Treasured Times with Miss Millie...

The NYC was fun for me…in December!

2011-04-12T20:45:00.001-07:00

Okay, I know, I forgot to show you our pictures from NYC where me, my “sis” (SIL) and our other friend RG went for my SIL’s 50th early birthday present to herself. We stayed with my brother and his partner and we had a wonderful trip: Had lunch with a dear old friend from MTV at Bill’s Burgers on 51st (I think…) and it was wonderful; this is R. & I. in front of the Time Life Building as we headed to meet with J. for lunch

A few other friends were going to join us but unfortunately couldn’t and we totally understood. From here, we went to get in line to see the Radio City Christmas Spectacular. I have been lucky enough to have seen it before but R & I haven’t so they loved it and so did I. I wish I could see it every year.

After the gorgeous show, we headed to Rockefeller Plaza to see the tree…and of course, it didn’t disappoint…

From here, we had to go over and check out the windows at Saks Fifth Avenue and do a little street shopping (the best if you ask me if you’re looking for bargains…)

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Then, it was over to MTV studios on Broadway to see my dear friend MP who took us for a tour of the new studio and gave us warm coffee which was well needed at this point in the day and some snacks too. I love him and it was so good to see you MP! Thanks for making my girls feel so welcome and young again too!

Love you MP! I miss the days we used to spend together working all hours of the day and night on Spring Break and the VMA’s and the SuperBowl and so many more. Love you my friend.

Well, this is my four month late post of just our day one in the Big City. I’ll try and do the other days soon as they were just as fantastic. But, I’m tired tonight as I’ve been filing my dad’s taxes and I need a little shut eye…Hope you enjoyed day one of our trip as much as we did.

Going to the chapel and they’re gonna get married…

2011-04-12T19:16:00.001-07:00

It was a beautiful day and we love welcoming Frank into the family…This is my sister in law and my new BIL on their gorgeous (a little iffy for awhile but it turned out beautiful) wedding day; March 26, 2011 at Southwood Plantation in Tallahassee.

The food was done by Catering Capers and everything was absolutely delicious…

I need to update this blog so bad....

2011-04-08T06:07:00.000-07:00

Wow, has it really been since October that I posted? No excuses; just living life in the real world and not updating the virtual world. Sorry about that. And, the only thing you're getting on this update is a "newer" picture of our baby girl who's coming to visit tonight and go garage saling with me in the morning with her mommy and daddy.

This is at her Great Grannie's church's homecoming back in November. Check out her cute Lilly Pulitzer dress her favorite aunt got her at a consignment shop for $8.00. So adorable and I promise to show you more recent pictures soon!

Look who’s turned 1 since I last blogged

2010-10-18T20:36:00.000-07:00

Sorry I took so long to show you who’s growing up right before our eyes and our busy lives…so cute!

The above photo was at our local favorite pizza restaurant April 23, 2010

She and her daddy love pizza from this place!

Look how cute she is at Aunt M.’s house on her hippo that I got her, of course, at a yard sale for $3.00.

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Macy on Memorial Day when we went to see her great grandad at the VA nursing home…is she so cute or what?

She’s riding the golf cart with her G-ma!

She and I both enjoyed her first birthday party in August! Can’t imagine our lives without her…

Yes, we really did finish the bathroom…

2010-10-18T20:21:00.001-07:00

Okay, I know you last heard the update in June and it’s now…drumroll…October; but, we really did finish it in August. August 16th to be exact. And let’s just say the guy who started it for us, wasn’t the guy who finished it. Let’s take a look at the work along the way:

This is just the beginning of the awesome repair job that Jeff did for us to begin to put our house back together. He is awesome; that’s all I have to say. Without him, we’d probably STILL have one toilet that wouldn’t flush and a leaky tub faucet; even AFTER we paid our plumber a HUGE amount of cash and he pulled his helper off the job because “they needed to get moving”. Don’t even get me started.

Okay, let’s take a look at the repair as we go:

Below, you’ll see the big hole in the wall where the hot water was run to the front bathroom and then had to be routed to the master bedroom shower as well.

Then, below you’ll see what an awesome job that Jeff came in and did repairing it as well. He’s meticulous, neat and LOVES our vintage tile as much as we did and did his absolute best to help us keep everything looking original…thanks Jeff.

Okay, now, I’ll just post more pictures of the work in progress for you to see. This was a very long, difficult and very expensive project but it’s behind us now and I’ve finally calmed down enough to blog about it without a lot of cussing…It started early June and finished the 2nd week of August.

That hardworking painter there is also the guy I “shack up” with and he also had to help pay for all this work. He’d already worked 10 hours that day and then came home and painted here; no complaints from him, just meticulous work. I love him so much…

If you look close, you can tell that our original tile and our replacement Daltile don’t match exactly but after hours on the internet, driving all over town, visiting all the big box stores, this is pretty darn close. You don’t even notice once I put the shower curtain back in and we put the toilet and tissue paper back in. We found this tile from Daltile and bought it from a local distributor.

Bathroom floor tile before above…cheap stuff from the big box store..and below, is our awesome vintage inspired tiles that I found from SJMasters Tile in Canaan, CT thanks to Pam and her readers on retrorenovation.com. This site has been a huge help in our kitchen and bathroom projects. You can see the new tile below (I should have left the rug out for the picture…sorry about that…).

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE IT. It was hours of searching but well worth the hunt and they were so helpful. They sent samples to me for free beforehand and I did the happy dance in my driveway when I got them. If you only knew how hard it was to find “the old stuff” when everyone out there wants to sell you the same stuff every other homeowner is using today…

This beautiful custom vanity (oh yeah, that turned out to be a major project as well as hardly anyone makes an small single vanity for 1959 bathrooms anymore…) was built out of Ribbon Striped Mahogony wood that was done by Ed Hardy Custom cabinets. Ed’s the same guy that did our turquoise boomerang countertops last year. Thanks Ed…

Oh, and don’t let me forget to show you my personal stain man. Correction: tung oil man. He did four hand rubbed and applied coats to our vanity that Ed built as he wanted to do it himself. He’s amazing…and patient, and loves vintage stuff as much as I do. I’m blessed. Oh, and he’s hilarious too…

This is the bathroom after. With my hand painted vintage shower curtain that I got off Etsy.

Ta Da! That’s it, sorry it took so long but I just got out of therapy as a result of this project so I know you understand, right?

Ow, 51 year old plumbing can hurt a gal….

2010-06-12T11:04:00.001-07:00

Well, I know, I know, I've been missing from my blog for months but I knew it would "hang on" without me, but I'm back and boy, when I come back it's a doozy! I'll try and catch you up on some of all the rest of my life since my last post but this one had to be seen to be believed. I guess, really, it was inevitable but that doesn't mean it's not still truly shocking as well as truly expensive and truly a little overwhelming, but when you buy a house that was built in 1959 it's going to need new plumbing at some point in time and unfortunately, that time is NOW! It all started on the morning after the first day of Hurricane Season, when, in our neighborhood we had a small tornado hit but that's another post that I'll catch you up on next. The following morning, I awoke early to go to the restroom and heard a "hissing" sound in the walls and unfortunately it's a noise I've heard before and I almost instantly knew what it meant: we have another leak in the plumbing in the concrete slab of our house.

So, we called the plumber at 7:00 a.m. to run the scenario by him and after some turning on and off of the hot water heater, the shut off valve at the street, etc…we determined it was our hot water line again somewhere in the house and the plumber couldn't determine exactly where it was without bringing a jackhammer in the house and starting to drill up the foundation from in the house or start just cutting holes through random holes in the house. So, under our plumber's advice and after some soul searching and reviewing the financial costs, we bit the bullet for a total re-plumb of the house.

What you see next are images of the "aftermath" of the project: This is the guest bathroom before the drill and jackhammer…Love this original tile..

This is how it looks right now, the "after" or should I say "in between"

(before we get it fixed)

This is the carport, we had to cut a panel out of the wall and the ceiling to run the pipes into the kitchen. They did it this way so they didn't have

to mess up our kitchen that we had remodeled last year; yes, I would have cried if they would have had to pull out my cabinets or countertops. Thanks Wooten Plumbing for helping spare me on that one.

These are the pipes in the utility room that then run up into the roof to go across the house. The temperature in the roof today fluctuated between 120 and 130. Poor Derrick, I don't know how he does it. He's awesome!

I was so gld this didn't take up much space as I store a pile of junk in this utility room…

Next, let's take a look outside to see what the Ditch Witch did. They have to dig ditches around the house to get water to the city's waterline coming to the house and then run it to the outside spigots and the utility room which is under our carport. Take a peak.

This machine is unbelievable but will whip your tail! I thought I might try my hand at it and run it out to our utility shed to run power out there but it took 2 grown men all they had to maneuver this bad boy when they have to turn it around. It's unbelievable. I didn't take their pictures while they were running it as it was crazy hot out there then.

Oh, I forgot to show you what we found we pulled out the vanity in the bathroom. I was SO excited to know the original vintage 50s tile was under there.

I'd love to restore it and I'm going to have the plumber bust out the new tile and see if I can save this. I'd love to but they're not sure I can do it. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I love this gray mini tile. I have the same stuff in the master bathroom in beige and we were glad it didn't have to be touched in this process. What knucklehead covered up this awesome feature? It's a dirty project….

So, we've been without water for 2 days and thanks to dear, dear friends who let us use "their facilities" it hasn't been too bad. Oh, let's end this entry by sharing with you our temporary "loo"….You know, it could be worse. They haven't found any mold, no termites and our house is solid, you know, like rock solid. Check 'em out, you know you want some…

Well, this is a very tiring project and I've got to turn in to start tomorrow; thanks to this lovely "issue" with our home, I've missed two Saturdays of "treasure hunting": Oh, but they did find one awesome "treasure" up in our attic. It's an original sign from the builder who built this house in 1959.

I was so, so excited about this little treasure right in our own attic. So amazing, right?!

I'm going to contact this builder's son and email him this photo too as his son is still running a business here in construction and I think he'd love to see it.
Enjoy and talk to you later.

Precious memories...

2010-02-23T19:10:00.000-08:00

Top to Bottom - It's her 1st Christmas and she made it so special for all of us. Middle shot she takes a nap with her G-Daddy and the bottom picture she went and met her Great Granddaddy. Those eyes don't miss a thing and we're so crazy about her.

Did you miss me?

2010-02-23T18:33:00.000-08:00

Okay, Okay, I know...you weren't really missing me but I bet you did miss this adorable little one! Can you believe it, these were taken in October and she was already 3 months old. She's growing way too fast and now that it's February already, she's crawling and pulling up. We're all crazy about her and are loving watching her grow. Oh yeah, and today her Mommy and Daddy got her a new house to grow up in. I'm so proud of their family and love them like crazy.

Yep, $3.00, that's all I spent and got Coach & Ferragamo

2009-10-26T19:46:00.001-07:00

On Saturday, August 17th, I came across 2 architects that were having a sale and they had amazing prices. They didn't have prices on stuff so I didn't know how much they were asking for stuff, so I picked up the three pair of shoes below, yep, a gorgeous pair of red kitten toe Coach pumps and 2 pair of Salvatore Ferragamos for...drumroll....$1.00 a pair!

I also got this cute package of vintage wrapping paper lately, it was only $1.75. There was some real cute stuff in here. I got it from the estate sale company that I follow religiously, if they're open, I'm in line at 7:00 a.m....love it. Know what I really love, $1.00 for Coach Pumps!

Wow, bet you've just been dying to see what I got...took me long enough!

2009-10-26T17:45:00.000-07:00

Some people call me crazy, but not you, because you understand, you know that this is my "hobby" and that I love to get up before the crack of dawn to drive 2 hours to another state to an estate sale. Yep, all by myself, that's why the picture is so out of focus as I was driving in the middle of nowhere trying to shoot and click. You get the idea though, right? I'm on my way and I'm excited. The sale was in Albany, GA and that's a little over 2 hours from my house: Distance? No problem!

So, I made it and this is what I saw as my little GPS navigator took me right to the front door; I got a little worried knowing that it started on Friday that they may not have much "stuff" left, but really, you'll see...that wasn't an issue. This place was gorgeous and the house sat on this gorgeous piece of land with 100 year old oak trees. The house was over 4000 square feet and was originally built in the 1920's; then, a man and his wife, who never had any children and who also owned a large Chevrolet dealership in Albany, bought it and moved in.

Here's a little history that I learned about the house while I was waiting in line and then as I was checking out, I met Maxine, the last owner who was selling and downsizing. She was amazing and I could have talked to her all day. She was 82, could see and hear better than me, loved to play golf and went and saw Tiger Woods play several times in the last couple of years and helped me carry my plum lady glasses to the car - Thanks Ms. Maxine for sharing all your treasures with me and everyone else who showed up. They'll enjoy their new home in my 50s ranch!

They had a friend, the first woman attorney (in the 50s...)who lived alone, that they asked to be their personal attorney and representative. They asked her to come and live with them in their huge home and she did. She brought all of her things with her and lived there and was also their caretaker as they both got older and eventually passed away. When they died, the attorney got lonely and asked her friend Maxine to move in. When the couple died, they left all the property, including all of the contents, to the attorney which resulted in a house full of awesome stuff from some pillars of the community who loved to entertain and have fabulous parties throughout the 1950s and 60s. Wait 'til you see the "rompus room" and all the liquor decanters; I've truly never seen anything like it. The picture below is the front of the house and I stood there and waited about an hour for it to open and was thrilled that I was first! It was worth the early (4:30 a.m. wake up call....seriously folks!) The attorney asked her friend Maxine to move in as she was lonely in this huge house full of stuff. Maxine inherited the house and all three of the previous residents' stuff; lucky for us Maxine didn't have much sentimental attachment to it and let us buy it all.

Okay, so let's show you some of the stuff I got; got this tablecloth for $4.00..had a few spots but I soaked it and got them all out with Retro Clean. If you haven't heard of it, it's an amazing product that I love to tell anyone about that loves old linens as much as I do. Go to RetroClean.com and see for yourself. (No, I don't get anything for telling people I'm just glad to share info when I get it)The awesome little amoeba fish shot glasses below were a set of

8 for $4.00; love them!

Okay, can you hardly stand it... I mean, check out these high ball glasses of the plump "round bottom gal". They are truly fantastic! I loved them so much that I bought 2 sets of them, one for me and one for my dear friend who has an awesome beach house that they will be quite at home at. They are hilarious and make me feel that even us plump gals no how to have a good time! They were only $4.00 for a set of six too, awesome prices so I just shopped away!
I found this beautiful unused kitchen towel for only $2.00...

I also found this gorgeous fruit tablecloth below with all the stains on it; I guess that's why it was still there on the 2nd day, Saturday when I was there, but never fear as I soaked it in RetroClean too and they all came out, it makes me happy just to look at it...I know, I know...I recognize the illness...it could be worse though.

Isn't it pretty?

This awesome gravel art picture below, with the musicians was

only $2.00; love it!

Check out this awesome sofa that I saw when I first got there, it was in the garage and had sold the day before, it was only $45.00 and was a vinyl arched one that I would have loved to have brought home even though

I had no where to put it. Hasn't stopped me before...

The picture below was in the "rompus room" where many an awesome parties must have occured; they collected liquor decanters and there were 100s of them. They couldn't hardly give them away, so, if you're a collector, I know you're hating that you missed this. This is the room where I found my shot glasses and my big bottom gals.

