A Treasure Day

This has been a good weekend! I have LOTS to show you but the main reason yesterday was a "Treasure Day" was because my Rob and I got to spend the day together. We drove out along the St. Clair River, and Lake St. Clair itself to hit a few of my favorite antique haunts. Rob is always hoping he'll score that rare baseball card, picture or other treasure but truth be told, he doesn't usually find much. Like I am with him, I think he's just happy to spend time with me. I'm blessed!

Anyway, while we were out and about we found a new to me consignment shop that I just loved. It's in New Baltimore, MI and they just had the greatest stuff. It's called Ditto.... Consignments and I took a few shots in the store (with permission). But first, I have to show you what I found! The minute I saw her, I knew she was coming home with me. Here's where she's currently hanging:


I was not at all sure it was old or an antique but the shop owners said that they thought it was. Doesn't really matter to me - I Love it! Perfect for a lover of samplers, dontcha think?
Here are a few pics of the inside of the shop - I can't wait to go back!


Look closely and you can see how much Rob was enjoying our outing. He's playing Scrabble on his phone....

It was cold yesterday, as it is today, and this is what Lake St. Clair looked like:

Can you see all the ice? Click on the picture to enlarge. The ice is melting but not gone yet!

Rob and I had a lovely lunch on the river and the waitress snapped this shot of us:

And here are some pics of the view from our table:



Are you bored yet? I have more to show you. I found this quilt at an antique store like the angel, (not at Goodwill or SA so it wasn't the cheap bargain I usually go for but it wasn't bad):
It is a state flower quilt that is embroidered and hand quilted. I just love it! It's not perfect, you can see where some of the colors have stained the fabric but I love that some of the flowers are appliqued and all the state flowers are labeled. I can't find an Alaska or Hawaii flower so I'm guessing it's at least prior to 1959 but I really have no idea how old it might be - I'm guessing 1940's. States are also duplicated so I am just not sure... It reminded me of one my mom gave me that has the 50 state birds that a woman in Tennessee hand quilted for her. I'll show you that another time - it's on my bed right now. Any recommendations on the best way to clean this would be greatly appreciated.



Here's a little "trash to treasure" something I made from a salt and pepper set I found. It was missing the stand that they originally hung on so I thought they'd make great necklaces. My own little, "message in a bottle" necklace. I put a small scroll inside, wrapped in floss and added some doll buttons in pink, white and gold. The scroll says:
Faith
Hope
Peace
Love
Rob ~ Matt ~ Ty
Don't you think keeping a wish close to your heart makes sense?


Okay, this is the last thing.... I promise. I found this chair at the SA for $49.99. I've been looking for a new chair for my craft room, er studio, and thought this fit the bill perfectly! Not only is it a diminutive size (which I need with low ceilings), but it rocks! Great for reading, stitching, watching t.v. or just chilling out in my room. I haven't decided yet whether to paint it or leave it be but it will definitely be reupholstered. I love that it rocks and I don't have to worry about it scooting all over the room. Now to find the perfect fabric!

I believe the old, red, velvet may be the original fabric - see it peaking through?






And in closing, I'd like to say WhooHoo - I just passed 200 chocolate loving followers! I think a giveaway might be in order to celebrate my wonderful followers! What do you all think? Maybe some stitchy stash or a message in a bottle necklace - Hmmmm... I'll have to think on it a bit.

Have a great day - a great week and thanks so much for stopping by! I love reading all your comments and I couldn't appreciate them more. I'll have a more "stitchy" update on my next post along with whatever I decide a giveaway should be!

Peace,
Terri

Auctions Rock!

The KSSG (Kindred Spirits Sampler Guild) annual auction was today! What fun! We had a great time and I gotta tell you - the ladies make some incredible things and the others are very willing to part with their money to claim ownership. The biggest ticket of the day was made by Nancy - I got a picture but it doesn't really show how stunning this was. The top (why I forgot a pic of the top is beyond me), was beautifully stitched and then she had the most beautiful moulding all around it. It was all stitched over one and, as with all of Nancy's finishing, it's perfect!!! The box had feet which my picture doesn't show either - this was stunning and deservedly went for more than $200.


