MOSSY...early...Monday

Decided to get the Mossy Monday post up tonight. Had several photos instead of the usual 2. The pic above was altered & "messed around" with on Picnik. Fun site, but I thought I had lost this photo...thrilled when it popped up, right where it should be. {Click to enlarge & check out the cute little tree frog on the column!}

So many layers of moss on this...can you tell what it's growing on?

It's on the crossed trunks of 2 Saw Palmettos in the front yard. They're very rough, & the moss has really covered them this year.

This looks like the surface of another planet...but it's not.. :o} Do you see the cool little fern on the left?

It's the trunk of another Saw Palmetto. This one grew so long & heavy, Joe had to prop it up...with a recycled galvanized pipe. They flower in the spring & then get berries, which folks around here still harvest for $. They use the berries for medicinal purposes...but you gotta pick a LOT of berries to make a buck. Enjoy the greenery, & have a great week. *elaine*

Random Wanderings...straight to the heart!

Just realized I missed my Wednesday wanderings, & it's Thursday already. Also realized the pic of little Tigger was almost 2 years old & I haven't "gramma bragged" sweet Ali for quite awhile! This was last Sunday, Ali in her new "bavin suit" that she'll probably outgrow by Saturday. {note to self; buy bigger!} We don't have a pool & the lake's too hot, so Ali was quite happy, for 2 hours!, filling up her little vintage pitcher from the sideyard spigot.
Also washed the rubber ducky in a chippy old enameled tub...cannot get away from my junk!! But this sweet girl thinks it's all "o-tay". Has a little problem with "K" at the moment, which is really cute when she calls our 3 felines...that she calls the kitties...am I being juvenille? :o}

The whole purpose of filling the little pitcher was so Ali could help Grammpa water the plants....

So cute watching Ali follow Grammpa like a little duckling, while Grammpa decided which plant needed watering! Too cute! Takes so little to make a small child happy...wish I could freeze her at this age for just a little longer...but I cannot. "Fish gotta swim...birds gotta fly"...& little girls grow up too fast! Have a great Thursday! *elaine*

Mossy...Late...Monday

What moss encrusted thing is this?
It' a tree stump & a pillow for a very unabashed froggy! {Flea market find $1.00}

Mossy Monday almost didn't happen today! Very full, crazy, busy day...arrived home and sat down to read my Morning Coffee Blogs with my afternoon Iced Coffee with a twist. Saw my own blog & realized I had not "mossed" today. Enjoy the Greenery! *elaine*

Another scrappin' "Eyecandy" giveaway

For some reason, I keep stumbling onto these great scrapbooking blogs that are having awesome giveaways. I do Love2Junk, but another passion for years has been scrapbooking. Started 9 years or so ago, when I realized all our family albums were those nasty PVC pages & the pics were being ruined. 13 albums later..I have to admit, I'm hooked. Of course, the Kissy-faced Tigger in the pic above had nothing to do with my decision to keep scrapping!! :o} Any way, Arlene over @ http://butterflykisseswithlove.blogspot.com/ is hosting a giveaway of mammouth proportions! Talk about EyeCandy? I would rearrange my whole scrapbooking system to accomodate all the goodies this talented lady is giving away! I think it ends Sunday, so check it out! She has massive amounts of comments...I'm 302!...but there's always room for one more. Better odds than the Florida lottery!! :o} Have a great weekend *elaine*

Scrappin' giveaway

I don't know how many of you junkers scrapbook too, but I found this awesome giveaway, being done by Melissa at http://keepsakesbymelissa.blogspot.com/ This lady does some very original and sweet scrapping projects, and she is giving away a "bucket" of stuff...for no special reason at all! Pop over & check out her blog...she's a very creative lady! Enjoy the eyecandy! Goodnight... *elaine*

MOSSY Monday

" Velvet" rock...

in my garden.

This is part one of a fresh series. If you didn't read my R*E*A*L*LY long previous post, I noticed a lot of very neat green stuff popping up all over our property recently...I guess with all the rain and maybe deeper shade due to more mature trees, I have a ton of moss. Started snapping some photos, and in a matter of minutes had discovered enough for 10 or 12 MOSSY Mondays. I played around w/ macro and think I am finally getting the idea. So...enjoy the greenery! *elaine*

L*O*N*G Sunday multi-purpose post...

