~In The Spirit~

I am so ready for a little spirit in my part of the world. It has been way too long since I last posted and I am sorry for that. It has been really trying around here. I will get the sharing of my life out of the way first. The past couple of months have been a whirlwind to say the least. My DH has been really sick with hospital visits, dialysis appointments, doctor visits, ambulances to say the least. We went through about six weeks of him feeling quite weak and fatigued. With so much going on with his body, I didn't know which way to turn,..heart, kidneys, diabetes, blood pressure, etc. Why is it that we want to fix everything for someone and when we can't we just crumble. It is starting to get a little better but still we just have to take one day at a time, literally...hoping that the next day will be better than the last. God only gives us what we can handle but some days I don't know how much I can handle. Anyway, enough about that for now. Sorry to bore you with that!

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So, with that being said, I need a little spirit in my life...ya think. Don't get me wrong, I am very very thankful at this time of year and always for all that we have. I am very thankful that I have a job to have insurance...to help pay for all this help that DH needs. We just got the explanation of benefits for the past few months from insurance and the dialysis was in the 5 figures per month. I planned on trying to retire in three years but alas I think I need to rethink that one.

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I need a little spirit in my life so that is the reason for the new header of my blog. I am trying to get in the spirit sooner than later. I am going to burn my candle, Mistletoe Kisses, to get the house in the spirit. Little by little I will decorate here and there. I purchased a new German Twig tree this year and hope to decorate it with as many handmade prim ornaments as I can. This will take a while as these are not inexpensive and you can't do a whole tree all at once.

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In the spirit of Thanksgiving and on a sad note, we will not be able to return to Massachusetts for Thanksgiving (Cousin Cathy I will call you). DH is not able to travel that far and I would be afraid if he got in trouble, doctors up there would not know how delicate his health is. So we will be having Thanksgiving here with the kids and grandkids.

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One of the brighter notes in my life is the fact that I have rented a booth back in the shop that I once owned, Pilot Mountain Peddlers, in Pilot Mountain, NC. Tammy owns it now and she is doing so well with it. This outlet lets me purge some of the items from my home that I was ready to part with and lets me go out and look for new "old" items to sell. Once in your blood, always in your blood they say. Here are a few pics of parts of my booth.

Just a few things I brought in for their Open House last Friday night which turned out very well.

I was able to get to the Open House Friday evening and everything looked so good. Tammy have a lot of fresh cedar around the shop, many many primitive handmades from various artists, snowmen, Santas, antiques and all great Christmas items. I was able to get the lighted candle in my header from her. The Santa I had purchased at Sturbridge last Thanksgiving at the annual Christmas show. Love him.

If you are ever in the area of Pilot Mountain, do stop in and see all the primitives that everyone has. You won't be disappointed.

On that note, I will close and leave you with the hope of you getting "In the Spirit" whenever you want. Thanks for stopping by......Sherie

**Here We Go**

As I promised in my last post I would show you some of the places that Cathy and I primmed and antiqued at. I can't remember in what order we started at but I will try to remember the town and what I got there. ****Here we are in Sturbridge at the Yankee Peddlar **** There's Cathy right out front before we went in. I didn't get anything here but I was impressed with the selection of lampshades that they had. Didn't get one but might go back when we go up there at Thanksgiving..

Next we went on to The Handmaiden just up the road. There is so much to look at in here. I think I got some handmade sunflowers, the newest version of Mercantile Gatherings, a sunflower pin, some greenery wreaths and a few other things. Always like to stop in there.

Here is one of the many antique shops we went to. I didn't get anything here this time. Boy, Brimfield was really quiet around this time. They were still tearing down tents after their last show when we were there. If you have never been to Brimfield during of their shows, it is well worth it. Better get plenty of rest, wear some comfy shoes, bring plenty of money and friend is great too. It is quite an experience.

Oh, while we were in Sturbridge, we went to the Sturbridge Antique Mall. I can always find something here.....let's see...a couple of boxes, (imagine that) and some small crocks and the rest I can't remember right now. (There's Cathy again, peeking out from behind the pillars).