There was so much to see and I was helping to check the items in and didn't get up to take pictures until the tables were crowded so I didn't get everything. Hopefully, DEB and SHERRY will share some pics, too.

This was my contribution to the auction:

Three pairs of scissors with fobs I beaded all sitting in a milk glass vase with flower frog. My friend Sally outbid Sherry for this. Thanks, Sally! I was so afraid nobody would bid on it and I'd look like a dunce!

This is what Julie "won".

It's a little case by Vera Bradley that (I'm sorry, I forgot who made this), had all kinds of goodies in it - it's gorgeous. There were two of them there and Julie and I both wanted one but in the end, Julie prevailed. The other one was in another colorway and was beautiful as well:

Part of the auction was of the silent variety and the other part was a live auction. This is from the silent auction bid; a cute little silver and black pincushion already at home on my pink chest:

This was the other thing I "won" in the live bidding auction. It was made by my friend Pat, whom you met during our BBD day a few posts back. It's a bee skep, clamp, pincushion and I love it! When she brought it in I told her that I wanted it and I got it!


There is so much more but I am sure that Deb and Sherry want to post about this as well so I'll save some pics for them to share.

I have been jinxed and it's all JAYNE'S fault. After I posted my 7 things she said something like, "Was clumsy (or was it clutz) number 8?" Well yes, I guess it is. I dropped a hammer on my toe yesterday and it is killing me - ignore the bad pedicure - just focus on the swollen, blue toe. Pretty, huh? Ty's face and my foot - I swear; we are a mess!
Luckily, I don't use my feet to wave my bidding paddle!
Also, the guild members were quite happy when I arrived with my iced tea in a sippy cup. Good thing too, 'cause I did knock it over. It's just not easy being me.....

I think the only question I was asked in my last post was by CARI who asked if after that first really successful year of college, if I ever went back to get my degree. The answer is yes - I got a bachelor's in business from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond which was again, thanks to my dad. After I told him I was getting a divorce (we were living in Illinois at the time) he said that if I'd move home, he'd send me back to school. I don't know if I've ever really said thank you for that, Dad. I hope you know how much that meant to me and I thank you from the very bottom of my heart. I LOVE you!!!

Thanks for dropping by and for all your wonderful comments - I appreciate them so much! Have a great week everyone!

Peace,
Terri

Thank you!

I just want to tell you all thank you for all the good thoughts, prayers and notes about my Tyler. He is doing much better today and is finally feeling a bit more like his old self again. Back to school and back to his new normal on Monday.



I also have to thank PATTI and JOLENE for giving me a blog award. I am so tickled - it's been a long time since I've gotten one and I couldn't be more pleased. The rules, as you've probably read on their blogs by now, are that I have to thank the one(s) that gave it to me; Thank you, dear Patti and Jolene. I have to tell 7 things about myself you may not know. Then, I have to give this award to 7 others. There's the problem.... I have become such a lover of so many blogs I can't narrow it down to seven. I know it's a cop-out and I hate to do it, but I can't pick just seven! Here's what I'd like to do; if I've commented on your blog in the last week (7 days), I'm giving you this award. If I've taken the time to comment, it means I like you, your blog and your work! If, over the life of your blog, I've commented 7 times, please accept this award. If I've visited your blog in the last 7 days but was too busy, too stressed or just too tired to post a note, please accept this award. Please accept it and tell me and all of us, 7 fascinating things about yourself.

The thing I like best about this award is getting to know a little more about our friends - that, after all, is what it's all about.

