Angels?

Things that make me wonder!

Have you ever wondered why so many images of angels are so gentle looking and non threatening? I’m thinking our images of angels are a little too feminine and nice. The Bible speaks of angels appearing, angels speaking to someone in a dream, angels fighting in the Spiritual Realm, us being unaware of angels in our midst, angels ministering to Jesus during the temptation, angels with the Israelites in the Exodus. An angel is a messenger of God. Sometimes angels are seen, sometimes they are not seen. Sometimes they have swords in their hands. They are supernatural messengers. The angel Gabriel and the angel Michael are the only two angels named in the Bible. Gabriel stands in God’s presence. Gabriel brought the announcement of John the Baptist being conceived and he brought the good news of the conception of Jesus. He is someone to be believed. If I’m ever in real trouble I’d love to have Michael in front of me. An angel with a sword in his hand and not flowers…

Luke 2:8-13 ~ “And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
“Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

I’d really like to find a strong, masculine, mighty looking angel to go with my Nativity set. I wonder how long it will take me to find one?

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage unless I pay them a lot of money. I’m slowly cleaning up many posts from this time period and deleting their ugly grey and black boxes with a ransom request. Such a time consuming bother.

Ruby Tuesday ~ Los Olivos

Welcome to Ruby Tuesday where you’ll see a little or a lot of red. Make sure and visit our gracious hostess Mary at The Work of the Poet to see more Ruby or to join in the fun. My Ruby this week is from Los Olivos in the Santa Ynez Valley known for it’s ranches and wineries.

I took these photos in a sculpture garden in the middle of town. (I think eclectic is a good description)

Los Olivos is noted for its eclectic art galleries, wine tasting, unique shopping, epicurean restaurant opportunities, antiques and generally friendly populace.

Many of the downtown and residential buildings date back one-hundred years when Los Olivos was served by a stage line and the Pacific Coast Railway. Our historical ambiance is preserved by a Victorian architectural overlay.

This cafe was closed the day we were there. I love how the sign says “Shut” instead of closed.

To see more Ruby head over to the Work of the Poet.

Blue Monday ~

Welcome to Blue Monday! Smiling Sally is our hostess and you can click on her name and join in or see some more blue from around the world.

My blue today is a combination of sights and purchases over the last 3 weekends. This past Saturday after our walk at the beach where we found all these cool shells, Dear and I headed to Somis, Moorpark and Simi to see what we could see. We are on the hunt for a piece of furniture to fill a space between our living room and dining area at the condo. We want the piece to work both for books and some of my pretties. I’m always a little disappointed when a shop is called a Thrift store but really thinks it’s an Antique store and prices everything accordingly. Do you know what I mean? Can you feel a bargain hunters pain here? I ended up buying this blue oversized creamer at HomeGoods in Simi.

The Shell Beach Sign, Avila Peir sign and the wall mural are all from our trip to the Central California Coast from January 19th. The Amtrak Surfliner is from last weekend in our hometown…

That’s my blue and now I’m off to see your blue! Happy Monday and February to all of you!

Metamorphosis Monday ~ Linens

It’s time for another Metamorphosis Monday and I have a mini met to show you today. Susan at Between Naps on the Porch is our hostess for this event so head over to her blog to join in or to see some before and afters…

This method of storing my tablecloths was not the most ideal. I’ve been wanting to have a space in my spare room closets to hang them instead.

Hanging them like this makes it a lot easier to access them and see what I have. This project is still in process and I iron a few tablecloths at a time and hang them trying to coordinate colors or seasons…

Again I forgot to take a before shot of this closet space. My candle holders and candles are more organized here.

I was able to box up stuff from this closet space that we never touch to make room for my Christmas dishware and all my chargers. That freed up space in my kitchen cabinets for the everyday stuff.

Now that we have Metamorphosis Monday I think I’ll remember to take before shots for all my projects. Thanks for being patient with me. :0)

Now to see some really amazing morphs head over to Susan’s!

Thy Word is Like a Garden, Lord ~ Hymn

Thy Word is Like a Garden, Lord

Thy Word is like a garden, Lord, with flowers bright and fair;
And every one who seeks may pluck a lovely cluster there.
Thy Word is like a deep, deep mine; and jewels rich and rare
Are hidden in its mighty depths for every searcher there.

Thy Word is like a starry host: a thousand rays of light
Are seen to guide the traveler and make his pathway bright.
Thy Word is like an armory, where soldiers may repair;
And find, for life’s long battle day, all needful weapons there.

O may I love Thy precious Word, may I explore the mine,
May I its fragrant flowers glean, may light upon me shine!
O may I find my armor there! Thy Word my trusty sword,
I’ll learn to fight with every foe the battle of the Lord.

Words: Edwin Hodder, The New Sunday School Hymn Book, 1863.

Low Tide at Emma Wood ~ Birds and Shells

Dear and I started our walk at Emma Wood this morning well before 7:00 am. I love the colors that the early morning light reflect on the sand and water.

