just another day in paradise~

do you know this?

there is no such thing as an ordinary day.

every day is different. every day holds new possibilities.
people constantly amaze me....for instance a second cousin of mine
posted pictures today of her sled dog excursion waaaay
up in the northern part of MN.  *just look at this!




what? no tent-this is not the holiday inn?



hi eileen!


yep...that's no optical illusion my friends...that's the dog sledding crew at sun up, sound asleep, heads covered completely in their sleeping bags-----RIGHT in the snow. and it snowed on them some more during the night. like someone else commented...i'm cold "inside" my house, but these brave adventurers slept outside right on the ground, when it was 0 degrees and lived to tell the story. how cool is that. (darned cool...freezing cool even!): )

then there is my daughter's friend who has set a personal challenge for herself to run one mile a day, every day of 2012. it's day 30 and she's done it-every day so far. it's an admirable goal.i would probably do it like 4 times and then think, "oh not today, i have a cold, or a hang nail, or it's too hot"...but i have no doubt she will do it.

and can i tell you about my son? he helped try to save a life on sunday. he was volunteering at a snowmobile race and an elderly man dropped to the ground in front of him. my son was a fireman for 5 years and has e.m.t. training and although he has a shoulder that's giving him tremendous pain after a recent car accident, he immediately checked his vitals and started doing CPR. other medical people arrived but the man did not survive--but boy i am proud of my son for his efforts to try and help. the man's son, who was in his late 30's was right there and he was crying afterwards and told eric that he wished he would have thanked his dad more. eric reassured him that he was sure his dad knew he appreciated him, and then later our son texted his dad-he did not even tell us what had happened. he was too emotional about it all- he just left my hubbie a message thanking him for being a good dad.

i saw the first red cardinal eating at my feeder this morning. man do i love those birds. where have you been all winter big fella???

tonight i cooked fish tacos for the gang and 2 of my kids were here to eat and talk about the hunting land we are hoping to buy. ahhh the simple pleasures that today brought.

there is no such thing as an ordinary day really. i love how you just never know when you wake up-who will inspire you, who might need your help-what you might see or hear that will change the course of your life.

hope your today is extra ordinary- in some small way.

xo, beth

happy, happy saturday my friends!
* man do i have alot of fabulous photos and quotes stored in my computer that i'd like to share with you...can i? can i just show you a whole bunch of them? oh thanks~ hope they inspire you even a tiny bit as much as they do me.



can you believe i took this with my phone on an evening walk? that's heaven up there, i can almost see it







it is after all, still january



i don't sing well at all, but boy can i eat cake!



i  already thought anne was amazing and then i attended her memorial service today and realized we
were entertaining an angel, unaware~

isn't this beautiful?

doesn't a baby "anything" just make you happy?



i had a record number of people read my blog yesterday...if you are here, i thank you, this writing and sharing is really opening your heart and soul to anyone who stumbles upon my thoughts or comes here by intention.

it's a little bit scary to put yourself out there~ but like i told a friend this week,

"i find it shelter to speak to you"

thanks for stopping by~

be blessed today

xo, beth

jan. 27th, 1936

 76 years ago today, on jan. 27th, my mother laura baldwin was born. my grandmother had 6 of her 7 children at home in her bed, and when she thought the time was near, she sent my grandpa to town to get old dr. burns. a lot of women in rural areas at that time had no prenatal care, and can you imagine my grandfather's surprise when he got back to the farm with the dr. and my gram had already delivered, not just my mother, but a fraternal twin too! they had chosen the name laura for my mother, (born first) but now they had a dilemma, they needed a name for her twin sister. they decided to name her dora, each one named after one of their grandmothers. laura and dora it was, two precious little girls that joined their 2 older brothers. my momma was always a good head taller than her twin sister and strikingly dark, while dora was a beautiful petite blond.



Dora on the left, my Mom on the right




the twins senior picture

mom grew up on a farm near milan, mn. she and her siblings loved living right on the banks of the chippewa river and spent many happy days playing in it, while their mother paid little attention to them. it was sink or swim i guess. (and not a single one of the 7 drowned either-man those were the days.) my gram used to joke that she'd count their heads as they came up over the hill at night and some days she was so overwhelmed by her big family-that she'd mutter "shucks" when all 7 came running for the supper table. : )  and who could blame her really? my gram was funny and she was real.




being "capped",  a tradition for nurses


my dear momma went through high school and then on to nursing school and became an RN. she got married and by age 28 had 4 children...and  then she found out she had a brain tumor. we only had her for 2 more years. she lived just 2 weeks past her 30th birthday.



this is my mom's brother Thomas wearing a wig to make her laugh after
her brain surgery. (her head had been shaved).


so many days i have longed for her. i wish i could have known her-really known her. every single thing i have ever heard told about her make me proud to be her daughter. at her funeral (on valentines day) the pastor said "laura loved, even more than she WAS loved".

