A Crazy Hour of Doggone Fun!

Our dog Maddie, a senior black lab mix, was having a blast the other day with a section of black corrugated tubing from the end of one of our downspouts. She ran it across the yard with her nose in one end, then ran to the other end and ran back with it.

She was so oblivious to anything else around her and was running around like a puppy again. It was so much fun to watch!!

It makes my heart smile to see her enjoying herself so much!

On a much sadder note, my mom called around 6:30...Hospice called and Grandma was struggling to breathe, and the felt that she wouldn't last much longer. So my mom, dad and Eric (who is still up north) were heading to her apartment to be with her and my grandpa.

Did I Finally Find Bark Cloth?

I've been searching for bark cloth for a while now. Especially since I got the vintage wicker chaise-hoping to make a cushion out of it. Yesterday I found a bag with a giant piece of material, and a set of curtains for $1.50.

Is it bark cloth? Now that I have it, I'm not so sure it is what I want for the cushion-so I guess the search continues!

Would You Buy It? What Would YOU Do with It?

I am linking up again over at Junker Newbie for "Would you Buy it Wednesday"! This is what I found this week...would you buy it? What if it was $2? Would you leave it as it is if you did buy it? Or would you paint it? Or would you have walked right on by?

I bought it, but I'm not sure if I am going to do anything with it. I was thinking of changing out the picture for something shabby...but I haven't decided-any suggestions? It's really big-about 30" tall...

Great Day to Catch Up!

My friend and former co-worker Debbie (whom you might remember moved to Atlanta a little over a year ago), is back in Michigan with her daughter for a family shower and she had some free time today so we met up and went antiquing, went to a couple of sales and went to a restaurant that I've been dying to try for lunch.

We talked, and talked and talked and the time went by wayyyyy to fast! It was so nice to see her and hang out with her for a few hours! Man, I miss that girl!!!

These are my finds for the weekend, I'm throwing in the things I got yesterday after work too. It's not a big haul like I've been getting lately, but I'm happy with it!

I bought the glass shakers with the Fiesta-like-colored tops at LAO today from a fellow booth renter, Mitzi. I saw them last week and have been kicking myself for not getting them, and was just thrilled that they were there this week!

There is a Buyer out there for EVERYTHING!!!

Just a quick post, in between jumping around and pinching myself...today I sold a huge, heavy, old anvil that my husband insisted that we put in our booth. (Note that it was not my idea-lol).

It has been our little joke for the past 4 months-almost every night when I go online to check my sales for the day, he always asks "Did you sell the anvil?"

Tonight he decided to go for a run, and I had to walk down to road to find him! TOO FUNNY! I'm sure no one else will find this as funny as we do-I guess you had to be in on the private joke to get a laugh out of this-but I just couldn't keep it to myself! LOL!

I will have to go in the the antique mall tomorrow to see who had to carry it to the front desk (and who I owe the Coke to!)-it was 130 pounds!!!

Long Day - Short Post

Just got home from a whirlwind trip north to see my grandma for probably the last time. I picked up my Aunt Brenda at 7am -we got there a little after 11 and I dropped her off back at her at home at 6pm.  We made it there and back safely-so thanks for thinking of us and for your prayers!!

I was surprised to see how much she has changed since I saw her in the middle of July. She knew who we were, she was happy (I think) to see us. She carried on a conversation with us. My Aunt wanted some alone time with her so we all left the room for a while. She tried telling my grandma about how even though she is going through all of these trials with cancer and now having spots on her brain that she is at peace because she knows the Lord and trusts Him no matter what happens to her.

Grandma didn't want to hear it. She tried talking to her about it three times and finally gave up when grandma turned her head away and looked at the wall.

It was an amazingly awesome time for me (and I hope my aunt) in the car! We talked like we have never talked before! We talked so much both of us are hoarse! Those long hours in the car flew by like minutes-it was incredible! What a blessing for me to be able to spend the day with her today!!! I admire her faith, and trust in the Lord even in the midst of her own struggles to survive.

Thanks so much for the thoughts, prayers, comments and emails! I could feel the love all day!!! :)

A Sad Trip...

Tomorrow morning I am heading north to Cheboygan with my Aunt Brenda to see my Grandma for probably the last time. Her Hospice care worker told my mom yesterday to tell anyone who wants to see her one last time to make it sooner rather than later.

It's about a 4 1/2 hour trip. We'll spend a couple of hours then head right home as my Aunt has more radiation treatments on Friday. I've been reminiscing the past couple of weeks since we found out there really isn't anything else that can be done for my Grandma. Trying to remember precious times, fun times, loving memories of our times together. I'm having a hard time coming up with any.

I know that might sound mean and cold-hearted, but it really is the truth. My Grandma has never been a typical grandma. She's never been warm and cuddly. She's always been selfish and greedy. My value to her as a grandchild has always been what I could do for her (chores, cleaning, hauling firewood, etc). I never had a value just because I am her grandchild.