One of other stops, don't know which town, we went to The Purple Onion , cute shop, but nothing this time. We also stopped at another little shop, darn, can't remember the whole name right now but it had Post in it. (Are ya getting the picture here that the memory is starting to go...LOL...) At this little shop I got quite a few things.....A brown jug, a bucket painted black, a basket, a box (go figure) and a few other things.

This is a little shop in Ware, Massachusetts, that we had stopped at by chance last year and I got quite a few things then but this year not too much. It has quite a few rooms to go through. Cathy did pick up a gameboard for her collection though.

And of course we had to go to Country Mischief, buildings one and two. It always amazes me how much they have in both places. Two floors in each building and rooms galore and it changes all the time. Cathy had said that she can go in there monthly and it is all changed around. AMAZING. The only thing I got was a little tiny white firkin. Now I have two....? is that a collection starting yet??

Here is one of my favorite antique malls. I can always find something here. I did get an old soap box with a lid (had to keep that one). I also got a bowl shelf /holder in a good red. I have taken that one to my booth in Pilot Mountain and it has sold already. I think I got one or two more things here also. Great finds all the time.

One more picture of a great prim place. It is so cute inside and out. I believe I got some fall flowers here. They had just started to put out some fall things. Great stop.

We also traveled to New Hampshire, went to an antigue mall up there, went up on Route 101 and stopped at several there. We also went out to a shop up there (not sure where, I wasn't driving) called Country Culture...I think. I called there to ask how late they were open and the owner said he would stay open til we got there...just a few minutes....and what a nice shop, lot's of different things. I purchased some flowers and the box in the header above. Good stuff.
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We did go out at least three or four days in our travels, stopping at The Primitive Peddler in Athol, Mass, and Homestead Primitives in Fitchburg, Mass to see Charlene and Roger...(Linda ...Behind My Red Door..she spoke highly of you as always). We also went to several other shops in the Winchendon area and new places I have never been to. That was our mission this time to get to all the favorites and to see some new places. I think we did alright for ourselves.

Well, this seems to be a long post for now and I am going to end now and will post soon. I would like to join the "Texture" fun and I did take a few pictures of things but they came out all blurry. I checked to see if my camera had a "macro" feature on it but could not find it. I even switched to other settings and they still came out blurry. It is a digital camera but not a very new one (1 inch or 1.5 inch screen). Oh well, I will keep trying. So long for now.....Sherie

Well, Well, Well

It certainly has been way too long since I have been able to get back to blogland. I have been able to read many blogs lately in short spurts but have not been able to post the way I should. Since I have last posted we did go to Massachusetts to the wedding and had a grand time. It was one of the most fun and innovative weddings I have gone to in a long time. The priest at my cousin Susan's wedding did something a little different. When they said their vows the priest turned Susan and Paul around and faced the friends and family who gathered. We were able to see them and hear them. I thought that was really unique. The reception was a blast and very elegant with a sit down dinner for over 140 and a band with a great D.J. Here is a pic of the reception. The DJ had my brother Kevin, (pink shirt) get a few guys together to do the Village People and they all came out and did YMCA and at the end this guy came in introduced as Elvis. It took us all a while to figure out who it was and then...OMG...it was my Uncle John, Susan's Dad and it was hilarious. We all had a grand time. Thanks Susan and Paul for inviting us to a grand event and congratulations on your wedding. Here's a pic of my brother and Uncle John when not in costume...LOL

Here is the happy couple getting ready to cut their cake. They do certainly make a really nice couple, don't they?

Well, after this fanastic wedding on Friday evening, we had a GREAT cookout at my cousin Cathy (Susan's sister) and Gene's home and enjoyed some awesome food. There must have been over 75 people there. It was very very nice. On Sunday afternoon DH and I went over to his daughter's home, Louann and had a fabulous Maine Lobster dinner, melted butter and all. Just one of the things we look forward to when to go to New England, good family and good food. Great time, that's what it is all about.

