New tidings!

A new year is always a hope of new tidings, opportunities, achievements, conquests, and of course prosperity.   It is a mark of things done, completed, a new look on new goals, a repaging on old ones, new priorities...
It is of course a chance to stop, ponder, evaluate, regroup, breath in, and plunge in head first on new endeavors!  Isn't it wonderful that we can do just that at the brink of a new year!
But, as it is always, each year will bring it's share of new challenges, obstacles to overcome, may it be in the realms of personal growth or of real and tangible things such as physical challenges of all sorts.

Be it as it may, we are certain it will bring changes!  Changes are good!  Some  don't enjoy them as much, it takes us away from our comfort zone and they can even bring certain anxiety ... we always fear what we don't know or understand...it's a human thing... our challenge?  to overcome it, embrace it, even enjoy it!  It is what this life is made of....changes!  Cycles begin, cycles end, and with that we acquire experience, hopefully some wisdom, new knowledge, and most certainly more understanding of this life and what we are about.
In my experience, now of some years lived, it brings also serenity, even in turmoil for I know that all things pass, good things  and bad things!  So I have also come to understand that we are to live and enjoy NOW, prepare the way for things to better tomorrow, but yet it is in the now that we live, our choices, our thoughts, our actions are always in the now, in the moment...whatever we choose to do now will alter the choices for tomorrow, will lead us into new tomorrows!

So I am hoping to all of you that this new year of 2011 will be a mark in every NOW that you choose to live and that the choices you make will take you into better tomorrows, full of new opportunities!
That the light of Christ may guide in the making of much good, that it may be the beam when into darkness and despair, the guiding light into the storm, and that it will a burst of sunlight in happiness and joy!  Let us all rejoice in peace and harmony, in the knowledge that all good things come from Him who watches over all of us and is there cheering us on!

A very prosperous New Year to All ... may 2011 be that year when we understand that it is better to add and make together things, that is better to have peace and harmony in the midst of war and dissention!!
That if we all do just a little share of good this world will be just a little better for all of us.

Happy 2011

new magazine!!

I love love all the possibilities I see in this magazine I linked from another blog!!


go see!!     http://issuu.com/byfryd/docs/1._by_fryd

you can see it in full image... beautiful!!! just so!

happy crochet

I have been into crochet a lot lately and even trying out some more in knitting; I love the colors of the skeins when they are together and imagining all the possibilities and how wonderful things can be created... I just love colors... and since my house has been in total chaos because the work in it... these activities feel very attractive!  So blogging round today I found this lovely blog... http://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/crochet/page/6/... and she is buoyant and happy, just a lovely person...I also love the British way, lovely, gorgeous, lively and peculiar way of the English language.  The English countryside, the country villages, lovely fashion ... anywho... I just love the English way...

Her crochet is lively and the buoyant colors make it just happy!!!  I like happy!!  makes you feel skippity...skippy...

and here is a simple tutto on a small granny sqr

http://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/summer-garden-granny-square.html

little girl's dress

Christmas musings!!

So here we are... another year that has gone by, Christmas festivities at our door, and celebrations usually are in order!  unless of course you still construction going on when they should have been finished a month ago!  So......that means no celebration for us as far as dinner and friends over and such!
We have much to celebrate for we are thankful for what it really means!

So all I had planned for this Christmas will be postponed for next year's season; but I have long learned to not feel upset, we propose the Lord disposes!  some things are meant to be others not!

So my reflection now is exactly that, to be able to see the difference, things we can control and things we just can't!  things we need to learn and go through, and things we are to be tried with, the purpose? to learn to overcome our selfish desires and be more giving and patient with others...just as we expect them to be with us forgiving our trespasses!
Such a hard lesson to learn at times!  but we can do it... it might take time, but we can do it!
And this has been a great year of learning and learning what forgiving really means, what love really means... we don't understand that until we are put to the test...when you have been hurt to the very core!
When the hurting comes from people you dearly love and dearly thought would not be the one to ever hurt you!  unconditional love, like the one we are now celebrating!  like the one we received from Jesus Christ who was born so that we could be saved, who paid for our shortcomings with his atoning sacrifice!

So this is much to be celebrated and thankful for!

Merry Christmas


May the gifts of heaven befall all of you as you endeavor to choose the right!

Where Women Create

This is a wealth of creative people in all categories!

If you haven't been there yet... what a source of inspiration!!
Isn't it just awesome how great the possibilities are just because we are all unique and have such great potential for doing just about anything! It is interesting to me how we all have different tastes and styles and our minds can go off on all kinds of ideas and creations, and best of all, how interesting life can be just because of this diversity!

