Add a dash of salt...

I love adding a little bath salts to my bath. It helps soak away sore muscles. The glycerin helps keep your skin smooth but the hot water does make it dry. The ones I buy come in either a bag or a box and I have been looking for something to keep them in.

I recently bought this little tea pot at a yard sale.

I buy things because I like the way they look. Then when I get home, I decide where to sit them. Even if I just buy it for looks, I love to try to find unique ideas to use my goodies for instead of what they are intended for. I don't drink tea, but I own enough tea pots to serve tea to half the town. I wanted to put this one in my master bath because it has lavender and green in it. Recently, I had bought some new bath salts and I spotted the tea pot. I decided to pour the remaining salts into the teapot to test it out. 

I just poured them into my bath water using the little pot.

Then I sit it back in the corner of my tub. It now serves a purpose and looks very pretty doing so. 

Yo Yo Maker Review

I recently have become a fan of fabric yo yo's and tried my hand at a few. Mom guided me how to make them over the phone. However, I find that I am one of those people who has to have a form or hoop or something to work on fabric or I get agitated and it never turns out right.

My dear friend Stephanie purchased me a yo yo maker at Hobby Lobby. 

Yesterday afternoon, I gathered my supplies and headed out to the porch swing to try my first yo yo with the maker.  I placed my material in the hoop, cut off the excess fabric and stitched around through the holes. 

I tied it off, removed it from the disk and gathered it. Here is my finished product. 

Then I made a white one to go with it. I was going to make a red one, but I had to go to choir practice. I have a plan for them which I will share with you in a day or two when everything is finished. 

I also picked up some orange fabric. I still need one or two more shades of orange.

Then I'm going to make me a little pumpkin for fall.

Now that I have a yo yo maker and have mastered it. I am in love with making yo yo's. Once I cut my material and started sewing, one yo yo took about 4 minutes to make. I am going to cut all my square for everything I want to do. Then when I go to make a yo you, I will just have to load the material and I'm ready to go. I do need to get over to Hobby Lobby though. I want some different size hoops now that I know how much I love working with them. 

Who would like a new giveaway?

With the arrival of summer, everyone has plans for fun. There are picnics, cookouts, beach trips, vacations to the mountains, ball games, family reunions, just tons of fun waiting around the next corner. 

Thirty-One likes to celebrate summer. They have many items that are used for a multitude of uses to help simplify your life while you enjoy summer fun. 

I thought it would be nice to offer you a choice of one of the products that can help simplify your life this summer. The winner will be chosen on July 4th to receive their choice of ONE of the following items. 

Entering is easy, just leave me a comment telling me which item you would choose if you are the winner. Want an extra entry? Visit my other blog to register there for a second chance to win. One winner will be chosen from each site. 

Here are the items you can choose from if you win. Be sure to leave a comment telling me which item you would choose in order to be entered. 

#1 - Cinch-It-Up Thermal Tote in Minty Chip

#2 - Littles Carry All Caddy in Aqua Circle Spiral

#3 - Thermal Tote in Best Tweets

#4 - Zipper Pouch in Awesome Blossom with personalization

#5 - Mini Zipper Pouch in Flutter

Good luck to everyone who enters. The winner will be announced on July 4th! 

The Recital

I attended my first dance recital for my granddaughter Shelby last night. Her class did their dance to Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot bikini. They also performed their tap routine to California girls. It was adorable.

Here she is in her outfit ready to head to recital.

And in the hallway getting last minute pep talk from her teacher.

I didn't get any pictures of her on stage since we couldn't use flash. They did receive their DVD of their photo shoot and here is Shelby's group photo. She is on the front row, left.

And my favorite picture of all. Her photo shoot for dance class pictures...

Miss Shelby Rayne Hayes, 3 years old.

Things I wish I had kept...

Over a lifetime, we accumulate stuff and then get rid of it just to buy more stuff. Then we wish we had kept some of the stuff we got rid of. I was thinking yesterday about some of the things I wish we had not parted with and these are a few that came to mind...

My big pot from Corning Vision Ware. This was hubby's soup bean pot. He likes the stainless one he has now a lot better, but there are times I miss this old pot. 

The entire Vision Ware set of pots and pans. I especially miss the little skillet and the little pot that had the pour spout. 

