It's been an amazing week...

It has been a hectic, busy, amazing week at work. I thought I would just do a mid-week update to share what's been going on. Monday, I went and got my hair cut short. Really short. Then I decide to color it with a light ash blonde. It is so easy to take care of. I am loving it. The lighter color makes me happy as well. It amazed me how much more productive I feel when I like my hair. 

Then Tuesday, I was at work when the bosses wife, my friend Stevie, came out in the office and told me she needed me to go somewhere with her to help carry boxes. So I went. We went to a place called Courthouse Donuts and decided to have lunch there. 

It was so quaint. I just loved the decor.

We ordered and went into the dining room. We sat at the table in the front corner by the window.

This gave me a perfect angle to get some good pictures. It wasn't quite lunch time so we had it to ourselves for the first 15 minutes. I absolutely love the decor.

I like the fact that they even decorated the doors that separated the two rooms. 

They had a cute little table in the corner with my favorite plant, a Boston fern. 

Our view was of the Sevier County Courthouse which was built in 1892 and remodeled in 1970. It is the pride of Sevier County.

I had a ham sandwich for lunch which was served Panini style. It was delicious.

Stevie opted for the Rueben sandwich which she says was delicious as well. 

When we were done eating, I finally found out what boxes I was there to help carry. She bought 4 boxes of donuts for the staff for Administrative Assistants day. Now that is the kind of box I can help carry.

They have a very unique donut shop. They make nothing but plain cake donuts. Then she stand at a topping center and custom design your own donuts much like you do a Subway sandwich. We decided to have one each before we left.

I asked them to dip mine in chocolate frosting, then dip it in crushed Butterfingers and then drizzle caramel over the whole thing. The result was nothing short of heavenly. Best donut ever. 

There were so many choices. Stevie decided to go with a simple vanilla icing dip then she had them drizzle chocolate, caramel and honey over hers. You can tell by looking at it that it was fantastic.

Then it was getting close to time to pick up her daughter from school, but we had a few minutes to kill. So we went to our favorite antique store that is near the entrance to the school. I fell in love with this dishtowel. It is perfect for my kitchen. But it was $8.00...and stained. There was no way I was paying that. But I took a pic and I'm going to look for material with the checks and colors in this and see if I can make an applique of it.

But I did find this little Pyrex salad plate for just $3.00. I love this pattern. I have some things in the gray version. 

As if that wasn't that day wasn't exciting enough, all three of us girls in the office came into work on Administrative Assistants day and found a card with something special in it and our own box of donuts to take home with us. They were all assorted and this was the box I got. They are divine. You get 13 1/2 donuts per box. Courthouse Donuts says 12 represent a jury, 1 represents a judge and the half donuts represents that you have a 50% chance of being found guilty of eating too many donuts. I agree. They are delicious.

Then after we had been there a little while, Stevie came out and got me and Jamie and took us to Randall Ogle Gallery. Randall is a famous local artist who paints scenes of the mountains and Cades Cove as well as other paintings. He is related to Jamie and I have always loved his work. So when Stevie said we could get paintings for the office, that is where we wanted to get them. I apologize for the glare on the pictures. But I got to get three for my office. I didn't realized until I got back to the office that all three of mine had dogwood trees in them. Which is my favorite tree so that was pretty cool. The one on the left was painted in memory of his mother, Mary Lee. The one on the right is the old Methodist church in Cades Cove.

This one is of Meigs Falls in the Great Smoky Mountains.

Even among all the excitement this week, I have managed to get work done and keep my workload up to date. It has just been an amazing weeks so far. 

Tee Ball Time

I had the pleasure of attending my youngest grandson's first tee ball game last night. My son (his daddy) coaches the team. The boys were amazingly good for such young kids who had never played before. I must say it was one of the most exciting tee ball games I ever attended.

Ready.....

Confidently strutting up to take his first turn at bat.

Set.....

Coach Dad helping him with his stance and getting him ready to go.

Play ball.....

His first swing and he connected it and it went flying.

