I have a painting of a local artist that I have loved so in January I decided to commission her to paint another painting for me.  Why is is it January I always

want to 'redecorate'?   She already had done one that I liked but it sold.  So, she was happy to paint another and tweek it a little for me.  Well, the email arrived telling me she was finished and I could pick it up!  I was so excited!  Then later that day she called.  An interior designer from Atlanta was in town and wanted to buy some of her paintings.  She was specifically looking for a painting with a schoolhouse....ummm.....  So would I be willing to let that painting go and she would paint me another one with a discounted price.  How could I refuse?  How many chances does an artist have to sell 2 paintings in a month?  

The day arrived for me to pick up my painting.  I loved it!!  However, I wasn't thrilled where I wanted to hang it.  It looked lost.  Did it need a frame, sconces, what?   So after hanging it and thinking for a couple of days... it hit me!!!  

My great aunts passed away 20 years ago and some of their possessions have been in storage.  Well time had come to clean it out.  I wasn't able to go on the

weekend to clean it and went up after family members claimed what they wanted.  My aunts had a trestle sewing machine.  No one wanted it and they 

set it out on the street near the storage unit (had I known, I would have claimed that!)  So, when we got there the next morning,  someone took the table and left behind the drawers.   I took those thinking I can do something with them.  That is what I did.  I used those for sconces.  I love the look.  It is sentimental, different, and it was cheap! 

See that is a big wall....without the drawers the painting looked lost!

Drawers hanging up...got the vases for around $5.00
each at a favorite shop and added the flowers!

Yep, I have been a lazy blogger.   I admit it.  Time to catch up!   In March, Grandbaby Harper came for a visit while Momma went on a weekend trip with

her friends.   We had her for 5 days!   LOVED IT!!!   So to get ready for this visitor, Pops decided that she needed a Cozy Coupe.  So off to Toys R Us for the purchase.  We got a good deal on it too!   Lots of the reviews said that it too a crazy amount of time to put together.  Nah, not for Pops!   He had it rolling in no time at all!

We couldn't wait to have her try it out...so we tried the dog out in it!  
(no animals were hurt in the taking of this photo.) lol!

She loved her little car.   The baby that she got for Christmas is with her every.where.she.goes!   Here she is eating breakfast.  Isn't that adorable? Yep, that is a castle tent in the background.  Got that marked way down at Bed Bath and Beyond.  

She wasn't feeling well one of the days that she was here and was a bit fussy. She didn't want me out of her sight.  I had to put some laundry up so... 

break out the Veggie Tales!  Looks like she is at the Drive In!  Look closely and you will see Ginger peeking out from under the entertainment center!

 Took her to a BBQ restaurant to eat dinner...  Such a pretty little girl!

Next, an outing at the Memphis Zoo.  She wasn't quite old enough to search
out the animals unless they were active.  She loved riding on the train and loved, loved, the Carousel!

Love this picture of her with Pops...looks like they are discussing their order!

We had such a fun time with her.  Looking forward to many visits to come!

Wow, it's been a while since I posted. Life is busy. Recently I made the canvas below for my husband's cousin's daughter. It was part of a shower gift for her first child. I painted the trees and did the birds and banner in scrap book paper. (I should have gotten a pic after I fixed the right bird dropping the banner) It turned out pretty cute and she loved it.

This past weekend my daughter and I went to visit Jon, Aubrey and Harper. It was really the first time since my daughter has been married that we had a 'girl's' weekend. We drove to Birmingham and spent the night and got up the next morning to shop in Homewood, AL before driving on in to Dothan. Lot's of wonderful goodies were in Homewood and we certainly helped the economy out! lol.

Jon and Aubrey moved into their new home in November and have been buying things to feather their nest. So even though Dothan was getting lots of rain, it sure didn't stop us. We got Harper ready for a day of shopping in the rain...

And went to get some goodies for their new home. One of the pieces that we were sort of uncertain about turned out to be my favorite. This little chest is wonderful...lots of little drawers for lots of little things. Aubrey placed the silhouette that I had done of Harper a couple of weeks ago on it. It was the perfect accent for it.

What a wonderful time we had. Singing and playing with Harper. Playing games with Jon, Aubrey and Lydia. Eating at my favorite Mexican restaurant, playing with Harper... oh sorry.. but that really was the best!!!

