From my heart to yours...
Hope

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MY PACKAGE FROM PEA HAS ARRIVED!!

I am so exited to share this with you. My package from Pea's giveaway has arrived here in VA just in time for Valentine's Day! Dave went to the post office and came back carrying a package. He put it on the table and was ready to tear into it and I yelled, "NO! I have to take pictures!"



Then I let him tear into the package while I took more pictures:



Look what came spilling out of the box...pink petals and a red envelope with a red rose!





Just look at the pretty tissue paper with the pretty hearts edging:



Dave and I both oohed and aahed as we took each goody from the box. Then I arranged them all on my old sideboard to try and get a good picture. Believe me, the picture doesn't do justice to all these treasures!



Let's see, there was the cutest little bear holding a red heart box, little sundae candles, pink roses floating candles, a sweet little key chain with a glittery little purse attached, a pair of soft, warm socks with hearts on them, a box of maple cream cookies, a package of french vanilla truffle hot chocolate mix, Peeps hearts..strawberry creme flavored and a package of party napkins with hearts!! I will be enjoying all these treats for days to come..if I limit myself and DH!!

Then I opened the little red heart box that the bear was holding. More surprises! There was something wrapped in cellophane and I spotted a little card stuck in the top that said, "Made by Pea"! I knew instantly what it was:



Pea's wonderful homemade assorted chocolates!!



I had to sample one right away...oh my..melt in your mouth chocolate with nuts inside:



Is your mouth watering yet? :o)

Of course, Dave felt like he was also entitled to sample since he brought the package to me:



Then he sampled again, and again..telling me each time what flavor he got..until I made him stop! "Save some for later...savor them a little!" (Which in Hope speak means..get out of my chocolates..they're all mine!! LOL)

Last, but certainly not least, was a little hand-written, heart-shaped note from Pea.



Pea, I can't thank you enough for this wonderful package and for totally making my Valentine's Day so very special!!

Most of you know Pea already but if you don't you MUST visit her fun blog. Besides having fantastic giveaways, Pea is just an all-around good friend and Canadian neighbor. Thanks again, Pea, and I do hope your Valentine's Day is as sweet as you've made mine!

This Old Kitchen

The first time we toured our old house, the kitchen was such a mess. The make shift counters were falling apart, the drawers were hanging in different directions. The old farm sink had been a beauty in its day but had started to rust through in places where the enamel had chipped off. The whole thing was a big mess. Actually the whole house was a mess. Dark paneling on every wall plus dark curtains left hanging on windows just added to the cave-like quality. Depressing!

I remember that day clearly. We had a friend who was here from Hungary and brought him with us to see the house. He walked around with his camera snapping the whole time. He would look around, snap a picture, then look at me shaking his head and say, "Oh, Hope!" On to another room...snap a picture..shake his head, then, "Oh, Hope!" That's all he ever said during the tour. The lady who owned the house and had lived here was there with us, so I would whisper to him, "It's okay, I can make it nice, you'll see!" He was here just long enough to help us slap some paint over the dark paneling, rip down the dark curtains and move in, all within a couple of weeks. He was amazed at the change in such a short time.

I wish I could share some of the before pictures but I got a virus on my computer and lost them all. You can't really appreciate all that we've done here without that evidence. So just trust me when I tell you...it's come a long way, baby! We began by tearing out the counters and old sink. We were working with a budget of...ZERO, ZILCH, NADA!! DH was about to be sent to Atlanta for RR training and we had to rush just to get moved in before he had to leave. A friend of ours was having some remodeling done on his kitchen including new cabinets. So I called and asked him what he was doing with his old cabinets and he said they were in the yard ready to be hauled away! We told him to hang onto them and we'd be right there. So we got some lower cabinets and a stainless double sink for free! We kept the original upper cabinets which were painted with white, flat ceiling paint! We installed the new/old free ones which were wood color and with our trusty Lowe's credit card we got a new counter top. We lived with the two-toned cabinets for months then finally got around to deciding on a paint color. We added new brushed nickel hardware to help to match up the upper and lower cabinets.



It's hard to get a good overall picture but you get the idea. You can see the upper cabinets that reach all the way to the top of the 9 foot ceiling! I'm 5' 2" tall so all the shelves are useless to me except the first one, plus there are only 2 sets of cabinets. Most old houses had none so I guess I'm lucky to get that many!





The double windows over the sink are very high too as you can see. They do let in lots of light but I can't look out!! We do have a long window on the side though. We added a bead board backsplash and painted that. There was plastic over that part before to keep out the cold!!

Then there's the big white elephant, otherwise know as a refrigerator! We would like to figure a way to disguise it but since it's a necessity so we deal with it! There is a doorway coming into the room from the laundry/mudroom and another doorway on the other side of the white elephant going into the dining room.



You can see the corner of my stove in the third picture. It was just sitting there all by itself with no cabinets, range hood or anything. We recently bought one of the over-the-stove combination microwave and vent. We had a small upper cabinet left over that we weren't able to use so we put that over the microwave. We haven't finished that area yet so I'll show pictures later when we do. We also want to do different flooring later on.

We have lived in our old home over 3 years now and each room is still a work in progress. I'll try to do a room by room as we finish projects.

The old shelf...

