Window Treatment

Don't you like that phrase?  I think it sort of sounds like taking your windows to the spa.  I'm not sure that my windows are at the spa stage, yet; however, they are slowly, but surely getting some special attention. 

We began renovating this house before I even moved into it.  We lightened the den walls, covered the dated, overwhelming fruit wallpaper in the kitchen, and set about revamping the front guest bedroom.  Down came the wallpaper border and I  rolled on a new coat of paint.  We have been slowly and steadily reclaiming the beauty of this place and trying to do so on an extremely low budget.  Ergo, I have been the wallpaper stripper (with some help from Bridgette in one room), the painter, and the decorator - with consultation questions directed to MS (Not THE MS - Martha Stewart; Mike's initials are also MS).  Since I didn't want to close in the light airiness of the bedrooms, I simply hung white sheer panels to filter the sun until I could figure out exactly what I wanted.  They were free hand-me-downs from my mother and mother-in-law and worked into the decor and budget wonderfully.

The front bedroom is the roosting place for the granddaughters when they come to visit.  So, it has taken priority on the make-over list. 

Here is a before picture.

I had in mind this nice floral print with pinks and greens and making it seem like a garden.  I could see a nice girly quilt and just sweetness in my mind.  Remember, we are working on a budget, though.  So, after moving my Great-Aunt Mae's furniture in there, I simply threw the red coverlet I already owned on the bed to cover it up and accessorized it with my poppy quilt that Granny made me which had pinks and reds in the flowers. 

Well, as soon as MS (Mike) walked in, he commented on how he really liked that red bedspread and how warm and friendly it seemed and how welcoming it felt and how it brightened things up...  So, I realized that the red coverlet had to stay... and there went my sweet pink florals and frills.

From there on, I have been searching for ideas and ways to still incorporate a little bit of my wishes into that bedroom to make it feminine and soft and sweet.  I ran across a nice plaid which would coordinate with the coverlet and isn't too, too much red and had the added bonus of featuring a nice blue (my favorite color) within the plaid. 

My friend, Kathy, came to visit one day and said she had just the fabric to coordinate with the red coverlet.  She gave me yards and yards of this wonderful floral print with shades of red and pink and cream.  So, I thought I had the base to start from in finishing the room. 

See how well it looks with the poppy quilt made by my Granny?

Now, if only I could figure out how I wanted the window treatment crafted.  It needed to be finished looking but not heavy and overpowering in a small room with two large windows.  So, I browsed and searched and shopped looking for just the right thing.  I collected sample fabric swatches from here and there. 

I drooled over photos of room renovations in magazines, online, in other folks' blogs, in model homes, in homes on holiday tours.  Yet, nothing seemed to just stand up and tug at my heart.

Then, one day I was surfing renovations folks posted in blogs and noticed some curtains which featured a bold floral, with a small accent ruffle of a coordinating print and an attached valance in yet another coordinating print which was trimmed in fringe.  There it was.  Something which brought life and pattern into the room!  So, I made a mental picture in my brain and thought I bookmarked the website and promised myself that when I had a little time and some extra money set by, I would create that using this idea as my inspiration. 

Well, my friend, Angela, inherited some new furniture and wanted to find fabric to recover her new chair cushions.  So, we scooped up my mother - a retired professional seamstress - and trekked off to Sir's, a fabric warehouse store.  (You can find out more about Sir's HERE.)  I meticulously, with great detail, and lots of hand motions, and word imagery described my mental picture of my window treatment  for the front bedroom to my shopping partners and asked them to store it in the back of their minds so that if they ran across something in their own searches they could pull it for me.  Evidently my description wasn't quite as clearly done as I'd thought because their mental image did not seem to match mine.  Their suggestions were attractive, but just not what I had in mind.  Finally, after my shopping partners had made their own selections, had their fabric measured and cut, paid for their treasures, and were waiting patiently on a bench, I gave up and had a couple of prints measured.  As the girl was measuring the fabrics I had picked for throw pillows on my bay window seat in the master bedroom, I noticed a beautiful print on a nearby table and scooped it up at the last minute.  I told the girl that I would take all that was left - two-and-a-half yards at $3.99 per yard.  I had no idea what I would do with such a large print, but it was just too beautiful not to go home with me.

Here it is with all my sample swatches and pieces atop of it. 

See the beautiful blue-and-white urn with the soft flowers (peonies?) filling it and the moire swirls? 

