Rain, Rain Go Away

Finally, it's stopped raining, at least for a little while. But as I'm typing this, it's looking cloudy again. And there is another storm out there, Gustov. The joys of living on the Gulf Coast. But I love it here, don't know if I could live in the snow!!

Fay really dumped a lot of water on us. We had one tree to fall due to the ground being so saturated. You can see how close the tree was to the house. We were thankful that it went into the yard instead of the house. The one good thing I can say, it that because we were inside the whole time, I got a couple of scrapbook pages done for Dane's scrapbook & we made cookies together!



A few weeks ago we went to Mobile for a job interview for Charlie. While there, I got to visit with my best friend, Kimberly. She & her husband own a seafood market & she had to work that day, but we did get to visit for awhile. She has a son, Aidan, who is one month older than Dane.
It was great getting to visit, but I wish we lived closer. We used to do so much fun stuff together! Maybe one day soon, we might get to move back home. I've been thinking how nice it would be to have family to help out. My Mom & Dad would love to watch the two kids. And it would be nice to actually eat dinner together sometimes. I've been praying & I know God knows what's best but sometimes it just so darn hard to be patient! There are a few things going on right now with this, but since it's so up in the air, I'll wait to post anything until I'm a little more sure.

I hope everyone has a great Labor Day weekend. Charlie was off for the weekend but has to work Monday. We went to the local Whatburger for the monthly car show last night. It wasn't a big turn out, but he enjoyed talking cars with the other guys. And Dane was invited to a friends' birthday party at Fun Station, so he had a blast. Now, if I could just sneak off to the local Antique store (and find some extra money from somewhere... LOL!!

Take care this weekend!!

Getting So Big

Due to all the craziness with the house selling & hubby looking for a new job, I postponed enrolling Dane in school because I had no idea where we would be. I would have loved to enroll him in the Kindergarten class at the school where I worked last year, and they even said they would hire me as a substitute again, but the cost for him to go until 1 pm (a full day for that school) & Gracyn going to the crib room was almost $500 a month! And there is no guarantee how much I will work. Good news is they need me to work there all next week for pre-planning where the teachers get their rooms ready for class. They start school in September. And I can take Gracyn with me. So that would be a blessing. But for Dane, I decided to check out the local elementary school. So on Tuesday (yes, a day after school started) Dane & I stopped by there to have a visit. Filled out the necessary paperwork & got a list of records that he needed to have & a supply list. And the poor boy was heart-broken when I told him it was time to go! He want to go to his classroom right then! I told him we had to make sure he had all of his current shots & current physical. So yesterday, Charlie was off & we went by there to drop off the medical information, plus I wanted Charlie to see the school. Again, Dane wanted to know why he couldn't go to class & we had to explain that they would get him a classroom & he could start the next day. All last night he kept asking me if it was tomorrow yet. I told him that he had to go to sleep & when he woke up, it would be time to start school. So this morning, I woke up about 6:45 a.m so I could have a cup of coffee & start packing a lunch. I wasn't up 5 minutes when he walked into the kitchen, saying "Mom, is it time for school yet?" Finally, I got to answer "YES!" He helped me with his lunch & gathering all of his supplies, helped me feed Gracyn while I got dressed & then gave Daddy a kiss bye & we were off! Got there early & meet his new teacher & visited the classroom. The teacher has two fish tanks, a turtle, some kind of lizard & a snake! I already think he is going to love it! So my little boy is now a Kindergartener!

(Not sure what the hand thing is all about)


And not to leave anyone out, here are some pictures of Little Miss.

