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An Irish Spring…

March is right around the corner and with it St. Patrick’s Day is just about here, too. So I thought I’d bring out a little green decor in honor of many of our Irish and Scottish heritages…



The lovely roses which my husband gave me in mid-February and then graced our Valentine’s tea table are still surviving. After the original photographs were taken, these vermillion beauties replaced the pink roses and have lasted for two weeks.

I changed their water every few days and recut their stems as I’ve always heard should be done and this simple step kept them fresh and blooming.


The last cutting brought several of the roses down to just the right size for a teapot…

This little Irish Miss steps lively around the coffee table in her shamrock print dress. The Art Deco teapot found 15 years ago in England enjoys coming out of the cupboard to hold its rosy bouquet next to her! 


Across the way her friend Mr. B. Rabbit hops among his own patch of roses…

What fun to bring out the green and some shamrocks to celebrate this coming season of spring!
😉




Happy March and St. Patty’s Day, 
{soon!}Everyone!
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Decorate Your Angelic Statuettes for the Seasons…

Decorating our homes for  each season seems such a logical thing for all of us to do, but have you thought about decorating your little statues and statuettes the same way? Today I am sharing some fun wonderful statue transformations from my friends and some of my own. 

Let’s begin this angelic tour, shall we?…


Snowbirds…

Berry Christmas…


“The Girls” get decorated each winter outdoors with faux berry head wreaths or roses each year.  This is a favorite way I like to decorate my outdoor statues. Recently, I found a pepper tree near our Texas home and now I am just waiting for the berries to get ripe!*

*Turns out the Texas version of a pepper tree is different than its California cousin in that it has berries far apart on little branchlets and also has thorns, so… No new head wreaths unless I make them with faux berries again. 🙁 
Here in a Valentine’s Tablesetting ~ Ethereal in Pink our fair maiden wore a child’s tutu as a stole. Perfect for a fall Halloween party (with an added mask!) or for Valentine’s, this is a super easy way to dress up your statues.


Here my friend Debra of Common Ground added a simple brown ribbon tied in a  bow with a beautiful cross to her maiden. At some point Debra découpaged a watercolour tissue paper onto the lower half of this bust and added an upturned collar ~ such a gorgeous way to hide any flaws in chalkware pieces!

  
Amber at Follow the Yellow Brick Home decorates her music room at Christmas time in grand style and here Beethoven dressed warmly for the holiday season and this holiday home tour in a nubby oatmeal muffler. Amber’s farmhouse is just gorgeous and this post really shows off its grand beauty.


 An Old Angel and a Giveaway! | Edith & Evelyn
Cindy of Edith and Evelyn Vintage has an incredible angel which she found for sale when a church was closing its doors. Made of solid plaster but missing its wings, her husband fashioned a pair from a store-bought pair replacing the original ones lost to time. Here this angel is most decidedly angelic with its crown, sceptre and rosary beads ~ stunning!


Spur of the moment idea

Here our Lady Liberty wears our nation’s colors proudly! This was a photo I took for a 4th of July Pinterest Challenge but used later in this 10 on the 10th post. Repurposing worn flags into pillows or like I have done here is a good way to give a retired flag a second life.

Just go with it

“Spur of the moment ideas” when decorating are sometimes the most brilliant and often we just need to “go with it” when decorating our homes! If you love statues like I do then adding pieces of vintage jewelry to yours is an easy way to begin.

From a shop I visited in California ~ Posies and Picket Fences.


I hope you have enjoyed this tour of angelic statues today and have found a few ideas to use to decorate yours! Here is a pin to share and if you like what you see here, please consider following along. Thank you! 🙂

Sharing with
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Party in Your PJ’s


Blessings to you,
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Sunday Sentiments: Our Fair Maiden ~ Who Is She?

Ever wonder  where something came from?

Who might have designed it?

What inspired that person to
create that said piece?  

As is the case with our fair maiden ~
who was the model?  


Well, I have often wondered about this statue I found at a local Denton thriftshop as I was out finding my way around town during our first year here in Texas.

I happened to see a pin on Pinterest recently which named the artist and that got me curious…


Our sweet maiden gets lots of play here on my blog 
and it’s only because this statue and her friends outside are rather photogenic, in my opinion.
🙂




Image result for french girl bust by grinam niam

love this antiqued version!

