Thanksgiving Ham



This is the ham that my cousin, Bryan, brings to Thanksgiving every year.  This picture does not even come close to showing how gorgeous this fine hunk of pork is.  And it's delicious.  Seriously.  I have dreams abou this ham.  I began figuring my ww points for Thanksgiving dinner days in advance.  I didn't even eat any turkey, sweet potatoes or noodles, because I wanted to focus solely on those dishes that I loved.  And this ham tops my list!  I would be remiss if I didn't talk about the other things that I am thankful for this season:

1. My mom.  Isn't she cute?

2. My hubbers and my dad.   Here they are enjoying a cold brew before dinner.  (Go figure!)
3. The rest of my family.  My cousins, their kids, aunt & uncle, etc... are so much fun!  We missed my sister and Marc, but hopefully we'll all be together again next month.
4. This is my 2nd year away from retail.  I'm much less bitter about stores being open on Thanksgiving this year than I was last year.  But I still think it's ridiculous.

 



Thankful

All of the "I'm Thankful" posts on facebook were beginning to annoy me yesterday.  I mean, of course, you're thankful for your kids and your family.  Why tell the world?  Am I the only one who thinks this??  This morning, I spent some time catching up on some of my favorite blogs, and saw my friend's blog post about how thankful she is for her husband.  See, he's out of town and she's had a trying week, so I know how much she is missing the Mr. right now.  And reading through her blog made me realize that I'm being a cynical biznatch.  Being thankful is good for you.  It's a proven fact that thankful people are happier and healthier.  And Oprah said so.  (Remember the gratitude journal?)

So today I'm thankful for my friends.   Because they always make things better.  Because they are always there for me.  Becuase they love me, even when I'm moody.  Because they help me realize that I have a whole lot to be thankful for. 

PS - I'm blaming my bitchiness this week on PMS.
PSS - I still think those Elf on the Shelf posts are annoying!

Birthday Weekend

For pretty much the entire month of August I was dreading my birthday.  40.  Ugh.  That's just so old!!  In general, I like my birthday.  I like cake.  I like presents.  I like going out to dinner.  But this year I was just not looking forward to any of it.  At.  All.  But then I had the best weekend ever!

Tom showed up around 11am on Friday with a cake from Cakes on Board.  They did our wedding cake and, seriously, they make the best cakes!  I ate cake all weekend and my mouth still waters thinking about that cake!  I was so happy and surprised that I didn't even (hardly) notice that the cake has my age right there on it for everyone to see.

But then I got the best surprise ever!  My bff, Lori, surprised me by flying in for the weekend!  My mom picked her up at the airport on Friday and brought her to my house just in time to go out to lunch.  I like to think that I'm pretty tough to surprise.  Mostly because I'm sneaky and nosy.  Yes, I'm the one who goes searching for presents in closets.  Always have, and probably always will.  But this time I think that nearly everyone around me was in on it and no one told!  Not a single solitary person!

On Friday, my mom took me and Lori to lunch at Ted's Montana Grill (love their chopped salad).   My mom also gave me a quilt that has been in our family since 1890 that I've always loved.  Wowza!  Friday night was book club, which is always fun.  I tried out a new fall sangria recipe (fabulous) and we had a great time talking about everything but books (as usual).

Tom had to work on Saturday (drill weekend), so Lori and I had the day to ourselves.  I received some gorgeous flowers in the morning, then Lori and I spent the afternoon shopping and lunching.  (Two of our favorite things to do!) 

Isn't my husband awesome?  We went to dinner at Blue Ginger Saturday night.  We sat outside and ate sushi.  Yum.

On Sunday, I dropped Lori off at the airport after lunch and a little more shopping.  It's always so sad when I have to say goodbye to her, but we'll be seeing the entire Potter family in 10 days when we go on vacation, so it wasn't so bad this time.   My parents took us to dinner Sunday night at Columbus Fish Market.  It was awesome!

By now, I think I've recovered from my weekend of eating too much sugar and drinking too much wine!  I had a full 3 days of celebration.  Reminds me of the time that I went to Disney w/ the above-mentioned BFF and her family a few years ago.  We happned to go during Emma's birthday week.  She spent the entire week pointing at her birthday button whenever she met a character and having cake at every meal.  Spending time w/ my best friends and family is my version of Disney.  It was a truly magical birthday.  :)

Grape Jelly!

