Friday Foto Friends

Friday Foto Friends with Breathing in Grace

Here are some fun Friday photos from my little home town of Barboursville, WV. This is the "old bridge" which no longer exists. They tore it down and built a new one. When I was growing up, it was a wood floor and we would have to walk across it to go to the doctor. It was so scary.

This was Ezra Ward in his store. Not even sure what kind of store he had, I just knew when we went to visit my Aunt Frances, we would sometimes go in there and get candy and gum.

This was the train tracks that ran right through the middle of town. The C & O had a reclamation plant right in town and if the train coming through was one that had to get weighed, you could be stuck waiting on it to go through for a long time. 

Allen and I met in 1981 at our job at Sturm Machine. Later that fall, they did company photos. Somebody posted this on Facebook recently. I had forgotten all about these pictures. This is all the guys in the machine shop. That is my hubby front row, 4th from the right.

And this was the office staff, That is me on the second row, two to the right of the guy in the middle in the red jacket. He was our president, Charles Walker. I could remember 35 of the names in the picture below and about 18 of the ones in the shop guys picture above. Not a bad memory for 35 years ago.

I love old pictures. 

Plastic Canvas Coasters

I need to make me some more coasters. I love making them out of plastic canvas because you can make one in less than an hour. Most of the patterns are repetitive squares so you don't need to keep looking down to see the pattern. You can just sit and make them while watching TV. I've been using the same pattern for years so I am thinking about trying out some new ones. Here are some of the ones I am thinking about. I have about 30 or 40 skeins of yarn I have accumulated over the years so color will not be a problem. Now to just decide on what pattern.

I love the boldness of this one and it is super simple to follow the design. 

I know I want one for my nightstand in my bedroom. Since I have a beach theme in there, this would be perfect. I will probably dry the anchor or the sail boat.

I like the simple ones that you can put in a little box. They make great gifts. I giveaway a lot of my coasters. I just love making them.

This one is pretty for winter time.

Well and of course the Queen of Flip Flops here. Leave it to me to find one with flip flops on it.

I absolutely love the colors in this one. That light blue they used with the contrast of the darker is gorgeous.

This little music note one is too cute. I may just have to try this.

I have the round plastic canvas forms so I may try my hand at a couple of these. Round is not as easy to do at the square unless you have the actual pattern so we will see.

I like the simplicity of this one and there is room for a little button. I am currently obsessed with using buttons in crafts.

This one is unique. A lot of different colors and stitches in it. 

You can't go wrong with the checkered square pattern. Super simple. 

And the good thing is that with all my scrap plastic canvas and all my yarn, I can get started today making some of these without having to buy anything. Now to just figure out which one to do first. What is your favorite one?

The Green Bean Thing....

I have a thing about green beans. I have such wonderful memories of setting on the front porch with Mom and sometimes my Mamaw Eden stringing beans. There was just something fun about sitting around listening to them talk while I had my own little bowl of beans to string and pop. I just loved the snap-snap-snap of breaking the beans in smaller pieces.

When Allen would buy beans, I always take them to the front porch to string them. He would come out there and help me and we would sit and talk about our day and our plans. I don't know what it is about stringing beans that makes me so relaxed, but it does. 

Do you want to know what the funny thing is about my love for stringing beans? It's the fact that I despise green beans. I cannot stand them and wouldn't eat one bean if you paid me too. My hate for green beans is 100% psychological and I know that but I still will not eat a bean.

As Mom tells the story, I was about four years old and up until that time I loved green beans. I ate them all the time. One day, I had just gotten over the flu and was just starting to get my appetite back. So Mom made some green beans. Apparently I was just pushing my food around on my plate and Mom told me to eat my green beans. And my Daddy, who I loved more than I did the green beans, said "Don't make her eat them if she doesn't want them. I don't blame her I never did like green beans." She said I pushed my little plate away and said "I don't like them either." and that was that. She never could get me to eat green beans again. 

(Me & my Daddy when I was 2)

When I was pregnant, I knew I had to eat healthier so I decided it was time to go back to visit my like or dislike of green beans. Made them just like Mom did cooked slowly with a little bacon grease thrown in. And whoever said anything is better with bacon flavoring lied. The first green bean never even made it past my lips. The moment my lips touched the green bean and I could get just a small flavoring of it, I bolted off the couch and threw them out. Nope. Wasn't going to happen. I was not going to eat that nasty thing.

So here I sit today. I am 59 years old and will come visit on your porch and string all the beans you want me to. But invite me over for dinner and a "mess of green beans" and I will politely decline. 

Looking ahead...

We had some more snow last night. My area just got a ground covering but the higher elevations got a little more. 

I don't know why, but my brain gets ready for spring about this time every year. We still have a lot of winter left to get through. Yet I go into denial every year around mid-February. Well, it doesn't hurt to dream. This is that time of year I start thinking about flowers and porches. I love looking at other's porches. I think this is so pretty. 

I saw this cute idea. I love the little chair with the basket of flowers. I could easily do this. I have the room.

And how cute would these by a front door or by the top of the porch steps.

I love swings. I would like to find one at a yard sale for my porch this year.

I definitely want some Boston Ferns again this year. I had some for two years in a row, but never got around to doing any flowers or plants this past year.

My favorite all time plant is Swedish ivy. I found a beautiful one a couple of years ago, but ended up with nowhere in the house to hang it when winter hit. I am going to look for a smaller one this year so I can bring it in during cold weather.

I would love to have a wicker table and chairs for the front porch. They just say spring and summer like nothing else does. 

Tossing around the idea of porch planters vs. planting flowers in front of the porch. Don't know yet what I might do.

Lots of thoughts and ideas for my porch. But the only thing I know for sure at this time is that I'm ready for warm weather.

Weekend wrap-up

Not much happening in this neck of the woods. I had a pretty uneventful weekend. Didn't even go to Walmart which is MAJOR for me. I normally have to make at least one Walmart run per week, but haven't been since in 9 days now. I did some house cleaning, some laundry and a little cooking. Thrill a minute, huh? I did spend some time going through my craft supplies. I posted recently about making a picture frame dry erase board. Well, I found some buttons at Joann's that I like and had some frames, ribbon and paper at home so I decided to make another one. This one I used some embellishments on and it turned out really cute.

We are going to make some of these at our upcoming Thirty-One retreat. I had some blue sparkly paper so I thought I would change out the paper to see how I like it with plain. 

I decided I like it either way. Have a great week.

Sunday Songs

Some crafting today..

Today is going to be a quick run to Joann's and Dollar Tree for some pipe cleaners for children's church and a picture frame for a craft project for my upcoming Thirty-One retreat next month in the Smoky Mountains. . 

Yesterday I got some happy mail from my Thirty-One director because I sold a pillow during a challenge she gave us. Lots of goodies for my business and for me. 

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Last night, I found some top cut hot dog buns (known as lobster rolls in New England). I love these because the sides are like regular bread and you can grill them with butter to make them like what Dairy Queen in WV used to call English Hot Dog Buns. They are awesome. It was really, really good.

Hope everyone is having a happy Saturday.