Pickin' things.

Found on the Heflin - GA yard sale for ten buckaroos. 

It is certainly not in perfect condition, which makes me love it so much more. It is worn! Fits perfectly between my two chairs. I was on a mission to find a table and frankly when they are $90+ in stores, you think $10 is a steal.

If a print is signed and numbered there is a good chance it is going home with me. I found this in a thrift store for less than a quarter. I don't mind stating the price because I am keeping it!

Stephen Hudson 1980 - Anyone know anything about him? I haven't found a true bio of him, but some of his prints have a pretty price tag on them.

Ole Sparky Plantin' a Peckerwood stump

Is it not amazing?! What a beautiful watercolor. 

Found at a thrift store for a dollar or so. Have I mentioned I love acrylic?!

Found at a thrift store or maybe an estate sale. I have 2 acrylic napkin holders so I can't remember which is from where. But this matches the paper towel holder exactly! I sent them both with E to his house. They will look cool down there. 

Here is another shot of it. I really am not sure if these are vintage. Both are in great shape.

I love all of these finds so I am pickin' & grinnin'!!!!!

Shelved.

Sometime over the summer E and I went to the Pell City thrift store. I bought several goodies and stumbled across a beautiful shelf! I call it a shelf even though I know it once had sliding glass - the glass in mine did not survive 50+ years. It was in great shape - okay, as great of shape that you can expect from a thrift store. There was a bubbled up area, but it was on the shelf - I wanted this for books so I did not care! At SEVEN DOLLARS, yes seven glorious dollars, it came home with me. I failed to consider that we were in E's car, which does not have as big of a backseat as my car does. Oh well. We made it fit! 

Because the shelf was not wood, I primed it with 2 different spray paint primers. I couldn't tell a difference. Amateur.

I picked 2 paint chips that I liked of blues that were in a painting that will be prominently in my room. This first one I thought was the winner. Not so much. I finally decided it was wayyyy too bright.

So I painted over it with this nice turquoise color. I bought these plates at a thrift store - super ridiculously cheap and was going to resell them. While tagging them I noticed a chip on one plate. I realized that I loved the print and it could go with my bedroom colors. You know how you are just roaming around your house and trying new ideas? The plates in this basket is a perfect example. Oh I love it! :-)

The after! I was super paranoid of running out of paint, so I used leftover light yellow for the inside. Used a brassy-gold for the feet and that is my favorite part!

This one is in our booth actually. Andddd, it looks a better than mine did. Same "model" though so pretend it is a before...

#snowinAlabama 2

Pictures from the snow day!

#snowinAlabama

WHAT A DAY, right?! All you have to do is go to Facebook, al.com, or any news outlet and you can see the stranded motorists, the kids still at school, the 2+ inches of snow when there was supposed to be a dusting at most, and on a happy note - the kids (& kids at heart) playing in the snow. WE GOT SNOW! Granted, the non-Southerners are laughing at us. Why are they so mean?! If we wanted to play that game, we would laugh at them when they get tornadoes. But we won't play that game. There are many articles already on why the South fell apart and why non-Southerners are being so mean (and/or ignorant) so no need to go there. 

You know all those national life-changing events that when someone says "Where were you?" and you have your story ready? January 28, 2014 will be like that for Alabamians and Georgians from what I can see. This is my day.

Normal day at work. New task, excited to get started. Mid-morning a couple of co-workers called me to see the snow. I literally did not see anything. About an hour later I went back to the window and there was a thin layer over the cars; not much on the road. I logged on to Facebook to see what James Spann had to say. There really wasn't a good radar reading for the snow because we didn't expect it at all. All of a sudden, it is 11:00 and a work email comes out saying we can have liberal leave (which means we still have to use leave- we just don't have to have it approved) and the schools are closing. Most planned to close 2 hours early, NOT before lunch. I shut down my computer about 11:30 and walked to my car in the slush. It was already a winter wonderland. I brushed snow off my windows and psyched myself up for the drive. Once on the main drag, I mostly sat in line. After moving a buildings length in just an hour, I had talked to E who was still in his office, and decided to go back and sit with him. (Also realizing that I should beg him to drive me to my house - I was listening to the radio and already there were reports of traffic stalled because of wrecks.) There were people locking up their buildings because everyone was gone but E suggested waiting because we could see that the traffic was NOT moving. Sure enough, I had been behind a friend in line and we were texting each other the rest of the day. She was in line for over 2 hours. There was so much snow cars were not making it up hills, no matter how high or steep. E and I finally left about 2:30 and started out the back gate. It was clear until we were out the gate and we could see that the traffic waiting to get through the red light and over the overpass was stalled. Again, literally not moving. We turned around (carefully, oh so carefully) and went to the other gate. This was a 5-10 mile trek but proved best as we were able to keep moving the whole time and there was little traffic. I was in full panic mode and frankly spent most of my time on the phone. E was doing GREAT and while I knew that in my mind, I wanted to say something "helpful" every time I looked out the front window. I was keeping my mom and some friends updated on our progress. E's parents called while we were on the road - they were stuck too, but in the Gadsden area. Nearly everyone I knew was stuck. The radio was reporting schools who had released the kids - but couldn't run the buses to get them home. How surreal it was to be driving through a winter wonderland! There were cars on the side of the roads. Once away from work, we stayed on a main thoroughfare. Not that it was salted or plowed, but the traffic had kept it mostly drive-able. At one point, a city police car nearly hit us. Not on purpose, of course, but it must have hit ice because it was sliding right towards E's door. E saw this of course and moved us as far away as we could go. Thankfully the driver was able to regain control and we avoided a collision. Also while I was on the phone, I was mapping out our route. It was amazing to see no lines on the road and for that matter, you could not see where the road ended! The best option was to follow the tracks of those who went before you. We thought we were home-free and wouldn't have to brave any hills. Totally forgot about one, but thankfully made it with no problems. I will say, if I had been driving, I honestly don't know how/if I would have made it home. It.Was.Rough. We made it to my house about 3:30. Just an hour for what is normally a 20-25 minute ride. It's less than 15 miles.

