He's Home Alone (but not really)

Alden has a series of movies that are his favorites. The way this child watches movies is not from beginning to end, so don't panic...he is not constantly in front of the TV....he only has certain scenes that he likes. Currently, he is on a Home Alone binge...he likes to watch both HA1 and HA2, but he is very specific about which he wants to watch and when. I have to question him to make sure I put the right one in the DVD. The conversation goes something like this.

Alden "Jammi, I want to watch Home Alone."

Me "Which one, the one where Marv steps on the nail (HA1) or the one where Kevin throws the bricks (HA2)?

At which point Alden decides and lets me know his preference....he usually end up watching both, but he doesn't always watch them in order, HA1 first and then HA2. For HA1, I have to forward to the chapter where Kevin goes to the church and meets the Southbend Shovel Slayer in person.....for HA2, I have to forward to the chapter where Kevin is racing along to the New York apartment where he devises his cool plan to lure Harry and Marv to their doom.

Alden has a very cool imagination and he acts out the movies as they are occurring. Have I mentioned that I love this kid, he keeps me in stitches much of the time. We had to draw up the plans to thwart those evil bad guys, so Alden can help Kevin out...we have the plans for booby trapping from both movies and let me tell you, they are now well worn....my home is also appropriately booby trapped, but then again, isn't every domicile?

When he is on a binge with Night at the Museum, we have a set of the instructions that Cecil leaves with Larry on his first night alone, as well as a set of my vintage keys that Alden uses and of course, his long black flashlight. We have not yet figured out how to duplicate Ahkmenrah's tablet. This movie, he will watch from beginning to end.

Lexi and Connor have not yet gotten to the age where they play so vividly...with Lexi, she likes Dollhouse and having tea parties...Connor, just likes to climb on the steps and have someone haul him off about 200 times in a 5 minute span. I can't wait to see what we get into with these two nutheads.

All the Best,

Free Chocolate

MARs is giving away chocolate. That's right, giving it away, as part of their real chocolate relief act promotion...beginning July 3 and running through September. You can sign up every Friday for a free coupon. They will give away 250K free coupons each Friday and you can signup beginning at 9am EST.
They will even send you a reminder via email...how 'sweet' is that?

All the Best,

Metamorphosis Monday Rocking Chair blues

I'm participating in my first Metamorphosis Monday. Thanks to Susan at Between Naps on the Porch for hosting such a fun party. Be sure and check out the amazing transformations by going to Susan's blog and following the links.

I have picked up a new habit lately...yard sales. I was blissfully ignorant about the wonderful things you can find at yard sales...I didn't have time to go to yard sales, I had other things to do and besides I didn't need or want someone else's junk. What an idiot! I've been awed and inspired by some of the eye popping finds and amazing redos out there in blogland.

This is my second weekend in a row, where I have gotten up with the chickens and headed out in search of hidden treasures. One of my finds this week was this antique rocker. I fell in love with it and knew it would fit beautifully in my Master bedroom, with a little tweaking. I picked up some upholstery fabric at Hobby Lobby (on sale this week at 30% off) in a gorgeous pale blue color to match the chocolate and blue color scheme and ta-da, a new favorite place to sit is now housed comfortably in my bedroom. I've always been a rocking chair lover...I have an old bentwood rocker (I really do) that my two daughters were raised on as well as all of my Grandbabes. Now, I have something more comfortable that I can look forward to continuing my rocking career with my new Grandbabe ("little don't know you yet", due on my husbands birthday in December).

The rocker was covered in an ivory fabric with a pale blue, green and pink striped/crisscrossed pattern. The lady who was selling it had used it in her nursery and it had recently been stored in the garage.

I thought about refinishing the wood, but the more I looked at the deep molasses color, the more I liked the character and decided not to change it. I think the darker wood is a better fit with my bedroom furniture.

Since I am not experienced with recovering anything other than the fabric on my dining room chairs, I am pleasantly surprised at how beautifully this sweet little rocker turned out. It only took me about 4 hours to recover, and most of that time was spent removing the 993 staples that was holding the previous fabric.

