Happy birthday to my grandson

Today my baby grandson turns 7. It is so hard to believe. 

He has had personality plus since the day he was born.

Always laughing, always happy. He brings so much joy just by being around him.

He's our star baseball player. He loves the game. He plays every chance he gets and I think he would stay up all night and play if they would let him. 

You point a camera and ask him to smile and you never know what you will get. 

He's such a character that he keeps me laughing at all his antics and quips. I never know what he is going to say.

We got to spend one or two days together every week this summer along with his sister and cousin and we have had the best summer I have had in years. 

His was picked up by a travel team of 7 years old even though he was only 6 at the time they tried him out. They have won championship after championship all year. He is so amazing for his age. I see a great future for him in baseball.

Their team took it all the way to #1. They recently won the 8u belt challenge in Kingsport, TN and found out they are the USSSA #1 ranked 7u team in the country. No one he is always smiling.

Happy birthday, Colby James. Mamaw loves you very, very much and is so proud of you!

A little late and a little early...

I have tons of unique decorating blog ideas for fall from my family. I am going to start sharing some of them. I decorate for fall but since I was on vacation I am behind on that. Hope to get it done on my next day off. However, since October 1st I always add Halloween in with my fall stuff, you will get both season/holiday together this year. This was from last year and I will probably start with something like this again this year. October 2nd I will kick off Seven Days of Seasonal Decorating Ideas where I will share thing my family and friends have shared with me.

But while I am getting the house ready with fall decor, I skipped a fall blog template and moved straight to my favorite Halloween template. Wanted to get it done so I could have it ready by the 1st of October when I go into full Halloween mode all month with lots of witch jokes, Halloween party food ideas and just lots of fun. 

So, I'm a little late for fall and a little early for Halloween, but I'll get myself caught up one of these days. Hopefully in time for Thanksgiving & Christmas. 

A busy day so far....

I've had a busy morning this morning. First off I got up and ran to the store early to get eggs. I haven't been to get groceries since I got back from the beach. The sky was gorgeous. I just love the morning sky.

When I got back home, I made a cinnamon Swiss chocolate cake. It's the Duncan Hines Swiss Chocolate cake mix and I just had about 2 teaspoons of cinnamon and bake by the directions. Somehow it fell a little, but it will still be good.

These icing is 1 box of Confectioners sugar, 1 stick margarine, 4 tablespoons of cocoa, 6 tablespoons of milk and 1 teaspoon of vanilla. You put the milk, cocoa and butter in a medium sauce pan and stir it constantly over medium - low heat until it starts to boil. Don't bring to a full boil, just as soon as bubble start remove it and pour over the confectioners sugar (I recommend sifting it first) and the vanilla. 

Pour on cake immediately while it is still warm. Serve with ice cream or my favorite an ice cold glass of good old white milk.

While it was baking, I was working on my sewing room. Going through things, I found this .99 cent bag from Joann's that I have never used. It started to go in the "next yard sale" pile.

Then I had a thought, so I cut the front off of it and using a cool iron and a towel over it, I pressed it down a little to reduce the wrinkling from being stored.

Then I went hunting for an old frame I wasn't using.

Now I have a cute little picture hanging in the sewing room

I also managed to fry me a couple of eggs for breakfast, clean up the kitchen mess from cooking and baking,  and do a load of laundry. And it is just 11:30 a.m. and I didn't get up until 7:00 this morning. Not a bad start to the day.

Some new things....

Thought I would share a few of my great finds from my trip. I have been going to the beach for over 30 years. I have found gorgeous shells and nice smooth pretty rocks, but have never been lucky enough to find a piece of sea glass until now. I was thrilled with my find. It is so nice and smooth around the edges from being bounced around in the sea.

Sherrie was wanting a bowl for her seashells and she knew she could get it at Old Time Pottery and didn't want to wait till we got home so we went to one at the beach. I was thrilled we did when I found this Santa. My living room always has tons of Santa's at Christmas. This one is special because my hubby always dressed like Santa for Christmas when the kids were little. Not to mention he had a favorite sweater he wore for years that was cable knit white like this one. So I had to have this for just $9.99.

I thought about getting this tree to set beside him. I didn't. Now I wish I had. Going to go check my Old Time Pottery and see if  I can get it there. 

