Proud of my nieces

I talk a lot of being a grandmother and about my grandchildren. I talk about my sister and share pics of her decorating. I talk about my twins and how great it was being a mother of twins.

But I am also an Aunt and as an Aunt, I get bragging rights on my nieces and nephews who I love dearly. Between the two sides of the family, hubby and I have 8 nieces and 5 nephews, 4 great-nieces and 8 great-nephews.

Today, I want to introduce you to two of my nieces who are bloggers. Kari is a mother of two who went on vacation a couple of years ago and saws some making lampwork glass beads. The lady let Kari try her hand at it and the rest is history. She now owns her own business and sells her beads in many crafts markets surrounding areas of her hometown in West Virginia. Take a moment and visit her blog when you get a chance. She is very talented and some of the details she can do totally amaze me. Her blog is Bead Unique by Kari and her Etsy shop is http://www.beaduniquebykari.etsy.com.

My niece Emili is a freshman at Bethany College in West Virginia. She is taking a class that is a craft class. They are learning to do all kinds of crafts ... old and new... such as knitting, weaving, making lures for fly fishing, cross stitch, soap...they even made cheese. Check out her blog at Emili's New and Old Crafts. I love the stories she tells along with the crafts. Especially the one where she can't wait to come back to Mamaw's house and sit on the front porch and do cross stitch with her.

I am so proud of both of them for their talents. I just wanted to show them off as an Aunt is allowed to do. If you get a chance to stop by their blogs and leave a comment, just tell them Aunt Bee sent you!

A new blog and a giveaway...

I am happy to announce that my new blog is up and running for my Thirty One business. I am going to really enjoy being an Independent Consultant for the company.

My kit was full of some awesome products with the new patterns.

In honor of my new venture, we are going to be doing a giveaway. The winner will get to choose either a Thirty One Cinch It Up Thermal Tote or a Thermal Tote in the pattern of their choice.

It's simple to enter. Visit our new blog Bee's 31 Gifts and become a follower. That will enter you one time. If you would like to receive a second entry, leave a comment on Bee's 31 Gifts and let me know which tote you would choose if you win.  The winner will be announced on February 1st.





An exciting day ahead...

I'm riding the Tuesday Train .

Very excited today. I will be on pins and needles all day. Why? Because I get my first pink box today!

That's right, I am now officially an Independent Consultant for Thirty One.

 I have loved their products ever since I was introduced to them over two years ago. I have so many products from the company that I realized, I just needed to sell it. So I signed up last week and my first box of goodies arrives today.

I actually have two boxes on the way, but am not sure if they are both coming today or if one will be today and one tomorrow. I'll be getting lots of goodies just released for their spring catalog that goes into effect February 1st.

I am going to be introducing a new blog once I get all my materials. I'll post a link when it is up and running.

I am very excited about this new venture. I hope I can be successful at it. I love the products and love the fact that it is a faith based business that gets it's name from Proverbs 31 (the virtuous woman scriptures). I believe in what they do and since I use the product daily, I can vouch for the quality of workmanship.

They have an awesome special right now. There Thermal Lunch tote is on sale for $10.00

And the new Cinch-it-Up Thermal tote is only $15.00.

You can check them out along with the other totes, purses, bags, and accessories that Thirty One makes by visiting my site at My Thirty One.

All in all, it is an exciting time for me and I am going to be looking out the window all day watching for the Fed Ex guy and the pink box.

Pizza and a tealess tea party..

It's not every lady who will hold a tea party with her most cherished, "real" tea set....especially when the guests are 3, 7, 8 and 12.

But when you become a grandmother everything changes. One time I was working on a blog and was going to type "Grandma's rules." Alexis was watching me and I asked her to help me list rules, and she said "Rule #1, there are no rules." So that was the end of that and we have pretty much adopted that policy.

So when they wanted a tea party with their pizza lunch, I said okay....(only a grandmother would use her good tea set and pair it with Solo disposable plates.)

I might be easy, but I'm not stupid. I knew I would get stuck with the clean up detail. I let the girls help carry the tea set into the kitchen and set the table. Caleb went around to my various tea cups in the house and gathered the fancy tea spoons. The little silver cups are for M & M's which is a must when we have pizza at my house. But Alexis decided we need to have a card so everybody would know where to set. So we made place cards out of some yellow card stock she liked.

She decided who was setting where and put their name cards out. The boys wanted Dr. Pepper and the girls wanted chocolate milk. But they wanted to use the cream and sugar bowl. So we thought and thought. And then we decided to put white milk in the tea cups and and Hershey's chocolate syrup in the cream pitcher. That gave them a chance to use their spoons. And what was in the sugar bowl? Well, M & M's of course!



Caleb and the girls were my assistants. As a twelve year old boy, Garret had more of a "watching tv - call me when the foods ready" approach to the tea party. Caleb appointed himself Chef and the girls were his sou chef, which made everybody happy. The chef wouldn't wear an apron but the girls love theirs that my mom made them.

