Inspiration from Pinterest

Just how bad do you want it....

Do you recall the other day when I said I would love to find some Hamilton Beach Pyrex mixing bowls? Well, I was scouting around on Craig's List and guess what I found?

Yep, that is a Hamilton Beach Pyrex mixing bowl. For sale. On Craig's List. FOR JUST $3.00! Amazing. Oh, wow!

I quickly scanned the article for the location. Could it be so easy? Could it be near me or in a part of Knoxville that I can travel to easily? Then I saw the location. Olympia. Washington. The state. The one that is plum across the country from where I am!! But I thought, what did I have to lose. I emailed the lady. Sure enough, she was willing to ship it. She was going to way it and get me an estimated cost for shipping. Well, it turns out shipping could be anywhere from $10 - $15. Which would make the bowl $13 - $18. So I had to ask myself did I really want it that bad? And the answer was no. I will just keep looking locally. I would hate to pay $18 for it and it wind up getting broken on the way here (which would be my luck.)

So I woke up this morning and decided I would check the local paper online to see if any yard sales looked like they might have vintage bowls. I have a meeting at 9:00 for Thirty-One this morning, but figured I could leave early enough to stop at a yard sale or hit it up after the meeting. So I go to The Mountain Press and what is the first article? A teacher moved from Northview (where my grandson Caleb goes) to Caton's Chapel (where my grandchildren Garret and Alexis go). So I opened up the article to read about her new classroom at Caton's Chapel and my eyes popped out of my head at the photo.

See that tiny little angel on the front row, far left. That is my sweet princess, Alexis Caroline. Made my day to see that smiling face right there on my computer screen. What an unexpected surprise and awesome way to start my day. 

Have a great Saturday. 

A nice surprise for hubby

Hubby and I went to Double R Farms produce store yesterday because I saw on Facebook that they had fresh blackberries. Sure enough Hubby couldn't resist and we bought some. He wanted a cobbler and I offered to make it (even though I have only made cobbler once in my life. It was a perfect opportunity to use my $1.00 Pyrex casserole dish. I covered them with sugar and let them set then used some of the juice and cornstarch for a thickener. 

Then I got my biggest green Pyrex bowl and mixed up the dough mixture for the topping. 

It turned out pretty good "looks wise" as far as I could tell. I don't eat cobbler so I didn't know if it was right or not. 

But Hubby sure didn't wait to cut into it. Of course, when I caught him at it, I had to yell "Wait!" I need a picture for my blog. 

I made it from a recipe we found online. It didn't call for enough corn starch because the juice was still a little "juicy" if you ask me. 

But he spooned on some vanilla ice cream and declared it heavenly so all is well that ends well. 

Since he had his cobbler I had to make me a cake. I chose my Swiss Chocolate Cinnamon Cake with chocolate icing. It turned out great. This is one of those no fail recipes. 

As a matter of fact, guess what was for breakfast this morning. Don't judge me. I did add milk for dairy since, after all, it was breakfast. 

Taking the morning off

Wow, yesterday was unbelievably busy. I had some new prospects to talk to and ended up being on the phones until 6:00 at which time I stopped to get ready for church business meeting. I left after the business meeting because a prospect from California wanted me to call him before he left his office. So I was on the phone with him until 8:45. 

I checked emails and had questions from two of the people I talked with earlier in the day. While I was answering the second one, the first one emailed back from my response. It went back and forth until 9:20. 

Then I had to take a shower and finally fixed myself something to eat at 10:00. I ended up eating American cheese on saltine crackers and had a powdered donut for dessert. Wow, I am such an accomplished chef.

Had a bite of breakfast while I was answering more mails. I have to run some Thirty-One catalogs to a lady this morning then hubby and I are going to head out to Walmart and the store. We'll probably pop in at Double R Farms produce store. They just got some honey and molasses in along with a fresh batch of blackberries and peaches. 

Our schools start back in session today. I hope my grandchildren all have a great first day of school.

Thank goodness for yard sales

As many of you know, I started a few months back collecting Pyrex. I don't have a large collection as I have mostly been purchasing my pieces at yard sales and thrift stores. Once or twice I have found a piece for a bargain at an antique store. The most I paid was $10.00 for a set of three nesting bowls. Which was a bargain. 

I happened to come across an item on E-bay that is up for auction. The bid 

is at $150.00 for this set. It is in mint condition and even has the original box. The pieces are reportedly new and never been used. But still, $150.00 for a set of bowls? For me, the fun part of collecting is finding the pieces at a bargain. But I do admit this is a pretty set. It will be interesting to see how high the bidding goes. 

Most of my collection was found at yard sales for $1.00, but I did find this adorable Gooseberry Cinderella bowl for a quarter at a yard sale this summer. I am keeping my eye out for the rest of the pieces for this set.