I Like You

I've been reading alot lately & I've put a link to my bookshelf on Shelfari so anyone can look & see what I've been reading. But this book deserved a post all on it's own. You might have heard of Amy-she's been on a number of latenight talk shows & a movie called "Strangers With Candy". Anyway, she wrote this book & I had to read a cookbook for a game I was playing in my group on Shelfari. I checked my copy out from the library. Here is a review that is on her website promoting the book:
"Sedaris's sidesplitting guide to throwing parties hopes to return readers to the times when the word entertainment was "charmingly old-fashioned, like courtship or back alley abortions." While her tongue is firmly in cheek, novice party-planners will actually find some helpful hints along the way as Sedaris offers instructions and real recipes. Her tips run the gamut from how to properly freeze meatballs (freeze them on a cookie sheet before putting them into a freezer bag so they won't stick together) and deal with the inebriated ("Better to cut them off rather than pretend it's not happening and then allow them to stay over and wet your bed"). She's a generous but crafty hostess ("A good trick is to fill your medicine cabinet with marbles. Nothing announces a nosey guest better than an avalanche of marbles hitting a porcelain sink"). Etiquette pointers include inappropriate introductions ("This is Barbara, she can't have children") and things to avoid saying to the grieving ("Did she smoke?" "Was he drinking?" "Where were you when this happened?"). Her advice is both practical and hilarious; her instructions on removing vomit stains ends with "or just toss it, chances are you've stained it before." Sedaris's first solo effort (after Wigfield with her Strangers with Candy co-stars, as well as several plays with her brother, David) is an outrageous and deadpan delight, greatly enhanced by her deliriously kitschy illustrations and photos."

-Publishers Weekly (July 17, 2006) - starred review

I will warn you. There are some really off-the-wall things in this book. But it's just so darn corny that it will make you laugh. I actually think it would make a wonderful gift for someone who likes to entertain & has a good sense of humor. Check it out & let me know what you think!

A Moment Of Panic

An update on what's been going on the last couple of weeks. We went to Mobile for Hubby to have an interview. So far, nothing. He's been putting applications in over the internet most nights after he gets home from work. While we were there, I lost my camera. And I got really upset. I think it was that time of the month too & things got a little more emotional than normal, but boy did I get upset. Here I had just started to really try & sell some stuff on the internet & obviously you need a camera to do that. Plus I knew I couldn't post any pictures to my blog. And then just the plain fact that I had just received the camera at Christmas. It felt like such a waste. I called every place to stopped at to eat to see if I had left it anywhere. And no luck.
So anyway, we had let Dane stay in Mobile to visit with family & we were going back in a week to pick him up. We arrive at my SIL's late Monday night & lo & behold, my camera is sitting on the bed! She had found it behind the t.v. We guess it fell to the back & I didn't see it when I packed everything up to go home. I actually had to go sit down & say a prayer. Oh, I was so grateful! I hate losing things. It seems like I spend half my life looking for something. Sigh...

And for any of those who might been wondering, the house selling has taken a bad turn. It's positive now that we won't be able to sell the house for our payoff, the house prices have fallen that much. We can either do a short sale or we'll end up in Foreclosure. I have been so depressed with all of this that I just can't seem to get motivated to do anything. But I'm praying. I've listed both houses on Craigslist for rent. And they are both already listed with a Realtor for sale. I figure even if we can rent them, it will be some form of making a payment. Anything!! It funny how when things get really desperate, you start thinking of all kinds of odd-ball things. Like taking in boarders or renting out rooms. Things are just tough right now.

I will leave you with a picture of my Mother-in-law & Dane, Alyssa, his cousin & Gracyn. Have a good day!

Fortune Cookies & Lemonade

We are leaving tonight for Alabama. Charlie has a job interview tomorrow. So today we had lunch together at a Chinese buffet. After we ate, the fortune cookies were brought out along with the bill. Upon opening mine, he handed me his so he could pick up Gracyn. I couldn't believe what I was reading!

"Be prepared to accept a wondrous opportunity in the days ahead!"

