Happy New Year!

I’m sure my sister is expecting my New Year’s Resolutions list but I’ll spare her the monotony of reading it…. I do have a list though. Tonight I’m sipping champagne and eating shrimp and waiting for the New Year to roll in. Then I’ll go to bed and wake up with a renewed spirit and intent on changing all my bad habits and developing all kinds new healthy ones.

Until later….. Have a Happy New Year!

The Man Cave

This year the best thing my husband heard was when I presented the idea of no gifts. We decided to purchase a plasma TV instead. After discussion about where to put a large screen TV we decided to clean out the “extra” room that is a junk room/project room and spare bedroom. On Saturday we moved the furniture from the sunroom into the man cave and moved the love seat that was being stored in there into the sunroom. I purchased a slip cover for that and am still tweaking it.... How in the world do you get a slip cover not to look so much like a slipcover?

So I worked all day Saturday putting junk away and trying to make the room look presentable. I still have a week to work on the project but I’m showing the before and after today even though I still have curtains to hang and more junk to put away, etc. You get the idea.

The "before" photo was taken when we had all the excess junk from the recent bedroom closet makeover in there so there is quite a bit more junk than usual in the photo!

Christmas 2009

Our Christmas was very nice, Molly came home Christmas Eve and sang a solo in church and spent the night with us. We opened packages in the morning. My sister, Lindy and her daughter Megan had brunch with us and then later in the day, Lindy’s son’s and their families came over as well as my brother and his wife. We all had dinner together. I made a triffle for dessert and it was a big hit. Here is the photo. This was so simple to do and it looks great in a triffle bowl. I baked a chocolate cake and then made chocolate instant pudding but instead of 2 cups of milk, I used 1.5 cups milk and a half cup of Kahlua and after a layer of cake and half the pudding I added cool whip and then more cake, pudding and cool whip.

The batteries in my camera died so I don't have any more photos of Christmas! But we had a nice day and it's over for another year.

Holiday House Tour

I had a productive day today and am organized and I think I'll be ready for Christmas! Today I finished decorating the dining room and finished the gift wrapping. I also made a list of what I need to get yet from the grocery store and another list of things I must get done each day.

I took photos today of my house and would like to invite everyone to my house tour today!

Feeling the Stress

I've got a bunch of boxes cluttering the kitchen and living room.... I haven't finished the decorating yet nor have I baked a cookie. I bought chocolate for dipping a couple weeks ago before the stress kicked in and haven't dipped anything yet. I still have shopping to do also... I haven't done any decorating in the dining room yet and since some of us will be eating in there in one week's time I feel the need to clean and decorate in there. I just don't know when it will all happen.

I am busy at my "big girl job", our secretary retired last month and we haven't replaced her so I'm doing her job as well as my own and since I am working full time now, I am finding that I sure don't have as much time at home to just "play" any more! I am going to leave early tomorrow and hopefully finish up my Christmas shopping and start on the grocery shopping. The weather is also going to be part of the challenge of the next week. The weatherman said it will be nice tomorrow and again on Saturday and next Tuesday....it is a 30 minute trip to a decent grocery store and the mall, so I have to plan that around the weather reports.

I still manage to have time to read blogs and saw a beautiful collage on one last night, it inspired me to make one of my own, I don't have anything special on my coffee table in the sunroom (I was planning on a pink poinsettia that didn't happen) and so I put this together. I wrote Christmas cards earlier this week when I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't go back to sleep! How does stress affect you? I've never been good at sleeping.

Ok, I'm off to tweak the grocery list...is anyone else having trouble getting it together this year?

Bedroom Reveal

I have been working on this project all summer, for those of you regular readers you will remember that I painted all my furniture white and then painted the walls....we needed new floors and when I spilled the gallon of paint on the floor that sealed the deal and we had new floors put in last week. Now I am at the point where I am putting everything back together but I need help!!!

I am thinking white semi sheers at the windows that go to the floor or are at least to the bottom of the sill. I need some stuff for the walls. I hung a couple pretty plates on one wall but ran out of hangers so I'll have to wait to get a few more of those. I'm sort of looking for a pretty picture for one of the walls too but not sure what.... so I'm putting it out there to my blogger friends to make some suggestions as how to finish the room...