How boring it would be if we all liked red...what would be of the blue, and the yellow, and the green?


Where Women Create

The Crafty Crow

The coolest ideas for recycling materials and working with little ones on some crafts!



The Crafty Crow

devoir de vacances - bleu hortensia

I have just find this magnific work.... mom and children working together to create such a beautiful memory!

devoir de vacances - bleu hortensia

Home ideas, decorating, interiors, design, DIY projects, recipes and galleries - Homelife

Just found this magazine!! so full of ideas!!

Home ideas, decorating, interiors, design, DIY projects, recipes and galleries - Homelife

Tis the Season to Be Jolly

A very Merry Christmas

In the Christian world, This is the Season to celebrate

the birth of Jesus Chris

t, our Savior and Redeemer!

For those of you who do not join us in this celebration for religious reasons, I would like to still invite you to be a part and  join in to share  the joy of peace and brotherhood.

Let us all just celebrate that we are born equal on this earth

to face and overcome the same challenges.

Let us be happy and share in the things we are alike and lay aside

cultural, regional, language and social differences and just be happy for being.Let us share in love and friendship!

A  very Merry Christmas to all !!! and a wonderful New Year !!

It is typical to offer le muget as a wish for du bonheur... wishes of happiness and good luck! May the blessings of heaven be upon you all ... this is my wish to all at this season !

Contemporary Design, Pictures, Remodeling, Decor and Ideas

This is a great place to visit for those who like home decor and ideas!! It's as if you bought a whole of magazines and then you clip the ones you want to save for reference ...you make your own book of ideas...and there are so many great ideas... for all tastes and shapes!!


Contemporary Design, Pictures, Remodeling, Decor and Ideas

handmade in Brazil

In this post of her blog you will see the great colors of the Brazilian spirit as this Argentinian who lives in Quatar, middle east, but was visiting Brasil... this is what we can call worldwide....from one extreme to another...and beautiful creative ideas; plus the beautiful porcelain exposition in Rio!
I don't have rights to post a photo, but you can visit and see the colorful and wonderful creations!

El blog de Georgina

Moda Bake Shop: Log Cabin Baby Blocks

And here is the tutorial for the block!

Moda Bake Shop: Log Cabin Baby Blocks

SarahB_logcabin_title.jpg (JPEG Image, 600x600 pixels) - Scaled (97%)

The cutest idea for a baby toy, possibilities are endless!

SarahB_logcabin_title.jpg (JPEG Image, 600x600 pixels) - Scaled (97%)

Ponto grilh�o = ≠ Palestrina stitch? (1) � agulhas da m�ri

When I was in high school in Brazil ... 6th grade and on ... we used to have home economics and everything to do with being, or rather, preparing for being a mother and a housewife. This was a class I particularly liked since I enjoyed working my hands doing crafts and learning how to master the embroidery stitches and all other such abilities. We worked throughout the year on preparing a sampler which would then I final grade. One stitch that really got to me, and I can't tell you why because I don't know why, it the palestrina stitch, which I learned as the French knot, which I see today is not the same French knot most embroiderers know... It's a stitch most don't use, but I particularly like because it gives such a pretty effect on the design!
I have just found this very good tutorial and graph that show the stitch and it's possible variations really well.
So if you wanted to learn and use a new stitch here it is!

Ponto grilh�o = ≠ Palestrina stitch? (1) � agulhas da m�ri

RENOVA - Ecologia & Arte

Green is the word of the day... all is about recycling and renovating used items, being creative, reusing resources, rethinking ideas and concepts!


This is something I am trying to do even because financial resources are scarce ! so I try to recycle fabrics, clothes, construction materials and so forth!


Browsing through the blogs today I found this blog, a Brazilian blog on recycling with very interesting ideas!
A bed made of PET bottles, I had seen houses built with it too... a man in the northeast of Brazil who lived near the beach and didn't have money to build a traditional house, with bricks and cement, or similar materials, decided to use PET bottles... he filled the bottles with sand from the beach and used cement as you would with bricks... the whole house was built like that... walls were thick and strong, insulated...so it wasn't hot in the house...near the beach where he had a stand to sell his food to tourists... how cool is that!? also saw a house in the Amazon area where floods are a constant when the rivers fill up with the rain... the house was a float made of PET bottles.... a hotel, with individual cabins built on PET bottles so tourists could come and experience life on the river...fish from the porch or just relax and enjoy the flow of the river!


Well... this blog is here with some interesting ideas, ideas to work with children and instill the idea of respecting our planet and natural resources!


Have fun making a shopping bag !


