The Life of Mrs. Miles

BIRTHDAY IN DECEMBER CUPCAKE ELEMENT
(Merry Christmas Cupcake added too!)

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happy, HAPPY birthday (December 9th) to our nieces MELISSA who lives in the interior of BC, and RACHEL who lives at the coast. Instead of buying or making a birthday card, this is for you girls instead. I hope you don't mind that your gift gets shared with everyone out here in blog-land! You all can leave greetings for Melissa at her Gramma's blog (Judy) by clicking HERE, but unfortunately Rachel does not have a blog. I'm sure Judy will have some good pics etc of Melissa posted too, today! Me and Miles hope you girls have a wonderful day, and the best birthday ever!

I received a comment from you, Faith - we lost touch oh so long ago, and then here you are on my blog comments. Please email me! lalalime(at)hotmail.com It would be so nice to connect before the holidays. It was a delight to find you in my comments!

SWEDISH WEAVING

Our friend Melanie came and spent the night recently – I think I posted that last blog entry. We exchanged gifts with each other, though we did not open hers until just before we took her home. She'll be spending the holiday away with family, so we decided to open them early. We were FLOORED by Melanie's gift. Its a small tablecloth done in what is called 'swedish weaving' It is SO beautiful – hand made by her Mom. We will treasure this for years and years! Thank you Melanie (and Mom!) I had never heard of this before so I've done some research for you:

Swedish Weaving is a form of embroidery that dates back several centuries. Today it's called by several other names, the most common ones being Swedish Huck Weaving, or Huck embroidery. This type of embroidery is known as"surface" embroidery because the floss or yarn is woven under the top threads of fabric "floats." Because it's woven on the top threads, the yarn barely shows through on the other side, making it much neater than cross-stitching.

I was sent the following email from a friend – and I am grateful she did. I've verified that it was genuine and I would like to share it with you. I found it thought provoking and interesting.

The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary.

BEN STEIN

My confession:

I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are: Christmas trees. It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, "Merry Christmas" to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu If people want a crèche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.

I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat. Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship Nick and Jessica and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him? I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where Nick and Jessica came from and where the America we knew went to. In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking.

Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her "How could God let something like this happen?" (regarding Katrina) Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said, "I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?"

In light of recent events...terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK. Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school.. The Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK. Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about. And we said OK.

Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves. Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with "WE REAP WHAT WE SOW." Funny how simple it is for people to trash Christianity, then , wonder why the world's going to hell. Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says. Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing. Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public di scussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Are you laughing?

Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it. Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.

Pass it on if you think it has merit. If not then just discard it... no one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought process, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in. My Best Regards.

Honestly and respectfully,

Ben Stein

I would love your feedback on this? Why not leave me a comment and share your take on it?

Almighty God, in your love you fill us with joy as we prepare to celebrate the birth of your Son. Remove those things which hinder us from loving you, that when He comes, He may find us waiting in awe and wonder for Him, who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, One God, now and forever. Amen.

- Book of Common Prayer

Now, I'll give one last 'rant' before leaving you with a little humor. My friend Amy W. - we ALL know Amy – she's the givingest-blogging/scrapper we know. She not only expends a lot of her personal time and effort to provide us with beautiful freebies, she also devotes time to rounding up other designer freebies, and promoting all of us. In the past couple of days she has discovered that she (and other designers) are having their 'freebies' STOLEN. Yes, stolen. And they are free. How gross is that! In case you are not a scrapper or designer you will be asking... if its FREE, how can it be stolen? Well, its like this, when a designer gives something away they host it on their own site and the idea is the people come and download it themselves – and then send their friends back to the site to get it themselves. But these theives download the freebie then RE-host it on their own download sharing site, therefore the original designer is robbed twice, once of the item, then again from a visit! Please, get honest. If you get given a free item DO send your friends to get it, but DON'T copy and share. Thats just bad. And, if you know of this happening, please, at least let us know! We love to make and share, but if this happens continously it sure makes you think hard...

WHAT CAN I SAY?

Ok, the fun stuff!

Miles brought me a sweet little Charlie Brown tree today – its up, but will remain naked for a day or two yet.

I was planning on telling you-all to Elf Yourself, and whaddya know but I recieve my brother and sister-in-law in my mailbox, all elfed up! Its SO cute – so make sure you get over and elf YOURSELF. Just click HERE to make this happen.

And, there is also a Scrooge – in fact I made up a Miles-Scrooge for you to see, if you just click HERE. After you watch him doing his thing (he does this little dance in real life every day ... snicker, now I'm in trouble!) then you can Scrooge yourself – it will give you that option. If you want to save Miles some embarassment you can just click HERE to get right to it.

Also, check out this cool machine video Miles shared with me!