Laurie are you getting motivated to finish yours yet?

Photos of before and after...

New Chandelier

My floors are finished and I started putting things back together last night. I thought a new night stand would be a good idea so I went to the local furniture store to see if they might have something. All my furniture is white so I'm rather limited and around here everyone still loves country so shabby chic is unheard of! I struck out with the night stand but I did see a cute little chandelier that I thought I could find a place for. I brought it home and decided that it might look cute in the kitchen above the sink. But before we hung it I decided I needed a differnt set of curtains in there so today we went shopping. We shopped all day and I didn't get a single Christmas gift. I did get a curtain that turned out to be to long, I think it would look better with the rod dropped about 12 inches or so and the curtains should be rehemmed. I'll put that on my "to do"list.

Editor's Note: When I said I want to drop the curtain rod... there are 2 curtain rods one for the valance and one that is a cafe style curtain underneath the valance. That is the one I thought should be shorter but my sister says she likes it as is and that saves me some work so I guess I'll leave it and maybe add a tie back on either side of the cafe curtain.

Bedroom Update

Remember the gallon of paint incident? Finally the men came today to pull out the carpet and replace it with a laminent floor. The dressing room off the bathroom had the same ugly carpet so we decided to change that floor and while we were at it, may as well do the bathroom floor. So this is the week that it all happens. When I come home from work tomorrow I get to put everything back in place.

Right now there is bedroom furniture all over the house as well as everything from the closet... our house is a mess and I can't wait to get everything put back where it belongs. Tonight of all nights the neighbor from a couple houses down stopped in to visit! I don't know if she has ever been in our house before and she got to see it at its worse! I guess Murphy's Law is alive and well.

Stay tuned for bedroom updates. I need curtains yet and have no idea what to get but I'm hoping to soon start pulling it together...

Thanksgiving 2008

Sorry Blogger Friends, I've been experiencing blogger block and life so I haven't been blogging lately. So today is my Thanksgiving update. My sister from CT came down to Penna for a few days and her daughter Meg surprised us all and came in the night before and stayed till yesterday. Lindy's son, Tim who lives locally also came for dinner. We had a nice day and I ate way to much.

On Black Friday I took the day off work and shopped till I was ready to drop. I have decided that I am getting to old to enjoy the chaos at the mall. It was fun if you didn't actually want to buy anything. But I'm the kind of shopper who buys something from one store and something from another store and sort of shop around. There were some bargains to be had if ya needed that stuff or didn't mind standing in the lines. I got a few things for Molly since she was with me. She and I shopped together for a couple hours and then she had to go to work and I hit the speciality stores.

After leaving the mall I went to a nearby town. I discovered a new scrapbooking store that was loaded and having a sale! Next stop, the Street of Shops, it was my first time there... I don't know how I have missed that place for the past 20 years or however long it's been there... I went to an antique shop as well where I found a lovely slip that I'm calling a skirt for my dress form, "Miss Frannie".

Also on the list of places to stop was the Village Stitchery Shop in Mifflinburg, it in an old school house and the owner is so sweet. She remembers everyone who comes into her shop and chats with everyone. She caters mostly to the cross stitchers and carries lots and lots of counted cross stitch patterns, fabric and thread. I go there for thread for my crazy quilting. I like the DMC perle cotten in various thicknesses to add texture to my pieces. Another must stop on my list is the Mifflinburg Country Home and Garden... not sure of the name but it never disappoints as far as the artistic quality of displays. The owner of this place is very creative and has done some fabulous displays in the past. This year they have lots of theme trees. I bought a lovely tiara for Molly's pink tree at her house. She will love it and I'm guessing it will go with the rest of the tiaras she has been collecting. My last stop was the thrift shop which yielded nothing... oh well.

I came home and needed a nap and then I was awake and ready to start decorating. So I'll soon be sharing those photos!

Looks can be deceiving!

