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Vintage Jewelry Bookmarks for Mother’s Day

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I’m popping in today with a quick post because next Sunday is Mother’s day and some of you may be wracking your brains over something unique to give mom for her big day.  This is an old post but I’m recycling it today because it has been a favorite of my readers and has been featured in so many places.

DIY Vintage Jewelry BookmarksQuick and easy bookmarks made from vintage (or vintage look) jewelry.  The original post with complete step-by-step instructions can be found right HERE!

As a mom, I can assure you that this is something I would love to receive as a gift myself, especially if it was tucked in book like the one below.  This short illustrated book shows the unconditional love between moms and their children and it is one that always makes my daughters and me shed a few tears.  Your mom will love it!

Click on this picture for ordering info.


Blessings to all you dear, DEAR moms on Mother’s Day,

My Signature

I’ve been known to link up to the following great parties!!!
Sunday:

 TheDIYShowoff, LifeOnLakeshoreDrive, SilverPenniesSundays, SundaysAtHome, RusticAndRefined, Spiritual Sundays, GiveMeGrace

Monday:
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French Courtyard on a Backyard Deck

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French CourtyardThis is my favorite time of  year here in the South.  The greens are greener, the flowers are brilliant(er), and the weather is perfect for morning coffee out on the deck.

Patio Courtyard 001Last year we didn’t do anything with our deck space.  We hadn’t yet been here a year and we were still tackling a lot of indoor projects as well as adding several plantings to the front yard.

Patio Courtyard 004In talking about what we would do in the backyard we thought about creating a courtyard with pavers, a retaining wall for seating, a water feature, and the addition of a fire pit or fireplace.

Patio Courtyard 029We even paid a designer to draw up a plan.  It was AH-mazing!

Patio Courtyard 026As it turned out, if we were to implement the plan it would cost thousands of dollars and, though a nice feature it wouldn’t pay for itself in resale.  So for now, we decided to work at adding favorite plantings to the yard a little bit at a time and foregoing the fancy fire pit.  To be honest, with the amount of time we spend on our screened porch (our favorite room) I’m not sure how much we would even use it.

Patio Courtyard 035Here is how the idea of creating the feeling of a French Courtyard on our deck began.  A couple of weeks ago we had breakfast with our friends Mark and Leslie and afterwards we wandered through a few stores.  While we were shopping Leslie picked up the crocheted tablecloth you see here.  The round one.  She decided she really didn’t need it so I quickly grabbed it myself and told her it would be perfect for the little table on the deck and that we would have coffee there together.

Patio Courtyard 088Mr. OTN laughed and said it would never happen and that is when I set out to prove him wrong.

Patio Courtyard 051Since then I’ve spray painted the patio set, sewed chair covers and pillows, stenciled the pillows, pulled pots onto the deck, some new and some from different areas of the yard, planted shrubs and flowers, washed the deck, and finally, set about arranging and rearranging everything to get just the look I was going for.

Patio Courtyard 024Getting one’s hands in the dirt is such a joy when the temperatures are in the 70’s,

Patio Courtyard 007and with the warmer weather it seems like within just a matter of days my new plantings have begun to spread and grow. 🙂

Patio Courtyard 012My little boxwoods already need a haircut.

Patio Courtyard 008We bought a conical variegated boxwood and a couple of regular boxwoods, and tucked smaller plants into the pots around them.

Patio Courtyard 014I also added a couple of hanging baskets.

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Patio Courtyard 057

 Patio Courtyard 020

Patio Courtyard 086Last week the little patio fountain that hubby purchased locally was delivered.  You see, once I started working my plan he got into the idea himself.  😉

Patio Courtyard 022

The dogs think our new fountain is the best water bowl ever!

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Patio Courtyard 005This shows the yard beyond the deck, which is an area of grass bordered by trees.  The next step of our backyard plan will involve plantings along the edge of the woods to add more color there as well.  Shade lovers such as azaleas and hydrangeas.

