As I Was Saying. . .

Okay, I need to take my own advice.  My last post was about how I saved some family photos while on vacation.  All the while, I had several piles of my own family photos spread out on the floor of my craft room.  Confession time, they've been there since last August when we had a wildfire scare up here.  Here's the post I did following that scare.

Well, guess what happened last night?  The view from my patio at about 5:30 pm.

The wildfire started about 5:15 pm.  So the troops were called in and handled it very fast.  It was pretty much out by 8 pm. They used four tanker planes!  FOUR.

They're awesome to watch in action. Especially flying so low above my house!

 Can you see the orange fire retardant they release? 

There were also several helicopters dropping water and many ground crew.

I grabbed my scrapbooks. And threw together the piles of organized photos that were on the floor of the craft room since LAST AUGUST.  So much for organization. 

Thankfully, no such panic was needed.  I definitely need to work out a plan and scan, scan, scan!

Thank you Firefighters!

Saving Family Photos

Before visiting my in-laws in Missouri recently, I actually had a intelligent thought.  I remembered that we had a little scanner we could take with us.  It scans photos up to 4 x 6 inch in size. It works really well for those stacks of vintage photos that have piled up in hat or photo boxes in the closet.  It will scan photos with or without a computer. Since we didn't have our computer the photos were loaded onto a memory card that I later loaded onto my computer and even saved onto a disc. You can buy one here on Amazon. 

Here are a few of the fun pictures I found.

 My girls at 3 and probably 4 months.

 I made the little sailor dress AND the monogram pillow (for my MIL).

Okay, so that is me blowing bubbles with DD1.

 This is my HH as an adorable little boy with his dog.

My MIL in her cute little flower dress. 

I don't know if this was for a special occasion or not.

This is also my MIL at 14 for a piano recital. Sweet pictures, aren't they? I scanned 186 photos and there were many that I didn't scan. I took notes of who was on each photo. I'm just not sure how to keep the notes with the photos. Probably the only way is to print them off and place them into a scrapbook. I will probably edit these on Photoshop to improve quality to some degree.  Hope this idea helps somebody save some precious memories!

Room Obsession

I'm distracted.

I bought a House Beautiful for the flight home.

Not a People Magazine which is my traditional in-flight read.

Little did I know that THIS ROOM was in House Beautiful this month!

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I've been wanting a Chesterfield sofa for awhile now.  I'm just not sure if it will work for my space. Well, my space is set up VERY similar to this room.  The owner, Jeannette Whitson is a designer.  Lookie there, a Chesterfield.  I just love the overall feel.  There is even a Fiddleleaf Fig in this room.  If you've been visiting me very long, you know that I have a "thing" for those as well.  I did a post on them in 2011. I'll be honest, I'm on fig #6.  Unfortunately, HH noticed it the other day.  

I found an extensive blog post from Joni at Cote de Texas on this beautiful Nashville home. She includes more photos from Jeannette's website and shop.  

Here's the gorgeous kitchen!  If only I could justify and afford to totally gut my kitchen and begin again. Not gonna happen.

Okay, sorry for the diversion.  I just wanted to distract you with room beautifulness too.  

I was feeling alone. 

Small Town Love

I couldn't help but gather pictures of some of the lovely homes I saw as I walked the streets last week. There were many that were falling apart and neglected. Pride of ownership makes such a difference!

Good Day

I've finally returned home from a week and a half visiting family in the Midwest. I took so many pictures but didn't have time to post them other than a few on Instagram. Last Sunday we left my husband's home town after breakfast at the local diner. We drove through Kansas State University campus to see all the changes they've made since he was there. It has a beautiful campus. I even saw his Fraternity house, the Tudor house above. We made our way to Lawrence to visit our oldest daughter and Son-in-Law. They took us to lunch at Jeffersons which has unique decor. The walls are covered with doodled dollar bills. We also tried deep fried dill pickles for the first time. They were really good! I always want to hit Sarah's Fabrics and the Yarn Barn when I'm in town. Its so much better to touch the product than having to buy online. We spent the afternoon at the kids house and the rest of the family arrived. It ended with a Mexican dinner together at The Salty Iguana. The walls are covered in caricatures of Iguana's going about their daily routines. It's was a wonderful day to be all together. 

