Southern Lady with Many Hats

Washing Powders- Dishwasher Detergent- Body Wash Recipes

2012-01-23T17:21:00.001-06:00

Figured you all might be interested in something I just found online recently. I’ve not made any of it yet, but my plans are to make some real shortly. I do make my own washing soap and washing machine soap, but it’s liquid and it has to be melted and takes a little while to make. (the washing machine soap is liquid that is, the body soap are bars of soap) SO I want to try this recipe.

From what I understand the soap in the washing powders even melts in cold water. I know my Ivory didn’t but this is Fels Napha so I’m going to try it since I wash my clothes in cold water.

DISCLAIMER: Try at your own risk I can’t be responsible for you making any of this.

Here is the BODY WASH LINK

Here is the WASHING POWDERS LINK

Here is the DISHWASHER DETERGENT

There are loads and loads of comments toward the bottom on each of those links if you’d be interested in reading them to see if you’d want to try any of these. I’ve been using my liquid washing soap for my dishwasher as well since it doesn’t foam up or anything and it’s been doing a good job to. I like the convenience of this other one though since mine takes longer to make. Going to try this one anyway.

Let me know if you try any of it and what you think about it.

Rose

Wall of Shelves

2012-01-20T00:04:00.001-06:00

Well I think we have gotten everything we need to get started on the shelves for the sewing room.

We called the guy that closed in the front porch for us to talk to him about building them for us. He told me we needed 5 more boards. I thought we had them all. We didn’t think about the vertical ones. lol I just figured the horizontal ones. DUH anyway we needed 5 boards 1x12x10’ for the vertical. Below is about how we’re going to do them. In cube like boxes. They will go all the way to the ceiling which are 9’4” and then to the floor to. I wanted the whole wall to be full of cabinets like this so I will have plenty of space to store all the sewing things and the fabrics. I am going to paint the boards the color of the wall, which is green.

The pile of boards. The little 1x2’s are sandwiched in the 1x12’s.

I’m so excited I can’t wait to get it finished!!! LOL

This next pic is the wall the shelves will go on. I’ve got to move the cabinet and filing cabinet AND all that paint!

Got plans for that milk crate sitting on the table to. Found a blog where a lady shows how to make a cover for them and you don’t see the milk crate at all, not even on the bottom! I have a few of them and sure hope I have enough to do what I want to do with them. I got my cloth today to cover them with and I will cover them and am going to sit them on the floor under the bottom shelf on the wall the whole width of the shelves. I’m going to store things that I don’t want to store on the shelves in them. Since my accent color is going to be black in here….. I am going to put a black tassel on the lid for them that I am going to make. I want the lid to come to a point like table runners so with the black tassel on the end to hold it shut so dust wont get inside the crates.

I want to leave an area about a foot or so on one end of the wall of shelves to put a hanging rod for hanging clothes I am working on. I have a few in there now that I don’t have a place to hang. So I figured that would come in handy. Then above the hanging rod we will put some more shelves so the space wont be wasted up there.

From what Mr. Robert figured the cubes will be like 15” square and the top shelf will be much wider than the others because we’d only have like 4 or so inches from the roof if we add another shelf up there. That would be wayyy too close to the roof to use it for anything. So that shelf will be wider and I’m sure it will get used for something! I might even put some covered milk crates up there! When I get all that stuff moved that’s in the way of the building the shelves I will start on my milk crate covers.

I have some tassels I am going to try and dye black because I have these and I’m not going to use them for anything else. So I figured I would try dying them to use for this project. First I have to find them! lol I have moved all my sewing things around so much trying to figure out WHERE I want everything until I can’t remember where everything is now. That’s about right huh? I bought a drop cloth today to use for my milk crate covers. I hope I will have enough of the fabric to make them all. Although I can go back and get another one IF I need it I guess.

Wanted to post a couple links to the milk crate cover in case some of you want to make one.

http://everydaybeautiful.typepad.com/everyday_beautiful/2008/11/handmade-fabric-milk-crate-covers.html

and

http://sewmanyways.blogspot.com/2012/01/tool-time-tuesdaymilk-crate-cover.html

OK stay with me while we get this project finished. I will post pix of the process. I think he might try and get started on it like the 27th if he can. We’re going to get the boards sanded and painted in the meantime and then all we will have to do is do some touch ups. I don’t need those fumes here inside with all the breathing problems I’ve been having this winter. So we will do that outside.

Rose

Sewing Projects

2011-12-23T23:45:00.001-06:00

Well now that Christmas lunch and dinner is almost made I sit down to finish the old comforter I started fixing a few months back. I got tired of seeing all those things that needed fixing or repaired on my sewing cabinet so I started a couple days ago working on them all. Fixed the elastic in 4 old sheets I had that was still sound and after all I love the old things!

This was filled with something like poly fil and when I washed it the mess balled up inside it like you would not believe. So I tore it apart and put a blanket inside it and then hand sewed the circles back in it. That’s how they quilted it from the factory but I had to hand sew them back in. Then I put the border around the edges. The border was the dust ruffle that came with it. Well actually I found another one just like it (the dust ruffle) at the thrift store and I bought it. I am going the comforter as a quilt for right now but the way I change up things I might one day have it as a comforter again. I put another piece of fabric on the back of it instead of what it came with. Thinking I might want to make some pillow shams to match it later on. So that’s another reason I bought the other dust ruffle so I will have some ruffles for the pillow shams out of it.

I put it over my table in the sewing room and it’s at night so it’s a little dark in there. I didn’t think about turning on the flood lights I have in there. lol

This next pic is a pic of the edging I put on it.

One more project finished! YESSS! It feels so nice! Now if I could just get that wall of shelves up for my sewing room! One day SOON I hope! Hubby said to wait until after Christmas!

I hope you all have a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS and a VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR as well!

A Few Treasures

2011-12-22T23:55:00.001-06:00

I found 3 things today at the thrift store. One I can’t post a pic of yet but the other two….. one was a sand pail full of pretty sea shells! I LOVVVVVE seashells and I have a huge lamp I found at the thrift store. Actually she gave it to me because the electrical stuff was coming apart on it. I think I have it fixed now and it’s needing it’s seashells put into it. So I think I should have enough for it now. I have done two more smaller ones with seashells in them but this one is pretty large and I like it better. I will go ahead and use one of those in our bedroom but the larger one I will use on my side of the bed since I have more space over there. The dogs bed is on hubby’s side so it’s pretty tight over there.

Will post some pix when I get that one finished. The other item I found was one of those three drawer plastic things for organizing things. I need to find out what to get black marker off with because someone wrote on it with a black marker. See pic below. I have two more of these and when I saw this one and she gave it to me for 2.00, I took it.

My sand pail full of seashells. There’s a lot of shells here for 3 bucks! LOVE thrift stores!

I will have to post pictures of the other item later on since it’s part of a Christmas present with someone.

Sure was fun shopping and finding treasures again!

More to come later! Stay tuned.

Rose

Christmas Decorating

2011-12-11T21:47:00.001-06:00

I think I am done with the decorating on the inside. Which feels soooo nice because I was getting a little worn out.

I finished the tree today. I had planned on making a tree skirt out of this piece of fabric but maybe it will get done before next year.

Ignore the old frosty window there. I am going to hang some lace panels but I need to hem them first.

Some of the candies I have on the tree.

My daughter bought me the little gingerbread men and snowflake cookies at Cracker barrel one year.

I decided I needed some more on the tree and my gold balls were a little small so I put 3 together on one ornament hook and they turned out cute on it.

Little red bird ornaments my daughter bought me at Cracker Barrel a few years ago.

Christmas Decorating and Projects

2011-12-09T16:47:00.001-06:00

Well I’m getting it done one thing at a time. I got the mantel done today and now for the Christmas tree. I am hoping I can rest a little while and then I will have the energy to finish the tree. Sure wish my daughter would come home tonight and help me with it.

Anyway while I was decorating the garland for the mantel I had some candy cooking in the crock pot. Rhoda over at Southern Hospitality blog gave the recipe a few days ago. You will see her link over on the side of my blog. I love to check out her blog so I keep her link posted on mine. This is so yummy and SO EASY to make! So I’ve got the candy done as well with hardly no time invested in it.

I made a little tree from ornaments the other night. It’s one of those Styrofoam forms you can buy and I hot glued the ornaments onto it. I found mine at the thrift store a few years back. I ALMOST sold this little flower pot. I’ve never been able to figure out what I wanted to use it for until now. After I made it I decided it needed something else so I tied a bow on it. The little silver lamp doesn’t stay. I had planned on using it in my decorating, just not on the mantel.

I also decided I didn’t like it on the mantel so I put it here. I love the glow it puts off with the lights shining above it in the garland.

Then project number 2 was the little ceramic Christmas tree I hot glued the little beads on it. I have some multi colored lights inside it. I found the little tree at the thrift store a couple summers back for .50 and I knew I would use it one day.

Another project I did a few days ago. I cut the letters out in cardboard and covered them with duct tape and then garland and lights.

Here is the mantel all decorated up. I still need to sit the little ceramic tree on something and the picture. I didn’t want to have to hide what I sit it all on so I am trying to figure out WHAT to sit the things on. I’ve got a couple gold boxes I think I will use for the picture.

Close up of the garland decorated.

And now the crock pot candy.

Close up of the candy. This stuff is so good and it’s just too easy to make. Thank you Rhoda for sharing the recipe with us!

OKAY maybe now I can get this Christmas tree done before the nights over and then I will be just about finished with my decorating. I hope you enjoyed my little Christmas tour.

Rose

MAKING it Work

2011-12-04T14:45:00.001-06:00

I have started my Christmas decorating and am working on a few things in my mind. lol Yeah in my mind. I have to get it together there first.

I’ve been wanting a few Christmas pictures to decorate with. Someone back last summer gave me the idea that I am using. Sorry I can’t remember who or where it was that I saw this idea. If I did I surely would give them credit. Anyway they took an outdoor flag and framed it. It was VERY pretty AND nice! SO I went to Michaels and found me a huge flag because I NEED a huge one for over my fireplace mantel. The flag is 28x40” I believe it was. Well I get home and get the large frame out of the attic that I wanted to use and it was TOO LARGE, the frame that is. ughhh. SO I am bound and determined it’s going to work. So I play with it for awhile and figured out a way I can make it work! Then awhile ago on Pinterest I saw another idea I can use with THIS idea! They used clear 2” wide tape and put lace the same width as the clear tape to decorate their Christmas packages with.

You see I had to cut the top AND the bottom off my flag because it was too wide and tall BOTH ways I tried it. The top and the bottom had the words Merry Christmas and I wanted that left on there.

So I am going to use my Cricut and do the words Merry Christmas down the sides on each side of my picture. I’m going to have to put some cloth down the sides because the flag isn’t wide enough to fill in the frame. SO where I add the fabric to the sides I will use this idea about the lace to dress it up. THEN I will put the words Merry on one side of the flag and then Christmas on the other side on top of the lace and tape. I hope this is making sense! You’ll see, ‘cause I will post some pix.

Well here she is. I had put the Merry Christmas on there with black vinyl but it was much too bold so I went back and did it in the red and green.

Another shot of it. I just sit it up on the mantel because I haven’t gotten it decorated yet.

Now here’s another one I did. First I drew out the letters on cardboard and cut them out. Then I covered them in duct tape so it would be more weather resistant.

Here it is with the cardboard. Then I covered this in duct tape.

Here it all fixed up with the garland and the lights on it.

Got the lights on the Christmas tree and the garland on the mantel as well but that’s as far as I’ve gotten with any of that.

But at least I have gotten started decorating!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

2011-11-23T18:20:00.001-06:00

I wanted to come on my blog and just wish you all a VERY HAPPY THANKSGIVING! I hope you have an awesome day and have all the things you love and look forward to eating on this day we set aside to celebrate for Thanksgiving.

Have a really blessed day!

Rose

Hanging Cricut Mats and Making Building Blocks

2011-11-20T00:42:00.001-06:00

Today was a good warm day to get some projects done outside.

I wanted some way to hang my cricut mats and I found these little clippies at the Dollar Tree. I got my trusty drill and 3 drill bits and drilled a hole in the back of each one so they would hang on my hook on my peg board.

I started out with the smaller drill bit and worked up to the bigger one so it wouldn’t break my little clippies.

On the card it says power clips and they are for food storage.

You can see the holes in this pic. I found a bit that was a little larger than the hook so it wouldn’t be such a tight fit when I hang it on the hook through the hole I drilled.

I clipped two of them together on this clippie. You can see how the clippie hangs on the little peg hook in this pic.

And I have 2 extra clippies to use for something else.

Then I went on from that project to this project below. I’ve been wanting some building blocks for a long time now to use for my mantel at Christmas time. I want to fix Merry Christmas for it out of the blocks. I did several different sizes so I would have larger ones for the capital letters and some shorter ones for the other letters. This is an old work table out on the patio. I need to paint it again. I had planned to put ceramic tile on it back during the spring but it made the table too heavy so I decided against it.

My daughter got some primmer on them tonight for me. She almost got them all done. I think she said she only lacked 20 finishing them. I figured I would use my cricut for the letters.

I went to Hobby Lobby yesterday looking and found a couple bags of plain blocks and they wanted 8.99 for each bag. They had about 8 or so per bag. I would have had to have 2 bags just to get Merry Christmas from them. That would have been 18.00 bucks plus tax. So I went to Lowe’s and got TWO 2x2’s eight foot long I believe they were for 1.42 each. Did you get that? 1.42 each. It took longer to sand all of them than it did to cut them out. lol I cut some of them 1 1/2” and some of the 2” and some of them 3” tall and I’m thinking some 3 1/2” tall. I have a BUNCH of building blocks now and I do mean a bunch. I figured I would do the word Faith, and maybe Family, and some other words for decorating with. But for Christmas decorating I will do Joy, Peace, and Merry Christmas, and not sure what else. I am also thinking maybe I wont do them in Christmas colors so I can decorate with them all year using them to spell out other words during the year. I’m having a little trouble finding Christmas colors in vinyl anyway. I found a red and white gingham check and one that has apples and green leaves and when you cut it up it looks a little Christmasy. I’m using contact paper for my vinyl actually instead of Cricut vinyl and it works wonderful!

My husband bought me a Cricut Expression for Christmas and it came with 3 cartridges and they are all Christmas cartridges. I have the Gingerbread one and I am thinking about making some Christmas tree ornaments with it for the tree IF I have time.

Anyway stay tuned with me and I will post more pix when I get the projects done. Leave me a message or two. I love hearing from you all.

Rose

Quotes on Sewing Room Wall

2011-10-29T22:53:00.001-05:00

My daughter got to work on putting the quotes on the sewing room wall today. I wanted to show you all what she got done. I couldn’t wait to share it with you. She got about halfway with them. We hope to work on them some more on Wednesday. The ceiling is pretty high she’s having to climb the ladder to reach them. I think it’s about 9 foot something, almost 10’.

More to come later. Thank you all for your comments! I love having your company!!!!

Quotes for Sewing Room

2011-10-25T23:33:00.001-05:00

My sister in law let me borrow her Cricut and I am having a ball with it! I have got several of my quotes cut out now. I’d LOVE to get me the Christmas cartridge for mine and do some Christmas words!

The ceiling of the sewing room is pretty tall so now I am trying to figure out just how I am going to get all these stuck onto the wall with me not liking heights. My sister just so happens to be in Oklahoma now so I can’t get her to put them up there for me. So just maybe my daughter isn’t going to be busy tomorrow or one day pretty soon so she can do the climbing for me.

Don’t know if you have ever heard of a Cricut or not but these things are something. They are so much fun to play with. Folks make things to put in their scrape books with them and cards . You can do all kinds of things with them. You can do those words to stick onto you walls with them to.

I will post some pix soon of what I am doing I hope.

Well last Saturday didn’t work out. Da daughter had a migraine and just never did feel up to it. So she promised me Saturday we’d get er done.

Here are a few I have done. For some reason I missed the d on the distracted and had to go back and do it. LOL

I just had to have this one! The little hummingbirds will go in-between the quotes so they don’t all run together.

Now you can see all of the last quote on the next pic.

I LOVE this last one!

Like I said hopefully we can get these ON the walls Saturday. I hadn’t planned on putting any quotes on the wall where the vinyl siding on the porch used to be but I think I am going to put some. I stuck some messed up ones on it because the vinyl is textured and I wanted to see IF they would stay on it. Stuck it up there this morning and it’s still hanging on so I think it will stay on there. YEA!

One more step to getting this sewing room completed! I also bought a few 1x12’s the other day so I could get started on the part of the wall I want all those shelves. It’s going to take quite a few so I figured I would get the boards a few at a time until I got what I thought we would need.

Come back and visit me later so you can see the quotes on the wall.

Rose

Little Projects

2011-10-05T17:52:00.001-05:00

I went to my favorite thrift store a couple days ago and I found a few things that I wanted. One was a small pair of white cotton Battenberg curtains that I made into these. I had this little pillow and it didn’t have a pillowcase so I made it one and then made an extra for when this one needs washing. The little set of curtains wasn’t but .50 and I knew I would do something with them because I LOVED the feel of the cotton!

