Singingwoods

A Blog about life... jewellrey...and beads...

Happy New Year!



In 2008 there were many changes...drastic changes, financial woes and crashes beyond our comprehension, and the weather I can't forget strange weather. To me very perilous times. So it is my prayer that I ask the Lord to Bless America and awaken her to hear your voice!
May everyones Breadbaskets be full in 2009 and may the Lord Bless you all!

Merry Christmas!



Merry Christmas!

Here's Wishing all of my beloved friends and family a Blessed and lovely Christmas! May the Lord give you strength and favour and your breadbasket full!
Here is Christmas in the "Orange" room and the tree all decked out like a little Lady. And Booboo the cat in the window checking things out. And of course Mr. Grinch.
A few years ago I lived in Scotland and we had no heat for four years just a coal fire. The cottage was so pretty but needed a makeover but in the UK money is doesn't come as easy as here in America. One thought twice about spending not like here. Where my heart is...is home where I am loved. If these possessions were taken away I would still be happy because its the small things in life that matter. A picture drawn with satisfaction, a hot meal, a bed maybe no bed. My Lord and His promises. Blessings are everywhere. I have had a trying time as of late my husband is very overworked in his oil industry job and I try to keep the light burning in my home! Not an easy thing to do...
Tonight being Christmas eve it will be a quiet night and we will all have sandwiches and play some cards most likely the happy card game of Canasta?! Tomorrow's the big day for cooking and I'm thankful for the abundance we all have and that we all live in the land of plenty. What the future brings for this country ie the World I don't know and these are certainly perilous times. But I look to the One who never slumbers nor does He sleep! That's all I can do is rest in the Blessed hope. Merry Christmas everyone! xox

Talk about strange global Weather




This is the town (directly above) of Limone Piemonte a town in Piemonte, Italy. The roofs are covered with an exceptional snowcover which has fallen in the last two days. If you focus the little men on the roof you can easily realize that the roofs are covered with a layer more than 2 metres high! That's something more usual in Finland than Italy.
Meanwhile Venice is flooding like never before...
Venice is one of the most scpectacular place you could ever see in your life. No words could ever describe the charm of this city built on the water, so the best thing you can do is see it with your own eyes.Right now, however, Venice is a really problematic destination because it's more "underwater" than "above the water" due to the phenomenon of " Acqua Alta""Acqua Alta" (litterally means High Water in Italian) is a phenomenon that regularly occurs in the city of Venice, Italy, most commonly during high and spring tide. It involves the flooding of the most low-lying areas of Venice, or, in more severe cases, up to 96% of the City. By official definition, acqua alta occurs when water is higher than 90mm (3.54 inches) above normal tide.The news is that the Acqua Alta is at a record level, never reached in the last thirty years: One metre and sixty centimetres. A level that could create some problems even to the most used citizens and obviously is astonishing the tourists. See pics above of the flooding.


Tis the Season for Gala Balls and Shimmering Nights!




Its cooled off with chilly days and some coldish nights in Houston now. So it makes my heart rejoice to say Thank you Lord! This weather makes me feel alive!
Well Ive got a lovely Jean jacket that I purchased from Cracker Barrel a comfortable restaurant if one likes the country. Its got hoes, rakes farm equipment hanging from the ceilings just everywhere. On the walls are many pictures of husbands and wives from when photography first started. Some are a bit grim looking with their stoic stares men in their suit's and women in their finest long dresses. None really heavy looking...I'm sure from walking places and on the farm no one had a chance to get heavy like you see nowadays. You just know there was not violence, rape and pillaging one sees today. People had a reverence to their maker. Even believed there was a God. I sure do believe that there is a God The Great I AM who is the Alpha and the Omega the Beginning and the End! A life where things were easier...
Getting back to the Jean jacket I purchased at Cracker barrel its so pretty with brown and green leaves embroidered on the front of it is why I made these two pieces of Acorn jewellery!


