Early In the Morning..

Don't you just love mornings?  An opportunity to give it another try - a new chance perhaps?  I do.  I'm a morning person.  I feel as though we are at our best early in the morning.

Behind our house is a beautiful, private neighborhood park.  We do not have snow on the ground right now, but I like this photo.

Even with the kids playing, it looks so peaceful and serene.

In the afternoons, the park is one busy place.  But in the morning, ahhh, in the morning, it is quiet and inviting.  The look of quietness invited me out this morning...for a picnic.  I decided to invite the hubby, and you, of course, to go along with me.

Earlier this week I showed you the sweet vintage picnic basket and thermos I purchased at the Country Living Fair...perfect for a breakfast picnic.  I decided to keep the food for this outing pretty simple.  I bought a few things at HomeGoods (one of my favorite stores) that I really wanted to use.  HomeGoods has such a lovely variety of things for our home.  I really like the convenience of not having to go to several different stores.  I found most of the items I wanted for this picnic there...including the food and coffee!

This early morning picnic is the perfect opportunity....to dream a little...

...while sipping some of this wonderful caramel-flavored coffee.  The vintage thermos will keep it nice and hot for us.

I've added a few grapes...

...which should be a nice compliment to the sparkling pear juice.

I think this DOUBLE chocolate fudge Biscotti that's tucked away will be a nice little surprise for the hubby!

I am bringing us a couple of wheat bagels.  It's good that I remembered to buy some cream cheese.  There are so many great flavors available now, but I chose honey and roasted pecan!  YUM!

And I didn't forget the cinnamon rolls..

...or the napkins, for the errant crumb or two.

I know it is just a casual picnic, but I do like things somewhat color coordinated.  The gray napkins pair nicely with the gray and white tablecloth, don't you think?  More HomeGoods purchases.

Did I forget anything?  Oh yes, our comfort while sitting on the ground.  I took care of that for us.  I found this adorable dog bed at HomeGoods.

I know several of you thought I had flipped when I mentioned one for the Bogus Room, but I think these dog beds are pretty comfortable seating for humans.  They are made especially for lounging!

Now that we have everything, are you ready to go?

The sun is coming up and I want to get to the park!

sharing at Thoughts from Alice, Amaze Me Monday, The Winthrop Chronicles, Totally Terrific Tuesday, Savvy Southern Style, The Organized Dream, Moonlight &Mason Jars, The Honeycomb Home, No Minimalist Here, From My Front Porch to Yours, Mila's Little Things, Canary Street Crafts, French Country Cottage, Rattlebridge Farm, Snickerdoodle Sunday, Between Naps on the Porch, The Dedicated House, Cedar Hill Farmhouse 

Wordless Wednesday...He Posed

Shared on Claire Justine and Mama to 5 Blessings 

It Happened at the Fair...

...the Country Living Fair, that is.  The Country Living Fair took place this weekend in Lebanon, TN.  Just 3 hops, 2 skips and 7 jumps down the road from me.  Actually, it was a little bit further than that, but who cares!  It was the Country Living Fair!

This was my first time to attend.  There were so many great things to see....and buy!  But before I show you what treasures I found at the fair, I have to tell you about the most wonderful popcorn I've ever put in my mouth!  It is Kettle Corn by the Wilson Family.  It is only sold at fairs and carnivals, which makes me very sad.  The hubby and I finished off a bag as long as my arm - in less than an hour!  We couldn't stop eating it -- we know it had to be covered in MSG because we couldn't keep our hands out of that darn bag.  I almost went back on Sunday (entry fee was $16.00) just to purchase another huge bag of that popcorn.  It would have been the most expensive popcorn purchase in our family history!!   OH. MY. GOSH.  It was the perfect blend of salty and sweet and just melted in your mouth.  I need to stop talking about it because I'm going to start crying -- we don't have any more and we can't buy it again until August when the fair comes around.

Now that the jag is over with about that wonderfully delicious mouth-watering popcorn, I will show you some goodies.

I found this awesome vintage thermos.

It is in excellent shape with only a few scratch marks.  The inside is perfect!  There were only 2 of these at this particular booth.  I bought one and a lady who drove down from Michigan bought the other.  Did you catch that?  She drove down from Michigan.  It was 30 degrees and snowing when she left Michigan.  We chatted while standing in line about our twin thermoses.

