Friday, April 5, 2013

Be Inspired #133: "Flower Beds"

Hi Everyone, time for "Be Inspired"!
The place to share what's been inspiring you this week.

 Do you need a little (or big) dose of Spring?
Just take a peek at these beautiful floral bed sets and you'll feel like your surrounded by garden posies.
Anne from Fiona and Twig shared her photo shoot of "The Sweet Pea Collection" taken at Round Top during Antique Week. The fabrics in this bedding are just amazing...and the photographer ain't half bad either...










Lynn from Shabby Story used a pair of Garden Gloves 
from the Dollar Store for a little Spring Fresh decor.



Lara from Air Kissed used natural dyes to create these
pastel delights in her post, Natural Easter Eggs 



Yvonne from Stone Gable shares her Easy Easter Table
 with a formula for Tablescaping throughout the year.



Anne From White Lace Cottage used an old step ladder
 in her kitchen to tie her two cabinets together.
 LOVE this vintage look and great for display!



Carrying Crosses from Andrea at Town and Prairie is a beautiful post,
sharing her thoughts on Holy Week.



Thanks ladies for joining in last week!

Today's Sponsor Spotlight
 is on Lucy's wonderful "reborn" jewelry pieces
Run by her Etsy Shop and check out her fun designs!








Hope you'll join in today and share your inspiration from this last week. Please have a link back to Common Ground to be featured. I really appreciate each one of you who comes by and joins the party each week, thanks bunches!

xoxo,



Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Be Inspired Showcase

I always love going through all your links from Be Inspired Friday. We've had so many wonderful posts on Spring and Easter. Here are few, that were also top visited links from last week.

Mary from Home is Where the Boat Is has had changes in her Spring weather, like so many of us have had. In her post, "Hopping Up and Down the Bunny Trail" she shares her Spring and Easter decor in the Potting Shed.



OK, I want one of these stamped spoons!




Jennifer's Daughter's Wedding
 from Town and Country Living is such a beautiful event.
Here are mom and daughter. They could be sisters!







found a great new way to use beadboard wallpaper.
What a neat idea, on the Fridge!!


and Denise on a Whim gave us One Shutter Two Ways
Love this great turquoise for Spring!




See you tomorrow morning for Be Inspired!


Gotta question for you...
anyone else out there having issues with your "comment email"?
I'm having multiple emails show up of the same comments.
And it's making me a little crazy...
just wondering.

Oh, and Be Inspired will go live a little early tomorrow,
so just a little heads up!


xoxo,

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

The Marketplace: Etsy and Online Boutique Link-up

Hi Everyone,
Hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend.
Have you finished off all the chocolate bunnies?

Time to link up your Etsy and Online Boutique items,
and then stick around to do some shopping!

Here are a few great links from last week:

from Red Hen Home



from Vintage Goodness 1



from Lovely Bones Emporium



from La Croix Rosion





from The Butler's Pantry




And today Michele from Glass Bead Treasures has the Spotlight.
 Here are a few items from her great Etsy Shop.
 These just reminded me of Spring!









I can just see a bride carrying this beautiful
Voguemont Beaded Purse


Thanks so much Michele!


This linky is for items that are FOR SALE only. Please link up to three of your items, (with a direct link if possible). You don't have to have a blog to join in, but if you do, I'd love you to grab this image above for somewhere on your sidebar letting people know where to join in on the shopping fun. This link party will be live throughout the week, so please come back to check on new listings. 

Thanks so much everyone,
have fun shopping!

Sunday, March 31, 2013

Everybody's mad...

at me!


I knew this day would have to come.
But they weren't happy.
Lot's of griping and pouting.

Yes, the bird feeder on the deck had to go back to the tree,
so I could be ready to put out the hummingbird feeder.

These little guys kept me hopping last year until late October.
I didn't get a feeder up until probably July, but then they mobbed me.

(Google Images)

They come back to the feeder they summer at, and I want to be ready,
'cause I'm hoping to see a little of this...



(Google Images)

This afternoon was glorious!
Sunny and warm and fabulous...


So I took a little time to straighten up the deck.
(OK, I cleaned it, it was a mess)



and potted the daffodils and tulips that had been on the sunporch.
Yes, the ones that now have bite marks and chunks out of them.

wonder who...?


Just in case you missed the post with all the nasty grunge
that critter feeding can cause.


Earlier in February and March...




just downright gross...
but the kitties and I loved watching them.





So now things are looking more like Spring...
and a little tidier.


Still too early to bring out the geraniums that I winter,
but soon.




I have so much outdoor clean-up, but that will wait.
Today I did something I thoroughly enjoyed...

joining in with these parties this week:

Met Monday at Between Naps on the Porch
Tweak it Tuesday at Cozy Little House
The Scoop at Cedar Hill Ranch
A Stroll Thru Life



xoxo,

The "Perfect" Easter

Amid all the rabbits, colored eggs, budding flowers, and fun that Easter brings to mind, I didn't want to let this time pass without celebrating the real meaning of Easter, also referred to as Resurrection Sunday. I have a few vintage pieces that bring that true celebration not only to mind, but fully to our hearts.



This glass image and mirror piece is one of a few that I have collected that have a religious theme. It was manufactured by The Vernon Company from around the early 1900's and may have been a "promotional" item. I have others that I think were parts of calenders, funeral home advertisements, thermometers, and insurance company ads...but this is my favorite; Jesus as a young boy holding the Passover Lamb.




I've had a soft spot for lambs and sheep for many years. Their innocent and trusting faces can melt my heart and bring me to tears. It always distressed me to think about the sacrificing of lambs in the Old Testament scriptures. I know that in the Hebrew traditions and scripturally there is reason and symbolism for the choice of the lamb. It had to be perfect, without spot or blemish; innocent. Our sin has been paid for by the only One who is without sin, spot or blemish. Jesus is the perfect sacrifice, otherwise we could not hope to have relationship with God.



One of my sweet sheep



I remade this cross two years ago, after retrieving it from the gravesite of my father-in-law. We went back a few days after the funeral, when all the flowers were wilting, and I couldn't leave it behind. I removed the spent blooms and saved it till Easter, when I covered it in moss and added the faux lilies and ivy. When I brought it back out this Easter Season, I was again so glad that I will have the opportunity for that remembrance each year.


On the Dining Room buffet I have another of the glass images,
 this time of the Last Supper. 











This is a header that I commissioned a year or so ago and have never used. When I started this blog my headers were of sheep for the first six months or so. Not just because I love sheep, but that God gave me the title to my blog many years ago in a dream. (long before I even knew what a blog was) Do you have dreams that you know in your heart were God's way of communicating with you? He said "come into the Common Ground".
In New Testament times each village had a piece of communal property that was the "sheep pen". It says that each sheep knew his master's voice and would not leave with another person. So in naming this blog Common Ground, God impressed upon me that it should be a place of gathering, common interests, sharing, and interaction with a mutual purpose.

I hope that if you are reading this that you will be blessed this Resurrection Sunday with gratitude, humility, peace, and a renewed spirit...and that you might know the great Love that is ours through a relationship with Jesus Christ...the perfect sacrifice.