My First PINK SATURDAY In Over Four Months

When we travel this route to Texas and points beyond...I always look forward to seeing this huge cross alongside the road. It soothes, reassures and humbles.....My hope is that it will always be there! There are more than one of these giant crosses, along the highways in middle America, and this one is in The Great State Of Texas.

Hello everyone and WELCOME....Just a reminder to be sure and visit Beverly of How Sweet The Sound... to visit wonderful ladies and their blogs that love pink just like you and me!...Thank You, Beverly....it is nice to be back!


I can't begin to tell you how excited I was when I found this old flue cover. I bought it for my website, www.theruffledrose.com but I am not sure I am going to part with it for a while. lol! I can see this is going to be a problem with me!!


Below is the sign at the antique store, along the highway in Oklahoma, where I found the cover. There were so many antique stores in that area that if we were able to visit each and every one of them...we would still not be home!



All the shopping carts in this antique mall in Oklahoma were PINK! That just made the shopping all the more fun.

This has been a busy week. I can't believe it is Friday already! What has happened that the days just seem to fly by now? Is it just me?


Today was the first real warm day since we have been back. I had to change my long sleeved shirt for a short sleeved one and I was delighted to be able to open windows and doors. Oh!! I just LOVE SPRING! We got out, and with the help of a friend, trimmed the front bushes.....the lilacs on the West side are opening up and I just go and bury my nose in them. How heavenly is their scent! Tonight we have rain with maybe some thunder moving our way....what can be better?

I have been loading items on our website...www.theruffledrose.com and I hope you will pop over and take a peek. Click on In The Armoire and then The Cottage Bath to see the towels I managed to list. I still can not get a thumbnail picture to come up on the home page, but I will get it figured out! I will be putting new things in everyday....please sign the guest book and sign up for future mailings as new things are listed and so you will know when our Grand Opening will be.


Thank you, thank you, for coming by and saying "Hi".....It is with happy anticipation I read your comments!
Jil

I promised myself that I would be disciplined and write a bit every day....;-) Well, I have been so busy getting back in the swing of things at home after being away four+ months and remembering where things go and are, that I just haven't kept my promise to myself. :-( But...I am really going to try and do better!!
And I have exciting news,too!!!

I have, with everything else going on, been learning to work our new website, yes! a website THE RUFFLED ROSE. While it was being designed by Susan of www.onespringstreet.net I was stressing over whether I would be able to maintain it....bless her heart, she reassured me by the end of the first week I would be a pro. Well, I have one item listed and a bio written.....I have many things to list and am feeling much more confident I will be able to do this....as soon, that is, as PhotoShop stops causing me problems.....If you are looking for a website or eBay template as well as cards plus all sorts of beautiful graphics, please go and check her out. She is fabulous to work with, too!

I know many of you know Marian Elizabeth of the blog That Shabby Pink Girl.....she and I have become friends and decided to do this venture together. So, two friends together in two separate boutiques on one website to bring you all sorts of delightful Cottage pretties. You will find my things In The Armoire and you will find her delightful items in That Shabby Pink Girl.

Right now, Marian Elizabeth is away on a much needed pleasure/buying trip and as soon as she gets back she will be filling her boutique.
We will post when we have our Grand Opening and you will be invited to come and register in the drawings to celebrate with exquisite prizes for your Shabby Cottage.

Here is a peek at the first item In The Armoire at The Ruffled Rose:
A Sweet As Can Be Teacup And Saucer Pin Cushion With Three Pins And Bits Of Vintage Rhinestone Jewelry.....How Perfect For Mothers Day....



And, hopefully tomorrow the first of three pretty towel sets:


Thank you for stopping by....
I always get excited when I see I have comments to read....and please come back often to visit!!

Hope you are having the loveliest of days!
Jil

~The Healing Wonder Of A Birds Song~

I just received this in an email and thought my blogging "tweets" would enjoy reading this amazing bit of information....Don't you just love to hear the birds? I know I do....it is always with great joy in the spring that I throw open the windows to enjoy their songs.....our first evening home we were greeted with the melodious song of a Phoebe. When I hear the first Phoebe singing phoebe, phoebe, phoebe, I know that the harsh winter has passed and the sweetness of spring is here.

