Dream Banner

I saw this idea in a shop a few months ago. Instead of just buying the thing of beauty, I said to myself, "I can make that!" I'm sure I'm not the only one that says that to herself while shopping!

Of course, I can make a lot of things, but I can't always make time.

For months, a sticky note with a scribbled sketch of the banner floated around my craft desk. Yes, it was there so long that the sticky note lost its sticky.

But here at last, is the banner! And, I do believe it is my first ever banner. Not as pretty as the one I saw (which was a lot pinker than mine with better letters and more texture!), but I am glad I tried it. To my surprise, as soon as I had put it up, I had some little admirers, who thought that the "Dream" banner was beautiful, and it made them very happy!

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There is a fellow who works at our local dollar store, and he always asks the customers, "what is your good news today?" He says he likes to make people think about the positive in their lives. Of course, the Gospel is a good answer!
Maybe we all should be in the habit of thinking about what the good of the day has been, instead of dwelling on all the disappointments. I was in that store tonight to pick something up, and I thought I'd better have something ready for when the fellow asks his question. So the good news for today is,

that we are all able to do beautiful things to make people happy. 

The New England Fireside

A Cottage Scene,...
Edward Thompson...
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Excerpt from A New England Girlhood  by Lucy Larcom. 

Primitive ways of doing things had not wholly ceased during my childhood; they were kept up in these old towns longer than elsewhere. We used tallow candles and oil lamps, and sat by open fireplaces. There was always a tinder-box in some safe corner or other, and fire was kindled by striking flint and steel upon the tinder. What magic it seemed to me, when I was first allowed to strike that wonderful spark, and light the kitchen fire!

The fireplace was deep, and there was a " settle" in the chimney corner, where three of us youngest girls could sit together and toast our toes on the andirons (two Continental soldiers in full uniform, marching one after the other), while we looked up the chimney into a square of blue sky, and sometimes caught a snow-flake on our foreheads; or sometimes smirched our clean aprons (high-necked and long-sleeved ones, known as " tiers ") against the swinging crane with its sooty pot-hooks and trammels.

Maine - Interior...

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The coffee-pot was set for breakfast over hot coals, on a three-legged bit of iron called a "trivet." Potatoes were roasted in the ashes, and the Thanksgiving turkey in a "tin-kitchen," the business of turning the spit being usually delegated to some of us small folk, who were only too willing to burn our faces in honor of the annual festival.

There were brick ovens in the chimney corner, where the great bakings were done; but there was also an iron article called a " Dutch oven," in which delicious bread could be baked over the coals at short notice. And there never was anything that tasted better than my mother's "firecake,"— a short-cake spread on a smooth piece of board, and set up with a flat-iron before the blaze, browned on one side, and then turned over to be browned on the other. (It required some sleight of hand to do that.) If I could only be allowed to blow the bellows — the very old people called them "belluses " — when the fire began to get low, I was a happy girl.

The Three...
Frederick Daniel...
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Cooking-stoves were coming into fashion, but they were clumsy affairs, and our elders thought that no cooking could be quite so nice as that which was done by an open fire. We younger ones reveled in the warm, beautiful glow, that we look back to as to a remembered sunset. There is no such home-splendor now.

When supper was finished, and the tea-kettle was pushed back on the crane, and the backlog had been reduced to a heap of fiery embers, then was the time for listening to sailor yarns and ghost and witch legends. The wonder seems somehow to have faded out of those tales of old since the gleam of red-hot coals died away from the hearthstone. The shutting up of the great fireplaces and the introduction of stoves marks an era; the abdication of shaggy Romance and the enthronement of elegant Commonplace — sometimes, alas! the opposite of elegant — at the New England fireside.

Afternoon...
Evert Pieters
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Have we indeed a fireside any longer in the old sense? It hardly seems as if the young people of to-day can really understand the poetry of English domestic life, reading it, as they must, by a reflected illumination from the past. What would the "Cotter's Saturday Night" have been, if Burns had written it by the opaque heat of a stove instead of at his

"Wee bit ingle blinkiu' bonnilie?'

By the Hearth,...

Philip Eustace...

