Weekly Gratitude-Another Tasha Tudor Friend's Gift

Anyone who meets me will quickly discover that I am a Tasha Tudor fan. Tasha was a children's illustrator who had a long career and lived quite a simple and special life.

This year my Tasha exchange name was my good friend Suzanne who lives back in MA! Our theme was Chickahominy who actually was Tasha's favorite rooster.
She sent me the most interesting framed rooster print. It's done on an old dictionary page. She included a set of 4
magnets too.

She also sent me a pink luster teacup with chocolates ! I am still in shock and so thankful for a friend who would gift me with such a special treat. I called her to thank her and oh it was so nice to hear her voice! Thank you again for my Tasha teacup! Thank you for your friendship!

And Miss Annabelle also got a package from Miss Annabelle of MA .

We started this Easter exchange years ago on our Take Peace group with an ornament exchange and most of us had an Easter tree. It was so fun but too much work to send so many. Now we just do a one on one exchange and this year my dear friend LaVonne set it up.

I found a new tree and a box of Easter ornaments at an Estate sale last week for $5. I set it up in my tea room this year and it's lovely. I like to look at it and think of all my Tasha friends with warm thought and a grateful heart for friendship.

Here's some pictures- I'm still having use my phone to post pictures and I can't edit them as well, so please excuse the not so perfect photos!

Wishing my Christian friends a very thoughtful Holy Week.

I'm joining Mary at Redo 101 who is continuing our weekly gratitude posts after Linda at A La Carte has ended Gratitude Sunday. Thank you Linda for beginning this nice habit!

Gratitude Sunday #10~Blessings of a Baby

Once again I'm joining Linda at A LA CARTE for Gratitude Sunday. I have thought a great deal about this post for today. I posted on Friday that I had some happy news to share and I do indeed. Jimmy and I are to be grandparents for the first time in July! Chris and our daughter Angie told us at Christmas, but we have been very guarded about sharing the news earlier. Angie never thought she would be able to have children and last July, they lost a baby at two months, after much excitement. We had a little scare in January, but God is good and now she is about half way through her pregnancy and things are looking good. On Friday, they found out they are having a little boy. We are still a bit cautious and I really want to be excited, so I am going TRUST that if it's God's will and for the best, this baby will be born.

Chris has a daughter Ava who is 6 and she is like a granddaughter to us already. This is the picture she drew on Saturday....I LOVE IT! It also made me cry.  From left to right...Eric (our SIL), her Grandma Kathy, her daddy, Angie, Ava (herself), Jimmy, Linda and Gina (our daughter married to Eric). FAMILY. You can't see that she had drawn the baby on the left hand side of the page...baby Otto.

It all seems a bit unreal to me. It's funny to write grandparents. As Angie said to us a few weeks ago, you guys have had to wait for almost 40 years to become grandparents! We are praying that all will be well. We believe everything happens for a reason too,  so we are going to cherish the JOY right now.

This picture was taken last September at Eric and Gina's wedding. I really like it...and hope that this will be a family of 4 in July.

So, I am so thankful that the baby is ok. Thank you for letting me share something very personal. Thank you for your prayers for Angie to have a healthy baby.

Gratitude Sunday #9~Squeaky Clean!

This Sunday I'm joining Linda at A LA CARTE for Gratitude Sunday. It's such a fun weekly event that makes you think of something specific that you are quite thankful for and you can share it with blogland. It's becoming a very nice habit. Thank you Linda for starting this and I hope your continue it for the entire year.

I love specialty soaps! My friends and family often give me pretty soaps as gifts. I have loved soap from the time I was a little girl, however, I still have the same problem I had years ago....it's so hard to use them. I just have to save them up for awhile and enjoy them. I guess you can see that from the photo.

I am thankful for being able to take a bath or shower everyday. What a luxury to just be clean. I have a small Jacuzzi tub in my bathroom and when I garden in the summer, I so enjoy that bathtub! It's just nice to take a hot bath to relax or melt the stress or cold away sometimes. I am also very thankful that I am not allergic to pretty scented soaps...just real roses, flowers and grass in the spring.

Soap is a consumable gift, which makes it nice for that person who doesn't want "anything else I have to dust!"

My most favorite soap is Yardley's English Lavender. This is a vintage box my hubby found at a sale recently. It was once packaged so nicely.

 This is the way you get it now! But the good thing is, the Dollar Store carries it so it is always available and at such a good price!

I most likely will need a bath tonight. I'm off to the show to help Jim pack up. It's a lot of work but I'm also grateful that he had another very good show!

It's been a very busy week with this show and I haven't been able to been able to respond to my blog comments as I like. I have lots of Etsy work to return to this week, but hope I can get caught up with my blogger friends.

Gratitude Sunday #8 BUTTON BUTTON, WHO'S GOT THE BUTTON ?

Button, button, who's got the button? Did you ever play that game when you were young? We did and I used to play it with the kids in my class when I taught primary grades and even at the Girls Scout Camp. It's such a simple little game, but kids love it. Almost as much as I LOVE buttons! When I was little, I would sort my mom's buttons into families, but color and size. I would spend hours sorting buttons. I still love to sort things. My Jimmy just laughs at me and tells my girls to just bring mom a bag of buttons to sort when she's in a nursing home! That will keep her busy and happy for days....I think he's right!

Have your ever thought how functional buttons really are? We are lucky to have them on our clothes! They can also be decorative too. So I am thankful for buttons today and joining Linda at A La Carte
for another Gratitude Sunday. This is her 8th Sunday, two month's worth of gratitude from us that are joining her.

