***Closed Until the New Year***

I do hate to miss the Holiday Season with ya'll

but I'll be reading all of ya'lls blogs and keeping up with your
happenings...

Soooooo, Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah,
Happy Kwanzaa and Happy New Year

Guess Where I'm Going...

this weekend? along with the Ever Loving and Considerate Husband?

To McDonough, Georgia, (and to Griffin to visit family) but most excitingly (is that a Real Word? I'm too pooped to look it up...shame, shame, English Major, I know your name), I'm going to visit here...

that's right...I've enjoyed The Plum Tree blog for a while now & I'm finally going to visit them (it?)

I'm so very happy...and so I owe the Husband Big time...

There Comes a Time...

when one must break out the Craft Paint...even if one is seriously Craft Impaired...

I want a Wall O' Chickens...I bought one of these from a lady @ the Statesboro Farmer's Market...Just a hint as to which is mine...as if it isn't obvious...I like to call My Chicken Texumato the Fire Chicken...yes, Tex has legs, you just can't see them in the photo...I'll be doing something about that...

okay, settle down, people...there is a Big Learning Curve here!

Today, the Husband was in his Element...Morning dawned cold enough for a fire! That's pretty darn amazing for only middle October in Southeast Georgia...

That's Fred and Piper lookin' for trouble...usually they find it..This is Weejie (Wilma) The Grande Dame. The Old Lady. The Warden. A lot of white on that beautiful long nose but Weej still rules this roost. Even our Problem Child Piper gives way before the Weej.

The only time I've ever heard Hounds Sing (there is an old country pass-around tale about hounds singing) was the day Wilma and Jasper, our basset who has passed on now, sang together...not howling, not just "talking", but singing...the hair on my arms stood up...until that time I thought singing hounds were only another one of our old pretty Southern Tales...

Only one time and never again...

Sllllooowwwly But Surely

it is coming together...and since one can, apparently, never have too many things waiting on
The Project List, I plan to refurb this old glass lamp because as much as I love the new PB version, the day I get up off that much change to provide our cats with something new for Target Practice will be, well, never...

Auctions are a Frugal Person's Friend...

says Mrs. Cheap Pants....

while I'm leery of going to garage sales (or yard sales, if you prefer...we don't have any of those furrin' events called Tag Sales in my neck of the woods...that's just a different world, ya'll) because I have this weird fear of seemin' snooty and disdainful of people's "stuff" if I don't buy something...

and let's face it...some people's "stuff" is really people's "C-R-A-P" that should have been hauled off one pitch black moonless night to the county dump in a license plate-less truck and left outside of the locked gates so it cannot be traced back to the rightful owner*...

The Very Few times I have steeled myself and ventured to stop by a garage sale, yes, I hit proverbial Crap Mother Loads**

but when I'm loafin' about in Blog Land instead of being gainfully productive I gaze wistfully upon all the seemingly endless great stuff people find at these sales to bring home and display in their homes and on their blogs***...

Practically to My Point: check out auctions.

Now, auctions aren't the most efficient use of time...a large auction can drag on for hours...and hours...and hours...

the last auction Mr G & I attended lasted, I kid ya'll not, about 7 hours...7 HOURS....we ate dinner there...twice...the first time from the concession stand (that most established auctions have...at least our Georgia auctions do :) and the second time from the corner Subway shop...and spent a lot of time watchin' the regulars, who apparently are all shop owners or have really really big houses, buy lot after lot...

by the time the bureau/buffet I wanted rolled across the concrete floor for bidding, it was 10:30...that's PM...6 hours into the auction...and no way on God's Green earth was I leavin' that auction house without that buffet****....
That night, the Auction gods smiled upon me...the buffet was mine for $55...and now it sits in our second bathroom waiting for its sink to be dropped in...

Practically to My Point: Check ya'lls local classified for auction listing. Bigger auctions will probably be listed starting at least a week out from the actual auction date. And, don't just look in the Garage Sale column...check out the Announcements section too...

