Saturday Six....

Some of my random thoughts this beautiful Saturday morning.....

I having been looking for 5 or 6 years for an Arcopal pitcher with lid. I love this particular pattern but would be so thrilled to find it in any pattern. This is a company from France that is their version of vintage Pyrex. It was actually fashioned after Pyrex or in connection with, I don't remember which. But anyway, since they were popular in France I know it will be hard to find, but I keep hoping. One day, I may just breakdown and look for one on Ebay but I like the thrill of the hunt.

Look how cute these wildflowers look in just little jars. Love this idea. 

I don't know why but I love these old yellow scales. Have nowhere to put them if I ever did find any and no reason to use them. But it doesn't keep me from liking them.

May have to try my hand at making this wreath with the preprinted burlap ribbon. 

And check out this adorable stool. I want to know where the fabric came from. I am in love.

I am going to put some wall paper board in my laundry room to cover up where a shelf used to hang. I keep looking and haven't found anything yet. I do like this pattern though. But not sure what else is out there. I need to find some place that still sales wallpaper around her. Does anybody know where I should look?

Getting excited....

Joining Friday Foto Friends at Jeremiah-2911.com this morning!

Tomorrow is the March Esau's Craft & Antique Fair in Knoxville. They have it once a month and it is two floors of booths that sale vintage items, antiques, crafts, and just about anything else you can think of. I love going to it. The last time I went I bought 10 items for a total of $36.00. That is an average of $3.60 per item!! I guess you can see why I'm excited. Here is what all I got the last time.

Tea for one sets can go for $20 - $30 by themselves so you can see why I think I got some great bargains. I have no idea what I'll find this weekend, but I do know I am hoping to find some Corelle plates for my mismatched collection. Well, if you can call 2 plates a collection. Here are some I would be thrilled to find. They are on my wish list.

I love blue flowers on things so this one would be excited to find.  

These wild flower sets would go good with my Indian Summer pieces.

These are newer, not vintage I don't think. But I do like them. They are a little quirky and fun. 

I have one platter that has the navy old town or old world pattern around the edges. I would like to find a platter that has a pattern in the center. I love these flowers. 

What adorable cups. 

Ms. Debbie, I am going to be on the look out for one of these platters in our favorite pattern. 

This is a cute idea of mismatching place settings. Love the black checkered one. That is definitely going on my wish list. 

This is the pattern I have a platter in but would love to find a couple of plates. This is my Mom's pattern she has had for years and years.  

My sister has the entire Christmas service for 8 or 12, I can't remember which. I think this is pattern she has. There are a ton of these at Heartland Antiques in my town. If I don't find anything at Esau's I may pay a visit to Heartland. They have about 2 sections of nothing but Corelle plates and accessories at awesome prices.

I also love the snowflake garland pattern. I have a couple of Pyrex bowls in the snowflake.

Who knew? They actually had a Corelle set with roosters. Don't know how old or new this is but I betcha if I find one anywhere this summer I will get it.

Well, I will be back on Monday to let you know what all my good finds.

Really?

Dear house on the highway,

I understand that according to the calendar it is still winter for a couple more weeks. I understand that there is a possibility that we could have one more snow. 

But personally, when I have been able to wear flip flops three days in a row, go without a jacket and see 78° on the thermometer outside, then I believe it is time to quit turning your Christmas lights on every night.

Just saying....

Signed, 

A passerby

A little changing around...

During my retreat, one of the speakers talked about how we don't stay in God's word enough. She had a powerful story about the many changes she has went through and how she learned to stay in the Word in order to adjust her life to live in God's way and to accept the changes He wanted in her life. 

It got me to thinking about how I read my bible and do my Sunday School lessons all sitting at the same spot where I do my blogging, my work, my Thirty-One business. I wonder how many times when I'm in His Word does a beep come up or an email come in and distracts me? So I may think I'm in His Word, but am I really? Or am I just going through the motions because it is one more thing on my checklist of things to do that day?

So I decided I need a place set aside just for my that purpose. I came home from the retreat Sunday already exhausted, but I was on a mission. As soon as I unpacked and put on a load of laundry I went around the house to see where I could put me a spot free of distractions but someplace that would be a good place for studying the bible. I found it.