This is a little assortment of vintage buttons that I just can't take off of their sweet little cards. I wish things so common as a button, were packaged like they used to be.  You can see some tiny buttons in this picture. I have lots of friends give me little the very small buttons for doll clothes. I am always on the hunt for those!

This is how I store my buttons, the ones I may need for a craft project or quilt. I like to be able to get to them when needed. The larger box is home to the main buttons but the smaller one holds all my special and holiday buttons. I try to keep them in little containers inside the box.

 Oh what could be hiding inside the charming Peter Rabbit tins? More special buttons. I love all the spring and pastel ones.

 You may have noticed the background quilt in the pictures. My friend Linda gave it to me a few years ago. I love the embroidered quilt blocks and notice the tea time buttons in the pinwheels.

This is a card of ceramic tea time buttons that I have been saving for something special. I love the flat ceramic ones for quilt projects as they are pretty flat.

Did you notice this tiny box in a picture above? I love it and keep some of those tiny dolly buttons inside for safe keeping.

I often go to estate sales and am a total junker. I keep my eyes open for old tins. My mother kept her buttons in a tin and I think a lot of women did. Here's a pretty tin that was loaded with treasures!

I opened this little wooden box to find an assortment of mostly white and buttons made of shells, some of my favorites. Note how many in this tub were grouped together in safety pins or pieces of wire. Ladies often saved the buttons off of garments when they wore out. Thrifty homemakers.

 I once told my friend LaVonne (my dear friend who lives in MT that I talk about ALL the time) that I needed some more white buttons. I was also looking for a glass rolling pin. So, guess what she gifted me with....a glass rolling pin filled with white buttons of all types! I just keep filling it up when I use  some for a project. Thanks LaVonne! I still love it.

I'm also feeling very thankful this Sunday for my friends too who know me so well and spoil me. I have been meeting new friends this year in blogland and I have to say, I have been very touched by these new and growing friendships. It just makes me happy.

So take a minute and be thankful when your button your blouse or look at that fabulous big button on your coat that just makes it fashionable!  It's the little things...right? Have a wonderful week. 

Gratitude Sunday # 7 Coffee and Tea

It's Sunday and I'm joining Susan at A LA CARTE for another Gratitude Sunday. I am thankful this week for my daily coffee and tea times with my husband. Now that we are retired and no longer in retail, it's so enjoyable to have our unrushed coffee time in the mornings. No more commuting for us! 
I appreciate having the time to talk over the week or the day or anything else each morning.

In the afternoons around 3 PM, if we are both home, we take a tea time break together. We've only been having tea in the afternoons since before Christmas and it's really become a nice habit. We are enjoying a Bachelor Button tea from the Butchart Gardens of British Columbia from my friend Lisa.  I like having tea instead of coffee in the afternoon and Jimmy is getting to try out lots of tea. So far, he seems to enjoy the black teas the best. It's been fun and I'm thankful that we have more time together a couple times a day. Retirement is a big blessing! We are really busy and the weeks seem to fly away, but it's nice to be on our time and our schedule. Have a great week blogger friends!

Gratitude Sunday #6~My JImmy

Today I'm joining Linda  at A LA CARTE for Gratitude Sunday. This is becoming a very nice tradition and I find myself thinking about my choice though out the week.

So, today I'm grateful for my dear Jimmy. Today is his birthday! I am wishing him a year of happiness, fishing, many trips to his gold mine camp, memorable times with friends, successful antiques show, good health and God's many blessings.

Thanks Jimmy for taking such good care of me and the girls. You are a great husband and a giving father. I give you an A+ for being a protector and a provider.

Thanks Jimmy for always making everyone laugh...such a gift from God!

Thanks Jimmy for making my friends feel comfortable! You're always such a good sport.

Thanks Jimmy for all the dinners "out", especially when I'm in a busy pattern or trying to finish up yet
ANOTHER project.

Thanks Jimmy for helping me take good care of my dad.

Thanks Jimmy for all the county drives and trips out of town.

Thanks Jimmy for all the encouragement with my little Etsy shoppe.s

Thanks Jimmy for bringing me flowers all these years.

Thanks Jimmy for not laughing at all my dolls and even going to the doll shows with me!

Thanks Jimmy for sticking with me for almost 40 years!  We need to celebrate this August.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JIMMY! I LOVE YOU!

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Gratitude Sunday #5

This Sunday I'm joining Linda again at A LA CARTE for another GRATITUDE SUNDAY.
I went to a doll show in Portland on Saturday, put on by Dolls4ALL. They have them twice a  year and I always look so forward to attending. I was thinking that I am thankful for the little girl in me that still loves dolls. Isn't it fun to enjoy things that brought you great JOY when you were little? I have always loved my dolls and still have many from my childhood. After I was introduced to Tasha Tudor's dolls though my friend Kristen and some of us in our Take Peace group made the doll Annabelle from Tasha's book A IS FOR ANNABELLE, I started going to the doll shows. I was so nervous the first time I went, but dolly people are fun and really sharing.

Enjoy some photos from the show~

I love French Fashion dolls and always drool over them and their clothes. This is a great book I found on making outfits and the dolly's accessories. I can spend hours pouring over these books!

I purchased some goodies for Annabelle's friends so I can't post pictures here yet. I did buy a special little lady for my self. She's a wax dollhouse doll, about 4 inches tall and she was made by the Seattle doll maker Ada Odenrider. Her dress is so pretty and very detailed. I love her hair style too.

I have read about wax dolls but I've never seen one other than in a book. I have to be selective anymore when purchasing a new doll. Her she is on tucked into my tea items. I have to find a good name for her.

Happy Sunday and spend a bit of time thinking about what you are thankful for this week.

I'll be announcing the winner of my GIVE AWAY on Monday!