Happy New Year Blessings!

Well... here we are, at 61...
(taking this pic just 4 days following Katie's surgery!)

Healthy, happy, and truly blessed to be able to 
welcome 2013 with open arms and a full embrace!

Daryle & Katie

My Workbench... Ripping Wood for a New Santos Cage Doll

la Angel de Su presencia

"The Angel of His Presence"

The idea all came together early one morning during 

the bleakest days of mid-November. 

I was reading these ancient words from the book of Isaiah, 

and they just seemed to jump off the page:

  

“In all their affliction He was afflicted, 

and the angel of His presence saved them;  

in His love and in His mercy He redeemed them, 

and He lifted them and carried them all the days of old.”  

(Isaiah 63:9  NASB) 

In those moments, the images of a love that is so powerful, 
its very presence lifts one up– became the creative spark 
for this Santos cage doll.

I am using some knotty pine, wood rope trim, and worn tobacco stakes

from Lancaster County for the the cage. 

Em, Chad & Stella... too!

Emily, Chad and Stella were able to come down from Vermont 

and spend December 24th thru the 29th with us too!

Life is good...

Christmas with the Grandsons!

Tell me... does it get any better than this?

The boys had Christmas Eve with Gram & Pop-Pop,

here in South Jersey... it was a two-day free-for-all!
(and we loved every minute of it...)

The Best Gift...Given the Day After Christmas!

The best gift we could have been given, 

was heard from the surgeon following Katie's surgery

the day after Christmas... 

It was pre-cancer and the lymph nodes were not involved.

No further treatment will be needed... 

just four weeks of rest and relaxation!

I (Daryle) planted winter pansies back in late November;

which are blooming just outside our family room window.

They are Katie's favorite flower, in our gardens...

XO... sweet wife!

A Christmas Poem

Our God, Heaven cannot hold Him


Nor earth sustain;

Heaven and earth shall flee away


When He comes to reign:


In the bleak mid-winter


A stable-place sufficed


The Lord God Almighty,


Jesus Christ.

(taken from Christina Rossetti's  "In the Bleak Midwinter")

Wishing you a Blessed Christmas gathering... 

where hearts are merry and bright!

This year, white orchids (phalaenopsis) cascade

over our Italian Christ figure.

Daryle & Katie

The Winter 2013 Issue... of PRIMS!

My complimentary issue of PRIMS just arrived...

with my most recent Santos Cage Doll:

"The Keeper of Lost Dolls" included on pages 78-83.

The editing staff graciously (generously!) chose a "baker's dozen" 

photographs to include with the article.  I am thrilled!

Assistant Senior Managing Editor, Jennifer Jackson Taylor

was kind enough to print in the Letters to the Editor section 

of the magazine, a follow-up note that I had sent to her

about an earlier publication of my "Miss Moses" cage doll.

For those of you who have encouraged me  
during the past six months to keep at this labor of love... 
I cannot begin to express my appreciation and gratitude!  
Your posts have meant the world to me!  Thank you, Thank you!

So for now... I'm just floating on "cloud nine" and enjoying it so!

(wink!) Daryle

On Eagle's Wings... a Poem

I found a poem by Kathleen Higham, and share it, in part:

Rising Oh so high

I hear the angels sing

The softest feathers comfort me

Nestled on the eagle's wing.

A peace that I have never known

When to the heavens, I see

My Father smiling down so sweet

As He reaches out for me.

 

Wishing you, much peace...  Daryle

This Santos Doll was a recent "find" at a Tuesday Morning Store, in Delaware. Oh, the bargain hunter in me... I paid far less than half the retail price of this much sought after Santos!  She is also at their website, listed as "Senorita Maria"... Happy hunting!

Shadows...

It is never the news you would choose to hear...

as Katie found out just after Thanksgiving

that she has a non-aggressive form of uterine cancer.

We remain hopeful, as her doctor has scheduled

surgery the day after Christmas.

Pray with us... for healing and wellness!

Daryle & Katie