Well, after this great weekend Cathy and I hit the trail on Tuesday to go to prim shops, antique shops and just poking around. Our goal was to find new places to visit and we did. I am going to end here as I am having trouble trying to move pictures in this blog. I have some other pics to show you , some of the places that we went to. I will try to get back to you much much sooner. Until the next time. Sherie

What to Say, What to Say

I have been wondering what to post the past few days and I couldn't come up with anything wonderful, so I thought I would just tell you about a few things that have been going on this past week. I guess you could say that it has been an eventful week. Last Tuesday evening I had to go the the emergency room for some irregular heart beats. Actually I could see my heart beating in my chest. It felt like my heart was having fireworks in there. Having had this before (previous heart surgery in 2000) I knew it was not going to subside, so we decided to go to the E.R (around 10:00 pm). Well, when you have heart problems they take you in right away. They did an EKG and my heart rate was 140 and for me it normally runs in the 70's. The E.R. did the normal things like IV and meds to try to get it to slow down. I had to be admitted. I got to the room about 3:00 a.m. I had been up since Tuesday morning at 4:00 am to go to work and worked a 10 hour day that day. Anyway, at 4:00 a.m. Wednesday I finally got about 2 hours of sleep until the nurse came in and had to get the vitals, etc....you know the drill. Anyhoo, with the medicine I was able to cardiovert (get back in normal rhythm) on my own around 2 or 3 pm on Wednesday. Thank goodness as I surely did not want to have to be paddled to get me back in rhythm. They discharged me on Thursday evening around 4:00 pm. I was anxious to go home that's for sure. They have changed my heart medicine (which has not been changed since 2003) and hopefully this will keep the rhythm at a normal pace. We will see. So far, so good.Well, yesterday I was planning on making a great meatloaf and DH decided he would rather have stuffed cabbage (Golumpki's (sp) as we call it) so that was dinner last night. It tasted so good. It is kind of an ordeal to make all that but it was so worth it. And guess what's for dinner tonight. Our daughter is coming over with our granddaughter (Chelsea) to do our hair and I kinda enticed her too by telling her I had made some stuffed cabbage. She said she can't wait. Chelsea is going to spend the night tonight and I think we will go tomorrow afternoon and get a pedicure. She loved having one the last time I took her. It should be a fun afternoon.

I am counting the days (10 days now) until we leave for Massachusetts. My cousin Sue is getting married on the 24th and we will be attending that. My brother Kevin and his family will be coming from Georgia to attend the wedding also. There will be a lot of family to see and reminisce with. Our gratious cousin, Cathy (Sue's sister) has kindly allowed us to stay with her and she will be continuing the party and having a cook out on Saturday. It should be a lot of fun. Also we will be visiting our daughter Louann and family while we are there. It will be good to see them. Then, Cathy and I will be on the road again and junking, primming, and antiquing. I am on a mission.....you see I have decided to take a small booth in Pilot Mountain Peddlers, to move around some "stuff" in my home and weed out some things. I need to have a place to sell them, and it also gives me a reason to go shopping. I have given myself a limit so that I won't go nuts on spending for new "stuff" for the booth. We will see what happens. This also gives me a place to express my creative side when I feel like making something for the booth. I guess once it is in your blood, it always stays there. Anyway, I am counting down the days. Can't wait.

Well I guess that is about it for now. I have been reading all the blogs I have been following and it is so nice to see a peak into everyone's lives. Thank you all for stopping by and I hope you have a great upcoming week. Soon.....Sherie

Welcome

I would like to welcome a new blogger to the blogging world. She is Tammy from Pilot Mountain Peddlers at www.pilotmountainpeddlers.blogspot.com. She is the sweet owner of the great primitive shop in the nearby town of Pilot Mountain. Her shop is near and dear to my heart as you see this is the shop that I used to own and Tammy is now carrying on the same tradition of keeping it prim. Her shop has the warmth and look that she is going for in the prim world. She has the great help of her husband, Darren and her great family to make her dream come true in owning the shop. If you would take a minute and just pop on over to her blog, she will be thrilled to have new followers.

Well, it is late on Thursday night, the eve of a three day weekend. We are headed up in the morning to the mountain to camp for the weekend, relax, have some watermelon and watch the fireworks. I can't wait. I hope everyone has a relaxing, fun filled, safe weekend on this Fourth of July. Until next time...sooner I hope. Sherie

Check This Out!

