Ebay Goodies

Just thought of a tip I would like to share with you, because last night I had trouble with some thread I was using. When I have trouble getting my thread through the material I am sewing, I run the needle and thread through a dryer softener sheet. This helps the needles and thread slide on through!

Take a look at some of our new items on Ebay, Bombshell-O-Matic

A Vintage Child’s Red Hat and Muff-???60s

 A Cutie-Pootie!

 What a face!

 A Kitchsy Purple Onion Baking Soda Refrig Holder

Have a great day of living!

My Love of Taking Old Furniture and Making It New!

I painted this rocking chair to match my granddaughter’s (Alex) other furniture, bright pastels.  The wooden rocking chair was her mothers. Notice the “Princess” rug, Alex is one our many princesses!

 

The designs for the little buggies were my interpretation from the ones on the toy chest I bought her at a garage sale for $10.

 

The toy chest had some damage to the original paint so I covered the spot up with another flutter-by.

I have decided that today is the day I will start winter/holiday cleaning. I will clean and decorate one room at a time, otherwise it will overwhelm me. You know, how do you eat a whole elephant? one bite at a time!

I hope you live wholly for today!

Thrifty Finds and December’s Give Away

Look at this great roll of linen ribbon, the name is Country Barnyard. The original price sticker reads Hobby Lobby $15.00, I picked it up for  a $1.00! I am really not into the typical country look but loved the quality of the ribbon.

 

Each month I will be having a drawing for a Vintage Give-Away. December’s give-away is the  Vintage 70’s Napkins with beaded napkin rings posted below. I love the browns, turquoise and greens! Just subscribe to my blog and I will put your name in a drawing. On December the 31st my granddaughter will pull out a name. I will email you with the news and then mail the napkins! Happy New Year!

 

I have many thrifted finds due to stocking my flea market booths and our ebay store, Bombshell-O-Matic.  I live in the country by a very small town and I go to all the local sales, garage sales, estate sales, auctions. I find some really neat vintage items!

Enjoy your day!

Individual Creativity

My neighbors  creative take on a fence!

 Love the colors!

 

Isn’t great that God has given each of us gifts of creativity! Each day I see really creative people doing really creative things, whether sewing, crafting, decorating, etc. I live in a rural area and recently a neighbor about mile away showed his version of creativity with his fence. 

We have been in drought conditions for about 2 years now, we are behind 9 inches for this year. Fall is supposed to be a rainy season! The farmers in this area are probably in dire shape on their crops and hay to feed cattle all winter. We are hoping for lots of wintery precip! I know, I know, sounds crazy, but nature needs the moisture!

Here is a couple of views of my backyard, see how brown and dry everything, all the grass, etc. looks. The Pecan Tree produced pecans but the nuts inside the shells were bad. Of course, one can see my granddaughter’s playground and the old picnic table I feed the birds on all winter. When I put stale bread items from the house out for the birds, my Border Collie (Skinny) walks around the table in a circle with his legs on the edge and tongue out licking up the goodies! Funny Sight! I’ll talk about our dogs another day.

This picture is at Halloween, notice the leaves are still on the tree.

 

Here is a picture at Thanksgiving with all the leaves gone. Howver, the sky looks very nice!

 

 I tried a new cake recipe for Thanksgiving dinner, Harvest Cake. I love the recipes where a boxed cake mix is altered to make a tasty new delight!  I have seen many different types, kinds, etc. I develop my own versions all the time

Harvest Thankful Cake

•  1 package (18 1/4 oz.) spice or carrot cake mix  
• 1 cup water
• 3 eggs
• 1/3 vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup apple butter

1. Preheat oven to 375 F.  Prepare a 13 x 9 inch cake pan.
2. Combine cake mix, water, eggs, oil and apple butter in bowl. Beat at low speed until well blended; beat at medium speed 2 minutes. Basically follow the direstions on the package. Pour batter into prepared pan.
3. Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Cool completely in pan on wire rack
4. Prepare Maple Butter Frosting.
5. Maple Butter Frosting: Beat 1/4 cup softened butter and 1/4 cup maple syrup in medium bowl until well blended. Gradually beat in 3 cups of powdered sugar until smooth. Makes about 3 cups frosting. I added a small amount of milk to improve  the spreadablilty of the frosting.
6. I decorated the top of the 13 x 9 cake with chopped pecans and then drizzled on melted chocolate chips. I also have great little fall leaves sprinkles I could have used. You can adjust this cake to fit your time and families taste. I don’t know about you but my time is precious.

I would take a picture but the cake is all gone!

Vintage Apron Christmas

I recently found a great swap site, Swap-bot. Take a look  and have fun! I started a new swap today (first-timer coordinator). The swap is called a Vintage Apron Christmas. A memory that comes around this time of year are the days my mother and I made Christmas cookies. She and I always wore aprons, a somewhat forgotten tradition in this time of fast food. I thought it would be fun to share with others this tradition and memory, maybe share the memory with their children. My daughters and I wore aprons and made cookies this time every year. I plan on continuing with my two granddaughters. I plan on sharing with my grandsons (if I have any), boys need to know how to cook! Of course, they might not appreciate a girly apron, so maybe a plain cheffy (a new word) type apron.

