The best picture of all..

I Tweeted a lot of pictures today, but this was my favorite. This was outside that great art gallery in Leiper's Fork that I gave you a link to in my Twitter feed. I loved the simplicity of this fire pit, the smoke from the burning wood, and, of course, the best part, the big jar of marshmallows sitting in the background, We didn't get a picture when we were there, and I regretted it, but John was a good sport, he turned around, went back and this was the result.

It's one of those simple things I talk about so often...

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We're in Music City

Having a great weekend with the kids, John and Deanna. Yesterday we went to Nashville Flea Market, which is a huge deal in Nashville in October. I found treasures, including a Blingy collar for Maggie and jewelry drawer liners! So next week the organizing saga continues. Bet you all can't wait for that!

And this picture is from John and Deanna's great adventure last weekend. Deanna and her sisters blog regularly at Harris Sisters GirlTalk. You can read all about their ride in a hot air balloon by clicking on the following link

http://theharrissisters.blogspot.com/2012/10/floating-on-breeze.html

Today the guys were up early, John tore out their fireplace a couple of weeks ago, then rebuilt it with a ventless fireplace insert and now they're grouting the new tile. They always have a project. Then were off to the country for a little antiquing, where lunch will hopefully be beans and cornbread and this evening were going to dinner with Barb and Wally, our friends who are also in town for the weekend.

Tomorrow were going home where yours truly will work on organizing that jewelry.

I just love fall, October is the prettiest month of the year, I think. Next we visit the grandkids. I remember when Abby was born, we were sitting in the waiting room, and there was this older lady talking to me about her grandchildren. She said that about after a month she starts getting the "itch." Now I totally understand, its been a month now since I last saw them, and I'm starting to "itch" like crazy!

 

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86-year-old gymnast 'Johanna Quaas' performs parallel bars routine

 

This is a must see, the woman is amazing.  Absolutely sitting here with my mouth open!

Goldie Hawn without makeup

She looks like a normal 66 year old woman. Kind of endearing, isn't it?

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A cheap thrill…

So I go to Wally World, spend a total of $5 on five cheap plastic tubs to organize Maggie’s dog clothes, and this is how it turned out.  Yep, I got that whole pile of clothes that was on my bed into these five containers.  Who woulda thunk it. 

Doesn’t take a lot to make me happy, does it?

Now if I could just find the right containers to fit inside my jewelry drawers.  I went to Dollar Tree, thought maybe I could find something there, I didn’t find any containers, but I did find this.

What the heck???? It’s 99 cents and it’s 99% accurate.  Simply amazing what they have at the Dollar Tree.

Just had to share that…

Now I’m organizing the dog’s clothes!

I’m in an organizing frenzy.  My closet is finished, jewelry isn’t, I’m struggling with what I’m going to line my drawers with, so now I’m tackling Maggie’s clothes.  I’m going to line a dresser drawer with plastic tubs and put her clothes in the tubs.  Why?  Because, the secret to organization is containment.  How many times have I preached that on here?  And why do I get in huge messes anyway?  Because I have a messy gene, that’s why!  Egads, I would hate to think what everything would look like if I didn’t contain it!

Actually, this is pretty embarrassing.  This little five pound Yorkie has this big pile of clothes and I don’t even let her wear them that much, because the friction of fur against fabric mats her really badly and it’s a pain to untangle.

So why did I just buy her another winter coat?  A cute little red fleece one with white lambs wool around the neck and sleeve openings, oh, it’ so Christmasy and pretty.

I buy her all these clothes because she’s little and cute and looks adorable in everything I put on her, that’s why.

And you’re probably thinking, “dog clothes are expensive, why does she spend all that money on clothes for her dog.”  Well, I’m a bargain shopper, and most of her clothes come from Tuesday Morning, because they have great doggie duds for $5.99-$6.99-$7.99.  Cute, cute things and you can’t beat the price.  In fact, last week, they had so many cute styles and somebody had bought all of the size Smalls, there wasn’t a Small in the store.  And, in all fairness, I’ve been doing this for years now, it’s not like I replenish her wardrobe every year. Maggie is six now, I’ve bought her clothes since she was a pup, and a few of the things belonged to Munchie, my first Yorkie, and some of them I bought for sweet Mollie.  I’m trying to justify the pile, can you tell? 

Oh, she does have one drop dead gorgeous pale pink cashmere sweater from Neiman Marcus.  No, I didn’t spend all that money for a dog sweater, but my neighbor, the 94 year old lady with the Pomeranian does, and this was too little for Cha-Cha, so Maggie inherited it.  And every girl needs one dazzling, beautiful item in their closet drawer, right?

