The Stone of Eloquence or Blarney Stone is an actual stone built into the tower wall of Blarney Castle. You need to walk up 127 stone, windy, twisty steps 37 feet up. Once you reach the top you wait in line to kiss the legendary stone.
Some say this stone was brought back during the Crusades and was the actual stone Moses struck to produce water during the exodus from Egypt. Others say, it was the stone pillow of Jacob's that the prophet Jeremiah brought to Ireland. Another story is that this is the "Stone of Ezel" behind which David took advice from Jonathan and hid from Saul. This is like all the other stories from Ireland full of legend, magic and mystery.
For over 200 years, millions of people have kissed this stone. Reaching the stone isn't as easy as one might think. You need to lay on your back and slide yourself down backward to kiss it. Thankfully, there is a man that helps you accomplish this by holding on to you. It is rather far down and I was wearing slippery leggings...it was scary...especially since I'm a bit of a big girl. I said "hang on...I'm a big one..." I don't know if he understood my humor.
Kissing this stone guarantees you the "gift of gab" - I already have an ample dose of that. Now eloquence that would be the gift I am looking for.
Here's to the gift....
Blessings from Ringle, Wisconsin.
This was one of my favorite activities on our CIE tour. Of course you know, we have raised sheep, I love wool and fiber arts and historic farmhouses. Visiting an Irish sheep farm was on our must do list.
The house and antiques were just as I imagined an Irish farmhouse to be. We were seated in the room off this beautiful entry. We had tea and scones, of which I didn't take a picture of, but it was very good. After the tea, our tour included a sheep dog demonstration. This farm also had an older family dog that wasn't one of the herding dogs. Anyway, he was so cute! He greeted our bus, rolled over for belly rubs and tried to get our attention by barking and pretending to herd the sheep - like I said so cute!
The herding dogs knew what their job was. They were off with the sound of the whistle and some calls from the owner. This farm has been in his family since the 1950's and they have 600 sheep. Most are used for wool, some for meat and others sold for their breed stock. I asked about the fairs and any competitions they have in Ireland and if they compete in them. He shared that their farm does do this and it is how you sell and establish your breeding stock - same here. We told them about 4-H and about the girls showing sheep. He was interested in our experiences too.
Good job - what a face!
Now we are off to kiss the blarney stone....
Blessings from Ringle, Wisconsin.
My business partners and I got together for our 2nd Annual Estately Yours Christmas luncheon. It started last year when I invited "City Jackie" and Lisa over for lunch. We had completed our first estate sale together and it was a way for us to discuss how it went and future plans. We completed 7 sales this year.
Estately Yours in 2016 was able to help several families with their estate sale needs. We learned a lot, tried some new ideas (Manic Monday Sales) and mostly, had fun. If you can't enjoy what you are doing, why do it, right?! Like I've posted before, helping families is more of a ministry for us than a "business."
I had an idea for an Instagram and face book post (I'm always thinking about that) to make gingerbread houses and post "from our houses to yours, Merry Christmas." So, I made each of us a gingerbread house that I attached to a slab of wood. I tried a new technique this year for the "glue" to stick the walls together, caramelized sugar, it works great! It was my gift to them as well. We had fun decorating them as we discussed this past year of sales.
We look forward to what 2017 brings our way. Families contact us by reference or word of mouth, none of us actively seek sales. We do, however, have some fun ideas for our next sale, if one happens to come our way.
Should you have 1 item, an entire house or sheds and barns to clean out, keep us in mind. We like to get our hands dirty and dig up treasures to sell for you.
Thank you to those families who put their trust in us and to our faithful customers. Merry Christmas and blessings from Ringle, Wisconsin.
Another Dicky Bird original I came up with.
Nutty Pumpkin Spice
1 C soft butter
3/4 C granulated sugar
1 C brown sugar
Cream together till light and fluffy, add
2 eggs
1 T vanilla
1 T dark molasses
1 t cinnamon
2 T pumpkin pie spice
1/2 t salt
1 t baking soda
2 C cooked pumpkin
mix until well blended, add
3 C oatmeal
1 C chopped walnuts
2 - 2 1/2 C flour (depends on how wet your pumpkin is)
Use a cookie scoop and place on sprayed pan. Press a walnut half in each cookie, bake 350 for 12-14 minutes.
I hope you enjoy these.
Blessings from Ringle, Wisconsin.
I muddle my way through the web, research trends, read and comment on blogs, share information on twitter, Instagram, follow and pin on Pinterest and this my friends, I do for me to build my business. So, this week, no one was more shocked than me to receive a call from a mentor in reference to my social media marketing. "I want you to do for me, what you do for you." "What do you charge for that?"
What do I charge? Well, I researched costs and fees of social media marketing. I couldn't believe it - $1,000-$20,000 per month depending on the number of social media outlets, number of posts, content -vs- photos, information -vs- inspiration and the list goes on. Once I added all that up - "what I do for me" - I could never even begin to ask someone to pay for that and charge - "what I can do for you." I can't even afford myself - lol.
I shared this story with a friend who said, "why not try to make some money at what you enjoy doing?" So, I put on my thinking cap and came up with a pretty neat idea. It will be something "I could do for others, like I do for me." An affordable social media marketing option.
First, I need to work out some of the details, but I think I came up with a new project for 2o17.
Blessings from Ringle, Wisconsin.
I have been working on a few felted wool projects. Some will be for gifts and others for sale.
I officially brought in the "tin o thread" - it's getting serious around here! Yes, this is a vintage metal picnic tin - full of embroidery floss...sometimes I hoard useful items. (smile)
Blessings from Ringle, Wisconsin.
My business, Town Hall Trinkets, LLC, is a resale business. I specialize in estate "buy outs" - that is where a majority of my inventory comes from. After 25 years of doing this, you can imagine I have come across some pretty neat items.
As I was digging for some Christmas resale in my storage pole building (54' x 45'), I came across a box full of cool items. I must have packed all the Christmas I "liked" in one box over the years, because I really like all of it. After looking at the items, I was thinking about all the different decades of Christmas decorations.
I remember all the shiny brite ornaments, silver "tinsel," spay cans of flocking snow, felt cardinals (my mom made), these and other handmade ones on our tree. As I sifted through the box, I was thinking how many Christmas trees did these ornaments adorn? What memories were made by their just hanging there? This is part of my hoarding problem, I tend to personalize items that weren't even mine.
So, this had me thinking, what was your favorite childhood ornament or memory of a tree? Please leave a comment and let me know.
Blessings from Ringle, Wisconsin.