I had a lesson in making grape jelly today.  From Cheryl.  Remember, if you will, that she is a former Home Ec teacher.  So she knows her shizzle when it comes to being canning and all things domestic.  We had grapes from my cousin's house in Logan.  Lori & her family live in what used to be my maternal grandparents' house.  So - hey - free grapes!  My mom had already done that hard part, which is boiling the grapes and straining them (many times) to get the juice.  I am so surprised at how easy it is to make jelly!  It's definitely something I could pull off on my own.  Maybe next summer with our blackberries from our CSA order.  Once you have the juice, the worst part is waiting for the juice to boil.  Lots of stirring. 

My mom rocks.

We made 3 batches, which filled around 30 jars with grape jelly.



Here's my stash of jelly.  I'm surprised that I got to bring home so many jars!  My dad eats jelly pert near every day.  Seriously - I kid you not.  If there's bread to be had, he thinks it's just better with grape jelly.  I asked him if he could "make due" with one jar a month, and he said, "Well, it depends on how much company we have".  Oh, Curtie, you crack me up.   He should be fine - unless the grape crop is bad next year.  Entirely possible.  There is no way we will use all of our jelly, so I plan on giving some out as gifts and keeping some as an emergency stash for my dad.

I Know What I Did This Summer

Lately I've been lamenting everything that we DIDN'T do this summer.  It seems like the summer went by so quickly.  But when I really think about it, we do have some sweet summer memories. 

- Tom & I went camping with our friends, the Langers, in Hocking Hills.  (That's not a peace sign I'm holding up - it's to signify that we were on day 2.  Note that I'm still smiling....)

- We ate lots of fresh fruits and veggies, courtesy of our weekly CSA deliveries.  I made delicious vegetable soup with kohlrabi, carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, onions & peas.  Honestly, it was better than it looks in the picture!

- I went on a girls weekend trip to Washington DC with my BFF and her middle daughter.  Because there's no better place to celebrate your 8th birthday than at the American Girl Doll store in DC with your mom and Auntie. 

- We went fishing.  Yeah, that's right.  I have a license and everything.  I don't enjoy fishing.  Never have and probably never will.  But my husband digs it, and it's not always all about me. 
- We discovered (thank you, Groupon) a local dairy that makes fabulous cheese!  Blue Jacket Dairy in Bellefontaine.  It's a really small company, but they are so nice and have a million samples!
- I had dinner with the sweetest boy in the world.  Just me and Jacob, who proclaimed, "Auntie, that was an excellent dinner"!  (Seriously - how could you not love that?)    You may be thinking, "What's so special about dinner with a four year old?"  Well, let me explain.  Jacob is the youngest of 4.  And the older girls usually occupy my time, so I have never (ever) done anything with just me and Jacob.  He was so cute and well behaved the whole time.  I loved every second of it!

- Tom rode 30 miles in the Tour de Cure.  Like a boss.

- We had a visit from my BFF's oldest and youngest girls during the Fourth of July week.  (5 and 9 years old.)  I love it when I get the kids all to myself for a week!  Festivities included seeing "Brave", lots of shopping (of course) and fireworks with friends.

- We spent at least several weekends at the lake.  With family.  With girlfriends.  My sister makes killer margaritas.

- We had a patio put in, so we enjoyed eating dinners outside without the table and chairs sinking into the grass.
- We turned up the radio and sang like crazy fools any time we heard our summer theme song, "Summer Breeze". 
- We went to a Cincinnati Reds game with the parents, and saw the Reds retire Barry Larkin's number.  Amazing day.
- Tom & I went camping again.  This time with my sis and BIL (again at Hocking Hills).
- I did lots of reading.  When we were younger, we were always allowed to buy books before our family vacation.  Our parents took us to B Dalton at Eastland Mall, where we loaded up on books.  It was awesome.  And probably the reason why I will always associate summer with big time reading.

- We gave the office a mini makeover by recovering a chair (thanks, mom) and backing the bookcase with fabric. 

Now that's a fun summer, right?  With that being said - I'm soooo ready for Fall.  Bring on the football, mums, sweaters, pumpkins, apples, and all things Fall!  Happy Fall, ya'll!



