Sunflowers & Apples

 

I loved setting this table and I want to thank Kathleen Cuisine for the challenge!

I had a rough week last week and it is all behind me. I am in Houston buying a house this week! Hopefully, I will have some nice pictures when I get back to share with you! I am excited!

 I will be in my new house in about a month!

Thank you for all the kind get well messages last week. I am feeling much better.

 

Now on to my tablescape....

I do not own anything with apples on it or apples in it or even apples near it, so I used real apples!

 

And the colors in apples......I tend not to buy themed dishes or items to get more use out of them.

 A red charger with a white plate by Gibson and the green plate by Home Essentials and Beyond.
                       I used my sunflower placemats from Wal-Mart, I bought a while back.
                                I bought the white plates at GW and the green plates at OTP.

My centerpiece of sunflowers and apples in a French vase reminded me of flower vendors on the streets in NYC. The tray my Aunt Elaine (my namesake & my Dad's only sister) painted. She & my Uncle Babe live in Surprise, Arizona. I usually have it hung on a wall in my kitchen or on top of my cabinets. There is a better picture of it below.

I never did this before....I carved a place for the tea light. I liked it and would do it again with other fruits! I told you I loved the challenge. I decided I want to challenge myself to make something or do something new for each challenge. Then I won't get stale! LOL
I am not sure how many of you look for ideas on Pinerest but I love that site! I have some of my tablescapes out on it too. I see many of you do too! We need to keep the juices flowing in blogger land.

The sunflowers were going to be napkin holders but decided to put them in the glass with the napkin.
The red napkins are from Savers.

A better picture of the tray and centerpiece. I used different kinds of apples to include all the colors.

This is how my apples were held in my vase. I put garbage bags in the bottom of the tin vase and then arranged  the flowers and apples. Normally, I would have used Styrofoam but I didn't want to go digging in all my packed stuff.

Another view of my sunflower & apple challenge!

I will be joining:
Tablescape Thursday with Susan from Between Naps On The Porch

Let's Dish with Kathleen from Kathleen Cuisine
http://www.cuisinekathleen.com/2013/09/apple-challengeare-you-biting-lets-dish.html
Thank you for stopping by.......

Please visit as many bloggers as you can and leave a comment so we know you visited.
Have a great week..
Blessings My Friend,

Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands for us.
 (Psalm 90:17)

A Spa Day????????

You are never going to believe what a week I had....

This week have been very challenging!

 It all started on the weekend of 9/6 ..... Chloe, my Maltese got diarrhea. She was so good and went to the door every time. During the night she jumped off the bed so we knew when she had to go. By Sunday she had not improved so we took her to the Emergency Hospital.

                            Diagnosis..... Pancreatitis!

We had two options they could keep her or we could take her home. We told them to give her what she needed and we were taking her home. We would call our vet first thing Monday am. Long story short Monday am, she was well!   I took Mr. Sweetladyelaine to the airport then took her to the vet. Anyway, Sweet Pea started and I was up to my elbows in poop! Not fun......

Wednesday, 9/11,  I get sick with a severe sinus infection.  I did go to the doctor on Friday but it just seemed to be getting worse on the weekend. I had done everything short of over dosing on medicine! Of course, I started stressing because Mr. Sweetladyelaine is coming home  9/19. Then on Monday, 9/23, we are leaving for Houston for a week to go and buy a house!
 This is no time to be sick!!!!!

BREATHE!!!!

 Everything is so mixed up in my head. I remembered I would not be home to set an apple table so I was going to do it ahead of time. Somehow I got confused......
 
Everyone in blog land knows Kathleen Cuisine has given us an apple theme for our September 25th  table.! I was not going to miss this one!
 I have been setting my apple themed table for much of the afternoon. I thought I would sit down and write my blog and later take pictures. I just realized it is next week!  OH MY!!!!!!! I am suppose to set two tables for this week since I won't be here next week! YIKES!!!!
That was the whole idea, but somehow it escaped me! Too much going on in my world!


I need a spa day! Since I can't have one, I think I will sit down and have a cup of soup.
 I need a glass of wine but I am on meds! LOL

My favorite mug, chicken noodle soup, my favorite candle and peanut butter & bread......

Thanks for stopping by.....

Sorry I didn't set a table, but with my week.......

Have a great day!  I need to go and lay down from all the excitement!

I am joining:

Tablescape Thursday with Susan at BNOTP
http://betweennapsontheporch.net/a-booo-ti-ful-setting-for-tablescape-thursday/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BetweenNapsOnThePorch+%28BETWEEN+NAPS+ON+THE+PORCH%29
Let's Dish with Kathleen Cuisine
http://www.cuisinekathleen.com/2013/09/its-bluetiful-day-lets-dish.html
Thank you ladies for hosting such wonderful parties! I learn so much from my blogger friends.