This impulse purchase wound up being the centerpiece of my window treatment in the granddaughters' bedroom.  When I got home with the samples I'd collected and the impulse piece and spread them all across the bed to see what I could use with what I already had purposed in that room:  the red coverlet, the Granny quilt, my blue and white pieces, the green lamps, etc.  The impulse piece just kept tugging at my heart for its femininity and softness as well as the fact that it featured the pinks and the blue-and-white urn within its print and a soft moire swirled background texture. 

On another day, I happened to be in Hobby Lobby and ran across some trim with glass beads on the clearance rack priced at $3.99 per yard. 

So, I bought three yards and hoped that would be enough for the fringe-type treatment at the bottom of the valance part of my dream window treatments - still didn't know for sure what fabrics I was going to use but with the beads being a color that could be nudged either toward a dark pink or a soft red, I knew I could use it somewhere at some time.

I began digging through what I had here already to see if I could find something to go with that softly, feminine, impulse piece for the contrast at the top and the ruffle for the bottom.  I still wanted something that leaned more toward pink than the bold red.  I first found some left-over fabric from where I'd had some curtains for my last house's guest bedroom lined and pulled it out.  It was this tone-on-tone stripe with a small, butter-yellow dobby (or red dobby, depending on which side one chose as the 'right' side) and a moire background swirl to it.  Just enough subtle pattern to coordinate the reds/pinks and the creaminess of the wall paint color might be highlighted with the buttery dobby. The tag on it said I'd paid $3.99 per yard for it on clearance originally.  Then, I accidentally tripped across a piece my mother had given me when she was doing some cleaning and purging.  It features a plaid, lattice-type design with two tones of pink/red and two tones of blue and has a nice sage green leaf thrown in for good measure on the cream background.  It's tag said she had paid $2.99 per yard for it.

Colors were right.  The prints coordinated with my impulse piece.  Both of them seemed to be perfect for what I was striving toward and the cost was in my range - free! 

The left-over, subtly-striped lining fabric was a bit worrisome because its size was limited with only about ten inches of the full width of the fabric.  So, this became the obstacle to work around, I thought.  First, I cut my impulse piece in half, matching up the print so that both pieces would be identical and the pattern of the blue-and-white urn full of peony-type flowers would fall in the exact same place on both pieces.  This left me two tiny little strips - one about three inches long and the other about an inch long.  I knew that I needed to get the most out of this print so that the image would carry out the soft feminine sweetness I was yearning.  Next, I measured the striped fabric and cut the longest piece I could that was the full width of the fabric - only about ten inches.  Still, that would work to give me a header, a rod pocket, and a valance sort of feeling.  Then, I turned to the plaid and began cutting bias strips to make ruffles at the hem.  There was so much of this plaid that I figured I would use it as the lining.

My next move became to join the bias pieces and make two ruffles for each panel.  I stitched the bias pieces together to make one long piece.  (Why is it that one has to stop and think about how the fabric should lay in order to make a long, continuous piece instead of mitering it?)  I also had to stop and look closely at the plaid to try to match up the design in an effort to hide the seam.  I wound up missing the mark a little and if you are really, really nosey, you can find the seam where the plaid doesn't exactly match.  Then, I ironed the long bias pieces so that I wouldn't have to hem it and it would be nice and heavy at the bottom of my panel.  Next, I ran two long gathering stitches on the cut edge of the folded bias pieces and began to draw it up to form gathers.  The ruffle is twice the length of the panel and that was plenty of fullness for the folded bias ruffle. 

I knew that I would need to fold my main panel back so that the seam of the lining wouldn't show.  So, leaving the selvage attached, I pressed back about one and a half inches on each side in addition to the selvage.  Then, I stitched the ruffle to the bottom of my panel.  Now, I just laid my lining out on the table and spread the ruffled panel on top. 

Hmmm. 

The plaid showed through the soft background of the panel and I was afraid it would detract from the soft image and distort the beauty of the impulse fabric piece.  So, back to the drawing board I went.  Then, it hit me, I could probably use an old sheet and not even have to go the fabric store!  So, upstairs to the linen closets I trekked and found one that I thought would work.  Brilliant!  I cut the sheet to be the correct size and then had to re-cut because I had mis-measured.  I knew that I wanted to fold the curtain fabric down so that there was no chance the lining fabric would show at the header or the rod pocket.  So, the sheet/lining was a much smaller rectangle than the panel. 