Americas beloved Artist Grandma Moses

Having to live in a very big city amassed with a zillion people I really miss the counrty. I dream of the country all the time... I down right Thirst for it. Maybe one fine day I we can get out of here in Houston and I can mentally "breathe" again. That is my Dream. But meanwhilst I surf the net often looking at old farm houses and countryside. Often Google brings up the prettiest homesteads in France and Norway and of course America. So it is in my travels across the net I have seen once again paintings done by Grandma Moses.

Grandma Moses, turned out her first picture when she was 76 years old.

In 1939, Grandma Moses was represented in an exhibition of "contemporary unknown painters" at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. She did not remain unknown for long.
Grandma Moses did all of her painting from remembrance of things past. She liked to sit quietly and think, she once said, and remember and imagine. "Then I'll get an inspiration and start painting; then I'll forget everything, everything except how things used to be and how to paint it so people will know how we used to live.
She would paint for five or six hours, and preferred the first part of the session because, as she said, her hand was fresher and "stiddier."
Grandma Moses, who was born before Abraham Lincoln had yet taken office, spent a lot of her time on what she called her "old-timey" New England landscapes. She painted from the top down: "First the sky, then the mountains, then the hills, then the trees, then the houses, then the cattle and then the people." Her tiny figures, disproportionately small, cast no shadows. They seem sharply arrested in action.
She learned as a child to observe nature when her father took the children out for walks. He was a Methodist, but never went to church, and he allowed his children to believe what they wanted. Instead of going to church, they went for long walks in the woods.
Grandma Moses had had a hard life most of her many years, but neither her fame nor her advanced years cut into her formidable production. During her lifetime she painted more than 1,000 pictures, twenty-five of them after she had passed her 100th birthday. Her oils have increased in value from those early $3 and $5 works to $8,000 or $10,000 for a large picture.
Otto Kallier, owner and director of the Galerie St. Etienne in New York and president of Grandma Moses' Properties, Inc., will not discuss her earnings, but they are reliably estimated to have reached nearly $500,000.

The simple realism, nostalgic atmosphere and luminous color with which Grandma Moses portrayed homely farm life and rural countryside won her a wide following. She was able to capture the excitement of winter's first snow, Thanksgiving preparations and the new, young green of oncoming spring.

"I look back on my life like a good day's work, it was done and I feel satisfied with it. I was happy and contented, I knew nothing better and made the best out of what life offered. And life is what we make it, always has been, always will be."
Grandma Moses is famous throughout the World of the simpler life of seemingly days gone by!

My Michael!








This is my newest Necklace and I really am so Pleased with it.
He is an Angel whom I have named "Michael" born in the Flame
of a lampworkers torch! He is surrounded by Swarvorski crystals,
lovely ribbon and and a wee bit of sterling silver. Im so pleased as
punch with Him! Michael to me represents "Whats un~seen and Joys ahead"!
Must run have so much to do...
Happy day everyone!
xxx

Comeon Ring those Bells!


A prominent but a bit forgotten Artist Evie Tornquist recorded "Evie" and I recently found her LP plastic album on eBay. Unfortunately she stopped her career in the mid 80s. Her parents and whole family was born in Norway. Evie was the only one of the family raised in America. When Evie and her parents visited Noway when she was about 15 she appeared on a TV show singing, and afterwards became a phenomenon in Norway, recording many albums in her natural tongue. The 1st song she sang on this album was "Comeon Ring those bells" and what a beautiful voice she has. Evie is now in her 50s and is involved in Christian out reach.

"Evie Tornquist-Karlsson (born 1957) Rahway New Jersey, professionally known as Evie, is a Contemporary Christian singer who was known in the late 1970s and early 1980s for songs such as Step Into The Sunshine and Four Foot Eleven.
Born in the United States to Norwegian immigrants, Evie began her singing career as a young teenager while visiting her parents' homeland Norway. She released her English language debut album at the age of 16 in 1974, and went on to release more than 30 albums, including several in various Scandinavian languages. Evie was recognized as the Dove Award recipient of Female Vocalist of the Year for 1977 and 1978. She married Swedish pastor and musician Pelle Karlsson in 1979 and retired from performing music in 1981 to pursue other avenues of ministry, such as Sky Angel. Evie later became a mentor to Christian musician Rebecca St James joining her for an event series geared toward helping girls and women apply biblical principles in the 21st century.
Evie was officially inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame on February 22, 2005, and was one of the inaugural inductees to the Christian Music Hall of Fame."

