Friday Foto Friends

It has been a crazy weather week here in East Tennessee. Pouring the rain all last weekend and Monday was more of the same with creeks rising and a few getting out of their banks, but thankfully no major flooding. This is the river behind where I work and it is normally not high at all. Fishermen can stand in it in their waders. But it was high and swift on Monday.

You can see it was close to come over the bank.

But Tuesday was a beautiful day filled with white clouds and sunshine.

There were a few moments where the sky got a little darker. It was only in the 40's - 50's so you still needed a jacket. But pretty nevertheless.

Yesterday was divine. Sunshine and blue skies. At one point it was 72°. It was windy as all get out but it was still a gorgeous day as I headed out to supper with three of my friends from church.

We went to dinner at Song & Hearth which is located in Dolly Parton's DreamMore Resort. They have a wonderful pool. It would be worth taking the grandkids to stay there just to they could spend the day in the water.

I just love this sitting area. The way they did that photo makes you feel like you could sit right down and have a conversation with Dolly. 

Of all the hallways we went down, this was my favorite. When you walk down it the slats on the wall make the scene of the train from Dollywood.

And when you come back the other direction, it actually says Dollywood. It was just too cool.

One hall has everyone of her albums on the wall.

It takes up the whole wall because there are two sections of albums.

I loved all the little cozy nooks where you could just relax. They told us that every night a 8:00 they have an area where kids can come and get read a bedtime story. They have live music each night. The guy that was singing last night was amazing.

This display houses a little chest that contains some memorabilia and a song that Dolly wrote that no one has ever seen or heard. It is to be opened on her 100th birthday. That was kind of cool.

Now don't shoot me, but I didn't get any pictures of the food. First off, the way the buffet is set up all the food is covered so I would have had to open every item and take a picture. I'm not sure all the folks in line behind me would have appreciated that. And then when we got to the table, I was so hungry I forgot about taking pictures. But here was the menu.

I can tell you it was delicious. Of course a couple of my favorites were the baked potato bar with tons of toppings. And it goes without saying the dessert was to die for. Little miniature banana creme pies and chocolate brownies, peanut butter cookies, chocolate mousse, berry covered cheesecake and much more. They had it laid out neat. 

It was very spacey and entrees on one bar, veggies another, kids items another, etc. It made a lot of room for maneuvering around and not getting in anybodies way. 

Probably one of the cleanest and well kept buffet bars I have ever eaten at.

My friend, Nancy, who put the whole evening together told me she had something for me. Imagine my surprise when it turned out to be two matching depression glass sherbet cups. They have the parrot pattern on them. I researched and found out that pattern was only made in 1931 and 1932 in this color. I love them. 

Afterwards we sat outside on the rocking chairs and talked and laughed and had a great time. Thank you Nancy for telling about this and inviting us along. We had a blast.

A beautiful day...

It is 70° and the sun is shining. I went to the store with my sunroof open and my flip flops on. Of course they are calling for another cold front to move through soon according to a lady I know. We will see. But until it gets here, I will be enjoying my flip flops.

I actually got up and cleaned out my clothes closet this morning. Three piles: move to middle for spring/summer, donate to a thrift shop and "oh my gosh throw it away before anybody sees how old it is". 

I'm taking a break to have a snack. No big lunch for me today. Tonight I am going out to dinner Song & Hearth located at Dollywood’s DreamMore Resort and Spa™. It should be a fun time. I have never been there so I can't wait to try it out. Tonight is themed "Beale Street BBQ Dinner Buffet". This should be interesting. I am told the dessert table is out of this world with cake, pies, cobbler, brownies and assorted cookies. Here's a pic of the whole resort. I will show pics later about the meal and inside.

Hope you are having a good Thursday.

A day in the life....

 I had a date day with myself yesterday. I've been pulled in so many directions here lately with lots going on and I just needed to spend some fun time with ME. 

My day started by grabbing a few books to exchange at McKay's. I just took a few back that I couldn't get into the story line. But it was enough to get me five new ones and still have .25 cents credit toward my next trip.

The next stop was at Four Seasons Vintage store.

I found my happy place when I saw all this Pyrex. Two problems with this display. Anything on it that goes with my sets I already have and the prices were a little on the high side. But I do enjoy looking.

Next, I stopped at Duck Donuts to try them all. I got the cinnamon sugar. Was not a big fan. The cake donut was too doughy and they put your topping on hot so the cinnamon sugar just melted on it and made it more soggy than a donut should be. I will try again though only with a chocolate frosting next time.

My next stop was Nostalgia where I normally find a lot of good stuff. 

I fell in love with these juice glasses from the year I was born, but I just don't ever pay $8 for a juice glass. 

Remember these Tupperware bottle cap tops for your soft drink bottles. I rarely buy glass bottles except in small size rootbeer, but I drink it all at one time so need for a lid. But it did bring back memories. 

I did find some awesome vintage fabric. But didn't get it because it didn't have a price and I didn't know what I would do with it if I did buy it. So I passed. I regret passing it up because I could have made vintage dish towels. I may go back and see if they still have it next week.  

I stopped at one of mine and hubby's favorite places we used to eat. It is Long's Drug Store in Knoxville and is an old drug store that's been around a long time. They still have the old style lunch counter as well as some chairs and tables. I had my usual....cheeseburger and fries.

