Happy Birthday to me

Well Saturday celebrated another year I have been on this earth. I turned 48 which is still kind of unbelievable to me. Where have the years gone?  My body is that old, but my spirit isn't. Janae giggled several times during the day she couldn't believe I am 48. I am going to take that as a compliment:) I'm thinking past 40 age doesn't matter anymore. My husband is 10 years younger than me, and my kids are still reasonably young, so I am not going to dwell on the whole 48 thing. I'm still young enough:)

As usual, everyone in my family made sure I had a good birthday. Janae always goes above and beyond. We decided to do our favorite thing and went on a road trip to 6 Goodwills on my day. As funny as that may sound to some people..there is nothing I would rather do on my birthday! We found lots of stuff--especially Janae. She got a really beautiful french style settee. I'll let you all know when she posts it.

My Grand furbabies even got me gifts--framed pictures of themselves of course! (Phoebe and Fez got to be in one of the pictures too)

Have you seen these cute dish towels? Janae got me these--and they are from Ikea! Now I want the apron that matches them.

I was so delighted that Janae bought me pretty knobs for my secretary desk. So much prettier than the ugly wood ones I had on there!

Much better now!

Janae also got me a mug that says "Keep Calm and Drink Tea" (so me) and a candle with a beautiful rhinestone on the front, a pretty shabby chic votive cup holder--all sorts of sweet gifts.

 

 

Chantel made these 2 beautiful bracelets for me. I love them! She is going to be a creative one:)

Wyatt bought me my favorite drink at Human Bean. A iced Human Bean Supreme--I am able to shop all day after having one of those! The kids all know I am more fun after having one of those.:) My parents gave me a favorite gift of mine--money!! I am bond and determined to buy something totally just for me. I have some ideas..when I make up my mind for sure I'll share.

A wonderful surprise came from a blogger friend too! Though she had no idea it was my birthday. For a long time I have admired the work that Dana does with French ribbonwork flowers. I so want to learn this wonderful technique someday. You can find her blog here Lambs and Ivy Designs. She sent me a beautiful piece--just out of the goodness of her heart. It made my day! I am so impressed with the workmanship. Look how beautiful it is!

I pinned it on my bedside lamp but I plan to wear it sometimes on a white jacket I have. Thanks so much Dana--I love it!

Doesn't it look gorgeous amongst all the white ruffles?!

Janae took me out to dinner at The Old Spaghetti Factory on my day after all our Goodwill shopping. It was so delicious! I don't like any tomato sauces--but all those white sauces call my name. Yum! I love to eat out. That sign that says,"my favorite thing to make for dinner is reservations" in my case is so true.

 

When Janae and I got back from dinner Wyatt and Chantel had picked up the house, vacummed, did the dishes, cleaned the bathrooms. I have the world's best kids!

Thought I would share these cute pictures of my sweet Wyatt. He has been playing a lot of video games this summer! He always goes out and jumps on the trampoline though too..he doesn't want to become a "chair potato"--LOL

Sometimes Fez thinks he might like to play too! We have gotten to the time in summer break when the kids are starting to say, "Mom, we're bored!" They definitely don't want to talk about going back to school yet though! They aren't that bored.

I brought some french bread home for the kids from Spaghetti Factory and Walter thought it was delicious too!

 Thanks for visiting and letting me share my 48th birthday with you!

Pretty Can Project

Who feeds their kids Campbell's soup for lunch when it is 85 degrees?  I do! Well you know...I needed a can and the recycling had just been picked up. :) They had some canned peaches too.

I had seen this project done at Fox Hollow Cottage. Shannon did a really cute can and a painted Tequila bottle. I am looking for the perfect bottle to try that too:)

The hardest part of this project was getting the glue from the label off the can! Then I just painted the can with homemade chalk paint and sanded a little. I added some embellishments and Viola! I had these adorable little cans.

I thought for fun I would put fabric on the largest one...I adhered it with spray starch.

I'm thinking these would look so pretty with flowers in them. Also, I thought I could use them to put paintbrushes in..or pencils and  pens...there are so many uses! They would be cute packaging for a gift too.

What makes these even more special  to me is that the jewels I hot glued on them were my Grandmothers. My Grandma was an Avon lady and I love all the costume jewelry I have from her!

Such a fun sweet project. Thanks for inspiring me Shannon! I hope I have inspired someone too:). I am just tickled pink with them. I envision the future when my great Grandchildren are looking at these and saying.."Remember when cans looked like that, and Great Grandma Sandy made things with them!"

Thanks for visiting!

Does anybody know?

My parents have this bronze flatware that was bought for them by my Grandfather in the early 60's when he was in Vietnam.

It is not my style, or theirs. But I was wondering if anybody knows some idea of what the value of it would be?

It has elephant heads on it and is quite heavy. Any knowledge about this anyone could share would be greatly appreciated.

We have been enjoying 80 degree weather today. The last couple days were cloudy and the kids and I enjoyed the break from the sun. But the sun is back and looks like it will be here for the next week.

Gage and Fez thought today was a great day to take a long nap.

I took a bunch of pictures of Phoebe the other day I think are adorable.