I also realized in this measuring and re-measuring and cutting and re-cutting that I had not added enough to the striped valance fabric to include a header.  Rats!  Not a huge problem, I still had some short pieces.  I could just try to hide the seams in the header and at the bottom of the rod pocket.  Quickly, I pieced all of this together and pressed it out nicely, also pressing up the long bottom edge as a hem.  I stitched the beaded trim on and used that stitching as the hemming of the valance bottom edge.  I ran out of bobbin thread at this point and decided that I had come to a good stopping place for the day.

If you look really closely, you can see the seam on the left-side of the vertical stripe piece hanging down showing where I had to piece the header/rod-pocket part.

Nosey!

The next morning I was dithering round and about to head back down to my sewing/craft room when Mom called and offered to come over and assist with finishing my curtains.  Yippee!!!  Of course, I took up this God-sent offer and my trip downstairs included a little bounce!  The cavalry to the rescue!  Thanks, Mom!  After lots of measuring, and thinking, and planning and more thinking/measuring/planning, we began by attaching the striped piece to the top for a valance.  Then, we attached the lining to both sides of the main panel.  Next, we sandwiched the ruffle between the lining and the top panel and stitched the bottom edge.  We turned it and gave it all a good pressing.  At this point, Mom is serving as the seamstress and I am the pinner/presser. 

Then, we realized that we could have a taller, fuller header if we simply made the rod pocket go between the valance piece and the main panel piece.  So, we picked out the stitching where we had put the two together at the top.  Mom simply stitched the raw edge of the lining down to the back of the main panel to keep it from gapping and drooping and slipping (the valance piece would hide this row of stitching from the front anyway).  Then, we hand-whipped the top edges of the valance piece and main panel together using a blind hem-stitch.  Then, Mom stitched the bottom of the rod pocket at the 'ditch' of the pieced place on the valance and the top a wee bit higher and just large enough for the dowel to slide through.  She also made a button-hole slit by hand for the rod to slide out of so that there would be no raw edges showing on the sides.

We measured increments of eight inches and Mom whipped some little plastic rings in strategic places on each side.  I ran a piece of ribbon through these and tied them up together to form the swagging dip in the center and on both sides.  Mom had to remove the bottom ring and move it up a couple of inches so that the ruffle would peek out a bit more. 

Here is Mom moving the bottom ring of the first panel. 

Do you think she is hiding from the paparazzi like she mentioned on THIS PROJECT?

Then, we went upstairs and hung them.  Mom decided she needed to baste/tack the sides so that the edges would look more like draping instead of drooping.  Voila!  My beautiful window treatments! 

They are exactly what I invisioned - all soft and elegantly feminine and light and breezily airy. 

I just love them! 

Lets look a little closer at the details...

Here is the beaded 'fringe' on the dobby valance piece where it accents the main panel.

Isn't that elegant?

Here is the ruffle peeking out of the 'swooping' to finish the bottom edge.

Isn't that sweet?

Let's take a walk around the room and look at how it is progressing.  Here is the bedside table that is near the door.  It was my kitchen, breakfast area table at my old house; so, it could be a nice place for tea or a tea party.  What is left of my childhood Blue Willow tea party set is waiting there just for that.  (I think I'm going to hang a mirror over this table.  How do you think that will look?)

There are photographs of our sons when they were sweet little boys sitting there, too.  The lamp was one that had a lovely antique floral painted shade when my children were little but monkeys jumping on the bed or something of that nature broke the shade.  So, I bought the green one for it when those monkeys went out into the jungle on their own and used it in my office at my old house.  I thought it worked well in this bedroom with the green in my Granny's poppy quilt.  Then, when I found the ginger jar lamp in the storage room here at Mike's right after we moved, it seemed like divine intervention that they should be together.  Since the little antique lamp is smaller, I stacked a few family history books for it to perch atop and these lamps balance out the bedside lighting.

The print on the distressed board above the bed was a gift from my friend, Beth, after she spent a week with me when she lived in Abbingdon and I lived in Peytonsville.  She found it and said it reminded her of my children.  So, I thought it had to go in this room, too.  The needlepoint poppies on stripes pillow was a bargain find at Tuesday Morning one time years and years ago.  The large pillow is made from a flour sack that was once my Granny's or maybe even her mother's!

