FINALLY FIRST LAVENDER SACHETS FINISHED

Well, I finally finished a project today. I have spent 2 weeks trying to find fabrics, embellishments, stuffing, etc, etc, sewing machine, etc, etc.  My stuff is so disorganized til I could pull my hair out.  Part, no most of the problem is me - I am totally unorganized. Part of the problem is my husband helped me move stuff around after we got married.  He has NO clue about crafters, crafting, sewing etc., etc.  For my birthday Don gave me a huge sack of fresh lavender we ordered off EBAY.  It was just what I wanted, so I could go back to sewing and making pretties with lavender in them.  I am beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel and one of these days will take pictures of my craft room and sewing room.  It has been a journey trying to get organized where it is easier to craft and not work so hard to start crafting.  I will keep you posted on the organizing part. 

 I am pleased with the results so far.  I am happy to back at the sewing machine again. Don worries I am working too much, housecleaning, moving boxes and furniture. He does not realize yet that sitting at the sewing machine is very relaxing to me.  Making the roses, ruffling lace and eyelet, stuffing the pillows - all of it is relaxation to me. For me the listing of the items is the hard work.  Trying to decide what to say, etc., etc.
These three are just the tip of the iceburg. I have atleast a dozen more layed out ready to match up the embellishments.  That's the fun part. I have tons of vintage images I have bought on cd and collected from lots of sources.  My mother got me started on that part. I found a little journal that she had pasted Christmas cards in. It was in the cedar chest. My mother has been gone 5 yrs and she was 87 when she died.  She put her age in the book as 9 years old when she made up her little scrapbook.  I will try to photograph it one of these days.  That book started me on my collection of Christmas cards and greeting cards, pictures etc.  I would not trade any of them for anything.    Oh yes, the sisters image on the pink sachet is from Gail Schmidt at Shabby Cottage Studios. Thank you for such a pretty picture.  Want to make sure she gets credit for such a pretty picture/           

Mother instilled an appreciation of fancy things. She loved frilly, lacey things with roses and flowers on it. I am just carrying one the tradition. Both of my grandmothers felt the same love for fancy things.
Well, our weather has really cooled off and I am enjoying every bit of it. I know summer  and hot weather will come again next year, but, I am going to enjoy this cool weather no matter what the heating bills are later on.  I guess this is all for today. I hope all of you have a nice end of the month. I don't really celebrate halloween any more, it has gotten too witchy and dark.  I love fall decorations, the leaves and fall colors. Not long and the holidays will be upon us. I look forward to that.  It is my favorite time of the year.
May God Bless each and every one of you.
Mary