I have been praying so hard lately for some sign that things will get better. I've been very depressed lately & I've thought a lot about my blog, but I feel like I don't have anything cheerful to say so I just procrastinate about it and hope something good will happen & then I can have something fun to talk about. I had an open house yesterday. Started cleaning like a mad person on Saturday when we saw another house in the neighborhood was hosting an open house. Since we are having to sell our house by owner, we are limited to the amount of people who can see it. So I thought we would take advantage of the other houses' open house & have one of our own. It was from 2-5 pm. And we had one couple stop by. Yes, one. That's all. But, I did make homemade lemonade with Dane while waiting for people to show up. Then after the open house, we carried the ice chest out onto the front lawn & he got the neighbor to by two cups!



My two little bugs. Gracyn is now 4 months old. She will be 5 months in one week. And she is laughing so much now.

I've been reading some. Instead of going through all of them, you can see my shelf on the right. But there is one in particular that I want to mention- I Capture The Castle by Dodie Smith. I loved it! An excellent book about romance & bohemian lifestyle. It has been made into at movie which I haven't seen yet. I'm hoping to check it out sometime.

Well, I need to get packing. But I hope you will please keep us in your prayers. For this new job & that we can find a buyer for both of these houses. I don't even want to think about the alternative.

God bless each of you who has keep up with me for this long-I love all of you!!

Happy (late) 4th!

Hi Ya'll!! I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th. Dear Hubby had to work, but as soon as he got home, we fired up the grill and had steaks and kabobs. And grilled corn. I have started grilling the corn with the husks on and it turns out so sweet. And I also made some coleslaw. Earlier in the day, Dane wanted to make lemonade & sell. I am ashamed to say that I have never made homemade lemonade. And I was looking through recipes online & came to the conclusion that we would need a juicer. So off we went in the car to three different stores trying to find an inexpensive one. Finally, at the last store the clerk said I could probably use the back of a spoon. And that is exactly what I did!! 6 lemons later I had a cup of lemon juice. And I think I made the best tasting lemonade ever!! By this time, Dane had moved on to other interest. We might try to sell some today. I told him I would make some cupcakes too! But we might have to go back to the store for more lemons since I drank most of the lemonade at dinner!!
Then around dark, we drove to the park to see the local fireworks show. We were a little too far away, but it was still nice. It was a nice breezy evening and everyone was so laid back. Until it was time to go, then the craziness started. Where do people learn to drive!!!??? We are pulling out onto a 6 lane highway trying to turn left, and two cars pulled up on our left hand side and turned IN FRONT of us going RIGHT!!!! ARGGGGG!!!




I wanted to show a project I am working on. A neighbor had a yard sale last weekend. And I saw an old vanity. At first, I thought it was a desk, but after calling my friend & describing it, I realized it was a vanity minus the mirror. I started sanding it down that day, and discovered that under the black paint is the green antiquing that everybody did in the fifties. So I decided to take all of it off and start fresh. I'm thinking about painting it back black again, and making a swat cushion for the chair in a toile. And on the top, gluing down French-looking love letters. Not that I have any to use, but I think I've seen some on-line before. Anyway, I have the idea in my head, just have to get it working. Also, the original knobs were removed & some used only single knobs. So I need to find a set to replace them with. There is a really neat salvage store here in town, I might so by there & see what they have. I was think that if I went with the black & white theme, that clear glass pulls would be pretty. Give it a sophisticated look.

Ciao for now!

Storm Front

Hi-meet Envy (I named her thus because of the weird green color reminded me of the saying "Green with envy") She is made by Dakin, which was a company that at one time, I would have nothing else in my stuffed animal collection than a Dakin. She was not part of my original collection, as I purchased her at a thrift store many years ago. But now she needs to find a new & loving home. So she is now listed in my Etsy shop. Along with some pretty green vintage glasses. Can you believe that these have REAL 22 ct gold trim at the top? If these don't sell, they might find their way into my cupboard!!!

