A beautiful day in the Ozarks.....

This was another one of those gorgeous days. It's just like fall but it's still August. What the heck is going on!!!! It's been the kind of weather where I feel invigorated and therefore, got lots of work done -- yippee!!! Below is a great oak chair that has that dark patina. I waxed it and put an old feed sack on the seat. Underneath is still the needlepoint it came with but it had some paint stains on it and whoever did it wasn't an expert at needlepoint but it's still there.
This is a big old flour container that came from an old cabin in Mississippi. The lady I bought it from was elderly and she told me this came from her grandmother's cabin that had been untouched since she died in the 70's. I put a little varnish on it so it wasn't so rough.

I love this little blue bucket. The iron looks hand-forged.

There are still so many things to do before Leola's Fall Open House but I'm getting closer. I love taking something that looks so shoddy and turn it into a piece that I'm proud of and can hopefully sell to someone who appreciates it. This weekend is a clean-the-house weekend. Wednesday night all the ladies from Leola's are coming for dinner for 3 birthdays -- Kenda's, Jean's and mine. And don't worry, I don't have to fix anything. Everyone is bringing a dish.

By the way, today is Kenda's birthday. Kenda works in the shop on Saturday's -- she's the one who always has a smile on her face. We're lucky to have Kenda with us not only because she's excellent with the customers but she also has her own space that does incredibly well. Besides that, she's just a really good friend. Happy Birthday, Kenda.

Thanks Senator Kennedy.......

I have such respect and admiration for this man who endured so much in his life but rather then falling apart from all of it, he dedicated himself to public service. He was a good man who made lots of mistakes like the rest of us but he did so much good for others and never talked about it. I'm grateful as a woman that he was willing to fight for my rights. Rest in peace, Teddy!

I see signs of fall......

The walnuts are falling and their leaves are also coming down. That's always a sure sign fall is on it's way. We have also noticed the sumac turning red. I'm thinking seriously about hitting the backroads for bittersweet. Leola's Fall open house will be September 11, 12 & 13. With all the rain we've had, we should have a beautiful fall.
This is a display of soap that Jean ordered from Sharon of http://sweetrepose.blogspot.com. We're all loving this soap. Not only does it smell wonderful and great for the skin but it lasts forever.

I wanted to show pictures of small town Missouri. It's Fordland and although there are good things going on there, they still have lots of empty storefronts.

Kenda finally finished her bag and it turned out so cute. Hopefully, she learned enough from her so-called teacher to actually be able to make something from a pattern. I think I'm giving her an A+.

I'm working everyday trying to get some of the things in my garage ready for the shop. Maybe tomorrow I'll be able to get some pictures

Hi ho hi ho it's off to school we go.

Another first.......

How can it be that another summer vacation is over! Where does the time go? Tomorrow my little girls are starting kindergarten. They've never been separated but will now be in different classes. I think it will be especially hard on Stella -- but even harder on G'ma. Sage will be in 2nd grade and he already knows that good friends are in his class so he's excited. How different it will be for Mom too because she's always had at least one child with her at the pre-school where she teaches. She'll walk in the door all by herself. Tomorrow starts a whole new phase of their life and I'm just hoping and praying that it starts out wonderfully. Have a great day my little sweeties -- & you too, my sweet Allison.

A day at Leola's.....

It's been a great August at Leola's & who would have thunk. It's furniture that's selling too not just smalls. It keeps us on our toes and we're so grateful for our great customers. I think the front of our shop looks so cute. Kelli decided we needed a clothes line with aprons hanging. We sell so many aprons. Also, we had the adorable old child's bathtub. Kelli loves to decorate out front but sometimes it's hard pulling it all out in the morning & back in at closing time.

This white piece is amazing. It would be so great in a kitchen or a million other places.

This is a wonderful pine table that is probably 10 ft. long It would be perfect for Thanksgiving dinner.

Don't you love this old desk. It comes in two pieces & it is really an old piece but sorry it's sold.