Last week Molly called, her roommate hates her kitten and she had to get rid of it. So, guess who has the kitten! Ok, the photo of the kitten is not a very good one because none of it's personality comes through on this photo. The photo shows a sweet little kitten when in reality the kitten is into everything and jumps from one piece of furniture to another....he climbed up my jeans leg yesterday while I was sitting at the table, and he scratches and bites! I don't know what I was thinking when I said I'd take the kitten... We have two cats and two dogs so I am not an animal hater, I just have reached a point in my life where I have nice things and would prefer not to have them batted onto the floor by an inquisitive kitten. I'm guessing my Christmas will be ruined by a kitten that will climb into the Christmas tree and stop at nothing until the tree is undecorated. Tonight I tried stitching during the football games and there was no way that was going to work... I can forget knitting for sure... How am I going to cope with this kitten...anyone have any ideas? The roommate is moving out in May and Molly wants him back then.

Anyone want a lovely playful kittie till May? Lindy?

Penn State Proud

I'm a football fan. Particularly I like college football, my husband graduated from Penn State and that makes us Penn State fans. Even our dogs have caught the Penn State fever this year, the Penn State team is doing great and could very well have an undefeated season. Last weekend I made Penn State scarves for both our dogs. Here is a photo of Stewie showing off his!

I'm Knitting!

Last week I stopped by the local yarn and fabric shop to get material to make Halloween scarves for my dogs and noticed a lovely scarf that had been knitted. I looked on the internet and found a free pattern that looked like what I remembered that scarf to look like. One night I knitted it with some yarn I had on hand. What I had was not really what the pattern called for but it was close enough to inspire me to go back to the yarn shop and find the ribbon yarn that the pattern called for. I also found a yarn called Moonlight Mohair to go with it and started knitting. This scarf is on #17 needles so one evening of knitting and it's done!

Today I fought the urge to go to Joann's fabric shop to see what they had that I could use to make a scarf for my daughter..... I lost the fight and came back $50 poorer... Oh, the pretty ceramic turkey, tea pot and tea cup were on sale that I was watching so, I spent some of that $50 on those other necessary items.

So, here is my finished scarf.

Happy Halloween!!

Happy Halloween! I don't really do much for the Halloween Holiday, I am decorated for fall and do have a jack-o-lantern on my front porch but that is about the extent of my Halloween decorations.

Last night I baked cookies for "Trunk or Treat" at the church (the youth will be handing out candy and goodies in the church parking lot tonight). I wrapped each cookie in a cello bag and attached a Halloween tag to it. I had a few cookies left and put them on a plate in the kitchen and then tied a tag to the lid. So I actually have a tiny bit of Halloween in the kitchen too and fresh cookies!!

Halloween Necklace

Since I work full time now and it is getting dark earlier it is getting harder for me to blog....well the blogging isn't the problem, taking good photos is a problem, no natural light... so bear with me...today's post is a necklace I made a couple weeks ago. This was my first attempt at soldering. After I finished it I reread the instructions and next time I'll do some things differently but for now, this is what I have to show for my attempt. I used microscope glass and cut it in half and slipped a picture between the two pieces and soldered around the edges.

Stitching!!!

After a stressful week at work I decided to spend my weekend with no agenda other than to relax and enjoy it! So I did just that. I made time to do some stitching. I also went through a large stack of paperwork, did some laundry and watched the Penn State game. I finished this little wall hanging and hope to get it on etsy tonight. The only other thing on my list for the weekend is to update the website for my grown up job.

Did you have a good weekend? What do you like to do when you have no agenda and you just want to clear your head?

Sweet Surprise

I had one of those weeks when on Thursday night I crawled into bed and had no idea where the week went. I had meetings every night but Thursday and since it was so completely hectic I decided to go shopping and get groceries. That leaves my weekend completely free to watch football and stitch and just relax and get ready for next week!

The highlight this week was opening my mail and seeing that I got a message on Facebook from former exchange student Julie Wery. We hosted Julie for about 6 months…..probably 10 years ago. Julie graduated from high school in Belgium, when she studied here she repeated her senior year.

Julie was the perfect daughter, she never disobeyed and she understood all the Rotary rules and was a model ambassador for her country of Belgium. Julie is all grown up now and married and has 2 children, a boy and a girl. I’m sure she is a wonderful mother because she was never in a bad mood, always pleasant.

