My big weekend!!!

It was such a gorgeous weekend in the Ozarks. It's starting to look & feel like fall -- hooray!!! We've promised ourselves that we'll take a day this fall & just take a long drive in the country. We've been so cautious about our trips lately due to the cost of gas and to the fact that I just have too darn much to do on the weekends. Thought I'd show you some of my weekend garage sale finds. I bought several pieces of blue & white transferware. This will be hard for me to give up because I love blue & white transferware. I also found a wonderful old wicker plant stand & some Jennifer Schneeman cross-stitch samplers. We've been selling tons of old canning jars at Leola's lately & I found 7 old jars with the bales on them. It was a good garage-saleing weekend!!!!

This is some wool I dyed this weekend. I love to dye wool but I'm not very good at it. I think I need to do more research on the kinds of dyes people use & just the general instructions. If anyone has any advice, I'd love to hear it.

I worked really hard on Fri. & got some of my wool out & tried to organize it so I would know what I have. It's very frustrating to start a project & to have to spend time searching. Oh, I live to be organized!!!!

This was a wool project that I did last year. It took forever to do but well worth it to me & someday for my daughter. I wish I could make things to sell but it's hard to find anyone who will pay for your time & effort so usually I make it for gifts.

This was Phoebe's turn to stay with G'ma & G'pa. We met the kids for pizza on Fri. night at Phoebe's favorite pizza place -- Wanna Getta Pizza. Then she came home with us & spent Fri. night & most of Sat. We always have to make cookies. Don't ever eat cookies at my house after Phoebe's been here. She loves to help but she also loves to lick between scoops. They each have their things they like to do at our house & they want to always do the same things. We had such a good time! Next weekend we have all 3 while Mom & Dad go to St. Louis for their 10th anniversary. That's really exhausting!!!! Oh, well, they're growing up so fast that some day soon we'll wish they would come for the weekend. Have a good week!

Taking today off!!!

I've decided to play the "Gone With the Wind" game again today & forget the economy, election & all the other worries in my life and just try to enjoy this beautiful fall day. Sometimes it just gets overwhelming & I have to hit myself on the head & say "wake up" to what is really important in my life. I've been married to the same loving & supportive husband for the last 42 years, I have the best daughter anyone ever had who married a wonderful man and I have 3 of the most amazingly, wonderful grandchildren any grandmother ever had so I surely can allow myself one day of no fretting about the world. I'll say my prayers this morning for all our troops, for peace in the world (& yes, I still feel that's attainable), for health & happiness for my family, for Alore Manufacturing to be able to thrive & keep all those great employees, & that a new president will come in & actually make a difference in our world. But after that, I'm turning the TV off, hiding the newspaper & going to some garage sales. I just love playing Scarlett!!!!

Vintage Cowboy!

Dorlece is the newest member of our group at Leola's & she has really great vintage cowboy stuff (among other things). She also has a canoe that has been cut & made into a shelf & it's one of the old wooden canoes. It's probably 8 ft. tall. I kept hoping that Big Cedar or Bass Pro Shop would come in but haven't seen their buyers lately.

The Winner!!!!!

Katie Struckoff (Ragamuffin Gal) is the winner of my pillow in my 50th blog giveaway. O-K, my sisters are going to say it's a set-up but I swear the drawing was done by a totally impartial party (Mike) & he will verify that it was totally on the up & up. It's very strange because Katie is the person who helped me set my blog up & continues to answer my questions so it seems fitting that she should get my pillow. Thanks to everyone for reading my blog & supporting me through this kindergarten stage of blogging. I certainly appreciate it & stay in touch because the 100th one will come up before you know it.

My 50th Blog giveaway!!!

Don't forget!!!! Only one more day to sign up for the pillow drawing (see below). The odds are pretty good (sure beats Lotto) since only 9 have left a comment to be entered.

Weekend in Kansas City!

Another weekend spent on the road but we had such a good time. My sisters and I took off on Friday morning heading to KC for our sister-in-law Alice's 39th b'day party (not exactly the truth). Of course no trip can be made without doing some antiquing plus we're all desperate to add some inventory at Leola's.

Our first stop was in Lamar at Faithful Peddler Antique Mall. As you can see, it's a wonderful shop.

We stopped at several other shops along the way including Keepers in Harrisonville. Friday night after gourmet pancakes at Cracker Barrel we went to Alice's birthday party. I'll show pictures of the party next week.

Then early on Sat. morning we were off to Greenwood to the twice-yearly "On the Commons" antique show & sale. It is just the best antiques show in our area especially if you like primitives.

This adorable little girl decided to set inside this huge crock -- I think to get away from the crowd inside this little shop on the grounds of the farm.

I was so excited to hear that Maggie Bonanomi was signing her new book "With These Hands" at On the Commons. So many of the wool applique projects I've done including the "Peace" pillow I did for my giveaway was her design. The pictures in her book are from her house in Lexington, Mo. where she also has a wonderful shop (where she holds classes) called Simply Butternut. She just does the most amazing needlework. She's also a part of a shop in Greenwood now -- or that's what we were told.

My big "50th" blog posting give-away!

I've decided to see if anyone actually reads my blog and do a giveaway. This is one of my wool applique pillows that I so love to do and decided it would be the perfect prize for my "50th post" giveaway. If you're out there & you're interested in entering to win my pillow, just leave a comment & I'll draw a name on Sept. 23 (my sister-in-law Susan's b'day). Well, here goes---

My birthday antiquing trip!

My sisters, Judy, Linda and Jean & sister-in-law Kay took me on a little trip today for my birthday. We were headed to Lake of the Ozarks to eat at On the Rise (our absolute favorite restaurant) which was closed today -- bummer!!! It turned out to be a great day though because the antiques stores were really brimming over today. The pictures below are from Elm Street Antiques in Lebanon MO. They just have the best primitives and unusual objects.

Kay was lucky enough to find a tool box that matched her sweater. She was actually needing something for her coffee table & this was perfect.

Linda loves rag rugs & she was checking these out. I loved the wagon.

This white area was wonderful.

Back to the primitives. In our area it's getting harder & harder to find good primitives but for some reason Lebanon has two shops that are stuffed full of great primitives -- Elm Street & Route 66 Flea Mkt. They have several of the same dealers in both places but I'd like to know where they find all the great stuff.

Birthdays at my age are really for the birds but if you have to have one, this is the best way to spend it. It was really cool today & sunny and not many people in the shops. A day like this lets me come home with a new attitude & I'm now ready to start some holiday wool projects for Leola's. I was even thinking that maybe I'd do a give-away for posting my 50th blog entry which is coming up. The only thing that scares me is that the only entrants will be my sisters and daughter and maybe Katie & Dulcy. If you're out there, let me know & I'll do it.

O-K!!! It's now time for my birthday cookie that my husband is fixing so better go.

Fall Open House at Leola's!

Annie's Debbee Thibault collection

My good friend Annie decided to sell some of her large collection of Debbee Thibault's sculptures so I decided to take these pictures just in case anyone reading this might be interested. I'll take the pumpkin one to the shop this weekend but I think I'll wait awhile for the Christmas. There are several that aren't holiday so I might take those too. They're wonderful!