HOLDING OUT?????

YEP  I have been holding out for far too long! At least my family thinks so:)  

Holding out on what you ask?  Well,  you see I am a bit of a purist when it comes to Colonial decor!  I just want it to be as authentic as possible.  It is a little hard to do when I share my home with other people:)  SOOOOOOOO, I finally did it! Yep purchased a new "sectional sofa" for the "tavern" room! I really love it the way it is now.

 

 I know this isn't exactly a "showplace" but it is comfortable to me:) Unfortunately though, the sofa is 10 ys old and is suffering and sagging!  This year at Christmas we will have all 4 kids and 2 spouses!!YAAAAAY soooo I figured it was time to make a change.  It HAS been a little hard when we have lots of people over since there is not too much room to sit:) Now with the new sofa and a new chair for "the man of the house"LOL we can seat lots more people.

 

 We both are a little sentimental about this ole sofa but it will go to our bedroom and we will still use it in there:)

In fact that makes me think we need a "re-do" in the bedroom!!

 

The new furniture is not due to be here until sometime in late Aug or early Sept.  I will share the pics when it all comes together :0)

I suppose there comes a time when I just have to realize that we REALLY don't live in an old home!  If we DID this would be a whole different story! :)

OUR UN-SALE!!!!

It all started with an e-mail about a fund raiser for one of the Historic Churches in our area.  They needed vendors.  Sooooooo I called my good friend Susan and asked if she would like to rent a space to sell some antiques and handmade items.  Since we have never done this before we planned and talked about how to set up and decorate!  We were having so much fun planning.  We got all of our antiques and items that we made together, and finally arrived a prices.

Susan hand carves the cutest Santas! 

 She also hooks wonderful rugs! 

The pictures really don't do them justice! They are so cute!

  I had painted boxes, hand painted paper covered boxes, and cloth covered and aged journals but mostly antiques to sell.

Here we are all set up!

This is my Husband and Susan.

Looks good Right?   WRONG!!!  

First we didn't bring tents in case of rain, the weather said partly cloudy SOOOOO it rained cats and dogs!! WE WERE SOAKED!LOL

Luckily our Husbands came to the rescue and brought tents.  That was Great!

UHHHH.....YEP THAT is a Bar B Q truck there behind us!  To the side was a truck called Beach Fries!

You guessed it, they placed us at the very back of the field BEHIND the food vendors!!!  No one knew we were there!  Finally the coordinator for the event came around and found us, She apologized for the placement.  I think she felt really bad.  This was the first time they planned an event and for some reason thought people would go to the food and see us.  The DJ came by and then went to make an announcement  that we were there. We did finally see a few people but we sold.... NOT ONE THING!

 We just ate Great bar b que and enjoyed the rain!  I did hate having to load all of that stuff up and take it back home!  I STILL have things on the dining room table that I need to find a place for.

The lady that coordinated the event did call and gave us a free space and the best spot for next year! I thanked her and took it, but we are not sure we will try this again:)

The good news is that the event did raise a little money for the church! We are glad for that!

The Moral of the Story?  Don't pay until you know where you will be placed so that you won't have an "Un-sale"!!!
Go out and have a GREAT day!!!!!

NOW IT IS TIME TO SAY GOOD-BY.....

Two weeks ago we had to say good-by to our wonderful dog, Rowdy.  She wasn't feeling well on a Monday morning, but seemed to feel better that afternoon. On Sunday, she was chewing on some wood kindling that we had by the fireplace.  She always loved to chew on those little sticks, they were from our yard, so we just let her chew away.  So I was afraid that on Monday when she didn't feel well that maybe she had some type of blockage due to the stick. We talked to the vet and they suggested we watch her.  She had no problems going to the bathroom and ate her dinner just fine. Tuesday she was a little slow but ate and went out like usual. Wednesday she was pretty much back to normal, sitting by the chew bone jar and barking until we gave her one!! BUT all of a sudden on Thursday night she just lay by her water bowl, which was not at all usual!!  I stayed up with her until about 1:30am, then she wanted to go upstairs.  She always slept on our bed.  It took her a little while to get up the stairs.  I felt so sorry for her, she just kept looking at me with her sweet face, I knew she was sick.  Friday morning we called the Vet and took her in around 7:30.  They just kept her until they had a chance to check her out.  We were afraid that it was that stick and worried that she might have to have surgery.  We NEVER even thought it would be so bad!!!!  As it turns out, she had some tumors on her spleen that kept bleeding out and filling the cavities around her organs. Apparently, they bleed and then the body absorbs them, then they bleed again.  That is why she felt bad and then seemed better.   It might have been going on for a couple weeks.  Sometimes at night she could not jump up on the bed.  Our bed is a high Colonial 4 Poster,  so we thought she was just starting to get older.  She would put her front paws on the bed and wait for one of us to lift her back and put her on the bed.  I kept saying that she had gained weight and maybe that was why she couldn't jump up.  So her larger that usual body was due to the bleeding out.  They said that they could do surgery but she still would only have about 2 months longer to live.  It was so sad, here we were sniffing and trying not to out right bawl.  Even the Vet cried.  She was Rowdy's vet from the very beginning and also took care of her 9 puppies:)  It was such a shock.  We just didn't want to bring her home and have her suffer.  So we said good-by.  The hardest thing we have had to do in a long time!!

