Pink Saturday

It's time for Pink Saturday, my favorite day of the week! For this Pink Saturday I want to take you back to the little antique shop Neil and I visited last Saturday. I shared some of their Beautiful blues on Blue Monday, and now today, Precious Pinks!

I fell in love with these Ice Cream Parlour chairs. The picture just doesn't do them justice. They were such a yummy pink!

You won't even see me in that mirrored china cabinet if you focus on the gorgeous vases like I did when I made the picture.

This dining room was my favorite place in the shop.  What with the warm sun shining through the sparkling~clean windows, soft piano music playing in the background, and all the pink surroundings, I just wanted to spend the day curled up in that green side chair with a cup of hot tea.  Maybe next time...won't you join me? 

Speaking of joining, please join Beverly at How Sweet the Sound for more Pink Saturday loveliness. 

Happy Birthday Preston!

Please indulge me in a Mommy~moment. I want to pause to wish my eldest child a very happy 27th birthday! Watch him grow!

Preston at 9 weeks old. Don't you love those dimples?

Age 2

Preston (age 5) and baby sister, Heather (age 2)


Preston, age 9, carrying baby brother, Taylor. This picture always reminds me of the song, "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother."


Age 15



Preston and proud Mom (me!) on his graduation day from Auburn University


Today's Birthday Boy!

Happy Birthday, Preston! I love you!!!

REDnesday

Thank you for stopping by my place on my first REDnesday, I am honored to have you as a visitor.

I am thrilled to show the beautiful apron I won on CC's recent giveaway. I love the red scallops! But, not only did CC send the lovely apron...

She also sent along these sweet treats...

I was wondering, CC, did you make the sucker and pin cushion?

Here's a close-up of the card. Aren't the red tulips pretty? I love tulips...I can't wait until spring! Thank you CC for all the special gifts. It really made my day when the mail lady brought my little package. You are so sweet!

Now, a few more red pictures:

For some reason I have always loved chickens. My granddaddy raised chickens and rabbits when I was a little girl. You're probably picturing him living on a farm, but no, he lived right in the middle of town, three houses up the street from us! I'm sure he was a favorite with his next door neighbors. He raised bantam chickens. We call them "bantys" or most likely "bannys" in the south. Well, Pawpaw gave me my own pair of bannys, a hen and a rooster, when I was about 12 years old. My daddy built me a little pen for them, and I loved them so much! I wouldn't let my family gather the eggs for eating. I let the hens hatch them out and I ended up with 16 chickens! I kept them all until one day I was watering them, and I let the slippery water jar, a Mason canning jar, slip out of my hand and it landed on one of the little chicks! I won't describe the scene before my 12 year old eyes, but believe me, it was traumatizing! I couldn't stand to go back to my little chicken pen after that. I gave Pawpaw's pair of chickens back to him plus an interest payment of 14 chicks. But, I guess I got over that early-life trauma, because I talked sweet Neil into building me a chicken house after we married and he moved me to the country. We now have three hens and this red-combed rooster...

I like chickens; real and plastic. These planters are waiting out the winter in my greenhouse. Can't you just imagine them cleaned up and filled with red geraniums? Hurry up Spring!

For my last REDnesday contribution, a little color from my front yard. We planted these Nandina bushes a few years ago, just for their winter color. The red berries just seem to glow this time of year, adding some much needed cheerfulness to the gray winter days.

For a complete list of REDnesday participants, just click here to link to Sue's blog. Again, I want to thank you for coming by for my first REDnesday. It would make me so happy if you leave me a comment to let me know you visited. Please come back soon, I love visitors!

Blue Monday

Neil and I went on a date Saturday, and had such a nice time. We went to Guntersville, AL, where we had tickets to attend a play performed by "The Whole Backstage Community Theatre." The play we saw was "Leading Ladies," and it was soooo funny! The plays are performed in an old renovated school building. We hope to go back for other plays in the future. Guntersville is about 1 1/2 hours away for us.



