What a little faith can do...

 

I hope you have each had a blessed week. I turned all my problems over to God last week and He has answered many prayers for me. I had let others undermine my faith when I knew better. I think each and everyone one of my readers who took the time to comment or to email me words of encouragement. God is in control. Sometimes, you just have to step back and realize that others are not your judge. God is the only one who has that power and He knows your heart, not matter what others may think. Someone once told me it is not between you and them, it is between God and them. All I can do is pray for them. I have prayed very hard all week and He has blessed me in ways I never considered possible.

I headed to church last Sunday night for a deacon ordination. I knew it would be a spirit-filled meeting simply because that is such a reverent and poignant ceremony. But the most moving moment of the night was when the 4 year old son of our newly appointed deacon stood up, microphone in hand and sung Our God is an Awesome God while his mommy accompanied him on the piano. To have such a childlike faith. To know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God IS an awesome God. It was just a beautiful ceremony. His older daughter sung a special song as well. She has a beautiful voice. It was a blessed night that was for sure.

That Daddy will always remember this special ceremony.

The Cat's Meow....

I have loved cat's my whole life. I adore little kitty figurines to sneak into my decor. But I have never thought about cat's in the kitchen decor. My sister told me about this awesome blog called Farm Girl Pink . You should check it out. This past week, she did a post on Holt Howard Kitties. Now I had never heard of these but apparently they were all the rage in the 50's. She featured several of her items including a set of salt and pepper shakers. Aren't they cute?

 



I thought they were just precious. Then I was reading my daily blogs (I don't read a morning paper. I figure if anything newsworthy is going on somebody will blog, tweet or Facebook about it). One of the posts in my reader was from Pyrex Thrifter Sisters about a recent trip to Piccadilly Flea Market. She was pleased with a very rare find....Holt Howard salt and pepper shakers.

Do you see a pattern here? Well, the funny thing is when I went to the Heartland Antiques store this week, I was winding down my shopping and stopped to glance in one last case and look what was sitting there.

I think it is a sign that I need a set of these. This set was $20.00 so I decided to just admire them from afar.

I had sent my sister an email telling her I saw them in our favorite antique store. She called last night and we were on the phone laughing that something we had never heard of suddenly shows up three times in one week. We just couldn't believe that growing up in the 50's, we had never heard or seen these kitties. I was telling her that I just couldn't believe when I looked on the shelf and there sat the little salt and pepper kitties with the pink and blue neck scarves. My hubby chimes in with "Mom had a set of those. " Go figure!

Guess who may keep an eye out for a good deal on these little kitties. Lookout E-bay, here I come.

Fantastic Finds Friday

A friend asked me to run to a thrist store and an antique store Thursday. How could I say no? I'm glad I didn't. I got some great finds.

I fell in love with these crystal bowls. There was a set of three of them. Cost: $1.00 total for all three. Wow! That is around .33 cents each.

Found these little cups at the Thrift Store. They were $3.00 for the set. Not a bad price. Of course since they are red and white I had to get one set for me and one set for my sister. If not, she would have posted a comment telling me how good it would look in her kitchen. And since I love my big sister, I bought both cups. She is always so much fun to buy for.

Isn't this dish just adorable. I thought it would be cute to put in the beach room. The design color looks like it has sand flecks in it. I fell in love with it. Cost? Just $1.00. Wow.

But my favorite find of the day was just $2.00 at the antique store and I am absolutely loving it. It's not an antique because it is from Cracker Barrel. Doesn't matter, I love it anyway.

Not a bad day for $7.00 was it?

When $1.00 can make me happy....

I love to shop. But I am actually kind of tight with my money. I don't like to spend a lot for anything. With today's economy, every penny counts. So I have been trying to be very frugal lately, but yesterday I was out of pickles. I have found a brand of dill pickles that I love and I can only find them at the local Dollar Tree. So, despite the rain, I made a trek into town to get some pickles. While I was at the Dollar Tree, I decided to scout around for anything that caught my fancy. And I found this cute little dish towel.

So I gladly spent the extra $1 and snatched it up. It was so vintage looking that I just fell in love with it. They had some with red in it and I realize now that I should have gotten one of those to send Sis. (Yes, Rachel, I will go back over and get you one). Having no clue what to do with it after I got it home, I started looking around the kitchen for an area that I was just not satisfied with the way it looked. And noticed the bakers rack.

I thought it needed a little oomph. So I shifted the bowls around to the higher shelves on the rack.

While doing that, my recipe box that I have had for about 25 years caught my eye. It is really cute, but I just take it for granted because I've seen it for 25 years.

But I gathered it and one of the Pyrex vintage yard sale finds from last year and an old pitcher that had been in the cabinet and here is the new look. (I need to iron the dish towel, but I was so excited about the new look that I just HAD to snap the picture and iron later).

When I was scouting around for things to set here, I also found this big recipe box that I had forgotten I had. It was sitting on a little wire rack with the choppers and food processors off the end of the kitchen. I'll be looking for somewhere to move this to now.

While I was out, I stopped at Staples. I have been trying to find a way to carry all my files and catalogs to my Thirty One shows when I do them. I saw an idea on Pinterest about putting a file organizer in the Organizing Utility tote. Staples had exactly what I was looking for so I snatched it up and came home and organized my Thirty One files into a neat way to cart them to the parties. Check my Thirty One Blog for my post about this. While you are there, take my poll on the top left hand column on how many Thirty One items you own. I just love the way my file carrier turned out.

All in all, yesterday was a great day. Can't believe spending $1.00 could make me so ecstatic. As a matter of fact, I love the little towel so much I think I'll do a little giveaway. I'm going back on Saturday so leave me a comment and we'll do a little drawing and the winner will receive a towel. I'll do the drawing at 5:00 on Saturday.