The fabulous, and I truly mean amazingly fabulous, green naugahyde sofa, with needlepoint teal and green cushions sold while I was there. It was a sofa, 2 end tables, lamp for $275.00. Absolutely worth every penny.

There was also a lemon yellow naugahyde club chair with ottomon

that the man got for like $75.00. He loaded it up before I could snap a picture for you to see.

The best part about this couch and sofa was the fact that if you spilled any liquor from all those decanters or high ball glasses..you were safe; thank goodness for naugahyde. I miss it...

I loved the needlepoint/pettit point cushions. They were terrific.

And, as always, I try to find a sassy bag whenever I can and this sale didn't dissapoint; got the above fabric bag for $8.00. And, since I found so much stuff at the sale, and there's stuff I didn't have photos of here, I needed something to put my remaining few pennies in for the trip back to Florida.

I thoroughly enjoyed my day going to this sale and really enjoyed meeting Ms. Maxine; I hope that one day, if God willing, I live to be 82 and have to downsize my treasures, that someone will spend some time getting to know me and all the great stories behind my "treasures". Bye, bye awesome sale; you were definitely worth the trip. Thanks for sharing your history and treasures with me.

I need some serious "treasure" therapy....

2009-08-28T19:52:00.000-07:00

Wow, all I can say, is that this week SUCKED! So, guess what I'm going to do to feel better; yep, you guessed it, I'm driving 2 hours bright and early in the morning to go to the following estate sale:

http://www.estatesales.net/estate-sales/66117.aspx

and I can't wait! It's a house chock full of stuff from as far back as the 30's and 40's and I hope there's some left since it started today and I had to work. I'm just so glad that when I DO have a rough week at work or anywhere else, that I can always look forward to treasure hunting to relieve a lot of stress! So, I'm headed out for some treasures and some good times tomorrow morning. I'm leaving here about 6:15 a.m. and should arrive there by 8:15 or so to get in line. Wish me luck and I'll share some pictures soon.

It's time to take her home...

2009-08-20T21:44:00.001-07:00

Well, mommy and daddy have gotten a little bit of sleep, sweet baby Macy has started to eat a little, poop a little and sleep a little so it's time to take this miracle baby home and her daddy picked out her outfit (how sweet is that...)and got her dressed while her mommy got herself a shower and her great Aunt M. took more pictures. He's so good with her and I'm so proud of you J. and I know you will be such a good daddy to that precious baby girl. Look how hard he's concentrating on getting her just right...

Her sweet mommy is out of the shower now and they're quickly getting ready to go, so, you'll see they now have two sets of hands getting her all put together after they had to take her and do her final blood tests. Sorry 'bout that sweet baby girl...

Uh oh, seems like she might be a little hungry or a little unhappy about something. It's okay darlin', Daddy's going to pick you up and make it all okay.

See, daddy picked out "Adorable" and that sums it up just right, doesn't it?
If you read the previous blog about her coming into the world, you also read the fact that my mom, her great grandmother, was in this same hospital on the 5th floor and hadn't gotten to see her yet. So, I got the nurses okay, and wheeled her down to see her as they waited out front of the hospital for her daddy to bring the truck around and load them all up. This meant alot to her great granny to get to see her before she headed home. My mom wound up staying another 4 days after this before she got to go home on the 11th.
Her great granny was bragging about her already to the nurse that was with them....

Okay, daddy's here with the truck, so we have to load up mom, load up all the stuff, get the car seat all checked out for safety, and load up the most precious cargo of all, MKF!
What you don't see in the last shot below is that her daddy had just "gotten one more kiss" before he had to go get in the driver's seat and drive her home, which is an hour away, and he knew he couldn't make it without one more kiss for the road. I love that...did I tell you how proud of them I am..
Sleep tight sweet Macy Kathryn and know how much your entire family loves you and is so excited you're here! Enjoy your first road trip baby!

She's Finally Here and She's a Miracle Baby!

2009-08-06T18:55:00.000-07:00

These are the precious tiny feet of our new family member, a true gift from God and miracle baby - her name is Macy Kathryn and she was born August 5, 2009 at 7:38 p.m., she weighs 7.01 lbs and is 19 inches long and her doctor told us she truly is a miracle baby. She had a very trying time coming into this world but thanks to her mama taking such good care of her for nine months and a great doctor bringing her into the world for us, she's doing fantastic and so is her mama, who is one of my "baby girls",

also my precious niece.

And these are her precious tiny toes... I love baby feet and I especially love this baby's feet...aren't they adorable...keep reading and you'll see the rest of her. We love her so much already!

This is her mama at around 12:15 p.m. - She got to the hospital (for the second time but that's another story...)she was in a lot of pain, her contractions were about 4 minutes apart and she was four cinemeters. I felt so bad for her as she was in so much pain...it was hard to see her that way and her sweet hubby was keeping a great eye on her and

helping her all the way. This is Macy's daddy, watching the contractions and trying to help keep his sweet wife focused and breathing through the pain, yep, you guessed it, it wasn't long before she opted for the epidural (hoped I spelled that one right...)
They're watching it together and making sure her vital signs look good and that all is okay. Now, what you don't know is, that at this point, I had to leave the hospital (where I've been for days with my poor mom who is so very sick up on the fifth floor...)to go to work and do a live webcast and said a big prayer that sweet Macy could wait until her Aunt M. got back to join us.

Okay, A & J, see if you can keep an eye on those monitors until Macy's Aunt M. can get back from work to come into this world, I'll cry if I don't make it (oh, don't worry...I made it back but keep reading...) Well, I went to work, did a live webcast event, hauled equipment across the street to set it up and break it down, waited for a torential downpour to stop, drove back to the hospital, checked on my mom, and we still had a little while to wait. But, not long, her mama moved right along after the epidural and a little petosin (spelling?) and next thing you know, her nurse said we'd have a baby before 8:00 p.m. (and this was about 6:45 or so...); and they were right! She came into this world at 7:38 so it really wasn't long. She had a struggle with her cord around her neck but with lots of prayers and a great doctor, she made it just fine. Below, is Macy & her daddy, hanging out in the nursery together making sure she's okay before they take her bake to Labor Room #2 at Capitol Regional Medical Center...Look, she's already got her daddy wrapped around her finger. Isn't that just too adorable for words. He's so crazy about her and it's adorable to see as he was so nervous at first when he found out, by a little bit of a surprise that he was going to be a daddy. He's going to be awesome...he already is....
He was ticklin' her little tummy while the two of them listened to all of the other babies in the nursery cry...it was so cute. We all stood behind the glass and watched the two of them become a pair...
Here she is, close up, in the nursery. Isn't she beautiful? You'd never know what a tough time she had. Her skin is beautiful, her toes are adorable, I love her little arms and legs. Can you tell how much we love her already?
Hey bright eyes? Who you lookin' at? Is that your daddy standing over there or do you see your sweet mommy laying over there trying to feel

her legs again?

This is where her granddaddy was holding her with her sweet little hat on...

I promise to post more later but I'm so tired right now that her "Great" Aunt M. can hardly keep her eyes open but my other sweet niece was wanting to see pictures so I caved and came home and posted on my blog. I love this precious baby girl and feel so blessed to have another great

niece to love and spoil!

This precious picture below of her in pink today, August 6th, was taken when I went back to the hospital to see how she was doing, check on her mom and spend the morning with her great grandmother, my mom, who is still sick and in the hospital, too.

Welcome, sweet baby Macy Kathryn! I can't wait to be a part of your life and hope your mama and daddy let me spoil you to the best of my ability. Welcome precious baby girl!

They practically gave this stuff to me!

2009-07-19T19:09:00.000-07:00

Okay, this may be a little hard to believe but last Saturday, July 11th, was one of those days that make me understand my addiction to garage and estate sales; (not that I really needed an "understanding" but on days like that I know absolutely why I hardly ever sleep in on Saturday morning and why I don't go to the mall unless I'm buying a gift for someone...and I should be completely honest and tell you that sometimes I find brand new items that you may be the beneficiary of if you are a friend or relative of mine...but you'll never know it unless I goof up and put it on my blog...it could happen!).

I went to a number of garage sales and ran into a couple of good friends who led me to some sales I didn't even know about including an estate sale that wound up being pretty good actually (especially when I went back and everything was half off...more about that when I show you what I bought in another entry.

Okay, I had to show you this one item first as I thought it was just about the cutest little 1950s travel coffee set that I've ever seen (actually, I've never ever seen another one just like it) and I got it at my T & T estate sale that I went to late in the day. How cute is it?! And, I got there at like 11:30 so they were going half off, got it for....drumroll...can you vintage people stand this....$1.00! I know, I know, now you see why I had to have it! It's in mint condition except for the fact that the lining on the cute little plad bag is wanting to dry rot, but that doesn't bother me; I can't wait to take it on the road!

At the same sale, I got this awesome vintage Thanksgiving tablecloth for only $2.50. It's in great shape and I those other two items were bought at the awesome Wildwood sale and they were about $0.05 each, yep, you read that right, when I got to that huge sale it was stuff a bag for $0.50 each for all clothing, accessories and shoes or holiday items, including some of the toys. Yeah, it was a big brown grocery bag and they were letting us stuff them to the max! It was incredible and I can't wait to go back next year.
The pyrex bowls were at Wildwood and were 2 for $1.00, the beautiful 24K gold trim pitcher was only $0.50 (it's gorgeous and is really big and will be awesome for lemonade or ice water or even some sangrias...); the old wood blocks in the foreground were marked $0.50 but they were half off and were actually only about $0.10 since they were in one of my big brow bags; and the two cute linen handtowels were $0.50 each at another sale in my neighborhood.
Okay, look at all these awesome hand embroidered linens that I got at Wildwood and when I picked them up to look the nice lady kept saying, "You want those? How much you want to pay?"l asked the price and she said "Now (at 10:30 ish) they are a dime, is that too much?" I guess you can tell how happy I was as I bought almost all of them...they are soaking in Retroclean now...most of them didn't need it so I soaked a few). The Better Homes & Garden decorating book from the 50s was $0.10! I shopped so long the prices were falling faster than any Walmart ever wished for! Okay, this needlepoint may not be for most of you but I loved it and it looks awesome in my chartreuse green foyer and check out that price, you got it, only $1.00! The cute juice decanter in the foreground was only $1.00 and I was glad to find it as a few local dealers were leaving as I got there so I was surprised to find it. THe nice black leather purse on the left was $5.00 but it's easily a $90.00 purse. I got it where I got the linen handtowels.

The candles were $0.10 each and so were all three books, can you stand it?! I think I spent a total of maybe $15.00 at the Wildwood Church and had about 4 grocery sized bags full of stuff.

The picture on the back right, with the flowers in the black vase was only $1.00 too and check out the red lunchbox that is from the 50s on the left side of the picture. It was in a bag with 2 old thermoses but I didn't really want them and the bag was all torn up, so the lady let me have it for a whole $0.15! I'm telling you, see what I mean about how much fun I had and how they practically gave it to me. The cute Easter dish below was in the bag of holiday stuff I got for $0.50, I mean the WHOLE BAG was only $0.50!

The stuff below was also in the holiday bag of stuff. I love the plastic chip Santa face as it reminds me of my holiday decorations from growing up. I'll add this to my Snowman, reindeer and other Santa this year.

I love the annual Wildwood sale and I'll show you my other estate sale treasures, including my $2.00 Stainless Steel Microwave....stay tuned for that story!

Who ever said a girl doesn't really want roses...

2009-07-15T21:28:00.000-07:00

Whoever tried to convince people that we women didn't want roses was nothing but a fibber, an absolute fibber! I want to tell you that my sweet hubby brings me roses "for no reason except that he loves me" and I tell you that it makes me smile for days...I'm so blessed. Enjoy some shots of the gorgeousness and he got most of these from Fresh Market so get your man to go get you some meat and pretty flowers. Some of these you can enlarge and then really see the details.

No matter where I go, I can find something that makes me happy for less than $10.00...

2009-07-15T20:57:00.000-07:00

This is a close up of the quilt that I found at a church yard sale a couple of weeks ago (I think it was June 27....)where they said "make us an offer"; so I did. This is an awesome quilt from the 50s (or I think it is based on the fabrics they used - almost entirely cotton with a solid red back and it pretty darn good shape). I said "How about $5.00 and the young girl says "That sounds more than fair to me"; so I said thank you and headed on my way. Look at all the awesome fabrics they used. I love it.

Cute retro cowboy fabric; this would have been cute when I had our bedroom in vintage western but we've moved on from that. No worry, I still love it and it will have a great home at my house.

Look closely at all the colors and patterns....

I got this awesome vintage ash tray/dish and vintage necklaces for $1.50 at another sale (no, not each, that's what I paid for all of it). Love the dish and I'm addicted to the necklaces and yes, I wear them as long as they fit around my plus sized neck...LOL! You know, I truly think the women of the 50s smoked more than they ate based on their clothing... poor things.

And this, oh my gosh, I stutter as I type, this wonderful wall shape made me so happy I almost cried. I had one in my living room before that the hubby redid for me in a turquoise pickling but the mirror was missing so it was open and it DID NOT have these totally cool George Jetson circles on the sides. This is so freakin' cool and I got it for, drumroll....(oh yeah, it's from a lady who used to have a storefront but closed it that I loved) for a whopping $10.00! I couldn't believe it was still there as I got to this sale at like 10:00 a.m. and that's late in my treasure hunting hours. I also got a cool wire shelf for $2.00 that holds albums but I'm going to use it on my carport by my glider to hold a cooler and some cups and a barkcloth panel drape for only $3.00. I'm tellin' ya, I love finding these things more than I think I would love winning a lottery..well, maybe not; depending on how big they payout was!

Oh yeah, it's cleaned up and on the wall along with two vintage prints that were framed in maple for $2.00 each, I'll post a picture of it on the wall soon.

I got a pair of these reverse painted on glass prints for $2.00 each and I love them and they are on the wall in our family room hanging by the windows with the bark cloth valances that I made from one single panel. I love to repurpose stuff and have always loved it way before it meant I was "going green". But, I'm good with the fact that I'm helping future generations by buying vintage stuff!

Yard Sale Treasures, oh yeah, I've still been going, just not posting! May 21, 2009

2009-07-15T20:47:00.000-07:00

Yes, in the midst of everything else going on, I have been sneaking out to yard sales and finding a little happiness as you know I HAVE to go, if I'm breathing I do anyway...These finds were from May 21 and I love the cute little coasters with ric rac trim for the set of four - only $0.50, the wire veggie basket $1.00, and the cute set of silverware with the stripes and polka dot handles were only $3.00. These were all at one sale and everything they had was nice and clean and priced very good.

I also got the turquoise and brown knock off Vera Bradley purse for my SIL for $1.50 and the matching turquoise Liz Claiborne shoes for $3.00. I had that awesome tablecloth in the background and actually paid quite a nice chunk for it last year on the world's longest yard sale. Oh, the big stripe tote bag was only $1.00 and I needed it to carry all of the other treasures! Wheeeee, it was a good day!