I'll post pics of my other finds, later this week. For now, I'm still rocking.

All the best,

Giveaway Reveal

Don't forget to sign up for my Giveaway. Instruction can be found on a previous post...sorry, I do not know how to link directly to the appropriate post, so you will have to use the old fashioned scroll method to go to the post preceding this one.

My Giveaway is to celebrate Shopping...that exercise that we all adore. I'm giving away a DVD of 'Confessions of a Shopaholi' to get you in the mood and to celebrate Independence Day, a cute red, white and blue bracelet from Cracker Barrel.

All the best,

My First Giveaway

I am going to do my first Giveaway to mark the milestone of my first 6 months blogging. My giveaway will consist of items celebrating that thing we all love....shopping!

Here's what ya do to enter:

1- You must be a follower or become a follower of this blog. Be sure and leave a comment letting me know that you are a follower and are entering the contest.

2- If you'd like an extra entry, mention this Giveaway on your blog and link back to this post. Leave me a comment letting me know.

3- Entry deadline will be 11:59pm Eastern time on Wednesday, July 1

4- Check back on Sunday to see a picture and description of the Giveaway...you won't be disappointed. Here's a hint.



I'll announce the winner on Thursday, July 2.

All the Best,

Darth Vader slept with me last night

Alden loves spending the night at Jammi and Mike's house (The GBs have always called my husband by his first name...we tried Gramps, but Mike has always stuck). Alden is here often, so we are always on the lookout for ways to make his visit fun, exciting and memorable. Last night, we pulled out the glow sticks, which he calls Light Sabers....yes, we are both Star Wars fans. We use a lot of glow sticks at our house...all the Grandbabes are hooked on them. We use them to play in the dark outside and inside, I throw them on the ground during our night time events where they look great, until the kids pick them up and run around like crazy people (did I mention that kids love glow sticks) and because Alden is not fond of really dark places, we took a stash of 2 inch glowsticks to Disney World last year so that he would be able to crack one open in the dark rides. They worked like a charm.

Before we went to sleep on the cloud, (Jammi's and Mike's big, soft, kingsize bed) we turned off all the upstairs lights and played with the light sabers. We played a throwing game by seeing who's Light Saber could be thrown the longest distance down the hall...he had a pink and green one and mine was orange. Afterwards, we had a light saber duel and then on to the cloud, where I propped up some pillows and pulled the sheet over him and the pillows, to make him a small cozy cave, where he kept his Light Sabers until he fell asleep.

If you have never played with your Grandbabes or your children with Glow Sticks, go forth and make the purchase...they will love them.

All the Best,

Multiple Personalities

I believe in using what you have and making it work for you. I have some rather large metal pots that I love and display on top of my Entertainment center.

Aren't they cute.....

My Daughters get a hoot out of this.....these are really.....

These boogers are large and would be hard to store and anyway, I like them, so during the year - when it is not Halloween - I re-purpose them and no one is the wiser...except, me....and my daughters...and well, now you. Shhhhhhh.....

All the best,

What is it vs. what will it be

Hit a couple of yard sales on Saturday and found a few things. I love this little chest...it opens from the top and I think is either a sewing chest or a blanket chest. I am thinking about how I will refinish it and what I will use it for....I'm thinking maybe in the kitchen to store some recipe books...or in the dining room to store some of my dinnerware pieces. Maybe the hall to store whatever. Hope to transform it sometime this week and I'll post pictures when I finish and decide where it will reside.

This bunny was just too cute for $1...

I also picked up a metal jack-o-lantern that matches a couple larger ones I bought from Kirklands a couple years ago...it is missing the lid, but for $1 it is now added to the collection.

All the Best,

Cloche Party...How Divine

I'm posting in my first ever online party, by joining the first Cloche Party at A Stroll Thru Life. Thanks to Marty for coming up with the idea and for being such a gracious hostess. Be sure to go over to her blog and check out the other posts of creative cloche chic.