I fell in love with this deer and may end up getting one of these as well. I sent a pick to my daughter and she definitely wants to go get herself one because she decorates with a lot of the red plaid and with deer so this would be perfect for her. 

But the one thing that made my day was finding this vintage looking stand. I went nuts over it. I was also upset because I have a small car with lots of luggage to take home. Then I realized the shelves tilted up, the sided tilted in and it folded up flat. SCORE! So guess what came home to Mamaw's Place. 

Since I am doing my sewing room with some red in it, it was a no brainer where I would put it, but then I started looking for other things for the sewing room. I found this Simplicity pattern box at Hobby Lobby and used my 40% off coupon to get it for just $5.98. 

And I found the fabric I want to use for my sewing machine cover. Oh, by the way it turns out that Sherrie's mother has a sewing machine cabinet she doesn't use and wants somebody to get it out of her way so guess what I'm going to go get on Saturday! Once I get that and get my sewing machine set up, I will be ready to make my cover.

I found this little basket somewhere for $2.95 but can't remember where I found it.

We were in a store called Tomblinson's when I found the red shelf. I found this cute basket for just $4.95 in there. Since I am wanting a vintage looking sewing room, I snatched this up as well. I want to fill it with vintage spools of thread but for now, will just use regular spools. 

The day I got home, I went right to work sitting up the new rack with some of my finds and some stuff I had on hand. The white basket is one my friend Georgeanna bought me. She had shown me some she got at Walmart but I never could find them at ours. So she found one for me a few weeks ago. I am so glad I did buy the rack. It's a perfect start to my new room. 

Did you miss me?

I know my posting has been sporadic this past week, but I took a well earned vacation and spent five days at Myrtle Beach. We had 85 degree days every day and not one single drop of rain. Their was no humidity and the wind was light and balmy. We could not have ordered better weather. 

We took lots of walks on the beach, letting the ocean wash up across our feet. 

I loved the times I took my chair down and enjoyed my book while watching the waves. It was so relaxing that I must admit I watched more waves than I read pages.

There were some gorgeous sunrises....

....and on the street side of the hotel, we caught some breathtaking sunsets.

Due to Maria about 350 miles off the coast, we had some high tides with 5-8 foot waves which resulted in lots of great shell finds. We went shelling every evening around 6:00 and brought home lots of unique finds.

Did lots of shopping which I'll share another day. God displayed his handiwork the morning we left with this beautiful sunrise and majestic sun rays. It was an amazing week.

But as much as I loved wearing flip flops every day, gazing endlessly at ocean waves and watching the sun rise over the ocean, nothing compared to the feeling I got when I saw mountains on the highway heading home. Vacations are amazing but there is no place like home. 

Weekend wrap up

I have been doing some shopping the last few days and I'm very excited about some new things for my sewing room redo project. I love the 10 from Hobby Lobby for Simplicity patterns. I have a friend who thinks she can get me some vintage patterns from her mother to put in it.

I found this cute little wire basket that I want to put vintage spools of thread in.

The above basket and the little wire when below both came from Hobby Lobby. I haven't decided yet what I'm going to put in the one below but I really fell in love with it and it was only $4.

I found some buttons and material that I want to use for making my sewing machine cover.

I have a friend who is going to give me a sewing machine cabinet to put my sewing machine in. I can't wait to get it. But my favorite purchase this weekend was this little red shelf for my sewing room. I am beyond thrilled with it and the whole thing folded flat which made it easy to bring home.

I can't wait till my days off next week to start putting some of this stuff together to decorate my room. 

Let's have a laugh

After working about an 11 hour day yesterday, my brain is fried this morning. We had a health fair combined with a show plus 2 regular shows at work yesterday. PLUS I went down to our sister show and worked one of their shows. Talk about a busy day! But today is an easy 6 hour day with just one show ending with food and fun and celebration for our monthly employee event after work. I am really looking forward to an easy day today. Going to work is always fun for me, whether it is a long day or a short day. And the fall decorations we have really adds to the festive air around the office. My favorite is our horse fall display.

When you have days like yesterday, if you just learn to laugh you can get through the craziness. Here's some of my favorite funnies that made me laugh recently.