Playing Catch Up

I was heading to town recently with my daughter when we saw a giant yard sale in the parking lot of an antique store. Since we are both bargain hunters, we had to stop. There really was no choice. It was even on the side of the road we were on. 

As you know, I love teapots and especially the tea for one sets. So when I saw this at $10, I really wanted it. That is a great. Most tea for ones are $25 - $30. And this one had no chips or stains. Like new. So, having watched a fair share of American Pickers, I had to try to bargain. I expected $8 and I was going to ask for $7. I asked if she would take any less and she said, I'll take $5. SOLD.

Then I noticed this cute short teapot. It actually is square shaped on the top. It had $10 on it and I was going to offer $8 because I had never seen one like this before. I picked it up to look at it and when she said, you can have that one for $5 as well, I didn't even think about it. Now just to find where to put them. 

But the first find really made me happy. I actually looked it, sat it down and started to walk away. Then it hit me, you rarely find these with a lid and in such good shape at a decent price. I didn't even try to bargain. I see these in antique store that are faded and no lid, and they still want $18 for them. She had $6 on this one. Long before Tupperware and Rubbermaid, Pyrex had fridgies. This is one of a four piece set. I am going to try to find the rest of the set.

Here is the actual original four pieces: 2 red, 1 blue and 1 yellow. Going antiquing this weekend for sure with the rest of this set as my target. Just to prove how ridiculous people price these. This full set is $85 online. No way.

Have a great Thursday.

Some great finds

 It's been awhile. Life has a way of getting in the way. Since we were together last, I have had so much going on. Things are finally settling into a routine. Both the granddaughters celebrated birthdays. 

Shelby turned 13 in July and for her actual birthday she wanted to go to Gatlinburg, TN and play tourist with her little friend Megan. Since it was a Friday and both parents were working, I got nominated to take them. I needed a break and love to play tourist, so I agreed. They had a blast. In case you can't tell, Shelby is the one with the crown and sash. She's been a princess/diva since the day she was born.

In September, my beautiful Alexis turned 17. She's a senior and my mind can't wrap around how much she has grown up. We went to eat at Fort Worth Texas Kitchen. It was really good. We all had a great time. Of course, I had to get my traditional picture of just me and my beautiful girl.  

Colby's birthday was the first of the month. We are getting ready to celebrate tomorrow night at a family gathering. He turned 11. He's been busy with baseball all summer. He lives, eats and breathes it. As you can tell from this pic during a recent game, he takes it very seriously. He's so talented.

I had shown you some craft supplies I had purchased to make some mini rolling pins. Well, I made them and they are selling like hotcakes. I sold 26 of them within 24 hours of posting them. Here are a few of the designs. You can find them and more at our Etsy Store, TwistedCrystalArts with no spaces. 

We have a lot of patterns to choose from or you can even request a theme to go with your kitchen. These are so much fun to make.

I am really going to try hard to get back into blogging every day. I really miss it. Have a blessed day!

Sundays Song

Getting ready to craft

 I posted not too long ago about some fall ideas using mini rolling pins. I have seen more since then and they are not always fall. But I am happy to announce I am in phase 2 of my crafting. Which means I actually bought enough stuff the last two weeks to start my projects. I have the ribbon, cord and embellishments for the rolling pins.

I bought some different paints to go with the different paper I am using.

I bought some fall paper and some pineapples, mushrooms and bees.

Some of the fall ones will be used in a display this fall on my dining room table using these new items I picked up.

I saw a cute little project I want to learn to crochet. Going to see if I can figure it out but it involved fuzzy yarn and little blue eyeballs. We will see if I can do it since I only know how to do a chain stitch.

That's it for now. I am going to start on some of these later today or tomorrow on my day off. I will be sure and show you the finished product.

The Rustic Cow

 Yesterday, I was visiting a friend and he was telling me about this new quaint place he discovered. He decided to take me there so I could experience it first hand. It was so unique. It's located in downtown Newport, TN at 205 East Broadway. I fell in love from the minute I saw the big sign on the window.

And what an adorable door. It makes you feel welcome the minute you walk through it. 

It has a nice selection of eatery and dessert items, hand-dipped ice cream and locally roasted artisan coffees. I for one had to try the grilled cheddar cheese panini. I loved it. They have just the perfect touch of heat to melt the cheese and make the panini without it being charred or too crunchy. It was delicious.

