Mamma-Mia!

We are forever finding reasons to eat at work. We have dessert day, taco day, hot dog day. We even had grilled cheese day and my favorite was milkshake day. I have never had problems deciding what to bring for any of our impromptu covered dish days. Till now. Tomorrow we are doing an Italian feast. I am clueless. The things I thought of are already spoken for. And since I am normally the one who does a dessert, I am at a total loss. Add to that the fact that I work the afternoon/evening shift today and will have little time to prepare anything. 

So I am reaching out to my friends. What do you recommend (and it doesn't need to be a dessert)? Something simple and easy yet delicious. Any ideas?

Fall is in the air...

Thanks to Irma we are experiencing cool temps and lots of rain and wind. I went to Michael's this weekend and picked up the stuff below for less than $5.00.

So this morning, I fixed my little flower vase and got out the fall place mat and owl salt & pepper shakers to do my kitchen table. I am happy with it. 

I also bought some fabric to make me a new no-sew runner for my dining room table. But I haven't had a chance to make it yet. Maybe tomorrow.

They decorated for fall at Dixie Stampede over the weekend so that go me in the mood to start getting my fall stuff out at home. This is just some of the Dixie decor. I love this area.

I stopped at the Corelle outlet at Red Roof Mall in Pigeon Forge. They are getting their fall and Halloween containers in. This one has football items on it. 

My favorite is the skeleton band. I have got to get me this one. They are getting ready to go on sale so I'm waiting to get it.

This one with the monsters is cute too. I will probably get both the Halloween ones.

Hope everybody has a great day.

Remembering.....

Every year on September 11th, we recall that horrible tragedy in our country. When did we go from that nation that came together and stood strong to people who want to tear down monuments and split and divide the nation. These words really hit me when I saw this. 

Happy birthday to my son-in-law

I want to wish a Happy Birthday to my son-in-law, Michael. He's a wonderful husband and Daddy. So blessed to call him my son-in-law. 

Happy Birthday, Michael.

A nice surprise...

My front porch was starting to get a little worn down. It needed some of the wood replaced and a set of steps added as an attachment instead of the temp stairs that were by it. I came home the other day and their was lumber beside my porch. Next day, I came home and I had new porch railings and brand new steps. I was thrilled. So this morning, I enjoyed sitting outside with my morning Pepsi waiting for the sunrise and enjoying my little mums started to bloom. 

They are going to come back this week and stain everything to match, but I am loving sitting on the new porch. I would have gotten a picture of the sunrise, but it did get a little cold so I ended up going back in the house. Enjoy your weekend! 

Friday Foto Friends

I am thankful today to Ms. Debbie who sponsors Friday Foto Friends. I posted about a tomato pin cushion the other day and was wondering why tomatoes in a sewing room? Ms. Debbie did some research and found out the history behind the tomato pin cushion. It is fascinating. You need to go to this link later and check it out. 

https://www.rileyblakedesigns.com/pennyrose/blog/2017/02/07/the-history-of-tomato-pincushions/

Then I told one of our mutual friends, Georgeanna, about what Debbie found out. She was fascinated as well. Then Georgeanna told me about a lady who has a booth at Patriot Park October Craft Festival in Pigeon Forge, TN that makes pin cushions. Georgeanna said she buys one every year in assorted fabrics and always gets the apple. So then I had to, of course, Google apple pin cushions. Totally adorable.

And that was so different from the tomato it made think of the old saying "comparing apples and oranges." Then a light bulb went on and I looked up orange fruit pin cushion. And found this cutie pie.

Then using the word fruit made me think of strawberries. So I found one of those as well.

All those thoughts of fruit made me think of fruits and veggies and harvest time for fall. So I of course thought of pumpkins.  

Finding those two pumpkins made me think of pumpkin patches, especially when one of the Google searches brought up a bunch of the pumpkin pin cushions.

Which reminded me of Halloween and Jack-o-lanterns soooo.....you guessed it I had to Google that as well in pin cushions.

Then I realized I had searched for orange fruit pin cushions so it wouldn't just pull up orange colored ones. So I tried to search one more time for orange pin cushions, leaving out the word fruit. Turns out that the orange pin cushion is actually a flower from South Africa which reminded me I need to go water my flowers. 

Does it worry you just a little bit just how crazy my mind works? One thing always leads to another and I apparently have trouble focusing. Must be why I never get anything done. Have an awesome weekend!

Crafting & Sewing

As I work on redoing my sewing/crafting room, I keep heading back to Pinterest and Etsy for ideas. I need a new sewing machine cover. Maybe something with some red in it. 

Then I saw this design where it is similar to a place mat, just flipped over the machine.

I really love the fabric choices on this one. 

But I think the one where I could just make the "flap" style cover and put the ribbons on the side to tie it is the way I might go. Going to look for fabric over the next few weeks.  

Trying to think of a few things to incorporate. Here are some thoughts, but I won't do them all because I don't want red overkill. But I would love to find a vintage toy sewing machine to set with some vintage red sewing themed items to set across the top of the book shelves.

I mentioned before that my cousin uses picnic baskets for storage. I like this red one. I'm going to do a lot of antiquing over the next month or so. I'm going to look for one of these.

I am always seeing vintage cans and tins in good shape. This is a great idea to hold pencils, markers, paint brushes, scissors, etc. I need to start watching for some of these as well. 

I always come back to my blog posts to look at the ideas of things I want to remember. Well, this picture below is cute, but I am only saving it because of the little Russian nesting doll in the picture. I have one that is red, blue and yellow. A sweet gal who was on a work visa one summer worked with Allen at Dollywood. When her folks came to visit, her mother brought me an actual Russian Nesting Doll from Russia. I need to incorporate her as part of my red room.

I need a new curtain in the sewing room. The plaid is overkill with everything else in red, but maybe a valance only in the checkered fabric. I'll have to think about that.

I would love to find this small enamel cabinet. I had one similar to this years and years ago. I wish I had never gotten rid of it.

A cute idea for a small vintage rack holding some thread and a pin cushion. I have never, ever understood how they came up with a tomato designed pin cushion. I see no relationship to tomatoes and sewing, but they have been around forever. I may have to get one.

But I also like this pin cushion. Spray painted Styrofoam ball in in a gelatin mold cup. A little lace and a pretty button. Especially a button that looks like a Russian nesting doll face. OH! I just had an idea. I could separate my nesting dolls. I could put my thimbles in the big one, my plastic canvas needles in one, cross stitch needles in one and sewing needles in one. (The baby one doesn't open so it would just be for display.) I am loving that idea and set them beside this pin cushion on my shelf. 

Well, I have definitely came up with lots of things to think about. Now, I need you to help me think. I am doing the room in the majority of red, but need to sprinkle some other colors in there so it isn't too overwhelming. What do you think about Navy blue and yellows scattered throughout the reds? Or do you think a lighter blue than Navy or some other color totally? I appreciate your thoughts.