Tomorrow is a work day so I'm taking some new things in. I need to stay home and work in my garden but there's always Tuesday. Yeah, right!!!!

Lunch at Jane's

Recently, some of us had a shower for Jane's daughter, Amanda, who is having a baby (Jane's first g'child). It's actually due on my b'day, September 9th. Jane wanted to have us all out for lunch on Friday. It was an absolutely perfect day. We ate on her screened-in porch at a beautiful table and had an amazing lunch of pasta salad with shrimp, gazpacho, heirloom tomato salad, green beans & zucchini muffins. For dessert she fixed blueberry pie with vanilla ice cream. How's that for a lunch.

When I turned down her lane, I opened my sun roof & rolled down the windows. It's just such a beautiful drive and the setting couldn't be more perfect.

Jane's waiting at the front door.

Bev on the back patio. We've had so much rain this summer that everything looks green & lush (including the weeds).

She has a huge selection of transferware in every color ever made. The ironstone water pitcher is my favorite. When her daughter was married she had arrangements done in all her pitchers for the tables at the reception. At the end of the night she let all her friends take an arrangement home & I took the one in this pitcher. It was tough having to return it but she got all her pitchers back.

Below is Annie in the dining room. The table will seat an army and she possible has more dishes then anyone I know. I love the wallpaper in this room

The seating below is actually in the dining room, right in front of the window where you can see the deer come and drink out of the bird bath.

Jane's house is so beautiful but is so comfortable and welcoming. These women are some of my very best friends and we all talked about how crazy our lives have gotten and what a shame we don't take more time for each other. We're going to make a real effort to do just that.

Thanks, Jane, for a wonderful afternoon.

Our trip to Olga....

There had been a story in the Springfield News Leader about a young couple who had decided to move back to the tiny town he had grown up in & re-open the old country store that had recently closed. This is his g'mother who helps them out in the store. She was taking a break with an ice cream bar.


We were just hoping for a Dr. Pepper & maybe some Cheetos.
This was a sign in the store window. What does one do with a coon when one catches one. They also have music on summer weekends and everyone brings food.

This was one of several chickens who just wondered around on the property.

I loved this old building.

I love it that young people are coming back to small towns looking for a simpler life style. We see people at Leola's regularly who have moved back here because the cost of land and living in general is so much less then so many other areas (especially California).

A visit in Fordland with Janice

We headed for Fordland yesterday to one of our favorite antique sales. We bought lots of stuff but since I rode with Judy, we couldn't get all our stuff in one load so it was an excuse to go back today. Jean and Linda also went today & we were able to take Judy's hubbies' pickup. She had bought this ginormous (Sage's new word) light fixture & a large metal step ladder that we couldn't get in the car.

Below is Janice (Mel of Seedbox's Mom), Judy & Jean in Janice's shop.

Linda, trying to load the "ginormaous" light fixture. It's part of Judy's plan for fall open house. I love this cabinet. For some reason it didn't sell. This chest also didn't sell. I may call tomorrow & buy it. It would be so great in my entry hall.

We had such a good day. Tomorrow I'll post pictures of our side trip to this little country store that a young couple is trying to revive. We're having this amazing cool weather -- feels like fall.

A great day for antiquing & sewing

I did the deed -- I bought my birthday present a little early. It's a Canon PowerShot SX200 IS & it is so cool. Wish it didn't take so darn long to figure everything out. Sometimes the instructions aren't very clear. Anyway, I'm really excited and hopefully, the improved camera will show on my photos.

It rained so hard today while a cold front was coming in. Tonight it is incredible. It's cool and the locusts are making that fall sound. Puts me in the mood to decorate for fall but guess I should wait awhile.

This was the big sale day at Fordland so Judy & I got up early trying to beat the crowd. When we arrived there were probably 25 people already there but we did get some cool things I love this orangey-reddish Adirondack bench. Some of the things I had purchased this past weekend before I broke my camera.

I love these pitchers and gourd. They just look like fall.

