The Miracle of Christmas...

And an angel appeared to Mary and said,

 

(Court, Christmas Angel, Nursery School Play, circa 1994)

 

 "Rejoice, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!"

 

Then the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God."

 

(Amanda, Chirstmas Dove, Nursery School Play, circa 1990)

 

"And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus."

 

And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them...

(Circa 1950/1960 manger that beloned to my mom)

 

...and the glory of the Lord shone around them;

and they were terribly frightened.

 

And the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid;

for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy

which shall be for all the people; 

 

...for today in the city of David there has been born

for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. "

 

"And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths, and lying in a manger."

 

Wishing you all a blessed,

 

 

... peace-filled Christmas.

 

Donna

 

Wordless Wednesday... Fun with PicMonkey

(original photo)

(altered with PicMonkey)

I feel so blessed...

Lyn, I will be writing to you, but I wanted to thank you immediately for the stunning tag you created and sent to me. I agree, this image is just beautiful - so serene... And the lace trim, rhinestone design, flowers, and silk ribbon you added are just perfect....

As you know, I love my Blessed Virgin Mary statues, busts, and planters, and your tag is such a beautiful addition to my collection.

Not only that, this tag arrived just when I needed a little lift. It's been very stressful to see all the changes my dad has been going through lately, and your sweet gift could not have arrived at a more perfect time.

Thank you so very much... I feel so blessed.

Donna

The latest addition to my Mary collection...

I have a soft spot for Mary...

...and a great fondness for statues of Mary.

It started with this 1960's ceramic Mary that belonged to my mom, that now hangs in my home.

I then found the most incredible vintage, chippy cement Mary statue for our garden.

There is also my ever-growing collection of vintage Madonna busts and planters.

So needless to say, when I came across this very old, chippy chalkware statue of Mary in a thrift store, I was absolutely smitten.

I'd never seen a piece quite like this before. In addition to Mary, there was an old, chippy chalkware statue of Jesus...

...both of them standing on a base with a Holy Water font, votive candleholder...

...and sweet chippy cherub between them.

It's just the most beautiful old statue and I am so grateful to have been in the right place at the right time to have found it.

And you just know that Miss Social Butterfly was overseeing every photo I took of this statue,...

... peering at me from behind the divider windows!

She never misses a trick,...

... always keeping an eye on what's going on, and this afternoon was no exception!

I'll be posting this over at Cindy's (My Romantic Home) Show & Tell Friday this week. Be sure to pop over and check out what everone else is sharing! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

(NOTE: I have NO clue what is going on with the layout here! It was fine when I typed it, and it's gone crazy. No matter how many times I edit it, it reverts back to this hodge podge! Hope you can make sens of this post! haha)

Donna

The beauty of a candlelit power outage...

Can you tell by the title that I'm really trying to look for the positive in the midst of our nasty winter? New England has been hit hard by multiple snowstorms in rapid succession, but thankfully we've suffered through only one short power outage. BB (before blogging), I'd never have picked up my camera to shoot the following pics, but blogging has allowed me to see things in a whole new light. Literally. So here's what a power outage looks like in our little cottage.

(click any photos to enlarge)

A small votive sits in a chippy religious statue on the dining room half wall. Being chalkware, it's very heavy so Baby isn't able to knock it off (yet).


The scrollwork of the fire screen, silhouetted against the candles that sit inside the fireplace.


Another old chalkware statue, a grey & white kitty, rests on the hearth.

Candlelight illuminates the cherub faces on the cactus planter.

Prisms dance around the candlelight in this beautiful candleholder, a gift from my good friend, Jill.

A small votive surrounded by button jars, a white bird, and my vintage rose lamp.

One of the two prism'd fleur-de-lis candleholders that flank the fireplace. These were one of my first purchases when I switched over from a primitive to cottage decor about 7-8 years ago.

A small Mary statue...

...and a small St. Theresa planter stand guard at the "parakeet cage" on top of the jelly cupboard in a corner of the dining room.

