Happy 4th of July!!!!!

Here are a couple of videos I picked to celebrate this wonderful day.  I hope you enjoy them.

xo

barb

Attitude Adjustment Cure

I found the perfect thing to snap me out of an attitude funk and that is to go thrift store shopping, and that's just what I did!!!!!  Can you figure out what I bought that put a smile on my face and a dance in my step??? Check it out. Sorry pics aren't that great because it was taken inside.

I got it for $20.00....

snap closure....

leather handle....

has a cover....

Yep, you guessed it, it's a vintage sewing machine and not just a sewing machine but a singer!!!!  My first sewing machine was a singer and one day I hope to get the same one.  Yes, I got rid of it!!  To young and didn't know any better. Darn.

The cool thing about it is that it was made in 1964 and that was the year I was born!!! Cool huh?!  I looked online and found one and they called it a 1964 Singer 338 Iron Head Sewing Machine.

So, I say congrats to me!!  Well that's what it says in the little manual that came with it even if it's only 47yrs later and not brand new. Don't you just love the vintage lady so up my alley.

The color is great to robins egg blue well close to it.  This is everything that came with it.

The original manualwhich is fabulous so I know how to use it.

A foot control and cord that is in mint condition with the exception of dirt and a bag for the foot.

I love using vintage sewing machines and I always have one I can use.  The one that is replacing this one was a Belair which I am glad to get rid of (it reminds me of my first cigarette I smoke in 7th grade because they were Belairs.  My best friend snuck them from another friends dad, so bad I know).  It didn't have a protective lid, no manual, not an original box that it sat in and some of the functions didn't work including the bobbin winder. 

Here are some angle shots.

Glad it comes with a protective lid.  I just have to oil it before trying it out.  I did try it in the store just to make sure it turned on and used the pedal before buying and it did.  Well, I just wanted to to see my latest thrift store find and I love it!!!!  I know it's not reeeaaally old but who cares its a Singer and it was made the year I was born it just couldn't get any better then that.  Hope you all are having a wonderful 4th of July weekend.

xo

barb



Okay Enough!!!!!!

As you know I have been going through my things to try to simplify my life and not doing a good job.  I started out great but then it felt like I had just moved in this house and I got stuck in a funk, hence the reason for no new blog post lately.  How  do you separate yourself from the things that enslave you?

The joy it brings or the memory it holds but all the while I hold on to them I never seem to find a place for it.

I never thought about all the emotions you go through as you go through each item.  The feeling of letting go of something, I feel like I am going to lose a friend.  Yikes I need help!!!!! :)

I mean really it's only stuff!!  Each item holds something I cherish about it, and knowing if I get rid of it then I will find that perfect spot for it, or have an outing that I know what perfect bag would go with my outfit, and get frustrated that I got rid of it! 

Does anyone feel the same? I guess you could say I am in love with my stuff!!!!  How did this happen and why do I feel this way, so depressed!!  Well, enough already I am taking a break!!!!!  I will stuff the things back into the closets or under the bed and deal with it another day.

This is a art journal page I did when we were getting ready to move and the packing of all the stuff I thought I loved!!!  I love the magazine shot of the fancy dressed chic sitting on the overstuffed luggage it just screams me.  It still speaks to me now and the other pictures are only some items that I was working on in our bedroom today.  Yes, I have bathroom items in our bedroom when we don't have a master bath, oh the stress of it all.  Well, I am off to do something fun to get me out of this funk and out of the house.

xo

barb 

What Is It?

I am on a journey to clean the clutter one day at a time.  I have decided that to much stuff can make you stressed out and depressed because it is all over the place and in every nook and cran-nee filled to the top with stuff!!    So, I decided to focus on a spot a day and with encouragement from "Clutters Last Stand" I am simplifying my life!  So, today I was in my studio trying to reorganize again trying to make it work without all the stuff staring me in the face. 

So will drill in hand I did some small changes and I will post on that later but tonight after a long wore out day, I got my glass of wine, took a soothing bath (not to hot) and settled on the couch to look at a old Domino magazine (another thing I need to thin). I normally am a looker and not a reader of magazines but tonight for some reason I decided to read a small advertisement which read:

Alone I have found a glitch in time. 