Patio Courtyard 025Finally, what would a French Courtyard be without a bit of lavender?  I have a secret for you.  It’s from Hobby Lobby!  Since lavender likes a lot more sun than my yard provides I put several faux lavender sprigs into a cement planter and tucked some moss around the stems.  Even close up people think that it’s real.

Patio Courtyard 032Hubby and I have been spending a lot of time in our little “courtyard” and one day soon Leslie and I will have our coffee here and laugh over what she started by showing me the pretty tablecloth!

Patio Courtyard 033 Morning quiet time here among the songbirds is a time to be treasured.  It is cozy and peaceful, and just what we need to make ourselves slow down from our very busy lives.

Patio Courtyard 087So that’s my French Courtyard.  We shall see how it fares through the hot humid summer.  It will certainly be a test of which plants work best in this location.  Trial and error.  That’s my motto.  Or one of them.  I have a lot of mottos.  LOL!

Oh how I wish I could invite y’all over to share this sweet space with me.  I know that our time together would be simply marvelous!

Blessings to you dear friends,

My Signature

I’ve been known to link up to the following great parties!!!
Sunday:

 TheDIYShowoff, LifeOnLakeshoreDrive, SilverPenniesSundays, SundaysAtHome, RusticAndRefined, Spiritual Sundays, GiveMeGrace

Monday:
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This Week I Was a Cougar

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Sometimes I amuse myself.  Sometimes I outright embarrass myself and my family.  They won’t admit to being embarrassed though because they love me, quirks and all.

Fortunately, I choose to embrace the embarrassment because it always makes for a good story.

Looking out my window 6You may wonder at my title, This Week I Was a Cougar.  So here’s the story behind the title:

Peeking out my window 2I had a pre-surgical appointment at the hospital this week for the gigantic Staghorn stone I will have blasted from my kidney next week.  What is a Staghorn stone you may ask?  That’s exactly what I said when they pulled up the x-ray in the doctor’s office and showed me what they’d found (accidentally by the way, while taking a lung x-ray – but that’s another story).  It has the name Staghorn because it is big and many horned just like a . . . well . . . a Stag’s horns.

Peeking out my window 3The first part of the visit was an EKG, performed by an RN.  I didn’t know I was going to have an EKG or I would’ve dressed differently but no matter.  I simply lifted my dress up to my neck as requested, and she did the procedure while we chatted about how I’d turned 60 last November and she’d just turned 61, and how we still feel like we are 35 on the inside but our legs, and tummies, and arms are changing so, that we feel the need to keep everything covered from head to toe so as not to frighten those we meet on the street (I exaggerate just a little).

Looking out my window 83Procedure finished, I pulled my dress down to my knees and smoothed out the creases while the nurse called in a very nice looking, 40-something-year-old anesthesiologist for my consultation.  He was very professional as he explained what would happen before, during, and after my surgery, had me sign a half dozen release forms, and asked if he could answer any questions.  Nope.  He’d been very thorough in his explanation and besides, the less I talk about my upcoming surgery the better.

So we chatted a bit about other things, like the best places to vacation in the South, great beaches, mountain getaways, etc.  He even wrote down the names of some of the most romantic places to stay.  I leaned forward across the desk to take the paper he had written the names of the resorts on just as he thought of another great place and pulled the paper back to write some more (picture this, me leaning down across the doc’s desk, paused there for several seconds waiting for him to finish – I’ll tell you why later).

Peeking out my window“Thank you doctor,” I said, in my best version of a Southern drawl, which isn’t very good because I’ve only lived here 1-1/2 years and I haven’t quite got it down yet.

I left shortly afterwards, drove to the nursery to buy a few plants (where the woman at the cash register barely made eye contact with me and was rather distant, but the young man who loaded my car was very outgoing and friendly, telling me how beautiful my yard was going to be with the excellent choices in plants I’d made, how much they appreciated my shopping with them today, telling me to be sure and get my plants out of the car as soon as I got home.  On and on and on.  What a sweet young man). 

