Blue Monday & Bringing Justice to Bella!

Good afternoon! Welcome to my Blue Monday Post. Thank you Sally for Hosting Blue Monday ever week. It has been a while since I have participated, but I have been collecting photos.... ;-)

I am going to have a double post type thing today.  I hope you enjoy it! 

Many of you have seen my chalk board before.  I love it!  Planning on making some for Christmas presents this year.  Isn't that teacup pretty?  $1.47 cents at The Foundry Thrift Store.  Yep!  Johnson Brothers.  White bone china made in England.  I thought only Manuel found bargains like that.  I guess going to her blog has rubbed off on me. ;-) They only had one set, but I thought it would be perfect for holding my chalk and sponges I use for my chalk board!  Kewl huh!  I will photograph and talk about the lamp on another post.  The coffee cup, I have several of.  I think I paid $ for them some where, like our favorite place... the $$$$ tree?  I don't remember.  I have so many blue coffee cups from the $$$ tree.  LOL my favorite place to buy them. 

November is a time that we are thankful for so many blessings that God has given us.  I am thankful for the wonderful Christian husband that God has given me.  The blessing of a beautiful and sweet daughter who knows and loves the Lord. 

November is also a month that churches are coming together and putting an emphasis on the orphans in our country and our world and  an emphasis on adoption.  Orphan Sunday was November 8th.  There was a live event that was tele/webcast  all over the country and to other parts of the world and what a blessing it was!  If you did not get an opportunity to see it, either at your local church or online, I will post a link at the end of this post.  You will be able to view it at your leisure.  

I will not leave you as orphans; I will come for you.  John 14:18
Did you know that in this country alone, there are over 140,000 children in the foster system?  Most need homes and need them soon.  What would happen if the churches stood up and did what God commanded us to do and care for the fatherless?  This number would be...zero.  Worldwide, the number of orphans run into the millions!  What a testimony it would be for the Christians to step forward and not just support these children, but give them a family, a home.  A Godly Christian home and a loving family...

Many feel lead to answer the call that God has put on their hearts.  Adoption is expensive.  Whether through children's services, domestic or foreign, it is very costly.  Often times a family who does a foreign adoption will plan on one child and come home with multiples. Because of this expense, many couples are coming up with creative ways to pay for adoptions in order to not go into debt or add on additional debt.  You might say, "but what  about the 'tax credit'?"  It is nominal compared to the overall expense. 

I want to introduce to you one such family, the Wilbanks. (Don't you think a little girl would look precious between these 2 boys?!?  I do!)

You can read more about their testimony of God's calling here on their blog Bringing Justice to Orphans .  They are in the process of adopting a baby girl from India.  Her name is Bella. They are using their blog as one source of raising money toward Bella's adoption expenses and have opened a Just Love Coffee store on their blog!  $5 from of every bag of coffee purchased from the Wilbanks' Coffee Store goes into a fund to help in offsetting Bella's adoption expenses.  I know most of y'all love good coffee.  (I read about your coffee drinking on your blogs all the time! :-D) And let me tell you, Brittnie would not be selling it if it was not good!  B/c like me, she is picky about her coffee.  Feel free to post a link to their Wilbanks' Coffee Store  on your side bar, just as I have done. 
I also told you I would post a link for Orphan Sunday Webcast.  Fix yourself a cuppa, sit back and enjoy!

Don't forget to go by our wonderful Hostess' blog, Smiling Sally, and check out the other Blue Monday Posts that are linked there.  You may even want to participate!

A Blue...

... Red and White 4th of July!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful 4th of July weekend. We certainly did.

Welcome to Blue Monday and thank you Sally (Smilly Sally's Blog) for hosting Blue Monday every week!

I wanted to share with you a few photos of my table.

I made this M&M tablecloth w/matching napkins many many years ago. My in-laws and I use it for every use it every patriotic holiday. Either at our house, the lake house (before FIL sold it) or at my IL's house. The napkins are a generous 22". When I make napkins, I make them big enough to cover your lap!!! Look at how the patriotic M&M's and the white stars stand out on the blue fabric.

And dessert! Luscious blueberries {yum!} on the fruit pizza! Look at that deep blue color! And so fresh and jucy! This is one of our favorite desserts

And we cannot forget table decorations! After reading about all the bargains Gloria got at the $$$ Tree a couple of weeks ago, I went there to see what I could find. Flag garland. I decorated the chandi with it, used it for napkin holders and decorated my teapot with it. Oh, and I had DH and DD pick up red and white flowers for me. Actually DH was afraid to pick out flowers and had DD do it. Didn't she do a great job! I am tired of always using a clear vase... and there was one of my tea pots sitting there. Just the perfect shade blue and there were even two Teapartys here in the B'ham area Sat. Perfect! (This pot btw also makes a perfect pot of tea!)

