More Awards

The awards just keep coming!! This one I actually received from 3 people, Gram, Karen and Lib:



Thank you, ladies, for thinking of me and making me feel like a part of your blogging community.

And this one I got today from Lib:



Thank you, Lib, for this honor, but you are the real treasure!

I got an Award!!

I'm so excited!! Today I have had 3 firsts, my first tag game, my first time of posting twice in one day and now...an AWARD!!

Grams over at Talk...to...Grams! has so generously given me this "blogging with a purpose" award. Here is the award:



and here is what Gram had to say about me:

Hope at Second Time Around is a so sweet and always has a uplifting comment she writes to give you that much need lift for the day!!

Now I ask you...how nice is that??? Gram, I am just so honored that you thought of me and felt me worthy of this award. Thank you so much. And the kind words you wrote about me....well... right back at you Lady!!

Christmas Hoopla

Rhonda at Farmhouse Style has tagged me, my very first tag by the way, to play the Hoopla game. I'm not sure I know what I'm doing but here are the rules she listed:

Here is how to play:
1. List 12 random things about yourself that have to do with Christmas.

2. Please refer to it as a 'hoopla' and not the dreaded 'm'-word. I suppose that refers to the 'M'eme list.

3. You have to specifically tag people when you're done. None of this "if you're reading this, consider yourself tagged" stuff is allowed...then nobody ends up actually doing it. The number of people you tag is really up to you -- but the more, the merrier to get this 'hoopla' circulating through the blogosphere.

4. Please try and do it as quickly as possible.

Okay, here goes my list:


1) I DON'T like shopping! I don't like the crowds in stores this time of year, the crying kids who are tired and just need to be home in bed!

2) I like the IDEA of the season. I have images in my head of Christmas, peaceful scenes of houses all decorated and lit up waiting for family and guests, carolers singing outside. In my mind all that just magically happens. Then the reality of dragging out all those decorations and sorting through them and arranging sets in. Lots of work. I have images of shopping too. Snowy streets with people all bundled up, arms full of packages, smiling and speaking to each other as they go. Then reality sets in again and I find myself in the middle of Walmart....nuff said!! lol

3) As a child I wanted so much to believe in Santa. I wanted all those wonderful presents he would bring especially dolls, I always wanted dolls. Then one magical night it happened! Santa came by my house riding high up on the back seat of a convertible!! You can imagine my excitement...Santa...Convertible...I had never seen either one before! A car with no top!! Shoot, I had only seen a couple of cars in my lifetime, period!! In our little town we walked to visit friends and neighbors and to the store and to church. If we had to go farther away we went by bus! The best part of it all was when Santa handed me a baby doll of my very own that I immediately named Billy!

4) My parents weren't big on Christmas so if we even had a tree it was up to us kids to do it all. One of my favorite memories is going back in the woods in the holler where we lived to cut a tree. One of my older sisters was married by this time and her husband was along with us 3 girls to help cut the tree. Being a newly wed of 3 months, she was trying to still look "cool" around her husband. We had some snow still on the ground and a lot of muck and mud. She wore very inappropriate shoes for this journey and stepped in a big pile of mud, deep mud, losing her shoe in the process. We never could recover that shoe even though her prince came to the rescue, digging in the mud to find it! My other sister and I had to let her hold around our shoulders and hop all the way back home while my brother-in-law carried the tree. She cried because she lost her shoe and her "cool" in front of her new husband, and because we laughed at her. But what are mean little sisters for??

5) My favorite Christmas movie is It's a Wonderful Life. I have seen it too many times to count. One of the parts that always makes me cry is when the whole town opens their hearts to give and help George Bailey.

6) I love the magic that Christmas seems to bring that we don't have at other times of the year but should.

7) I love Celtic Christmas music. There is something so soothing to me about this music. I suspect there might be Scottish blood in me but I haven't been able to prove it yet. I told my DH that and he said he was Irish and that's why he didn't like the music!! lol

8) I use to collect snow globes. My first and favorite was one Dave bought me. It had a little house nestled in some pine trees and of course snow all around. When we downsized to a small apartment we had to store these. When we brought them out of storage my favorite little snow globe was broken...no little house...no water, no snow. I was so upset that I sold all the rest of them at a yardsale!

9) There is a sadness in me when I see houses with absolutely no signs of Christmas. There are several old, seemingly abandoned, houses on our street being left to fall down. They look so empty and cold. But it's much worse when the houses are actually occupied and still have this look about them.

10) I love the sights and smells of things that say Christmas to me, like candy canes, oranges, apples, tangerines, creme drops, cakes and pies baking and snow cream...yummm..heavenly taste of snow cream!