Looking out my window 4Next I headed home where I hurried into the powder room because, you know, that is what a sixty-year-old lady must do as soon as she drives into the driveway.  Sometimes she is thinking about it even as soon as her car turns into the neighborhood.

There in my powder room, washing my hands at the sink . . . I glance up to check my face, only to catch site of the buttons on my dress, popped open all the way down to a place I won’t tell you because I don’t want to put any unsightly visions into your head!  I am a modest woman by nature.  I don’t like to show any cleavage whatsoever but THIS . . . this was a bit beyond cleavage to the point of COUGARDOM!

Waiting at SeaTacThat my friends, is my embarrassing story of the week.

Blessings,

My SignatureP.S. The pictures in this post are a peek out my windows into my backyard.  Be sure to come back for my next post where I’ll show the full array of pictures in Making a Courtyard Patio on a Backyard Deck.

I’ve been known to link up to the following great parties!!!
Sunday:

 TheDIYShowoff, LifeOnLakeshoreDrive, SilverPenniesSundays, SundaysAtHome, RusticAndRefined, Spiritual Sundays, GiveMeGrace

Monday:
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How to Make Quick, Easy & Affordable Drapery Tiebacks

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Lately I’ve been all tied up in knots.  Beautiful nautical knots.  While planning my curtains for Pollen Proofing my Screened Porch I looked around for some drapery tiebacks online and was surprised at how expensive they can be!

Screened Porch Curtains 020While searching through listings on Etsy I found a set of beautiful soft cotton rope ties that I felt would be perfect for my coastal themed screened porch.  However, at almost $50 a pair they were way out of my price range.  I didn’t want to end up spending more for the tiebacks than for ALL the drapes combined!

Nautical Drapery TiesAt first I thought I might simply go down to my local hardware store and buy some rope to make my own but the rope they carry is stiff and rough.  So after Googling “Cotton Rope” I was led to Knot & Rope Supply and found exactly what I was looking for.  I love Internet shopping don’t you?

Nautical Drapery Ties2This is what I ordered and at .61 cents per foot it was an excellent buy!

Nautical Drapery Ties3I love that it is soft to the touch too.

So this is all you need:

  1. 5/8″ 3-strand cotton rope (about 1 yard per tieback)
  2. Scissors
  3. Scotch Tape

And this is the “how to”:

Nautical Drapery Tiebacks 002

  1. Cut as many pieces of rope as you will need with scissors.  Yes, scissors!  The softness of this rope makes it super easy to cut.

Nautical Drapery Ties42. Wrap cut ends with scotch tape to keep them from fraying.  That part comes later.

Nautical Drapery Tiebacks 0033.  Bring the two ends of your rope together and tie a simple knot, about 6-8″ from the ends of the rope.

 Nautical Drapery Tiebacks 0044.  Remove tape and unravel the ends of your rope.  This is the best part!

Screened Porch Curtains 0205.  Wrap the tie around your drape, slip the knotted end through the loop, and pull it tight.  That’s it!  The knubby texture of the rope holds it in place so it won’t slip down your curtain.

Note:  These tiebacks were used on drop cloth fabric and have stayed perfectly in place.  I’m not sure how it would work on a slipperier fabric.

Nautical Inspired Drapery Tie-backsI made five tiebacks for my porch and spent under $10 dollars for all of them, as opposed to nearly $225 I would’ve spent by purchasing them ready-made online.

Wow!  Just WOW!  Feeling blessed by God who inspires me in my thriftiness!