Then I also found this little bookshelf for only 5.00 bucks. I am in BAD NEED of some book shelves for all our books! I will have to touch this one up and get some of those little doo dads that you stick in the holes on the sides for the shelf to sit on. I had one pack but didn’t have enough for the second shelf to sit on. I’ve got to screw the back on a little better than it is to. But that’s no biggie. It will make a nice little book shelf I think. In fact I am highly considering making me a pattern from it so I can make a couple more but maybe a little taller. Like I said I NEED some bookshelves for all these BOOKS we have! I ALMOST bid on a couple large ones last weekend at the auction but they went wayyyy too high for pressboard ones when I can make them out of 1x12” pine and it be solid board and no warping to boot.

Last but not least, some of my rolls of shelf paper for a project in the sewing room. Remember me telling you all about putting some sewing quotes at the top of the sewing room wall? Well some of these rolls are for that and then some are for covering boxes with for storing magazines and other stuff. The one on the end on the right side, I found when I found the bookshelf and the other things. It wasn’t but like .50 as well.

My daughter was with me when I bought all the pinks and green ones, thank goodness. I’d been worried the greens would have clashed with the green on the walls but she said no, so I got it. It doesn’t clash thank goodness!

Stay tuned because I hope to shortly have my quotes made for the walls.

Rose

Christmas Decorating

2011-09-29T17:31:00.001-05:00

I’ve been thinking for years now how someone NEEDS to make a magazine that comes out in August or September that gives all us folks some ideas to decorate for Christmas. I can see the ideas and copy them but don’t come up with the ideas myself. So I’ve thought this would really be nice for someone to do for all us folks that NEED ideas every year on decorations.

Every year I try to decorate different because I like it different but I use the same decorations on my tree year after year. I AM tired of them but that can get into some expense buying new ones every year. I try to just do a different color.

This year I am already thinking and wondering HOW I am going to decorate! Was here at B.A.M. (Books A Million) and actually found a magazine called Christmas Cottage!!! WOW someone had the SAME thought I have had! IT EVEN SAYS, Joyful Holiday Ideas on the cover! It’s a special collectors issue. Hmmmm in looking online I see they had it out last year as well and I am sitting here wondering HOW I missed it!

Anyway if you are wondering how you’re going to decorate to, check it out!

Rose

Projects

2011-09-25T15:31:00.001-05:00

Was just on a forum and saw something I’d like to make one of for decorating our table up for Thanksgiving. I have this box a friend of ours gave me many years ago and I have had NO IDEA what I could use it for until now. I saw this idea and thought of the box right off. I also have a swag that I have grown MORE than tired of that I could tear apart to use for part of my fillers. Then all I would have to do is find some squash and pumpkins to lay on it like Jennifer did. Jennifer does some awesome displays! I love what she does because it’s so unique and always very nice! She always inspires me! To see some of her work you can go HERE TO SEE IT. I don’t remember if she sells her things or not. You may have to register for the site to be able to see her displays but I can assure you, you will love her stuff and you could also get inspired like she does me.

Here’s my box I was referring to. Ignore all my mess because I have been in here working on some wooden buttons for my sewing room and THAT’S WHY I LOVE the room. I can walk out and leave it as is.

Here is the swag I am going to use for the wooden box. Then I will put me some pumpkins or something on it.

See WHY my heading is “Projects”? This is one of my buttons I have got primer on. Going to paint it black probably. Still trying to decide. You can find the circles at Hobby Lobby but you will have to drill your own holes in them. This one below was a cheese ball base. I sanded it really well before I put primer on it.

This next one is much larger. I put the little spools of ribbon in the pic so you could see how large it is. I have several different sized buttons. I am going to group a few together for a display and I will run ribbon through the holes so it will look like the thread. I had to get hubby to draw out the holes for me on the other ones because I got wayyyy off on my holes on some of them. BUT when I get the ribbon in there I don’t think it will be quite as noticeable. It’s hard to judge where to drill the holes.

See how hubby found the centers and then found out where the holes needed drilling? Cool huh? Some I have primed already and some I don’t. You can see all my fabrics (2 pix down) that I need to fold up at the end of the table in the box. It’s higher than the table is. lol When hubby and I had the house built 20 something years ago now, he, and our builder and I built the table. We used it for several years but it was just too large for our small dining room and when we had company someone always had to get up to let someone else around the table. I’m just sooo glad I didn’t get rid of it because it is PERFECT for my sewing room!!!! We finally finished the sewing machine tables and we had some left over wood I am having to store under the table but hopefully it wont be there for long. I/we are going to build some shelves on the far wall from the floor to the ceiling for storing things on. In the second pic you can see the table a little better. I had to put down some plastic under the table so I can varnish it again and it wont get on my floor.

I am SO GLAD the room is as large as it is because if it had been 1-2 foot smaller I would not have had space to put all the sewing stuff!

I finally got some of my pix framed for the wall. Going to use black and some pinks in my colors with the green wall.

Come back to see more later. I will get this project done to but it may take me biting off pieces of it at a time to get it all finished but I am determined I am going to finish this one and I just HOPE I am happy with it all when I do get finished with it. So may times I in vision my projects in my head and then when I do finish them it doesn’t look like I had it in my head. lol But hang in there with me and we’ll get er done.

Rose

Canning Soup

2011-09-20T10:59:00.001-05:00

Don’t you just love it when you get to can up a bunch of things for the winter time for your family? I know I do, and I canned up 16 quarts of Beef Vegetable soup yesterday. I had another quart and a half but I put it in the fridge for us for lunch today because hubby was chomping at the bits to eat some of it. He came inside saying how gooood it smelled. (wink) I eat a small bowl of it myself at lunch time yesterday. He was out mowing and had already eaten by the time I got to. You know how it is when you’re doing something you can’t just stop on, you have to finish before you can eat. I had to finish cooking it in the microwave though since it wasn’t completely done. (it hadn’t been canned yet)

To find out how long to pressure can my soup I checked HERE. It said to can it for 75 minutes at 11 pound pressure. I actually canned it for longer than that though. I always use my timer so I can make sure on the time.

The ingredients in it are, peas, tomatoes, tomato juice, butter beans, corn, onions, potatoes, carrots, string beans, and I’m sure I’m forgetting something.

I got the recipe from HERE. Gina over at HomeJoys has some awesome looking recipes on her blog!!! I also canned her Chicken Corn Soup a couple weeks back. It’s really good to! I think this is the best soup I have EVER made though! It is SO yummy! I didn’t get but 17 1/2 quarts but I was missing a couple ingredients that I thought I had. I remember standing over the celery in the grocery store and I must have gotten side tracked because when I went to get my celery out of the fridge there was none there. I had about 1/2 pint bag in there that I had cut up and had left over from making the chicken corn soup. So I used that and added some celery salt to help flavor it. I also added more beef broth because I really love the broth in soups.

More shots of the canned soup.

I WILL be making this one again! Gina said on her blog that she saves her chicken broth when she boils chicken and when she is ready to open a jar of her chicken soup she uses the broth and throws in some noodles in it and get the noodles cooked and then she throws in the jar of soup and heats it through. That way you have way more soup. I plan on doing that with my beef soup but using beef broth instead of chicken broth.

Rose

Organizing

2011-09-18T15:00:00.001-05:00

Worked on the sewing room a little bit last night trying to get the sewing machines fixed on the table. Also tried to organize it some so I will able to find my things. I will make me some little boxes to go in the cabinet cubes later on when I can get the time and feel a little better. The embroider machine is under the one window. Then the serger in close to the window in the front. Then the other sewing machine is there close to the first window where the pole lamp is standing. Now I should be able to just sit down and sew which will be so neat!

I found me some black frame picture frames on Friday when we took my husbands Aunt shopping. I have some old pix of pattern covers for aprons I want to hang to decorate it up some. I am waiting for my roll of vinyl paper to come in so I can get the quotes made for the border at the top. They’re going to be black as well.

I was noticing the other table that is under the window, I need to move it out some. I guess I am going to have to move the filing cabinet that is in the corner So I can have the table out some more. When I put the chair in there to use the embroider machine it’s a little tight. I can deal with it but I think I want it out a little bit.

I am going to attach a hinge on the side of the cube cabinet and put me a ironing board on there. Will have to put a little spindle leg on the ironing board and it will fold back when I don’t need it. That will really be handy when I am sewing and need to press a seam!

I’ve got to keep my eyes peeled at garage sales and thrift stores for me another office chair and hopefully I can recover them in the same fabric so they will match. I have several pieces of upholstery fabric I have found at the thrift stores so I have plenty to choose from.

I hope to soon get started on the balloon valances. I will post pix of those to show you to.

Rose

Sewing Table

2011-09-04T21:36:00.001-05:00

Working on the sewing table some more today.

In the pic below we are attaching the legs and the book case to the counter top. When we flipped it up right we realized it had a bow in the middle of it. So now we’ve got to put another leg in the back area on it. But we quit working on it since hubby was ready to quit and it was getting a little dark on us to.

I’ve got to sand it and fill in the screw holes and then paint it. Now we have one more to go.

Another view of it. The other table will butt up to this one from the side where the legs are to form the L. I think I might paint the legs and the book case the same color the top is.

Hopefully it will rain for a few more days so we can get this project finished!

Stay tuned for more on the sewing tables.

Rose

Cube Book Cases

2011-09-03T23:44:00.001-05:00

Well we got one of the cube book cases made today. I found some directions online but we really didn’t follow them because we had to have the book case a certain size since I wanted them for the legs of my sewing table. I think the lady that had the plans for the cube book shelves was Anna White. They were like 6-9 cubes and I couldn’t go but with 4 because my table top for the sewing machines isn’t but like 29” wide. You can search google and find her free plans if you’re interested in them. It’s not hard at all to make.

This is the side of it. We made it from 1x12” pine boards. It’s not finished yet as you can see. Anyway I wanted the little cut out at the bottom on each side so it would look like it had some little legs. Plus I have laminate flooring in the sew room and I didn’t want it sitting flat on it.

We’ve also got to put the back on it yet. It got dark on us this evening when we were trying to make it. Plus we were about to starve to death so we had to eat dinner.

We don’t have a table saw or anything like that. We only have a skill saw which we can’t cut a straight line with. lol And we have a jig saw and a band saw but the boards are too long to use the band saw.

I haven’t decided yet what color I am going to paint it. But it will probably be a light green color. I’ve got to fill all the screw holes and sand it down.

Now we’ve got to make one more of them. I found some laminate counter shelves at the thrift store back at the end of last summer. There is a long one and a short one. I am going to use these cubes for each end for the counter tops to sit on. That way I will have some storage areas and like I said yesterday it will be in an L shape and have legs where the L meets in the corner and then these cubes on the ends.

I also found THIS last night and got really excited because these things are high when you need to buy several! So now I’ve got more decisions to make! lol What color to make my little baskets for the cubes? They will probably be pink though since I wanted to use green and pink and maybe some black. Plus after we get these cube cases made I am going to start getting the 1x12” boards to do the wall shelves with and I want to do them in cubes like I blogged about a few weeks back. SO I will need to make several of these little baskets.

Yesterday I posted that I wanted to use the fence post tops for the legs but when we got to figuring how wide it was going to be I didn’t think they would look right since they are quite large. The little case isn’t but 29” wide. I am SO EXCITED to finally have one of them almost finished!!! The wood and counter tops have been lying on the sewing room floor for ages it seems like. So I decided to do the sides like this so it would have some legs.

We have a tropical depression out in the gulf and it’s putting some rain on us. It’s been too hot to do anything outside so we haven’t been able to get them made until now. With all the rain it’s brought the temps are down and so I hit hubby up to lets get started on the sewing machine tables today.

Stay tuned for more on the cube cases.

Rose

Sewing Table

2011-09-02T21:22:00.001-05:00

I was just telling a sister in law of mine how my husband and I need to get started making my sewing machine tables while we have some cooler weather with this little tropical storm. It’s bringing us some much needed rain AND cooler weather! It’s been so hot I wouldn’t dare try to make the shelves we need for the tables.

I want to put these THINGS for the 4 legs on each shelf. Naturally I will put them upside down so the ball part will be touching the floor.

The book cases I want are something like THESE but I want to use this post top for the legs.

I saved this next pic so I could show my husband what I was wanting and I can’t remember WHERE I found this pic. But this is how I want to make them but I want the post tops as the feet on them as I already said. I will paint mine as well. Isn’t this a pretty room in the pic below? I wish you couldn’t see my sewing room from my living room so I could paint mine blue to. But don’t think the green color I have my living room and this pretty blue would look right side by side. BUT I sure do love this blue! In fact it looks to be the very same color I have painted our bedroom.

Anyway the reason I wanted to use the post tops as the feet on mine is because I have the laminated floor covering in my sewing room and I figured it would do better with the whole book case not sitting on the laminate flooring.

My sewing machine tables will be sitting against the wall and in an L shape since I have two laminated counter tops. We will make one book case for each end of the L shape and on the ends that the L touches I have some legs to put on each top. IF that makes any sense to you. Anyway like I was telling my sister in law, with this rain it’s cooler out now so I am thinking of trying to get hubby to lets start on them tomorrow morning. Hopefully I can get him to do it.

I have 3 machines that will sit on these tables. A serger, an embroider machine and a sewing machine.

Stay tuned for more about the sewing table.

Rose

Fabric

2011-08-25T21:31:00.000-05:00

I went to Hancock’s today to see if I could find some fabric for the valances for the roman blinds in the sewing room today. I could not believe my eyes when I spotted this fabric because not only did it match my piece of roman blind fabric I brought but it also has the same green color in it that the wall was painted. AND it’s shiny and I LOVE that! They had marked it down to $7.20 a yard and when I took it to the counter to get her to measure it out for me I asked what it cost a yard because there was a sign that said 45% off on all the upholstery fabrics. She told me it was $3.00 a yard! Needless to say I was tickled and bought the whole bolt of it which wasn’t but 9 1/4 yds. I have 5 windows in there and don’t really know how much I needed so I just bought it all to be sure I’d have enough. I want to make the valances like balloon shades and make them really poufy.

Another shot……

So stay tuned with me and I will get these made.

Arranging The Furniture in The Sewing Room

2011-08-17T20:23:00.001-05:00

I’ve been trying to get he furniture in the sewing room today. I was beginning to think it wasn’t all going to fit.

My sister’s sister in law gave me a dresser that matches a bed they had given me back a couple years ago and I wanted to keep the dresser to go with it since it all matched. Well we got the dresser home and it was too large for my daughters room where the bed is. So guess where the dresser is now? Yep in the sewing room. I am using it in here to store my things in it since I have to store it in here. If my daughter ever gets married she will have a bed room suit. But for right now it’s in here. So I hadn’t planned on having that in here.

But it all worked out well because I figured out a way I could put the filing cabinet on the end and still have room for opening it. I was worried the table for all the sewing machines was going to go so far toward the other wall that I wouldn’t have room for the filing cabinet but it worked out great!

I had painted a filing cabinet and a book shelf back in like February before we started the sewing room and I finally got that moved in here today. I still haven’t gotten everything in it that I want in it yet. But at least it’s in here. I think I gave like 5.00 each for the two pieces and I thought the filing cabinet was very unique. I’ve also got to figure out where to hang the peg board that’s standing there against the wall.

I put the pegboard on the sides of the metal book shelf so I can store my things and get things organized.

I decided to put my fabric in here to until we can get my shelves made at the end of the sewing room. I want them to be from the ceiling to the floor. I will put my fabric and all my clear glass jars that I am going to store things like thread and buttons in.

A view from this end. Don’t look at the junk of the floor. That’s what we’re making the table out of for all the sewing machines.

I have an old dresser I have used for many many years a sister in law (Rhonda) gave me moons ago. She’s probably forgotten all about it. I’ve been using it for a sewing cabinet and I wanted to put it in here to but don’t have any room until I can get this dresser out of here. HMMMMMMM an idea JUST hit me! I can move this one into the old sewing room and move my old sewing cabinet in here! Although this one has much more storage areas than the other one. Well I will have to think on that one a bit to decide what to do. I just have a bunch of sewing stuff that needs a home so it can be organized!

Now next thing maybe I can get a little more organized. Hubby said we were going to start on the sewing tables tomorrow but I just don’t know if I will be able to handle the heat or not. We’ll see and I guess we can always work a little and shut it down and cool off.

Rose

Roman Blinds Continued AND Finished!

2011-08-14T16:56:00.001-05:00

I bet you’re saying YES finally and now she can go on to something else. lol I took pix but at the time of the pix I wasn’t done with hem-ing 3 of them. But since I took the pix I am done completely now. I even steamed them while they were pulled up so I would have a crease in them. I do need to go by Hancock Fabrics and get me some of the little plastic pull things for the cords though. I would also like to find me some solid pink fabric for valances for them.

Then another shot of the other side of the room.

I am going to make some shelves for above the windows and then I am going to write some quotes on the wall at the top as well.

While I was working on these I found some really neat drapes at the thrift store. I want to make some roman blinds with them for the living room I think. Going to take a little break before I start those though.

Now I am trying to figure out what other project I can do. I need to get the sewing room arranged like I want it but so many things are keeping me from doing that. There is stuff stacked in the floor behind my chair there by the sewing machine right now. It’s the table tops and the 1x12 boards for making my table with for all the sewing machines. I want to make something like the little book shelves for each end of the table tops to sit on. They will be in an L shape under all these windows you see in the last pic. It’s just too hot to start a wood working project outside right now. So that one will have to wait.

