Random Wednesday and a Giveaway...

..... It's going to be a "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" kind of day today. If you look the definition up in the dictionary, one version says it means Fantastic.

.....Two of my friends are having a birthday today. Happy birthday Ms. Robin and Ms. P.J. Hope you both have a wonderful, blessed day.

.....P.J.'s 18 year old nephew is suffering from cancer and needs a bone marrow transplant. He has a tumor in his lungs that needs to be shrunk by at least 50% before they can do the transplant. He has been through numerous rounds of chemo to no avail. Last week, they completed the series of a very radical chemo treatment which combined many forms of chemo into one. He had the PET scan Monday and they get the results today. I can't think of a better birthday present for P.J. than to find out the cancer has shrunk. Please say a prayer for her nephew, John. He has a twin brother who is donating the bone marrow for the transplant if the chemo did its job. UPDATE: AFTER THIS POSTED, WE GOT THE WORD THAT JOHN'S CANCER IS IN 100% REMISSION. HE CAN SCHEDULE A TRIP TO COLUMBUS NOW FOR THE BONE MARROW TRANSPLANT. PRAISE TO GOD! CONTINUE TO PRAY FOR HIM.

.....It's mid-week and I am sick. I have a bad case of the "over-the-hump so I don't want to do anything-itis". Unfortunately, I have a whole list of to-do items for today so guess being lazy isn't gonna happen.

.....I'm thinking about having another giveaway. This time, it's going to be a mystery gift. No clues or hints will be given. I've got something in mind I think you'd like. Just be a follower and leave a comment if you would like to receive a mystery gift. I'm gonna make this one short and sweet. We'll draw in two days. So leave a comment on this post if you'd like to win a special little something on Friday.

Top 10 Favorite things about fall.....

I'm riding the Tuesday Train.

Here are my Top 10 Things I like about Fall

1. Apple orchards - We always make homemade apple butter in September and I look forward to the day we go to Carver's Apple Orchard in Cosby to get our apples. We make a day out of it and visit their store and eat some lunch. We always come away with some extra produce from their market.

 2. Mums - Is there anything that says fall better than a nice pot of colorful mums decorating porches.

 3. Pumpkin Patches - I love scour through the pumpkin patch to find the perfect pumpkin to decorate outside for fall.

 4. The leaves in autumn - To met there in no place as beautiful in the fall as our very own Great Smoky Mountains. God's majesty can be seen far and wide. Dolly Parton sang a song "God's Coloring Book." I think the changing colors of the mountains must have been the inspiration for that song.

 5. Jumping in the leaves - I was going to say raking the leaves, but since I am lazy and don't remember ever actually doing the raking...just the jumping, I changed my mind and said jumping.

 6. Football games - Who doesn't love a good football game. I miss those high school days of walking through town to the games and the pride of watching our beloved Barboursville Pirates running onto the field. Today, I don't go to the games, but I still can remember the excitement. Only now, it is Go Big Orange for our very own U.T. Vols.

 7. Fall Festivals - I love going to the various fall festivals and fairs. A favorite one is the Harvest & Gospel Celebration at Dollywood. I love watching the sorghum making.

 8. Bonfires - Our high school always had a bonfire on Thursday night before home game. We would have signs and posters against the opposing team. We would roast hot dogs and have a wonderful teen age time around those old bonfires.

 9. Jack-O-Lanterns - I love seeing the different designs people come up with for jack-o-lantern faces. I'm partial to the ones with just old fashioned triangle eyes, nose and crooked triangle teeth. But I do enjoy seeing artistic abilities....just don't like the really scary looking ones.

 10. Halloween - I have such fond memories of dressing up like a gypsy or a housewife and going trick-or-treating. We lived in a town with sidewalks and houses on level ground, where everybody new everybody and you could count on getting lots of good candy. We would go home and get ready for bed and sit in the floor and sort our candy and trade and swap what we didn't like.

Oh, fall I am looking forward to your arrival.

Sea Glass

There is a legend that sea glass is the tears mermaids shed over sailors lost at sea. It's said that the color of their tears matches the color of their tail.

