Such a STEAL!

Hey Y'all!
Last week sometime I was on Ebay--just looking around. I love to get on there and look for vintage crocheted items. Tablecloths and doilies are my absolute favorites to search for; along with Pink Milk Glass items too!
Anyway---I found this selection of doilies and linens and I put a $3 bid on them! Guess what? I won that bid too!
So for a whopping $3.00, here's what I got:

This has a tag on the back that says it's 100% Flax Linen and was made in Sweden.
Not real sure about this piece. I think it's my least favorite, but it may look cute on the table at Thanksgiving?
This tablecloth square was in the process of being worked on and was never completed. I can't wait to go match the thread and finish it! Here's a close-up of what's been done so far:
I think these were from the 80s. They have little painted, raised dots as decor. I sooo remember that Tulip paint and all their crafts! hee hee
Just a little close-up of the raised paint dots.
Here's a battered and tattered table runner or dresser scarf. It has so much character. It truly makes me wish it could talk to me and tell me it's history. I'm sure this is super old as it's falling apart. I'm hoping to bring it back to life with the help of my sewing machine and/or my needle and thread.
Can you imagine all the work that went into this?
I just love this precious little pink, green and white doily. It's not too often that I find square ones!
Isn't this blue rose doily pretty? There are a few threads that need to be clipped, but otherwise it's in great condition too.

Sweet little ducks embriodered in ribbon on a tea towel.

Check out the close-up below:

Plain and simple--this just makes me laugh!
Probably my favorite piece out of the entire lot. There are stains, and imperfections all over this but it's so delicate. I wish you could just hold it in your hands and feel how light the thread is.
Rarely see these scarves or runners in anything but white or ecru. I love the pinkness of this one. I hear my dresser calling it's name! Again, I love the brown spots and stains. It adds character!
Finally, the last piece to show you today! I think I did great!

So, that's it! I hope you enjoyed looking at what I got on Ebay this week for such a great deal.
Anybody wanna go antiquing/yard salein'/thrift store shopping with me tomorrow?

Have a great Friday and be blessed!

Checkin' In and Catchin' Up!

Hey Y'all!
First of all, I hope all of you Mamas had a WONDERFUL Mother's Day! We had a great one here at The Doublewide!
Big Daddy bought me a digital camcorder. I've been dropping major hints lately, and he hooked me up!
We had fun spending time with Big Daddy's Step-Mom, his mama, my mama, and my sweet mammaw.

Saturday afternoon my daddy was over at mammaws, cutting her grass. I made Big Daddy pull in and I told my daddy to give me some money! He was like, "What for?" I told him I was going to save his hide and make sure my mama had a gift from him on Mother's Day. He's so funny. In the past, he's not been one to get my mama a gift on Mother's Day--he always told her that she wasn't "his" mama. Oooh....not real smart daddy! It used to break my mama's heart, so now that we're older, we always make sure we get her something just from daddy. I ended up getting her a dozen yellow roses from him with three peach roses in the center to represent me, my brother, and my little sister. Daddy signed the card, "To the mother of OUR three children...Love, Paw." Ain't he sweet?!
The sweetest thing happened on Mother's Day for me at church. I had arranged for my best friend's daughter to play, "Amazing Grace" on the piano for her mama during the service. Sharon had no idea that Ally was going to play for her and Jesus, and she was really excited and overcome with tears as I announced that we had a special guest who wanted to play for the service. Ally did a beautiful job and I was very very proud of her! After she finished playing, she took the microphone, walked over to her mama, and said, "Happy Mother's Day Mama." Let's just say there wasn't a dry eye in the house!
After me and Ally had gone over the song in the fellowship hall before preaching, I was headed down the hall to practice with the choir. My choir director met me outside of the choir room and handed me a Wal-Mart gift card. On the envelope he had written, "No more sad tears on Mother's Day!!" That made me cry! But this time, those were happy tears! I'm so honored that God chose me and Big Daddy to be parents to Robbie, to teach him, to mold him, to love him, to treasure him, and to give him to God daily.
I trust God to take care of us, to give us strength and energy, to guide Big Daddy and I in the process of raising this miracle, and to keep us humble and remember where He brought us from.
As most of you know, Mother's Day before Robbie entered our lives were hard on me. I felt so sorry for myself and couldn't make myself go to church to worship a God who wouldn't answer my heart's only prayer.
Praise God that He did answer it. He made me a mama and I'll always give him the praise, honor, and glory for it--every day that I live.
So, Thank You Lord....
Thanks for...
late night hugs and sweet kisses; messy, sticky hands; scraped knees, my heart full of joy as I go to pick him up at daycare while he's running and yelling, "Mama! Mama!", for his cute laugh, for the new nose smooches, for cuddling in the mornings, for a beautiful, healthy, blue-eyed, brown headed son and most importantly for my full heart. Could I love this child any more than I do now? I dare to think how much God loves us when I love a child that I didn't even birth this much!
Thank you Lord for Your blessings on me and my family.
Somebody give an altar call, I've just had CHURCH here in the office at The Doublewide!
Be Blessed!