11) My grandmother, Mammy, was and still is so very dear to my heart. I remember when we would visit her or she came to visit us at Christmas her greeting to us was "Christmas Gift!" That's what she would say. I never knew or questioned why...it was just something she had always done.

12) When I was 5 years old my brother, Dewey, turned 18 and had to go into the Army (draft was enforced then). I loved him dearly and followed him always, even into the woods to cut logs...I had to go too. This time I couldn't follow and I didn't understand why he had to go away. I was so lost without him and the only connection we had were his letters that Mommy would read to us all, and we hung on every word. Then one night in December, by the magic of Christmas, he was there..home..in the flesh...my brother, a man I hardly recognized, standing proud and tall in his uniform, so very handsome. How our hearts rejoiced to see him. Not long ago, he went away again, this time to be with the Lord, but this time I know in my heart that I will see him again.
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I pray that God will watch over and bless all our soldiers who are away from home this Christmas fighting for our freedom and their families who won't get to be with them except in spirit.
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This was much harder than I thought it would be!! Thanks, Rhonda for inviting me to play my first cyber tag game!
Okay, now I tag Lib, Peggy and Karen if ya'll haven't done it already!

The Reason for the Season

I am by nature a big cut-up and goofball. I've always been the clown. But I do have a serious side.

I come before you now, all my wonderful, new bloggy friends that I grow more fond of with each post or comment, my old and dear friends and my wonderful family and precious grandchildren, to all who tune in to my little blog, to tell you about the Greatest Gift I've ever received...the gift of Salvation through the blood of Jesus Christ. He has been the Constant in my life no matter how far I've wandered off the straight and narrow or how much I've failed Him. He is right there by my side and loves me unconditionally.

Constantly Aware is an old song that has always meant a lot to me. "Constantly aware that He is everywhere". I see Him... in the beauty of nature all around me. I see Him in the faces of my sweet grandchildren. I see Him in Jenny's hands as she signs silent praises to Him. I see Him in my son, the policeman, who tries to always be so stern but can be brought to his knees when touched by a Christmas play. I see Him in the friends who have come into my life. I hear Him... in the laughter, the voices of those I love. I hear Him in the voice of my dear son-in-law as he asks the blessing over our food and never fails, just before the amen, to add, "I love You, Lord!", and my heart agrees.

At times He does things for me to touch my old, sometimes hardened-by-life heart, like painting this beautiful picture for me as I sit alone on my back porch, and I smile..




How can I not thank Him for all these blessings? How can I not thank Him and praise Him, especially in this joyous season, for all He has done for me and for my undeserved gift of eternal life.

"Thank you, Lord, for giving me peace in my life and especially the peace in my heart! Peace that is beyond all understanding! I love You, Lord!"

Junkin on the road

I was talking to my niece, Sarah, and her husband a while back about their vacation, where they went, what all they did, etc. Her husband looked at me and said, "Can you imagine somebody going on vacation and going to every thrift store, Goodwill and junk place they can find??" Sarah and I just looked at each other and cracked up!! She said, "I come by it honestly from my Aunt Hopie!"
Dave and I went on vacation this past summer, traveling by car from VA to Maine, which had been a long time dream of mine. Just go where the wind takes you, stop when you want, move on when you're ready. Sounds fun and romantic, right? Wonderful dream, right? What I didn't picture in this dream was moving in and out of different motels, loading and unloading LOTS of luggage and having to rearrange the car each time to accommodate all the little "extras" we picked up here and there!! Keep in mind, too, that on this journey we took my Rav4, just a little bigger than a Volkswagen!! :)
We saw many beautiful sights along the way between motels and junk stores, but we found ourselves looking for home....the mountains, the small towns and friendly people! What should have been a 2 week vacation turned out to be only one week. We did make it all the way into Maine, then we clicked our heels together in unison and said, "There's no place like home...there's no place like home!" and headed back to the hills of Virginia. That little Rav was packed so tight with all our found treasures that there wasn't a spot big enough to stick a needle in there!! We did pass up a few bargains that we just couldn't fit into the car like a beautiful old Victrola in excellent condition and very CHEAP!! Leaving that one behind broke Dave's heart. Later on I will share some of the pics I took of the interesting sights we saw but right now I'm going to show you just a few of my favorite things that we found.
This cute little cloth settin' hen :)

This old crock with a handle..you don't see many of them. The flower arrangement that I put in it came from Goodwill in PA for 25 cents. It has little bunches of green and red berries that I love. At a little flea market in Vermont I bought an old metal frog for arranging flowers. I put it in the crock and used my 25 cent flowers in it.

