Flashback Friday: My Dollhouse

I recently read a post by Fallon at Sweetfancy (http://xxsweetfancyxx.blogspot.com/2010/06/welcome-to-dollhouse.html)about always wanting a dollhouse and deciding to put a vintage kit together. The picture of her dollhouse immediately brought back memories of one I had years ago. I remember when I started to put the kit together I couldn't stop. I was so anxious to see the completed building that I worked through the night into the morning to assemble it. I took pictures when I finished it and put the few pieces of dollhouse furniture in it that I had purchased. These pictures are old and taken that first day. I had done quite a bit more to the house over the years, a little at a time. I shingled the roof and even wired the house for lights, painted and wallpapered some walls and carpeted a room or two. When we bought our first home and moved from New York to Florida the dollhouse came with us, and I remember searching out a minitature dollhouse store and finally found one about a 45 minute drive from us. I would take a trip there at least once a month at first, but eventually decorating our real house, and raising my family took priority and the dollhouse fell by the wayside. I finally sold it at a garage sale, but I had it for several years and enjoyed working on it. I know I have more pictures of it once I had completed it, if I find them I will post them.

On the Road Again

I am about to leave for a 6 day vacation with my sister. We aren't going any place exotic, we are just going to Alabama to visit with my daughter, son-in-law and grandkids. Though my husband and I go there every couple of months, my sister doesn't get to see them that often so we decided to take a road trip together and visit. This time my husband is staying behind but when I return, he and I will be heading out a few days later for our planned visit to Alabama. We like to spend as much time as we can with the grandkids. Our grandson is getting so big, he will be 11 in December, and our granddaughter will be 4 in September. I want to be around them as much as possible, I don't want to miss them growing up. Okay, so now I am going to be one of those grandparents that people avoid because...."let me show you some pictures of my grandchildren."

Wordless Wednesday-Kitten Stormy

Going Lighter for Summer

Changing from the heavy floor length floral curtains to



shorter, smaller, floral pattern curtains and changing up the table a little too.
Originally, I made these curtains for my other house in Alabama, but I didn't have enough material, I came up a window short. So until I can get more of the same fabric I thought I'd put them up in the Florida house. I am working on other curtains for the bedrooms in Alabama. Everything that I have there right now is very plain and generic. They serve their purpose but that is all they do, no visual interest at all. For 3 years I didn't really care much, but I am hoping to be moving into that house soon so I want to start really decorating it.

Plumbing problems

It's not a good thing when you run the dishwasher and it backs up into your bathtub. My husband was snaking, and plunging for hours to no avail. Looks like we will have to call a plumber in the morning. We already know that we need a new drainfield for our septic, but he says that this problem has nothing to do with that. He insists there is a blockage in the pipes within the house. In a few days I am leaving for a short vacation with my sister, but my husband will be home to deal with the problem, though I hope it will be fixed before then.

Look What I Found

My daughter called me last week to ask me if I still had her pageant dress from when she was 8 years old. I am ashamed to say that I don't have it. I am not the save everything type, though I did save several baby and toddler outfits. She was a little disappointed until I told her that I had her first dance costume from when she was 4 years old. Her daughter will be 4 in a few months, so she asked me to bring it when I visit next week just to see if it fits her. When I pulled out the plastic bin that the baby clothes were in I found other treasures that I had long forgotten about and a few that I had wondered what had happened to. You may recall from a previous post that I collect Barbie dolls. Well, I came across my first Barbie from the early 60's, with the bubble hairdo. Also in the picture is my Chatty Cathy doll, named so because when you pulled the string in the back of her neck she talked to you. The doll in the pink gown was actually my mother's doll,(she collected dolls also) that she gave me years ago after a lot of begging. Her name is Betsy McCall and she has a pair of nylon stockings under that ruffled dress. Betsy used to have a honored spot on my dresser until my husband complained that she gave him the creeps so I had to pack her away and Chatty Cathy got packed away because she scared my kids. I also came across a Cabbage Patch Doll that I forgot I had. But the thing that interested my husband the most was a newspaper from the day our first daughter was born, it was a little yellowed but still readable. The date is Dec. 16, 1978.



Check out the prices on the Christmas trees that year.


Christmas trees may have been a lot cheaper, but mortgage rates were a lot higher.



Here is a picture of my daughter, Cindy, wearing the dance costume that I will be bringing to try on my granddaughter, Sophia.



It was fun taking the trip down memory lane.

Flashback Friday: My Dad

My dad putting an engagement ring on my mom's finger at their engagement party.



One of the few pictures that I am in with my dad. I hated to be in pictures, now I regret it. I am the one with the pouty face(because I didn't want to be in the picture). This was taken at a family members wedding and I ruined the picture because my mom and sister are looking at me pouting. I feel so bad now as I look back. What a brat I was.