I love the rustic decor. Every time I turned around, there was something new to catch my eye.

And the cow picture in their logo sign just thrills me. I love the country, so anything decorated like this was sure to touch the heart of this old country gal.

Lots of unique things to look at. I love anything that looks like a compass so that caught my eye immediately.

Even the tables and chairs were adorable. They did an amazing job with the decor. Since I eat out at times alone, I loved the idea of a magazine rack for me to browse through while I have a light meal or an ice cream sundae. I am not a coffee drinker per se, but I did try the caramel frappe Aaron had and it was fabulous.

They don't forget the little tykes. Check out Calfs Corner with the child size table and a little bench in the corner. The magazine rack even has kids books in it. They have thought of everything. 

A nice high table runs across the front window with lots of chairs. It would be a great place to get a coffee and sandwich and sit at the window to work with your laptop or just watch the activity in town. 

The tables and chairs go so good with the rustic theme. 

They are actually doing work in the additional room which isn't open yet, but she did let me get some pictures. This will be their bistro that is going to open sometime in the next two weeks. 

I did look at the menu and there are lots of appetizing temptations. Of course, I was a gonner when I saw crinkle cut French fries and an ice cream sundae. Obviously, I will order additional items with the fries. But they had me at the fries and sundae for sure. 

The bistro is going to have the same rustic decor so everything will flow seemlessly from room to room. 

I can't wait for it to open the bistro part. I know we will be going back.

In the dining room we were in, she had the cutest dresser with country style dresser pulls. I just loved it.

Good food, good friends and good  times. That is what I think when I go in the door. I highly recommend the Rustic Cow any time you are in Newport. You don't want to miss this. You can check them out on Facebook @rusticcowicecream. You can book a party, event or corporate meeting by visiting Facebook or calling them at (423) 532-8480.

 

Some new products to recommend

I recently had a stroke. It left me with just a lingering numbness in my fingertips. I was fortunate that it was a mini one and that the after-effects will not require any physical therapy. However, I was concerned about the tingling sensation and discussed it with my neurosurgeon. Because of the type and location of my stroke, it effects the sensation nerves running from my brain to my fingers and toes. It will eventually go away, and I can train the brain to “reconnect”. I just did not like that constant feeling in my hand and fingers. Imagine my dismay when my doctor, a well-known neurosurgeon around town, told me he cannot recommend a prescription for it, but he can tell me that many of his patients have great success with healing using CBD products.

The following week, I was scheduled to go to the USA CBD Expo Conference in Atlanta, Georgia. I went with my friend, Aaron, who owns his own company and was going to carry CBD and Delta 8 products. So, we not only went with the intent to look for products to carry, but to do some research on the different types of products. I had many people give me samples to try for my hand and am happy to announce they work. But I want to tell you about the line of products we narrowed it down to in deciding what we wanted to carry.

PureKana was one that made a huge impression on both of us. Aaron suffers from bad back pains due to an incident injuring his back when he was in the Air Force. Add that to my recent health scare and we were so glad to find that this company had many different products that could help with pain. We both found that the PureKana Topical CBD Ointment provided the best, long-lasting pain relief we have been able to find. 

All of the PureKana CBD is non-GMO and contains no pesticides, solvents, herbicides, or chemical fertilizers. They have all their products tested by third-party laboratories, so everything is completely safe for consumption.

Please visit our shop, Toke Lyf Nation, to see what we have so far. More items will be added as we go. Each item has a great description so you can find what you need to fit your circumstances. Let me know what you think.

I will post our link in the side bar so you can come back to it whenever you need to. We are a relatively new small business and we appreciate all your support.

A Blessing for Women

This was written by someone named Heather and shared on Facebook by multiple people. It touched my heart in ways you will never know. I decided that every woman needs to read it so I am sharing for you today.

Have you ever noticed how in the scriptures men are always going up into the mountains to commune with the Lord? Yet in the scriptures we hardly ever hear of women going to the mountains. But we know why — right?

Because the women were too busy keeping life going; they couldn’t abandon babies, meals, homes, fires, gardens, and a thousand responsibilities to make the climb into the mountains!

I was talking to a friend the other day, saying that as modern womanI feel like I’m never “free” enough from my responsibilities, never in a quiet enough space I want with God.

Her response floored me, “That is why God comes to women. Men have to climb the mountain to meet God, but God comes to women whereever they are.” I have been pondering on her words for weeks and have searched my scriptures to see that what she said is true.