My "Baby" is having her baby and we had a baby shower - June 20, 2009

2009-07-15T19:46:00.000-07:00

This is my sweet niece, "A."; you may remember her as she just got married last May, and now, yes, she's having us a baby! I'm so excited we can hardly stand it and yes, I'm thrilled it's a baby girl, and her name is Macy Kathryn (doesn't that sound like a great name for a good southern baby girl?!). It's just hard for me to believe that she's old enough to be having a baby, but she is and we're thrilled. Macy will be my third "great" niece/nephew as I already have precious Katie & Michael (Mikey). They live in Kentucky and I hardly get to see them and it just kills me! Little Macy will live a little closer and I can't wait to spoil her rotten! (Sorry 'bout that mama and daddy...it's my job; I have to be her "favorite" aunt too!)Little "Mama" holding some of her "treasures" from Ms. Major! Thanks Ms. Major for helping me get it all together for her and for helping me keep my cool just before the guests all arrived. Ms. Major went out of her way to spoil Macy and we all loved see all the cute things she had in that "major" bag!
I found these awesome little wood blocks at a garage sale for only $1.00 so that we could use some vintage flavor to my tablescape. Yep, that's a gorgeous 50s tablecloth that we used too and A. loves my old treasures too and I sure hope I can convince baby Macy to join in the fun! (sorry, the shadow you see in the bottom of the picture is the lens of my camera....I should know better...)

My dear sweet hubby, who has been WAY too generous with the roses lately (Have I mentioned that I truly love that man) was more than happy to go and pick up some gorgeous girl pick roses from Fresh Market for us to have and send a few home with the Mama for her to enjoy. They smell awesome and they last about a week.

This is my Aunt B. (my mom's sister - see how much she favors my Aunt Weasy who we lost...we miss you Aunt Weasy and she was so excited about this baby...). She came and brought tons of gifts from my cousins who couldn't make it as they were all sick (hope you guys feel better - we missed having you). She loves baby girls too and can't wait for baby Macy. I love her and really love the vintage 50s dishes that she gave me recently (- thanks Aunt B.)

My Aunt R. and my cousin G. and her daughter A. came by before the shower but they couldn't stay and I wanted to thank them and tell them how sorry I am that I was in total chaos when they came...especially the pan of dirty mop water still in the foyer....can any of you relate?!
This is my sweet niece and her sweet mama, the new Grandma and my SIL, who you all know by now that i love dearly, she's really a sister to me and I can't imagine my life without her. Without her, I wouldn't have this sweet niece or my nephews and my brother would have been lost. I love you both!

She got TONS of great things and so much oohing and aahhing went on....

This is my niece, my SIL and my mom...all enjoying the shower and a good time together at my home (or at least I hope they were having a good time...)
We did play a few of those "shower" games, even though I usually protest to those but thought it would be a little fun as long as we didn't go overboard and since it was such a small group we had a good time. This little pregnancy test was one of those "feel it" and guess what it is games and of course no one guessed it; especially our little Mama. But then again, this little precious arrival was a surprise so we should have known this would catch her off guard. Save it as I'm sure hoping that you have us another one down the road! I love you sweetie and hope you had a good time. I can't wait to be there when she decides to join us in August!

And, of course, this is Ms. Major; looking sassy in her favorite color and she was so good to help me out and spoil our baby girl!

This was a sweet little quilt that I found for Macy at a consignment shop that I thought was adorable as it has all of the good old nursery rhymes on there in cross stitch, yep, only $15.00 and well worth it!

Look close at this picture and you'll see my sweet neighbor, that we share homemade peach ice cream with, and you'll see my new rug that I got to go in the new kitchen (thanks to Christmas money that my MIL gave me). You can also probably see my new vintage kitchen light fixture that I got off ebay. I PROMISE, I'm about to post all the big kitchen reveal photos FINALLY..... CLICK ON THIS PICTURE TO ENLARGE IT AND SEE SOME OF THE NEW KITCHEN...

NICE HAUL MACY KATHRYN!

Springtime flowers Before our Baby Shower

2009-07-15T19:22:00.001-07:00

I know, I know, I've been so out of touch but let's catch up and you can take a look at some of the things I've been up to. See the pretty flowers, I love them and I planted them as I tried to finally get the house a little back in order in order to get ready to host a baby shower for my sweet niece and get ready to welcome her little girl into the world. Enjoy the view.

I love these little enameled pots I found at Marshall's that kind of look vintage with the pastel stripes on them. This little bench is in my flower bed in front of our house and is just to the left of the front door and welcomes our guests!

In Memory and Special Memories that I need to catch you up on...

2009-06-03T19:55:00.000-07:00

This is my Aunt Weasy and I miss her already. She was diagnosed with cancer on March 13th and she died April 23rd. She was so sweet and is a perfect example as to the fact that if you love someone, you should tell them every day. I never thought we'd lose her so quickly and I'm glad I was able to go and see her in the hospital a couple of times and hug her and tell her I love her. I miss you Aunt Weasy.

I don't even know where to begin to explain why I've been so out of touch. If you look at my previous entry you'll see just a hint as to what all has been happening in my life. Since March 13th, you know that was a Friday right??, I've lost one of my favorite aunts, had a man at work have a massive stroke while he was talking to me about a video, I was involved in 2 accidents where my car was messed up and winded up at the body shop twice, we had a family member who was found dead in his home after a month, one of my best friends' brother died in his sleep at 47 years of age...I'm telling you, I REALLY need a vacation from it all.

Along the way though, I did go treasure hunting a few times, if nothing but for sanity's sake, and we had our garden club flower show, my dear friend's son graduated from high school (so proud of you S.R.), I bought a new piece of Heywood Wakefield furniture, have still been working on putting the kitchen back together, etc...

So, instead of trying to make a bunch of different entries about all these events, I'm going to just post lots of pictures and hope that you all enjoy them! So, here goes....First, meet sweet little Emma Rose, this is my 2nd cousin's little girl and she's just precious. This was the day of my aunt's funeral and my aunt loved little babies...

And this little man, is Grayson, he's my cousin's youngest son and looks just like his older brother.

These are just some of the fellas in my life, L to R, my hubby, my 2 nephews, my brother and my cousin by marriage. The boys were talking sports (I think...) after we all ate dinner at my aunt's house on the day of my Aunt Weasy's funeral.This is my arrangement I made for our annual Garden Circle Flower Show. I think it turned out pretty darn cute considering I had to borrow flowers from my neighbor (who is really a gardener) and some I bought at Sam's. The judges liked it and only had one negative comment about the "prominent" placement of the flower in front, and I agreed. The above arrangement was made by my talented MIL for the flower show, isn't it gorgeous. The picture below is more of our members' arrangments. Enjoy! This gorgous plant was given to me by my neighbors for my birthday, isn't it pretty, and so far, so good, I've kept it alive, that's a miracle for me. Keep your fingers crossed. This is what I love about summer coming, the fresh vegetables! My sweet SIL gave me these when we went over and ate lunch with her for Mother's Day. They were awesome and I'm telling you, I could eat fresh squash every day!
Oh, sorry these are a bit out of order but I'm just trying to remember everything that I haven't posted. Check out the Easter Eggs below, I saw Martha Stewart making these and thought they were a cool idea. You use men's silk ties, or any other silk material, and vinegar and the pattern from the silk transfers onto the egg. Isn't that awesome. Oh yeah, the cute little vintage cup I got at the Salvation Army in Panama City when I went to see my dad for $0.50! I got some plates and platters too! They match the new kitchen awesome.

A couple of yard sales that I made it to in the last few months. The one at that church is always awesome and they have great prices. I try not to miss theirs.

Well, I've got to post a piece of furniture on Craigslist tonight so I'll have to post more very, very soon...

Sorry I've been out of blog touch...

2009-04-19T08:25:00.000-07:00

Hey, well, I can't even begin to tell you what's been happening in my life since my last entry but here's a small list and you'll see why I haven't had time to think, much less update you and my blog. Here's just a partial list of what has happened in my life since my last entry, and oh, by the way, this all happened since Friday, March 13th...

My aunt, who I love dearly, had emergency gallbladder surgery and we found out that she has stage 4 cancer in most of her vital organs and they're not giving her long to live, since then, she's already been re-hospitalized twice and has now been sent to live at a Hospice House, keep her in your prayers:
My dear friend, Ms. Major, lost her brother in his sleep at the age of only 47 years old from a heart attack;
My mom wound up in the hospital with chest pains and found out she has/had pnuemonia and is still out of work;
A cousin of my father's was found dead in his home where he had apparently been for almost a month;
While I was at the viewing for Ms. Major's brother, my car was hit by a hit and run driver and did $2300.00 worth of damage and guess who had to pay the deductible of $250.00 plus another $200.00 worth of dealer work that's "not covered by my extended warranty" (see why GM is going out of business....);
A dear friends' mom, who is my neighbor, had her breast cancer return after she already went through a double mastectomy, and it's in her blood stream and they say there's not much they can do for her right now;
Last Friday at work, a nice co-worker came to see me about some video work and had a massive stroke while we were talking and we had to call the ambulance and get help for him, I went to see him yesterday and thank God, he is doing remarkebly well, and I truly count that as a blessing;
This week, my car flooded due to a bad "water deflector" and is costing me money at the shop;
And, Friday night, another dear friends' father wound up in the emergency room and they thought he was having a heart attack but then after some tests, think it's pneumonia in his lower lung;
And last, but not least, we're still trying to put out kitchen back together.

So, as you can see, life has been a little rough in the last month so I'll add some more pictures and fun stuff soon. Pray that life starts treating me a little kinder...

Kitchen Renovation Continues - Part 7 - Boomerang Countertops!

2009-03-15T20:34:00.002-07:00

Well, it's finally here; Turqoise Boomerang countertop installation day! It's almost like a newly celebrated holiday at our house! Seriously, can I tell you how ready I was to make the next step in this ongoing project!

First, let me say, that our contractor (call me and I'll be glad to give you his information...) was AWESOME! First of all, he's kind, professional, returns all your phone calls, doesn't try to push things on you that you either can't afford or don't want to do and works long, long hours ...stay tuned to the photos below and you'll see exactly what I mean! So, let's get started...it all happened on Thursday, March 12th.

The guys got here around 9:30 and came in to double check all their measurements and take one last look at the old butcherblocks before they

took them outta here... Okay, they got their measurements confirmed and then they pulled

out the old countertops;

Oops, what's that I see in the lower right hand corner of this shot, could that be turquoise boomerang backsplash that I see laying over there... This is our contractor, E. H. and his helper, L., set up in our driveway with the workbenches, saws, etc...and oh yeah, that's the back of my countertop you see propped up there. We were lucky, it was gorgeous weather for our work day.
The guys have brought the pieces in and started making the fine tune measurements and get them all lined up and double checked before taking them back outside to start adding the polished aluminum trim that I purchased from Outwater Plastics. They were great too, they helped me so much on the phone with all my questions, measurements, etc...as you see, I did all the research to find the products and get them ordered and stuff so I learned more than I ever wanted to know regarding polished aluminum trim and inside vs outside measurements...should I go on? Oops? You caught my island topless! See our custom 10" backsplash?! I'm SO glad my contractor suggested these to make our kitchen more custom and he was so right and there was only $100.00 difference in the price; so why wouldn't I? He then told us he'd do custom trimming around the outlets with the trim and you'll see below how this really stands out as a custom detail that we love. Thanks for the suggestion E.H.!

Oooooohhhhh, aren't they pretty? Here's where they brought them in to make sure that everything "measured up"; and the place you see on the right side of the sink is the cabinet where we took out the dishwasher (that I never used and only stored dishes in anyway) and he was rebuilding for us. See the custom hole he cut in it to have a subfloor piece in case we ever need to reach those pipes again under there.

Here they are making some minor adjustment cuts...check out the length of their hair, easy going cabinet guys you just gotta love it!

L. makes cuts to the aluminum trim on the table they have set up outside on our carport. Yep, that's right, we have a carport as our house was built in 1959. Our utility room is also located on our carport too!Doesn't it look good? See how they had to make all the special miter cuts for the corners and joints. Yep, you guessed it, I had to find all the right trim pieces online and then get all the screws to screw them on...I told you I learned alot in this project.
Ooohhh, Ahhhhh, I absolutely LOVE the look of it! Formica's turquoise boomerang and then the trim is from Outwater Plastics. I can provide any of you with the the information if you want it. Above, you'll see how he had 3 different sizes and shapes of trim, that he had to cut and then match up. The above shot shows the countertop, the face plate edge trim, and the cove piece.

See how late it's getting....he's still hard at work... See, they hadn't "quite finished up" by 6:00 or so, so E., pledged to commit and stay working as L. had to leave I think. We all already had such busy schedules for Friday that we all decided he could stay until 9:30 or so and then he'd be able to pretty much finish except for a few minor things. Friday the 13th actually turned out pretty good for us as our countertops were completed and so was our new slink installed, so not that bad a day, huh? and I even got to see some The hubby helped him fix up some extra lights and he kept the saw a spinning until 9:30 p.m. and then he just worked fast and furious to get it finished primarily before he left as I had only asked for one day off from work and B. did have to work.
Are these awesome or what? See how sharp and detailed his miter corners are? He did a great job and then polished them smooth...Love, love, LOVE THEM!C Check out all those custom cuts and details in the top of the backsplash and at the cove joint...See how gorgeous they're looking? We Love Them! E & L; best of luck to you in all your future projects!

E.H. our contractor had just made his last cut and walked in the house to install it when I took this shot...you know the neighbors were glad we were ready to turn off that saw for the night. I just appreciated the fact that he was so willing to stay and finish it up for us, great guy, great job!

Oh, and did I tell you, that living through renovation...Sucks!

2009-03-15T20:34:00.001-07:00

So, let me just remind anyone that has had to go through something like this, yeah, it's fun and I'm excited but if me and the hubby's marriage makes it through this then we can make it through anything. You see, everyone thinks he's such a passive, sweet, kind and patient man - well, let's just put it like this...even HE can be pushed to the edge in all of this. I had to "walk away" again tonight... best thing to do when no one has anything nice to say anymore...enough said about that just wish us luck to be able to make it to the light at the end of this tunnel! LOL!
Whew, I feel better already...hope he does....!

Click on Pictures to view them larger...

2009-03-15T13:19:00.000-07:00

I forgot to mention that if you want to see any of these images larger, just click on them and most of the time they'll enlarge so you can see the details!

My Birthday Celebrations - Saturday Morning Treasure Hunting

2009-03-15T12:55:00.000-07:00

Well, you know a perfect birthday HAS to fall on a Saturday and I HAVE to go treasure hunting! And, I was so lucky to come home from treasure hunting to the gorgeous roses above from the sweet hubby and a beautiful card that almost made me cry. It just goes to show you that even though we've about come to blows a few times through our kitchen demo/restoration project, we really do love each other and I truly know how blessed I am to have this wonderful man who works so hard, is so kind, and who loves me just the way I am; 46 & all!

Found this awesome old covered casserole dish (actually a few weeks ago but am just now posting) at a moving/estate sale for only $8.00. I also got the hubby a pair of sawhorses (which we've already used while cutting tile for the kitchen backsplash project) for $10.00. The summery fabric underneath; huge piece, just $4.00. Love them!

Okay, can I tell you how happy I was to find this awesome pair of chalkware parrots from 1967 at a sale for only $5.00; well, they were marked $7.00 but you know it's all about the bargaining!

Got this "Best of the Best" cookbook at this awesome estate/moving sale in the most gorgeous custom home, (which was actually designed by the husband of one of my garden club circle friends) and it was only $1.00! Can't wait to make something from it in my new kitchen...it won't be long now....

