Over the hump day

Seriously? More rain? I am so over this that I can't imagine how Mrs. Noah must have felt cooped up for 40 days and 40 nights. We've only had it about 2 1/2 days and I even ran out yesterday and I'm still feeling cooped up. We have floods surrounding us everywhere. This is our local city park.

One of the many roads in the county that are under water. 

This is actually a bridge over a little creek. Not so little right now. 

And this is the river that runs right along Hwy 66 from Kodak to Sevierville. I heard they were closing one lane on the main road due to weakening on the side. 

And my daughters neighbor lost a couple of her big trees yesterday. 

And a local day care in Kodak has lost it's playground till the waters recede.

And many of you who travel here on vacation are familiar with the Old Mill in Pigeon Forge. Here it is on a normal day.

And this is what it was like the first day of the rains. I can't imagine how bad it will get today. 

The whole county is getting worried. Even the animals are starting to sweat it. 

I will be so happy to see sunshine again. I forgot what it looks like.

But it looks like it may still be awhile. They are calling for rain mixed with snow tomorrow. 

I am holding out hopes for Saturday when the temps are to climb near 58 and sunshine. One can always dream. 

What's up in your world?

What's up in your world? We have been suffering horrendous rains since late Sunday night. School is closed today due to area flooding. And we still have another 24-48 worth of rain heading this way. It has slacked off some this morning but more is on the way.

I made a cake yesterday and used some of my Pyrex and yard sale finds. I just love this little flamingo pink ramekin. I use it for so much. It's fast becoming my favorite piece of Pyrex. 

I am still amazed that I actually found my Pyrex Hamilton Beach mixing bowl. Did you know there were two versions? One says Hamilton Beach on the bottom and one says Pyrex Hamilton Beach on the bottom. Don't have a clue why, but I actually saw both of them side by side in the same store when I bought mine. They were the same price. Everything is exactly identical unless you flip them over and one says Pyrex. Guess you know I had to have the Pyrex one. 

With the holidays and my Thirty-One events, I have really gotten the use out of this little basket. I found it at a yard sale for $1 or less. I bought it even though I thought I would never use it. I have used it so much the past six months that it isn't funny. 

Does anybody know what brand this casserole dish is? I don't know if it is vintage or recent but it has gold leaves similar to what and little birds. The bottom just says 18. Would love to identify it. One of my favorite pieces from a yard sale for a buck.

I put some cookies in this to serve at party recently. It is an awesome serving dish for cookies, candies, chips and dips. This was the last time I will use it though because I traded it in my Pyrex trade group. The new piece is on the way but I'm not going to share it until it gets here. I'm getting excited. 

I baked a cake yesterday (yellow with chocolate icing). Guess you can see it was a big success last night. 

My daughter had a Thirty-One party and everybody got to see some of the new spring products. It was awesome. We have an order going in on Saturday. If you need anything, let me know and I will send you the link to sign up on-line. I'm donating my commissions this month to help raise funds for my grandson Garret's eighth grade trip to New York. 

And last but not least. I am a big Snoopy fan. Always have been. Always will be. I hate to exercise so I knew this sign was just for me.  

Of course it could be argued that all the running around and activities that I do are a form of exercise. I probably burn more calories in one weekend than most people do in a week of going to the gym. 

This is not good

These past couple of days we have high in the 60's low 70's each day. The sun was shining, the jackets stayed in the car. It was so easy to forget it was only early January. Now they are calling for heavy rain to move in and stay for the next few days. It started shortly after church last night. We are under flood watches and the temps are supposed to return to the 40's. 

It's so not fair. I want the sunshine back. I want the warm temperatures. I want to move winter on it's way. 

But alas, it is here for the duration. We will have our ups and our downs. We will face sunny days and snow covered ground. Each season lasts about 3 months give or take. But I would be happy if winter started on December 21st and ended on January 1st. That's long enough for me. This was our December 2010 and I loved it. But come January. I'm done. 

I need a field trip to the beach. I'm thinking Panama City sounds pretty good about now. Field trip anyone?

But alas, I am stuck here for awhile longer in the dreary, gloomy days of January. 

Think I'll make some soup and pout all day.

Plum worn out

Never again will I do so much in one day. I got up at 5:00 a.m. on Saturday to do some house work and work on the church events web page before heading out with my daughter to shop. I picked her up around 9:00 and we headed to town. Around 2:00 we met up with a couple of my Thirty-One sisters for a little while. I'm borrowing a few pieces of theirs for my spring premier Monday night. Then I headed to Knoxville. After that I helped a friend of mine do some work around some rental property she owns. I got home some where around 9:00 p.m. or so. The I did some work on a new Thirty-One party we are planning.

My meals yesterday consisted of McDonald's pancakes for breakfast, one single plain hotdog from A & W for lunch, a McDonald's ice cream for an afternoon snack and then I had Fudge Stripe Cookies and barbecue potato chips for supper. I was just too exhausted to care at that point.

So today I woke up two hours later than usual and can barely move. Not to mention I am starving. So what did I find in all my shopping yesterday. Well, I didn't really buy much of anything except the ingredients for a big pot of soup for the party Monday night. But I did see some tops at the Vanity Fair Outlet that I am going to just have to have for spring. I am going to need this one in the peach and the pale aqua.

This purple one with the scarf would be so adorable with my black capris.

I love the flowers in this one. The colors are so springy. This might be cute with white dress pants and white shoes for Easter. 

But the ultimate one that is a MUST for me is this one with the hook on chain necklace. My daughter-in-law had on a sweater over the holidays with these chain necklace hooks and I fell in love with it. 

