Happy Alaska Day!

 

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Day

Local Closures: http://www.adn.com/2011/10/16/2123789/alaska-day-closures.html?storylink=tacoma

Store Pictures

I have been meaning to post a few pictures of inside the shop at Cranberry Cottage…enjoy!

We love Autumn and it shows! We are so blessed with a nice, long fall season this year.

 The perfect Fall fragrance; apples and spice…oh so nice!

And be sure to smell the Pumpkin Pie candles, just like the real thing (minus the calories)!

And a HUGE selection of Vera Bradley… all those colors just shout “happiness”!

Upstairs, Gathered Treasures, has all kinds of items for sale so that you can create a cozy corner like this one in your own home.

I’ll be posting more pictures soon. We are having fun here in our new space and are loving meeting all the new people as well as visiting with our some of our longtime customers. xoxo

Sunday Blessing

~Psalm 100:4

“Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise: be thankful unto Him, and bless His name.”

~Psalm 100:4

Fall Fun Shopping

 Display of Woodstock Percussion Windchimes

It's a perfect fall day to come into Cranberry Cottage!

Upstairs is full of wonderful things, come read all the signs for sale, we have them for every style... and Liz has now brought in bagged candy, including flavored almonds in 6 flavors and 3 kinds of chocolate espresso beans...yum!

The newest patterns of Vera Bradley are in & with a $50 VB purchase, you receive a free gift. And I *love* the new Vera scarves in knit fabric!

As the weather cools down, take a warm bath in our "scoop your own bath salts", we have 12 scents to choose from. And the soap baskets are full!

Now OPEN

We are now open in Cranberry Cottage located at 490 S Knik Goose Bay Rd, Wasilla.

We have a wonderful selection of soaps and lotions at this time as well as our other bath bliss. We will be continually restocking stock and filling up our room.

Please stop by and 'smell awhile' <smile>

Sunday Blessing

"Thou art my hiding place and my shield: I hope in Thy word. "

                                                              ~  Psalm 119 : 114

Sunday Blessings

“He that believeth on Me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.”

                                                                          ~ John 7:38

Photo Source: www.forestwander.com

Sunday Blessing

“Know ye that the LORD He is God: it is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture.”

                                                                                                          Psalms 100:3

Photo Credit

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT

This is the kind of news that you are going to want to share!

:::drumroll:::

Gladheart Acres will be partnering with Cranberry Cottage in Wasilla starting September 1st! The idea is that we will be moving into 1/2 of the front room  concentrating on our soaps and bath bliss… then beginning January 1st 2012, we will move into the whole front room and hope to bring back some of your favorite products that we carried in our shop. I will personally be there twice a week to greet you! Please follow our Facebook page to see what my work days are or drop us an email at info@gladheartacres.com… of course you can come in anytime!

For those who have not yet visited Cranberry Cottage, it is located in a darling little yellow house at 490 South Knik Goose Bay Rd. And while they have MANY lovely items, their call to fame is the outstanding Vera Bradley selection. All the colors and patterns grouped together make a truly breath-taking display. I love it all! Also be sure to check out their Webkinz and Magnabilities Necklaces, both of which are extremely popular!

And, as if that isn’t good enough… my dear friend Liz Muth, formerly of Home Sweet Home and Raven’s Roost will also join us at Cranberry Cottage. Her new business is named Gathered Treasures which features gifts for you & your home, antiques and furnishings, the Williraye Collection, and Cheerful Giver Candles. You will find her and all her goodies upstairs.

We are so excited and honored to be a part of this exciting team! Please stop by sometime and say hi. We’ll be letting you know of upcoming events and shop happenings here and on our Facebook page!

PS Please tell your friends <smile>

Iced Coffee and Lotion

Last week I discovered a really good iced coffee recipe which was perfect for keeping me charged up for all the fresh lotions I had to make. <smile>

This is a delicious iced coffee recipe. Straining the cold brew coffee took patience and time but it was soooo worth it. I also did what one commenter suggested and re-used the coffee grounds a second time. It worked perfectly. And go ahead and play with your ratios of coffee and the sweet cream, as you can see I like more cream than coffee!  And speaking of yummy-ness...our newest lotion scent is Juicy Pink. To me it smells like a blend of puckering grapefruit and tropical papaya ... my mouth watered just making it! All of  the testers here at home LOVED it! I hope to make this scent in sugar scrubs also... yum!