God does indeed come to women where they are, when they are doing their ordinary, everyday work. He meets them at the wells where they draw water for their families, in their homes, in their kitchens, in their gardens. He comes to them as they sit beside sickbeds, as they give birth, care for the elderly, and perform necessary mourning and burial rites.

Even at the empty tomb, Mary was the first to witness Christ’s resurrection, She was there because she was doing the womanly chore of properly preparing Christ’s body for burial.

In these seemingly mundane and ordinary tasks, these women of the scriptures found themselves face to face with divinity.

So if — like me — you ever start to bemoan the fact that you don’t have as much time to spend in the mountains with God as you would like. Remember, God comes to women. He knows where we are and the burdens we carry. He sees us, and if we open our eyes and our hearts we will see Him, even in the most ordinary places and in the most ordinary things.

He lives. And he’s using a time such as this to speak to women around the world.

Pizza Time

Many years ago, by experimenting with different combinations and my picky eating habits, my hubby came up with the perfect combo for me to enjoy homemade open face pizza bread. We used Cobblestone Mill white sub rolls, Ragu traditonal pizza quik sauce, pork sausage and Colby Jack cheese. It was a huge immediate success.

Over time, we would try different combos like pizza dough instead of pizza bread.

 

One time I was out of subrolls and my 9 year old grandson Caleb wanted pizza so he experimented with a little help in fixing it like a grilled cheese sandwich with all the same ingrediants betweed bread and grilled.

The subrolls for the open face have always been my favorite.

But if I can find the subrolls, I also love it on flat bread. It makes for a really good pizza. 

After finding all these pictures from older posts today, it made me crave pizza. So tonight I celebrated by making it on pizza dough and it was divined.

Let's Get a Little Crafty

  If Spring is when a young girl's fancy turns to thoughts of love,  Then summer is when an old girl's fancy turns to thoughts of fall crafts. I am so in love with these jars. Simple, but very fall feel to them. 

And I am sure I can get Lowe's to cut me wood in the length I need for these. Little roughness looks good. I can tell that's not bows. That is actually homespun fabric that they have ripped the fabric to keep the rustic feel.

Love these. I would image you could get the pumpkins at Michaels or Hobby Lobby and do your own painting and design. And I would spray paint little plates and candle sticks and use hot glue to create the pedestals. 

I love these rolling pins. You can get them unfinished at Hobby Lobby, 3 for $3.99. A little paint and a piece of scrabbook paper should do the trick. 

Now this is the cutest idea ever. Spray paint plastic Easter eggs and wrap jute to make acorns. I actually have a tone of eggs from previous Easter crafts. Guess who is goiong to go get paint today?

These are some more acorns in case you don't like the idea of paint. This is a little out of my comfort zone with all that stitchery by hand. But they are adorable. I may try a couple of these, but no promises.

These are so adorable. They just bought cheap flannels at Goodwill. I actually have one of my husband's flannels in fall colors. I may try this. I will practice with a Goodwill one first before I cut up his shirt.

Love this. Love the fact that it has a real cinnamon stick for the stem. Just assorted fall ribbon wrapped around jar rings and tied together. Watched the video from Pinterest and it looks super simple.

I posted these last year and then forgot to do them. I would probably not do the witch or the monster because my drawing talents are not that great. The spider web might be doable for me. But I do love the ghost and pumpkin.

Of course when I was looking up the jar crafts, it showed me a Christmas set I love. Then that took me down the rabbit hold of ideas on Pinterest for Christmas.

So if I get a box of jars, I can take the left over lids and rings and put fabric or scrapbook paper in the lide and glue some embellishments and wah-lah. Tree ornaments.

Funny story: I searched yarn crafts for Christmas ornaments on Pinterest and pulled up these cute little wreaths. They are simply crochet a chain stitch and loop it three loops and glue or stitch together and add a bow. What makes it funny is these were on MY Pinterest board where I made several years ago to put on Christmas presents instead of a bow. Need to make some more.

My kitchen has red and aqua at Christmas so I had to make one from this varigated yarn. 

And the last thing was this cute wreath with jar lids and either fabric or scrapbook paper. If I do this, I am investing in a scrapbook punch that make the perfect size circle.

I think I see a trip to the Scrapbook Superstore, Hobby Lobby and the Dollar Tree in my future.