Surprise

Surprise!

This past weekend, my youngest son and his beautiful bride surprised me with a visit! The best surprise ever!

My furry grand-babies were glad to see me 😃

A little screen time to figure out our day.

I am thrilled with all of the yard work I had done to make my outdoor living space livable!

We were able to enjoy the mornings outside.

I didn't measure anything before I purchased the umbrella and cushions for the lawn furniture I have and I am so pleased that everything fit perfectly. 

I had a wonderful weekend with my children and their fur babies.

 

Community

Community

I love things that bring us together as a community. Family, church, talents and games are just a few of those examples.

Last week these lovely like minded ladies came over for pizza and yarn fun. Over the years my daughter has been learning to knit and crochet, a few months ago our friend from our social bowling league asked me if I would teach her how to knit.

And just like our community of makers is growing.

😃😃😃

This beautiful hat was made by a young lady who didn't know how to knit 5 months ago! Amazing talent in just a few short months.

Community, friendship, and sharing of time and talents.

Sock It To Me!!

 Sock It To Me!!

Sock knitting ... like Red/White quilts, knitting socks has become an addiction. As most of you know, I learned how to knit to specifically learn sock knitting.

In the evenings after all of the outside work, I've been cooling down and relaxing with a bit of sock knitting.

I'm not sure why, but I have difficulty with just sitting and not doing something. Just one of the reasons for learning how to knit socks. I always have a pair of socks in progress and sitting on the side table by my recliner. I would rather pick up my knitting as opposed to doom scrolling on my phone.

I'm still working on perfecting the kitchner stitch required to cast off a cuff down sock. Sometimes it looks good (the yellow toe) and sometimes it doesn't (the blue toe). I promise I did them both exactly the same but somehow ... they definitely do not look the same. Oh well, the imperfection on handmade things.

The yarn is Red Heart brand

TO DO LIST - PART THREE

 TO DO LIST

PART THREE

Reclaiming my outdoor living space ✔

TO DO LIST - PART TWO

 TO DO LIST

PART TWO

Cleaning, treating, and staining the neglected deck.

Getting ready to stain my newly cleaned and treated deck. My outdoor living space has been unlivable for more than a few years now. We all know that I'm an indoor girly but that is no excuse to let things go as I have. 

This year I have begun the process of reclaiming my outdoor spaces.

I chose Behr waterproof deck stain in Slate

Clean, treat, and stain deck ✔

TO DO LIST - PART ONE

 TO DO LIST

PART ONE

Spring and Summer 2025 has turned into the season of completing chores and checking them off of my To Do List ... regardless of the fact that it is HOT OUT THERE!

😎😎😎

Lots of yard work on my To Do List and some of these items have been on this list for years, I'm ashamed to say. In years past I had gotten very comfortable with the lawn service I hired doing the bare minimum. This year I am reclaiming the reins and doing my own yard work again.

My daughter spent an entire day helping me remove the moss growing on my deck and scrubbing it down and treating it with a mildew control scrub.

Earlier in the season I emptied and moved my raised bed garden. The plan is to plant pest repelling plants in order to make sitting on the deck a pleasant experience. 

When washing and prepping the furniture for painting I began to realize just how much metal lawn furniture I own.

I am fortunate to have a bit of sturdy metal lawn furniture. I have 4 smaller chairs and 3 side tables that fit nicely around the firepit I was gifted when I first moved into my house years ago. I purchased the deck furniture - table and 4 chairs on Facebook Marketplace in January of 2018 when I was living in an apartment, for $150.

Once cleaned and dried the painting began ...

I took 2 days to get all of the furniture painted and 2 days for the paint to dry and cure completely. I'm so happy with the results.

Lawn furniture cleaned and painted ✔

 

Celebrations

 Celebrations

At the end of June my daughter and I had the pleasure and honor of attending the wedding of a long time friend's daughter. It is an honor to attend the wedding of a child you have watched grow up.

The bride was beautiful, the shared vows were heartfelt, the couple glowed with happiness, and it was a perfect wedding. We enjoyed every moment and ended up with 2 pictures due to enjoying every moment.

One picture at the wedding and one picture of the morning after the wedding.

As it should be.

We traveled a bit for the wedding and the venue chosen was amazing and absolutely perfect.

Our hotel accommodations included breakfast which was delicious. 

IDEAS

 IDEAS

Social media does have it's usefulness ... so many creative people out there with amazing ideas! Here are a few of the ideas that I have found inspiring

This quilt was at the Smoky Mountain Quilters Quilt Show I recently attended.