I wish I could put video up. I know you can do the youtube thing. I guess I'll need to figure that out. And here is way:

Last night around midnight, sweet hubby woke me up and told me he needed to show me something. Thinking he wanted to show me some kind of project he had finished on the Camaro, I got up & trying to keep my eyes open so I could walk through the house and to the garage, he then led me outside. By this time I'm thinking, Okay this is weird. Then we both stood outside. And let me tell you, it was a show!!! A lightning show if I've ever seen one! It was so bright & went on for so long, that the total blackness of night was the exception rather than the norm. It probably went on for about 2 hours. I even got the video camera out & took some footage. Both of us were like to kids, laughing about all the scary movies it reminded us of. And then saying how we were the idiots standing in the middle of it taking video!!! It was really amazing.

Father's Day Car Show

Wow! I can't believe it's been over a week since my last post!! No wonder no one reads my poor little blog! I guess I've just got too many things going on. We are still trying to sell our house & now we have the other house that was a rental to get cleaned up & we are going to sell it too. Add that to the other list of:
1) Hubby
2) Two kids
3) Three furry kids
4) normal house tasks
5) Cooking
6) Etsy Shop
7) Sneaking in time to read a book

No wonder I sleep so hard at night :0)

I think I will just post some pictures of the car show that we went to on Father's Day. Sorry if you don't like cars, but we love 'em around here!!





1969 Camaro


This one was my favorite. Lately, I have really been wanting an old truck & I loved the style of this one. It's a 1956 GMC.

I won't bore you with too many. Overall we have a wonderful day. And one last picture to share. On Friday, June 13th-yes Friday the 13th!-Charlie & I have our 6 year wedding anniversary!
He took the day off & we went to the park. You can't really see it too well, but I bought a t-shirt for him. It's a picture of a bride & groom and across the front it says "Game Over". He got a kick out of it!!

The Family Man

I'm trying to order something for Charlie for Father's Day, so with him being on my mind, I thought I'd share a few pictures.

Here he is working on the Camaro. This is the day he got it running-Yipee! There are still a few more things that need to be done, but he's been driving it back & forth to work. On Sunday, there are a few car shows in the area, so we are going to those.Have you ever heard of a peanut butter & jelly sandwich with potato chips? Well, it's a new one to me & this is how my hubby likes it- And he could eat this everyday!! He's even got Dane asking for them.
And I think I've posted this one before, but it's one of my favorites. This is from last summer when Krystin was here to visit. We all went to the park & took some pictures. Krystin always takes a good picture. So does Dane, so them must get it from Charlie, certainly not from me!!
Sorry for such a short post. Got alot going on right now. I really need to list some new items in my Etsy shop. I'll post once I get some things listed. And please keep us in your prayers. We still are trying to sell our house and the other house that we had as a rental. The people were unable to pay any rent for last month. And since we are trying to move back to Alabama, we decided to sell both of them. And we are going to try For Sale By Owner. So please send a little prayer our way. Thanks!!

Blackberries-Yummy!

We went blackberry pickin' yesterday.

I waited until Charlie was off work so he could wait in the car with Gracyn while Dane & I picked the berries. Which was fine with him. But he did grab the camera & took some pictures of us while we were picking.
Let me just say, I've picked blueberries, strawberries, and blackberries (my grandpapa called them "dewberries") off the roadside, but I've never picked blackberries grown like this before. The owner said that in a few weeks, he'll have some smaller plants that he can sell.

And poor guy. He got stung on the cheek by a small wasp. Thankfully, it didn't leave a stinger in. And afterwards, every time he saw something flying, he thought it was a wasp :0( But this morning, he woke up saying his cheek didn't hurt.


I couldn't believe the size of some of these. They are huge!!

My grandmother always made the best blackberry cobbler ( I think everybody thinks Their grandmother makes the bet Something!). I'm going to see if I can find her recipe. I wish I had paid more attention to some of the things that she made, since I can't ask her anymore. I still miss her so much.
Anyway, I'll let you guys know if I make anything. We might just eat them all first!

The Birds and the Bees... and Bugs and Dolphins...

Okay, I have a couple of different things to share with you today.