Fortunately my husband was able to record this album thru a turntable recording system and put it onto a CD for me...I am over~joyed!

Want to read a good book?


I highly reccomend "The Faerie Path" authored by Freewin Jones. This is a marvelous book about a young woman on the day before her 16th birthday, Anita's life starts to change. She has a vision of flying, receives a mysterious and magical book as a present, and travels from modern-day London to the world of Faerie. There are 3 sequels and they are very descriptive reading in the beautiful world of faerie. It carries you away from perilous times of today...I loved these books and highly reccomend to all!

I Just Love Thanksgiving!


I Just Love Thanksgiving!
But the real reason I love Thanksgiving is not the food—honest. It’s the actual giving of thanks. Of course, that’s what we should be doing every day of our lives—giving thanks. But somehow at this season (and I do think of it as a season, not just one day) I find myself wanting to be more intentional about thanking the people God has so graciously put into my life for what they mean to me. And, of course, thanking the God Who gave me these people. I watched two old Movies on Turner Classic movies the other day and they touched me how in these old movies they said Grace and also prayed and gave Thanks! So long and forgotten today...my feelings on this...how Sad.

In America, the First Thanksgiving Was a Sincere Act of Joyous Celebration. The Pilgrim company had survived the winter and harvested sufficient to feel themselves bountifully blest. "O give thanks unto the LORD, for He is good: for His mercy endureth for ever" Psalm 107. I am really looking forward to another Blessed Thanksgiving!

The First Thanksgiving..

The First Thanksgiving
In 1621, the Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Indians shared an autumn harvest feast which is acknowledged today as one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations in the colonies. This harvest meal has become a symbol of cooperation and interaction between English colonists and Native Americans. Although this feast is considered by many to the very first Thanksgiving celebration, it was actually in keeping with a long tradition of celebrating the harvest and giving thanks for a successful bounty of crops. Native American groups throughout the Americas, including the Pueblo, Cherokee, Creek and many others organized harvest festivals, ceremonial dances, and other celebrations of thanks for centuries before the arrival of Europeans in North America.
Historians have also recorded other ceremonies of thanks among European settlers in North America, including British colonists in Berkeley Plantation, Virginia. At this site near the Charles River in December of 1619, a group of British settlers led by Captain John Woodlief knelt in prayer and pledged "Thanksgiving" to God for their healthy arrival after a long voyage across the Atlantic. This event has been acknowledged by some scholars and writers as the official first Thanksgiving among European settlers on record. Whether at Plymouth, Berkeley Plantation, or throughout the Americas, celebrations of thanks have held great meaning and importance over time. The legacy of thanks, and particularly of the feast, have survived the centuries as people throughout the United States gather family, friends, and enormous amounts of food for their yearly Thanksgiving meal.

What Was Actually on the Menu?
What foods topped the table at the first harvest feast? Historians aren't completely certain about the full bounty, but it's safe to say the pilgrims weren't gobbling up pumpkin pie or playing with their mashed potatoes. Following is a list of the foods that were available to the colonists at the time of the 1621 feast. However, the only two items that historians know for sure were on the menu are venison and wild fowl, which are mentioned in primary sources. The most detailed description of the "First Thanksgiving" comes from Edward Winslow from A Journal of the

Pilgrims at Plymouth, in 1621:
"Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labors. They four in one day killed as much fowl as, with a little help beside, served the company almost a week. At which time, among other recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest king Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five deer, which they brought to the plantation and bestowed upon our governor, and upon the captain, and others. And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish you partakers of our plenty."

Tha Pilgrims about them..

