Friday, September 28, 2007





















My linen came, my linen came!! I am so excited; I can get started on my big Christmas project. I'll post a picture once I get started.

I thought I would post a couple of pictures of my pots that I have painted. I did one for my Dad's fig tree and have done three for my hibiscus plants. I enjoy doing this; it is so right-brain! I did learn that it is important to prime the pots before painting. After I finish, (I use acrylics), I spray with a sealer and that seems to do better. The pot with the tea-pot nose and handled ears was not primed or sealed, and it does get a little moldy sometimes. I do take care of my hibiscus and water them, but these were taken during that long, dry spell of 100+ degree temps.

Saturday, September 22, 2007


Cabin Fever hit yesterday for some reason. It's not as if I never get out; I got out Tuesday morning for my women's Bible Study and went to church Wednesday evening. However, yesterday, I went a little nuts! Mr. Marvelous came home from a complicated trip back and forth to Columbia, SC and was informed that he was taking me OUT OF THE HOUSE!! Poor thing! We did get out and went to IHOP for supper (I even ate some of his omelette and a few bites of his pancakes...yum!) and then went to WalMart to pick up some groceries. Mr. Marvelous did the household shopping while I had fun picking some things up for a care package for our Hero/Soldier. Even though I was hurting some then and really hurt this morning from it, it was worth every twinge. The half-moon was peeking through some clouds as we were coming home, so I went and lay down in the front yard and got these pictures of it. Today Mr. Marvelous is taking me to a cross stitch shop in North Augusta and I can hardly wait. He is such a sweet, understanding (and long-suffering) husband and I am most blessed among women.

Thursday, September 20, 2007



































Uh-Oh, it is Thursday and I haven't written anything since Monday. So much for turning over a new leaf! I don't even have the excuse of having been dreadfully busy, since it has been a pretty quiet week. I'm posting here a picture of the big Christmas project that I am hoping to get done....if my material ever comes in! If I get really ambitious, I may try and do the rocking chair, too. The card caddy is an alternate (kind of like the Miss America pageant; we have the winner, the first runner-up and the second runner-up).


For the record, the reindeer is the winner and I will be doing it as a wall-hanging, rather than a pillow. These pictures were taken from the Mary Englebreit Christmas project book.
Finally, I am including a picture of Moses and Makenna, my nephew's two children. Just because they are the cutest, sweetest two children in the world!! They are being held by their Auntie Meaghan, who is another of the cutest and the sweetest.

Monday, September 17, 2007






























I'm motivated....look at this; two days in a row of posting something!

I made it to the last local Walmart tonight that still has a craft department and found that what floss was left was on sale for 10 cents per skein. Yippee! Now if only they had fabric, too. I am going to start tomorrow on a jar tie for my cross stitch exchange group and I'm looking forward to doing a pretty Mary Englebreit pattern for that. I got my craft room organized Saturday evening and re-organized yesterday and enjoyed sitting out there making bookmarks this afternoon. I've added a couple of pictures. That's the Mr. Marvelous Chair in the corner. He inherited from Uncle Harry. The tea set on the pretty wicker table with the bunny picture was a gift from my friend Susan. The set belonged to her daughter Sarah, Sarah drew the picture and the wicker table belonged to Sarah's grandmother. I never got to meet Sarah before she died, but I am looking forward to spending a lot of time with her in eternity!

I came across this brief explanation that George Mueller gave of how to apply Biblical principles to discerning God's will in decisions that have to be made. I have shared it with one or two friends but thought it warranted a broader audience.

1. I seek at the beginning to get my heart into such a state that it has no will of its own in regard to a given matter. Nine-tenths of the difficulties are overcome when our hearts are ready to do the Lord's will, whatever it may be. When one is truly in this state, it is usually but a little way to the knowledge of what His will is.
2. Having done this, I do not leave the result to feeling or simple impression. If so, I make myself liable to great delusions.
3. I seek the will of the Spirit of God through, or in connection with, the Word of God. The Spirit and the Word must be combined. If I look to the Spirit alone without the Word, I lay myself open to great delusions also.
4. Next I take into account providential circumstances. These plainly indicate God's will in connection with His Word and Spirit.
5. I ask God in prayer to reveal His will to me aright.
6. Thus through prayer to God, the study of the Word and reflection, I come to a deliberate judgment according to the best of my ability and knowledge, and if my mind is thus at peace, and continues after two or three petitions, I proceed accordingly. In trivial matters and transactions involving most important issues, I have found this method always effective.