If you know me, and know how much I love vintage buttons, then you have no doubt as to how happy I was to find this button box on my birthday; you guessed it, cheap; only $2.00! I'm going to use it to store sewing items in I think, or I may put some of my vintage buttons in it. I use them to make jewelry with and button bracelets....

If you look to the right of the above picture, you'll also see the cool, heavy wall sconce that looks like a banana leaf and candle which also came from the same sale, it was $10.00. It was kind of "pricey" for me from a garage sale but it was so nice & heavy I didn't want to pass it up. Notice the DVD's in foreground, same sale, only $1.00 each and to the left of them; best treasure of the day and best bargain, garnet bakelite bangle that I got for a mere $0.50!

Steal, cha-ching!

Okay, so, it's hard to tell from this picture, as to the size & Scale of this picture but this gorgeous hand made bowl is stunning! Got it at the same moving/estate sale for, are you ready....only $5.00! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it and it's going on the table as a spring centerpiece as soon as I get my dining room back together and that's just a matter of days now...

We have another friend, who has a beautiful beachhouse and has a piece very similar to this on her table that I coveted so you can IMAGINE how I did the Happy Day Birthday Dance when I found this! Isn't it nice to see how easy it is to make me happy?! And, I'm cheap too!

It has gorgeous purple dragonflies in the middle and these awesome black and white zebra stripes around the ruffled edges! Oooooohhhh, aaaaaahhhhhhh!

My Birthday Celebrations for my 46th! Friday Night

2009-03-15T11:55:00.000-07:00

Here is where the birthday weekend started....good food,

good friends and good times!

Cheers & Bottoms Up for my birthday bash on Friday, March 6th at Barnacle Bill's on North Monroe...! For those who know the place, know that you just heard a little jingle as I wrote that! But, I have to admit, that margarita in my hand really kinda sucked! It was more sour mix than anything and that's about all I drank of it. I'm so lucky to have such a large group of great friends and I spent time with alot of them for my birthday. This was Friday night and we all went to eat seafood and share some laughs for my big day; hard to believe that I'm actually 46 years old now as I still feel about 30; so I'm hangin' on to that feeling for as long as I can!

These are "my girls" C. & T. and they joined us for my birthday and were so sweet and gave me some awesome gifts that I love. Towels & stuff for the new kitchen project and a beautiful Turquoise teardrop pendant necklace and the sweetest cards. I wouldn't have met C. if it hadn't been for T. and I love them all! I also wouldn't have met the other T. (of Thelma & Louise - proud parents of Ruby Rita - who you see they didn't bring to the party...it's okay Rita as I scolded them for leaving you in the glove pocket of the truck....) if it hadn't been for C.! I love how friendship grows when good friends and good hearts are involved. Below is T., me and T.; it really stands for Trouble, Trouble & more Trouble! LOL!

Thank you so much for coming girls!

I love ya all!

This is C., T. & D.R., hubby of T.R.; I love that man too! He's put up with me for a long time too, you see, as I knew him, before he even met and married my girl T., and he knew my hubby before I knew him...you see, it really is true, six degrees of separation... or is that seven degrees, can't remember, old age really is setting in! We did almost all have to break out our "readers" to place our orders. This is our very own "Paula Dean"! I love this face & I love this gal! She's probably one of the most generous and kind people I've ever known and a total nut at the same time! So, of course, we get along like biscuits & gravy!Below, you'll see my "boyfriend" A., in action trying out the gumbo, which we all know, is no where near as good as his own homemade gumbo, it's FANTASTIC and so is my Boyfriend!
T. & D. eating some oysters...D. is the "other woman" involved in my boyfriends' life and god knows I love her too! Thanks for the gift certificate to Chili's D & A; can't wait for my awesome blossom!
The photo below is immediately following A. adding tobasco sauce to his gumbo to "kick it up a notch"; looks like it worked huh?
I think this shot sums it all up for the evening! We had a great time and even ran into some old high school friends to boot, so, thanks guys for once again making a night full of fun and great memories to my life!

Kitchen Renovation Project Continues - Part 6

2009-03-15T11:37:00.000-07:00

This shot above shows the kitchen after we've taken all the old tile down from the backsplash, sanded the wall a number of times, and primed it to make sure we're ready when the counter tops show up on Thursday, March 12th. You'll see the current butcherblock ones that are coming out.

Check out our litttle green vintage Westinghouse fan on the island that we used to help dry the primer and the joint compound that the hubby used to repair the wall after we took down the old backsplash. My sweet hubby sent me out shopping while he worked on this. As you can imagine, it stirred up so much dust that it was in every (or I should say is still in) crevice of everything in this house....LOL).

This is a close up of the wall after the hubby had repaired it after I took down all the previous tile and banged the crap out of my nuckles using a hammer and chisel. Oh yeah, even some of our tools were vintage, the chisel I used belong to my father-in-law and had a beautiful red bakelite handle. (Of course, you knew that we'd have vintage tools...)

Drying and prepping the wall....I love this little fan! It's funny though, it's kind of loud and hums along and the only way to turn it off or on is to unplug or plug it in; no power switch needed I guess back in the day!

Whew, I'm back and catchin' up!

2009-03-15T11:28:00.000-07:00

Well, as you might have guessed, I've been totally swamped with the home repair/renovation project and I've also been really, really, REALLY sick for the last month so I have gotten behind on my updates but am going to try and do a little catching up with everyone today as people have told me that they've been checking and have been disappointed so here goes!

Well, first, to ease your minds, I'm definitely feeling better but still am having some asthma issues due to a number of things but primarily because of the 3 inches of yellow pollen that cover EVERYTHING here right now! I love that it brings spring along with it but I wish we could have the beauty of spring without the pollen but I guess that's a wish I probably won't have come true.

But, after 3 rounds of steroid shots, a Zpack of antibiotics, cough syrup with codeine, an inhaler and Advair, I'm starting to breathe a little easier!

Well, this was more of a catch up statement so I'm going to catch you up on other events in the next few posts.

Hint, Hint, think TURQUOISE BOOMERANG!

Awesome Treasure I Found - Brasilia Furniture!

2009-02-25T20:17:00.001-08:00

Wow, can you believe this awesome furniture I found 2 weeks ago at an estate sale and actually "passed it up"; but, as you can see, it knew that it needed to live at our house! I went to the estate sale, in the rain...., stood and looked at it and couldn't believe that at 10:30 in the morning it was still there. Why wouldn't someone want this awesome furniture?

The price was very reasonable for 2 pieces of Brasilia Broyhill Premier furniture at only $385.00 but no one had bought it. I stood and just marveled at what great shape it was in and all its' awesome features but just couldn't imagine dragging one more thing into our disaster zone (you see it sitting in the dining room don't ya?) so I left it there. Well, you see, it just kept creaping back into my mind so I had to email the estate sale company on Sunday night and see if anyone had bought it. And, lucky me, they had! But, they changed their mind and wanted to "pass" on it so the company offered it to me at a price I COULD NOT pass up so me and the hubby had to make arrangements at the last minute last Tuesday night to go and get it and you see it was well worth the trip!

I love the handles and all of the custom shaped pull out drawers in both pieces.
I can't wait to get everything rearranged and get this in the hubby's sports room for all of his stuff to go in. Hopefully I'll feel better by this weekend and I can get on that little task. In the meantime, it sits in the dining room and I get to enjoy it everytime I walk in the back door!

My Sweet Valentine

2009-02-25T20:05:00.000-08:00

Didn't I tell you that I was married to an incredibly kind, sweet and patient man? Well, if I didn't; I am! He gave me the sweetest card and most gorgeous roses and put them in my pretty vintage vase and this was in spite of the fact we're spending a chunk of change on the kitchen....Yes, I know I'm lucky and I love him!

Hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day!

Happy Birthday to my Dad...

2009-02-25T19:53:00.001-08:00

Well, it's my dad's 72nd birthday and unfortunately I'm sick as a dog, but, that didn't stop me from staying up until 1:30 a.m. making him something that he needed. You see, he's in a nursing home and he told me he needed a new bag to hang on his wheelchair as he had worn the heck out of the one my sweet Aunt S. had made for him. So, I got lucky and found a pattern for one at a garage sale for $0.25 (I know you're not surprised by this...) and this was my first attempt. I think it turned out pretty good since I'm not really an expert seamstress. I had to alter the pattern a little so it wouldn't hang down and rub on his tire wheels, which is what happened to the last one, and he liked it a lot.

My sweet hubby drove us the 2 hours to go and see him and I slept in the car almost the whole way, never even got out of the car when we got there as I was on my deathbed. Still not doing so good but hope to make it back to work tomorrow. My hubby took it into him and visited with him and they ate pizza while I slept. I haven't been this sick in a long time but we didn't want to disappoint him so we went. I'm so sorry Dad, sorry that I couldn't really spend time with ya but I hope you like your bag and your new shoes we got ya!

Kitchen Progress Continues - Part 5 (I think...)

2009-02-12T20:28:00.000-08:00

This is our old backsplash tile, it's not bad, but I didn't really like the country blue squares and the hubby "hates the rounded corners" which I was shocked to hear that he'd even paid that much attention to them, shows you what I know!
Here's a shot where I've started to take it down and am really trying hard not to rip the drywall off...it's a pain in the butt though...I wouldn't recommend it for something "fun" to do!

Well, we're still working on the kitchen. We've been doing the following:

Got the new laminated floors installed;
Been working lots of hours on our new vintage metal pantry cabinet;
Spent lots of time researching stainless steel vs polished aluminum trim for the countertops;
Went through 2 choices of paint colors and winded up picking Benjamin Moore's Stonington Gray (I think that's the name of it anyway - I'll confirm that in a later post for ya);
Spent time meeting with the countertop contractor to go over the samples we've gotten;
Ran around town picking these things up;
and have spent hours trying to take down the backsplash tile!

And, on top of all this, both the hubby & I have been working our full time jobs and my sweet hubby paints all day for others and then comes home to our current mess. It's 11:30 p.m. on Thursday night and he's out there right now washing up brushes. He's such a sweetheart; every day, not just on Valentine's and believe me, even though we've had some tense times through this (mostly on my behalf which I'm not proud to admit...), I know how lucky I am that he loves me.

Kitchen Restoration Continues...Part 4

2009-02-05T19:20:00.000-08:00

Well, I just haven't posted anything about our kitchen progress in a few days so I thought I just share a little more information. This picture above is our dining room wall and wall color; we've decided to go ahead and repaint it and the kitchen while we're in the middle of all this so stay tuned; I think I'm going to paint it a light gray color called "Silver Screen".

This picture is of the Aqua Boomerang countertop finish that will soon be our countertops; stay tuned! I'm still in the middle of researching to find our aluminum and/or stainless steel trim for it. Whew; that's been a job! I'm getting excited as this week we payed our deposit down to the contractor so he can start and order the materials. We're getting there slowly but surely!

Go Lions & Go S.R. - We're so proud of him...

2009-02-05T19:02:00.000-08:00

See this handsome young man; I have been a part of his life since the day he was born and I'm so very proud of him. He's T.'s son, S.R., and is an amazing soccer player for his high school team and even plays on a travel team.

Last week I woke up at 6:30 a.m. to hear them talking about him and showing several minutes of him on the field playing on the local news and today they did an article about him in our city's newspaper and here's a quote about him that I thought I'd share: "R.'s made Leon's junior-varsity squad as a 10th-grader and progressed even further when he joined a travel team. He was promoted to varsity as a junior and led the Lions with 12 goals. But no one could have predicted R's offensive explosion as a senior. "He's got blinding speed," said first-year Leon coach JM "He's very fast and he's got a great finish."

Way to go S. and way to go to his parents T. & D. who I love dearly. It's so awesome to be here to be a part of his life and I'm so proud of him! Go Lions!

You know I love to brag on all these kids that I get to share their lives and be a part of! We went and sat in 20 degree weather last Friday night to watch him play and it was worth every second of freezing! Congrats!

Kitchen Demo Project Continues - Part 3

2009-02-01T20:46:00.000-08:00

See this masked bandit? Yep, you guessed it, that's me in "demo" mode today. You see, I bought this vintage metal pantry cabinet to put in the kitchen so that we can get rid of what I now lovingly refer to as our "divorce pantry cabinet" and it had to be sanded, primed and painted. Of course I didn't totally realize that when I bought it but.....I did want the cabinet so I'm not sure it would have stopped me. Oh yeah, my hair does look a little "reddish" as I got up and added a little Clairol to my life this morning first thing as the gray was starting to take over; do you wonder why? With all my kitchen woes? LOL!Here's the cabinet - we've already spent about 3 hours removing rust at the point you see here. And, my sweet hubby helped me with this on his day off and the day of the Superbowl. See, I told you he was nice!

See this cool vintage light globe? I got it for free at one of our local thrift stores, the Children's Lighthouse, and the nice lady there gave it to me for free as I bought a number of other things that I'll post pictures of later (hopefully). I got books for my niece (that is a teacher and always needs more for her class); a beautiful vintage purse, two pretty pins, some awesome chair cushions for my glider and this globe. It was filthy but I washed it up and love it; I think it will be used under our carport but I'm not sure.

Below is one of the tile choices that I was considering but I've already ruled it out as it's going to be too busy for the amount of space we're going to be tiling now that our backsplash will be custom and 10 inches tall. I like it but found one I like a little better...

This is the one we're going to use; the one in the upper left, the all white one but I really like this pattern and it will look good in a small area. Check out our new vintage 50's inspired faucet called a Dishmaster M76XL. It's going to look awesome on our new white cast iron sink. I found this on this really cool website, retrorenovation.com, that gave me tons of information when looking for resources to redo my kitchen. (Thanks Pam of retrorenovation for all your help and information!)

Stay tuned as you know there's more coming....

This is just another shot of the kitchen after we pulled up the hardwood floors and pulled out the "Divorce Pantry Cabinet" which used to be to the left of the stove...Getting the pantry cabinet sanded and ready to paint and prime. I had to wear the bandana because it was probably totally covered in lead paint.

Our Kitchen Saga Continues Part 2

2009-02-01T20:19:00.000-08:00

This is the ugly culprit that started it all....do not, oh yeah did I tell you to NOT buy..., this stuff! Liquid Lightning, oh yeah, Fast Acting and Fast Destroying!

Please note the below picture of under our kitchen sink where they found the leak, under the sub floor of the cabinet and behind the back wall between the cabinet and the exterior wall of the house...joy, joy....

The picture below (although it's hard to see) is our hardwood floors buckling from the water leak. Yep, you guessed it, they had to be completely removed and then we had to go and find new floors to install and we decided to go ahead and do the dining room while we were at it. Our friend H. came and installed them last Monday and Tuesday and had to stop back by on Wednesday and they did a great job. See the picture below. Now, it's on to picking out our backsplash tile, new countertops, stainless steel trim, paint.....see what a little liquid drain opener can cost you....

The shot below is our new floors in our dining room. I had this rug before but am undecided if it will go with all the new changes. We'll have to see how much money we still have left before I decide on whether or not to change it.

Christmas Goodies with Good Friends Galore

2009-01-22T18:21:00.001-08:00

Well, I know this has taken me way too long to post but I definitely wanted to share with all of you some of the wonderful moments from our Christmas season with good friends galore. You'll see "my boys" B. & T., and their grandparents (our neighbors S. & L.), my good friend Ms. Major who were all so very generous with us and also very generous to include us in their lives this Christmas and throughout the years! We are truly blessed and had a great time.

The boys collect nutcrackers and as you can see; I think he liked them!

