Full As A Tick!

Oh My Lord! If I eat one more thing this weekend, I'm going to explode! I've done really good on my "diet" for the past few weeks, saving up to "pig out" on the cruise to Mexico, but this weekend I blew it! Saturday hubby and I went shopping for clothes for him (big mistake - he walks in and walks out of a store faster than anyone I know). When we walked by the Cinnabon counter, I knew I just had to indulge in one little bitty bite. Well, as it turned out, we each had one mini-bon apiece! Then Saturday night we went out for Mexican! (I might have had one little margarita too)

Something this ooey-gooey and delish should be sinful!

Sunday we went to Birmingham to see my son and his family before our trip. On the way up, I said I would love to go to P.F. Chang's for lettace wraps but that I was going to let them decide where to eat. We met them close to their neighborhood and they wanted to go to P.F. Chang's!!! After eating lunch, the fellas took baby girl home for a nap and my mom, DIL and me went for a little retail therapy. Guess where we stopped on the way home? Dairy Queen!!!! Can we say "Waffle Cone Turtle Sundae?"

Of course, the sweetest part was a little granddaughter love!

Daddy holding the "Hello Kitty" purse while she gives me a sweet smile

Sweetness!

New Year - New Look!

Back in December I was lucky enough to come across a blogger who was offering for a brief time blog make-overs. I think I had to leave a comment by a certain date which I did. She then contacted me and we briefly discussed what I would be interested in her doing for my blog make-over. I had always wanted a 3 column blog, some special fonts for categories, etc. I did not want a permanent header because I like changing that out myself. Due to both of our schedules, we really didn't get back together much until just recently. She then directed me to one of her blogs so I could choose a background and from there we started working on the fonts and colors, plus other little extras I wanted. Today you can see the final result that we've come up with and I couldn't be happier!

Let me just say that if anyone is looking to make some changes to your blog, either big or small, please check out Joanna's blog at http://www.southerngirlblogdesigns.blogspot.com/. She is an absolute joy to work with and let me tell ya'll, she had to have a lot of patience with me! I had so many questions and she very graciously answered them all. In fact, she even gave me some extra help in getting my header picture fixed and a few other little helpful hints.

I am so happy with the way my make-over turned out! Joanna, I can't thank you enough!

CAUTION: WORK ZONE - UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Can you tell my blog is getting a "make-over"? Back in December I was lucky enough to win a blog upgrade! I've been wanting to have a 3 column blog and some fancy fonts, etc. and now my wish is coming true! Please be patient as my "make-over artist" is working out a few kinks!

My Second Outdoor Wednesday

It's time for another Outdoor Wednesday hosted by Susan at A Southern Daydreamer. I think it does all of us good to see some signs of spring right about now, I know for me it does! Fortuntately, here in the deep South, it's not as far away for us as it is for some of ya'll. While we ususally have what I consider "cold snaps" through March, by April the weather is getting just perfect! April and May here are gorgeous!

Please be sure to check out Susan's blog to see some wonderful pictures of spring at my house last year!

EDITED TO ADD: APPARENTLY WHEN I LINKED UP TO MY 2ND OUTDOOR WEDNESDAY POST ON SUSAN'S BLOG, I DID SOMETHING WRONG (BUT AT 6:30 A.M. I'M NOT THINKING CLEARLY!). IF YOU ARE UNABLE TO VIEW THE FIRST LINK I PUT ON SUSAN'S BLOG, PLEASE CHECK OUT THE CORRECTED ONE WHICH IS #38 (IT SHOWS UP AS "CHRISTMAS IN THE DEN 2008"). DON'T KNOW IF IT'S ME OR BLOGGER BUT YOU SHOULD SEE THE CORRECT POST AND NOT THE CHRISTMAS POST!

Some Architectural Inspiration

I came home last week from a hair appointment and hubby had FINALLY got some of my Scott's treasures hung, nailed, whatever..... I was happy but since I had not been here when he got out his trusty hammer and nails, I didn't have the heart to tell him that one or two of the pieces would have to be moved.....

Like this pair of corbels at the kitchen window....

....there's so much going on at the window -- shutters and the mini-chandy, that I just didn't like the way the corbels looked here. Your thoughts? I'll have to pick the right time to ask him (sweetly of course!) to move them to another location....I'll save that for another day

Here's another little piece I picked up at a flea market recently

Now here's what I've been waiting for! Those heavy but gorgeous wrought iron pieces I found when flea marketing with Eddie Ross at Scott's in Atlanta a few weekends ago are prominently hung at the entrance to the dining room.....couldn't you just die?