Today's photo is of some Belgium lace that Julie gave me when she lived with us. Belgium is famous for their lace and chocolate. I remember her grandmother would often send a magazine in the mail to her and always inside the magazine would be a couple pieces of Belgium chocolate! Grandma also sent money occasionally! I think Grandma may have sent the money for her prom gown…. I remember searching everywhere for that dress and we finally found the one in a small shop in Lewisburg.

I have many happy memories of the time that Julie spent with us and I’m glad that we have found each other again and I was able to catch up on her life.

Pumpkin Topiary

A couple weeks ago I made a pumpkin topiary and it's just what the front porch needed. I took off all the flowers and plants as well as some of the furniture, so things are looking pretty bare on the porch.... It was probably close to 80 degrees today....unseasonably warm for the middle of October. The warm weather is fine with me... I love warm October days!

No real instructions, I used glue... I was looking for museum wax but couldn't find any so I just looked in my cabinets to see what kind of glue I had that might work. I was afraid if I used a dowel rod the pumpkin would rot to soon. I did use pins to keep the leaves on the pumpkin.

Shopping!!!

I love most anything Rachael Ashwell so I could hardly contain myself waiting for Target to open this week about a half hour from my home. Today I spent my afternoon shopping and my first stop was Target. I was actually disappointed though because the Rachael Ashwell line was only somewhat there, not at all like the State College store (an hour away) so I left disappointed. In State College the shabby chic line is evident even in the pet asile. About all I found in the Shabby Chic line at the new store were a few bedspreads and a shower curtain.... So I'm hoping that maybe since the store opened on Wednesday and I didn't get there till Friday that everyone else was waiting for the line also and they will be restocking... hmmmm. I did come home with a couple pairs of reading glasses that were in the dollar section! One can never have to many pairs of reading glasses. I also found a stuffed squirrel in the pet asile that I had to have. My Stewart sits and barks at squirrels every morning so he was pretty excited to get one of his very own! I also bought a bucket that is sort of oval and my mop will fit in it. So although I was disappointed about the lack of Rachael Ashwell stuff, I did find a few things that made me happy.

Last week I shopped at Kohl's (also new) and used the $10 gift card they sent me! I found a pair of shoes and I imagine the next time I need some retail therapy I'll go back and get the boots that I saw that were very comfortable. At my age if I wear a pair of shoes with a high heel all day usually by the next morning my hip hurts and I have trouble walking but I like the way boots make me feel, a bit taller and thinner and a bit less like a country hick! So, I imagine I'll have me a pair of Vera Wang boots next time I need some retail therapy!

I also decided to try out the new grocery store in the new shopping center. I had taken a virtual tour a week ago and was really excited to try that place out too.... Ok, so my critique on that is that it is so large that it was almost not enjoyable.... I did expect not to be able to find the stuff on my list since it is a new store but I didn't realize that since the store is so large if you miss an item on your list it is a pain to try to retrace your steps to find it again. They did have an adequate number of cash registers open to accomodate the shoppers and I didn't have to wait in line, but I decided that I might just stick with the Weis store that I am already familair with.

So that was my afternoon!

This Week's Ut Oh!

I think I probably mentioned before that I have been working on a bedroom makeover. My inspiration room is Cindy’s bedroom at A Romantic Home.
Everything about Cindy’s home is beautiful and as an avid reader of her blog she inspired me to want some blue somewhere in my home too. I decided to paint my bedroom blue. The first phase of the project was to paint my furniture white and shabby it a bit, I did that this summer. Phase two is painting the bedroom walls and today was the day.

If you are a reader of Cindy’s blog you know that she can work miracles in a weekend. She makes it look easy. Ok, I bought paint about 3 weeks ago and today is the day I’m devoting to painting… I got up early this morning and was so glad to hear my husband offer his assistance with the project. If I did the edges and cut in, he would roll the walls…..so the project is getting easier by the moment and I am sure we can be finished by the time Penn State kicks off at noon. I’m a very fussy painter and could probably do this job without a drop cloth and dressed in my best clothes but why tempt the fates… I put on a pair of old shorts and a t-shirt and began the project.