See you all next week!
 Here I come Houston...ready or not! lol    I'll share houses next week.

Blessings My Friend,

The God of love and peace will be with you. 2 Corinthians 13:11

Memories in Pink & Blue

This was a fun tablescape! It brought me back a few years when I started to set tables for my blog. This is one of my first purchases!
Do you remember your first dish or dishes that you bought for tablescaping? Do you still love them?

I bought them at Goodwill. I just loved them.  I still love them!
 I'm not sure how I am going to downsize my dishes when the time comes. It is going to be hard!
Any suggestions??????? lol

So let the memories begin....I used the dinner plate and dessert/salad plate.
                                    On the back of the plate it says United Utilities Corp. "Sovereign"

                               
                                        A blue glass charger looked pretty with a white plate underneath.
                                                           A blue & yellow napkin for punch.
                                        A stem less wine glass paired with a blue tumbler seemed appropriate.
                                                            I don't seem to buy glasses, only dishes!

                                           

I love the ruffled edges.

The edges are 22-K Gold.

 

                                              
                                                                    A closer look

                                                          The dainty cups & saucers

           A silver pitcher with some roses, a bluebird and the matching platter are my centerpiece.

                                           A pink butterfly napkin ring is sitting on the table.

                                                      The  bluebird sitting on the platter

 

 

The set came with a sugar & creamer......I love the lines in them.

                                                                A view of the whole table.
                                           The checkered tablecloth was my mother in loves.
                                                           I think she made it! I use it often.
                                           I know when she looks down from heaven, she is smiling.
                      When we were first married, she use to send me all kinds of things that belonged to her.
                                                  I treasure & think of her often when I use them.

I am joining:

Kathleen Cuisine  for Let's Dish
http://www.cuisinekathleen.com/2013/09/check-me-outlate-summer-lets-dish-78.html

BNOTP with Susan for Tablescape Thursday
http://betweennapsontheporch.net/remembering-summer/
Thank you both for hosting such fun parties!

I hope you visit as many blogs as you can. We all like comments. I try to visit at least a few new blogs and then my favorites.

Thank you for stopping by and seeing what I am up too! I forgot to mention, Our house has not sold as of yet! I know it will in God's time. Have a great week.

Blessings My Friend,

An Email From a Friend

 

Received this from a lady from the church I used to go to and her husband went thru some harrowing times with his health and with God.  Used to get  her prayer requests weekly for the Ladies Prayer Request Line. 

Quite a story.  I found comfort in this for my unsaved family members. Hope you do too. Blessings, Carol 

I remember being "lost" and being "found".  AMAZING GRACE, HOW SWEET THE SOUND THAT SAVED A WRETCH LIKE ME!  PRAISE GOD!!! 

"He will cover you with His feathers
And under His wings you will find refuge."
Psalm 91:4

 A True Story

God is love !  

