Travel Tuesday

Last Saturday, Stephanie and Nicky had planned a pool party. That meant it was a good time for us to get out-of-town! 

So, we decided to go to Lynnville, TN to the blackberry festival. It's about an hour south of Nashville. On the way down we stopped at Dolly Parton's new truck stop. A few weeks ago, on our way back from the beach, we stopped there so that Butch could be the first one to place a cache there since it wasn't even open yet. Now, he wanted to upgrade his cache by connecting it to a butterfly--her signature. 

When we got there, it was so crowded! Butch said that she's already making so much money!! A great place for a tourist stop!

This greets you when you walk through the front door:

These are not guitars that she's played, but rather mass produced that designers decorated in her style. It's perfect--great idea for a chandelier!! 

After our stop in Cornersville, TN--where Dolly's place is--it was on to Lynnville for the blackberry festival.

We found a parking spot about a block from Main Street. It was HOT! Really hot! There were different booths--from food to crafts and political candidates. We started at one end of the street and navigated down one side and up the other. 

We stopped for a picture here:

We have been in several railroad museums and didn't feel like we needed to stop in. As we're making our way, we saw a sign that said "blackberry nachos"--$8.00. Butch didn't think that sounded good so we passed it by. There were a couple of ice cream trucks, but none with blackberry ice cream.  In fact there were no blackberries in sight! Stephanie had asked us to pick up a jar of preserves for her. I would have like a jar too. There was one place selling jellies, but they only had blackberry/basil and blackberry/wine jelly. Neither sounded very good--plus not worth a $10 risk. 

That was it. A blackberry festival with no blackberries. I was looking for preserves and possibly blackberry pepper jelly. Nope, nada. d

By the time we went up and down the street, we were sweating and decided to call it a day. We stopped in the way home at Cracker Barrel for a late lunch. Lo and behold, there was a little container of blackberry preserves in the basket with our biscuits! I brought one home for Stephanie and Nicky!!

So, the blackberry festival was a "bust!" As we were telling Steph about it, I remembered that the flyer I saw about the festival had a bowl of blackberry cobbler with vanilla ice cream on it. Yeah, no--there was no cobbler!!

Still, it was fun just being out in the country on those pretty old country roads. We got home around 3 p.m. The party was still going on. Their friends were gone by 5:30. 

Steph and Nicky cleaned up and asked if we wanted to sit on the patio with them. We did and the next thing we knew--it was 8:30!!! Time flies when you are having fun! It was a nice end to our day.

Me on Monday

I did a lot of scrapbooking this week. Even though it's not Saturday, I'm sharing a scrapbook related post.

Last week, this brochure came in the mail. 

It reminded me of a scrapbook class I taught years ago about making scrapbooks using junk mail. 

As soon as I opened it up, I knew that I was going to use it on a layout.

You really have to think about this. It has 12 pages counting the smaller ones and the backside. If you take one away where I adhere it to the page, that means 11 pages to put pictures on. Now, the reason this excites me is because when I do a travel layout, I want everything--the pictures, journaling, brochures, tickets, etc.--to be contained within the confines of a 2-page layout.

This fold out allowed me to use 28 photos!

Here's the whole layout. I stenciled and stamped the document envelope on the upper left. Inside are ticket stubs, receipts, brochures and Butch's trip journal. He does ALL of our trip journals. He does get a little carried away. This one is 22 pages long!! So, with the fold-out on the lower right, this layout contains 40 pictures!!

That same day, this envelope with a window was in the mail. I sealed the envelope and snipped off one end. Now I have a pocket that will have a little book showing through for more pictures. 

I had a super productive weekend. I got everything finished on my "to do" list--even a few things that have been on it for awhile--like filling boxes with un-needed household stuff to get out of here! 2 were full of books. I'm really getting rid of a lot of books in our library. I plan to move all of my scrapbooks down there. I have over 200! 

