My Grandcats

I was visiting one of my favorite blogs, although I have a lot, Sew Primitive Quilter. She has the funniest cat. Rembrandt. Her little fur ball resembles my grandcat Mimi. Mimi LaRoux. Sounds so exotic, doesn't it?

But then I must mention my other grand cat, Daisy. She is a Siamese mix and she is absolutely beautiful. Another spoiled brat. On another note, Miss Sadie is spending the weekend at the vet. She was up all night vomitting and because of the heart meds she is on, they can only give her iv fluids to try to help her out. She is very dehydrated. So she won't be back home until Monday morning. I hope she feels better soon.

Thrifty Thursday

Mom and I went to lunch today. She loves to go to this place called Sirloin Stockade. A buffet with everything from salad bar to main dishes and desserts. She has been trying to diet a little bit lately, so this was a treat, for both of us.

I guess I get my joy of thrifting from my mother. I didn't so much enjoy it when I was younger, but I do love it now. So when I asked her if she wanted to go "goodwilling", the answer was yes. We stopped first at a thrift store run by the men's resuce mission in Evansville. Nothing good there. But then we went to the Goodwill Store and I scored this little number. Mom said she thought it was a utensil to pick up sugar cubes. I thought it would make a nice pair of ice tongs. None the less, I got a bargain for .25. This next bargain looks like it would hold a magazine and a couple of rolls of toilet paper. At least that's what I am hoping for. It was another good deal at $1.00. Next stop was the World Wide Mission shop. They have all kinds of stuff in this place. They seem to get a lot of new clothes donated from stores around town. They still have the price tags on them. But, we didn't find any bargains there. Mom was tuckered out after that. She has been going to physical therapy for her back and hip, so she wanted to go home.

After I dropped her off, I went to a Salvation Army Thrift store close to her house. I picked up this cute little candle sconce for .79. A little paint and some aging, it will look really cute. Of course, I'm not sure when this miracle will come to pass, but someday. All in all, I got some good bargains today. I will post tomorrow what I got from my new favorite consignment shop. Wow! Have they got some great stuff.

Lunch with Momma

Today, I am taking my mother out to lunch. I normally am working on Thursday, but I am off. We are going to get some lunch and then off to hit some thrift stores. Hopefully, I will find some cool stuff like the rest of my blogging friends seem to find. I might have something to post later.

I don't even know what to title this post

This is a picture that I took during the recent ice storm. It is actually my landscaping lights under the snow. Some days, I just question life...feeling a little blue right now.

Second Time Around Tuesday

Time again for Second Time Around Tuesday hosted by Diane at A Picture is Worth A Thousand Words. My contribution this week is this shelf. It is made from an old window sill from the shop where I work. We put in a back door where a window used to be and I snagged this piece of wood. Put on some old door knobs for hangers. The houses are from my Cat's Meow collection. They are actually pieces from my husband's home town. I had shown this piece in an earlier post. Click here to see that post. Not only did I recycle the window sill, but the knobs and the clothes hanging from the knobs.

Florida or Bust!

Well not yet anyway. I am sooooo excited about an upcoming trip. Once a year, at the Ebro Track in Pensacola, Florida, they have a picnic, called Hound Dog Howlidays. I have been wanting to go for several years now. Well, I finally get to go. My sister and her greyhound Boris, will be going with me and my greyhound Sadie. Sadie and Boris both used to race at the track. The picnic is a 3-day event and on Sunday, they open up the track and they have vendors and you can walk your dog around the track. This year, they are going to use radar to see how fast your dog can actually go. I don't know if I will let Sadie do this, since she has some heart problems. But we can certainly walk around the track. You can bet we will be going to the beach at some point. Can't wait to escape this Indiana winter!

Saturday Stitchings

Today, I am suffering from a nasty sore throat. It has been lingering for about 5 days now. I decided instead of just sitting here in front of the television, I would get out an old project.I bought this pattern several months ago and just can't seem to get too interested in it. The pattern is called Hester Van Dorn. I bought this because back in the family tree on my mother's side, there were Van Dorns. It is such an unusual name, I thought, this must surely have some connection. I haven't done any research to find out, but I am going to get working on this. Besides, maybe I can do a grained picture frame like I did in my tutorial.

My Buddy Brett

I was going through a disk from when my computer crashed several years ago and came across this picture of my greyhound Brett. This is in memory of him, he passed away a year ago today. I miss him terribly!

2nd Time Around Tuesday

Thanks to Diane for changing things up a bit. Now she is hosting Second Time Around Tuesday. I posted last week and didn't realize that she was taking the week off. As usual, I am a day late and a dollar short.

Second Time Around will be for anything you have that is not really new-but may be new to you. Such as an antique store or flea market find, something from a garage sale or estate sale,
something from a thrift store, something you inherited or had given to you or something you got free that someone discarded.

My contribution this week is a piece of an old tin ceiling. I love the look of cracked and peeling paint, but for some reason, the original piece didn't appeal to me. I stripped the tin and put on a coat of weathered wood. Then I put a coat of Ivory paint on and topped that off with some antiquing. I hung it on the wall above my bed. The close-up photo shows a little more of the detail. Sorry for the crooked picture.

Bummer, the weekend is over...