I showed you the iced coffee I drank while making lotions, a picture of the lotions, so I thought I would also share a view of what I look at while making the lotions... rough, isn't it? <smile>

Sunday Blessing

" Give unto the LORD the glory due unto His name: bring an offering, and come before Him: worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness."

1 Chronicles 16:29

Saturday Market

You will find us today at the downtown Anchorage Saturday Market near 3rd & E. Our booth address inside the market is 150 E Bear Blvd. In addition to our soaps and bath bliss we have Alaska Chicks Tee Shirts and crocheted child headbands... both extremely popular items! It looks like a nice Alaskan summer day and perfect for visiting the market.

Hope to see you there!

Friday Flings

One of our very favorite markets that we do is the Friday Flings in downtown Palmer. Palmer is the quintessential hometown USA and we are so very glad to be a part of the community.

Enjoy the pictures from "The Flings".

The view from the corner of our booth...see the gorgeous mountains?!

Friday Fling vendor

Inside the Pavilion

Fresh Matanuska Valley vegetables...yum!

 

 

Our freshly made lotion

 

Sunday Blessing

 

"For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly."  Psalm 84:11

New

We have a new product! We have had so much trouble with our Body and Linen Spray containers leaking and yet our customers love wearing our scents soooo... introducing our Perfume Mists. These little beauties are easy to carry with you so now you can have a spritz or two of your favorite Gladheart scent, anywhere, anytime.

Currently we have these made up in: Lily of the Valley, White Ginger & Amber and Victorian Violets. We will be making more soon, I imagine that we will offer these in dozens of scents. They are available for the introductory price of $5 each.

Also new, is our Meditation Lotion Bar. We have made these solid moisturizing sticks for years and years and customers swear by them. They are an excellent moisturizer for those who frequently wash their hands and also for those dry, hard to reach places such as heels and elbows. We have made Meditation soap for a year or two now and are now offering the scent in our Lotion Bar. If you love earthy scents like Sandalwood, Nag Champa or Incense you will love Meditation. It is a very calming scent.

Note about picture: we tried taking this with a beautiful tealight candle holder we have that is adorned with several small crosses... but we couldn't get the lighting quite right and the full size picture looked rather 'Halloween-ish', so we cropped it and the result is above. :)

Sunday Blessing

"Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. " Hebrews 12:2

Rhubarb Muffins

Here is my annual rhubarb recipe to share. I shared the Rhubarb Dream Dessert recipe here last year and now am presenting this muffin recipe so I guess a tradition has begun at The Gladheart!

 

Rhubarb Muffins

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 cups milk
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 5 cups flour
• 1 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 TB baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 4 cups thinly sliced rhubarb

Directions:

Mix on low speed the oil, milk, vanilla and eggs. Add all at once all remaining ingredients except rhubarb, mixing on low speed. Fold in rhubarb. Fill muffin tins 3/4 full, and sprinkle each top with cinnamon-sugar mixture. Bake at 375* for 17-23 minutes. Makes 3 dozen.

Enjoy with generous amounts of butter and a tall glass of iced tea.

Happy Independence Day

“Freedom is not the right to do what we want;

but the power to do what we ought”

Happy 4th of July

Be Happy * Be Safe * Be Free

Sunday Blessing

“Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.”  Psalm 127:3

Have a wonderful day!

Beautiful

I love Bleeding Hearts (inspite of the name!). About 2 or 3 years ago I planted a small Bleeding Heart by our outbuilding. I didn’t think it survived…never saw any growth that first year and then for a couple years I didn’t even see it at all; no green, no growth, you wouldn’t have even known anything was planted there at all .… until this year. The tenacity of my little Bleeding Heart plant is a picture of the resiliency  of the human heart which may be broken, crushed, down-cast, bleeding and yet survives… to bloom again.

To become a glad heart.

Sunday Blessing

 “And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.”

                                                                                                 Ephesians 5:2

New Scent

One of our newest scents: the warm, feminine, and sophisticated White Ginger and Amber. So far it is being offered in our special Bath Salt blend and our Linen & Body Spray. We will soon be offering it in lotion and ooooh, how about a Sugar Scrub???

