Memories

Again I have been cleaning out little holes...and I hit the jackpot this time!!! The card to the left is a card to my Mother when she was carrying me wayyyyyy back in 1957...this card is probably from 1956 as I was born early in 57.

Next is a letter to the tooth fairy from 1965. I can remember being so sad as my tooth had fell out while I was brushing my teeth one night and went down the drain!!! Such an innocent time!

And lastly this is a page from a ration book given to my grandmother dated May 6, 1942. I had never seen the rationing stamps before and thought you all might enjoy seeing this part of our past. Hope you enjoyed my little trip down memory lane...have a great day.

Almost forgotten

I'm not sure how many of you know but we moved into my mothers house last year after she passed away. After living 33 years in my own home needless to say it was a long job. My mother grew up in the depression era and so had the mindset of "putting up for good" She and my Granny stock piled things that they never used for everyday. Gifts have been found still in wrapped boxes because they didn't want to use the pretties just on themselves. My Momma went to a great expense before she married my Daddy to buy a set of china and real silverware from what they called 'drummers" back then. Sadly she never ate off of those dishes nor the silver before she passed. About 15 years ago one of my Mommas friends went to Mexico and brought Momma back this tea set...or maybe its a coffee set...I'm not sure of its purpose...I only know it was found today ..in a box she had put back for good. I knew it existed but after all these years have not given it a thought. The poor little thing begged to be released from its paper wrappings and put out to show...so here it is...it now lives on the buffet (at least til Christmas and it has to go back for the village) There are no markings on it and I'm sure my family will never use it but its out and shining for "good" Have a wonderful weekend...big hugs to you all!

Am I crazy to show you this?

Here sits my UFO pile....oh trust me there are a lot more but these are the ones that are pressing right now. In no particular order...theres the mailing to Miss Bobbi http://bobbianncook.blogspot.com/ to send off some cabs to her. Next to that under the 2 blue fat quarters complete with my handy-dandy drawing behind it is the mermaid project. There are the 2 pillow shams with the colonial lady transfer awaiting to be embroidered.

Front and center is Miss Rieley's purse oh thats got to take top place of importance...my grand-daughters birthday gift! And last but not least is a cute lil project I found where they take one of these shoes and add ribbon roses to it and make a pin cushion in the top opening.

There are of course painted lady cabs that need to be painted...but they did not want to share the spotlight with what they thought were " the other time wasters" (they are so uppity some times..looking down their lil clay noses at other crafts)

So there you have it...this and a house to clean, dishes to do, dinners to cook and a 21 month old lil guy who thinks he is the ultimate and only time waster...this is my life! I so imagine you all going on your sweet way after you post to a clean house...ironed clothing...lace and pearls...no doubt...just relaxing sipping sweet tea while your chores and crafting automatically and magically gets done for you. If this is not true...please don't tell me...I gotta have some dreams!!!

So this is my to-do picture...hope you all enjoyed my chaos! Sending you all big hugs...just some tired ones!

I have been busy!

You all know I am famous for really bad pictures....but these are the cabs that will be on their way to Miss Bobbi's house tomorrow. The mardi gras masked lady is really done in purples and the man in the moon done in blues. Run on over and tell Miss Bobbi Congrats...she is a MamMaw again today. Little Miss Sophia Breeze is such a cutie. You can visit Miss Bobbi by going to her blog at http://bobbianncook.blogspot.com/