RENOVA - Ecologia & Arte

Ornamental Mandala

I feel totally lost with this addition, remodeling, renovation...or whatever it is that's happening to my house! What was supposed to be a 3 weeks job has already turned into 3 months... and I can see spending Christmas in this mess, no one deserves this!

It has drained me of all the energy and enthusiasm for all my projects have had to be put on hold, and haven't progressed much since all of this, even blogging hasn't been possible....I can't think or feel inspired with all this dust and mess around!

Also this probably will be the saddest Christmas ever...and so I love this season, for what it represents to the Christian world and for the traditions and memories of family gatherings. It is a very sad thing when there is a riff in a family, even more so when that it happens in the bosom of your own family and that's what has just happened for us! A much loved son who has just gotten married, and who after such an event decided that his own family is not good enough and decides to cut himself off it...his family now is his new wife and all else that came before is non-existent. Needless to say that I am broken heart... a son who was always loved and cherished and for whom many sacrifices were made and many dreams put aside!
So what is left for me to do is to hope and pray that maybe, just maybe, he will come around... the feeling I am left with is of a great loss similar to that of mourning someone's death!
So indeed it will be a very sad Christmas.

But on lighter note, for I refuse to well in self pity and sorrow, I have taken up crocheting quite a lot, since it is something I can just sit and do...regardless of the mess around!

Besides the fact that crochet items are high in fashion now, and it lends itself to so many projects and ideas, it doesn't require any special tools or space to be worked plus it requires little investment...
And what a surprise, it has been great therapy, it soothes me and takes my mind of this ugly mess, and I find myself enjoying it quite a lot (haven't done much with it in years)... need to take some pictures to post my projects, but in the meantime I found this tutorial on a pattern I have been seeing a lot lately and it is just beautiful...it has great effect with the changes in color.... so here is a link for the tutorial...

I think that those of you who like this craft will... Enjoy it!

“Ornamental” Pot Holders! | Crochet with Raymond

Ruffled� | Casual City Hall Handmade Pastel Oregon Fall Wedding

Ruffled� | Casual City Hall Handmade Pastel Oregon Fall Wedding

Ruffled� | A wedding blog for vintage, indie and DIY brides

With wedding plans in order,  my future daughter shared this link... what a blessing to be a part of the planning and to have the visual of life in motion...

This blog has lots and lots ideas for a country, outside, nature lovers wedding planning....so many it actually gets to be a tough one...to decide on one things, to narrow down possibilities, and yet how great it is to be able to choose and decide!

Go in for a visit and enjoy!

PS... still slow as a snail in my building renovation...gosh!!! hate to think that I will be in this mess for Christmas!  can't do a thing...it is dirty and dusty ....


Ruffled� | A wedding blog for vintage, indie and DIY brides

cute little gifts

This is a place for cute inexpensive ideas for Christmas gits made by you...

flowers

DIY Bodega Flowers with Blossom & Branch � 100 Layer Cake

DIY Bodega Flowers with Blossom & Branch � 100 Layer Cake

a nice tuto on flower arrangement!

DIY Bodega Flowers with Blossom & Branch � 100 Layer Cake

Tis the Season to Be Jolly

So we are in December again, wow!! Where did time went to!?  Here we are at another season to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, for those of us who are Christians.
This has always been my favorite time of the year!... decorating and preparing for the times we spend in family, when most make an effort to be together!

Family is what comes to my mind, memories of special times spent together! of loving fun and activity, of comings and goings, each involved in being family. Taking care of one another, of supporting one another!
Some get lost along the way though, family becomes a burden or something not to bother with! Well such is with lots of families...it really saddens me, people suffer and yet do not give in or give out!!
The message is clear, we are to love one another, for better and for worse, we are to be there for each other!

After so many years Christmas always renews in me the desire to be better than I was last year! To work on being an updated person, more loving, forgiving, humble, accepting!

As we prepare for the grand opportunity let's rejoice in Him !

On another note my remodeling is going really slow....it was supposed to be done by now... it's frustrating my plans for Christmas and a bazaar I was planing on!  My house is a MESS, can't keep it clean with the men working here everyday, and now to complicate things worse, it's rainy reason...oh well...!!have to live with live with it!!
I haven't had time to blog much either, and so many of you doing so many beautiful things!

But helping with my future daughter in law wedding plans is fun...we are talking of dresses and things and I found a beautiful blog on planning for a wedding,,, Jane Austen like..beautiful I love the fashion of those days, and the flowing of soft fabrics and ribbons and little details!...so is your planning on something like that this is a place to be inspired by and for many great ideas!

http://www.100layercake.com/blog/archives/4857

their recent post is making a flower bouquet or arrangement... good for a wedding of for any festivity... Christmas for example !