Lost in the Weeds

Just a few weeks ago I was longing for the warm weather and the time I would be able to work in the yard all day.  What in the world was I thinking?  I'm just kidding, despite the fact that I have been stooping and bending daily for a couple of weeks now, I am loving it!

We have been truly blessed with some incredible weather as of late.  I still can't seem to wrap my mind around the fact that winter (which was incredibly mild here) is over.  I just keep thinking the other shoe will drop and I'll be in 4 wheel drive and slogging through slush.  I think back to the years that we had snow on Easter but I really am beginning to believe this Spring we are having is the real deal.

This is some of what we enjoyed the week of March 7th.

 Last week I was finally able to burn a pile of brush and leaves the size of a truck.  I have literally been trying to get a day to burn since Sept. but it was either pouring rain, too wet post pouring rain or we had winds as if we were on the prairie!   I have also been trying to clean out this area behind Mini's cottage.   I got a wee bit of that done as well. 

 I have cleaned out the flower beds, transplanted some things and generally been weeding like crazy.  I hand weed as opposed to using the trusty Round Up because I like the instant gratification.  I just don't get the same rush waiting around for days for things to turn yellow and then be pulled (I know I'm nuts).

 Naturally I couldn't be satisfied just cleaning up and finishing several half done projects, yesterday (while in a weeding frenzy) I decided that I was tired of the front landscaping.  We have been planning to completely redo it all but this year we have had some expenses related to hail damage (thank you Spring storms) and Mini will be turning 16 and we will be helping her purchase a car.....so, the total landscape redo hit the back burner.  Instead of a complete redo (including some amazing rock walls I am dying for) I will be relocating some things and adding some annuals and hopefully some garden art to spruce up until we win that giant Mega Millions are able to budget for the big redo.  Here is a bit of what the front landscape looks like now (gosh, I can't believe I've let things get to this).

Sadly I can't say these are bad pictures, that it doesn't actually look that sad.  The truth is it looks worse!  We planted this area right after building our home and didn't quite think through the proportions of the beds to the plant size, nor did we know not to plant too close to the house.  We do now!  So I have started the process of hand weeding the area and preparing to rip out, bring in soil and compost, relocate, extend the beds and replant.

I did find a little gem in this mess.   Out of three I have one azalea that is beginning to  bloom....I promise when I get done with the redo I will be babying these guys. 

Oh ya'll this is gonna be a big job for me....kinda wish I had had the patience to just let it be.  Oh well, like the pig at the barbecue I am committed now.

While we are in the front yard I will show you a picture of my front flower bed (weeded, Preened but yet to be mulched).  My iris are all up and ready to bloom.  This usually happens about the 3rd week of April here, but I feel like I'm going to be seeing them in about a week.

The plant to the left side of the picture is my little peony.  I cannot wait until it blooms.  It is just beautiful and the smell is incredible.
This is some of the blooms on one of my two dogwood trees.  I really wish my yard was full of these, sigh...they are spring to me.

Looking up from underneath my dogwood.....look what a beautiful day we were blessed with.

This was my clematis 2 weeks ago.  I was terrified I had murdered it with the heavy pruning I gave it in the fall and some touch up pruning about a month ago.  It is looking pretty sparse here.

That was then, this is now. 

Wow, I cannot believe how much new growth there is and how quickly it came.  I have been tying up shoots almost daily for a week now. 

Last year we redid our back walkway and flower bed and added a lilac tree.  It is in bloom this week and smells wonderful.  The scent wafts around the edges of the house to the deck.  So glad we put this in.

So there you have it....some of the beginnings of Spring and some things as we are enjoying them now.  Which is the reason I can't seem to stay out of the yard long enough to blog!   Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Birthday Tablescape and Blessings

I feel as if I have been gone from blogland forever.  Week before last I spent most of the week preparing for BDJ's visit this week.  Last  week I  just been enjoyed having him home.

It has been a great feeling to go to sleep with both kids under our roof....I have really rested.  We have enjoyed just being in the same place hanging out.  The whole extended family met up last Saturday night at Ted's Montana Grill for Chase's birthday (if you haven't tried this place, do so, it was yummy).  March 7th is his actual birthday so we are grilling out and having Caramel Pie, yeah!
Since he is turning 23 and didn't want a "party" and since he is in training he didn't want a cake, boo!  I did make a caramel pie that should be gone in one night so there will be no leftovers to tempt him.