This is the first time in a very long time that we only have one animal:)  We usually have at least 2 dogs and a few cats:)  We are thinking about getting another Golden, but the Vet said that the tumors that Rowdy had is not unusual in that breed and usually happen around their 9th-10th year.  Rowdy was only 9 1/2.  She did have tumors on her body that we had removed. So I guess she was just prone to them.  Poor ole Charlie seems a little lost.  He is used to having her to boss around:) They played all the time!  He has never been without her!

I guess with our pets we just have to love them as long as possible and always remember the love they gave us!

This was her favorite chair and her most comfortable position!!! We laughed at her all the time!!

This is my favorite picture!  Charlie is one of her puppies that we kept!  I am so glad that we did, he is really sweet!!!

So go out today and kiss a dog!!

IT IS SO HARD TO CRACK A WOODEN EGG.........

For years and years my friends and I have painted eggs!  Wooden, paper mache', and real!!  Aging is the most fun part to me.  Sooooooo I have buried some wooden eggs in the front yard!  My thoughts are that they will get wet and dry and wet and dry, then crack! This works pretty well EXCEPT.....When you can't find them all!! I love it when they crack just a little, just enough to look old:)   I KNOW  that I "planted" 6, but I can only find 4!! I am pretty sure the squirrels aren't interested in them, so I will keep digging around!

Here are some of the wooden eggs:

  These are some of my favorites, the cracks don't show

                                           up too well.  

These are some of the real ones that I did years ago!  They still look good!  I think that I had these on last year too.

                                           They are darker than they appear in this picture.

These were done with some weeds from the yard and rubber bands.  Just wet the egg a little and place the weed on, then cover with panty hose tightly. I left them in the dye for quite a while.  The dye is onion skins and tumeric.  You can use about anything including regular dyes.  I didn't blow out these eggs.  I read some history of the Pysanky eggs (Ukrainian Easter Eggs) and they didn't blow them out.  I decided to try it and I think it works great!  I have had them since about 1994.  I store them in an old egg crate and when I first take them out I can smell a slight odor, but once out in the air it goes away.  I think that they are stronger too. 

Well I am off to dig in the yard some more to try to find my missing wooden eggs!

Have a Happy day !!!!!!!!!!!

YOU KNOW IT IS JANUARY WHEN.....

WHEN I  drag out all of the dried stuff!  

For years I have dried those little pineapples that I used to find at a store here.  The were really easy,  probably because they are so small.  I have also tried in vain to dry the regular sized pineapples since I can no longer find the little ones!  Each year I add to the dried collection:)  THIS year I was successful in drying the regular pineapples.  I found directions on the internet that works great!  Dan at yesterday once more here on blog spot!  He is at 

Dan-yesterdayoncemore.blogspot.com 

Check out his site!

Here are a few pictures of them.

These are some clove studded pears.

Nothing goes to waste around here, I either dry it or stick cloves in it:)  Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.  At least I feel like I tried! LOL

There is just something about the color that I love! It is so natural and wintery!

OK ~~~~  GET OUT THERE AND STICK CLOVES IN SOMETHING!

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!

2013...REALLY????

I just can't believe that it is 2013!!!! 

How in the world did that happen!  Every new year I think that I am going to buckle down and get back to my real self:)  You know, lose weight, get organized!  I suppose I have forgotten what that is. Thank you menopause:)  So now I am looking for inspiration and trying to get the house organized! LOL I only want to needle punch, paint, xstitch....ANYTHING but organizing the house!!! 

Thanks to my friend Susan who gave me an old oar which I was able to use to organize the baskets!
Shhoooo that was hard work:0)  Glad that is done!!!

OK ~ good Work!  Now I can do just a little punching, after all that really needs to be finished! AND after all.......TOMMORRA IS ANOTHA DAY! 
  THANK YOU SCARLETT O'HARA