My point: auctionzip.com...the auction lover's friend...just type in your zip, how many miles you are willing to drag your sullen spouse and whether or not you've reached the age when limited night time driving ability makes it inadvisable to go that far and drive home late tired down a deer-riddled country road, with an openly hostile husband beside you in the passenger seat, and a massive oak hall tree bungee corded in your half-open trunk...



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*apparently, there is a reason why allllll of those dumps & transfer stations have signs that forbid leavin' stuff outside when the gates are closed...

**community or charity-related garage sales are cats of a different colour...these seem to work out better....

***Rhoda @ Southern Hospitality has to be the Undisputed Queen of Wonderful Garage Sale Stuff...actually, I bet they actually have Tag Sales where Rhoda lives!

****This is, actually, a dangerous mind set at an auction...don't get emotionally involved with anything you're bidding on...it can mean a month or two of nothin' but beans & rice for dinner as you bid $500 more than you planned on that Oh-Hell-No-That-Heifer-Is-Not-Gettin'-My-Whateveritis*****

*****Auction houses do not look kindly upon bidders who retract bids...ever...

Hmmmmm...What Could These Be For?

and what could they possibly have to do with these?

Let's just say I'm going to try my hand at a new craft thing...and naturally, I'll burn the livin' fire out of my fingers with the Industrial Sized Black & Decker Glue Gun my husband bought for me years ago...

Life Lesson #283: Never send a guy to buy anything that plugs in and might even remotely be considered a "tool".

My glue gun is so big and gets so hot that it could, in a pinch, be used as a welding device...

Needless to say, any session that involves my glue gun also involves me askin' God for lots of forgiveness for my filthy mouth...

100 Days of holiday cookies

Starting September 24th!

RUN, Don't Walk...

to your nearest K-Mart to get these: Rooster Plates from the Country Living Collection @ K-Mart! and even with my horrible photography skills, surely ya'll can see how great these are...the make of these remind me of Buffalo China...which I love...and have...

And the little banner says (no, you aren't having sugar problems, it is, again, my mad photography skills at work) "Good Food, Good Friends"...For me to pay straight retail for anything is amazing...but I shelled out the 19.99 plus 7% sales tax for a set of 4 (that is how they come) and I'm havin' to restrain myself from driving over there right now to get a second set...if there are any left!

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UPDATE: so, apparently, I'm not all that great at restraining myself when Chicken Plates are involved...and, yes, I do call all chickens "chicken"...even the guy ones...

It's Beginning to Feel a Little Fall-ish...

here in Southeastern Georgia...even tho' the days still climb into the 90s, the nights fall wonderfully into the upper 60s...hot days are bearable when the mornings are cool and it isn't until well after lunch time that heat-induced crankiness and fatigue sets in*...

Besides the thermometer and the level of rage induced by tryin' to quickly move in and out of the local Hell-Mart's parking lot...which is the size of a recreational park's football field...and the hotter it is, the crazier and meaner people get(naturally, I do strongly feel that anybody tryin' to turn left across the oncoming backed-up-to-South Carolina right lane traffic into the backed-up-to-Florida left lane traffic from the parking lane adjacent to the bustling pedestrian crossing ought to be, well,PUNISHED is the politest word I have available for use this moment...severely punished...I mean, really severely punished...when it is cooler weather, I can benevolently smile upon the idiot and wish him/her well in his or her entitled world with only minor karma hit points) , I have another gauge for Fall Weather Approaching...Projects**

Come September, it is time to get Deadly Serious about what projects need to be done, by whom, and by when...the "when" actually being code for "by time to start decorating for Christmas"... Hence my lack of awareness that a whole month has gone by since my last post...not that I'm such a stickler about timely posting anyway...