Blogger finally updated...after 2 days of "old news"... I was able to read today & check out everyone's great weekend finds! If we could get all of us together in one place for a sale, what a sale it would be!! Actually, that's part of the reason for today's post. My shed overfloweth, my barn is groaning and I'm almost feeling guilty going thrifting & sale-ing. Not a huge problem, but here is THE problem. When we lived in downtown Orlando, I would have a sale 2 or 3 times a year, and do really well $$-wise w/o even running a print ad. Now, we're out in the boonies and my last sale, after paying for the Pennysaver ad, netted me a whole $4, for all my time, sweat & backaches. Need I say, NOT worth it. Okay, so I keep reading about these "Occassional" sales, and I'm intrigued. Steph & I have great stuff to sell, but our last place of re-sale ended sadly with little profit & having to lug all the goodies home to be stored again. So...I'm asking for your comments, advice...whatever you can tell me that can help us figure out how to best approach & solve this dilemma. If your help seems too long for a comment, feel free to email me...els54@earthlink.net. We know a couple of antiques people that may be able to assist w/ a space, but I'm a little shy about approaching them. {I can hear my husband in the background saying..."YOU, shy?!!? HA!"} Any way, I'd love to hear what ya'll have to say ... My next part of this is to show off my "Old School" Vintage Back 2 School window that I put together for the shop I manage. We had a big Merchant Open House last night to welcome back our local university & try to get local school parents out of "Wallyworld" for at least a part of their back to school shopping. Also had a downtown Cruise-In for classic cars. And, if that wasn't enough, our local newly reno'd theater, "The Athens" was hosting a Woodstock 40th bash! All of this was under the heading of "HOT August Nights". We were all hoping for a great turn-out, and it was good, but the weather had other plans...Rain...Rain and then some more Rain...We were joking about doing the Woodstock chant of "No Rain. No Rain. etc" We all know how well THAT turned out! When it rains in Central Florida in the summer, it washes out outdoor events w/o a worry or care. On a happier note, my window was a huge hit, although my boss was a tad skeptical...she's still not sure of the appeal of cool old cra...er...stuff. I'm slowly winning her over, either that or she's just tired of my yakkin' about cool old stuff. If you click to enlarge those pics, you can see how much stuff I lugged from home!! The 3rd, and final {I think} reason for today's ramble is to give a little hint of a new Monday post I'm going to start tomorrow, which, by the way is also our 35th anniversary. Joe & I were married in a beautiful little church in Marion Massachussetts on August 17, 1974. I'm going to try to find a pic that's not scrapbooked already, just to remind myself how incredibly young we were then. Okay...hint for the Monday post...I recently noticed I had a lot of a particular "thing" showing up in my yard. I started to take some pictures, and ended up with fodder for at least 10 posts, and that was just in the front yard! Last part of the hint...it starts with the letter "M". Actually there is a 4th reason for my Sunday ramble on... I noticed this morning that I am getting very close to my 100th post. Only took me 2 years to reach this lofty #! With all the talking I do, I should be closer to 200! Also, I saw that I now have 30{!!!!} followers! I'm in shock & awe!! I know there are plenty of blogs that have so many followers they can't count them all. I'm just thrilled that there are 30 folks out there that actually read my ramblings, check out the pics and are still interested enough to leave a comment. So...without too much fanfare, I will be having a giveback {yeah, I 'borrowed' that from some other blog, I just can't remember whose}. It may take a couple of weeks to reach 100, but rest assured, when I get a teeny bit closer, I will announce all the details. In the meantime, I have been wandering the house, & the barn & the shed in search of the perfect goodies. I think there will be more than 1 winner, mainly because I have so much cra...er...stuff!! I'm not gettin' any younger & it's really past time to lighten the load. I'd like to keep this giveback just for followers and folks I have "met" this past 2 years. Are you on my Morning Coffee bloglist?? Keep reading, okay? You read, and I'll keep "home shopping". This could be a lot fun! So...I think that's it for today...are you still with me? Tell me I didn't put you to sleep at your computer desk. I'm off to post some pics, probably in the wrong order :o}, but I'm gonna give it my best shot. I'll be back tomorrow with "M----- Monday" Joe & I are off to the beach early in the morning. That's one of our favorite places to be together, so seems fitting for our anniversary...can hardly believe that it's been 35 years, actually plus 2...we were together 2 years before we got hitched! Okay...that just made me feel ancient! Sorry about the crazy color combos...just felt like trying something different today! Wore a rainbow swirl tie dyed T-shirt for the open house last night, so it must be a residual effect from that! :o} Happy Sunday evening to ya'll...see you Monday! *elaine*

Wednesday Wanderings

Hippy-dippy , chippy 70's flower photo holder. Does the base of this look sort of like the bed spring things we seen recently? $1

Hippy, chippy flower holding, what else, hippy trading cards! Didn't know they existed! These were apparently freebies from some brand of cigarettes, cause there's one card that says "Smokin' Moments "..I kid you not! You can hack & cough at the Barbeque, or walking the dog, or my personal favorite...while on a hike!!! Hello...can you say defibrillator...STAT!!!

