Author Archives: Ellen

Reflections

I’m joining Weekend Reflections with these photos I took along Lake Washington in Washington State.

This past Tuesday I met up with my Senior group to walk the Burke Gilman Trail along Lake Washington. It was a beautiful sunny morning. We spotted two eagles that I’ll post later.

I’m headed into a busier than usual weekend with a birthday dinner for our son and big game. If you don’t know yet the whole state of Washington is rallying around the Seattle Seahawks as they play the Greenbay Packers on Sunday. You can’t go anywhere in this state without spotting someone sporting their Seahawks gear. Our 8 A.M. church service on Sunday will be fuller than usual so people can be home in time to prepare for the game. I’m more of a soccer fan than a football fan but I’ll join in the fun and “root root root for the home team”.

Pulls and Knobs

February 006-001

Floors installed 008-001

These first few photos are before shots of our pulls and knobs. I had to look in my archives to find the before photos. I was a bad blogger and I forgot to take close ups of the before shots. These pulls were nice and functional but they had too much detail on the surface that allowed crumbs and flying flour and sugar to gather in the nooks and crannies.

We decided to go with these cup pulls and knobs to match the metal on the pulls. No more nooks and crannies for food to get stuck in…

Our first project of the New Year is complete. Do you have any projects you are going to tackle this year?

California Signs

Dear and I lived in California from 2006 until 2010. These are some signs from our day and weekend trips while living there.

This was our go to Mexican restaurant in Camarillo, California.

Between Santa Barbara and Santa Ynez we stopped at the Cold Spring Tavern for breakfast. I got a kick out this sign.

I saw this sign in San Francisco.

This sign was from Willow and my weekly walks in her neighborhood.

Most Saturday mornings we’d arrive at this beach and have our beach walk. We miss our walks here.

I’m linking up to Signs Signs hosted by Lesley.

All of our children were born in California and this week we will be celebrating our oldest with a dinner together on Saturday. Our second born son will be celebrating this week with his fiance who has a birthday this week, too, in Eastern Washington. Our January is full. I’ll be traveling next week to California to celebrate our niece Hope’s 7th birthday and one of my brother’s birthdays. I’ll share photos from all the fun times we manage to enjoy! Is January full or quiet for you?

Appetizers!

A is for Appetizers!

We love food at this old house and sometimes our meals out are all about the appetizers. Bruschetta is something we like to order and it’s interesting to try all the different styles of it. We also like flat breads with tasty toppings. The top right photo is a favorite of ours, fried Polenta with a creamy mushroom sauce from Nell Thorn Restaurant in La Conner, Washington. The top left photo is from Eureka at University Village in Seattle. Those are Oso Buco Riblets and their take on Bruschetta. The bottom left photo are 4 plates of appetizers from Canlis in Seattle, Washington. The Flat Bread on the bottom right is from Seasons 52 at South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, California.

Join in with ABC Wednesday in this new year. We are at the beginning of the alphabet again and our thanks go out to Denise Nesbitt the originator of the meme and to her team of bloggers that help keep the meme going.

Barn Collective ~ Pole Barn Wedding

I’m going outside the box this week with the Barn I’m posting for Barn Collective. Our nephew got married under a pole barn in Nuevo, California and it was a wonderful rustic setting that they made cozy using lots of hay, burlap, lights and candles. There are two pole barns side by side and one was used for the ceremony and the other was used for the reception and dancing.

One of my nieces before the wedding begins.

My nephew (the groom) built all the benches with help from my brothers and his friends.

Two of our kids with their cousins.

The groom, our nephew Levi with my brother Steve (Levi’s father) in the background. Steve is a pastor and he performed the wedding ceremony.

The bride and groom.

The flower girls and ring bearer. The flower girls dropped bird feathers along the burlap runner.

My parents with all but 5 of their grandchildren along with 2 great grandchildren.

To see more Barns visit Amy at Rose Street Reflections for Barn Collective #14

InSPIREd Sunday ~Port Townsend

Trinity United Methodist Church in Port Townsend, Washington. You can read about it’s history here.

