Classy Clutter

KT and I had a fun Saturday---although you may ask why I'm waiting until Thursday to blog about it---we were antiquing, looking for furnishings for her new apartment at school. Turns out the places she wanted to go were waaaaayyyy out of our league. Huge furniture and equally huge prices. But the place I thought she wanted to go was just about perfect!

It's called A Classy Clutter and is full of just that. We've driven past this little "hole in the wall" for years, with all the clutter outdoors to attract attention, but just never made the stop.

I can't even tell you how much fun we had in there! I seriously regretted never taking my mother when she was in town. She would have loved it and found many beautiful things to paint!

We bought a couple of things the first time, yes, the first time, and then we went back after hitting a couple of other places. Even though we went back for 2 specific items, I think we bought a couple more on a whim! All the prices were great.

This blue hobnailed vase was something my DD couldn't do without.


Does anyone collect McCoy pottery? They had lots of that at very reasonable prices. I fell in love with these little turquoise planters and bought the large one on our first stop. I got the other when we went back!


KT was desperate to have this McCoy cookie jar. He's cute, but, frankly, I think it's a fake. His details are not as sharp as those I saw in pictures on the internets. The other owls all had glossy finishes. And the seams on the sides are just too obvious. I think McCoy has higher standards than that. But he's cute and it was a price I was willing to pay, real or not.


And he makes want to get a lollipop whenever I see him. Maybe we should fill him with tootsie-pops instead of cookies?

Oh, and I forgot to take pictures of the other stuff---a little cottage-style coffee table for KT and a antique mirror in a perfectly distressed white frame.

They've already sent me an email for 4th of July with pictures of enticing new items! I can't wait to go back. Wanna join me?

Hitch Update

My son Hitch has updated his blog on movies. Now, instead of 15 Best Movies Ever Made, there are 30.

It's an interesting variety of movies. How many have you seen?

Dh and I are big movie watchers, but my 17 year-old has seen, and remembers, a lot more, it seems.

Monday Madness

Dr. Mike Eades' blog post yesterday was full of observational studies and randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled studies, but he wrapped it up with this fun video which made me smile on a sleepy, no more swim-team, 2 of my kids have gone to summer camp, Monday.



It kind of makes me want to go play the piano!

Saturday Seven

Yep, it's a Saturday Seven Six Several since Friday saw me too down in the dumps and tired from the weekly swim meet to blog.

Still tired, but much less dumpy. ;-)

~1~

The swim season will almost-but-not-quite be concluded with today's Championship held at the GA Tech natatorium where the 1996 Summer Olympics took place. It's a beautiful location and they get a big thrill out of swimming in an olympic pool. This will be Little Princess's first time swimming there. She foolishly bravely volunteered to swim an IM. Her first. I'm not sure she knows what she's getting into there. Unfortunately, I won't be there to see it since I'm blogging holding down the fort here.

~2~

We're trying to furnish KT's new apartment on the cheap this year. We're refinishing the top of our coffee table from the family room, and she might take that with her if it's not too big. It will double as their dining room table!


She's also decided to take an old dresser that I got as a child and we just inherited from my mom a couple of years ago. It's a nice sturdy dresser and I'll be happy to see it put to good use. And looking good again---that big sucker needs to be completely stripped and stained. Mom had painted it white---something she loved doing to furniture---and then it had been in storage for over a decade---so it needs work!


She still needs a bed and shelving---probably to go on top of the dresser to save space. Their new apartment is tee-niny.

~3~


We got our beef yesterday! So now our freezer is full of meat. 1/3 of a cow fits very nicely; I'm sure we could get a half cow in there, if we got rid of some of the other stuff. I was in such a hurry when I unloaded, I didn't see more than a few packages of liver. No heart or kidneys that I noticed. I'll have to take another look today. Not that anyone wants to eat them, but I need to find something to use them for!

~4~

KT quit her "internship" yesterday. Praise the Lord. We thought it would be a good way to keep her busy and teach her something at the same time. Maybe she would have learned something along the way, but it was really boring and costing us time and gas money for 60 miles a day since we really can't spare my car for her to take for the whole day. That should simplify our lives a little and now she'll have time to refinish her dresser and maybe paint my basement!

~5~

I need to wrap this up and head out to the garden for a quick check and watering. It has changed a lot since I last posted pictures!. Some of the gardens are amazing.


These pictures were taken after a few days without rain, so they actually look a little droopier than usual. My garden? Not so amazing.

Too many squashes which are afflicted with powdery mildew. It's better, but production is really slow. Nevertheless, it's kind of fun and I'm learning some lessons. Hopefully my skills will be better next year. I found out we get to keep our beds for next year if we want them!

One thing we are really enjoying are jalapenos! They're really hot and crispy. We ate several of the last night with dinner!

Have a great weekend!

Out with the Old, and In with the New

Saying goodbye to the over-60 year-old piano that served us well for several years. It did a pretty decent job of holding a tune in spite of its age.

I don't know how those hot, sweaty men felt about it, but I thought it would be interesting to photograph the moving of the pianos!


It was so interesting that the 5 children playing in the sprinkler in the back yard had to come in dripping water to watch and get in the way. No pictures of them since I chased them out pretty quickly!

But since we have a very boring 2-step front porch, and these guys knew their business, they were in and out in about 15 minutes. They dripped copious amounts of sweat on my new piano, but were kind enough to clean it off along with the sweaty handprints.

Can you hear Napoleon Dynamite saying, "Gross!"


That's not a very good picture of it since you can't see any details, but we're lovin' it. We even got a special floor lamp for it, which the kids can't keep their hands off because it's so cool.

I think I'll have to record TMax playing a recital on this piano, and post it so you can hear it. That'll have to wait for it to acclimate and get retuned in about a month.

Thank you, Grandmother. +

Father's Day

I know I'm late posting these, but I thought you might enjoy seeing dh's goofy present! See how excited he is?


We got him a pair of Vibram's 5-finger shoes. They look really weird. Like gloves for your feet. But they're pretty comfy, from what I hear.


Despite the fact that Flylady says you have to get "dressed to your shoes" when you get up, going barefoot not only feels good, but may actually be better for you.


I'm getting me some next!

Swimming Lessons

Last week, my Little Princess got some private swim lessons from one of our young coaches. For a 17 year-old, he's a great teacher, and she got some very good instruction.

Here are some pics as they work on her dive.


Yesterday, she must have figured it out after she bumped her head on the bottom of the pool OMG, yes. Scary. I heard him remark that she had gone "a little deep" and ask if she was okay. They kept working and I kept reading. At the end of the lesson when he and I were talking, she executed a perfect racing dive in the shallow end of the pool.

Thanks be to God that she learned that lesson the easy way and not the hard way!