HAPPY NEW YEAR

Happy happy New Year to you all! I bet you have all kinds of new years resolutions thought of already don’t you?

I am sitting here picking out pecans. Got them cracked and now picking out the hulls. I NEED to be in there in that master bathroom getting it all primed and ready for my paint.

I took the wallpaper off the walls in there. It’s been on there for over 20 years now and I needed a change. So I started taking the mess off. I sure hope I NEVER put wallpaper on my walls again. That was a mess! The folks that put it on to begin with didn’t prime the walls first so needless to say even though I used a wallpaper steamer I STILL tore the sheetrock up pretty bad!

So I got in there and got the walls mudded to repair all my tears and finally got that done. Then I sanded it and started priming the walls. I just did around the trim for now and need to go now and get them primed and finished so I can paint.

The smell is horrible in here and now I have a headache. Did a search online last night to see HOW to get the paint smell out and it said to cut a onion and put it in water and sit it in there. Did that and I do think it helped SOME but still have a smell and now I smell onions to. lol although onions aren’t bad for your health and paint fumes are.

Anyway I wanted to make a post and wish you all a very HAPPY NEEW YEAR!!!

 

And PUNKY, thank you SO MUCH! I’m fine just been a little busy, that’s all. I hope you have a great healthy year!

 

 

Rose

Merry Christmas

I’d like to wish you all a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS and a Happy NEW YEAR as well. Hope it’s the best it can be!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

EVERYONE!!!

Thank you Punky!!! I am still a kickin'. :-) You're so sweet!

Thai Dinner

On our way home from Pensacola last Saturday night we stopped at this place to have some dinner. I don’t know about you but I am all about some bling and some shiny.

Good thing I had my camera to because this place was really neat.

One thing, check out this mirror.

This chandelier was awesome! LOVED the shiny!

This picture inside the frame; this was carved!!! It’s all wood in there!

 

Close up of the carving.

 

And another close up.

And another….isn’t this awesome?

 

and another.

 

Last one, and the next one is of a carving in the table.

 

It has glass over the table top so you can see the light reflections on it.

 

 

Hope you enjoyed the pix, I know we enjoyed all the pretty things in there.

 

Rose

Christmas Decorating Ideas

Don’t know about you but I always look at magazines and online to get ideas for Christmas decorating. I like to get a color in mind so I’ll know what I want to do.

I’ve been putting up stuff and rearranging a little to have room for the Christmas things later when I/we start decorating.

Sitting here looking at Pinterest trying to get some ideas and found this link and thought this was so pretty!

ADVENTURES IN DECORATING I LOVE the nutcracker mantel pix. I wanted to do beads on my mantel last year and forgot about it SO I hope I can remember that THIS year.

I would love to put my Christmas tree in a spot where you could see it from the road but that’s not going to be able to work. We closed in the front porch for my sewing room last year and unless I sit a SMALL tree on my sewing table you wont be able to see my tree from the road. lol

Simple BUT pretty idea. I’d like to do something on this scale for beside my back door. That’s where everyone comes in at our house.

SIMPLE BUT PRETTY 

 

LOVE THIS MANTEL

 

GORGIOUS STAIRWAY –I don’t have one to decorate but this is so pretty!

 

WOW JACKPOT

 

THIS is SOOOOO pretty! Wondering if I could do something like this on my china cabinet.

 

LOTSA IDEAS HERE TO AT THE BOTTOM

 

MIRROR IDEA to make your tree sparkle more. Going to do this! I have some already on hand from another project. Scroll on down the page until you see the little round mirrors. Mine are square but it doesn’t matter. Now IF I can find them! LOL I’ve moved things around so much in the past year I’m having trouble finding my things now.

 

I’m hoping to get our tree up this coming Saturday. Trying to do some de-cluttering now so the house wont be soooo packed with stuff.

 

You all started your Christmas decorating yet? Leave me a message so I can see what you’ve done.

Rose

Farming

Wanted to show you some pix I took while at my Uncle Marks house a few months back. He had lymphoma cancer and hospice was called in to help. I went to stay a little while with them to be with him what I could.

This field is right across the road from their house. It’s been there for 29 years now. They always have something planted in it, winter, spring, fall whatever.

