Treasures.....

I love a good treasure!

I am always on the look out for a great antique store

whereas to find many good treasures.

I have a very nice antique store right down the road from me

that I frequent, but sometimes I need to find something in a new area.

Because of the 3-day weekend, I picked up my oldest son

from college in Milledgeville on Friday.

I knew I would have to take him back Monday so with the

other kids home, I thought it would be a great time to do some

sight seeing in Milledgeville.

I keep asking my son what they have there and his answer is always the same:

"Nothing"

Bologna!! I just didn't believe it.

So after we dropped his things off at the barracks,

we headed downtown.

I found a store full of treasurers....

I was so excited and could have stayed there all day.

The kids even enjoyed themselves looking at all the cool things.

This is a picture of the outside of the stores.

But this is inside the store.  Keep in mind that

this store is 2 levels!

I am on the 2nd level and the bottom level is just as big

with just as many things.

I was in "junk store" heaven.  My husband said that I had found

the true Stuff Mart.

I could have spent so much money there.  I found lots

of things I wanted and I'm sure their are lots of things

that I didn't see.

Had I had more time and money; I could have spent the entire day there.

These are the 2 (yes only 2) things that I did get:

My youngest son picked out the butt pad.

Go GMC Bulldogs!!

I picked out the black lantern.  Don't you just love it!

We also found a quaint little ice cream shop that also sold the

most amazing looking carrot cake.  I didn't have any this

time, but you can bet I will when I go back.

My youngest son would not turn around so I could take

his picture.  This was like the 5th one I had to take and I

had to promise him $1!!

With that blue tongue, I don't think he will get it.

The oldest son just looks totally annoyed!

Here is another picture of some of the downtown.

We also went into a book store.  Book stores attract me like

a very strong magnet.  I cannot pass by a book store without going inside.

I always find a book I can't live without and today was no exception.  I found this

pillow book on clearance.  It has ideas and patterns to make 25 different styles of pillows.

Guess what I'll be doing over the next few months. 

I can't wait to get started.

Fall Decorating.....

In an attempt to clean up and organize

my Christmas decorations, which

have completely overtaken my little

storage room; I came across

tons of fall decorations.

I remember buying all this stuff

but haven't used it for a few years because

I couldn't get to it through all the Christmas stuff.

The kids and I spent Saturday evening getting the house

decorated for fall.

Here is what we did:

These pumpkins also take a tea light and look

really pretty at nighttime.

I just got the white candle holder at a thrift store for $1.50.

I love it and it came with a candle.  I also think it looks cute

with the pumpkin.

My skeleton and his dog also have candle holders.

This is my favorite candle in the whole wide world. 

I got it from Partylite years ago and they quit

making/selling it.  I cannot find the equivalent

scent anywhere.

Some of these gourds are real, some are fake.

I think they look great in my red bowl.



I hope you enjoyed my fall decorations.

Make sure to come back when I post my Christmas

decorations. 

My Bathroom Window

This is the one and only window in my master bathroom.

It is a large window and is usually covered with a mini-blind.

I am not a big fan of mini-blinds so during the summer

when we have tons of leaves on the trees behind the

house, I can pull the mini-blinds all

the way to the top and leave them there.

Since it is dark outside when my husband

and I get our showers in the morning, he likes

to have the mini-blinds closed in case we may have some

peeping Toms in the neighborhood.

Now, keep in mind, this is on the 3rd floor of our house and

we have tons of trees behind us.

I don't think anyone can see in when the leaves are there

but once the leaves fall from the trees during the Fall and Winter months;

it's anybodies guess.

I want to take the mini-blinds down completely and

hang a shear curtain on the lower half of the window.

That would continue to let the light in; while keeping the peeping Tom's out!

The window is right above the bathtub and I have a nice view

of my flower boxes around the deck.

If you look really closely, you can see Home Plate!

My kids have been using my backyard as their personal baseball field for several years now.

The dirt place by that center tree is where they pitch from.

They have spent may hours out there hitting tennis balls over the neighbors fences.

It could be worse; it could be real baseballs.

Sick Bay.....

When one of the kids

get sick, and they are not too sick

to have to stay in their own beds all day; they get

to move to what is affectionately

called "Sick Bay"

Basically it's just a sheet thrown

over the sofa (so as to not get any germs on the sofa).

They get to bring their favorite pillow and blanket

and camp out in "Sick Bay" getting better.

Here they are waited on hand and foot (of course); made sure they

have something to drink and they get the choice of what is watched on TV!

Zachary woke up last night with a stomach bug.

He got to claim his place in "Sick Bay" for the day.

Honestly, I think he would rather be up and at school.

The view from "Sick Bay"

Not too bad if I do say so myself.

Hope you feel better soon, Zachary!



Apple Pie Crisp

For some reason I have been in the baking mood this week.

