What Do You See Outside YOUR Open Window Today?

What Do You See Outside YOUR Open Window Today?
Remember: "When God closes a door, He always opens a window!" You never know what might be out there waiting for you!

Friday, April 24, 2020

Friday Fotos Were Hard to Find This Week

Good Morning! It's Friday again...and my hubby and I both woke up thinking it must be Saturday by now...I guess because we had pizza last night. LOL. We got out of our "routine" to make life a little more interesting.

I have been struggling to find some new photos for this Friday post. I guess I already shared them all earlier this week, and there hasn't been much to see since then.  We did stop by and visit with our "Grandpuppies" one day this week:

This is Sugar and Spice, although that is out of order for this picture. This is really Spice and Sugar, but that doesn't sound right, so you know what I mean. Spice is the cute little brown and black pup on the left and Sugar is the sweet white and pink (albino) on the right. They are such sweet doggies and are always happy to see "Grandma".  Glad we don't have to practice "social distancing" with them.

We stopped by to see a custom order cabinet that our son is building for someone, per the customer's color preferences and design.  He was still putting the finishing touches on it and getting it ready to deliver.  So thankful that he has had plenty of work during this crisis. When you are self-employed finances can be pretty fragile during lean times. But God has blessed our son and his wife in that they have stayed very busy and orders continue to come in not only on their Etsy site, but also for custom items like this.    
Here is the link to their  two different Etsy sites: https://www.etsy.com/shop/BRCoastalRusticDecor, and also https://www.etsy.com/shop/RusticForestStudio , in case you want to know what they do.  Our daughter in law also works at Home Depot full time, which is an "essential" job, so she has stayed quite busy in addition to helping out with painting shelves, etc., in her "spare time".  

We thank the Lord for how HE has blessed them during this time.


Hubby and I took a quick walk early this morning between rain storms. We had quite the thunderstorm roll through during the night, and according to the weather radar they are supposed to start back up again a little later this morning, so we hurried up and went to our favorite walking place to get some exercise before it was too late.  I thought the "face" on the hat  on my hubby's back was kind of funny, so I had to take a picture.  There really wasn't anything else to take a picture of. You know it's getting bad when you take pictures of faces on hats...


And these pretty little yellow-gold wildflowers were the only flowers I could see blooming this morning. Not sure what they are...I may have to look them up...
Okay, I found it. It is called "Alicia -Chapmannia Floridana , and here is a link to more information:  http://hawthornhillwildflowers.blogspot.com/2014/10/alicia-chapmannia-floridana.html

I know you wanted to know about it just as much as I did.  So now you know as much as I do. LOL.

So what else have I been doing?  Well, I noticed that our friend Sandi over at Rose Chintz Cottage, who shares wonderful tea parties, was showing some lovely little silver spoons earlier this week. It made me think about some silverware that I have that was in bad need of polishing:

Before Polishing


 And after polishing and polishing, it still doesn't look all that wonderful. I might need some kind of better tarnish remover. I discovered that in our last home we had a lot of sulfur in the air due to having sulfur in the water.  So anything with any amount of silver in it really tarnished badly. I gave up on silver jewelry while there because it just took too much work to keep it clean.  So anyway, these lovely antique silver pieces were in bad shape. I may have to look up what I need to do to bring them back to their original beauty. Any ideas?
After polishing! Help!

 I especially love this little relish fork. This came from my mother's collection, but I am not sure where she got it. She collected some special silver items like this. The front of the fork has a "B" engraved on it.  And the back has the year "1906" engraved on it. It is a 1847 Rogers Bros. Vintage Grape pattern.


I also love the beautiful "compote spoon" (seen in the above photo in the middle). This was actually a wedding gift from my Aunt Margie, which I think may have originally come from my Grandma Tedlie's silverware. (My maternal grandmother).

I love the reflection in the spoon below as I took its picture, although for the life of me I cannot figure out what the beautiful blue thing is beside me on the left.  I have gone back and looked again where I photographed this, and there is nothing in that area that should look like that! Weird, huh?




Proverbs 3:13-15
13.  "Happy is the man who finds wisdom,
and the man who gains understanding;
14.  For her proceeds are better than the profits of silver,
and her gain than fine gold.
15.  She is more precious than rubies,
and all the things you may desire cannot compare with her."

Reminds me of this song:

"Lord, You are more precious than silver.
Lord, You are more costly than gold.
Lord, You are more beautiful than diamonds, and
Nothing I desire compares with You.