Once safely in my house, I was ready to get back out... This time to enjoy the snow! It stopped falling sometime during our drive or right when we got home. Here are some fun pictures. 

Snow Angel

It's a winter wonderland!

My backyard

4 inches. 

I did not watch the Grammy's (or whatever awards show it was) the other night, but I heard about it. It was very depressing. Anyway, as soon as I saw all the posts of people helping other people on Tuesday, my spirits were lifted. Hollywood does NOT own us and humanity is alive and well. God's love was shown, of this I am CERTAIN!

Here are some of my favorite stories:

Doctor walks 6 miles to perform life-saving brain surgery

Lady drives 100+ people home

Sharing the essentials

Chick-Fil-A feeds stranded motorists

And so many more. The kids who were stranded at schools were all with their teachers and principals. People who were walking were often picked up, or at least had an offering of free coffee on a porch. 

There is much work to be done for the Kingdom, and God just reminded the South that He is in charge.

Bridal Shows - 2

Check out our adventures from the first bridal show I went to here.

The Anniston Bridal Show was a much smaller show than the Southern Bridal Show, but it was certainly okay as these vendors were local and I prefer to stay local. It was nice talking with all of them and I again had my labels in preparation for connecting with them. We didn't have any wedding cake at this show (sad day), but there was lots of catering. Yum, yum, yummmmm.

These are my people! I caught them in the act but they were cool about it. ;) Notice that S was my designated bag lady. 

Mom and me

My girls with the hands on hip pose! 

Front and center, yo.

We stayed for the fashion show. I hoped to win (something, anything) but no luck. It was fun and my girls gave me lots of opinions on my dress and theirs. ;)

Thifting, thrifting. Keep on thrifting!

Love new finds! What a rush. ;-)

Perfect condition "The Sewing Basket". I usually don't go for toys, even if they are vintage. But I just couldn't leave this one in the store!

I was only looking at the pictures for the frames. Anddddd, I came home with the one without a frame!

Louis Lozowick '22   

Turns out he is a big deal. His stuff is mostly black and white because they are lithographs. Not sure how this one got to be in color, but it's pretty neat. 

A perfect condition Tupperware jello mold bowl. Perfect. Condition. 

Perfect. Condition.

Honor Award. 75 Pins Over Average. How fun! Also, perfect condition. 

Vintage Honeycomb Turkey Table Decoration 12 inch Purple Tail Feathers

Amscam

Looks wonderful! I would say this is perfect condition, but there are a couple of small bends. All in all, it is a very, very good condition turkey!

I love acrylic trays. So addicted to them. This one isn't necessarily special, but I thought the blue and gold colors were great. 

Anyone recognize the BOHA label?

There's a small burn. I just may have to keep this for myself! ;)

Crocheted purse. Handmade. 

A nice lady named Ginger either made this or carried it. 

Linking up at

http://www.alivingspace.com/
http://sirthriftalot.blogspot.com/
http://thriftermakerfixerfarm.com/

Foyyyy-a Upgrade

The Lilac Jungle

So, so very purple

Purple alllll around

I finally decided I had had enough purple and asked for a "new" foyer for my birthday. I got a gift card and bought paint and supplies.....

It's a light cream now....

And a deep butter / light yellow.

Two-tone and even the door looks less purple now! (The ceiling is still purple, but I am want to put up ceiling tile so that isn't quite a big deal to me. Ceiling tiles are hard to find, at decent prices, so it may be a while before that upgrade happens.)

It's a smorgasbord of calmer colors!

Starting to decorate again. New lamp!