Actually it was probably a good thing somebody had bought all of the size Small or the pile would have grown even bigger! They had the cutest little red plaid coat with a corduroy collar and a cream quilted lining, no Small to be had,  so I bought it in an XS, hoping it would work, but it was too little for Mags, so Trish bought it for her London who just weighs 3 lbs.  It looked adorable on her, too.  London has a truckload of clothes, also.  And I hate to think how many Diane’s cutey patootie Miley has.  I’m not the only crazy dog lady, I’m in good company.

And speaking of winter coats, she has a purple one and suede one with a fur hoodie that aren’t in this pile. 

So, now I’m on the hunt for those!  Still going to tell you all about Flip ‘n Fold and post closet pix.

DIY: Transforming a vintage calculator

How we took a junky calculator and transformed it with a can of spray paint.  Talk about making a purse out of a sow’s ear…

I hate my calculator.  It’s this cutesy thing I’ve had for years, it’s lightweight, flimsy, it’s fun to use on a whim, but it just doesn’t handle serious “work.”  And especially when your truly is the one operating it.

Hubby has one that’s a step above, but I don’t like it either, and I kept telling him I want one of the vintage ones from the 70’s.  Back in the day when they were beefy, hefty, substantial calculators.  Actually, I wouldn’t mind one of the really old ones, the kind you punch with a handle on the side, but that’s taking it a bit too far.

So this guy at the auction “gives” LC this old Victor calculator, and it’s a piece of crap.  It’s yellowed, greasy, absolutely vile looking and has a  gummy sticker on the top,  but it’s substantial, and it’s from the 70’s, it has a cord, the buttons are intact and in good shape, and best of all it actually works, but it looks hideous.  Even if it was cleaned up, it would still be boring “beige.”  And there is no way that years of accumulated yellowing was going to clean up anyway.

So I got the bright idea to paint it purple.  I found plastic paint at Home Depot, LCe took it apart, sanded it a bit, and spray painted it. 

Now it’s purple, deep, gorgeous, purple! Okay, so gorgeous is a stretch, but oh, it looks so spiffy now,  well I think it does anyway  I’m thinking it might need some retro daisy decals sprinkled on the top, too.  I  might as well go overboard like I do on everything else.   It’s a work in progress, but it sure is cute, and it only cost $3.99 for a can of plastic bonding spray paint..

Still switching out my closet…

You all know that I’ve been switching out my closet.  And when I start doing something, I tend to go overboard, and that usually involves poor hubby having to do something major.

Well, last week, actually the night before we went to visit Charlie and Nisha in Muncie, it was 5pm, I had clothes all over the bedroom, all my winter clothes were in tubs, I was going thru that stuff like a rabid dog, and realized that it was totally out of control.

And you all know those tubs had been sitting in my bedroom for days *shame on me* and I just couldn’t handle it for another minute.  So I started switching it out, and by 8pm I was finished and had a huge, and I mean huge pile of clothes that I pitched.

Let’s face it, was I ever going to wear those cropped sweaters in a size medium that I had in the 80’s?  Or those multiple pairs of corduroy jeans?  I buy corduroy and I never wear it, all it does is make me look fat(ter).  I swear, I will never, ever buy corduroy again.  I even hated it as a little girl, why I keep buying it I’ll never know.  Okay, so I saved three pairs of the least offensive ones.  I’ll never wear them, why did I keep them?  Probably because I just bought them last year.  Jeesh!

But back to my closet.  So I switched it out, and then I took a deep breath, looked at it and didn’t like what I saw.  And did I take before pictures???  Of course not. *grrrr* I’m not posting pictures of the finished closet today, because I don’t have my Flip-n-Fold, which is the most amazing thing ever, mine is at Dilly’s.  But Ang has one, I’m borrowing it, and after I Flip-n-Fold my knits, I’ll show you what it looks like.  And no, that pile of clothes in the picture isn’t mine, I just like to post a picture with my posts. ;o)

I’m getting sidetracked.  I have a walk-in-closet, not a big one, but it is efficient because hubby did build-ins for me.  Sweet man uses another bedroom closet for his clothes so that I can have the entire closet.  But I had too many hanging bars, and I don’t really like hanging that many clothes, but I had to because I didn’t have room to fold them, so everything that was hanging was just crammed together and it was impossible to see what I really had.  So, he added more shelves for me, twelve additional shelves, actually.  And now it’s so much better.  I haven’t been this excited in years.  Yes, I know I need a life!

So today I tackle my jewelry drawers, which are totally out of control also.  I’m going to take pictures of that as well, will I post them?  Oh why not, no filter, remember, I tell it like it is.  So that’s what I’m doing this afternoon.  Pictures to come soon.  Maybe it will give all of you some ideas for your closet.  I’m so excited!!!  And so lucky that I have a husband who goes along with all my hair brained ideas and knows how to build things!