It is funny because E-bay has four sets for sale that only have three bowls. Each set is missing the #441, which is the bowl I have. But they range in price from $42.00 - $69 for the other three bowls. I am not going to pay that since I only paid .25 for the first one. I did find some other bowls I liked on E-bay. That is where I look for ideas for my wish list. This would be perfect for meatloaf.



I would love to find at least one of these Hamilton Beach Pyrex mixing bowls.



I also like these mini casserole dishes.



This gravy boat would be perfect for Thanksgiving dinner.



Along with the matching butter dish.



And the coordinating serving bowls.



And the Corelle Harvest Home dishes would finish out a nice set for the holidays.



I am still looking for a full set of the Cinderella bowls. I just can't decide for sure what pattern I want them in. I really thought I wanted some Colonial Mist to replace the ones I had years ago.



But I see many others that I would like to have as well. I also love the Amish Butterprint pattern.



But I also like the Sunflower Orange pattern.



I had never seen this one before, but it is pretty. It is the Orange Butterprint.



And I like the Turqoise Gooseberry.




I also love fridgies and would love to find some good deals on any of those.



I must be having a Pyrex day today. I think I'll pull out a couple of my bowls and make a cake and homemade frosting.

Bits and pieces...

We woke up to a nice thunderstorm and rain shower this morning. It was just 62 degrees when I got up. Right now it looks like it is clearing up some, but a couple of neighboring counties are under a flood advisory. And the weather map shows more heading this way. I hope it clears up because I have plans for today with three of my grandchildren. 

Our apple tree has produced a lot of apples this year, but before they get ripe enough to pick, the blue jays come have a picnic. It is nothing to see 5 or 6 at a time just setting in the tree and pecking at the apples. We have tried shooing them off but the minute we walk back in the house, they just fly back to the apples. I am open to suggestions. It's a little late to get them away from the tree this year since they have damaged so many of the apples. But if you have any advice for next year, I would love to hear it.

Look closely in my Bradford pear. Yes, that is a RED leaf. It just turned up red yesterday. I guess fall is not far around the corner. The evenings and nights have been cooler and the humidity hasn't been as bad on some days. So I think we can start thinking about fall and cooler weather. 

When I was walking through the yard last night taking these pictures, the grass felt cool and was actually getting that little bit of dampness you feel when summer starts coming to a close. I happened to notice my feet. Pay no attention to the age spots, the ankle wrinkles or the fact I need a new polish job. What I noticed was that those weeks I went to the ball games and set on the bleachers in the sun actually paid off with a little tan. I didn't even realize I had been tanning until I saw the flip flop stripes on my feet. Either I got some good sun or I wear too many flip flops. Just noticed my left foot and ankle look a little swollen. Hmm, I twisted it the other day going down the steps but it doesn't hurt so it may just be old age. 

Hope you have a happy Tuesday. 

When I try to be nice....

I am one of those people who don't mind helping others if I can. But sometimes, I feel like I'm too nice and I end up paying for it. 

Last night, I had a strange number call my house. It was a South Carolina area code and I don't know anyone in South Carolina who would have my cell phone number. They called 3 times from 9:30 p.m. to 9:45 p.m. They didn't leave a message, but would just hang up when it went to voice mail and call back. 

I figured it was a wrong number and they just kept trying so I finally answered to see what was going on. It was a little old lady who was crying (you could tell it wasn't fake). I asked her who she was trying to call and she gave me her daughter and son-in-law's name and address and said they lived in Gatlinburg and she needed them and couldn't reach them. My number was one she had written down for them. 

Since this number is just two months old, I thought maybe it used to belong to them. I asked her if she wanted me to try to find their number in the phone book. She gave me their names and their address and asked me to look it up. Long story short, I found them and she asked if I could just call them and ask her daughter to call her that it was an emergency.

So, me being me, I did. The tearful lady had told me she was 80 years old and very upset and that she couldn't remember numbers. The daughter answered the phone and I explained what was going on. She thanked me profusely. She said her mother is 80 years old and gets confused real easy. She said she would call her right away. She thanked me for being so sweet to her Mom and for taking the time to help her. 

I felt like I had done my good deed for the day and put it out of my mind. Around 11:45 p.m. it started again with the little old lady calling my number by mistake. I was asleep so just looked at the number and figured when it went to voice mail she would realize and call the right number back, which the daughter was going to give her. 

Nope. She got voice mail, hung up and called back. Then she called back in 5 minutes. I finally just turned the phone off since I was going to bed. When I got up this morning, she had called 4 times during the night and never left any messages. 

It's things like this that make me realize why people sometimes don't want to be helpful with others. 

I don't even know if I can block a number from calling a cell phone or not.