Seventeenth Century Table Manners:

The pilgrims didn't use forks; they ate with spoons, knives, and their fingers. They wiped their hands on large cloth napkins which they also used to pick up hot morsels of food. Salt would have been on the table at the harvest feast, and people would have sprinkled it on their food. Pepper, however, was something that they used for cooking but wasn't available on the table.
In the seventeenth century, a person's social standing determined what he or she ate. The best food was placed next to the most important people. People didn't tend to sample everything that was on the table (as we do today), they just ate what was closest to them.
Serving in the seventeenth century was very different from serving today. People weren't served their meals individually. Foods were served onto the table and then people took the food from the table and ate it. All the servers had to do was move the food from the place where it was cooked onto the table.

Pilgrims didn't eat in courses as we do today. All of the different types of foods were placed on the table at the same time and people ate in any order they chose. Sometimes there were two courses, but each of them would contain both meat dishes, puddings, and sweets.
More Meat, Less Vegetables

Our modern Thanksgiving repast is centered around the turkey, but that certainly wasn't the case at the pilgrims's feasts. Their meals included many different meats. Vegetable dishes, one of the main components of our modern celebration, didn't really play a large part in the feast mentality of the seventeenth century. Depending on the time of year, many vegetables weren't available to the colonists.

The pilgrims probably didn't have pies or anything sweet at the harvest feast. They had brought some sugar with them on the Mayflower but by the time of the feast, the supply had dwindled. Also, they didn't have an oven so pies and cakes and breads were not possible at all. The food that was eaten at the harvest feast would have seemed fatty by 1990's standards, but it was probably more healthy for the pilgrims than it would be for people today. The colonists were more active and needed more protein. Heart attack was the least of their worries. They were more concerned about the plague and pox.

People tend to think of English food at bland, but, in fact, the pilgrims used many spices, including cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, pepper, and dried fruit, in sauces for meats. In the seventeenth century, cooks did not use proportions or talk about teaspoons and tablespoons. Instead, they just improvised. The best way to cook things in the seventeenth century was to roast them. Among the pilgrims, someone was assigned to sit for hours at a time and turn the spit to make sure the meat was evenly done.
Since the pilgrims and Wampanoag Indians had no refrigeration in the seventeenth century, they tended to dry a lot of their foods to preserve them. They dried Indian corn, hams, fish, and herbs.

Dinner for Breakfast: Pilgrim Meals:
The biggest meal of the day for the colonists was eaten at noon and it was called noonmeat or dinner. The housewives would spend part of their morning cooking that meal. Supper was a smaller meal that they had at the end of the day. Breakfast tended to be leftovers from the previous day's noonmeat.
In a pilgrim household, the adults sat down to eat and the children and servants waited on them. The foods that the colonists and Wampanoag Indians ate were very similar, but their eating patterns were different. While the colonists had set eating patterns—breakfast, dinner, and supper—the Wampanoags tended to eat when they were hungry and to have pots cooking throughout the day.

My Mother used to work in a Haunted house...


In the Sun~shiny days when my Father was still alive my family all of us lived in Summerville SC. It was such a sleepy town with large oak trees and moss hanging down from them. The trees lined many of the streets in the beautiful older home section of the town. Unfortunately my Fathers gone and my parents moved to Charlottesville Virginia another pretty place at least.

