Title lost

Well, the picture is up there, but can't get the SAND FLAT FARM title on there, but this may have to do... Oh well. It's the best I can do for right now. Thanks for being patient with me. I did add a little blurb about our place over on the side above my picture, so maybe that'll help.

Friday afternoon...

Well, I lost my header and photo at the top of the page. I went to the Blog Helper and it seems to be a blog problem which they are working on. I tried to put it back on there, but to no avail.

I really just wanted to say that I'm off to the farmhouse this evening for the weekend and hopefully will get lots of work done. I hope it decides not to rain, but it's not looking very good right now at least for Sunday.

Thanks to Vee and Tina and Margo who made my day by being the first few ladies to look at my novice blog! Have a great weekend! Vickie

I have some new pictures to show you that I took yesterday. These are of my kitchen and living room. We still have some decorating to do, but I'm pleased so far with the results. I wanted "old-timey" and I was thinking shabby chic, but it's looking a little more cottage-y with all the colors I'm using. I think my hubby likes it better than all the white and pink - plus I have him and two sons that are definitely not going to try to go the extra mile to keep white and pink spotlessly clean! So, I think this will work for us.

I'm very proud of my kitchen cabinets - we had to work with what was there and were not going to go in and do new cabinets. Check out my $4 TV cabinet. It was falling apart, got it at a garage sale. I think the lady would have paid me to take it off her property. My dad reinforced some of the loose boards and I painted it pale yellow. It was a nasty dirty white - worse than shabby chic white. I am still looking for a big cupboard to put my TV/video equipment in, but until I find it, this is going to work great. The top opens down to hold my DVD player and videos, and the bottom is spacious and Dad's going to put an extra shelf in there. I can store DVD's, my stereo equipment, quilts, books, whatever. I'm not real crazy about the TV being out in the open right now, but I'll have to put up with it for the time being. Sorry about the light coming in the windows. The sun was streaming in and it turned out really bright. I'll have to take a morning or night photo of the living room. It has lacey balloon curtains and it's really pretty with the sun coming in through the windows, but it's hard to see in a photo.

Did you notice my cabinet hardware? Soup Spoons! Aren't they cute??? I found a lady at Canton that has tons of silverplate and silverware mismatched stuff and bought them for $3 apiece which is cheaper than hardware at Lowe's or a home deco store. That old pie safe was built by the same old great uncle that built the house. It moved around quite a bit after he died, but we had in our other home and moved it back out here. It's neat that it wound up back where it started out!

My dining table is an old chippy glass-topped outdoor table and chairs which I recovered the seats on. All the old mismatched china came from grandparents, estate sales, etc. All my big bowls were handed down to me as well as old linens. My coffee table in the living room was from a garage sale - it used to be a dining table that my father in law got at a garage sale and he cut the pedestal down and put the feet back on it and painted it at least 30 years ago. Fits right in. I'm loving working on my cottage!

You know, I don't believe in ghosts, but old houses have lots of creaks and bumps. But I always have a comfortable feeling in the house. The folks that built and lived in the it - relatives of my husband and his dad - I think about them and their lives. I met the old uncle a couple of times many years ago - he was nearly 100 when he died. I fancy that somehow they'd be proud of what we've done with this old house and how it happy it makes us. So, Uncle Claude, if you're there, hope you'll like what we're doing - you're welcome anytime!

I'll show you more pictures later. Gotta get to work now!

We had an absolutely wonderful time at Thanksgiving. Spent the day with mom & dad, my sister, brother, and their families. My parents have recently started inviting my in-laws to our family gathering. It makes it so special to have ALL my family together. My mother and father in law are alone, and I really appreciate my folks having them also! My husband and I agree that we have the greatest in-laws in the world!

Friday night, we had everyone over to our little Sand Flat farmhouse for a huge fish fry, with hush puppies, fries, fried pickles, and all the trimmings. It was wonderful for me, because it was the first time that alot of my family had seen the farmhouse EVER! Below are a couple of before photos. This is my kitchen - I tore all of the upper cabinet doors off and left them open. We painted the kitchen a pale yellow with a soft light green woodwork and beadboard and trim with white doors. Sounds "loud" but it works. I love it - Here's before, and I'll get some new photos of some of the 'after' on here in another post, but you can see how terrible it all was...

Next is my living room and then the awful bathroom. We had to tear out the entire bathroom including the floor right down to the dirt to re-do it. HAd to cut a hole in the outer wall to get the new shower unit in. I wanted a claw-foot tub, but the bathroom was so tiny, we had no room at all for that, so I'll have to settle for that.

Well, that's all I have time for today. I'll get some new photos on here of some after shots of the house. It's looking good. I bought one of Margo's (of robomargo, robolady, robojunker) crystal light catchers that she made for my house and she's saving me a little "chandie" that she made, too. I plan to hang it outside in my new functional garden shed which my husband re-did for me - it was a falling down rotten shed, and he's got it all fixed back up to use for a garden/potting shed for me. Can't wait for spring now!!!! I'm going to have a garden for the first time in many years! Where we've lived for the past 17 years is all solid red clay and not much good for anything, so I'm looking forward to having a garden in aptly named "Sand Flat" community this spring! The soil is great for everything from roses to vegetables to pecans. Plus, there's plenty of compost and cow manure all in my garden area that I should be set for a long time to come! We'll be eatin' good next year!

Well, this week promises to be extremely busy for all of us. I haven't seen my brother and his family for two years as they live in North Carolina and WON'T fly anywhere. We haven't been able to get up there to see them either. I will be doing most of the cooking I guess, since my mom is needing knee replacement surgery and she's trying to put it off until after Christmas. So my sister and I will have her sitting at the kitchen table cutting up the fruit salad.

I think Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year! You get to see all your family like at Christmas, but you don't have the added pressure of shopping for gifts. I love giving gifts, but I love seeing my family more than anything. I love the Christmases that we've given home-made gifts - those mean more to me. All this running around like crazy trying to "just find something" to give so you'll have a gift for everyone drives me nuts. Christmas shopping has gotten totally out of hand. I remember the days when I was little when my parents centered Christmas around the blessed birth of our saviour, Jesus, and how magical it was to sit around the Christmas tree as my dad or mom read the Christmas story.

Here's a Thanksgiving idea that you might enjoy doing with your family---

For Thanksgiving a few years ago, I had my whole family at my house. I bought some parchment paper and a gold caligraphy pen and some gold ribbon, and cut out some little scroll size pieces of the paper. Then I wrote a special thanksgiving for each person in my family and why they were special to me. I rolled them up and tied the gold ribbon around each one and placed on them beside each person's plate. Everybody kept wondering all during lunch what was on the scrolls, but we had to wait until after everyone was through eating. Then I had each person in turn open and read their scroll out loud to the family. It was wonderful and I got to express my thanks and love for each and every family member and what made them so unique and special to me and my life. There were lots of laughs, lots of tears, but mostly lots of hugs and kisses - and I think this was the most special Thanksgiving we've ever had as as family. We don't express our love for one another as often as we should.

I hope anyone who reads my posts has a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. I'm going to be very busy this week, so I don't know if I'll get back to you or not. Planning on taking off work for the rest of the week to cook and clean probably like the rest of you. It is nice that most of my family lives here and my husband's parents and my parents are all still alive and in good health (what a blessing) so we get to stay home for all our holidays! Happy Thanksgiving to you all! Vickie