Pictures, picture, pictures...

 As requested, I am now posting pictures of my latest projects, namely the curtains that I have finally finished after months of procrastination! Well, we have only been here for four months and half the curtains were done two months ago, so there! ;-) They are done with the exception of maybe adding a small flower I haven't decided upon. And did I mention billowy sheer white curtains as the main body? Just for my momma!

Then there is the lamp. I didn't quite know how to cover a lamp shade to bring it from white, stark and plain to shabby chic so my first attempt is, well, an endeavor. I had too much fabric and had to gather it, or rather fold it since the bottom is obviously longer than the top, then hot glued and added some white ribbon to cover up the mess!!

Then I saw how to do it: lay down the shade and trace it first! Easy, simple, not too hard to master or conjure up this image; if only I had thought of it first. ::shrugs::


This time I covered it twice, using sheer leftovers from the curtains, added some vintage lace and added a touch of "sweet southern smoochies", aka a flower from my aunt.

Shabby, chic, adorable, even for my second trial!! 

I am pleased with my work. 

I'm not being big-headed, just pleased. ;-)







And for the record, if you notice, there are two lamps with bunnies. They are both put together by my aunt Gail. The bigger one was given to her when she was little, maybe still a baby. Then my aunt showed me this other, the one with two little bunnies that I recovered the shade. She forgot she even gave us the other but we now have an adorable set of lamps!! I may have to do something to the big lampshade, but that will come another day.

The Valley Beautiful....an aptly named Beauty Spot

  This past weekend, after Noah's soccer bummer (only three kids came to practice and play a non-existent game!), we headed up to the Beauty Spot. Andy and the kids had not seen it and we all wanted to see the new fall colors displayed in a panoramic view.   

So we packed a picnic and took off....

 

 

After a quick meal, the kids and I took off 

down one side of the trail

 

...while Andy took a hundred pictures (almost!).

 While the men were playing catch....

Hannah and I took off to hike the Appalachian trail towards North Carolina.

 

 Then we decided to drive the rest of Unaka Mountain Road, a small, one lane, rocky road through the mountains!! It was beautiful and there were so many picture opportunities but we couldn't take 'em all! And before I mentioned in another blog that fall colors were muted...that is not quite the case!! Some of the reds and golds are so very bold (no rhyme intended!).

 

 

The Apple Festival

The Apple Festival 2010

Where Andy or Kim were blowing up balloons for the kids!!

We parked cars a few blocks from the beginning of the festival as a fund raiser for the youth, like our sign!?!

My Hat

Hannah's Hat

Noah's Plane

My hat actually has color!!

 It has been rumored that last year there were 110,000 people who attended and were part of the festival. Don't know if we beat that this year, but there were quite a few crowds, lots of booths and we all had fun!! It's too bad we didn't get a picture of the huge doughnut we got from "Aunt Ruthie's"!! It was as big as your face...and of course Andy and I shared one...we didn't have one and a half each... Seriously, they were super good!! Probably the best that I have had since my Gramie and Pappaw had a doughnut shop when I was really young...maybe as old as 8. They were fresh and two of them were broken so those were half price!!

Weddings, reunions and Legos!

My dad got remarried about three weeks ago and Hannah was the flower girl! So Thursday we started our long drive down to FL, just the kids and I, to enjoy the festivities!!

On the way down, we spent the night at my sister Jennifer's house. Her husband, Brad is in the military and a Lego fanatic/collector; he has massive amounts of Lego's. While there, the kids were introduced to real Lego planes, tanks, helicopters, and castles. For Noah it was love at first sight! He loved everything he saw and wanted to play, play, play (not to mention taking everything apart!).

Friday morning we left (very) early to attend rehearsal dinner, which was a must for Hannah to know how to be a "flower girl". At first, I was a little apprehensive about Hannah having such duties, flowers are very pretty for the bride! Would she be too shy or scared to even make it down the aisle; would she stop at the door, see everyone and freeze; could she do it? So weeks and months before I told her she was asked to help Joshua, her 3 year old cousin, the ring bearer. He would need her and would she mind helping him while tossing out flowers. It worked, she was very focused on helping her cousin and even smiled for the cameras!! And she was enthralled of course with the whole wedding; I think she thought, "this is how Cinderella must have looked!". Of course, since Hannah had a job, Noah needed one too. So he was told he needed to help watch Jeremiah (2) and Lillie (9 months). He ended up sitting by his "uncle-Lego-man" Brad the whole time, very quietly! (I must add that Joshua did such a great job standing on stage, although there was a time Sarah and I thought he might have to go potty!! He made so many faces and danced around a bit, but lasted and hung on!)

Then for church on Sunday we stopped by Dade City and enjoyed seeing old friends / church family. It was a nice time to let them know we were well in TN and good to see how things have continued and that the church family is growing! We miss our friends greatly but know we have been called to new things here.

The next day we headed halfway to Georgia (my sister's house) and stopped in Jacksonville to see our friends the Halleck's. Keri and I got to catch up on some of the changes in our lives and the kids play time with Hannah and Emma dressing up while the boys played with planes, cars and more! We then went to watch Emma have cheer practice, another love at first sight for Hannah!

Then we finished the rest of the way to GA to spend a few days with Jen and Brad. It turned out to be a longer visit because I got sick; seems there must have been some kind of virus going around! Not that the kids minded, Noah played Lego's with Uncle Brad and Hannah enjoyed getting prettied up by Aunt Jenni. Also, it got chilly so we found some big socks that became leg warmers!! And while we were there, we went to see some real tanks parked around the army base. Noah was so excited to see these huge tanks and wants to grow up someday so he can drive one!!

If Only for My Eyes....

Driving through the mountains on my way "down" to Florida, I have to pass the border of TN/NC. This border of the Unicoi Mountain range are part of the the Blue Ridge Mountain Province of the Southern Appalachian Mountain which nearly stopped us from making it to Erwin on our first "moving" trip. You see we were traveling up the mountains and that was about the highest spot in our trip and once we passed the border, it was an easy , fun coast down into the Valley Beautiful, aka Erwin. I could make all kinds of applications here about how we overcame some hurdles coming to TN, how we overcame the loss of a job for about 6 months, or how we managed to leave all we knew and were familiar with for some unknown town. But this is not what this blog is about! So it was these beautiful mountains that I was traveling through on my way to my childhood home. I have to add that I was driving just after sunrise so it was quite distracting to see such beauty.

 As I was driving, I realized that these mountains are said to have been some of the highest mountains vast years ago (yet, another blog fighting creation versus the big bang or whatever trend is in schools!). I also could not believe that these are mountains that are thousands of years old and more and still this beautiful! Imagine how beautiful thing were before pollution and power lines erupted! Imagine how beautiful before there were so many over sized stores, houses, trash littered everywhere! I thought if God can make such beautiful mountains that are already very old and warped and still catch my breath, how beautiful might be Heaven?!

If it were only for the pleasure of my eyes, for the beauty of this earth, I long for Heaven.

Yet with my experience of God, His saving grace, Him upholding me through a time when I didn't know when my next meal might come, when I thought maybe we will become homeless with good reason and not just an excuse, His overwhelming power that is greater then mine so there was no need to worry, just a small amount of experience, I long to be in Heaven with Him and to worship Him. Not the beauty He has created. Not even so I can continue loving the people who have died or will die. Just God. I surrender. Thank you He is mighty to save.