We're Moving...Again

Yeap. It's time to start packing up and hitting the road. I really should call this blog Gypsy Grace, always on the road. So here is the story:
Dear Hubby applied for a District Manager postion with a new company and HE GOT IT! At first, they told him he would have the Pensacola area (the area where we live now). Then he spent 2 weeks training in Chicago. At the end of the first week, he called & told he that he had been offered another division and wanted to know what I thought about moving. "To where?" I asked. "Birmingham", was the reply. Well, anyone who lives in South Alabama can tell you, the only place where there is ALWAYS some thing going on is Birmingham! So, the answer was Yes, and I've been packing boxes for the last 2 weeks! We did go up for a few days last week to look for a place to live, but are having some trouble finding the right accommodations. There are a lot of 1 & 2 bedroom apartments, but for a family of 4 with 3 dogs, the pickings get slim. **sigh** I have even resorted to going through the real estate listings looking for houses that have been on the market for awhile to see if anyone would be willing to let us sign a one year lease. So if anyone reading this knows of anything for rent/lease in the B'ham area, please email me!

I did have some fun pictures to share for about 3 weeks ago. The first time Charlie had to fly to Chicago, we stayed at my sister-in-laws house and Dane got swimming lessons from my BIL.

His first swimming lesson ~ from Uncle Mark.

Of course, little sister had to get involved somehow.

We were so proud of him for being so brave.

The "Jaws" theme goes through my head looking at this one.

I love this picture.

Count Down To All Hallow's Eve

I have two Halloween items that I am dying to share. The first is from the Ever-Fabulous Vanessa at A Fanciful Twist. She will be hosting her annual Halloween Extravaganza this year. I am so dang excited! I missed it last year, but that will never happen again!

The second person to start getting ready for my favorite time of year is Ms Melissa Marie at Huckleberry Prairie. She is having a wonderful giveaway at her site. She is just the cutest dang gal! And check out her new "cyberspace" home. Eye-candy for sure!! Don't know how she does it all. Look at the Sweet Pumpkin Fellow she is offering off to a new home. I actually have that book in the background, The Little Big Book of Chills and Thrills. Great book.

I am really trying to contain myself from starting putting out the Halloween decorations early, but I'm abut to bust a seam! I have found some wonderful crafts I want to make for this year, one being a wickedly delightful cross stitch piece I saw. And I found some yummy looking dessert recipes I want to try. Wait for it, wait for it, wait for it. **sigh**

Sweet Dreams II

I'm still dreaming of my Dream Bedroom, so bear with me as I have a few more pictures to share. Since I now have a good base plan of what I want it to look like, I can next focus on picking up all the elements to bring it all together.

I found this Italian Baroque bed listed on Ebay.

Thankfully, it had already been sold,
for a lot more money than we have right now ($1,500)!

A bedroom, courtesy of Tracy Porter

I love the peacock pillows. Sorry, I can't remember where this image came from :0(


Notice the brown and blue with the splashes of red.

Look familiar?

Thanks for window shopping with me! Since I am car-less right now (that will be a blog post all by itself!), my magazines and the internet have been my only resourse for the last few weeks. Hopefully, things will turn around soon & I'll be able to get some wheels and start scouting for some more items for the shop and start picking up a few things to fulfill my Dream Bedroom Makeover!
Hope everyone has a Happy Wednesday! Hubby is off today, so I can get outta the house for a little while. Toodles!

Sweet Dreams

One day while wandering the aisles of the library, I found a really nice book about painted furniture. It gave me a bunch of ideas. Trying to remember everything in my head these days is just impossible ( I'm just now able to tell the difference between a Transformer and a Megazord), I snapped a few pictures, for my eyes only. Then the other day, while trying to purge some of the plethora of magazines that I own, I found a beautiful bedroom. Since it was just about the only thing in the whole magazine worth keeping, I very carefully pulled the pages out ~ to go into my "Dream" binder. So I figured since I was going to show you that, I would share the other pictures with you also. The following pages are from Painting Furniture: Decorating Ideas and Projects.

A beautiful antiqued sideboard. Not sure if you can see it too well, but the wallpaper is called Mythology and I remember see Poseidon on it. Cool.


I would give anything to find a cabinet and paint it like this! I just love this.

Like the big post on the bed. Again, all the furniture is painted.


Now, I'm thinking this was from a different book. But I would love to have one of those paintings with the big ole farm animal.

Can you tell I'm on a red and white kick lately? Notice the fabric-covered head board and the lace dust ruffle. I've also been noticing lots of things made of lace.