We are two very wise women!

I also picked up this beautiful picnic basket.

It was from the same booth.  There were only two of these also.  No, the woman from Michigan did not buy the other picnic basket.  :-)

I have big plans for this guy.

As usual, two stray books followed me home.

This happens to me all the time and I just don't know how to make it stop!

Another purchase -- this adorable twig hanging basket.

It will hang perfectly on my front door.

A great score  - the olive bucket.

I've always wanted one but was hesitant to order it until I had an up close and personal look.  The owner of this booth started out with over 20 of these.  By the time I made my purchase, she had two left.  While I was standing in line to pay, someone grabbed another one.

Very popular items these little olive buckets.

I know I should have taken photos of all the booths and goodies, but I wanted to enjoy the day.  Plus, I think I might have been trampled if I had tried to move women out of the way to snap a few shots!  :-)

sharing on From My Front Porch to Yours, Shabby Art Boutique and Not A Trophy Wife

While I Was Away....

....did you enjoy the silly little posts last week?  I didn't want to have a week of nothing, so I wrote those all in one afternoon and had them scheduled to post during the week.  Fluff with no depth -- and not especially good fluff, but it happens that way sometimes.

My mother's surgery was successful.  Thank you for your thoughts and prayers.  She is feeling some better and is still in recovery mode at home.  I'm back at home with INTERNET ACCESS!!!  It was a difficult week with only my phone linking me to the outside world!

While I was helping my parents, I found these.... 

It's crazy what you run across when you least expect it.  It was true love at first sight!  The hubby almost got kicked to the curb...lol.

I couldn't stop talking about them in the waiting room at the hospital and had all sorts of wonderful dreams about them before I actually went back and purchased them.

And I bought my mother a matching set.  Aren't they dreamy?

Wonderful?  Exciting?  Look at those tufts!  And the little black legs!  Who knew that a pair of bookends could cause such emotions?!?!

I blame it on internet withdrawals!

Silent Sunday

The Poor Man's Meal

No, I still do not have internet service.  I am still helping my parents while my mother recovers from surgery.

Today, I would like to share with you another recipe and story from Clara!  Enjoy!!

If the video doesn't play properly, look it up on YouTube!  Tell them I sent you! ;-)  Just do a search for Depression Cooking Poor Man's Meal!

Have a great one!

Laughter...

...does a body good!  No, wait, that's the milk ad campaign.

Laughter is the best medicine!  Hmmm, I think that used to be a segment in Reader's Digest Magazine.

Well, anyway, whatever it is, here is another oldie but goodie...Circa 1979 - Summer, obviously. 

See what happens when you mix iodine and baby oil and lounge out in the sun for 12 hours a day in your front yard on a quilt?!?!?  You turn the color of my sister!

While I may have left the trauma of the purple crushed velvet pants behind, I entered my chipmunk years at the age of 17.  Those cheeks are the result of having my wisdom teeth removed...in November 1978...at Thanksgiving!  While everyone else was eating turkey, I was being fed some sort of bizarre pain medication and growing chipmunk jowls.  Those things lasted until I was about 23.

When you stop laughing, leaving a comment!  :-)

The Great Depression...

We ran across this woman on YouTube in 2010.  We really enjoyed her videos.  The dishes she cooked and served were some of the same ones my grandmother (my dad's mother) cooked when I was growing up.

Clara Cannucciari lived through The Depression and tells quite a few interesting stories about that time period.  This particular video talks about one of the dishes my grandmother served to us all the time.  I never understood WHY until I saw this video.

My dad's parents died when we were very young so we never got to hear the stories of their life.  I felt as though I had a "kindred spirit" with Clara.  Unfortunately, she passed away in 2013, but her videos and book are still out there to entertain and teach us all!

Enjoy!

Firing up Ol' Betsy!

I'm sharing another little snippet from one of my "Jake" stories while my mother recovers from surgery and I'm away from all things internet helping my parents.
___________________________________________________________________________________

Life with Jake......Firing up Ol' Betsy!

Jake, my dad, refuses to purchase DSL internet service. He tried it once and didn’t like it.  He said it didn’t work properly. I told him it was an operator error.  I explained that the service did work properly but the computer he was using couldn’t handle the new technology (their computer is about 10 years old with a 50 MB hard drive - yes, you read that correctly - 50 MEGABYTE hard drive).  So, they live in the Stone Age and use dial-up internet service.