As I moved the ladder for the first time it started to collapse (who knew that you have to latch it to keep it open) and the whole gallon of paint fell off the ladder and onto the carpet! Can you believe it! Luckily (yeah right) the paint can landed right side up so only about a half gallon of paint landed on the carpet and drop cloth…. I began scooping up the paint off the drop cloth and putting it back into the can and my husband got wet rags and went to work on the carpet. One of my first reactions was to take a photo but my husband did not think a photo shoot would be a good idea so I waited till he went out into the kitchen and most of the mess had been cleaned up before taking a quick photo of the carpet and paint… we were planning to replace the carpet anyhow but were still in the “thinking about what we want to put in there” stage… This mess has prompted me to call the carpet man who will be here Monday to measure for new carpet!

So, changing the color of the room has once again turned into a major project, so much for anything easy.... We will also change the carpet in the dressing room so that means everything in there will have to come out in order to replace the carpet….we’re talking a major job!



I’ll be working on my bedroom makeover for the next week or two, so stay tuned!!!

New Job....Sort of...

I have been looking for fulltime work for a couple months. We have a daughter in college and money has been tight around here. I also have extra time on my hands since my “mothering” days are not as much in demand as my daughter has moved into her own apartment. Anyhow, I was looking for a job in a nearby town and my husband and I were seriously thinking about the adventure of moving closer to shopping and “take-out”. We even started getting rid of quite a bit of accumulated JUNK anticipating a move!

Well to make a long story short, the job that I am presently working at offered me full time work with benefits. So instead of working 25 hours a week I am now at my office for 8 hrs. a day. And, we will be staying in our home for a few more years.

Since my office is now going to be my home away from home, the first order of business has been to “decorate”. I am an administrative assistant at my church and am the first person to have that job so the office that they gave me was actually a storage room with no heat, air conditioning or window, just pipes and wiring running everywhere… I have made the best of a poor situation and am actually liking the fact that I am downstairs and at the end of a hall and that I can work uninterrupted because no one can find my office! Here are the before and after photos…

Once again while my sister was visiting I drug her down there to help out and she even did the shopping and picked up fabric for my make over… Here is a photo of her hanging fabric to cover the pipes that were everywhere. Thanks Lindy… I still have painting to do. The paint I picked out looks awful on the wall so I’m taking it back to see if they can add some brown to it to tone it down.

New Project

I don't think I have stitched anything all summer....but last night during the football game I got out my needles and threads and finished this project. I hope to stitch this winter and learn a few more stitches and some silk ribbon embroidery... I'm collecting silk ribbons but haven't really been motivated to work at it.... I'm putting that on my list of things to do.

Anyhow, that's what I did last night.

Show and Tell Friday

Today I'm going to show my fall decorations.  My sister was here a couple weeks ago and while I spent an afternoon cooking, she decorated my mantle and my living room.  Here are a few pictures:  

 Tomorrow  I hope  to take all the pink off my front porch and get it ready for fall...  I just might make a fall banner.

In Pennsylvania we have 4 seasons and although I really don't like winter much at all, each of the seasons have things about it that I really look forward to.  Here is my list for fall.

the warm colors

the smell of burning leaves

fall sports

fires in the fireplace

shopping for sweaters and fall clothes

crockpot cooking

roasted chestnuts

What are your favorite things about fall?

Farmers Market

This morning my husband and I got up early and went to the farmers market about 40 minutes away from home.  He has decided that he would like to eat healthy so what better way to get started than to go to the farmers market and start with healthy food.   There was a lot of beautiful produce and the day was perfect for an outdoor market We loaded the car with some Asters, and cut flowers, cabbage, green peppers, pumpkins, gourds, corn on the cob, apples and onions.  I picked up a little bit of everything and kept sending Al back to the car with bags of stuff.  I didn't get back to the office till 11 so I went in tonight for a couple hours. 

The photo is one of the vendors at the market.