In my bedroom, I have an antique secretary that we found years and years ago. It was full of Emmett Kelly clowns on the shelves and the drawers were full of stuff that I didn't know where else to put it. In other words this furniture's soul purpose was to just sit there and look pretty. 

So I moved my collectibles to another shelf in my home office, put some of my inspirational items in the secretary and wah-lah, I have a nice soothing study area to dig into my bible.

 Complete with angels, lighthouses and inspirational quotes. 

This was one of my basic little craft projects. Print your favorite bible verse and put it in a frame. Simple, but I love it.

This was a gift. I love it because it has 3 of my favorite words. 

I don't remember where I found this, but I have had it a long time...at least 10-15 years.

Now I just need a vintage chair for the it. Right now I only have a folding chair. Looks like I will start watching for yard sales. 

Weekend wrap up...

This past weekend we had a retreat for our local Thirty-One team. I believe there were 12 of us there if I am counting right. The view from our condos was awesome. We stayed at Apple View in Sevierville. 

We split up into two condos. Here are some pictures of the one I was in.

I forgot to take pictures, but we hosted breakfast in our condo on Saturday morning. In addition to the continental breakfast our leader placed in each room, my friend Kristen made some out of this world sausage balls and I fixed the cinnamon roll french toast casserole. It was a huge success.

I love the settee as well. It sat on an angled wall and I just thought that was neat.

We had an awesome balcony, which of course I had to go out on every morning as the sun was rising.

The rive out back was beautiful and off in the distance you could see the mountains, but you can't see them very good in this picture. 

We had a little checker set but we stayed so busy that we didn't play it any.

One night. I stayed up later than everyone else so I snuggled on the couch with the fireplace on and read my book until I got sleepy.

The decor was really cute. I love the little magazine rack of all things. I need to check out Hobby Lobby and Old Time Pottery to see if they have any cute racks.

 

We got to pick our bedrooms and they had one that was sorta vintage looking and I claimed it. I loved the little chair in it. 

And this was the bed. You know how I love quilts.

Check out the headboard made with a shutter. 

We had some awesome food. This was our taco bar Saturday night. Friday night was pizza and snacks. Saturday lunch was sandwiches.

We received some awesome training and I finally got to see our newest purse in person. I want to get one in the camel color. Now that I saw it in person, I really, really want one. Look like a goal for my hostess reward for my upcoming party. 

Here are a few of the girls cutting out magazine photos for the vision boards we made. This was some of our down time.

It was great to mix training with some girl time with these ladies.

I was in charge of crafts (go figure). We made the Easter egg wreath and these dry erase picture frames. Our bows were out of swatches of Thirty-One fabrics from our old patterns.

I was really surprised that I received a thank you gift for doing the crafts. I love these. And of course, our leader, Colleen knows I love the word believe. 

We all got a door prize and I picked this warm blanket. You know I just love blankies. 

This was taken our last night after our final training in our jammies. We had a couple that had other obligations so they missed the finale. But we had a blast with each other all weekend. 

End the weekend with breakfast at the Applewood Restaurant at the Apple Barn. It was delicious. Kristen and I are early risers so once we got ready, we had some spare time before we were all to meet there. So we headed on over and visited the candy store (I bought my favorite milk chocolate orange creams). Then we went to the Christmas shop there and the General Store. I picked up some popcorn salt and some of their apple butter. I am going back this weekend to get a bread basket that I have been regretting that I didn't get it then.  

On the way home, my daughter called and invited me to go to Golden Corral later that afternoon with her and the kids. Shelby was going to participate in Cookies and Canvas painting event. So I went home and unpacked and she picked me up around 1:30 to head over there. It was really neat watching them get taught how to paint.

Shelby was proud of her first attempt. It was rather unique.

I think I crashed on the couch about 8:30 Sunday night and woke up at 3:30 to finally get up and get in my own bed. It was a fabulous weekend but I am here to tell you even though we never left our condos until it was over, it was exhausting. I wouldn't trade it for the world. 

I'm back from a fabulous retreat...

Lots to share with you from my fabulous retreat this weekend, but my brain is still trying to process it all and my body is still trying to get over the exhaustion. I'll be back tomorrow with some pretty pics and my normal weekend wrap up. Suffice it to say I didn't want the weekend to end. 

Beautiful...

My beautiful view from the balcony this weekend..