Father John Powell, professor at  Loyola University in Chicago, writes about a student in his Theology of Faith class named Tommy.    Some twelve years ago, I stood watching my university students file into the classroom for our first session in the Theology of Faith.    That was the day I first saw Tommy. My eyes and my mind both blinked.. He was combing his long flaxen hair, which hung six inches below his shoulders. It was the first time I had ever seen a boy with hair that long. I guess it was just coming into fashion then. I know in my mind that it isn't what's on your head but what's in it that counts; but on that day I was unprepared and my emotions flipped.   I immediately filed Tommy under 'S' for strange...very strange.   Tommy turned out to be the 'atheist in residence' in my Theology of Faith course. He constantly objected to, smirked at, or whined about the possibility of an unconditionally loving Father/God. We lived with each other in relative peace for one semester, although I admit he was for me at times a serious pain in the neck.   When he came up at the end of the course to turn in his final exam, he asked in a cynical tone, 'Do you think I'll ever find God?'   I decided instantly on a little shock therapy. 'No!' I said very emphatically  " but I am absolutely certain that He will find you!' He shrugged and left my class and life.   I felt slightly disappointed at the thought that he had missed my clever line -- He will find you! At least I thought it was clever. Later I heard that Tommy had graduated, and I was duly grateful.   Then a sad report came. I heard that Tommy had terminal cancer. Before I could search him out, he came to see me. When he walked into my office, his body was very badly wasted and the long hair had all fallen out as a result of chemotherapy. But his eyes were bright and his voice was firm, for the first time, I believe. 'Tommy, I've thought about you so often; I hear you are sick,' I blurted out.   'Oh, yes, very sick. I have cancer in both lungs. It's a matter of weeks.' 'Can you talk about it, Tom?' I asked.   'Sure, what would you like to know?' he replied. 'What's it like to be only twenty-four and dying?'   'Well, it could be worse.' 'Like what?'   'Well, like being fifty and having no values or ideals, like being fifty and thinking that booze, seducing women, and making money are the real biggies in life.'   I began to look through my mental file cabinet under 'S' where I had filed Tommy as strange. (It seems everybody I try to reject, God sends back to educate me.)   'But what I really came to see you about,' Tom said, 'is something you said the last day of class.' (He remembered!) He continued, 'I asked you if you thought I would ever find God and you said, 'No! But He will find you.' I thought about that a lot, even though my search for God was hardly intense at that time.   (My clever line. He thought about that a lot!)   'But when the doctors removed a lump from my groin and told me that it was malignant, I got serious about locating God. And when the malignancy spread into my vital organs, I really banged bloody fists on the doors of heaven. But God did not come out. In fact, nothing happened. Did you ever try anything for a long time with great effort and no success? You get fed up with trying and quit. 'Well, one day I woke up, and instead of throwing a few more futile appeals over that high brick wall to a God who may be or may not be there, I just quit.   I decided that I didn't really care about God, about an afterlife, or any of that. I decided to spend what time I had left doing something more profitable. I thought about you and your class and I remembered something else you had said: 'The essential sadness is to go through life without loving. But it would be almost equally sad to go through life and leave this world without ever telling those you loved that you had loved them.''   'So, I began with the hardest, my Dad. He was reading when I approached him. 'Dad.' 'Yes, what?' he asked without lowering the newspaper. 'Dad, I would like to talk with you.' 'Well, talk.' 'I mean. It's really important.' The newspaper came down three slow inches. 'What is it?' 'Dad, I love you, I just wanted you to know that.' Tom smiled at me and said it with obvious satisfaction, as though he felt a warm and secret joy flowing inside of him. 'The newspaper fluttered to the floor. Then my father did two things I could never remember him ever doing before. He cried and he hugged me. We talked all night, even though he had to go to work the next morning. It felt so good to be close to my father, to see his tears, to feel his hug, to hear him say that he loved me.'   'It was easier with my mother and little brother. They cried with me, too, and we hugged each other, and started saying real nice things to each other. We shared the things we had been keeping secret for so many years.   'I was only sorry about one thing --- that I had waited so long. Here I was, just beginning to open up to all the people I had actually been close to.'   Then, one day I turned around and God was there. He didn't come to me when I pleaded with Him. I guess I was like an animal trainer holding out a hoop, 'C'mon, jump through. C'mon, I'll give you three days, three weeks.'   'Apparently God does things in His own way and at His own hour. But the important thing is that He was there. He found me!   You were right. He found me even after I stopped looking for Him'!!    'Tommy,' I practically gasped, 'I think you are saying something very important and much more universal than you realize.   To me, you are saying that the surest way to find God is not to make Him a private possession, a problem solver, or an instant consolation in time of need, but rather by opening to love. You know, the Apostle John said that. He said: 'God is love, and anyone who lives in love is living with God and God is living in him.'   'Tom, could I ask you a favor? You know, when I had you in class you were a real pain. But (laughingly) you can make it all up to me now.... Would you come into my present Theology of Faith course and tell them what you have just told me? If I told them the same thing it wouldn't be half as effective as if you were to tell it'   'Oooh, I was ready for you, but I don't know if I'm ready for your class..'   'Tom, think about it. If and when you are ready, give me a call.'   In a few days Tom called, said he was ready for the class, that he wanted to do that for God and for me. So we scheduled a date.   However, he never made it. He had another appointment, far more important than the one with me and my class. Of course, his life was not really ended by his death, only changed. He made the great step from faith into vision.   He found a life far more beautiful than the eye of man has ever seen or the ear of man has ever heard or the mind of man has ever imagined.   Before he died, we talked one last time.   'I'm not going to make it to your class,' he said.   'I know, Tom.'   'Will you tell them for me? Will you... tell the whole world for me?'   'I will, Tom. I'll tell them. I'll do my best.'   So, to all of you who have been kind enough to read this simple story about God's love, thank you for listening. And to you, Tommy, somewhere in the sunlit, verdant hills of heaven --- I told them, Tommy, as best I could.   If this story means anything to you, please pass it to as many as you want. It is a true story and is not enhanced for publicity purposes.   With thanks, Rev. John Powell, Professor, Loyola University, Chicago

Hope you enjoyed this message.......

Blessings My Friend,