My random thoughts today.....

I usually like Tuesday. But not when it becomes my Monday. Back to work after a 3 day weekend. Actually had snow and got to work from home on Friday. So four days since I have had to face my desk. I do like my job, don't get me wrong. It's actually having to work that I'm not so fond of. 

Well, I decided last night to watch the Grammy's. In my 59 years on earth I have never actually watched an entire Grammy Awards program. Oh, I have seen a few sections here and there as Allen would channel surf over the years. But I have never sat down to watch them on purpose. Since I love the Country Music Awards, I thought why not give the Grammy's a try. Lesson learned. There are some weird looking hair dos on the Grammy's and some music that just made my ears hurt. So I flipped off, but did flip back and forth once in a while until I got to see the Eagles. After that....I was done.

On another note...I have a picture that I won by having a Home Interior party over 30 years ago. It has always been one of my favorite pictures. I just love everything about it.



It hangs over top a tea cart in my living room. I decided yesterday to move the Royal Dalton tea set off the cart and in with my Lefton tea set so it would be safer. Then I decided I wanted to create a similar scene to the picture. So I went back to my office and confiscated my Hurricane lamp that I have had for over 35 years. I earned it when I had a Stanley Products party. Yes, I have been a home party gal way before I ever discovered Thirty-One.



So I got my lamp and a little wicker basket and a cat (I didn't have rabbits but that is going on my "to find at yard sales" list.) A stuck some flowers in the basket for now but a friend of mine is giving me a piece of her philodendron as a starter and I will find a better basket to set the plant in. But this is a start.

And on a final note, I saw this on Facebook and thought is was just precious. 

Hope everyone has an awesome Monday/Tuesday today. 

A quiet day on the home front...

I had a fantastic weekend with my grandkids. It is always so much fun when they come over. I didn't get any pictures hardly any pictures because we were just too busy having fun. 

We had a Valentine's party at Children's church and it was a big hit. I was surprised by two of my Tween Team helpers. Miss Hannah bought me a box of Junior Mints and fixed them up all nice and Valentine"y" in a pretty cellophane bag.

And Miss Maddi bought me a beautiful bear and three boxes of Junior Mints. 

Which turned out to be a blessing because I didn't think we would get any bad weather and didn't stop at the store. Weather wasn't too bad but just yucky enough to not want to leave my house. So the Junior Mints from both girls were fantastic to have. 

My Thirty-One director suggested we design a vision board and put it on the front of a notebook to keep all our training notes in. We are starting a series of training calls tonight. So between that and the Grammy's I am going to go ahead and have an early supper. Throwing together some homemade baked beans and potato salad and having it with a hot dog. 

Hope everybody is having a great day. 

Sunday Song

Happy Saturday

How I want to wake up every morning.....

How I actually wake up every morning...

But that's only on work days. Check out this beautiful home. My first thought was how I would love to be able to afford a house like that. My second thought was how I would hate to have to clean it and my THIRD thought was, well if I could afford a house like that I would probably be able to afford a housekeeper with it to clean it for me. LOL.

Talk about repetitive advertising. If Facebook shows me this bracelet one more time I am going to have to break down and order one. I love it every time I see it and they keep sharing it. 

Well heading out for the day. Have a great Saturday.

Friday Foto Friends

Friday Foto Friends with Breathing in Grace

Here are some fun Friday photos from my little home town of Barboursville, WV. This is the "old bridge" which no longer exists. They tore it down and built a new one. When I was growing up, it was a wood floor and we would have to walk across it to go to the doctor. It was so scary.

This was Ezra Ward in his store. Not even sure what kind of store he had, I just knew when we went to visit my Aunt Frances, we would sometimes go in there and get candy and gum.

This was the train tracks that ran right through the middle of town. The C & O had a reclamation plant right in town and if the train coming through was one that had to get weighed, you could be stuck waiting on it to go through for a long time. 