First, this sweet picture.
Hubby & I had to make a delivery for a lady & when we walked up her front sidewalk, I saw this bird's nest in a bush by her mailbox. She didn't even know it was there! Because the bush was waist height, I could lean over & get this picture without disturbing anything. I love bird eggs. I've noticed all the pretty template illustrations with different eggs. I think one day, I might start collecting those.


Next, is this: Have you ever seen one of these before?


See the eyes?
Give up? It's a Tiger Swallowtail Caterpillar!!!! We are such chickens. Even when we found out what it was, neither one of us would touch it!!! I found it attached to the front door kickplate and called Dane to see it. Once we discovered what it was(note: whatsthatbug.com, we've looked up a lot of weird stuff!!), we moved it to a flower pot beside the door. I noticed yesterday that the cocoon was empty. He had flown away! Fly away Mr. Butterfly, fly away!




In an earlier post, I mentioned letterboxing. One of the few things you need is a stamp. And it's nice to have a handmade one. So began my journey of how to make a stamp. After researching the internet, I headed to the craft store. The salesperson wasn't even aware they sold anything like this. I just felt that the material would be in the artist section (where the calligraphy pens & such are sold). Sure enough, I found it. Then it was back home & start cutting. It's not really cutting, more like carving. After about a hour, a cramped hand and back, I had this.

I thought I did pretty good for my first handmade stamp! I found the dolphin image on the internet but added the tribal markings myself. I then added the letters. Although they are for Dane's initial's , I realized they could also stand for Dolphin Lover!!
Next, I'm going to make a stamp for myself & then we should be ready. Oh, and we stopped at the dollar store & bought a fat little notebook for him to use as his journal. Once he discovers a box, he will stamp his journal with the stamp that he finds & then using his own stamp, stamp the journal found in the box. I might need to purchase a Marvy marker for his stamp. It's a little too big for a stamp pad. I used a marker for the picture above, but I don't think he needs to use pink!!

School Treats

Thought I would share some projects I had been working on the last few weeks.
I wanted to make something special for each of Dane's classmates & his teacher, but with a limited budget, things were going to have to be very creative. I lucked out & found some cute little summer buckets at Dollar General-3 for $1.00. There are 10 kids in his class counting him (I knew if I made something & took it to class & didn't have one for him, it would really hurt his feelings). I then found some pinwheels at Dollar Tree. Again, 3 for $1.00. Then I found various kinds of candy -a bag of Blowpops, Mike & Ike for a quarter each. And to really top it off, a bag of Crabby Patties at Dollar Tree! I filled the buckets with some shredded paper & printed a tag that read: Thanks for being my friend ~Dane Celebration 2008.

For his teacher, I bought a larger bucket from Dollar General, some lotions, a book, some of the candies & I made her a journal to write in. I lucked up & found the cover image in Mary Engelbreit's magazine. I then used various other papers & printed out a few more quotes.

The journal was really fun to make. I'm going to make another one for my "Musings" and one to keep track of all the books I've read & a brief recap of the story.
"No man ever really finds out what he believes in until he begins to instruct his children" ~Ephesians 6:4

"No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of anyone else" ~ Romans 15:1,2
I found the Live Well stickers at Dollar Tree!

I loved the colors of the buckets. Each three pack came in a red, mint green, & turquoise color. Great summer picnic colors. And they had a whole isle dedicated to the whole theme.

Some new looks

I've been playing around this morning. Added my shelf from Shelfari so you can see what I've been reading. And I've added a beautiful new picture at the very bottom of the page. Now I'm off to find some more goodies to list in the shop (need to update that too. I need to write a shop description-and I hate doing that).

My DH is off work today & he has a delivery to make so I'm hoping to make a day out of it & stop to eat somewhere new. I still need to add two more independent restaurants to fulfill my goal of eating at 12. You can see my whole list here.And can't forget the camera. You never know when you can find a good shot.