I'm Mad at Wal-Mart...

I'm mad at Wal-Mart right now!
My poor mama has to work on Mother's Day tomorrow. Doesn't that just STINK! We're going to get together with my mama tomrrow, but we won't get to see her until supper. Ugh..I hate it and I'm mad! They should give the best mama in the world the day off, but that's just my opinion. And in the huge World of Wal-Mart, who am I?
I'm gonna miss my mama at church tomorrow. It's not a "real" Mother's Day to me if mama's at Wal-Mart working in the deli instead of sitting next to me at church in the morning, listening to my offertory that I want to play for her. So mama, while you're slicing ham and frying chickens for all of the other mama's to enjoy their lunches, know that this fat girl is missing her mama and will be waiting to celebrate you when you get home!

Man...we've been busy at The Doublewide this morning.
Have I told you how much I love me some Craigslist lately? I found some tables and chairs for my classroom at school. I know....why do I have to find them?
I guess it's because our school system, just like everything else in this state, is broke. It does amaze me however, that those tables and chairs that are in the room now have been there since the 1960s (serious---my mama had Home Ec. in that same room and those ugly tables were there when she was a student!). Can somebody explain that one? Oh well....I got it taken care of today. We drove about 45 minutes away and picked up 5 tables and 20 chairs for my new room. Paid for them with the beef jerky, candy, and drink money that I've earned selling to the kids. YAY! They're used but they're nice and all wood. I do have to scrape the dern gum off of all those tables and chairs and I'm gonna dare my kids to mess them up, you hear me?! hahaha

After dropping me off to get a hair cut, Big Daddy drove the truck and trailer home, parked it underneath mammaw's carport and then came back to pick me up.
We went and got lunch and then to the Dollar General store. Ooh...love going in there! After that we went to Rock Ridge Greenhouses and bought Mother's Day presents for our mamas and then came home to pot everything else that I got for myself! hahahaha Let's just say I can't pass up a good sale on flowers.
We sat around here just a little bit and mama called from her lunchbreak to tell me that the Wal-Mart in Denver just put all of their plants on sale for half off! Are you kidding me??!! Off we went again.
The ferns that we'd just bought for $9.99 in town were on sale at Wal-Mart for $5. UGH! Could have saved $15.00 had we been more lazy and waited until later, but it's ok I guess!
Now we're home and Pop Pop and Mimi are coming tonight for supper.
We'll do Mother's Day with Big Daddy's Mama at church and lunch tomorrow, then with my mama tomorrow night.
My Mother's Day celebration will be in the morning, says Big Daddy!
It's coming up a HUGE storm here, so I'll talk to you all later on!
Be Blessed!

Surprise

Just thought I'd let y'all see what Big Daddy brought to school for me a few minutes ago. These are from Robbie!
Ain't being a mama grand? Ain't having a husband who loves you more than anything wonderful? Ain't having a God who loves me for who I am even better?
Be Blessed!

Good Morning!