Summer Weekends

Where has the summer gone??  We've spent the past two weekends doing things that are quintessentially summer - camping and taking in a baseball game.   Yes, I went camping.  Again, if you can believe it!  We went to Hocking Hills with my sister and her hubs.  A great time was had by all.   Except for the first night when we nearly froze to death in our tents.  Well, Tom did.  I didn't, because I stole one of Tom's blankets, so I was nice & toasty under my mountain of sleeping bags and quilts.  Tom hardly noticed, though, because he was deep in the thows of a beer-induced snoreathon.  Fortunately, we were only 15 minutes away from the local WalMart, so we made a Saturday morning run for additional sleeping bags and other necessities.  I also discovered that my sister is uber focused and competitive in EVERYTHING that she does.  Like making a fire.  Not that I'm complaining - thanks to her we were able to get the fire going pretty quickly each morning so that we could make out coffee.  Unfortunately, I have no pictures to share from camping.  Which is too bad, because I was rocking a new tie-dyed t-shirt (from WalMart, of course)....

This past weekend we went to a Reds game with mom & dad.  We got there early so that we could see the festivities honoring Barry Larkin.  They retired #11, and it was pretty cool to see a bunch of players famous ex-Reds show up.  Chris Sabo and Rob Dibble were the only names that I recognized, but Tom (of course) knew them all.  The only issue was that it was unbearably hot!  Seriously - crazy hot.  And we were in the sun the entire time. 

So now we have one more week of summer.  I've been reviewing our "summer bucket list" that we made Memorial Day weekend and, although we've had a jam-packed summer, there are many things on our list that we just didn't get to!  Watch a sunrise.  Go for evening strolls.  Spend an entire day barefoot.  Gallery Hop.  The zoo.  Picnic.  These will have to move to our list for fall or next summer.    Enjoy the last few days of summer, my friends!

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to Curtie!  (That's what most of my friends know him as!)  Thank your for a lifetime of good memories.  I apprecaite now, more than ever, how truly lucky I am to have parents that have never, ever, ever thought of me as anything less than awesome.  Thank you for reading to me.  Thank you for teaching me to ride a bike.  Thank you for teaching me how to bait a hook (although this is a skill I rarely use).  Thank you for being a good example.  Thank you for not sending me to live with relatives when I was a teenager.  Thank you for walking me down the aisle.  Thank you for being the most awesome Father In Law a guy could have.  (That one's for Tommy.)   We love you!

Tour de Cure

I'm so proud of my husband.  He participated in the Tour de Cure today.  Rode 30 miles - which is impressive in it's own right, but I'm even more proud of him because he of WHY he did it.  A few months ago his brother, Gary, told him that he was going to participate in this race to benefit the American Diabetes Association.  Then he said, "Why don't you do it with me?".  Without hesitation, my husband said, "Yes!  That's a great idea!"  And it meant it from the bottom of his heart.  He really looks up to his big brother, and wanted to be there to support him.  And it was for a good cause.  And because he's just a good person.  If my sister would have asked me to run a half marathon with her, I would have shouted "Hellz NO".  Actually I would have collapsed to the floor in a fit of giggles, then I would have shouted, "Hellz NO".   And then I would have had some ice cream, because just thinking about doing a crazy amount of exercise makes me hungry.  But not my Tommy.  He has a heart of gold and is, quite simply, one of the best people I know.  That's one of the (many) reasons why I married him. 

He did great!  The 30 mile ride started at 10:30am from Westerville Central High School.  They went from Westerville to Johnstown and back.  It was sooo hot!  He hardly looked winded when he crossed the finish line.  What a champ!

Here's a picture of the brothers a the end of the day.  Tired.  Sweaty.  But happy.  Way to go!!  We're so proud of you both!

Unplugged

We had a great Memorial Day weekend. I would show you pictures, but you're just going to have to take my word for it. See, someone forgot the camera. Actually, that certain someone remembered the camera, but forgot that he had taken the battery out the charge. Oh well.

We went to Indian Lake for the weekend. The parental units have a house at Russell's Point, so Tom & I picked up Frankie & Lola Saturday morning and headed west. Side note: Curtie's 50th high school class reunion was Saturday, so someone needed to puppy sit. And it's MUCH easier to puppy sit at the lake because the backyard is fenced in. Here's a recap of our weekend: 1) Sitting around. 2) Reading - I finished 3 books!