And who can weigh the value of knowing You
Oh, who can judge the worth of who You are
Lord, who can count the blessing of loving You
Who can sing just how great You are
How great You are

Lord, You are more precious than silver.
Lord, You are more costly than gold.
Lord, You are more beautiful than diamonds, and
Nothing I desire compares with You.
Oh
Lord, You are more precious than silver.
Lord, You are more costly than gold.
Lord, You are more beautiful than diamonds, and
Nothing I desire compares with You.

Nothing I desire compares with You.
Nothing I desire compares with You."


This seems like a good place to stop for today.  
I hope you are having a blessed day wherever you are, and that you you know that 
"nothing" I or you could desire could possibly compare with knowing Jesus as our Savior.
He is more "precious than silver" (and will never tarnish!). He is more "costly than gold", and so much more beautiful than diamonds.  
"Nothing I desire compares with You." (Jesus).
Amen.

Postscript: I decided to finish polishing some other silver pieces that I had from my mother. I repolished the pieces from above, and they came out better this time. Here are a few pictures of before, in between and after. I could not get the tarnish off of these pieces in our other house because of the sulfur. I am amazed that they all came out clean again, after a LOT of "elbow grease" and Wright's Silver Cream! Now if they would just stay that way. Any hints on how to keep them from tarnishing again?



My mother would be so proud of me! LOL!

22 comments:

  1. Spice and Sugar (reading left to right in the photo - smile!) look so cute! I'm sure they love when you come to visit them. One of our grand doggies in Orlando looks to be the same breed as them.

    That relish fork is very artsy. Reminds me, however, of the pitchfork Ursula wields in the Disney animated movie of The Little Mermaid.

    And Benton's custom cabinet -- wow. That is sooo charming!

    Rain -- yes, we got it too, and may have more this afternoon. Our lakes and ponds are already looking better for the moisture received in the last few days.

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    1. We are SO thankful for the rain. It is helping our pond to come back a little at a time. We are also thankful our storm wasn't severe. Just good rain. Yes, Sugar and Spice are sweet doggies, and they love it when we come to visit. They are Pekingnese. They are really good girls. Thank you for the kind words...Benton has worked really hard on this cabinet that this lady wanted. She changed the color scheme a couple of times, and he has had to change to please what she wanted of course. He will be happy to deliver it to her tomorrow...and then she says she has another order for a long bench. So that is good news! Every little bit helps. I love the silverware, just don't have any good excuse to use them right now. By the time we can entertain again, they will be tarnished again and need more polish! LOL. Oh well, it kept me busy. Have a blessed weekend.

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  2. What cute little pups, Pamela! And that cabinet? Wow! Benton truly has a marvelous gift. I did get a kick out of the "face in the hat," and I think it's so observant of you to have spotted it.
    May we always desire Jesus above all else!
    Blessings!

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    1. Thank you, Martha. We do love our Grandpuppies. They are sweet little girls. Yes, Benton does good work, even when the customer changes her mind midstream when building it and he has to make changes. Hopefully she will be happy when she gets it tomorrow. She already has another order for him for a bench. So that is good news. And yes, Jesus is above all else. Amen!!!

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  3. That cabinet is beautiful!! It's my style. Love the silver too. Precious for how old it is but more precious because it was your maternal grandmothers. We sleep in a sleigh bed that my granny had. It is only a double size but we sleep so comfortable. I love knowing my granny slept in it all those years ago. ( She was born in 1883 and passed when I was 18.) Also, have to agree with Martha Jane....may we always desire Jesus above all else! Patty McDonald

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    1. Welcome, Patty! I don't know if I have met you here before, so I am happy you stopped by today to visit. It is wonderful to have special pieces of furniture and silverware, dishes, etc., that belonged to our loved ones. I also love that connection to those who came before us. Your "granny" was just one year older than my grandma, and mine passed when I was 15. I do have one dresser that belonged to her when she was a young girl, and it also belonged to her mother before her! So it really is old. Yes, Jesus is our greatest love and desire. Without Him we would have nothing...and no hope! We are blessed to be His children. Please come back and visit again. Do you have a blog? I would love to visit you.

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  4. The grand-pups are adorable and that hutch is amazing! Good job! Your silver pieces are so pretty! I like to use Tarnex on badly tarnished silver but you have to be careful with it. Happy Friday and weekend, Pam. Hugs!

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    1. WE love our little grandpuppies. I guess they are the closest that I will get to having any granddaughters, and that's okay. They are sweet and always happy to see us. I've never tried Tarnex. Is that the kind you just dip the silver in it? I finally got these done, but it was hard work and a lot of silver polish. Hopefully they won't tarnish so badly here from now on. Take care and have a blessed weekend.