 I did try to make it feel a little festive at the table.   It is totally stuff you would use for a 3 year old but it was so happy and fun looking I thought I would share (okay, truth is I just wanted to share what a great visit we had).   I used whatever I had around the house, streamers, fabric, curling ribbon and a few balloons.

No one cared about pictures they were just ready for wings and burgers.

Seriously...can we just blow these out and eat?

I completely blew up BDJ's training diet with this dinner but he worked out all week to offset....as you can see he lifted! 

I can't tell you how many times last week that I had to try and explain that Mini is a sophomore in high school not the elementary school Mini she was when he left home and that he CANNOT carry her around anymore. 

Mom, please make him stop picking me up!

 He just kept saying "she is fun sized and I don't get to hug her often."  Oh well....I think Mini and I both finally just gave up!

Caramel Pie....yummmm!

The best decoration at the table?  Having our son home for his birthday! 

What a blessing that was.  Thanks for stopping in!  Join me at Between Naps on the Porch for Tablescape Thursday.

Trying to Walk the Walk in The Place That Shall Not be Named

Good morning all!  Despite being up and down all night with the ankle biter because of potential bad weather, I am in a great mood this morning.  Yes, this is breaking news because since the crazy hormone train pulled up to the station several years ago, a great mood can be a fleeting thing.

I know that the bulk of my blog readers are either seeing the crazy train pull in or have already boarded so I won't regale you with all the joys that seem to accompany those of us racing toward the half century mark.  I am sure we are all enjoying the same adventure of new moods, aches, pains and a strange person that looks back at us when we pass mirrors.  Since this mood may not last I wanted to get a post up and get back to some pre spring cleaning projects I have started and need to finish before BDJ arrives home on Friday.

I wanted to share a funny (I choose to call it funny and not think of it as a completely sad precursor to the complete mind loss that may be coming in the not so distant future for me) that happened to me last week.   Before I can tell you the funny you have to know a little history.

 Last Friday I jumped out of bed, grabbed my most comfy jeans and the sweatshirt on the top of the stack, and headed out to spend the day helping The Nana recover some furniture.  The whole day as we crawled around in the floor tugging, pulling, and stapling, I was dreading what would come later.....the dreaded weekly grocery shopping.  I used to love grocery day.  I would be excited to clean out the fridge, prepare my menu and head off to get ingredients to try new and exotic dishes in the upcoming week.  That was then and this is now, that excitement has long since gone. 

It isn't really the grocery shopping that I hate, it is the where I grocery shop.  Let me rephrase: I don't hate, hate, hate the place, I loathe it.   When BDJ was home, I always shopped at The Place That Shall Not be Named (ya'll all know this mega hell of which I speak).  I had no choice since, despite the fact that BDJ inherited my legs (which btw seem to be perfect for award winning weightlifting and football, thank you very much), he was constantly working to add weight or keep weight on.  I know it is so hard to understand how he got so many of my body traits and struggles with adding/keeping weight.   I was always urging him to just stand beside the fridge because the weight seemed to jump on me in that area but, alas, it just didn't work for him.  So keeping him at playing weight required tons of food. Since he preferred to eat several small animals a day, we could only afford to purchase suitable quantities at said The Place That Shall Not be Named. 

I know  I cannot be the only one that hates this place.  The kids used to joke about how grumpy I became when we were within sight of it.  My blood pressure goes through the roof and my level of patience drops through the floor.   Mini says I act crazy, almost possessed while I am there. I can't say because I seem to go into another dimension and don't always have recall of it.   I don't shop here, I just try to survive it.  Once I step out of the car I don't want to talk to anyone. I am singularly focused on making it out alive and without a felony charge.  My grocery list is made to match the store layout to eliminate even 1 additional minute there.  I generally jog through literally tossing items in the buggy.  I prefer to have Mini with me that way she can push the buggy and I can run and toss without slowing up.

 After BDJ left for college, Wonder Hubby (drunk with euphoria of a lower grocery bill) urged me to shop Publix (did you hear the angels sing? I always do when I say Publix and there is a whole angel choir when I shop there).  I did this for a while, but, sadly with the economy, the savings from BDJ eating on the meal plan at school were quickly trumped by rising grocery prices, so this pleasure was short lived and I was back at The Place That Shall Not be Named.

I really try to psych myself up for the day and tell myself that I am being tested.   I work hard to plaster a smile on and have recently discovered humming helps keep from yelling at people as well as drowns out screaming kids.  So Friday when I turned in on two wheels into the lot (at prime just after school time), lept from the car, and sprinted inside, I was ready to make this a positive experience.