The cross-stitch piece of the boy with his teddy bear was stitched by my mother for my son, Bryan, when he was a little fellow.  (I hope he never wants it because I really like it here!)  He had a similar bear that was his sleeping buddy from birth.  The plates and the inspirational tile are from Olde Time Pottery or Hobby Lobby and I picked them up for less than $4 each.  The tile says, "We hold our children's hands for a little while, their hearts forever."  The print on the right is a Marvin Stalnaker one and it looks like Bridgette did with her hair full of ringlets when she was a wee girl.  (She also had a beautiful velvet coat and hat which my mother smocked for her.)

This bookshelf was an inexpensive unfinished kit that I got at Home Depot and stained and put together years ago.  I knew that I needed to put some picture books in this room for the granddaughters to read or have read to them.  So, the main purpose is to corral those.  It also is a great place to display some of my blue-and-white pieces and photos of the children and grandchildren.  The little walnut stool that the basket is sitting upon was crafted years ago for my children by my Daddy.  All of this is a little bit cluttered and at some point I will weed some things out and use them elsewhere.  For now it houses plenty for little hands to touch and pretend with when they are visiting.  Take a look at that first shelf.

The teapot on the left is a piece that I picked up at a discount store years ago on sale,  I begged for a greater discount because the lid was missing and got a real bargain - $1.50!  The little box was a find at a flea market for less than $2.  The plaque was a gift from my friend, Christi.  How true is that?  We tend to think that feminine is soft and passive but aren't most of the women you admire, while feminine, also strong women?  Don't we all want our daughters to be strong women?  The plaque is flanked by two of the strongest, yet most feminine women I know, our daughters holding their first-born daughters.  I can already tell that all four of these girls will be strong women and I'm proud that we had a part in raising each of them! 

Notice the top shelf?  That purse night light is one of those frilly, girly things that just makes this room fitting for our granddaughters.  I got it at a half-price sale at Hobby Lobby several years ago because I loved the swirly fabric, the fluffy fringed top, the beaded handle, and the curly feet.  The grands like the soft glow that warms the room when they sleep in there.  The green bottle belonged to one of Mike's grandmothers.  It does a great job of bringing that strong green accent color to the opposite side of the room from the lamps.   

Aren't they gorgeous together with all the curves and points?

The side table pictured here is actually a plant stand with a tile top that is may favorite blue-and-whites.  I got it and another one similar to it for $10 years ago on sale at Tuesday Morning.  The antique wooden and metal milk crate behnd the chair is something I got in high school at an estate auction.  It went off to college with me and has lived with me ever since.  It houses a few toys that were once my children's and a few picked here and there for the grands to play with when they visit.  This antique platform rocker was also a gift from my Great Aunt Mae.  It, the bed, the bedside table, a dresser (which needs a new top), and the bedside table were painted this 1970's-trendy antique speckled green when I got them.  The cabinet-making class where I worked years ago, and Mr. Milton Ryan, their teacher, refinished the pieces when he was teaching my two children in high school.  They are the original beautiful honey-maple color now.  The rocker squeaks when you are rocking your baby to sleep and you don't even need to hum or sing them to sleep!  I've rocked many an hour there.  It will probably be my next project because the fabric is simply wrapped around the cushions covering another hideous print and safety-pinned together in the back.  See?

Being nosey again?

This little bench was crafted by my Daddy when my children were little and sits between the closet door and the entry door.  The cross-stitched piece hanging above it is something I made for Bridgette when she was a little girl and she has never asked to take it with her and I have never offered to give it to her.  I think it looks really nice here, though.  I may frame a  couple of small pieces of artwork by my favorite artists, the grands, and hang right above the bench.  I also think I need to make a little quilted sort of cushion for the bench. 

I have a couple of throw pillows started using the scraps from the window treatments and will toss them on the bed or in the rocker.  I think this room is finally coming together, don't you?  Any other suggestions?

Now, I wonder how close these window treatments really are to following the design of my inspiration photo?  I didn't bookmark it like I thought I had.  So, even after about an hour of sipping coffee and searching one morning, I haven't found the inspiration photo!

Too Much

Do you ever have those days where you start out doing one thing and drift into another and then move on to yet another...

Today has been one of those days for me.  After a peachy day yesterday (you can find out about that HERE), I awakened rather droopy this morning.  I breakfasted the hubby and sent him off to the salt mines, finished my last bite of honey-toasted O's and blueberries (the antioxidants in them are supposed to help with an aging mind), and crawled back into bed for another hour.

