A special day

L-R Grandpa, Mildred (sister) and Henry (brother)

Today my grandpa would have turned 86. My dad's dad was an incredibly Godly man with a great sense of humor. My grandpa was the oldest of nine ten (oops! I miscounted - sorry!) :) children. He grew up in the Depression and went to war in the Pacific in World War II.

After his return, he met my grandmother at the local drug store where she worked and they were married not long after. They have three children - my Uncle Bill, my Dad and my Aunt Teresa - four grandchildren and two great-grands.  We lost him in 1996 at the age of 71 to diabetes.  He had asked God for 70 years, and God gave him a little extra time. It hardly seems possible he's been gone almost 15 years!

I have many fond memories of my Grandpa: of him cooking hot tamales (family tradition) and many other yummy things - he was the cook of the family, his joke telling, his special little song he sang just for me (usually first thing in the morning... and I wasn't entirely awake and ready for music yet!) :) I remember how he always had some kind of animal around, usually dogs even though he said he didn't really like dogs. He gave us our very special pet, Scamp, one of his dog's, Suzie, puppies. I remember how he loved to egg my grandma on and called her "Gertie." (Growing up in my family, we know how much we are loved by the amount of teasing we get!)

One of his favorite films was "Sound of Music." He loved the song "Edelweiss." So in memory of him, I wanted to share this version of the song sung by Julie Andrews and John Denver.



Oh... and I've heard it said that in his younger years, Grandpa looked like Desi Arnaz. What do you think? :)

Sunday Blessing

How deep the Father's love for us
How vast beyond all measure
That He should give his only son
To make a wretch His treasure
How great the pain of searing loss
The Father turns His face away
As wounds which mar the Chosen One
Bring many sons to glory

Behold the Man upon the cross
My sin upon His shoulder
Ashamed I hear my mocking voice
Call out among the scoffers
It was my sin that held Him there
Until it was accomplished
His dying breath has brought me life
I know that it is finished

I will not boast in anything
No gifts no power no wisdom
But I will boast in Jesus Christ
His death and resurrection
Why should I gain from His reward
I cannot give an answer
But this I know with all my heart
His wounds have paid my ransom

"How Deep the Father's Love for Us"
By Stuart Townend
Such a beautiful melody! (Listen here.)

I hope you have a blessed Sunday!!

Finished Object Friday

Have any of you worked with royal icing? I haven't. But I came pretty close with these cookies! :)




The frosting is from a gingerbread house kit that I got on clearance after Christmas.  The frosting mix came in this bag... I wonder if they sell it individually? ...with just a little more water, it really would be royal icing! :)



Anyway, I had fun designing all kinds of different cookies. I'm no pro at cookie decorating, so it just shows how easy it is to make something cute out of royal icing. And the cookies were yummy, too!



Yes, some turned out cuter than others, but I had fun coming up with different designs.

One of the best parts? The cleanup!!

Since I used sandwich bags and the frosting cost just pennies, I just tossed the bags, frosting and all, when I was finished! (I don't particularly like washing frosting bags... can you tell?) :)

So now it's your turn to share! I have switched back to using the linky service I started out with. So you should be able to leave your links below. (Boy, I will miss the picture links, though... oh. well.) Happy Friday, everyone!

PS~ I have one more FOF! Do you know what it is? (hint: you'll have to come to my blog to find out... it won't show up in a reader... or on Facebook.) :)

Valentine's for Friends

Valentine's Day - a day we celebrate love! I think that Valentine's Day should be for everyone, don't you? Sometimes it seems rather exclusive though, because some people just don't have a "significant other" to celebrate with. I think it should be a day of caring and showing your love for others. Really, Kristina put it much better than I. She said, " why not use Valentine's Day to celebrate all the other people in your life who will love you for like, ever."


Last week I celebrated Valentine's Day with four of my very special friends! (They've grown quite a bit since the last Valentine's Tea, don't you think?)


What fun we had, and such a great reminder, that Valentine's Day can be a day to celebrate special friendships too!!


But, of course a Valentine's post wouldn't be complete without a wish to my bestest friend and favorite Valentine!

I love you!! :) 

Happy Valentine's Day, Everyone!! :)

Sunday Blessing

Breathe on me, breath of God,

Fill me with life anew,

That I may love what Thou dost love,

And do what Thou wouldst do.

Breathe on me, breath of God,

Until my heart is pure,

Until with Thee I will one will,

To do and to endure.

Breathe on me, breath of God,

Blend all my soul with Thine,

Until this earthly part of me

Glows with Thy fire divine.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord;" Ephesians 1:5 NASB

This verse has come to my attention a few times today. This evening I was thinking how I could speak this kind of encouraging words to others, and I realized that I have the perfect way, I just haven't done it in way too long. So I am going to try to keep up with Sunday Blessing. I hope you enjoy it! :)

Finished Object Friday

Happy Snow Day, everyone!! :)  Some of you may not be enjoying it so much, but it's still a novelty down here. ... and it's nice to be "stuck" at home!

Time for Finished Object Friday... and I do have something to share! I'm pretty excited about this...

(and I love that it's a SNOW picture!)  :)


So you may be wondering (or not) :) how I got from this:

to the above finished skein....

First I spun the roving into "singles:"


When I finished two spools of singles, I then plied them together. (Here is a link to a video, showing how plying is done, if you're interested...) :)

After  plying, I wound the yarn onto a niddy-noddy.

From there, I tied it off really good (to keep it from tangling...)


And then it was time for the yarn to take a bath!

Washing the yarn helps to set the twist, and keeps it nice for when I am ready to knit with it! After it is nice and dry I wind it into a skein, and it's ready to go!

So what have you been crafting recently? Any valentine's projects?

(hmm... looks like Linky Tools isn't a free service... I may be redoing how we share projects on FOF... just found out.) :) (ETA: I mean, this is the last time I can use it as a free service... I think I've found another free link hosting site, though. But I will miss the pictures!) :)

---

1. Cute Girly Bows

This linky list is now closed.

Get your own FREE Linky Tools

What makes a classic?

What makes a book a classic?

Is it because so many people are forced to read it, or is it because so many people simply LOVE it?

What do you think? What's your favorite classic?