A moment where new meets old

and the hour hand crawls to a stop. 

The unnecessary has been stripped away,

leaving a heart of intrinsic beauty. 

Within this simplicity

lies an essence that screams without speaking a word. 

 Quietly. Quietly. 

This is my soul revealed through a minimal

coat of wrapped steal.

Doesn't this sound like it should me in a novel?  I say I will have to read the advertisements more often cuz I LOVE it so me if I could have come up with it!   It just seems to fit my current goal to simplify.   

Have you figured out what it is?  Should I give you a hint?  It comes in silver, gold, and antique bronze, and produces hot and cold.  Yep a faucet, a faucet!!!  Such wonderful wording for a modern day faucet, I give the company Brizo an "A" for penmanship!!  I just felt like I needed to share that with you cuz you know I love a good quote/saying. 

xo

barb

Botanical Garden & Roses

With all the busy activities the last few days I finally get to write about Father's Day and what we did for the man in my life.  Our son had to work so the day for the guys to golf had to be changed.  This is a tradition that was started years ago and something they will continue.  We are the type of people that like to keep things simple but meaningful so on his day since he couldn't golf we spent it with roses. 


We first headed off to our newest find the Botanical Garden where the roses are in full bloom and just beautiful, then off to the nursery to find just that perfect rose to plant in his garden.  This is our day in pictures.

There are several gardens, a picnic area, nature trails, and even North American Beehives!  Oh and don't forget the friendly cats that you see from time to time. 

Not sure if you can go inside the house, will have to check that out later but love it.

These are my favorites and they are in a complete circle with a black fountain in the middle.  Beautiful!!!

 

You walk this way to the rose gardens.

 

Of course, there had to be some surprises along the way.  I was stepping on this guy as I was trying to take a picture!  Yikes, it sacred me!
 

My hubby finding another frog.

 

Here his is in vivid color.

 

and here he is natural, just a little guy.

 

I thought it was funny to have a seashore garden since it was mostly sand and shells!!

 

My hubby just loves roses and had a small garden back home in Minnesota so we for sure had to have one here and I wasn't complaining because I love them too.  They smelled just wonderful.

 

One of the nice things about being here in the south you don't have to dig them up and bury them for winter so they get bigger.

 

Beautiful!!!!

We both loved the arbor and want to incorporate one in our backyard.

The house was a great back drop for some pictures too.

There is a butterfly garden and was so glad I could capture this on a zinnia.  Loving my new camera and you will see some of these pictures as part of the scripture & a snapshot in the future.

 

Foxglove pretty in pink.

Going to buy a pot like this someday because I just love the color and design for strawberries or flowers.

 

I am a lover of old tin water cans so fun to see one here.

Loved the birdhouses.

 

A turtle made out of a tin bucket and love the rust that is on it.  Sorry can't keep saying love because there is so much to love here!

One of my favorite flowers the hydrangea.

We both fell in love with this place and will come here year round to see all the different flowers that will bloom.

Now back at home and my hubby is hard at work getting his bed ready for the roses.

These are the roses we bought: two knock out bushes and one Don Juan climbing rose in red.

The problem was he had to get this BIG stump out before he could plant!!!!

There was a large overgrown holly tree here that had to go and he finally got it out. Yea!  Check out the large roots by my foot.

This is the side of the house that we are going to do our rose garden because it gets the most sun. It is in the front so I will see it when I park my car. 

The soil is really poor so we have to keep adding garden soil and such to improve it. 

Here is the Don Juan climber that took the place of the holly tree.  It smells so sweet!

This yellow knock out bush has a spice sweet smell to it and very fragrant.  We want to get the most fragrant roses we can so that when it is full grown the smell will be heavenly. 

Finally, one of the things I always did back home in MN was take the dying buds of the roses and spread their petals outside our patio doors so that every time I passed by I would see the array of beautiful colors scattered about like a wedding was going on.  So today is my first day to bring that passion back to life.  This is on our front door patio. Thanks for stopping buy and hope that your father's day was full of great memories too.

xo

barb