Well here is the big reveal. This is what I won from Shari at Homespun and Primitives and received the other day. I was so thrilled. She was so generous in her giveaway. Thanks again Shari.

The little night light (quilted) was not part of the giveaway. I got that a while back in Salisbury, NC at the Salisbury Emporium. But it all goes well together.

Well I have to go and get ready. We are going up to the camp for weekend for some R and R. I hope you all have a great weekend.

Soon.....*Sherie*

SURPRISE, SURPRISE

I won, I won. I have been the recipient of a giveaway...My first. Shari at www.homespunandprimitives.com was having her May giveaway and I won it. So surprised and pleased to win. Well, I receive the package today and let me tell you it was awesome. So many things to cherish. Among other things I now have my first sugar cone. I have never had one before. I am going to put it all together as a grouping and I will take pictures as soon as possible to let you see how it looks. I am so pleased. Thanks again, Shari.

WHERE WE SPEND OUR TIME

I thought I would show you some more pictures of a few things in my home. Here goes----

This is the view as you enter our living room. All the main rooms are in one....the foyer, living room, dining area and kitchen. As you can see there is a table and some chairs. New dining area..you'll see the old/new area below. All the windows and doors lead to the backyard and a surprise which you will see below.....

This is the dry sink in the foyer with the sheep and the other is a bigger picture of the foyer. Here is one of my favorite cupboards with tons and tons of books and magazines I can't seem to part with.

Check out this great drawer I got at Pilot Mountain Peddlers the other day. I just had to have it. I can see a lot of potential with this.

This was our dining room...but I have turned it into my blogging space. I love the cozy little area and love to sit and drink my coffee and blog..blog...blog... Check out my GW find in this great child's or doll's chair. It is old and it was just 10.00. I will need to recover the seat but it will be great with a prim doll..
As you can probably tell by now I have a thing about boxes. I can't seem to get enough of them. I just love these hydrangeas on the jug. Had to get a shot of this.

And finally here is our view out our back door. This is Pilot Mountain. We bought our land and built our house so all views in the back of the house face Pilot Mountain. When I wake up in the morning and look outside this is our view. Check out the star in the garden. It's over on the right side. Kinda hard to see. It is a black wrought iron star staked in the ground and it has a hanger on it to hold a plant. It is about four feet across and I just love it. I just need to find a great colorful plant to put in it.
Well, that's a little bit of where we spend our time. I hope you enjoy. Talk to you soon....Sherie

SUNDAY MORNING

is a good day and all things are quiet on the home front. It sure is nice to relax and have things back to a little normal around here. We have finished the intense training on the dialysis and DH is now home doing this at night on his own with my help. This is something we have to get used to and get in a routine as to timing and all that. But the first two nights have been good so far. Hooray!

Well, I better get going on some home things and get the house in order. Does that make sense? It seems like when your home is in disarray (stuff here and there) that we or I don't seem to have a sense of calm. And lo and behold once things get back in order (even a little bit) , I feel a little bit more peaceful. Does anyone feel that way? Well, here I go....

Have a wonderful Sunday and I hope all your homes are peaceful.
Talk to you soon.....*Sherie*

The First Week!

First things first, an update on hubby. Well, we have gotten through the first week of his form of dialysis. He was able to lose quite a bit of fluid and his breathing has improved a good deal. He had the weekend off from it and we have done nothing. Absolutely nothing. Just resting up from the week and getting ready for next week...... Tomorrow starts the intense training to learn to do this at home. I will have to go to the training also all week (minus tomorrow when most of the day is consent forms and such). I thought maybe I would be able to stop in periodically to pick up a few pointers but nope...I have to be there every day, all day with him to learn also. But that's okay. If this lets him breathe better and have a better quality of life, that's the key.

Well, that's what is going on with him. Now for some things I have found and changes in have made to the mantle. I have been trying to go more toward the warm colors and I tried to change it up a bit, as in the topper. I hope it shows up warmer!

I had a little time on Monday, Memorial Day to spend while DH was having his first treatment and I went to local GW and unfortunately it was a bust, kinda bums ya out when you are hoping to find a treasure and don't. Well then I went to the local antique mall in Winston-Salem, Lost in Time Antiques and look what I found. It was the first thing I saw as I walked in the door and knew I had to have it. I know it is not that old but it is so nice. I have not figured out where it is going to go yet but I had to add a few things on it to see how they will work. Tweaking here I come. What do you think?

