Project Genesis: Small Measures

Project Genesis is now at Old Grey Mare.

My small contribution, small measure is contained in a small cloth napkin.

I have issues with paper plates, cups and napkins.

I do not like to eat on a flimsy paper plate.

I am a freak…I like to wash dishes!

Plus the waste involved in using paper products is noteworthy.

I do not use paper plates or cups.

I will occasionally use paper towels to clean with but that is the only use I have for them.

We use cloth napkins at meal time.

All the time.

I find them at thrift stores and yard sales.

I do laundry often enough and cloth napkins do not add much to the total amount.

Joe carries a cloth handkerchief in his pocket at all times.

It comes in handy.

Please visit Suzan for more Project Genesis links.

grace surrounds us

Olive

Blooming Now: Spider Lilies

Spider lilies are blooming now at the old house.

Joe says they have been blooming at the old house for over fifty years and maybe longer.

Joe thinks they look like UFO’s floating on the end of a stick.

That is why I married him.

Creative thinking ability.

They are sprinkled all over the yard like red lace.

Is is raining again today and I think coffee and blogging sound like the finest plan.

What are you doing today?

grace surrounds us

Olive

St. Mary’s Part Two

St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Aiken, South Carolina is where we are visiting today.

To see the first post and crosses in the sky go here.

Last week was not fun. My laptop got a virus and I had to turn it off for twenty-four hours until my nineteen year old daughter came home from college.

She restored the computer to seven days in the past thereby erasing the virus. Who knew? Not me.

Thanks bunches CC!

Now to the images.

 

The church has, just to the left of it, a small chapel with a pretty arched door. By now you must know I adore all things arched.

Except my eyebrows.

A window of the chapel.

My favorite part of the structure, besides the crosses way over my head, is the little chapel. It was locked so we could not go inside but it would surely be restored.

St Mary’s was built in 1853.

May you have a blessed Sunday.

grace surrounds us

Olive

Photo Challenge: Age

A little house with chippy green paint.

On a lonely highway in the middle of rural Georgia.

It’s age is undetermined. But old enough.

The rust is just right on the roof.

            

 

I am linking with the talented Chania at Razmataz for the Friday Photo Challenge.

grace surrounds us

Olive

Crosses in the Sky

Crosses in the sky.

The glorious blue sky.

I will be posting more of this church this week or next.

It is splendid.

Today the neck scrunching view only my darling ones.

Enjoy

 

I am a true lover of arched doors and windows.

Tune in next week for those beauties.

Or Tomorrow.

I am a master planning.

Every odd Tuesday.

 

St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Aiken, South Carolina

 

grace surrounds us

Olive

White Pumpkins and Baseballs

I found gorgeous real white pumpkins at Publix.

I have a bowl of baseballs (used) on our recently installed round coffee table in the living room at our yellow house.

Everyone who visits us always comments on the baseballs.

Whimsy, I tell them. It is all about whimsy.

So I added the white pumpkins to the baseballs!

The autumnal bowl is from Williams Sonoma. It was 75% off . It is wonderful for casseroles as well as baseballs!

I am linking with Kathleen at Faded Charm for White Wednesday.

grace surrounds us

Olive

Blue and White and My Drapes Need Help

I have re-arranged the three drawer chest in our living room at the yellow house again.

Because I found another blue and white jar (the one on the right) for almost nothing on Saturday.

On one side of the pineapple lamp, which is not going any where, is my blue side.

The other side, the white side, is filled with our milk glass which I have shown before.

I have added a Madonna and a tree trunk with bird vintage piece.

This last image is of our window seat. I have pulled the drapes back.

I like being able to see all three of the windows.

However, I am not sure of these very stiff drapes. They just do not drape softly.

I bought them for five dollars at a thrift store and they match the cornice board so well I thought why not?

What do you think?

Drapes down or pulled back like shown?

I am linking with the darling one, Marty from A Stroll Thru Life for Table Top Tuesday.

Please visit the other table tops for some Fine inspiration.

grace surrounds us

Olive

Rattlesnake For Supper

My darling husband, Joe, had rattlesnake for supper last night. Prepared by him. Not me.

He killed a 51 inch rattler last week, skinned it and is drying the skin to mount on on the shed at the old house.

It will be quite at home there amongst our old junk.

I have cell phone photos but am sparing you the images. You can thank me later.

I did not see the dead snake but did get to see the steaks cut up in our sink.

With the blood.

Cringe.

Joe has canoed most of the rivers in Georgia and has eaten rattler before when camping.

He is going to a class today for work so we are apart.

I trust I have not worn you out with talk of this deadly snake.

By the way Joe reported to me that the snake tasted good but was not as meaty as he thought it would be.

They are all muscle.

Cringing again.

I bet some folks in Texas eat snake.

Do you eat snake?

 

grace surrounds us

Olive

 

Photo Challenge: Closer

This Friday’s challenge is Closer.

Hosted by Chania at Razmataz.

Decisions, decisions, decisions.

I take a gracious plenty of close up photos.

 The glass is a vintage cake plate.

It was Joe’s mother’s.

The embroidery is on a vintage table scarf.

grace surrounds us

Olive

Bird Nest Under Glass

The fall cloche party is on! Yay!

Our little bird’s nest is real and has been prepared by Joe for the cloche.

De-bugged I should say.

It was abandoned by the mother bird at Joe’s brother’s house.

Please join the others at the sweet Marty’s for more cloches at A Stroll Thru Life.

