Happy First Day of Spring from Pamela's Victorian Cottage Fixer Upper!

Good Morning beautiful friends in blogland...Happy First Day of Spring!  I do hope and pray that this day is springlike and beautiful wherever you are!!  We have had some lovely cooler days this week, which for us, in Florida, is actually quite delightful!  Here's a few pictures of spring in my yard:

The purple wisteria is blooming like crazy this year.  I love that it is decorating my fence in our courtyard.  I wonder if you can see those two cardinals sitting in the tree above and beyond the fence?

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this as much as I do.  The bees and butterflies have certainly been enjoying it. 

Oh, which reminds me, we saw our first Ruby Throated Hummingbird of the season the other day...she was feasting upon the one and only blossom on my bottlebrush tree (again)...just like at the end of the season last summer:  (this picture is from last September, but it could have been the other day because it was just exactly the same!)

So I have put out my hummingbird feeders and am waiting for the rest of the tribe to arrive...

Now, back to life in Pamela's Victorian Cottage!  Things have been quite busy there this past week.  I will try to keep it as condensed as I can, but I have a lot to share with you today!  I hope you don't mind going into this little imaginary miniature world with me...from the comments I've seen on other previous posts, you seem to enjoy it and many have expressed a desire to do the same thing.  I wonder what it is about miniature dollhouses and villages, and such, that seem to draw us into a world of "make believe" and peace and love...and we love to just be like a little child again when life was much simpler...  I think with all of the turmoil of the real world out there, we need some way to retreat and withdraw from the fray for a while to regain our sense of balance and inner peace. 

I do find that peace when I draw closer to the Lord, and spend time alone with Him, reading His Word, praying, singing hymns and choruses and just worshiping Him.  When I don't have that daily time of personal and private devotions with the Lord, I suffer.    Believe it or not, spending time "playing" also gives me time to refocus my thoughts and while I am trying to solve ways to fix this or create that, it is like God is wrapping His loving arms around me like a loving parent would, and soothing my troubled brow and helping me to get ready to go back out and play in the big world. 

So with those thoughts in mind, let me welcome you back to Pamela's Victorian Cottage.  We have some special visitors here today:

First, let me show you where we moved our house to since I had to get it off of the dining room table:

I found this special table/cabinet that my son had built a few years ago, and we were using it in the guest bathroom to hold towels, etc., but decided it could be put to better use here to hold the dollhouse.  I wanted to keep it in the dining room/kitchen area, where I spend a lot of time and where I would be able to see it often and enjoy it.  Even Baby Elva is happy to have it next to her....she would really love to get up there and play with it...but, well...maybe when she gets a little older...
Anyway, the dollhouse is sitting on a separate piece of plywood, that is covered with felt on both sides, so I can easily swivel it around on the top of the table to look at the back side.

The table is also sitting on double sided rugs, so the whole table can easily be moved across the floor if I want to work on it at the dining room table again.  I thought about putting castors on the little table so I could roll it, but that seemed a bit impractical right now, and this works just fine for my current needs.   

After I completed a few necessary new improvements, like putting lights in the house (battery operated "fairy lights"), and I touched up the paint in a few places...the cottage is now ready to receive guests:

You know the Bible tell us in Hebrews 13:1-2 the following words of admonition:

"Let brotherly love continue.

Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have

unwittingly entertained angels."

And so it seemed appropriate that our first guests to our little home would be angelic visitors.
The first guest to arrive at the front door is "The Angel of Happiness"...(you will recognize these visitors from the Willow Tree collection)...And this angel brings a happy spirit to our home:

"Free to sing, laugh, dance and create"....

Our next visitor is the "Angel of Freedom", and she is holding a butterfly with the intent of setting it free.  She is "For Those with a boundless spirit of independence".... which gives us the freedom to explore our beautiful world and the will to keep moving forward even in the face of opposition...

As we walk around to the other side of the front porch, we have a little "Secret Garden" area,  which says: "Welcome Fairies"...Well...yes, in our little imaginary world, we welcome all the sweet little creatures that God has placed here for our enjoyment.  But this particular garden is like my own Secret Garden/Memorial Garden at my real house...a place to spend time alone with the Lord and meditate on His Word, and be comforted when feeling sorrow or deep concerns...

and so it is appropriate that our visiting angel is this sweet angel, holding a large conch shell to her ear and she says, 

"Thinking of you--Keeping you close in my thoughts."

Now as we enter the home, we find some other very special guests:

This lovely angel, holding a teapot, is the Angel of the Kitchen,

"Warm comfort between friends"

Which is what we always want to experience when we spend time with our friends...a time of warm comfort and encouragement as we share a cup of tea just enjoy one another's friendship.

As we go upstairs to the children's room, we find another special guest, 

The Angel of "Love of Learning"

"Open Books, Open Minds"

We want to always be learning good things in our home...and to share them with our children and loved ones.  The best book to read, of course, is The Bible, and to teach it diligently to our children.

Deuteronomy 6:5-7 says:

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, 

with all your soul, 

and with all your strength.

And these words which I command you today 

shall be in your heart.

You shall teach them diligently to your children, 

and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, 

when you walk by the way, 

when you lie down, and when you rise up."

Now as we go back downstairs to the living room we find our final and perhaps most special guest of all:

"Angel of the Heart"

"For those who love and are loved."

Love is the very heart of the home.

Without love, there really is no true home.

We want our homes to be filled with love first of all, and then all these other things will follow.

And so here are our special visitors inside the house:

And also those who are waiting outside to welcome us:

I do hope you have enjoyed visiting with us and our special guests today.  We just never know who may be coming to our doors...we need to be ready to welcome the stranger in who may actually be one of God's special ambassadors of 

Happiness, Freedom, Thinking of You personally, Warm comfort between friends, the Love of Learning with Open Books, Open Minds,

and the greatest of all is

Love...

"And now abide faith, hope, love,

these three,

but the greatest of these is Love."

I Corinthians 13:13

Please come back and visit with us again!