You just gotta love a great bag....

I love a great tote bag, purse, wallet, you name it. If I can carry something in it I am going to love it. I just got my new Thirty-One order yesterday with some of the new fall products. I love hosting parties because you can earn so much for free. I saw this tote at National Conference and fell in love with it. It is reversible. One side is black pebble the other side is gray charcoal snake. Very versatile. It even came with a matching wallet in the gray charcoal and a wristlet strap.

The other one I liked so much at conference was the Go To Tote. I fell in love with this bag and the coordinating products. 

It is a very soft fabric but has the durability to stand on its own.

And look how much room inside. I wanted it to take back and forth to work for those times I have to have my files with me to work on. I just love how much room it has. 

You just gotta love a great bag.

Weekend wrap up

It was a great weekend. Two of my grandchildren spent the whole weekend with me. We had a ton of fun. Lots of laughter and a whole lot of hugs and kisses. Saturday, we went to a place call Esau's Vendor Market in Knoxville. Turns out it is a huge building that sets up once a month with vendor booths. There were vintage items, antiques, crafts and just a hodge podge of fun finds. Here are some of my bargains. 

I found a hobnail milk glass vase, which is my favorite milk glass pattern.

One lady had these cute little kittens for sale. I just love the middle one. 

I picked up a new dresser scarf that had been hand embroidered.

A new little Pyrex vintage mug.

And a pink Pyrex 024. I love this. It is the regular pink, not pink flamingo. Very excited about this.

My first piece of pink milk glass. 

Since my nick name is B, I like getting things with bees on it. So when I saw this for just $5 I had to have it.

As she was wrapping it, I noticed this for $2 each so I had to get me the black one and my sister the white one for her birthday. I am using mine on the stove as a spoon rest.

Then while I was waiting on her to wrap that I found this little creamer that I knew my sister just had to  have...another birthday present for her.

And since this was only $2, I just added it to my pile for Valentine's Day decor.

All of that for just $36.00. I thought that was an amazing day. What do you think?

Sunday's Songs

A young boy with a guitar and a dream. Destined for greatness and fame. His music will live on forever. Thirty-eight years have passed since he has been gone, yet his music lives on forever. Whether you like him or not, you have to admit he achieved his dream.

This saddens my heart....

This broke my heart when I saw it. 

It just spoke so much to my heart. How many lost loved ones in our family and circle of friends pass away without the promise of a better place to go? How many of them watch us go to church week after week and know that we have great faith in our God? How many know we are a Christian from the way we act and the works we do for the Lord?

Now for the really hard questions:

How many of those lost souls in our life have we sat down with and talked with them about the Lord? How many have we fallen on our face with tears streaming down praying to God to show them the light? 

Do we dedicate as much of our Christian walk trying to save our family and friends as we do worrying about the souls we don't even know? Are we so busy doing what we call "the Lord's work" for complete strangers that we don't even take the time to worry about the souls of the very people who mean the world to us and who we cannot imagine our world without them in it?

Picture if you will a young mother struggling with raising her children, working two jobs to make ends meet and facing endless stress day to day just to keep her head above water. Picture her life as she comes home exhausted and feeds the children and has very little time to spend with them because of her long hours. Picture her falling into bed exhausted but she cannot sleep because she is so worried about the bills, the kids, her life. 

Now picture that young mother living in the same home with her husband who is a Christian and goes to church every time the doors are open. She can't go with him because she works two jobs and one of them is on a Sunday. Picture him active in community events to bring the word of God to lost souls, raise money for the homeless and give his time to mission work in his community.

Picture his wife who sees him doing all this wonderful stuff for others and she is so proud of him because he is such a good man and she loves him so much. He helps with the children when he can, but he isn't home much in the evenings because he is so involved in his walk with the Lord. 

Now picture this young mother getting sick. Picture her not going to the doctor because she is so busy and then one day, before anyone even realizes how sick she is, she is gone. Imagine her as her spirit floats away to eternity, unsaved. Picture the tears she sheds as she realizes where she is and she thinks of her husband, a good Christian man. And she wonders, with his love of God and his good Christian values, why did he never talk to her about the Lord? Why did he spend so much time working with others to help them and not once did he tell her about the beautiful thing called Salvation. 

I am sure she would cry out "Why, oh, why did you not even try to save me." 

This picture really packs a powerful message if you just stop and think about it. 

She's growing up....

There are moments in our life when we look at our grandchildren and wonder where the years have gone. That moment occurred when I saw this picture of my soon to be 11 year old granddaughter, Alexis. She was the flower girl in her cousin's wedding this past weekend,

And she was on the arm of a boy. Now THAT gave me a moment of pause. 

Born less than 2 pounds, she held my heart from the first moment I saw her. 

This is probably my all time favorite picture of her. She is forever smiling. This picture captures her sweet personality.

I just can't believe how much she is growing up.

Things on my to do list....

How cute is this. Paint some cans, glue on a cork and some jute rope and you have a little pumpkin. If you look close, you will see a green wire. She used spiral paper clips that she unwound, but you could also use green floral wire.

(Link)

I love these gourds. All I have to do is buy the Styrofoam cones. I have everything else.

And talk about super simple and easy.



And one more pumpkin from cans. Loving it.



Can't wait to get started on fall crafts.

The Perfect Size Cake

Duncan Hines has introduced the PERFECT SIZE cake. It comes in a variety of flavors with a variety of frosting. For my first test, I selected the Lemon Bliss.

It comes with a packet of cake mix, a packet of frosting mix and a pan to bake it in.

For the cake, I added the required butter and egg.

I mixed it up until it was nice and creamy.

Then you simply pour it in the bowl. No need to grease the bowl or spray it with any coating. It is apparently pre-coated. 

I used a spatula to smooth it out. 

I baked it at the suggest temp for the suggested time. I think it was 300 degrees for 31-34 minutes or somewhere in there. I took it out and placed it on a rack and let it cool for 15 minutes as per the directions.

While it was cooling, I gathered my 4 tbsps. of butter and my 1 tsp of water and the frosting mix.

I put the ingredients together so I could mix it up when the cake was ready.

When the 15 minute cooling time was completed, I turned the pan upside down and pushed on the middle with three of my fingers. The cake popped out and the outer ring of the cake pan came off, leaving this piece of cardboard which you gently remove.

Then I turned the finished cake over and grabbed the bowl of frosting.

I started spreading the frosting on the cake. Disaster struck. It was not a pretty sight. In my effort to make the perfect Perfect Size cake. I completely forgot the final step....to let the cake finish cooling after I popped it out of the pan. It was horrible. The butter in the frosting started melting and separating from the mixture, the sugar became running and I ended up with a beautiful cake in the middle of a lemony pool of buttery slop.

I was so disappointed. I really wanted to show you the beautiful cake this would make. Lo and behold, my sister, who did not have a clue I was making this cake and going through this, sends me a picture that night of a cake she made that day. How hilarious is it that she had made the exact same cake I did. So I simply thanked her for her pic, told her it looked good and asked if I could "steal" her picture for my blog since mine was a flop. Here is her finished product which turned out way better than mine. I am going to try again.

Last night I was at Kroger and found that they had finally, after several years of it being gone, brought back the Caramel icing. Though now it is called Salted Caramel, it tastes just the same as before. I was so excited. I had a spice cake mix at home so I grabbed a can of the icing.

I think I will stick with the regular size cakes. I had much better luck with my spice cake with caramel icing.

And it felt so good to sit down and have a piece for my snack last night. 

What is going on in your kitchen?