Weekend Wrap Up

Time to close out 2012 today and tell you about my weekend. I spent all day Saturday de-Christmas-ing the house. It was a process because I kept getting side tracked. Funny how your house is one way for 11 months out of the year. Then you decorate for Christmas and one month later you can't remember where anything went. Can I blame it on old age?



Sunday I went to Sunday School and church. After church, I was talking to one of my dear friends and she had me a little gift. It was a Yankee Candle (one of my favorites). As I'm snapping pictures of my blog, I am upset because I left the candle in my bedroom and hubby is still sleeping. I'll insert the pic later. After that, I was leaving church and one of our teens came over to me and handed me something. I about freaked out. It was her first CD. She is just 15 years old and can sing like you wouldn't believe. I played this through about 3 or 4 times yesterday. It is really awesome. I really got a blessing when I heard her do Amazing Grace-My Chains are Gone. She is extremely talented and will go far.

After church, my daughter took me to a neighboring city to an antique store. She is the one who has found two of the three of my hard to find Cinderella bowls, so I thought maybe she could be my good luck charm.  We walked in the antique mall store and on the third booth she walked in, she said Mom there is a lot of Pyrex in here. Weren't you looking for one of these? I walked over to see what she found and it is the elusive green bowl to my primary bowl set. I have been looking for this ever since I started collecting in November 2011. 

I now have the entire set just like my Mom had when we were little. I was beyond thrilled. The fact that she found the green in a booth that was 50% off everything made it even better. 

She knows I want a flamingo pink casserole bowl and we saw a little small one in the 1/2 off booth so I snatched it up for just $3.50. Then she walks a couple a booths down and finds me the one I have been looking for and it was just $5.00. I couldn't believe I got the mommy bowl and the baby bowl both for under $10 total. I'll be applying some oven cleaner to the big one today to clean it up. But it is a beauty for sure. Now just need to find me a lid. 

I was very excited because you will recall that I received the pink flamingo pie plate on Christmas Eve from a Pyrex trade with another collector. 

So now I have three pieces in my flamingo pink collection. I need to see what else came in this color and I need to get some turquoise pieces to compliment it. 

So I went all summer and found only a couple of pieces of Pyrex and she has helped me find 5 of the 7 pieces that I have collected in December. It has been a good month for me and Pyrex. I told her she is going to be dragged pulled volunteering to go with me from now on. She said she it turned out it was kind of fun...sorta like going on a treasure hunt. So glad to have a daughter that "gets" me. 

But my Pyrex fun was not through. My first piece of luck in December was finding the small bowl that was the start of my Colonial Mist set that I wanted so bad. I didn't have any of the pieces and it was my dream set. Now here we are at the end of December and in one month, I have gotten three of the four. Well, I logged into my Facebook last night and Ms. Christa that traded me for my little bowl had posted to me "I have your Cinderella 444 if you want to trade." For those of you not familiar with the Pyrex numbers, that is the biggest bowl on the Cinderella set....the one I am missing. Do I want to trade? You betcha. So I have that on the way and I will have my Cinderella set completed. Am I excited? Oh yeah!!

After all the Pyrex excitement, we went to Walmart and I picked up this cute little dishtowel. 

And some new yarn. I wanted something really pink and this is really pink for a little box I am going to make. 

It was a long full day, but I was hungry for something good to eat. So I threw some potatoes in to bake then hulled them out and mixed butter and bacon and covered them with cheese and baked them again in a casserole dish. I kept some of the bacon and made me some scrambled eggs to go with it. It turns out that apparently I can cook when I want to. I just don't usually want to. But with hubby working some nights at dinner time, if I want something good to eat, I guess I will have to cook it. 

I have a lot of things I want to get done today and tomorrow to get ready for the New Year. So I am going to close for now. Please stay safe tonight. Hubby and I will stay in and have assorted cheeses and crackers along with fruits and other snacks as we play our annual Monopoly game.

Sunday Songs

I love gospel music and I love country music. So when I find country singers doing gospel music, I just really love it. Here are a few of my favorites.

