Weathering the Storms

I would be an ungrateful person if I didn't say I'd had a great life so far. I have. But I didn't always feel this way. Often I felt the opposite.



There were some emotional rough "patches" for awhile in my life. Without going into them in detail I can just say I'm sure I'm no different than any other person. We all have times in our lives we don't feel confident or happy. I suppose it is how we get through them that matters.



I took this photo while on a trip in Maine. It is the front door of a church in Springfield. We were stopping to visit a thrift sale and the door just caught my attention...so I snapped the photo.



When I returned from the trip and had the film developed I framed it and wanted to give it a title. It occurred to me that I was feeling like the door appeared: shabby, weathered, and beaten up a little. The wreath however was placed there with love and kindness... as though the members love the church with all their hearts, no matter what the building has been through.



God is our wreath. He places His love and forgiveness upon us no matter what we've been through in our past. We weathered our storms and turned to Him. He accepted us with His inspiring and amazing grace.*


Stop by and visit Charlotte and Ginger's blog for more inspiring posts...or better yet, write your own! The list of bloggers who are joining Spiritual Sunday is growing each week.



How exciting.



*Check out the bible, especially the book of John for more on His amazing grace: John 3:16.

So I asked him to use the video camera

On the baby.



I think it went something like this:



"Honey, could you please start using the video camera? Dear Bebe is starting to do all kinds of things and I'd like to have you shoot video of her doing them. Okay?"



"Yes, dear."



This is what he shot yesterday after three weeks of asking the same question in about five different ways:







Maybe I should have questioned the spelling on "Yes, DEER."

What do you want for five BUCKS.

Getting Caught Up

Ever feel you just can't get caught up? I'm having one of those weeks.

My organized self just can't seem to get out of my own way. I usually have my posts planned or at least an idea of what I'm going to write...with pictures a day or two in advance. Guess it is the former TV producer in me.

Today, I have no plan. No pictures. So what I'm going to do is show you what I have been doing.

Taking care of Dear Bebe....playing with the mayonnaise jar! I hope she's going to help Mommy cook. I've been planning on making potato salad...my favorite summer dish. I haven't gotten around to that either. Sigh.

I'm also putting a lot of time working on my website. Buying inventory, taking photos, uploading them, writing descriptions, taking orders, and packing. Dear hubs has been a big help in packing/shipping. Thank you honey!

I thought this beaded slipper coin purse was adorable. It sold already!

Between those two things...Dear Bebe and the site, ZIP! There goes my time. The first of course, Dear Bebe, being the most important.

I'm off to go relax for a few minutes before Bebe wakes up from her morning nap. I hope to get around to visit your blogs today. I've been terribly neglectful. See you soon!

Playdates R FUN!

Dear Bebe and I went on another playdate last week. I went to see a friend of mine who had a baby boy and he's 18 months already!

One thing I've noticed is how quickly time flies when you have a baby. I just realized Wednesday was the last time I had posted on this blog.


Well Bebe had a great time seeing all of her new friend's toys... it was like going to an amusement park! Started the ball rolling in my mind of what I can get for her first birthday. It's coming up in September already! See what I mean? Time just flies.

And here is my friend with Dear Bebe. And by the way, you can thank my friend (we'll call her Pattian) for giving me my nickname which is how I named the blog. Hint hint!

Hope you had a great weekend. Dear hubs and I went out on a date! Yeah! Out to dinner and then to see a local guitarist/singer. It is fun to get away...but I always miss my Dear Bebe.

So, I'm still trying to catch up today... there's lots I did not accomplish this weekend. You know, HOUSEWORK.

Like my neighbor said to me "That's for when the weather gets cold!"

I like her a lot.

Taking the Plunge: Advertising & Marketing

Yes, yes, I've taken the plunge. I'm not talking about marriage here.

I'm talking about ADVERTISING. For someone with a little antique website like mine, it seemed like a big enough decision....almost like saying "I do."

You have to spend money to make money, right?

This autumn, you'll see my ad in Somerset Life! This will be my first time to be seen in a magazine! Exciting? You bet!

They sent me a sample copy and I really enjoyed it. Nothing like any other magazine I've ever had before. Thick, almost book like pages and lots of great stories on women who create and own businesses...with lots of great photos of antiques and vintage styles. Really quite beautiful.

Although stunning and a great read, I wasn't sure about taking this plunge. It is a new magazine... and I haven't seen it on a newsstand here yet.

But this magazine I have seen. The adored Romantic Homes. I even subscribe to it.

I called them to try and compare rates and advertise as well. Their sales team did not return my call.

Then I tried contacting them on their "contact us" section of the website. The email came right back to me.

