‘Ink Re-Cap 130: Sketches, Scribbles and Inklings

‘Ink Re-Cap 130.
Sharing sketches and scribbles,
and catching inklings of the best life.
Plus an inspiring quote for your scrapbook.

 

The best sketch from our life this week:

The littlest g’little sitting on the hearth near me and telling me about her week.

“So my baby Jackson got sick. And then (shrugs shoulders and spreads arms) he died.”

“Oh, dear, what happened?”

(Scrunches brow and shakes head) “I guess he got Covid or something,” she half-whispers, sadly.

“It was just totally messed up. The doctor…” and her lisp keeps me from understanding what the doctor said, but apparently “Jackson” was in the hospital and the doctor couldn’t cure her dolly.

Does anyone know a good lawyer?

 

 

‘Ink Re-Cap 130 Sketches and Scribbles

On trips back and forth from working on MIL’s house, to get it ready to sell, I kept passing this old broken black dresser someone had dumped on the sidewalk. It sat there for days, then someone added a blue tarp to the pile. I wondered what the pile would look like before the city cleaned it up.

When the dresser was the only thing there, on that impromptu sidewalk-landfill, I noticed the feet on the wooden wreck. They were curvy and so pretty. I talked about stopping to get them.

And then, one day, I did. I pulled up beside the dump site, and with my car running and the door partially open, I got those four lovely feet. I just knew I could do something with them.

And then, guess what. Two neat things happened because I stopped to get those feet.

I messaged my sister, who probably never has to drive by trash dumped where it doesn’t belong, and told her what I did, and asked her for ideas about what to make with them. We seven sisters are all a little wacko that way. Making things out of nothing. Things only we see the beauty in. Well, some of the rest actually do make nice things. Me? Not so much.

Anyway, she thought I was slightly weird, taking feet off a heap of trash, but then, she called me! We hadn’t talked on the phone for months, and now she called, and we talked for an hour. Until my phone went dead, and I was late for dinner. We laughed until we cried, and then cried until we laughed, and had such a good visit.

The next thing that happened was our Monday project. I needed to do a post for a blog challenge about DIY gifts, so trashy feet, Monday Wedding theme, and gift DIY all came together in a pretty awesome idea-marriage. Click to read the post:

 

Footed Riser Board DIY for a Personalized Wedding Gift

Kim’s Birth Story, The Dawn of Our Autism Journey

31 Indispensable Kitchen Gadgets For More Cooking Fun

How To Make a Seashell Candle Holder From Your Collection

God Created the Firmament, Lesson 3 Creation Story

 

 

Elevenses: A Morning Tea Party for Two

A new friend invited me over for tea on Tuesday morning.

She drinks tea every morning at eleven, so this time I joined her.

She had her water hot, the teapot warming, and the raw sugar and cream ready.

A crystal bowl lined with orange sections, and a footed plate that looked like a charcuterie of nuts, dates, and other dried fruits. Beautiful, and perfect for elevenses.

And then she poured the tea, into the prettiest cup and saucer sets ever. They were her mother’s, she said. And these dishes are the inspiration for the color she is transitioning into her great room/kitchen space. A dusty aqua? Very chic color now. Her decorating style is much more elegant than my farmgirl look, so it will be fun to see what she comes up with.

In spite of her elegance, she squeals over thrift store finds that are perfect for her new look. Something we definitely have in common, although you might think I don’t even do thrift store. I do roadkill.

 

 

 

Most read posts this week:

This one beats all the rest for 3 weeks running now.

Easy Handmade Seed Paper for a Mother’s Day Card

Runner up:

25 Baby’s Best Summer Books: Top Picks For 2021

 

 

 

New Products in our Shop

Watercolor Roses for Mom

 

 

 

Top Sellers This Week

It’s getting closer to VBS time, so a lot of our work revolves around Bible School Kit orders.

Faithful Friends Children’s Bible Lessons

 

This keepsake product is always popular with husbands at Mother’s Day. I think it’s so sweet of them to order these for their family.

Custom Family Sign: At These Moments, Time Stood Still

Birth Details Sign: At These Moments, Time Stood Still

 

 

 

Catching Inklings of the Best Life

 

So I was googling elevenses to see if I was using the term correctly. And I came across a recipe for clotted cream. I’ve always wondered how it was made. Want to try it, too? (I don’t see how anyone can have the stuff in his pictures for elevenses and still have room for twelveses (lunch) and twoses (afternoon break) and dinner. No, those aren’t real things. Only elevenses is a thing. But apparently “cream tea” is a thing, and it happens in the afternoon.