This machine you can see in the field is on wheels and it rolls along the field and waters it and puts out what needs to be put on the plants. They plant wheat, peanuts and cotton in this field.

Those little concrete things to the bottom of the pic are some little things my uncle was trying to sell many years ago.

You can see that machine better in this pic.

As you can see this thing is huge! While I was there the first time visiting with my uncle they sprayed something on the field. About 45 minutes later I was sick as a dog but it didn’t bother anyone else. Hubby said I really scared him because I was pale as a ghost. I thought I was going to wind up throwing up but I didn’t. I was so sick to my stomach it was horrible!

This field is HUGE as you can see on this pic. The small trees are in my uncles front yard.

You can see the field here.

A good shot of the field here. It goes all the way to the highway which is about 1/4 mile and then I don’t know how far the other way. This is looking across the field.

This is how far it goes back on this side.

 

They’re constantly spraying either water, a herbicide or a pesticide on this thing! I really believe this is why my Uncle Mark had cancer and was as bad as it was because you KNOW that can’t be healthy breathing that stuff. Look what it did to me just that one time! I think hubby was about ready to find a E.R. for me. I know one thing, it was really scary for me because I had no clue WHAT was wrong with me. I had to go lie down and everyone kept coming in there to check on me.

I sure do miss my Uncle and Thanksgiving without him just isn’t going to be the same this year! When I was a teen he gave me a real sewing machine in a cabinet! I’d always liked to sew even as a little child. He got me a little toy machine that really worked when I was under 10 years old and I just loved it! I made doll clothes with it. Anyway then he gives me this one when I was a teen and I thought I’d died and went to heaven. I think I was 16 at the time. Man how I wish I’d kept that machine! Anyway he’s also given me my Maw Maw’s old petal type sewing machine. I’m hoping I can get it soon since he gave it to me and there’s no way I will EVER get rid of that one!

Rose

Homemade Vanilla Extract

 

As you guys know vanilla extract can get pretty expensive. I am going to make some of my own using some recipes I found on these blogs.

 

MY BAKING ADDICTION

TIDY MOM

 

Yesterday when I walked into the liquor store the dude asked if he could help me. I said I am looking for a cheap vodka and he thought I was going to make daiquiri's with it. I told him no, I was going to make some vanilla extract because I am tired of paying 4-5 bucks for a little bity bottle of vanilla. I think my bottle of vodka was like 7.80 tax and all. My vanilla beans I got off Amazon and they were under 10 bucks. Not bad for a huge bottle of vanilla. Then as I use it out of the bottle I just refill it with fresh vodka so it should last me quite some time.

Have you ever made your own vanilla extract? How do you make yours?

 

Rose

Songs That Are a Blessing to Us

Isn’t it so encouraging to hear a good song that uplifts you or one you know that would uplift others? Was listening to my Hinson’s CD yesterday coming home and thought this was a very encouraging song! The Hinson’s sure did sing some good songs!

THE SEARCH IS OVER    (Click here to listen to the video here)

The Search is Over

He knows what you’re going through. He’s walked in your shoes! And He’s felt the pain till His tears fell like rain, and His heart broke into.
He knows how it feels alone, when all of His friends were gone, and He walked up that hill, doin’ His Fathers will, to die for you.

The search is over, you found a friend for life. He’ll lead you from the dark, into His heavenly light. The search is over, though your heart’s been breaking. Jesus is waiting, the search is over!

We all have a choice to make, there’s two roads to take. Have you carried sins load , went down the wrong road, have you lost your way? Now the Father stands at the door, and He looks down the road once more, He sees you coming home, you’ve wondered so long, now it’s home coming day!!

The search is overrrr, you found a friend for life. He’ll lead you from the dark, into His heavenly light. The search is over, though your heart’s been breaking. Jesus is waiting, the search is over!
The search is over, you found a friend for life. He’ll lead you from the dark, into His heavenly light. The search is over, though your heart’s been breaking. Jesus is waiting, the search is over!

 

by: Ronnie Hinson & Mike Payne

HAPPY HAPPY Birthday to Our Buddy

 

 

While looking at a cute little blog a few minutes ago I realized we missed our pooches birthday!