Allen and I met in 1981 at our job at Sturm Machine. Later that fall, they did company photos. Somebody posted this on Facebook recently. I had forgotten all about these pictures. This is all the guys in the machine shop. That is my hubby front row, 4th from the right.

And this was the office staff, That is me on the second row, two to the right of the guy in the middle in the red jacket. He was our president, Charles Walker. I could remember 35 of the names in the picture below and about 18 of the ones in the shop guys picture above. Not a bad memory for 35 years ago.

I love old pictures. 

Plastic Canvas Coasters

I need to make me some more coasters. I love making them out of plastic canvas because you can make one in less than an hour. Most of the patterns are repetitive squares so you don't need to keep looking down to see the pattern. You can just sit and make them while watching TV. I've been using the same pattern for years so I am thinking about trying out some new ones. Here are some of the ones I am thinking about. I have about 30 or 40 skeins of yarn I have accumulated over the years so color will not be a problem. Now to just decide on what pattern.

I love the boldness of this one and it is super simple to follow the design. 

I know I want one for my nightstand in my bedroom. Since I have a beach theme in there, this would be perfect. I will probably dry the anchor or the sail boat.

I like the simple ones that you can put in a little box. They make great gifts. I giveaway a lot of my coasters. I just love making them.

This one is pretty for winter time.

Well and of course the Queen of Flip Flops here. Leave it to me to find one with flip flops on it.

I absolutely love the colors in this one. That light blue they used with the contrast of the darker is gorgeous.

This little music note one is too cute. I may just have to try this.

I have the round plastic canvas forms so I may try my hand at a couple of these. Round is not as easy to do at the square unless you have the actual pattern so we will see.

I like the simplicity of this one and there is room for a little button. I am currently obsessed with using buttons in crafts.

This one is unique. A lot of different colors and stitches in it. 

You can't go wrong with the checkered square pattern. Super simple. 

And the good thing is that with all my scrap plastic canvas and all my yarn, I can get started today making some of these without having to buy anything. Now to just figure out which one to do first. What is your favorite one?

The Green Bean Thing....

I have a thing about green beans. I have such wonderful memories of setting on the front porch with Mom and sometimes my Mamaw Eden stringing beans. There was just something fun about sitting around listening to them talk while I had my own little bowl of beans to string and pop. I just loved the snap-snap-snap of breaking the beans in smaller pieces.

When Allen would buy beans, I always take them to the front porch to string them. He would come out there and help me and we would sit and talk about our day and our plans. I don't know what it is about stringing beans that makes me so relaxed, but it does. 

Do you want to know what the funny thing is about my love for stringing beans? It's the fact that I despise green beans. I cannot stand them and wouldn't eat one bean if you paid me too. My hate for green beans is 100% psychological and I know that but I still will not eat a bean.

As Mom tells the story, I was about four years old and up until that time I loved green beans. I ate them all the time. One day, I had just gotten over the flu and was just starting to get my appetite back. So Mom made some green beans. Apparently I was just pushing my food around on my plate and Mom told me to eat my green beans. And my Daddy, who I loved more than I did the green beans, said "Don't make her eat them if she doesn't want them. I don't blame her I never did like green beans." She said I pushed my little plate away and said "I don't like them either." and that was that. She never could get me to eat green beans again. 

(Me & my Daddy when I was 2)

When I was pregnant, I knew I had to eat healthier so I decided it was time to go back to visit my like or dislike of green beans. Made them just like Mom did cooked slowly with a little bacon grease thrown in. And whoever said anything is better with bacon flavoring lied. The first green bean never even made it past my lips. The moment my lips touched the green bean and I could get just a small flavoring of it, I bolted off the couch and threw them out. Nope. Wasn't going to happen. I was not going to eat that nasty thing.

So here I sit today. I am 59 years old and will come visit on your porch and string all the beans you want me to. But invite me over for dinner and a "mess of green beans" and I will politely decline.