Got the lawn mowed! Whew!

I am SO BLESSED!  It was the perfect day to mow!  All my neighbors were out mowing yesterday while there was a heat advisory and I knew I should mow but I'd already taken a bath so I figured I would mow today and LO & BEHOLD.....no heat advisory, I got an early start this morning and there were breeezes!  I barely broke a sweat...miracle of miracles!  It has been so hot here and don't get me wrong...I did not turn my ac off....but it was actually nice out and I enjoyed it and the lawn looks SO NICE now!  I would have taken a picture but after I mowed I watered outside and then promptly came in and took a bath and now I'm in my jammies!

So, I took pictures of a few items I got at the thrift store the other day that I never posted.  

This is a clay bird from Mexico that I will stick in one of my plants for a little decoration....under a $1.00

Isn't this little bluebird cute?  These types of decorations are so cute and are a VERY inexpensive way to add a little decoration to your potted plants.  I got the idea from an all-time GREAT thrifter....Nancy-Jo....check out her blog at www.nancy-jo.blogspot.com

This is a solid soapstone candle "platter"?  It still had the label on it and I don't think it had ever been used.  I think it was about $2.00 for soapstone!  You could also use it to set a plant on it as it is about 8-10 inches across.A little smaller but less than a $1.00 in my FAVORITE color...YELLOW!  I will probably use it as a candle stand.

I was just starting to check out when one of the gals started unloading a box with this basket in it...I said "I'll take it"!!!!!!  It is in really good shape with just enough paint missing to look "shabby" and in RED!  Now don't we just love us a bit of RED!!!!!  I probably should have saved it for REDNESDAY!  This was $4.00 I think but well worth it in my book!  It is about a foot across and at least a foot high and stands up perfectly.  I will probably use it for magazines.

It's MONDAY!!!!

This is one of my first quilting projects....Grandma's Flower Garden paper piecing.  I loved doing it and I made it into a pillow with hand embroidery and some embellishing with little tiny buttons.This is my little heart mini-quilt that I've been working on with those great binding clips I was telling you about!Can you believe it!  A candle actually called SUMMER?  This is Crabtree & Eveleyn...ahhhh....let SUMMER begin!

This is my wonderful OLD cat Patches.....she is 18 and "hangin in there" 

Sorry to all my followers....you are out there aren't you? LOL!  I took the weekend off, not really, but I was clearing and cleaning and trying to get a routine going around here which is actually working but doesn't give me as much interesting blog material....no wonder I have no followers....I"M BORING!  But I don't bore myself so I guess that's the important part.
I hope everyone had a great weekend.  I did and it was very nice because it was more balanced than usual....ie; a little cleaning, a little clearing (my thrift store box to take is growing and I've started a garage sale box now too)!  I saved Sunday for Rn'R and REALLY TRIED to relax and I did....a little.  I sew baby quilts for our Quilt Guild and I got one almost finished.  I try to have both regular sewing (sewing machine) projects and then hand sewing projects for the in the evening when I watch t.v.  I got my guest room cleaned up and part of the hallway and started on the linen closet.  I found some great summer candles in the linen closet that I had forgotten about!
I love that when that happens...it's like a surprise gift!
I'm almost finished with my little heart mini-quilt.  I finished hand quilting the hearts and used my new binding clips to keep the binding in place while I hand sewed it.  I should be able to finish it tonight!  Those binding clips are SO NICE!  It makes the whole process much easier.  If you're a quilter (I'm just a beginner) you will love these!
For some reason my pictures sometimes turn out clear and sometimes blurry.  I think it's the "shaking" syndrome but I have a Fuji 4.1 mega pixel digital camera but maybe it's time to "upgrade"?  If anyone has any solutions or suggestions please let me know meanwhile I apologize for the "sad" photography.

It's REDNESDAY!

This is one of my RED cannisters....This is the lid to an old tin that I can't find but I love the lid so I think I'll keep it anyway......maybe a burner cover?This a thrift store find..I'm seeing a cherry theme hereOkay...no more cherry theme....these WERE my green tomatoes gone REDNESDAY!

