Sunday Songs

His Amazing Grace

It's Saturday!

It is 7:30 in the morning. I have been up 2 1/2 hours. 

Straightened up the house.

Have a load of laundry already washed and in the dryer. 

Made my list of things I would like to look for at the 10 mile yard sale today. 

Checked Craig's list to find additional yard sales. 

Got the prized together for a small spring carnival for children's church tomorrow. 

Came up with 7 carnival games for them to play and gathered the supplies to create the games.

Getting ready to eat a bite of breakfast and get dressed so I can head out to the big yard sale in about an hour.

Do I know how to use my time to get things done when I want to? Heck, yes!

Happy Saturday! Enjoy your day. I am sure I will have a lot to report back on Monday in my weekend wrap up. Stay tuned.....

Flitterin' Friday

My thoughts are flitterin' everywhere this morning. I am going to have a yard sale in the next few weeks so I am cleaning out closets. I found the roosters that belonged to my Grandma Garretson, (though I originally thought they belonged to Mamaw Eden). They are old and fragile. Lots of chips and nicks. The paint is worn and you can see where she has had to glue them back together a time or two. I need to find a safe spot for them in my kitchen.

The third one I had is the one I am giving to my sister, Rachel. I know she will love it. I told her we will have to visit to exchange it. No way am I risking shipping it as fragile as they are.

There is a Thirty-One bag that I love and it is the Organizing Utility Tote. They have discontinued it and replaced it with the Zip Top Organizing Utility Tote. I don't like the one that zips at well, but I still like all the pockets and the room inside. I am in love with the Bubble Bloom Pattern. I would really like to have this bag, but for some reason I have not bought it.

Then last night when I was going through my closet, I found one from last spring that I earned for free. That pattern was the Citrus Medallion. I even earned the free Medium Zipper Thermal to go with it. I had forgotten all about it. I even had it personalized with Flitterin' on the other side. It is basically the same colors that are in the bubble bloom pattern, but I love the fact that it is the original Organizing Utility Tote...no zip top. I am so excited that I found it. 

I decided to dig further in the storage to see what other Thirty-One I had. I had forgotten about my craft I got for free from my first party over 3 years ago before I ever started selling it. I put my new yarn project in it and my scissors and other craft paraphernalia in the matching mini zipper pouch. Now I'm ready to start my craft project today.

That triggered me going through all my Thirty-One items to decide on the perfect bag for conference. I put my normal conference items in each bag to test it. Turns out almost everything I have has two straps so I have to worry about straps being aggravating or slipping off my shoulders. Some bags were too big, some were too small. The things that were cross body were not big enough. I knew we couldn't take back packs but I checked and found out the Cinch Sac would work. I am going to have a party in May and with my free hostess credit, I am going to order this for my conference bag. So happy to have that problem solved.

Well, tomorrow is the 4th annual yard sale in Sevierville, TN. It started out as a 7 mile yard sale four years ago. The title has changed as it has grown. This year it is the 10 mile yard sale. I got fabulous bargains every year. Even scored some Federal, Pyrex, and Fire King bakeware a time or two. I am looking for a nice rug for my office and a flower pot for my philodendron. Obviously I will be checking out anything vintage. I would love to find a good buy on a TV for my home office. The one I bought 3 years ago for $5.00 does not work with my HD box for Direct TV. I am also going to look for some vintage aprons. Here's a pic of one spot from previous years.

Hope everybody has a great weekend.

The Summers of my Youth

I remember summertime when I was young as a time of wonder and excitement.
We would play outside for endless hours. Sometimes Mom would fix our lunch and we would eat it on a blanket in the yard under the old oak tree.



We would take walks to the store and library. We usually had a quarter and would go to the Stop & Shop and get 25 pieces of penny candy.



My favorite was banana Kits, Pixie Sticks, Sixlets, and BB Bats.



My favorite food in the summer was a cheese sandwich with Miracle Whip and pickle on it.



My favorite drink was grape Kool-Aid with lemons squeezed in it.



Sweet summertime memories.

A tea party...