I hope that you enjoyed my Blue Monday Post. Thank you for stopping by and taking the time to comment. I read each and everyone!

To see more Blue Monday Posts or to participated in Blue Monday, go to Sally's Blog~Smiling Sally.

Blue Monday-A Blue Heart

Welcome to Blue Monday! And thank you Sally for hosting.

Today I am sharing a stain glass heart purchased on our Honeymoon in the Blue Ridge Mountains. I saw it hanging on the big window in the Pigsgah Inn Gift Shoppe with the light coming through it. I knew I had to have it. It has been hanging in my kitchen window ever since, almost 17 years.

Happy Blue Monday everyone! To see more Blue Monday Posts, go to Smiling Sally's Blog. I am still busy with work. Hopefully will get some photos posted on my business blog for you to see. I will try my best to stop by and see and post to everyone.

A New Pot!

Welcome to my Blue Monday post! Thank you Sally (Smiling Sally's Blog) for hosting.

My FIL and MIL took our family out to dinner Friday night. They also presented me with my birthday present (I know it was in Jan, but they have been sick, we get sick, travel, etc... just got around to celebrating....) FIL said he got it from the Smithsonian. I think it is lovely and will make a fine addition to my collection of pots.

To see more Blue Monday Posts or to participate, go by Smiling Sally's blog!

Have a great day and God bless you all!
Hugs,
Melissa

Blue Monday

Welcome to my addition to Blue Monday. Blue Monday is hosted by Sally @ Smiling Sally's Blog. Thank you Sally for hosting every week. We all really appreciate it.

This week I wanted to show you a set of salt and pepper shakers that I purchased at Monticello (Home of Thomas Jefferson) several years ago. I love them and use them next to my stove. And now that I look at the photo (I used one of my work cameras for this photo) I see all the grains of sugar that should have been cleaned off the hutch! LOL!

To see more Blue Monday posts or to participate in Blue Monday, go to Smiling Sally's Blog.

Happy Blue Monday! And thanks for stopping by.

Blue Monday!

Today is Blue Monday hosted by Sally @ Smiling Sally's Blog. Thank you Sally for hosting Blue Monday every week. It is much fun!

This week I want to show you a couple of Blue Transferware I picked up a few months ago at an Antique/Flea Market place. (Same place I bought the chandelier for my kitchen.)

I originally bought the plates for my future China Garden. And also for the hangers that were attached. I think I only paid a 1 or 2 dollars for each plate. I was looking for attractive, inexpensive, even chipped plates for the China Garden. When I got them home, I decided I liked them too much and that they would look great hanging on the kitchen wall.

They are stoneware and there is no stamp or mark on the back of them.

The dinner plate is only about 10 inches wide. Here yu can see how much smaller this dinner plate is compared to my everyday stoneware. The small size makes me think it is old.

I bought a couple of bread plates as well. Some of the transferware pattern was smudged when it was placed on the plate before firing/processing. If anyone has any idea of the history of the pattern/stoneware, I would appreciate knowing.

Thank you for visiting my blog today. To see more great Blue Monday posts or to participate in Blue Monday, please stop by Sally's blog by clicking HERE.

Have a great day!
Hugs,
Melissa

Blue Disney Monday!

Of course, Disney is anything, but Blue! :D Happy Blue Monday and thank you Sally for hosting Blue Monday every week.

I had Blue Monday in mind when I took these two photos at downtown Disney.

These two photos were taken in Downtown Disney a couple of months ago.

To see more Blue Monday Posts or to participate in Blue Monday, go to Smiling Sally's Blog by clicking HERE! Or by going to the Blue Jay picture in my Sidebar. Thanks again Sally!

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Oh, I forgot to mention... I am 50 today and I can still do THIS!

Blue Monday

Welcome to my Blue Monday Post. Blue Monday is hosted by Sally @ Smiling Sally's Blog. Thank you Sally!

I love this shot of Cinderella's Castle. It is Blue, and so beautiful with the Ice Crystals dripping from it. Oh I almost missed this shot b/c I was all the way in Fronteirland when I first saw the color change to this Blue. (And it was so crowded. A sea of people, very difficult to navigate through the crowd and with 2 families, 3 of us photographers.) There was another Blue, it was aqua Blue. Pretty, and I captured it as well. I will save it for another post as I have a whole series of the castle photos featured in different colors. At night time, different lights are put on the castle changing color(s), even during the fireworks. It is beautiful. This photo was taken before the Wishes Fireworks show. The camera was hand held as there was barely a spot to stand let alone set up a tripod. That night was very very crowded.

