Some Things That Make My Heart Smile

Just wanted to share a few more things that add joy to my life.

Backyard in summer time.  Ready for BBQing and swimming.

 

Backyard hibiscus

Roses in front yard of my son’s house.

 Next cake which is much much better than the last one.

 Flowers we learned in cake decorating class last week.

And my favorite.  This is my great-grandson, 2 year old Deegan and his Daddy, Ryan.

Deegan was misbehaving and is getting a serious talking to!  I love the look on his face, so serious, but listening to every word.

Hubby always tells me that it doesn’t take much to make me happy.  I think it’s because I’ve spent time in both “unhappiness” and “happiness” and  I must say,. happiness gets my vote.  It’s a choice I make each and every day.  Like I always say – Life is ALWAYS Good no matter what might be showing up at the moment.

Happy Mother’s Day!

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Mother’s Day Tablescape

I’m very happy to make my Mother’s Day tablescape in honor of my mother.  She has been gone now 25 years, but I can still hear her voice and see her smile.  My mother was extraordinary.  Her life was devoted to her family.  She always tried to make things special for each of her children and grandchildren.  I remember her at the sewing machine for hours on end when I was a little girl, making all my school clothes and clothes for all my dolls.  She also loved the horses, racing that is.  She asked her minister if she could tithe her winnings.  He said yes, absolutely!  My mother was very lucky too, hm… interesting.

I am fortunate to have received her china.  I don’t know how old it is, but I remember it all my life and I’m 62.  It is plain, white with 24 carat gold rim.  Mother like to use color with her white china.  Today I’m using gold.  I picked it because gold is a treasure, just like my mom.

 

I chose a linen while table cloth to cover the table and then a delightful gold smaller table cloth that is so very beautiful.

It is one of my treasure I got from the Goodwill store along with the vase, the napkins,the gold chargers and the stemware.

You can’t really see the label on the dishes, but it says

Royal Continental from Germany.

 Of course I got both sets of my napkins at the Goodwill too.  The napkin rings are from Steinmart.

These gold napkins are simply gorgeous.  I couldn’t wait to use them.

Here is my Mother’s Day cake.  Not perfect by any means, it’s only my third cake since I’ve started cake decorating classes.

I enjoyed making it just the same.

I have been scouring the Goodwills for a beautiful cake plate and haven’t had any luck yet.

In the meantime, I have many beautiful crystal plates that were my mother’s so

of course I used this lovely plate for the cake.

I love fresh flowers on my table, but this time it’s just JoAnn’s fakery!

 They still are very beautiful.

 I’m very proud of my 5th tablescape.  I think I caught the bug!   I’m hooked on tablescapes!  I hope you enjoyed my very simple, but I think elegant table.

I will be celebrating with Let’s Dish at Cuisine Kathleen and

 Table Top Tuesday at A Stroll Through Life 

Look Who’s 9 Years Old!

Someone came into our lives nine years ago and has stolen our hearts forever.

Meet Meeka T Kalani Beeton

Just a tiny ball of fur.

Playing with her big sister, Sugar

Lying right in the middle of the toys and loving tug-0-war.

Meeka came to live with us while we were traveling the country in our RV.  For the first 4 years of her life, she was princess of the road.  (Queen of the road being her big sister, Sugar)

She loves riding in the car too, as long as she is on something so she can see out the window.

Hey look!  Now we have a home where we can run and run and run! 

Look at the fun places I can get into!  I think I saw a mousie in here.

 Hey guys, there really is a mousie in here.  (Look at Goldie’s arm around Sugar!)

Got lots and lots of mud on me trying to find the mousie.

All grown up now.

Keeping an eye out for daddy to come home.

At Christmas

Nighty night!

I’m trying to sleep Mom and you keep taking my picture!

Just give me a window to look out of and I’m a happy girl.

Meeka is one of the best reasons I have joy in my life.  A true meaning of unconditional love.

Happy birthday sweetie!


These Things Make me Smile

First of all, I want to say that I’m what you would call a very happy person.  It hasn’t always been this way.  As a matter of fact, I spent most of my life feeling very unhappy.  Oh I had many reasons why, which don’t need any explanation as I choose to put them in the past.  I no longer have a need to keep retelling my story and hanging on to all the reasons why life was not good.

If you know me now, you know that I have much joy in my life, hence the name of my blog.  I have a fantastic husband, wonderful children, step children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and two of the best pups in the world.  I’m rich in friendship,  and enjoy an abundance of all good things.  Little things bring me joy.

Having said all that…. I was wandering around the house today and looking at some of the things that make my heart smile.

I thought I’d share them with you.

I love my tea pot collection.

I got my teacart at a little antique shop in Missouri.  I love the picture of the tea cups and teapots above.

 

My coffee table in the living room

Here is another little table I love

Here is my guest bathroom.  My daughter in law put this  up on the wall for me –
“Everyday holds the possibility of a miracle.”

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This is in my office/craft room.

My mother made this cute little dress for me when I was 2 years old.  That’s 60 years ago!  On the side is a picture of me wearing it. Don’t you just love the rickrack?  I think it’s so darn cute.