Ut Oh!!!

hmmmmm, my house is clean, my husband is out of town, I have a whole weekend to do whatever I want to do.... Last night I was reading blogs and one of them gave tips on cleaning and organizing their pantry. Well, mine is pretty disgusting right now so I thought maybe I'd clean and organize a shelf or two.... One of the things I remembered to do was check the dates of stuff and get rid of outdated stuff ..... Ok, here's a box of instant mashed potatoes, don't know when I would have used those so I checked the date and they are about ready to expire so I dumped them down the garbage disposal.... Ut oh....

I see now that I made a big mistake doing that.... I guess those flakes expanded as I added water to them and now I have mashed potatoes clogging my drain! Ok, so I know how to work a plunger.... hmmmm, well that isn't working... I'm thinking eventually the mixture of potatoes and water will bio degrade or something and I won't have to call a plumber. In the meantime I guess I'll take a photo and blog about it! I think I've done enough cleaning for today.

Ok, anyone have any stories to entertain me about the last time you did something really stupid?

Friday Show and Tell

My show and tell for today is gardening tools. I have two sets of vintage gardening tools. Both of my sets are well used lovely sets. I usually display them in my home from spring till fall and then pack them up when the fall decorations come out. So before I packed them up last week I snapped a photo.

To see more "show and tell" blogs click on over to Kelli at There's No Place Like Home.

Happy Birthday to Me

Today is my birthday.... My sister brought me a bunch of hydrangeas from her home in CT. She is here for a few days for a visit. Since she's home I invited her family for dinner tonight. So I spent the day cooking and preparing to feed everyone, there were 11 of us. Her youngest son who we often only get to see once a year came up to visit (1.5 hr drive for him). My daughter brought her laundry and new kitten and spent a few hours also so it was a happy day for me....and now since I have turned 55 I'm eligible for the sr. senior discount at my favorite department store.... Yikes...I just can't imagine being a sr. citizen... but isn't 55 the new 45? I sure don't feel 55!

Show and Tell Friday

It's Friday and so I'm showing and telling..... Today's favorite thing to show is a small cupboard with some small tea sets. As a child I can remember having a lovely little china tea set and drinking tea from it. It was a bit small for drinking from, I'm guessing if we wanted to do any serious tea drinking we used my sister's set of Roy Rogers tea cups....those were much larger in size. I have no idea what ever happened to either of our tea sets but when I see a set at a sale I remember back to the days of tea parties in the playroom.

A few years ago I purchased this child's cupboard at my Aunt and Uncle's Estate sale. It is about 36" tall and was made for my aunt by her father when she was a little girl. I estimate the cupboard to be about 75 years old and I thought it would be perfect to use to display some tea sets I've been collecting.

I'm a Winner!!

I have been so blessed to have won this charming composition book at a blog give-away by Dawn Edmonson from The Feathered Nest. Dawn is an amazing artist and I am honored to have one of her creations. Thank you so much Dawn, I know exactly what I'm going to do with it. I'm taking it to my office at my big girl job and I'll use it for addresses and user names, etc. beside my computer.

Show and Tell

I am going to be participating in Kelli's Show and Tell Friday's... hang on, I'm already a day late but will try to be on time next week...

This little cat is from my grandparent's home. Apparently we gave it to my grandmother when I was very small as a thank you gift of some sort.... I don't remember the details but I always loved the cat as a child and now it is part of my own china closet.

Click on the link and check out the rest of the show and tell's this weekend

The End of Summer and Other Depressing Thoughts

Labor Day has to be my all time least favorite holiday. As a kid, Labor Day was typically the day we put the cover on the pool and that marked the end of summer. I still approach Labor Day with the same sense of dread. Now that I’m all grown up and out of school, etc. I can hold on to summer a bit longer but it won’t be long before I will have to pack my flip flops up and get out the sweat shirts and jeans. Fall decorations are appearing in the stores and I’m guessing this weekend I’ll give into my urge to bring on the fall colors and start the decorating process.

My 21 year old daughter is making some very unwise decisions and that is breaking my heart, but on the brighter side, it is strengthening my walk with the Lord and today I decided that when I can’t sleep or find myself eating everything in site because I can’t cope with her choices….I will be reciting a favorite Bible verse: Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6

God is in control of my personal life as well as the seasons and occasionally we all need a reminder that He has a perfect plan for each one of us, we just need to be patient and wait for His timing….