Stay tuned for more on the sewing room.

Rose

Roman Blinds (continued)

2011-08-05T14:11:00.001-05:00

Well I have finished one of the blinds finally. I’ve still got to cut the cord off and put the little doo dad on the end but other than that, it’s done and hung! I sure hope I am not boring you to death with it but I am having to do a little along as I can since I am so fatigued. Feels really nice to be able to do just a little again though. Just wish I could get ALL my energy back. Maybe soon!

Anyway wanted to show you a couple pix of the one I have done. I have decided I am going to take it down though and move it up some because when it’s pulled up it covers too much of my window. I want to be able to see out better. That shouldn’t be too hard to do. I will have to take the bottom hem out so it will not be too short. Since I hand stitched it that will be easier to do.

There are 3 layers to the blind. The front and back of course and then there is the darkening fabric in the middle. So hopefully it will help keep the sewing room cooler since this is on the west side of the house.

And another view of it. The wall color it more true in the second pic.

With the heat wave we’ve been having here I figured I needed to get them made so it will help hold out the heat some. I want the colors in the sewing room to be a pink with the green wall.

I noticed the crease in the bottom of it and looked on the back and the rod pocket on it was turned up. Got that fixed and now it’s laying flat like it should. Got it pulled up now with a chair sitting under it like it is in the pic so our Boston Terrier can sit in the chair and look outside. He’s going from the window in here in the living room to the window in the sewing room looking outside. lol He can stand for hours in the window looking outside. He dearly loves it out there!

Hopefully I can work on the second one some today. I’ve already started folding down the edges of the front to press it down. Stay tuned with me and we will get these things done. 4 more to go……

Roman Blinds

2011-08-01T23:04:00.001-05:00

I did manage to get one roman blind almost finished today. All I lack is closing up the rod pockets and attaching the little plastic circles and then attaching the board on the top and the strings. I put the little rod pockets on since I took this pic below. That’s the back of it and I sandwiched the darkening fabric in the middle of it.

In the next one you can see the front of the roman blind. Hopefully I can finish it tomorrow.

I’ve got to cover the 1x2 board with some white fabric and then staple it to my blind.

Roman Blinds

2011-07-31T23:27:00.001-05:00

I got some of the blinds cut out today and the backing for them as well. Hubby got the 1x2” boards cut and sanded for me to. Then I also cut some blind slats I want to use as my dowel rods. lol In the directions I have it calls for dowel rods to make the folds look nice and crisps but I cut the blind slats in half for them. Each roman blind will probably have like 4 in them.

It rained this evening some and hubby hit the pool afterwards and I decided to try it myself. I haven’t been going in the pool because it was messing up with my sinuses but since they were messed up today anyway I figured I would go for a swim. It sure was nice being back in it again!

I got the front part of the blinds cut in the length area but need to cut the width part now. I wanted to get all the windows cut so I could lay them out on the table and pick the prettiest area and center the pretty pink roses on the windows so it will have an even look.

I only got 2 of the backing fabrics cut but cut several of the pockets for where the blind slats will go that I cut to width. Hopefully I will feel up to at least putting one of the roman blinds together tomorrow. I got tired and just quit this evening so I wouldn’t wear myself out.

I know one thing, I sure am enjoying that really large table out there in the sewing room. I am SO HAPPY I didn’t get rid of it and I did come close to getting rid of it! But am soooooo glad I didn’t because it’s just wonnnnnderful having this large table to work on!

OK going to bed for now and just hoping tomorrow I can work on the blinds again.

Stay tuned for more and for some pix.

Roman Blinds for Sewing Room

2011-07-30T17:18:00.001-05:00

Ok I am officially gathering the materials to get started on the roman blinds for this sewing room. Since I am not feeling very well these days it may take me a little while to get them made, but at least I am trying to get started on them.

This isn’t the fabric I would really love to make them out of but I am going to use it for the meantime because the fabric I’d like to have is not in the budget right now and I NEED something up over those 5 windows instead of a piece of raw un-hemmed darkening fabric. lol As you can see from the photo below. So since I have this already and it needs to be used……. and I wanted pink in here with my green……

I bought a rather large piece of upholstery fabric a couple years ago to cover a couple chairs with and did one of them and that mess stretched so bad I wasn’t going to do the other one with it. You can also see the fabric on the table. It’s not really that thick and I think it will work really well for the blinds. I am going to put the darkening fabric stuff on the inside of the blinds because the sewing room is on the west and it gets pretty hot on these windows. There are 4 windows on the front and one on the other end of it which is on the south.

The white sheets you see on the table will be the backing of the blinds. I am going to make them to lay flat on the outside of each window instead of on the inside of it.

Hopefully it will rain again this evening so I can get out there and cut out my 1x2” boards for the top of the blinds. It’s really hot out there right now and since I have not felt very well I really don’t need to be out there in that. Need to keep this blood pressure down.

So I will plug along at these blinds until I get them finished. Just stick with me on this project and we’ll get er done. Actually the blinds aren’t hard to make at all. They are just time consuming. But I really like them because they’re so easily pulled up when you want your windows open or when you want some light in the room and also they look nice.

More to come later.

Sewing Room

2011-06-28T22:15:00.001-05:00

My niece just bought her a house and I found something in it that I can make, and that I really like! I wanted a wall in my sewing room that’s on the end of the room to be a wall of shelves so I can put all my fabrics and all my jars of stuff on it. The folks that she bought the house from had made this in the walk in closet in the bathroom. I hope she doesn’t mind that I am sharing it on here. I don’t think she will. Anyway I want to make me one like this in the sewing room with 1x12” boards and the 1x2” ones.

A close up. I don’t know if you can see the 1x2’s or not but they just nailed those to the wall and sit the boards on those all the way down the wall and then they went back in and added the 1x2 strips on the front side of it. That’s what caught my attention because it makes it look nicer with the 1x2 strips over the boards fronts.

Really close up so you can see the 1x2’s that are nailed on the wall for the 1x12” boards to sit on.

I am trying to find jars like this to put my buttons and things in. This is what I want the shelves for. These jars are larger than they appear on here. They had candles in them. I had a couple myself and then my sister in law gave me 3 I believe it was. One I already had is larger than the ones she gave me but still the same shape and all.

And see my fabrics? Something else that I want to put on that shelf. This is the wall I want to do the shelves on to. It’s at the end of my sewing room.

I will probably paint the 1x2’s and the 1x12 boards the same color as the wall so it will blend in with the wall and not stand out. I want the fabrics and the clear jars of things to be what you see and not the shelf.

OK that’s it for today.

Back to Working on the Sewing Room Again

2011-06-27T18:08:00.001-05:00

Yep I have been moving in the fabric trying to get it all in here so I can start putting it on the bolts to get it organized. So I started putting it on the bolts today and am seeing I had just as much fabric as I thought I had.

I will have to get me some more of the foam boards since I am running a little low on them now. I had sit and cut them back in February so they would be ready to wrap.

Anyway I wanted to come back on here and let you all know I am not missing in action and that I am working on this room again and to show you some proof.

I plan on making me some shelves to put the fabric and the jars of thread and buttons but I need to make my supports for my table for the sewing machines first. THEN I can do the shelves. At this end of the room where the bolts of fabric are I want to make the shelves the width of the room with is like 9-10’ wide. I have a dresser sitting there right now but trying to decide just where this dresser can go so I can have that whole wall for shelves!

The shorter pieces of fabrics will go on the smaller foam boards as you can see. I am just getting started so this is not all my fabric. I gave my sister a lawn a leaf trash bag full last summer and I do HOPE she’s using it.

I plan to start on my roman blinds really soon. I am trying to decide if I want to use the fabric I have on hand already or to try and find some that I fell in love with the other day on the internet. I want the room to be pink and green with some black as well. The walls are green and I want the green and the pink in the roman blinds as well as some white in them since I’d like to put some of the old fashioned ball trim on them.

We also finally got the table in here that I wanted in here. I put down some plastic on the floor to protect it because I plan on putting a couple more coats of varnish on it. I’ve been sick with some kind of sinus crud so I knew I better not varnish it yet with this mess! LOVE this table for my sewing room but it was too large for our dining room! Hubby and I along with the guy that built our home built this table over 20 years ago. So I said well, while I am healing I can sit and wrap my bolts and then I have the laces and trims to wrap to. Got bunches of that to! 2 large bags to be exact!

Anybody wanna come help me?

Ok let me get back to wrapping bolts.

Stay tuned and be patient with me because with hubby home these days I have to choose days I can do my things.

Rose

Landscaping Job Almost Done

2011-05-05T22:41:00.001-05:00

Got to finish transplanting the day lilies today around the pool. Now ALL I lack is planted the rest of the monkey grass around the edges and I will be FINISHED with that job! Then I can work on the patio and get it finished. I might just do the patio and wait about the monkey grass. I’ve got to get that sack of soil moved but am trying not to pick up heavy stuff right now with this back and knee hurting.

A shot from the side looking toward the house. The green plants off in the distance at the top left are banana trees.

More day lilies on this side. The color is yellow.

Now to work on the patio and the monkey grass. Hopefully by next spring these day lilies will really be pretty!

Landscaping and Gardening

2011-05-04T21:31:00.001-05:00

Well I got to work in the yard again this evening. I didn’t get to start when I wanted to today due to hubby having P.T. today. But I did get a lot accomplished but sure did want to get that job finished today!

This is the back side of the landscaping and I need to get my monkey grass transplanted around the edges. I started it last year and never did get it finished. It’s looking really nice this year already. I transplanted some yellow day lilies in the pine straw but you can’t really see them since I cut them off. The tree there is a red tip and when it bloomed it was getting blooms all in the pool so I cut the top out of it. So not it is starting to put out leaves all over the place.

I planted begonias all in here and back toward the tree I planted some impatiens. Then there is some yellow day lilies back there as well. You can see the edge of the patio I am building for a patio table. We need and area to put our towels and stuff closer to the pool.

I’ve got to move the stepping stones that are close to the round ones because they’re up too high on that side. I needed to see if I was going to have enough bricks and also to see just how wide I wanted it to be. So now that I know I can move those and level the area. I am going to lay brick around it to and then I will sweep concrete in the cracks and crevices and then lightly sprinkle it with water to set it.

You can see the little plants a little better on this next shot. I’ve got to move the monkey grass so I can get it where I want it to go. It’s a little too far in right now. You can see the dirt on the edge where I am going to till up for it but wanted to get the plants in the ground first. The monkey grass will do fine if it’s transplanted even in the heat of the summer but the little cell packs of flowers wont do so well.

This is our potatoes we planted back in Feb. The corn my brother in laws planted. As you can see our white cat followed me to the garden.

And this is one of the potatoes plants blooming. My brother in law said when they bloom like this there is lots of tators under the soil.

The corn with tassels on it.

Close up of the tassel on the corn.

more flowers……

I am HOPING to at least get the rest of the day lilies transplanted tomorrow. And maybe just maybe I can also get some of the patio done as well. I’ve got to mow to so hopefully I can get all of this done tomorrow! DH bought me 4 window boxes and I need to get them hung as well and put the soil in them and get flowers in them. There is ALWAYS something more to be done around here. I NEVER get caught up. It sure would be nice just for once, to be caught up and every thing done. lol

Stay tuned for more later…….

Landscaping

2011-05-03T21:37:00.001-05:00

I am still working around my pool trying to get it landscaped. I am going to transplant yellow day lilies and these plants around it tomorrow I hope! I have the pine straw in place but in a couple small areas. Going to put some in those areas and then get to transplanting all this stuff. I have impatiens, periwinkles and begonias. I wanted it to look tropical and will probably plant elephant ears around it as well. My sister in law gave me some bulbs so I have a few of those as well.

We have a little cool front that has came in today and it’s also suppose to be cool tomorrow. So I am taking advantage of it while it’s cool. We had a little shower today but before the shower I was able to get my tomatoes transplanted and straw around the squash. So I got a good bit accomplished today.

I know I am transplanting my day lilies about the time they’re to bloom but hubby had his hip replaced and I’ve been pretty busy with him. He’s doing very well now so I can leave him a little because he doesn’t have to have me sooo much now.

I will post pix later on maybe the day lilies will bloom again when I get them transplanted. I always cut them back when I transplant them so I am hoping they will bloom later.

Happy Easter

2011-04-21T14:46:00.001-05:00

I just had to share this with you all because it was just soooo cute! I had to run into the grocery to get a gallon of milk and saw these and just had to take some pix of them.

Little Easter Bunny cakes! Now I do KNOW what Easter is all about and it’s NOT bunny rabbits and boiled eggs. I am a little childish when it comes to this sort of stuff and I do enjoy it and don’t think Jesus minds me enjoying things. Aren’t these things just darling?

They had several of these little baby bunnies.

And the bunny and bunny babies ones aren’t but 10.00. I think they are just too cute! The little baby bunnies are made from those little snack cakes and that I think are Little Debbie’s.

and another view of them.

Happy Easter everyone!

Pretty Landscaping

2011-04-04T08:12:00.001-05:00

Who says you can’t find pretty things to photograph at the hospital? This is a pic hanging up in the hallway. I would LOVE for my front yard to look like THIS! Isn’t it pretty? Dogwoods, pines, azaleas and hedge and pine straw paths! We have an area on the other side of our pond that is almost bare that would be soooooooooo pretty done like this!

Stopping to smell the roses here and there……….

Fountain, crepe myrtles and azaleas.

I love all these arbors. Look at that view!

Someone did a great job at landscaping the lawns. I love all the curvy beds. Excuse my Coke Cola reflection on the window. I bet by the middle of the summer this grass will be lush and green.

Ignore the construction work and just look at the view here!

Little outside dining area.

Little patio.

Face of Eternity

2011-04-01T10:08:00.001-05:00

As some of you know my husband went into the hospital for a hip replacement. He is doing awesome by the way.

I went to the nurses station to get some ice last night for him and they had this circulating down there. She ran me off a copy and I just had to share! I also want to give the lady credit that sit and drew this. WOW WOW WOW On the paper is says it was drawn by, Pam Cedotal.

It’s called, “Face of Eternity”. Isn’t it awesome! Man what some detail and some thought! When I first saw it I couldn’t take my eyes off it. I sure hope you can see it. I took a pic of it so I could share.

Close up of top of it.

Close up of right side…..

Close up of left side……

Beginning with the scene at the lower left which forms Christ’s hair at His right shoulder, the components are as follows:

1. The birth of Jesus. Luke 2: 7-18

2. The flight to Egypt. Matthew 3:13-15

3. The boy Jesus at the temple. Luke2: 41-49

4. Jesus performs His first miracle, turning the water into wine. John 2:1-11

5. Starting at Christ’s left temple, proceeding downward; at Jacob’s well, Jesus asks a Samaritan woman for water. John 4:5-42

6. Temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. Luke 4:1-13

7. Jesus walks on the stormy sea. Matthew 14: 24-33

8. Jesus blesses the little children. Mark 10:13-16

9. Forming the crown of thorns on Christ’s forehead; the Lord’s Supper. Matthew 26: 20-30.(In his quilt, Judas spills his glass of wine which trickles down past his foot symbolizing a drop of blood caused by a thorn.)

10. Forming Christ’s beard from right to left; Judas betrays Jesus with a kiss. Mark 14:43-46, (Judas clutches the pouch containing the 30 pieces of silver behind him.)

11. The judgment of Jesus; Pontius Pilate washes his hands to signify he is innocent of the blood of a just person. Matthew 27:11-26

12. Forming Christ’s brow and nose; Jesus crucified. Mark 15:22-37 Angels hover near Him on each side of the cross.

13. Beneath the cross, a Roman soldier casts lots for Jesus’ robe. John 19:24. Nearby Mary is overcome with sorrow.

14. On the other side of the soldier, a man prepares to offer Jesus a drink from a vinegar soaked sponge which has been secured to a reed. Mark 15:36

15. Forming Christ’s mouth; the women who have came to the tomb to anoint Jesus’ body find the tomb to anoint Jesus’ body find the tomb empty and are told by an angel of the resurrections. Matthew 28:1-8

16. Jesus shows the doubting Thomas His pierced hands restoring Thomas’ belief. John 20:26-29

“….And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen” John 21:25

Finding Favor With God

2011-03-30T13:39:00.001-05:00

I was just sitting here doing my devotion today and had to share this because it is so good!

The devotion is called, Devotions for Women by Jill Briscoe and she was saying how Noah found favor with God and he was the ONLY truly righteous man in that time that did, and that he was a PLEASURE to God. (Gen.6:9) WOW I don’t know about you but the word pleasure struck a wow note with me. The first thing that comes to mind with me naturally is food! ha I find pleasure in chocolate desserts that have chocolate Jello pudding and graham cracker crust in them. Oh and pecans are even nice as well. I mean, I just LOVE those desserts most of all. They are like a comfort food to me and I can litterly go, ahhhhhhhhh when eating it.

So naturally since I get so much pleasure from some foods I thought, wow, he found pleasure to God. So I’m thinking does God go ahhhhhhhh when He sees me? How awesome to be a pleasure to God.