Hey Y'all!
Sorry I haven't been blogging more this week. We've had the stomach bug at The Doublewide and it was U-G-L-Y!
Hopefully we're all back in high gear now and the weekend will be better!
HAPPY FRIDAY TOO! I don't care what kind of week you've had, Friday's make you feel better and it seems that everyone's in a little bit of a better mood all day!
This morning as I took Robbie to daycare, this was on the door. I just had to run out to the minivan and get my camera!

I thought it was soo cute! I have laughed at this because his teacher said he told everyone that we blow bubbles a lot at home---we do though, but that really got me to thinkin'.
Sometimes as a mama, I get so caught up in doing laundry, cooking, cleaning, etc. that I forget the little things. The small things that Robbie loves and that he shares as things that are important to him! Things like blowing bubbles!
So today, take a minute and enjoy something with your children. Whether it's big or small to you, you're making an impact on them, and they'll never forget it.
Happy Early Mother's Day! And since I had to wait ten years to be a mama, I want you to see a picture of the necklace I made and am wearing today,

Be Blessed,

If Mama Ain't Happy, Ain't Nobody Happy

Ain't that cold sore just beautimous!?!

Happy Monday Y'all!
Robbie spent the night last night with his Pop Pop and Mimi so I only had to get myself ready this morning. Can you believe I was STILL late getting to work? I don't know what it is with me and a Monday morning, but we ain't friends and won't ever be.
My brother-in-law Chad did a great job with the BBQ this past weekend. He had some leftovers so that's what we all had for supper here tonight at The Doublewide. There were eight people over here eating and we had a great time except for one thing...my mama is mad at me. When she came in the back door, I was folding a load of towels and washcloths. She said, "Where's Robbie?" When I told her that he was still at Pop Pop and Mimi's she said, "Well then. I'm going home!" I was like...Are you for real? Are you serious? You're joking, right??!!
Let me pause here for a minute...For those of you that have kids....Do your parents do you that way too? It's like you're now invisible. Like they're not there to see you---their own flesh and blood....they just wanna see their grandbabies and could care less about you??!! I know I'm not the only one like this, but dang already, right?!
So then I told her that she should be glad to spend some girl time with her only two daughters. Since my little sister, Doodah (SHOUT OUT!!!--rah-ha-ha!--wink-wink!!), was here too, I thought mama would be glad to spend time with us without me having to chase Robbie and just enjoy the peace and quiet. But, oh no!
So mama walked through the kitchen and went to sit in Big Daddy's recliner while I finished getting things ready. Doodah was in the kitchen watching the BBQ warm up in the oven and making sure it didn't burn. Big Daddy and my mama were in the den watching TV. Daddy, Wayne and Alan were in the kitchen chatting and I was folding the load of laundry; the whole time thinking to myself, "Dang...mama really is mad at me?!"
A few times during supper I asked my sister if mama was mad at me and she just gave me a look like, yup...I think so.
After eating, we went outside to see if anything was coming up in the garden yet. I have some zuchinni sprouting along with some cucumbers, squash and one of my little watermelon plants is poking it's leaves up out of the soil too! Daddy seems to think that the Johnson Grass is going to take over, so me and the old hoe are going to become friends again! I have one word for that....UGH! I hate having to hoe a garden to fight weeds, but it has to be done.