Wrapping it up

I don't know about you, but I am wrapping it up for Christmas. Everything is coming down today. All the boxes are going back into storage and my house is getting back to normal.

It's been a quiet week. I missed Chatting on the Porch with Patrice and the Wednesday Hodge Podge. I'm hoping they will both be back next week. I did enjoy Five Question Friday and it made me want to buy a pair of Tom's. I went to their site and saw several pairs I liked.

I went nuts over this pair. If I was going to splurge on shoes, this is the pair I would probably buy. They would look adorable with jeans.

I don't particularly like this next pattern, but I love the fur lining. 

These would be cute for spring. Especially since I own a lot of nautical outfits. I may have to get these. 

Well, I spent some time last night narrowing down my Pyrex list so I can be more specific about what I'm looking for. Topping my list are two pieces I need to complete two sets. First is the 444 Cinderella Bowl in Colonial Mist. That is the one I want the most right now.

And second will be the green bowl for the primary colors set. I understand that is the hardest one to find in that set. 

Then I want to start on some new collections, but not necessarily whole sets...just a piece of two. I want a bowl of any kind in the Lucky in Love set. I want it to display for Valentine's and St. Patrick's day.

I want something in the rainbow strips to use to decorate for Easter. I would fill it with Easter grass and some cute wooden eggs.

If I couldn't find the rainbow stripes, I would go with Gooseberry or Butterprint.

For spring, I would like to do a display with the daisy print. 

Then for Mother's Day, I would like to decorate with a pretty friendship bowl because my Mom is one of my best friends. 

For summer, I think I would like the Eyes pattern. 

Then when fall rolls around, I would want to have some of the wheat bowls. 

Then for Thanksgiving I would like to have something in the Woodland Pattern.

And for Christmas, any of the Christmas patterns would be awesome to find.

And I already have the snowflake bowl for January decor.

That might seem like a lot of new Pyrex, but it is only 11 new pieces that I'm looking for. Considering most of my finds are under $10 (a lot of them just $2 or $3), it's not much of an investment at all. 

Finally Friday

I am so glad it is Friday. Okay, I know, I didn't work but 2 days this week. I can't help it. This week of the year is such a hard week to get back in the swing of things. Since I have gotten 4 new pieces of Pyrex by gifts and by trade in December, it has really given me Pyrex fever. I just can't decide what pattern I want to collect next. I went through the internet to find a few I liked. Well, let's just say that narrowing down the list is going to take awhile. I narrowed it down to these patterns that I like. Now I have to narrow it down even further to decide what I would actually collect. 

I also spent some time looking at the new Thirty-One spring catalog trying to decide what I want to order when we can start ordering from it. I know I want the Inside Out Bag, which I am hoping to earn for free in January. 

I also love the Easy Breezy Tote. This will be a great piece to have for summer fun when you pack to go to the pool or beach or even on a picnic. 

And I am loving the Coupon Clutch. The new patterns and products for spring are awesome. I can't wait till we can start shopping from the spring catalog.

I have started looking for ideas for Sunday School crafts. Our kids love glitter so I thought it would be cute to make a refrigerator magnets for notes. They would be so easy and the kids would love them. We could even glue a little red heart on them for Valentine's Day.

I would also like to see us make the old fashioned shoe box mailbox for collecting Valentine's. These bring back so many memories of doing this in elementary school.

I am going to cut out a new box pattern to get started on in my plastic canvas. I finished my nieces coasters and my sisters box. Time to make something for myself. I really fell in love with this box.I don't know that I will do this exact pattern. I just love the size of the box and the way the lid extends down longer than most on the sides. All though these colors do look good together. 

I like to do patterns using variegated yarn sometimes because you never know how it will look and it is always neat. Plus you don't have to change yarns so much. I'll have to decide later what I will use. But I do have a lot of variegated yarns.

As I was looking for yarn, I remembered some I had in a Donna Sharp Utility Tote. When I got it out of the closet I had to laugh. It is the same pattern as the purse and make up case I am currently carrying. Apparently I like that pattern.