Losing Sassy made me realize you can never take too many pictures!

Thanks for visiting!

I won the Union Jack!

Being sort of obsessed with most all things British I was really excited when Sherry from Shantygirl decided to do a giveaway of one of her Union Jack throws. I didn't think I would win...though I have been extremely lucky lately (I keep finding dollar bills on the ground and my kids are so embarrassed when I get so excited about a dollar!).  I was just thrilled when Sherry announced that I won! I did a happy dance...called Janae, called my husband, told anyone who would listen. I just love my new Union Jack throw!

The color is a purply-blue-mauve  and sweet pink florals. Really love the fabrics. I believe Sherry said she dyed the darker fabric with a denim blue dye. I have never dyed a patterned fabric, though I plan to try it soon!

Please excuse the crooked pictures. The kids are  always bumping them when wrestling/fighting/playing. It drives me nuts.

I think the color looks really nice with my dark furniture in the livingroom.

Another option would be hanging it on the wall.

It looks good reflecting in the mirror!

I think it looks the best in my bedroom though. Makes the bed look regal. The blue paint in my bedroom has a lot of purple in it so it looks nice in there. The really wonderful thing is it is easy to "throw" around wherever I want it to be!

Thank you so much Sherry--I am just tickled with it, and feeling like I am so lucky! For those of you not as lucky as me :) I think Sherry is going to have some for sale pretty soon and also some really cool heart of Texas throws that are really fun! You should bookmark her Etsy shop here.

Thank you so much to everybody who left sweet comments on my post about losing Sassy. It makes the grieving process so much easier when reading all your comments!

Hope you enjoyed seeing Jack, and I hope you will visit again soon. Have a great week!

Goodbye our sweet Sassy

It is hard for me to not just sit here and cry as I write this post. As much as I thought I was ready and prepared for our sweet Sassy to pass away it has been so hard. After her being part of my life everyday for the last 17 years I feel like I have a paw shaped hole in my heart.

The above picture was taken on her first birthday. I remember how nice the bakery was as I explained I needed a drawing of our Sassy on the cake. People tease Janae about her elaborate birthday parties for her pets but I guess she comes by it naturally! Janae posted this picture on Facebook and tagged some of the little kids in the picture (now all grown up) and they wrote sweet comments about Sassy. That is Janae holding Sassy in the picture..a lot has changed in Sassy's lifetime!

Sassy has always been our "real cat" in the words of my husband. I showed and bred silver and golden persains for many years and Sassy was the "real cat".

Janae shows Sassy to our nephew, Dylan.

Last night Janae came over and as a family we spent the evening going through old pictures and telling stories about Sassy. Like the time we were having a party at the house and Sassy started staring at the ceiling fan and from the floor she jumped all the way to the ceiling and attacked the fan. My husbands friends were so impressed. She was quite the athlete in her younger years.

As those of you that follow me know a couple months ago knowing that Sassy wouldn't be with us much longer we went in search of another "real cat". Well, we ended up with two..and a lot more work than originally anticipated.. we adore them! Some of their crazy antics remind us of Sassy's younger days... though the love for them is becoming just as strong as our love for Sassy...there still will never be another Sassy.

Sassafras...we will always love you!

Pretty Pictures, Pretty Blog

As I come up on my first year anniversary of blogging in about 6 weeks, I have been thinking a lot about what makes a blog enjoyable. I started trying to figure out what attracts me to a blog. I quickly decided it is a lot to do with pretty pictures. When I began this blog I felt like I had to post new projects as often as possible to make my blog interesting and attract followers. I love blogs that do a lot of tutorials and show before and after pictures...but I also like blogs that post about their kids, pets, gardens..everything that their life in all about. So I have decided that I want to be as well rounded of a blogger as I can..and I want to work on taking more pretty pictures!

I think that most of us would agree that Tausha at Simply Me is one of the Queens of blogging pretty pictures. I can stare for hours at her pictures of pretty fabrics, laces, just all kinds of pretty things laying around her house. I wanted to let everyone know that Kim at White Whispers 2 u is having a giveaway of a book she put together of Tausha's photos.

This photo from Kim's blog of the book she is having as a giveaway

Wouldn't we all love to win this?! Which brings me to another thing I love about blogs--so many bloggers are just so nice and so giving! Blogging has really enriched my life and made me feel so good about the truly good people that make up this world.

So I will try to make my blog as enjoyable and pretty as I can...

I often get questions about what kind of camera I use so I thought I would share.

I have this old Canon Rebel that has been a trusted friend for many years. I affectionately call it "the beast".  It is as heavy as it looks.

Then I have my purse camera which is what I use most of the time..it is a Sony Cyber shot. This is the 3rd one I have had (first one got stolen out of my purse, second one got dropped, and now I am very careful with #3). I love this little camera. I think it takes the best pictures I have seen from a point and shoot...in my opinion. I took half the pictures in this post with the beast, and half with my purse camera.  Can you tell a difference?

You'll have to excuse my obsession with my roses lately...I think they are so pretty!

So what attracts you to a blog?  I'd love to know!

Thanks for visiting!