Ahh, Simple Pleasures

This morning I made toast! Actually I made it all weekend. Not just any toast, but perfect toast! I know that sounds like a small feat, but you have no idea the song and dance that I've been going through to make toast lately. You see, about a year ago I needed a new toaster after the simple one that I had for years had worn out (mostly it just looked really bad and I was embarrassed for it). So after much shopping and comparing I purchased a new modern toaster. It was pretty, and we had upgraded (paid more) to a nicer model that had several special settings and bells and whistles. It even had a little blue light that back lit the number settings. It looked sharp!

Well I hated it, and it's little blue light right from the beginning. It annoyed me. Every time I would walk into the kitchen, I'd see that little light with a number lit up, and I'd immediately think I had phone messages! On top of that, if you toasted bread on number 3 it would burn. If you toasted on number 2 it wasn't enough. So after much experimentation I devised a sequence of toasting on 2, then 1, then 1 again that seemed to work...for a while. Then after a time, it started playing with me ~ it would pop up right after I pushed the bread down. Then other times it wouldn't stay down at all, and I had to hold it down and try to estimate the time to doneness.

Some mornings got pretty ugly. Toast should not be this hard.

Well on Friday I came home from my quilt show trip, and my wonderful hubby had bought me this new toaster! It's cute, has no little blue lights, and did I mention it makes perfect toast! Even more important than all of that, I didn't have to shop for it at all. Did I mention that I have the perfect hubby too :)

"Think big thoughts, but relish small pleasures." ~ H. Jackson Brown, Jr., American author

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

Words of Wisdom

This is Millie & Tillie. I named the crow Tillie, because she just looks like a Tillie to me, and the sheep got Millie of course because it rhymes. I picked them up on one of my many foraging trips in the cute little shops outside of Gettysburg PA when my daughter was going to college there. They sit on the back of my stove and their sole purpose in this life is to make me smile every morning...and they do :) For some reason I am tickled by the look on the sheep's face. It's a simple thing, but important I think.

I like things with little messages on them ~ words of wisdom, if you will. I need to see these little prompts to keep me centered. I like words on quilts too. Here are a few of the quilts I've done with words or messages on them.

Many Thanks designed by Nancy Halverson (pattern can be found in book with that name). The center block says, "For These I Give Thanks" and each block has something to be thankful for. These words are done with stitchery.

Pat Sloan designs many quilts with words on them. This is Be Merry and this pattern can be found in the Quilt The Seasons with Pat Sloan book.

Jane A Stickle stitched on the simple phrase, "In War Time 1868" to the corner of her "Dear Jane" quilt, and has touched quilters for over 140 years. Words are powerful.

What words inspire you? I keep this little create shelf sitter in the window in my sewing room. You can find words like these in the primitives section of my ebay store, and right now they're on sale! Take a moment to be inspired...or tickled today!

~ Dawn

Centering Time

I like to take a few minutes each day, usually in the early morning for a little deep breathing and prayer before jumping into the craziness of my day. I started this when my children were in grade school and I think it really did help me in getting us all off on the right foot. I'm a firm believer that if "Momma ain't centered, the whole house is off kilter"! Those were the days when I would take long meditative baths too. I've kind of gotten out of that ~ I think that is something I should take on for Lent :)

Today I'm going a little off normal topic and passing on a site for anyone interested in daily devotions for Christians. My pastor told us of this site called d365.org and I really like it too. The site offers devotions every day of the year with special emphasis for Advent and Lent. I like how the devotions are broken into sections and the accompanying music (which can be turned off if you wish) is really nice for a meditative, centering time. I'm finding that I like the music in the background when I'm doing other things on the computer too.

Anymore we are bombarded with so many things on the internet, I find this to be a nice way to start the morning off on my computer. I hope you enjoy it too.

Enjoy your day!
~ Dawn