This is how much I got done on Miss Rieleys purse this week...not much..but I tell ya...I'm not a fan of fill in work. My hat is off to those of you that do those beautiful pieces with a lot of fill in but I am not a fan of it!
My last piece of news has to do with this wonderful transfer I found recently. When I was small my grandmother would make the most wonderful pillow cases. She would embroider these gorgeous ladies..some times make lil pieces of material into their hoop skirts making this the hem on the case. Other times she would leave it as is and then crochet a beautiful boarder around the case. I told you all earlier I am a closet girlie-girl. I'm thinking once I make these for my bed...I won't be in the closet anymore. Ironically while finding this beautiful belle with the dogwood above her head...I looked around my bedroom and found I must collect things in sets. I have a dogwood quilt and a ceramic cookie jar shaped like a purse with dogwood on it. I plan to embroider this gorgeous lady onto white eyelet pillow shams I already have that are plain on the front. Then boy oh boy...I'm gonna enter that blog that shows all that pinkness on a Saturday! My pink belles with their dogwood can strut with the rest of the pink girls! For those of you that are interested I found a blog ran by such a generous lady that puts posts out there for us to enjoy all the old-timey Sunbonnet Sues. Funny I never knew the name of these girls til I visited her blog. You can find her here http://lacenribbonroses.blogspot.com and here is the scan of my Sunbonnet Sue.
If you do choose to use her ...please send me pictures!!! Have a great week everyone!

I'm so excited!!!!

I love that song! But I am excited and I'm not gonna hide it...I like you all too much not to share this news! I have been asked by the wonderful people over at the CSN Stores to review a product from one of their more than 200 specialty shops. WooHoo! Now did I choose something for my vanity or was it for my table so I could join all those fabulos tablescapes? Or maybe it was to glitz up my tiny patio? Hmmm guess your gonna have to come back and see what it is!


I will say this...I chose this item with you all in mind...something I felt you would see all dressed up and want for your own home. I would love to see how creative some of you could get with it. For now why don't you take a looky-see at this great place...I have already picked my wedding gift from there for son's upcoming wedding. And I see future Christmas (did I say that?) presents there! Have fun and come back to see what I chose and why! Til then ...happy shopping! CSN

It's double post Sunday for me!

Please do look at my other post to get the full story here. As I said before...today is an awesome day for me...my next reason comes from a dear friend Miss Nicole. Oh if you are not a regular...run after you read this to see Miss Nicoles blog http://beadwright.blogspot.com/ Nicoles bead work is awesome, her bead backing is the greatest stuff to bead with and her book "Flatwork" is so informative but yet easy enough for a newbie like me to comprehend. Miss Nicoles family is under the pressure of sick loved ones living a good distance away but her love of family is so inspiring..please take a minute to read some of her posts and you will see what I mean in no time. A while back Miss Nicole was one of my very first customers in selling my cabs. Talk about nervous and excited all at the same time! It was the first time one of anything I made went to someone outside the family. Now whats funny to me is what she did. She actually took a cab I wasn't that fond of and turned it into this

How do you thank a person that takes a piece of your art and turns it into this goreous piece? How do you thank a person that is an accomplished artist in her field for answering any question you have (and trust me I have alot!!!) and answering quickly and in a way as not to make me feel less by not knowing? Miss Nicole all I can do is say thank you...humble little words that they are...and they don't seem to carry the emotions I feel when I seen what you did with the little piece that almost went into the trash. I guess thats what has put this goofy grin on my face today...2 people that I don't know if I wil ever meet in this life time...touched me....touched my heart....and turned this into the BEST day I have had in a long time...thank you both Miss Diann and Miss Nicole...and thank you all for reading this. Sending you all some of my happiness today..let me return this or pass it on...smile from the inside out!!!!

One of those days when......

Did you ever just have one of those priceless days where NOTHING put you in a bad mood...you were just happy from the inside out??? Maybe I am odd ball and really shouldn't be blogging about this, maybe you all have these days everyday...I usually don't but I am having the BEST day. No matter I haven't bought the flowers for all the pots or that the foam I spent so many hours trying to cut for my glider is now rain soaked, or that I have laundry coming out my ears and didn't sleep well. I don't even care that the whole house needs a good spring cleaning or that the plastic we have to cover our old windows with for winter still isn't all down. Wanna know what put me in this mood...I certainly didn't wake up this way....2 priceless friends I have met thru blogging!!! Now mind you I normally do not smile while washing dishes...I don't have a dishwasher...unless you count my 2 hands...but today while I was sitting this up...I had the hugest smile!!!