I do love her, don't misunderstand, it's just not the same type of love that most people have for their grandmothers. I call her on a regular basis, I visit her on a regular basis, I help her with whatever she needs at the time, I send cards and gifts, but that's about the extent of our relationship. She hasn't ever called just to see how we are doing. She always favored my cousins over me to the point of crushing my feelings time and time again. Most of my childhood she couldn't even remember my name. She'd go through about 4 names before she'd just call me Suzy Q. At first I felt special-when I got older, I realized I didn't matter to her enough for her to call me by the right name.

I am very sure that if I wasn't the one calling all the time, or visiting, or offering help that there wouldn't be a "relationship" of any sort and that makes me sad. I am sad to see a woman at the end of her life who never learned how to love anyone but herself. I am sad to see she never learned how to receive love from anyone. I am sad to know she has never come to know God and what He did for us through Jesus.

I know God is a God of miracles. So my prayer for tomorrow is that I'll have a few minutes with her to share what God's love means to me, and how my life is different because He first loved me. I'm also praying that God would have mercy on her and that He would be willing to break through her hard heart and reveal himself to her, and that she would see Him for who He is.

The other part of this trip is that I get to spend close to 10 hours in the car with my Aunt Brenda. She is going through some health challenges as well right now. She lost a toe to melanoma a little over 5 years ago and just last fall felt a lump in her leg that turned out to be cancer as well. The lump in her leg was removed and since then, she has found a few more lumps throughout her body and most recently 3 spots were found on her brain that she is receiving radiation treatments for.

I will cherish my time with her tomorrow knowing that we may soon lose her too.

Before and After...

I'm so glad I looked on the garage floor, under a table at a sale yesterday!  I'm also glad I didn't let myself get scared by the condition they were originally in(because 6 months ago I would have)! I'd say this was a very good find-especially at $3 for the set!

I can't wait for the built in cases to be built for our sunroom! They will look wonderful next to all of my vintage Fiesta!

Oh, My!!

Kevin and I took off this morning on our usual Saturday morning date (treasure hunting). I found 2 sales that sounded really good from their ads in the newspaper. They both were frogs! Prices waaaayyy too ridiculously high at both. One was at the home of an antiques dealer and they still had their dealer tags on the items and were trying to sell them at store prices.

We decided to stop at some unadvertised sales along the route home and we hit the Pyrex jackpot! All of this came from 2 sales! I even got some zucchini for dinner! :) At the last sale, I was admiring the huge hedge of Rose of  Sharon that ran the length of the driveway and the lady who lived there pulled up some shoots of them for me to take home and plant in my yard! They are purple too! Can't wait for them to grow up and bloom!

With the other shoots Auntie got me earlier this summer and these, I'm going to have some gorgeous trees in the coming years!

Here is what I got today...how did you do this weekend?

 I still haven't found a cushion for this chaise, or even any really cool vintage barkcloth to make a cushion with. That is tops on my treasure seeking list for the rest of the summer!

Can't wait to catch up on your blogs! I've missed seeing what you've all been up to!! I just got a new power cord for my laptop, so no more sharing Kevin's pokey old machine. Hope you are having a great weekend-I'm on my way to stop by and visit your blogs! :)

Whew!

I got up bright and early today and loaded a ton of junk beautiful treasures into my car and took them to the booth. I spent about 5 hours loading stuff in and helping Auntie move the rest of her stuff out. I was very nervous about how it would all fit and how it would all look once it was just my stuff in the booth.

Once I got going, it really went together pretty quickly and I think it turned out pretty O.K.. I got almost everything I took with me in, and it made a huge dent in our basement-so I'm sure Kevin will be happy. Adam (the son who is always in the basement family room) didn't even notice that a huge chunk of stuff was missing! He told me that would be like me noticing if he had more of less Xbox games.

While I was there, I even sold a few things-woo hoo! I'm kicking myself though because I walked around and saw some awesome vintage shakers in Mitzi's booth and I wish I would have bought them!!! The were glass and very small, with a clear criss cross pattern. What made them so cool was the lids! Plastic lids in Fiesta colors!! I hope, hope, hope they are still there when I go back!!!

Here is what the booth looked like when I left...

Sorry about the last picture. I was trying to hurry and take it because the mall was really crowded today and there were not very many chances when someone wasn't walking by-which is an excellent problem to have-right?!?!?!?

I just got invited to go to a friend's house to play some sand volleyball, so I am off to change and have some mindless fun for a couple of hours-maybe it will help me to think about something else for a while other than all the bad stuff my family members are going through right now.

Thanks again for all of your prayers, thoughts and well wishes-and especially the words of encouragement!
That is what has been keeping me going when I just feel like sitting in my room and crying it all out.