This is the stack of hacker's, and I've been one, collectors cards.$2 for the pack...cheaper than the smokes!! Click to enlarge and read the white one on top...13 of the best times to light up! Moving on...how bout the Uncle Wiggley game board...no pieces included, but I love the graphics!!! $1

Sweet little oranges mixing bowl...w/o my glasses I thought it was Universal pottery, with the glasses realized it's Made in Japan. Even better...$2 The tong thingie is Silverplate, but cute enough when semi-polished $1 Cute bright bandana .75

And last, but not least, is this awesome Moksha-Patamu game board...from India...no pieces, but once again the black and white graphics rock!! $2 Apparently Moksha-Patamu is the great grandpa of our own Chutes & Ladders. The board does not fold, and I can't find a date, but for $2 it made my morning. Miss Priss Fish is not impressed, but she's cute anyway. .75 So that's all folks...didn't do the math, but I know I have enough $ for lunch today, and maybe even replace some of the gas I used thrifting and drifting up & down the highway on Wednesday. Have a great week *elaine*

Good morning, all...or good evening, whatever time 'o day it may be. Time for installment 2 of Wednesday Wanderings. Didn't think about there being a 2nd, but here 'tis! Now this week my Wed. Wanders actually happened on Tuesday...but this time I didn't just wander the house clicking pics of junk that need dusting. My sweet kitten Snowball..the subject of future posts, had to go to the vet to be spayed. We live in a big, oddly shaped county...look up Lake Co sometime...designed by impaired drivers trying to get away from bird size skeeters!! But I digress, as always. Upshot is that Snowball's new doc is 40 miles away on the other side of the County. Not a hardship...she's worth the drive...twice...in one day...yeah, she's worth it. Also...and here's the goodie part, the small town we traveled to has a very large amount of thrifts, that I don't get to visit very often....Yipppeee!! Cut to the chase...drop off sweet kitten @ the doc's...and head out to plund...er, shop the thrifts. Fly in the ointment...these thrifts all have banker's hours!!! 9:30...even 10 AM! I've dropped kitty off @ 8:30. Okay, I can deal w/it...I'm starving, I'll hit MickeyD's and grab a b.fast croissant. The line of cars in the drivethru is OUT the parking lot...down the street...they may still be in line for all I know. I don't do big drivethru lines...burns my gas & my patience. After checking several other fastfoodies on the same road, I hit the ever popular "Citgo", convenience store that is, for a Starbuck's Mocha Frappucinno, iced is fine, and a pack of Nilla wafers. I'm saving my big $$'s for the thrifts. Dined in the truck, and spent the next 2 hours hitting all I could find, which would be 7. There are more..but after 7, my big guy son ,Chris...oh did I forget to mention he went along for the ride ?...Chris says..."Mom, if you stop at one more thrift shop, I'm walking home. I love you Mom, but I can't take anymore!!" Ok, remember we're 40 miles from home and the temp, in my Blazer, with all windows open, is 96 degrees. So...I can't say have a nice walk, and I won't leave the truck running with the a/c on, so I headed home. Long story short...yeah right, I heard someone say that!! :o}...I spent very tiny cash, met lots of new TS managers & helpers, and found some really cool, neat, new 2 me, junk!! Insert big happy dance! Took friend Steph on the return trip to keep me company...yup had to pick up sweet kitty the same day...her HMO doesn't allow for overnight stays ;o}....and I pointed out all the thrifts, as we drove by them, all closed. Good thing she's my best friend, huh? We're making plans to go back in a couple weeks...let 'em restock, right? Now for the goodies, which you've already seen, cause I can't seem to figure out how to post the pics below my posts. Talkin' Trash...You out there, girl? You told me how to delete the "oops" double pics...any advice on this matter? Got to run..enjoy the goodies, whatever order they may be in!! Have a great week *elaine*

What is cobalt, enameled and fabulous?

I promised pics of my Wednesday morning find and here it is...well, a little piece anyway. Can you tell what it might be?

How about now? Look at this lovingly worn glass knob...what could it be attached to?

Starting to get an idea? look at the fabulous shade of cobalt blue...and the sweet daisy chain and the remains of some white or cream paint...

Taa Daa! Here it is, finally out of my truck, with a bungee still in place to hold the leaves down...Is the table absolutely Fabulous, or is it just me?? Do you love the curve of the leaf? And the way the daisy chain echos the shape?