These are the blueberry muffinsHere's the eggplant parmesanI'm new to this weekly themeing of days but I'm going to give it my best shot!  I have some RED things to show you and also some blurry pics of my dinner and dessert that I finally got to eat last night.

One thing just led to another today.....

I had no intention of cleaning my oven today but when I went to pre-heat it for my eggplant parmesan I was making....well lets just say there was a lot of smoke!  I forgot that when I made chocolate cobbler the other day that it had run over the side of the dish and made a real mess in the bottom of the oven!  I feigned like Scarlett

Ohara and told myself I would deal with it in the morrow.  What could I do anyway?  I had to wait for the oven to cool off and it was nearing bedtime.  Unfortunately, come "the morrow" and I totally wiped it off my radar until today...AHHHHH!!!!!!  Smoke filled the room and immediately I realized the error of my ways.  So.....that is why this post is late and I all I have to show for my productivity is a clean oven and some clean laundry.  To make up for it I took a picture of the clean oven and also of the books I am reading.  Not too inspiring I agree but there's always tomorrow and hopefully I'll get my eggplant parmesan done so I can have some supper tonight.  Oh!  I did clean the frig also but didn't think you really wanted a picture of that too. LOL!

Perfect Sunday!!!!

I had such a nice Sunday yesterday.  I hope you did too.  Sunday's have always been my R'n'R days....standing for rest and renewal and working around the house which is actually what I love to do....strange I know, but for years I worked outside the home and now that I don't I relish my time at home.  I am trying to slot certain activities for certain days like the old dish towels, remember?  Speaking of dish towels, I need to embroider some of those to put in my kitchen.  Anyway....I got up and took a leisurely bath and used my Philosophy Amazing Grace body wash and after bath lotion..ohhhh....I LOVE that fragrance!  It is just pure fresh and clean!  I want to get the perfume or body splash and the body butter for winter but will have to budget as it is not cheap but it lasts a long time.  After that I changed the sheets on my bed and fluffed my feather bed topper.  That feather topper is one of the best investments I ever made!  When I moved here I left my mattresses in Iowa knowing there were mattresses here from my folks.  After sleeping on their mattresses I wished I had moved mine!  I really didn't want to put out the money for a new one(s) so I decided to purchase a feather topper (much cheaper) and if that didn't do it then I would go ahead and start shopping for mattresses.  Well, it worked wonders and turned my bed into a cloud that I love crawling into each night!  After about a week though you can see where my "nest" has settled so I "fluff" it weekly and that does the trick! After that I did laundry and ironed....I KNOW...some of you hate ironing but I love it!  It is like a meditation to me but I can't stand in one place for long so I only iron 10 items a week which keeps me on top of it all.  Yesterday I watched old reruns of Bonanza and Mayberry R.F.D. while I ironed...call me crazy but I enjoyed it thoroughly.
 After supper there was a special on Susan Boyle....the overnight success story singer from "across the pond".   Her voice gives me shivers it is so beautiful which is a sign to me that her gift is directly from the heavens and she blesses all of us with it.  I must get her cd's!  I went to the opposite side of the spectrum after that and watched Ice Road Truckers on the History channel.....I LOVE THAT SHOW!  One of the things I wanted to be as a child was a truck driver so I could travel all over this beautiful country so this must be a throwback from  my childhood but I love it plus I love snow and Alaska and the North!  I quilted a printed mini-quilt panel while watching t.v.  I love handwork in the evening and I had my red apple candles burning and it was just a great evening in my little cozy family room.  Everyone joined in too...Patches my cat was sitting one side of me, Orphan Annie, a miniature dachsund I rescued last year was curled up near my feet and my great, wonderful, loyal companion and guard dog extraordinaire, Nitty (real name Serenity,a Rottweiler) was sprawled on the cool linoleum which she loves.  In my simple mind, my simple Sunday was just the best!
Oh, I ran across a little table mat I made (hooked wool) that I had set aside and forgot about after I finished it!  I found a place for it and another candle!  I do love my candles.  So......how did you spend YOUR Sunday?

"Puttering" aound the house.....