A bunch of stuff about nothing...

I must admit that I love the word meandering...which the dictionary defines as to wander at random. My mind is meandering today so I thought I would just post what I'm thinking about....

.... I know we celebrated President's day on Monday, but let's officially wish George Washington a Happy Birthday today. Old George would have been 280 today. Wouldn't it be nice to be remembered for 280 years! He was only 67 when he died.

.... I was thinking the other day about all the new verbs used to describe how we let others know about our life and our likes. We used to "talk" or "write". Now we Facebook, we pin, we text, we chat, we Skype, we tweet, we blog. I'm not sure what the next generation will bring to the table of communication.

....Speaking of pinning - Have you noticed the new wave of aqua or turquoise. Many blogs are showing some gorgeous vintage items in these colors and I must say it makes me want to jump on the band wagon.

....I am also becoming fond of pink. Not sure why. Even though I am a girly girl for the most part, I have never really been a fan of pink, especially light pink. But I'm starting to really like it.

....As we approach spring, I'm beginning to see and like a lot of yellow. I may look for yellow and white for my Easter colors this year. Shouldn't say that because now I have jinxed myself. Anytime I go looking for a specific color, I find everything BUT the color I want.

....This is not my bathroom, so don't get excited. Mine is a work in process and I am finally loving thoughts for it. I'm slowly working on the decor and the lilac/lavender combination is going to work. Painting it white this spring will make a huge difference. My plans are to turn the bathroom into a garden paradise. Updates as they occur. I am going to add some of the light mint green to it as well and the wooden commode seat with a sea grass basket on the top of the tank.

....Still debating on what type of furniture for the front porch. Wrought iron or white wicker. Love them both. I just know I can't wait to get a new porch swing. I may incorporate wicker and wrought iron. Just a thought.

Happy hump day!

Wishing I could crochet....

I come from a long line of crocheters. My Mamaw Eden, my mom, my sister, my cousins. But me? Not so much. Oh, believe me I would love to. I would love nothing better than setting down with my favorite thread or yarn and crocheting to my hearts content.

But alas, it ain't a gonna happen. Mamaw Eden decided to teach me how to crochet one time. It was not a pretty site. I always thought she had the patience of Job, but I truly tested that patience. Everything I did curled up like the finger of a glove. I can do a perfect chain stitch and create the beginnings of a beautiful project....I just never figured out how to turn around and go the other direction.

Oh, I have tried many many times. Mom has tried to show me. Rachel tells me it is easy. I watch them and it does look simple. Until I try to add a row or go back in another direction. Forget it. I even watched a how-to video on You Tube with step by step help on crocheting. Nope. Couldn't get it. My IQ is 142 and I pride myself on learning new things with ease. But I am a crochet moron and just will never be able to make those lovely pieces like the rest of you.

If I can't even master a dishcloth with basic crochet there is no way I could ever make a beautiful doilie. Mamaw Eden was so talented and mom inherited that talent. They were always making doilies, fancy potholders, rugs, afghans.

I remember Mom having a bunch of pot holders similar to these hanging across the top of the wall over the kitchen cabinets.

If I could ever learn to crochet, I would make one of these soap covers. Aren't they lovely. I especially like the pastel one. I'm going to see if I can find where anybody sells these on Etsy.

Remember when crocheted toilet tissue toppers were all the rage? Mamaw made us some crocheted dresses and put them on dolls like this, but they were to set in our room, not on tissue rolls. Mine was pink.

Speaking of tissue toppers, check these out.

Mamaw also made each family a tissue topper poodle. She made some soap covers to but I can't recall if they were poodles or turtles.  

If I could crochet and was an expert, I would definitely make myself one of these tissue toppers. It would probably be the one dead center or the one on the bottom row, far left. I would make them in soft lavenders and white. I'm going to have to poll my friends to see who I can hire to make me one of these lovelies for my bathroom.

Oh, and dear sweet sister of mine, I could use one of your dishclothes in lavendar and white. She makes the neatest dishclothes. I use them for so many things besides just doing dishes. I like to have her color co-ordinate them with rooms. That way when they come out of the laundry, I put them back in the room they go in. I have one for cleaning kitchen counters, one for wiping down bathroom sinks, one I only use with Mean Green to clean any tough scuff marks or spills on the kitchen floor. I love them.

Alas, if I could just learn to crochet I could make my some myself. Maybe someday.

 

What it means to be "sister"sick....

Being sister-sick is a form of homesickness. In 1988, we moved from West Virginia to Tennessee, just about 5 hours away. My whole family still lives in West Virginia. I try to go in several times a year and they try to visit me several times a year. But I sometimes still get homesick.

But yesterday, I was definitely sister-sick. I was missing my Big Sis so much. It was pouring the rain and really gloomy. I didn't feel like watching TV or reading a book. I couldn't get into crafting or working on any projects. So I started prowling around the house and got to thinking about my sister and missing her so much.

I was looking at some pictures of us at Panama City Beach and wishing we could be walking on Shell Island like we did before.

Or getting ready to eat on the pier at Pineapple Willie's as we watched the sun set over the Gulf.

 

Or maybe I wouldn't be missing her so much if she was here visiting with me. We could have some tea or hot chocolate and discuss our current books we are reading.

 

Or maybe we would be looking at some old pictures and reminicsing about the good old days.

Or we might be talking about Daddy and how much we missed him. We might be reliving some of those days of him stopping by to watch the boys play baseball at the ball field. 

 

Or we might just spend a quiet evening watching TV and crafting, just enjoying being sisters.