So we got the Digiorno's out of the boxes and I rearranged the toppings on one so Alexis had ham on her part and I had sausage on mine. Everybody else wanted cheese. And the Chef slid them into the oven.

I even managed a good picture of all my guests. We missed little Colby, who was supposed to attend as well. He was spending the night Saturday, but by 2:00 in the morning he had a bad case of mommy-itis so we had to meet up with him mom and dad so he could go back home. We missed him. But the Chef's nabbed there guest and had me take a picture of them all.

All in all, it was a huge success and the girls did help with the clean up. They even carried the tea set back and put it where it belonged. Not to mention the pizza was delicious. A great time was had by all.







And again on Saturday....

I attended a basketball game Saturday where my granddaughter Alexis was cheering. It had been raining all morning. On the way there, I had some extra time so I stopped off at a couple more antique shops in Wears Valley, in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains. This was the view when I was on the porch of one of them. Guess you can tell why they call them the Smoky Mountains.

Anyway, I saw quite a few things that caught my eye. I was just window shopping again. I saw some things that I think my sister needs to go with her antique red and white cabinet she just bought. Check these out....

Aren't they just adorable. They weren't very big, just about 5-6" round. I love them. I also think she needs this...

I'm pretty sure when she sees this I'm going to get a call asking why I didn't buy these for her. Here are some more things that just caught my fancy...some my sister would love and some I love. I really enjoyed going in the different shops.

This was a cute little sugar and creamer but a tad on the expensive side.

I keep seeing white and red enamel coffee pots everywhere. I think I might have to get me one.

Check out the green table and chairs below. Doesn't that just scream "fixer upper".

I liked colander below for my idea for over my fridge, but it was a little too rusted for the price they were asking. I'll keep looking.

This was an adorable little basket/trunk.

My sister like aqua as well. This mixer was a beautiful aqua color, but you can't tell it in the picture.

Some Pyrex.

This brought back memories of childhood. I think my best friend had one like this.

Another red and white that Sis needs.

All in all, I saw some great finds. I still have about 7 more local shops I want to scout around in before I start some serious purchasing for my kitchen.





Antique hopping yesterday...

I had some spare time today, so I took off and hit some local thrift stores and antique shops. I am getting ready to redo my master bathroom with a "beachy" theme. I'm calling it Beachy Bathroom on a Budget, since I don't want to sink a lot of money into it right now. But it currently has NO theme so I need to do something.

One thing I have learned in blog world is to relax when decorationg. Not everything has to be used for the purpose for which it is intended. I love seeing how others take something and use it somewhere you would never think of. Well, I found this awesome coffee cup to day at The SA Thrift Store...price 16 cents including the tax!

 

 

Isn't it adorable and just 16 cents! But what would you do with a coffee cup in a bathroom? Well......

What about a cute little soap dish? Your opinion please as this is temporary to see if I like it. I'm going to have to get blue, green or tan soap though in keeping with my beach theme.

After I left the Thrift Store, I popped in to the Antique Mall on Hwy 66 in Kodak, Tn.

I love that place. Three stories, old wood slat floors, and a wing jam-packed-crammed full of stuff. Lots and lots of stuff.

Remember my post for my kitchen shelf want list? Well, now I know where to go to get the old utensils.

Pyrex heaven.

Cute little blue creamer by Fire King.

More Pyrex.

Okay. I have got to go back and get this. I should have went ahead and bought it yesterday. How perfect would it be with my new love of old enamel kitchen items.

If I had a place to put this, I would snatch it up in a minute to store kitchen linens in. I have ton of them. This was $75.00 and in very sturdy condition. With the vintage look, it needed no work at all. I'm thinking I could put it in the spare room, the "beach" room and put a cute lighthouse lamp and a big light aqua blue bowl of large starfish and conch shells?  What do you think?

Check out these chairs. They had four of them under $20 each.

I don't know why, but I fell in love with this old picture. There is nothing spectacular about it, but I fell in love with it. Just no decor that it would fit in good with.

Check out the twin headboard and footboard. The third floor is loaded with tons and tons of old furniture and knick knacks that are great bargain finds.

Lots of little chairs and tables.

More little chairs.

Oodles and oodles of old pics in frames that could be reused for so many craft ideas See what I mean about the floors being plank flooring? A couple of places in third floor I worried I was going to end up on the second floor...fast.

Another old enamel pot.

But this is where I about died. Remember my kitchen self plans again. Remember I want old cookbooks. Guess what, one entire section about 6 shelves high totally loaded with old cookbooks.

I should have bought this Pillsbury Family Cookbook, but I didn't. Dumb move on my part.

And my favorite find of the day. An enamel coffee pot with four enamel matching cups. Cost: $35.00 for the set. I haven't researched enamel prices yet so not sure if that is a good buy or not, but I love anything that has a pineapple on it.

So you are probably wondering what I bought....nothing! I was heading somewhere and just stopped here on a whim. I had to breeze through pretty fast and didn't get to really take my time so I just snapped pics for reference and went on my way. I may have to go back one day this week.