Luckily, my kids didnot take after me in the picture taking department. This is my mom and dad with my girls.

My dad loved his granddaughters. He was the best grandpa.

Here he is singing to the girls.



My dad loved to sing, he was always singing at family gatherings, long drives in the car or even short drives, just about anywhere or anytime. He loved music and he bought me my first Beatle album against my mom's approval. He was always there for me no matter what. I wasn't always the best daughter, I gave him a lot of grief during my teenage years(which I got back tenfold from my younger daughter)but that didn't matter, he loved me unconditionally. Though I wish I would have told him more often when he was still with us, I want to say thanks 'daddy' for everything! I love you and I still miss you after all these years. Happy Fathers Day

Mission Impossible

My husband has a problem. He has a very hard time throwing anything out. He still has clothes and other things from before we were married. You have to understand we are married almost 34 years. One of his many possessions is this poster from when he was a teenager called "Building a Rainbow". This poster is hanging on his side of our walk-in closet. The other things hanging around the poster are drawings that my grandson did over the years.




He's not a junk collector, he doesn't bring home other people's stuff. He just can't see throwing out anything if he thinks there might someday be a use for it somewhere. To top it off, he is also kind of sentimental. Our grandson Jesse and his mom lived with us for the first 3 years of his life, when they left my daughter left behind a toy box full of mostly broken toys or toys that had missing pieces. We were very sad when they moved out because the move took them two states away, so it was a while before I decided to clean out his room. I went through the toy box and found only 3 or 4 toys that I thought were worth keeping for him to play with when he visited. Everything else was unusable, so I threw the rest in the trash. Later, when I went into our garage to do the wash I found all the toys I had thrown out stuffed in a corner near all my husband's stuff.

Also, sitting on top of the car that is stored in our garage is an old air mattress with a hole that he said was too hard to find and fix. So I suggested we throw it out and get a new one. Well, we did get a new one but the old one still sits on top of the car in the garage.


Both of our daughters are grown and out on their own, our youngest daughter being 28years old. Today, while looking for some sandpaper for a project I am starting, I found an old pair of tap shoes from when my girls took dance many years ago, on his tool shelf in the garage. Don't get me wrong, I have baby clothes that I saved from my daughters(one or two outfits each), bronzed baby shoes from each(actually bronzed baby moccassins-it was the 70's), and their first dance costumes. But look at the size of those shoes in the picture. He isn't saving baby things, they must have been 15 or 16 years old when they wore those.


The man has a problem, or should I say I have a problem. I am trying desperately to de-clutter and get rid of things. We are trying to sell a 3 bedroom house with a garage to move into a much smaller 2 bedroom house without a garage and we have too much stuff. Don't get me wrong, if I think something is in good condition or usable, I won't just throw it out either. I will either donate it to a thrift shop or sell it at a yard sale, but it will go. I don't know how to make him let go of this stuff.....

Container Gardening

My eggplant is doing well. This is the third one from this plant so far.



My husband loves jalapeno peppers so I had to have a jalapeno plant. This plant is doing great also.



My biggest tomato plant.



Waiting for them to ripen.

Stress Test

I have to go for a stress test tomorrow and I am not looking forward to it. I know its not really a big deal but I don't like them. I was supposed to have one for the past two years but I kept putting it off. Doctor said its about time, he is doing the chemical test which is what I had two years ago. I remember freaking out a little because I was laying on a table and suddenly I felt dizzy and like I was going to pass out. Not a good feeling. I have to stop thinking about it or I am going to STRESS myself out before I even go.

Farmers Market????

The last few days I have read several posts of people's fantastic yard sale finds. My friend, Dolly, always seems to have great luck at yard sales, thrift stores and sometimes just side of the road finds...but not me. My son-in-law is pretty good at that also. I rarely find anything great or even just good. I ventured out to the thrift stores on Friday....nothing, so Saturday I checked out a few yard sales...again nothing! Finally I gave up and decided to check out a 'Farmer's Market' in the local downtown area. Before I moved to Florida, I was a city girl so I always bought all my produce from the local grocery store. I had been to a Farmer's Market in Tampa once and there had been quite a few vendors with a wide choice of fruits and vegetables and also flowers, so that was my understanding of what a farmers market was. This market had a total of two produce vendors, one plant vendor and several vendors selling other types of things like Zippo lighters, Incense, and I even remembered seeing sidewalk chalk. I did finally buy something...a chocolate mint plant. Oh and my husband bought some incense.



I don't think I'll be going back there again. Besides my plants seem to be doing very well. My tomato plant has 4 or 5 green tomatoes finally and I have two eggplants that I will be able to pick soon. I have already used some of my bell peppers, and some jalapeno peppers but I am anxiously waiting for my cucumbers. So far all I see is lots of flowers but no cucumbers yet. As far as the yard sales go, I might try again next weekend.

