Wishing all of my sweet friends...

a wonderful day of celebrating with friends and family.
Our dear Lord loved us so very much
that He sent His only Son, Jesus Christ to this earth.....
to die for our sins....
then He arose from the dead three days later
to prove He truly is the Son of God!

Living He loved me,

dying He saved me,

buried He carried my sins far away.

Rising He justified,

freely forever,

someday He's coming...

O Glorious day!

~ J. Wilbur Chapman ~

Wishing you a blessed and very Happy Easter!

hugs and love,

Dawn

What's going on around here ~

Thank you so very much for your precious prayers sweet friends!!!

My father-in-law is doing SO much better...

He has some sort of infection that is causing his white blood cell count

to be way too high, but now that he's in the hospital we can only hope and pray

that they find what is going on and offer a solution!!!

So what have I accomplished today?

One simple lavender sachet for a dear friend

and my sweet Noah needed a black bow-tie

for his youth group's talent show this Saturday evening.

I found a free pattern on Google and whipped it right out!!!

And what's so funny?

Noah found a video on YouTube that shares how to

properly tie a bow tie and by golly

the boy LEARNED IT!!!!

Ya just gotta love the info you can find on the internet....

Happy Friday my sweet, dear friends ~

hugs and love,

Dawn

On my heart ~

When you've been blogging as long as I have

(for over six years now)

it seems that some days,

coming up with a wonderful post to share

is kinda like pulling teeth ~

It's not so much that I don't want to share goodness with you

but it's just that other aspects of my life have come to the forefront

and I can't share what I had planned "in my mind".

I'm working on a few goodies that aren't finished yet...

some are for friends,

other are for my shop.

BUT.

Wednesday evening my dear father-in-law had to be taken

to the emergency room for some serious health problems

and everything I was working on,

came to a screeching halt...

I know my sweet mother-in-law is so worried as

we all are.

So tonight, I pray.

For the healing of my father-in-law...

We married when I was 19 and my husband was 21.

My husband and I grew up across the street from each other.

He's like my second daddy ~

So I pray.

Wishing you a beautiful Thursday my dear friends...

hugs and love,

Dawn

 

 

Such wonderfulness...and just around the corner too!

I have to share something so good with you!

First, we live in a small country town in Georgia.

We've lived here now for over eighteen years and have just loved it.

The small downtown area has always been simple strip of shops.

Beautiful old buildings that have been around for so long

but the shops would open and then, eventually close.

Well, our little downtown has definitely taken a wonderful turn

and is now such a beautiful place to stop by and visit!!!

My sweet cousin Beth called me last week and said she wanted

to come pick me up and take me out to lunch to

the restaurant that is the hub of activity

in our little downtown Locust Grove,

The French Market & Tavern.

It's been open for about a year or so now and I've never been!!

I've been meaning to go but it just hadn't happened...

So we went and I knew I had to take my camera.

I've seen their Facebook page and knew I would love the place.

French Market & Tavern is a wonderful restaurant and shop as well!!

The food was so delicious and afterwards Beth and I

browsed the shop, absolutely loving it all!

I took tons of photos to share with you, I hope you don't mind

but I'm just so proud that this gorgeous place

is in my little town!!!

I purchased a few lovely things...

This sweet metal frame/stand that looks old as ever ~
I know it's not but I can't help it, I still love the look!

(I've got to decide what I want to place inside!)

Plus a neat chicken wire top for a mason jar

that serves as a flower frog for flowers!!

Also, I've been working on a few more lavender sachets for friends

and managed to squeak this one out to list!!!

It's now in my Etsy shop...all by it's lonesome!

Wishing you a beautiful Wednesday my sweet friends!!!

hugs and love,

Dawn

Ahhh...finishing things is just wonderful!

I finally finished our living room curtains!!!

My goodness...it feels so good to have them hanging

and to have them finished.

I'm just so pleased with how they turned out...

just the right amount of toile border

on the drop cloth fabric panels.

We don't have a frou-frou living room ~

it's very "cabinet of curiosites" and I just wanted to keep

them very stream-lined but elegant as well.

Now. All I need is a gorgeous new leather sofa and I'll make

some soft feather pillows to go with!

I sewed this beautiful skirted table about 12 years ago from a wonderful old

matelasse (Bates) bedspread and the topper

is the exact same fabric (Waverly cream and tan toile)

as the borders on the panels!

I even re-purposed the trim from the old bedspread

and added it to the edge of the topper!

I had this skirted table in my very first antique store "Red Rooster Antiques"...

Noah was about three or four years old....

Sept. 11th happened and my first little store was history.

The table has endured though and followed us as I love it so much ~

More art...the one nearest the window I put together from wonderful found objects.

I don't know if you remember the two bubble glass ovals we found recently

while out junkin' but I want to add them to either side of the lamp

filled with amazing old things!!!

My motto is that a wall is meant to be filled with 

things that you LOVE.

The shot below is from the doorway of our foyer ~

Not all is perfect...

but just perfect for us.

Thank you always, always for stopping by to see what I'm up to

and especially for your precious comments!

Wishing you a WONDERFUL Tuesday my sweet, sweet friends....

hugs and love,

Dawn

I'm just LOVING this stuff!!!

Can I just tell you how WONDERFUL Rit Color Remover is???

Well, it is!

I still have some of that ruby red velvet and decided to place a few more

remnants in the color remover to see what it would do...

I placed a glass bowl filled with water into the microwave

and set it for ten minutes.

