i spy

 

Spying on Sarah petting the outside dogs. 

 

Hope you all have a lovely weekend!  Go out and enjoy the chilly temperatures!  Hats and gloves, here we come!

{friday faves}

Well, I came home from Joann's with only four pieces of fabric.  Only four!  You should be very impressed considering that I actually had more money that I could have spent and went through about 30 bolts before I narrowed it down to only four. :)

So, today I've gotta roll up my sleeves and start cutting....after I go down to the early voting station and stand on the corner holding campaign signs and waving at random people.  Not my favorite job, but somebody's gotta do it!

In case you are wondering, I will be posting pics of some of the projects I am working on.  However, seeing as they are all Christmas/Birthday gifts most of the pics will be of the gifts for the little ones since there is no danger of them reading their dear old auntie's blog!

 

******

 

 Grey/blue walls and a yellow screen door. <3

 

 I am thinking about using a pattern like this for a quilt for my bed.

After Christmas, of course!

 

 Howard Keel.  If I were a guy, I would want his voice.

Love his films!

 

Found this the other day and laughed till I cried!  Take that,

vampire people!

 

******

 

I hope you all have had a wonderful week and are enjoying a lovely Friday!



reality sets in...

I just had a major reality check...

ONLY 9 MORE SHOPPING FRIDAYS 'TILL CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*Gasp*

Of course, in my language, this translates as approximately 8 weeks to get all of my gifts made (I've hardly started yet!).  It's actually less than that because we usually have Christmas with my siblings and nieces and nephews a week or two early.

Can you feel my stress?  Lol it's only temporary.  I hope to go to Chatt later to pick up supplies so that I can get started on some things.  I'll feel better then.  I hope... :)

 

Awkward

- When your dad sends you to the Maytag parts store to pick up a new part for your dying drier. Of course, he is thoughtful enough to send the broken part along, just to be sure that you don't come home with the wrong part. So, you walk into the store carrying this dusty bowl looking thing, you set it on the counter and, not knowing what to say, you look the clerk square in the eyes and blurt out, "I have no idea what this do-hickey is, but I need another one". If only I'd had my camera to capture the look on his face.

- Going to the store and the buggie you picked out decides not to reveal the fact that it has the squeakiest wheel ever created until you are already halfway done with your shopping and it's too late to exchange it.

- When a random man stops you and asks your name. You tell him, then he proceeds with, "Were you at......do you work at.......do you know.....etc." for 5 minutes. The answer to all the above is "no" and he finally scratches his head and says, "Then how do I know you?????" Beats me.

- When a well meaning lady asks if you are married and you laugh just a little bit louder than you meant to and everyone turns around to look at you.
Just as a side note: I only laughed because just a little while back someone asked me if I am a student at the county middle school. It's nice to know that I don't always look that young!

- When you haven't seen people in several years and you are confronted multiple times with the question, "So, what are you up to now?" Not having the quick answer they want like, "Oh, I'm working...still in school...etc." you start running down the long list of things that you are currently "up to".

- Having a conversation about cars with a guy friend, which is weird in and of itself, and after he finishes his long tale about his car trouble going into extreme detail about what was wrong and how it was fixed, you say something brilliant like, "That's why I'm glad I have a mechanic for a daddy. Wait...that came out wrong...."

 

 

Awesome 

-  When state politicians remember you name.  :D

-  Running into a friend that you grew up with and talking about sewing, babies, and home decorating.  Such fun!

-  Spending an entire evening indulging in an Clark Gable marathon.  Actually, I wouldn't really call two movies a marathon, but when Gone With the Wind is one of them it sure feels like it!  And of course, one cannot have a Gable marathon with out topping it off by pulling up Judy Garland's performance of "Dear Mr. Gable...You Made Me Love You" on YouTube.

-  That fateful day with you discover dry shampoo.  Life will never be the same.

-  When you're at a festival on game day and you see more Romney/Ryan stickers walking around than orange. 

-  When your two year old nephew runs up and gives you a big bear hug (around the head) and won't let go.