The variety of small votives gave off just enough light to keep us from bumping into - or tripping over - things while the lights were out. Thankfully, the power was restored just as it was starting to get quite chilly in the house. The other morning it was 8 below when we woke! And we were hit with another snowstorm last night (over 12" of snow), so I'll post photos of that soon! Come on, spring! We are sooooooo ready!

I'm linking up to Show & Tell Friday at My Romantic Home so be sure to stop by and see Cindy and all the other bloggers sharing participating this week!

Donna

Sweet Serenity ... my growing collection

My collection of Madonna statues began with a wall hanging of Mary that belonged to my mother.

(click any photos to enlarge)

It hangs in my studio office along with this beautiful cross swag that I purchased from the lovely Lori at Katie's Rose Cottage a few years ago.


Over the years my Madonna collection has grown to include planters and statues found at second-hand stores. The one thing they all have in common is the sweet facial expressions... a sense of calm, of knowledge, of wisdom. I love how each artist or sculptor uses their own distinctive style to capture that sweet serenity...


My most recent thrift store find...



There are chips on baby Jesus' hand and on Mary's nose... Neither detract from the beauty of this statue.

Amanda saw this planter in a consignment store last year and bought it for me, knowing I would cherish it. I do.

The gold is worn along the edges of her veil in one area... I wonder if someone rubbed a finger along it while saying a daily prayer.

Chips on the halo add to the character and charm of this statue, found in a New Hampshire second hand store a couple of years ago.

One of my all-time favorite movies is "Under the Tuscan Sun," starring Diane Lane as Frances Mayes. At one point, after moving to Italy, Frances talks about her relationship with Mary. I love that piece of dialogue:

"Signor Martini wants me to have faith. Something I've never been good at, and now I'm even worse at. Not that I don't want faith. I'm jealous of the believers. But as a fallen-away Methodist, I do not expect to emerge from all of this a Catholic, although I admit some interior juggling is going on. To my surprise, I have become friendly with Mary. It started the night she stood by me through the storm, knowing full well I'm not a Catholic. Yet, somehow, she seems more like Mary, my favorite aunt, than Santa Maria. Aunt Mary is everywhere here, her calm presence assuring us that all things will go on as they have before."

Mmmm... a calm presence... That's how I feel about my little collection of "Mary's, Aunt Mary's, Santa Maria's, Madonna's" ... they are, indeed, a calm presence.

Happy Monday, everyone! And thank you ALL for the wonderful birthday wishes for Courtney!!!

Donna

My embellished Mary print - a vintage treasure...

Last year, during my search for the elusive Staffordshire dogs, I stumbled upon this vintage framed Mary print at a junktique shop.... I have a great fondness and love for all things Mary. Some day I'll share my small collection of Mary statues and art...

(click any photos to enlarge)

This was so different from anything I'd ever seen before. Some very creative soul had hand-painted a delicate floral border around a black and white print of Mary and then glued robin's egg blue crinkled paper around the print and painted border, giving it a lovely dimensional effect.


I love everything about this image - the serene expression on Mary's face, the delicate position of her hand, the flowers in the background, the overall simplicity of the design...


More than likely the person who handpainted the border is the same person who hand lettered "The Power of the Agnus Dei... To help efface sin... To guard against a sudden or unprovided death. To turn away the thunderbolt" below the artwork.



The frame itself is old and the back is quite primitive, with small nails holding everything intact.

Mary hangs among family photos in a corner of my office. (I know I have way too many things hanging on the wall, but in my office I tend to let my packrat mentality take over)... And in case anyone is wondering... yes, that is a framed photo of Colin Firth but no, he's not family. It was a gag gift from someone who knew that Darcy (of both Pride & Prejudice and Bridget Jones's Diary) makes my heart go pitter-patter!

I'd love it if you shared some of your favorite actors since I'm the odd duck among my friends, who are all huge Johnny Depp fans... I can't possibly be the only one who prefers a clean cut image to a bad boy image... can I???

And don't you just love Trish from Clean House?? Oh my gosh, she's such a hoot! I love that show, and everyone on it... (although I don't think Mark would care too much for the look of this cluttered corner!)

Be sure to head over to Smiling Sally's blog to see her Blue Monday listing and to find a list of all the other blue-loving bloggers! Have a great week, everyone!

Donna