And so did he....all the way to first. I have never seen such little legs go so very fast.

And of course, being the proud grandma I am, I had to film him as those little flying 4 year old feet crossed home plate for the first run of his career.

 This child loves sports of any kind and has been so excited for his first game. He looks so cute in his outfit. 

It was an awesome night. They won 10-0. Colby scored twice and got one out at first. I can't wait to go back again.

Some people are unbelievable...

Please read this article from Ask Amy. Amy Dickinson is an American newspaper columnist who writes the syndicated advice column Ask Amy. I was very impressed with Amy's response.

Amy hit the nail on the head with this one. As I read the letter from Sad Sister, I couldn't help but think "What kind of sister are you?" Why would you ever treat ANYONE like they don't belong, much less family, simply because your income/expense level is not the same, your marital status is not the same, your interests are not the same. That is frankly nothing but a bunch of bull as far as I'm concerned. 

I have so many wonderful, precious friends that I would be lost without. We range from ones who have to pinch every penny to make ends meet to ones who can basically do anything they desire and never worry about the expense. We all have different interests and different tastes. We plan an outing, invite our friends and let the FRIENDS decide if it is something they want to do.We don't prejudge them and say "Well this one doesn't shop, this one doesn't do fancy restaurants, this one is a single mom, etc." We just say "Hey, we are going to.... Do  you want to join us?"

And to use the excuse that her and her friends are active church goers while her sister only goes sporadically. Excuse me! When did maintaining friendships and showing Christian like attitudes only apply to people who go to church. 

That remark was probably to me the most condemning of all Sad Sisters comments. Reading between the lines, you will notice that Sad Sister says they are all "church goers". Correct me if I'm wrong but simply being a "church goer" does not a Christian make. It seems to me she is more obsessed with the image of saying she goes to church than actually living what she learns while she is there.

I am sorry. I did not mean to get on a soap box but this story really got to me. I just can't believe some of the excuses she used to exclude her sister.

Weekend Wrap Up

Well, it has been a fantastic weekend. It started off with the 10 mile yard sale. I didn't have as much luck as I like to, but I did get a few things. This was probably something silly, but I just couldn't help myself, not for just a dime. But it is the Cheerio's bee. I love whimsical bees and my favorite cereal is Cheerios so I just had to have it. It's a Pez dispenser.

My next exciting find was this gorgeous silver sugar and cream set. I am in love with it. I have always wanted a set like this. 

As you recall, my new office has some black and white Thirty-One organizers in it. So when I saw this cup and coaster, I knew I had to have it.

I also picked up this brand new project planner. it had never been used. It is perfect for someone who had so many irons in the fire like I do.

I got this recipe book from my daughter-in-laws booth. It has some awesome recipes. She teased me about buying it because of the cake on the front. Sad to say, but she was right. :) But I did find lots of recipes inside that I would like to try out.

I found this cute little picture to set on my desk. It is one of my favorite bible versus. 

I had hoped to find another wooden pelican. I found one last year I loved. I was lucky and found this little guy for just .50 cents.

Found this cute little rooster. My camera went nuts though and I didn't get a good picture. But I love it.

The bargain of the day was these two white milk glass bowls. I got one and my daughter got the other one. They were .50 cents each. She saw where someone put Styrofoam in them and then did a flower arrangement. We are going to try that.

I went with the thought in mind that I would like to find some plastic bowling pins to use for a little carnival we were putting on for Children's church. Imagine my delight when I was able to get a set for just .50 cents. I forgot to take a picture before I took them to church but they were similar to this with farm animals on them.

I spent some time Saturday evening preparing the games. Then I crashed on the couch after supper. It was a long day. Sunday I went to Sunday School then we had our carnival for the kids of Children's church. They had a ton of fun. I didn't get any pictures of the them doing the games, but we played alligator when it was all over and I did get a pic of that. We had already cleaned up the carnival games by then.

