MET MONDAY = FINISHING UFOs…….FEELS GRRRRREAT!!

Today is Met Monday hosted by Susan over at Between Naps on the Porch. Hope you’ll go visit and see all the great things people have been up to making, morphing and finishing up. You won’t regret it.
As for me, it won’t take long to tell you what I did. I took this stack

and this

added some of this

and ended up with this


and lastly --
before

and after

Have a great week.

MMMM TACO SOUP

Vail visited for awhile the other afternoon and wanted to help me make some taco soup. After washing our hands and putting on an apron, we set out the ingredients and put some chicken tenderloins on to boil. While they were cooking, I opened the cans and the envelopes (yes envelopes) that would be added to the soup and Vail dumped them in a big bowl. She stirred very gently to mix everything thoroughly.

She also helped to make the buttermilk for the cornbread by adding a T of vinegar to our cup of milk, and then poured and dumped the cornbread ingredients into the mixing bowl as I measured. All the while a continuous stream of conversation poured from her sweet lips. One of these days I’ll be smart enough to record it. She is a hoot. Her mind just bubbles over whenever she is doing something. While the cornbread and the soup were cooking she helped me wash the dishes. That’s when I thought about getting the camera. You can see she is very intent on what she was doing.

When the cornbread was done and the soup was hot, we packed up some of each and took to her house for supper. She was still talking about cooking as we drove to her house. Suddenly it was very quiet in the back seat and when I glanced back my little cook was sound asleep. Cooking and cleaning up will do that to you:)

THE REST OF THE DEN and ROOSTER TAILS

I had company last week and didn’t post for Met Monday. This week I thought I would show you the rest of my den. Here is what I started with. Any curtains and red walls are from the previous owners:)

You saw the fireplace wall in my first posting. Here is the rest of the den. This is my faux foyer.

I have sheers covering the sidelights. I had some magnetic rods from my other house and these turned out to be metal also so they worked well. There is a mirror on the wall behind the door and my “shoe” basket is also a door stopper:)

The brass bucket came from TJMax and the flowers from HobLob. The bucket is one of my favorite things in the room.

This picture shows the stairs going up to the bonus room . It also shows the crocks behind the brass bucket that I didn’t bother to move:) That is my grandmother‘s china cabinet in the corner. It holds some of the treasures I got from her house along with a few other things.

For now I’m using my old dining room table as a sofa table. If I ever have a big party, I can use this table for extra seating. I found an old travel trunk reproduction at TJMAX that I put under the table. It will give me some extra storage at some point.

I love my couch. It is new and very cottagey. The old bench is what I’m using as a coffee table. I got it and the star that’s on the big wall at Rooster Tails a really neat store that is not far from here. This picture is looking across the room from the doorway to the kitchen. You can see the curio cabinet that houses my bird collection and a few other things and the door to the hallway.

The last two pictures show the far end of the den. I’m looking forward to having a fireplace to take the chill of over the winter.

Things I still need to do include making the valance for the window. It’s going to be a very simple triangle shape valance. I’m also going to do something with that lampshade over there in the corner to the right of the fireplace. Add some sort of trim or ribbon or something. I’m also going to add some pictures to the big wall with the star. I’ll probably need some help with that.

Well this is my den. I hope you enjoyed the tour. If you haven’t already, go on over to Susan’s at Between Naps on the Porch and visit all the other participants of Met Monday.

In the meantime, here are just a few views of what you can find at Rooster Tails (I didn’t take any pictures on the inside. I was in a hurry to get in and get out.

NEVER WAIT THREE YEARS TO FINISH A PROJECT ……

In the fall of ‘06 a sewing store in another Delta town was having a monthly class of sorts where you would go to the meeting and for a fee, you got all the makings for a project and then had time to get a good start on it or even finish it if you were really quick. Anyway, you took it home to finish if needed.

Well, mine made it home but got set aside and then it got moved from the big house to the little house and then from MS to TN. While sorting through things in my sewing room, I came across the long lost project. It’s a table runner and it was all put together except for being quilted and adding the binding. Yesterday I quilted it and since the binding fabric was not to be found, I looked through the Christmas fabric I had and of course I had nothing that would remotely go … I mean the “old” Christmas red and green we grew up with are not “it” these days. The shades have changed and even other colors besides have become a lot more popular. So, it was off to the Stitcher’s Garden - home of 20,000 plus (my "underestimate" I'm sure) bolts of fabric. The new Christmas fabrics up front didn’t go but way in the back corner where the leftovers from the last few years were I found something that at least had some of the same shades in it. Here is the finished product except for the hand sewing of the binding.

.

And here are two other projects I found today – these were done at classes I didn’t make it to and because I had already paid, I got them later – problem is the instructions are not complete and there is not a picture of the final project so I have no idea what these are supposed to be – Crazy me:)

And so I repeat … never wait three years to finish a project.

WEEKEND VISITORS AND A LESSON LEARNED….

Grandmother and Miss Opal came to visit for the weekend. We had a really nice visit. We ate at the Rainforest Cafe on Friday with all the local family except Brian who was on his way to Pigeon Forge to see Dolly Parton (or maybe it was to meet up with some old friends from China) . Saturday morning we attended the Ladies Day at Church which lasted through lunch and then we spent the rest of the day visiting with the other Neals and Ensors and watching football and such.

Rub a dub dub – three cuz’s in the tub.

The next American Idol

They left Monday morning. Jennifer, Katy and Micah came by to say goodbye after they dropped Vail off at school.

So what was the lesson I learned ……

Brush your hair before you say goodbye! :))