I went to the thrift store the other day and although it is a reasonably priced place to shop I can still do some damage!  But it goes to a local pregnancy center here in the Ozarks so I don't feel so bad when I do spend. 
I purchased quite a bit of finery and will be displaying it in the days to come as I utilize each piece.  For now I will show you my Summer fireplace or rather what I do to try and make it Summery.   The lamp I got for $3.00 and it is so cheery in that dark little corner of my family room.  I also got the 2 little love birds that I thought were SO sweet and I have a friend, check her awesome blog, nancy-jo.blogspot.com , who places birds like that in all her plants but of course this one didn't make it there. 

The table with the candles was an idea from Brenda at cozylittlehouse.blogspot.com.  She had a nice wooden bowl with a variety of candles surrounded by river rock and it looked so neat and I knew I had a wooden bowl somewhere but do you think I could find it?  Did I sell it in a garage sale?  Will it turn up someday or will I be left to always wonder?  Anyway.....I found a granite ware tray and went to the Dollar store looking for rocks never thinking they would have any but LO AND BEHOLD!!!!!  I was walking out the door empty handed and the gal asked if I had found what I was looking for and I said no, I was looking for some river rocks and she said"Oh!  We have those!"  I about fainted dead away and "sure nuff" they had 5 bags of polished river rocks/stones and I bought each and every one of them!  They were $1.00 a bag and I have 2 bags left over!  I love it when a plan comes together!   I bought that little cottage too and tucked it in my Shamrock plant.  I'm thinking that now a leprechaun will come and live there or are leprechauns too big?  A fairy maybe?  I'll let you know if anyone moves in.  That's all the news that's fit to print today!  Let me know what you think and how you decorate around your "Home Sweet Home"!

Disaster Averted! Whew.....ahhhh....

I have this wonderful grill built-in on the other side of the fireplace on my porch.  It was outside at one time until my Father turned the deck into an enclosed 4-season porch.  Anyway, I have a grill also on my stove top but it is a pain to clean after you use it so I decided to start using the porch grill!  I cleaned it and scrubbed it and found my old chimney charcoal starter and prepped all my food for that night.  I was all excited to grill.  I even prepped the charcoal starter outside with newspaper in the bottom and charcoal on top.  Dinner time was approaching and so I went out and lit the chimney style charcoal starter.  So far so good.....looking out the window a bit later the coals looked "ready" so I went out and picked it up and  brought it into the porch.  When I reached the grill I tried to dump the now VERY HOT coals into the built in grill.....this is where I ran into the problems....I hit the grate and the outside of the grill and the sparks started flying!  I rarely wear sandals but don't you know I had them on that day!  Some sparks got in between my foot and the sandal and I did an Irish jig while still holding the chimney starter in one hand, I kicked off my sandal AFTER stomping on the live sparks on the carpeting, and then threw the chimney starter out the back door because my hand got burned too!  WHOOOEEEE!  What a night!  All's well that ends well though....as it happened....the sparks hurt but they hit on this old gal's callused hands and feet which didn't cause any problems in the end.  I managed to get the coals situated and there didn't seem to be too many...."sure nuff" this illustrious Grill Master had filled the chimney starter upside down so I had to add more coals (directly to the grill this time!) and wait for them to get ready.  After all this I actually had a WONDERFUL meal that I was inspired to make by a recipe I saw on www.tokissthecook.blogspot.com her June 14th entry.   Here are some pictures of that awesome meal that could have set the house AND me on fire! LOL!  I learned a lot about grilling that night though! 

She's back......

I have returned to my blog....although it has been quite awhile and there is probably no one here anymore but I took a respite and now I am back for good! I missed all of you and I also missed keeping myself motivated and inspired through your blogs, comments and the self-discipline it takes to post on a regular basis! I so enjoyed meeting all of you and have found more people with common interests than I thought existed out there! So, here I am to stay and I can only hope some of you will return and I will also meet new friends and inspiring acqaintances!

Still at it......

I spent the last 2 days shampooing the carpet and not a very big area either! But it came clean..REALLY clean...I was amazed! then I continued on into the living room cleaning and rearranging and here's a few more pics....the French Provincial is not me but actually is is one of the most comfortable sofas I've ever had....who knew? It was my folks and it's a well made piece. I'd like to reupholster in a wild colorful fabric or maybe a plaid?

At it again!!!