The little dears above are Barn Swallows....I was captivated by how small and dainty they are! It was a bit hard to capture them as they flit here and there and I do wish I could have gotten a better view up close...With their peachy breasts and midnight blue feathers with a forked tail they are just a little delight! The shop, of whose sign they are resting on is another delight....Javalinas and Hollyhocks is a treasure trove of wonderful items from around the world, creams and lotions and a whole room of amazing books and unusual, creative and educational toys for the little ones. It is a shop I always look forward to shopping in when I am in Ft. Davis, TX.

Enjoy!
Offering a few sunflower seeds in barter for an uplifting cantata hardly seems to be a fair trade!
Who would know that birdsong is good for the health? I recently learned of a German therapy known as “Samonas” that utilizes sounds of nature to stimulate the nerve cells in the brain, enabling calmness and clarity. There is evidence that crashing waves and sea gull cries create intense electrical activity in the left hemisphere of the brain stimulating language while tested subjects were relaxed, alert and focused. A related story tells of an English banker who suffered a massive stroke. This left him with the inability to speak intelligibly, yet the sound of birds’ chirping revived his articulate speech once again. The theory behind this natural healing is built upon the premise that our subconscious is triggered by an innate response to nature. A dose of melodious robin is much sweeter than a hard-to-swallow pill.

Spring brings such a dramatic array of weather conditions that exhilarate the senses. A rosy dawn is announced by a choir of warblers followed by a menacing mound of charcoal clouds illuminated by the wrath of an eminent thunderstorm. With eyes closed, one could determine the weather condition merely by the tone of the tweets. Birds’ lighthearted singing gives way to a cacophony of frenzied chirps. As much as I love my music, the stereo is silenced to an open window when Mother Nature offers her soundtrack of thunder, moaning wind, and rain. Life takes on a deeper meaning when the overwhelming beauty of the outdoors reminds us that our man-made existence is merely a backdrop to all that is real.

May a songbird provide the background music of your day.
Jil

We are home after more than four months away.....we visited our son and his dear family in Arizona, another son and his dear family in Texas and stayed with my bestest friend in California. It was a special time and the days and weeks just flew by. Now that we are home, I will be busy, busy, busy! The gardens to plant, hanging baskets for the porches and painting the porches, too. I am going to be hanging outside curtains at each end of the front porch for shade and something different and pretty for this outside room.

And, I have a website being designed and will let you know when we launch with sweet give-aways! So, I am busy creating, too, along with my partner!

I always find these trips wonderful to drive, long as they are, as I love watching the country side unfold from Michigan to California. Always, I am struck by how much we are blessed to have in this great country of ours. Beautiful green pastures with grazing cows, wooded rolling hills, magnificent rivers and sweet winding creeks. I love the style of the farm houses and find the olde falling down barns so picturesque. The South West with it's mountains that just hold me spell bound and the pretty high deserts of Arizona and Texas that I find beautiful beyond words.

While in Texas, the weather warmed up and I was able to open the van doors and sit in the middle seats with my watercolors spread out and paint to my hearts content. I called it my studio. (Click On The Pictures To See A Larger Picture )

This one is still taped to my board and not finished....I love painting all the fascinating Rim Rock....

My daughter-in-law, Sharon, thought it was so funny to be painting in the van, but I could turn it to whatever view I wanted and all my painting things were not making a mess inside her pretty home. They live outside of Ft. Davis, Texas and are surrounded by pretty mountain views from every window. I have always loved Texas and lived there for several years. Two of my sons were born in Texas, but Ft. Davis, in the Davis Mountains, is my favorite Texas spot.

Rim Rock

Tippit Ranch...Our sons family ranch....very wild with Bobcats, Turkey's, Javelinas and of course you have to watch carefully for the Rattle Snakes. It is 156 acres of pure unspoiled nature!

I will be writing a little everyday about our trip and the sights...I miss our family dreadfully, but it is nice to be home and we were greeted with pretty pink tulips and pale yellow daffodils blooming and a Robins nest being built on the porch...what could be a better Welcome Home?







Hope you are having a lovely Spring day and....be sure and watch for more on our Winter travels!
Jil