The next thing I found in the same entry way was this framed flag. I walked around the whole mall and came back to it and had to have it too. When I checked out it was on sale... go figure.... it makes up for the bust at GW. LOL.

This third picture is just some more of the mantle on one side.

This is the other side of the mantle. I know I didn't hide the cord but you get the idea. I took a picture of the whole mantle but it just didn't come out warm and inviting. I don't know if it is my camera or heaven forbid ?ME? but my pictures don't come out like I would like them to. . And getting a new camera for the blog is just not an option right now. It is a digital camera by Kodak (Easy Share) so I guess it could be the picture taker. I will just have to keep trying I guess.

Well, it is time to go make dinner for us and maybe read a book tonight, since there seems to be NOTHING on the TV now that all the "Shows" are over. I hope all have a good Sunday evening and will talk to you soon. Sherie

Sunday

This is something I found at Penniwig's blog and I thought I would try as a divider to see how it works.

Today we are going to the camp up in Fancy Gap, VA just to get away for a while and visit with some dear friends. The seasonal campers will be having a get together with the owners of the campground (Fancy Gap KOA) and have a pot luck dinner. I have prepared about a gallon of fresh strawberries and Cool Whip which I hope will be refreshing. It will be nice to have a change of scenery. Tomorrow starts a two week journey to get hubby better. Enjoy the day and I will talk to you soon. Sherie

Finding Stuff

I was just playing around with a few things, clip art and stuff and did not like it so that is why the wasted space. I searched all morning for some neat prim things to spice up my blog but came up blank. Any suggestions from all you great gals out there were I can find come cool things to add? Every once in a while it it nice to add a few things and change things up. Any help you could share would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
Soon, Sherie

Yippee!

I brought my hubby home today. It's a good day. He has been in the hospital for nine days and they finally let him go today. We still have a long way to go and the next two weeks will be intense as he will start a form of dialysis (peritoneal *** big word) but hopefully it will allow him to get a lot of excess fluid off of him and allow him to breathe better. We will have to go to the "city" every day for two weeks and then he will be able to do it at home and be more portable. I am just happy to have him home for today.

I am hoping that this weekend I might be able to get a few pics and show you all something. Just can't get the time to take the pictures and set it up the way I want. I will try tomorrow.

Have a good evening and weekend ladies.

Soon, Sherie

Updates

Just a quick post on the hubby. Two procedures and a small surgery and today he is a little bit better. Still in the hospital but we are seeing light at the end of the tunnel. Thanks for thinking about us.

I don't have any pictures for today but I do have a couple of things I need to show you when I get the time to take the pictures.

I hope all have a great Memorial Day Weekend.

Soon, Sherie

"It's Been Too Long"

It definitely has been way too long since I have last posted. There have been a lot of things going on lately. The most pressing thing is that my dear DH is in the hospital again. He is again overloaded with fluid and short of breath. The docs are working on a few different things this time. Let's all keep our fingers and toes crossed for this one. I have all the faith in the world that this will be a shorter visit and he will be stabilized again. Thanks!

Well last weekend before all this started I went up to the MayFest in Pilot Mountain (big three day event for the town). The main street was crowded with vendors but I headed straight for Pilot Mountain Peddlers. It seems I can't stay away lately. Just keep on spending. I am trying to redo a few things in my house and am working toward warmer colors and go figure that costs money. I was able to take a few pics of the shop thanks to Tammy's permission and I wanted to share a few with you.......

A great patriotic display in her shop!

Great black cupboard with Black Crow Candles

Window Display with Garden Goodies

Tammy has a great eye for displaying all her wonderful wares. Stop by if you're in the neighborhood. While I was there, I saw Shari from Homespun and Primitives and met her sister and family! Yup, they were gettin goodies too. It was nice to see and meet them.

Well, this is just a small post. I need to get ready to go to the hospital and sit with the hubby for a while. I will keep you posted.

Sooner I hope......Sherie