This was our book club book. Meeting's this week, so I actually finished early for once! Great book!

Read this one a long time ago (back when it was an Oprah pick), and picked it up again when my friend, Cari, suggested it as a book club book. Quick read - better the second time.

Side splitting funny. Sometimes. Other times, annoying. But I really, really enjoyed this book! 3) Boating - a little. 4) Fishing - Curt & Tom did.... I "forgot" my fishing license at home. And seeing how law abiding I am, I didn't want to risk it. 5) More sitting around. Tom caught a catfish. Something about a channel catfish, but I have no idea what that means. 6) Grillin' - burgers & brats. Salad. Corn. S'mores. 7) Antiquing - Me & Cheryl did this while the boys were fishing. We're home now. Left the lake around noon. We relocated the veggie garden & finally got the tomatoes & peppers in the ground. Man was it hot out there! The battery on my phone died within 2 hours of us being at the lake, so I was unplugged all weekend. At first I was a little nervous. I felt disconnected and cut off from civilization. Then I had a few beers and I started to relax a little. I need to remember to put down the cell phone more often and enjoy the people I'm with at the moment! Life is short. Happy Memorial Day, my friends!

Everything Has Changed. Nothing Has Changed.

"Everything has changed, but nothing has changed", she said. And we couldn't agree more. Let me back up a little. Fall 1990. Miami University - Scott Hall. My high school BFF, Mandy, and I in one room - 225 maybe? Next door were Sarah & Laura, who were townies (from Oxford). On the other side of them were Mindi & Kristen, from North Olmsted. Long story short, we (plus some others in our corridor) became very close, very quickly. We did all kinds of awesome, crazy fun things together. I couldn't find a picture of all of us together, but here are some of us:

Mindi's on the bottom left and that's Sarah on the top right. Yes, I am the one in the middle wearing the totally awesome shorts and matching top. Fabulous. Anywho, fast forward almost 20 years... We fell out of touch. Moves, job, kids, marriages, divorces and...well...just life happened. Several years ago - thanks to the facebook - we all reconnected. And, this weekend, we had a girls' weekend in Amish country. I had the best time. Seriously. Mandy and I drove up on Friday, Sarah arrived about an hour after us, and them Mindi got there around 10pm. We had a cabin right on Main St. in Berlin - a really cute cabin BTW. I was feeling somewhat sickly Friday night & most of Saturday (allergies, I think), so I crashed out early while the girls sat in the family room and talked. They offered to go upstairs or shut the door to keep things quiet for me, but I didn't mind. I was there with my girls and it was awesome. I don't know any other way to describe it other than it just made me happy to hear them chattering like little monkeys. So happy. You know you have bonded with someone when nearly 20 years passes and you can just pick up where you left off. Saturday morning we lazed around for a while and then went to lunch (food first). Then shopping (of course). Then we got cheese. Because we all love cheese. Kristen got there mid-afternoon and was able to join us for a little shopping. I didn't really buy much (surprise), but I did get a lot of cheese to bring home (not so much a surprise). I did pick up this cute vase. The top has a bunch of holes in it to keep your arrangement nice & organized. AND, as luck would have it, my super sweet husband had roses waiting for me at home this afternoon.

After a very hearty Amish meal at Der Dutchman, we drove around for a little and then went back to the cabin. We watched movies and talked. And it was wonderful. That's when Sarah said, "Everything has changed, but nothing has changed". And she's so, so right. It makes my heart feel so happy that I am back in touch with these amazing women. And they love me. They know all about me - the good, the bad & the ugly - and they still love me. That makes me feel very blessed. We're already talking about where we're going next spring. I, for one, can't wait!

