Friday Foto Friends

I'm hooking up today with Breathing in Grace for some Friday Foto Friends. 

You all know my love of Pyrex. One of the oldest and favorite sets I own is the Primary Colors. They are old with scratches and fading and have lost some of their shine. But I didn't collect them because of the beauty, I collected this set because of the memories. 

Growing up, Mom purchased this set when it came out in the 50's. There are so many memories attached to each one. My sister has the same set and she too remembers each ones use. Now I am sure Mom used them all the time and that she used them for more things that what we remember. But our fondest is memory of the big yellow bowl was the fact that she used this every time she made homemade peanut butter cookies. She would mix the dough and let it refrigerate for 3 hours. Then we would help roll it into balls and squish it down with forks. When I married Allen, he came with a yellow Pyrex bowl and that is the one I still have. We had it for 30 years before I even started collecting Pyrex. And yes, many times it has been used for Mom's peanut butter cookie recipe.

The next one was the green bowl. It is funny, but neither of us can really remember much about the green bowl other than she would serve food in it on the table for Sunday dinners. Probably mashed potatoes or corn or green beans. I had a hard time finding this piece when I started collecting and it was the last one to my set. I was so excited that I don't remember where it came from. Of the remaining pieces of my set, my niece Amy found one for me. A friend from West Virginia found one for me. And I found the other one at an antique store for $8.00. I think I found the green, Amy the red and my friend the blue. But I'm not sure. The important thing is that I cherish each one because of the memories of my childhood.

Mom's red bowl was my favorite. It's primary function was a very important part of my life....to make chocolate icing for cakes. I still use my red one for that to this day. And it is Mom's recipe, which belonged to my grandmother. So there are a lot of memories tied up in the old red bowl. The best part was getting to lick the beaters and the bowl when the icing was finished. I have to admit that I still lick the beaters and bowls. Somethings are hard to outgrow. This one gets a lot of use and you can tell by the loss of color that the previous owner used it a lot as well.

And the last one brings back memories of Daddy as well as Mommy. This was the cornbread bowl. My daddy loved his cornbread. He loved to break it up in buttermilk for a nighttime snack...which to me was totally gross. I don't eat cornbread OR buttermilk. But Mom always used this blue bowl to make him homemade cornbread and she always made it in her medium size iron skillet.

So even though my set is not pristine or in mint condition, I think you will understand why it is among one of the favorites I own. 

Ms. Debbie at Breathing in Grace actually shared a set of these with me on Facebook last night and that is what inspired me to show my beauties off on Friday Foto Friends. Jump over to Breathing in Grace and share some of your photos today. 

A quick little craft project....

We were snowed in in my county yesterday. I was able to work from home, but once quitting time hit I needed a computer break. So I decided to experiment with a craft that was simple and easy. I went through the closet and found an old dusty picture frame. Gathered some various sheets of scrapbook paper, a knife to open up the brads on the frame and some scissors to trim the paper.

I didn't really have any sheets I liked for my particular purpose so I experimented. You simply put your paper in your frame and have an instant, pretty dry erase board. I had some knotty pine which would look good in a log home.

 I decided to use a sheet of Christmas paper to see how it would do. Then I realized I had grabbed a Sharpie instead of a dry-erase.

But I remembered an old trick. If you use Sharpie on dry-erase boards this works so I figured it should work on glass. Simply squirt on some Germ X and wipe it off. Comes clean and you can still use your dry erase on the board or in this case, glass.

This would be cute paper for a kid's room that you could write their chores on for the day. Excuse the pink heart, apparently I need to go buy new dry erase markers. Only had two and one was almost dried out.

Cute teacher's gift with this chalkboard like scrapbook paper.

These little hearts were cute for Valentine's day decor. You could even change your board out every season with different scrapbook backgrounds. They say you can use fabric as well, but I didn't have anything good for this project so I stuck with scrapbook.

I finally ended up leaving this sheet in to put my Thirty-One parties on in my home office. Still not what I wanted but short of going out to the craft store, this was the best I could do. I want to do one for my kitchen that I can write my grocery list on when I think of something I need. 

And yes, I just noticed my frame is coming lose on the corner. I will have to glue that. As soon as I can get out, I am heading to Hobby Lobby for more scrapbook paper and Dollar Tree to check out a better frame. I want to find one with a wider frame so I can add some buttons or bows to glitz it up some. Hope you have a great day. Stay safe and warm if you got any of the snow.

Very Pinteresting....

What do you do when the weather turns cold, your feet are freezing and there's nothing good on TV? You go to Pinterest. I wasn't looking for anything particular, just browsing until something caught my eye. This dress is so pretty. I wish I lived in the days when you wore these kind of clothes. For two years now I have looked for this color in an Easter dress and can't find one. Maybe this will be the year.