Guess what this is.... Yeah, I know silly! It is a pompon. But do you

know what else it is??? A SNOWBALL! Yes Sir! A Mom of a little girl in

my room last year at preschool stopped by my door to tell me something.

She had a bag full of them. I asked her what in the world were they. She

said snowballs. She got the idea off of Pinterest. Isn't that site fabulous!!!!

So, I made a few for my class. Seeing how in Tennessee snow can be a rare thing and considering that we are having a super mild winter, the pompon snowballs were all that we would get of the white stuff!

I will say it does make quite a mess when you are making them. It was really fun! Mindless activity while watching a movie! The knot in the middle of the pompon gave it a little weight. The children LOVED having a snowball fight....and not one child cried by being hit...that is always a good thing! :-)

Last year I received a Target gift card from my husband's work. Every year they present the wives of the men that work there with a gift card from Target or Walmart. How nice!! So we bought this:

I love my Keurig!!! My husband likes to drink decaf in the morning and I prefer to have the caffeine ! So each morning I pop in my Tully's Kona K-cups and I enjoy a breshly brewed cup of coffee. I couldn't figure out the best way to store the k-cups. The carousel holder just wasn't what I wanted and took up counter space. The drawers that you put the keurig on made me think it would be harder to fill the Keurig with water. So, I put them in a small drawer by the stove. Not perfect but hey it would do. That is till I saw.....

THIS:

Billy and I went with his brother and his wife to a small town north of here for a Saturday of shopping at their square. It was after Thanksgiving and the square had town people dressed up as Dickin's characters walking around. In the antique store I saw this sewing machine drawer! It is perfect and it holds a whole box of the k-cups in one drawer! Love, love, love it!!! I love the fact that not only is it great storage but it looks much

warmer in my kitchen that a chrome holder. The price was great too!

The Little Stool that Could...

Whenever I am traveling to Dothan, I always try to make a stop at the Home Good's store in Birmingham. I LOVE Home Goods. The Memphis area will be getting one this year and I cannot wait. You can always find such nice things for your home at very reasonable prices.

When we went back in November, I spied this little stool. I grabbed it quick as a wink for fear that someone else would want it. It is painted with all the colors of my kitchen. Billy asked me what in the world was I going to do with it. At the time

I really thought that it would be more decorative than really useful. I did tell him that I could see Harper standing on it one day helping bake cookies...

However, that stool is just what I have needed. In my laundry room, I have a shelf over the washing machine and dryer. I have totes that I got from Michael's that I painted black that hides a bunch of stuff!

I use that little stool daily to grab something out of those totes. One tote houses my cookies press and cookie cutters, another one houses

stuff like extension cords, glue guns, twine etc.. The other one houses light bulbs:

Recently we had to replace the washing machine. It is one of those High Efficiency ones and is extra deep. I sometimes use it to grab a wet garment that is at the bottom of it. So, the purchase of that stool has been a very good purchase. Don't know how I have made it without that little thing! Happy that it wasn't has much as an impulse buy as it felt like at the time!

Well, Happy New Year! There, done. Let's move on. I feel New Year's is sooo over rated. Am I the only one that doesn't feel the need to party? Maybe if it wasn't one week after Christmas. I feel like a revolving door. Seems like last week I was putting up the Christmas decor, now I have taken it down. This year, I did things differently. I usually take all the decorations down in one day. That is a big undertaking and totally messes up the house. On Wednesday, I was enjoying the house when all of the sudden I was done with the Christmas decorations and started the process. I left the tree up as well as the outdoor decor. That won't take long at all to finish.

Christmas was quite an ordeal around here. Jon, Aubrey and Harper came in town the Saturday before and stayed with us the first part of their stay. On Wednesday, Jon, Aubrey, Billy and Drew all started vomiting with the stomach flu. I panicked! I tried to run away, I took Harper to Lydia's in the afternoon so I could finish up the shopping. I cleaned like a mad woman on Friday...but to no avail. I woke up Christmas Eve vomiting. Thankfully I wasn't feeling well the day before and didn't eat much. I missed hearing Lydia sing "O Holy Night" at Christmas Eve service. I had not wrapped up the gifts and had not made it to the grocery store yet. I emailed the grocery list to Billy on Christmas Eve while he was out running errands for him to shop for me. Thankfully, Christmas morning, I was my old self. I got up and started wrapping the presents at 6 a.m. Christmas was wonderful. The best? Why, of course, Harper playing pat-a-cake with her baby doll!