Starting off with my first cloche, my Anniversary Clock that was one of my first purchases after Mike and I married. We bought this clock new, so it is now 34 years old and still keeps perfect time.

Cloche on my Charleston Cake Plate with a big pink flower to carry the theme of my girly girl plates and cranberry spritzer.



My Chefs in a jar....ready to get started on a great meal with artichoke and cheese....I'm sure they can improvise and come up with something. Mabye they can find a little spinach and come up with some Spinach artichoke dip, yummy.

My dining table has an assortment of vases, and apothecary jars....I found the small cloche and pedestal stand at Home Goods a couple months ago.



Some of my antique glass displayed under a cloche.

In my living room, a Hobby Lobby find....a cloche on a metal stand painted to look like an aged bronze.

A red, white and blue display.

My table at Christmas with Snowman family.

Hope you enjoyed your visit..come back soon.

All the Best,

Painted Apothecary Jars

I found a really cute idea on the Michael's website for painting apothecary jars. The materials and instruction seem pretty simple and could be used to paint any glass item...I'm thinking cake domes, glasses, Large storage jars, etc.

I can see possibilities for teacher gifts, Halloween storage and display,
Christmas, etc. A cute gift for a girl's room would be to paint a cute apothecary jar in her favorite color, and using a theme - a ballet slipper, princess, flowers, etc. and filling with ribbons to be worn in her hair, or necklaces for play time, etc.

My mind is boggled with the possibilities and I'm headed to the craft store this weekend to buy some of this paint.

What possibilities do you see?

All the Best,

A Day In the Park

We spent the afternoon in the Chickamauga Battlefield Park on Sunday, with the rest of the family,to celebrate Mom's birthday. Everyone met after church, at the picnic area on Alexander Bridge Road. We enjoyed a picnic lunch of fried chicken and fixin's with sandwiches...cupcakes and cookies for dessert.

Mike had to share his chicken with Lexi and Connor. His food always tastes better than theirs. I believe Connor can get a bigger bite, if he tries really hard.

After lunch, the babes 'helped' Mom open her presents. They were opening the presents so fast, she was losing track of what was happening. They enjoy being the official present openers for birthdays, Mother's Day, Father's Day, etc. Because each one is trying to open more than the other, tissue paper is usually flying in every direction. It's remenicent of being in a dance with twirling scarves.

And..........

Sometimes tempers flare and things get heated. A lot of people don't know that this is where the WWF gets a lot of their signature moves....kiddie fighting. This example is the highly complicated - let go of my bottle - manuever. Rolling around in a head lock was next, before one of the Refemommies could break it up...my camera was too slow to capture that action shot...or maybe it was because I was laughing so hard and forgot to point and shoot.

Anyway, back to Mom, since this day was in her honor. She loves to garden and got many cute things that she can display or use in her garden - some bird houses, garden flags, etc. Mike and I gave her a shopping spree on the date of her choice...I will provide her with cash for shopping and chauffeur her to any shops she desires....included will be a ride through some nice neighborhoods to look at homes, as she always enjoys this and gives us a chance to rest and catch our collective breath. If we are lucky, we might find some home tours we can join.

I was surprised to see the length of the grass in the open fields at the battlefield...they had mown around the monuments and signs, but the rest was covered with grass as high as about two feet. I guess everyone is suffering from budget cuts, or maybe they have a contract where someone harvests hay on the open fields, and they're behind because we we have had so much rain. Irregardless it was sad, the battlefield is usually so pristine and peaceful and this felt all wrong.

Before leaving, we had to go through the Welcome Center, where they have a huge gun display and some Civil War relics. They had a neat Tent display, showing the items that the officers would carry. The higher graded the office, the more baggage they were allowed to carry.

We had to visit Wilder Tower and let everyone climb the circular staircase to the top and overlook the park. The Tower was closed for several years for repairs, so good to see it open again. I can picture Rapunzel in a Tower much like this one as she let down her long hair.

The picture does not give you a sense of the size of the monument, so I added one of the top and some of the family looking down to add scale.

All the Best,