Here are my 7, probably not so fascinating, things you may not know about me:

1 - I graduated from high school in Korea in 1977 from Seoul American High School. I loved every minute of being there and got to do so many special things, which is my next "thing":

2- I was a High Adventure Explorer Scout in high school and learned how to rappel (yes, off a mountain) while I was there. I went on a lot of treks and loved the feeling of bouncing down a mountain. I also went on a two week raft trip (lots of white water and scary moments) each summer while there and at one place, we got attacked by some local Koreans that hadn't seen Americans since the war (we were in a very remote area). No kidding! We had to fight them off the rafts - luckily they didn't have guns! Our being attacked probably had something to do with the military rafts we were using for our trip. Other than that - the adventures I had were loads of fun and are some of my very best memories! I loved living in Korea.

3- When I got pregnant with my first son, Matthew - I gained more than 1/2 my body weight. Yep, when I got pregnant, I weighed about 100 pounds. On the day I delivered, I weighed 155 pounds! Unfortunately, only 6 1/4 pounds of that was baby!

4- In the early to mid 80's I went to Hawaii to stand up in a girlfriends wedding. We were there for a week. While there, I met a guy, fell in love or a trance or something, and about 2 months later, I moved out there to live with him. Crazy, right? I was there for a year before coming home.

5- I've realized, finally and truly that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. All my good friends and family have heard this story so for you guys, just skip on to number 6! My first year of college was a BLAST! We moved back to the states after I graduated from SAHS and I went straight to East Tennessee State University. The first quarter my dad would continually ask: "How's it going, Terri?" "Good, Dad, good." I'd say. When he got my report card, it wasn't so good and he said, "Terri, if you don't pull your grades up, you're going to have to give up the car." "Okay, Dad. I got it." He'd call and say, "How's it going, Terri?" "Good, Dad. Really good." He'd say he hoped so and would ask if I remembered what he'd told me. Of course I did. So.... he got my report card and guess what? Not so good. "Terri, drive the car home this weekend and we'll take you back to school." Fine. I drove the car home, he drove me back and said, "Now Terri. If you don't pull your grades up this quarter, I'm NOT sending you back. Do you understand me?" Oh yeah, I understood - I just didn't believe him. So, for the next quarter, I'd get the same sort of phone calls with the same sort of questions. "How are you doing, Terri. How are the grades? Are you working hard?" Oh yeah, I was working hard alright - I was working hard at being the life of the party! So, when my dad got my report card, guess what? Yep, my grades sucked and he didn't send me back to school the next fall. That's okay though - I showed him! I met a guy that summer and got married that November (I fall in love quickly, apparently). I was just barely 19. I would freak out if my almost 19 year old announced he was getting married but, get married I did. It didn't last more than a few years though so I guess my dad got the last laugh. Truth is though, I wouldn't change any of my experiences because they all led me to where I am today (which is very, very good)! Of course, with my boys, I am now living exactly what I put my folks thru - yep, the apple doesn't fall far.....

6- The first time I saw My Rob, I thought "I'm going to marry that guy." We both saw each other at the same time and both looked back at each other at the same time. Of course, after our first lunch date I wasn't so sure... I'll save that story for another time.

7- My BFF Julie and I probably "knew" each other when we were little and many, many years later became best friends. My dad was an army officer and her dad was a civilian working for the army. They both attended the Army General Staff College at Ft. Lee, VA at the same time. The class was fairly small and the families of the students would often socialize together at picnics or other gatherings (one of the many things I love about military life). Julie and I figure we had to have played together - how fun that our fathers paths would eventually lead ours to cross as well. We are now both civilians working for the army and she is my BFF!

That's it... not too fascinating probably but that's all I could come up with. Now how about you?

I thought I'd show you another GW find I got. I love this little chest, it's not old but it's cute, don't you think? It was $3.95 and like all things lately, it has a pink tone to it (as always, click the pic to see it better):

Here it is in my studio:

This is a 7 Gypsies carousel I got to hold some of my odds and ends, small charts/kits I want to keep in mind and easily at hand. It was on sale at "Archivers" (a great scrap booking store) a few weeks ago.