S. & L. liked their James Dean movie set we gave them along with the necessary snack foods; popcorn, milk duds and hot tamales!

B. & T. checking out their Nutcrackers up close and personal! They gave me an awesome 1950's advertising calendar that I love and it's hanging in my office right by my desk. It's awesome and so are these guys! They're growing way too fast though...

He had been wanting a Chef Nutcracker and guess what I got him? You got it!

Check out the hubby's Florida State apron; I got one too but didn't take a self portrait; we love them and S. & L. had them custom made for us. Thank you so much! Can't wait for the hubby to wear his while he's grillin' us some steaks!This is my dear friend Ms. Major who is truly that; She's Major folks! She came over and did way too much for me for Christmas this year, check out all the cool stuff she got me in the pictures below; I loved it all and love you too Ms. Major!

Ms. Major loves her snowman watch I gave her!
This is a book that Ms. Major got from her aunt and it is HILARIOUS! So, if you haven't seen it you've got to go out and find it and read it and give it to someone deserving of its' humor! The oppossum kind of says it all, huh? More of the book...

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Plumbing Problems can cause a girl to need a margarita...

2009-01-22T17:55:00.000-08:00

Know what this is? This is my kitchen floor...AFTER we had to pull up our beautiful hardwood floors due to the water leak....read below for more fun filled details....it's been a tough week and a half around here....Happy 2009! Well, I have a lot more to tell you about the title of this entry but let's just say that if any of you get any bright ideas to pour something called "Liquid Lightning" down your drain....DON'T! It could wind up costing you your hard wood floors, 3 hours worth of plumbers bills, holes in your wall, a Sawz All cutting through your vintage maple cabinets,new countertops and so, so much more! I'm going to post a few pictures here but stay tuned as I have to totally renovate my kitchen, thanks to a $8.88 bottle of crap from Walmart! Seriously, don't even think of putting this stuff down your drain!
This is our kitchen after we pulled up the hardwood floors, removed the moisture barrier fabric, mopped, called the plumber, emptied all the cabinets...THis is my dear sweet hubby after he'd already put in a long day of work painting helping us pull up some old asbestos tiles from the 50s that were under the wood, under the linoleum under our cabinet. He was spraying a bleach mixture to kill any mold that had tried to grow as the water sat under the cabinet for a few days. Note to all other hubbies: If you notice a water leak at your concrete foundation, don't wait to tell your wife since "you knew she'd be mad" as it won't go away, it will only get worse! God love him!

THis is the water stain at the base of one of our blonde cabinets; thank goodness it looks worse in this picture than it was. Trust me though; it was plenty bad enough!

I'm going to post more on this so stay tuned as we try and move forward. We've decided to go ahead and make other changes that we've wanted to do since we already have the whole thing torn apart; new floors, new 1950s boomerang Formica countertops, a new cast iron sink (that I got and awesome deal on at Home Depot for only $50.00 as it was the display and they were switching out their models that day...thank goodness I found a deal in the middle of this nightmare...), , a new retro faucet and maybe more. Whew, I hope I win the lottery!

Our Holiday Home 2008 - Enjoy

2009-01-11T20:02:00.001-08:00

This is our vintage '59 aluminum pom pom tree in all its' glory - doesn't it look so much better with all of our antique 40's and 50's glass ornaments on it and with all the presents under there? So much better than the lonely tree photo I posted on my Christmas day blog. We love it. If you look close on there you might see the little hand made teddy bear ornament that my hubby made when he was a little boy...so cute... I told you guys he loves Christmas too!This is our snowwoman statue figure that stands about 4 foot tall that stands guard in the family room. I got her at Kirkland's home decor store a couple of years ago after Christmas at 75% off - I think I paid $10.00 for her and two woman tried to buy her off me as I tried to make my way out the mall with her. She's awesome.
This is just a little "scene" I set up on a shelf over the sofa in the family room. We love those Jim Shore collectible figurines and this is Santa in his sleigh with 2 small aluminum trees and some berry garland. I've also got vintage bark cloth framed pieces out on that wall and some awesome paint by number pictures from the 50s out there. We wrapped one of them with red foil like a present for a backdrop piece.

This little guy is "Frosty" that my hubby made in a ceramics class when he was 8 years old and I cherish him. Look at how detailed of a painter he was even at such a young age...isn't he adorable?!

This is a cute little shelf in my dining room that the hubby repainted for me that I keep most of my cookbooks on.

This is our art decor china cabinet where we keep some of our favorite treasures year around and where we put out little snowmen and some vintage shiny brite ornaments still in their box. Oh, and that clock? I love it and I love the sound of its' chime and I got it about 10 years ago at a garage sale for $8.00.

This is out in the family room. See how all out we go?! I got the rug at an after Christmas sale and put it in the shot for the picture and it will be there next year for sure. I got the couch from an ad in the local paper and love it as its' 84 inches long and in awesome condition, we got the 50's lamp from a garage sale for $15.00, and all the Christmas pillows from World Market after Christmas a couple of years ago. I'm so proud of the way it turned out for the holidays.

I made this wreath after collecting vintage ornaments for a couple of years and it makes me happy every year to pull it out and put it in the family room.

This is the top of my china cabinet in my dining room that the hubby bought me for our 5th anniversary.

Cardboard house I found at Marshall's this year and just had to have with the cute bottlebrush trees.

Out in front of our house. Got most of these decorations from garage sales too! I know you find that shocking, right? LOL! This is on a cabinet in our living room and I love this sparkly Merry Christmas decoration that I found at a cute local vintage shop. It fits perfect here and on top of this cabinet are the gold beaded deer that I made.

A pair of these plastic stand up Santas stood watch out by our front door to greet our holiday visitors! Who wouldn't love that face?

Close up of greenery swags I made to hang in the doorways between our living and family rooms. I LOVE these vintage pixie elves. I put them everywhere I can as they are so retro!

This is our Jim Shore nativity scene; the real reason for this season!

Well, this is just a little walk through some of our holiday decorations, as I forgot to take pictures of the bathrooms with their Christmas shower curtains and towels (yep, I go all out...) and the bedrooms with their comforters and greenery but it was all so nice and I was so proud to share it with you; I hope you all had a blessed and happy Merry Christmas and to all my friends that are reading this and who I got to spend time with over the holidays, we love you!

Retro Christmas Party at our Place! December 13, 2008

2009-01-11T18:42:00.001-08:00

This is what our table looked like with all the wonderful food that we all pitched in and prepared. I love that my friends are all like me and love to bring a dish to make it easier on the hostess, and since that was me this time, thanks ladies & gents! I love my vintage Santa that stood watch over the treats as we all dug in! Watch out Santa, you'll come to find yourself face down in some pretzels later in the night; not that I'm saying that things got a little out of hand....As you can see from the set up on our carport, people took it serious when we said to "please bring your favorite adult beverage"! The kids in the neighborhood could have snuck up and had a hey day if they'd only known...LOL! I'm glad they didn't though as I wouldn't have wanted to have to explain that to their parents.

Don't you love my vintage plastic snowman and Christmas tree pieces that we mounted to our post, my mom always had these when we were growing up and I'm glad I found some for my house and I even found her some as she had sold hers or lost them in an Air Force move somewhere in our past and they always remind me of where we lived during our times in the Air Force growing up. Don't let these two "tough" looking fellas fool ya - best guys you'd ever wanna know! D. on the left is married to my friend C. (you know, the one who got bit by the donkey....) and L. on the right is our neighbor across the street who has helped me and the hubby more than you could ever imagine since he "took us on to raise" when we moved in the neighborhood! We love them both and their wives too! Thanks for coming guys and for being the first to arrive!

This is my sweet S. (in foreground) and that's T. in the background. S. is the mom of sweet Abbie that you saw in pics from where they came to see my dad at the nursing home and is the sweet daughter of my childhood friend T. and is like a daughter to me as I've been in her life since she was born. I'm so proud of her and love her to pieces and this is the first night that she and her Aunt M. got to snorkel together...you'll understand later that she's still not quite able to keep up with me but I have had years, and years. of practice....I love you S.! At least you gave it a great try and you did way out last your mama!
Oh yeah baby, that's me (in my outfit that I worked in all day getting ready for the party and never got a chance to change ...) and my girl T., and her hubby D.. The music was crankin' and we were gettin' down tonight! We had so much fun and do you think this picture had anything to do with all the "refreshments" on my carport...hmmmmm...... See what you guys missed that weren't able to make it...maybe next year...Me and my girl continue to be "shakin' our groove thing, shake your grove thing, uh huh! At least she was still standing up at this point in the night; you'll see that very soon after this, she had to lay down on my couch for "a long winter's nap"....I love ya honey!

Hey you little sexy thing in your leopard tights and go go boots - you go girl! Enjoy that snorkel and thanks for coming and for my awesome Christmas present light that you guys made for us - we love it and we love you & the hubby!
That's S. having another snorkel and I have no idea what I was doing in this shot. Oh, and I have to thank A. for taking some shots of me at the party since I'm usually behind the lens and after seeing all these shots of me I know why! I look like the lumpy snowmen on my shirt! I'm really going to try and work on that for 2009...wish me luck!

Okay D., I don't mind if you check sports scores on that Crackberry but don't you dare work while you're at my party - you work too much anyway and tonight's all about fun! This is (L to R) D., C., and A., all such great friends that I love dearly and was so, so happy that they could all come and join us for our retro inspired Christmas party. That A. makes one mean bowl of gumbo and my hubby brags about it all year! Do you notice who is all of a sudden missing from this shot...T.; I think that she might have had to make a visit to my backyard and then somehow wound up needing a little nap on my sofa from too much "fun"! Oh, and it was only 9:30 p.m. when we lost her to the sofa but S. and D. weren't quite ready to go yet so we talked her into a little power nap...good thing too, since S. was needing a few more snorkels so that she too, could need a little "nap" later...

Here's Louise, of the now famous Thelma (a/k/a C.) & Louise (a/k/a T.) act having a little snorkel in my dining room. You see, Thelma & Louise (Rita's parents - and oh yeah, they didn't bring her to the party - can you believe it - I know, I know, she's pissed at us but it wasn't my fault...) are my adventurous friends who often times have run ins with the law (remember my story about them and the horse trailer and my NIL...) but sure know how to have fun! Thank goodness they had a designated driver tonight so we could go snorkeling!

D. & "Thelma" (a/k/a C.) chat in my dining room and "Thelma" is sharing a hilarious story with us about her son (I think that's what it was about...) and we were all busting up as it's never a dull moment with these guys. I'm so lucky to have such great friends!
Lullaby and good night, may my good friend T. sleep tight.....and that's all we're gonna say about that...good thing I had a pillow and blanket close at hand...
Okay, so this is a horribly taken photo as I didn't have the camera set to the right aperature as I had to run in and get it and help the hubby find a pitcher of water to wash a little "upchuck" off of A.'s new van door and get a cold rag to put on her face...but this is T's daughter S., letting go of a few appetizers and a number of snorkels in our front yard. Sorry sweetie, I guess you're not quite ready to keep up with your Aunt M. and maybe that's still a good thing...LOL!

We love all of you and thank you so much for joining us for our Retro Christmas party! Sorry it took me so long to get this posted but I was busy celebrating the season, going to parties, wrapping presents, shopping, going to friends, etc.....

I hope you enjoyed!

Stay tuned as I'm going to post more Christmas decoration photos and other stuff from Christmas soon!

My SIL Gets her Masters Degree and we celebrate - 12/12/08

2008-12-29T18:54:00.000-08:00

This is my hubby's sister, my SIL, who just graduated with her Masters' Degree and you may not be able to tell it from this picture (sorry about that A.) but she was very excited. My MIL (her mom) hosted a lovely party for her at her home to celebrate on December 12, '08 and invited friends and family to help her celebrate this great achievement. Congrats A.!This is her brother, my hubby, eating candy at the party; you see, he can do that and still never show it, unlike me; I'm so jealous of that! But then again, he's a hard working painter who works off more calories by lunchtime than some people do in a week so he can eat candy, lucky devil!

This is their aunt and uncle on their dad's side, Aunt I. & Uncle G., and you'd never know it but he's 81 and she's 78 and both still doing amazing. Uncle G. plays golf still several times a week and I love them both to pieces as they're a lot of fun and I wish we saw them more...they live just minutes from us but we don't see them that often. I guess we need to work on that in 2009...

This is our nephew B.; I love him and can't believe that in a mere matter of days he's going to be legal to drive! We're so proud of him and he's very talented in school and in Tae Kwon Do where he's a triple black belt (I hope I got that right B.) and he has grown up before my eyes and he's another person that I don't spend near enough time with. He's become a very handsome young man and I'm very proud of him.

This is B.'s mom and dad, my SIL & BIL and they just opened their own Tae Kwon Do school and I think that they're very brave and smart to invest in something they love so much; good luck B & R!

This is my SIL's best friend from grade school, K., and she owns her own hair salon in our fair city and was very proud of her best friend for graduating and brought her cute little son with her to the party where he had fun crawling around on the floor being a typical little man!

This is our Aunt G. on my hubby's side, she is married to my MIL's brother and it was so nice of her to just fly in for this occasion. We don't get to see her or her hubby, Uncle P. near enough. Thank you for coming Aunt G.!

This is my MIL and my SIL's dear friend S. who worked at the hospital with her and we were glad that S. could come and be with us. She had more guests but unfortunately I didn't get pictures of them but we really enjoyed meeting her neighbors that we'd heard a lot about. Congrats again A. and good job on the chili party M..

We love to deck the halls with lots of jolly...Part 1

2008-12-25T20:40:00.000-08:00

These are just a few pictures of the corners of our home as we began to decorate for Christmas. The hubby and I love to decorate and it's a bit of an illness of mine. It's one thing I can definitely attribute to my mom as she goes all out as well...so, you see, I inherited the addiction, but I do love it. As you can see from these photos, we go all out and I'll share more with you in another blog entry.

We have approximately 20 something storage bins (yep, the large ones...) out in our storage building, so, you see, there's plenting of "decking the halls" to be done. I do the bathrooms, shower curtains, towels, cookie jars, pillows on the couches...

okay, you get the picture, right?

This is our cute Frosty flag that hung out front of our home and in the background you can see the awesome colored orbs (balls....) that hung from our tree. The hubby and I love snowmen; you'll notice them throughout our home. I guess we love them because we never get to make one here in the sunshine state! Oh yeah, I'm updating this blog on Christmas and I just had to turn the air conditioner down in our house as the hubby is back there sleeping as I blog and sweating on his pillow....
These are vintage little shadowboxes in our dining room that I try and put vintage salt and pepper shakers in and you'll see a little paper house in the lower right hand corner that has a cute bottle brush tree in front of it. I have fun looking for little 1950s speghetti confetti type figurines to put in these. I love these reindeer that me and my good friend T. made several years ago from those cardboard type reindeer that are normally just spray painted gold. She got the idea out of a magazine and shared it with me and we both made us a pair for our homes and I love them. I get so many compliments on them and I'm quite proud of how they look. I add evergreen garlands, with beads and lights and some trees that I bought at TJMaxx and Marshall's and I think it just makes my cabinet in my living room. Don't you agree?

