White Wednesday Makeover ~

I took everything off of my 5 foot long shelf

in the kitchen yesterday and redecorated the

whole thing for fall~

I purchased the jug that has the hydrangeas in it at the flea market down on the corner this summer for $1.00. Love these sparkly pears and old ironstone lid ~

I purchased several of these small white pumpkins at the festival last Saturday. 5/$1.00. Love old bottles, silver and mirrors ~ along with mercury glass candlesticks and old lace~ Loving vintage photographs ~

and

white~

Have a beautiful day today and be inspired by things

that you love and already have. Just move them around

from room to room and make it look totally different

with fresh arrangements ~

Be sure to visit Kathleen at Faded Charm to see more

White Wednesday posts.

Blessings~

Annika and the Camel ~

Once upon a time...

there was a much loved little girl

named Annika who went to a big fall festival

with her daddy and her grandparents.

The first thing Annika saw at the wonderful

festival was a pretty lady who was painting faces.

Annika's daddy asked her if she would like

to get a kitty painted on her face.

"Oh yes daddy,"

said Annika.

So the much loved little Annika sat very still

while the talented lady painted her face.

Annika loved the kitty. {insert here: well...for a little while anyway until she scratched part of it off...lol} Then Annika's grandma noticed

some people riding a camel. Grandma wondered if Annika

would like to do this too.

Of course she did! So, the brave little Annika climbed the big stairs with her daddy and hopped up on the camels back. {insert here...well actually she didn't hop, the man picked her up and sat her on it, but hopped sounds so much better...lol}

The much loved little girl's anxious grandparents wondered how Annika would react and they quickly found out that she loved it ~

Even Annika's daddy seemed to be having a

great time~

In all too short of time the camel ride was over,

but the much loved little girl was overjoyed

with her fun day ~

{insert here...and so was her grandma, but

grandma ran out of steam. Her grandma was also

running around like a mad woman

trying to get good shots and as you can see

it didn't work part of the time..lol}

Have a blessed day~

Little Taste of HOMEGOODS~

For those of you who have

never been....

a little peak into a HomeGoods

store ~

This will be the sign you are looking for ~ Wonderful holiday treasures fill several isles of these stores and the prices... you wouldn't believe it ... truly amazing~ Shelves upon shelves of beautiful upscale home decor at affordable prices~ Candlesticks and candles abound ~

I LOVE the kids sections...

beautiful and unique items~

Pillows , pillows and more pillows ~

Anything your heart desires really...

and then some. These photos are only a small portion

of the store. I would have loved to have taken more,

but didn't have the time.

This past Saturday we went with our son

and darling granddaughter to

Clinton, Michigan's Fall Festival.

{while his wife was running in a marathon

at Disney World in Florida}

We sweet talked him into heading farther east to Ypsilanti afterwards.

{I was thinking what's another 22 miles

after already driving 54 miles ?? made sense to me }

Long story short...son doesn't

really like to shop these kinds of stores so I

shopped the fastest I ever have. I managed to take

a few pictures, but I would have taken more had I

not felt so rushed.

I left purchasing a couple packages of napkins

for 1.99 each and a package of notecards. I love to get my napkins at this store because anywhere

else around here they are $4-5 per package. I can literally spend hours in HomeGoods just looking

at all the beautiful items. I always have to make at

least two rounds of the whole store, but that

didn't happen this time. lol

I was very thankful that I was able to go

at all. Thank you Nathan!!

Blessings~

Giveaway WINNER ~

Without further ado...

I printed out all the blog giveaway entries... put each one in a pretty vintage sugar bowl shook it up several times and had hubby draw the winner.... drum roll please....... theory @ country girl is the winner this time around. CONGRATULATIONS~

Please let me know your name and address so I can ship your goodies to you.

I also decided to draw for second place and that winner is: debra @ it's all good

Debra can go to my altered bottle shoppe {click the link on my sidebar} and pick out any bottle that you would like, email me your name and address and I will ship it off to you~

Thank you to everyone who entered ! I wish I could give all of you something because I appreciate every one of you so much! Blessings~

Little Country Church ~

"I was glad when they said unto me,

Let us go into the house of the Lord. "

"There's no better place to be,

there is peace and liberty,

let's go into the house of the Lord".

{song lyrics by Eddie Hawkins}

These pictures were taken in July 2003 at our church

when we were decorating for my daughters wedding .

She made the wreath and it was beautiful.

Blessings ~

My Little Corner of the World ~

Last Saturday I went to Hudson, Michigan

{approx. 20 miles one way} with the

intentions of going to a little antique store. Imagine my disappointment when I got there

to find a note on the door that said, open by chance

{I had their card that showed the days and

hours they were open and Saturday was listed }

So...I drove around town and luckily

I had my camera with me ~

Can you believe this gorgeous place is a museum? As soon as I saw it I was in awe so I drove around

the block, parked in front, got out of my car

and took some photos~

Isn't this porch just beautiful? I love the turret, the roofline, corbels I love it all ~ Gorgeous side view ~ I decided I am going to check into this and take a tour sometime soon~ Pretty close to my own back yard and I didn't even know it. I think I need to do some more exploring in my little corner of the world. If you haven't already done so please be sure and enter my giveaway by clicking here. Sunday at 9 am it will be closed so I can draw a winner by evening. Blessings~

Too Quiet ~

My

little sweetie

again...

trying on paw paws old glasses~

The above photo was taken

before

she did this ~

{does this look like a guilty face or what?? lol } "show grandma your hands Annika"...

" did you do that ? "

yes

{at least she is very honest...hee hee}

Oh boy...

I knew it was just

too quiet

when I thought she was playing

so I said,

"Annika"...{no response}

"Annika"...{again no response}

I thought to myself

this is not good.

I did some investigating and found

my little princess

using my green gardening lotion as her

toy of the moment.

She thought it was soap and was

trying to wash her hands.

She had flung it

everywhere.

On the white shower curtain, on the walls, the

toilet, the toilet paper, the sink, the floor.

I would have not taken this so well years ago

if one of my kids had done this,

but I have learned that life is too

short even at the longest so I pretty much

just take it all in stride now.

Have a lovely day and

enjoy the little things.

Blessings~

Picture Resize Tool ~

I wanted to share a link with you in case you

don't already know about it.

It is called

PICRESIZE

{Click on the word and it will take you there}

I do realize that there are those of you who will not need

this bit of info and that is okay...

But I love it !

I have played around with a lot of my photos lately and made

several different banners...

{this is what I do when I get bored...lol}

This is a banner I made from the original photo... I went to my photo program and tweaked the settings to get a different color... ...and yet another color ~ I start by picking a photo that I like and then I crop it down to a little over 1/3 rd of the photo. {you want to use whatever part of the photo looks best} Sometimes trial and error method works best.

After I get the photo cropped I go to the Picresize page and click browse and enter the cropped photo and then click continue. When the photo gets uploaded it will bring you to another page. On this page I click on custom size and then enter the sizes for my banner. {If you right click on your banner it should tell you the size} Mine is approx. 650 x 300 . So then I change the percent to pixels and put 650 in the width and 300 in the height and scroll to the bottom and click resize.

Another page will come up and you click "Save to disk" and ...WA LA ...it is on your computer and you can change your blog photo.

I hope you found this little bit of information helpful. I will warn you though...it is addicting. Can you tell?? I have changed my banner so many times lately and then a day or two later I may decide that I am not too fond of it and change it yet again. I am convinced that I need HELP ...{lol}

Blessings~