I have decided that blogging is great for me because it motivates me to clean and then I can take a picture and I have something to post on my blog but I'm also getting my house in order at the same time! I love when I can multitask! So, depending on how much I get done will depend on how much you see! LOL!
This area is right next to my front door and who is that in the mirror??? Some CRAZY woman has gotten into my house! Yesterday you saw my chicken/rooster collection and today you see my rabbit collection....much smaller. I don't mean to seriously "collect" anything but the rabbits are very significant to me (long story).....the chickens just came about somehow. I had them strewn all over and then read in some decorating magazine that you should group your collections together....WHO KNEW? So, that's what I did.....now there is still the horse collection, a few squirrels....hmmmm.......what else do I have lurking in these dark corners?
The mirror was a great junk store find and the dresser was several years back and cost a little more but not much. I keep a bowl on the dresser for my sunglasses and keys and there's room there to put things that need to be mailed or library books to take back etc. My front door knob to the right has my 2 "green" market bags ready to go when I walk out the door.....form and function. TaDah!

I spent ALL day on this can you beleive it ?!?!?!?

And I wonder why I get nothing done! Ha! Why can't I just clean like a normal person...oh no....I have to rearrange, clean and create! Ha! If only I could get all my house clean and organized all at once. By the time I get the rest done these bookcases will have an inch of dust and cobwebs on them.
Anyway....I got these bookcases about a month ago for $10.00 each at a moving sale! YES!!!! I scored big that day but of course I am just getting around to utilizing them now. So, I packed them full....told you I was a pack rat!

Gifts from the past.....

Nancy Jo gave me these beautiful gifts of her handiwork but at the time I did not have my blog to show them off sooooooo.......here they are! Ta Dah!

The squirrel has a little reflection on her from the light coming in the window but she is SO cute and she framed it in a darling green frame with glass and everything....that woman is so talented it's scary! She does drink a lot of coffee so maybe I need to drink more rather than less....I'm like a slug anymore.

The bookmark is SO sweet and I always use it to mark my place in my Mary Jane's Farm girl magazine....that's where I met all these wonderful farm girl sisters....Nancy Jo being one of the first! Thanks again Nancy Jo!

Some views of my dining room

Okay...you have to understand that I have my furniture AND my parent's furniture AND I'm a pack rat! This is not easy to manage and on top of that my parents were "fancy schmancy" while I'm early log cabin...there in lies the rub. You've probably never seen decorating like this and maybe you never wanted to but here it is anyway....

Did a little outside decorating....

I broke down and bought some new pots! After all these years of the clay pots which I still like but they do dry out VERY fast in my South facing front yard so.......I saw these at Wally World and just thought they were SO cute! The GIANT coffee cups hold my herb garden so I can bring it in when winter comes and some more herbs, arrugula and some zinnias are in the other pots. I LOVE them and it was so much fun giving a "new look" to my front entrance.

This is the BOMB! (that means the best)!

I LOVE, LOVE ,LOVE Harry Slatkin although I know he is married and has a family. I love the frgarances he does...they are TOPS! He makes fragrances for Bath & Body, QVC and the "celebs". I bought this combo of air and fabric freshner and Febreze stinks next to this stuff....AWESOME!!!!!! It's a little pricier but Oh So worth it! I got mine on QVC and it is an odor neutralizer and it came with a plugin too that I put right next to the dog's bed...ahhh....that's better. I got the Clean Mist fragrance. Goodbye Febreze....Hello Harry!

A little something from the rummage sale

Here's a little scrubber board...what is the REAL name for these things? I got it at the rummage sale at the church a few weeks ago. I'll be posting more interspersed with my current project of the day/week.

The sun finally came out......

Okay....we have had rain, rain, storms, rain and high winds and luckily just barely escaped the 17 tornadoes that went through Missouri so when the sun came out I RAN outside and have been working furiously since, don't ya know, more storms are on the way for the next 3 days!
Mother's Day I went to Wally World and bought 3 rose bushes in honor of my Mother. She loved roses and had rose bushes in front of the house and when she died my step-father took a front loader and tore them all out. I am now living in the same house and MOM....THE ROSES ARE BACK!!!!! Happy Mother's Day!