New Valentine items at my website

I just listed this pretty little keepsake pillow on my website in the Valentine cottage as well as some other many other pretties for the cottage lifestyle!

Time to share!

Here a couple of my favorite vintage Valentine images~a gift to my friends out in blog land! Click on the pics to get full size and right click to save~

Tuesday news

One of my English Cottage hanging pillows for Valentines Day was featured on this blog. Thank you Kris from OFG team (Old Farmhouse Gathering).

In other news, Etsy Cottage Style ning is preparing for it's first birthday party. Games, prizes and all kinds of fun are in store for the members February 8th thru 12th. More information can be had by clicking on the banner at the top right of this page. If you are not a member, you can apply for a membership, all we ask is that you love the cottage style!

I'm back from the land of yuck

Well everyone, I crawled out from underneath a rock after being sick with a yucky stomach virus for 4 days. Nothing worse for me than not having the energy to even sit at the computer. I finally finished a few blog background/banner sets and listed them in my graphic design etsy shop. Take a peek and tell me what you think! I have so many ideas for pretty blogs, I can't decide which ones to keep for myself! Lots more designs to come. But I am getting behind on my textile art, playing too much with the graphics!!

Lynsie's GO GO boots

Well, I don't know if they call them go go boots now--but they did when I was in junior high in the late 1960's. Lynsie thinks she is pretty neat in these furry little boots. She is 15 months old now and visits her nana every Friday so momma gets a free day of day care. And nana Debbi takes every advantage of a good photo opportunity!
BTW--my daughter said these were "snow boots", but to me they are go go boots with fur LOL

The vintage journal

I was honored to be invited to be a team member recently by Denise of the Vintage Journal blog.
I just wrote my first post over there featuring this vintage Victorian Tussie mussie for Valentines Day. Pop over and take a peek.

I also featured another of my Tussie Mussies over at the Etsy Cottage Style blog--this is a sweet pink lacey number--Check it out!

The Season of Ephipany

I was going to start a series on some Valentine trivia, but seemed a tad bit early, so it seemed fitting to do a an article on the SEASON OF EPHIPANY. Growing up as a christian, this holiday is familiar to me as being celebrated right after Christmas. I thought some of you may be interested in a bit of short history:

The Season Of Epiphany

Dennis Bratcher

In western Christian tradition, January 6 is celebrated as Epiphany. It goes by other names in various church traditions. In Hispanic and Latin culture, as well as some places in Europe, it is known as Three Kings’ Day (Span: el Dia de los Tres Reyes, la Fiesta de Reyes, or el Dia de los Reyes Magos; Dutch: Driekoningendag). Because of differences in church calendars, mainly between the Eastern Orthodox and the western Catholic and Protestant traditions, both Christmas and Epiphany have been observed at different times in the past. Today, most of the Eastern Orthodox traditions follow the western church calendar. The exceptions are some Greek Orthodox Churches and related traditions (for example, Russian and Serbian Orthodox) that still follow the older calendar and celebrate Epiphany as the Theophany on January 19th.

Epiphany is the climax of the Advent/Christmas Season and the Twelve Days of Christmas, which are usually counted from the evening of December 25th until the morning of January 6th, which is the Twelfth Day. In following this older custom of counting the days beginning at sundown, the evening of January 5th is the Twelfth Night. This is an occasion for feasting in some cultures, including the baking of a special King's Cake as part of the festivities of Epiphany (a King's Cake is part of the observance of Mardi Gras in French Catholic culture of the Southern USA). In some church traditions, only the full days are counted so that January 5th is the Eleventh Day of Christmas, January 6th is the Twelfth Day, and the evening of January 6th is counted as the Twelfth Night.