But anyway---that fried squash is sure gonna be good this summer and so are those cucumbers! But anyway....
So yes, mama's mad at me. Because she said, "I've been reading your blogs and I never see my name. You talk about your daddy being a pound cake pro. You talk about Pop Pop and Mimi, you talk about mammaw, but you never talk about me."
So let me set the record straight. Right here. Right now!
Me and my mama are just alike. We're moody, we'll tell you off without thinking, we'll try our best to make you laugh, we're the peacemakers of our family, we'll cook your SOCKS off, we'll make you try whatever it was we made--whether you think you're gonna like it or not, we'll make something crafty in a New York Minute, we'll see an old piece of junk at a yard sale or in a junk store and we can instantly picture it--transformed into a thing of grandeur and beauty--(even if it may NEVER get done), we love our family and will whoop you if you talk about about one of us, we wear our hearts on our sleeves, we can't wait until we can be right still and get a nap somewhere, we snore horribly when we do get that nap, we love with everything we have to love you with, and we get our feelings hurt really easy. Sometime over silly things but we think they're major things, because they're big to us.
So mama----don't be mad at me because I don't blog about you frequently. I don't have that kind of a mind to where I am doing it on purpose. You're such a huge part of who I am.
I was saving a bigger and better blog for this coming weekend, but I see now that it can't wait.
There are many things that I love you for, but the most important was on a Mother's Day about 6 years ago when I was just consumed with grief over not being able to conceive a child. I ran out of church crying and you came out right behind me. I remember you telling me that if you could, you'd take it away. But you couldn't, and you knew that. And you were first in line to come withme and Ronnie to go to Asheville and pick up our son.
I love you mama and I hope you know that. Always have...always will!

Y'all take care and pray that my blog melted my mama's heart and that she ain't mad at me anymore!
Be blessed,

Could this Weekend have gone by any faster??

Well...here I am again on a Sunday night wondering where in the world the weekend went! Do y'all ever get that way?
Here's a quick recap.
Friday night we laid around the house. Nothing was accomplished except giving out lots of hugs and kisses, playing with puzzles, ordering a Pizza Hut pizza, and enjoying the thought that we didn't have to work for two more days. Robbie has been so much fun lately and I'm just eatin' it up!
See---when we planted the garden Tuesday night, my daddy found a golf ball in the garden. One of my friends and her husband used to rent a little singlewide across the road from us and he was a golfer. Nearly ten years later, we still find little golf balls here and there all over the farm! haha
My daddy and Robbie planted the "Ball Egg". Daddy's already told Robbie that we had to give the ball egg special water and we'll get to see what it grows! Hee....this should be fun, right!? I'll be sure to let you know what sprouts out there--really soon!
Saturday we slept until 9:30. I had posted on my facebook page that I hoped I could stay in my nightgown all day and guess what? I DID! Well....almost all day. I think it was 6:30 when I showered last night!
My brother in law and some other men from our church stayed up all night last night cooking BBQ at church. We had a great little get together last night. He cooked some pork tenderloins and man were they tasty! We all brought little side dishes. I made some tater salad, (I know it's potato salad! If you were correcting me, then you ain't from around here!), and I made a pound cake. The recipe was from one of my mammaw's old cook books and the cake was called, "Old Fashioned Plain Pound Cake". It was ok, but not my favorite. My daddy is a pound cake pro and I think he was a little disappointed because I didn't put any lemon flavoring in it. While we were all eating, daddy was still outside helping man the grill and I happened to look up and notice that there was only one piece of my cake left. I sure did jump up and snag it for daddy. I didn't like it though. Tasted like playdough to me, but you live and you learn. I guess I'll stick to my favorite, cream cheese pound cake recipe. It turns out good everytime!
After we finished eating, we all went outside, underneath a picnic shed, and folks starting bringing out their instruments. We had a bass, a fiddle, a guitar, and a dobro. There was some good pickin' and some good singin' going on too! We had taken Robbie to one of my former students' homes because she hasn't babysat him in awhile, but I got to missin' my little man. I begged Big Daddy to go get him and bring him back to where I was. He did, and Robbie had a blast for the little bit of time left.
We went to church this morning, but before church I called mammaw to make sure she was doing ok this morning.
Here's our phone conversation:
Me: Hey Mammaw! You ok over there?
Mammaw: Yes, I'm ok over here, but I'm sure glad you called. I was getting worried.
Me: Why? What's wrong??
Mammaw: This dern drink bottle. I can't get the lid loose for nothing and I've been hoping somebody would call me so I could get them over here and get the lid off this drink. I'm thirsty!
Me: I'll be right there.

HAHAH! Ain't it funny? I guess in her state of mind, she had forgotten all about the water spicket at her sink, ya think?
Bless it!
Have a great day!