Friday, September 30, 2005

More Things Than Time

Ok, Michelle! Here it is as promised!

I cannot believe how much time is passing between posts for me. I just seem to stay so busy doing things, and my dear hubby gets upset if I stay up late at the computer!

One thing that has kept me occupied lately is an old antique cabinet that I am repairing and refinishing! I'm really excited about it. It was in such bad shape before I started. Emerson thought I was crazy when I bought it and brought it home. I started working on it last week. I've done almost all of the repairs by myself--I've only had to ask Emerson for his help a couple of times. After I got the repairs on the bottom part completed, I started stripping it. It is going to be BEAUTIFUL. When Emerson came in the shop and saw it, he was really shocked. He said, "When I looked at that before, all I saw was a piece of JUNK! Now it's beautiful!" I can't wait to get it finished. I still have a lot of work to do, stripping doors, drawers, repairing and stripping the top section. When I get it finished I'm going to put either scrapbook materials in it, or quilting fabric and accessories. It will be great!


You know, as I was typing this about my cabinet, it made me think just how much my life is like that antique cabinet--no, no, not that I'm OLD, but about how my life was in such a shambles before Jesus began to "refinish" me! He's had to make some major repairs. He's had to remove a lot of scratches. He's even taking off the old finish. And there's still a lot of work to be done--He says He's not finished with me yet (See Phillipians where it says "He began a good work in me...."). I know that there's still some major work to be done, but the structure is becoming more solid all the time. I know He considers me precious, because He paid so much for me. And I'm sure He is just as excited to see the finished product (in Heaven) as I am to see my cabinet finally sitting in its appointed place!

Tuesday, I got to go to Jayme's house. Michelle and Jayme and I scrapbooked--we had everything out all over everywhere!! But what fun we had. We sure got a lot of scrapbook pages made. It was fun to pool all our resources and get to make such neat pages! Of course, I got some "Nana" time in there, too! What beautiful babies they are! And sooo much fun! Addy "scrapbooked" with us. She had a picture her mom had given her. She put buttons on it. She laid it on different papers. She rounded a corner or two. She played with a lot of my embelishments. She especially liked the big cardboard letters I had just gotten. She laid out a few and then said, "Nana, what does this spell?" "Pladgnr", I replied. Then she added a few more letters. "Nana, what does THIS spell?" "Pladgnrmsuf." Addy, giggling, adds a few more letters. "Nana, what does THIS spell?" And the word got harder and harder for Nana to pronounce! With much giggling, the game continued, until finally she had ALL the letters lined up for me to pronounce. Whew! I was glad I hadn't gotten two sets of those letters!!!

We also took time to go to a couple of antique stores. I'm collecting antique rolling pins (among other things) so I love to go look. I didn't buy rolling pins, but I found a really neat old sewing machine drawer for $5--it will sit on my new cabinet! I also bought a little red bench. It will go perfectly with a little red stool that I've had since I was a little girl. My grandkids argue over who gets to sit on it, so now at least I'll have 2 red things for them to argue over!

I got 2 antique rolling pins on e-bay last week. One of them has already arrived and I am expecting the second one anytime. I am going to do a program for our antique club on rolling pins--I am having trouble finding any information about the history of antique rolling pins--so if any of you know anything--PLEASE share!!


Today, we'll be getting ready for our Garden Club to come to our place Monday evening. We're having a weinie roast with all the fixin's. I love this time of the year, when the air begins to have a little "nip" to it, and you can smell the leaves (we NEVER rake here, since we live in the country), and I love to *shuffle* through them. I'll be putting up our outdoor fall decorations today. Down at the entrance there will be a scarecrow, a bale of hay or two, some pumpkins and squash, and a BIG lighted (plastic) jackolantern!

By the fire ring, I'll be putting out the cowboy & cowgirl jackolanterns--last year we used real pumpkins, but this year I'm going to use craft pumpkins so we can keep them from year to year! It takes quite a while to make them!! I'll try to post pictures later.

Well, I don't know how many of you read clear to the end--I know it's a long post. But I'm glad you came, and if you read this far, I'm glad you stayed.

May God continue to hold each of you in the palm of His hand.

5 comments:

Michelle said...

Yeah Joyce! I'm so glad to read your post. I had so much fun last week scrapbooking and can't wait until we get a chance to do it again. You and Jayme are a blast!!!

Michelle

Michelle said...

Joyce, I don't know how to get ahold of you through email. But, I'm not going to place an order until November probably. You can look through the catalog the weekend we go to OKC. Or did you need something now? Let me know. I figured I'd wait until then and do a mass order for everyone who's wanting some things...

Jenny said...

Joyce! I love it when you post, girl!

You're so crafty and talented. I am very impressed. And I share your love for old rolling pins. I have one that my Granny Great owned back in the 1930's and it has milled handles, painted red. Very cool.

Because I made this mistake not too long ago, I just want to make sure you don't do the same thing: If you're painting or staining the inside of the cabinet, make sure that the finish won't contaminate any of your scrapbooking supplies.

It was so sad when I got into my cabinet to get some stikers and paper out, and they'd yellowed because of the finish inside. It was NOT a banner moment for me.

I so miss knowing what you and Jayme are up to all the time.

**hugs**

Joyce said...

Michelle, maybe you can get down to see Jayme while she's laid up with her ankle!!! I'm sure that would brighten her day!!

Jayleigh, I'll have to take a picture of my rolling pin collection and post it. It's so much fun!

Thanks for the advice about the cabinet--I sure hadn't thought about it. The interior of the top part is currently painted red--and I like that, so even though I have to strip it, because so much junk is stuck to it, I'll probably paint it red again. And now, after your advice--I may paint the inside of the bottom part red, too. Was it stain that you used that caused the problem, or was it paint?

Thanks for continuing to visit my blog even if I don't post too often!

*hugs* to you too!!

Jenny said...

Paint! Maybe just make sure it's open to the air and cures well for a long time before you just stick things on the shelves. ;-)