 

Of course talking about tea reminds us of Great Britain and the royals. I feel so sad for Queen Elizabeth. She lost her lifetime companion, and suddenly, she seems to have aged more in the last 2 months than the last 10 years. When she follows Prince Philip an iconic and romantic era will come to an end.

 

“Originals” by Adam Grant

Thinking of original people whose lives and values could never be replicated (the Queen and Prince Philip) in the England of today reminded me of the book by Adam Grant, “Originals.” He’s not writing about one-of-a-kind people. In fact, he proposes that people who take an idea already tried and make it better are the successful originals. That procrastinating a little means you have more creativity. A little is the key here. Procrastinating a lot of course never gets the job done.

He addresses the challenge of improving the world from the perspective of becoming original: choosing to champion novel ideas and values that go against the grain, battle conformity, and buck outdated traditions. The way to succeed at that is being persistent. The light bulb by Edison comes to mind. How many years did it take him? How many epic fails did he invent before he hit the jackpot?

Grant and Malcolm Gladwell write kind of, sort of, the same type of books, and this fun podcast is the two of them bantering about each others’ writing and ideas. But get your New York City ears on because they talk at warp speed.

 

You won’t get judged on your bad ideas.
You need a lot of bad ideas to come up with a good one.
Adam Grant

 

 

Touching Incidents

Yesterday evening we babysat our favorite granddaughters,

and after an exciting evening of crafting

and a very wet bath time

Grandpa introduced them to the vintage book, “Touching Incidents and Remarkable Answers to Prayer.”

I doubt I’d be far off to say less than .01% of today’s children hear stories from that book.

The writing is archaic and the stories can get maudlin,

but the girls were fascinated. They absolutely loved the stories: About the little girl who boarded the train without a ticket because her mama used to sing a song about the railroad to Heaven, and she wanted to go join her mama. And the little boy who broke his daddy’s brown whisky jug because he wanted shoes for the Sunday School picnic and his mama told him that shoes, groceries and clothing all went into that brown jug his papa kept filled.

So yes, I’m enthused to tell you that a company is reproducing the book as close to the original as possible. “This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.”

Excerpt from Touching Incidents and Remarkable Answers to Prayer: As Related by John B. Gough, Bishop Bowman, LL. D., Mrs. Mary Grant Cramer, James H. Potts, D.D., Mathew Hale Smith, John Wesley, T. De Witt Talmage, D.D., George Muller, and Many Others

“True prayer is the language of an earnest soul breathing after God, and a. Knowledge of his will. The praying spirit is a search for the presence of God, and a continued craving for a conscious blessing from Him. Give ear to my prayer, O God, and hide not thyself from my supplication. O Lord God Of my salvation, I have cried day and night before thee let my prayer come before thee incline thine ear unto my cry for my soul is full of troubles. Hear me when I call, 0 God of my righteousness thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress have mercy upon me, and hear my prayer. These are the cries of a dependent, trusting, and enriched heart. They Show the natural disposition of troubled man to fly to God for succor and relief.

Man has always prayed. He cannot help it. He is made so. His prayers may not always be prompted by the right motive, nor couched in acceptable phraseology, nor offered in the proper spirit. Ye ask and receive not be cause ye ask amiss. But man will pray. He must pray. The very nature of his earthly life demands prayer. He may rebel against his environments, scoff at the necessity for sup plication, for years neglect his duty, yet sooner or later, secretly or Openly, he will call upon a higher power for that aid which earthly help can not render.”

 

 

More Inklings

I know my grandchildren are clever, right next to rocket scientists, but this 12 year old?

Together, a police officer for having the idea, and a trucker for having the courage, pull off a scary rescue.

Technology to the rescue!  This young pig fan logs onto a farm’s swine cam, and saves the sows’ lives.

Another amazing feat of modern invention, this N95 scarf certainly beats the competition: the blue piece of gauze with ear elastics.

This cake for the strawberry season coming up. Whipped cream? Mascarpone cheese? I’m in.

Be sure to hit your local Dutch Bros on May 14th and caffeinate for the cause.

I want this wallpaper somewhere.

 

 

Inspiring Quote

And this quote for your scrapbook:

My sister wanted to learn watercolor, so we got out the paints and found a tutorial, and practiced.

We created this print from the best elements of that practice session. Lavender, tulips and roses. And those orange flowers? Does anyone know what they might be? We did what the tutorial showed us. 🙂