Sunday, September 16, 2007

What a great time of worship this morning! Praise God that He allows us to come freely into His presence whenever we want to.

I promised that I would tell the interesting story about getting started on my Christmas project. I must confess that....I am a procrastinator. My family would be shocked at this, but it is true. I finally decided on my big Christmas gift project for this year. It is a cute Mary Englebreit that I have tried before and had to scrap because when one takes three years to do a needlework project, one tends to lose their place and lose count and after that long, it is VERY difficult to get it figured out again. So I scrapped the original and decided to start fresh. Unfortunately, that meant getting more linen (even though I promised myself I would NOT stitch on linen again!), and getting some more floss. Walmart here in Evans decided that those of us who enjoy crafts are not worth their effort, so that was out as a source. Michael's here in the Augusta area did not have what I needed. I did meet a very nice and helpful lady there who gave me some great tips on ways to get around that, but after bringing home what I decided on, I decided to go with the recommended fabric. So I went on-line and found a website with decent prices that used Pay Pal, and placed my order. And began waiting. And continued waiting. And waited some more. It was a matter of nail-biting anticipation each day waiting and watching for the mail man. Then the defeat of no package (anyone remember Calvin waiting for his beanie in "Calvin and Hobbes"?). This went on for 2 weeks. Finally, I got an email from the supplier that their supplier had had a flood and the delivery would be delayed for another 10-14 days. Sigh. I do feel badly for the folks, but I want to get started! I keep looking for other projects that I can work on while I wait, even though I signed the Multiple Projector's Anonymous pledge to not start more than one project at a time (surely just this once......). But each new project requires fabric and/or floss that I don't have and getting out to the store was not going to happen this past week. Ho hum. Maybe tomorrow my friend Susan and I can get out to the new cross stitch store in North Augusta and find some stuff to let me get started on the rocking chair seat cover for Moses and Makenna. I'll post pictures from the Mary Englebreit book as soon as I can. In the meantime, here is a picture of the big project I did for my brother Robert last Christmas. That verse is him and I looked for years for some way to do it with trees in the background since he is a tree surgeon. I was tickled to finally find the pattern. So tickled I even finished it!

Saturday, September 15, 2007

It has been a peculiar week this week. God is doing some work in our church to point out some areas that need work and that is not a comfortable process. I am convinced, however, that "comfortable" churches are not really doing God's work. I believe that finding the comfort of the Holy Spirit is much more important than being comfortable. As my dear husband likes to say, "Worship is not a spectator sport!". How often we walk into sanctuaries desiring to be entertained, rather than to worship the Only Living God Who is omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent.

Then Tuesday was a day to remember and mourn the tragedy of September 11, 2001. I think the even greater tragedy is how we as a culture seem to have forgotten that day and forgotten our resolve to do whatever it takes to combat these terrorists.

As I was standing on my front porch after raising our family's flag to half-staff, and praying for our men and women who are serving our country as heroes in the military, my husband came out with the phone in his hand and a troubled look on his face. It was my brother's wife (who is very much my sister) calling to tell me that her sister's husband had just had a massive heart attack and was not doing well. Nancy and her sisters grew up with us. Her sister Mary used to bring me paper dolls and play with me, despite our age difference. I attended her wedding when she and Tom married. Less than an hour later we heard that Tom was dead. What a blow! Google "Tom Oxendine" and see what his students thought of him! The funeral is today and I wish I could be there but my job is to stay here and pray.

Last night our son Mr. Marvelous Jr. called to report that this week at college was better than last week. Freshman year is so hard! There are so many transitions to make and it is hard not to worry that I have not done a very good job of teaching him when we homeschooled. We read the classics, discussed world-views of the author and learned how to find the world view. But I never taught him the elements of literature and that has come back to bite him. Sigh. Poor son!

He piped for the memorial service at the college on Tuesday. I wish I had some pictures of him piping for that, but maybe someone will post some on the college website or on Facebook.

I'll write more later about the funny stuff that has happened while trying to get some needlework going. For now, I'll close with this, from the Westminster Shorter Catechism.

Q. 1 What is the chief end of man?
A. Man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

May all that we do today, all that we say, all that we think, bring glory and honour to the Most High God. May nothing we do, think or say bring shame or dishonour to His Name.