 

I was thinking he was born in Nov. but we GOT him in Nov. Also was thinking he was 5 but he was 4! My poor brain isn’t working right these days so hopefully he will forgive me once we do something for his birthday!

It’s been a little while since I posted about him so I figured I would post some pix of him for you all to see. Several have asked about him and I sent pix but figured I would share these on my blog since I posted my link on her blog awhile ago. Was telling her about Buddy and how he was like her dog Chet. I think they got separated at birth! lol

This is his favorite ball.

Here he is close up. When you call him and you have the camera he doesn’t be still and most of them are blurry. IF you get on the floor with him to take a pic, most of them are MEGA close up! lol

Got milk? Milk kefir that is! He loves the stuff.

Wanna play ball?

 

ahhhhh come on!

guarding the ball and STILL waiting.

Chair Cover

 

I bought this chair cover at the thrift store awhile back. In my cleaning out the sewing room I found it and was going to get rid of it and decided to see IF it would fit this chair. It’s too big for it so I turned it inside out and put it on the chair and let it stay for like 2 days trying to decide IF I wanted to tackle fixing it to fit this chair.

The main reason I wanted to fix it for the chair is this, I keep an old sheet in this chair because Buddy the Boston terrier likes to sit in this chair. Some folks don’t like sitting where a dog sits so I can take it off for visitors. So this looks MUCH nicer than the old sheet was my thinking since I am the one that has to look at it all the time. PLUS it can be taken off and washed!

See how much too big it is for the chair? See all the piles of fabric inside the chair part?  There was so much fabric on the arms of the chair that I decided it would be best to take the seams out there to take it up to fit the chair. This fabric is VERY thick!

Took photo’s in case anyone wanted to tackle doing this for one of their chairs with a chair cover they find.

As you can see on the right of the pic I have that seam taken apart. The extra fabric that is on the cushion itself will be tucked in around the cushion to keep it from having to be fixed every time someone sits in it.

See the gaping hole in this one? There was another foot of fabric width here that I did not need. I took it out and will sew this up and have less sagging fabric on the sides.

The piece of fabric on the floor to the right of the pic is the piece I took out of the side so I wont have so much sagging fabric there. Then the square piece that is on the floor, that will actually be on the outside when it’s turned right and this will hide the elastic they put in it. I took that off so I could make it shorter since it’s too long as well. 

I put the cushion inside the chair so I could see how much I needed to remove of the fabrics. Like I said the cover is inside out so I can pen it from this side or mark on it where the seams need to go.

From the looks of it I think I need to go ahead and take the rest of that seam out on the arms to so the seam can be at the top around the arms. See how the seam is hanging down and not where it needs to go? This cover was for one of those over sized chairs. I found it and figured I would use the fabric for something else because the fabric is so thick. But then decided to fix it for this chair.

Now for a pic of that Boston Terrier that likes this chair. See the chair in the background with the sheet thrown over it? I think this will look much better.

 

When I get it sewn together and finished I will post an update pic.

Rose

Cauliflower Pizza Crust and Pizza

Since we’re on Wheat Belly, (by Dr. William Davis) I made this pizza using cauliflower instead of flour.

This is the pizza crust before I cooked it. I cut up the cauliflower so I could put it into the food processer and chopped it up until it resembles rice. Then I added some mozzarella cheese to it as well as 2 eggs and then pressed it into the oiled cookie sheet and baked it until golden brown. It is a little crumbly when you put it into the pan but it will work.

Then while that’s cooking I cook all the ingredients for the top of it so they will all be done as well. Then all I will have to do is melt the cheese on top.

Here it is all ready to eat. I put turkey, pepperoni on it and onions and bell pepper as well as the pizza sauce and 2 kinds of cheeses.

I went to Google and googled cauliflower pizza crust and found several. I think I have even saw one that has cream cheese in it and I bet that’s really good. The next time I make it I think I will put some oregano into the crust. I think that would really be good as well as some garlic powder.

 

Dr. Davis also has a flaxseed wrap that I make and use for a pizza crust. I really like that one to. I do add sea salt to my crust. The recipe is in his book.

