Notes from A Cottage Industry

Words to live by - week 74

I know the price of success: dedication, hard work, and an unremitting devotion to the things you want to see happen.     Frank Lloyd Wright

Words to live by - week 73

“Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” - Marcel Proust

Words to live by - week 72

All a woman needs

is a good bath.

                                                               - Hedy Lamarr

After the week I've had, I'd have to say that Hedy's right.
Sometimes, it's life's simple pleasures and blessings that put things all back into perspective.

Words to live by - week 71

Kindred spirits are not so scarce as I used to think. It’s splendid to find out there are so many of them in the world.

                              Anne of Green Gables

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Can'tcha just tell these gals are kindred spirits? Oh ya, you just know they are.

     Adrienne, my friend and business partner in the Tumbleweed Cotillion is up at the Farm Chicks show right this very minute, up in Spokane.(oooh! How I wish I could have gone!)  She sent me a text last night and then, after some more frantic texting, we spoke on the phone.
     She shared with me about all the fabulous vendors that are there, (Deb, and Heather, and Bari and Tammy...and so many more) Then she told me how lots of people are excited about the upcoming Cotillion, and that people were asking all about me, telling her that they read my blog. (I tell you, I was genuinely surprised, and I was so touched I cried. Really.)

     See? That's where I was going with the kindred spirit thing.

Anyway.

     I want to thank you from the bottom of my toes for reading my blog, for posting your comments, for sharing ideas and thoughts and questions. I want to thank you for pouring out your hearts to me,and letting me pour mine out to you, for encouraging me, for..well, you know.

After all, we're kindred spirits.

Words to live by - week 70

     Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful. Albert Schweitzer

Words to live by - week 69

One. more. time. It's all about choices.
I'd like to think I'm an "I'm glad I did" girl. How about you?

Words to live by - week 68

    Delight yourself in the LORD; And He will give you the desires of your heart.   Psalm 37:4

I am so very thankful for my growing family.

Words to live by - week 67

"Motherhood: All love begins and ends there."
                               -- Robert Browning

Words to live by - week - 66

That man is richest whose pleasures are cheapest.          Henry David Thoreau

It's amazing to me just how much pleasure I can get out of baking a simple batch of cupcakes to share with friends.

To slightly alter a line from Winnie the Pooh: No one can be uncheered by a cupcake.

 

Words to llive by - week 65

Once you choose hope, anything is possible.
                                                                                Christopher Reeves

Words to live by - week 64

*sigh* I need to remember that.

Words to live by - week 63

    Those truly linked don't need correspondence. When they meet again after many years apart, their friendship is as true as ever.
                                                 Deng Ming-Dao

     I had one of the loveliest blessings unfold over the past few weeks. I lost touch with a very good friend several years back. The exact reason is not important. Misunderstandings and menopause, along with life changes, and suddenly, half a decade had passed without so much as a phone call or email to one another.
      Through a series of nothing short of divine interventions, our paths crossed not once, but twice in a matter of a couple of weeks, and we found our way back to one another. It left me feeling puzzled as to how we ever let this happen in the first place, and feeling abundantly blessed at being given the opportunity of a second chance to have my dear friend back in my life, as though no time had lapsed at all.

Words to live by - week 62

Don't ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.                                                                                  Harold Whitman

Words to live by - week 61

Quietly forgiving and moving on is a gift to God ~ and yourself.  unknown

Words to live by- week 60 (Happy, happy Easter!)

The great gift of Easter is hope - Christian hope which makes us have that confidence in God, in his ultimate triumph, and in his goodness and love, which nothing can shake. 
                                                    Basil C. Hume
Happy, happy Easter everyone! I hope you're having a lovely day with people you love.

Words to live by - week 59

 

A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person.

     Mignon McLaughlin

Words to live by - week 58

Thorns may hurt you, men desert you, sunlight turn to fog;
but you're never friendless ever, if you have a dog.
                                                      Douglas Mallock

Moose always follows me wherever I go in the cottage. When I am working on a project or on the computer, he settles in with his duck and lays under my feet, never all the way asleep. He's too afraid he might miss something.

Words to live by - week 57

There is nothing like a dream to create the future.
                                                 Victor Hugo

(**These cupcakes are from Cupcake Jones, Portland's newest Cupcakery in the heart of the Pearl district.**)

Words to live by - week 56

words to live by - week 55

I'm a believer.

Words to live by - week 54

"The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing." Walt Disney

words to live by - week 53

Happiness pulses with every beat of my heart.

~Emily Logan

52 weeks of words to live by.

    
     Can you believe it? I can't. I think I am going to take all 52 posts and make them into a nice little book for myself to remember all them all, each one meaning so very much to me.
     I'd like to give each and everyone of of you that has traveled along this journey the past 52 weeks with me a giant hug. It's been 52 weeks of personal growth for me, that's for sure.
I did the drawing this morning (Wow! Sooooo many comments! The pile was ginormous!) and Jen R won the drawing for my anniversary of 52 solid weeks of words to live by. Shoot me an email with your address Jen, and the "Believe" charm necklace from Cathy Penton will be on it's way to you!

Words to live by- week 52

Thank you all for reading my blog, and my "words to live by" for this past year. I'm so very happy and blessed to have gotten to know you all.

words to live by week 50

The little things? The little moments? They aren't little.
-  John Zabat-Zinn

*sigh* True dat.

Words to live by - week 49

 "Winter is the time of promise because there is so little to do - or because you can now and then permit yourself the luxury of thinking so."
-- Stanley Crawford

words to live by - week 48

Heap on more wood! The wind is chill: But let it whistle as it will, We'll keep our Christmas merry still.

                                ~Sir Walter Scott

     I am so not ready for this Christmas to be over. (I can't  bear to take the tree down yet) We've been expecting a snow storm here for nearly a week, but all we've had at my cottage is a dusting. I'll take it though. I am snug as a bug in a rug here, sitting by my roaring fire, with my pups and my books, keeping my Christmas merry still.

words to live by - week 47

I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year."
~ Charles Dickens (1812-1870), English author. From 'A Christmas Carol'.

words to live by - week 46

"I am not alone at all, I thought. I was never alone at all. And that, of course, is the message of Christmas. We are never alone. Not when the night is darkest, the wind coldest, the world seemingly most indifferent. For this is still the time God chooses." -- Taylor Caldwell

Amen to that.

Words to live by - week 45

Christmas waves a magic wand over the world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.
                                                              Norman Vincent Peale

words to live by- week 44

Happiness walks on busy feet. Kitty Turmell

Oh, I love this quote.

*Sigh* Now, time for that long awaited candlight bubble bath with Christmas music serenading me, after a week of very, very busy feet.