To see more Blue Monday Posts or to participate in Blue Monday, go to Sally's blog by clicking HERE. Thank you for taking time to visit my blog today. Thank you Sally for hosting.

Y'all have a great day!

Blue Monday

Happy Blue Monday Everyone! I took this photo the Saturday before Thanksgiving. A dance school client of mine was invited to bring her performing team to Walt Disney World to perform in the Tomorrowland Amphitheater that Sat before TG. It was all decorated for Christmas and Winter. And the girls danced and twirled to Christmas Songs and Carols. It was so much fun and exciting!

The school invited us to come down and take advantage of the discounted tickets. Park Hoppers were indeed a bargain! And DH & DD have been itching to go back to WDW so we jumped on the opportunity and were delighted to take photos of the team during their performance. I just love how the Blue Stage complimented their Blue costumes! (The school that performed 2 hours before did not have that advantange...) And also notice the coordinated jump! I am an excellent shot at getting those synced jumps. Usually, the girls are not all in sync (sometimes choroegraphed that way) when they are supposed to be in sync and they mess up my shot and their performance. You can tell they worked hard on making this one perfect! Not one girl left on the floor. :D My shot looks good. I think the reason I can get them every time is b/c I danced for so many years and b/c I shoot them so much. Instinct. I know when it is coming and I am ready to shoot.

I love the Blue and the Blue Background. It was not planned. But turned out ever so perfect!

For more Blue Monday Posts or to participate, go to Sally's Blog, Smiling Sally, by Clicking Here. Happy Blue Monday Everyone!

Blue Monday

Thank you Sally for hosting Blue Monday! To check out more Blue Monday posts, go to Sally's blog, Smilling Sally.

I WON! I WON!!! I won a Beautiful Blue Clock from Kimba's Site! She is promoting Mom's Businesses


and is featuring a GiveAWay every few days. One Etsy shop she was promoting is Bode22 owned by Meg (I think Meg is sold out of clocks right now... her shop is empty! I hope she is making more!) and here is Meg's blog. In reading her blog, I think she is busy!!! And with these adorable clocks, I see why!

Dosn't this clock look GREAT next to my yellow wall?

I just love this shade of blue! I love this clock!

Thanks Mel and Kimba! To check out


and GiveAWays, go to Kimba's blog.

The Mom Unite tag is Blue too!!!
Sally, thank you for hosting Blue Monday!!!
And allowing me to show off my new Blue Clock!!!

Blue Monday

Good Morning and welcome to Blue Monday!

I posted this photo a few months ago. I purchased that cabinet from Unfinished Furniture Mart and painted it years ago.

I just took this photo a few minutes ago so you could see more detail of my faux crackle finish. DH thought I made a mess, but I liked how it turned out. Oh, did I tell y'all I like BLUE?

Someone stole my idea! Someone who blog lurks and has a flea market/antique shop booth stole my idea. ;-) The shop, where I found the chandelier, also had this cabinet. I had to do a double take b/c of the color. LOL! Did I tell y'all I love BLUE? I am really teasing about somebody copying my idea. But seeing this piece leads me to believe that I am on track. Though that would not matter because I love my blue cabinet! And I painted it for me and the spot it sits in. :D

Thank you for stopping by and leaving a commit!

For more Blue Monday Posts, go to Smiling Sally's Blog. Thank you Sally for hosting Blue Monday!

Blue Monday

A couple of weeks ago, on the road coming home from Smocking Arts Guild Convention in Atlanta, I had a few bucks still in my pocket, burning a hole, no child or husband in the car or expecting me home to cook supper and feed them... :-D I looked for a Antique Store/Flea Market. And I found one!

It was in Leeds, AL, really not far from where I live. About 30-45 minutes if I am not speeding and interstate all the way. I pulled over and stayed until they closed. And yes, my cell did go off while I was there, DH wondering when/if I was coming home... (I think they missed me. I have been gone for almost a whole week!)

I love blue, blue & white, blue & white & yellow. I saw this shelf and it was all I could do to resist! I wanted to buy everything on the shelf, but I didn't. I did however, take a photo for Sally's Blue Monday. Many pretties and though I had not yet participated I wanted to start collecting pictures.

I also found this pretty blue chandi. Fell in love with it and took a photo of it too!

This is my first time to participate in Blue Monday. To find out more about Blue Monday, go to Smiling Sally's Blog to read and participate. Happy Blue Monday and thank you Sally for hosting!