You will see so many pretties under glass you will be dizzy but in a totally good way!

grace surrounds us

Olive

 

Tablecloth for White Wednesday

I bought this vintage tablecloth for fifty cents at a garage sale.

Cannot believe that price. Can you?

I find it just spiffy for my fall table. You saw that yesterday. I hope!

I am linking to Kathleen at Faded Charm for White Wednesday.

grace surrounds us

Olive

I Am So Into Fall

I am so into fall I am also into Halloween already ya’ll. The dining room table at our yellow house has been evolving every weekend into a Halloween tablescape.

Joe keeps picking up the odd decoration at a garage sale or thrift store and it just grows.

I am just as bad of course.

We are sickos.

Every item on the table came from a garage sale or thrift store including the vintage table cloth. I used Marty’s method of cleaning this piece and it worked so wonderfully well! Thanks bunches Marty!

Is not my zombie a stinker? He is a Happy Meal toy. I adore him and have had him for years. Pull his left arm and his face changes.

Behold, now he is a Mummy! He might just make some more photos on the blog. I cannot help myself.

Zombie love.

I have a lot of close ups of the vintage table cloth that will be another post. Because it is a beauty.

I am linking to Marty’s link party at A Stroll Thru Life for Table Top Tuesday.

Please visit the others for more loveliness and less zombies.

grace surrounds us

Olive

Reflection Photo Challenge

It is photo challenge Friday at Razmataz.

Is it just me or are these challenges getting more difficult?

This weeks challenge is Reflection.

Please visit Chania’s blog for more images.

This is a reflection of the Enterprise Mill’s smoke stack. The mill is on the Savannah River in Augusta, Georgia.

The sun was in my eyes but somehow it worked out and this is one of my favorite images I have taken all summer.

 

grace surrounds us

Olive

Arches

It is Vintage Inspiration Friday at Common Ground.

Please visit Debra and the others for vintage goodness.

Buildings and architecture are a favorite of mine to photograph.

 Arches are an important part of design.

These arches are antique in fact.

This is Fort Pickens in Pensacola, Florida.

 Look at the patina on the brick. The repeating arches are inspiring to me and often seen in modern design.

grace surrounds us

Olive

I Finally Got a Hummer!

We were given a hummingbird feeder at our June yard sale and we were unaware of what joy they would bring to us.

I have been trying to get a decent photo of one of them for awhile with my extremely slow point and shoot camera.

We have expanded to two large feeders and two mini feeders. The hummers love the mini’s.

If you have never fed hummingbirds please try it next April and you will be surprised at how fun they are. They are about to migrate south for the winter.

We started with two hummers and now have about ten or twelve! I stood on a landscape timber for a long time to get this grainy photo. Regardless. I am happy with it.

These little buggers are fast and very aggressive. They fuss when I change out the feeders.

I am linking with A Southern Day Dreamer for Outdoor Wednesday.

grace surrounds us

Olive

I Read Therefore I Am

When I worked as a RN in a large teaching hospital and wore those colorful scrubs I always wore a pin in addition to my name tag. I have a collection of pins that numbers somewhere close to one hundred. Some are nice vintage ones but most say cute phrases. One of my favorites said “I read therefore I am.” You see, I am passionate about reading and have been this way as far back  as I can recall.

~~♥♥♥~~

I can travel to countries and places I will never get to in real life in my books. I love to read about old England. No one in the world writes mysteries like British authors. P.D. James, Agatha Christie, and Ruth Rendell are three of my favorites. C.S. Lewis is one of the most articulate writers I know of. His clarity of thought and mind always inspires me. In Mere Christianity he argues the existence of God apart from scripture. It is an intriguing book. Then there is Jane Austen. I adore her Emma.

I read many American authors but one I am particularly drawn to is John Irving. His Cider House Rules spoke to me on many levels. His characters are richly drawn and who could ever forget The World According to Garp ? The Southern authors, Harper Lee, Flannery O’Conner, Rick Bragg, and Jan Karon are not to be missed. I know I am skimming the surface.

~~♥♥♥~~

Bookworms are more likely to be involved in the world around them than those who do not read for pleasure. This was found in a recent survey by the National Endowment for the Arts in Washington D. C.

Readers are more likely than nonreaders to visit museums, musical venues, and volunteer in the community. Maryanne Wolf is an investigative author of a book on the science of reading: Proust and the Squid.  She states that the brain is programmed to see, speak, and think but not to read. So the act of reading forces the brain to “rearrange its original parts” and learn something new. You see, reading keeps you sharp, engaged, and helps you think in new ways.

~~♥♥♥~~

A  government British study conducted on a huge scale in 2009 found that 86% of people in the study reported that reading improves mood and boosts happiness.

What book are you reading now?

 

 

grace surrounds us

Olive

 

some excerpts from this post taken from Weight Watchers magazine Sept/Oct 2010

You Are Beautiful

“Beauty is important in this fragile life.”

Jan Karon

It has been a beautiful weekend thanks to you my blogging friends. In quite the way of serendipity around the time of my one hundredth post my one hundredth follower came on board Olive Out. That is about eighty-eight kinds of awesome. Or should I say one hundred? Now I have 101! Really focusing on the numbers is not the right course I think. I should focus on the friendships I have made and they are many. We are truly kindred spirits.

As Jan Karon so well said beauty is fragile in this life and we on these blogs appreciate beauty in all kinds of people, places and ways.

You, my friends are beautiful.

Thank you for listening to my ramblings and putting up with my attempts at photography.

grace surrounds us

Olive