When we have children they are a pleasure to us when they are little and also sometimes as they grow older they’re also a pleasure to us especially when they’re doing right.

Like our kids, we’re either a pleasure to the Lord or we’re a pain as Jill says in the devotion. I added the kids part.

We need to find out how to bring pleasure to the Lord. She says sometimes we want to please Him but we don’t find out what to do to bring pleasure to Him. We’re mostly concerned on how He can please us. She says the first thing that pleases Him is our right behavior…. our holy living, even when no one is around.

Are we honest? Do we follow His commandments? How are our morals? Do we try our best to live like the Bible says to live?

When God looks at us, are we a pleasure or a pain? Man how I want to be a pleasure to Him!!! I know that He looks upon my heart and He knows exactly what’s in it. He’s just so awesome like that. He knows just who I am like no one else does. He knows the REAL ME and He even loves me anyway. He knows what I am in need of even before I ask. He just asks us to ask anyway.

What can you and I do to be a pleasure to God? Not a pleasure to others, BUT a pleasure to God?

Moving Stuff Into Sewing Room Today

2011-03-26T20:57:00.001-05:00

Haven’t decided just how to organize it yet but putting the stuff in to get it out of the living room and I can decide later.

The color of the room are not true in these night shots.

I am going to paint the gray filing cabinet an almond color or maybe green and put it against the wall the dresser is against so it doesn’t go out in the room so far. It’s rather deep! The door will be painted a linen color.

The stuff to the left of the pic is a sewing project I need to do.

Moving the sewing machine cabinet out of the living room makes me have more space in there and it already looks much better!

Sewing Room is Painted!

2011-03-25T20:29:00.001-05:00

I got the sewing room painted today. Needless to say I am sooooo tired! But am so happy to finally have this done. I have some touch ups I need to do that is up really high. Since I don’t do heights my daughter said she would take care of that for me tomorrow after we go to her church to eat some crawfish.

I might even be able to get my front door painted as well. That would be so nice because I would be finished with that to. I have primed all the moldings but can’t decide what I want to do there because the ones in the house are stained and varnished and I am slowly but surely painting those and am trying to decide what color I want to paint them all through the house. So the ones in the sewing room might just stay primed until I decide what to do with them.

I figured I would share some pix with ya of the painting. The color is a green color and is called Dried Fava. It’s the color I used in the living room and this room joins it so I thought it would be nice to paint it the same color. I’ve got to sand and prime the front door on the inside.

The room is like 8’ wide and 32’ long.

I let it dry some and then put my covers back on the plug in thingies.

More later, stay tuned…….

Thrift Store Shopping

2011-03-24T21:49:00.001-05:00

Went to town yesterday and decided to go by the thrift store that I like so well. Our bathroom sinks are needing replacing so I was more than happy when I found these THREE sinks! That’s JUST the number of them I needed to!

They are made out of some kind of cement plaster stuff so these wont be going anywhere any time soon. I think they will be here when I have great great grandkids. lol

Well I got the sewing room wall kilzed this evening. Now hopefully I can get it painted soon. My arms and shoulders are already hurting. Here is a couple pix of it kilzed.

and another shot.

Flooring Going In Today

2011-03-23T12:04:00.001-05:00

Yipeeeee I think this is the last thing they lack. I am SOOOO GLAD I chose this color for the laminate flooring because it is soooooooooooooooo pretty! They are moving right along with it to so they should be done pretty shortly. They do such good work!

Wanted to show you how pretty it is. Can you tell I am excited? Did I say what good work they do?

The directions said to put down plastic at least 3 Mil thick so that’s what they are doing. Also they are leaving the gaps around the edges that is says to leave as well.

Front side view of the siding and the rails down the steps in. Hubby wanted them to put a piece of gutter over the steps because the rain was messing up the cement in between the bricks on the steps. Now I need to trim my hedge down some and make me some window boxes to dress it up a bit. Don’t like shutters because of wasps building in them!! So I think window boxes would be PERFECT! I want to paint the front door a forest green and I can paint the window boxes that color to and I think that would tie everything together really well. Then I can plant some sun loving plants in them.

It looks kind of funny right now without the front porch but with the window boxes I think that will finish it off and make it look nice.

They only lack about 15 minutes being done with the flooring and then they will put in the shoe mold and molding around the bottom.

There was a gap in between the molding and the vinyl siding so he filled it in and it made it look so nice!

He made the molding for this area and rounded off the edge so it would look nice. I’m not going to fill in the lines on the vinyl siding because that doesn’t bother me.

NOW after today I can get to kilzing the walls so I can put some paint on them.

Shelves Above My Windows

2011-03-21T22:25:00.001-05:00

Someone wanted to see my shelves we have above our windows. Hubby and I made them all. It’s not hard to do them the way we did them because you use the little 1x2 board to screw them into the wall with. The 1x2 board is under the top board that you sit things on the shelf and between the little legs as I call them.

OK now for the pix…..

This is the dining room ones. We made this set of shelves to go all the way around the room. What we did on this one is, we measured the walls on each side of the dining room and made those first. Then we measured and made the other two for the other two walls.

Now for the ones we made with the curtain rods in them for the living room.

I had to take my things off the shelves in the front of the house with all the hammering on the front porch. So they are empty. I painted them the same color as the wall because I wanted them to blend in and not stick out.

We have four windows in the living room.

A close up view.

Sewing Room Almost Done

2011-03-20T12:21:00.001-05:00

They are almost done with the sewing room. Got to float the walls one more time on Monday and they will be ready for some Kilz.

He made me some really nice wide window seals for the windows and I just had to show them to you.

They got the ceiling fans and the doors in. He has still got to get the screen door and move it to the outside door.

This was the original door that was on the house under the porch. We wanted to move it to the outside and put the screen door over it. I will paint it to match the room on this side and then paint it on the outside. I am STILL trying to figure out WHAT color for the outside. He’s still got to do the frame work around the front door. He does such good work! I just LOVE the wider window seals!!!

Stay tuned for more later.

Sheetrock Today

2011-03-16T22:56:00.001-05:00

The guys got the sheet rock up today and since we were gone and they couldn’t come in to do some of the stuff they needed to do they tended to some other things my husband wanted them to do as well. He wanted them to change out some of the 4x4 posts on the back of the house by the patio and carport. He also wanted them to wire us a light for out there and to remove a flood light that was in the way of something else we had built on a few years back.

Here are a few pix after the sheetrock went up. He’s got to mud it one more time I think is what he called it. He had to let it dry in between coats. The ceilings are 9’ tall so he had to use 2 sheets of the sheetrock and then a part of another one in the center area. I like the way he puts it up. It helps on his back doing it this way so he don’t have to get down low to do it.

He said he liked to put in some nice wide window shelves which I like because my flowers will LOVE that.

Now a view from the other end. I put that board up over the opening for the door to keep the cats out and to hopefully keep other critters out as well.

Little closer view of the track lights and the ceiling.

I am going tomorrow and get some molding and some flooring. I’m still not very sure on the flooring. Hopefully I will feel better and get a decision made tomorrow about that. lol

They have done an awesome job on the room and I couldn’t be more happy with it. It’s just going to be so nice having all my stuff together in ONE PLACE! All my crafts and sewing stuff will fit in here.

Opps I think I forgot to say the doors go in tomorrow. YEA!!!!

Stay tuned……………

Insulation, Track Lighting, and AC Vents

2011-03-15T20:58:00.001-05:00

They got to work on the sewing room again today and got the insulation in the walls and the roof. They also got all the ply board put back up over head as well as the vinyl siding over head. Then after they got that done they were able to put the track lighting up on each end. Oh they also got the duct work ran in the attic to the sewing room for the heating and cooling. So they got a lot done today.

They will start on the sheetrock in the morning when they get here. He also got me one plug in working out there today so I was able to put me a fan out there this evening while I washed and cleaned the vinyl wall. I got half of it cleaned and will have to do the other half later. Now I am on my ice pack again.

Here are some pix so you can see details. The sewing room is on the west. This is the front with all the windows. I will put up some roman blinds over the windows so in the heat of the summer I can close them if the suns coming in. As you can see they got the insulation in the walls.

Track lights on one end and the ac vent. Where you see the other hole is where the ceiling fan will go. We went to a lighting place and were very blessed to find some almond ceiling fans with the lights kits. Since the roof is almond I thought that would look nice. They call the color antique white but they look almond to me. lol I might just have to paint that WHITE AC vent!

See my clean roof? It took me hours to hand wash it, back AND front sides. It was so nasty from dirt dobbers on the back side.

I checked out the track lighting this evening when I was washing down the wall of vinyl siding. I got that side finished and now I’ve got to do the other side later.

And here’s the other side with it’s track lighting and WHITE vent. lol He’ll put up the ceiling fans after he gets the sheetrock done. There will be one for each side just like the vents and the track lights. Hopefully this will make it nice and cool since it is on the west.

Hopefully tomorrow I can show you some sheetrock up on the walls. They also lack the vinyl siding on the outside which we had to order. The company that made the siding doesn’t make this color anymore, Imagine that! So we had to choose another company and try to get it as close to the color of ours as we could. I STILL like this color after 21 years in the house!

OK that’s about all the photo’s I have for now. Stay tuned for more later.

Day 3 and Getting More Done

2011-03-10T18:52:00.001-06:00

The guys didn’t get to work on the sewing room yesterday due to all the rain, but they did go get more supplies. You just can’t see any progress in that.

Anyway wanted to show you what they got done today. He said he should be done with it in about 2 weeks.

Got the windows in today.

Got er wrapped up……, sealed with chalk in bunches of places.

Didn’t get the door in today though.

Metal siding on the bottom to keep out blowing rain.

Looks nice how he lapped it over the edge of the brick.

Going to remove the original door that is on the house already and put this one in it’s place. Going to put the original door to the outside with it’s screen door as well. This way maybe we will get back some of our light we’re losing in the living room by closing in the porch.

Got one more pic to share with my sister. Remember how LOW the pond was the other day when you were here? It was just about a foot deep! NOW look at it! It’s probably 10-12 foot now. Or maybe even more than that! You know where the bench is around the tree. Look how far the water is backed up into the pine trees.

These next pix was yesterday’s pix.

Stay tuned, more to come later…….

More on the Sewing Room

2011-03-08T17:49:00.001-06:00

They made a little progress today. It’s really starting to take shape. This is going to be a nice size room and I’m getting excited.

Wanted to show you some pix.

This is from the north west side. All the areas outside will be covered with the same color vinyl siding we have on the house already.

Southwest side

Our front yard slopes downhill toward the pond that is in front of the house.

Inside the sewing room looking toward the west at the pond out front.

Inside looking toward the north side.

Looking toward the south. Two windows on each side in the front and one on the south side.

Standing on the north side trying to get the whole porch.

We even got out there and got the mess cleaned up while it was sprinkling. Just a little, not enough to get wet though.

OK I think I got all the angles. Stay tuned for more. He said he might get rained out tomorrow from the way they’re talking on the weather channel.

Getting Starting

2011-03-07T16:18:00.001-06:00

We got started on the porch redo this morning. They got all the banister off and the one going down the steps as well. He’s going to put the one back on going down the steps but he had to remove it for now.

Here’s some progress pix. This is a long shot of the porch. One mega positive thing about this is, I WONT HAVE TO PAINT the post nor the banister anymore!

Spruce boards going down to tie everything together with. He had to jack up the 4x4 poles to take the square piece of wood out from under them so he could do this board along the bottom.

The pieces of the banister, and the metal stuff from the vinyl siding. The wasps have already started! UGHH He got bit by one but was able to sling it off his wrist before it got him really good. Have I ever said how I HATE THOSE THINGS! That’s ONE MORE positive with this project! I wont have to fight those things anymore on the porch!

Another shot of the boards on the bottom he’s going to tie it altogether with. Hopefully it wont rain him out tomorrow so he can get a really good start on it. He’s going to lay a metal sheeting stuff that goes with our vinyl siding along the bottom edge of the porch and bend it with the metal bending thing so water will not go under the boards when it rains or blows rain.

More to come later.

Sewing Room

2011-03-05T21:56:00.001-06:00

Well it looks like the close in for the sewing room will be starting on Monday around lunch time. I’m excited to a degree because this will help with heating AND cooling on the house I think since this is the west. Plus the porch hardly ever got used and this will help with some clutter in the house! We’re really going to insulate it so that should help with the heating and cooling as well. PLUS it sure is exciting to know that I will be able to sit down and sew without having to move heaven and earth to do it. I have so much sewing stuff and it just will not all fit into the small room and the living room is always cluttered when I have to sew.

I am hoping I can find some good deals on some windows and a door to. I wasn’t planning on having carpet since I dearly hate the mess but from what I am understanding the carpet will be much better on my back than the hardwood flooring since it will be on the concrete.

Anyway since the floor is concrete we’re going to put down some really firm padding so hopefully that concrete floor wont effect my back so bad. The house is not on a concrete foundation so that helps big time with this back problem I have and with his knees and hip.

I’ve been finding some little metal baskets along as I shop in the thrift stores. I have 3 larger ones and 2 small ones now. My plans are to put one of the metal shelving units up on the wall and hang these from it to organize my sewing things in.

First order of business once he gets finished with the room is to make some roman blinds for all those windows. There will be 5 of them out there.

OK stay tuned as we start the building process!

Cleaning and Organizing

2011-02-19T20:11:00.001-06:00

Well I got a lot done today on the sewing room cleaning and organizing. I moved a couple of the items in there that I painted and vanished.

I’m HOPING this room is only temporary until my larger sewing room gets done. We’re waiting to find out just what it will run us to get the porch closed in. So I am going ahead with my organizing so at least I will have all of this done if it works out for us.

I will be putting my fabrics in the 4 cubby holes on the shelf. I got a lot done today but I had to quit because my back is NOT happy. Even part of my foot feels a little numb tonight which is not good.

Putting the pegboard on the metal shelf. I can hang my things on this and have them organized.

Another shot with it finished.

Here it is with some of my rulers on it.

The magnetic board hung over the breaker box to hide it.

OK I think that’s about it. I will post more as I get more accomplished. I’m sitting with my ice pack now and I hope I can do some more soon.

To be continued…..

Pretty Things in Pink

2011-02-18T15:31:00.001-06:00

I love pretty things and I really like this green color with pink with it. As I was sitting at the table this morning I saw this little teapot sitting on my teacart. I noticed how well it matches my shelf I just painted for the sewing room. This little teapot is actually a potpourri burner.

These are the flowers my hubby got me for Valentines day and they’re pink to. BIG grin

We are so blessed to have pretty things and I am so thankful!

Painting

2011-02-17T20:13:00.001-06:00

Got the two filing cabinets painted and varnished now and the 2 shelves painted and varnished. Now to let them dry and put them in place. Then I can paint and varnish the 4 drawer filing cabinet and be done with that one to.

Last night I got all the magnets glued onto the little party favors. I repainted the inside edge of the frame also and got the piece of metal put into the frame. So that’s one more project finished. I’ve got to get all this done so I can have something to put my things into. I want to start wrapping the fabric around the boards but I don’t have anything to put it into yet. That’s why I am trying to get these shelves finished so they can dry. Below is the little party favors I bought and glued the magnets on for the magnetic board.

Then the one below is of the magnetic board.

The other filing cabinet that I varnished. LOL now that I look at the pic this looks really funny! lol I varnished them inside because there was little tiny bugs landing on all my things when I was trying to paint them yesterday. So I said well I’ll put the items on the table so I wont have to bend over them or crawl around on the floor. I had several windows open as well as the box fan turned on so don’t worry I had plenty of ventilation.

I am trying to figure out what I want to put in the smaller drawers. I am leaning towards lace and trims for those 4 drawers. I am going to roll the lace and trim up on little boards so those drawers should be good. I am going to organize my patterns in the two larger drawers and maybe store stabilizers in the tall side with the shelves. I put it up on some varnish cans so I would varnish all the way to the edge without getting it all over the paper and then it sticking to it. By the way, I paid 5.00 each for all these filing cabinets.

Next is the shorter shelf that I varnished to. I will probably store my fabric in this one after I get it all rolled up on the boards.

I’m trying to work a little each day on something for the sewing room so I can get it all done.

The guy is coming by tomorrow to look at the porch to see what all it will require to close it in and I am excited!

I sure wish I knew how to do the Mr. linky thing so I could get you all to show me your sewing rooms and how you organize your things and how you store your stuff etc. I’m sure you all have loads of ideas!!!

I just happen to think about another cute little cabinet I have out in the shed that a good friend of mine gave me. That would be so neat to store stuff in to. I need to put some shelves in it though. It has some really pretty doors on it.

Stay Tuned……

Life

2011-02-16T22:46:00.002-06:00

Life got in the way of the sewing room work today. We had to get some potatoes in the ground if we're going to have any potatoes to eat.
Hopefully tomorrow IF my back will allow it, I can slap a coat of varnish on all those pieces I painted on Saturday and then I will be finished with them. All this bending over planting these potatoes has the old back just a bit aggravated. Going to see HOW it feels in the morning and maybe it will let me work some more on my project.

I did manage to get my metal cut for my picture frame this evening. I also painted the gold on the frame but don't like it so I will paint it again some other color. lol t's just TOO green for me. I think it's called an evergreen green. It will clash with the color green I plan on painting the sewing room.