Even as a girl, I would have LOVED to have a room like this!! This is just beyond words.

And now for my dream bedroom set. First let me say that in the magazine they were leaning towards a beachy theme, hence starfish and such. Don't get me wrong, I grew up on the Gulf Coast, nothing against the beach. But I would rather pull the fabrics out and go more...prairie, Texas coast. It's just so hard to put a name on what I like. **sign** Just look at the pictures.

Sorry it's so fuzzy, couldn't get the scanner to work so had to snap a pic with the camera and got backlight. What I am loving is the bed. The duvet, the quilt, the pillows...all of that.
Love it. Love it. Love it.

Oh, did I mention that I loved this bed...*sigh* Sweet blissful dreams.

All In A Day

Sometimes, I really wonder where my day goes. Yeah, I know I get the same 24 hours, just the same as the next person, but just why is it that my To-Do list never gets done and the house looks worse that when I started?

Well, let's see...

I get up extra early to work on my on-line bookclub. I am one of the administrators and I help with adding in books that our members have read. Then I try to do some reading of people's reviews and such. Charlie is usually up by now, and I'm drinking in the last of my daily dose of coffee. Gracyn usually gets up soon after this and I fix her a nice bottle of milk. Then I try to get the bed made and a load of laundry started.

Then, I usually find something like this...

After putting all this back together, it's lunch time.

Martha Stewart I'm not, but writing your kids' name on his hot dog sure does put a big grin on his face!!!

Still trying to get bathrooms cleaned and laundry done. Then try to work on new inventory for the shop...

I try to take my pictures outside on Blue Bessie (the blue bench). I think I get the best light, but the dang mosquitoes just won't let a person alone somedays!! And as soon as I open the backdoor, there are three dogs scrambling to get out and now a precious little girl loves to go wander in the back yard. Yes, we have a Tom Boy!

Then, when I finally have things under control (yeah, right) I try to start on one of my plethora of projects that are awaiting me. Here is one I just finished this week.

Meet Adele:

Before

My little helper

Meet Adele after her makeover. Doesn't she looks lots better?

She is my new employee at Grace Goods :0) And let me tell you, she is an excellent employee. She never calls in sick and never ask for a raise!!

So, this is my day. Any questions?

A Toast

I want to start off with saying "Thank You" to all of you that have offered advice, support and inspiration to me during the last few months. To each of you, I offer a big hug and loads of kisses :0)
As you might remember, back at the beginning of the year, I was dealing with some issues of not feeling like I was "being all that I could be" (starting to feel like a commercial for the Army!) I had thought of making a new blog, but a few dear people seriously advised against that, and I'm so thankful for not abandoning Bella Grace, but it still left me with the feeling that I needed something more. After much thought and praying, and daydreaming into the clouds, the seed of a new shop began to sprout in my head and slowly, the roots took hold into my heart and now, Grace Goods is officially open and doing okay! And the ideas are coming so fast, I actually had to grab a notebook and start jotting things down. I'm a list maker anyway, so another excuse to start writing a list wasn't that hard LOL! Today I would like to celebrate what to some might seem a small thing but to me is a huge step in the right direction.

I would like to invite you, at some point today, grab someone you love and go have a drink, a toast to life, to being all that you could be, to life throwing you a curve ball but in the end, that curve ball was exactly what you needed, a toast to silly fun and lots of laughter, on me, in honor of Grace Goods :0)

Grand Opening

I would like to give a heads up on the opening of my shop Grace Goods, on Etsy. I will be having a grand opening on Thursday, July 23. Please come by the shop and have a look around. I would like to share a few sneak peaks at some of the upcoming merchandise.

I had a shop before, but with the new baby and then the move, I just never got back into it. And then I felt like a change was needed, a better sense of who I was and what direction I wanted to go in. And although not everything in the shop right now follows that direction 100 percent, I feel like I am getting in touch with a piece of myself that has been hidden and a new aura is coming out. All of this coming on the heels of some of the most trying times Hubby and I have had in our 9 years together!! And please don't think we are having marital difficulties, it's just out-side circumstances that are testing the limits of our patience of each other and stress levels! So in an effort to not only clean out the closets, the boxes under the beds, the clutter that is gathering dust on the top of the kitchen cabinets, I'm also attempting to become an entrepreneur! And I have a few new friends that have given me a few bits of advice and offered some emotional support. To each of you (I think you know who you are :0) Thank you!!!

