Mountain Musings

Quilt Tour Begins

Today begins the Star-Struck Quilt Tour! Be sure to visit all the participants and check back on Saturday, August 28th for our questions and answers with Barbara Cline here on Mountain Musings--and enter our giveaway!

I'm in a Daze...I Won!

Darlene, over at her blog Quilting Daze, recently finished sewing two beautifully quilted table toppers...one for herself and one for a giveaway for her Gratitude & Generosity Challenge.

Yes, I won a beautiful Valentine-themed table topper! I love it! Here's how it looked just out of the package--folded and tied with a remnant from the backing fabric.

And the back is just as beautiful as the front...Darlene has pictures on her blog, too.

Thank you so very much, Darlene! I am really looking forward to decorating for Valentine's Day and using this beautiful quilt as my centerpiece.

If Quilting Daze is a new blog for you, pop over and say hello. Darlene's quilting projects are very inspiring!

~Deb

Rockfish Gap Treasures

Well, I know a few people who have been waiting for this post to find out what I bought at Rockfish Gap Country Store last week. Today's the day you get a peek.

Rockfish Gap hosts 25 antique vendors under one roof and is a wonderful stop if you're headed over Afton Mountain.

Here are the three very neat treasures I brought home from Chez Crozet, one of the vendors at the Country Store:

I saw this old baby shoe and loved the fact that it's made into a pin cushion, but also the added touches of ribbon to lace it up, three buttons on the top toe, and lace on the back heel all make it so adorable! I loved it!

How about this Mason jar packed with antique wooden spools, covered with a section of newspaper, and tied with jute! The little tag says: "A perfect gift for the seamstress/decorator...she'll love it!"  They must know me...I do love it!

And last, but not least, is a dainty hand-painted teacup from England. How do you like all these treasures?

Okay, changing the subject just a bit...

Do you remember our recent Blogiversary post: 5 Years, 1,400 Posts Later?

First, we want to thank you all for reading Mountain Musings and a big thank you goes to everyone who took the time to leave a comment on that particular blogiversary post!

Well, because we like to celebrate...we decided to have a surprise giveaway!!!

Using the Random Number Generator, we chose 3 winners from among the 22 commenters, and here they are!

1st Prize: Commenter #3, Susan of By Grace......you're the winner of the antique baby shoe!

2nd Prize: Commenter #10, Kathie of Kathie's Kabin.....you're the winner of the jar of wooden spools!

3rd Prize: Commenter #16, Jodi of The Deputy Domain.....you're the winner of the teacup!

Congratulations, Ladies!!

Now that was fun, wasn't it?! You never know when there might be a surprise planned!

Thank you all so much for your encouraging words to us! I'll be emailing the winners, and the treasures will go in the mail this week...look for them to arrive soon in your mailbox!

~Deb

Project 365

This year I am participating in Project 365, the idea being to create one signature image every day, documenting your life over the course of a year. Mom reminded me of this photo "project" recently, so I decided to try it! She also hopes to attempt it along with me. We'll each be posting our photos to these photo albums and occasionally highlighting random days here on the blog.

Today's image:

Each year on January 1st as I review the past year's happenings, I transfer all the important dates and birthdays over to my brand new calendar. 

Hopefully, I will be able to keep this up each day, and it will be a little bit of motivation to develop creativity in my photography.

Keep an eye on our daily photo-journalistic undertaking via the buttons on the Mountain Musings sidebar, and feel free to make a comment when you see a day you enjoy!

~Hannah

5 Years! 1,400 Posts Later!

Yes, it's hard to believe that we have been blogging for 5 years! But, sure enough, we received the gift of Typepad for Christmas five years ago. Yesterday's post was # 1,400!!

Happy Blogiversary to Mountain Musings!

What can we do to celebrate?

Well, part of the fun of blogging is reading comments you have left us. I know the thing that would make us the happiest is to hear from all of you...we'd love to hear from folks who have never commented before, as well as a howdy from all the regulars.

• Tell us where you're reading Mountain Musings. (Hi, I'm Deb from the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.)
  
