One Aspect of Womanhood

Women are "anticipatory" creatures by nature.

I don't know if that's a real word or not.

Sometimes I make up words to express myself...

that's my point here...

Men see things or people as they are.

Women see things or people as they can become.

Men check things off their to-do list.

When finished, they watch t.v.

A woman's to-do list is never done.

There is always something or someone that needs cleaning,

straightening, "fixing"...

Women anticipate...

they can walk in a room and in 30 seconds

figure out how to "be of help",

how to "speed things up",

how to "make things prettier".

I once had an employer who called me a butterfly.

At any social event, he said I was always fluttering around.

My response was (and still is)...

"That's what women do...they flutter...they see a need

and try to make it better."

It's not all we do, but it's what we do best.

Sometimes our "anticipatory" mode gets us in trouble.

We tend to worry a LOT.

Now I know that it's not a good thing to worry,

but we do.

We know an oncoming train wreck when we see it coming,

and we want our loved ones to avoid it at all costs.

(By the way, men see it as a light at the end of the tunnel.)

Regardless of your lot in life,

99.9% of women are great at spotting needs

 and doing their best to fulfill them.

We women are complex creatures.

But where in the world would the world be without us?



Angela

Remembrance Potholders

What a week it has been! I've had doctor visit after doctor visit. Let me just say, those visits have finally done it...scared me into being serious about my health. I may go down, but it won't be with a mouthful of Little Debbie's. It's probably just as well Twinkies left the market when they did.

Also, I've decided I am a procrastinator of the worst kind! I've known about the following project since May, and even though I still have a week left before they are due, I am just now finishing them...bad, bad girl!

My mother was one of those kind of cooks that could look in the pantry and in 30 minutes have a great meal on the table. Me? NOT so...everything she cooked was delicious and in her honor, I decided to make pot holder keepsakes for our family for Christmas this year.

Since only two or three members of the family read my blog, I won't be giving away the surprise to many! And a word of caution!!! This is a time consuming project...not expensive, but it IS a labor of love. So if any family members are reading this and I know who you are :) , when you open yours at our family Christmas, you can really make a big deal of it...haha...just kidding...I think.

I originally saw this idea in Country Living magazine and then saw where a lady would do this for you for $38. What?! Yes, Virginia, it's worth it.

The first thing you must do is select a recipe in your chosen person's handwriting and copy it so that you have at least three copies on a sheet of copy paper. This is if you want to make more than one.

You will eventually be making a copy of that recipe onto cloth
and then attaching the cloth recipe to a potholder.

The potholder prototype was green, but the ones I did for family were black.
They match a monogrammed dishtowel I also made for said family.

Step One: Gather your materials.
 Buy your potholders. Also buy smooth material on which to print your chosen recipe.
I used khaki broadcloth.
The other materials are:  fusible Pellon or WonderUnder, an iron, a printer, and a sewing machine.
Some cute ribbon and a button are optional.
Step Two: cut two pieces of fusible web as wide as regular printer paper and about 1 inch high.

Step Three: Press your broadcloth so it has no wrinkles..at all.
Then sandwich the fusible web strips between the cloth and the computer paper at the top and bottom.
Press lightly until the paper is bonded to the cloth and it all lies flat.
Cut out the cloth using the paper as your pattern.

This is the paper and cloth after bonding but before being cutting out.

Step Four: This is how my printer accepts paper, so I carefully slipped the paper with the cloth attached into the printer and copied the recipes onto the cloth.

I was able to get three of my mother's recipes for Poppy seed Chicken onto the paper sized cloth.
Now, this is dicey. Once I used double sided tape rather than the fusible web and it didn't work so well,
 thus, the fusible web.
However,  REMEMBER this:
When placing your recipes to be printed on the original paper, Skip down about an inch on the page to print...thus you will avoid having the bonded part of the paper stick to the back of the recipe.

Step Five: Cut out the cloth recipe. Try to do this smoothly and clip all little threads as you go.
Attach the cloth recipe to the potholder by cutting a piece of fusible web the size of the recipe and
 ironing the recipe to the front of the potholder.

As you can see, the resulting copied recipe is clear and looks very good!

Step 6: With my Brother SE 400 machine, I finished the edges of the cloth recipe with an overcast stitch.
This could be done by hand or a little ribbon trim or rickrack could be ironed on around the recipe.

Step 7: I added a bow and a button at the top.

The bow color matches the monogrammed initial on the monogrammed dish towels.

I have no idea if the potholders will hold up to washing,
but these aren't for everyday use.
These are a remembrance of my mother and her skills in the kitchen
and the love with which she prepared our food for so many years.