Since it is Christmas time I just added some bigger red berries to make it look more festive:

I love bringing new life to old things....the Second Time Around....

Rainy day

When I walked outside this morning the sky was full of rolling gray clouds and it was raining.



I try never to complain about days like this because our summer was so dry. Our grass was so dry it crunched under your feet when you walked on it. We still have patches that look like this:



but lately God is blessing us with much needed rain. It has been very warm here this week so the birds have been fluttering around and singing and our grass is turning green again!!



The mountain in front of my house looks beautiful to me even in the foggy rain.



It never ceases to amaze me when I walk out on my front porch and look up at it. What is even more amazing is that I don't see all those electric wires either until I take a picture, then there they are!! I seem to just block them out and look beyond. They are a necessary eye sore so please try to look beyond and see what I see! Some people have to travel for miles to see this view that I can look at any time and I'm very thankful.

I'm just staying in today where it's nice and cozy and do a few much needed chores around here. I hope you all have a wonderful day.

More favorites

I wanted to share with you more of my favorite things. But first, please take a minute and go here to see why I had such a restless night!! I begged and pleaded with her not to do it as you will see if you read my comments to her on the last couple of posts, but she stubbornly persisted. To each his own, I guess. Christie, this has been great fun and laughs!! :)) (Seriously, folks, I really do fear for her sanity!!!)

Anyway, I want to share my button collection with you. I've always loved buttons as far back as I can remember. I use to play in my mother's box of buttons, fascinated by the different colors all together and the feel of them as I sifted them through my fingers. My collection came about, not over many years time but just a few months. I started with my own jar that I intended to add special buttons to as I found them. My DH got in on the game and suddenly everywhere he went he would come home proudly carrying another jar, or box or even garbage bags full. I kid you not. I have bags of them that are still on their original cards. If I had them all displayed, my little "button corner" would become a "button room"!! I have been teased unmercifully about them...like..."Hope, do you think you have enough buttons there?", or "Hope, I'm missing a button on my shirt. Do you have any idea where I could find one?"...things like that. I just turn a deaf ear because I really do love them all:





Be honest now, wouldn't you just love to run your fingers through these:

feed sacks and memories

Okay, so this morning I was visiting over at Lib's as I do just about every morning while I have my coffee. The thing is, she always get me to thinking which I don't do well in the mornings!! :)
Her post today was all about her stash of material for crafting and what she was seeing when she looked at it. She was seeing future crafts such as dolls, snowmen, etc. I, in my morning stupor, and just having taken a few sips of my coffee, was literally looking beyond the stack of fabric in her picture and trying to find those dolls and stuff that she was seeing! He! He! So funny when I finally woke up and realized!! Anyway, I feel so connected to Lib in so many ways. She brings things to my mind that I haven't thought about in years! Today it was feedsack material and old quilts.
A few months ago Dave and I were doing our usual junkin' at a nearby flea market. I always visit one lady's booth just because her things always catch my eye. This particular day my eyes fell on a small stack of material laying on a table. I knew immediately that it was feed sacks which I was very familar with. I had to have them, not because I had plans to use them but just to have and look at and feel.
When I was young I always considered our family to be poor, at least by everybody else's standards in our little town. One of the reasons I felt this way was because I never had store bought clothes but clothes that my mother sewed for me and I so longed for and dreamed of a dress straight out of the Montgomery Wards catalogue. Back then our feed for our hogs (Daddy called it "chop") came in pretty sacks, not like this one...



but like these:



Being the youngest of the family and having 3 older sisters, I always got the hand-me-downs, which were "made over" for me because I was always tiny! Ha! Those days are over now!! I do remember one time that I got the pretty new feed sacks all for my own outfits. I didn't realize then how talented my mother was. She even made her own patterns that she used! She made two outfits for me, one with a red skirt and a white shirt with tiny red flowers on it and another was a green skirt and a shirt with yellow and green flowers. The skirts were made with circle tails which would flair out when I twirled and oh did I love to twirl!! After I wore these outfits to school a couple of my classmates (the ones I considered to be rich) showed up at our door begging my mother to make them outfits like mine! I couldn't believe it!! They could have store bought dresses and they actually wanted ones like MINE! They had even talked their parents into buying the sacks of feed, giving the chop to my Daddy for his hogs so it wouldn't go to waste, then having the sacks for their much coveted outfits!! I never looked at my clothes in the same way again!!
When I had outgrown my clothes they were then recycled again into quilt pieces. My mother was a very frugal woman and wasted nothing! Here is one of my favorites, probably because I helped to make it when I was about 8 years old:



There is a story behind this quilt which I will save for another time. I've rattled way too much today. Lib, thanks for the memories!!!