The wall shelf below is also in our dining room and I had to "Christmas" it up as well. Look at the Christmas mugs, holly garland, and 50's table runner that are there. I found this wall shelf, of course, at a yard sale for $5.00 and my hubby painted this turquoise for me, the canisters I got at the 65 mile yard sale (you know, the one where my friend got bitten by the donkey?!), the red and green pitcher from a yard sale for $5.00 and the green and gold mid century pitcher on the right off ebay (I think) for about $15.00. Oh, and that cool metal 50's red fan; yep, auction, $10.00.
I'll share more of these shots with you so stay tuned to other blog entries.

My Nephew Comes to Town to see us and get a free dinner...

2008-12-25T20:07:00.001-08:00

See this face?! I can't even begin to tell you how much I love this young man, my nephew, who is so much fun that his Aunt M. loves him to death! He's made me laugh since he was born and I feel privaleged that he STILL loves to spend time with me and I love to spend time with him! He and I are so close that he came over (he lives about an hour from the hubby & I in the town where I grew up) and let us take him and his girlfriend out to a free seafood dinner.

What I should tell you is that I found out last night, Christmas Eve, that they've already broken up as she wanted to keep tabs on my little ramblin' man a little too much so he's already ditched her. She seems to be a sweet girl but he's definitley not a young man who wants to "report" in to anyone yet...sorry about that J.; he's just a little heartbreaker and can't help it!

Thanks J. for letting me be your "favorite" auntie! I love ya!

It's Christmas Day 2008!

2008-12-25T19:44:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas to all of you this blessed day of 2008!

As I sit here late on Christmas night and thinking of all that I have to be grateful for, I do know that I really am blessed. I am so thankful that in these crazy times that we're currently living, I still have my health (that I'm struggling to improve and need all of your prayers as you know sweets are my downfall and they don't go well with being diabetic...); I have my wonderful husband, I have family that I love and who love me, I have a wonderful home that I'm proud of, and I have great friends and lots, and lots of laughter in my life and most importantly, I have a God that loves me and that gave us his son for which we celebrate the Season. These are truly all the gifts that I need.

So. as you see my sad looking little bare awesome aluminum Pom-Pom Sparkler 1950's Christmas tree above, don't worry, as it did get decked and there were tons of presents under there that have now been given to my friends and family and I'll catch you up on all of that very, very soon. I just wanted to take a moment, now that things have slowed down a bit and I prepare to go out tomorrow and look for after Christmas sales, to reflect and tell you all, how much I'm thankful for all of it and for all of you. I hope you all had a blessed and beautiful Christmas and I look forward to the New Year with all of you! Merry, Merry Christmas!

Tis' the Season to Help Others...

2008-12-25T19:19:00.000-08:00

If you remember me telling you from an earlier blog, about some Christmas treasures that I found at an estate sale, I volunteered on behalf of my Garden Circle, yep that's right, my Garden Circle, to make a Christmas wreath or swag for our local Sr. Citizen Center for a fundraising Silent Auction that they were having and this is it. I thought it turned out pretty good and especially based on the fact that almost everything I used for it was found at one estate sale, including the nice faux pine swag, ornaments, premade, and even the pretty blue bow!

I made this on November 29 as it had to be done by December 1st for their event on the 4th (I think...). The nice woman who coordinated the event even came to my office and picked it up and sent me a lovely note thanking me and telling me what a success the event was. Glad I could do my little part to help the Seniors! They said the event was a huge success!
Note to my friends: We should all help others a little more every day as this really did make me feel better that I could help out others...

Surf City and Friends a Plenty!

2008-12-18T20:42:00.000-08:00

How cool is this place? Well, actually; it's pretty darn cool! This is one of our local favorite restaurants and we truly love it. It's got these awesome vintage surfboards hangin' from the ceiling and they don't allow ties here after 5:00 p.m. and you may think this is in California but it's not. This place is located in the fair city of our state's capitol in Florida and if you're ever in this area, go and check it out, it's called Cabo's and it's home to awesome food and an even better place to meet friends and have a drink and unwind.
See these fries? Don't they look like another thing that I'm not supposed to eat?! Well, for those of you who know me; you guessed it...they were yummy! They're homemade and cooked to order and they have the skins on and that makes my hubby so happy; gotta have 'em if you go here...no way to avoid it...mmmmmm....

Look, it's my friend T., she and her hubby D. came and met us and our other friends L. & K. and we had a really nice time catching up with each other. T., K., and I all grew up together in a small town near here and went to high school together and I feel truly blessed that we're still friends and will always be. And now, our group is more special because we have our spouses and they just make us better people and we feel blessed to have them. We all hadn't seen each other in awhile so it was time to catch up, unwind, share like experiences (as L.'s parents have a lot of health issues like my dad does and unfortunately, we have a lot of things in common when it comes to dealing with all of the things that go along with that so it's great to see her and share that stuff...).

This is L., and that's her hubby K. at then end of the table who just happened to wobble in on crushes since he'd had ANOTHER basketball injury...so I guess it's true K., that we REALLY aren't as young as we used to be! Glad to hear they don't think you'll have to have surgery, we'll keep you in our prayers. I'm so proud of this guy and all the accomplishments he's made in his life, his career and his family. Their family has had a horrible week this week and I'm so sorry guys and you all are in our prayers...we love ya!

They have the best wait staff here and we go so often that they kind of feel like family; now we know how Rita felt on Cheers. We have hardly ever had someone that didn't catch on here; and they better catch on quick, as they stay busy all the time. Do you wonder; did you see those home made french fries? Oh, and did I tell you about the brunch they have on Sunday's with the best chocolate chip wheap pancakes....? Oh my gosh, it's to die for if you can get in between the church crowds...

Well, okay, you'll see a continuiing pattern here as this shot of my adorable hubby is a little out of focus, oops! I wanted to catch up with my blog and put these pictures on here, so I didn't try to touch them up before I posted them so I apologize. But, he's still absolutely adorable and handsome, and kind so I can get over a little fuzziness...and oh yeah, that could have been the mudslide taking this picture...LOL!

Cheers to the "Has Beens" and Good Friends!

2008-12-14T20:05:00.000-08:00

I know, I know, I've gotten soooooo far behind on my blog and don't worry, it's been bugging me too as I know the more I get behind, the less likely I'll be to catch up, but here goes!

When I went to FSU, (Go 'Noles!) back in the day, I was truly blessed to make some awesome lifelong friends. Part of that group, came to call ourselves the "has beens" since we've all gotten a little older and even maybe a little wiser (but that, too, can be questioned on occasions when we all get together...) but still think we can "hang with the big dogs"! On November 28th, one of our dear ring leaders, R., asked us all over to his house for chili and cocktails and we had a great time.
My dear, dear friend M., who now lives in Hotlanta with his awesome wife S., and 2 girls, came in town and was one of the main reason for this get together. He also, you should know, is the original owner of the Snorkel glass, and it was he, who bequethed it to me, based on the fact that I could drink enough to earn one, and we won't go into just how much that required, but I will tell you, it was a lot! I love him dearly and count him as one of my best friends; even though he has been the cause of many hangovers!
This is M. & M.J., two of the original members of the "Has Been" gang; they played high school football together and then went on to FSU together which is where I met the both of them. It was so good to see "J" as it's been about 20 years since I saw him.

You may not be able to read what I put on this picture but this is a still shot from a video were watching of us all on a trip to New Orleans about 20 years ago. I, after having a few snorkels too many, had gone to my room to take a nap, when my dear friend H. (from Atlanta now) decided to let the fellas in the room to give me a spankin'! Thanks for that H.!
So, do you think this is B.'s way of telling us all that it was time to go home; I think this is an Italian symbol for something not so nice...LOL! Thanks for having us in your beautiful home and for sharing the flood and fire stories with us, you really are a survivor!

This is most of us (in this shot), including S., the beautiful young lady on the left in white, who was home from Chicago and is R.'s daughter, who we've all watched grow up and become a successful and beautiful young lady in spite of her "has been" dad, who we affectionaly call "Dickhead"! Thanks for having us!

Thankful for friends & family - Nov. 2008

2008-12-08T19:06:00.000-08:00

So, like a lot of my friends and the rest of our country, we spent Thanksgiving with family. We drove over to the small town where I used to live, and where a lot of my family still lives and had Thanksgiving lunch with my family, or the ones of us who could be there for lunch anyway. And oh, that cute face above, is my new second-cousin Grayson, who I was seeing for the first time that day. Isn't he cute? And, he gave me lots of sugar and let me take him outside and walk around my aunts yard and look at flowers as it was beautiful weather here that day. He has two older brothers and an adorable sister; their mom, is my first cousin and they live several hours from me so I don't get to see them very often and I'm glad I did on this day; another thing for which I am truly thankful.

This is my hubby, just before we were about to say the blessing, as we always do before we eat because we know that God provides for us and we feel blessed, can you see the glimmer in his eye of sheer anticipation for that table to the left of him that is loaded down with food...Yummmmmm! He is so happy on days like this and you can bet that he brougth his "to go" containers to make sure he could help the women out by taking some of it "off their hands"! Don't you think from the looks of these two pictures below that we had plenty of food?! Can you believe my aunt said "that she wasn't sure she'd have enough"; c'mon now...Needless to say, we all had more than plenty! I made the deviled eggs and a marinated overnight vegetable salad and it was all wolnderful.

Okay, look at this picture above here and you'll see my aunt's cream style corn; you see it? Doesn't it look golden yellow and nice and creamy? Well, it should as it's about the best cream style corn I've ever eaten and we always (especially my hubby) beg her to make it whenever we come to eat with her - and yes, she was sweet and caved and made the corn! Gosh it was good, I ate 2 helpings (needless to say, I've been off the diet again...gotta get back on track...)
This picture below is my cousin and her hubby and 3 of their kids at my aunt's house; it was so good to see them and I was shocked at how big the kids have gotten! Here's the next to the youngest and the youngest posing for me; can you tell her sound B. is so camera shy....yeah right...

I stopped on our drive back to T. to eat with my MIL and the hubby's family for dinner, and took another shot of the town square which surrounds the county courthouse; I love this building and look how pretty the sky was that day.
This old Coca Cola mural on a downtown brick wall, which for years was a drugstore where you could go to the counter and get a soda at the soda fountain and I used to love to go here and get a vanilla diet coke with crushed ice and real vanilla syrup. My mom went to this same drugstore when she was in high school with her friends too after school for a milkshake.... I think the original one was done in the 1920's as we think that's when that bottle style came out. Doesn't it take you back though...I swear, I was born in the wrong time...
Well, we didn't get to see my brother and his family and my niece and NIL today, as they ate with my SIL family so we really missed them. I hope they, and all of you, had a blessed Thanksgiving and that your familes were all safe and full of Thanksgiving for what each of us has as we know, we're truly blessed and are praying for those whose lives are more difficult. Happy Thanksgiving and this year, as always, I am thankful for lots of things; some of those include the following: wonderful friends, a family that I love, a job that I truly appreciate and love; a roof over our heads, and a man who I love more than anything.

Showered by gifts and good friends...Jennifer's getting hitched!

2008-11-25T21:09:00.000-08:00

This is the court house in the center of the small town where I lived (which is about an hour from where I currently reside in North Florida) and I have always loved it. I love how the whole "downtown" is built around it and the old palm trees around it. I went here on Saturday for a bridal shower for a very dear friend from high school's daughter. I hadn't seen my friend or her daughter for a very long time so it was good to see them and enjoy spending time with friends from my past that I don't get to see that often but that I miss and feel like when I see them, that no time has passed at all; that's how you know they are good friends to have...

This is my friend (on the far left) and her two daughters are the one in the brown zebra print and the bride to be in the center. That's her sister to the right of the bride and her mom on the right who I love dearly!

Centerpieces on the tables.... The bride's grandmother, aunts and friends primarily from her dad's side of the family; and oh yeah, I grew up with her dad too and of course consumed a few adult beverages with at some points in time and enjoyed "steak night" with at their house years ago...we should do it again soon.

She got lots of beautiful things and I wish her well when she gets married on December 6th!

Estate Sale Treasures on Friday 11/21/2008

2008-11-25T20:52:00.001-08:00

Look at all the brand new, awesome Christmas decorations that I got at an estate sale that was held by that company that I like to follow this past Friday, November 21, '08. I thought I had a Christmas addiction but this lady was by far, way, way, way out of control! It was a 6000 square filled house and she literally must have decorated every square inch! And, if you look close, you'll see that almost everything I bought still had the tags on it! I think that every year she threw out last years' decorations and just started over! Must be nice, but fa la la la la for me! I got all this stuff for a little over $50.00 and even some more stuff that I couldn't squeeze into this chair to take the shot!

I'm going to use some of this to make a swag arrangment to donate to the local Senior Citizen center as I volunteered on behalf of my Garden Circle . The Sr. Ctr. holds a charity auction and I'll have fun making it and was going to do it tonight; but, considering the fact that I spent two hours in Walmart buying all of my Thanksgiving food...I'm sure that I wasn't the only woman in there wishing I was somewhere else...

Ho, Ho, Ho, can't wait to use this cute Metal Santa Claus in an arrangement and I got him for $1.00 and the cute set of Santas made from chandelier bulbs I got a set of 6 for $3.00 and may use them on the wreath I'm making.

Stay tuned and I'll post pictures of the wreath/swag I make for the Senior Center.... I'm also gearing up to start my Christmas decorating over the weekend and we'll go to all of our family gatherings and stuff too so I wish all of you a time of truly realizing how blessed we all are and of peace and lots of laughter over the holidays. I'm looking forward to more time with friends and family in the next few days and will post pictures soon!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

K.'s Big 5 0 & Farckle Fun Part 2 - The Fun Continues

2008-11-24T21:10:00.000-08:00

Well, I told you I had more pictures to post so I figured I might as well just go ahead and get them on here so you could enjoy and then I can move forward when I make my next post and share some of my treasures with you. Enjoy!

Ruby was out and about on party night; check her out?

This cake was so good but sooooo not on my low carb diabetic diet! I really better start behaving....

The youngsters started running out of juice....and they just THINK that they're cooler than us...LOL!

Look, of course Dr. Doolittle (a/k/a "C.") has new puppies. Aren't they cute?

K.'s Big 5 0 and a little Farckle Fun!

2008-11-24T18:11:00.000-08:00

Happy 50th B.D. to K. and a night full of Farckle fun and frolic! You'll see what I mean; just keep scrolling down and enjoy! Wow, I have really been sick for awhile so I got a little behind when it comes to catching you guys up with all that's gone on. So, I'll try and catch you up now as we've been trying to have a little fun while we were all sucking on cough drops and taking antibiotics! C.'s good friend Kay celebrated her 50th BD with us on the 15th at C's house and as you can see; we had a pretty good time considering we were all on cold medicine and cough drops with a little Margarita chaser on the side! Look at the pictures and they kind of tell the whole story - including the kids who thought we "old" folks were even a little fun, playing Farckle, and eating the delicious dinner that T. and D. cooked for all of us.
D.R., hubby of my dear friend from grade school T.; she's the one with the long brown hair, NOT the one I go on the donkey adventures with...read the 65 mile blog for more on that!
These shish ka bobs were just part of the yummy menu; T. also made an awesome cucumber, onion and tomato salad, fresh green beans and we had ribs as well. It was so awesome that I was too busy eating to get a picture of the rest of it!

It was about this time in the night when we heard about the robber who hid in K.'s closet while she stripped down to her house coat...you should have been here to hear this story as we all about wet our pants!

If things weren't out of hand enough when we were playing Farckle; the girls then decided to do some dancing with Kid Rock; you gotta love that we girls still know how to have fun!