I found this photo and many others like it by doing a google search.  One Pinterest photo shared that the sculptor’s name is Grinam Niam.

One chalkware bust of this same maiden found in mint condition is currently for sale on RubyLane for $468!


Image result for french girl bust by grinam niam

a colorized version


I’d say my $4.25 lady ~ who by the way was discounted 10% because I received a senior discount (for anyone over a certain age, yeah!). 

I’d say the $3.85 I paid was a fabulous bargain!
AFTER GRINAM NIAM COMPOSITE BUST OF A YOUNG GIRL

Looking around some more I found another
Grinam Niam maiden bust open for bidding at www.liveauctioneers.com. This one has an opening bid of $150.  Another I found is for sale for $50.

For a thriftshop find and never having been to auction before it is interesting to see what prices are being paid for these “ladies.”
🙂
AFTER GRINAM NIAM COMPOSITE BUST OF A YOUNG GIRL - 3
Here the artist’s signature is clearly seen.

I know of two other people who have one just like mine: Lidy Baars who own the online shop FrenchGardenHouse and Cindy Blackenburg who owns an online shop and has a blog of the same name,
Edith and Evelyn Vintage.




  


My curiosity, now really peaked, I got up from my chair and took all the pearl jewelry off this little lady and gently turned her over. 

Printed in big letters going vertically down the back of the neck pedestal says, “Mexico.” 

LOL!!!

So my fair maiden isn’t the real McCoy at all but a clever copy that some good modeler made a mold from an original!

Well, rats in a poke!  Nonetheless I still love my fair maiden even if she isn’t a real Grinam Niam. And I am going to continue loving her just the same.
😉

The only information was on one of the Pinterest photographs guessing that these original busts may have been made around the 1880’s. That wasn’t verified, and the writer said the same.


Oh, and I cannot find any information about Mr. Niam
except that his name is signed on the left shoulder of authentic maiden statues. If I do eventually find more info. then I will come back and update the post.

from last year’s Valentine’s table setting…

Hope you enjoyed this quick little post! Now you know the rest of the story.
🙂







Happy thrifting!
Uncategorized

Storm Watch ~ Ice Crystals and Icicles

Ice storms and snow  are almost unheard of where we came from in Southern California but I am finding the longer we live
here in North Texas the more varieties of weather
there are here…
🙂


Ethereal  in its frozen beauty sharply outlining each tree and each blade of grass with winter’s magic…
The rain was freezing in long dripping icicles as our temps sat at 29-31 degrees last week for a couple of days.
Needless to say, the heaters were working overtime to keep
ourselves and our neighbors warm!

The Girls  wore icicles in their crowns rather somewhat
poignantly.
Chandeliers of ice and dried tears…

The pansies  didn’t seem to mind the freezing rain and are a colorful understudy to the glassy crepe myrtle limbs above.


 Surreal in black and white
Amazing to me to see everything stark in neutrals.
Loved the laciness of the tree branches though ice is sooo
heavy and a few branches around our area broke from
this added weight.
Beautiful in its treachery.

This original  photo didn’t quite “pick out” the ice as it
truly was so on Instagram I played with it and came up with
the leading photograph ~ really shows the sparkle and
icy allée as it really was ~ a snow globe of
frozen magic!

Sharing with
Wow
Thursday Favorite Things
Feathered Nest Friday
Sweet Inspiration

Keep warm where you are,
Uncategorized

Transitioning Your Decor into the New Year

Transitioning your decor  from Christmas
through New Year’s and into winter is easily done when you
take some of the decorations you are already using and
continue using them in your next
winter decor vignettes…


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This year  I’ve taken away the little Christmas trees
which were in the window previously and reused some of the
pearl garlands here which were formerly draped on the main 
Christmas trees.
The sparkling white lamé fabric was wrapped around
the one Christmas tree here in the window and now gives an essence of snow ~ mimicking the
real snow dusting we had outside
earlier this morning.
🙂

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Bringing back the ironstone soup tureen with a gold-dotted sparkly candle in it is just perfect for ringing in the New Year!
The candles adds their own Nordic touch ~ 
continuing but changing the Nordic look of the reds and
whites and pinks of Christmas-time ~ 
to the simple bright Nordic whites with just touches of
pink in the dried roses and with an addition of
a pink faceted crystal ornament
laid neatly near a potted faux juniper 
decorated with its
own berries.