So we'll see how things go with Somerset Life. If things go too well, I could be in up to my ears with work! (Of course, this is really a good thing!) Right now I am able to handle everything and take care of Dear Bebe at the same time. ( I may have to enlist Dear Hubs with his help in packing and shipping! )

I am looking forward to finding out. One thing I'm not afraid of .... taking a risk. You benefit either way. If it pays off then GREAT.... and if it doesn't, well, there is always something to learn.

When have you taken a risk? Did it work for you? What did you learn from it? I'd love to hear from you.

Walkin' On Sunshine, Baby!

We went on a pool playdate and had lots of fun.

There were 7 moms and about 10 children!

At one point it seemed like we were all in the hot tub and it was crazy!

But fun!

This is Bebe's friend... she was wearing her floatee outfit and kept touching

the front like it was her belly. She's too cute.

A great morning full of happy mom's capturing some happy

photographic moments! (That's Miss Leslie getting a picture of her little guy.)

Can't wait until we can all do it again in a few weeks.

Another reason to love summer!

A Lake House with Antiquing....and Shopping, Again!

Dear Hubs and I decided at the last minute to travel up north to visit with family and to check out a lake house.

Dear Bebe did pretty well on the ride...and looked excited as we started the journey...

Here is the view from the sun room. Look how great the view is! Having a place on a lake would be REALLY REALLY nice.

There's a cute deck for dining, docks to jump off, and places to bring your boat. I'm just not sure this would be the right one, right now.

We even looked at another one, right down the lane.

This one was so cute on the outside (I can just see the 4th of July fun we could have here!) but the inside needed a huge overhaul. HUGE.

Not really easy to do with a baby.

So it was fun to take a look. We have our dreams. And sometimes they come true. I keep telling Dear Hubs.

"Patience."

I'm not sure he appreciates my words of wisdom.

Then the next day my Dear Sister-in-law and my Dear Mother-in-law took me to a few of their favorite shops.

You know it when you see it. It's going to be good.

Those old, vintage, general stores with the big open shelving and wide counters on either side? You can just picture what it must have looked like in it's prime.

Just too cute. I love these old stores and so glad some towns have kept them intact. Although there really weren't too many antiques for sale in here... I did find some cute things for Dear Bebe.

Then we went to another collection of dealer shops in an older style home. The displays in this co-op are fun to look through.

Here, I happened to find baby clothes. One cute little pair of cotton overalls with roses caught my eye. Unfortunately Dear Bebe has already grown past this size!

My Dear Sister-In-Law was taking it all in. I'm so glad they asked me to go along with them...I love going to old fashioned shops and stores in small towns.

My kind of afternoon!

To see what I found ... check out my Bella Blog, here.

Antiquing Inspirations

This past weekend I went antiquing to stir my creative mind and also to find items to fill my online shop, Bella Rosa Antiques. I love browsing through the different dealer displays. My trusty little camera captured a few inspirational views:

These look like some oldies but goodies.

A collection of shells to remind me of the ocean...

Shiny elegance!Swirly sconces add a little drama!

What inspires you to work on your projects or decorate your home?

To see what I found on my search hop on over here to my Bella Blog!

Summer Time = Picnic

After having so much rain this spring we've really been fortunate to have so many beautiful days this July. Yesterday was a great day for a picnic.

Dear Bebe's little friend is absolutely adorable. Dear Bebe reached out and appeared to try and hug her. I thought it was so cute. Then her friend was trying to do the same thing but I think Bebe didn't know what to do at that point. Its so cute and fun watching her learn everything. That is her friend's Dad looking on. He must have thought it was cute, too.

We all gathered from our church at a local park and devoured homemade dishes brought by each family. I made my pasta salad that I wrote about last year here.


There were all kinds of goodies... fried chicken, potato salads, macaroni salads, desserts. Just what you'd expect from a summer get together. Fabulous! We are very fortunate to be so blessed with so much.


And Dear Bebe really enjoyed the baby swing.

Today Mommy is vewry vewry tired. Too much "partying" I think!

Hope you all had a great weekend. Tell me what you did for fun!

Spiritual Sunday ~ God's Rainbow Promise

After Noah left his ark, God gave him a promise to never destroy the human race again by showing a rainbow in the clouds. (Gen 9:13)

Whenever Noah saw the beautiful bow he knew God was keeping his promise.

How can we relate to this promise?

First, rainbows are associated with storms. Kind of like our storms of life. We see the beauty of God's promise shining through our gloom.

God gives us many promises throughout the bible. It is thought there are thirty thousand of them or more.

And what's even better, God's promises are unchangeable. They have remained the same throughout time.

Just like his rainbow.

For more uplifting thoughts...visit Charlotte and Ginger's Spiritual Sunday.