I have a few more pictures to post but I'm out of juice tonight and have to get my recipes together for Thanksgiving and make out my grocery list and it's 11:45 p.m. on Monday night so I'd better get to it; but, don't worry I'll post some more pictures but I may not add any descriptions but the pictures tell the whole story....

And, I still have to tell you about the awesome treasures I got this past Friday at an estate sale and then this week at yard sales so stay tuned!

More Pictures from the High Cotton Yard Sale Trip

2008-11-15T07:35:00.000-08:00

As you can see from the colors on this tree along the route, it was a beautiful time of year for this yard sale trip and a gorgeous drive the whole way.
I love the south for this reason alone; old time churches and beautiful steeples. Oh, and nice people who let you use their indoor restrooms too! These ladies were very comforting as I'd almost just caused an accident with a truck hauling peanuts and was shaking all over when I got here and they were very nice. I'm so, so sorry to that man hauling the peanuts - I was pulling out from a sale and there were cars parked along the hwy so I couldn't see him and he didn't see me, hince the "near accident" but he was able to maintain his truck and trailer and I was okay too, just shook up bit. Be careful if you park along the highway as visibility is a little tough at times.

Great stuff for kids to do on the trip as well and there was also a hilarious clown walking around here but I missed getting his picture...

Okay, so here's the Police truck that I was glad to see was merely parked and enjoying the local commerce: NOT trying to hunt down Thelma & Louise and they're trailer with no left blinker...LOL!

This was an awesome vintage truck that was for sale and it's a good thing my hubby didn't go with us or it might be sitting in my driveway now...it was a good buy though and I could haul a lot of yard sale treasures in it....hmmmmmm...

This ceiling is an awesome detail in an old store in downtown Edison, GA that is now an antique store and auction house. They discovered this after there was a leak when one of the storms went through and they pulled out the ugly drop ceiling tiles. It's really beautiful and is from the early 1900's. I love stuff like this and really enjoyed talking with the store owner about the story. I also bought a really cool old basket from him for $3.00 that's kind of like an old locker basket and will be awesome to have in the trunk of my car for more goodies!

I love small old towns in the south as they almost always have a Rexall drug store and a lot of times they still have old soda fountains where you can get a vanilla coke! But, I was too distracted by shopping and didn't go into the drug store as it was only about 9:00 a.m. when I took this picture so I was still enjoying my coffee. Should have went back later for that vanilla coke....

I put this picture on one of the other listings but I promised these ladies I'd post their picture so why not give them 2 shots to fame! And, they were the ones that I made my first purchases from. I should have went back later as they'd unpacked more to see what I missed out on but I had to make more miles!

I'm a new Great Aunt Again!

2008-11-13T17:09:00.001-08:00

The proud daddy of our newest family member!
9 lbs. 5 oz and 21 inches long; he's a big boy! Michael Harrison! My niece M. and my great niece K, with baby Michael Harrison. From what I hear, she's an awfully protective big sister...and doesn't really want to share her baby brother with anyone yet! See below, that's her pushing her uncle J. away from her baby brother...LOL!

Well, Tuesday, November 11th, Veterans day was an exciting day for our family as we welcomed my great-nephew into the world. It's a little hard for me to even grasp that I'm old enough to have "great" nieces and nephews but it's a fact and I'm blessed to have them.

My oldest niece, M., gave birth to a 9 lb. 5 oz, 21 inch long baby boy; Michael Harrison and both mom and baby are healthy and are doing well and will probably go home tomorrow. I'm so happy for his mom and dad as they are the proud parents of my adorable great niece K. and unfortunately lost a baby in between these two cuties. So, congrats M. & R. & K.! I'm so happy for all of you!

Ouch! How much does a donkey bite hurt?! High Cotton Trip Part 4

2008-11-13T15:02:00.000-08:00

Okay, so, we get "sweet" Maggie into her new temporary pen that T.'s dad built for her and everything seems to be going pretty well. It started to rain a little on us so after everyone got her settled we had all went into the house to eat some home made chili and visit and get the food ready for tomorrow.

(Pay attention - you see C. above showing me Maggie's chops - in a little while you'll see just what those chops can do...especially to human flesh!)

Then, T. went outside (to partake in a little bad habit...LOL) and we hear her calling for us to "help", "help" really loud! We all go running outside and see where poor Maggie had apparently tried to jump the fence in her new pen and she got her leg caught! It was pretty scary and L.. had to run to get the fence cutters while T & C tried to calm Maggie down until they could get her loose!

Then, as I supervise from the porch (yep, I'm lame like that as I know nothing about about tending to injured donkeys...) I hear

"HELP ME, HELP ME" as sweet C. yells for help! No, that's not her stuck in the bale of hay (but I did see this along the route when I was out shopping on Saturday) but it should have been! You see, that "sweet Maggie" had chomped down onto her forearm while they were trying to get her loose from the fence!

The following picture is a shot of what C's arm looked like immediately following the donkey bite: (p.s. Another reason why I told them that I never wanted a donkey or a jackass as a present...LOL)

OUCH! Doctor Doolittle is one tough chick! I couldn't believe that this didn't break the skin as all I could picture was that we were fixing to have to find an emergency room and try and explain how she got bit by a donkey....LOL! Whew, after all this excitement, we've got to go in the house and get ready for our big day tomorrow. Never a dull day with Thelma & Louise....!

High Cotton 65 Mile Yard Sale Trip - Part 5 - Sale Day!

2008-11-13T10:09:00.001-08:00

Yep, you guessed it - it's Sale Day and we're up before dawn to get T & C's food booth all set up and ready to go before the crowd all arrive to shop at 7:00 a.m.. So, we all got up at 5:00 a.m., got ready, and headed to the downtown area where we were setting up the booth and got to work.

Here's T & C, and T's dad helping out, getting all set up and ready to sell their sausage dogs, homemade caramel corn (which was sooooo yummy), hot chocolate packages and drinks. Oh yeah, I helped too, in between taking pictures and getting excited about shopping on the sale!

They had to make sure the grill was up and running so you could smell that yummy sausage cooking at the crack of dawn and we were almost there.

Okay, so the sun is up, the food is out and almost ready to go and T & C are ready for their first customers! Now that we've got them ready to go, it's time for me to head out to my first sales and I didn't have to go far to find some awesome stuff! I went down just the other side of the library where they were set up and found these two very nice ladies and some great deals. Keep reading for more on that.

Oh yeah, see that little shelf just to the left of the table, I had just went down the street and bought that for $5.00 and brought it back for C. to haul back home for me in the now empty horse trailer, and these hard working girls put it to work for them as well as a display shelf and it turned out quite cute for them!

So, here's the first two ladies that I went and shopped with and they had great prices and we love that! I got 2 silk floral wreaths for $1.00 each, a horse hair wall decoration that I gave to C. for $2.00, a cookbook for $0.50, a laminated Coca Cola sign that I put on my fridge for $0.50 and some costume jewelry for $1.00.

Then, I went across the street where some more nice women and men were set up in what appeared to be an old gas station or something and I got some awesome Pyrex dishes that I love, and old red pyrex bowl, a cute denim purse, and an awesome yellow 50's cookie jar. See the pictures and you'll see what I'm talking about.

The Mirro Cookie maker and set of Red Lustro Ware Canisters came from the same group of ladies and were my favorite finds of the trip. I'd been looking for the Red Lustro Ware canisters for about 3 years and these were in great shape and were a good price - only $18.00 for the set. I see them go for $40.00 and more on ebay so I was fired up! I had found the Mirro Cookie maker booklet awhile back at a yard sale but it was just the booklet, imagine how happy I was to find the cookie press on this trip for $5.00. Can't wait to make Christmas sugar cookies in all kinds of cute shapes! The cute Christmas Table runner I found was only $0.50 and they even threw in a free T-shirt from some sort of local town run!

Anyone that knows me also knows I can hardly pass up a cute purse and I found this awesome silver one from two women called the "Girly Girlz" for a mere $2.00! It has one messed up latch but let's keep that as our little secret...shhhhhh....Isn't it sassy!
And, last but not least, I also found the cool glass jar with the gold starburst lid for $1.00 and the awesome turquoise glass dish for $2.00.

So, as you can see from all these postings of the 65 Mile High Cotton Yard Sale trip, we had a great time, found great treasures and had great laughs! Can't wait to do it again next year!

High Cotton Yard Sale Trip - Part 3 - Surprise Delivery!

2008-11-13T09:23:00.000-08:00

It's time for the Surprise Delivery! You'll see T. as she waits behind the trailer (with no brake lights and no left blinker....LOL... good thing my NIL doesn't work for the Ag Dept. in GA....)to have our big reveal!

As you can see, we reached our final destination, T's dad and stepmom's place, and what you should know is that I didn't know that the donkey was a surprise until we were pulling up in the driveway and C. told me over the walkies, as we followed D. on the fourwheeler to the house. They live in a beautiful home that is out in the country and pretty dark, so needless to say, I was a little concerned that she wouldn't want our special delivery! But, no problem there as D. is another Doctor Doolittle, like C. is, and was thrilled with her surprise!

As you can see, Maggie was very happy to be out of the trailer and met all the family, including all the dogs.

What you'll also see here is the little baby dear, Bambi, who has taken up as a pet or a part of the family that met us upon our arrival. It was pretty amazing that this baby dear let us all feed her, pet her and be right by her as we got there; what an amazing experience. That shows you how at home animals feel at their place and they also made us feel very at home as well; thanks L. & D. and H.!

High Cotton 65 Mile Yard Sale Trip - Part 2

2008-11-11T19:00:00.000-08:00

Okay, so, we're hitting the road and it will take us about 2 hours to reach our destination. We've both got our GPS navigation systems on board so we're sure not to get lost on the way with poor Maggie riding in the trailer to her new home. As you'll see, we had to make a pit stop at good 'ole DQ for some food and of course a couple of Peanut Buster Parfaits! (I know, I know, I shouldn't be eating those due to my diabetic situation but I just couldn't help myself; there's something about junk food and road trips that just go hand in hand!

(Oh, look closely at the shot of Ruby on my dashboard, where she pretty much hung out the entire trip, and over her shoulder you'll see Maggie's trailer - and yes, it FINALLY DOES have tags - but the left blinker and brake lights didn't want to work - it's always something with "Thelma & Louise"! Luckily, I stayed right on their bumper so no law enforcement officer would notice the lack of lighting on the trailer...LOL!

This was Sunset in Camilla, GA - probably shouldn't really take pictures and drive but I didn't want to miss this moment in the day. We were talking between vehicles and really admiring God's handiwork. It was more amazing than this picture shows but you can just imagine....

High Cotton Yard Sale Trip & Ruby Hits the Road! Part 1

2008-11-10T20:41:00.000-08:00

Wow, was this a fun weekend or what?! I was so excited that T. & C. asked me to go along with them to the 65 mile High Cotton Yard Sale trip that runs from Fort Gaines, GA to Camilla, Ga on old Hwy 37 . You know from previous posts how much I love any yard sale and especially the kind that runs for miles, and miles, and miles...oh, I almost broke out in song!

So, I took off from work a little early on Friday, the 8th and headed out to C's house where we had to load up the jackass, yeah, you read that right, we had to load up the jackass or donkey depending on what you want to call Maggie and got ready to hit the road! T.'s dad and stepmom were so nice to invite us to stay with them so that helped out a lot and we were taking Maggie a/k/a "the jackass" to D. (T's stepmom) for a surprise for her birthday.

Look here for the pictures of how all that went down...

First, we had to pack up the truck with all the food stuff for T & C to sell so they worked hard and got that took care of lickety split! You see, they were going to work for the day and I, of course, was going to shop! Me & Ruby, that is, and you'll see her show up in the following pictures as she helped us get ready, kept me company on the road, shopped on the trip and overall, she had a great trip. Oh yeah, she's got her full name now - Ruby Rita (yeah, you guessed it "Rita" is short for Margarita...even though we didn't consume any on this trip). Check her out as she had a great time too. You'll see her walkie talkie that we used to talk between our vehicles as we made our road trip up to the sale!

Look how T. mounted the trailer hitch in order to help C. line up the truck with the hitch...careful T., don't let that thing slip and hurt yourself...Okay, now that we got the trailer hooked up, the food loaded and our walkie talkies in each vehicle, it's time to go to the pasture and load up Maggie for the trip...as you'll see, this took a bit of doing and I pretty much was a spectator and photographer for this event. It was gorgeous out here where C. keeps her donkeys and horses and they had to work their "_sses" off to get our jackass ready for her trip! Get it?! LOL!

Okay, so far, so good, notice how T. & C. were "bribing" little Maggie with some food...well, it does take a little bit of coaxing to load a baby donkey, who has never even been in a trailer, much less left their mother, to load up and take a road trip to a new home. Check out these pictures of T & C getting Maggie into the trailer while all I had to do was take pictures and close the door REAL quick, once we got her in there. Whew!

C'mon C. - you can do it, pull that donkey with all of your might...

That's it, she's getting closer....now, what I don't have a picture of (because I was actually trying to help out a little more at this point by closing the door, is that C. tied the rope into the side of the trailer and T. got in there to make sure it stayed and C. got out, lifted Maggie by her belly and she was in! Whew, did I say again how much I don't want to be responsible for any animals or their transport....

But, now we're ready, the food is loaded, Ruby is loaded, and sweet little Miss Maggie is loaded up and ready to hit the road! We head out to Georgia and checking out this view just one more time.

Halloween is so much fun and Cute Kids were everywhere!

2008-11-04T20:30:00.000-08:00

Hey, sorry this is a little late but I've been a little busy with Halloween, the Election, work and treasure hunting...whew! So, here we go, you HAVE to see all of my adorable neighborhood kids who came to Miss Millie's to Trick-or-Treat last Friday night. I absolutely look forward to it and you'll see why when you see the pictures here. Oh, see the "pair" of space aliens that showed up? Do they look a little familiar? You may have spotted them in some of my Friday Night Fun postings from the ball park. I LOVED their costumes and they about scared me to death! (and, if I'm right, I think that was their goal! These kids all mean a lot to me and I live vicariously through their parents and truly count myself blessed to be able to share just little bits of their lives and you can see why!

Look closely and you'll see that the hubby has his jaw packed with candy before our trick or treaters got here so I was nervous and sent him to buy more! Shouldn't have as we didn't have that many kids and you know who has been eating the left over candy....Uuuugghhh! I really wish I hated candy...it would make my life so much easier...oh well, it could be worse...LOL!
These were my cute decorations in the foyer of the house that the kids saw as they came up to get their candy. The hubby was sitting just outside the front door by the outside decorations....See the felt cat on the drawer - remember that? I showed in in my Yard Sale Treasures listing where I got it, and 2 others, for $0.25 each and I love it. It looks vintage to me but it's not. Oh, and the wool scarf I used as a table runner on that small table...yep, estate sale find...$2.00!

Election Night in the BIg City...

2008-11-04T19:56:00.000-08:00

Bet you thought I was going to talk about my town, the capitol city, but no; we went to the city where my mom lives as well as my niece and NIL, and my brother and SIL (you know, my yard sale trip partner) and my nephews. I had a bunch of treasures that I'd bought for all of them so when we got off from work tonight we drove over and met them at a local Bar B Q place and ate dinner together. Hey T. & C. - do you recognize the Agricultural Officer in this picture?! He was hiding behind his hands as he was mortified that I would actually take photos of them in a place "where people knew him"! LOL!

