Winner of the Valentine Drawing

Thanks to all who entered the Valentine drawing....the winner is....Jill!  Congrats to you.  Hope you enjoy the sweet Valentines.

Tea Time

To say I am a tea person is an understatement.  I don't know if I could live without the stuff.  My favorite?  Straight green.  Not the kind with flowery stuff added.  Why tea?  It's not just about the taste...or the fact that it's hot and soothing.  It's not just that it relaxes me, or that it's super healthy and full of antioxidants.  No, there's something about what it does to my frame of mind. 

It keeps me centered on Christ, allowing me time throughout the day to pray and focus.  Sometimes I have more time to sit and really focus, pray, read the Bible and journal...like in the morning.  But there are times throughout the day, in between my schedule that I pause, sip and focus on Christ.  It's a way to tangibly keep my center.

My friends know what a big part of my life tea is.  In fact, a dear friend just gifted me this giant mug which I immediately started using.  The same day, I purchased this box of 100 tea bags, which will last me about 2 weeks.  I use it to supplement my loose Gunpowder Green tea (the best), that is just to expensive to sip exclusively with the amount I consume.

Daisy, from Downton Abbey

The British have it figured out.  Tea Time should be on every one's schedule.  And it's the perfect beverage to have when opening up with a friend, new or old.  There's something about it that removes walls.  They are lost in the warmth of the liquid.  Heart to heart sharing pours out as the tea is taken in.  This is why tea is so often a part of my social life.  Meeting at Starbucks, or having it in our homes...it lends itself to true conversation.

Found these darling "Bee Green" mugs at Goodwill.  Couldn't pass them up since I'm "green" and love green tea!

Yes, taking tea is a permanent and important part of my life.  If I had to choose between tea and chocolate...I'd be hard-pressed to choose.  But, who needs to choose!  Tea and chocolate is the perfect combination.  Time to finish up....and have a cup of tea!

Be My Valentine

Well, the sickness hit me and it hit me hard!  When I wrote about the cleanse and said day three not feeling well...it was some kind of fluish thing!  I was planning on documenting the rest of the cleanse but that went out the window.  I needed the organic meatballs for comfort food!  Anyway, I'm still not 100%...but alot has been going on and I couldn't slow down to get well last week (I wouldn't recommend that).  But, I did take photos of my Vintage Valentine decor so thought I'd post the shots along with some "Valentine" thoughts.



Found this little gem at Michael's

 

 

Make old fashioned paper heart and dolie Valentines!  There fun and easy to do.

A heart dangling from a branch in an old picnic case

"Oh the miraculous energy that flows between two people who care enough...to take the risks of ...responding with the whole heart." - Alex Noble

Red and white vintage objects

"We need love's tender lessons taught as only weakness can; God hath His small interpreters; the child must teach the man.  -John Greenleaf Whittier

The Necco Candy Co. sells eight billion of it's pastel-colored, slogan-bearing Conversation Hearts each year.


A Sign on top of my favorite vintage Pyrex piece, the red Hostess with the lid!

Some vintage books, a Valentine hankie from a sweet little thrift in Chelan, and a sweater heart from Micheal's Christmas clearance .50 cents





Verona, Italy, where Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is set, receives nearly 1,000 valentines addressed to Juliet every February.



 

"On our own, we do not have the ability to love like God does.  But when we tap into His love, it makes our small amount of love more abundant and free."  - Nicole Johnson (Encounters with God)

"What the world really needs is more love and less paperwork."  - Peral Bailey

This 1960 Cake Topper makes an appearance on Valentine's Day and our Anniversary.  I found it at a barn sale for 25 cents years ago.  It was one of my first vintage finds.  Also, the Susan Branch book was thrifted and when I got it home, I realized it was a signed copy!


"Where we love is home, Home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts."  Oliver Wendell Holmes



A Thrifted Candy Tin

"Life changes dramatically when romance comes into our lives.  Christianity changes dramatically when we discover that it, too, is a great romance.  That God yearns to share a life of beauty, intimacy, and adventure with us. " John and Stasi Eldridge "Captivating"

A thermos I decorated with at Christmas becomes a Valentine's decoration with a little sign added to it.



Make Valentine's Day Fun

1) Watch a romantic movie
2) Give someone who doesn't expect it a box of chocolates
3) Put notes and conversation hearts in a kid's lunch
4) Make heart shaped brownies
5) Write a love poem to your Honey
6) EAT CHOCOLATE
7) Wear red
8) Have a "love" Bible verse for the day
9) Buy silly kid Valentine's and hand them out to friends
10) Tell your Mom you love her



I found this wedding topper at a yard sale and put it on a cake plate with a lovely jar candle made for me by a dear friend.

"It's no trick loving somebody at their best.  Love is loving them at their worst"  Tom Stoppard, "The Real Thing"

 

Renewing the Body

So I've done some New Year's posts on the mind and spirit...how about the body?  After all they all work together.  I started a week long cleanse and I'm on day three.  Too much holiday food and some gluten poisoning (I hate this, but it does happen occasionally) made it a no brainer for me.  On a cleanse of any length the first day is the hardest, the second day you feel great...the third day you feel alilttle yucko (the toxins are coming out).  Yes, I've got a bit of a headache and feel sluggish, but I'm pushing through.

A cleanse is about health not weight loss, although that is a benefit.  I just heard a great speaker today at MOPS who talked about women who are so overly focused on size and image that they obsess about what they eat.  This is not about that.  This is getting your body cleaned out and doing without things like sugar, dairy, eggs and red meat for a TIME.  And then adding healthy treats and extras back in, with moderation of course.

