
it ended in a silent and sorrowful 
passing-suicide.
The reason I know this friend in such 
a deep and personal way was that we
share the terrible path of watching someone we love
fall ever further into addiction.
I tried to walk the journey along side her as they tried 
to save him from the slide downwards.
There were many times that I hugged her
and felt her shaking with tears and many
times she hugged me and let me cry.
We didn't do things the same, it was her son 
and I am dealing with a spouse, but we
understood how the other felt, the fear
and the pain and the anger and the rage and 
the fierce love and the aching misery.
We walked silently together many times in sorrow.
I look back and think was there ANYTHING I could have
done differently or better to help him,
but it never pays to look back unless we
can learn from it in some way.

This is what I know-
Logan believed in Jesus
he was in terrible bondage to a substance
he couldn't bear the pain
he is Home.

Beyond that I cannot say anything that
I know for sure.
And when I saw her that terrible morning
not one word came from my mouth,
I could only sit by her and hold her hand 
and weep in silent sorrow.

I love you family of Logan


Tuesday, May 6, 2014

From Joy to Joy

It has been a difficult week to find
the words or interest to write anything here.
My dear friend, since my single days,
lost her first grand child
in a tragic farming accident.
Her daughter posts at 



He was 5.
His life was joy,
each day was full of all the special
delights of childhood.
He didn't get a terrible sickness
that brought him to this place.
He simply went from joy here
to joy there.
That is not the way it feels,
the pain all who love him feel
is incomprehensible.
But for him he never had to know
that life is hard and people hurt you 
and loved ones don't love Jesus,
and the world can be a bad and scary place.
He just passed from joy
to JOY.
and that is amazing.

I love you, family of Skyler.

Thursday, April 17, 2014

Holy Week 2014

This year I have been reading through 
the Bible in Chronological order-
amazing and eye opening!
At the start of this Holy Week
leading up to that most glorious event
Resurrection Sunday,
I had been stumbling along through
the prophet Zechariah, feeling depressed
by the dire warnings and the heedless
captive Jews. 
Then right in the middle of this a verse leapt off
the page and brought an instant surge of tears.

""then they will look on Me whom they pierced. 
Yes, they will mourn for him
 as one mourns for his only son, 
and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn."

And then a few verses later
"In that day a fountain shall be opened for...sin 
and for uncleanness. "

And then 
"And one shall say unto him, 
what are these wounds in thine hands?
 then shall he answer,
 those with which I was wounded
 in the house of my friends."

I bow the knees of my heart and worship
the One whom my soul loves
and who gave His all in the 
"house of His friends"
that I might look on Him who I pierced
and be cleansed in that Fountain
from all my sin and uncleanness.



Monday, April 14, 2014

April

"April is the two-week-old kitten, the 
month-old lamb, the six-month-old heifer,
the two-year-old girl.
Too young to know it has either past or future,
 it wears the ribbon of the fleeting present
 as part of itself--a crisp bowknot
of iridescent taffeta changing with the colors of the sky
from the pale pink of dawn
 to the pale blue of noon
and the dusty rose of sunset.
It dances on legs too unsteady to support it,
 but they are unaffected by the pull of gravity
and touch the feathery pillow of the earth
only to spring away."

Gladys Hasty Carroll