-  A car comes rumbling down the driveway and while you're standing at the window trying to figure out who it is your phone starts ringing upstairs and instantly, "Oh, it's Leah!"  I love that girl. ;)

-  When you and your older brother have the exact same personality and the exact same brand of sarcasm and the look he gets on his face when he's trying to hold it in because he knows better than to mess with little sis (muah ha ha).  It's hilarious.  Unfortunately, having the same personality and sense of humor, I usually know what he's thinking whether he says it or not, so he still gets in trouble! lol

- The look an a sweet disabled lady's face when you ask her if anyone has ever told her that she looks like the Queen.  (She really did!) She laughed so hard, I thought she might fall out of her wheelchair.  Then she pulled out a long necklace with a crown dangling from the chain and said, "My husband always called me 'the queen'."  So sweet!

-  Having a comedienne for a sister.


Just Plain Hilarious

- When out of the blue your little sister says, "I just love my imagination.  It's so imaginative."

- When you are painting the fence and you glop on a bit more paint than is necessary so you start brushing faster to keep it from dripping and you end up flicking paint onto your mother who is on the other side of the fence.  After this happened several times she yelled out, "Stop it, you paint flicker!"

 
So, what's going on with you this week?  I'd love to hear about it!

it's over

After four straight weeks of setting up, tearing down, wearing unflattering work clothes, washing hundreds of pounds of potatoes, hitting Walmart at 10:30 pm, frizzy hair, smudged makeup, coming home dusted in powdered sugar and reeking of hot grease, we are finally done and I am exhausted!  It was fun, but I am so glad it's over and we can get everything packed away and out of the kitchen!

And so, things get back to semi-normal around here. 

I got up this morning and put on my new accordion-pleated maxi skirt (Goodwill find!), fixed my hair, and put on some make-up, just so I could enjoy looking nice for a little while.  It was pleasant while it lasted, but now I must go change and braid my hair so I can spend the rest of the day scrubbing coffee stains out of the carpet, painting the fence and cleaning out fryers... 

Yup.  We're back to normal! ;)

So, what are you up to this lovely Monday?

a frolic through the alley-way

Yesterday was a very cloudy, blustery day.

Perfect for pictures!

So, after fighting our way through the crowd at the Panera in downtown Chatt, my friend Leah and I headed to the art district.  They have the coolest alley that goes through some of the restaurants and coffee shops.  I absolutely love it!

 Isn't she lovely?

 

 I reluctantly agreed to hand over Knightley for a little while.

I have much more fun playing photographer than model.

 

These are just a few out of about 275.  Yeah...lol!

 

 

We really had a great time.  Rarely do we do anything with just the two of us, so it was a nice treat to go out and do a little shopping, take some pictures, and get coffee.  Hope we can do it again!

it's official

Fall is here.

Okay, it's been here for a while now, but we now have chilly temperatures here in the Tennessee Valley and we finally got the fall decorations put up around the house.  That makes it official!

We have two festivals down and two more to go this month.  Needless to say, it's a bit crazy around here.  We've got monstrous loads of dishes to wash after every weekend, a trailer to unload and reload, set up, tear down, not to mention the normal stuff: house cleaning, cooking for 5 sometimes 8 people (I never seem to know anymore...), making sure that the laundry gets taken down instead of compacted into the hamper, keeping up with my reading, the weekly shopping, Christmas planning (some presents are already a work in progress.  It's killing me not being able to share!), keeping up with phone calls, emails, and events (with the election closing in, there seems to be something going on all the time.), etc., etc., etc. 

It looks more exhausting all typed out than in reality...

Awkward

- Sitting in a pediatrician's waiting room and suddenly realizing that everyone - the way cool high school dudes, little kids, teenage girls, moms, dads, grandparents - are all staring intently and open-mouthed at the television which is showing a Disney princess movie. 

-  Attending a political debate and having a gentleman come up to you and ask, "So, why are you here?"  Once I recovered from the rather strange question, I told him why I was there.  He obviously wasn't pleased because without uttering another word, he promptly turned around and strode over to the other side of the room.

- Working on the counter at the fair and having a lady come up and say, "I want a funnel cake with sugar on only one half of it, a ribbon fry, two...no...three teas, one sweet, one un-sweet, and one half and half, no ice in the un-sweet, two cokes and a water."  I just stood there with my mouth hanging open like an idiot, trying frantically to do the math in my head.  I had to ask her to repeat it slowly two more times before I got it right.

