" It's In The Memory Book"

I'm back today trying to catch up on all of your activities over the past few days! I feel like I've been out of town and am finally home! Ha! What a whirlwind the past few days have been! WHEW! I was exhausted!! We went to bed at 7: p.m last night and slept till 6:a.m this morning! We had a WONDERFUL time on TG Day! A lot less people than last year, this year it was just a few family members. Here you see left to right; my daughter Melanie( the girl ),my cousin Sheila and my step-mom Jeanette. Melanie's children were at their Dad's this year and her husband Randy had to work, so his family had their TG last night. Melanie left yesterday morning to go home.

Here you see my Dad who will be 82 in January, my cousin David who is a doctor in New Orleans and his mother, my Aunt Wilma. My Dad was so overwhelmed by the dining room he said;

" is this New York or Hollywood" ? There were 8 in all and we had such a good time!

That afternoon David and "the girl" went to see the movie "New Moon ",

Sheila, who is a manager at Walmart had to be at work at 2:am for Black Friday so she went home to sleep. Dad and Jeanette had to get home before dark, David went back to NO after the movie. That night Hubby, Melanie, Wilma and I played SKIP BO till midnight. Hubby is greasing the card shuffler.

Most of you know my favorite place in this world is the Appalachian Mountains ! I try my best to visit at least twice every year, especially in the fall. I did not get to go this fall! :(

I love Cades Cove and the John Oliver Cabin ( below) as John Oliver was the first to settle in Cades Cove.

My sweet husband built me this little cabin and gave it to me on TG morning! Be sure to enlarge pictures and look at the detail. Look at the little chair!

He has the chimney on the wrong side but I LOVE IT!

Look at the little window! He said to me; "I know you're sad you didn't make it to the mountains so I built you this so you would feel less loss about it" AHWWWWWWWWWW!

And.........on TGD, we had another hen start laying ! We are finally getting TWO eggs a day!

HAVE A GREAT WEEK EVERYONE !! I'LL BE AROUND TO VISIT YOU !!! :)

" THANKSGIVING DAY "

Today is the day we celebrate all in our lives we are Thankful for! I'm Thankful for all of you being in my life! The table is set , the Turkey & Ham are in the oven ! I'm Thankful for all my family who will set down together at this table and enjoy good food and fellowship !

THE MENU...........

Turkey, Ham, Giblet Gravy, Homemade Cranberry Sauce, Squash Casserole, Corn Casserole, Jack Daniels Sweet Potatoes, English Peas, Rolls, Fruit Salad, Pumpkin Pie and Banana Pudding, Sweet Iced Tea..............

I'm Thankful that I got this dining room done in time to enjoy it today!

I'm Thankful that " the girl" put the Christmas Tree up and wrapped the presents for me!

What I'm MOST THANKFUL for this Thanksgiving is that God blessed us with my Great Nephew Elijah after a 13 year wait !!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE !!!!!!!!!!!!!

" My Kitchen "

The Roses are still blooming! I'm hoping there will still be enough of them to put on the table Thanksgiving! We are expecting rain today, 90% chance with a high today of 56.............. I got a sweet e-mail the other day asking if I 'd show my kitchen? She said; " I've seen where Thanksgiving Dinner will be served, can we see where it will be cooked" ? This shot is from behind the table.............

This shot was taken standing in front of the dining room door. The door facing you down the little hall, is the master bedroom. The two on the right are the pantry and the laundry room......

Here I am standing in front of the master bedroom door............

Here I'm standing in the entrance to the living room...........

A closer view............

Here I'm in front of the table............

Here I'm in front of the stove...........

Now I'm in front of the sink............

Here I'm in front of the door going out to the garage. Hope you enjoyed it Susan!

Our little miracle boy Elijah is 7 weeks old today! Sooooooo Sweet!!

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND EVERYONE !

The Mystery Platter "

In my last post I told you about ordering a 15' Oval Platter to match my China and receiving a round one that did not match. I sent an e-mail to the seller through EBay and gave her 72 hours to respond. She did not. After I did my blog post , I sent another e-mail directly to her which she responded to immediately. She wanted a picture of the platter I received so I sent her one. She then claimed that the platter I received, was never in her inventory and was not sent from her! So now I'm thinking I have brain fog and have ordered this platter from someone else. I check my EBay orders and NO, she was the only platter I bid on! I also told her I remembered seeing P& G on the return label. Hubby in cleaning up had burned the box by mistake! She in the beginning claimed an assistant had mailed it on the 11th . So we argued back and forth through e-mails for awhile. Then I said; FORGET IT, I'll put it in the display shelf. I went on EBay and put a bid on another platter like the one I should have gotten. So yesterday here comes a Priority Mail package containing the correct platter! Mailed on the 11th ! It too had a P&G Antiques label on it! I e-mailed her explaining that I'm really confused now!! So it is a mystery where the first platter came from ,with a P&G label, that contained a platter that was NEVER in P&G inventory! What is your theory? I have mine! The right platter is in the China Cabinet! Looks good too!

Here's the shelves that Hubby built...........

On the bottom shelf, third to the right sits the " Mystery Platter! HA!

I'm going to bore you with more work pictures from my dining room!

We hung this picture yesterday...............

Added this piece that belonged to my Mother as well as the lamp I bought years ago in a Antique store in Hot Springs, Arkansas..................

I added this figurine and put some roses and greenery in it...............

Today we are taking the day off and heading to the French Quarter in the Big Easy !!

November 10 th my Great-Gran Amy turned ONE Year Old! Yes Sir , That's My Baby !!!!

