Author Archives: Ellen

ABC’s of the Word ~ Testify

***Please Scroll down for Trim the Tree Thursday…

 

2 Timothy 1: 8-10 ~ “So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God, who has saved us and called us to a holy life – not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.”

For more ABC’s of the Word visit Pam at Grey Like Snuffie.

Trim the Tree Thursday

Welcome to Trim the Tree Thursday hosted by Brett at the Southern Hostess.

 

This is what you see when you come up to our front door at our home in Washington. See that gold ribbon? It is tied to both the wreath and the wall hanging. I just drape the ribbon over the door and the wreath hangs nicely on the outside of the door and the Ho Ho Ho wall hanging hangs on the inside of the door. No hooks necessary and the weight of each keeps them in place during the whole Christmas season…

 

This is a little glimpse into our living room where we always have our tree…

To see more Trim the Tree posts click over to Brett’s.

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007 to 2015 hostage and has replaced them all with ugly black and grey boxes asking for a ransom to have them re-published. Such a frustrating bother.

San Francisco ~ Pacific Heights

Queen Anne homes dominated Victorian residential architecture from 1880 to 1910. In fact, this style is virtually synonymous with the phrase “Victorian house.” Typical characteristics of a Queen Anne home include projecting bay windows, wraparound porches, towers, turrets, balconies, elaborate banisters and spindles, stained glass, decorative trim, and patterned shingles.

On Sunday Dear and I walked around the Pacific Heights area of San Francisco to see these great Victorian Homes. We saw other styles of grand houses, also.

This yellow and green house are on Gough street. The Victorians on this block, all built in 1889, are particularly lovely. These are in the Queen Anne Style. I believe they refer to the yellow one being a Queen Anne-Eastlake style (marked by elaborate woodwork).

This was a smaller house tucked between two larger structures that just caught my eye.

This is the Spreckels Mansion. Romance novelist Danielle Steel’s home is one of the most extravagant in town – built in 1913 for Adolph Spreckels, heir to the sugar empire of German-American industrialist Claus Spreckels, who made his fortune refining California sugar beets and Hawaii sugarcane.

 

This is the home featured in the Robin William’s movie Mrs. Doubtfire.

I really enjoyed seeing this old church and all the people coming out of services.

This is the Haas-Lilienthal House built in 1886. The exciting thing about this house is that we stumbled upon it on their annual Christmas open house day. We met one of the Foundation workers out front who told us about the open house and invited us to come back when it started. I will be posting more about this great house and the indoor pictures I was able to take also.

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007 to 2015 hostage and has replaced them all with ugly black and grey boxes asking for a ransom to have them re-published. Such a frustrating bother.

San Francisco

 

I have so many photos I want to share from my 3 days in San Francisco. I’ll be choosing several over the next few days and will have a few San Francisco Posts. These are three collages I have already…

 

Our first day Dear and I met up at Johnny Foley’s for a pint and some great Lamb Sliders! Then we walked all about the town and ended up on the Trolley car. That’s our great trolley car driver! The roof shot is from the Ferry Building at the end of Market Street. It has lots of great specialty and gourmet shops housed in the building.

 

This is Saints Peter and Paul Church in the Italian Section of San Francisco. Since the Italians who came to North Beach in the 1870’s were primarily fishermen, it became known as “the Church of the Fishermen,” and yearly processions to bless the fishing fleet still start out here. I have more photos from the inside of this beautiful church to share later.

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007 to 2015 hostage and has replaced them all with ugly black and grey boxes asking for a ransom to have them re-published. Such a frustrating bother.

Tablescape Tuesday ~ Christmas Past

Welcome to Tablescape Tuesday hosted by Susan at Between Naps on the Porch. I’m still in San Francisco and will be flying back to the LA area tomorrow morning. I had to post this now because I’m headed out for my last day of sight seeing in Cloudy San Francisco. The computer has to get locked up in the safe :0) I hope to get around to all the lovely tablescapes tomorrow evening. To everyone who stops by here I hope your week is filled with simple joys…

 

This tablescape is from a Young Ladies Bible Study Christmas Dinner I hosted a few years ago. This was before blogging and my photos are not real clear and detailed but I think you’ll get the feel.