If you have a favorite holiday memory let me know about it! It is certainly a time for remembering nice memories!

A Salute and Thank You to All The Veteran’s

I just want to say a big thank you to all the veterans! THANK YOU! For serving our country and preserving our freedom.  Pray for all our service men, women and their families as they serve around the world. May they all come home safe.

My prayers were answered!!!!

What a great week!!!!

1. Democrats control the house
2. Democrats control the senate
3. First madam speaker of the house
4. First Muslim in senate or house (Brain fog)
5. Donald Rumsfeld stepped down

my, my! I had almost given up on the idea that voting could actually change things.

1. I am not a true die hard democrat, but the average American’s life is improved when the democrats are in charge.
2. When the republican’ s are in charge the rich get richer, the poor get poorer. I heard on npr that President Bush is worried about what will happen when the democrats get in the head positions on the committees and start to give out subpoenas for investigations into how the war contracts were given out and the money was spent. Halliburton saw the writing on the wall and pulled out of Iraq before the elections. One of my many questions is what was a Oil Company getting the contract to feed the us soldiers! Sounds funny to me!
3. Finally, a woman in a position of real power!!! I hope she stays the high road.
4. I have never understood why some Americans always feel it necessary to “hate” a religion or group of people for something only a few do. The Germans, the Japanese, the Muslims.
5. My husband is a retired career air force veteran who served under Donald Rumsfeld during the Ford years, he did not like him then and he did not like him now.
6. Finally, the hitler-like regime is over!!!!!! People, people please wake up to the fact that everso slowly our precious freedoms are being taken away!!! Stand up, voice your opinions! Keep our founding fathers ideas and freedoms, that have been fought for so hard over many years.

 Well, alrighty, then! On to other mundane things.

I just sign up recently for Swap-bot, it is a very user friendly site. I cannot wait to get my swaps and I really enjoy getting my swaps together. Do you love getting surprises in the mail? I do. Check it out!

Well, it is a beautiful day outside, so out I go! I would rather be outside any day than inside!

Apple Potpourri

I think this is a good potpourri to make for Fall.

Apple Potpourri

2 cups dried apple slices (either with electric dryer or the oven),  2 Tablespoons ground cinnamon, 12 whole cinnamon sticks, 2 Tablespoon Whole Cloves, 1/2 cup whole allspice and 10 drops cinnamon essential oil.  Combine all the ingredients, store in a airtight jar or tin. You could add other dried items, like pine-cones, seedpods, etc. If the smell lessens put more cinnamon oil on potpourri. And I guess I don’t have to say this is non-edible!

I love antique dishes or silver bowls with potpourri sitting in them, not only does it look pretty, but smells good, too!

I made three pairs of earrings today for my upcoming swap. I like them, hope my swap-partners do, too.

I think my granddaughter’s cold has caught up with me. Not feeling real great today. Not much to say. Warm blankets sound good to me.

Sinus Aromatherapy

Good morning, I woke up today with a sinus headache and that pressure! Sometimes I use some aromatherapy massage:

Mix 2 drops of rosemary oil, 2 drops geranium oil, 2 drops chamomile oil, 2 drops eucalyptus oil. Massage on your nose (under), forehead, temples, and on back of your neck. This helps sometimes, and sometimes I have to take the great modern drugs! Ibuprofen, Sinus Meds! Maybe this might help you.

It is suppose to get up in the 80’s this week, yeah! I plan on working (cleaning, putting the garden to bed for the winter) outside this week before Mr. Winter sets  in. I love hot weather, I start to say “It is hot” when the thermometer says 100. It is the sixth of November! 80s! What the heck!

I am listening to Gary Allan, kinda rockabilly, a young Buck Owens, he started playing inbars in California while he was a teenager, his father was his manager. Some his ballads are dark, sad. It is a dark rainy day here, so I listen to mood music. I am 51 and I love music, all kinds. I listened to Hank William, Sr., Creedance, Jethro Tull, Eagles, just to name a few, when I was in high school (early 70s). Some of my friends thought Hank Williams? Huh? You’re unique! (sarcastically) Well, yeah, I am! I really don’t get just listening to a couple genres of music. My favorites are newcountry (Dixies Chicks, George Straight), old country (Hank Williams and Patsy Cline)bluegrass, old rock, classical, blues, jazz.

Now on a more serious thought! Please pray to your higher power that this country begins to take another path than war. I believe that justice and standing up is necessary sometimes (I am married to career air force, vietnam vet). But war for unclear reasons is absolutely abhorent! Our military men and women need our help to do their job. I am behind our military personnel, 100%. I am not behind our President, Military Henchmen and those of us who preach one thing and do another. Please contact your congress man or women and tell them to guide this great nation back to our right path. Do their job! Most on there to get rich and attain more power for their own agendas! Our basic freedoms are being taken away from us, one inch at a time. Someday we will wake up and wonder how did this happen! The Supreme Court ruled that the police did not have to knock before entering when serving a search warrant! What! Is this becoming a Police State? Yes, the more I see, the more I am afraid!

Just some food for thought. I am not a far left radical, just a American trying to voice my hope and fears for our nation.