I can't blame it on the "cooler fall-type weather" because it's

still been 90 degrees in Georgia this past week.

We are suppose to cool down considerably next week:

I'm not holding my breath!

I bought this cookbook a couple years ago from the book fair

at our elementary school.  It is awesome.  I love cooking and only

using 1 pan.

I was skimming through and found this recipe for Apple Pie Crisp.

I love apples and love to bake with them in the Fall so I

thought I would give it a try.

This is one of my favorite gadgets. 

The apple-peeler-corer-slicer from The Pampered Chef.

When I saw it at a show many, many years ago; I just

had to have it.

It is so quick and easy and the kids love how the peeling comes off in

one big long shoestring.

See....

Any what to do with all those shoestring peelings?

Why you put them in a pan with a little water and cinnamon; put it on

your stovetop and let it simmer.

Your whole house will smell like apple pie for the rest of the day.

Someone give me a spoon.  Yum!

The Apple Pie Crisp is ready to go into the oven!

Finished!  It tasted as good as it looks.  I am sharing the recipe below.

You can serve it with a little Cool Whip or Ice Cream.

Apple Pie Crisp

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

8 cups sliced peeled cooking apples

1/2 cup packaged regular pancake mix

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar

2 teaspoons apple pie spice

In a very large bowl toss the apples with the 1/2 cup pancake mix, 1/2 cup brown sugar, the granulated sugar and apple pie spice.

3/4 cup milk

2 eggs

2 tablespoons butter, cut up

In a small bown stir together milk and eggs; add to apple mixture and stir to coat.  Transfer to an ungreased 9 x 13 inch baking pan.  Dot apples with the 2 tablespoons butter. Set aside.

1 cup packaged regular pancake mix

3/4 cup crushed rich round crackers

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup cold butter



In a medium bowl stir together the 1 cup pancake mix, the rich round crackers and 1/2 cup brown sugar.  Using a pastry blender, cut in the 1/4 cup butter until crumbly.  Sprinkle over apples

Bake, uncovered, for 45 to 50 minutes.  Enjoy!

An Impromptu Photo Session....

When Victoria came downstairs for school this

morning, I thought she looked so pretty.

I got to thinking that all my recent pictures I have of her

she is in a softball uniform.

Well, that will never do. 

I asked her if we

could go outside for an impromptu photo session.

She whined and complained, of course.

I guess that just goes with being 12!

After I pouted for a little while and explained

to her that she is beautiful and that I don't have any "nice"

photos of her; she reluctantly agreed.

This is what we ended up with:

Thank you, V for being such a good sport.

Dining Room Renovations over the years.....

We live here....

We bought our home in June, 2001.  This picture was taken in July, 2001

as you can see from the date stamp.

It looks pretty much the same on the outside today as it did then;

the inside is what has changed drastically from the day we

bought it.

I am very lucky in that my husband can and will (after I nag him for a thousand

days straight) do home renovations.

I think the only thing he might have some difficulty with would be

plumbing.  We haven't had to do much of that (thank goodness)

so I'm really not sure what he can do.

Other than that, he can do pretty much anything.

This is my dining room:

I (bold, capitalize and underline) wallpapered.  By. My. Self.

I was so proud!

It looked like this.



Nothing fancee, nothing major.

This table is the first piece of furniture

we purchased together.  It is solid pine and I love this table.

I was very content with my dining room. 

It stayed exactly like this for many years.

It's always been a dream of ours to not have carpet in our house

and to put in hardwoods.  Between the dogs, cats and kids, we were over

the carpet and how dirty it always seemed.

So we did it! We just took the plunge and decided it was time.

Pulling up carpet is one of the nastiest jobs ever.  I couldn't believe

the smell of the padding underneath and the fine gritty dirt that was underneath

the padding.

I couldn't believe we had been living on top of all that dirt.

But, lets not go there!

More carpet padding.  This took forever!!

The kids call themselves helping.  I guess they are making sure the

new wood doesn't go out the window.

Everybody pitched in to open the boxes of wood and sort it by size. 

FINALLY!

The moment I have been waiting for.....

the floors start to go in.

I'm a terrible person to do home projects with,

I want everything done Yesterday!

The completed floors.  So Happy!!

The furniture went back in and looked great.

Then.....

One of my girlfriends moved this past Summer.  As she was packing

up her house and sending things to storage and her new condo, she found this in her basement.

In.Her.Basement

It had been there for about 5 years she said.

She asked me could I use it.

Could I use it!

Heck Yea!!

Check out this hutch.  It is just gorgeous.

The table, along with 6 chairs and 3 leaves; I only use 1, my dining

room isn't that big.

This is my favorite piece.  An old serving table. 

My plan is to redo the material on the chairs but for

now; they are just fine.

I cannot wait to decorate for Christmas!