As I promised yesterday, here is a photo of our dining room area...this is in the same room as the kitchen and there is an archway leading into the living room....
We bought the table and chairs years ago in the late 70s....its golden oak but has mellowed over time....it has ball and claw feet. It also has a leaf for when we have company and makes into a much larger table. The grandfather clock was my mom's..it doesn't work right now but I hope to get it fixed one day, it has Westminster chimes....
the two smudges were on the camera lens, sorry about that.


The china cabinet, Alan made...someone gave us an old china cabinet that had been in a fire, we both liked the design and Alan copied it...sadly the old cabinet was too badly burned to be saved. The glass top lights up...its big and roomy. I have my grandmothers china in there as well as a lot of old glass, some I have inherited and some I've collected from estate and garage sales. I have so much that some is packed away, mostly pink Depression glass. The cord hanging down over the table is a ceiling fan...every room here has a ceiling fan.
Alan and his cousin Jessie, put in the Italian tile floor.



The wall has grandma's pine cone wreath, a board with antique square nails Alan collected in his hometown by the railroad tracks as a boy, and a framed John Deere tractor print..he collects John Deere tractors and he built a barrister bookcase we have in the living room for his collection. I found the print, where else? but Ebay.

Julie, Country Girl at Heart, is having a giveaway to celebrate her 50th post! Hurry if you want to enter as it ends on June 9th, this coming Monday...
http://julie-countrygirlatheart.blogspot.com

Another nice warm day here....I am going to go to the store and get a few groceries.
Pioneer Woman Cooks! has a nice sounding recipe for potatoes I want to try and we are out plus get something to grill and some salad stuff....
do you believe the price of gas? Ours is up to $4.30 and climbing...I don't drive very often if I can help it...and combine errands. I think we are all in the same boat....which is taking on water...

Someone mentioned they'd like to see more of our house...when we bought this home,it needed a lot of help. Its a typical tract home but had a big big yard which we really wanted...
we worked mainly on the back the first year, and later worked on the inside...this is the kitchen, its rather small (which I like) easy to get around, we put in new Corian counter tops, a new large sink, and painted the tract cabinets a warm latte coffee color and added hardware to them. We took the fluorescent lighting out and added modern lighting brought it into this century. We also put up the pot rack. It doesn't look like a tract kitchen anymore!
Tomorrow I will show you the dining room with the china cabinet Alan made, and my mothers grandfather clock.

Here is our front door, with the little welcome that I won from Vicky on her giveaway...still haven't found a black hook but it looks good anyway...the boys noticed it last night and Matt said he loved the Sweet Annie scent...
the oil painting is one I found at an estate sale, we all really like it, reminds us of going to the California redwoods...
I took all the embroidery out of the one pillowcase and am starting over, I decided to make it in pastel soft colors......this pillowcase is of a pretty lady with a full skirt, the skirt ruffles are the edge of the case....I tried to take a photo but it just doesn't show up well but here is a photo of the little butterfly I am working on that is above her on the left.

I am going through my embroidery and cross stitch books, and have a few in my store....I've bought so many over the years and can't possibly use them all so perhaps someone else will enjoy them. I also have many Aunt Martha embroidery transfers I am selling too....two I found are rather old, they originally sold for .29 cents.....they are Days of the Week, one of kittens and the other is pixies. I found these at an estate sale too.

I am asking for prayer for my dear friend, Cora, from Hidden Riches in Secret Places..she is having some serious health issues, I won't go into detail for her privacy but please pray for her.

We actually have some sunshine today! I've been busy putting some new items in the store and doing laundry....always laundry with two teens...although our older son (who just turned 20 so technically not a teen anymore) is becoming a lot neater and actually picks up his room now. He even folds and puts his clothes away.

I've noticed I am getting readers from many parts of the world, please sign my guest book if you haven't already..there are so many posts to read as I like to write (if you haven't noticed), the earliest posts are of memories of my early years and how Alan and I met, married, etc. Also there are posts of my home town of Oceanside, Ca, many vintage photos, valentines, and fruit labels too that you are invited to snag if you are so inclined.

Pet of the Week

Meet Sadie, a golden lab...she is an older dog, playful and loves kids...she especially likes to ride in cars and is used to cats...Labs make great companion dogs..she has so much love to give, you will find her at the Sun City K-9 Dog Rescue...hard to resist those big brown eyes!