Last night was the 50th Anniversary of the Academy of Country Music awards show. I rarely watch any of the music event shows unless it relates to Country Music then I never miss them. I miss the ACM awards one year on TV but it was on the radio so I was able to listen to them. I love watching the various reactions when people win and you can tell by the look on their face they did not think they would. It was a great show. I was happy with most of the winners, but I was a little shocked to say the least at single record of the year. I sure didn't expect it to be I Don't Dance by Lee Brice. That was a good song, but song of the year? And even though I was happy for Luke Bryan as entertainer of the year, I really had hoped Jason Aldean would take that one home. But all in all, it was an awesome 50th anniversary show with a lot of recognition going to a lot of people who deserved it. 

Sunday Songs

His Amazing Grace

It's Saturday!

It is 7:30 in the morning. I have been up 2 1/2 hours. 

Straightened up the house.

Have a load of laundry already washed and in the dryer. 

Made my list of things I would like to look for at the 10 mile yard sale today. 

Checked Craig's list to find additional yard sales. 

Got the prized together for a small spring carnival for children's church tomorrow. 

Came up with 7 carnival games for them to play and gathered the supplies to create the games.

Getting ready to eat a bite of breakfast and get dressed so I can head out to the big yard sale in about an hour.

Do I know how to use my time to get things done when I want to? Heck, yes!

Happy Saturday! Enjoy your day. I am sure I will have a lot to report back on Monday in my weekend wrap up. Stay tuned.....

Flitterin' Friday

My thoughts are flitterin' everywhere this morning. I am going to have a yard sale in the next few weeks so I am cleaning out closets. I found the roosters that belonged to my Grandma Garretson, (though I originally thought they belonged to Mamaw Eden). They are old and fragile. Lots of chips and nicks. The paint is worn and you can see where she has had to glue them back together a time or two. I need to find a safe spot for them in my kitchen.

The third one I had is the one I am giving to my sister, Rachel. I know she will love it. I told her we will have to visit to exchange it. No way am I risking shipping it as fragile as they are.

There is a Thirty-One bag that I love and it is the Organizing Utility Tote. They have discontinued it and replaced it with the Zip Top Organizing Utility Tote. I don't like the one that zips at well, but I still like all the pockets and the room inside. I am in love with the Bubble Bloom Pattern. I would really like to have this bag, but for some reason I have not bought it.

Then last night when I was going through my closet, I found one from last spring that I earned for free. That pattern was the Citrus Medallion. I even earned the free Medium Zipper Thermal to go with it. I had forgotten all about it. I even had it personalized with Flitterin' on the other side. It is basically the same colors that are in the bubble bloom pattern, but I love the fact that it is the original Organizing Utility Tote...no zip top. I am so excited that I found it. 

I decided to dig further in the storage to see what other Thirty-One I had. I had forgotten about my craft I got for free from my first party over 3 years ago before I ever started selling it. I put my new yarn project in it and my scissors and other craft paraphernalia in the matching mini zipper pouch. Now I'm ready to start my craft project today.

That triggered me going through all my Thirty-One items to decide on the perfect bag for conference. I put my normal conference items in each bag to test it. Turns out almost everything I have has two straps so I have to worry about straps being aggravating or slipping off my shoulders. Some bags were too big, some were too small. The things that were cross body were not big enough. I knew we couldn't take back packs but I checked and found out the Cinch Sac would work. I am going to have a party in May and with my free hostess credit, I am going to order this for my conference bag. So happy to have that problem solved.

Well, tomorrow is the 4th annual yard sale in Sevierville, TN. It started out as a 7 mile yard sale four years ago. The title has changed as it has grown. This year it is the 10 mile yard sale. I got fabulous bargains every year. Even scored some Federal, Pyrex, and Fire King bakeware a time or two. I am looking for a nice rug for my office and a flower pot for my philodendron. Obviously I will be checking out anything vintage. I would love to find a good buy on a TV for my home office. The one I bought 3 years ago for $5.00 does not work with my HD box for Direct TV. I am also going to look for some vintage aprons. Here's a pic of one spot from previous years.

Hope everybody has a great weekend.