Exhibit A: stripped down second full bath...installing beadboard, new lighting, base boards and, possibly, a beautiful old buffet to convert into a vanity...only hitch... just this afternoon we discovered this beautiful buffet may not make the turn into bathroom...crud...tomorrow, it'll be like watchin' The Rose Bowl Parade and holdin' our breath to see if the biggest float ever can make that impossible turn on that corner the announcers always get freaked about...Cynthia seems fine with our purposed sink vanity sitting right in the middle of the hallway...selfish selfish kitty... Exhibit B: stripped down master bathroom...new beadboard, lighting and baseboards...thank you, Lord, that we don't need a new vanity in this one...but the tub, well, that is a tale for another day...Exhibit C: master bedroom with patched holes and no baseboards...will be painting and putting in new baseboardsTruly, I do not know why there were so many holes in that wall...well, the big one, yes, I do know why...we had a flat screen mounted there...that requires a big honkin' hole, apparently, for the at-most 1/2" diameter cable...who knew?

anyhoo...a couple of other little indicators of more forgivin' weather here in our little corner of Georgia:

Our pear tree that is only 2 years in the ground. I love an over-achiever in the garden Yankee Candles' Purr-Chouli candle...I cannot help it...I know patchouli got a Bad Rep in the 60s but I love it Fall Mags...what's not to love?*****************************************************************************

*Yes, I know...Mother Nature is only toying with us...

**Made more Deadly Serious this year by our son's pending marriage and backyard reception HERE!!!

***I was at the store, grousing because my issue of CL hadn't come in YET HERE IT IS IN THE STORE ON THE SHELVES FOR EVERY FREAKIN' BODY ELSE, when Mr G piped up with "it's at home...it's under that stuff on the buffet by the front door...I've only back from a trip, excitedly waiting on my cool fall issue of CL, but that's okay...I was too happy to seek revenge...and, yes, I realize I should pursue a more exciting lifestyle...which I would if I weren't happy as a pig in slop doing what I do...

I will be spending the next several computer sessions catching up on alllll the blogs I like...ya'll are some prolific bloggers :)

An August Afternoon at...

one of our lovely Georgia State Parks...let me tell ya'll...unless they had a snow machine going, no way was this going to be a pleasant outing...

we've been talking about going up to take some family photos for, oh, about 6 months or more...and today is the first day when the planets aligned and everybody got his or her butt into gear...so we ate a quick bite, piled into Speck and headed to Magnolia Springs...

Did I mention it is August? August may be pleasant in some areas of our great country...I'm willing to entertain that idea...

But in Georgia, August is a trial to one's soul...

I didn't even have it in me to insist everybody don the ubiquitous white button-downs and khakis so the photos might have a snowball's chance in, well, Georgia...in August...of lookin' somewhat professional...

I expect lots of killings happen in August...in Georgia...probably more than any other time of the year...I'm being completely serious...

My Grand Plan involved driving up to the actual "spring", hopping out to snap a quick photo or two and hoppin' right back into the car to speed away in air conditioned bliss...Apparently, I forgot to copy the family on that...

I let my attention wander for just a minute (busy checking the ground for venomous snakes camouflaged in the leaf litter...habit of mine) and before I could stop them, all 3 (Husband, Son and Future DIL) headed off into the woods...

Not wanting to be an absolute bad sport (since mostly they find my little tirades amusing and since any extra gesticulation on my part would have resulted in yet more sweating...and since, full disclosure, I didn't have my set of car keys), I trudged into the HOT leafy moist Georgia woods after the butt heads them...we went 'round and 'round...took some photos of some fungi...and the daggum trail came out at the paved road to the cottages...the cottages sited at the back of the park...

Sometimes actions do speak louder than words...so with the words "should we follow the road to the lake" still hoverin' in the HOT humid August air, I simply turned, headed back into the HOT leafy moist poisonous snake-ridden Georgia woods and followed the trail back to the springs...

oh, did I tell ya'll?...Mosquitoes the size of baby chickens live in the in the HOT leafy moist poisonous snake-ridden Georgia woods...I will probably have malaria and/or West Nile within 24 hours, thank you very much...

well...I'm all done whining...for now...

In Pursuit of Imperfection...

Remember this laundry basket from the previous post?
well, the story behind this basket is two-fold: 1) I'm cheap so it comes from a thrift store and 2) it came pink...and I don't really do pink...pink is loverly and all that but I just don't have a thing pink in this house...nothing...

and my reflex is to paint anything I drag home from the thrift store a nice pitch black...

but here is the thing...I worry a bit about our society being way too into Perfection. Perfect homes, perfect bodies, perfect children...in short, perfect lives...

and that, friends, is a dangerous illusion to pursue...not to mention a costly and time-consuming one to boot...