This is another find from shopping the house....we have a storage facility in the country (actually David's old house) and when we were there recently, I was digging through some boxes and found this little girl. She's quite large and I haven't decided where to put her yet but isn't she something? It's amazing what you forget you have and always such a surprise to come across something you still love and can use

Here's the chandy in our bedroom....love the crystal dangly things

He also got the faux plantation blinds hung in our bedroom

When we went to look at them, I wanted the ones straight across the top like the ones in my bathroom but when he went back to get them, he got the ones with the little curve across the top.....his reasoning? Keep reading, it's sweet!

He wanted them to "match" the arch on our new doors. Who knew he paid attention to such details? Anyway, we made enough money off our yard sale that we had all our interior doors replaced with these babies.

Recently I had the great idea to bring in an outdoor bench to place under the window to hold all the pillows we toss off the bed at night. It had been outside at least two seasons and was in need of a good scraping and painting but then I decided I liked that crackled look so.....I just dry brushed it with some white paint and brought it in the house

Ohhhh, I'm loving that bench now!

Also found a new round drum shade for the floor lamp in the bedroom

I put this piece and another like it at my bathroom window and over the door leading into my bathroom. They are new pieces but look old (please ignore the holes from previous hardware...haven't got around to filling those in yet)

Here's the one over the bathroom door

When I visited my friend Linda, she had such a pretty display of crystal candlesticks on her dining room table so I've been picking these up here and there. I got most of these at a Goodwill type store and most of them were between .50 and $2.00 -- not bad! Added some mirror place mats and chunky candles....it's really pretty when they are all lit

Here are just a few of the platters and/or plates I'm accumulating. I pick up these plates whenever I find them at a good price (read: cheap!) and eventually I hope to have quite a collection of white "ironstone" to display

And how about this huge lantern? It was on clearance at Hobby Lobby because it was missing the glass sides. I'm going to put some shells in it soon


Well, that's all for now. I hope you enjoyed seeing some of the architectural pieces I've put around my home. Hubby has even joined in the hunt. He came home today after seeing an old house being demolished all excited about what treasures we might find inside. He asked one of the workers if the house was being remodeled or torn down and they said it was being torn down.....so he went back and got two gorgeous old doors with the most beautiful door knobs and hardware still attached! Not sure where they will end up but right now they are "airing out" because they have a real musty smell. Does anyone have a suggestion on how to get the smell out of old things like that? He even saw some kind of glass front cabinet attached to a wall that he's going to try and get if he can figure out how to get it down. Yipee!

EDITED TO ADD: Barb at Grits and Glamour is hosting "What's On Your Wall Wednesday". She has kindly added me to her list of participants. Please visit her blog to see all the great wall ideas!

Second Metamorphosis Monday

Please don't forget to check out Susan's 2nd Metamorphosis Monday for some great and inspirational before's and after's. I decided to share my "before and after" kitchen grout painting project that I blogged about last summer. Enjoy!

Outdoor Wednesday

Susan at asoutherndaydreamer.blogspot.com is hosting an Outdoor Wednesday. You can go here to see some of my outdoor pictures I posted last spring.

1st Metamorphosis Monday

Susan at Between Naps on the Porch is hosting the first Metamorphosis Monday. Please be sure to visit her blog to see all the fabulous befores and afters, including mine!

Treasures from Scotts

Here are just a very few pictures that I took at Scotts Antique Market on Saturday. You can see a lot more from my trip in August here.

Here is a wonderful booth that had the most unusual chairs...lots of cowhide, zebra and animal prints

Wonderful little white table and chairs

Most of the furniture pieces were just covered with burlap or a cotton/linen type fabric so that the purchaser could select their own fabric to reupholster the piece. But I thought some of the "unfinished" pieces were lovely in their "raw" stage

Let me show ya'll what I picked up. I had an idea of what I was looking for and fortunately found just about everything I needed on this trip.....just a few architectural pieces to finish off some of the rooms I've been working on in my new cottage look

I've grouped them together here on the floor so you can see what I picked up. The wood piece you see in this picture will go in my foyer....I haven't decided whether or not to paint it (white) and age it yet....I'll have to decide on that later

This long white chippy piece will be hung over the bay window in my kitchen....it fits perfectly!

This is the first piece I spotted outside.....two white wrought iron corner brackets that I will hang at the entrance to my dining room (that room along with my foyer are next on my agenda to re-do....but hubby doesn't know that yet!)

How about this pair of chippy white wooden brackets? I just love them!

These babies will be hung at my kitchen window

We had a lot of fun at Scotts. For more inspiration and ideas on all the eye candy, check out Rhoda's post on our trip there. She took a lot more pictures than I did!

Have a safe and happy Monday!