I'm thinking a cute pair of coral flip flops to wear with the ensemble would be cute.

But more importantly I'm thinking that I have to be at church in one hour and haven't eaten breakfast or gotten ready. So I guess I better head off here. That's the problem with over sleeping. You think you have a lot of spare time.....but you don't!

Wow, I've done it now!

I love to go to antique stores and thrift stores. Hubby will go with me occasionally, but I can tell he's not really "into" it. Until yesterday. Thursday he stumbled across an Amish website that sold vintage glass milk bottles. He fell in love with them. So I mentioned that a couple of the antique stores I go to have milk bottles and I mentioned seeing them sometimes in thrift stores. Well, that was it. We spent the whole day "window" shopping around local antique stores and thrift stores.



He hasn't purchased anything yet because he is getting the lay of the land so to speak. He is one of those patient people who will scour the stores and compare prices before he starts collecting. I am so happy that he is starting his own collection of something....as long as he doesn't invade my Pyrex space!



His ultimate dream is to find a gallon jug with red handle by Borden with Elsie the cow on it. Since there was a lot of Borden where we grew up, I'll have to have my sister keep her eyes open as well.



Of course, helping him find his bottles may just have an ulterior motive behind it. Since that will just add to the vintage feel of the kitchen, I can now break the news to him that I want a vintage braided rug to go under the kitchen table.



Normally anything I want to change around the house is up to me and he is always fine with it. But I have insisted on three different occasions that I just HAVE to have a rug under the table. I drag him from shop to shop for month after month to find the right rug at the right price. Keep in mind my table is farmhouse style that seats 8 so I have to have a big rug. I have done this several times and every time I decide after 6 months or so that I don't like it and get rid of it. BUT in my defense, I have always wanted a braided one and have settled for whatever else I found. So this time I will hold out to get what I want.



On another note, it has been a good week on Facebook. Here are my favorite Facebook posts from this week. This was one of my favorite photos of the week. So true, so true. When I saw it, I thought of  Ms. Linda over at Coastal Charm. I think she would totally enjoy this pillow. 

And I really had to chuckle over this one. It sounds like something my dear friend Wendell would say over at Everyday Ruralty. I'm sure Ms. Patrice will share this with him. 

This one is for Ms. Debbie over at Jeremiah-2911. I know she will absolutely love it. 

This one is for all my Southern friends. I know you will agree with it. I sure do. 

This is a picture from Myrtle Beach on Thursday. They hit 70 degrees. Oh, to be walking on that warm beach right now would be divine. 

This is about motherhood, but it also applies to those of us who work from home. I am in my flannel pj's until around 10:00. Then I "get dressed" in a sweatsuit. But in my defense, I work better when I am comfortable and nobody can say sweats or jammies are uncomfortable. 

If you have ever owned a cat, known a cat or experienced life with a cat this is SO true!

Thanks to John Robert Saunders for sharing this photo of Gatlinburg this week. The mountains are beautiful with the lingering snow. 

My friend Janie pastes a very inspirational Good Morning photo every day on Facebook. This was a favorite of mine this week.

Rootin' for Regen

Here is a story from the news channel last night. 

Our local Chick-Fil-A even got involved to support this precious child. 

Last night from 6-8 pm they donated 100% of their sales to Rootin 4 Regen. Regen is a local 11 year old boy who has been hospitalized since November 5, 2012. Regen was diagnosed with Anaplastic Astrocytoma he has three malignant tumors and he is in a fight for his life. A Facebook page was made for him and yesterday morning he had a little over 26,000 members. This morning as I write this he has 28,905 members on this page. He is at St. Jude's now preparing to start chemotherapy and everyone is praying for this dear boy. You can also visit his website to keep updated on his progress. http://www.rootinforregen.com/ Please keep him in your prayers, pass his story along to others and add him to your prayer chains.

I would like to ask all my blogging partners to pass on Regen's story to help spread the prayer requests and ask God to put His loving touch on such a precious child. 

Vintage things of interest

I was looking for a particular item in the vintage section of Craig's List. I didn't find what I was looking for, but I did find some interesting items. The first thing that caught my eye was, of course, Pyrex. This is that casserole shape that I have fallen in love with. I do like the Verdi pattern. Some call it Verde some Verdi. I'm not sure which is right but I do love the bowl, also known as square flowers. 

I used to have a set of these when my twins were little. I don't know whatever happened to them but I wish I still had them. 

This adorable piece looks like depression glass, but I don't think it is because it was less than $10.

Another cute Pyrex bowl. This was just $8 but too far away to drive and get and not wanted bad enough to pay shipping. But it is cute. 

Check out this old radio. I bet a lot of family gatherings took place around it. 

Now you might wonder was a chalk line would interest me. When I was a little girl, I was Daddy's sidekick. He loved to build and make things plus he did a lot of adding on to our house. One of the first jobs I was allowed to do help him was to hold one end of the chalk line and pull it up to flip it so he would have that nice blue line to guide his saw. It was an awesome job and I always will remember working with Daddy every time I see one of these old things.

Isn't she adorable? We have all seen the ladies head planters, but I have never seen an entire girl figurine that was a planter in the back. Too cute. 

Another walk down memory lane. Who remembers these. TV, record player and radio all in one. As they evolved, some even had 8 track players in them. The ad said the picture tube didn't work, but he was willing to deal just to get rid of the piece. I wish I had a place for it just so I could have it for the record player part. I have so may old LP's that I need to get something to listen to them on. 

I fell in love with this little guy. I am looking for some cute lambs to incorporate into my Easter displays around the house this year. I am wanting them to be vintage or vintage looking. But as much as I like him, there is no way I would pay $10.00 for him.