My MaMa

October 13, 2007.

 It's been five years ago, 1,825 days since my mother left this earth and entered her heavenly home.

(The picture above was NOT taken in 2010, that's the date I took a  picture of the picture to use for something.)

I remember that real picture day so very long ago.

 I was in the wedding of a dear friend of our family.

That net dress was so sticky, but I didn't mind.

I thought I looked just lovely.

It was a Christmas wedding...

everyone was in white and

 I carried a silver glittered basket full

of red poinsettias.

I can still see it in my mind's eye.

At the reception, Mother held my basket so I could eat cake and drink punch.

My mother was so pretty.

 I was always very proud of her when she'd come to my class parties.

She was slim, young and always smelled good.

She was fiercely protective of her family.

As I grew older, married and moved away, I got busy with life.

Our lives both had their ups and downs.

 But we never lost touch.

She never forgot a special occasion, never held it against me if I did and

 loved me with all her heart.

I have written before that her beginnings were humble...she was adopted from the Jackson Children's Village by my grandparents when she was several months old.

She told me she remembered finding out that she was adopted when she was in the third grade. 

Some children laughed at her and called her names because of it. 

 How she put her head on her arm on the brick wall of the school building and sobbed.

Her beginnings colored her life, but in a good way.

She was thrifty, smart, kind and very creative.

She didn't seek the limelight, but was content to be wife and mother.

She taught her three children to be watchful of the needs of others,

to anticipate when somebody was in dire straits.

 She wanted us to be Christians, to be kind and to live life with joy.

She wanted us to excel, but didn't love us less when we didn't.

October 13th, such a sad day for me and my family.

I know that she's better off...but I'm not.

I can hardly wait to see her again.

To hug her and tell her how much I've missed her.

Thank you for all you taught us...and for all you did for others.

I love you, Mama.

Thoughts About Mothers

My Mother, Anne

Mother's Day has taken on a new tone for me. After losing my mother 3 1/2 years ago, the weekend of Mother's Day is quite hard. I still find myself at Christmas and Mother's Day, looking for the appropriate gift for her and suddenly remembering that there's no need. I long for the chance to hear her voice on the phone. Tears flow when I think of all the times I was "too busy" to chat for very long.

Every time I'd go to my parents house to visit, the first thing my mother always did was offer me a Diet Dr. Pepper. No matter what the time of day, she knew I liked them and so did she...usually I'd decline because I was rushed and "too busy". My personal life has had many twists and turns...many of them not happy...so it seems that I am always careening from one drama to another. In doing so, I've lost the ability to sit and visit and soak in the love of others. I've lost precious moments which I can never regain. The worst part of losing time with my mother is that I could have learned so much more from her. She was wise, witty, pretty and so much more... everything you'd want a mom to be.

As I sit here typing this post, tears flow once again. Even though I am approaching my sixty second birthday, I need a mother. I need a wiser older woman to reassure me that things are ok and that life, even though difficult, will turn out just the way God wants it to, and I can rest in that knowledge.

Maybe this should be a flash point ... I ask myself, "What would my mother want me to do at a time like this?" And I believe the answer is ... she'd want me to "mother" someone else ... someone who, like me, needs a mother's touch, a kind and encouraging word.

Here I am, with the whole day before me.... I have the time, and I'm going to get up, dress, go to the grocery store and buy the ingredients for a meal and take it to somebody who needs encouragement today... I'm not too busy and I'm NOT going to miss this opportunity. I hope you won't either.

Seize the day, hug your mom...

Bring Back Pink!!

For me, PINK SATURDAY always poses a conundrum of sorts. (For those of you who are new to this blog, I enjoy linking up with Beverly at her blog, How Sweet the Sound, on Saturday. She sponsors a party where all the bloggers who participate show something pink. Click on the words PINK SATURDAY above and visit!) Beverly was even kind enough to feature my blog last Saturday!

Here is what I have noticed about myself. On Thursday, I begin thinking about what I'd like to highlight. Of course, it must be pink and therein lies the dilemma. I begin poking around in drawers and such trying to unearth anything pink...did you understand what I just said? IN DRAWERS AND SUCH! Gulp...I must admit, that most of my pink items are tucked away.

It seems to me that most of you who participate in PS proudly display your pink for all the world to see....on a daily basis. But, I on the other hand, have hidden mine away. My guest bedroom was once all in pink...very fluffy,very frilly, very flowery, very feminine. Then a very dear relative moved in for a year or so, and he being male, the pink and white scheme seemed a little...well, TOO over the top...even for someone quite unfazed by such nonsense.