Stay with me on this project and I will get it done. :)
Oh and please do leave a comment because I LOVE seeing your comments! :)

Inching Along With This Sewing Room

2011-02-15T23:19:00.001-06:00

FINALLY found something I’ve been looking for! I wanted to make me one of these after I saw this on Tool Time Tuesday last week and I have finally found my piece of metal.

I found mine at Lowe’s and they actually had 2 different size sheets of it. I found it in the plumbing section close to the pieces of pipe they use for fireplaces. One was much larger than the 16” wide piece I got and it was 10.00 something. But I just needed this size and it was $5.44. So tomorrow I will cut it out with my metal cutters and put it into the frame. (I WILL wear gloves because this stuff can really cut you!!!!) Trying to figure out WHAT COLOR I want to paint the frame! lol

See the little round things on the metal? They have a clear plastic lid on them. That’s the ones I found the other day at Dirt Cheap for 2.00 something. There was like 23 of them in the box. Part of them were missing because there was suppose to be 30 in the box. They’re from Wilton, the cake decorating stuff and are called party favors in case anyone is interested. Anyway they are metal and I glued a magnet on the bottom so they will hang on this when I get it hung up. I also have some of the little solo cups like she has on the link I just shared with you. I will be putting my small things in them for storage in the sewing room.

I have a few really small safety pens and some little hooks and eyes I can put in the little party favors.

Yesterday while it Wal-mart looking for some magnets for these I happened up on some ladies putting out some things on the clearance isle. They had marked them down from 3.00 something a pack to .75 and then they were marking them even lower to .25! BIG grin! Needless to say I got all I could find that was left which weren’t many. Here I was thinking I’d gotten a good deal on them the other day at Hudson’s for .60 a pack. Some of these are clips and some are magnets. If I need to make a note to myself I can use my metal board with these cute little magnets and since I wanted to paint my sewing room green and pink this matches! Grin…. My daughter bought the cute pink with the brown clips for a project she was doing but they wouldn’t work for her project so she gave them to me for mine.

I will need all these little clips when I start rolling up all my lace and trims.

Oh ALMOST forgot to tell you. I found the 50 pack of magnets at Wal-mart for like 5.96 I believe it was. The first two packs of magnets I bought for the little party favors I bought at Lowe’s for 2.00 something and there was only 8 in them. These are just a little bit smaller but I think they will be fine for what I am using them for. I’m not going to over load my little cups so they shouldn’t be that heavy.

Painting

2011-02-14T19:47:00.001-06:00

I got the four things painted today that I wanted to get painted for the sewing room.

It’s all painted the same color but outside it looks like a total different color.

I am going to use the shelves in my sewing room to get it organized. The shorted one I will sit on the the larger filing cabinet to save some floor space. Both of these shelves I paid $5.00 each.

The large filing cabinet. I will put my sewing patterns in the file area of it. Don’t quite know yet what I am going to put into the little drawers.

This is the little shelf I will put on the larger filing cabinet. Ignore the blue candle holders. I just put those there so I could paint the bottom and not get paint all over the paper.

Don’t know what I will use this filing cabinet for but I’m sure I will come up with something! I might even use it for the legs of my table I want to use for a sewing cabinet.

One more step closer to getting it done!

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY TO YOU ALL!!!!

Sewing Shelves

2011-02-13T19:33:00.001-06:00

I got two of my sewing shelves kilzed yesterday and had planned on painting them today but my backs really bothering me now. I also have two filing cabinets I want to paint the same color green as my shelves.

I have a filing cabinet about the size of the shorter one that I am going to sit it on so it wont take up so much floor space in the tiny sewing room. I wanted to go ahead and get all these things painted so if we do get to close in the front porch for the sewing room I will already have all of this done. Since I wanted to paint this room green and pink I can go ahead and get all these things painted green. I have some paint left over from painting the living room that I can use.

We have a step down onto the front porch from the living room so the two rooms will be close together.

I’m working on this little by little so maybe I will be finished with it by summer time. lol

Organizing Goodies For The Sewing Room

2011-02-11T00:18:00.001-06:00

We went to a place around here called Dirt Cheap and I found some more goodies for organizing the sewing room! Yipeeee These I am going to glue a magnet to and make me a metal board to hang on the wall to put them on. I will store small items in them. They are metal with clear tops on them. They were normally 14.00 and I got them for 2.00 something.

Then the next pic is several things. Some more little container to glue magnets onto, then a little green zipper case with clear plastic sides for .25. The little containers on it were a dime ea. Then I got several clips for when I fold my lace and trimmings around the little board these will hold the ends closed onto it. Also the little redish colored plastic thing with the lid I will store something in and it was 1/2 off so it was .50. Also found some of those clippy things you use to clip your name tag onto your clothes and they were like .60 a pack and they were normally 3.00 something each as well. All the metal clips were like .60 for the packs. Most all of the packs had about 6 clips in it. I think I spent a little over 7.00 for all this stuff.

I found someone online that cut out a little weiner dog pattern to wrap her lace and trim around and that was sooooo cute! Figured I would see IF I could draw one out to use. TRYING to figure out what I can use cut them out with. I’d rather not use cardboard because it might damage my trims and lace.

I’m hoping I can work on the room some more tomorrow. Seems like we’ve been keeping the roads hot for the past 2-3 days.

I’m trying to find me a piece of metal for a picture frame now so I can make my metal thing to house all these little round containers with the magnets on the bottom.

OK more to come later.

50 Plus Year Old Dress

2011-02-10T01:03:00.001-06:00

Wanted to show you all a little dress I wore when I was about 3–6 months old. I keep it in my sewing cabinet in a zip lock bag and when I was cleaning it all out I came across it and had to take a pic to share it with you all. Yes I am STILL at it with this sewing room. I am making things, and fixing things to store all my stuff it so this will take me quite awhile to finish.

Today while shopping at my favorite junk store again I found me another little book shelf. It needs a little work, but well worth the $5.00 I had to give for it. Also found some things I can use in some drawers to separate my things so they will be organized.

I will share more pix when I can. I bought some of the board stuff to wrap my cloth around and got 20 large pieces and 12 small cut out of 4 boards. I will share pix when I get it all wrapped up. I bought 6 more pieces of it today at the Dollar Tree for $1.00 ea. I noticed Wal-mart has it as well but theirs is $3.97 ea. Sure glad someone on the sewing sites I’ve been looking at shared with us that the Dollar Tree has it because it’s much less and the same stuff and the same size etc. That way I can take the money I saved on that and use it for other stuff for getting all this organized.

Anyway back to my little dress. As my heading says, this little dress is over 50 years old! I don’t think they make cloth like they used to. lol This is a little silky dress, it’s not cotton.

Please do come back and see what all I am doing to this sewing room. I hope you don’t get tired of hearing about it.

Thanx for stopping by and please do leave me a comment. I love them!

Scripture

2011-02-07T20:32:00.001-06:00

I promised an online friend of mine I would post this so since I had my camera in here doing another post I figured I would go ahead and take the pic and post it.

Like I was telling her I found this little cloth hanger at the thrift store and had to have it because of the Bible scripture on it. I have had it for several years now.

I thought about cutting the hearts off so it wouldn’t look so 70ish and frame it but I haven’t ever done it. It just keeps hanging here in the office/sewing room.

Getting Sewing Room Organized

2011-02-07T20:00:00.001-06:00

Wanted to share what I am trying to do in my sewing room and also some good news I hope! I’ve been talking about the lack of space I have in this tiny room I have for an office/sewing room for awhile now. It’s just filled to the brim and there’s nothing in here that I could give away or toss. Anyway my husband is going to get someone over here maybe next week to see what it would cost us to close in the front porch that we never use. It’s the full length of our house and plenty wide enough for a sewing room. We’d only have to close in 3 sides because the other side is already done. The roof is done under there as well with vinyl siding and that’s fine with me to. So needless to say I am on cloud nine and hoping AND praying it doesn’t cost too much to do so we can do it.

I have a serger machine, sewing machine and a embroider machine and to use each one I am constantly having to change out machines on the sewing table. It sure will be nice to just sit down and sew!!!

Anyway I had already started the process of cleaning this room out yet again TRYING to make space for all this stuff for sewing and to get it organized because I can’t find anything. That is so frustrating to me. I was going to build a table in here that would be attached to the already built in desk to sit a couple of the machines on and that way I could get rid of one of the sewing cabinets. One’s always in the living room because there’s so space in here for it and that way all my sewing things would be in ONE ROOM and not spread out all over the place!

So anyway he told me to hold up on doing all of this to the sewing room and let him check with someone to see what it would run to close in the front porch.

But I thought well I can at least get all this stuff organized so I can find my stuff and if and when I get the new sewing room it will all be organized! So that is what I am trying to do now. If we can do the close in of the front porch and once he gets started on it I wont be able to sleep from excitement. lol

Anyway just had to share my hopefully good news AND some of my pix of trying to get organized!

Some of my bobbins and a leather finger thimble. lol Got to figure out WHERE that should go. lol

My pressure feet….

Thread in gallon jugs. Got to find a lid for one of them. All my serger and embroidery thread is in another place closed up to keep out the dust.

I found these boxes a couple years ago at Michaels for like 1.00 each on clearance. They were like 14.00 each before they put them on clearance. I bought all they had left which wasn’t but like 4 I think it was. Needless to say they didn’t all match so I decided to wrap them in gift wrapping paper. (found the wrapping paper at Michaels as well a few years ago) I think I want to paint the sewing room a pastel pink so this will be pretty in there.

One of these is a cereal box I cut and wrapped up for some sewing magazines and the other one I found at a thrift store and I wrapped it as well. I have another one to wrap and then will need to save a couple more cereal boxes to wrap for some more magazines.

Another shot of the magazine holders.

Found these little plastic things with the drawers in them a couple years ago at the thrift store. I think they were like a dollar each because they had to be cleaned up. There are two of them. I have patterns in one of the drawers so that’s what that one is missing. I am trying to figure out WHAT to put the patterns in now. I have a filing cabinet and I think I am going to put them in it. I am playing around with some fonts on the computer now to see which one I want to use to label my things with. Don’t want to use these old ugly green and white ones.

I really like this one and have got to get my daughter to show me how to put them on some sticky back labels I have.

Ok stay tuned with me on this sewing room organization because I have found lots of neat ideas for organizing sewing rooms.

Sewing Room

2011-02-02T12:04:00.002-06:00

As my name on here implies, I have many hats that I wear. I am into many things. One of which is sewing. I’ve been sewing since before I was a teenager which has been quite awhile now. It bothers my neck a lot so I don’t get to sit and sew as much as I used to.

I have ALWAYS wanted to make a quilt and I have made 3 but I didn’t quilt them I tacked them because I KNEW I would NEVER finish quilting them because I don’t stay at something for very long because I get bored.

Anyway I have been wanting to fix my sewing room so it will be organized and neat for years now. What started all of this was, I went to the library to get some quilting books and found a book on how to organize your quilting and sewing space and that was it!

Then I got on here and found some more ideas last night and just HAD to share this ladies blog with you all! Anyone wanting ORGANATIONAL ideas, check her out because she is the queen of this word! SEW MANY WAYS Make sure you check out all her other pages as well because she has some awesome ideas on here. This blog is the BEST blog I have came across in a LONG TIME for this sort of stuff. Just totally awesome and I plan to use some of her ideas in my sewing room. She recycles stuff like you would not believe and I LOVE THAT!

Check out this SEWING TABLE she made from a hollow core door and two night stands or end tables. Then check out this DESIGN WALL she made behind the door.

I’ll have to measure my sewing room/office but I’d say it’s about a 10’ room. It’s very small but I will have to make the best of it.

Anyway stay tuned with me because very soon I will start this project I hope. Even going to paint the room. Will have to strip it down to nothing to get started on it.

Be sure to really check out Karen’s blog if you like to sew or craft, or organize, and so many other things!

Celebrating 35 Years of Marriage Today

2011-01-31T11:09:00.001-06:00

That’s right, my hubby and I are celebrating 35 years today.

While thinking on this subject last night I happened to think about something I read in a marriage book a few years ago. I’m sorry that I can’t remember who wrote the book to give them credit because it’s a really neat idea!

You see it’s like a bank account, you are either withdrawing or you’re making deposits into your marriage account. If you’re treating your spouse like you would like to be treated, Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, you’re making deposits but if you’re constantly being ugly to your spouse, saying things that hurt them, or being ugly in other ways, you are making withdrawals.

A marriage can’t last when all it gets is withdrawals. You have to make regular deposits into your bank account or you wont have any money in there to use your debit card or write a check on. So it is with marriage. If you’re wondering why your spouse is not responding to you it may be you’re over drawn because you’re always being ugly to them.

The Bible tells us to leave family, Fathers and Mothers and kids if that be the case from other marriages, and cleave to our spouse. The spouse can’t be the last one that is considered because that is against scripture for one and second she or he wont feel loved because he or she is always last with you.

This is a good reason why you can’t live next to your family because the Bible says leave them and cleave to your spouse. You’re spouse has to feel important to you and not the last person you consider if you want to have a loving and lasting relationship.

Do you consider all the things you can do for your spouse? Do you like serving him or her? Does it bring you joy to always try to out do something good your spouse does for you, and do something better for her or him? OR are you always thinking of yourself and being selfish? God tells us in His word the last shall be first and He loves a server!!!!

Are you making deposits into your marriage account? If you can’t do it for your spouse do it for God and sooner or later the spouse will start responding to it because if you’ve mainly withdrawn from the account you are in the negative and it will take awhile for her or him to respond to your deposits because they’ve been hurt.

Sometimes we have to really pray and ask God to help us because we’ve been so hurt in the relationship and we don’t want to give and make deposits because we’re not getting deposits into our account. That’s when we’re really loving like Christ loves, when we’re not getting in return, loving like Christ loves because He loves us all the time, it doesn’t matter how we are He STILL loves us.

Make sure you’re making deposits into your marriage account even though you may not think they deserve it because that’s what Christ would do and that’s how we’re suppose to love. Just pray and ask God for His help if it’s hard to do. Satan is out to destroy the family and he can’t if we wont let him.

Make deposits and get a good marriage!

Something Encouraging……..The Search is Over

2011-01-27T15:17:00.001-06:00

Was listening to a CD I have of the New Hinson’s yesterday while driving in town and I sit and jotted the lyrics to this song from the CD. I had wanted to put it on my blog a couple months ago and got on here to look for the lyrics and never could find them. So while I waited for hubby in some of the places he had to go into I wrote the lyrics off it. The words to this song is soooo true and SO ENCOURAGING!

The Search is Over

He knows what you’re going through. He’s walked IN your shoes! And He’s felt the pain til 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!

Blogging Ladies

2011-01-19T21:22:00.001-06:00

I sure hope you’re not growing weary of me posting some really neat blogs. I am finding all these neat blogs on The Inspired Home blog that I have shared the link to a couple times on here already. I decided to put a link on my blog of hers so you can find that on the left side of my blog.

Anyway this next lady has the VERY SAME PROBLEM I have with clutter or stuff as she calls it! I get it all cleaned up and organized and gave away and in no time it’s back again because like her I like to thrift store and bargain shop. You can read her blog about this subject since she says it much better than I do! See A SOFT PLACE TO LAND. I have also added her link on the left side of my blog so I can refer back to hers often as well as all the others.

Then there is THIS POST about clutter and I LOVVVVVE her idea on hiding unsightly cords to phones etc. We have to have them to charge our phones but we don’t have to have the clutter from them as this clever lady shows! See what mine looks like in the photo below. I just store them here on the cut out between the living room and dining room. Now I am going to hunt me some cans and then I’ll have to figure out just where to put them because they’re probably not going to fit into this area since it’s not very wide here. I don’t have many cabinets to store stuff on so I can’t put them there.

Home Decorating, Beth Moore and Bedroom Re-do

2011-01-18T23:14:00.001-06:00

I went today and bought the bright white paint for the ceilings in our dining room and kitchen. They’re in need of some paint so I figured before I paint the walls I need to do the ceiling in there. It hasn’t been refreshed since we built the house 21 years ago.

My sister and I did the living room a couple years ago and she painted the roof in there and then helped me do the walls. I don’t like heights so she got up high and I got the lower parts of the ceiling.

So one day real soon I hope to get the ceiling in the kitchen can dining room painted.

It’s raining today and so dreary. I lite a bunch of candles to make it nicer since it’s so dreary, oh and also drinking me some hot tea. I love the taste of Earl Grey and I found some that is organic that I wanted to try.

Am wanting to take a nap since this weather is like this all I want to do it go to sleep. lol

Now for the Beth Moore part………. I ordered a DVD of Beth’s (EXTRAORDINARY WOMEN and prayer) and they gave 2 links on it that I am going to share with you. www.isa61.com (There are free study guides on this one that go with the DVD’s.) and www.ewomen.net

I sure did enjoy watching her. I get so much from her teaching. I told my husband I wanted some more of her DVD’s because she teaches in a way that is encouraging to me and helps me to see things better and so much clearer. I am a visual person and she said she was as well. I learn things much better when I can see visual things.