That's it for today, dear friends! As always, I thank you for the comments you leave and the notes you send. Like I said before, if nobody ever commented or followed - I doubt any of us we'd do this for long!

Peace,
Terri

Five Rounds with Mike Tyson!

Tyler's surgery went well. He was in surgery for about an hour and 15 minutes but was in recovery for almost two hours. Teenage boys just LOVE to sleep and put a little anesthesia into the mix and WheW - there's no waking them up! When Rob and I were finally able to go back and see him I about burst into tears - he truly looked like he had gone a couple of rounds with a heavy weight boxer. His left eye is black and blue and swollen shut and the right side of his face is also swollen and bruised. But, they fixed the eye - he has stitches in his nose where they took the graft to fix the orbital bone and stitches in his eye as well. He will heal and will be fine, although no gym or sports for 6 weeks. THAT will kill him. Thank you all so much for your notes and prayers; I appreciate them more than you know.

I have a lot I want to show you but first, drum roll, please. The winner of my follower/commenter giveaway is ANDREA! I have almost everything together Andrea, but it won't get mailed till this weekend. I hope you'll like everything!

Before I show you my Goodwill finds, I want to show you my Olympic Finish. I started it during the Olympics but didn't finish it till after. This is "Her Sampler" by CHS. I stitched it on 36 count Buttercream with DMC, one thread over two.




I also started working on BBD, Honeysuckle Manor. But... I don't like the colors of the flowers so I'm going to frog them and do them in more of a pink tone. This color just looks muddy to me and I don't care for it, at all. So, before I get much more done, I'll be doing the froggy rippit dance.



Now..... onto my finds. Nothing, except the dishes I'm going to show you cost more than $4 a piece. Are you ready for some heavy duty pictures? These are things I've found over the last few weeks. Remember, it's warming up and folks are doing their spring cleaning!

First up, this little Fitz and Floyd salt and pepper set. How cute are these guys? $4.



This little milk glass dish was $1.99 - I just need to find a flower frog to go in it.

How about this cute little pair of angels - they were $1.95 each:


I loved these pink Hall China bowls for $3 each - I just LOVE the color! And, how about the pretty serving bowl with the pink flowers on the outside- this was $4 ~ won't these be pretty on a table and really, cheaper than paper products:

Or how about this pretty, old, mixing bowl with the garland of Pink Roses on the inside? Summer, red skinned potato salad will be beautiful in this $2 beauty:

It was definitely my time for Pink! Look what else I found:


I can't remember exactly how much these were but they weren't more than $3 each.
And, if you haven't had enough yet, how about these cuties:

Can't you just picture all these pretties on a table with these dishes that I got for all of $18 ~ service for 8. Not a chip or crack in any of them:


Believe it or not, I've got a couple of more fun finds but they'll wait for another post. Have a great day everyone, thanks for the prayers for Tyler and all of us.
Peace,
Terri

The good, the bad and the winner!

I just had the drawing for my anniversary giveaway. I hope the person that won will enjoy the charts, the basket and the goodies I"m going to fill it with. What? You're wondering why it isn't already filled and ready to mail? Well let me just tell you....