My Mother had obtained part time work as a tour guide at beautiful Middleton Place in Charleston. This is no long story but my Mom used to close up, and everyone had left the office. Mom had the keys to lock up. Strange about haunting's but I do believe there are Spirits and that they do roam. One evening she was finishing up and heard foot steps, someone walking upstairs. Now she knew everyone had gone but called up the stairs anyway, but of course No answer! Another time she smelled pipe smoke. She did not like to be there any longer than she had to, got out quickly and went home! Some of the guides would joke as they had heard some things too and would say it was Arthur Middleton roaming. Scary!
Middleton Place today:
MIDDLETON PLACE is a National Historic Landmark and a carefully preserved 18th-century plantation that has survived revolution, Civil War, and earthquake. It was the home of four important generations of Middleton's, beginning with Henry Middleton, President of the First Continental Congress; Arthur, a signer of the Declaration of Independence; Henry, Governor of South Carolina and an American Minister to Russia; and Williams, a signer of the Ordinance of Secession.
The House Museum, built by Henry Middleton in 1755 as a gentleman's guest quarters, is the only surviving portion of the three-building residential complex that once stood overlooking the Ashley River. The House contains one of the finest collections of family-owned artifacts. Expect to see Middleton family furniture, paintings, books and documents dating from the 1740s through the 1880s. Guided tours of the house introduce visitors to the men, women and children who made Middleton Place their home for over two centuries.

Have you ever lived in a haunted place?

I am wondering what experiences others have had with odd happenings in any dwellings they ever lived in. Thus the name of this post is have you ever lived in a haunted house? Well many years ago my X and I our 2 children and newborn Son...lived in a really small town of Lodge SC. We had been living in Summerville a sweet sleepy town in SC. Well we got the hair brained idea to answer an ad to rent a house way out in the country I guess bc we had horses. We went to look at the house and it was so very old and fell in love with it! This house was in the middle of No wheres really. Sometimes I look back and wonder why'd did we do some of thing's we did! We moved our kids Kitty's and horses out there. Lodge was really a beautiful place outside the more thriving town of Walterboro. The house had big old pecan trees in the backyard. This house was made of heart pine, heart pine nowadays is illegal to use bc it is a wood made from the heart of the pine tree and highly flammable. My then husband told me if you were to put a lighter to the house it would immediately start (slowly) to take the flame. The house was darkly stained probably from weathering. It was so old the house had to be at least 125 years old. The kitchen was separated by a small bridge from the rest of the house back then I'm sure to keep the heat from the main house. Al tho the house had No secret things ie passages it was quite a majestic large old home. The house was on a corner in the middle of no wheres and I guess you could say the crows in the fall were some of our only friends when the pecans started falling! I remember how noisy they were!
But getting back to being haunted. We had been living there several months and after I would get my young kids off to school I would lie down to briefly rest bf I officially get up. My dog Cindy an Aussie stayed in the house with us. But funny how she had never barked one time. One day and this was very early in the mornings I heard the kitchen cabinet's banging as if someone was in the kitchen and was cleaning up and slammed a few cabinets shut. The sound was un mistakenly of cabinet's slamming and it was pretty creepy. And this would go on about 3 days a week. I would run as fast as I could down to the kitchen but no Nothing was ever a miss! My Daughter had been home several times and she too remembers the noise.
I had a a very close elderly Christian woman at the time tell me Janet you must anoint the doors front and back and all the door frames inside with oil and announce to "whatever" was in the house that this is "The house of the Lord and in His name I order you to get out". So I did this and stood on some Bible verses and after that the the goings on stopped. I was thankful to the Lord it stopped! Halloween is one of my most favourite holidays But for me and my house I did not want any "entity" inside of it!
Finally my husband was able to obtain work in the Charleston area again and as sweet as that old house was...it was time to leave. This is the only time I have ever lived with "something" amiss in my house!

Some Absolutely Wonderful reading for Halloween!






When my children Jenny and Kibbie were about 7 and 8 I found the greatest Author and her name is Ruth Chew. Ruth Chew lives in Brooklyn NY and mentions streets and parks which is neat as I remember those places as I visited them as a child going to see my Norweigen Grandparents. She was way before all the Magic and Harry Potter books out now. I stumbled across them in Barnes and Noble but now a days ones lucky to find her books at all. I had to go on Ebay to find many of the ones that were lost in a move years ago.

The "Witches Buttons". The story revolves around a witch who cast a spell on these buttons, one was actually a man/wizard who she shrank down to button size and another was a flying saucer. The two friends find these things out as they go along, and the story twists and turns with surprises every step of the way. One scene has the two friends shrinking down in size, so they can fit into the flying saucer button and then take it for a ride, to spy on the witch.