 

One of the booths I visited at the Public Market Saturday was Sea Glass Art by Char. Char loves to walk on the beach and collect sea glass. She loved collecting the glass and making gifts for family and friends. In 2005, she turned her love of sea glass and gift making into a very unique business venture. She had some beautiful pieces on display at her booth.  All her products are made from natural sea glass which she has collected over the years. She not only does home décor items, she makes sea glass jewelry as well. You can visit her site and see more of her products at Sea Glass Art by Char. Be sure and click LIKE for her Facebook page. If you get a chance to go to Turkey Creek Public Market, look her up and check out the items in person. She is a very sweet lady and you will enjoy your time in her booth.

You all know I love the beach and my “beach room” is always in need of new items. Here are a few of my favorites that I’m going to put on my wish list.

This is so simple, let so elegant.

A truly beautiful necklace. 

 I thought this little sailboat was just too cute for words.

 This flag is a MUST HAVE!

 What a great decorating idea.

 Aren't these earrings precious?

 Love the opaque picture. My walls are a soft seafoam green that would look great through the glass.

 Some adorable flowers made from sea glass.

 Probably one of my favorite pieces. the flip flops made from sea grass. This is SO me.

Remember to visit Char at Facebook.com/seaglassartbychar.

 

An awesome discovery.....

It is official. I think I am going to be a regular customer at the Turkey Creek Public Market in Knoxville, TN. There is absolutely something for everyone under one roof. I wanted to just walk around camera happy because it was so new and exciting. But I got so wrapped up in the wares they offered that I kept forgetting to snap pictures. I did manage to grab a few to share with you today.

Lots of antique items and lace doilies in this shop.

I will definitely go back to this next one. I fell in love with the embroidered towels. Did I buy any? No. I was so overwhelmed with how gorgeous they are and where would I put them, that I couldn't decide on any. But at $4.00 each or 3 for $10.00, you can bet I'll be picking some up in the weeks to come. Sounds like some good giveaways and Christmas gifts to me. What do you think?

Hind sight is 20/20 and I fell in love with these little guys. Wish I had just bit the bullet and bought them. Even if I gifted them at a later date. They were just too adorable.

 There were lots of antique booths. You had to watch though. I found some that were price gougers and some that were very inexpensive. One lady had a McCoy pitcher for $10.00. I saw it somewhere else for $30.00. 

 There was this neat sauces, salsas, and pepper products. Talk about variety.  

Nice Amish booth with lots of butters, jellies and jams.  

 I fell in love with this sweet girl and her booth. I could have spent all day in there. More to come on her later this week. Stay tuned...especially if you love beach decor.

 This was a booth for different types of professional photo framing. But I just love how the booth was decorated. Isn't this a cute idea.

 We visited the Farmer's Market and I picked hubby up some heirloom tomatoes, fresh peaches and cucumbers that he said were the best he's had all year.

 Sometimes, if you spend enough time in public, you see something that just makes you scratch your head and say, "Really?". This lady caught my eye and I was like "Is is 1960? Where oh where did I put my shindig boots." My daughter tells me this is the new rage in style. Well, guess what, I will remain hopelessly OUT of style. Can I get an amen?

The highlight story of the day and the thing that made the trip well worthwhile happened in this very booth.

 I have been wanting to start a collection of antique or unique perfume bottles. As I'm starting down this aisle of glassware, I see a lady kneeling at some bottles and yes, they were perfume bottles like I was wanting. There were two of them. She picked them up and continued on her way. I was so upset to have missed them by mere seconds. I noticed as she was looking, she would sit them down and stare at them like she was indecisive. Then start off, only to pick them up again and take them with her. Well, my daughter being the great girl she is, decided to stalk the lady around the store until she made her mind up. I continued looking at the glassware when my daughter alerts me to the fact that the lady left the store...without any purchases. She directed me to where she was last seen and sure enough on the shelf was the perfume bottle I had been wanting.....for just $4.00.

I love it. But here's the neat thing. My daughter was going to just pay for it with her purchases and let me pay her back. When we met up, she said the lady kept having trouble with the register and finally got everything rang up. My daughter questioned her because the price didn't seem right and the lady assured her it was. When we got in the car and she was checking the receipt, the lady had rung my perfume bottle up for 4 cents, not $4.00.

What an awesome day!

Looking forward to an exciting time....

I'm going to venture over to the new Turkey Creek Public Market. A shoppers paradise all under one roof. Public Market! is advertised as having everything on the planet and over 800 booths. It is the size of three football fields. Here's some of the neat booths they posted on Facebook. Can't wait to visit some of them today. One person said she sold more of her handmade items in 3 days at the market than she has in 3 months on her Etsy shop.

