Friday, July 12, 2013

And the Winner is . . . .

Elizabeth Mitton!!!!
Congratulations for winning and being the first to guess correctly!  Please let us know which prize you would like and we will get it to you as soon as possible.

*On a side note - I(Sharpi) apologize for the horribly random, incredibly vague clues. I tend to get completely confusing when I'm trying to be vague :) Thanks for hanging in there!*

After running the other entries through a random number generator, our second winner is - Rachel H!

Crafting the bows has been great fun and as soon as we put final touches - like paint - in place, we'll post pictures.  Since I (Irish Rose) am not allowed to play with power tools *ahem*, I really enjoyed being out in dad's shop working with the heat gun and a hand saw . . . I think the part I liked most was doing something with my dad.

Thanks for guessing!
We Three

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

New Giveaway clues

Hmmmm . . . you know, when we decided to have a give-away we had no idea it would be so hard.  We thought, "Hey, this will be fun!  People like mysteries and they like prizes . . . maybe we'll make some new friends."  (Or at the very least coax some of the lurkers out of the shadows.  :)

It isn't easy.  Its downright hard and sometime frusterating.  Coming up with clues has proved problematic because when one knows the answer it seems like everything is a dead giveaway . . . like we're painting a giant red bulls-eye on the answer and there is no target to shoot for anymore.

So, we're going to mix things up a little.  Intead of posting pictures (because quite frankly, the materials we used for this project were in no shape or form traditional - and therefore might be adding to the confusion) we'e going to turn it into a word game.  Sort of.  Or maybe an association game . . .

Answer the followig question.  Please.  :) 

What do the following items have in common:

cupid

wood

Psalm 44:6

feathers


Okay then - now you have no excuse for not entering the giveaway - or at least saying hi.  :)

Hope you're enjoying all sorts of summer adventures!
Irish Rose (on behalf of We Three.)

Sunday, June 9, 2013

A New Year

. . . In June . . . . yes, it is a little late for a New Year's post now that it is almost half over.
Thing is, I wrote this article in the middle of the night about the middle of December, thinking there would be plenty of time to get it ready to post on January 1st.  Time was plentiful, but the problem that arose is the reason this post is really, really, incredibly late - you see, I ran into a different kind of writer's block.  It wasn't that I didn't know how to write it, because the whole thing was already written out, but I was so close to these thoughts that had been running around in my head for quite some time, that I could not take a far enough step back to look at it and see which parts were too confusing and which repeated themselves and needed to be taken out. When the words were re-read I understood it perfectly, because they had all been turned over and over in my mind and I knew what they meant, even if they weren't very clear, but I know very well that the way I think can sometimes be confusing to other people when I try to explain something. (Just ask my sisters:)

To put it very simply, I knew it was rather confusing and not quite clear and polished enough to post, and I couldn't figure out how to fix it. . . . . . so it got shelved in an attempt to let me step away and clear my thoughts before coming back to it. After a couple months of not even looking at it, I opened it up and decided it needed to be finished, even if the year is almost half over I was determined to get it published, otherwise it might never find its way here.

Of course, after all that work trying to get it untangled I realized I should have just posted it the way it was and give you a very real glimpse of what it is like inside my brain!
dizzy smiley photo: dizzy dizzyf.gif










Approach of a New Year


    The years seem to slip by faster with each one that passes. They come and go with a regular rhythm that we have come to expect, simply living our lives and giving the old year a polite nod as it fades away, replaced with the new one to come.
Resolutions are made to fill this New Year that spreads before us, all glistening and crisp. Within us is the hope that perhaps this year will be different.

Certain words are passed around a lot during the approach of a new year:
“A new year is coming! We can start fresh.”
“Begin with a clean slate.”
“Things will be different.”
Perhaps they will be different. As a matter of fact, of course they will be different, but it doesn’t mean that you will not remember what came in the months before that seemingly magical day of January 1st.

I was thinking about it recently, lapsing into one of those philosophical moods I get now and again. And for some reason my mind focused on the particular view (my interpretation of it,that is) that every new year is empty, allowing a new beginning.
Yes, you can change in the year to come, you can promise and work toward making things different. But there is nothing empty about it.