Flashback Friday: A Page From My Yearbook

An advertisement in the back of my high school yearbook. The black and white pages give away the age(from the early 70's). But the interesting thing about this particular advertisement is that quite a few years later, while thumbing through the yearbook, my husband(who is a few years younger than me)exclaimed, "that's my parents and their car. You can't see me but I am in the backseat, we were on our way to my uncle's wedding." So, that is my father-in-law walking into the station and my mother-in-law getting out of the car. My father-in-law had that car restored twice over the years, and it is in pristine condition. A few years ago my mother-in-law passed away and he couldn't bear looking at the car(it was her car), but he couldn't bear the thought of selling it to some stranger either so he gave it to my husband. It now sits in our garage in all its pristine glory, out of sight. The car is a '69 Pontiac.



As you can see from this picture, my garage is a catch-all. My husband is a drummer and has a drumkit set up on the other side of the car which he happened to be playing when this picture was taken.

For more Flashback Friday go to http://christopherandtia.blogspot.com/2010/06/flashback-friday-me-my-cousin.html

T-Shirt Foolishness

On our last visit to see the grandkids, my grandson remarked that we haven't made a new t-shirt in a while. You see, several years ago, our friends had a t-shirt made for my grandson with a picture of him and his grandpa on it. My grandson loved that shirt so much that I took a picture of them together while my grandson was wearing the shirt and for Christmas the following year I had that picture made into t-shirts for each of them. And so it started....every year I would take a picture of them wearing their shirts and have new shirts made. If you look at the pictures you can see they are wearing shirts with the picture of the shirts from the year before, which has the picture of the shirt from the year before that. Anyway, we stopped two years ago and my grandson is very disappointed, so I think we will have to start the process all over again.

Oh How I LOVE Chocolate

I LOVE chocolate and my favorite chocolate is Godiva.
This morning my sister called me up and asked if I wanted to take a ride with her to the local mall. She was taking my niece shopping for her birthday and wanted some adult company (her daughter is 14 and doesn't like being seen with mom much except when it comes to the checkout line). I quickly agreed because I have been having mall withdrawal since my mall shopping buddy moved to Alabama. Well, my sister and I are both marathon shoppers. We hit the Gulf View Square Mall in Port Richey, Florida then went on to the Citrus Park Mall in Citrus Park, Florida and had to finish off the mall excursion with the International Mall in Tampa, Florida. (We also hit a Ross and Target in between.) Anyway, I am getting off track. Anyone who knows me, knows that I cannot pass a Godiva store without salivating. I managed to make it through the Citrus Park Mall without giving in, but I couldn't hold out on our last stop and gave into the temptation.


This is a picture of my niece standing in the window admiring the cute little ice cream cones. They were actually candy truffles on top of tiny sugar cones. Right next to the 'ice cream cones' was a machine slowly churning the chocolate as the smell wafted up into your face, making it impossible to leave the store empty handed.


Let's see, many, many different truffles. While my niece opted for a regular plain old Godiva chocolate bar (which is delicious), I had to get a few truffles. Probably had my sugar calories for the week but I had a Marizpan chocolate heart, a pistashio truffle, a hazelnut truffle and a chocolate mint truffle. I was proud of my sister, she resisted the temptation and refused to get anything, she wouldn't even try a bite of my truffles. And as a finishing touch, about an hour later, my niece and I had some gelato before we left the mall. Just had to get a little more chocolate in. I would say that my diet will start tomorrow, but I would be lying because I still have some candy that I didn't finish.

My Little (and Big) Drummer Boy(s)

My husband has been playing the drums since I met him(actually, he was playing them even before that). He has one drum kit set up in our garage and plays daily. When our grandson was small, my husband would take him out to play the drums together.


When Jesse was about two years old we bought him his own drum kit, it was a miniature set of his grandpa's. He loved banging on those drums.


As Jesse got a little older he still loved playing his grandpa's drums. Here he is playing my husbands other kit that was set up at our church.





A little older again, and at our church again.



Jesse still has his old drumset though he is probably a little too big for them now. His interests lie in different areas now to his grandpa's dismay. Jesse would rather be behind a video camera filming little skits that he wrote with his friends, though he tells his grandpa that he wants to really learn how to play when we finally move closer to them, which we all hope is very soon. (He lives in Alabama and we live in Florida) He only wants his grandpa to teach him. He is 10 years old now. Where does the time go......

Urban Standard

On our way to Birmingham to the Botanical Gardens it started to rain so we decided to stop for lunch. We went to a cute little restaurant in the downtown area called Urban Standard. Though the menu is very limited, the food was delicious and we even went back for seconds.

A comfy sofa along the wall to enjoy a cup of coffee while you read the paper. In this picture is my son-in-law and grandkids.



If you are ever in Birmingham you should stop by and check this place out.