Just a couple more things for etsy, still haven't finished painting the bedroom, (sigh) hope to do that Saturday morning (another sigh) I have spent a little time shopping for essentials for college with youngest daughter. Fun. Expensive. School is racing up on me and I am not ready. Not ready to drop her off and turn around and come home without her. Not ready to go back to the daily grind of being a lunch lady. Not ready to see Autumn rolling toward me with winter on her heels. Am I worrying about all this too soon? Probably. But this last month of summer sometimes feels like a week. Over too soon. Back to work. I hope to get plenty of etsy stuff done before my regular job starts. I still haven't weeded the garden yet. Ah well, the butterfly bush and lilies are blooming nonetheless. Thank goodness they don't seen to mind:>) See you soon.

I'm stopping in from my blogging break to show you a couple little birds I have been working on this week. Seems like I just can't get much done this week, so many things swirling around in my head. I did get a couple of these pincushions done just today and plan to work on more this week. These are in my etsy shop right now.

This goldfinch is one of my favorites, I love the real thing, such bright little birds:>)
But what really lives in my birdhouse? This little frog! Isn't that the cutest thing? We noticed him up on the ledge of the birdhouse about a week ago and then saw that he was hanging out the doorway to catch a little breeze yesterday. This birdhouse hangs up in my trellis, what a funny little guy! Well, I better get back to work, I'm slowly picking away at my list and hopefully will get it finished this week. I hope you all have a wonderful summer week. Enjoy it while you can, the coundown to school begins soon:>(

Isn't this photo a hoot? My Mother-in-law found it in a bag full of old, unidentified family photos and gave them to me. This little boy (?) just slays me. Can you imagine being a guy and looking back on this as your childhood photo? Talk about a blow to your manly ego! Anyway, this is just a little note to let you all know that the summer is fading fast and I have got to get some work done around here! I need to finish the bedroom painting job I began in January! GASP! I just have the computer corner to do but the thought of moving all the equipment and files has kept me from finishing. I also want to do some sewing for etsy, plan a birthday party for my daughter (her 18th!) and a baby shower for our cousins long awaited son. It would be nice to fit a little summer fun in that list too, and then there are all the preparations for my youngest going away to college next month. All this to say, I have decided to take some of the pressure off myself as far as posting goes. If something fun and spectacular happens, I'll post, but really, I don't live a fun or spectacular life most of the time and I really need to focus on a few other things. I'll still spend a little time visiting, but I need to get some things done. I dont plan to be gone for more than a week, two tops, but I hope I will be refeshed and have lots to share when I get back. Have a great week (or two) without me! I will still be thinking of you and keeping you in my prayers:>)

33rd Annual Royal Oak Antique and Garage sale

Hubby and I have been hearing about this community garage sale set up in a parking structure for a few years now. One of the guys he works with assured him it was worth looking at so we went this morning. This is the line to get in. I'll give them this, the organizers went down the line taking admission ($1) and stamping hands so that when it opened everyone just walked right in. All the shuffling for change and time consuming parts were done in line so when it was time to open it took about 5 minutes for this line to get into the building that you see on the left side of the picture. Not bad.

It was full of pretty things. We thought it was more garage sale and it turned out to be mostly antique dealers. Not horrible prices for the most part but we are all about garage sale prices, you know, cheap, so I didnt buy much. This table full of vintage linens were too steep for me, but you can imagine how I wanted to make them my own. Odds and ends of everything.

Even vintage Christmas. Can't go there, not ready for that yet! I ended up with an embroidered piece that still cost more than I am used to paying but that I think is worth what I paid so I got it. I'll show it to you later:>) I also got a bag of vintage rhinestone buttons for $1. I am such a button floozie!

On another note, last night we had the college kids from church over. Grilled pizza, music, I hung lights in the pergola, just because I love an excuse to do it.

When it got dark they watched The Princess Bride on a projector by the chicken house, surrounded by the most lightning bugs I have seen yet this summer.
Great summer fun. Hope you have some great summer fun this weekend too. Now I'm off to bake 24 mini loaves of bread for our churches formal "Senior Banquet", a banquet for the graduating Seniors held this year in a pavilion by a Lake. Ahhh, another beautiful night!

Lallee's Salad

I know you all remember the recipe swap. Well Lallee over at Lallee's Cottage left a comment with the recipe for a quick and easy veggie salad that I tried the other day and it just knocked my socks off! I have eaten this every day for the past 4 days and I cant get enough. This goes in the permanent file. It is super easy, colorful (I can't wait to take it to the next potluck!) healthy, (I have lost 3 pounds since I started eating mostly this for meals, seriously!) crunchy and so good!
Here is the recipe:
1 can corn drained ( I used frozen, didn't cook it, didnt even thaw it!)
1 red pepper diced
1 cucumber, seeded and diced,
1 tomato, seeded and diced,
2 celery sticks diced
Mix with creamy italian dressing, or garlic ceasar like I did, or ranch, or whatever creamy dressing you like, it will all be good.

Mix it together. Don't you love how it looks in my Target clearance bowl? I got this salad bowl a couple years ago and I love the bright blue.

Serve with grilled chicken, or just about anything else you can think of. I can't wait until fresh sweet corn and homegrown tomatoes come into season. Oh Lordy, I will be living on this stuff!

Enjoy. You're going to love it. Thanks Lallee!