Beth showed a cup, and said only God can fill our cups, that people can’t fill them and satisfy us. We can get encouragement from people but when we let God fill our cups and then people encourage us, our cup is over flowing then and we’re fulfilled. We have a hunger for more and God made that in us and if we’re not careful we’ll get into things we shouldn’t trying to fulfill that hunger that ONLY God can fulfill. As she was teaching on the DVD I couldn’t help but think of the song below.

Fill my cup Lord, I lift it up, Lord!
Come and quench this thirsting of my soul;
Bread of heaven, Feed me till I want no more--
Fill my cup, fill it up and make me whole!

Now this part of my post is about our master bedroom re-do…..

I don’t think I ever shared any photo’s with you on the bedroom re-do. I was in there last night on my laptop enjoying being alone and I just had a lamp on in there and decided to take some pix to share with you. It’s not finished yet but when I ever get it finished I promise I will share pix.

I’ll see IF I can find some of the before pix of the bedroom. It is DEFIENTLY much better than it was! It was SO DARK before. We really like it now but it needs something and I can’t figure out what it is. I have some more of the seagulls and my daughter is going to paint them for me like she did these.

I saw something last night while surfing on Melissa’s site that I am going to do to the other wall. The girl did a trio of mirrors on a wall and I need to do that on the opposite wall from the window. That way it will reflect the light from the window to bring in more light to this room.

ahhhhh here it is when it was RED and you can’t see all the wood that’s stained in this room from this pic! Please excuse the bed not being made. I was playing around trying to see which way I wanted the bed to be since I didn’t have a headboard on it.

As you can see I moved the bed and also found a headboard for our bed. Actually I bought the headboard and we, R and I added the taller posts on the sides and I painted it country white.

Here’s a pic of the color of the doors and the moldings before we painted them white. Sorry it’s blurry. We have 3 doors in our bedroom. I’d started painting the molding at the top of the wall already in this pic.

When I took those mirrors off the wall in the pic above this one, there was pieces of the paint that came off to. Hunks in fact. What I had to do was completely PEEL this mess off my wall as you can see from the next two pix. The only thing I could think of is when we built the house, the folks didn’t prime the walls before they painted them.

I had a MESS! It took me AWHILE to peel all these layers of paint off the wall! In the next pic you can see, it looks like leather! weird!!!!

Pretty in the Winter and Projects

2011-01-18T00:03:00.001-06:00

I don’t know about you but in the winter time I need some pretty things around me to get through it. I don’t like being shut up inside and I like bright colorful things. I decided to set my table with a pretty pink set of dishes my best friend bought me for my 50th birthday. Yeah I’m telling’ my age here. I need to get me some pretty little flowers to add to the center in the sugar dish.

We even ate out of the dishes at lunch time when we had taco’s. My friend totally surprised me with these dishes!!! My daughter told everyone that I loved pink. Oh by the way, it was a surprise tea party birthday! And man did they surprise me and THAT’S hard to do with me they say. I don’t have any forks or spoons or glasses on it yet. Still playing and tweaking.

Ignore my yellow dining room. I painted it that color a couple years ago and never finished the rest of the kitchen because I didn’t like it. Melissa over at The Inspired Rooms had a pic on her blog that I dearly loved and I think I have finally made up in my mind what color I want to do the kitchen and dining room in. I wanted to paint my cabinets as well but needed to decide on a color for the room and also for the back splash. I’ve made so many changes to this house with paint colors that I didn’t like, I didn’t want to do it again. I had seen a photo in a magazine and I don’t recall which one now but the cabinets were green and I dearly loved them. I think they had a glaze on them and I’ve never done that before. Anyway I was afraid I’d get sick of the green and then it would be a chore to have to keep repainting them so I changed my mind. BUT I keep being drawn BACK to these green cabinets when I see photos of them. Melissa had a photo on her blog and the kitchen was a brilliant white and the cabinets were green and I LOVED IT! So I think I need to go with the white in my moldings and stay with the soft color that I like on the bottom of the dining room because I like that color. Just not wild about that yellow in there. Our living room is painted green and both hubby and I love the color. He says it’s relaxing to him and it is me as well. I think I have FINALLY found a color we both like!

In reading Alexandra Stoddard’s book, Feeling at Home, she says to write down some colors you like and are drawn to. I have two of her books I bought a few years ago and have really enjoyed reading and learning from her. Then last week or the week before I went to the thrift store and found this book of hers. Home decorating is so hard for me for some reason. I see it in my head and then when I finish it doesn’t look like I envisioned it. I am a perfectionist and I think that’s what the problem is!! It’s never good enough to me. I AM learning though that things don’t have to be perfect! UGHHHH it’s hard BUT I AM LEARNING!

If you have followed my blog for long you know what trouble I have had getting a color we could like in our bedroom. I went from an old dull white and the room being so dark with the one window in it, to a pepto bismol pink….. yeah yuck! And then RED. I chose that color because hubby LOVES red but he didn’t like it for the bedroom. THEN I decided ok, I love the beach and I’ll fix it in a beach theme and we like it now. The top half of the wall is sky blue and the bottom is white. We (my sis and I) painted the stained doors and molding because it was all stained and made the room sooooo dark. So now it’s really light in color and not so dark!

I’m STILL not finished with the bedroom because I need floor covering and still have to paint a couple more pieces of the furniture. Hubby tells me in the spring we will do the floor. I think I want the laminated hardwood floor in it.

Melissa has so inspired me with her blog with all the eye candy on it that I have all sorts of ideas rolling around in my head again and that’s so nice. When I get my energy back from this crud we’ve all had I am ready to tackle them again. I found some toile fabric at a garage sale back in the fall and I hope it will be enough to cover my dining chairs with.

While reading Alexandra’s book last night I had to stop and write down a few projects I NEED to finish. I have a half page but some of those hubby will have to help with. He’s retired now so I hope I can get some help from him to get some of this done.

Our master bath needs updating since the wallpaper has been on there for like 21 years now. It’s dusty rose, remember when that was so popular? I want to paint the bath to match the bedroom with the beach theme. I love seashells and am trying to figure out just how to decorate it.

Be sure to visit Melissa’s site if you’re needing some inspiration for decorating your home. She gives some good advise and some neat eye candy to!

Inspiration

2011-01-16T20:03:00.001-06:00

I don’t know about you but I have so many things I dream of doing to our home. We built the home 21 years ago if I am remembering right and there’s some things that really need tending to with it. We have a pretty large front porch that faces the west and we don’t use it at all. I would dearly LOVE to close it in with windows and have a sunroom! I LOVVVVVVE sunrooms!!!! But hubby doesn’t share my dreams with our home. He’s retired now as well.

I still dream though even though at times I get weary thinking I’ll never get what I dream about but it SURE IS FUN! So for the time being until I win some money I will have to just make me a place to sit and dream out of the front porch. I THINK I can screen it in by myself if I have to. That’s what I’ve thought about lately because we have 3 cats that stay on my cushions out back and they get them so nasty and I nor anyone else wants to sit where they’ve been. I posted about what I’d like to do for now with the front porch so I will have a place of my own to sit and read and play on the computer.

Anyway the post is about a lady that has been very inspirational to me. I found her blog about 3 days ago I guess it was. I had done a search on decorating the home and she has soooo many pretty inspirational pix on her blog! I love the beach as she does and I love the Coastal Living magazine and I see she does as well.

You have just got to check out her blog if you like to decorate your home. I have fits trying to decorate mine. It doesn’t come easy at all for me. I know what I like, I just can’t get it all together to make it look like I want it to.

Her blog is called THE INSPIRED ROOM and you can click on that to go check out her blog. I just know you will enjoy her enthusiasm as I have! She and I are a lot alike it seems. Although she seems to have the gift to decorate and I have no clue!

I’ve also been dreaming of some built in book shelves for all our books. Hubby and I love reading and we need some book shelves for all our books. Right now they are in our closet on shelves taking up our closet space. I saw something several years ago I wanted to do on one wall in our living room. The wall where the fireplace is. We have a cathedral ceiling in there and I would have lots of space for books on that wall with some book shelves.

She also has a home on the beach! OMGosh I’d LOVE to have a home on the beach!!!!! I didn’t even know I liked the beach until about 4 years ago! lol Here I am in my, well lets say later years and I am JUST NOW finding out I LOVE THE BEACH!!!! I never in a million years would have thought I would have liked the beach! I hate sand in my bed and in my shoes! lol BUT I LOVE walking on the beach, seeing the sunsets and watching it come up as well AND picking up seashells. PLUS I have no allergy problems when I am on the beach. SO there, it’s good for my health so I NEED a beach home!

I’ve got to get after some home deco projects I’ve been needing to do!

Anyway check out her blog!!!!

Bargain Shopping

2011-01-13T15:53:00.001-06:00

I got to go to my favorite shopping spot yesterday and had to share some of my bargains with you.

I also found some of the little pegs for my ceramic Christmas tree while I was there.

First off, the pretty angel tree topper I found. By the way for all these things total was $1.84.

The price tag on her was 29.95 when she was originally bought.

And Snow White lights……. Don’t have a clue what I will do with them but I am sure a niece will get them.

And this Christmas fleece jacket for me.

And these two pretty candles……

There was also a large thing of cross stitching fabric I gave to my sister.

Re-arranging Things a Bit

2011-01-09T18:12:00.001-06:00

Well I THINK I have all the Christmas decorations down and put away. Although the tree is out on the carport since hubby is still sick and couldn't help with the heavy lifting. I had to carry it all a few pieces at a time to the box. That box is mega heavy so I just drug the thing onto the carport and said when all this cold is over we can put it where it belongs.

It's like a breath of fresh air to me to have things moved around and changed up a bit.

I am sitting here looking at my mis-matched furniture which I LOVE mind you. But am looking at the different colored woods thinking this lighter table needs to be with the lighter chair and this darker table needs to be with the darker chair etc. Cindy (My daughter) bought yet another table at the auction last night and I had to try to see WHERE I could fit it into our living room. I think she has a little table love like I have a lamp love. ;)

Anyway like I said before it’s very refreshing to me to get all the Christmas decorations down and put away and everything dusted and cleaned so I can re-arrange what-knots and furniture. I don’t know about your house but mine can sure get really dusty with all the Christmas decorations out on the mantel and the tables.

We wound up breaking quite a few glass balls this evening trying to get the decorations down because I didn’t secure them on the mantel for one and then I wound up dropping something heavy into the box I had some of them in. I broke like 5 I think and that was my new ones I’d JUST bought a few weeks ago. UGHHH

Now I’ve got all my boxes of what-knots sitting in here to put back out. I usually have to remove all my stuff for the Christmas decorations so it wont look soooooo cluttered. I think I am ready for some pretty things, in fact some FRESH flowers would be nice since it looks like I might be inside for a few days with this ice and cold they’re saying we’re in for.

I hope you all stay warm and snug in this mess and that you have all your decorations down and stored away.

Rose

Auction

2011-01-08T23:32:00.001-06:00

Yesterday my daughter and I shopped the antique stores and today we went to an auction. WOW had loads of fun BOTH days!

I took just a few pix so you could see what they had at the auction. They had some FINE antiques and I mean everyone I looked closely at had NO blemishes on them! I was floored at what some of these things went for. I mean they just gave some of them away! It was from an estate and this lady had some beautiful stuff. Since my house is sooo small and FULL already I couldn’t get anything that took up any space.

This was a tapestry they had hanging on the wall that would have been soooo pretty in a frame.

There were like 5 secretaries that sold.

I LOVED this sofa and there was a chair to match. The chair wasn’t the same wood but the fabric matched on both and it looked brand new. The sofa sold for like 300.00 if I am remembering right and the chair was close to 200.00.

This next piece went cheap to.

These next few pieces were a bedroom set and the WHOLE set went for a little over 1 thousand. THAT blew my mind it went for THAT CHEAP! It came with this piece the box springs and mattresses, the night stands, the dressing table, the bed frame, TWO mirrors, the dresser.

I mean this set was FINE! You can see part of the dresser there off to the left where the lady is standing. They were starting to auction it off so I didn’t get a pic of it.

This next piece I really liked! I told my daughter you would be able to see my teacups and teapots all the way around in this one. I was a little surprised because this one went for like 300.00 something.

This was a really cool piece and they said it was for maps? Anyway it went for a fair price as well. There were lots of dealers that got some really good prices! Oh this came in two pieces and was mega heavy!

Notice the trunk thingie in this next pic. It was carved like that on the top as well. There was something called a Monks bench that they said came from England and it was sitting close to this but I didn’t get a pic of it. There was also a side board that was from 1800’s that was something to behold and that piece didn’t even sell for 600.00. It was sold for 500 something.

And this is what I came away with. I really liked this little jug with the handle and I got it at the very end of the auction. It reminds me of one me and my mother in law got a few years before she passed away. The one she and I got was for pickles and it doesn’t have the handle nor the lid but it is at least 4 times as large as this one.

At the end of the auction the auctioneer told everyone if they had something that wanted him to auction off to go get it and he’d do it for them because they still had herds of stuff to auction off for next week. I had seen this little jug and thought it was cute when I was looking around at everything earlier. I had checked to make sure it wasn’t chipped or cracked or anything but it never hit the table. Then he started auctioning off the things everyone had sit on the table and my sister in law and I were chatting. When she walked away I noticed this little jug was STILL sitting over there, so I got it and put it on the table. I won the auction on it and got it for 7.00. Someone started bidding against me but I was prepared to go at least to 20 bucks because I really like it!!! Hubby couldn’t believe I was prepared to go THAT high. lol

As you can see in the background on the pic I like the clear containers in my kitchen. I put the quart jar beside it so you could tell it’s size. I think it would make a cute little cookie jar. Hubby says it’s a pickle jar but I think stick peppermint was sold from it. He also said they used to sell pickled eggs out of them but I don’t recall those having the handle.

I hope you enjoyed the tour of all the goodies I took pix of. There were LOTS more but I didn’t get pix of it all. To tell you HOW MUCH they had to auction off, they started at 2 this evening and went until after 8 tonight.

Goodies from Antique and Flea Market Shopping

2011-01-07T21:42:00.001-06:00

Wanted to show you my finds for today. I couldn’t pass these up because I have a lot of dishes with the gold on it they will go with. Anyway the little cups weren’t but 18.00 for the set and the glasses were only 10.00 for the set. They all go together and I was only going to get the cups until my daughter pointed out the glasses and since she will be the one to inherit all my goodies when I’m gone I couldn’t split up the set.

The little gold bands come off the little cups. I could use them for desserts or for a tea party etc. Then I could also use the glasses for desserts.

My Free Chair

2011-01-07T20:38:00.001-06:00

Wanted to post you a pic of my new free chair. Like I said in the earlier post, it needs to be redone but I’m going to TRY to do it myself once I find the fabric I want for it.

and another shot of it.

I love the back of it and also LOVE the curvy legs!!!

My daughter and I went antique shopping today. We had planned this a couple weeks ago. We haven’t done anything together like this in quite a long time so we went anyway even though I still don’t have my energy level back yet. I had to sit down quite a few times but I made it. Anyway I found a couple of goodies that I will share pix of later. We had a fun day together.

Checking In

2010-12-30T18:40:00.003-06:00

I sure hope you all had a very good Christmas! We did and I am playing on mine right now. Santa gave me a laptop. :)
My daughter and I was sick but I think we may be getting a little bit better now. I am still drained but trying to do a few things that need doing so I wont be sooooo weak when I am able to do anything.
Started taking down the Christmas decorations today. Got them all down off the front porch now.
I just wanted to check in so you wouldn't think I fell off the face of the earth or something. lol
I also have something I can't wait to share with you that my sister scored for me.It's an old Victorian chair. When I saw it awhile back I had a fit over it and they had decided to throw it out. :( Thank goodness my sis remembered me or I would have just died! I've not been feeling well so I don't have all the programs I need downloaded on this computer to be able to show you the pic. But I will share it when I can. It's covered in that old gold fabric that used to be soooo popular years back. It seems to be a nice sound chair and I can't wait to find some fabric to recover it in.
Also wanted to wish you all a very HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!
Be sure to come back and see my chair when I get the pic uploaded on here. :)

Christmas Cooking

2010-12-17T21:47:00.001-06:00

I don’t know about you but I sure enjoy cooking for Christmas when I have the energy. Today I have been working like Santa’s little elf making some Christmas goodies. I made 2 more batches of my peanut butter balls, and then I made hubby some Oatmeal Chocolate Coconut Chewy’s and I am here to tell you those things are nothing but yummy and chocked full of chocolate chips! Here is that recipe if you’re interested and I have NO IDEA where I found this recipe so I hope no one will get upset with me for sharing it. I am not claiming it as my own.

Oatmeal Chocolate Coconut Chewy
Yields 5 dozen

Ingredients
1 cup butter, softened
1 1/4 cups packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs
2 tablespoons milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)
3 cups rolled oats
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
1 cup shredded coconut

Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F .
In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar and white sugar until smooth.
Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the milk and vanilla.
Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; stir into the sugar mixture until well blended.
Stir in the oats, chocolate chips. walnuts and coconut until evenly distributed.
Drop by rounded tablespoons onto ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven for a chewy cookie or 14 minutes for a firmer cookie.
Cool for 1 minute on the cookie sheet and then remove to wire rack.
Cool completely and then store in tightly sealed container.