I'll be back tomorrow with some more pictures and a good report.

 

My week in review.....

I am so proud of myself. I caught a cricket yesterday and turned him loose. Now for some that is no biggy, but for someone who freaks out if a fly gets in the house, catching a cricket all by myself is big news. I am not a bug lover by far and I know they serve their purpose, but give me a break. A cricket. In my house. Yikes! Hubby grilled out the night before and had left the door open so I'm guessing that's how Mr. Cricket got in. Just glad the ordeal is over. My daughter probably is too since I was on the phone with her discussing the best way to catch a cricket and every time he jumped/hopped (whatever crickets do), I would scream in her ear. But it had a happy ending. I scooped him up in a mason jar and took him out back (waaay out back) and let him lose. Now, keep in mind, I never actually touched the cricket but after it was all over, I know I washed my hands about 4 times with Lemon Anti-Bacterial Kitchen soap AND I threw the mason jar away. (Note: No crickets were harmed in the making of this message)

 School started back Wednesday for all the kids in our county. My 8 year old grandson informed me, he liked his teacher. Then he said "Really, I do like her, but...." The "but" was since it was the first day back she let them go outside for an hour or more in the afternoon when it was hot. He then told me that he got so hot, he wished he could take his shirt off. Then, laughingly, he said "Who am I kidding, I was so hot I was even thinking of taking my underwear and pants off, too." Oh, that poor teacher. She has a LONG year ahead of her.

 

Donna Sharp Handbags are trying to get to 2000 "Likes" on Facebook. You can click here to like them. I am a huge Donna Sharp fan and have been "liking" their page for several months. Now here is one of those "that doesn't make sense" things to me. They have 1966 fans. They want 2000. They put on their page "tell your friends to like us and the 2000th person that likes us will get a free purse from the new fall pattern and the person that recommended they like us will get a free one as well." Let's think this through. You tell everybody you want 2000 fans. You tell everybody the 2000th fan and the one who recommended them will receive a free purse. Not that I'm a genius or anything, but wouldn't everybody just set and wait until they get to 1999 before clicking "like" so they could win? And if that's the case, how are you going to get to 1999 if everybody waits so they can have a shot at being the 2000th. Just sayin....

 

Okay, this has to win funniest story of the week in my life this week. Went to the grocery store yesterday and stopped by a friend's house. She is my son-in-law's mom and keeps two of my grandchildren. My 3 year old granddaughter wanted to ride to the store with me (it's less than a half a block away) so I let her. I had to get toilet tissue. As I'm standing there reaching for my brand, she spots the Cottonelle brand which features a puppy playing with the toilet paper. Without missing a beat, she picks up the package and says "Look, they got doggie toilet paper. I'm getting some for Spikey Boy." Yeah, kind of had to explain why doggies don't need toilet paper. She was not a happy camper that I made her put it back. She is now stressing about what Spikey Boy will do when he has to, well, you know, being 3, she just blurted it out....poop. (please excuse me for that, but the story loses some of it's humor if you don't tell it the right way.)

 

It's been a fantastic week in my neck of the woods. I had a situation from several months ago on my mind that has been weighing me down for a while now. It was so upsetting because an incident happened and both parties just walked away from it. There was no closure. But due to God's divine plan, we both made an approach to resolving the issue. After a few emails back and forth, things are right and hearts are mended. It feels so good to get closure and to realize that the mountains that we think are insurmountable are just little sand hills when you let God do the walking. Thanks to my friend for reaching out half way and thanks to God for helping me to reach the other half.

 

Very excited because our church WMU is going to be participating in organizing the church for the Operation Christmas Child, the Shoebox ministry program with Samaritan's Purse. Our stuff came in yesterday and I picked up the materials so I could get them ready to be handed out. I love when we get new projects that have such an impact.

 Happy to say that my Thirty-One orders are almost all in from my party Saturday. I was blessed to have a good turn-out. I had a wish list of what I wanted and am happy to say that I was able to get every single thing on my list ($90.00 worth of new stuff) for FREE so far. Still a few orders to arrive. When everything comes in, I'll show you what all I got. I'm so excited. You know I love my Thirty-One stuff.

Well, that's my week in review. Hope everyone has a great weekend.