St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Port Townsend, Washington. The history and heritage of the church can be read here.  Click on InSPIREd Sunday to see more posts from around the world. Thank you Beth and Sally!

These photos were taken in June of 2011. Dear and I took a ferry/road trip over to the Kitsap Peninsula, across the Hood Canal Bridge and onto the historic city of Port Townsend. We enjoyed a day of exploring including going to some garage sales. Posts on our time in Port Townsend can be found here, architecture of the town here, and some yard art here.

On this Sunday we had a very inspiring church service that featured Michael Franzese, a former crime family boss who quit the mob and lived to tell his story. Looking forward to reading his book called Blood Covenant. Seattle is all abuzz with the Seahawks win against the Panthers on Saturday. One more game to determine if they are in the Super Bowl again. I’m suffering from the after effects of a crown and not the kind you put on top of your head. Hope all is well in your corner of the world.

Jesus Is The Answer ~ Andrae’ Crouch

Jesus is the answer for the world today
Above Him there’s no other, Jesus is the way
Jesus is the answer for the world today
Above Him there’s no other, Jesus is the way If you have some questions
In the corners of your mind
And traces of discouragement
And peace you can not find

Reflection of the old past
They seem to face you every day
There’s one thing I know for sure
That Jesus is the way

I know you got mountains
That you think you can not climb
I know that your skies have been dark
You think the sun won’t shine
In case you don’t know

I’m here to tell you
That the Word of God is true, yeah
And everything that He’s promised
I tell you He would do it for you
Let me tell you that

I wanted to feature one of Andrae’ Crouch’s songs this Sunday since he just passed away January 8th. His songs in the 1970’s really served to strengthen my faith.
Through it All
Take Me Back
Soon and Very Soon
My Tribute
I Don’t Know Why
and more…

Morning Has Broken…

Sunrise january 005

Morning has broken,
like the first morning
Blackbird has spoken,
like the first bird
Praise for the singing,
praise for the morning
Praise for the springing
fresh from the word

Sunrise january 003

Sweet the rain’s new fall,
sunlit from heaven
Like the first dewfall,
on the first grass
Praise for the sweetness
of the wet garden
Sprung in completeness
where his feet pass

Sunrise january 004

Mine is the sunlight,
mine is the morning
Born of the one light,
Eden saw play
Praise with elation,
praise every morning
God’s recreation
of the new day

Words: Eleanor Farjean, children’s author and poet, 1881-1965.

Read about this wonderful hymn and it’s interesting history here. You might find the words familiar because of it’s international fame brought about by Cat Stevens’ recording in 1971.

Blessed be the name of the Lord
    from this time forth and forevermore!
From the rising of the sun to its setting,
    the name of the Lord is to be praised!

Psalm 113: 2-3

This particular sunrise greeted me on January 7th. I took the screen off our upper bedroom window to capture it in all it’s glory. Screens have a way of muddling the view. Hanging out the window in the cool of the morning to get some different angles before the beauty was gone in a flash was a wonderful way to become fully awake. Do you take screens off of windows to get a good shot?

InSPIREd Sunday ~ Snohomish

One drive around a couple blocks yielded all these churches in the city of Snohomish last Sunday.

This church has been converted to a wedding chapel. When we went all the way around I took a photo from the front view, too.

I wasn’t sure if this is still a church or if it’s been converted to a different use. It was too rainy and dreary on this day to get out of the car and check. All my photos on this drive around a few blocks came from an open window in our car.

This is Zion Lutheran Church.

This photo above is the front of the wedding chapel.

This is the Snohomish Evangelical Free Church.

We took this little drive because we got to a furniture store a little early and it wasn’t open yet. I saw several “spires” from the furniture store and decided a little drive would yield some good views for InSPIREd Sunday. Thank you Beth and Sally!

I’m looking forward to seeing the churches y’all have posted in this new year. Happy New Year everyone.