NEW FOLLOWERS AND BAD WEATHER

First of all I want to thank all of the nice folks that have become followers of my blog.  You have no idea what it means to me.  I have felt so alone for most of my life and to me you feel like family.  Some time between now and Christmas I am going to host a giveaway just for my blog followers.  Right now I am trying to decide what the prize will be. As they say on TV- Stay tuned.
Now, as regards my pictures today.  I took these from my deck around 7AM CDT.  Our local weather people say we could have some more bad weather today.  My prediction is - we will.  The air outside is very unsettled.  The clouds are flying in all directions,  the wind blows from one direction then from a totally different direction.  There is a sound in the trees that is always there when there is a chance of tornadoes.  If you have never been thru one, trust me, consider yourself lucky.  You DO NOT WANT TO GO THERE.  Tornadoes are so unpredictable and level everything in sight. and yet the house next door may have no damage.  There is no way to minimize damage, just head for cover and PRAY.   Sunday nite and early Monday morning we had lots of thunder and lightning mostly for us at a distance.  North of us about a 100 miles they had tonadoes.  I know that sounds like a long ways, but when you are talking about tornadoes in the South, it isn't.  I can remember a number of times when it seemed like the whole state was being hit by 'supercell' storms that produced numerous wind storms from the northern border to the Gulf.  They would just pop up and sometimes go for a mile or two, and somethimes for 50 miles or more.  Been there, done that, have the shirt, the hat and the memories. The bad part about Sunday nite is I didn't pay enough attention to the weather.  My husband is from the west coast and they don't have tornadoes like we do.  He really does not have an understanding of how unpredictable they can be.  He doesn't understand the reason the TV stations go to 'wall to wall' coverage with the weather maps and spotter reports.  It has been realitively quiet in our area since he has been in Alabama and I am scared he has a false since of security.  I have slipped into that with him.  When I was alone, I would keep the radio and Tv going.  I remember one nite I had dozed off and woke up with a noise like someone dumping gravel the size of baseballs on the roof.  I came out of that bed like a shot. I knew what it was.  HAIL , BIG HAIL STONES.  They really were the size of baseballs.  It went on for several minutes and then it was quiet.  Deathly quiet.  It was the largest hail I had seen since back in 70's.  I was scared to look out the door.  I called my Aunt Mary (she lives 50 miles northeast of me) and told her what had happened.  It was 3:30 AM and told her I was going out side to look around at the damage. She waited on the phone for me to go out.  I really expected to see the windows out in the van and God only knew what else.  I had a crack in the windshield and dent on the hood and that was all  on the van.  Thank you Lord.  There were lots of tree limbs down.  It turned out that I was on the edge of that cloud.  Three miles from there was buildings and 100's of cars and trucks damaged.  I had pictures that I took of the hail on my deck but have not been able to retrieve them from my old CPU yet.  I will NEVER forget that sound. What was so important about that is hail and tornadoes occur together about 95% of the time.  I live in a doublewide trailer with no where to go in case of a tornado.
All we can do today is stay tuned to the weather and Pray. 
On a lighter note I want you all to note my begonia above.  That is the tallest begonia I have ever seen.  It is 22 inches tall (not counting the pot).  I really hope my mother can see it from Heaven.  She was the green thumb in my family.  I only put one application of 'Miracle Grow' on it early in the season and look what it did.  I generally have a brown thumb.  I am good at toting and fetching the dirt, manure, plants, pots and other stuff to grow plants but not all that good at keeping them alive.  This one has hung on inspite of the dry weather, heat and me. 
Thank you Lord for this day and please keep us safe.
Mary

FALL LEAVES, MOUNTAINS & MEMORIES

I dropped by Gail at http://www.shabbycottagestudio.blogspot.com/ and she had posted a pic she took from her mailbox recently. It brought back a world of memories.  I had a great aunt and uncle plus a ton of cousins that lived in Marysville, Tn. and Seivierville, Tn. Every couple of years we would load up my grandmother and grandfather and my family and head up to see Aunt Sweet Bell and cousin Sudie and their families.  Lots of times it was in the fall.  The trees and country side would be just breathtaking from Sudie's front door. There was a big house and atleast a 75 to 100 acre field and mountain right in front of Sudie's house.  I love the mountains. Smoky Mountains, Rocky Mountains, the Alaska Range (right outside my brother's bedroom window).  Unfortunately there is not even a really good hill close to where I live.  I have ALWAYS wanted to live where I could atleast see a good mountain.  I have to admit I collect mountain pictures to go on my computer as screen savers. I like them all, snowy, fall leaves, spring, summer, creeks, ice,  cliffs, it just does not matter, I love mountains.  The two pictures above are the Smoky Mountains.  These are "images from GOOGLE". The bottom one is Cade's Cove. I have been there several times- always in the fall.  Such spectacular color. There was no photographer listed with these. If they are yours email me and I will edit this to give you credit.  The photo's are just beautiful.  It is weird that I could not find any photos that we had taken on our trips.  Maybe I just haven't looked in the right places.  Maybe they are just memories. Don't know. It is a beautiful place to visit. The Great Smoky Mountains National Park. They are like playing in God's backyard.
God bless all of you.
Mary