I was surprised that, although it was prime shopping time and the parking lot was full, there didn't seem to be a lot of people inside (or they all had finally figured out how to treat an aisle like a road and drive on one side or the other instead of parking in the middle).  I had my face locked on smile and was knocking out my shopping very quickly.  I was a couple of aisles into the grocery side of the store when I noticed a man (okay truthfully I immediately pegged him creepy guy) looking at me.  At first I thought he might think he knew me and was kind of weird grinning while maybe trying to decide if he did or not, but after meeting him aisle after aisle I decided he was just creepy. 

know I had a "open" demeanor going on.  Finally I am within two aisle of being free when creepy guy rounds the corner, smiles weirdly and says "you not a people person, huh?"  I was completely stunned and briefly speechless (those of you that know me personally know that I am never speechless).  Could it be that I looked hateful and unfriendly?  How could that be?   I had worked so hard to at the very least appear happy and friendly.  After a minute or two I recovered my ability to speak and snapped at him responded by saying "oh no, I'm just really focused on my list and hurrying I guess." 

I finished my shopping (all the while frustrated and disappointed in myself for trying to be positive and obviously failing epically)  and headed to the check out.  While standing in line, I see creepy guy approaching (for some crazy reason I now felt an overwhelming need for creepy guy to like me or at the very least think I'm a nice person), so I plaster on a smile only to have him pull into the check out next to mine and turn his back!  I check out and roll out to the car to load up, all the while swaying between being mad/frustrated with myself and mad at creepy guy.  I load up the car, return the buggy to the buggy return and get into the car.  When I look down to buckle up I see this.

Opps!  Then I get it...I feel like a real idiot.  Remember I told you I grabbed the sweatshirt on the top of the stack?  Well this was it.  Wonder Hubby bought this for me a few years back when the crazy train began approaching the station.  I was in such a hurry when I dressed that I truly didn't think of what I was putting on past thinking of comfort.  By the time I made it to The Place That Shall Not be Name, I had completely forgotten I had it on.  The funny thing about this shirt is that although I would wear it initially when I was feeling particularly crabby, I have learned that it is a real people magnet.  People read it and immediately exclaim  "oh I love you shirt" and then want to chat, go figure.  So creepy guy had probably been trying to read it the whole time and would grin when I caught him looking.  I guess after I had seen him looking aisle after aisle he felt the need to say something in explanation (so I didn't think he was creepy guy I guess.  Dude, that ship had sailed) but he never said anything about or pointed to the shirt.  After I bit his head off, I guess he wasn't feeling to skippy to chat at the check out.

So I was being tested....tested not to judge a book by it's cover I think and I failed....miserably!  The good news is come Friday it will be grocery day again and I will have a chance to redeem myself.  The bad news is BDJ is headed home for a visit so I will have to return to The Place That Shall Not be Named!

Junkin Jaunts

I have been fighting the winter blues as of late so when Wonder Hubby has even whispered about junkin I have been all over the idea.  He travels several states and is always spotting places we need to check out.   A couple of weeks ago we headed out to some of them.  Won't you tag along?

We started by heading to Franklin, Tennessee which is full of antique stores.  We were not antiquing here but were checking out a place called PD's.  It is a hidden on a side street and is only known about by word of mouth.  I had heard plenty by mouth so I was ready to see for myself.  I was so excited to snap pics of all the goodies. 

This is the outside, there is no sign anywhere with the store name, we just chanced that this was the place.

  Sadly after I took this shot outside I saw the sign that did say no photos.  Bummer.  I will say that I enjoyed the store and the pricing was not mega store but was less than Pottery Barn.  It had a PB/Restoration feel.  Apparently the inventory changes often so I will be visiting again.  I would definitely recommend stopping and checking it out if you are in the Franklin area.

Next we headed to Goodlettsville to the Rare Bird Antique Mall.  We had tons of fun here.  We spotted some Fiesta there that we ended up going back for.  I loved the general store area.  I didn't buy any old general store merchandise but there are several pieces that I can't seem to get out of my head so I am probably going to be visiting there again soon.  There is a whole area of vintage automotive.

Much of it reminded me of my great uncle's service station in Cocoa Beach Florida in the 1960's.

I so wanted this old leather bag!  And this typewriter.  I recently acquired a portable from the 1960's but this one is so cool I wanted it too!

There was a whole cabinet filled with vintage cameras.  I remember my mom talking about getting a Brownie when she was a teen.

Saw some beautiful architectural pieces including this section of ironwork from a widow's walk of a local home.