Jake says that DSL is a waste of money and that the providers of such services are thieves.  I explain to Jake he should upgrade to DSL if for no other reason than to make my life comfortable when I’m visiting.  Do you know what it is like not having internet access for days on end??!!!  The withdrawals are painful – very, very painful.  This amount of deprivation is not healthy for me.  Jake tells me that if I need to use the internet he will be happy to fire up Ol’ Betsy.  Ol’ Betsy is the pet name he has assigned to his archaic computer and dial-up internet service.  I tell him I would prefer to drive 100 miles and smoke a Camel rather than deal with that mess.

One morning, as we are standing in the kitchen chatting, he said he wanted me to look up the telephone number for Dial-A-Nurse (sheesh) on my phone.  I wanted to suggest that he fire up Ol’ Betsy and look the number up himself, but I was respectful and complied.  In less than 60 seconds, I was writing the number down for him.  I took this opportunity to once again tell him that if he had a modern computer and DSL, he would have been able to acquire the number that quickly himself.  He said that it would have only taken him half a day and that he could do other things while waiting on Ol’ Betsy to get going, therefore it would be a waste of money to get DSL.  I shook my head, sighed deeply and walked out of the kitchen.  After all, who can compete with Ol’ Betsy!

__________________________________________________________________________

Just so you know, he discontinued even the DIAL-UP service. Ol' Betsy lives no more!

I suppose that I should point out that my dad was a state auditor.  When we were younger and had our first checking account, he would make us reconcile the account every single month down to the penny.  If we were off by one single penny, we couldn't leave the table until we went back over the entire account and found the penny!  He still does this -- my parents get paper statements.  I do not get paper statements and if the account reconciles to within $1, I'm good with it.  Not really, old habits die hard.  I have to find the penny!  :-)

So here is your laugh for the day!  Circa 1972 - Christmas.  As you can tell, "teasing hair" and wiglets (partial wigs or whatever they were called) were quite popular -- on my mother, not me!!  I must have grown a few inches AFTER my mother bought these costumes.  Do you see where those sleeves are on my arms?  Psst...I'm the one in the purple crushed velvet pants.  The legs were just as short.  I made up for it by wearing my fake patent leather black boots!  I was stylin' and profilin'...LOL

Now quit laughing and go read/comment on my "Rocking to the Beat" post!

A Little Break...

My regular posts will be sporadic to non-existent this week as my mother is having surgery and I will be staying at my parents home to help with rest and recovery.

My parents are the only people in the US of A who DO NOT HAVE INTERNET SERVICE!  Before the week is out, I will be curled up in a corner in the fetal position chewing off my acrylic nails!

Quite a few years ago, I tried a little mini-blog thing but just never had the time to really commit to it and learn the ins and outs of what a true blog was about.  In those few posts, I shared a few stories about my dad, Jake (who will be 81 this year).  So, for your reading pleasure this week, I will share a few excerpts.  I like that I can write these now and schedule them to post later in the week.  Almost like I'm here, but I'm not!  :-)  If you leave a comment, I will be able to respond from my phone -- YAY for cell service!  :-)

Here's the first little snippet for the week.  If you come back later in the week, you get to see funny photos and read about a really cool lady! :-)
_________________________________________________________________________________

Life with Jake....Stop Wasting My Water!

For those of you who are keeping up, this is the third installment of my little blog series on Life with Jake.  Jake is my dad.  He will be 77 years old next month.  I would like to say that his actions in the stories I’ve been relating are due to his older age, but sadly, they are not.  He has always been this way.

While growing up, common phrases around our house were, “don’t touch my walls, you’ll leave fingerprints”; “don’t lean back in my chair, you’ll break the legs (not our legs, the chair legs)”; “close the refrigerator door – you're cooling the whole house”; “no you can’t have new shoes those still have part of a sole, put newspaper in the bottom like we did”; “turn off the lights you are wasting electricity”; and so forth and so on.  My dad was one of those kids who walked to school in the middle of a snowstorm, uphill, coming AND going.  Because snowstorms were so frequent in Birmingham, Alabama when he was growing up!