So here's what I've been eating if you are interested in trying something like it.  And along with the items I took out of my diet for awhile, I am ALWAYS free of gluten and processed foods/chemicals.  That doesn't mean I don't eat chocolate.  I couldn't live without my organic chocolate...especially Green And Blacks.

Menu:

Sunday

Breakfast: Plain waffle and fruit
Lunch: Brown Rice Tortilla with lettuce tomato and turkey
Snack: Apple
Dinner: Santa Fe Chicken (chicken, black beans, chilies, spices...over rice)

Monday:

Breakfast:  Homemade pancake plain
Lunch: Hummus and crackers with fruit
Dinner:  Quinoa with lettuce tomato and turkey
Snack: Fruit and Snap Pea chips

Tuesday:

Breakfast:  GF Oatmeal with pears and a Kay's bar
Lunch:  Amy's soup, crackers
Dinner: left over Santa Fe

These are a favorite all the time...but I leave the chocolate chips off them when I cleanse

 

These are the best crackers and you can get them at Costco

 

 

 

I've loved these for along time and just discovered that Costco is carrying them

 

 

 

 

Can't get enough Quinoa

 

Amy's Vegetable soup is so good on a winter day

 

New discovery...these are so good, and feel like you are eating a candy bar

 

Vintage Valentine's and Grandmas Tea Towels

These are two of my greatest loves in the vintage world.  Valentine's and Tea Towels.  Thought I'd get you all in the Valentine mood (my favorite holiday!  More Valentine blogs to come) and add alittle whimsy with my Grandma Iris's vintage pattern tea towels.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my sweet 92 year old grandma and her wonderful hand work.  Lately she's really been cranking them out. 

"I won't be here much longer...gotta stock you up!"  she says.

While I'm sharing...I decided to do a little give away.  If you subscribe/become a member of my blog and leave a comment, you will be entered once.  If you also make your way to Facebook and look up Vintage Values, Modern Times (my vintage Facebook page) and join that group, I will enter your name again!  What will you win?  A set of 5 vintage Valentine's from the 50's !  Enter by January 25th.

OK, here's the Vintage goodness:

"Anthropomorphic" is the official name for the inanimate objects with faces...my favorite type of Valentine.

 

 

This one is special because I found it in my Grandma Margaret's scrapbook.  I never knew her, she died when I was 2...but I have this Valentine that was hers!

 

 

 

 

 

Here's the bulletin board full of them.

 

Grandma's towels 

 

 

 

 

 

The Garden of my Mind

Thoughts.  Sometimes they pass over our minds.  Sometimes they're ours.  Sometimes they are planted by darkness.  Sometimes...they are God's voice, trying to reach us through the distractions.  Such little things.  Not visible.  Often meaningless.   When they are whispered from darkness...untrue.

It's amazing that our whole life can be determined by what we do with these little fleeting, though sometimes debilitating tufts of information.

I've been feeling anxious and down.  The root?  My thoughts.  The darkness has been delivering some doosies lately.  Instead of ignoring them or replacing them with truth...I've rested there.  The completely wrong thing to do.  I've been tired, gotten some gluten, felt hormonal, been discouraged, focused to much on the hard stuff... all things that give the enemy of God a good chance of affecting me with lies, fear, and confusion.  I let my guard down.  I gave way to the lazy vacation days where it was hard to find alone time to focus on Christ and His truth.  POW!  Without even knowing it, my thoughts  became undisciplined and anxiety and heaviness of heart crept in.

I've taken some time today to let God's love pour into my soul.  Through prayer, reading the Bible, and realigning my mind with Truth.

I've written Philippians 4:8 on a note card and stuck it on the dryer in the laundry room...the place I'm most likely to see it, OFTEN.

"Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy - mediate on these things."

Tending thoughts are like caring for a garden.  They must be planted in good soil, rich in nutrients.  They must be watered with truth to stay healthy.  And they must be weeded often to remove those that are untrue, fearful and confusing.  I'm focusing on that tending again.  It takes time.  It takes discipline.  And it takes laying everything down and letting Christ lead me on in the truth of who I am in Him.

Living In Color

This time of year, once the holidays have passed, I always get a little blue.  The weather is dreary, and the days seem to stretch out before me in an endless blah.    I've found that kicking things up a notch...living in color really helps.  Brightening up my world with literal color, and with good and true things make all the difference.  Here are a few ways I beat the blues, living in color.

Yes, I own black and grey like everyone else...but sometimes I gotta pull out the color!

 

Colorful food...healthy and refreshing.  In fact, I'm doing another little cleanse after the holiday carbs.

A little vintage Pyrex goes along way in brightening things up

Posting encouraging verses around the house...this one is on the chalkboard in the dining room

A new book given to me by a sweet mom at MOPS.  It's refreshing to the soul.

 

The Rosemary is blooming on the porch in spite of the cold.  I go out there just to visit it and smell it.  Wanna feel perked up?, smell Rosemary.  Weird?  Maybe.  But I love it.

  

The Sun shined Jan 1-3.  I took advantage of every moment.  It's healing to the soul.  I walked every day it shined instead of exercising inside.

 

I moved my utility cart inside and made a sunny corner.

 

 

I decorated the kitchen with lots of color.  Red...it's not just for Christmas

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I made the "Phone corner" more inviting.  A sweet friend gifted me the vintage calendar that makes me smile.