I'm a sucker for old gardening tools.

More yard art to love

I almost didn't leave without this one.

A few days later we visited Franklin, Kentucky.  It was a place Wonder Hubby had been mentioning visiting for a while but we had never managed to get there since it is a couple of hours away.  I am so glad we did.  They have a beautiful town square.

There were also some lovely homes on Main Street.  This was the best shot I had since Wonder Hubby was racing to hit the next  junkin spot.

We checked out an antique store downtown that heralded 10,000 square feet of goodies.   We wandered there for hours.  Being a relatively new blogger I still cannot make myself calm down and take photos so I have none of this stop...I hate that.  The only thing I purchased was this candlestick.  I really thought I would paint it and distress it so I never bother to take a pic before I cleaned it up....oops.  I never dreamed it would clean up and I would leave it as is but it did and here it is.

I added it to my PBish table I blogged about here,  I think it is a much better fit than the metal candle holders I first tried.  It has the weight the table needed, much more like the candle on PB table here.

It was late in the day and we were running out of time when we discovered this.

This is Brights Antique World.  The signs says 35,000 square feet of treasures but I believe it is more than that.  We spent 2 hours here and literally only scanned maybe 1/3 of this place.  We fully intend on going back for a two day stay.  It was so clean, neat, organized and just plain incredible.  I was sure the prices would be out of my junking budget but I was pleasantly surprised.   Wonder Hubby tried his best to convince me to buy the Fostoria American punch bowl, pedestal and tray I have had my eye on as well as the square Fostoria American cake plate I have been wanting but I just couldn't pull the trigger.  Ah hem...I hate to admit it but I should have listened to him.  Now I have my fingers crossed that it will still be there or that I can find more at the same prices.  As I said we were very short on time so I only snapped a couple of pics.

Wonder Hubby and I caught up with each other occasionally...we were both so amazed by this place we were running around in circles!   Hopefully you can get a sense of just how big this place is.

So sad that I only have these two overview shots but I was just too awestruck to remember to snap any!  I will simply say if you are anywhere near or within driving distance to Franklin Kentucky run don't walk to get to Bright's.  You better hurry too because I fully intend to go back and take a trailer with me.

The very next week The Nana surprised Wonder Hubby and I with some goodies she picked up for us while junking in Decherd, Tennessee.  More Fiesta, naturally.

A retired Apricot Covered Casserole, a snack plate set, a heart shaped bowl, salt and pepper shakers and some pretty amber glasses I had been looking for.  It was so thoughtful and she just made our day.

We wound up our junking streak at the Nashville Flea Market this past weekend.  Mini and Bri joined us.  It was a beautiful Saturday even if a bit cool

There were a lot fewer vendors this month but it was still fun to poke around.  I am still loving the brightly painted furniture.

 Wish I had somewhere to put this repurposed door chalkboard.

With my Rooster fetish I can't believe these didn't come home with me.

This handpainted lamp with embellished shade was adorable.  I love the chenile.

The jar is also chenile embellished and too cute.

I love going to the flea market because it is such an eceletic mix of trash and treasure.  I saw this and it brought back so many memories of going to Shoney's drive in and sitting on "the hump" in the backseat (pre seat belts you know) eating burgers and onion rings.  Anyone else remember Shoney's as a drive in?

There is also always something that makes you say, who, what and why, and this is this month's edition of the weird.

I don't think I want to know who would buy an old exam table complete with stirrups.  This candle was a close second, although it is kind of funny.

Of course we had to visit the Fiesta man and of course we didn't leave empty handed! hehehe

I have been needing these individual oval servers.

I wonder if I will ever have added enough plates...these are the newbies.

I have saved my market favorite for last.  I absolutely fell in love with this and if I could figure out what I am willing to give up in my kitchen I would so remodel just to accomodate this it.

The pictures turned out dark but it is a beautiful old industrial cart turned kitchen island.  It was so unique I wanted it bad....and have no where to put it :(  Thankfully it was sold so that probably saved Wonder Hubby $50,000 or so)   The pic below shows a closer shot of the bottom shelf and wheel.

This island was pretty cute too....but my heart belongs to the gigantic dark wood bohemeth of an island.  If it is has a twin there next month, I may just have to remodel! 

So there you have it, the culmination of 3 days of pure junkin fun.  Seeing all these wonderful things and sharing it with Wonder Hubby and the girls was great.  Getting goodies from The Nana wasn't too bad either :)   I hope you enjoyed tagging along.