Also made our dog, Buddy some treats and here See below) is that recipe if you’d like it. I made a double batch of them and got 97 treats and I have no doubt in my mind the dog LOVES them! It was so funny because the first one I gave him to try he came back to me in the kitchen and stood there watching me waiting on another one! lol Also don’t know where online I found this recipe but just wanted to share it in case someone was interested in having it.

Dog Treats

Don’t forget to purchase a dog bone cookie cutter.

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 tlb. baking powder

1 cup peanut butter (smooth or chunky)

1 cup milk

Directions

preheat oven to 375.

In a bowl, combine flour and baking powder.

In another bowl, mix peanut butter and milk.

Then add dry ingredients and mix.

Place on a lightly floured surface and knead.

Roll dough into 1/4” thickness and use a cookie cutter to cut shapes.

Bake 20 minutes on greased pan until lightly brown.

Cool on rack.

These cookies will burn easily so keep an eye on them.

and now for proof they are yummy….

The cookie treats cut out with the bone cookie cutter. The cookie cutter is about 3” long.

Cooked on the cookie sheet.

Now for hubby’s cookies……

Then the peanut butter balls……

I’ve had this peanut butter ball recipe for many many years. A good friend of mine, Vera Anderson gave it to me wayyyy before I even had a computer so I know I didn’t get this one on the internet.

So I’ll share it with you as well. It’s very easy to make!!

Peanut Butter Balls I ALWAYS make a double batch!

1 package of graham crackers crushed

1 box confections sugar

2 sticks melted butter

1- 1 pound jar peanut butter (I always use creamy)

2/3 block gulf wax (paraffin wax)

6 oz. chocolate chips

Directions

Mix crackers, butter, sugar, and peanut butter together in large bowl.

Roll into balls and refrigerate 2-4 hours.

Melt chocolate and wax together in a double boiler so the chocolate wont burn.

Then dip balls in chocolate and place on wax paper. I dip mine with a toothpick and then just wiggle the toothpick a little so it will fall off onto the wax paper.

**************************************

Now tomorrow I will try to do some pecan sandies and some old fashioned molasses cookies. Also I’ve got to dip the peanut butter balls I have in the fridge chilling.

I hope you are getting your Christmas cooking done and all your shopping as well.

I wish each and every one of you a VERY VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Pumpkin Spice Cookie Recipe

2010-12-13T21:03:00.001-06:00

I wanted to share a recipe with you all. I don’t remember where I found the recipe but it could have been at THE TASTY KITCHEN BLOG. I made them a few minutes ago and they are really good AND easy which is a must these days for me! Plus I had all the ingredients on hand and that is also a plus for me.

Pumpkin Spice Cookies
(Makes about 50 soft cookies)

1-½ cups Butter (soft)
2-½ cups Packed Brown Sugar
4 whole Eggs
2 teaspoons Vanilla
1 pint Pumpkin Puree
1 quart All-purpose Flour
2 teaspoons Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Salt
2 teaspoons Cinnamon
1 teaspoon Nutmeg
1 teaspoon Cloves (was a little too much cloves for me, going to add ¾ tea. next time.)
1 teaspoon Allspice

Preparation Instructions
Preheat oven to 350F.
In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar.
Beat in eggs, vanilla, and pumpkin.
In a separate bowl, combine dry ingredients then stir into the creamed mixture.
Drop onto a greased cookie sheet and bake for 9-12 minutes.

I had a small sweet potato in the fridge that no one had eaten so I mashed it up and threw it in the batter to. I used a heaping teaspoon full of the batter for each cookie. These cookies are really good and soft but I was thinking of something I want to try with them.

I’d like to make some of the creamy white confectioners filling that is in the middle of some cookies for these. I think it would be sooooo good! Now if I can just find that recipe!

More pix of the cookies……

Whoops looks like I may have found a recipe for a white filling for these AND there is a cookie called, Pumpkin Whoopie Pie! so that might just be what these turn out to be.

Filling

3 cups confectioners sugar

1/2 cup margarine (softened )

8 ounces cream cheese (softened )

1 teaspoon vanilla flavoring

NOTE: You may want to half this recipe because it seems like a lot for this small amount of cookies.

Cream all together until smooth. Put into a zip-lock bag and clip the bottom corner just a little bit so you can squeeze the filling out the hole onto the cookies. You may want to put down some wax paper to do this on so you will have a place to fix the cookies.

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

2010-12-07T20:58:00.001-06:00

We’re just about to get finished with our decorating.

I only lack the garland around the back door and I will be done. Oh except for the beads on the bottom of the tree. I lack one more row of those and didn’t want to have to go back in the attic again for them.

I figured I would share some of the decorations with you all.

A few of the ornaments on the tree.

Next pic is the mantel.

Above the windows with the Christmas cards on the shelf.

Little nativity scene lamp.

The nativity.

I hope you all are about done with your Christmas decorating to!

Blogger Named Mary

2010-12-02T02:08:00.001-06:00

I have been looking at this blog for I know 45 minutes now and just had to share it with you all. I found the blog simply by doing a search on crazy patchwork quilts.

As you saw from my last post I want to do something with my old quilt. So I was looking trying to get some ideas. I don’t really quilt although I have wanted to. I do have a bed spread pinned together to do one day though. I bought it and it has that old stuffing junk in it and when I washed it, it knotted up inside it so I took it out and added me a blanket inside it. Now I have to sew it all together.

Anyway I have been enjoying her blog for the last few minutes and I see she has tea parties!

I LOVE having tea parties and love anything related to tea things. I have had to chill out on my collection of tea related things because I have NO MORE room for it!

Anyway just had to share her blog with you. She is a VERY interesting lady indeed and living in a really neat place as well! Looks like she has some wonderful recipes to! Anyway do check out her blog! I know I will be visiting it again as well.

Devonhouse Recollections

Christmas Decorating

2010-12-01T23:30:00.001-06:00

I am getting closer and closer to getting things decorated for Christmas.

I am going to use blue ornaments this year on my tree. I am tired of my ornaments that I have had many many years. So I bought me some blue ones this year. Will probably have to still use some of the old things to fill in with though.

I guess I will have to make us some stockings to match to. I was planning on using white, or silver with the blue ornaments and wanted to use gold but the DD says that wont look right. I think white, gold, and blue would be pretty with clear lights myself.

I have an old old quilt in my attic in a box to keep it safe that my Maw Maw made when we were little kids that I would dearly LOVE to make stockings out of. Just don’t know if I have the heart to cut it up. Although it’s all to pieces in spots already. It’s all hand sewn and it’s been falling apart for many years so I don’t use it anymore. It would be sooooo neat as stockings! She was always my favorite Grandma because she was so precious. I wish I’d had another little girl so I could have named her after my Maw Maw, Carrie. Anyway I’ll have to ponder on this for awhile to see IF I can cut it up for stockings or not. Don’t think it’s fixable so this would be a neat use for it. I’ve had it since I was a teen and I dearly love the old thing! I just can’t toss it!!!!

Anyway figured I could sew some lace trim that looks old and some old buttons in the seam areas where she’d sewn to help hold them together as well. This would be one of those projects that would tug on my heart strings if you know what I mean. She liked to make quilts and I know she’d be happy I couldn’t just toss it out and I think she’d be pleased that I made something from it. As you can see I’m trying to decide. lol The old quilt is nothing fancy by any means. My Uncle had an upholstery shop and he’d save her the ticking from making the mattresses so she could make the quilts with it. But that’s what makes it even more important to me. So you see WHY I couldn’t toss it and I keep hanging onto it.

I’ll have to get it out and take a pic of it so you can see it.

Edited to add the pix……..

This is the ticking they used to use to make mattresses with. She made two of these from the ticking, one for each side. Then she sandwiched old pieces of cloth inside it.

You can see both sides of the quilt on this next shot. She made them to keep us warm. I have another one but she made it with little squares of fabric and it’s not quilted like this one is. So tickled that I have TWO of her quilts!!!!

Little Urn Christmas Trees

2010-11-30T21:36:00.001-06:00

Finally got my urns this year for my birthday so I made me some little Christmas trees in them with some tomato cages and wrapped the cages with garland. It didn’t take long at all to do it.

This project didn’t cost me anything because I already had everything I needed to do it with. The old garlands I have had many years and the lights, oh AND the tomato cages. lol

The tomato cages fit so snug into the urns I didn’t have to attach them in anyway. I was worried about how to attach them because I didn’t want to have to put soil in them. I tried it first and they fit so well I didn’t add any soil to it.

One is fatter than the other one but it’s ok. That piece of garland was fatter than the other one. This is the skinny one without lights. It was raining, cold, AND windy out there today but I got em done!

Now here it is with lights.

Then here is the other one that is fatter.

Both of them together. Sorry the pic is a little blurry. I am going to add some garland around the door with some bows and lights as well but I was too chilled to do that today. With all the rain, wind, and cold, I had to get inside and warm up.

If you’d like to make you some little Christmas trees you can find all kinds of directions online. Just go to www.google.com and type in how to make tomato cage Christmas trees and you will get lots of directions.

It’s very easy. All I did was turn the cage upside down and tie the wires together that you stick into the soil. That is the top of it. Then I stuck them into my urns and started putting the garland around them. I just used pieces of the garland to wrap around the cage here and there to hold it in place. Then I added the lights. You might need 3 garlands between the two of them though because 1 wasn’t quite enough to get one of them all covered. I had some short pieces that I used to finish it up with. Then I used a strand of 100 clear lights and a 50 strand for each one. I think I might need more lights on them though so you could use 2- 100 strand lights on each tree. It was fun to make and didn’t take but about 15-30 minutes each. I had to transplant a plant that was in one of my urns, so it took me a little longer on one of them.

Happy Thanksgiving Wishes

2010-11-23T08:53:00.001-06:00

I wanted to wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving. I hope each and every one of you get to be with family this year and you truly are blessed indeed.

Nothing like being with family at Thanksgiving and Christmas. So many folks are lonely and have no family. It would be so neat to make them a part of your family this Thanksgiving.

I think of my friend Georgia Keefe at this time of the year every year. She was my online friend. She passed away awhile back and I sure do miss her but she is with her Ben whom she loved so much. She was always emailing me funny stuff and keeping me laughing. She lost her Ben (her hubby) at around Thanksgiving several years ago and she would share with me how she missed him and how lonely she was. She lived in Indiana and how I wish we could have met in person. She was such a sweet lady and I tried my best to encourage her.

At Thanksgiving she wouldn’t have anyone and I asked her to find a lady friend at church and go out to eat on Thanksgiving and go shopping etc. So she did that one year because she said she was going to be alone and I just couldn’t stand the thought of her being alone on Thanksgiving.

So if you know someone like Georgia, you might want to ask them to share in your Thanksgiving and make them a part of your family. I know they will appreciate it.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone and HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO YOU TO GEORGIA!!!! I KNOWWWWW you are having a much better one than we could ever have on this earth!

Man I can’t close with that like I was going to do! Have you ever thought about having Thanksgiving in Heaven? Now THAT would be Thanksgiving! Could you just imagine the food and how it’s all spread out on the table and how pretty everything is and how God is just chatting with us all and we’re praising Him? A little like the Lords Supper pic we see with the long table and everyone gathered around it and all our friends and family that have gone on? Oh my goodness it’s just going to be awesome spending Thanksgiving with our King and our love ones one day!!! Make sure and thank Him for our blessings and again HAPPY Thanksgiving to you all!

Rose

Thinking About Christmas Decorating

2010-11-20T14:58:00.001-06:00

Am wondering how many more folks are thinking about Christmas decorating?

I usually do my decorating after lunch on Thanksgiving day. Well I used to do that but now a days I start some time after that. One year I even started in December with it. I have NEVER waited that long because I was just too excited about getting it done.

My hubby and I bought a Christmas tree a few years ago at Lowes but when we got it home, it was much too big for the space it needed to go in. I should have taken it back then, but didn’t. So I have lived with it ever since. I couldn’t ever put the lower branches on it because it was wayyyyyyyy too big around and it was also so close to the floor there was no space for the presents.

Those branches we weren’t using so last year we took those and cut them to fill in some areas on about 3 rows that were missing branches from day one.

So last year hubby tried to get me to throw the tree away and lets just get another one. You know how it is after Christmas, no extra money. I told him no, I can’t get rid of it until I get a new one. Then this year it hit me, why not cut the inside part of the branches off so it wont be sooo wide.

So when I got the idea I asked hubby would he cut the branches off so we could keep this tree since we’d paid so much for it. It’s a nice full tree and the ones I’ve seen for around 200.00 aren’t as full as this one. So that’s what we’re doing now, cutting them off. He lacks 3 more rows from being done with it. I got a couple shots of him and the tree while he’s working on it. You can’t tell, but he DOES have some glasses on to protect his eyes from the steel.

Hubby loves this cutting tool. It has came in sooooo handy for all kinds of things. I think this is the one that somebody gave to him.

As you can tell, I always color code my rows of branches on the tree. That way we will know what row goes where as we’re putting it together. You can’t see these once the other branches are put on the tree. When we bought it, there was different colors of paint on row but it was so faint I decided to color code it with pipe cleaners.

As you can see the tree is sooo nice and full. I haven’t even messed with the branches to fluff them out or anything. We just stuck them in place to make sure we’re getting shorter as we go up the tree.

Stay tuned for some decorating photos really really soon. I will start that up some time after Thanksgiving hopefully. I’m going to start working on the tree and when that’s finished I will decorate other things n the house so please come back and visit me again soon.

P.S. It just hit me, Hubby is going to see his brother for a little while so I might just get the garland out of the attic and decorate the banisters outside. I don’t like to do it when it’s cold because I freeze to death trying to get it done. It’s a pretty day for it so I just might go ahead with that today.

Rose

Carving Pumpkins

2010-10-29T11:32:00.001-05:00

Or should I say, punkins like my hubby says. ;)

My sister and daughters boyfriend got with us all last night and we all carved some punkins.

You can tell just how serious we are about carving pumpkins because of the faces we are making as we carve. ;)

This is my sister carving hers.

Then I HAD to show the one I took after the one above with her grinning from ear to ear.

Then the hubby and Cindy carving theirs. Caught Cindy with her eyes closed on this one.

This is some serious business.

Then her boyfriend Waylon, drawing some art on her Halloween CD cases.

Then the group picture. Notice the windows are open. I had the AC set on 70 and Cindy was hot. ;)

Here’s mine below. I just noticed I didn’t get any of the pix of the others after they got finished. We went outside to take pix and we smelled smoke and we’re under a burn ban so that got me side tracked. Turns out the fire was at his brothers house next door to us. Fire trucks got it put out before it caused any serious threats to any of us.

I think my daughter got some pix of the other pumpkins and I will share those later.

Edited to add: OK I got some pix of the others punkins. ;)

My sisters scarecrow pumpkin.

Cindys witch…

We even baked us a cake for the occasion.

Waylon carved one but his was a daytime pumpkin and wouldn’t show up at night.

Fall and Thanksgiving Decorating

2010-10-25T21:17:00.001-05:00

I am still working on my table. I want to use these dishes so I am trying to work in some of this color into it. I don’t know IF I will be able to make it work but I am trying! ;) This green color (in the plates) is really hard to find in candles and napkins or napkin rings etc.

I thought about using the green candle in the centerpiece. My plans were to use those brownish napkins stacked up on the other side as well. I’m still playing with it as you can see.

My Retreat on Our Front Porch

2010-10-24T17:20:00.001-05:00

I got another idea and I have no idea how long it will take me to get this one done. Hopefully NOT as long as it has our bedroom!

First off, we live pretty far off the main road so this will be nice and private! We never use our front porch. No one ever sits out there except for me and that’s not very often. I have wanted to close it in with glass windows but that doesn’t seem like an option with my hubby. It’s just wasted space and I can’t stand that.

SOOO with that said, I have decided I need a space that is feminine and just for me! I am going to decorate it with pink rose fabrics, really shabby chic but with no chipping paint. Hoping to find some sheets or whatever at the thrift store to use for this project. I’ve been seeing lots like I am referring to. In fact just yesterday I saw a pillow sham that was white background with small pastel pink roses in it. It was quilted and I didn’t even think to get it. :( It wouldn’t have been but .25 or .50 for the thing. ughhhh

I know I have a couple things I can get started with but I want to get all the wood cleaned and painted. It is all in really bad need of cleaning. As you can see DH’s exercise bike thingie is out here but I will be moving that to the back patio so this will be MY space! ALL MINE! ;)

I also don’t want the swing on here.

I want a hanging bed so I can lay on it and read and just take a nap if I want to. I’d put the bed in front of the windows about where the swing is but the opposite way so it wont get wet or I wont get wet when it’s raining and I’m out there. ;)

I don’t have any shutters on the front porch because I took them down. I got tired of being stung by wasps!! That’s ALL the shutters are fit for down south, wasps nest areas. lol

A friend of mine gave me the little metal tables. I want to get glass cut for them or put a top on them and use ceramic tiles.

Ignore all the cushions turned up like this. If I don’t do this the cats will sleep on them and I don’t like to sit where they’ve been. So when I do sit out here I turn them back up to keep them off the cushions.