I love this flag made from pieces of what looks like various scrap ribbon. Talk about simple to make.

What gorgeous flower arrangements. Sometimes white flowers just look so fresh.

Talk about simple. I see old keys at yard sales a lot. This is a great idea. I should make one for my porch. 

What a beautiful lamp. Look at the exquisite colors in it.

Now that's a neat idea for old watch bands. Turn them into bracelets. May have to do that with one of my old watches. 

I love this decor. I could do this really easy for my centerpiece. I have some of the stuff already. 

Well, we got our first snow today. I am going to work from home. I am blessed to have a job that allows that luxury when needed. But that doesn't make me like the snow any better. Now to leave you with a smile.

Saddened....

Stanley Gordon West said “Smile and the world smiles with you, cry and you cry alone.” This is not always true. The world has lost several celebrities this week and it has not wept alone. One that touched my heart was Glenn Frey of the Eagles. I thought it was sad to see him go. Like an end to an era. Being 15 years old when they released their first song, The Eagles were my go to group. Then in the 80's Glenn Frey did a lot of the music for, was even in an episode, of Miami Vice.

When I first heard of his passing I was saddened. But then I thought why does it make me sad when I didn't even know him. But I saw this posted on Facebook yesterday evening. 

And I realized why I was sad. Over the decades, I have played my Eagles favorite hits on LP albums on my record player. Then I moved on to 8 track tapes. From their I bought their hits on cassette tapes and most recently, I purchased their greatest hits album on a CD. 

They have given me a Peaceful, Easy Feeling and helped me learn to Take it Easy. My all time favorite song is Take It to the Limit. I have loved music my entire life and it has always been there to comfort me, to encourage me and to make me feel good about life. So when a singer I have listened to for well over 4 decades passes away, yes it does make me sad.

RIP Glenn Frey
May your music live on forever.

Weekend wrap up...

Technically, my weekend is not over yet. I have the day off today for Martin Luther King Day. I have been in cleaning, tossing, organizing mode for the past two days and am already back at it this morning. 

I did take time to run to a thrift store on Saturday and to Walmart for some much needed stocking up on pantry staples and cleaning supplies. At the thrift store, I picked up a new cook book that is nothing but desserts made with Hershey's cocoa...my favorite baking chocolate in the world. It was just $1.00.

I also picked up this glass for $2.00. This is my favorite style glass and when I saw it had some vintge office stuff on it, I had to have it. I just love it.

I did make a quick stop to Real Deal Warehouse to see what they had. I needed glue sticks for Children's church. These were 2 per pack for .25 cents each. So I ended up with 16 glue sticks for just $2.00. I got a cute case for my tablet for $2.00 that looks like a composition book and an organizer for my earrings for .75 cents and a new book for just .50 cents. I love going to that place. I always find good deals. They buy close outs so you never see the same thing twice.  

While I was organizing, I hung this accordion peg rack up to start hanging my necklaces on. They keep getting tangled in my jewelry box. I put this behind my door so it doesn't show and hung my costume jewelry necklaces on it. I still have more, but it is an untangling process at the moment. I want to get something better than this, but that is all I could find for now. I think i will get a board and paint it and put a bunch of those little gold hooks in it for the necklaces.

I fixed my favorite supper on Saturday....pizza on flat bread. That's by far my favorite way to eat homemade pizza because there is not as much bread.

Sunday, I went to church and then came home and did more cleaning, tossing and organizing. Later that afternoon, I did a good inventory on my Pyrex and decided to go to the FB group to see if I could accomplish any trades. I was able to trade off the black snowflake and the Early American 502 with lid. In return I am getting one of my dream pieces, the Colonial Mist 402 in the blue with white flowers. I am so excited. I am also getting a couple of Hazel Atlas mugs. Now to try to trade the rest of it off today in my other group. I was real surprised the barbed wire didn't go right away.

I ended my evening reading one of my Christmas present books. Barbara Delinsky is one of my favorite writers. This book is so good that it is hard to put it down. I literally have to hide it out of my sight during the day or I am tempted to sit down and read and then I get nothing done. 

What better way to enjoy a good book than to have some orange cream Thin Mints. These are hard to find so whenever our local Family Dollar gets them in, I buy several boxes to keep in reserve. I just found these on Friday so I think it was a great reward for a job well done the last two days. 

Today I tackle the rooms I didn't get to the past two days. 

A 35 year old memory....

It was a cold and snowy day 35 years ago today, January 17, 1981, I had a date. My first date since my divorce 2 years earlier. We worked together, but he was night shift on one side of the street and I was days on the other. A mutual friend thought we would be a good match. So she "introduced" us by simply telling each of us about the other and suggested that Allen call me. So he did on my lunch hour and we started talking. He had seen me one day when he was in the office and I had never met him though. But we hit it off on the phone. We talked every day for three weeks. And every Friday he would ask me out and I would come up with a lame excuse not to go because I was scared to date with twin 2 year olds at home.