* happy birthday mom. i love you~
happy birthday to my dear aunt dora too!

xo, beth


my sister, mom and i--wasn't she lovely?

one last thing...i promise not to write about sad things now for awhile, but since my blog is fairly new
i just couldn't pass up the opportunity to tell you about my mom. :   )



shout out from a friend

my friend maggie is having a give away on her blog... she is giving away one of my handmade items and so i thought for anyone comin over to look at my blog, i would show you a few more pictures of the things i make.


boy is it ever~





soldered glass earrings



yes, lets!

so if you're interested, or want a chance to win something, head on over to
her blog. it's a real day brightener!

 http://mamasita-thislittlelifeofmine.blogspot.com/

xo, beth

she's an angel

a sweet, sweet neighbor of mine died today. i was not a close friend of hers, but i was very fond of her. there was much i didn't know about her, but here are some things i did know.

she was lovely, and for many of the 20 years we lived in the same neighborhood, she wore her beautiful curly hair very long. oh how i envied her that beautiful hair.

she was a runner. again-i admired what her strong body was capable of.

she was an enthusiastic gardener. i loved to see her sunflowers shoot up to the edge of the roof in front of her house every summer.

she played piano, and often i saw her through the front window playing away when i walked by.

she loved her cats.

she was soft spoken and had huge smile, a darling laugh.

she was the mother of identical twin girls. they are 25 and remarkable. they are both already changing the world in ways that would make even the most humble mother proud.

she was only in her 50's, in my opinion~to young to die.

she was a wife, mother, sister, friend. she was one of those unforgettable people who left this world a better place.

 her suffering is over, she was a believer.

God Bless you and your family Anne, i feel so fortunate to have known you.

xo, beth

look what i can do



with the help of a new blogging friend from utah, look what i have taught myself to do!
this is 3 photos i took and made a collage of, with text.
girlfriend is eXcItEd!!!

(i realize it goes over my sidebar info ~sorry~but if it's smaller, you can't really see it)



today's gratitudes~

*the new little green plant on my counter

*my grandson laying reading on the couch by me

*singing the song "you are mine" in church

*the light mist in the air

*a fleece shirt i always put on when i am cold- it warms me right up

*the smell of garlic bread in the oven

*the excitement in our household as we look for hunting land up north

*tiny white lights on the living room window

*playing dominos around a 70-ish yr. old table

*a stack of new books from the library by my side

happy sunday sweet friends,

xo, beth

we read.

LAST NIGHT I HAD THE PLEASURE OF HOSTING OUR 12TH ANNIVERSARY BOOK CLUB GET TOGETHER.

one of our members was at the lion king....which was makin me a

tiny bit jealous-had it not been 48 degrees below zero-with a wind chill and bit of snow licking at our boots, i may have jumped ship (i mean no disrespect to the

families of the cruise ship that just capsized) and snuck along, i sooo

want to see the production too!

eight of us girls have been meeting monthly in each

others living rooms since the year 2000.

in that time we have seen our children grow up and

kept track of each others lives.

we have laughed together, shared tears,

listened to each others stories, eaten a lot of food and

yes, we really have read many, many books AND

actually discussed them too.

here's the group, minus one friend



i had leftover horns from new years...guess i was the only one willing to play the fool though...

 
               well, guess what girls? i have a few tricks up my sleeve, remember?




don't mess with me...i have editing tools. i will not be the only one acting up here!

 

girls you know i love ya, thank you for being my friends

xo, beth

you can't make this stuff up...

late last summer i was on my way home from church and something so funny caught my eye
that i felt compelled to drive home, get my camera and head back for a picture. this was in a nice "neighborly" neighborhood. well tonight on my way home from work, i passed that same yard and bust out laughing thinking about that morning, so i'm going to share it with y'all & hope it will make you laugh too.  :  )


apparently the party was at THEIR  house the night before~i have a suspicion someone turned
40!



and then the next day, i was at a stoplight and these hilarious divas in the pink convertible pulled up right next to me... i wanted to jump in the back seat-doesn't it look they were headed for   f-u-n ?  but as you can see-there was no back seat. it's all in a days work around here people---keep your eyes on the road!

xo, beth

blue monday

GOTCHA... i'm not blue~ really, i just have a whole collection of  amazing things in blue
to show you. many years ago i decided i was done with blue~ like for-evaar.  if i saw one more
county blue comforter, one more county blue bathroom or one more cloth doll in a blue gingham dress i thought i may be sick.

slowly but surely though the decorating industry made me love it again.
it started with robins egg blue. (ohhh)  then there was sea glass blue.(um hmmm)  then they hit us with a little cornflower blue- oh yes it's all about the name i've decided.




slate blue frames

 

for real?




tiffany blue



robins egg blue kitchen aide? yes! so retro



lovin the cowboy boots for bridesmaids



so soothing



cork -how ingenious



  i'll leave you with this one, and me? i'm off painting a bathroom a soft seaglass color. no not really, but i'm thinking about it. : )

                                          nantucket, i'm saving up to come and see you!

                                                     

felt flowers



here's a little project i tried this afternoon. i had some felt on hand when i decided to try it-how cool is that- i did not even need to run for supplies. : )

*first i cut 3 different sizes patterns out of stiff paper- each one would become a different sized petal.



*now laying them on the felt, i cut 2 large, 2 med. and 1 of the smallest size propeller shaped patterns

                                   

*then i just laid the 2 largest on top of each other and started hand sewing, adding petals and gathering
a bit in the center to give it a 3-d effect.

now the next part was really fun...i cut a strip of a coordinating color felt-i thought
dark gray was nice-see how i made it a long pointed piece? then i started at the pointed end
and rolled it up tightly around the tip of a pencil until it resembled a rose bud.  i again stitched it in a few places to hold the roll together and then laid it in the center of the gold flower and sewed it in place.

lastly i sewed a pin back on it and raaaaan to my closet and pinned it
on a grey sweater i already owned. VA-VA-VOOM.

accessories can make the outfit-and for this chick who's particularly
challenged by shopping-maybe this will be just the pick up i needed!


saturday + snow =smiles


xo, beth