Maybe I was just procrastinating because I knew that today was going to be a day of cleaning and reclaiming this house from the stickiness of peach-puttin'-up, weekend of not sweeping and running in-and-out, and just-general-yuckiness-of-two-messy-people.  At any rate, when I did manage to get this old body tugged into an upright position, I quickly began stirring round to get some straightening and cleaning done.  I shrugged into some clothes and started a pot of coffee hoping that it would put some octane in my tank and give me a push.  I gathered up clothes for a load of laundry and noticed that sweet hubby had just left his pants from yesterday in the floor.  So, I scooped them up and scurried to the washer only finding that it still had wet kitchen towels and cloths that I was too tired to transfer to the dryer last night before I went to bed.  So, I dropped my dirty load in the floor and flung open the dryer door only to find some undies and socks lying there begging to be folded and put away. 

I reached in and gathered them up to plop on the bed for folding.  However, the bed had not been made, yet.  So, I flung the sheet and coverlet up to be straightened after folding the clothes and went back to the washer.  After transferring the wet load into the dryer and getting it rotating, I deposited the dirty load into the washer and got it sloshing.  I heard the coffee pot gurgling and decided that a cup would get me on track and focused; so, I headed to the kitchen.  My favorite cup was in the dishwasher, so I opened it up and snatched out my mug.  I decided that I could multitask by unloading the dishwasher while I sipped my coffee.  In the meantime I got a text message from my daughter-in-law filling me in about funeral arrangements for her grandmother.  So, I paused to call the hubby, my folks, and my daughter to let them begin planning their schedules for a trek to West Tennessee. 

While I was phone chatting, I noticed that God had dried the clean pots and canning supplies I'd left in the sink last night and began putting them away as I continued to sip my coffee.  The breakfast dishes were on the counter and I just ran a sink full of soapy water and began to wash them in order to clear off the counter.  I decided to give all the counters another swipe with the dish cloth and wipe down the cabinets around the stove to wash away any splatters that I didn't notice last night after I finished up my pie filling preparations.  Another cup of coffee was poured and I heard the beeping of the dryer.  So, off to the laundry room I trekked.

I scooped out the kitchen towels and cloths and headed to my bed to fold them where I discovered the unfolded undies and socks plopped on the unmade bed!  So, I quickly smoothed out the bed sheets and coverlet and began folding the two loads of laundry.  As I carried the socks to stow in the dresser drawer, I noticed all this and more on the floor where sweet hubby's pants had been. 

(Did he drive a tractor in here last night or something?  How does this much dirt get into the house?)  So, I headed back to the laundry area to get a broom and noticed that I hadn't put the wet load in the dryer.  Into the dryer they went and I picked up the kitchen towel that I'd dropped.  I detoured to the bedroom long enough to scoop up the other kitchen cloths and turned to put them all away.

That is when I almost tripped over the open dishwasher door.  So, I tucked the kitchen cloths away and turned around and began emptying the dishwasher.  When I finished this chore, I noticed that the breakfast dishes were dry there in the sink and put them away, too.  I also noticed that I hadn't remembered to wash the coffee pot and that the enamelware things my mother-in-law had given me on Saturday were still on the back porch.  So, I turned on the water to get another sink of soapy wash water going.  I had a couple of extra jars in the dishwasher and gathered them up to put back into the cabinet above the dryer.  When I got there I had to put the broom and dustpan back over to the side of the washer and wondered why I had left them there. 

I zipped out that door onto the back porch to get the enamelware and brought it in to deposit it in the sink of wash water.  Looking up at the clock, I realized why my stomach was grumbling and went to the fridge.  I got out the leftover chicken breast from Sunday's dinner, put it on a plate, and zapped it into the microwave.  Noticing a couple of extra jar rings on the counter there, I knew that I'd better put them with the other extras so I could keep everything together for the next canning session.  When I heard the microwave timer beeping and came back into the kitchen, this is what I saw...

EEEK!

I took a deep breath and sat down to eat my lunch and regroup.  Feeling more focused and sustained, I washed up the dishes in the sink and my luncheon plate.  Then, I heard the dryer timer beeping and went to get the load of laundry out to be folded.  I took the clothes in and plopped them on the bed and turned to get some hangers when I noticed the trail of dirt on the floor.  How could that be?  I thought I'd already swept that up!  (Are those blueberry antioxidants really helping?!)

So, I just decided I'd better get myself a glass of lemonade, sit down for a minute, and try to collect myself.  Now, I have a list of things to finish and get accomplished before hubby comes in and says, "What did you do today?"  (I hate it when my response is a perplexed look and I'm wondering what to say to that question.)