I finally told him I just didn't think it was a good idea to date somebody I worked with and while I appreciated talking to him, I just didn't think dating was a good idea. He said he hated that I felt that way but he appreciated my honesty. 

That was a week before Christmas. On New Year's eve I was working the front desk when he came in to pic up his check. Before I even knew who he was, my heart melted the moment he walked in the door. When he told me who he was, I thought "I am an idiot. I should have said yes." 

A week later, I was still reeling from meeting him and broke the golden Mom rule of "Don't call boys." So I called him and told him I had thought it over and since he was nights on one side of the street and I was days on the other side, that I didn't guess it would hurt to date a co-worker since there were no policies against it. 

His response was, "Well, I thought that was a lame idea and I really liked you so I thought I would wait till after the holidays and call you again."

So we agreed to go out the next weekend. I woke up on the 17th, the day of our first date, to find snow on the ground. I lived up a hill and wasn't sure he would come after all. But he did. My best friend Becky and her sister Shelly came to my house and kept the twins so I could go out. 

We went out to eat and to see Urban Cowboy with John Travolta. We both came away saying how much we loved the song "Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places." We then went back to his house and had Pepsi and Ruffles as he taught me how to play backgammon. I got home around 11:30. 

He had been a perfect gentleman all night. He was 28 years old and I was 24. He opened doors for me. Walked on the outside of the sidewalk when we went to the movie. When I got home, he walked me to my door and kissed me goodnight on the front porch. We had plans for him to come over and spend the day with me and the twins the next day. I gave him one last kissed, walked in the house, shut the door and leaned up against it, smiling. Becky said "How did it go?" I will never forget my reply...."I'm in love. I'm going to marry that man someday." She laughed at me. 

About a month later on Valentine's Day, I found out he felt the same way. Two months and 10 days from the date of our first date, on March 27th, 1981, I married my soul mate, my best friends, the love of my life. And here I am stand 35 years later after that first date, loving him even more than I ever dreamed was possible. Feeling loved by him in all the multitude of ways he showed me that love. I miss him dearly. He has been gone exactly 2 months today. And even though I know he can't come back and I know he went way before I was ready to let him go, I will forever be thankful for the 35 wonderful years I had with him. Thirty-five years of a love that was forever faithful. He stood by me through thick and thin. His love never faltered. He made me feel like I was the most beautiful woman in the world and like I was his special princess to pamper and spoil.

So happy first date anniversary to my sweetheart. I know you are in a better place and you are no longer in pain, but oh what I wouldn't give to have you back for just 10 minutes today to tell you one more time how much I love you. 

He loved to sing George Strait songs to me. Here are the two favorites he loved to sing. I Cross my Heart was Our Song. 

Heading out....

Starting my day off by going to our Young at Heart meeting at church. We get together to fellowship and feast once a month. In the winter, we do it in the morning so that means the meal will be breakfast. Margaret fixes the best breakfast ever and we are invited to bring anything we want. I am taking my new favorite recipe. It is Cinnamon Roll French Toast Bake. It is cinnamon rolls, then covered with a mixture of eggs, milk and cinnamon. Then you pour on some syrup. Bake it and then cover with the cinnamon roll icing. It is too die for. I took it for our Sunday School class (we are Baptist, we eat any time we can) and it was a huge hit. Not one bite was left. 

After Young at Heart, I plan on heading over to Real Deal Warehouse where you can always find some great deals. They buy close outs so the stock is ever changing. One time, I got $27.00 worth of retail for $6 something.

They posted they had new book stock in for $2 each so I want to check that out today.

While I am out and about, I want to start pricing and looking at new Corelle dishes. I have a couple sets of nice dishes/china but I want to get me a set for every day. I want to go to Corelle because I am not buying a full service since I already have that. I just wanted a couple of plates and bowls for my every day use.

Since there is a Skecher outlet near the Corning/Corelle outlet, I plan on stopping in to see if they have these shoes. I am not getting them yet, but these may be the new shoes I get for my Thirty-One National Conference. I have a pair in white and they are super comfy, but get dirty so easy. I want to check out what colors they come in. They are Go Walk Flash and your feet will never hurt again in these. I wore them last year. We walked over 24 miles in 3 days and my feet did not hurt one single time. 

Speaking of National Conference, I am starting to check out manicures to see what hits my fancy. I normally go with pink because it is Thirty-One's signature color. But I will be carrying a lot of my navy products so I may go with a red to compliment the navy. And of course my accent nail will be a sparkling silver or glittery white. That's become like my signature manicure. Always the ring finger with an accent color and the accent is almost always silver sparkle or white glittery.

Well as you can see I have a busy day. This is the start of a 3 day weekend so I am excited to get going. Have a great weekend.