This was also sewing lesson for Kenda. She so wants to learn to sew so I promised to help. I was thinking a bag would be fun & really simple. Usually I make my own patterns but figured she would benefit from actually following a pattern. It turned out not to be the easiest bag but it's going to be so cute. I hope I didn't discourage her. Anyway, we didn't finish but will on Sunday.

Here's Kenda at my serger (a great invention).

This is as far as we got today but stay tuned & I'll show the finished product.

I broke my camera....

Here is my sad story ...... I worked hard in the garage last evening setting up all my merchandise I'd been working on. It was wring-the-water-out hot but everything looked so good & I was feeling really good about all I had accomplished over the weekend. Then the unthinkable happened!!!! I dropped my camera. What was bad was it wasn't even my camera. It was my sister Jean's. Well, anyway, it won't work so no pictures. Tomorrow I can take it to be fixed but today I work at Leola's. I was so bummed but had to tell myself that in the whole scheme of things, this wasn't such a big problem. I've been wanting a new camera so maybe this is a sign. My birthday is coming up and I'm thinking this would be the perfect present for myself. Have a good week!

Tennis lessons and working on my "stuff".....

This has been a busy few days but I'm making progress. My space at Leola's is looking kind of like a tornado came through but I really needed to finish some things. This week is a big sale where we all like to buy so I'm hoping to find some bigger pieces to hold dishes. Tomorrow, hopefully, I'll have the energy to get some photos but until then, I thought I'd show the g'kids on their last tennis lesson.

This is Phoebe. She doesn't take it very seriously but it's very important to her to always wear the proper attire. Where do little girls get that. Her Mom never makes a big deal about what they wear but the first thing Phoebe does when she wakes up is get her clothes out & usually gets dressed.
Sage has shown definite improvement this year and really likes it.

Stella is a little more serious about it then Phoebe but generally, she likes sports better then Phoebe. You should see her kick that soccer ball down the field.

Anyway, it seems like another sign that summer is coming to a close. School starts in about 2 weeks. Where does the time go!!!!

A work day at home.....

I did what I said and stayed home and worked today. My day started in the garden where it was wet and muddy after our gully-washer yesterday. With the mud on my hands and swatting at mosquitoes, I was quite a sight by the time I came in. Yesterday was rainy most of the day but about 5:00 it poured and these strange clouds rolled in from 2 different directions. It was pretty scary for awhile but apparently, was just a cold front coming in. Weird!!!!

This was my harvest from this morning. The green beans are cooking right now and tomorrow I'm going to make the pepper relish that was posted http://mennonitegirlscancook.blogspot.com/ . We'll see what happens. I'm thinking the relish would be great on brown beans and cornbread.

Tomorrow I'm taking time off to go watch the g'kids play tennis. They're all taking lessons and tomorrow is there last one until after school starts. Can't believe it's almost that time and all 3 kids will be in school all day. Time flies!!!!

Dog days of summer.....

These are definitely the dog days . I have weeds in my flowers, my zucchini is now covering most of my garden and leaf wilt has struck my tomatoes. They still are producing at the top but the bottom of the plants are looking really bad. I have approximately 50 lemon cucumbers growing on the vine and my house is beginning to smell like a produce stand. I had big intentions of how I would keep up with my garden this year but I'm afraid I'm failing. This is a work day but the rest of the week will be spent trying to get caught up. So don't call because I can't go to lunch. Have a good week.

New friends made on a busy day at Leola's....

It was a crazy Tuesday at Leola's but a really good one. First of all, we had a visit from Gloria of www.sweetpeacollection.com which was so much fun after reading so much about her on the Texas blogs. Turns out she has family in Ozark so maybe she'll be back often. I've loved the bedding she makes because several years ago we made bedding at our previous shop, Eli McGee.

I took several pictures inside the shop so thought I'd share some of what's going on.

Kelli is making these adorable lampshades and she's working on several other creative projects so stay tuned.

I'm so thankful today for the release of the 2 journalists from North Korea. Thanks to a president and a former president who put people before anything else. Isn't it great to have good news to start out the day!!!!