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Outside  the theme continues with touches of
real snow dusting the new head wreaths adorning
The Girls…

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These are just  a few simple things you can do
to keep out some of the Christmas decorations you love
but make your winter scenes a little more
just wintery…

Will be sharing a bit more of the “sparkly” as
we finally get the new chandy up…
Stay tuned!
Sharing with
Dishing It and Digging It ~ Rustic and Refined
Saturday Sparks ~ Pieced Pastimes
Inspire Me Monday ~ Create with Joy
Friday Features ~ Oh, My Heartsie Girl
Style Showcase 12 ~ Designthusiasm and Shabbyfufu


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Thank you!
🙂



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Happy New Year, Everyone!
Uncategorized

5 Steps to Make Your Own Ethereal Angel Wings

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This Christmas project has been noodling around
in my head for a bit and here is how to create
your own angel wings starting with
an ethereal but broken bird
Christmas ornament…

Years ago I bought a pair of feathered angel wings
as part of a costume for a work Halloween party.
This large set of angel wings were worn that year and
other years afterwards while I took my kids out
to trick-or-treat.
Later as the kids grew older and went out with friends
to collect candy on their own
those goose or duck feathered wings were worn
as I stayed home and passed out candy to
our neighborhood children.

So… Here’s how to create your own small pair of angel wings
for little to no cost.
These would be really fun to adapt for a young
child to wear in a Christmas play or for a birthday party
or for that trick-or-treating coming
around again soon!
🙂


Angel Wings from an Ornament

Supplies needed

wire cutting pliers
scissors
hot glue gun plus gluesticks
fabric to cover wing back piece
ribbon for ties

All of these supplies I had on hand
including the bird who I had seen at
At Home
early in the season and saw its potential.

Instructions

1.  Spread out wings and cut open the bird’s body.
{sounds a bit gory but wasn’t once I got going it wasn’t.  😉 }
Cut all the way through the back and underneath
each wing.
Remove wings from rest of ornament.
Save rest of bird ornament for another project.


Sorry this is a bit blurry!
2.  Remove any wires going across the body with pliers.
Glue any wings or feathers back to the body backpiece
as needed.

One of the wings pulled off as I was removing the wire
pieces so I had to glue it back onto the body.

3. Hot glue fabric to wing back by turning under one side
edge 1/4″- 1/2″, right side down, and glue first.
Flip the fabric back over so right side is out and
lay it across the back.
Leave enough material to create another folded under edge
on the opposite front side of wing back.
Glue fabric across the back ~ I did this in parts
beginning near the first glued-down edge.
Glue under the remaining edge.

Smooth out your fabric as you glue realigning the fabric as needed.

4. Glue the fabric to the reverse/wrong side following
the same technique as above.
I turned under the final long edge a little as I was
gluing it on top to dress up the underside of the
wing backpiece.

5.  Glue on decorative ribbon to both upper corners
of the wing backpiece.*
Tie your wings on any statue, elf, or
your own “little angel”
in need of wings!

*Glue as you are going will make this easier.  I didn’t think about that originally
and had to pry the edges open at the corners and re-glue all of it down a second time.
😉

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Angel wings can be used in many ways as you may have seen these past years in many home decorating magazines.
I used to hang our large pair off of a coat stand we have that stood by our front door at our last house.
I’ve seen them hung just on a simple nail in a wall in Nordic decorating and they just look so simple and ethereal.
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The golden moments in the stream of life rush past us and we see nothing but sand; the angels come to visit us, and we only know them when they are gone.

George Elliott 


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Merry Christmas to you!
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Roses in June

Our former backyard in California ~ definitely taken in June when the hollyhocks were beginning to bloom.
Roses in June…  There is just something 
ethereal and wonderful about roses which captures
the imagination unlike any other flower 
in the garden.
At least for me anyway!
How about you???