Yes.

Ten minutes.

That would make the water hot as hot can be!

Then I dumped about a 1/4 of a packet of the color remover in...

THIS is what happened!

A seriously deep red velvet turned into the most precious baby, baby pink ever!!!!

Oh well, I'm too excited about this...

I've got to make a sweet sachet with this goodness!

Also, I found another WONDERFUL magazine to share with you too ~

We went to Sam's Club the other night and bought a bunch of stuff

and I found this!!! It was listed at 9.99 and at Sam's it was only 6 bucks and change!

You know I love that!

And if you'll take a peek inside it's just wonderful, a definite keeper.

Saturday we went to our little Clara's fourth birthday party!!!

Brent and Emily had it at a local state park that I've always loved.

When we were kids, my family camped there all the time and

this was one of our very favorite campgrounds!

Anyway, here are a few pics ~ it was overcast and a little cool but

all of our family were all so precious to come and celebrate with Clara!

Sweet girl waiting for her guests to arrive:

Little Murray was so happy to wear his big sister's 'My Little Pony' birthday hat!!!

Clara and her daddy Brent!

(our oldest son)

Mama Emily and Clara reading cards and opening gifts....

A sweet girl so happy for her presents!!

It was a wonderful day celebrating a precious little girl!

Thank you always, always for stopping by to see what I'm up to ~

Wishing you a beautiful Monday dear friends,

hugs and love,

Dawn

Enjoying the creative process...

I just love being able to whip something up fast!!!

Something pretty that I think you all will love too ~

But sometimes I think I need to rush through,

 just to get that sweet finished product, you know?

These living room curtains have plagued me for a while now it seems but

today I tried to get back to them!

I'm finally on the last set as we have three very tall

and narrow windows in there.

I keep telling myself as I'm working on them to slow down,

and try to enjoy the process of creating them.

Curtains are not fun to make to me.

They are necessary and ultimately pretty

but just not fun to create.

I truly do think it's important for us all to remember

to enjoy the creative process, each and every step though ~

Here's a pretty bad pic I took late last night of one window:

Anyway...enough about those things :)

I wanted to share a quick photo of a few magazines that

I've purchased lately.

I've gotten so picky but each one of these had

some wonderful features!!

So we have a sweet little girl's birthday party tomorrow at

a local state park...please pray for sunny, mild weather for us ~

It's turned off cold here in Georgia and we just thought for sure

it would be a gorgeous Spring day and perfect

to have her party outdoors!!!

I still can't believe our baby Clara is turning four years old...

Wishing you a beautiful Friday precious friends,

hugs and love,

Dawn

March 21st...such a truly thankful post ~

I AM thankful today.

For so very many things...

First...for my precious parents who raised my two brothers and I in a wonderful, loving home ~

They are both in their early seventies and I am so very thankful they are happy and healthy and

ALWAYS supporting anything my husband Dennis and I choose to do...

if we decided to have a worm farm they would encourage and cheer us on!!!

Dennis' parents are so wonderful as well...

They've been married almost sixty years now

and are such precious grandparents to all of our babies!!!

I AM so very thankful for my sweet, dear husband.

TODAY, we have been married for thirty two years....THIRTY TWO YEARS!

I am so thankful for his love...for him being a wonderful father to our precious five sons...

for his patience for who I am and that I'm not conventional,

that I love to create and that it truly is my calling.

He is the voice of reason...he is my rock,

and he truly is my soul mate.

Thank you Lord for giving him to me!!!

I AM so very thankful for our five babies!!!

Five sons...what are the odds of having five boy babies???

Our fourth born, Chase just had his 22nd birthday this past Saturday too...

I remember when he was a newborn so clearly.

I finally was able to quit working full-time and be a stay-at-home mama.

I decided to breast feed Chase and after having three babies already

and they were each bottle-fed as I worked full-time.

I had the confidence and determination that it was going to happen no matter what!

Anyway, I can remember those midnight or later feedings.

Thinking that he would be my very last baby so I made my mind up

to cherish each and every moment...

and I would weep as I fed him.

I guess I had finally realized that newborn stage would be gone in a flash and

that I should cherish it,

each and every moment.

Little did I know that seven years later...

we would be blessed with our youngest son, Noah!

Our oldest son, Brent was fifteen...David was thirteen...Brad was eleven,

and little Chase was seven when we found out we would be having a new baby!

I have to share this with you...when we told the boys about the new baby coming...

David said, "are we going to be poor??"

HA!HA!HA!!!!

Well sweet boy, maybe a little bit monetarily

but not as a family.

We have always, always been so rich.

Our boys love one another so much and will always, always help each other!!

Now our little Noah is going on sixteen years old....

how many times have we done this now????

Here's a pic I took yesterday after I gave him a haircut ~

Cute, huh??

I AM so very thankful for our precious grandbabies!!!

Our oldest son Brent married sweet Emily and has given us

two of the most wonderful grandchildren.

Our little Clara is turning four this coming Saturday, March 23rd!!!

I took this pic today after I gave her a sweet new haircut...

She knows she's adorable I think!!!

And our precious little Murray just turned 6 months old March 19th...

how fast the time flies by!

He's such sweet, happy baby boy ~

Well, thank you for reading through my little family post...

but

if you read my blog any at all,

you know that you will see my family and

read how much I truly love them so!!!

Have a wonderful Thursday my sweet friends,

hugs and love,

Dawn