HAVE A GREAT DAY YOU ALL.............................. :)

" Nose To The Grindstone "

I hope " you all " have missed me as much as I've missed you! We have had our nose to the grindstone for a solid week now, daylight to dark! The dining room is almost done! Here's a peek! I can now fix the curtain right as I'm not trying to HIDE what was on the other side of the door! HA! First the window had to be cleaned so I could see how to clean the room! NO pictures of that as I'm too embarrassed to show how the table and floor was full of stuff that is now all carefully packed and in the storage room.

This is one of the projects I tackled. This old chest was in the garage store room. I washed it down with Murphy's Oil Soap, had Hubby add some wood decoration to it. The left door had a place to hang clothes. The right side has three drawers and a door on the bottom. It had wood knobs but I found the original glass knobs in the top drawer.

I had him add two shelves to the left side..................

Then I stained it with Bombay Mahogany stain...............added the glass knobs.

It then went in the dining room............... I know the wood doesn't match but I like the darker!

It now holds my small kitchen appliances and the drawers are for storing linens & things!

This Curio Cabinet is cleaned and holding collectibles...............

A view of my clean dining room. We are going to repaint but that is for down the road. I will leave the tray ceiling the same which is the color of the walls now but will paint the lower part white, add white chair rail , the upper wall will be Dusty Rose.

We added the extra leaf so the table now requires a 114' table cloth which I ordered. Right now I have mine and mother's combined crystal collection, in the middle. Those are roses from my garden!

The China Cabinet now has my China in it................

This China is the Moss Rose Japan pattern. It started with my Grandmother, it then passed to my Mother who added some and now I'm adding to it. Inow have a service for 12. It also has both the Tea and Coffee Service for 12.

The Crystal in here is all mine..........as is the hammered aluminum casserole dish.

I went to EBay last week and found some pieces to add, here are the pieces I added.

A Salt & Pepper set.

A Gravy Boat.................

A covered Casserole Dish.................

I made an offer on this Platter. This is the picture from the EBay seller . The description claimed it was Moss Rose Japan with the marking on the back. I paid with shipping a total of $ 29.02 for it.

THIS IS THE DISH I RECEIVED! It has no marking on it , it's round, it is made of rainbow colored glass! I'm pi**ed ! I wrote her an e-mail to complain but got no response! I'm filing a complaint with EBay against her today! The dish is not that bad even though it really doesn't match my set but I hate to be the victim of fraud and this was fraud in my book!

I have several old plates I've collected for display purpose, so Hubby is building me a display shelf. Well it was going to be one long one but half would be behind the door, so he cut it in half to make two out of it. I'll show pictures when it is on the wall!

Let me end with some pics I took one day last week of our Sunset. We have been working daylight to dark and we are always bone tired, so I have no idea what day this was. HA!

I've tried not to miss my sunrise and sunset views each day............

It makes my day to see them...............

Welcome to my new followers and I'll try to get around to visit soon! I miss seeing all your antics! :)

" Sunday Sunrise "

Before I tell you about my BUSY week, I want you to browse this AWESOME Sunrise we had this morning!!!!!!!

Wasn't this just incredible ???

I have really been swamped this past week! I'm getting e-mails asking what's up? Where are you? Are you alright? I'm fine, just got several irons in the fire lately! One thing that got almost completed, was that I got my Peacock Bookends so I could finish out my shelves!

I am THRILLED over these bookends. They are gorgeous! Very heavy! I got them from Amazon for $ 8.41 plus shipping which brought them to $ 12.46 !! The Collector Set of plates I got did not have a plate of "Melanie" by herself ,which I want. I found one on Ebay and I'm waiting for it. I will take one of these down and replace it with " Melanie"! :)

The biggest project I have going? As most of you know, Hubby and I are still "newlyweds ".

We have been slowly trying to redo the rooms in this house to "suit" me for the past 2 years.

We still like both bathrooms and what's behind this door...........

Behind this door.........is a formal dining room that has NEVER once been used even though we often have guest over to eat! Why?? Because it is full of stuff besides the furniture!

When I moved in here all of Hubby's deceased wife's things had to go somewhere so I could put my dishes, pans, small appliances and such in the kitchen cabinets. We had gotten the storage shed for my extra stuff but it was in such disarray after the kids unloaded the stuff in it, there was no room to walk! So all that stuff that was in the kitchen, is piled on the dining table and floors to be packed up and go in the store room that is in the garage. So the project has been that besides our normal workload around here, we are trying to get the outside shed organized so the stuff in the garage store room can fit in there. Then we will pack up the dining room contents and put it in the garage store room to be saved for Hubby's granddaughter Anna. Did you get all that?? So we are just overwhelmed as we want to get the dining ready BEFORE THANKS GIVING !!!!

No one has even so much as eaten a cracker or had a glass of water in this room! Even before I came here. No decorating had been done except for putting dishes in the China Hutch. The furniture is brand new. so I'll be scarce around the blog world till we make some serious progress! I'll be back with pics soon! Have a great week everyone!!

Be sure and check out the Winner of Alex Stewart @ The Book House !

" Short Cut To Happiness "

We watched a delightful movie recently that I thought might interest you, especially the writers here. Do you dream of being a New York Times or Indie Bound Best Selling Author?? If the answer is yes and you haven't seen " Shortcut To Happiness " you should watch this movie! WHAT WOULD YOU GIVE TO BE A BESTSELLING AUTHOR ???????????

Anthony Hopkins plays publishing mogul Daniel Webster. Alex Baldwin is writer Bez Stone.

Dan Ackroyd is a writer accused of plagiarism in his best seller.

Jennifer Love Hewitt ( our favorite Ghost Whisperer) is the " she devil herself " !

I really enjoyed this movie! Though it is supposed to be a comedy, there are parts which really cause you to reflect about what happiness is and what it's worth .