Do you ever have days like this?

Just Peachy!

If somebody asked me about my day today, I would have to say that it has been just peachy!  After we went to the peach orchard yesterday (see more about that HERE), I was faced with several peck bags of the sweet, fuzzy treasures. 

As you know, they won't last forever; so, I was faced with preserving them in some way today.  I really felt like my Mama or one of my grandmothers when a friend called and asked what I was up to today because my response was, "Puttin' up peaches!" 

I started with these bags this morning.

The late night news is being broadcast and I am still boiling peaches for pie filling.  Those peaches produced eleven half-pints of peach butter (some may call it preserves because it isn't really buttery since it still has chunks of peaches in it); three quarts of frozen peaches; a big peach pie; and a quart of sliced peaches to eat with my cereal.  When this pie filling is done, I'll also have five and a half pints of it.  Plus, there is still a bag and a half of peaches left! 

The peach butter/preserves sure is tasty on a left-over biscuit!  I had to try a little bit.  Then, after tasting it, I didn't even try to seal one of the jars, I immediately put it in the fridge to have with breakfast in the morning.  Mike stuck his finger in the pot for a taste and claimed that it is "really good."  Remember, this is coming from a man who turns his nose up at the thought of eating fruit.  I got the recipe from my Mom who got it from Jessie at Pratt's Peach Orchard.  You can find my rendition of the recipe HERE.

The peach pie turned out looking like something pictured in a 'real' cookbook.  The good news is that it tasted delicious as well.  When I told Mike I was going to make him a pie like this, he was a bit skeptical.  He has only eaten cobbler before and wasn't sure if he would like a fruit pie with a crust.  It must have been a hit because half of the pie is gone!  (In all fairness, he did only have a sandwich for dinner because I was still elbow deep in peaches and I did eat one slice.)  The recipe is my mother's and if you want to give it a try you can find it HERE.

The pie filling tastes wonderful and looks beautiful.  I'll have to report on the actual use and taste of the finished product - fried pies - later.  My back and legs are just too tired to try that out tonight, too.  It was really an easy thing to prepare for freezing, though.  Plus, that makes the preserving of the peaches have very little waste - only the pits!  My Daddy said it is like using all of the pig except the squeal.  If you want to utilize your peelings, you can find my rendition of this recipe HERE. 

I have made a pie using Mama's recipe before but it was years ago and I had forgotten how to do it.  So, all of these endeavors today were a new experience for me except the slicing/dicing peaches for freezing and eating.  They turned out beautifully, too, and I will have the frozen quarts to use in recipes later. 

All-in-all I think I had a pretty productive day. 

Guess what is in store for tomorrow?  Mopping the kitchen because it is sticky and peachy!

Summertime Peaches!

Is there much of anything that is sweeter than fresh-picked peaches? 

We went to the peach orchard with Mom and Daddy today.  Mike had never been and really had an eye-opening experience - and not just from riding with my Daddy!  (I don't know who gripped the seat and door armrest more, Mike or Mom!)

Pratt's Orchard is where we went to pick our peaches.  Mom's uncle, Jack Pratt owns it and it is right off of I-40 near Lebanon, TN. and I would recommend it to anybody - not just because he is a relative, either.  The fruit is plentiful right now and it is ultra-tasty. 

As soon as we got to the orchard, Mike had to slip around the corner of the 'Peach House' and check out a couple of the loaded trees. 

We waited patiently for the crowd of folks who were ready to check out to thin down and then while Mom and Daddy caught up with her uncle before I introduced Mike to him.  We took a little tour around the Peach House sniffing and checking out the framed news articles and such.  I picked out a handfull of bell peppers offered for sale and scarfed up a jar of the strawberry preserves to add to what we anticipated picking. 

Then, Mike and I climbed into the Gator with Daddy behind the wheel.   (We probably should have known better after the mad dash up the interstate with Mom stomping the floorboard hoping for a brake on the passenger side of the front seat, but I guess it is in for a penny, in for a pound...) 

Right off the bat, Mike climbed onto the passenger seat and I was relegated to the back with the baskets and bags.  So, I let the tailgate down and tried to perch on the back edge.  Immediately, the bed tilted and started to dump me!  So, we had to do a little adjusting and then, shortly we were on our way full tilt, you might say.  I should have noticed this sign which was posted there between the seats of the Gator.  (I wonder if there is one on Daddy's car?)