Hope everyone had a good Memorial Day. And hope the rest of your week is just as good :0)

Happy Memorial Day

Hello all my beautiful friends! Yeap, it's been awhile since I updated-sorry. But ya'll missed me, right? LOL!!
After the long weekend last week, I'm just now feeling like I've caught up on everything. And Dane's last day of school was this past Friday, so I had some stuff to do for that. But now school is over and I plan on getting A LOT of stuff accomplished!! I have some fun stuff planned that I would like to do with Dane (and Gracyn :0) this summer. First thing I would like to start is letterboxing.
"Letterboxing is an intriguing “treasure hunt” style outdoor activity. Letterboxers hide small, weatherproof boxes in publicly-accessible places (like parks) and post clues to finding the box online on one of several Web sites. However, clues to finding some of the most highly-sought boxes are passed around by word of mouth. There are about 20,000 letterboxes hidden in North America alone. Individual letterboxes usually contain a log book, an often hand-carved rubber stamp and may contain an ink pad. Finders make an imprint of the letterbox's stamp on their personal log book, and leave an imprint of their personal stamp on the letterbox's logbook ."

(I'm excited about doing it, I hope Dane enjoys it too.) Also, I would like to have a "dinner party" night once a week. Just an excuse to decorate the dinner table and have some fun. I thought that he could help me with this too. He loves to get the paint, scissors & glue out to make things. Plus it would give me an excuse to try out new recipes.
Speaking of food, we had our Memorial Day cookout yesterday because sweet hubby has to work today. But they close early at 5 pm so we can still enjoy the day. We grilled steaks and kabobs and corn ( my two men could eat their weight in corn-Dane having two ears yesterday! And it was so sweet-the corn that is :0)

Along with all of this, I've got to get working on my little business. I started selling some stuff on Etsy ( and some odd things on Ebay that don't fit into the Etsy categories). But to really make this work, I have got to dedicate more time to it. My brain gets so full of ideas, now I just need to put them into something tangible. And I feel that I need to have some kind of "style". I think I might have finally found it-Bohemian. A care-free, lots of layers, mixed up kind of style. Yeap, that's me. A style that uses various things from all kinds of different styles and periods. And a style that doesn't mind scratches and chips and nicks and dog hair! (I've added some pictures of Bohemian style throughout this post)

I hope all of you have a Safe & Happy Memorial Day! Ciao for now!

Kristalized

So I've really been trying to make a job out of selling on Etsy. I've been going through closets and boxes, finding treasures that I've had FOREVER and for some reason or another, put off selling them (it all goes back to my goal of one day opening up my own shop). So now I have the resources to have an on-line shop and I'm really excited about turning it into a little part-time job - full-time if you count the others hours devoted to taking care of the kids and hubby (don't tell him that I have to take care of him-he thinks he does that all on his own) and don't forget the dogs. I really have to add this one because I spend over an hour driving all over our neighborhood last night around 10:30pm looking for the two big ones. I finally found them a block up the road. Sasha had jumped into someone's swimming pool!! I had to let her get into my car all wet and I had JUST vacuumed and cleaned it yesterday! Indy had taken off again & I had to drive a little further up the road to get him. Sometimes, I wonder about those two. They will be so good for months & then BAM!

So back to my Etsy. I finally put a link to my shop here on the blog (Thank You Jennifer). And I listed a few things today. One of them was a sweet little vintage night light that I picked up at an Estate sale. It is a lady in a pretty pink dress with ruffles. As I was cleaning it yesterday, I realized that the ruffles were made of real fabric. But it looked like they had at one time been gold but had discolored. So after debating about it, I got out a paint brush & some antique gold paint & touched up the ruffles. Wow, did it really make a difference. So I posted it on Etsy today & then some more items on Ebay (if you need a pair of Petite Juicy Couture terry cloth capris, or parts for your Camaro, let me know :0) Then went back to Etsy to figure out how to upload the Etsy button to put on the blog & the little night light had already sold! In about an hour!! Oh, if I could just do that Everyday!!!!

Top part of dress is before painting, bottom is after I "Kristalized" it!

I took this one last night in the bedroom to show how it would look.

Now it's Bragging Time!!!

Isn't she too cute?!?