All part of $10 thriftshop challenges… 🙂
Whether faux or real
dark or pale

O, how much more doth beauty beauteous seem, 

By that sweet ornament which truth doth give!
The rose looks fair, but fairer we it deem 
For that sweet odour which doth in it live. 
The canker-blooms have full as deep a dye 
As the perfumed tincture of the roses, 
Hang on such thorns and play as wantonly 
When summer’s breath their masked buds discloses:
But, for their virtue only is their show, 
They live unwoo’d and unrespected fade, 
Die to themselves. Sweet roses do not so; 
Of their sweet deaths are sweetest odours made:
   And so of you, beauteous and lovely youth,
   When that shall fade, my verse distills your truth. 
 

                                           Shakespeare, Sonnet 54

Roses in any form
are always as sweet!
🙂

Ruby red roses at Ft. Worth Botanical Gardens

 Petalled perfection

on china hand-painted
Rose printed cloth
colours untainted…

Silly little ditty… I know
but seriously,

June is a big birthday month for five members 
of our family ~
my daughter, my mother, my brother,
my niece and my grandmother.

To Amy Rose, Happy 25th!!!!!
To Gene, Happy 50th!!!!!
To Anna, Happy 12th!!!
To Mom and Grammy ~ what would have been
their 79th and 108th.
And, to Daddy who passed on this day
right in between 
my daughter’s and mother’s
birthdays.
Miss you both…
😉
I’d just like to wish them all a rose-filled 
month full of best wishes!

***

Later this week I’ll share more of 
when I found 
this beautiful rose and morning glory
armchair
and I hope to finish a new 
tablecloth and napkins
and
create a lovely tablesetting for you!

Happy Monday,
Uncategorized

Flash Forward ~ Lightroom and the Canon Speedlite

Oh my!  Even though this photograph is
still dark on the statue’s face…
I am loving what the program Lightroom
and the new flash 
Canon Speedlite 430 EX III
{picked up a couple of weeks ago}
and a soft diffuser can do for photographs…

This was an accidental photograph
I took and was going to erase
but
then I thought maybe I’d include it…
Totally ugly, isn’t it?
I was just shooting in the room checking
the lighting and hit the shutter 
without focusing.
***This second photograph was really the third photograph ~
taken after shooting a photograph using the auto focus.


I learned a little bit this week about
using math to figure out what f-stop
to use when photographing.
All this time I have been playing around
with the aperature and shutter speed ~ 
the length of time
the shutter needs to be open.
Most of my photos are grainy
and
I like a lot of them that way.
They have a 1970’s look to them
that I grew up with shooting film
with my old instamatic cameras.

However if I really want to get better 
at this whole photography thing
{and I obviously do}
I need to bring some
Big Girl photography skills
to the table.
🙂

This one was one I took with the Canon Speedlite
attached to my Canon EOS Rebel SL1 camera
but without the portable pop-up
diffuser on top of the flash’s clip on plastic diffuser.
It’s blown out but not a bad photo overall.
This pop-up diffuser is a portable 16″ 
round “cover” that gets put overtop 
of the flash unit.
It works great and is a good
first diffuser and less expensive 
than purchasing a large umbrella-type diffuser
professional photographers use
in their studios and on location.
The portable diffuser I purchased is the
Fstoppers Flash Disk.


Hopefully these two pins I saved from
Pinterest will show for you.
🙂
And here’s one final photograph
that I copied to bring over
to share.
I can work with this one and lighten up
the statue’s face and sharpen it up a bit.
Our washer was spinning at the time
so you can see the shake
in the picture…
lol!
😉

Oh, and that watercolor which snuck in
up above in amongst the photos…
That’s a work in progress and a project 
I’m getting some help with…

Hope you like the changes
going on,
Happy Friday!
Sharing with
Friday at the Firestation ~ A Fireman’s Wife
Sweet Inspiration ~ The Boondock’s Blog
Friday Features ~ Oh, My Heartsie Girl!
Friendship Friday ~ Create with Joy
Dance with Jesus ~ Susan B. Meade
Saturday Sparks ~ Pieced Pastimes
Dishing It Digging It ~ Rustic and Refined
http://www.rustic-refined.com/2017/06/dishing-it-digging-it-link-party-151.html#more


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TBT Thursday ~ The Hermosa Madonna of the Prairies

It’s Throwback Thursday for me over here at French Ethereal today and I’m thinking maybe for a few other posts here in February as well.  Madonna of the Prairie is today’s unusual and cool post about how this lovely statue ended up out in a hay field in western South Dakota and also a little bit more of the behind the scenes from our cross country trip through 14 western states last summer.


