White Elephant You Say?

So....

At Christmas,

my mother-in law's bible study group exchange white elephant gifts.

Guess, who's the load off receipt of all these white elephants?

You're correct,

 me!

About five years worth!!!

Ironically, I don't consider these as white elephants,

to me they are treasures, lovely, pretty treasures!

Tea cups with matching saucers,

some with petite porcelain spoons,

coffee cups and saucers, all in near mint condition.

What to do, what to do?

I needed another shelf.

I had a board, I had some wallpaper from the thrift store.

I covered the board with the wallpaper.
 (stapled it onto the board)

and placed it atop the two cabinets

between one of the kitchen windows.

I had to take down the curtain mounting brackets for the board to fit.

Now I have nowhere to re-mount the brackets.

Ok, I have a tension rod somewhere, I'm thinking.

 I can put it between the cabinets.

Found it.

Drat the curtain is too long now!

I don't feel like hemming it.

Wait a sec,

I have all those thrifted shawl type things,

let's see if we can use one as a curtain.

Many shawls, scarves and saris later I came up with this.

It's a very long, fringed scarf that I folded in half

and safety pinned close to the rod.

I gathered the front half into a ponytail with a ponytail holder,

pulled it up a bit to create a little puff, then pinned it to the back portion.

I used one of my many, many brooches as a center accent,

then topped it off with my dragonfly wind chimes.

The thrifted red shelf holds a Texas State Fair
Dr Pepper bottle that I use for dish soap.
(Dated October 13, 1973 Texas VS Oklahoma)
I have no idea when or where I got it.

Above the Dr Pepper sign is a bracket

that used to suspend a light, but now holds a lidless, black teapot.

Looks like it's pouring for all the cups below!

Do I really have this much stuff?

Yes, I do seem to have alot of stuff!!!

Do you have as much stuff as I do?

As you can see I love advertising art, especially region specific.

Most everything you see in these photos was thrifted or given to me.

That's my kitchen and I'm sticking with it!!!
Do you like?

Till next time,
Bonjour

Lets Cool Things Off A Bit, Shall We?

 SO...
ANYONE UP FOR SOME SNOW PICS?

Our Mesquite & Maple Trees

The Girls, Miss Lady & Little Red

Pond From The Deck

Pond View From The Dam

We are now at day 25 of triple digits.

I was doing a little research and

 found this little tidbit about the 1980 heat wave.

I had only been in Texas about three years when this happened.

By DAVID FLICK / The Dallas Morning News/2010

It was 30 years ago that a 42-day string

of 100 degree days –

the longest heat wave by far

in the region's history – was broken.

For one day.

More triple digits followed,

and when autumn mercifully arrived,

temperatures had hit the century mark 69 times.

Some people had theories

about what was causing the heat wave.

One letter writer to the mayor's office said

the Soviet Union had installed space platforms

with lasers beamed at North Texas.

 Another said the heat was God's wrath

at people who were gambling

on the outcome of the television show

 Dallas' who-shot-JR episode.

Other people had remedies.

On July 20, people performed a rain dance

 near the Turtle Creek fountain across from Lee Park in Dallas,

asking those who couldn't attend to

 "concentrate their thoughts

on thundershowers to provide enough

energy to manifest a rainfall."

For the record, it rained the next day –

though not enough to break the heat wave.

Feeling cooler now?

I know I am.

A positive note,
the laundry only takes about 30 minutes on the line!!!

Till next time,

Bonjour

Thrifty Threads Features Moi!!!

SO....

I know I've been lax on the blogging but really,

this laptop is a royal pain.

I know it's not actually the laptops fault,

it only does what I tell it to do.

Apparently I am not giving the right commands, or,

 my fingers are touching what they shouldn't! 

The desktop is at the repair shop getting a makeover,

and I can't wait to get her back!!!!

Anyway....

I sent a photo of myself  in a thrifted outfit to

Angela Barton.com AKA Thrifty Threads.

Her blog is about non consumerism, recycling and generally being thrifty.

I hope you will click on over to her site and explore a bit, she is really an inspiration.

And as a bonus you'll get to see my thrifted outfit!!!

Ha Ha!!

Angela Barton's Thrifty Threads

Till next time,

Bonjour

I'm Laptop Challenged

OK....

I admit it, I have no skill with this laptop!

I'm typing away, I look up at the screen and

my text is all jumbled up or completely gone.

It took me 30 minutes to write a simple Email last night.

My, oh my, very frustrating..

Things have been very weird around here of late but I'm

embracing the changes and trying to go with the flow!

 NOT!!!

Read,

  Terry is a control freak and does not

like change unless it is initiated by her!!!

 Anyway....

My shower curtain of 8 years really needed to go

but me being the frugal (cheapo) person I am

wanted something really cool at little to no cost.

I was browsing the recycle box at work

 and found a catalogue from Garnet Hill.

(Pricy clothing and home decor).

Spied this shower curtain ($78.00) and knew

I could replicate it at less than a third of the cost. 

 

Pricy Catalogue Curtain!

I already had the fabric,

the pink fabric was from a secondhand store score

and the peace sign fabric was purchased a few months ago at

Wally World for $1.50 a yard.

The floral top and bottom fabric
are leftovers from I don't know what!



That thing hanging in the middle is a lei

 from my sister's b-day party!

My Version

Close Up

I found a liner at Ross for $3.99 so now I'm good to go.

 Ivy and Spike like it,

but....

No Face, Jamaica and Voodoo Girl are noncommittal.

What do you think?

 

Till next time,

Bonjour

 

PC Crashed

Well...

As you can tell from my title the PC has crashed.

I'm trying to work it out via the Laptop. 

Wish me luck....

Till next time,
Bonjour

Time, Time, Got No Time.....

Well...

Nathan, my grandson is going to his Dad's

for a couple of weeks, so guess what? 

I have the next few weekends to myself.

I get to have some me time!!!

YAHOO!!!!

Blogging, sewing, whatever.

No Grandma I'm hungry,

no Grandma are you finished on the computer,

no Grandma are you still blogging,

no Grandma play a game with me,

no Grandma let's watch a movie.

No Grandma nothing,

I love him to death but sometimes...

 Grandma needs a break!

So....

Ankle length skirt.

A few weeks ago I found this skirt at the SPCA thrift shop,

not my cup of tea,

 but it had possibilities, and for $3.00 it was a steal.

Pure Irish linen in a soft, subtle green.

What to do, what to do?

It hit me at work on Friday

so the minute I got home I started my redo.

I took off about 8" to make it a little above the knee,

 then dug through my fabric stash for a suitable accent fabric.

Yep,

 found a light fabric with green flowers that was left over

from a pillow case project.

Perfect!

I cut 2 rectangles 6" deep by 2 1/2" longer than the skirt hemline.

(1 for the front and 1 for the back)

Hemmed the bottom long edges and gathered the top edges.

After pinning the ruffles in place

I stitched the ruffle side seams,

then sewed the ruffle to the skirt.

Added a little yellow grosgrain ribbon and,

Finished skirt.

VIOLA.

Cute skirt for Terry at very little cost.

Tote

I even had enough fabric left over to create this tote.

There's something to be said for ME time don't you think?

Til next time,

Bonjour