    I began first by doing something that isn’t quite what one would expect. Instead of looking forward, to examine and speculate about what might come in the New Year, I looked back. The Old Year stretched behind me, a rough and crumpled map of everything that had come into my life in the last twelve months.
Landmarks could be seen, some more obvious than others as they were picked out. The joys; the triumphs, small as they had been; the adventures and the wonders shared with loved ones; as well as the hurt, sorrow, and tears that arrive at some point in everyones lives.
These things will not be simply forgotten when I look at the calendar and realize the time to remember them has ‘passed’.  No matter how faded and worn they become they will be with me always, because my history is a part of my life.
You live; you make memories; you make mistakes; and in the making you learn and grow, becoming the person you are now.

    There are things I would rather have avoided, but there they are and there they remain. I have changed because of them, and that alone will have a hand in shaping the way the New Year affects me. Because I have been changed the New Year is changed for me as well. I will never know how it would have turned out, had things in the Old Year been different.

    Sometimes I wish we had the option of retrospect before hand, which, I suppose, would technically be foresight.
The initial thought is that things would be so much easier if you just knew what was coming. Wouldn’t we all, at times, have liked to know what was to happen? If only to be better prepared to deal with it when it arrived?
Yet we aren’t supposed to know that. If we could see what was coming, what would be the point of living our lives? We would not learn from our mistakes, because we would see what would happen, shrug our shoulders, and say what was to be would be, no matter what we did. So we would waffle through the year doing the same, mundane tasks, letting time ripple through our fingers, and never learn a single lesson.

As I look forward into the New Year it seems starkly empty, in comparison with what now lays behind me, the memories of the year that has just taken its last breath. Yet when that year began it looked just as fresh and empty.
    While pondering the meaning of a New Year another thought occurred:
It isn’t empty.
It is full, completely and utterly full of things that we can not yet see. There will be people brought into our lives; perhaps some will stay, perhaps some will appear for a short time. Everyday events will catch our attention and require action. Choices will have to be made, and results dealt with.

    Next was considering just what the phrase ‘A Clean Slate’ meant.
While the idea is a nice one to think about, repeated over and over until we believe it, the carrying out of such a thing is nigh impossible. 
How can you enter into a New Year with a clean slate? Of course you can go into it with the determination of changing, but events of the passing year will not just disappear as though they had never been.
Choices that you made, and the results that followed them, will cling to you, paying no heed to the boundary that seems to be set between the Old Year, and the New Year. They won’t simply let go and wave goodbye when you cross over that threshold. No, they will hold tighter and accompany you, continuing to influence your actions.
To begin with a new slate rather sounds as though the previous lessons you learned will be wiped away, leaving room for new ones to enter, but everything will still be there when January 1st comes along.

    The result of all these musing is that I don’t think that it is quite correct to say you are beginning another year anew. It is continuing the journey you have been set upon. You bring with you all the lessons and struggles that you have already been through, and the things you have learned in dealing with them. Even those problems that are tucked away in the back of your mind that, perhaps, you have been ignoring.
    It isn’t a clean slate, for that speaks of wiping everything away and beginning completely from scratch. No, it is simply the beginning of a new chapter. Full of possibilities and the chance to continue to grow and learn. To become the person that you would like to be. To allow God to continue to shape and mould you through the circumstances and events that will come into your life.
    There will be more mistakes, more triumphs, more struggles, more joys, and more sorrows in this New Year. Not to take place of the old ones, but to settle in alongside of them.
But our Heavenly Father will be right there with us, holding our hand and encouraging us into this new chapter. He will guide us if we let Him; discipline us when we need it; teach us when we forget we do not know as much as we think we do; and rejoice with us when we achieve wonderful things, no matter how small they might be.
He will never leave us during this New Year.
Just like He never left us as we traveled through the Last.


Saturday, May 18, 2013

Project Update - More Contest Specifics

Namely, the prizes have finally been figured out! Yay!