My trip to Indy started out later than I wanted. Getting new cable and phone installed, caused me to be running 3 hours behind. I never imagined that it would take 6 hours to get everything done. So I fly out the door, late as usual, had to go to the bank, get gas, etc. So I am 5 minutes down the road and I get pulled over. This never happens to me. Drat! It is Friday the 13th. He tells me I am following too close, he lost sight of my headlights, blah, blah, blah. Of course, I am smiling and apologizing the whole time. But it was 3 o'clock in the afternoon, I didn't even have my headlights on. Oh well, he let me off the hook, probably because I was old enough to be his mother. I was feeling a little shaky, needless to say.

So, about another hour into the trip, I am passing through some small town, got the radio turned up, and darn it, flashing lights. This time, I am really ticked off. He says I was speeding! What? I have been making this trip for 22 years and hadn't been stopped ever. But now twice. If I hadn't been so close, I might have turned around and went home. NO WAY, I have been looking forward to this weekend for months.

I arrive, late. We were all starving. Went to this great mexican restaurant, came back and started catching up. Dolores' husband took the couch and it was like a slumber party. We laid in bed and talked and talked. Before we knew it, it was about 2:00 am. Man, we have got to get some sleep if we are going to scrapbook tomorrow.

Saturday found us at a really cool scrapbook store called Archivers. I really wish we had one closer to me. That store was phenomenal. I felt like a country bumpkin. Then we came back to her house and scrapped some more. I actually got 9 pages done for the entire weekend. That is a record for me. Dolores has this really neat scrapbook room and she does the neatest stuff. She is way more creative than me. It was nice to have her input on my pages. My pages turned out really cool. I don't usually say that about my pages. I wish we could get togther more often. Later in the afternoon, we talked her husband into driving us about 40 minutes away to another scrapbook store. More cool stuff. Good thing I had cashed my paycheck to spend frivously.

Sunday came way too soon and I had to head south. My trip home was much more uneventful. Dolores told me she is now sick with a horrible headache and body aches. Yikes, I hope I don't catch that! What a blast I had. I wish we could do it more often.

P.S. I stopped at a quilt shop on the way home. I couldn't believe it, I walked out empty handed. I just didn't find anything that screamed "take me home". I was actually proud of myself. I am going to try to be better about finishing projects this year.

Heading North!

This weekend finds me on the road. I will be leaving this afternoon to spend the weekend with my best friend. Dolores and I have been friends since the 6th grade. Wow, that is a long time and I am old! Anyway, we don't get to spend much time together, so I am really excited for the whole weekend. We are going to talk, work on scrapbooks and I hope to get to see her grandkids. Be back on Sunday evening!

I DID IT!

Sunday, I had my first home visit as an adoption representative for Greyhound Pets of America, Tri-State Chapter. They had been interested in Smile, the dog I have been fostering since October. So, we load up the van and off we go. This family already has 3 dogs, a Chesapeake Bay Retriever, a German Short Hair Pointer and a Miniature Schnauzer. But they fell in love with greyhounds. This is very easy to do. They have 2 girls, 4 years old and 9 years old. Very adorable children. So the pups visited and played. Smile had so much fun and enjoyed running and playing with their dogs. She even fell asleep in the lap of the 4 year old. Now the family was approved for adoption. I got an e-mail tonight letting me know they were wanting to make Smile a part of their family. I am so excited for her to have a wonderful home. She has been with us for 4 months and the longer she is here, the harder it will be to let her go. It is time for her to go to her new home!

Trash to Treasure

I love picture frames! I am always looking for them at thrift stores, garage sales, etc. I have a pretty good stash in my cabinet in the garage. When my mom and sister bought their last house, the attic was full of picture frames. So needless to say, I quickly confiscated some of them. Here is what I did with one of them. I hung some old family photos inside of it. I love it!

Saturday found me at Basket Bingo. Sponsored by Tri Kappa, this event is one of their annual fundraisers. The baskets were mostly Longaberger baskets. I was sure hoping to win one of them. I did win finally. I won this really nice spa basket. It has 4 really nice white towels, a package of 6 different lotions and shower gels. It also had 4 votive candles and a couple of nice shower brushes. We had some delicious soups and baked goods, but most of all it was a nice time to spend with friends!

A few things

First, my sewing room is finally dried out. I started putting things back in the closet this morning. But I thought very carefully about placement of items before I put them back. All of my fabric is now in rubbermaid containers. My books and Barbies are on the side that didn't get wet this time. And nothing of value will be put on the floor.

The adjuster was very generous and such a nice young man. But of course, we are still waiting for the check. I think I might get a new sewing cabinet out of the deal. We have had this really neat pattern for several years and now might be the time that my husband could make use of all the power tools that he has in the garage.

Here are a few pictures of the weather outside last week. I finally broke down and purchased a
new computer. The old one had finally had it.

I don't care to see any ice for a long time. Snow is one thing, but you can keep the ice. This is what the greyhounds at my house thought about the weather outside. Hey, who turned off the heat!

I'm Back!

My friends, I have survived without power for 5 days. That's right 5 days. We lost power Tuesday during a terrible ice storm that we had here in Southern Indiana. Luckily we have 2 gas fireplaces and were able to keep the house from 55-60 degrees. Unfortunately, this morning one of our pipes burst. Thank God I was scrapbooking and went to my sewing room and get a pair of scissors and found the floor wet. But my nice organized sewing room is now in utter chaos. Wet fabric, ruined books and magazines. I hope my machines are okay. We couldn't have the company come out to remove the water until power was restored. This was by far the most challenging week I have had in a long time. I do have some pictures, I will post later. Too much to do right now!