Love my family pictures.  I have so many more I need to get up there.

 This is the guest bedroom.

I love the little shelf with the plate and little girls that match.  So adorable.

No blog post would be complete without….

 Sugar Plum and Meeka

 So these are just some of the things in my house that make me smile. I saved a lot for another time.

Have a most wonderful day!


Crafts, Pups and Stuff

I told you I would show you, so here goes….

My first cake of this class.  It certainly isn’t perfect, but I had a good time.

Ha ha, cute huh!  We decorated cupcakes this past week.  Didn’t do too well on those, but I took them as a treat to our book group last night and everyone loved them.  I kept a few to put on my tablescape.

This coming week we are going to decorate another cake with the flowers that we will be making at home.

Well, enough of that.  However, I must say that it tasted good.  I had a couple of slivers (just to see what it tasted like) then I tossed it out.  I just can’t see eating a whole cake by myself.

On to my next hobby, sewing.  I finally got my spring table runner all together.

I had to lay it on my sofa as I just finished tablescaping my table (which will be in a future post).

 I love the way it all went together.  I can’t wait to do a tablescape using it.

If you remember my Christmas wall hanging (which it too large to hang so will go over the back of my sofa at Christmas time),  I am actually going to put these together at the same time.  I have all my materials to back them and quilt them so that will be at my next sewing lesson.  I think I might be a little better at quilting than I am at cake decorating.

Thanks to all of you who commented on my son’s cellulitis of his leg.  He was able to make it back to California from our house but ended up in the hospital for the next three days – which included his birthday!  Apparently it got much worse.  I have seen a picture of it and my oh my, it looked horrible.  So deep deep red and swollen.  I won’t share it because you really don’t want to see it, trust me.  He is home now and back to work.  He is a teacher and can sit at the front of the class with his leg propped up.

 Last but certainly not least, the latest pictures of my girls.


Sugar Plum, she always sits so nice when I want her to pose, although she wouldn’t smile!

Ha ha, here is little Meeka who decided her picture would be best taken lying down and ignoring me.  Silly girl.

Back to Normal

Just a quick note to say that it’s all back to normal now.

Son Brian, daughter-in-law Linda (along with one of their dogs, Pancho), and son David (along with this three dogs, Luke, Goldie, and Biscuit) came last week and left today.  I was so sad to see them go.

We were so busy having fun, sightseeing, playing games outside on the back patio, playing with the dogs, Goodwill shopping, church on Easter, movies, eating out, eating in, going to the movies,  BBQing and working around the house.  It’s so good when my kids come and help me do things I can’t do by myself.  I got new shelves in the TV room closet!  Now I can stack all my new treasures on them.  I got a book shelf put together for my office, we hung pictures, decorated hubby’s TV room, fixed the sprinklers, hung the rope lights around the patio, and so much more.  What a productive week.

It didn’t end well though because David woke up yesterday morning with a very bad infection in his leg, cellulitis.  He had a very high fever, a pounding headache and a throbbing leg.  He spent the morning in the ER for IV antibiotics and other meds.  He felt good enough to drive home today, but he’s still not well and his leg is still very swollen and red.  Even when our kids are full blown adults with kids of their own, we still worry about them.  I guess that’s what a mother’s job it, right?

So I’ll be back to blogging soon but first, I have to catch up with all the bloggers I follow.  I have missed everyone so much and can’t wait to see what’s new in everyone’s life.  See you soon!

Yellow Necklaces

 Sugar Plum and Meeka wanted me to post that they are very excited that spring is here.

 They have chosen to wear their bright yellow “necklaces” for spring.

Sorry about the pictures.  I’m still learning.  They are very shadowed, but you can see their necklaces just fine.

 

They are outside on the lounge chair by the pool just waiting for summer.

 They also got a new bed.  It’s so puffy!!!

I asked them to pose in such a way that you can see their pretty yellow necklaces.

 Wish I had a bed that puffy.

Happy Spring!

Spring is Here and I am “Injoyinmylife.”

Spring is one of my favorite times of the year.  Rebirth, newness, time to start over and let go of the past.

I made a conscious decision around five years ago that I would set my intention every morning to live in JOY.  It must be working because I am certainly “enjoying my life”  so very much.

I am living the exact life I want to live.  Hubby and I often remark to each other how great life is.  It’s not that “stuff” doesn’t happen, because it does.  It’s also not that we have become complacent because there are still more things we would like to do, more places we would like to see and just plain lots more living to do.  We are blessed to see most of our family very often.  Those that live far away, well, we just don’t see them often enough.   We have so much to look forward to.  I wrote a post awhile back about the new twin great-grandbabies we are awaiting.  Well, so far we have found out that they are identical and most likely girls.  Sometimes I wonder, can it really get any better?  Then it does!

Here are some of the things that Spring holds for me.

1.  Continuing on my  sewing lessons.

I just finally finished sewing together my (for next year) Christmas wall hanging.  I haven’t done the quilting yet, but here it is so far.  Actually it’s so big, it might just be a quilted throw to go over the back of my sofa.

