Happy Saturday

Not much going on right now. We had a soccer game this morning which our team won. The boys played so hard, running up and down the field. Last night my sister's oldest two came home with us and spent the night. I just dropped them back home to get ready for the wedding tonight. I will be taking photos to share later this week. DH is taking DS to a birthday party in a little while. It's a backyard battle party. It sound very exciting to catapult items at the other team. I can't wait to hear all about it. I spent a little while outside raking pine needles and spray painting. Also, I put out a few decorations. I'll have to go take some pictures to show you all.

The picture above is a piece of ironwork I picked up with my sister at a local crafts fair. It is a little too tall but oh well. Maybe one day my shrubs will be bigger.

I hope you are enjoying your day!

Friday Fill-In

If you play please link back to me so that I can come read yours!

1. Once upon a time _____.
2. ______ screaming and ______.
3. ______white tea and ginger.
4. Way down ________.
5. Keys _____; locks _____.
6. Have you seen _____? They're so ____!
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to _____, tomorrow my plans include ____ and Sunday I want to ____!


1. Once upon a time life seemed simpler.
2. I was screaming and then I killed the spider.
3. I'm not really into white tea and ginger.
4. Way down south of the border I want to travel.
5. Keys unlock; locks secure.
6. Have you seen the bow loafers at Talbot's? They're so cute!
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to spending time with my sister and her kids, tomorrow my plans include a soccer game, birthday party and a wedding and Sunday I want to spend some time with my family!

Have a great weekend!

Pay-It-Forward

I was surfing blog land and clicked onto Diane's blog, Pitty Pat Papery. (You can click on her blog under my Daily Inspirations.) She was having a pay-it-forward giveaway. I quickly left a comment and was a winner of this absolutely perfect pocketbook calendar with the matching pen. I was doing the happy dance! I am always needing a calendar and this fits perfectly into my book bag. Here is the picture of my winnings.

Since it was a pay-it-forward giveaway, now it's my turn to do it. I'll send an altered journal, similar to the one below, to the first three people who comment on this post. The rule is that those three people will send something handmade to the first three people who comment on their pay-it-forward post. It doesn't have to be big, just a little sweet handmade thing and it doesn't have to be right away, either. You have within a year to get your item out to them but sooner the better because you may forget! Make sure when you comment that I can contact you. Also, the winners can tell me what colors they might like.

Thanks for playing!

Retail Therapy

Everyone needs some every once in awhile. I stumbled onto an amazing sale at Dillard's. While I was in there browsing for a dress for the wedding this weekend and later this month, the saleslady mentioned that there was another lady marking down a couple of racks to 75% off. Oh, I was so excited but I was just going to look! Yeah right!! I left with four new skirts, a dress and a top for just under $150.00. The skirts were originally $99.00. I would not have paid that much for these skirts. The skirts are skirts that I can wear 10 months out of the year here in Texas. Here are some close ups of the prints. Run to Dillard's if you have one in your neck of the woods!

This skirt is so now. I plan to wear an orange top with it.

This skirt has the white ribbon swirling and circling all around. Love it. I plan to wear a white top with this one.I have always wanted an eyelet skirt but not white. I was doing the happy dance when I saw this black eyelet skirt. I plan to wear a pink top with this one.This skirt is so rich looking. The golds are incredible. I am having trouble finding a top that looks just right with this one. I probably will go with black.This is the dress. I didn't think it would look great from the way it was hanging on the hanger but once I tried it on it fit just right in all the right places. It has the black around the neckline and hem of the dress. I need to figure out jewelry; pearls, black beads, silver or one of each, just kidding!Thanks for looking!

Thrifty Pyrex Finds

Here are two of my Pyrex finds from the local thrift stores. I was so excited to spot them.

This one was the most expensive of the two. It was $5.00. It's a divided dish with the lid. I am going to set it out now since it's black and has stars around the wavy lines. Perfect for Halloween. I thought about putting two different candies inside. I'll play around with it and see what I come up with.This is my largest piece of Pyrex. It is so pretty with the ivy going all around. It's a nice deep bowl and I will display it during March. Can't wait to see what will end up in it. Spent $3.00 on this one.

Well I'm off to bed. The field trip wore me out. DS had his first lesson of piano tonight and he is very excited. I pray that he continues to be excited about it and not like his momma and give up on it quickly! The rest of the week looks pretty calm til the weekend. Hope your week is going great!

Stamp Camp

I went to a stamp camp awhile back and it was all Halloween items. My favorite month and theme! Here are the projects I made. I don't know the names of the stamp sets but they are all Stampin Up.

My favorite! The top is embossed.

This was the cutest project. A Dixie cup wrapped with pattern paper, then add this flower lip, stamp a tag and tie a ribbon around it. It was filled with candy corn and tootsie rolls but they didn't last long when my boys got a hold of it.This card was heat embossed on the center circle, pattern paper on the bottom, ribbon with brads on either end. The top words are from a stampin wheel with the part you want to cut off.This project was a little matchbook treat. Simply stamping with star cutouts attached with brads. Inside two lifesavers and a ribbon on the outside. Too cute!This card has the look of stitching but it's actually a gel pen along a paper piercing trail. Love the ribbon!This card is too cute. We attached the card stock to look wrapped. Stamped the mummy and added glitter to him and then for decoration a tiny paper clip. Oh, his eyes are the wiggly eyes!This card is a spinner. The bat will twirl and slide when you tilt the card. He also has wiggly eyes.One of my favorites!

Thanks for looking! I hope your week is off to a great start. Ours is! DS won his soccer game so we are 4-0. Our next game is Saturday and the boys are so excited. I have a field trip with my second graders tomorrow to an art museum so I should be very tired tomorrow evening.

More Dishes

Here is my china cabinet in our breakfast/kitchen area. I saw this at an antique store in the Heights and wanted it. So home it came with me! I have enjoyed filling it with my lovely depression glass. These are the dishes on the lower shelf in the white cabinet. Red is one of my favorite colors. I love my Ruby Red dishes! I have been picking up most of the pieces from the Lion Club Market Days in Wimberly, TX or local antique stores. I collect the square plates and they are much more difficult to find.

This cabinet is in my formal dining room. It houses our wedding china. I love the pattern. It's called La Prada by Nortiake. It is discontinued and hard to locate pieces to add to my collection. I seem to have that problem with all my dish collections, very hard to find. The base is cream colored with little flowers of pinks and blues around the edge.

On the top shelf, I have a large platter and the cute salt and pepper shakers. In the middle is my Waterford sugar shaker. Everyone should have one of these! Also you can see my crystal. It's called Antique Lace by Mikasa. So lovely with the gold rim and flowers etched around the top.Next shelf is the lovely creamer and sugar, along with our wedding topper. This is our second topper. The first Llardo topper fell off the cake at the reception and broke into tiny pieces. Completely my fault since I didn't tell the cake lady about my topper and she hadn't prepared the cake. So my great aunt Mom Mom who purchased the first one for us bought us another to replace the broken one. It is now discontinued and no longer available.More serving pieces and the salt and pepper shakers for my depression glass pattern Adam.The bottom shelf has cups and saucers along with the vase, pitcher and creamer and sugar for the depression glass Adam.

Thanks for taking the tour of my china cabinets. I would love to see yours!