He Leadeth Me

My mom has a tradition that she has passed along to me. The tradition is called "Love Presents". Love presents are those gifts you buy for no special occasion, but just because they scream out, "This gift would be PERFECT FOR (fill in the blank with a person's name)" Well today I was in Anthropologie and this book said, "Please buy me for Debi." If you want to know how much Debi loves Macaroons, just check out her recent blog post . While you are there, you will probably want to spend hours reading her very creative and informative blog . Debi, I hope you don't already own this book. I don't know exactly when I will get it to you since you spend part of your days in London and I spend most of my days in Colorado, but hopefully, we will meet in Houston this summer and I can give you this "Love Present." Love you, my friend. Just to whet everyone's appetites, the picture below comes from the I Love Macaroons Cookbook by Hisako Ogi...

A month or so ago, before we moved into our home, I went antique shopping and found a round pedestal table for the breakfast area, and this unique cabinet. I usually have to see something "finished" to see the potential, but this time I just knew that this porcelain topped cabinet (as shabby as it was) needed to find a home in my home. Here is the finished product. I am just a little proud of myself since this is not my usual area of giftedness. I'm not sure how David feels about the red paint residue in our garage, but as always, he is a very patient man and helped put all the pieces back together to make the finished "Shabby Chic" antique. We're going to use it as the TV stand in the basement. The black door is a chalkboard and will be used to write messages of welcome to our guests.

As a lover of lemons, I was amazed the first time we visited David's parents, Ruth and Leon, after we got married (38 years ago) to discover a lemon tree in their backyard. The lemons on that tree taste like nothing you have ever tasted before unless you have eaten fresh from the tree lemons. Often over the past 38 years, I have received care packages of lemons. David just made a trip to see his parents and look what he brought back in his suitcase. YUMMY!!!

I have been asked if people in the West are as friendly as people in the South. We have been blessed with so many friendly people here in Colorado. We just moved into our new home and we have received the following from friendly neighbors: a delicious cheesecake wonderful brownies and today, this was on my doorstep when the doorbell rang Yes, I would say that Westerners are just as friendly as Southerners.

My mom noticed when I gave my home tour the other day that I didn't have any pictures of the Master Bedroom. That was because I had a dilemma. I had purchased some really neat bed linens in black, white, and red, but the house had the custom drapes and valance that you see below. The Black, White, and Red just didn't match. I have been searching for a while for something that we could really like and that would also match the drapes. Today I found it! And ON SALE!! I love the new look! One little section of the room is reserved for very special visitors. Sue Burke, if you ever see my blog, please notice the blanket. You made this for Jeremy 31 years ago. It's still beautiful. OK, Mom, now you have seen the Master Bedroom!

I now have 3 precious grandsons, and thanks to James Avery Jewelry , I can have them with me symbolically at all times. In a previous blog post , Caleb commented on the bracelet.

I saw the cutest thing at church on Wednesday night. Walking in the door from outside was a very nice young man and following him was a duck. At first I thought the duck just randomly was in the church parking lot, but Earl (that's the young man) told me that the duck's name is Emma and she is part of a school project. He is raising her and teaching her things and part of what he has taught her is to follow him. Adorable! At one point, Emma decided, much like a little child, that she didn't want to follow Earl anymore. She wanted to follow someone else. But Emma, like a good duck, listened to Earl and was soon following him again. By the way, I got permission from Earl, though not from Emma, to put this picture on my blog.

Several years ago (2004 to be exact) I read a Memoir of Barbara Bush. I'm sorry, I cannot remember the title and she has written more than one. In the memoir, she was constantly sharing books that she had read. I realized that she must be writing all these books down in order to remember them. I decided that I would do the same. I started out writing the book titles and authors in a paper journal. Then, a few years later, I transferred the book to an electronic format called GoodReads (which by the way, I love). While unpacking from our move, I found the paper journal, so over the past several nights I have entered all the books into GoodReads. Here is just a sampling of some of the books I listed in the journal. If you would like to see my entire book list, check out the GoodReads site. I LOVE TO READ!!! I will make some random comments about some of the books under the book cover. All covers are courtesy of Titlewave Books . PB = Picture Book YA=Young Adult Book C=Children'...

Several of you have asked for pictures of our new home. Please remember that I am the blogger and my husband is the realtor, so his "house" pictures would probably be better, but... Welcome to our front porch. Right now there are beautiful tulips blooming. This picture of the dining room is taken with a wonderful Iphone app that my friend Marla told me about called Pano . With it, you can take a panoramic view of a big space. I am still playing with it. This is the living room taken with the same app, but I messed up a little so you have a somewhat warped view of our living room. I guess you'll just have to come and see it for yourself. Breakfast area overlooking the deck. Being a southern girl, I love oak cabinets, so was thrilled that this home has them. I have never had a home office of my own. I have always shared with David. This one is all mine! Not surprisingly, it is filled with antique school items and lots of children's books. My retirement present of a...

This is hands down, my new favorite cleaning product. When you move into a previously owned home, even if the owners leave it relatively clean, you just want the germs to be your own germs. These little wipes make cleaning as easy as 1-2-3. Do I sound like a commercial? And for all my "green" friends, I have read the package and can only find that the container itself is recyclable. I'm just hoping the wipes are as well, because I love using them.