If you’ve never tried a cauliflower pizza crust you should because it’s very good and doesn’t shoot the blood sugars up like flour crust does. If you don’t like cauliflower don’t worry because it’s not very cauliflower tasting either. I’m really not wild about cauliflower but I like this.

 

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Rose

Old Quilts and Accomplishments

I just love old quilts! How about you? I love quilts period! I’m just not a blanket gal at all! Yep I like the quilts. They make you feel soooo cozy in bed with their weight.

So when I found this one at the thrift store this year I could not turn it down even though it wasn’t the size of my beds. I figure we can use it in the living room as a throw. It has cotton in it and since my family did upholstery in Alabama for about 50 years now I knew I could not pass it up because of the cotton and because it WAS A QUILT. (grin)

When I was a kid my Daddy, Uncle Mark, and my Pawpaw, Tom as he was called, worked in the upholstery shop. I used to dearly love going in it when I was a kid. They had this huge huge piece of equipment that cleaned and fluffed the cotton. There was cotton all over everything even the roof. It was all over and looked like snow. So this old quilt was just for me because it brings back great memories of my childhood. It’s not the prettiest quilt in the world but I do love it. It is in need of a little repair and TLC which I will get to one day. I can’t help but wonder who made it.

Like I said it is filled with real cotton and the edges are really messed up and the cotton is coming out. I want to put a new band around it but I don’t want to use new fabric so I’ve been on the look out for some old solid color fabric to put on it.

You can see the edge of it on this next photo and the cotton.

This next quilt was made by my MawMaw, my Daddy’s Momma. She made quite a few quilts in her days. Mostly made out of need to have something to cover up with. I think she must have ran out of fabric on this one because the last row of squares are different than the others. She had an old peddle type Singer sewing machine but it was always out on the porch which had a bathroom built onto one side of it. They had closed in the porch to make the bathroom. The house was really old and I dearly loved it to! She always kept the sewing machine in the bathroom.

My MawMaw used the things from the upholstery shop most of the time to make all her quilts with. They used something called ticking to make the mattresses with. She used that to fill this one with for the inside liner. She didn’t hand quilt it but she DID hand sew all the pieces together. It’s coming all apart and I am working on fixing it back. So I have pens all in it to hold the pieces in place. She didn’t have a design in mind I don’t think other than rows and bands in between the rows. She just tied the back, front and the inside liner together with ties to hold it altogether and then put the band on the outer edges.

As a child we had one she gave us to slept under. I have that one to although it IS falling apart and I do mean bad. I wont ever part with it though and have tried to think of a way I could use it but can’t bare to cut it apart. Is that not the weirdest thing you’ve ever heard of? It’s falling apart and has holes all in it but I can’t make myself cut it up to make something from it.

On the next pic you can see all my pens. It’s like this in loads of places. I even thought about taking it apart from the little bands on each row of squares and sewing it back together with the sewing machine but again I can’t bring myself to do that. I wanted it as close to the way my MawMaw made it as I can get it. I’m even hand sewing it all back together. I dearly loved that woman to pieces! Someone must have given her these scrapes for her quilts because all I ever remember her sewing was quilts and these weren’t upholstery fabrics.

In this next photo you can see the ticking they used at the upholstery shop to make the mattresses with, and again more straight pens. I have misplaced 2 of my blocks and I sure hope I can find them!

 

I promised another blogger I would share my quilt with her so that’s another reason I wanted to make this post. She had also found a quilt and I think hers was found at a garage sale and she got hers free. Mine was about a 1.00 at the thrift store. That was the first quilt I showed you.

I also wanted to tell you that I had a good day today and got some of the things on my “to do” list done. I had two old table clothes that needed re-hemming. One I just bought this spring at the thrift store and it was a Christmas table cloth and was surged along the edges but the serge was coming off. SO I surged it again. Then I had an old gold one that I’d found a few years back also at the thrift store. It was a square one and I have an oval shape table. So I made it into an oval shape and then surged the edges. I had enough extra that I had cut off it to make 4 small napkins to match.

Then I also hemmed all hubby’s pants. Yep got that done to. So I feel a little better about getting those few things done anyway. I also got the bedspread out to get started on that to.

I will probably share Christmas photo’s at Christmas time so I will share the table cloth then.

 

I hope you enjoyed seeing my old quilts.