Next is the "Magic Coin". The boy and a girl that found a coin they called Juan Pablo. It has a man with a little bearded face that is magic. He took the boy and girl on an adventure with pirates!
Also is "The Trouble with Magic". Harrison Peabody, a good-natured wizard who has a few "kinks" to iron out in his magic and his problems with an umbrealla who will only work when it rains and a Sea serpent in a large lake in Brooklyn!
Ruth Chews written many more than these and here I have only mentioned a few. This is reading for young people but I have found All of her books simply deightful!






The Texas Renaissance festival is here again..




The Texas Renaissance festival is here once again October 11th to November 30th 9 AM to dusk right outside the small town of Magnolia. I think we shall go to the Highland segment as husband is from Scotland. I think tho it will make him sad when we go bc Scotland is so old~worldy every place you go and incredably beautiful. I am surprised tho he has not lately said lets go home! Who knows what is ahead?! Anyway off to do things as it is past lunchtime and I have spoken to my Mum~in~law today besides that Ive done nothing else for shame!
Have a lovely day to all who stumble upon my blog!

For a bewitching Halloween eve..


This is a fave of mine and is entered into the Art bead Scene contest. Many enteries for the month of October! Who knows maybe I shall win?!

What I have been up to..


Well Ron and I went to our 2nd glass class and it was really wonderful. learned some more glass secrets. Secrets are wonderful arent they bc you hold them close to your heart! We made some nice tiger beads and learned also to use Silver foil. Using Silver foil is easy but to see things done in person...watching and remembering ie irreplaceable knowlege. It was an all day class and lunch was served. What a delightful day.

More and more jewellry




Some pcs I never put up...The mermaid and her babies done with mother of pearl. Nexts the mermaids family Ive gotten many compliments on this one. My hydrangea beauty and the mer~cat which is a real fave of mine. Lots of Green girl material here!




Some other peices Ive made




Well Ive been wanting to show some recent pics of some Jewellry Ive designed and strung.

Funny how we find our own "style"! Ive often said to myself why dont you string this and do that. And then I knew the answer...it wasnt my style. So with that we all sparkle and shine in the tapestry of life.

Chinese New Year beads

This top peice was made from Chinese New year beads brought to me by my lovely Daughter in law Yao. She was visiting her Mother in Tiawan and I was so pleased to recieve them and Immediately strung them! Notice the green girl studio heart on the end! The next is a favourite pc I wear of a lovely koi...who swims thru glass pads!






Hurricane Ike





It was a very scarey night here the eve hurricane Ike blew in! I made sure we all prayed for safety! We are 60 miles from Galveston and that was a good feeling to be atleast that far. It was pretty windy and during the Night I wondered if any tornado would spawn...so we went into some safe havens of the house. Heres some pics of my yard as you can see all the fences were blown down. Epps Im so thankful we were all ok.






A some what new necklace




This is one of my favourites. A lampwork tablet and all strung by me. I wear it very often its so pretty. I will have to post a few more pics soon of some other things Ive made.

Heres my newest Necklace




Finally I feel a my Jewellry creativeness is loosening up. This is such a lovely peice and it was hard to send it off... but the person was so deserving! Its so fairy like and delicate I will have to make another one. Cynthia Thornton sent me some lovely pewter peices, especialy a butterfly that is not listed on any sites. That made me feel especial. What a lovely thing to do and this Necklace was created just for her with love! xx

Dive bombing isnt such a good thing


Heres Cheeky the Quaker parrot and Cherub the Sun conure on my bed hanging out. Theyre so cute Cheeky is a real talker and every morning hell greet me with a "Good morning my Darling". They are known as wonderful talkers. But Cherub is the timid one as she prolly wasnt handled much as a youngster. But atleast they are bonded and have each other when we are away. Unfortunately Cherub doesnt get out alot these days b/c shes taken to dive bombing my Son every chance she can get! If only she could be more of a thinker!