McGyver is a Verb

 

We have travelled to our home towns to visit family and go to HH's high school reunion. He lived in a small town and graduated with a class of 112 students. I went along and it was interesting to hear the stories and listen to everyone catch up. 

One female classmate couldn't get over how good my HH looked these days and mentioned it a time or two. Once in front of the entire group! I found that quite entertaining. 

My HH was able to catch up with his former band teacher, who he really respected. That was an extra bonus. 

Another unexpected attendee was a former journalism teacher. She and her sister were part of the path that helped HH and I to meet some 34 years ago.  We haven't seen her in maybe 24 years. What fun!

There was also an old car show and BBQ cook-off the same day. We are from Kansas, so BBQ is a given. I think there were approximately 30 different companies and flavors to taste. It's amazing how different they can be. The town was packed and other than being cold and windy, it was a great event. We even accidentally ran into an old friend that we had lost contact with. He was just there for the car show. So what another wonderful surprise that was!

I didn't bring a jacket and had shorts and a short sleeve top on. The only place to shop is Wal-Mart in town. There were absolute ZERO sweaters or sweatshirts to be found. So, I had a little McGyver moment (as my DD2 called it). I went to their fabric department and bought two yards of a gray t-shirt knit fabric. I wrapped it around like a shawl. It worked like a charm. Just in case you ever need a quick shawl, I suggest 2.5 or three yards. That was all one eventful day. Have you had a McGyver moment you can share?

Traveling man. . .

I could use this title to talk about HH who is always somewhere else.  I should rename him TM instead of Hunky Husband. Instead, I thought I'd tell you about the benefits of social media. How does that fit with the traveling man song, you ask? Rightly so. 

About a month or so ago a friend of mine went on a sudden trip to Paris. So sad. Her husband had business and they took some extra days to visit Paris together before he had to work. While she was there I noticed that she was posting lovely pictures on Facebook. I think she went to Easter services in some amazing cathedral.  I'm sure that Easter won't blend into all the others! 

It made me remember when we went to Paris, several years ago now, maybe 6 or so. One thing that I had regretted getting was my own Eiffel Tower that they sell all over to tourists. I had purchased one for my DD1, because she was taking French and loved it. 

So, lovely Facebook has its advantages. I messaged my friend and put in my request. Wasn't she just the dearest for bringing me back this lovely one? We agreed on a size and cost and I just love it. My living room has evolved to have a sort of travel theme. I wasn't really planning that. I just have my London bus sign,  some globes and paintings of our travels that ended up here. 

We're flying off tomorrow to Tornado land to visit our parents and kids. I'll be doing an occasional post with this Blogger app that I'm finding very handy. 

Thanks for visiting and I'll see you next time from the Midwest. 

Antiquing Field Trip

Well, you know how it is. My friends and I like to go antiquing and especially to the monthly sale at Matilda's Mouse antiques. The May event was "Through The Garden Gates," appropriately named for the time of year.  Here's a taste of the goodies.

This beautiful display was disassembled right after I took this photo. Someone bought the HUGE counter it was sitting on and the absolutely stunning door. You can't tell by this photo, but that door was a One-of-a-Kind. I've never seen anything like it. Glass between spindles which had remnants of kelly green paint. I wish I'd taken a close up. If I was selling these antiques, I'd have such a hard time taking apart the displays. Although, a sale is always a good thing, especially a BIG sale. This happened at the beginning of the three day event. I hope they had a Plan "B".

This beautiful "cage" was very hard to photograph. It also sold first thing which is too bad. I would've grabbed it.  What an impact it would've made a big impact in a room.  Just lovely.  

Nancy posed for me.  She really wants that basin, but has no where to put it. 

The pealing gate was also a beautiful color.

 I have never seen anything like this side board before.  Look at the detail on the drawers below!

 It's too bad this beautiful lace top was T I N Y! 

 Isn't this a fun Vegas chandelier from the 1960's? 

Can you believe that all I went home with were two blue Ball jars with lids intact?  

ME EITHER!