It’s no mystery that I like garden statues with angels being a favorite of mine and recently I shared how I found our little statues, “The Girls” as I’ve come to call them.  My hubby and I were on our way to visit Custer State Park hoping to see a great herd of American bison and later to eat lunch at a log cabin restaurant up among the pine trees…

Even editing this photograph, the sunlight was so strong making this photograph
appear really washed out but I wanted to share how she looked out in the field.
During the whole 5300 mile two week trip we saw and visited some really cool places and I just didn’t really get to cover those here.  We were sooo busy just driving all those 5300 miles and trust me on this: riding as a passenger and trying to type on a computer is pretty near impossible.  I did try!


First there was this bump
then that bump
then another bump.
Two hundred miles of jostling around over roads that 
swish and swoosh as you are tapping away on computer keys for
what is normally a post that takes about
two to four hours to compile
edit and add all the photographs.
It’s enough to make anyone really seasick
You get the picture.
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😉



The view from the back of our cabin ~ Hart Ranch RV Resort, Hermosa, SD

I did most of my travel writing at night in the hotels we stayed at along our prairie route.
{If I wasn’t too worn out ~ note: I did the majority of the driving.}  Then other day I was moving files around and moving photos off the computer and I came across these photos again of this Madonna out in the field there near Hart Resort RV Park {our campground for several days} in Hermosa, South Dakota {an upcoming post!}.

So… Why Madonna of the Prairie??  I asked myself this same question:
What in the world was this huge statue doing out in the middle of nowhere just standing tall and majestic in this field???

A small herd of bison grazing in a meadow at Custer State Park.

Taking a quick look about there was nothing remarkable about the land ~ just a field where hay grass had grown and recently been mown and gathered in as cattle feed for this winter.
This field would probably yield one more crop of hay again towards the end of summer in late September or early October before the first snow flurries which in South Dakota {according to my South Dakotan daughter~in~law, first snows can happen right at the end of October/very early November}.
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–>


















But along Madonna’s skirts sheaves of wheat standing up tall give us a clue.  It’s fairly easy to guess that she was put out here in this field as a visible protector against crop failures, tornadoes and any other natural disasters.  Then there’s the little sign that says that this lovely Madonna is a representation of the Virgin Mary, the mother of Christ Jesus.  I was wondering if a group of Christian women might be asking God to protect their communities, the yearly harvests,
these people’s very lives and livelihoods.












The real story couldn’t be more different! 

Rancher John McMahon owns Spring Creek Ranch and raises herds of cattle there along highway 79.  He is the one who put up this Madonna on this hill back around 2003.  A short article by Dan Daly of the Rapid City describes in greater detail how this statue came to be:  

Mr. McMahon, while visiting a friend in Montana sometime before 2003, was taken to see a statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe that this friend and others had had commissioned and put up along a highway there in Montana.  McMahon liked it so well that he decided to do the same thing and had this one created.  You can read Daly’s article by clicking on the highlighted word Madonna, above left.  

Well, that’s it!  No super mystery and my whole idea of this statue’s being there as a symbol to all for protection is a bust.  😉  However, looking back when I think of the stories I read when I was a child by  Laura Ingalls Wilder of her families’ existence on the open prairies there’s no question farmers needed all the blessings that God could provide!  Plagues of grasshoppers still happen ~ not so much since the invention of today’s modern sprays combatting them ~ but there’s always a new pest out there ready to gobble up crops.  

my own little Madonna, in a way


So in some small way I still prefer to think of 
this Madonna statue as being a benevolent benefactor protecting 
the people there in Hermosa.  As the name “hermosa” implies:  
The Madonna of the Prairies 
is indeed “beautiful.”
xoxo Barb 🙂




Will be sharing with
Feathered Nest Friday ~ French Country Cottage
Friday Feature ~ Oh, My Heartsie Girl
Home Sweet Inspiration ~ The Boondocks Blog
Inspire Me Wednesday ~ Adventures of Mel

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Sunday Sentiments ~ How "The Girls" Came to Be and a Cinderella Story

How “The Girls” came to be a
part of the gardens we have had 
over the years is actually 
nice little story…


I’ve always liked statuary since I was a little girl.
My friend Kathy had several 
angels and other lovely statuary 
in her front and backyards.
These were scattered about and you’d 
come upon them tucked into each planter bed 
while taking a tour around her 
gorgeously green gardens
checking out all the roses and 
flowering plants 
that would be in bloom.

