It's Always Somethin'!

For once, we didn't have any snafus with traveling out to LA for Jordan and Robbie's wedding. Well, except I was sick and missed just about everything except the wedding. It was beautiful. Everything was perfect--exactly how Jordan envisioned it. 

Meet Mr. and Mrs. Robert (Robbie) Loakes. 

I was supposed to be with them during the "getting ready" part of the day, but since I had been sick, I was determined to keep my distance. Jordan and Robbie are on their 2 week honeymoon in New Zealand and I certainly don't want her to get sick during that!

We had a lovely dinner at an Italian restaurant. The food was delicious. 

Now, on for the "snafu"! Of course we knew about the terrible weather happening in Nashville. Frigid temperatures and so much ice! We lost power at 6 a.m. on Sunday morning. As of today (Wednesday--day 4) we are still out. We've moved in with Stephanie and Nicky for the time being. 

Butch has been over to the house to break up the ice in the pool. We have no idea how all that is going to fare. We are concerned about the whole "works" system. We'll see. 

Lots of big limbs down, but not whole trees for us and nothing has hit the house.

The thermostat inside is holding at 40 even though it's currently 23 outside despite much lower overnight temps. 

It's always somethin'!

I'm not sure when I'll be back to blogging regularly. My heart just isn't in it right now. 

Scrapbook Saturday

December Daily round 3!

It was Nancy's turn to host book club in November. She made my grandpa's soup. She's been making it since the 1980's--far more often than I do, so I wanted to tell that story and include the recipe. I made it on this Saturday in December and that's how it became the story for Day 6.

Mindy's birthday. We went to Karrington Rowe for brunch. I did a little hand-stitching.

I made this title block during the prep classes in October.

Story 9--wrapping and the Sarah Brightman concert at the Ryman.

Days 10 & 11.

For Day 12--our poker dinner at Richland--I made a shaker on the left. My sewing skills are improving.

Day 12.

Day 13 & 14. I made this string of star embellishments on the sewing machine. 

You can see how it swings--pretty cute. Also, I stamped those little tags.

Okay, enough for this Scrapbook Saturday. Probably two more to go. 

Friday Funnies

Ten Things Thursday

It's the time of year to curl up with a good book in front of the fireplace with a cup of tea or hot chocolate. Here are some fun pictures to daydream about:

A Beach Library sounds like a good idea, but how do you keep them protected from the weather? It looks like they might have some sort of roll down screen. 

This is pretty, but not quite my cup of tea. It seems a little too cluttered for my taste.

Love floor to ceiling book shelves.

This would be a fun centerpiece for book club. Don't need the drift wood--unless the theme was beach books. This was some sort of book exchange.

Here are the invitations:

I use books in ALL of my elaborate centerpieces. You can't beat a stack of books with something sitting on top for interest.

Okay, I don't understand this one. I love to see the top books of the year to see how many I've read. Not only have I not read a single one of these, I haven't even heard of any of them!

This is a stunning use of "under the stairs" space. But do those stairs actually lead anywhere? Looks a little spooky to me.

This looks like a cozy little cottage. It looks like there's only room for one person!

What are your favorite book spots?

Words of Wisdom Wednesday

Travel Tuesday

For Christmas, Mindy and Justin "gave" Butch and I a trip to Charlotte, Tennessee. Well, we did it this past Saturday. 

Charlotte is about 45 minutes from Nashville. We did a little geo-caching and then went to "Sweet Charlotte's" for lunch. It was an old-time diner with all of the old-fashioned candies and soda you would have seen in the 1940's & 1950's. 

Lunch was really good--I ordered the chicken bites, but they made a mistake and gave me the hugest plate of really big chicken tenders! They were really good, but way too much! Butch had the bratwurst, Mindy got the chili and Justin had a cheeseburger. 

After lunch we browsed the shop and got cookies to have in the car. Mindy and Justin paid for everything. Oh, and they bought me a pack of Teabury gum. I haven't had that in years! The whole day was so much fun. We don't often have this much time together. It was perfect!

Me on Monday

So, it's January and we're cleaning out. Butch agreed to help. We had a date for 8 a.m. on Friday. He was late, but he made up for it in his physical labor. I really can't do much of anything if it's higher than me or too much lower. I won't get on step stools or ladders. He's still able to do that. 

Anyway, we started with the laundry room and cleaned it from top to bottom. 

I'm pretty sure we have not cleaned out anything from here in 30 years. We and by "we" I mean "I" have just kept adding stuff--because we had the room.

They were all pretty full. I haven't put these sheets away yet because I need to figure out which are queens and which are kings. 

Still, I'm so happy with the results. It feels so good to clean out.

I got this picture after Butch had already carried a lot out. There were so many plant pots, things for floral arranging, some gardening things, lots of holiday towels--I've put them aside to see if the girls might want those. These rugs are old and dry rotted--ready for the trash. Just a lot of junk. And now it's out of here!!

We're starting on all of these closets on the left of this hallway this week. If we get the coat closet done, I'll be happy. We're leaving for LA and Jordan's wedding on Thursday, so we don't really have much time. 

Little by little...

So what kinds of big chores have you done this month??