This is a view from the opposite end of the porch. As you can see it’s a really nice size area. I want the hanging bed on the end where the swing is and then on the end where DH’s bike is, I want a small table with 3 chairs I think. Oh by the way, the bike only gets used about once ever 6 months so I’m sure it would be ok to relocate it. :)

I’ve got several beige almost sheer curtain panels I can hang up around the outsides of the porch to soften it up some as well.

I’d LOVE to have some ideas on how to dress it up with accessories. In the pic below I wanted to show how wide the areas are between the windows. I have some metal things like sconces, and a metal planter. I also have several mirrors as well. The areas between the windows and door is 34” and 29” wide. I have a plastic framed mirror that is narrow and long that I think would be neat in between the windows on one end. I’ll need to paint it to match. I think a pastel pink would be neat. With the huge oak out front you wont be able to see it from the road anyway.

The house faces the west by the way.

As you can see I have a wicker lamp that I’m going to paint to match everything. Not sure exactly what color yet though.

I’d like to at least screen the porch in to keep the cats out so I can keep it clean. I figured I would put a piece of clear plastic over the bed when I’m not using it so they can’t get on it. Don’t think they will like the plastic.

I really need to start looking at porch pix online and also I have a few porch books I can get some inspiration from as well.

This should really be fun because I can fix it up just for me and not have to worry about getting too feminine. :) weeeeeeeeeeee

Stay tuned…………. and if ya got some ideas I’d love to hear them.

Fall and Thanksgiving Decorating

2010-10-21T21:41:00.001-05:00

I used to never decorate my table for Thanksgiving and I never decorated at fall time either. That is until the ladies at the Country Sampler forum got me started. :) Thanx ladies, I didn’t know what I was missing!!!

Wanted to show you what I have got done so far. This is just a start. Trying to figure out what to use to make some maple leaves for my napkin rings with. I saw some and the stuff they made them out of looked like really thin plastic. They used a maple leaf to cut the design with. It was fall colors and it was just too neat! I wanted something that would hold up to the attic heat because I always store my things up there. Anyway here are my pix so far.

This is a pottery plate I found for .25 at my favorite thrift store and it has a place for 5 candles sticking up off the plate. I bought it with fall and Thanksgiving in mind. I should have taken a pic of the plate before I filled it with my things. The roll of ribbon out beside it, I made a bow out of it to put in there with the pumpkins and leaves.

Got the idea for sitting the little pumpkins on the candle holders from Cindy over at My Romantic Home. Only thing her pumpkin candle was MUCH neater than mine because hers was SHINY! ;)

I’ve got to get my table cloth and napkins out and fix the table. I have a set of dishes my wonderful Aunt Nellie gave me a couple years back that I want to use with my arrangement. I sure HOPE it works because I’m not good at matching colors and I so want to use THIS set of dishes with this!!!

I’m trying to decide IF I want to leave the little basket on there and just where it needs to sit.

I found the little basket awhile back, again at my favorite thrift store and it wasn’t but .50. It’s shiny to! :) Although you can’t tell in this pic. :(

That was a little piece of Styrofoam on the side of it that I didn’t see until I was loading the pic on here.

Stay tuned for more…….. and I’d sure like to see your fall and Thanksgiving decorations to.

Garage Sales

2010-10-09T22:59:00.001-05:00

My sis and I decided to go to some garage sales today. We haven’t gotten to do it at all this summer yet so we took the day to enjoy it.

I wanted to share some of the things I found with you. I found several neat things, but I think my favorite is this magnolia tea set. The lady let me have it for $3. I LOVE this tea set!

And as ya know magnolia is our state flower, here in Mississippi. :)

and these really large candles for $1 each. They’re usually over $5 each.

and two large pieces of toile fabric, $1 ea.

and this nice large vase for .25.

and last but not least some pretty shiny jewelry, at $1 ea. ;) Love this broach and the ear rings are a pretty deep purple and the other smaller pair are like a smoky amethyst.

I also found a dirty clothes hamper that is made of wood and cloth that I plan on redoing and a small CD/cassette/radio jam box. Oh and also a Fisher Price music box for a babies crib that plays music and it was a whopping .25.

That’s all I can think of now.

P.S. did I say I love the tea set? wink wink

Simple Side Dish

2010-09-29T18:08:00.001-05:00

Wanted to share a recipe I have made a couple times. Hubby loves and I do mean LOVES rice and this one he really loves! It’s very easy to make and fast to!

Really and truly you could probably make a meal out of this by just adding some small pieces of boiled chicken if you’d like to have a whole meal. I would have to have a piece of cornbread with mine though. ;)

Broccoli and 3 Cheese Sauce with Rice

I use brown rice because it’s healthier for me, but you can use white rice if you prefer. Brown rice takes longer than white rice to cook. I usually cook more than what I need for this meal because hubby loves the rice so much. Cook about 1-2 cups of rice. You may not want as much rice as I put in ours. You may only want 1 cup. Try it both ways and see which one you like best.

Then get you a 24 oz. size of Green Giant Broccoli and Three Cheese Sauce. It’s the bag you steam. Go ahead and stick it in the microwave and steam it.

When it’s done and sit as long as the recipe on the back of the bag says to do, mix it with your rice.

Hope you enjoy this recipe!

Treasure In the Making

2010-09-22T07:15:00.002-05:00

Well this would should be really fun!

My sister remarried her 1st husband and he has a daughter from another marriage. I hate to call children step children! So I’m not going to do that! Anyway she is getting married shortly and needed a home for beginning her new life. I WISH I had thought to post before pix of it but didn’t think to!

Well let me back up, you wont know what in the world I am referring to!

Stephie’s (young lady to be married soon) her step Dad does repair work and he acquired this trailer. Stephie is going to fix it up for their home and it’s a neat trailer! I am SOOOOOO excited for them!!!

Anyway this place was just left after the tree limb went through the roof and her step Dad, Dad and future hubby are going to fix it. From the looks of the trailer it was like time stood still after the tree limb went through the roof because the lady just left things as they were in there.

There were lots of stuff in it along with furniture etc. Lots and lots of stuff in it! It's just so neat for them to be starting out their new life with so many things that make a house a home! You would not believe the clothes, shoes, and magazines this lady had! There was a 55 gallon bag of shoes! Anyway I went over to help them on Monday and we got a truck load that was over the cab of the truck out that day. Then they got out another large truck load the next day.

I talked to my sis last night and they were shampoo-ing carpets and washing down the walls. I will probably be going back today so maybe I can get some pix if she doesn’t mind me sharing them on here.

I love seeing the before and afters of things like this turning into a treasure. That is sooooo much fun to see the after shots!

OK got to run….. more to continue on this subject later. :)

OK update on the place. They are really working on it and they're putting the porch on as of last week. Even started putting on some of the skirting as well because the part where the porch goes needed it's skirting. All this came with the trailer which is soooo cool. When we, my husband and I got married we bought a trailer and ours didn't come fully furnished with all the things you need to start out a new marriage. So I know how hard it is to get the things you need and that's why I am just so excited for them and they can make this place their own and fix it just the way they like which is also really cool. I wish them all the best in the world for the most happiest marrage ever!

Bargains

2010-09-16T20:40:00.001-05:00

Well I did it again! Well let me back up there just a little. ;) God and I did it again! I KNOW very well where my blessings come from and am always in mind of it. So with credit where credit is due, He helped me find this bargain as well.

I’ve been wanting some of the wide blinds for our house for quite some time and finally found them a couple weeks back. As you know I love to shop the thrift stores and found these, the whole buggy load was 5 bucks. They were all tangled up but I knew I could get them untangled and I bought them. There were like 15-20 blinds in this buggy!! The guy that donated them told the store he had paid over 500.00 for these blinds. WOW and I’m soooo excited to have gotten them! God is SO GOOD AND AWESOME and I might add, He is good ALL THE TIME! :)

Dining room pic….

We finally got them up over the weekend with my sisters help. We’ve still got to put up the little valance things that cover the hardware and metal part of the blinds.

I want to take the curtain rod holders down but I haven’t done so yet because I will have to touch up the paint when I do take them down.

Dining room pic…….

My plans are to repaint the kitchen and dining room. When I painted the dining room this color I decided it was much too yellow for me. And like I usually do, it takes me quite awhile to decide WHAT I want to do when one of my projects doesn’t go the way I had it in my head. But I have decided I am going to tone down the yellow with some white so it will have a tint of yellow.

kitchen pic……

and last but not least, the back door one……

I wound up with 6 blinds that fit these windows and 2 more that fit the living room windows. I have 4 windows in the living room and will have to find 2 more for the other two windows. So that’s not even 1.00 per blind for the ones I got. I gave my sister several of them and she and her husband put up one very long one over their wide dining room windows. It also looks VERY good.

THANK YOU SIS for all your help!! I LOVE YOU!

Rose

Beach Bedroom Roman Blinds

2010-09-07T13:45:00.001-05:00

Well I finally got those roman blinds made for our bedroom a couple weeks ago. Then just realized I hadn’t even shared them with you all. They were fairly easy to make but just took a lot of time.

I am leaving the printed swag for right now because I should have made the blinds just a little wider so you couldn’t see around the sides of them. I can fix them I think.

I am going to starch some battenburg lace I have and hand stitch it on them here and there to dress them up a little. Then I want to use a battenburg lace dust ruffle on the bed.

I wanted it to be really dark so when I sleep late it will be dark in there. Then when I want light I can raise the blinds. I sandwiched some of that darkening fabric in between the layers of cloth.

I made a few boo boo’s along the way but now I know how to do it now and will be making 4 for the living room as soon as I can. This should help keep the rooms warmer in the wintertime. Next time I make them I will put the darkening fabric all the way to the edge and not following the directions on that because it really needs to be all the way to the edge.

I am really enjoying the wall color. It makes the room so light and airy and have decided I would like this beach look all through out my house. lol

Family and Blue Haired Dolls

2010-09-07T12:38:00.001-05:00

I bet you’re wondering WHAT? Blue haired dolls? ;) Just bare with me, you’ll see.

My Southern Belle…… This is my daughter Cindy.

This is my sister and I. It was my birthday as you can see from the cake on the table. We had gotten these dolls for Christmas the year before. Mine was blue hair and hers was pink hair. We dearly LOVED our dolls as you can see! Don’t think we had many of them. Check out those headbands!

A school pic of me. I don’t know how old I was here. And here is another headband!

This is my Daddy and one of his friends horsing around. This is when he worked for the trucking co. in Lakeland, Florida in May 1952. He had a cigar in his mouth! I never saw him smoke one of those.

WOW How Things Change

2010-09-07T11:48:00.001-05:00

Back in Jan. of 1988 we started building us a house and last night while going through photos trying to find this one certain one of MawMaws house on Presley St. I came across this pic of ours when we first started our house. Man it looks so little and sooo close to the pond, but actually it’s not that close. Oh and that little bitty oak out front there, well lets just say it’s huge now. I don’t remember it being THAT small! Now you can’t even see the house at this angle for the trees.

This shot was taken 3/28/88.

All I can say is wow!

Bloggers and HOME

2010-09-06T17:06:00.001-05:00

I just had to share this link with you all. As some of you know I have been looking at beach blogs for a couple days now dreaming about HOW MUCH I’d LOVE to own a beach home!! Ahhh man I could live there in the summer and be home in the dead of winter when it was too cold to walk on the beach and hunt seashells. :) Ahhhhhhhh WHAT A LIFE!

Anyway this Beach Vintage blog caught my eye in someone’s list of blogs awhile ago. As I started reading, her home sounds like MY home. ;) She said she furnished her home with things from thrift stores and E-bay, same here but I also need to add friends to my lists. As I look around my house it’s so nice to see things friends gave me they knew I’d like and they didn’t want anymore. One friend really comes to mind because she has given me loads of things that I can’t part with. That wonderful friends name is, Tammy. I’ll have to share a pic or two with you one day of a sofa and chair she gave me. I just LOVE this set, it just screams Maw Maw to me!

Here I am in one of her chairs when I was only 6 mo. old.

Then here is my Daddy holding two of the babies. I think the babies are Andy and Mike. Notice the phone book hung back there on the wall by the phone. ;)

It is sooooo me because I love old furniture and I think one reason why is because as I was growing up as a kid my Maw maw Harrison had old furniture it her home and it was always so homey to me and always said home. Her home was so peaceful to me. Even with the paint peeling off the walls in the living room THAT was STILL and always will be home to me. She lived in an old house with no halls. I’ll never forget it as long as I live, all the rooms had doors that opened from one from to another room. It had a wonderful old front porch and I dearly loved those wide steps going up to it. It was a fancy home at one time for those days. It even had a concrete walkway as well. But back to the inside, all the rooms opened up to each other and when you walk up to the door there was the living room. This living room had 4 windows in it. One window on each side of the fireplace and 2 windows on the front. When you walk inside, off to your left was a door heading into a bedroom which had 3 beds in it.

There were 2 double beds and a twin bed and Pawpaw and Maw Maw slept in those double beds and Andy slept in the little twin bed. My sister and I would sleep with Maw Maw and Pawpaw when we were there. There was another door in that bedroom that led to another bedroom and it had 3 doors leading off from it. One led to another bedroom and one led to the dining room which was a nice size room as well. Maw Maw had her a large table in there for her large family and it was so neat. She also had a china cabinet that was out of this world. The legs on that thing were 2 inches thick! She had it filled to the brim with dishes and whatnots.

The dining room had two doors in it and one led to the kitchen. The kitchen had 3 doors leading off of it and one was to the dining room, one to the neat back porch and one to the middle bedroom where my Uncle Mark slept.

Each one of the rooms had at least 2 or more windows in them which I loved because it made the rooms light up because they weren’t dark. In the dining room there were 4 windows in it but someone had added a bathroom on the back side of the house on part of the porch so that covered up the back windows in the dining room. Maw Maw had that fixed really neat to. She had curtains on BOTH sides, in the dining room AND in the bathroom so it looked like windows leading to the outside.

I think my Maw Maw loved the outdoors and that must be where I get mine from. As you can tell this Maw Maw was always my favorite and made me feel like I was somebody. She never criticized me or put me down in any way. I always felt loved by her and she also had a gentle and quite spirit about her that I dearly loved.

Anyway when I was reading on Beach Vintages blog I though how much we had in common with fixing up our homes using thrift store items that someone had tossed out of their homes because they didn’t want it anymore and all I can say is yipeeeeee so happy they decided they didn’t want it. ;) Go check out this ladies site.

man I want me a beach home………………….

This is my Maw Maws old house. see the old chair? Look at that floor covering! This is me in the pic.

Me again with another old chair of my Maw Maws.

This next one is not a good pic but you can see how the paint on the wall is peeling in this one. My Daddy is the closest one to the camera person and my Uncle Mickey is the one behind him. Look at all the old family photos on the mantel. Everyone seemed so content in this old home. It was just the best!

Daddy giving Paw Paw a bottle to check out. ;) They were all sitting around the fireplace in the middle bedroom that was closest to the dining room. Maw Maw must have been in the kitchen cooking.

I hope you’re having a great Labor Day!

Beach Bedroom

2010-09-05T10:53:00.001-05:00

I wanted to show you all my wallpaper I found the other day for .75 a double roll. Since I have been trying to redo my bedroom in a beach theme I also wanted to do our master bath as well.

I thought one small wall would be really neat done in this wallpaper. I really really love it and I was even thinking about something else as well. You know those door mirrors that are narrow and long that you put behind a door? I was thinking it would be neat to get 2-3 of those and take the mirrors out and put the wallpaper in the frames and hang them on the small wall side by side. That way I wont have to be pulling wallpaper off the wall in years to come when or IF I get tired of it. Or better yet I could make myself some frames out of some thin molding, hmmmmm decisions decisions.

I took these pics at night in my dining room so they were dark and I lightened them up some so you could see all the sea shells, so the background color isn’t really true. It’s a very light sand color.

Last but not least…… check out those pretty sea shells! ;) I just LOVE sea shells and even more, I love finding them on the beach!

There are some really pretty colors in here. I think a brown would be pretty to put with it and the blue color I already have our bedroom painted.

Idea for Changing Chairs

2010-09-03T16:27:00.001-05:00

to match all your tablecloths……. without spending a fortune on fabrics.

This is the idea I was referring to Cindy about the chair bottoms. You could draw out the pattern for YOUR chair bottom on paper and then also make you a pattern for these pieces that hang down on the edges. As you can see these aren’t for these chairs but for ladder backs but the idea would work for our chairs as well. We just wouldn’t do the back piece that hangs down and we would square the corners where it curves on this white fabric to fit our chair bottoms. Then on each side in the back piece where the white fabric is, you could just do a tie to tie them on the chair with so they would stay put. I plan on making some for my chairs so I can change them out as well because my chair bottoms don’t match all my tablecloths I use.

See the one below I put on the floor so you could really see how it’s made? Naturally the hang over pieces (printed fabric) would be wider to cover our chair bottom and the hang over pieces would be wider and closer together at the sides where the legs are since they would be wider.

Anyway this wouldn’t require lots of fabric and naturally you would want to do it all in one color. Plus you could get some cheap solid beige fabric and make one to see how you like it first before you spend lots on good fabric. Plus you would be able to see just HOW MUCH fabric you would have to have.

My friend that gave me this wants me to make her a pattern from it so I can make her some from fabrics she has bought. She has a tea room and she wants to be able to change it out to match her tablecloths.