Daddy started right down the middle of the orchard that is right behind the Peach House, pausing and driving nearer to a tree or two to let Mike snag a ripe fruit off the tree as we were cruising along. 

I was sitting right behind Mike and kept getting whacked in the head by the empty limb until I shifted to sit behind Daddy.  After a couple of these snags, Mike wanted me to hand him a bag to hold his treasures.  I don't know what he was thinking.  I couldn't handle that request because I was too busy taking pictures, dodging limbs, eating the peach half Daddy handed me, and holding on for dear life! 

We cruised through the orchard like this for a little bit.  Then, we couldn't resist a second longer and had to stop and get off to pick us a few for our bags. 

Mike claimed that this was his sort of picking as he stood under one tree and filled his bag to the brim! 

Once we each had a bag full and Daddy and I had spilt a juicy sweet peach, we licked the juice before it could drip off our elbows and climbed back aboard to go to another section of the orchard where Daddy had hopes of finding some ripe white peaches. 

We tromped around there zig-zagging from tree to tree and filled another bag or so and decided that the pickings for really ripe ones were better where we had just left down with the yellow peaches. 

So, back we went to our original honey-hole. 

Eventually, Mike said he thought we had enough and encouraged Daddy and I to get back to the Gator and start back for the peach house. 

We took a little tour through the tomato patch and down to the apple orchard. 

The apple trees are just as lush and full of huge fruits as the peach trees.  We couldn't resist and had to stop and pick a handfull even though they are still really green. 

Mike liked that he could just reach up and pluck one and slice and eat it immediately.  He just kept ooohing and ahhhing over how good that apple was and didn't even offer me a bite, either!  When he had swallowed his last bite, he informed me that we might have to make a return trip for more fruit next week. 

As we pulled up to the Peach House, we saw that there were only a few people there.  So, we began to unload our haul to be weighed.  Daddy and Mom had to do a bit more visiting and chatting before we could begin our whirlwind ride back home.  So, Mike and I cooled off under a shade tree and sipped a bottle of water.  I didn't realize it till we got back on the interstate, but Mike had never tasted a single peach the entire time we were there.  What discipline!  (I think he did smell every one he picked, though.)  It wasn't till a couple of hours after we got home and I had peeled and sliced a handfull for us to eat with dinner that he plopped one into his mouth.  With that one bite he became hard to manage - I think he at at least two of them before I could swat him away with my knife! 

We shared a hand-full with Mike's parents and his Uncle Frank and Aunt Peg. 

However, I still have three bags to make preserves, or peach butter, or a pie, or maybe even the delicious trifle Susan and Between Naps on the Porch gave the recipe for earlier this week.  Of course, that is assuming that we don't just slice and eat the rest right away! 

Thanks, Uncle Peety for a delicious treat and you probably can look for us to be back next weekend!  I'm probably going to need to get double this much so I can have some to freeze for later...



Change

Why is it that I hate change so much?  Is it the fear of the unknown? 

When I married and moved here with Mike, I decided I need a local person to cut my hair instead of driving over a half-hour to the girl who had been cutting it for several years.  (I had gone to her only after the previous stylist closed up shop and I was forced to find somebody new.)  At the time, my thoughts were that I needed to find somebody local 'fit in' to this small town.  As it turned out, I got one of the best hair cuts that I've ever had and the salon was less than ten minutes from my new home!

I got my hair cut at the local salon for the last time today.  The girls who have been running the place for years have decided to close up shop.  The girl who cuts my hair has decided to work from her home - about an hour away.  Her daughter is starting school and she wants to be closer to home for the youngster's sake.  I don't blame her and am glad she has the opportunity to work from the salon she has built at her home.  However, after a little over a year of getting wonderful haircuts at a convenient shop near my home, I'm searching for somebody new to trust with my locks.

What is it about our hair that we feel like we need to have it just so?  Why are we so picky about it?  Is it that old 'crowning glory' thing?  Anyway, next month I'll probably have a different look - probably not really because I want something fresh and new.  It'll just be because I am trying out somebody new with the shears and I'll wind up looking different.  Maybe it will even be fresh, new, and better!

Crafting Day

Well, Thursday was another crafting day.  This time my girls came and we crafted together.  Jessica arrived first and she brought a couple of projects - we decided to postpone one till another day but let's just say that at some point she is going to have some beautiful and 'grown-up' looking throw pillows!  Here are a couple of shots of her creation for the day.  It is an adaptation of Suzanne's Plaque Attack idea from Just Another Hangup. 