It has been suggested to me that a tea party would be a great theme for a Thirty-One party. As usual I went to Pinterest to get ideas. Love the idea of these little sandwiches.

And check this out. They bought the white paper doilies and dyed them various colors to use under tea cups.

Silverware was wrapped in vintage napkins. Isn't this cute. 

I love the thought of small vases on the table with a single rose in each vase.

How cute is this for lemonade for those who don't do tea.

And the next time I serve lemon with a drink, I am definitely doing this so I can have fancy lemons. 

Isn't this a beautiful table setting?

I have several matching teacups so this is a cute idea to do for cookies. 

Talk about a simple, yet elegant looking dessert. This is as cute as can be.

I need to think this through and see if I can do a tea. 

The room makeover....

I finally, finally have my room like I want it. This is my craft room/home office so I am in here quite a bit. I love the new room darkening curtains. They keep that horrible, headache-causing afternoon sun from being so glaring through the window. This is my desk area where I do my Thirty-One business.

And this is my craft table. It has two chairs because I reduced the size of my kitchen table and needed a place to put the chairs. This is the table I got at a yard sale for $10.00. You can tell it matches my kitchen chairs really good.

I use my book shelves to organize crafts and catalogs and to display some of my favorite things.

My door pockets and favorite wreath.

My utility card with my vintage style clock and radio. 

My storage bins for paper supplies and my awards corner for acknowledgments for reaching my goals in Thirty-One. 

Craft supplies, Thirty-One catalogs and order forms, etc. And my favorite tea set along with my sister tea for one set and my Little Women display. Need to find the other two dolls.

My miniature tea sets, my beach memory shelf, more craft storage and some of my books.

My quilt rack that Daddy made for me.

I love my two big storage bins.

My favorite wreath that my dear friend Georgeanna made for me last year.

Well, there you have it. My finally organized favorite room of the house.

Weekend Wrap-Up

It was a beautiful weekend and my daughter and I decided to take Saturday to hit some yard sales in a neighboring city. We had a great day and found some pretty good finds.

I am not sure why, but I liked this little bird. I have a thing for glass. I got him for just 5¢.

I picked up a solid white linen tablecloth with no stains or marks for just 75¢.

Not sure what these were. They have the feel of a cloth napkin, but they are smaller than any I have ever seen. But since there were four of them, I think that is what they are. I got the whole set for just 50¢.

I love tin cans. I don't collect them per se, but if I see one I like I will get it. Especially when it was just 25¢.

This little crystal jar was so pretty and in perfect shape. I was looking for something to keep rubber bands in for my home office so that is what I am using it for. It was $1.00.

I am starting to gather quite a few little cream pitchers. I am not sure why, but they are so cute that I just started collecting them. This one was just 25¢.

My daughter found these plates for me and together they were 75¢ so I got them. Look for them in a future posts holding a candle or something.

I love this little vintage style powder box. I am not sure if it is actual vintage or not, but I picked it up to send my cousin Patty because it matches the Victorian style of her home. I can't remember what I paid for it, but it was either $1.00 or 50¢. 

And the whole reason we went yard selling was because I saw a pitcher on Craig's List for $4.00 that was from the 1930's to early 1940's. It is made in the USA. And I called the lady and she was going to hold it for me until I could get to her yard sale on Saturday. She did and I am so happy with it. It is a lot bigger than what I thought it would be, but you can tell it was definitely made to use not for decor. I am loving it.

After we left all the yard sales, we made a quick dash to Walmart. I picked up some yarn to make coasters. I have a pattern I use that makes beautiful plastic canvas coasters with variegated yarn. I show them to you when I make them.

And I picked up some curtains that are the room darkening. I know with them being pink you wouldn't think they would darken. But they do and I love them. 

I tried to iron them, but they are going to need a wash to get all the wrinkles out. But I wanted to hang them first to see if I am going to like them before I went to all that trouble. I will have to take them down this week and take care of the wrinkles. The curtains triggered a whole energy moment where I cleaned the office/craft room from top to bottom and got organized. Be sure and come back tomorrow to see how my room finally finished up.