 It is fantastic!

Memorial Day

Have a safe Memorial Day

Our Alaskan Backyard

It is hard not to have a GLADHEART when this is your backyard…

 

This is the view from atop our hill.

Sweet Hannah took this picture, it is one of my favorites, I love the look of the lacey tree leaves against the snowcapped backdrop.

Another look at our amazing view.

“Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name.” ~ Psalm 63:4

Lazy Day

Hmmmm… I think today will be the quintessential summer lazy day (yes, I do know the calendar does not say summer yet, however it is supposed to be 76* today and the sun is shining, in Alaska that IS summer)… Got the girls off to Friday Fling (our local Farmer’s Market in downtown Palmer), beds are made, bathroom wiped down, floor vacuumed, and so forth. Hannah is the laundry girl today and the wash machine is whirring away. I know we are a large family but really, how can we ever keep up with the mountains of laundry we generate? Today, in addition to the normal clothing and bedding, we have blankets to launder. Blankets from a picnic last week, playing house in the woods, blankets, blankets, blankets. I have a few orders to box up and ship, a book to read to little Miss Sassafras (age 4), but that is about it. Not even dinner to cook, we are having a treat: pizza.

So today will be a lazy day spent dreaming (think Gladheart !) and sipping organic iced tea (try Newman’s Own Royal Tea). Perfect.

The sun through the trees. Picture taken by Hannah, 16 yo.

Prayers

We are praying for all those affected by the severe weather in the Lower 48.

Happy Mother’s Day

Mothers Are Special

Anonymous

There is no love like a mother's love,
no stronger bond on earth
Like the precious bond that comes from God,
to a mother when she gives birth.
A mother's love is forever strong,
never changing for all time
And when her children need her most,
a mother's love will shine.
God bless these special mothers,
God bless them every one
For all the tears and heartache,
and for the special work they've done.
When her days on earth are over,
a mother's love lives on
Through many generations,
with God's blessings on each one.
Be thankful for our mothers,
for they love with a higher love
From the power God has given,
and the strength from up above.

Happy Mother’s Day

Best Medicine

Have a GLADHEART day!

Happy Easter

“Tomb, thou shalt not hold Him longer;
Death is strong, but Life is stronger;
Stronger than the dark, the light;
Stronger than the wrong, the right...”
~Phillips Brooks  "An Easter Carol"

Note: Happy Easter! We dined on strawberries and cream, hot cross buns (yum!), orange juice and vanilla lattes for breakfast. I wanted to create an atmosphere of celebration for the day. Easter, even above Christmas (although I love it!) symbolizes the hope and life of the Christian. He arose and so can we in this life (above our self and sin) and in the eternal if we trust in Him. The above picture is taken in our dining room. I love this little nook (even though the piano is out of tune). The local grocery store had a sale on cut flowers and I was able to splurge… they add a special beauty to the vignette. Below you can see an up close shot of the the picture that hangs above the piano. I bought the vintage print at an estate sale a few years ago and had it matted (in silk!) and framed. I love it so much, it signifies the prayer of my heart… to cling to Christ.

Meditation

  “Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.” ~Psalm 19:14

*A favorite verse of mine *

PS It is April 20th and we have a few snow flurries…

On a Walk

 

The weather has been so beautiful here the last few days. The sun is so energizing…the children have been taking walks and I am delighted to go with them when possible. The other evening, during such a walk, the older ones continued on while Hope, Helayna and I headed back home. On the gravel road we saw a beautiful multi-colored moth. We quietly watched it for a few minutes and then very gently moved it to the side of the road, out of harms way. It was a special moment, sharing the wonders of God’s creation with my children… the wonder of nature such a special part of childhood that I hope none of us ever out grow.

“For He satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.”  Psalm 107:9

An Array of Aprons

Here, at Gladheart Acres, we wear alot of aprons… we find them indispensable for doing dishes, gardening, cleaning the house and of course making soap! (Soap is a clean business but does make quite a mess in the making process!). Below are some aprons that dear daughter Haylee has made to sell thru another venue but she will have some to offer our customers soon. (PS A couple of the pictures look a bit blurry here but were fine on the photo editing program…sorry about that!)