This shot shows the completed project lying on an uncluttered background.  However, the photographer (me) was a little shaky and it isn't as clear as the shot below which was taken by a more steady hand.

Isn't it sweet?  I think the newlyweds who will receive this as a gift will truly cherish it this fall.

This plaque is a little bit larger than the ones Suzanne features on her blog as it is almost the size of a complete piece of 8 1/2" by 11" piece of scrapbook paper.  I think Jessica is going to ask Bryan to drill a little hole in the back to provide a place for hanging it on the wall.  Don't you think Jess's brother and his new wife will just love it?

By the way, Jessica also loved Sarah's photo garland idea from over on Clover Lane about preserving the annual photo Christmas Card and using it to decorate year-after-year.  She made some of those card ornaments and they turned out great, too.  Wish I had made a photo of all of them together to share here, but I was so excited to have all the company that I just didn't make the photos that I should have.  I was inspired to try to do this craft project with the cards Mike and I sent out this year. 

Bridgette, Lillie, and Lydia were the second group to arrive for crafting.  Bridgette brought along several other ideas and suggestions and some different sized boards for us to try.  One set of the boards might lend themselves to being two-sided or reversible.  Wouldn't that be economical and creative?  Here is Bridgette's creation

Won't it be cute sitting out later this month when Lillie has a birthday?

Bridgette also created one which she plans to hang beside her door.  It is a spin on the formal and traditional family/established plaques that you see at some folks' homes.  I think it turned out wonderfully, too.  It really is cheerful and personal and reflects the values of her family.

The bright cheerful colors add cheer to the entryway don't they?

I'm sure these polka-dots coordinate wonderfully with her new chair cushions (featured in this post) that I'm still thinking I should ask her to give back to me since they turned out so cute!

Angela arrived after Bridgette and the grands.  She borrowed Bridgette's birthday idea and put her own spin on it with a different cheerful color.  Both hers and Bridgette's celebrate plaques were created with one piece of regular 8x11 scrapbook paper.  Isn't that clever and economical?  Look how different they look on different colors, too!

Cheerful yellow for Celebrate!

A bright close-up shot.

Angela also worked on her own plaque for hanging beside her front door.  Didn't it turn out wonderfully?

Won't this be fabulous to perk up the space beside her formal black front door?

So, Angela went home with these two crafts to brighten up her space

What was I doing all this time?  Well, I had to play with Lillie and Lydia a little bit.  I worked a bit on revamping some antique prints Mike inherited from his grandmother (more on this in a later post).  I also put us a tasty lunch together.  We had a yummy salad made with leaf lettuce, strawberries, mandarin oranges, shredded cheese, fried onion crunches, and Ramen noodle crunches.  The main dish was Italian Chicken Pasta Bake.  It was something that I had made earlier and frozen.  So, I just popped it out of the freezer and into the oven and we had a delicious lunch.  We fed our sweet tooth with some chocolate chip cookies and blueberry and cherry pie slices.  What a giggly day of sharing we had while crafting on a rainy day.  I just loved it and I think my girls did, too!

Taking Southern A Bit Too Far

I know that here in The South we elevate ourselves and think we are better.  Most of the time I'm alright with that.  However, in the little burg where I live and in the county this burg is within, there are codes and rules and forms and commissions for everything.  Why the interstate people had to brick a bridge at one place and lay rocks at another!  The TGI Friday's almost didn't get to have its trademark red and white awning because the shade of red was too garish.  Our local discount store is a brick building.  None of this less expensive metal and concrete stuff will be tolerated here. 

I know that we have encouraged these sort of regulations and limitations and sanctioned them all in the name of preservation and small town life.  However, sometimes that seems a bit excessive to me. 

The think is, the other day I noticed another Southernism and I wondered if we were just taking things a bit too far.  You know how we say dah-ling and shugah instead of darling and sugar?  Well look at this:

Really?  Isn't this a bit much even for us die-hard southerners?

I was snickering about this and mentioned it when I went into the store (See that pretty brick building in the background?) to get my batteries.  As it turns out, evidently the mounting for the letter R must not have been done with quality and a recent wind storm had blown it off.  So, they are waiting for the repair crew to come.  I wonder if they will put an R back up or if they will go with an H.  We are here in the south aren't we brothahs and sistahs?