Weekend Review

Jeff took off Friday, so we headed to Auburn and our cabin near Lake Martin for the weekend. We spent most of the day Friday shopping and actually knocked out some Christmas shopping. We stopped in Prattville for a visit to the Bass Pro Shop. I don't mind this one as much as I do the one in Destin. We go there so often that I have every item that I could possibly be interested in memorized. Of course, there are plenty of stores to keep me busy in the same shopping center. Then, it was off to Auburn to walk around in the downtown shops. I love doing this when it isn't quite as busy as game day. We headed to our cabin, "Serenity" for the night. We made sandwiches and ate supper at twilight on the screened porch. It was delightful to just slow down, relax, and be together.

The next morning we ate a home cooked breakfast and went down to "The Plantation House", an adorable gift store near Dadeville. It is always a mistake to go in there. Saturday was no different. The owner was getting ready for the Chamber open house next weekend and working frantically to get her Christmas up. She is generally busy on Saturday mornings too. I fell in love with one of her trees. I asked permission to take several photos.

And yes, I bought way to many ornaments. I plan to use her tree as inspiration to update one of mine. Hubby Jeff was in agreement. We were smitten with it.

I also bought two candlesticks that I thought matched my Christmas china. I can't wait to try them out as a centerpiece for the Christmas dining table.

We will see if I can pull it off at Christmas. I don't think anyone in the world loves the house decorated for Christmas more than my hubby. He teases me all the time about putting it up. My standard line has been, "We have to wait until we do the Pilgrims first." 

We had good friends come in to go to the game with us. Nothing like good friends and an Auburn game.

If you think this selfie is bad, you should have seen the three others before this in order to get him to cooperate.

Always love seeing Nova come down onto the field. One of the great traditions.

And here come the tigers...

It is great to be an Auburn Tiger!

What a game it was! South Carolina and Steve Spurrier were relentless. No punting...just go for 4th downs and make them. Wow. But, hey a win is a win. I will take it.

Lazy Sunday morning and then home. Of course, I absolutely love my time at Serenity and Auburn, but I always miss my church. I love my church. Missed my 4 year olds. I truly never thought I would love teaching the little ones after spending so many years doing the youth. I loved them too. You are always more blessed when you are serving.

Now, up in the morning and back to trying to get my home in order and hoping they finish my sewing room soon.

A Sneak Peek

The long awaited sewing room is finally in progress. I am giddy with excitement.

The fourth wall with the windows has issues. They are still working on that, and sadly it might take awhile.

In the meantime, the Biblical style rains we had this past year have caused a major problem at the front door. I knew it was bad, but it is worse than I thought.  Unfortunately, I will be getting new tile for the front entrance and spending more money.

Lots of hammering and noise at my place today. It has all the dogs very flustered. 

Thankful to be at home to take care of much needed and overlooked things.

A Long Post to Catch Up

I have been busy this month and last with a plethora of activities. I am trying sooooo.... hard to get into a routine of cleaning and organizing the house, but I have one good week and then things fall apart. I will figure this out, after all I majored in home economics.

I have a hodgepodge of pictures to give a picture of the past few weeks. My mom decided to give Lindsay and Tyler a new bedroom suit to go in their new house. They were more than thrilled, so off we went to Pensacola to order a bedroom suit. It arrived and it is gorgeous. I was there since Lindsay had started a new job.

My dear daughter turned 25. I am feeling really old and like I need to make everyday count. That feeling can wear you out though, because I often try to do more than I can handle.

She got a new job.

A pretty impressive one for such a young girl. Her dad and I are very proud of her. We have heard lots of compliments on her already.

I took a break on my cross stitch project of the heron to finish something I had literally started about 15 years ago. I always wanted to finish it, but raising kids and working took all my time away from a once very much loved hobby. Anyway, while cleaning out the room that will now house my new sewing room, I found an unfinished project that I knew would be just perfect for above the kitchen sink. My trendy cow had been a real "Debbie Downer," and I had decided to look for the just right original piece. Well, this is it, and I love it!!! I just can't seem to get a good picture of it. Maybe I will one day use the hubby's camera and do it justice.

I went out to start organizing and cleaning the garage. My plan is to paint it. I organized it pretty well over a year ago, and considering the past year it actually stayed pretty good, so I know my overall idea is there. It was still so hot, so I gave up and decided that could wait until November. However, to inspire me, I painted the steps. That is so me. Quickly off task.

I have been slowly but surely cleaning a new room, while trying to maintain the rooms that I have finished. One day!!! I have been trying to clean out my daughter's bedroom only to keep adding my own stuff in there. That guest room idea is in my head, but I have to throw away more!!!

I added my own books to the bottom two shelves. Not good. I have two lamps behind the chair that are a future project.

Speaking of getting rid of stuff, I have a huge problem with that concept. I am an organized pack rat if there is such a thing.

This is the movie camera and projector that is still fully operational from my childhood. I have had it in a closet that is now going to be the sewing room. I am having anxiety about getting rid of this. 

oh and yes, I still all of my old records.

In the midst of all this cleaning, Mama and I went to the Auburn vs LSU game. War Eagle.

Not so good at selfies.

I have still been traveling to her house once a week trying to help her get things taken care of. I absolutely love going in the fall passing by all the cotton fields. Nothing says October like a cotton field. I should have stopped on the way because the morning sun on it was so pretty. I waited until I was coming home and did not do it justice.

I have been practicing on my embroidery machine. I am going to do a post later on what I have learned. 

My sewing room cabinets are here and are being installed as I am writing. I am beyond excited. It has been the longest wait and project EVER. I still have to wait for the electrician to come next week to finish up the lighting and then for the hardware to be put on, but hopefully this evening I will have a room full of cabinets installed. 

I am so excited. I don't think I have been this excited since we built our first house.

One last share...I ordered a book published in 1971. I saw this on a blog I like very much called The Path to Frugality. I don't think it was the exact one I had, but I loved these books when I was in middle and high school. Remember Coed magazine? I LoVeD those too.

I will share more on the sewing room later and a post on what I have learned about doing monograms.

Loving retirement,

Sandy