We got lucky and my two aunts walked in for dinner too so they joined our big group and my hubby sat with them. It was a hub ub of activity due to the election going on over there and several of their candidates were eating there and killing time too while awaiting results. I'm glad we got to see our family even though it was quick tonight!

God Bless America & Our Freedom to Vote!

2008-11-04T19:36:00.000-08:00

Well, I wasn't sure just exactly how long I'd have to wait to go and place my vote on November 4th, Election Day, (today); so I chose to go to early voting this past Saturday, and, as you can see, I had to wait in line for about an hour and a half. It was a beautiful day and there were really nice people in line by me, so we chatted and enjoyed our day while we waited to vote. Waited in line in a country that gives us the freedom to do as we please, freedom to choose who we want to vote for, freedom to enjoy the simple pleasures in life, (like being of sound mind and body where we could stand in line and wait to vote), free to voice our opinions on who we want to run our country and free to vote for a change as God knows our country needs it. So, I am thankful to be an American, thankful to be in good health where I can go and stand in line and wait to vote, thankful, that as a woman, I don't have to hide my face and hands and body when I go out in public, thankful that I can voice my opinion about what is important to me and thankful that I do feel that we still have hope. I was glad to go and place my early vote and I hope that you all voted today as well. God Bless America and God Bless the future leader of our country and I hope he truly can change this country as we are absolutely ready!

Me in my yard sale future...

2008-10-27T20:08:00.001-07:00

Okay, so check out this "young lady" out getting her "treasure on"! She's got it goin' on and is STILL looking for her treasures even though she may have to spend her Medicare money to get them. Check out gramps in the background looking a little miffed that she doesn't want fishing lures, golf balls, etc....I thought this was hilarious and thanks to S. for her and her mom (my awesome neighbor who we share homemade peach ice cream with - out of the ice cream churn that I got at the World's Longest Yard sale last year for $5.00) came over on Sunday and S. said she saw this on the cover of Reader's Digest and of course, instantly thought of me! I only hope I'm this awesome when I'm over the Medicare threshold...LOL! Thanks girls and I love it!

Estate Sale Treasures and Treasured Friends

2008-10-27T19:38:00.000-07:00

Well, I got to fill my estate sale addiction again this week with the company that I follow (like a religion, remember from my previous blogs....)but it was kind of a vintage 50's bust for me as the house was chock full of stuff, just not stuff that I couldn't live without as far as that goes, But, I did buy a lot of practical stuff like a water sprinkler for a $1.00, a cool 50's fruit tray for $0.50, a plug in wall charging flash light (for hurricane season) for $1.00, a milk glass dresser jar for cotton balls for $1.00, some storage boxes for shoes for $0.50 each, and a cool green compote dish for $1.50. I also got some other cool stuff from C.'s church but I haven't taken pictures of that yet. I got the awesome 50's pull down light fixture that I've been looking for FOREVER to go over my dining room table for $8.00!

It's going to need a lot of cleaning and probably rewiring so I've got to see if it will clean up and will post some pics of it soon.

After, treasure hunting Saturday morning I went to spend the afternoon shopping with my other gal pals T. & D. and T's daughter S. and we had a blast. For those of you who know all of us, I can just tell you that this luncheon meant the world to us and I'll just say that there's nothing like the bond between good girlfriends, lots of laughter and the love and acceptance of all the above!

Friday Night Fun - October 24, 2008 & RUBY!

2008-10-27T18:19:00.000-07:00

Okay, before we get into tonight's update on fun, you all should know that we've now given our Red Headed Step Child, a/k/a Chuckie's Sister, a name! We decided that we just can't keep calling our new mascot such evil names, so, from now on, you'll be hearing about...drumroll....RUBY! Yep, she's Ruby the redhead so we've given her a name! I won't even tell you what mischief she was up to this week and how she showd up in my inbox at work perched over a bottle of margarita mix on the counter at the beach....she's crazy like that! Oh, and after all this update, she never even showed up at Pepper's this week; something about she was in the truck...doing God knows what...LOL!

Okay, so, we gave our local Mexican restaurant one more try and yes, we wound up with orange margaritas again and they tried to get them right but somehow it just didn't quite happen; we may have to reconsider our hangout. We also had some other friends from the ball team join us as our game got rained out so C. and his mom, E. came and shared some laughs with us. Don't worry, we didn't let C. try any margaritas but this picture sure makes it look that way...

Now, the more fun we had, the more topics that came up in conversation. Some of them included: Bad relatives, you know, the kind that you'd change if you could but you can't so you just see them on your own terms; Colonoscopies and the wonderful "Twilight" sleep, autopsies and embalming fluids, crushes at school and whether we should write an old school note or send a text message (right C.?) and so much more!

The following pictures are the faces that all of us would like to have when we are put 6 feet under or either right before we're cremated, depending on our personal preferences! C. found out that if they take you soon enough, you actually can have a smile on your face and this is what she wants to look like:

And here's what the rest of us think we may wind up looking like:

As you can tell, we had a good time and we had a lot to talk about! Who knew that they glue your lips together when you leave this world, maybe that's why I tell the Mr. that they can cremate me - another reason is because I tell him that it will probably be the only time in my adult life that I'm "skinny"! LOL!

Yes, I really am a member of the Garden Club!

2008-10-27T17:49:00.001-07:00

Well, hold your laughter people but I really am a member of the Jonquil Garden Circle and it's been a lot of fun. A good friend got me in this circle and it's a lot of fun and they don't pressure me TOO much to have to keep anything growing in my yard...LOL! Well, I digress; so, this month, my friend V. asked me to be the program chair as ours had to back out this month so I taught the ladies how to make decoupage lampshades for the holidays or whatever other theme they wanted to make. I made one last year and put it in our circle fundraiser auction and it was a big hit! We had a good time as you can see here:

Look, we even had wonderful snacks after our crafting! Each month, we take turns bringing refreshments and as you can see, we had a fall - Halloween themed table this month! I hope they had a good time! I did, but it was hard for me to teach our craft and try and take notes too, as I'm the circle Secretary (for the 3rd year as they love my minute taking skills - and the embellishments that I add to them...surprise, surprise, huh?) so H. helped me out. Thanks girl!

My Semi-Annual Yard Sale Purge - October 18, 2008

2008-10-20T20:34:00.000-07:00

Well, if you "love 2 buy stuff but house about to bust", then you'll know why I, too, have to have garage sales myself every now and then. So, since the weather has gotten a little cooler here, finally, I decided to do my Fall yard sale this past Saturday, the 18th of October. It is a ton of work and luckily, my sweet hubby, always works hard to help me set up for it, but it's still exhausting.

It's especially trying when you get up at 5:45 a.m. on Saturday, to discover that it's raining! Luckily, it quit by about 7:30 which is when I was supposed to officially start and since I always put NO EARLY BIRDS in my ad, but the dealers usually swoop in at least a half hour before that! And, when that didn't happen this Saturday I kind of had a gut fealing that it was going to be a "slow" sale; and boy, was I right! I didn't have near the amount of customers that I usually do and as you'll see from my pictures, there were times when there was no one here but me and my Danielle Steele book! Luckily, the neighborhood kids all stop by to hang out with me and even serenade me with guitar, (yep, it really happened and he's actually pretty darn good and only about 12 or 13 years old) so I wasn't too lonely for very long.

I did "okay" but not near as good as I usually do and I guess it's because people were doing other things here as there were a number of festivals and stuff in town so people were out and about for that and maybe the rain scared some people off.

Here's what all my nice tables looked like pretty early in the morning (after daylight that is...)

Here's what it looked like on a number of occasions during the morning...(unfortunately....)

Notice what's missing from this picture...my customers! Don't get me wrong, I had some great customers (and thanks to all of you who saw my ad on Craigslist and in the paper or you are friends of my friends...) but I wish I had more!

This meant that I had a lot of packing up to do of all my treasures that I was ready to part with and had to sort it out into different groups;
1) Stuff to donate

2) Stuff to take to the consignment shop

and

3) Stuff to take back into the house (and it wasn't much, believe me...because by the time I get ready to pay for an ad and have a sale, I'm pretty much ready to let go of it...or give it to a friend, right "C"...)

and this last picture is a shot of where I took my donations. This is a thrift store that raises money and donations for battered women and I like to give to them or another local charity that is for troubled tean girls (but they were closed on Saturday by the time I got it all sorted and boxed back up).

So, as you can guess, I needed a long nap after this and I was in the bed by 9:30 on Saturday night!

Gumbo and Birthdays are a great combination!

2008-10-20T20:06:00.000-07:00

Saturday night, October 11th was our good friend D's 50 something birthday (don't worry D. I'm not telling - primarily because I can't remember exactly...is it 52...?)so we all got together to eat gumbo, and drink snorkels! Her hubby, A., makes the meanest gumbo in North Florida!

And, for those of you who don't know what a snorkel is, you'll just have to hope that you, too, get invited to a snorkeling event where you can go deep sea drinking, oops I meant, diving as well! LOL! We had a great time and I took some of the yummy Peach Cobbler and it was a big hit and was all eaten by the time we left the party! Thanks for having us D. & A.; we had a great time!

More Friday Night Fun at the Ballpark with our boys - October 17, 2008

2008-10-20T19:41:00.000-07:00

All I can say about these shots are that we all have a great time (and some of us have even more fun than others - notice the hat and the plastic cup...)going to the ball field and watching our boys play baseball. What's more American than the pasttime of baseball and good friends?! What these boys don't even know is that every laugh, every play, every cheer from the outfield will be a memory that they'll hold dear when, they too, are 40 something years old, and are at a ball park somewhere watching kids play baseball...whew, time goes way too fast but good times can be had by all!

Speaking of good times had by all - look who made it to the ball field Friday night - it's our new mascot the Red Headed Step Child! Look, she's really enjoying the game too! Stay tuned as I'm sure that you'll want to keep up with her travels over the next few months...

Oh, and she's not the only one who's having a good time, look at these guys...

Well, on this note, well maybe not since he doesn't really looked too thrilled here, we'll just enjoy this last view from the ball park Friday night and call it a day. Oh yeah, we won!

Yummy Peach Cobbler Recipe!

2008-10-20T19:20:00.000-07:00

Okay, okay, for those of you who are still drooling over the photos of my yummy peach cobbler that I posted last week in my cute turquoise glass sherbert dishes, here is the recipe that you requested and I hope you all enjoy it as much as we did when I had Ms. Major over for dinner!

Too Easy Peach Cobbler

Ingredients: 1 large can of Sliced Peaches in Heavy Syrup (sorry that I don't have the ounce size but it's the one that is about the size of small can of coffee if that helps - see I'm NOT really a cook....)

Cinnamon

1 Box of White Cake Mix - 18.25 oz (I used the extra moist kind)

1 8 oz package of Cream Cheese

1 stick of Butter (softened and melted)

Optional: 1 small can of Sweetened Condensed Milk

Directions to Make Cobbler -

Line the bottom of a 9 x 13 glass baking dish with peach slices. Lightly sprinkle cinnamon over the peaches.

In a separate bowl, combine the White Cake Mix and the Cream chease together until they are a crumbly texture (I used my hands to combine or you can use a food processor but be careful and don't over process it - just use your hands as everything that has your hands in it always taste better according to Paula Dean...)

Spread this mixture over the top of the peaches.

Melt the stick of butter (I do this in the microwave) and pour over the top of the cake and cream cheese mixture.

Bake at 375 for 45 minutes or until top of cobbler is golden brown. Pour a small amount of sweetened condensed milk over each serving for a little bit of pure heaven! Enjoy!

Yard Sale Treasures - October 11, 2008

2008-10-20T18:34:00.000-07:00

Wow, how does life get so far ahead of me sometimes?! I guess because I'm busy living, spending time with friends, going to happy hour and great parties at friends houses, etc...! Oh well, I ramble! I went to an awesome estate sale here on Oct. 11th here in town that was conducted by this company that I follow like a religion! When they have a sale, I'm there unless I HAVE to be somewhere else. They always have great estate sales, they always start promptly at 8:00 a.m. (but I'm always there by 7:00 to be in the very first few going in the house...) and everything, and I mean everything, is priced. There's no haggling until after lunchtime (and I've never even once went back as I always buy it when I'm there early if I want it) so you know how much you'll pay from the very beginning!

Perfect example is this Blinko glass pitcher that I got for $5.00. The hubby and I love the color of Blinko glass and love how this looks when the sun hits it.

In this picture you'll see the cute vintage cards that I got for $0.50; a bag of thread for all my sewing projects for $0.75, the vintage planter that I use by my sink to put my scrapers and scrub pads in for $0.75; the Wire Glove hanger for $1.00, the handpainted wooden Easter eggs for $6.00 (I love the workmanship in these); 2 Pyrex small bowls for $0.75, some fingertip towels for $0.50; some awesome 60's embossed bath towels for $0.50 each (these are hard to find in good shape and I'm just drawn to them for some reason); the Scottish wool scarf for $2.00; a gorgeous vintage Christmas tablecloth for only $3.00 (Sorry it's not in this picture); the cool green and white velour table runner for $1.00; a vintage 2 hole paper punch for $1.00 (I also love to collect vintage desk accessories from the 50's); and there were a few more things but they aren't in this picture as I had started to put things away since it was a couple of weeks ago. It was so much fun and I can't wait for their next one.

It always makes me feel kind of good to know that I'm giving a good home to someone else's "treasures" and that they won't wind up at Badwill or somewhere where they won't be appreciated like they will at my house.

But, I guess you should feel sorry for my nieces and nephews as one day, there will be one heck of an estate sale at my house....but, until then, I'm going to keep going to other people's estate sales and bring their treasures home with me!

Yard Sale Treasures - October 4, 2008

2008-10-13T19:52:00.000-07:00

Whew, who knew it would be so much work to post my treasures each week and try and keep up with it so you guys could see what I find! But, I'm already catching myself running a little behind; sorry 'bout that! Here's just some of the stuff I found last Saturday. My silver watch for $5.00 was one of my favorites and I even found a few gift items that were brand new as Christmas is not far way... Oh, and then I went to this moving/estate sale of a guy who I think was a long way away from dying (hence, the "estate" sale part) but he sold me some awesome 50's Shiny Brite ornaments for my vintage silver Christmas tree for only $1.00 a box! That was a steal as I have paid $6.00 for one before! he also sold me the cute witch that stands watch in our yard now! I also got the cute flamingo salt and pepper shakers from him to add to my "vintage Florida" collection. Oh, and that Swiss army knife, yep, got it for $0.25!

Fall Fabulousness on my front stoop!

2008-10-09T22:01:00.000-07:00

Wow, I'll really be glad when it starts to feel like fall and it stays that way. We've had a few cool days (days below 85 degrees) but they haven't come to stay yet. But, that doesn't stop us Floridians from decorating in the Fall Fabulousness in hopes that the cool weather will soon come! Isn't it all cute?! The girl scarecrow represents me (as my hair is kind of spiked on top, too!) and the male scarecrow is the Mr.. I think it all turned out very cute and if you live close and know where to find us; drive by and enjoy; that's what I do it for and if you think this is something, wait 'til you see what I do to "Deck the halls...."!Sorry the pumpkins are a little out of focus but I'm kind of tired tonight.....

I also took some more pictures of our Mexican Daisies that are in full bloom now at night and these are beautiful too - day or night!