Blessings friends,

My SignatureScreened Porch Curtains 020a

I’ve been known to link up to the following great parties!!!
Sunday:

 TheDIYShowoff, LifeOnLakeshoreDrive, SilverPenniesSundays, SundaysAtHome, RusticAndRefined, Spiritual Sundays, GiveMeGrace

Monday:
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Freedom Friday – Hope in the Midst of Chaos

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Tybee Island 2Every single one of my family members say that they “hate” jigsaw puzzles.  Yet when we take a family vacation together it has become tradition to buy a new puzzle and spend our evening hours working it.  Why?  I think maybe it’s because it gives us the opportunity to work at something together as a team, while laughing, singing silly ditties, and eating lots and lots of junk food.  Or, being slightly less magnanimous, I think that saying that we hate them (when we probably really love them) gives us an excuse to complain.

If that makes sense to you, your family is probably as “funny” as mine is. 🙂

Welcome to FREEDOM FRIDAY – A devotional, emotional, spiritual and sometimes hysterical series that I will be sharing on occasional Fridays, in addition to my regular Old Things New posts. Why?  Because though once bound in chains Christ has set me free –  FREE to live, to love, to dance, to sing, to be who God created me to be!

HOPE. We all need something to place our hope in don't we? In what or whom do you place yours? Click To TweetMost people place their hope in things of the world.  Things that are sure to disappoint.  Yes, even Christ followers often have a misplaced hope.  Hope in the things that we think we can hold onto, such as family, friendships, health, jobs, finances, and all our possessions. Eventually, when these things disappoint (because they always will) we have a tendency to blame God, or question His presence in our lives, or even to walk away from Him completely.

Tybee Island

Think back to my family, putting together a thousand piece jigsaw puzzle.  The tiny pieces all spread out across the table simply don’t make sense.  We begin by looking for all the edge pieces first and then sorting pieces by color.  As we work one little piece at a time all we can do is hope that the maker of the puzzle gave us all of the pieces and that they will eventually fit together into a whole and beautiful picture just like the one on the box.

Tybee Island 1a

Lately I’ve been feeling concerned by some circumstances in my own life and, to be honest, I’ve felt a bit shaken.  I’ve encountered some health mysteries (along with some unrelated discoveries while the mysteries were being investigated) which have caused me to experience a whole range of emotions – confusion, denial, fear, dread, hope, and eventually, assurance that, “all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28 (NKJV).

Tybee Island 2a

When I’m feeling afraid or confused by the way things are happening in my world, Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV) has always been one of my go-to verses.  “I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

Ahhh . . . hope.  But think for a moment about the man who penned these Scripture verses.  Jeremiah.  The “weeping prophet.”  His life was a mess!  It was miserable!  It didn’t make sense!  Yet, though he may have done a bit of weeping over circumstances, his hope wasn’t in those circumstances, but in his Maker, Father God.

At the beach

Are there things happening in your world that don’t make sense?  Difficult things that you can’t piece together?  I’m not telling you about my health concerns because I desire sympathy.  In fact, drawing attention to myself is actually quite embarrassing to me.  The reason I’m telling you my current struggles is because I have full confidence and hope that my Maker will bring all the confusing pieces together to create something beautiful in my life.  He always has.  He always will.  I want to share that hope with you.

Tybee Island Sunset 006

PRAYER:  Papa God, for those reading this today who are struggling with uncertainty, fear, depression, lack of hope, or any other circumstance that overwhelms and makes no sense to them, please draw near to them as they seek and draw near to You.  Bring them an assurance that when they place their trust in and follow You, all the pieces of their lives will come together into something good.  Help them to see that You are the only real hope in this world and that you love them and desire only the best for them.  Give a new awakening of hope to each one today.  In Jesus’ name.

Peace comes when we quit trying to make sense of our circumstances and place our hope in Him. Click To Tweet

Praying God’s blessings over each and every one of you today,

My Signature

I’ve been known to link up to the following great parties!!!

Sunday:

 TheDIYShowoff, LifeOnLakeshoreDrive, SilverPenniesSundays, SundaysAtHome,RusticAndRefined, Spiritual Sundays, GiveMeGrace

Monday:
Tuesday:
Wednesday:
Thursday:
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