Prize Number One -
A mixed package of beautiful Gladiola bulbs!
 They are quite hardy, in our experience, and as long as you dig them up every year they will continue to grow for many, many years! (Some climates you can probably even leave them in the ground all year long:)


Prize Number Two - 
A lovely Pampering Bath Basket filled with an assortment of spa goodies!



Our project has been stalled for awhile now, due to the fact that we can't make up our minds about what color paint we want to use and if we want to wrap the handles with colored cord or not. 
Which brings us to - This week's Clues:
  • The Project is handheld
  • There are many different possible styles
  • Unfortunately there is no photo to go with the post this week, sorry about that.
  • Traditionally made of wood, though nowadays they are made with modern materials

Thursday, May 9, 2013

Heads up!!!

(wait . . . what?  We're having a give-away??  Hmmm . . . obviously I haven't been around lately . . . that needs to change.  Anyway - ahem!  Back to our regularily schedule announcment.)

If you're on facebook - or if you're not and know someone who'd let you borrow their account, *cough* -  and just happen to be interested in healthy living and/or natural healing, you might want to head over to the Vintage Remedies facebook page and check out their really amazing schedule for this weekend.  They're offering free web seminars through Saturday.  Topics include:

Aromatherapy 101 (really great introduction to the safe use of essential oils)
The Botanical Medicine Chest
How to Read a Clinical Study
Fighting Fatigue (determining sources of fatigue and how to holistically treat them)
 
I listened to two today and they were fantastic!  To my knowledge you can still sign up for the remaining seminars - I realize that this weekend is probably already really busy, but these are well worth the time.  For those who are interested but can't possibly squeeze in one more thing the seminars are being recorded and will be offered for sale later.  If you're interested I can post details on that once they are available.

Hope you're enjoying spring as much as we are!
Irish Rose

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Summer Project - Contest

Hello everyone! I do hope you all had an enjoyable weekend.
Because it got too hot to sit in the greenhouse (amazing that I can actually use 'too' and 'hot' together:) I decided now would be a good time to update the contest that was mentioned in the last post.


As of this moment it does not have an end date, so for now we'll consider it open ended unless otherwise specified somewhere in an upcoming post.

Rules: Not many!  We would like to encourage absolutely everyone to enter! Please don't worry about it if you aren't in the same state, or even the same country, we would still love to hear from you and have you enter!
  •  More than one person in a household can enter, so if a family member has already entered, don't worry about it, you can enter too!

  • If we have somehow let slip what the Project is, and you happened to hear about it, we ask that you not enter, as it wouldn't be fair to everyone else.  (We're being super careful about this so I don't think we've let it slip yet:) 

  • If you refer someone to our blog and they check us out, ask them to drop us a comment (or an entry to the contest!) that includes mentioning your name and you will get an extra entry!
There we go, rules finished, we can get on to the fun stuff!

There will be two prizes offered - 
The first person to correctly guess what the Summer Project is will be able to choose which prize they would like.
After removing the name of the person that guessed correctly, the remaining entries will be run through a random number generator and a second winner will be announced.
In the event that no one guesses correctly both names will be randomly drawn.


Now onto a few clue type bits for you all!
So far we have one entry, and while it is a good guess, I am afraid it is not correct.
While this Project does belong outdoors, it is not intended for the garden.

Not traditionally made from the materials we are using this object is well known, being around for centuries.

Not many clues, I know, but we'll leave it at that for now. The next post will hopefully include just what the prizes are, as well as another photo clue.
Have fun! Can't wait to hear from you!

Monday, April 29, 2013

Project Update

Hello one and all! Today is a lovely, sunny, warmish spring day! (Yes I did say spring, I think it's finally here!!!!!)
The Summer Project is going very well so far. Didn't work on them for most of the week, but we were out there on Saturday doing some more heating, squeezing, filing, and small tweaks that needed to be adjusted.  . . . . . it's really hard not telling you all what we're doing!
So, I think we'll turn this into a little contest! 
If you would like to send in your guess as to what our project is, please leave a comment in any of the Summer Project Posts.
The next post will include another picture, as well as what the prize for the contest is going to be. 
We would love to hear from you, and please spread the word to your friends, we are always eager to 'meet' more people! :)