It was a bonus when you’d sit outside 
at one of two sunny sitting areas where
you could admire a few of these
ethereal statues while
enjoying an alfresco luncheon
or while
talking over tea and dessert.

She had this same angel as mine on 
the little patio to the left of 
her front door entryway.
Every time I’d come over to tea
I’d see this beautiful cement angel
with a lit candle in her heart~shaped dish
surrounded by mini dried pink 
noisette roses.
Other times this angel held just larger
rose petal blooms in her bowl
which would waft their glorious scent
heavenward
perfuming the entire front entry!

I had admired this angel for about a year
or so when I finally asked Kathy
where she had found it and 
its twin in the backyard.
She had found both at various
HomeGoods.

From then on I was on a quest…

For about a year I haunted the Temecula
HomeGoods looking for an angel
I could call my own but 
never finding one.
When one day while we were out shopping
with friends from our
Victorian Tea Society tea group at 
HomeGoods in Poway ~ turning an aisle corner 
finally found one in 
the garden area!



I could hardly believe my good fortune!
I wasn’t letting “her” out of my sight…
Somehow I wrestled this big girl 
into my cart.
{you see, these angels aren’t light little things but rather very solid
being that they ARE made of cement and weighing in 
at about 50 to 70 pounds or so}
Everything else that day became superfluous.
I didn’t need another thing.
I was happy and ready to go home and 
decorate with this angel girl!
🙂

The group was planning on going to 
two more thrift stores
looking for elusive treasures.
Didn’t matter to me ~ I’d found what
I was hoping and dreaming for already.
I had my sweet angel!
🙂
Surprisingly, I found a second angel
a few months later…
for 
$29.00 on clearance!
Of course, she came home with me, too.
😉

The Vineyard Girl came about
while wandering about in
Old Town Temecula, California.
There is a little garden shop situated between
two western~style buildings right on
Main Street as you come through the middle
of this antique district
which sells those perfectly swirly rusty 
wire furniture and chandelier pieces.

When this store first opened for business
the owner carried more of 
what I call
ethereal pieces for your garden
and this 
lithesome lovely lady 
who forever grows and
gathers grapes from her garden
was there waiting…
It was meant to be!

She was the first big statue I brought home
to our then new house ~ our Big House.
The Angel Girls came later.

Now a funny story! My son and daughter and I
 always carved pumpkins with crosses and 
hearts and such for Halloween night 
to share our faith
in a quiet way
as children and teens 
would come calling to trick or treat.

That year after I’d found the front yard angel
{as I’d come to call her}
I thought I’d put a nice candle in among
the fall potpourri
scenting her little heart~shaped bowl
to welcome our little dressed-up friends
as they rang our doorbell.

She looked lovely that evening!
Her candle glowing brightly
when viewed from 
out on the sidewalk.
The pumpkins glowed pleasantly, too
and gave off a faint scent of pumpkin goodness
as you walked towards our front entryway.

All was good that night ~ no tricks to be had as
children came and rang out their merry
“Trick or treat!!!”
and 
we gave away 
many a nummy
chocolate goody that evening.

Next day though I noticed something
not so good
when we came home from school…
Our poor angel girl’s nose was 
permanently burnt!
🙁


No amount of cleaner would wash
the soot from her face
so…
from that day forward 
her new name was…
Cinderella.
😉

And now you know the rest of the story!
Drop me a line and tell me your 
favorite story of 
something you found and 
how this treasure 
came to grace your home.

Looking forward to reading your stories!
xoxo Barb 🙂


“For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.”  Psalms 91:11


Sharing with
Dishing It Digging It ~ Rustic and Refined
Refresh Restyle Inspiration Monday ~ VMG206
A Life in Balance
Inspire Me Monday ~ Create With Joy