There were many sea birds enjoying breakfast from diving in the water and digging in the sand.

I was pleasantly surprised to capture this pelican and the head of this seal who bobbed up just at the moment I took the shot. Not a clear close-up but it’s always a treat to see seals or dolphins come up out of the water…

The Godwits were abundant as were Sanderlings.

The tide was out far enough so that we could explore around the rocks and see Anemones and gather lots of great shells.

These are the shells we picked up this morning. Some of the clam shells are pismo clams. Dear found a razor clam shell and a barnacle, too.

I really like the different shapes and colors on all of these shells we picked up…

My Last Pink Saturday…

I am so sad to say that this will have to be my last Pink Saturday. Saturday is a very hard day for me to find time to blog. Dear and I leave the house before dawn to have our weekly walk at the beach and we never know what adventure we’ll decide on after our walk. I always feel so guilty about not getting around to all the lovely pink that day and it just makes better sense for me to forfeit this pleasure. I want to thank Beverly, who I think is a fantastic hostess, for putting this together and for being so gracious. I’ll miss my Pink friends but I’ll probably see some of you at other memes Monday thru Friday. Blessings on all of you.

So here is my Pink for my farewell to Pink Saturday Post!

I’m so excited! I think I can now be inducted into the bloggy hall of fame because I have a glass dome that I put stuff under!! I’m going to go ahead and call it a Cloche. We just purchased it at an antique shop in Arroyo Grande on January 18th. I’ve been on the hunt for a cloche and I still might end up buying a taller, narrower one…once I hear from the “Official Bloggy We’ll Induct You Into Our Hall of Fame Committee”. The glass cake plate it’s sitting on was from Target originally but I bought it at Goodwill.

Now look at all this sweet pinkness that my bloggy friend Cori G! gifted to me when we met face to face this last Tuesday. I was blown away by all these goodies. She made all those cards, bookmarks and tags herself. She’s a great designer! The four pretty Homer Laughlin plates are from a set of 8 she has. How generous of her to split the set for me. She participates in Pink Saturday from her Gingerbread Crumbs & Co.Blog.

This last one is for Beverly. I wish I could deliver a bouquet of these sweet pink flowers to your door for being such a kind hostess.

To see more Pink visit Beverly at How Sweet the Sound.

Friday’s Fave Five ~

Time flies when you’re old having fun. Here it is Friday already and it’s time to list our favorites from this past week. Visit Susanne from Living to Tell the Story to join in on the fun.

1. We had two good walks on the weekend. Our first walk was to the Farmer’s Market on Saturday morning while it was drizzling. Then on Sunday we walked to our usual Mexican Restaurant for lunch. We were feeling oh so European.

2. On Saturday my brother Tim and his wife Letty came over for most of the day and we had a special birthday dinner for Tim. We served barbecued Rib Eye Steak, roasted fingerling potatoes, mushrooms sauteed with onions with a cream and white wine reduction, and a salad with persian dressing. For dessert we had a limoncello cream cake. From some of those descriptions can you tell I watch Top Chef? Anything is fancy if you put the right description with it :0)

3. We’ve experienced some “weather” here in Southern California and it was nice to have rain and big fluffy clouds around. Now we are in another Santana Wind pattern which warms things up considerably. Willow and I had quite a windy walk on Thursday.

4. Every couple of months my mom and dad have the “girls” over for dinner. This past Tuesday my sisters, my SIL’s, and my nieces along with grand nephew Jackson met at mom and pop’s for dinner. It’s always so much fun to get together. We laugh a lot.

5. One more of my favorites was to meet up with my bloggy friend Cori face to face for the first time this past Tuesday.

To read more Fave Fives visit Susanne at Living to Tell the Story.

Looking at the Sky on Friday

We had some beautiful skies this past week in Southern California. This is a view from a field behind our housing development. The mountains you see are the northwestern end of the Santa Monica Mountains.

For more sky photos visit Crazy Working Mom.

A Wonderful Bloggy Face to Face!

On Tuesday I drove to Orange County for a family dinner at my parents’ apartment with my sisters, SIL’s, and nieces. Cori G. form Gingerbread Crumbs & Co. and I have been regulars on each others blogs and she happens to live in Orange County so we arranged a face to face meeting close to my parent’s apartment. We had a very short time to meet and “talk” but what a joy it was to spend this short time asking questions and sharing a little bit more of our lives in person. I was surprised how fast our time went.

Cori also was so sweet to bring me a gift. I’ve always loved her graphics. She’s one talented lady. I was thrilled to get some beautiful creations of hers. She also gifted me with 4 beautiful Homer Laughlin plates. Oh she knows my weakness for pretty plates!

Cori G. is a Victorian Lady at heart and she proved to me that she wears petticoats and Victorian striped stockings. How cool is that. You can see her post about these stockings at her Happy Birthday Eric Post. Cori and I look forward to getting together again…

John 13:34 ~ “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage