Putz House Banner and Pretty Christmas Pinks

Happy Friday everyone!  Hope you're feeling peaceful and blessed as you prepare to celebrate the most wonderful time of the year!

A couple weeks ago, I bought an adorable pdf off of Etsy of these cute Putz House Christmas scenes.  This morning, I fixed up a cute banner for my pink Christmas shelf.   

You can find the pdf on Etsy at Pink Pearl Studio.  I plan on adding a little lace or something to the top of each banner piece but need to find just the right trim before I finish them off.

Most of our home is decked out in traditional Christmas colors but I wanted a little shelf of my own to make all pink and pretty!  Here are some of the other things I've got up there:

I love this pretty vintage angel tray.  I'd love to find some more like it but all the ones I've found so far have been black and gold.

I found this cute little winter girl at a yard sale last summer.  I'm also collecting these vintage tree toppers.  This blue one looks pretty with my tray.

Today at Pink Saturday, we're showing off our Christmas treats.  I've been making these yummy pink-wrapped carmels and selling them in my Etsy shop.  Yum!  What a great gift idea, wouldn't you agree? 

 Tonight we're headed out to get our Christmas tree!  Each year, the Boy Scouts sell them just a couple blocks down the road and we always get ours from there.  Daddy will put up the lights tonight and tomorrow night we'll get it all decorated.  Each year, we give the kids a new ornament and my husband and I buy them for each other.  Someday when they're married, I plan on giving each of the kids their ornaments on their first Christmas.  After we decorate the tree, we always have hot chocolate and candy canes and watch the lights on the tree.  That's a fun tradition my mom did with us and my kids enjoy it every year.



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Beverly's Pink Saturday

Hope 2012

For this week's Homemaking Link-Up Weekend, I'm sharing this short story I wrote in honor of the baby we lost in November 2007.  Each year around November 29th, I repost it and am always so glad to hear that it still ministers to others. I hope it blesses you today.  Please link up your favorite posts below!

Hope sits still and serene at the edge of a melodious river, dangling one bare foot into the warm, blue water. Her lovely blonde ringlets reflect the light of the afternoon sun and form a shimmering halo around her young head. Though she can’t help but raise her eyes every so often to the far-off hills, He has told her to wait patiently and so she will. “I’ve got a surprise for you,” He’d promised. If she has learned anything from past experience, she’s learned that time is relative no matter where one is. Even in this youthful body, she knows that the time it takes to endure is well worth the rewards that fortitude brings.

Since patience seems to be coming much more easily than normal this day, she begins to take inventory of her new appearance. Strangely, she can not see her reflection in the water in front of her. From the moment she arrived here in this glorious place, she’s wondered about herself. There isn’t much she can learn about what’s inside; about her dreams, wishes and longings. She’s treasured all of these, along with many thoughts and questions, since the day she was conceived. It’s her outside that is so new and clean and unfamiliar.

With a little shake of her head, she can see that her hair is golden and beautiful. She reaches for a curl and lets the silky strand slide around her fingers and over the back of her hand. As she moves to examine the hand more closely, she spies a simple white butterfly hovering near her knee. She watches with innocent interest for just a moment before it flutters over to a nearby snapdragon and gracefully lands beside it in the grass.

Lifting the small, delicate hand up to eye-level seems so simple now and she marvels at the lightness of it; both in skin tone and in weight. Turning this hand right-side up, she examines the lines upon her tiny palm. Amazing, she thinks, and so real.

Her eyes follow the motion as she slowly places the hand back in her lap. Fixing her gaze on the arm for just a moment, she changes her mind about resting it and, using her newly-nimbled fingers, explores the length of the opposite arm. Leisurely, she runs her fingers up and back down. Tickles, she says to herself, as even now the new word tickles her tongue.

A slippery smoothness is caressing the bottom of her one wet foot. Her brown eyes settle on a long and shiny creature gliding through the water. Father loves fish, she thinks to herself. But just as quick as it caught her attention, the creature is gone and her mind becomes occupied elsewhere.

“She’s here,” the butterfly whispers up to the snapdragon. The flower shivers with a sudden air of excitement and replies, “So soon? I didn’t realize we’d get to see her so perfectly formed so early!” The butterfly sighs. “Yes, she’s a beauty, isn’t she? She’s just the image of perfection!” She flurries up to give the snapdragon a butterfly kiss and then takes off back into the sky in search of a honeysuckle treat.

The snapdragon proudly pulls herself up to her full height--six inches at last measurement. As she stretches her lush leaves against the warm sun’s rays, a tiny yawn escapes from her delicate, pink lips. Lifting her head to peer over the sleeping marigolds, she stands upon the tips of her toes (which are firmly rooted in the ground, of course) and sees, just over the nearest hillside, exactly what she is looking for.

“Come children, come quickly”, the Man says as he ascends the last mound of lush, emerald hilltop. He takes care not to hurry the young family, most of them less than five years old. The Man turns to face this great group of children, His very presence commanding their complete attention. He smiles warmly and lovingly, sits down on a nearby rock and takes a young Asian boy on his lap. “Children”, he says, “I want you to remember back to the first time you realized you were in Hope’s place. Be patient, be kind. Be gentle and show her love. Come. Let’s go down to the river.”

The friendly party makes their way across the honey-scented meadow. “Look”, cries the Man, “there by the water!” He stops the children and they all stand still, amazed at the way the sunlight bounces off her flaxen hair. “She looks like my Angel”, says a little Irish red-headed girl, “only my Angel is a lot bigger than that!”

“Come”, says the Man, “Let’s take some time to offer our welcome wishes to this newest reflection of me. There’s a new child in Heaven today.”

More:
When Life Breaks

Surprised By Joy! Overwhelming Thankfulness...

I've never read C.S. Lewis' story of salvation, Surprised By Joy, but that's the phrase that came to mind this morning as I was thinking over the good things God has done in my life.

It's really been on my heart lately how God has directed my 15 years of adulthood onto paths that I never would have imagined.  How would I have reacted on the day my husband proposed, had I seen my life as it is now?  I could have never dreamed of the happy life we would share, living as best friends with our nine sweet children---a family dedicated to one another and to God.

This weekend's Homemaking LinkUp Weekend thought is simple and sweet:  I'm thankful.  So very blessed and thankful for this amazing life I've been given.  I pray I really recognize this goodness and not take it for granted.

No matter where you are in life, there's always something you can be thankful for---what is the most simple or profound thing you are thankful for today?

Please link up your favorite posts below and display the button on your blog to direct your readers back to the party!




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Also, today I'm the featured blog at Beverly's Pink Saturday!  I'd like to welcome all my Pink Saturday friends and thank you for being such a sweet influence on my life.  Happy Thanksgiving Weekend and HaPpY pInK sAtUrDaY!

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