a number of things

First Fruits

Or in this case, veggies.  We harvested the first salad from our fall garden yesterday! 

It's really not much of a garden, but we haven't done one in a couple of years, so we are pretty excited.  The kids really helped a lot with the planting, as is evident from the rather tight spacing of the carrots.  We probably should do some thinning in the broccoli also...

 

I really like fall gardening much better than summer.  Besides the weather being absolutely beautiful, there are less weeds and almost no bugs to contend with.  Mmmm, I think I'll put some of those onions in a soup tomorrow.

Inspiration

This is a page from a beautiful book called Shrines.  It is filled with amazing photos of private shrines all over Italy. It also was the inspiration for the "Vintage Elements" collection as I tried to recreate the soft, weathered look of these breathtaking images.

   

                                                    

("Vintage Elements" incorporates actual vintage and antique crucifixes and medals into the design of the rosary or chaplet.  These are not the re-cast pieces I normally use.)  This book is filled with page after page of exquisite examples of human devotion to the Mother of God and the Saints.

   

Happy Thought

The world is so full of a number of things,

I’m sure we should all be as happy as kings.

~Robert Louis Stevenson