My last stop was Bargain Hunters. They had some vintage dishes in several booths, but I just didn't find anything I wanted. I am looking for an old typewriter and they had one but it was not as old (or as cheap) as I was looking for. 

But I did finally find something I wanted. It was a vintage tablecloth for my kitchen. I have been looking for one exactly like this for several years. I couldn't believe when I found it. It is in great shape and was only $4.00. I snatched it up fast. 

But what made my day was this beautiful tea for one set that matches the new decor in my bedroom perfectly. Most tea for ones are around $25-$30 and in antique stores/flea markets they are about $18 - $24. So to find this perfect beauty in mint condition for $8 was well worth my trip. 

Came home and stopped at the store and snapped a picture of the beautiful sky which was a great ending to a perfect day. 

But it is back to normal today. Which means work and a rainy day. Have a great Wednesday.

Time-Warp Tuesday

For a little fun yesterday, I went through some photos I had posted on Facebook in the past and pulled up some that caught my eye. Here are 10 that I want to share today. 

1. Adorable rhinestone candles. These would be perfect for decorations on the tables of weddings, wedding showers, or anniversary parties

2. This was me at 18. I am still this skinny. I just hide it under 40 extra pounds of flesh. I was 5'0" and weighed about 87 pounds back then.

3. Oh but what a difference a year makes. Me at 19 and up to a whopping 90 pounds. I do miss my thick long hair but can't stand it as it is growing out. I did love my hip-hugger bell bottomed jeans though. Oh, those were the days.

4. This was my favorite set of spring flowers I ever had. Over the years they got shabby looking and I had to replace them. I need to try to find some like the light pink on the left. That looks so real.

5. Something I had in my old place but don't do now. I am going to remedy that real soon. I had forgotten how convenient it was to have all my cleaning supplies in one place. Plus the bigger pockets on the bottom was a great place to keep cleaning rags. I do have one of these full of flip flop sets. And another one in my craft room that is full of craft supplies.

6. Aww, my twins one Easter. I think they were 2 1/2 here. Because I married Allen when they were a little over 3 and this was before we got married.

7. I needed a bowl to complete a Pyrex collection that was really hard to find. So I traded this bowl for it. Now I want one like this back again. let the hunt begin.

8. It was 2013. It was September. It was the last year Hubby and I made homemade apple butter. There are crock pot recipes for it. I need to try to make my own. We made it to taste, no recipe. And Hubby was the one that knew just how much sugar and how much cinnamon so I've been afraid to try it.

9. Back before I discovered Thirty-One, I had a tone of Donna Sharp quilted purses and bags. This big bag was my craft bag for when we went on vacation. It also was great for taking my laptop place. I need to see if they still make this style of bag. 

10.  Many years ago, my husband was laid off all winter and bored to tears. So he decided to teach himself to cross stitch. Most people start with something easy, but he wanted something worth spending time on he said. So this was his first piece...with no help from anybody. I still have it. He even made and stained the wood frame it is in. I always talk about what a great chef he was but the man had many, many talents. 

Weekend wrap up

Boston Pear 1950's original.  Mid 60's to early 70's reproduced had R
Madrid pieces in the yellow (amber) were never created in reproductions

On my way to work yesterday, I stopped into Heartland Antiques in Sevierville, TN. There is a lady who has a corner booth and puts everything in it a yard sale prices instead of antique prices. I found two pieces I fell in love with and decided to get them. I love glassware and if they turn out to be vintage that is awesome. But if they are reproductions I am fine with that as well. The reproductions were made in the 1970's so that is 48 years ago so it is still vintage. 

The first thing that caught my eye was this gorgeous creamer. I had never seen this pattern on anything in my antiquing years. Since it was just $2.00, I bought it. I didn't care if it was just made yesterday. Turns out it was a pattern that the Jeanette Glass Company came out with in the 1950's. It is called Boston Pear pattern. This is the original design. The "knock offs" don't have a ridge feel at the top of the pear. The Indiana Glass Company brought the pattern back in the late 60's/early 70's and called it their Recollection line. You can tell the difference because under the left pair, in the leaf pattern is a small R. Mine does not have R but it does have the ridges. Scored an original for a bargain.

The next piece that caught my eye that came home with me was this Depression Glass Madrid pattern (same pattern as the saucer I showed you last week). This is in the yellow which I believe they call amber. This one is harder to tell if it is real or reproduction. From comparison pictures I saw, I think this is the real thing. The pattern matches my original piece perfectly. And the one site that talked about the ridges around the outside showed some close ups of a reproduction ridge and it isn't like what I got. So I picked this up for $1.00. SCORE!

I made a quick stop at Dollar Tree to pick up my favorite stain remover, Totally Awesome Laundry Pre-Wash. While I was there, I decided to make a quick browse around to see what they had new. If you follow my blog regularly, you will remember I want to get a few artificial succulents for the house. Walmart they are $3.87 and I haven't been able to find them again since the first time I spotted them. But on the end cap of an aisle in Dollar Tree, there sat the exact ones I saw at Walmart. So I picked me out three of them. Three at Walmart would have been $11.61. So I saved $8.61. 

Now I have to go back to Pinterest to find that cute idea I found on how to display them. Have a great day!