Rose

So Much to Do, Getting Over Whelmed

 

Going to really talk about myself in this post. Not meaning it to be selfish but just sharing I guess you’d call it.

 

I don’t know about you ladies but I am over whelmed these days because I have so much that needs doing and I can’t get it all done. I have SO MANY projects that I WANT to do and just can’t seem to get them done. So many things that NEED doing and I just can’t get the energy a lot of times to get it all done. If I allow myself I could get depressed with it so easy because it is VERY discouraging!

Something Gina said over at Home Joys got me to thinking yet again the other day. I am a perfectionist and it’s very bad. I am almost NEVER pleased with anything I make or do in my projects because I see what I did “wrong” with them. I have had to work on this for many years now. So that makes me procrastinate sometimes in projects dreading it not turning out like I in vision it to be. No one else sees my mistakes but I do.

I haven’t felt well for a little over a year now so everything has just been put on hold that wasn’t an entire need to be done. Now that I am feeling better most days I am wanting to get some things done and have to keep reminding myself to not over do. For instance……

1. An old quilt I found at the thrift store that is in much need of some repairs. (so it can be used this winter as a throw)(But not REALLY a NEED)

2. Those notebook recipe books need to be finished that are sitting on my sewing table.

3. Hubby’s blue jeans to be hemmed. (not a REAL need, just needs doing)

4. Another pile of sewing and mending that needs doing.

5. Wall paper to be finished in our master bathroom and then mudding,priming and painting.

6. Bought a bedspread that needs repairing and applique to match our bedroom.

7. The rest of the fabric wrapped around the foam boards to be stocked on the cube shelves that were made for all of it.

8. Herds and herds of grass and weeding to be done in the flower beds. Grass also needs mowing right now.

9. Flowers to be transplanted into the flower beds.

10. Goldfish pond that needs cleaning out and the rocks fixed around it with cement so they wont keep falling into the pond.

11. Piles of pine limbs to be picked up in the pasture and burnt from the pine tree cutting mess hubby decided to do. That would be his project if he would choose to do it.

12. A stack of magazines and books of mine sitting on the sofa to be gone through to be given away or to keep.

13. Need to de-clutter this house again.

14. and I could go on and on and on and bore you to death but that should let you see into my world a bit.

I have a ruptured disk in my back as well so I can’t just go and go and go like I used to because it gets inflamed now when I do.

I wish it was in the budget to get some help around here at least once a month but it’s not, so it just keeps piling up.

Anyway it’s just so easy for me to get over whelmed with it all since it’s not getting done. I just have to back up from it all and say, OK Lord here I am again and I just need Your help again because I can’t handle all of this. I could sit back and feel sorry for myself to but I’m not going to do that because God wouldn’t be happy with me thinking like that either. It’s so hard to be content in these circumstances but I HAVE to at least try to bloom right where I am planted. I just don’t handle things being piled up very well. I was always taught to get in there and get er done and THEN you can rest. I can’t rest when I have a load of clothes sitting in front of me that needs folding. But when you’ve been physically fatigued to the point it’s hard for you to breath for over a year you’re forced to just wait until you CAN do it if someone else doesn’t choose to do it.

Then I also have to remember that I need to chill out and not over do since I have started feeling a little better and have started to do more. I am still having a lot of health issues but I am praying and hoping we’re nearing the end to getting it all figured out. Life can really get over whelming if we allow it to and start to thinking why me or why why why. I constantly have to turn things over to God and say to Him, ok You’ve got to help me, I can’t handle this.

I’m sure everyone gets over whelmed at times. Especially if you’re not well and able to get it done and don’t have someone to do it for you. Then you see it just keep on piling up on you. I pass old folks homes that I knew that ALWAYS kept their place looking SO NICE when they were younger and able to do so and my heart just aches for them because I know they’re not able to do it. It’s just so sad to me.

I have thought, ok God I KNOW there is a purpose for this and I know things happen for a reason. So could you please tell me WHAT the reason is please? (lol) Maybe BE STILL and know that I am God again? Since I am a do-er I can VERY EASILY see WHY Martha was asking God to make Mary help her since I am also a Martha because when I can and am able I am always doing. I LOVE to accomplish things and feel lazy when I sit around a lot. I KNOW I need to BE STILL and maybe one day I can get that one figured out on HOW to do it. Maybe sit aside a time each day at the SAME time to BE STILL? That would have worked before hubby retired but not now.

