The Lemonaide Award

I received my first blog award from Renee at Cottage Lifestyle.

Thank you Renee!

It is the The Lemonade Award for bloggers who show great attitude and/or gratitude.

How cool!

Here is the official info on the award:

What this award is about... Bloggers who show great attitude and gratitude.

What you have to do...Upon receiving The Lemonade Award, you also pass it on to other bloggers who you think show great attitude and gratitude.

Here are the rules:

1. Put the logo on your blog or post.

2. Nominate at least 8 blogs which show great Attitude and/or Gratitude!

3. Link to your nominees within your post.

4. Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog.

5. Share the love and link to this post and to the person from whom you received your award.

Here are my nominees:

Amy at Abundant Curiosities

Lisa at Lisa's Retro Style

Heidi at Foxgloves, Fabric and Folly

Mary Jane at The Beehive Cottage

Twyla and Lindsey at Two Crazy Crafters

Jen at Sanctuary Arts at Home

Mo at Mo's Cottage

Dot at Picket's Place

Vee at A Haven for Vee

Rue at Rue's Peanut Butter and Jelly Life

Lynn at The Vintage Nest

Esther at Shabby Cottage Collectibles

Vintage Valentine Swap

Look at what I got in the mail today! It is from Angela at Thrifty Homemaker my partner in the Vintage Valentine Swap hosted by Heidi at Foxgloves, Fabric and Folly. Just look at all this great stuff. There are vintage valentines, a vintage hankie, soaps, candles, a candle holder, stuffed hearts, stickers, a cherub and my favorite candy hearts. I know this picture doesn't show everything but it's all there! two of the nine vintage valentines, soap, candles, and the stickers:

two more valentines:

the vintage hankie, two cute little bottles and yes more valentines:

a close up of the little cherub...isn't it the cutest thing you've ever seen! I love it.

Thank you Angela!!!!

You should be getting your box any day now. You still have time to sign up for Heidi's next swap. It is the Winter Basics & Baubles Swap and it should be fun. We will be swapping kitchen linens and gadgets and every swap will include some bling.

What I Learned This Week

Jo-Lynne at Musings of a Housewife has invited everyone to write post about something that they have learned over the past week. She is even having a giveaway for those who participate. This week I've learned that even at my age snow days are awesome! There's nothing better than a guilt free day to stay at home. A pot of soup simmering on the stove. No where I have to be. What should I do today... watch old movies... do a little stitching... some crafting... maybe I'll just look out the window and day dream... or take a nap... or... the possibilities are endless.

Another Busy Week

It has been a very busy week! I was out of town again for work this week but I did get to take my youngest daughter with me so it was a mini girls vacation for us. There are no less than 10 antique malls between home and Bloomington so we just had to hit a few of them. On the way we stopped at "The Pink Elephant"...this is what stands outside and can be seen from the highway. I found some cute valentine items there but I can't show you yet...I.m including them in my Valentine Swaps and I don't want to show my partners what they will be getting! On the way back we stopped at my favorite "The Lighthouse Antique Mall". My daughter spotted this scrap book in a booth that had everything at 50% off. It is full of over 130 get well cards from the 1950's! There is a small newspaper clipping that gives the date of the ladies illness. Here are just a few: OK can you guess what I paid for this?

$2.50!

Does my daughter have a good eye or what?! I also picked up this sweet little coloring book along with 4 others. While we were in Bloomington we visited one of my daughters favorite places "About Books" a used book store downtown.

We picked up a bunch of great old books.

Here are just a few:

Aren't these cute. More great kids books with some of the cutes pictures you have ever seen inside. This tiny pamphlet is full of great old time wisdom on being frugal. I'll scan it in and post some of the tips in a later post. Here is a little cook book and a cute book on first aid in the 40's While in Bloomington we also popped into the "Bronze Giraffe" another great antique mall. If you haven't been there in a while they just did a remodel and the place looks great.

I found this cute little box made from old Christmas Cards and a couple of vintage baby bibs. Sorry the bibs are soaking... and I didn't get a picture. I'm trying hard to catch up on every one's blogs but this weekend has been busy too.

Yesterday my sister in law had a Pampered Chef party and I ended up staying almost five hours visiting!

And I ordered way to much stuff...as usual.

Today we had my oldest daughter and her family over for her birthday dinner and cake. She turned 26 on Thursday.