We usually go to the Guntersville State Park at least once a year for camping. Neil loves to fish in the back waters of the Tennessee River there. And Lake Guntersville is beautiful. But for this one-day trip, we enjoyed visiting the shops and just viewing the water from afar. I thoroughly enjoyed the antique shop we visited. It was just beautiful and so peaceful with soothing piano music playing in the background. I think I could have stayed in there all day. The shop owner kindly gave me permission to make pictures, and I promised to mention her store on my blog. Here is her card. If you ever get to visit Guntersville, make sure you stop by this store. You won't be disappointed.



And without further talk, I give you the pictures of a few of the beautiful blues from the Southern Pines Antiques Mall.














Thank you for stopping by for my first Blue Monday post. Make sure you click on the Blue Monday button to go over to Smiling Sally's and visit all the other participating Blue Monday blogs.

Prom Night

Tonight is Taylor's senior prom! I know it's kind of early for prom season to begin, but then we are homeschoolers and homeschoolers march to their own beat. This, plus the fact that the prom is a also a fund-raiser for the Beta Club and they need the funds before the March state convention, makes for an early prom.

So, today I have been trying my hand at something new to me. Making a boutonniere and corsage. I was so happy that Taylor wanted me to use pink flowers, and I promise, I didn't try to persuade him in any way! Really! After dropping Taylor off to help with prom decorations yesterday, I went in search of materials. I found the perfect roses at a little shop not far from the prom site! There was also baby's breath and fern frond in the bouquet, so I didn't have to find filler. I was so happy!


This is one of the roses before I mutilated it.



No kidding! You behead the flower and replace the stem with a florist wire. Everyone but me probably already knew this. I had no clue until watching seemingly hours of YouTube instructions on how to make corsages. So, off with the stems and on with the wires. Here's a rose after its stem transplant.



Here's the finished boutonniere after adding a fern frond, baby's breath, and wrapping the stem with florist tape. I was pretty proud of myself after this little feat. But now on to the BIG challenge...the corsage.



Now, I'm kind of out-of-touch with the florist world, so I didn't know wrist corsages are in and pin-on corsages are out. I found that out when I called a local florist to price corsages. Evidently I'm also out of touch with the price of flowers when bought from a florist. I was informed that a simple wrist corsage starts at $25! That's when this home-school mom decided to become a home-florist.

First I had to think about how to make the wristlet to hold the corsage. Ah-ha! Light bulb moment! I could make something like a pony tail holder from elastic and satiny material I already had!



To finish up the corsage I made three little flower clusters just like the boutonniere, arranged them together, and added the ribbon bow I had made last night. And, VOILA, the finished product. (It'll look better on a young girl's hand instead of my aged one.)



Hey, I was pretty impressed. Now, if they all hold together okay, we're in business. I'm sending along a corsage pin just in case the flowers decide to come off of the wristlet. Afterall, I am a seamstress, not a florist.

I was also happy with the total price for the two flowers... $3.99 for the flowers, and $1.75 for the ribbon. I already had the florist wire and tape from my paper-rose making days. So the grand total was less than $6! Not bad for prom flowers! And....

....there were even enough left-overs to make a small arrangement to grace our breakfast room table on this Pink Saturday!



Be sure to go by Beverly's blog for a list of all the Pink Saturday participants for this week.
Edited to add: Taylor enjoyed the prom and he said his date had the prettiest flowers there. He's so sweet.


This post is linked to:  Making the World Cuter, The DIY Project Parade, Craft-O-Maniac Monday, Life Made Lovely Monday , Motivate Me Monday, It's So Very Cheri, Making Monday Marvelous, Craftastic Monday, Just Something I Whipped Up, Take a Look Tuesday

Welcome Comforting Monday

It was a wonderful weekend, a busy weekend, a beautiful weekend! We woke up on Saturday morning to a dazzling white world, a rare sight for the deep south! The Cardinals love the chicken feed we supply them with in our back yard bird feeder, and were especially grateful for it this snowy weekend.