Way back there in January (feels months and months ago) I posted about my new/old wooden rooster tray that DH found for me. Some of you that have an observant eye noticed it was sitting on my old green shelf and inquired about it. Here's the picture I showed in that post:







Here is a picture of the whole shelf. You can see some of our collections..old crocks, a couple of crock bowls, some of our old jars. The black object with the wheel is some sort of old mill..not sure exactly..but it's very heavy. The red and white object is a vintage ice crusher. I have a big basket on the bottom shelf to hold all my spices since I have very little storage (old house drawback). Underneath is my old juicer and more old utensils! Oh yeah, my little wooden churn is hiding in the corner!







I have had this old shelf for over 25 years now. I found it in an outbuilding of an old house we were renting at the time. I never knew what it was made for originally but it was handmade by someone, probably the old man who had owned the house, and seemed to have been made using old scrap wood. So we dragged it out and I started scrubbing and cleaning on it. It had been painted white and most of it came out okay except for the wider top shelf. There were rust rings on it where old paint cans had been and I couldn't get them off no matter how much elbow grease I applied! I had no paint available either, nothing that I could think of except some handy, dandy contact paper. As some of you know, that contact paper was the going thing then and we covered everything with it...even walls!! Nasty stuff to remove though as I found out many years later!


I liked living in the old house but since it was very close to a state park, the state decided they wanted to buy the old place to expand the park. We had to find another place to live. I decided right then and there they weren't going to get my old shelf!! It would probably have been hauled away to the dump anyway. So I took it with me from place to place. When DH and I moved into a small apartment, my daughter stored it away for me in her basement. When we found this old house, I knew the shelf had found a home too. When we painted our kitchen cabinets I decided to give the old shelf a face lift with the same paint..after struggling to remove the 25 year old contact paper! I'll try to get some decent pictures of my whole kitchen later and show you.

I have received several awards from Grams at Talk to Grams. Here are the ones she passed along to all her blog friends:



How cute is that?



She thinks we are all cool cats!! This one I have to pass on to Claire since she loves cats!



Toadally...I love that play on words!

And what a BIG honor this one is. Especially when we all know that Grams is the one with the BIG HEART!!!



Grams also gave me this Valentine a few days ago and I hadn't had a chance to blog about it. Thank you Grams. How fun to be your Blog Buddy!



By the way, Grams, when you learn how to make a separate page for all your awards, please share with me!! I think I'm gonna need it! Thanks again for everything!

Still waters...

...He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul...

Josie and sunshine..

As you all know, since baby Josie's birth 3 weeks ago, Dave has been under the weather. He was sick with flu-like symptoms when she was born and since then has had the blood clot to deal with. Yesterday the doctor released him to go back to work and since we had a few hours before he was to be called to work, we decided he could finally go to see the baby. Here is Dave holding our granddaughter for the first time. As you can see, it was love at first sight!



She is growing and doing so well. She listens intently when you talk to her and tries to follow voices, especially the ones she recognizes like Mommy and Daddy's. She is such a sweet and cuddley baby!

We were having thunderstorms yesterday when we went for our visit. On the way home, the rain stopped and the sun popped out for a while from behind the clouds and touched the mountaintops.



I took this picture from the back of our house to try and avoid all the power lines. If you look over the top of houses and into the distance you can see our big mountain.



After the drought we had in the summer we still need lots of rain and I'm thankful for it. But when it stops for a while it's as if God is smiling down on us. :)

I'm back...

I am back in Blogland today! Hopefully things will get back to at least semi-normal now. My company left this morning. Dave is doing better and is hoping to be released by the doctor today to go back to work. They are still trying to regulate his blood thinner and he should find out today how that is doing. Thank you all for your prayers.

I have been keeping a tight rein on Dave for a week..keeping his leg elevated. Over the weekend I gave him a reprieve to go to an auction and of course he went nuts and bought a truckload of stuff which we didn't need. But he did find one item that we've been wanting for a long time...an old sideboard!! We had found several with BIG price tags so we kept looking to find a cheaper one. A couple of month ago he went to a flea market and found a huge buffet. The same dealer had 2 bookshelves that we had also been looking for. She told Dave if he bought the bookshelves that she would throw in the buffet for free!! It was too big and not what I wanted but we have been using it. Here is a picture of our mismatched dining room with the monster buffet taken just after Christmas:



As you can see, not one piece of our furniture matches. We bought the table with no chairs, then he found a set of 6 tiger oak chairs and bought them. Then he called from the auction and said he was bidding on an old sideboard made of tiger oak. I never know what I'm getting but this time he got it right! Here is the new/old sideboard:



It has a few dings but that's to be expected for an old piece especially at a good price! I love the old, original mirror in the back. I couldn't get a decent picture yet and we haven't moved out the monster to make room for the new one. It's in front of the fireplace right now. I'll take more pics when I get it all situated. I just couldn't wait to share it with you.

I'm off now to catch up with each of you and see what's happening in your world. I know there's been a lot of sickness going around and I hope you're all better now.

The Valley of the Shadow

Psalms 23:4 KJV

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

I heard a preacher say one time that without the Son there would be no shadow. I had always interpreted this scripture as death is only a shadow when Jesus is right there walking through that valley with us. Either way, He is right there with us!

Thank you all my dear friends for your prayers for this family.