I finally was able to finish a Christmas bell ringer that I had started several years ago...I've decided to go through all my uncompleted embroidery work...quite a bit of it, frankly speaking.....this was a vintage 1970 kit I won on Ebay.

sorry the photo is a little dark....and the wall/door smudges..teens like to use everything but the knob to open and close the door...
next, I have pillowcases that are half done...so today, I plan on going over them....one is a little sloppy, I didn't realize my glasses were not up to par, and I was not seeing as well so I will probably take out most of the embroidery and start out fresh.
"And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." Colossians 3:17

We woke up to gray skies and cooler temperatures. They forecast high winds in the deserts today..Alan has a job this morning so it will be a quiet house..
I am glad so many liked the iceberg photos from yesterday....I thought they were amazing.

Just a little note to say, I've been organizing and found some vintage gift wrap that is the bomb......these are in my online store. The China Lake Shop...so if you need anything like that, take a look..will be adding more things soon....

Not much going on today here...I did get the door hanger I won as a giveaway from Vicky at 2MuchFarm, I couldn't find anything but a white hook to hang it with so will wait to post the photo until I find a black or clear one...its a steel door so I have to use either the stick on or magnetic kind of hooks..

until then...my son sent me these ice berg photos...I always thought icebergs were white only but discovered something new...evidently ice bergs in the Antarctic area sometimes have stripes, formed by layers of snow that react to different conditions.
Blue stripes are often created when a crevice in the ice sheet fills up with melt water and freezes so quickly that no bubbles form.
When an iceberg falls into the sea, a layer of salty seawater can freeze to the underside. If this is rich in algae, it can form a green stripe.
Brown, black and yellow lines are caused by sediment, picked up when the ice sheet grinds downhill towards the sea,who knew?
When I think about how rich and beautiful our world is...it just amazes me..so enjoy the photos and realize God has his fingerprint on all of nature.








Have a wonderful Tuesday! As it is written:
"No eye has seen,
no ear has heard,
no mind has conceived
what God has prepared for those who love him"

Sunday Drive - part 2

I took a few more photos of some of the plants we saw...these were growing on the side of the rock hillside..they had found crevices to root in...
here are some wildflowers that were growing on the side of the road, click on any of the photos for a closer look...

here is how curvy the road was at times..


After we drove across the Ortega highway, we went into Lake Forest which is a lovely green city...here is a pepper tree we saw...the city is covered with many large trees and greenery.
We had lunch...explored the city a little, then drove back home....it was a nice Sunday drive..we haven't done anything like that in some time so it was a real treat.
We probably won't do it again very soon...gas is over $4.00 a gallon now....

On another note, I plan on making more and different journal jars soon....I'm getting low on the ones I have...sold about 10 of them....I will post the new ones later in the week...my first one will be called School Days and have vintage one room schoolhouses, and vintage photos of classes...hope you like it.

Sunday Drive

We took a Sunday drive up the Ortega Highway on the other side of Lake Elsinore...here are some photos I took. The road is very curvy and narrow in spots....with many switchbacks..but fabulous views.


At the top of the mountains, there are places to camp, ride horses, and walk trails...we stopped at the candy store




There was a nice assortment of hard candies and taffy..we spoke with the owner.
I tried to get her in the photos but she was too shy.
she makes fudge, divinity, chocolates,
homemade peanut brittle, and other goodies too...She originally is from Wisconsin and makes much of her own goodies at the store. if you click on the photo, you can see her little country kitchen...


We drove on further and they were working on the road, at one point, it went down to one lane, as they were building a new bridge..there was a motorcycle rally going on and part of the group passed us while we were waiting..

There are many places to camp, rent cabins or park your RV along the highway...plus there are walking trails as its in Cleveland National Forest....
here is just one of the many campgrounds, notice the live oak...these are protected.


we decided we'd call and see how much it would be to rent a cabin for a weekend...would be a nice getaway and not too far from home.

I won!

I woke up to find an email yesterday from Vicky from 2MuchFarm...and she told me I had won this giveaway....how cool is that? She makes such nice things and I can hardly wait to put this on our front door...it is so perfect...we painted our door a pretty green color and this will look really good there...I will take a photo when we get it together...
thanks, Vic!