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  5. Love the picture of the pups and your son has done a beautiful job on that custom piece.I am sure the new owner will love it.
    I have a bunch of silver I need to polish, too. It's a job but things are so beautiful when polished.
    Have a blessed weekend and Stay Safe. xo Diana

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    1. Thank you for taking time out from your unpacking to stop in and visit a while. I know you are tired from all the settling in. The silver can wait...mine has waited quite a while. We've been in this house now 8 months...and it had sat quite a while before that because I gave up on it while still in the "sulfur house". LOL. Now I just need to throw a party and use it! Oh, wait...I guess that will have to wait too! I hope it doesn't tarnish before we can have another party!!! Take care and God bless you my friend.

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  6. So...umm...your coming here to polish whatever, rightttttttttttt? ((grin and laughter))

    I hope you have a beautiful weekend, friend.

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    1. Ha Ha! They won't let me into NY, and they won't let you out. I guess we are out of luck for now. Plus my thumb is sore from rubbing so hard. I wore a hole in it. LOL. Seriously.

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  7. some days it seems as though there is little or nothing to take pictures of. You did ok despite the challenge . I love the old silverware. It came out looking good.

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    1. Thank you, Ruth. Some days we just have to make up our own pictures. And I do think of it as a challenge. If the Lord doesn't provide me with the spontaneous photo opportunity, then I have to come up with something! In this case, I "killed two birds with one stone"...got my silverware polished AND had something to photograph! LOL. Thanks for stopping by.

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  8. I enjoyed your post today and your sense of humour :-)) The face on your husband's hat was very cute. Good thing you spotted it to give you something to do while you were out walking. Your son does a very fine job of furniture making. I would sure love to have him living near me so he could come over and build some thing. As for tarnished silverware, I don't think there is a way to keep them from tarnishing. But there might be an easier way to clean the silver ware. I picked this up from the internet and I also used to see this man with last name Hailey demonstrate it on television. "Tarnished silver is no match for this aluminum foil "recipe." Bring one liter of water, one tablespoon of baking soda, and one piece of aluminum foil to a boil. Drop silverware in the pot for 10 seconds (longer if it's very tarnished), then remove using kitchen tongs."

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    1. Thank you for stopping by for a visit. And certainly my son would love to build something for you if distance wasn't an issue! I don't think they have ever shipped anything internationally, but there is always a first time! Have you ever tried the aluminum foil recipe yourself? I may try it with something I don't care about too much first to see how it works. Sounds interesting. Thanks for the tip!

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  9. p.s. I forgot to say how cute Sugar and Spice are. If I was allowed to have a dog in the condo I would want one of this breed or something like it. They are so cute. Also we are having rain all week and is supposed to be very heavy Saturday and Sunday. Good thing I got a few things planted but still have more to do even in my small patio garden. Have a wonderful weekend.

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    1. Yes, Sugar and Spice are both very nice! (rhyme). They really are sweet pups and the only issue I see that creates a bit of a mess is that they do shed. But they try to keep them clipped during the warmer months, so that helps keep the shedding down. I hope your garden will grow with all the rain you will be getting today and tomorrow. Nothing helps a garden grow better than God's watering can!! I pray that your weekend is blessed as well.

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  10. Oh, your grand doggies are adorable! So precious - and yes, it's good not to have to practice social distancing with them. Puppy and kitten love is great - no substitute for human hugs, but still good! Your son does such great work - the cabinet is beautiful! And, I love all your pics - even the funny faced hat! HOPE you have a great weekend!

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    1. Thank you, Debbie! We do love our little grand-doggies. They are sweet and they love us. That makes us happy. Thank you for the kind words...and yes, the face i the hat kept me entertained as I followed hubby down the road on our walk. I poke along looking for things to take pictures of, and that was the most interesting thing I saw! LOL. Hope you have a blessed weekend.

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  11. Those first 3 pieces of silverware are stunning! I love that face in the hat, some days I see faces in so many different things. It's great that you even saw it and thought to take a picture!

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    1. Thank you, Cindy. I wore a hole in my finger polishing all those pieces of silverware! I don't plan to do that again for a long time! LOL. I see faces in the rugs, the floors, the wallpaper...yes, I must be getting really bored. LOL. But truly there are some interesting faces if you take the time to notice those things. Life is full of surprises and good things too if we just take the time to notice. God is good.

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