Garage Sale

I am sitting at a garage sale all day today and tomorrow… We have been working in the basement for 4 weeks getting rid of junk and pricing stuff for a garage sale and today is the day! Unfortunately it is raining and I’m not sure that is good for business. But the good news is I have gotten rid of a lot of stuff….and as the tables empty I have been going back into the house and getting more “stuff”. So by the end of the day tomorrow, I’ll be packing up as much as I had originally I think! We decided to continue our de-junking and work in the attic as our next project and have another garage sale in October when our town has its Oktoberfest!

My philosophy on having a garage sale is to bless others....when I was a stay at home mom I really appreciated being able to go to yard sales and finding gently used clothes and household articles that I could use. Molly and I could get pretty excited about nothing much at all.... and now I'm passing that feeling onto others as they find GAP jeans for $1 and American Eagle shirts for fifty cents. So that said, I counted my money and even at all the 25 and 50 cent items I made more money at the yard sale today than I would have working....so I guess I can justify the day off.

We are supposed to have beautiful weather this weekend... I hope you all have beautiful weather where you are!!!

2008 Olympics

I have been faithfully watching the Olympics every night. I love all the stories about the athletes, how they overcome the odds to be the very best at their sport. It seems almost every athlete has an interesting story.

I’m guessing everyone’s favorite this year has to be Michael Phelps as he won 8 gold medals… What an accomplishment! As if that were not spectacular enough did anyone notice what he did after each race? He went over to his mother and gave her the flowers! In a couple of the interviews he talked about how special his mother was to him and about her sacrifice…. As a mom, I was impressed that the world’s top athlete this week gave his mother the credit.

I want to be Michael Phelp's mom!!!!

Shoe Fly Cake

Those of you who know me know that I really do not enjoy cooking, but I’m a wife and mother and so I cook enough to keep everyone happy….well more or less. I live in Central Pennsylvania where the old timers speak Pennsylvania Dutch. A lot of the foods are prepared in the Pennsylvania Dutch tradition where the cooking reflects both the German heritage and the hearty foods associated with the physical work involved in farming. One of my favorites has always been Shoe Fly Cake. I think the name was given to the shoe fly pie which is made very much like the cake, only in a pie shell. I would guess it was given the name because it is a sweet pie/cake and maybe a temptation to the flies…

Here is the recipe, it is a type of coffee cake and as I was growing up it was a special treat that my mother would sometimes make for our breakfast.

Shoe Fly Cake 8x8” pan

1 cup sugar
½ C margarine at room temperature
2 C. flour
1C. Hot Water
½ t. baking soda
½ C molsasses

Grease and flour an 8x8” pan.
Mix sugar, margarine and flour (Save about ½ C for the top)
Add hot water, soda and molasses
Mix together, but not thoroughly, it will be lumpy
Pour in pan and sprinkle the 1/2C mixture on top
Bake at 350 for about 25 minutes

Yard Sales

I love yard sales…I think getting a bargain is a big part of the thrill for me. I like “stuff” too, so although my husband has put a limit on the amount of “stuff” we will be bringing into the house, I can’t help myself…. I have to stop at a couple each week. I love dishes and so I’m always on the lookout for dishes and pretty plates. What grabs your attention? Today I found some lovely charger plates that look great with one of my everyday dish sets. With the chargers were the cutest little bowls that match the chargers and my dishes so I came home today a happy camper and only spent $5.

One thing I have learned about yard sales is that some people think their “junk” is golden! I went to one of those today and since it was someone I knew I felt like I couldn’t just walk away and not buy something since I engaged her in conversation. Luckily I found some gift bags that didn’t have a price tag on so I asked the price and since they weren’t hers she gave me a bargain and I came home with a few gift bags.

This year I got some real treasures at yard sales...I really like the coffee table that I painted a vew weeks ago and the dress form that is worth a couple hundred dollars. I am on the lookout for a vintage prom dress for her. I may have to check my attic, I probably have something that will do till I find something better. I'd love to hear of your favorite yard sale story...