I was hoping the snow would hang around for a while. I had visions of a long, leisurely day with my family. We had plenty of food and plenty of fire wood. I would cook up a big pot of chili, and we could do all those things that we rarely have time for during the work week...especially enjoy leisure time together. But, it wasn't to be. The sun soon came out, melting the snow from the roads that lead away from home. Our two sons and our visiting nephew left as soon as roads were clear, off to visit sporting shops around the area. And, since the roads are now clear, my dear husband and I can get out and begin our regular weekend routine too. With a little sigh, I get bundled up to leave our warm fire and thoughts of that big pot of chili to go into "town." I enjoy the trip to town. The rural roadsides, pastures, and surrounding mountains are all still covered with snow. We go to our favorite little home-owned hamburger spot for lunch. Just the two of us. Leaving there, we can't go home without visiting that big ole' department store where everyone and their brother are scrambling around for last-minute Valentine gifts. Dear husband always gets me my favorite candy, Reeses Peanut Butter Cups, potted flowers, and a Valentine. But, he hadn't been able to find the potted roses like the ones I have so enjoyed from a couple of years ago, so we travel into the next county to try to find those. And we do ...

...but, by then our Saturday is almost gone. Here it is, Sunday already...Saturday went by in a blur! Taylor is playing guitar and singing in the early service at church today and wants to leave at 7:30 a.m. to be there in time to practice before service. Sweet husband, gets up early to dress and take Taylor to church. So much for our normal leisurely Sunday morning breakfast. We say goodbye to our nephew. He is headed back home after staying with us since Friday night, then the rest of us get ready for church. Our sons go to a different church than we do. They enjoy the big church in town, where there are a lot of young people and lots of activities. Neil and I have gone back to the little church I grew up in. The church we were married in. It's a small church, but everybody there really know each other. It felt like coming home when we walked back in there a couple of years ago after going elsewhere for the last 25 years . After church, we meet our boys at a restaurant for lunch. We usually meet back at home on Sundays for a lunch of soup or chili that we have cooking in the crockpot...but not this Sunday, it's Valentine's day. We barely get home, when someone has to take Taylor back to church for another band practice. Then Neil and I decide to attend our church's Valentine party, so we prepare for that. After the party, we leave our church and pick Taylor up. It's 7:00 p.m. and finally, we're coming home. The weekend is gone now...gone in a flurry of busyness. I enjoyed it, but I also crave home time.
Thus, the reason Monday is such a comfort to me.

~ I thrive on order ~

On Mondays I make my menu for the week, I wash all the clothes we used over the weekend, I vacuum up all the little trails left from the many times we were in and out of the house. The house is put back to rights. Taylor and I get back to our school schedule, to our regular read-aloud time. Yes, he is 17 years old and we still look forward to making our cups of hot tea or cocoa and sitting down for some relaxing read-aloud time. I count my blessings that I can stay home and care for my family instead of having to go to an outside job. I love being a stay-at-home mama. Mama is home with Taylor, while he is finishing up his last year of homeschool. Mama is here when oldest son, Preston, comes home from a cold day spent working outside on his contracting job. Mama is happy to be home when Heather calls from Indiana, just to talk a while. And when Neil pulls up in the carport, after a long, stressful day at work, Sherry is peeking out of the kitchen window, with a smile for him. I am so thankful to be home. I think I'll go cook a pot of chili now.

Pink Saturday ~ Apron Winner!

Happy Pink Saturday and Happy Valentine's Day Eve~Eve! My favorite day is almost here! Valentine's Day has always been my very favorite day of the year. I'm not sure why. My DD, Heather, speculates that it's because it is all about pink and red. Could be...could be....I've always been a pink and red kind of girl. Most of my red went to Indiana with Heather, leaving me with only the pink. She decorated her kitchen with all of the familiar reds from home. That way when she walked into her apartment after a day at a new school in a far-from-Alabama state, it was really like coming home.

Well, on with the Valentine eye candy...

"Made-by-Sherry" Valentine garland. I haven't hung it up this year. I've just carried it all over the house, leaving it here and there....that way I can enjoy it where ever I happen to be at the time.