So, long story short, in an effort to make myself calm down a bit about having to have a Company-Ready-Photo-Shoot-Perfect home 24/7 ('cause really we rarely have company and I don't think House Beautiful is comin' knocking any time soon :) I decided to keep that laundry basket pink as long as I could stand it or at least until I had another project with the black paint going on to paint it (i.e., not make an addition to the schedule just to paint that basket truly had nothing wrong with it...just in a State of Pink)...

I made it 3 weeks...and then yesterday I decided to finally tackle painting the china cabinet black and I had a fire bucket that needed the interior slathered with black Rustoleum before I turn it into a planter for the back deck...and well, it only made sense to go ahead and paint the basket too...see how these things get outta hand?! well, hey, 3 weeks is a start...

and here is the newest project starting's lineup: a buffet we bought at the Saturday Night auction...for, oh yeah, $55...we'll be starting a bath renovation some time in September and this buffet will become our vanity...what do ya'll think? vessel sink or regular sink? I was leaning towards vessel but I dunno...
and here are the faux apple turners I bought at the antique mallnot only do they look good enough to eat but they smell like maple syrup...yes, I said I'm trying harder to not worry about Perfection, but Cute is another ball park :)

and Roxie says "Hey"...TIE, ya'll...

Making the Work Week Easier...

rather than continuing to get up every Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday/Friday morning to fruitlessly rifle through my closets trying to find something that not only makes me look 10 pounds slimmer, vivacious and hip but isn't so wrinkled that it looks like, well, my 44-year-old elbows finally got so irritating that I have made myself commit to ironing twice a month...

that's right...I finally decided the Ironing Fairy must hang out somewhere far cooler than #17...because never once did I look in the closet on Tuesday after a fruitless search on Monday to find all my stuff neatly pressed, looking like an ad for California Closets*...loser fairy...

and I finally decided that even tho' "it is linen and linen wrinkles" will fool people for a time, after a while, people realize you're just a lazy slob who hates to iron...

do ya'll know how long it takes to iron 2 weeks worth of clothing? far too long...I stopped keeping track after 2 hours...hours of my life that I'll never get back...and now about half of my ironed stuff is all wrinkled up again after washing, waiting to be ironed again this coming weekend...

Crapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrap...crap...

I did ask Mr G if he had anything that he wanted ironed while I was at it..because Christmas isn't all that far off...because you do get points for just for asking...

of course, my inner voice was screaming "OH LORD IN HEAVEN PLEASE SAY NO"...

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*re: California Closets-how depressing to realize that some body's closet cost more than our first home...I try not to think about things like this too often...makes me eat stuff I really shouldn't...

Freeloader...

have ya'll ever bought worms? not for fishing and not to help turn garbage into compost, but to feed Mama Birds and their babies...well, actually just to help Mama feed those bottomless pits called baby birds...

Wild Birds Unlimited sells mealy worms...for $16...for a pretty dinky-sized bag...okay, full disclosure*...the bag is dinky, but there are lots of those nasty little worms in that dinky bag...

But apparently, our mealy worms don't cut it with Mama Cardinal...however, somebody else has discovered the gravy trainI didn't have the heart to be angry with him...

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*complete complete disclosure...mealy worms need to be kept in the fridge...

Oh, The Havoc That Something Called...

a Full-Time Job can wreak upon one's good intentions!

yep, I got a lovely 20-hour part-time job at the tail end of October that was just
perfect for my life...

and then come December, it transformed into a full-time position...mannnnnn....

I remember when I was in my 20s that I could:

keep a spotless house
keep a gorgeous garden
have a family (husband & son)
volunteer with animal rescue
keep a house full of our own 4-legged children
work full-time
attend college

and still have a social life...

Pardon me, but what happened?

now if I get 1 little extra thing done in the course of 7 days, I'm pleased as punch...

this week's major accomplishment was...

oh hell...that was last week...

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*Complete disclosure: I haven't really visited my blog friends because I felt like such a slacker but I'm going to try to do better...really...