The next two collages are from last year and they are photos of our fun everyday Christmas table.

 

The Bear Placemats are from our almost 23 year old daughter’s first birthday. She was born on December 27th.

 

These are our little vintage place card holders that we inherited from Dear’s mother Verna. We have 3 boxes of them and she never used them. I’ve changed up our everyday table this year and I’ll be showing that scape soon.

For more tablescapes visit Susan at Between Naps on the Porch. Thank you Susan for hosting this fun blog carnival!

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007 to 2015 hostage and has replaced them all with ugly black and grey boxes asking for a ransom to have them re-published. Such a frustrating bother.

Blue Monday ~ December

 

So for my Blue this week I have 3 photos of fun blue Christmas displays from Molbaks Nursery in Woodinville, Washington. The little birds and the sweet English Bone China Plate are from my own stash.

To see more blue visit our fun hostess Smiling Sally!

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007 to 2015 hostage and has replaced them all with ugly black and grey boxes asking for a ransom to have them re-published. Such a frustrating bother.

Our 34th Wedding Anniversary in San Francisco

I arrived in San Francisco from Seattle on Saturday and met up with Dear at Foley’s Irish Pub for a snack and a Guinness before we headed out on a walking tour of Market Street, the Ferry Building, Embarcadero and on to Scoma’s for dinner at Fisherman’s Wharf.

The food was really wonderful at Scoma’s. Dear had the Lazy Man’s Cioppino (with the crabmeat out of the shell) and I had the Broiled Swordfish con Fagioli (broiled with White Beans, Swiss Chard and Pancetta) It was served with mashed pototoes. I want to give a shout out of thanks to Michelle and Pam for recommending this great restaurant. Our good friends the Romero’s also recommended it. So 3 families in 3 different parts of the U.S.A. all gave us the same recommendation. We knew it would be great. Bloggy friends are great resources!!

I have to wait to get back to my condo and good internet service to upload any more of my San Francisco Photos. This hotel connection is very painfully slow. I mean really slow!! I have a couple preposts ready to go for Monday and Tuesday thank goodness…

O Son of God, We Wait for Thee ~ Hymn

 

O Son of God, We Wait for Thee

O Son of God, we wait for Thee,
In love for Thine appearing;
We know Thou sittest on the throne,
And we Thy Name are bearing,
Who trusts in Thee, may joyful be,
And see Thee, Lord, descending,
To bring us bliss unending.

We wait for Thee ’mid toil and pain,
In weariness and sighing;
But glad that Thou our guilt hast borne,
And canceled it by dying;
Hence cheerfully may we with Thee
Take up our cross and bear it,
Till we relief inherit.

We wait for Thee; here Thou hast won
Our hearts to hope and duty;
But while our spirits feel Thee near,
Our eyes would see Thy beauty;
We fain would be at rest with Thee
In peace and joy supernal,
In glorious life eternal.

We wait for Thee; sure Thou wilt come;
The time is swiftly nearing;
In this we also now rejoice,
And long for Thine appearing.
Oh, bliss ’twill be when Thee we see,
Homeward Thy people bringing,
With transport and with singing!

Words: Phil­ipp F. Hill­er (1699-1769) (Wir wart­en dein, o Gott­es Sohn); trans­lat­ed from Ger­man to Eng­lish by Jo­seph A. Seiss, 1890.

Pink Saturday ~ Pink & Black Tablescape

This is a little preview of my Pink and Black Tablescape that I put together while home in Washington State. I’m travelling from Washington to San Francisco today to meet up with my husband who is attending a conference there. Today happens to be our 34th Wedding Anniversary and we will be celebrating later at a restaurant in San Francisco. On Tuesday we will both fly back to our Southern California home. I hope to get around later this weekend to see all your pretty pink. Have a wonderful Pink Saturday everyone!

Visit our wonderful hostess for Pink Saturday, Beverly at How Sweet the Sound to see more PINK!