cottagesweetcottage-Al-Jazeera-America

I love granny squares and found these 2 throws at the thrift store for $1.50 and 75 cents.  Decided to pull out my Macro and take some pics of them.  One of them has a Project Linus tag on it and it makes me wonder who made it and what was the circumstances to the little child that recieved it.









My favorite shot because it's so colorful!

Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.  -Romans 15:13


I love that the God promises His children joy and peace!  As His children we are to abound in hope, joy and peace even in the midst of difficult circumstances. In the Greek, one of the defnitions of hope is  'joyful and confident expectation of

Every so often at the airport I'd see the cleaning people with a tennis ball on the end of a broomstick and watch them as they used the end of a tennis ball to remove shoe scuffmarks from the floors of the long corridors of the airport without having to bend over.   When the vestibule and hall area of our church was prone to getting black scuffmarks I thought of making one.  Googling brought me

Do you have a morning routine? 

 I've been using my morning routine faithfully every day for about 3 months now (I did also previously but moreso since our big move) and am so glad I did! Every day I do these 9 things and it really helps my day go much smoother. 





(left to right and top to bottom)



1.  It's so much easier to want to stay in PJ's all the morning but getting dressed

My friend Melissa over at Honey Bee's Fancy told me about doing soap devotions a few years ago and I've been doing it ever since.  It really is a great way to study the word of God.  It's one thing to hear a sermon or read scripture alone.  But hearing, reading, and writing sermons used in scripture and scripture for bible reading really brings it home for me and reinforces it in my heart and

I've been trying many cleaning products for my white tile kitchen floors since we moved in.  Pine~Sol left smudges and left the floor slippery.  Fantastik and 409 type cleaners left it sticky and noisy to walk on.  I even tried Murphy's Oil Soap highly diluted and it, too, was greasy and slippery.  I promised myself that when all of my products were gone (besides the Murphy's because I do use it

This week I'm in the Master Bedroom and adjoining hallway closets for heavy cleaning.

I saw something recently online that really piqued my interest.  It was a one year challenge. 

You turn around all of the clothing that is hanging on hangers~ turn them around backwards. 

As you choose something from your closet and wear it, you turn the hanger and garment around the 'right' way after you

My rolling pin has found a home above my stove and I love it there! 

When I found an older vintage one for rolling dough, my brain went to churning and I decided to add some red paint to the handles to make it look vintagey

 like the old fashioned ones you see like this. 





 I love the splash of color!!!

I've been on a mission in looking for curtains for my Sweetheart Kitchen for over 2 months. 

I tried WalMart, Target, and any and all stores in the area

and could find nothing that really spoke to me and that I had to have. 



I finally did find something at Anna's Linens and it would have cost me over

300 bucks for the three windows in the kitchen alone!

Wayyyyy too much money for me

One of my favorite breakfast dishes EVER!!! 






I love the fact that you do the preperation the evening before

and then pop it in the oven in the morning!!! 

This is so yummy and easy for Christmas morning or for guests year round!



Preheat oven to 400*

The ingredients:

 1/4 cup butter

3/4 inch sliced french bread slices

1 1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup sugar

6 eggs

2 Tbsp maple syrup

Here's some of the things we've been eating around here~  Trying some new recipes and staying with tried and true recipes as well.



Open faced pork sandwiches with broccoli

Swiss Steak, homemade mashed potatoes, cheese biscuits and corn

Chocolate Zucchini Bread

Glorious Chicken

I made this today and you'd never know there was zucchini in this! Very Moist and Delish!




1/2 cup butter, softened


1/2 cup oil

2 eggs



then add-

2 cups shredded zucchini

1/2 cup sour milk or buttermilk

1 tsp vanilla



Cream above ingredients and mix well.

2 1/2 cups flour

1 3/4 cups sugar

4 Tbsp cocoa (unsweetened)

1 Tbsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/

The prompt for day 5 is 'Colorfuul food'.  I made salsa today, guacamole, took pictures of them and even my inner plate which was chicken and gravy, rice and mixed veggies and none of them seemed to satisfy the challenge for today.

 

Then it hit me!

        And I smiled! 

Really big!  

Scripture Genesis 41:38
And Pharaoh said unto his servants,

Can we find such a one as this is, a man in whom the Spirit of God is?




 

Genesis unrolls like a television drama.

Betrayal, Seduction, Deceit and more. 

And the fact that it is historical and not solely made up in the minds of men is incredible!   

Whoever said the Bible is boring needs to read it and they will find it

Yummy homemade salsa is so much better than store~bought!  I've heard jalapenos are chock full of vitamin C so it isn't any wonder why I was craving it recently with the ick that has been going around!



1 1/2 pounds tomatoes 

2 jalapenos, de~seeded and membranes removed

1/2 onion 

handful of cilantro~ leaves only 

few cloves of garlic

juice of 1 fresh lemon







Remove Tomato Stems and

New Years Resolutions lead to broken promises and dissapointment before the year gets off to an end.  How many people really keep their New Year's Resolution?  Not many!
 This year I'm losing the resolutions and choosing one word to live by and to be intentional about. 
A byword is a word or expression summarizing a thing's characteristics or a person's principles. 
So, this year as my byword,