Sunday in New England

Thank you all for the lovely compliments on the photos I shared on Saturday.  I am finally catching up with reviewing and editing the photos from our trip to Spain and I am happy to know that you enjoy seeing some of them.  I am trying to get more of my personal projects finished this year.

When I was at church this morning I thought about the difference between our fairly typical small town New England church and the cathedral in Toledo.  I know it is comparing apples to oranges but I thought I'd post a few photos to share with you all.  Many of you have written to say that you also enjoy seeing photos of Concord, the historic town where we live in Massachusetts.

It was a glorious winter day with a brilliant blue sky.  Our church is quite typical with a tall steeple and bell tower and a long side extension for the Sunday school classrooms and offices.

There are four tall arched windows on each side of the sanctuary.  The glass is plain and allows plenty of light to enter.  There are also simple sconces and chandeliers.

There is a balcony across the back of the church.  When I was a child I loved to sit in the balcony of our church in Pennsylvania and look down over the congregation.

Through the door on the right is the Church Library and the Fellowship Hall is through the door on the left.  There are usually simple flower arrangements on stands in the front and when there are new babies born to members of the Church and their families, a rose is placed on the altar table.  Today there were two roses, including one for the first grandchild of our senior minister.

The walls are plain and the woodwork is very simple.  It is painted a slightly rosy shade of white in contrast to the walls.  The choir sings from this loft and the organist somehow manages to play and conduct with her back to the singers!

There are no fancy ceilings but this skylight is very pretty.   Simple lines without much ornamentation - a very typical New England Protestant Church.

Just a quick reminder...

There are a few days left to take on the challenge I gave you in the beginning of the month.  Thanks to Emily and Jules who have posted their links already.  I have extended the date until February 1st when I return from Germany - I am sure that I'll be able to find a great prize while I am there.

You can find the original post with all of the details HERE.  I'd love to see some more people take the challenge - maybe I gave you too long to do it (should I give a shorter deadline next time?).

For those of you on the email subscription - my timing is a bit off for the past few days.  I will be posting a Monday organization idea later in the day and then will try to get back on the 6 a.m. release timing for the rest of the week and while I am away.

February 1st, the day I return from Germany, will be the fourth anniversary of my blog.  I have a blogoversary celebration planned with some fun prizes for three lucky people.  I am really excited to have a chance to thank all of you who take the time to read and comment on my blog and I hope you will join in the fun!

The photo at the top of this post is of our neighbor's fence.  I love seeing the little "caps" of snow on the fence posts!

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Color and Pattern Inspiration Challenge

Happy Tuesday!  Today is "back to normal" day for many people.  The holidays are over, school starts up again and regular work hours resume.  While not officially a holiday, it is still a special day for my husband and me because today is our 31st Wedding Anniversary!

We were married on a snowy January night but fortunately it was "regular snow" and not blizzard conditions.  The three children in this photo are all married now and two of them have children of their own.

We were so much younger and skinnier then!  If you have been reading my blog for a long time, you may remember that I had planned to make a proper wedding album in time for our 30th anniversary.  It isn't finished yet (insert red face here...) however, it is on my list for this year and my plan is to post some pages in progress each month until our next anniversary!

One of my ideas to keep the blog interesting and more interactive this year is to post some inspiration images and challenge you to make something inspired by the item and the colors.  I'll add the InLinkz tool to each inspiration post so you can upload your project.  There will be at least one each month and they will be open for several weeks to give you time to make something to share. You do not have to have a blog to join in - there are directions for uploading your image directly.

Here is the first inspiration image.  My husband has given me lovely gifts of fine jewelry over the years, however, one of my favorite gifts was this rather battered pin that he found at an "antique" (secondhand) shop when we lived in England.  Our son helped to choose the pin, which makes it even more special.  You can download the image above to have a handy reference to work from.

If you look carefully at the design you will see that it is based on fives (large five petal shape with five leaves and five five-petal flowers) with the one exception of the six petal flower in the center.  The paint is well worn down but the little "diamonds" are all still there - that's something of a miracle in itself!  The filigree behind each of the flowers reminds me of paper lace.

Here is another photo against a white background - you can certainly see that the pin had been "well-loved" before it joined my collection.  I think the base is brass with enamel paint for the colors - shades of blue, light green and periwinkle.

You can make a card, a flower, an element for a scrapbook page - whatever this shabby pin inspires you to create...  I can't wait to see what you come up with!  If you have any questions, please leave a comment.  If you leave a comment, instead of emailing me directly, others will be able to see the question and answer which will save everyone time - thanks!


Edited to add the following helpful information!

If you don't have a blog - you can still play along.  Just put my blog address (or any other url) in the blank and fill in your name and email.  Then you can click to go to the next page.

When you get to the second page, you will see options to add the direct image URL (from a photo storage site like Flickr or Photobucket) or to upload directly from your computer.

 I am expecting a special package to arrive today - it's taken a while to get here and it is a nice coincidence that it will arrive on our anniversary...any guesses?  (remember, I have very low will power when it comes to crafting tools...)

Today is the last day for the second chance sale on Blitsy - new sales will be posted on Wednesday, the 4th.



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