Adventures in Thrifting

Today I went thrifting and found some great finds.

I have been wanting to get a bicycle for awhile now. I wanted something vintage looking, teal, and inexpensive. So when I saw this at the thrift store today I almost jumped for joy! A great deal at only $25 bucks too!! Now all I need is a little basket for it (yes I know I'm a dork, lol). :)



I also found a cute little teal basket, some pretty flowered embroidered hankies, a cute vintage rose tablecloth, a couple skirts, a heart shaped decorative pillow, and some pretty vintage sheets that I cut up to use for sewing fabric. I made myself a flowered cloth bag with them to carry my library books in.

Lilacs

Nothing is so sweet as the smell of lilacs blooming. Mmmmmm. The lilac bushes in our backyard are now in full bloom. I brought in some lilac bouquets this afternoon. So pretty and the house is now filled with the sweet perfume of lilacs in each room.

New beginnings

I love spring. When the earth begins to awaken, new life begins, and the everything feels alive and fresh and green again. It just totally renews my soul and spirit.

I spent my days off this week working in the warm, sunshine filled yard. Birdsong filled the air and gentle breezes kissed my face. So beautiful.
Well maybe not my yard...not yet at least, but it's coming along. I'm still tackling all the weeds that got the better of us last year (removed 3 full trashcans worth of the suckers), but I can envision in my mind so vibrantly how it will look in a few months when it is bursting with sustaining life and beauty... bees in flight, a rainbow of flowers blooming, crunchy, sweet vegetables ripe for the picking.
It is so clear in my mind I can almost taste the fresh crunch of the snap peas and the red juice of the tomatoes.
So as I pop out each weed, making way for a new seed beds it brings a smile to my face and fills me with hope.

Happy Easter!

We had a great Easter. :) We went to a new church. It was really nice. Then after church services we went to Dad's for Easter lunch. Lunch was great and it was so nice to get to see everyone. The girls were very excited with all their Easter goodies from Grandma. After lunch the girls had an egg hunt in the back yard. They also got to visit Grandpa's bunnies and Ella also visited the chickens. Ella kept saying "pet cute bunnies, cute bunnies" and as we left the barn she called out "Bye, bye bunnies. Bye, bye chickens". Too cute. After Dad's we came back home for Easter dinner. Grandma made her famous potato salad, the ham, and deviled eggs and Raven and Brian and I made pasta salad (complete with mozerella cheese cut outs of bunnies, tulips and butterflies), and I made mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potatoes with mini bunny marshmallows, bunny shaped sugar cookies (I cheated, it was one of those break and bake things Grandma bought the girls but they were very cute and pretty yummy) and we had bake and serve dinner rolls, seasoned collard greens (Ella's favorite and mine), and chocolate cream pie. Mmmmmmmm.

Easter Eggs

Tonight after dinner Raven, Gwen, and I colored Easter eggs using one of the PAAS egg coloring kits (same kind I used when I was a kid) while Ella napped on the couch with Daddy. We had so much fun. :) We colored about a dozen hard boiled eggs a rainbow of colors. Then we blew out a couple eggs. It's where you carefully (careful being the key word) poke a hold in each end of the egg and blow in the end of it till you about pass out from lack of oxygen and hopefully the yolk and white will come flying out (hopefully into a bowl and not all your kitchen *snort*. Luckily the majority of the eggs landed in the bowl so I saved it to make scrambled eggs for breakfast tomorrow) and hopefully if you didn't break it then you wash it out and then you've got yourself a hollow egg to dye, decorate and keep forever as a keepsake of Easters past...or until you trip and fall on it and crush it by accident...oops (not naming any names or anything...Raven) or you get so excited you wave it up and down in unbridled glee, shouting "look Mommy, look at my pretty egg!" and accidentally smash it to smithereens on the kitchen tabletop...whoops (Gwen) and then you cry and Mommy helps you make another and then you try and be more careful this time, LOL. Raven was so cute though, she told me "when I have kids I'm going to do this with them". I actually learned how to make them from my own Mom. *smile*
Well we'll see how long the eggs last this time. Hmmm. I'm betting a couple of days at best, LOL. Oh well...who cares, memories are forever. :)

Fruit Salad...yummy, yummy

I apologize for my title in advance. Every time I make fruit salad that obnoxious song creeps into my head and gets stuck there. If you have children and have ever had to endure the Wiggles music...over and over and over again, you understand what I'm talking about. If you have no clue what I'm talking about then count your blessings and consider yourself lucky and go about your day in peace.

Despite the annoying song stuck in my head the fruit salad was though...dare I say it...very yummy. Dh even ate some (2 bowls in fact) and this is a man who is a self proclaimed loather of all things fruit. So must of been pretty good. ;)

I found some great deals on strawberries (GIANT strawberries mind you, they were freakin' HUGE!), blackberries (also super sized), seedless grapes, and watermelon at the grocery today so I decided to make fruit salad. Mmmmmmm. I also added in some crunchy green and red apples, a can of low sugar fruit cocktail (to keep everything moist), and some cute yet tasty pastel bunny shaped marshmallows (I found them in the Easter aisle and they were too cute to pass up and only a buck so what the hey).

Hmmm...all this writing about food is making me hungry again. Off to the fridge for a late night snack. I'm thinking fruit salad. Yummy, yummy.

Help I can't stop.

Wash Day

Here's a pic of my newest crafty endeavor. Embroidery. I found the vintage pattern for it at http://www.needlecrafter.com/. So cute.