Mom had gotten me a set of these one year and I didn't use them very much so I sold them in a garage sale. Now that I am loving snack plates and mugs, I wish I had them back. 

I really, really wish I had kept her. She was the Campbell Soup doll and she was my favorite doll....even though my baby brother Jack had bitten her hand off and she had lost all her clothes. I kept her with me until we moved to Tennessee in '88. Not sure what happened to her but just didn't see her after that. 

This next one really, really makes me sick. We had the Pyrex Cinderella bowls exactly like this .... and we gave them away because we just didn't use them as much once the kids got married. I am disgusted with myself for parting with these. Had I known I was going to grow to love Pyrex so much, I never would have parted with them. My friend Stephanie just showed me her set she found the other day. It was these bowls in the pink pattern. That just made me regret even more that I gave these up. 

I had two of these casserole dishes in the old orchard pattern. Again, could kick myself for getting rid of them. 

 

We had one of these old sandwich glass oval dishes as well. I don't even know when or why I got rid of it because I really liked it. Must have been one of those things I just did with no good reason.

I don't think I'm ever going to part with anything ever again. Then I don't have to suffer regrets. 

I love little surprises...

I was heading out to my grandson's ball game the other day and I stopped to pick up my mail. The only thing in the mail box was this...

I wondered what in the world it could be and turned the box over and it was from Target for either me or current resident. Since I am me and I am the current resident, I felt confident in opening it. 

Inside was this adorable little zipper pouch. 

You know I am a sucker for zipper pouches and when I opened it, there were goodies inside. 

Some lotions, hair products, lip butter sample....

.... and some coupons...$19.00 worth to be exact. And I was thrilled because one of them is for $2.00 off Cover Girl. I am out of my Smoother that I wear and it is $7.97 so $2.00 is great. 

On another note, I finally decided on Boston Ferns for my porch. We picked up two yesterday and I love them. I am going to go back and get two more...one for each end. 

I bought hubby some fresh tomatoes and cucumbers at the Farmers Market Saturday. He boiled him some noodles, mixed those with the veggies, added onions and Italian dressing and has a nice cold summer salad that is garden fresh. 

Well, I have a lot to do today so I hope you each have an awesome day. 

Why I don't like to order online

I have always had a rule that I don't buy things off the internet sight unseen. There was a reason I don't do that. I don't like being disappointed and sometimes that happens when you order sight unseen. However, I broke my rule and ordered some things from E-bay. So far, I have been very pleased with my purchases...until yesterday. 

For many years, I have purchased the oversize terry cloth bath pillow for my tub. 

They last a long time, fit comfortably on my neck and back and assist with my relaxation time in the tub.  They are getting harder and harder to find. Mine started losing air. I would pump it back up before every soak to make sure it had lots of air. But it finally wore out and I had to pitch it. 

Well, who would figure it would be so hard to find a replacement. Nobody seems to carry them any more. I was reluctant to buy one from online since I couldn't see it before purchasing. I have tried ones from the Dollar Tree and our local Food City. Nobody else carries them any more. The ones I have tried do not last more than a few soaks and they develop leaks. They are not the large size and they don't have terry cloth. So I found one on E-bay that showed the picture above and described it as "High end, heavy duty, extra large terry bath pillow." Well, I snapped it up and it arrived today.

First off, does it look anything remotely like the picture in the above paragraph? No. Second, do you see anything remotely oversize about this. No. And I can assure you the material is NOT high end, heavy duty. About the only thing true on the description was it does have terry cloth on it. A Flimsy, thin layer of terry cloth. But I inflated it to see what size it would be. It is not even as big as a four pack of bathroom tissue. 

You have got to be kidding me. This is so not what I ordered. I am so disappointed. But at a price of $4.12, is it worth my time, effort and shipping to return it? I think not. It will work for now until I find what I want. But in the meantime, I'm a little afraid to order anything online again. 

I did order some beads that arrived from Hong Kong the same day as the pillow. Lampwork beads are never exact so I knew they would be a little different, but I like them anyway.

I wasn't as thrilled about the topaz ones. But I have a dress with topaz in it that these would look great with. I like to have an assortment of these lampwork beads and change my Pandora charms around to match my outfit.

All in all, my mail order week has been a love it or leave it relationship.