Anyway like me, if you’re over whelmed and wondering WHY, just ask for God to also help you because He can make it much easier to handle when we ask Him for help. We can’t go and take it into our own hands because that’s not pleasing in His sight. So just hang in there and visually see yourself handing it all over to God in His hands. The load gets much lighter for you!!!!

Hugs,

Rose

Country Girl Creamery 1st Annual Dairy Festival

I have been wanting to go to this place for quite sometime now. When our daughter came into the kitchen yesterday announcing they were going to have their 1st annual dairy festival today I was more than ready to go. They had a wonderful turn out and was excited to see such a very large crowd there that they didn’t expect.

We’ve been buying their milk for awhile now from a few little stores around that sells it. It’s un-homogenized milk and also pasteurized at the lowest possible temperature to maintain more calcium and protein. It’s like 12% higher in calcium and 8% in protein higher than regular milk.

We had to take a few pix of all the ladies as they call them. I keep wanting to say girls but it’s the same I guess. (wink)

Here are the ladies coming in to get milked.

They have quite a herd of ladies. They said they are in between grasses now and are having to be fed some food and some hay they have in bales out in the pasture. They wrap the bales in white plastic stuff and it makes them like look giant marshmallows. But normally they are just grass fed from all the pastures they have.

Grabbing a drink of water before they go in to be milked.

They look a little skinny right now but I guess it’s because they are in between grasses. They only eat the grains when they are being milked and the bales of hay aren’t as good as the green grass.

I can’t remember what she told us this was. They also make cheeses to so this could be something to do with the cheese making. They have to heat the milk up to make the cheese. They let us taste all the different kinds of cheese and oh man it was yummy! Needless to say I had to bring some home with me along WITH some of their milk and their butter.

This is the pasteurizer. They fill each gallon of milk by hand from this thing. WOW That’s A LOT of milk filling by hand!

Sorry but this pic is a little blurry. You can see the milk coming in from the cows being milked in the little clear glass bottle on the wall. As it got about 3/4 way full it would run out into one of those pipes.

This is the milking area. He was telling us all about how they milk and how they clean their bags and disinfect them etc. See all those glass bottles toward the bottom of the pic? All the milk was going into those. They had just gotten started milking that batch in this pic. Then there is this clear pipe that is about 3 inches around that is above them. It would go into that pipe and then into the room with all the stainless steel containers to be pasteurized.

 

Close up of the containers the milk goes into from the cows. The things hanging above the one to the right that are silver and black is what they attach to the cows bag if you’ve never seen them.

 

Here they are attached to the cows bag.

Then here’s one of the ladies waiting to go into the stall to be milked. She was watching us.

Here is the clear pipe in the middle of the pic. It carries the milk from the cows to the other room.

See this one stealing more food? She has already been turned out from milking and she came back for some more food. See the other two behind her looking at her like now what are YOU doing?

Look at that tongue! lol She’s telling me, yummy, see how good this stuff is. The other two are STILL watching her. I bet they are wondering IF they could get away with doing that to.

All these are waiting to be milked. Some of them got tired of waiting I guess and decided to lay down. (wink) They can only milk like 3 at a time since we were standing in one of the areas they usually milk them in.

Cindy, our daughter petting one of the babies. They had several babies for the children to feed if they wanted to. They were letting them feed them with the bottles.

And she’s petting another one here. Looks like a little deer without spots. I just love the jersey cows better than the others for some reason. I guess it’s just the color of them.

They even had these fake cows sit up for the children to milk. Some of them were getting milk out to.

What fun, even corn to get down and play in like sand. The kids were having a blast in that as well as the bigger kids to. This thing was huge and filled with corn.

They even had hay for them to play in as well.

 

Sorry but this one is a little blurry to. Painting the wax on their blocks of cheese.

I even found some muscadines to take a pic of.

 

Another cute little baby. Isn’t it precious?

 

Now I think I am going to pop us some popcorn and use some of our Country Girl butter on it as we watch a movie.

 

Rose