It is a pattern by Lori Holt and is called Millie's Dresses

I 💖 this!

So clever and beautiful

As a height challenged person who hates to hem ... what a creative fun alternative to just hemming

I love this pillow 💖

I love the simplicity of this beautiful Red/White quilt.

I LOVE IT SO MUCH!

The cuteness ... the colors ... the blocks 💗💗💗

Lots of Thrifting Lately

 Lots of Thrifting Lately

No ... I'm not really a thrifter, I only say that because I'm not really a shopper. Shopping is not my idea of fun. I am an online shopper but as of late I have become a brick and mortar shopper. For several reasons but mostly because I am working toward handmade and/or thrifted Christmas gift giving this year.

Note ... I don't know how it is in other places but in my area thrifting is NOT always cheaper. Goodwill and KARM in my local area are pricing items OUTRAGEOUSLY HIGH, in my opinion.

That being said, I have still found some good deals. I can't show you all of the items I have purchased as ... they will be Christmas gifts and/or part of Christmas gifts.

Goodwill

$1.99 - Santa mug - this will be part of a Christmas gift.

KARM 

$3.99 - 6 brass switch plates purchased for my daughter. Not a Christmas gift, I'm always on the lookout for decorative switch plates and such for her to upgrade details in her home.

FRIENDS

 FRIENDS

I really enjoyed the July 4th holiday weekend from start to finish.

 I kicked off the long weekend with a delicious Mexican dinner with a life long friend. Great food, conversation, and company.

The frozen mango margaritas were pretty darn tasty too!

Family

 FAMILY

If you remember the family history posts contributed by my sister, Cindy, you will also remember that she is our family historian and genealogist.

If you are like me ... you miss her contributed family history posts.

While out thrifting over the 4th of July holiday weekend I came across this cross stitched sampler with my mother's maiden name.

HEAD

When I came across this sampler I was SHOCKED, I have never seen anything with my mother's maiden name on it. So .... yep, I was that shopper who whips out their phone to take photos of items!

I sent these photos to my sister ... who told me to purchase it ...

Yes, I did purchase this sampler.

Local Thrifting Event

 Local Thrifting Event

Social media does have it's usefulness ... I enjoy the EVENT Suggestions of upcoming happenings in my area.

That being said, yesterday I spent a nice afternoon browsing all of the booths at the Bargain Hunters Antique & Flea Market. I also went to Nostalgia's 2nd location which is in the same center as the Antique & Flea Market.

Anything and everything could be found here!

As you know, it is my mission this year to have a handmade Christmas. Handmade and thrifted. What I mean by thrifted, is that I need a few unique containers, vessels, and/or box type items to contain the handmade gifts.

Celebrating With Family

 Celebrating With Family

Celebrating July 4th out on my brother's farm. It was an amazing cookout and fireworks show with family and friends.

Note ... I only have 2 pictures because I was enjoying the celebration, my family and friends, the fireworks and the food.

As it should be ...

It was a wonderful evening!

Smoky Mountain Quilter's 44th Annual Quilt Show

 Smoky Mountain Quilter's 44th Annual Quilt Show

Week before last I took a couple of days of vacation and over that weekend the Expo Center hosted the Smoky Mountain Quilter's 44th Annual Quilt Show. 

This quilt show is near and dear to my heart, in years past I have entered quilts in the show and won a couple of ribbons. The Smoky Mountain Quilter's Quilt Guild do a wonderful job putting on this annual quilt show with quilts on display and quilty vendors with amazing fabrics, patterns, kits, machines and notions of all sorts. This year's show was no different.

Mountain Top Fabrics and More

A friend from my hometown and her husband have a quilt shop that had a wonderful booth at this year's quilt show. It was great to see her and browse their booth.

I purchased a quilt pattern by Lori Holt called Millie's Dresses and a beautiful stack of blue fabrics.

I think I am entering my "Blue" Phase.

Front Flower Bed - Mulch and BLING

Front Flower Bed

Mulch and BLING

Thanks to a friend for hooking me up with an app to calculate how much mulch I would need ...

I was off to my local Home Depot to get the required 16 bags of mulch required for the task.

**This post is not an advertisement or a sponsored post**

8:00 a.m. and already hotter than blue blazes!

But I was able to get the mulch spread in no time.

I went with black mulch ... who knew mulch came in so many colors?

I am very happy with the results. Hopefully my hosta plants and hydrangeas will continue to thrive.

A very sweet friend gifted me the cutest solar lite watering can BLING for my front flower bed.

I can now say ... after 3 years ... my front flower bed is now complete.

I love it!!!