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Ornaments or Favors

Dear me, I meant to post this at Christmas time! These ornaments were made in the Cuttlebug using Nestabilities cutting dies. The idea can be used to make decorations for a Christmas tree, though I made these as tea party favors for an Autumn tea last year. 

The cutting dies come in graduated sizes. I used the Die Cuts With a View "Mariposa" Matstack, and some sparkle paper, and cut different sizes of my shape out.

Then I used mounting tape to put them together.
With the convenience of pre-printed in color, pre-glittered and embossed papers, and stickers, these can be whipped up fast! 

For the one on the right, I used a tea-cup sticker that had the same Autumn-y colors in it. On a couple I cut out smaller butterflies and mounted them on the last layer. I didn't put ribbon through them, though for hanging it would be a nice touch. These were laid by each tea setting, to add an extra decoration to the table.
 For ornaments that might be displayed on a tree, you can make these double-sided (The top one in the photo is actually double-sided, I didn't have a picture of the other side, sorry!). Done in pastels, these oval ornaments could be pretty on an Easter tree or as favors for an Easter tea! Hmm... maybe I should get out the hearts and see what I can do for Valentine's day...

Not Missing Out

I hope my readers had a Very Merry Christmas! And now New Year's Eve is coming! I have been enjoying all kinds of tasty treats-- and drinks. With all the delicious, sweet, and sparkly juices on the market, I wonder why people think they have to have alcohol to make an occasion special. With good company, good conversation, and some delicious food, one cannot fail to have a good time-- no drunkenness required. 

It disturbs me to see Christians partaking of alcohol socially, just because they say they can, when it is not in the least bit necessary. We live in the 21st century-- there are so many more beverages to choose from. Why would a Christian want to dump such stuff down their throat and dull their brain, when they could keep their mind extra sharp so they can enjoy and edify others? If you take one drink of that junk, you are one drink drunk. Best not to get in the habit of taking any.

If you feel that you are missing out, that is no excuse. One can find fancy glasses to serve juice in to make the dinner table sparkle; and any juice is delicious well chilled. A plus of keeping your table sober is that the whole family can be present at a party where no alcohol is served. Children can benefit from seeing that adults can have a good time in their right mind, and that glasses of juice, pop, or mugs of cocoa are for keeping your throat from going hoarse when you are having so much fun talking with one another. Life can be enjoyed without spirits or substances.

If certain kinds of beverages are kept for special occasions, they will be special to your family. Sparkling grape juices and apple juices are abundant at holiday times, and fancy cocoas will do as well. If your family does not regularly drink soda pop, that can be a treat in a fancy glass over ice.

If you feel like you need to serve something different and rare, why not serve guests ultra-fresh juices? When did you last enjoy the sweetness of fresh squeezed and clarified orange juice (I mean the kind you make yourself)? Or gourmet juices and waters from the fancy food markets? I knew a fellow who was taken to a fancy restaurant as a company trip. While everyone else from the office was busy getting drunk, he ordered a tall glass of very, very expensive and gourmet fresh-squeezed orange juice (probably hand-squeezed by some famous international chef). He thought he had the best drink of anyone there!

Those with a craze for coffee can find fancy coffees and coffee makers, and that brew is a strong enough one for anybody.

But let's not forget tea!

If you are going to stay up to see the New Year in, you need a good strong cup of tea. Drinking from a thin bone china teacup, exquisitely painted, which contains perfectly brewed tea (made with boiling water), served by a gracious hostess in her right mind (not drunken) is a superb pleasure in life.

And remember--Tea cheers and invigorates, but does not inebriate.

Perhaps, if people feel the need to serve or take alcohol at parties and special occasions, they need to examine the company they are keeping. If you think you need a drink to relax, then maybe your company is too stressful. If you think you can't have a good time with your friends unless you are all drinking together, or if the guests are so dull or insipid that you have to get drunk in order to talk to them, enjoy them, or endure them, you need to find new friends. 

Update 2023: some good advice from others. 

https://www.amymyersmd.com/article/benefits-of-a-sober-curious-lifestyle (Advice from an MD. Many other articles on the site will enlighten you as to what alcohol does to you)

The graphic looks kinda -- well anyway the advice in this video is good: https://youtu.be/xxzjDAPBIOc