So out went pink and in came a more contemporary "gender neutral" scheme. Now, those words frighten me...I've noticed that MANY things in our society are going that direction...gender neutral. So I am reconsidering ... I might just bring back the pink in my life. What in the world is wrong with BEING feminine and expressing it in different parts of your home, I ask? Well, the answer is NOT ONE THING!! Do you feel the same way?

My entry today in PS includes my mother's little pitcher collection. She loved ALL things pink, and I love these little reminders of her femininity. She wasn't much of a collector... a few things here and there, but she loved her pitchers. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

May pink be an expression of your femininity,

Mothers Wear Very Big Hats

While purging my closets I ran across a brown paper bag and when I opened it I just could NOT help but smile! What I found was a little group of ladies miniature hats that I had forgotten I even had.

Look at them closely...can you tell?

They were made from ...are you ready? Eight ounce Styrofoam cups! Below is what they look like right after they are shrunk and removed from the oven...I did these so long ago I can't remember the exact temperature...but I'd say around 350 degrees. (Don't hold me to that!) I stood the cups open end down on a cookie tray, watched them through the oven door and when they were the size I wanted, lifted the tray out of the oven.

After shrinking and cooling, I painted them with acrylic paints and then added the flowers. I do remember that I sprayed a branch white, inserted it into a vase and hung the hats on the branch with the pink silk azaleas shown. It was a centerpiece used for Mother's Day.


Speaking of mothers, I'd like to say a word or two to the young mothers who read my blog. Being a good wife and mother is a very difficult thing. You have to wear both hats firmly on your head, but being good at both AT THE SAME TIME is hard. The little ones are helpless because they are just that...little. The big one is helpless because well, because he's a man. Both need you.

Trying to juggle so many balls in the air at the same time is an all-consuming task. Wanting to become a mother and actually being one is almost overwhelming. My advice to you is to seek help when you need it...ask your own mother for guidance. If that isn't possible for whatever reason, find a godly older woman that you trust, and ask her counsel. (The older, the better.)

Don't ever think that it's ALL up to you...how your children actually turn out is in very large part up to them. There is nothing worse than parents who take total responsibility for the way their children turn out...good or bad. When they are small you can dictate their actions and reactions, but as they age, you can do that just up to a point. A person is what they are. (Is that good grammar?) Some very bad parents have very good children, and visa versa.

The best advice I could give would be to pray for your children's heart, their protection and their choices. God does not always answer prayers exactly as we request, but you can rest assured that He will answer them in the way that proves to be best in the long run. Quit worrying, do the best you can and turn the rest over to Him.

A good little saying I read is: "Rejecting things because they are old-fashioned would rule out the sun and the moon-and a mother's love."

Hope you will join me at Amaze Me Monday, Boogieboard Cottage's Linky Party & Paisley Passions Fun With Food Friday . Grab the button on the right!

Holiday Vignettes

Just enjoying photographing little vignettes inside and out. Wreath in front of old black tray with "rescued" moss green ribbon....wire green basket filled with cedar and gold matte ornaments. The electricity company had just trimmed the cedars and pines across the road when I drove in from work...so I made a beeline over there and collected the fallen branches...great thrifty greenery for the season!


During the spring and summer, this rusty Baker's rack holds my gardening items and a few green plants and birds' nests.

I found the plaque at Hobby Lobby on the 80% off rack. I refinished it and added the scrapbook paper background. I used the Cricut machine to cut a set of flourishes and then cut them apart to compose the Christmas tree. Added sparkles and the word Peace and it looks just right with my carnival glass vase!


Even the garden tub ledge gets the "holiday" treatment with the addition of a coppery mesh bow. My family of Peter's Pottery frogs reside here year round and like the company of the McCarty pottery pinched vase.

Counter top vignette adds color and texture to the kitchen area. I love the glass and iron tray and use it in various ways year round. It contains items neatly but is light enough to be unobtrusive.

Arthur Court tiny cake plate is topped with a Southern Living At Home glass topper.

I found this $17.00 wreath in the Alley Cat section of the Monroe, LA. Paul Michael's store for $4!! I bought two! Love the color and the tinsel look. I added $ Tree ornaments, mesh bow and an old gingerbread man ornament and viola....sweet little wreath above my sink.

Every year my mother thread counted everyone of us a new ornament for Christmas...it was always dated and had our initials on it. Many were tiny stockings and sometimes we received little mittens. I gathered our stockings together and placed them in an old blue bowl. I love seeing them and remembering my sweet, kind mom.