TEACUPSTITCHES IS HAVING A NEW GIVEAWAY

Lynn at Teacupstitches is having another GIVEAWAY !! This beautiful stocking is the prize. Lynn designs the most gorgeous stockings and other cottage chic art. What that lady can do with vintage trims and roses is out of this world. And while your over there be sure and check out her lovely decorated bottles at VICTORIA ROSE COTTAGE. There is a link here and at her blog. I hope you enjoy your trip to TEACUPSTITCHES.
Hope the Good Lord takes a liking to you.
Mary

BARGAINS AND CONSIGNMENT SHOPS

The other day my very best friend in the world (next to my husband) Rheba and I set out on a day of prowling thrift stores and consignment shops. We had a ball. Several new places have opened up lately in our neck of the woods and this was my first chance to hunting with some money in my pocket. We packed a lunch ( Rheba said no use wasting good shopping money on buying lunch and I agreed) and some drinks, put on comfortable shoes and headed out at 9AM.

The first place we went was a consignment shop. They had some of the best furniture I have seen in a long time. They had a chase lounge that if I had had $365.00 I would have taken it home. It was suede, a neutral taupe color with a extra wide seat and pillow style arms and back. If you sat down on it, you would never get up. If Don had taken it home I never would have gotten to sit in it. The seat and lounge part of the chair had to be more than 32 inches wide. I could have slept on it. I know Don would have. The only way to buy something like that is to buy 2 so there wouldn't be a fight. Blood would be shed over that chair. So I passed it by. I also made a note to self to carry my camera with me the next time we go shopping.

In the back room of the place they had their real bargains . I beat Rheba to some linens. The six pieces I show in one picture, I got for all for $2.00.

The cut work scarf by itself cost $2.00. Not bad for a start.

The next place we went was Hobby Lobby. Not a thrift store but a thrifty shoppers store. Between their sales, coupons and clearance stuff, you can get some great buys. I bought some rubber stamps, and beads and trims.

We prowled through their fall and Christmas decorations. They have some really great stuff and really good prices.

We sat in the car in the parking lot and munched our lunch. It was in the 70's and sunny and perfect.

We hit 2 more stores and Rheba did most of the shopping at those. I bought 2 crocheted hearts (see pics) and that was all. She bought some clothes (she wears size 4 and never has trouble finding stuff) and a table cloth (cut work).

Believe it or not by then it was nearly 4PM and time to head home. All in all I had a really fun day with good company.

May God bless you all.

Mary

ANOTHER YEAR OLDER AND WORKING HARD

Well, I am now 63 years old. My oh so sweet husband has either taken me out to eat every day or we have bought food that only had to be heated OR he did the cooking this entire week!!! My husband is really a good cook. My special forces take no prisoners super macho daredevil husband really enjoys cooking at home and not just on the grill, either. While he is fantastic on the grill, (I concede quietly and just stand there handing him tongs, seasonings, lemonade, ash tray {yes he started back smoking after stopping a whole year}, whatever book he is reading and wait on him hand and foot like a good wife should and then clean up the 'mess' left behind. But it really is worth it. He grills the best steaks, chicken breasts, ribs, pork loin, etc. But his really good cooking is fried chicken. For a Yankee (that's a non southerner) he does really really good fried chicken. I will try to get a pic of his chicken this week.
He just informed me that my birthday week is over now. We went to Wally World and their can pumkin has finally come in (we bought 8 large cans today) and my sweet toooth husband informed me that tomorrow I have to bake a pumkin pie (his all time favorite dessert) **** with a 'from scratch' pie crust**** . I guess my 'cooking holiday' is really over. We also bought the makings for oatmeal cookies (hummmm good), too.
Guess I will have to get the aprons back out.
Well, I guess that is about it. He just came thru to tell me it is his turn to get on the computer.
Dear God, please watch over all of us.
Mary