I've been cleaning out 2012 files and boxing them up. Since I moved the wooden file cabinet in my office, I have downsized things and no longer need the tacky metal one. The guy who gave it to me is going to come and pick it up today. I want it out of my way so I can have room for a craft shelf in that corner of the room. Two of the four drawers were just being used to store CD's and miscellaneous stuff that I found other places to put. That's the problem with junk drawers...too much junk accumulates. 

Getting back to normal...

Christmas is over. I survived the "day after Christmas" blahs where you are just too tired to move and have a lot you want to do but don't feel like doing anything so you lay around in your new warm jammies and house shoes. 

I am all excited about painting my office in the next few weeks and getting all my new items for it. I saw some curtains that I really like that will go good with my new color scheme.

I am so tired of blue rugs and shower curtains in my bathroom. I think I found a new theme. I like this shower curtain really well and it will go with the existing wall paper in the hall bath.

And I love these rugs. 

I saw some cute dishtowels at Walmart that I like. I may have to pick up some of these.

I have not been happy with my display for my Pyrex. I just don't think the bowls look right setting on the wooden top of the Baker's Rack. 

So I did some rearranging. It still isn't perfect, but I think I like it better this way. Plus my recipe books tend to set better on the solid wood instead of the shelf. 

I started doing some cleaning in my office. I may move some furniture around today. I'm replacing an old metal file cabinet with my wooden one. I will take some pictures when everything is completed. 

Christmas Conclusion

I hope everybody had a great Christmas. Hubby worked on Christmas eve for half a day. That meant I had to do all the cooking for the family Christmas gathering that night. But if I do say so myself, it turned out pretty good. I wish I had taken before and after pictures. He would have had a heart attack had he seen the disorganized mess his kitchen was in. But I got it all accomplished and cleaned up. When he got home from work, the kids were all here and everything was ready. Whew! I wasn't sure I could pull it off. I have some things to share with you since I haven't updated you these past couple of days. 

Sunday I received some nice gifts from the teachers in our Pre-K class that I help out in. I fell in love with this Christmas shovel. It is just too cute.

I also got an awesome Christmas blanket. You know I love my blankies.

I got the ultimate cookbook. COOKIES! I can't wait to try out some of the new recipes. The cookie plate will come in handy on those long January snowy days when I feel like baking. And I am starting out 2013 with a new angel looking over my shoulder. She is going to find a home in my office to inspire me to be a better person and reach the goals I set for myself. 

Christmas eve at unwrapping time is the one time that all five grandkids gather together and sit still. 

The grandchildren got me some awesome fuzzy warm socks and a gorgeous charm bracelet and a pair of earrings. I loved it all. And the fine print on my heart charm says "Born to Rule". There will be no living with me now. I am queen.

Right when we were getting ready to open presents, someone walked up to the door. It was my mail lady. She was still out making deliveries after 7 pm on Christmas eve. She had me a box from a lady in my Pyrex4Trade Facebook group. It was the pink pie plate. It was gorgeous. 

Christmas morning I get up earlier than hubby and get the heat going (we sleep with it cooler at night). I make his coffee and spend some time quietly looking at the tree with nothing but the Christmas lights on. I reflect on the meaning of the celebration, the memories of Christmas's past and think about how blessed I am to have family close enough for them all to be here on Christmas eve. Then I start getting excited about all the presents that aren't open and I go get him up.

I got my warm jammies and fuzzy wild house shoes and lots of other goodies. But he blew me away with the last gift I opened. The third piece to my Colonial Mist Cinderella set. I was so excited. I actually shrieked a little. One more piece to go. I told him he needs to get some research going because the anniversary of our first date is coming up in January! Seriously, I was so happy with this. It made my Christmas even more perfect than it already was.

Now it is back to the daily grind. After 5 days off work, I am thinking I better work today through Friday and then take my trees down and get my house back in order. Did you all have a nice Christmas?