A while back I entered a give-away....I enter alot of them....you all have such generous hearts whats a girl to do???? I may enter and walk away and think all day what I could do with the pretties... some things just pull at my heart strings and make me want to do things differantly. Like this particular give-away. It was a tea pot. Now noramlly I don't get excited over teapots...although in truth I do have a collection of 9...all from my mommma or granny. This tea pot spoke to me...maybe I felt I was coming down with something or what I don't know but this lil guy spoke to me telling me how fun it would be to have a tea time. After my grandson went home to sit and relax with a cup of any kind of tea. I envisioned myself on my new covered glider in the summer and around my lil fireplace (electric of course) in the winter. This lil tea pot and I were to be good friends. Then of course life takes over and I had to give up my fantasy to deal with probably a leaky diaper or a hungry 18 month old! lol Then came the news...the tea was mine...out of the blue...mine!!!! My pictures will not do it right...he is a fine stately tea pot..strong and we shall have many happy memories together. I owe this to Miss Diann at http://thethriftygroove.blogspot.com/. You must visit her if you are not a regular already. Her common sense approach at being "thrifty" takes the sting out of the cut backs so many of us are forced to do. And her tablescapes have so inspired me to look at my dishes...to set them on the table nicely... I spend alot of time cooking and if for no one else to please me with an equally pretty table. I have inherited so many beautiful vintage tableclothes and napkins from my mom and granny its a shame to put back for good like they did...it became stuff and really wasn't enjoyed. Maybe I am the good they saved it for. Hopefully it will last for my daughter and granddaughters to enjoy as well. So heres my new lil friend...the tea pot.

Isn't it just a beauty? The handle, top and trim are like a brushed antique gold....my pictures surely do not give it the beauty it has. So thank you Miss Diann...my tea pot and I will create some lovely memories and you will be included in each one!
See he has already made new friends!

Mammaw's can fix anything!

Well yesterday I really thought I could live with the top of this purse being a lil wonky....but ...no I couldn't. So I spent 2 hours ripping out carefully the top and then adding other things to make it more correct. I am now more pleased and it has less warts to me!!! Wow who knew filling in would use sooo many beads and guess what...I am running out of the lil pearls to fill in with. I raided my stashes...even the hidden ones and nope not another lil bead like that on the place. I have the same color and finish but just a tad bigger so I am a thinkin I will have to finish with those. Right now I am trying to fill in the bare spots with what I have left in hopes that just by doing the bottom tip of this top it won't look so off.

Then the bottom part of the purse is just gonna have to be differant than the top flap...I'm kinda thinking to make it candy stripped...we shall see. Hoping you all are enjoying this beautiful weather...gosh I need to go out and weed my garden...and plant some flowers before it gets too much later in the season. Thankfully I only have to fill in pots as the rest is all coming back from last years massive planting. It's really funny to me I have flowers coming back that I bought as "annuals" again this year...and oh are they much prettier this time around. Well off I go...see ya real soon!

I've got another bug!!!!

This is my newest bug....the beading kind!!! This is going to be a purse for my 3 year old grand daughter. She is in a wedding this summer and our Rieley is a girlie girl! I am hoping her mommy will put this up for her so she can have it when she gets older to remember me by. This was the fun part...now I need to fill it all in. This is my first big girl project so I hope later I can look back and see it and laugh and point and say...."Oh I was so new back then" and you my friends can say you knew me back when!!!! I will now give you a short intermission to laugh amongst yourselves......ok enough....your getting carried away!
I am honestly proud of this and love it warts and all...I honestly thought I would get so frustrated with the thread tangling...beads not acting right...(lil buggers some times have a mind of their own) that I would have given up on the whole beading thing by now...trust me I have a drawer full of adventures that didn't go right that have been put on hold. I think often that Rieley has a longer attention span than her Mammaw...but I'm still plugging along and loving it more and more. I just really hope it's like anything...the more I do it the better I will get. (or at least be able to make those lil beads listen more often) Hope you all are having a great day...more pictures to come as I roll along with this.