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!