I did my gardening chores--watering, dead-heading, removing yellowed and insect eaten leaves--just everything to keep them pristine. I pulled moss out of the pond (never-ending slimy job) and cut back a few things. I do it about 3 times a week. 

Okay, that's about it for today.

Something for Sunday

On my way home earlier this week, I could not believe my eyes! 

A mother deer with triplets!!! I didn't even know that was possible! So, I looked it up. The answer is that mature does with excellent habitat can have triplets 1% of the time! Of course they have no predators here and eat well in all of our gardens! It was an amazing sight and it made my heart so happy!! 

At the very same time that the deer were grazing, there were turkeys on the other side of the yard.

I feel kind of sorry for the homeowner as everyone knows--as spectacular as it is to see these creatures in our yards, the damage they cause is not!

Speaking of which...

...we still have turkeys that stroll through our yard, but not as regularly as they used to. For a few years, you could almost set your watch by them--morning and night. They used to nest in the trees in our side yard. Now they only seem to be around just once in awhile. This one is actually standing on the birdbath--I guess he was thirsty.

Contrary to what everyone believes about me--I love animals! I just don't want them in my house!

Scrapbook Saturday

Pam's layout for AYM.

Jeanne's bedroom layout.

Karolyn scrapbooked her scrapbook room.

Jeanne's layout about her family room.

Pam's layout about patio and flowers.

Friday Funnies

I do love a good pun!

Ten Things Thursday

I always love these "before and after" houses. 

I like that they added more dimension to this little house by adding peaks to the roof. The heighth allows it to hold its own with the neighbor's house.

I'm not really sure they did anything new to this house that was eaten by its landscaping. It looks like they just cut all the greenery away. If you look close at the before, there seems to be another part to the house that doesn't appear to be in this picture. 

White freshens up anything! I do like the new front doors and porch cover. The upper balcony was totally wasted. Not really a place where you would sit outside.

I'm so glad they kept the porch. I'm assuming you get to it from inside the house. I guess you can just walk to it from the front door, but that seems odd.

Do you drive in and park at the front door? I like the looks, but wouldn't like cars parked there.

I wish they'd show the longer view. I'd like to see what they did with the rest of the yard. The porch was the best addition.

This one is very striking. The porch and white paint make all the difference.

I'm not sure how I feel about this one. It's been updated, but I would have preferred that they left the porch. 

This looks like the most darling cottage! What a huge improvement!

Love the addition of the little guest house in the back. And I love the porch, but there's a significant problem with it. You cannot swing or you'll break the window!

This one probably makes the most impact. It's the little house that grew up! I don't ordinarily like this somewhat contemporary style, but here, it makes all the difference. I love the cute, little, well-manicured yard. Overall, this is my favorite. And of course, I love the white!

What I Buy Wednesday

I knew this would be a perfect thing to blog about. But then, time got away from me and I didn't get it done. So, here it is today.

Well, this is a crazy purchase. But first, the story. 

Years ago, I purchased dozens of stamps from Stampin' Up. My niece and sister-in-law sold them. Many of my friends invested in stamps too. We even started a "stamp club" where we got together and made hundreds of cards. We each took turns designing something and then we all made them. 

That ended--probably 20 years ago. Many of us still have a lot of stamps. I actually donated a couple shopping bags full to the art department at Overbrook School where my girls went. I kept quite a few to use in my scrapbooks. But, the truth is, I rarely have used them in my scrapbooking. 

So, fast forward to last week. I was at my new hair stylist's. She had a table set up with--you guessed it--Stampin' Up stamps. Some were new and some were used. She sold them for $2.00 a set--super bargain. I knew that I didn't need them, but I am a sucker for a good bargain! I bought 3 sets. I already put them away. But I kept this one set out because I knew that if I didn't type up the words included I would never use it. 

I would never take the time to see what words were included. 

This makes it much simpler to use. Now, I need to make using it a priority. That's when I decided that this $6.00--total-- purchase would be the perfect "What I Buy Wednesday" post! 

I'm determined to use them and then post a picture to prove it!!