Wednesday morning I got a phone call at work. It was the high school calling to say they thought I needed to come pick up Tyler and likely needed to take him to the ER. What happened? The secretary said that he had been playing basketball in the gym and had gotten hit in the eye with an elbow and that he was throwing up and didn't look too good. Since throwing up is generally Ty's excuse for getting out of school, I asked if anyone had actually seen him get sick. The answer was yes and we needed to come get him. Rob, who works a little closer than I do managed to get there first and called me and said to meet him at the ER, Tyler wasn't looking any too good. He was disoriented and had a whopper of a headache and was very pale and Rob thought he might be in shock. The doc felt sure he had a concussion but wanted to do some x-rays because he might have broken a facial bone. The x-ray came back negative but because a few hours had passed and Ty was still throwing up blood, time to do a CT scan of his brain to make sure he didn't have a bleeder. The doc came back with good news and bad. He said the brain looked okay but they saw a shadow on his orbital bone that caused them some concern. They wanted to do another CT scan. I was a little apprehensive about this because the levels of x-rays in a CT scan are a LOT and there has been a lot in the news about it lately. Anyway, nothing to do but do it, so we did. Turns out his orbital socket had two breaks in it and the fatty tissue behind the eye was leaking into his naval cavity. We would be referred to a surgeon. WHAT? OMG - this is not happening! But, yep, it was. So..... we saw the surgeon yesterday and Ty is having surgery on Tuesday to correct the injury. If we didn't fix it, it wouldn't be life threatening but his face would not look the same because the eye that was hit would sit deeper in his face than his other eye due to the loss of fatty tissue. The surgeon explained it by saying if you have two glasses filled with equal amounts of water and you put ping pong balls in them, they float at the same height. If you remove the water (fatty tissue)in one glass the ball (eyeball) in that glass will float at a lower level. No choice. Anyway, I'd appreciate your prayers for Tyler. He can't wear his contacts right now and his face is swollen and he still has a doozy of a headache so he's not feeling too good. Anyway, Stephanie (Bayou Stitcher) that is why your prize isn't quite ready to go. It may be next weekend before I can get it together - I hope you understand! Please shoot me an email with your mailing address.







Sorry - this one didn't show up too well....

When I did this drawing I didn't want people to feel like they HAD to be a follower to join in the game. However, my followers are special to me and I truly appreciate them and their comments. So - my second drawing is for one of my followers - however there's a twist. in addition to getting one entry for being a follower, you got an additional entry for every comment you made on 5 different posts. If you're a regular commenter, of course you got more chances. I thought, by doing two drawings in this fashion, I get to give one prize to anyone that happens on my blog and reads it but I wouldn't feel like I was buying followers. But... my followers are important to me. They make us all feel like our little blogs are worthwhile. If nobody ever followed or commented, how many of us would continue to do this? I am sure I wouldn't. So to my followers and commenters (no matter where in the world you are), I will have a second drawing that I hope you will like as much or more than this one. It will remain a surprise until you receive it in the mail. However, like this one, it isn't going to get mailed right away. Anwyay, this second drawing has taken me a while to sort out. I had Rob draw numbers to determine which blog entries I would use to determine my entrants and I've begun gathering those. When I'm done, I will make a new post with my follower winner. See, you entered and didn't even know it - who knows - perhaps you were entered up to 6 times (maybe more for some of you clever people that posted twice on one blog entry! Stay tuned.

I also wanted to let you all know that my beautiful Elizabeth Savilles was not sitting in the snow - click on the pic to enlarge and you'll see the Saran Wrap she was sitting on - clever huh?

Last weekend, Rob and I were out and about and I found a couple of fun things..... the tomato pin cushions and sugar bag which I will make a small pillow from:
I love the little orange one!

Oh, there are a couple of other things but I can't show you..... tee hee hee!

Do you get those 40% off coupons from Joann's? Me too! I've decided to start adding to my book collection with their coupons - seems like I've already purchased most of my wants and needs from them so why not? I have fallen in love with the Tilda books after seeing them on many of the French blogs. The dolls are darling and I'm going to give making one a try. Scary, I know!

These are the fabrics for my first two dolls I hope to make - don't you love the mini black toile?


I love these kinds of books - here's another of my favorites although I've yet to make anything from it.

Home Sewn from French General!



Don't you just love this little project?

Finally, my friend Sherry from my guild has started her own blog. Please go pay her a visit and welcome her to blog land. She hasn't posted any pictures yet but she will and when she does, you won't want to miss them. She's very talented and funny and you're going to really enjoy getting to know her.

Sorry for such a rambling post - Lots going on and Laura - I've got your package - didn't get that mailed as early as I'd hoped either but it's coming - I promise!

Peace,
Terri