 

Here is the fabric for my spring table runner that I’m also going to quilt.  I’m going to sew it together and then quilt them both at the same time.

I love these fabrics.  It’s going to be so pretty.

2.  Retaking cake decorating classes.

I took cake decorating lessons a little less than a year ago and I didn’t finish the last one.  I was less than impressed with myself.  Here is a picture of my first cake.  PLEASE DON’T LAUGH.

 I’m pretty sure I can do better this time around.  No matter what, I will share my photos.

3.  Volunteering

This past month I started volunteering at church in the office.  It’s been 12 years since I worked in an office.  A lot has changed, but I’m having a great time.  I couldn’t ask for a better bunch of people to work with.

4.  Walking my girls.

 All I have to say is “let’s find you leashes” and both their heads pop up and they are ready to go.

5.   GET READY FOR SUMMER!

Should have already started this one, but I didn’t.  I need to lose the weight I always gain over the holidays.

I have always wanted a pool and we have one now.   It always looks so inviting.  I better start getting ready for it!

Here in Arizona, we are able to use the unheated pool almost 6 months a year.  You can’t beat that!

6.  Blogging

I have found this great community of bloggers.  I follow Doggie blogs, tablescaping blogs, home decorating blogs, craft blogs, food blogs, well, blogs just pretty much about anything.  I have learned so much about others and about myself.  There are some wonderful people out there and I’m so happy to have met you all.

These are just a few of the things I’ll be busy with for the next few months.

I truly believe that Life is ALWAYS Good, no matter what might be showing up at the moment.  Experiences come and go, some we label  “good” and some we label “bad” but  one thing I know is that these experiences are transitory.  Life, with a capital “L” is always Good.  God is Good. I believe people are inherently Good.  I keep a Good attitude.  I stay grateful and I count my blessings.  I look for the Good in every situation.  I usually find it.  Maybe not exactly when I want to, but I do find it.

 Just in case you wonder, the new header is a picture of the front of our home in Missouri.  Spring time in the Ozarks is without a doubt the prettiest I’ve ever seen.  I miss the green, but I have lots and lots of pictures to enjoy.   When I start to get homesick, I pull out the ones where the snow is covering everything and poof! no more homesickness.

Doing a little this, a little that.

I feel like I haven’t blogged in so very long, yet it’s only been about 10 days.  Time does fly when you are busy busy!

I made a quick trip to California to visit some of my grandchildren.  I actually went to southern California and picked up our daughter Karla and granddaughter Katrina.

Here is a cute picture of Katrina showing us her new engagement ring!

We drove up to northern California to visit daughter Jan and granddaughters Jessica, Elena and Ghianna.

Here is a cute picture of Elena, Jessica and Ghianna.

 We talked until our voices were hoarse.  So much fun.  It was just a short “girl” trip that was not long enough.

The day after I came home  I had to take Sugar Plum to have her dental work done.  She has not been feeling well.  Notwithstanding the Valley Fever, she has been nauseated and just lethargic and not wanting to play.  I just blogged about it recently.  When Sugar Plum doesn’t want to play tug o’ war, I know something is wrong.

 

 I had been told on her last check up last summer that we should be thinking about some dental work and certainly a teeth cleaning.  I was putting it off because it’s so expensive.  That is a no no!  I found that out the hard way.   What originally was going to take a little over an hour ended up taking about four hours.  Also, what was supposed to cost $375 came to just a hair under $900!  She had to have six teeth pulled, two of which had broken off and the gums had healed over.  The roots had to be extracted and they were so tiny and very brittle.  They kept breaking and were very hard to get out.  She had already lost eight other teeth, so with the six that were pulled I was afraid that she would not be able to eat again!  Who knew that dogs have 40 teeth!  Well, she had a rough time, but I’m happy to say that she is feeling much better today.

So now on to this week.  Believe it or not, we are heading off for another quick trip to California on Friday.  Our granddaughter, Summer is in her school play, Cats.  We can’t miss that.  So I’ll be sure to let you know how that goes.  We will only be gone a few days.

I have another sewing lesson tomorrow.  I will be posting pictures of my project once I get it fixed.  If you remember, I’m making a Christmas wall hanging.  I sewed all my squares and triangles together and we should be putting it together and quilting it tomorrow.  BUT, I somehow sewed in three  triangles backwards or upside down or sideways or something, because they are wrong.  I’m pretty sure I’ll be spending most of my lessons fixing my mistakes.  Oh well, I bet I won’t make that mistake again.

I hope you all have a very blessed week.

Some Things are Better in Pairs

For instance –

Candlesticks

How about double waterfalls in Washington State

and in Hawaii

 How about cute little kittens

 Maybe two little girls fishing

 Maybe double flower baskets at Banff Springs Hotel

  How about a pair of adorable shih tzus

Even two identical Goofy alarm clocks

Two spires on a church in Montana

 Or in Quebec Canada

Or even two adorable boxer granddogs

Or….. how about the very best pair of all

DRUM ROLL PLEASE!


I know it’s not too clear

But yes, IT’S TWIN GREAT GRANDBABIES!

and they are coming my way in September.