• Tell us what you're looking forward to in the new year or what was your favorite thing that happened this past year. (I'm looking forward to celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary this coming year, and my favorite thing this past year was having my mom come to live with us.)

We've loved making new friends all across the country...friends we never would have known without our blog traveling to places we'd never get to go! Thank you so much for your continued friendship and for your encouraging comments.

Happy New Year to you all from the Mountain Musings gang!

~Deb

p.s. We're also celebrating a birthday around here today, so the balloons and confetti are being put to good use! 

 Happy Birthday, Tom!

Sufficiency of Scripture Conference Audio

We wanted to let our blog readers know about the new release of the conference audio set from the 2009 Sufficiency of Scripture conference, held in Cincinnati, OH this past weekend. For those of us who were not able to be there, this is the next best thing. Our family enjoyed attending a similar Uniting Church and Family conference in 2007.

Grateful hat tip to Life in a Shoe.

Gooseberry Patch Blog!

Special thanks to Morgan for alerting me to the fact that one of my favorite companies, Gooseberry Patch, now has a blog!! You'll have to check it out...I love their country header, their recipes, and of course, their contests!

Until midnight tonight...Gooseberry Patch is giving away three of their cookbooks to any blogger who blogs about their favorite Gooseberry Patch cookbook. Here's another rush post to get my contest entry counted!

My favorite cookbook is one of their older ones titled For Bees and Me. It's a gardening themed book with veggies, a sunflower, birdhouse, and watering can on the cover...no wonder it's my favorite!

Actually, it's no longer available through Gooseberry Patch, but I checked Amazon, and they have new and used copies for cheap!

My second favorite cookbook is another older one titled Good For You. Again, it's no longer available at the Gooseberry Patch site but can be found at Amazon.

I don't own the Good For You book, but my sister does, and I look at it every time I'm at her house. I love the down-home stories, tips, recipes, and country goodness in every book!

Visit the Gooseberry Patch site, sign up for their email, ask for a free catalog, and also check out their new blog!

~Deb

Hopping Back On...

I've heard that when you fall off a bike you should just hop back on and keep on a' going. I'm trying my best to hop back on and start blogging again. It's true...the longer you stay away the harder it is to post.

We are still here, and yes, we've been busy this summer with freezing and canning from the garden, a couple of trips away and recouping from travel, some medical procedures (one down and one to go), and actually I've just plain ignored the blog.

Our son, daughter-in-law, and smiling 7-month old grandson Ethan were here for a short visit...lots of pictures and fun times.

My mom has visited this summer, and my sister from SC is here visiting right now (along with her doggie Barney) before she starts back to school again next week.

We've welcomed a couple of new families and more visitors to our home church this summer. It's been good to get acquainted with them all. Our home overfloweth!

So...I hope that catches you up a bit on what's been happening around Mountain Musings. Some posts are in the works...if I don't fall off my bike!

~Deb

Whew!

Well, the June Blog-a-Thon challenge with my sister is over, and I think we wrote a post every day the month of June! Yay! Mission accomplished! And maybe we'll do it again sometime...

What'cha say we take a little blogging break?

I think a little time off is on the docket, especially with the Reformation 500 starting tomorrow in Boston, my birthday the next day, and the 4th of July this weekend!  See you back on the blog sometime next week!

~Deb

June Blog-a-Thon

Recently someone we met asked us about our blog and what the theme was. Well, basically, it's a little bit of this and that. Our posts include gardening, quilting, knitting, recipes, day trips, adventures, giveaways, crafting skills days, hymns and church fellowship times, diapers (yes! we post about making cloth diapers!), and anything else we want to throw in!

Plus...this blog has more than one writer, and you never know what you'll read or who posted from one day to the next.

Last year, my sister and I challenged each other to blog every day the entire month of June. We're doing it again this year. Have you noticed we've posted every day this first week? So far, so good...

So, my question is this...since we've agreed to a new post every day, is there anything in particular you'd like to know or want us to blog about? Your comments will help get our creative juices flowing!

~Deb