At home at last, well sort of...until I can find just the right spot for it, my sweet table is staying in my friend Steph's shed. She told me this morning I have visitation rights, but she's going to be sad to see it go! Now for the rest of the story. You're gonna love this. I was running super late to town yesterday on my way to work, but decided I had to check out Our Father's Closet, my favorite thrift shop. I usually go on Monday, but my truck was in the shop and I had NO time on Tuesday. Maybe broke a speed limit or 2 getting there...didn't want to be late for work. Pulled into the parking lot...and there...right in front of my truck, outside, sat THE table! My heart literally was beating faster as I jumped out of the truck saying "please don't let it be sold"...No sold sign. I cut off 3 hispanic women getting to the front door....I did say excuse me...all the while saying "please don't let there be a dealer in there with her wallet in hand buying my table"...No dealer in sight. Lady who works there was sorting stuff...right by the door, so I sort of skidded up to her, trying to look nonchalant (Yeah, right) and said " The little table out there...how much?" She got that look on her face that thrift ladies get when trying to come up with a price on something that;'s unmarked...you KNOW that look! I held my breath, preparing to be given a price that I truly couldn't afford and spending the day feeling all sad & depressed cause I couldn't buy this sweet table...you KNOW that feeling! She turned and said...are you ready for this???...Twenty dollars! Yes, that's right, $20.00!!! Still trying for nonchalance, my left hand is trying to rip my wallet out of my overstuffed purse so I can hand her a twenty before she changes her mind!! So, gals, was it worth it? Yes!! Is this the sweetest enameled top table you have ever seen? Yes!! Am I thinking I got the deal of the day...week...month...maybe even the year? YES!! Will I be able to find a home for it in my single wide mobile, even if it means busting out a wall?? YES!!!! So the sweet table is in my best friend's shed until I can find room...and I'll probably be stopping every morning for a visit...I just hope I don't have to sue for custody when it's time to bring it home. :o} Have a great Friday...there are quite a few sales this weekend. Am I going to hit some on the way to work? YES!!! *elaine*

Wednesday Wanderings

Sweet, chippy, tall & skinny 5 panel door. FREE!!! from the curb...Oh happy day! Needs some TLC... I can do that!

Detail of altered journal front. Added this butterfly at the last minute...forgot I bought the stamp @ the thrift shop the week before. .50, never used, original price on package $15.00! Huh? Like my price better...

Added a green satin ribbon as a page marker, with a vintage mustard seed charm on the end for some weight. Found this in Mom's jewelry box after she passed away & remembered her showing it to me when I was little, and telling me the meaning of the mustard seed inside...

Wrong order, once again...arrghhh! But here is the new & improved Journal cover. Can't wait to start writing...something...in it.

My version of French Cupboard's (what is this lady's name?) vintage sewing notions display. I have mine on the bookcase next to my work table and it makes me smile. The tiny green sock darner is for darning baby socks, and is one of a collection that I treasure. My Mom gave me my 1st one in a sewing basket she made for me when I turned 8. She sure saw potential that I didn't...aren't Moms wonderful? She taught me to sew then and I'm still enjoying it today...quite a gift. Now on to the rest of the wanderings....

Planned on posting this early this morning, but got working in the yard...it was actually cool & my morning just slipped away. It's still Wednesday for a couple more hours, so I don't have to change the title. These wanderings are mostly in my head, or around the yard, clicking the camera on this and that. I did wander to a favorite thrift shp on the way to work, and I found a treasure that still gives me thrills & chills when I think about it. I can't show it today, as it's still sitting in my truck, but I'll try to show it tomorrow...promise. Remember the windows I saved from the curb a week or so ago? Well, I picked up another piece of the garden shed puzzle. Hubby & I were killing time, while my Blazer was getting a new catalytic converter installed. Arrgghh...I had other plans for that $$, but life happens. We turned left at the bank and I spied chippy paint, and yelled "Pull over!" as my sweet, but tunnel vision-ed hubby drove right past! When he saw what I was pointing to, he did a quick u-turn and helped me load it in the back of his truck. Needs a good scrubbing, but I have my 1st door, or shelf, or whatever it may turn into. It's from a home that was recently rehabbed that was built in the late 1800's. Not old by other state's standards, but not bad for Florida! Next on the list is a thank you to The French Cupboard for the neat altered journal fronts shown a couple of days ago. I had that green Record book that I showed a couple posts back, so I redid the front before writing a single thing inside. Quick fun project and a good way to use up some of that odd ephemera that seems to follow me home from estate sales! Last, on my wanderings..the same blog mentioned above had the sweetest little arrangement of vintage buttons etc. in an old teacup...shown on the sidebar. I have shamelessly borrowed this idea, with a twist or 2 of my own. I don't collect teacups, but I had that sweet green bowl, plus the little brown transfer ware dish I bought a couple weekends ago. Since I collect vintage sewing stuff, I had no problem figuring out what else to add. The thimbles on the plate are my favorites. All but 1 is sterling silver...all bought for a song, or next to nothing, in jumbled up box lots. The 1 that's not silver is huge and possibly brass. Either the lady of the house had gigantic hands or this was a man's thimble. Anyway...thanks, French Cupboard, for the inspiration! Well, got to run and get these pics posted, hopefully in the right order for a change! Have a good Thursday, and I'll be back with my find of the week...month...maybe even the year. Got you curious? See you tomorrow. *elaine*

August...first evening

Wedgewood Sky...over "our" lake...enough said? *elaine*