Had a great time playing with the grand kids. They had to play inside all day so my house is a wreck but that's OK.

They were stuck inside because:

We finally got some snow!

Only a few inches but more is expected all day tomorrow and into Tuesday!!!

I'm so glad I didn't plan my business trip for this week...now I can work from home and enjoy the pretty snow from inside the warm and cozy house.

I hope everyone has a great week.

T Shirt Quilt

I've been a busy little bee...I've spent most of this weekend working on this t shirt quilt. It is for a friend of my daughters. Curtis is a Master Se argent in the Air National Guard and his job in the Guard is working with kids in a number of anti drug programs. That is how my daughter met him and became good friends with his family. I made my first t shirt quilt for the 20th anniversary of one of these programs. I used t shirts from all 20 years and it turned out great. They hung it at the conference and celebration. That is where Curtis and his wife saw the quilt and asked me to make my second t shirt quilt for their teenage daughter. Sorry I don't have pictures of these two quilts on this computer...I'll try to find them. This quilt for Curtis uses his t shirts from the Guard: And this is the blue fabric that will be the backing. Just when I think I'm getting caught up! My daughter came home with a bag full of t shirts for another quilt for Curtis' daughter. It will be from her high school t shirts and given to her for her graduation in May. Well I better get busy or I'll never be finished.

What a day...

No sweet pictures of the baby today but boy what a day it has been. I had planned a not too busy day working from home and waiting for news from my daughter on her first ultra sound on the new baby. But early this morning my boss called to let me know that he was in town for one of his surprise visits...yeh...and he wanted to have lunch downtown. There goes any work in my pj's this morning. So I spent the morning getting ready and figuring out what to wear...just went in nice jeans, a white turtle neck and black boots. The tortilla soup was awesome and the visit was a good one. When I got home the girls had to go to the bookstore so off we went and work had to wait just a bit longer. The bookstore turned into a trip to the office supply store and walgreens. So too pooped to cook and not really hungry I grabbed the girls taco bell and headed home. Finally... home and in my flannel pj's ready to work when my hubby came home. He went to the garage to do something and discovered someone had broken in and taken some of his tools. He's a carpenter so his tools are to him like my vintage linens are to me. So we spent the evening with the police making a report and watching the crime scene guys take finger prints (I have to admit that was pretty neat to watch...just like on tv). Now we need to break the news to my father in law that the second chain saw of his that we borrowed has been stolen! The first was stolen from my husbands pick up a couple of years ago. I finally got some work done tonight but not as much as I had wanted to. I guess the t-shirt quilt I wanted to work on tonight will have to wait until tomorrow night. Well it's off to bed for me now. Let's hope tomorrow is a less hectic day. Oh yeh the ultra sound went great...just one tiny baby moving it's little arm at just 10 weeks! A healthy baby cancels out all the bad stuff that happened today!

Tag Swap

In December Jenny at Lipstick and Laundry announced a tag swap. The swap has us exchanging monthly themed tags with our swap partners. Our first swap of course was for January and I wanted to show you what I made for my swap partners and what they sent to me. First here are the tags that I made for my swap partners Christy and Shelly: This is the tag that my swap partner Christy sent to me: And these are the tags that my swap partner Shelly sent to me: (Shelly wrote a sweet new years poem on the back of the larger tag but it didn't photograph very well...my fault not the tag) Aren't they the cutest things! I plan to hang all of my tags each month on my bulletin board so that by the end of the year I should have a pretty great little collection. I can't wait for the February swap! I'm already working on ideas and so excited to see what I get in return. This is such a good idea for a swap...not to big but something to look forward to every month.

Let Them Eat Cake...

On Sunday we had my grandson Jorge's official 1st birthday party. We had a small party last week so my mom could see him before she checked into the hospital. Before the cake and still clean: Look Ma no hands... Yum that was good! HAPPY BIRTHDAY JORGE! MAMA LOVES YOU!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR

I was going to post a victorian new years card but this little guy is way cuter! He is our Jorge and he turned one today, well on new years eve. I'm up past midnight waiting for my daughter to get home from babysitting and catching up on reading some of your blogs. We had a small party for Jorge today but his big party is on Sunday. I will show you the mess he made with his cake when I get the pictures off of the camera. He was our New Years gift last year and my daughter told us on Christmas that she is expecting number four sometime in August! Have a great New Years everybody.