My favorite bookmark from my local library. I love my library and my bookmobile!

"Made-by-Sherry" paper globe using instructions from Heather Bailey's blog.

I made the paper globe's little dangling heart by sticking two identical stickers together.

My favorite necklace. The little swirls around the center heart look like S's to me. "S" for Sherry! I think it was just made for me!

And last but not least...A Happy Valentine...
Uh oh, who's that peeking over A Happy Valentine's head? Oh, it's Lulu.
She wanted to draw the winner for the apron giveaway. But I decided to give that
honor to DS #2. BTW, DS #2 didn't appreciate being called by initials and a
number, so I asked him what he wanted me to call him on my blog and he said, "How
about my name?" So, without further ado...




...here is Taylor, drawing the winning name for the Apron Giveaway! And the winner is.......

Shellymckinstry !!!!

Congratulations Shelly! I will be getting in touch with you personally to find out where to send your apron.

I want to thank everyone that entered my first giveaway contest. Your comments are all so sweet and greatly treasured. I wish I could have given each one of you an apron.

If you didn't get enough Valentine's Day eye candy yet, then pop on over to Beverly's blog for a long list of Pink Saturday participants. It's Valentine's Day all over Blog Land today. Thanks for visiting with me today, and oh yeah, I'll be back with some more Valentine posts over the weekend, so check back!

Baby Afghan Update

I finished the second baby afghan just in time for last Sunday's baby tea. I was very pleased with the results. It was a wonderful tea for the expectant mother. She got two of almost everything! She seems so happy but so miserable, and her babies aren't even due until April!

I left the tea a little early and went to the Super Bowl yard sale I posted about here. Well, that was a BIG disappointment. There were tons of beautiful fabric, but the prices were higher than a fabric store! Needless to say, there were several "lookers," but no buyers there. I was sorry I left the tea early. I was enjoying it.

I will be announcing the winner of the apron giveaway tomorrow afternoon in my Pink Saturday post! You have until tomorrow, noon (central time), to enter. Just click on the apron pocket in the side bar for instructions.

Pink Saturday

There are many ways to say I love you. ~ Mr. Rogers

That's so true Mr. Rogers. Seeing a handkerchief always takes me back to my childhood. My mother always carried handkerchiefs when I was a child. They came in handy for so many things. One of my fondest memories is of Mama making "quiet toys" out of her handkerchief for me while we sat in church on Sunday mornings. I think she understood how hard it was for a six year old to sit still for more than a minute with nothing to entertain them. So, when I started to wiggle, out would come her neatly ironed handkerchief. She could fold and roll that little square into what I always thought looked like bunny ears. I would play with that a while, then pull an "ear," and it would be a square again. Then she would roll it into a baby swing with two little babies snuggled in the middle. I would sit and swing, swing, swing my little twins for quite a while. Then I would pull that open and start trying to do those feats of magic myself. And before I knew it, church would be over! Then one day, with Mama's patient help, and lots of practice on my part, I made my own bunny ears and even went on to make those little twins.

I never carried a handkerchief when my children were little, just a wad of paper tissues, so I didn't pass my mama's talent on. I wonder if I could still make these wonderful objects that make time go by so quickly for a child. Think I'll go try. Excuse me a moment please.....

No, I'm sorry to say, I don't remember how to make them. I think I need to go visit my mama and get her to show me how to make these again. She is 80 years old now, but thankfully, she's very healthy and sharp of mind. I do hope she remembers how to make them, I need to practice up because I hope to be a grandmother some day.

By the way, I bought all these handkerchiefs from an estate sale for ten cents each. This last one is my favorite, so I made it into a pillow for our bed. Now I get to see it every day. And, oh yes, I now carry a handkerchief in my purse...always.

Happy Pink Saturday!

Please visit Beverly at How Sweet the Sound. She is the special lady that puts the Pink in our Saturdays. Thank you Beverly!

P.S. I will announce the winner of my apron give-away in next week's Pink Saturday post. Just click on the apron pocket on my sidebar to enter. I will take entries until noon on Friday, February 12.