~thank you dear friends~

all is well.

xo,C

a lovely First Day of Spring & to thank you all so very much~a little drawing

~little cotton tail bunny who lives under the old lilac~

Happy First Day of Spring

~~~

dearest friends,

I'm need a little bit of help, please.

as with all things modern and electronic, I have found that you just can't

depend upon a computer

like you can a trusty ledger and a pen to write with.

There has been a cafuffle with my laptop;

she deciding that she should stop working and leave me without any way of telling anyone

what is happening and in the meantime we have lost a great many emails from my lists.

If you have been a member and/or should like to added to my mailing list,

please do write to me HERE and you'll be reinstated and/or added immediately.

***

To thank you all for your kind help & emailing me~

All of this coming week, I'll be adding all of the names of those

who send their names & email addresses

into the old wall paper'd top hat.

In a week from today, I'll be drawing 3 names from the old hat

for a little thank you treasure.

I'll be sending one of my Deerfield Farmhouse doll patterns to

3 names that are drawn in one week from today.

Thank you all and I look forward to hearing from you.

~*~

I hope that this finds you enjoying a lovely

First Day of Spring.

~*~

Spring dollies are waiting and wanting to be shown!

~*~

I look forward to hearing from you~

thank you all so very much!

love, Christine

~*~

ps. This morning one of the little cottontails that live under the old lilac came out for a bit of sunshine and a nibble of sweet green grass.

Snow flakes have been falling off and on all this past week,

but now,warm sun is

shining through on this beautiful day.

I hope it's shining for all of you, too, wherever you may be.

keeping a merry heart

he that is of merry heart

hath a continual feast.

~

proverbs 15:15

I have much more I want to share with you all today, but for now I'm off to

the city with my sweetheart to visit the lumber man, gather up paint swatches and

look for antique lighting fixtures.

Then off to the greenhouse & nursery to buy a thyme topiary for my kitchen.

....dinner at the old Pine Tavern down by the Deschutes River.

This is the most delicious way to spend the day that I can imagine for myself.

I hope this day finds you all doing something that you love, doing something delicious

and hopefully with your sweetheart and those you love.

keeping a merry heart...

and maybe a little chocolate in there somewhere,too.

a happy Valentines day to you all,

with love,

Christine

hyacinths for a winter weary soul

If you have two loaves of bread, give one to the poor,

sell the other and

buy hyacinths to feed your soul.

~Mother Teresa~

every year at this time, after the holidays have been put away and the lack of anything

green outside my windows begins to feel tedious,

the old farm house seems to be just begging for fresh flowers to warm her chilly corners.

She doesn't really mind what they might be,

as long as they're fragrant and they must be white.

I found pots and pots of my very favorite white hyacinths at our little mercantile yesterday.

Stepping inside from the chill air, their heady scent greeted me before I saw them.

Immediately, I could feel the knot in my neck begin to relax

and myself just drinking it all in.

ahhh...fresh flowers.

I do believe its true, that we need hyacinths for our souls, whether it's a potted bloom, a bouquet of lemony daffodils, a tiny green trailing ivy or the sight of tight bundles of pink edged white roses.

The coolness and freshness of flowers, alive and blooming against the chill.

a balm for our winter weary souls.

So here they are in an old ironstone punch bowl, scenting the room while we read

by the fire. My husband with his book, me with mine~

a new book about 18th century houses & gardens.

those are balms for my winter weary soul.

wishing you all a bright and shiny first day of

February and hyacinths for your soul.

yrs,Christine

take your needle, my child...

antique wool challis shawl & my dear leaping stag pin keep by sherry hunt

~~~

Take your needle, my child, and work at your pattern...

it will come out a rose by and by.

Life is like that . . . one stitch at a time,

taken patiently.

Oliver Wendell Holmes

hearts a flutter

a small watercolor painted for me by my daughter,Katie

~~~

she wrote her heart in sepia script

with small and delicate letters.

with written words that she longed kept

and did not dare to utter.

then safe she sealed it with crimson wax and sent

her heart

...a flutter

quiet new year

our new year dawned onto glittering snow covered fields

and quiet iced landscapes.

Our breath hung in the thin pale pink light

and crunched beneath our feet

as we did our chores in the early morning

of the new year.

ethereal quiet and calm

not even one rustle of the last leaf was heard

just the tinkling of ice crystals

from our breath frozen in mid air.

it's as if this frozen sleepy place

was a stopping and a beginning all at once.

a jumping off place.

where we stand at the edge

and gather ourselves,

getting ready for

a new beginning

for positive changes

and wonderful things to come.

~~

I hang my heart on the hope of it

and wish you all the very best~