My First Blog Giveaway !

Yeah!  I'm hosting my first-ever Blog Giveaway, as a small way of thanking my friends for visiting and spending a few moments with me.   I've been thinking about having a giveaway for a while but just couldn't decide what I wanted to offer.   I've made visits to a couple of local antique stores and finally came home last week with a vintage tablecloth that I thought someone might enjoy using in the coming summer months.   The colors are faded and there are a couple of little yellow spots which are barely noticeable.   I went through a "spell" a few years ago, collecting vintage tablecloths and I really enjoyed using them on my kitchen table.   They are wonderful for picnic tables, too.   I enjoyed buying some for my mother .... as she loved making her kitchen "pretty".  This one comes freshly laundered from one of my favorite booths in the Packing House Antique Mall in Cambridge, MD.    It measures approximately 51" x 45".   (click photos to enlarge)

If this is something you would like to have for your home, you may enter the drawing by leaving a short comment on this posting, saying hello ...  I will be trying to have giveaways once a month, so if you become a Follower, you will be able to be alerted the next time ....

I am going to do the drawing the old-fashioned way by putting your names in a bowl and letting my husband pull one out ... it just seems more fun that way.    And I think I will do that on my sister Nancy's birthday, which is June 3rd.   So you have a little more than a week to enter your name. 

With love, from my heart to yours ......

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I Shall But Love Thee Better After Death

This past Friday, Gary and I visited Taylor's Island.   One of the places at which we stopped was an old Episcopal Church ......

We walked around the graveyard ... reading some of the stones ....

Graves of three little girls .... ages 4, 5 and 6  ... from the early 1800's

Lita ... aged 19 ... died 1877 ... "Made perfect through suffering"

Joseph ... age 74 ... died 1852 ... "A kind and affectionate husband and father"

At one point, I glanced up and saw the following two small stones leaning against each other .. and I thought of the words of Elizabeth Barrett Browning .... "I shall but love thee better after death."

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height

My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight

For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.

I love thee to the level of every day's

Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.

I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;

I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.

I love with a passion put to use

In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints, I love thee with the breath,

Smiles, tears, of all my life! and, if God choose,

I shall but love thee better after death.

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Friday Pretties -- Lily Of The Valley

Joyce from "I Love Pretty Little Things"  http://iloveprettylittlethings.blogspot.com/ is so graciously hosting "Friday Pretties" .... this is my first time joining in.   I'm looking forward to visiting Joyce's blog in the morning and following her links to the blogs of everyone who is participating.   One can never see too many Pretties! 

I would like to show you one of the favorite things I have in my kitchen .... lily of the valley plates and cups I purchased on ebay about three years ago.  

click photos to enlarge

the handle on one of the cups is broken .... but it's still pretty .... and it reminds me of the beauty of brokenness before God

pretty white tablecloth ...

pretty pictures on pretty-smelling talcum powder ... lily of the valley fragrance

pretty glasses

Lily of the Valley scrapbook art ... made from an illustration in an old Victoria magazine, showing a little girl wearing a dress with lily of the valley fabric.  To see more of my digital art, visit

http://gentletouches.blogspot.com/

The lily of the valley has the flower meaning of humility, chastity, sweetness and purity.

"He's the Lily of the Valley .... He's the Bright and Morning Star ... He's the Fairest of Ten Thousand"

May His Gentleness and Tenderness be the most beautiful things in your life this week.

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Silenced

An abandoned school on the outskirts of Nassawadox, Virginia ... the new building was sitting right next door, with only a driveway separating the two ....

"...And no one heard at all, Not even the chair..."

(Neil Diamond)

(first picture, converted to "old paper")

And just to add a touch of "pretty" ... this is a peony in the Gardens at Maplewood Farm

And this billboard, which I LOVE ....

(click photos to enlarge)

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