-Trying to carry 4 gallon sized buckets of mustard through Walmart because your mother ran off with the buggy and left you.

Awesome

- Being able to wow your little sister.  Earlier this morning, I was sitting in the living room and I could hear Sarah tapping her pencil rhythmically on the kitchen table.  After a while of listening to it, I said, "Sarah, stop it.  It's too early for Jingle Bells."  There was a few moments of silence, then I heard, "How'd you know that's what I was doing?  I didn't even know that's what I was doing!"  *sigh... I'm just that good. ;)

-  Going to the "big city" (otherwise known as Knoxville) and gaping out the window at the strange city folk and buildings.  It was on this trip that we noticed that there are seriously three or four of the same fast food chain per square mile.  Sarah kept saying, "Is all of this really necessary?"  It's fun to look at, but boy was I glad to get home.  Driving through Knoxville is a bit too stressful, even when you have a GPS.

- Finding a pair of suede mustard-colored flats for $3.  Oh yeah!

-  Waking up to find out that your wonderfully awesome mother baked blueberry-lemon muffins for breakfast.  I've got the best-est mama!

-  Seeing another random skirt-wearing family out and about and striking up a conversation with, "Hey, I really like your skirt" which leads into gabbing about clothes, where I bought such and such, sales, thrift stores, etc.  Such fun!

So, what's been going on with ya'll? 

{friday faves}

 Chocolate chip cookie dough stuffed cupcakes.  <3  If you aren't drooling, you should be!

These are soooooo good.  You can find the recipe here.

Coffee.... <3

 Braids.  I am currently hooked. :)

Cookin' in the kitchen.

zombies, Elvis, etc....

 Pictures are back.  I'm not sure why, but I've decided not to question it so maybe Blogger will keep being nice to me.

Well, it's late and I've got a lot to do, so let's get going...

Awkward

- Sitting behind the counter with Sarah at the fair and having a lady come up and ask Mama which of us is the oldest.  It's been bugging me ever since.  I mean, it's ok to look younger than you really are, but six years younger?  Sigh....

- Overhearing two teenage boys discussing how they would respond to certain situations if they were zombies.  Yeah...

- Going to the used book store to find a certain novel and finding out that there is no "non-fiction" section.  I wandered in bewilderment from "best-seller" to "recently released" to everything else and eventually ending up in the "romance" section.  That's when I gave up.

- The hard stare you give your mother as you come down the stairs as you try to read her face to tell whether or not she likes your outfit.  I did this the other day and she glared back at me and said, "Why do you do that?!?!?"

(My new favorite pic of Daddy and Mama. <3 )

 

Awesome 

 

- Picking up an Elvis CD to surprise Mama and  the two of us going down the road singing and giggling all the way.  The real fun was when we got home and she and Grammy started playing it and dancing.  I thought Sarah was going to fall in the floor from laughing so hard!

 

- Seeing old, very close friends for the first time in years and picking up right where you left off.  We spent 3 hours in McDonald's just gabbing away.

 

- Good hair days.  Of course, according to the general public, I always have a good hair day.  But when I think I'm having a good hair day, that's awesome!

 

- Finding a recipe on Pinterest for cupcakes with cookie dough centers.  They are sooooooooo good!!!!

 

- Having Sarah back home after 3 days in North Carolina.

 

...meet me at the fair...

This past weekend was spent at the Hamilton County fair, and let me tell you, I am still recovering.  We were sooooo busy.  So busy, in fact, that on Sunday we brought along a second fryer for the funnel cakes just to make things a little less crazy!  So in all, we had 5 fryers going.  Thank goodness I only had to deal with one!

Now things are gearing up for this coming weekend at the Nillie Bipper.  (Yes, it is a strange name.  You have to live here to understand it.)

I have pictures, but at the moment Google is being cranky and telling me that my web album is full, even though I've only used 13% of the quota, so I can't upload them.  This has happened before and after a while it calms down and I can start uploading again.  

I have officially complained, so we shall see...