Grace Goods will specialize in vintage & re-purposed items, vintage clothing and accessories as well as handmade items. I have always had a love of vintage and it's time to let this burning desire loose! Some of my clothing pieces I have had a hard time parting with as I love them, but due to 2 kids and middle age, well, let's just say they belong in another person's closet!

So, please be sure to make a note for Thursday, and come by Grace Goods and see what all the Moo-ing is about!!

Summer Fun

I thought I would give a quick update on all the activities over the last few weeks. I wanted to post a few pictures of my lucky finds, but haven't had much time for scouting out yard sales and such. I will let you in on a little secret...I'm working on opening up an Etsy store front...more exciting news about that to come!!

So, in the mean time, enjoy some of our family fun!

Here is Dane and Megan. We met Megan earlier this year when our Nephew came to visit. He lives in Alabama-over 100 miles away, comes over for one week, and ends up leaving with a new girlfriend!! The story is, I was making a trip to the grocery store and he was tagging along. He starts primping and I jokingly told him there was no reason for it, we were only going to the "grocery store". And he ends up leaving the store with this girls digits...of course there was not living with him after that. Just like his Uncle :0) But we ran into her at the park for the 4th of July festivities. And Dane just loves her! She is a really sweet girl.

If you look at the top, you can see Megan is right behind Dane...


Oh yeah, that's my son...the blur!

Baby Girl and Daddy

And Dane's Soccer Team Banquet. The Crestview YMCA Warriors. And he is just so tickled with that trophy. I mean "tickled"!!!

This is what we have done quite a few time within the last few weeks...

Gracyn wasn't too sure about this at first, but she gets real excited now when she sees me setting it up.

Too precious

I think that I am going to make a post soon about all the great books I've been reading lately. I just love getting lost in a good book. I hope all of you are having a great summer!!

Happy Fourth of July and Mad Tea Winner

I hope all of you are having a great 4th of July. Getting your fill of grilled foods, corn on the cob, baked beans, and of course, ice cream!! What I wouldn't give for some of my Mama's homemade pineapple ice cream! Oh, the memories of eating that yummy stuff (and the brain freeze! LOL) . I have been wanting to purchase an ice cream maker for a few years, but something else always intervenes and it still hasn't happened. Hopefully, one day soon.

I would also like to thank everyone who stopped by for my little Mad Tea Brunch. I am left some of my decorations up, and just this morning, was still enjoying the effect.

I sat outside this morning, drinking my coffee, reading my book, and enjoying the curtains that I had hung up around the porch. Just an old set of vintage curtains, but they provide just enough priacvy to give the tiny space an feeling of being in another world. Almost makes one feel like they are on vacation.

And in honor of the Mad Tea Party, I have the privilege to announce the winner of my Mad Tea Giveaway... FawnDear!!! Thank you so much for coming to my party. I must say that you look like you had your hands full with your own party. What a beautiful table set up you had! And all of the fun! Congratulations on winning!! Please send my your mailing info so I can get your goodies to you.

And I would like to thank Vanessa again for hosting such a fun time. It's really got me thinking of all sorts of excuses to come up with so we can all play dress up, make all sorts of yummy goodies to eat and invite all of our friends over. Speaking of, we are off to meet some friends to enjoy a fun-filled event at the park, ending with fireworks this evening. So, enjoy your day!

The Offical Mad Tea Party & Giveaway

Ha, well, things again took a change of course for me, but, as usual, I managed to find a way to work with it. Yesterday, Hubby called from work and asked if I would like to go out to eat with a friend of his and his wife. Well, I don't know what gal is going to pass up an opportunity to have someones else cook dinner for her and her family, LOL!! So, of course, I said "Yes". So, off we went to Destin and Outback. But never fear, I always have a back up plan (and for future reference, if there is to be a party on such-n-such day, have the party a few days BEFORE the date and post the pictures of the party on the appointed day, Duh!!) My Mad Tea has now become a Breakfast/Brunch Tea.

None of it fancy, but all of it good...

I made some pigs in a blanket...

enjoyed by all...

some local wildflowers that stopped by...

Orange Breakfast Rolls...

Blueberry Lemon Soda (YUM!!) and Sunny D for my hunny :0) ...(like my cool Moroccan glasses I snagged at a yard sale?)

a nice breezy morning...

to take a nap.


Thank you for stopping by our party. I do have a little goody basket that I will be giving to one lucky person that leaves me a comment on this post. Some Strawberry-Boysenberry Tea, a bottle of the Blueberry Lemon soda, a Lemon Chiffon handpoured candle and a few pieces of vintage crockery. (I'll add a picture later, after nap time :0) A fun Summer-Time treat, from our house to you!!