When we were kids we were not allowed to take showers, we had to take tub baths. According to Jake, if you took a shower you were wasting water. The only time I got to take a shower was when I went to camp or slept over at a friend’s house.  So, being the rebellious child that I was, when I moved out of the house, I vowed to never take another bath – and I haven’t.  Showers only for this chick!  And now, when I visit my parents’ house, I take showers.  And what is Jake’s response?  To beat on the door and tell me to hurry up - I’m wasting his water!  Seriously??  If you don’t comply, he will turn off the water to the house to force you out of the shower.  Seriously!

The other night my son decided to get a shower after my dad had gone to bed.  Ahhh, that’s using the old ‘noggin.  If Jake is asleep then he won’t know how long you are in the shower.  About 3 minutes into my son’s shower, Jake comes out of his bedroom, groggy from sleep, in his 800 degree sleep attire (see previous blog), to tell me to tell my son to hurry up, he is wasting water.  My mother looks at me incredulously and tells me she is going to kill him.  I tell her I will provide the weapon.  I relay the message to my son who quickly finishes his shower as he doesn’t want to get caught covered in soap with no way to rinse it off.

While my parents do take showers, Jake states they should take 2 minutes or less.  He sits in his recliner with a timer.  We explain that it takes us at least 3 or more minutes just to shampoo and rinse our hair.  He says it doesn’t take him that long.  Of course not, he’s bald! 

I would love to talk to my grandparents to find out if Jake practiced military maneuvers in the front yard like a drill sergeant while he was growing up.

_________________________________________________________________________ 

Seriously, my dad's hilarious and we always laugh with him...and at him.  :-)  Please remember my mom in your prayers this week.  And me, with no internet service!  :-)

Silent Sunday...

Rockin' to the Beat

How many of you listen to some sort of music when you are cleaning house?  I'm thinking the majority of you are raising your hands right now!  Listening to some great tunes helps the medicine, I mean housework, go more smoothly.

What rocks in the house when I'm doing things I don't like?  The EIGHTIES -- much to the hubby's chagrin. :-)   Now, don't get me wrong.  I have my moods when I want to ballet around the house in socks listening to Tchaikovsky while I'm swiffering the floors.

Sometimes, I want to Rock the Jukebox or do a Boot Scootin' Boogie while running the vacuum.  Or head on down to Jackson with Johnny Cash and my magic duster.  But MOST of the time, 80s music is what I prefer.

In honor of my favorite period of music, I thought I would share a song or 2 with you.  I promise you won't be able to hear me sing!

I used to have a Halloween costume just like this!

Back when Converse tennis shoes with an expensive suit was cool!

I think my face would fall off from all that makeup!

So what is it that you rock out to while cleaning the house?

Okay, so I may have danced a little during the last video....

Look What I Found...

...these two beauties!

I know you are not at all surprised, at least you shouldn't be.  I've written, a time or two, about my obsession with silver.

The goblets were in horrible shape when I found them at a yard sale.  I should have taken "before" photos, but I didn't want you to get the wrong impression about their loveliness.  And they are lovely.

They have a few bad spots, but that's okay.  Most beautiful things have some sort of flaw, right?

One thing to know.  I shot these photos with my big girl camera, the Canon 5D Mark II.  LOVE this camera!  Anyway, I used my 50mm lens with it set on 1.8 aperture.  This is what gives you a crisp close up and blurred background (short depth of field).

Silver is very (and I do mean very) reflective, ESPECIALLY when using natural light, which I use to take the shots for my blog.  We have a wall of windows and I like to take advantage of those.  After reviewing the 20+ photos I took of these goblets, I found that I could only use a few.  The close-up photos were so reflective with the natural light that they blurred on themselves.  Does that make any sense?  They had sort of a foggy haze. So, I had to pull back to shoot and crop the image for the close-ups.

It was interesting since I've been shooting for over 20 years and have never seen that.  Of course, I've always primarily shot portraits and no one's face is reflective enough to haze over.  At least not that I've seen. :-)

So, in addition to looking at beautiful silver goblets, you get a little photo lesson.  Another two-fer! :-)

Happy Friday!

Shared on Canary Street Crafts, French Country Cottage, Shabby Art Boutique, Thoughts from Alice and From My Front Porch to Yours!