Weekend Review

Not much going on in the Davis home this weekend, other than cleaning and a little spring decorating. I put up my St. Patrick's day mantel-scape. The wreath and the print were Etsy finds, and the little display on the right is an idea I saw on Pinterest (go figure). It's a little less busy than my V-Day mantel, but I like it. I may add a St. Paddy's day banner similar to my heart banner.... In health news, I am pleased to report that I've lost 12 pounds since the beginning of January! I hit a plateau for a while, but last week was a very good week. We've been really focused on eating fruits & veggies and are trying hard to stay away from processed foods of all kinds. But it's so hard, isn't it?? I mean, all the really good stuff has cream of mushroom soup and cream cheese in it, right? We're also limiting ourselves to 1 adult beverage a week and 1 dessert. DH is struggling with the dessert part a little bit. Tommy loves him some sweets! Tom's lost just over 6 pounds, which is great. He's also been working out at least 3 times a week, which is awesome. He also committed to participating in a 100 mile bike ride to raise awareness for diabetes. He's doing it with his brother. Yep - I typed that correctly - 100 miles! At the end of June! Can you say hot?? Seriously, I'm so proud of him, and I know he can do it! :-) I just started exercising yesterday, so hopefully that will bump up my fitness level up a notch! We leave for vacation in a little over one month, and are spending 3 days before our cruise at Disney. And, if you've ever been there, you know how much walking that means! So I must get cracking on working out so that I have the stamina to deal with Disney. I hate to exercise. Hate it. I don't get ever get that proverbial "runner's high" after working out. I don't look forward to it. At all. But I've realized that it is a necessity for me. So I do it. Grudgingly. I've tried to have a better attitude about it. Really, I have. I wish I could be more like my sister, who got up early on the morning of her wedding (with a serious cold, mind you) to work out. But no, not me. I spent the morning of my wedding drinking champagne and taking a bubble bath. I guess I inherited the lazy gene. Have a wonderful week, my friends.

Love Is All You Need

Today I am thankful for this. Two toothbrushes instead of one this year. My first Valentine's day as Mrs. Davis, and it's a very good feeling. Many of you think Valentine's Day is overrated. A Hallmark holiday. Too commercial. Well, I went for 37 years without a proper Valentine, so now that I have one, I'm going to enjoy it. Darn it! I do think that you don't need a holiday to tell someone you love them. HOWEVER, isn't it kinda nice to have one day to celebrate love? And I had a grand time getting ready for Valentine's Day this year. I decorated - the mantel, the entrance, the front door. I baked - cookies and treats for Tom to take to work. I crafted - special, cheesy Valentine's Day crafts for my hubs. I shopped - for goodies for my family and for my love. And it was fun. Today has been an especially lazy day. It's cold outside, and we're having the carpets cleaned, so I have to stay downstairs and off of the carpets for a few more hours. What a great excuse to spend some time on Pinterest. And get caught up on my 700+ page book club book, which I am determined to finish by next Friday. Ack! Next Friday! Mollie agrees with me and curled up on the chair closet to the fireplace.

And here he is again after I woke him up snapping pictures:

Doesn't he look like he's saying, "Bitch, please!"? I also started planning my St. Patrick's day decor and moved some things around in the living room. Remember these from last week's thriftin?

I wasn't quite sure what to do with them, so I put some bit & baubles on top and displayed them on a table in the living room. I didn't have three pillar candles, so I used what I had. I'm sure I'll change my mind, and maybe even paint the silver parts off white someday. But until then, I like the way they look.

And now I've exerted myself way too much and need to get back to napping on the sofa in front of the fire. Happy Valentine's Day, my friends. I'll leave you with this quote from "Love Actually", my sister's favorite movie: “Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion's starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don't see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often it's not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it's always there - fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge - they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I've got a sneaky feeling you'll find that love actually is all around.”

Thrifty Thursday

Andy Williams fans take note: There are a million Andy Williams albums at the thrift store on West Broad Street. A. Freakin'. Million. And my DH just happens to be an Andy Williams fan. Seriously. No, he's not 70. I tell him all the time that I married the oldest 42 year old around. He's just a good old fashioned, small town guy. And I love that about him. So I found these today for $.90 each at the thrift store and thought they would make a good V-Day gift for my man. It will make him happy, and it cost less than $4. I also scored some Julie Andrew albums! I snatched those up quicker than you can say "My Fair Lady Soundtrack"! Love Julie Andrews. I also picked up these beauties at the Volunteers of America shop:

They are super heavy. Don't they look oh-so-shabby-chic? I thought so. I'm not sure if I'm going to leave them as is or paint them white. At first I thought they were silver, but they are stamed "made in China" on the bottom and I couldn't find any type of silver marking, so I don't think they are. Not sure what I'm going to do with them, but I love them! I found a few other goodies while thrifting with Shannon, like a cool wood picture frame that I'm going to paint off white and put chicken wire behind. Yes, chicken wire. I happen to have some leftover from when I had to keep a bunny out of my garden last summer! And I scored a couple of cool milk glass items for super cheap. And I found a couple of milk glass pieces that rocked. I'm trying to listen to Shannon's advice when she says not to go crazy at thrift stores. Her point is that, even though it's cheap, you don't want to end up with a bunch of stuff that you don't do anything with "just because". But it's tough. You also have to consider the real cost, or final price, of an item. If it costs you more after you buy the craft supplies (paint, etc...) to pimp something out, it may have made more sense to just buy it from etsy. So I try to think of what I have at home to fix things up as I'm considering my purchases. The real fun of Thrify Thursdays, though, is spending time with my friend, Shannon. She's so smart and funny and we always have a great time together! Thank you, Shannon, for introducing me to the fabulous world of thrifting!

Craft Tuesday

This morning I finalized my Valentine's Day mantel. Notice the difference? Here's the before pic:

Right! I added some felt hearts (using leftover felt from another craft project) to the grapevine wreath. I thought that the wreath needed a little somethin' somethin'. I downloaded some heart templates (just google "free heart templates") and cut them out lickety split.

You might say that I've been a little obsessed lately about decorating the mantel. It's all because of Pinterest. They post such great ideas that I just HAVE to copy them! Speaking of Pinterest.... I saw this the other day:

7 days of love notes and treats for Valentine's week. Seriously great idea. I filled up a pill box with candy and goodies and downloaded a **free** sheet of love quotes from thedatingdivas website. I'm really happy with the way it turned out. Totally awesome Valentine's Day gifts don't have to cost a fortune! I've been working on a "52 Reasons Why I Love You" deck of cards, but I can't seem to find a template for the cards that I like. Which means that I will have to make one of my own, and I'm HORRIBLE at doing that kind of thing. So maybe I'll just bust out my scrapbooking skillz to finish this one. I was hoping to have that completed today, but it looks like that will be a project for another day! What have you crafted lately?

Monday Monday

My hubby's had a rough weekend. First, news on Friday that the base is losing 6 planes. At this point we're unsure of what will happen personnel-wise, but it's very troubling. I'm trying to stay positive, because I know that we can handle anything that is thrown at us AND there's no sense worrying about something that may or may not happen. And I do feel that the two of us can do anything that we put our minds to. Still, you can't help but worry. Side note: I NEVER paid any attention to defense cuts before. Never. Just something that was talked about on the news, in my opinion. Boy, have things changed! Then today, Tom's mom refused to go to the Senior Center for the day. See, we've arranged for her to start going a couple of days a week. They have lunch, crafts, exercise, all kinds of fun things. Plus her BFF goes every day. Tom took her there to look around and she was ALL for it. So today, Tom went to her place early to help get her ready and she refused to go. Flat out refused. We're so sad about that, because we think she'd really like it once she got there. Needless to say, my man needed some cheering up today. So we went to Bob Evans for lunch, which is his VERY favorite eating establishment. In. The. World. And then we spent some time with my parents, because Curtie always makes Tom happy. And I got to see Frankie. Which was a good thing, because I miss that sweet puppy.

And then he helped me fix up a batch of the goodies pictured at the top of the post. I'm sending them to work on Wednesday, because I certainly don't need them hanging around the house! I used Hershey's Kisses and cherry M&Ms for some and Rolos and walnuts for the others. I happened to sample a few that "fell" off of the tray and BOY ARE THEY YUMMY! By the way, M&Ms are on sale at Target this week! Plus, the V-Day bags had a "buy two, get one free" coupon on them. In other news, I've been using e-mealz to help me meal plan. My BFF uses e-mealz and loves it, so when she told me about a groupon, I signed up for a year. It's fabulous! Makes meal planning soooo easy. Here's the menu for the week:

Due to some plans with family, we're only cooking 5 meals at home this week. So Tom got steak for dinner tonight, which made him very happy. Tomorow, I'll share some more Valentine's Day crafts! Have a good week, my friends!

Thrifty Thursday

I meant to post this yesterday, but was a little busy chasing a puppy around the house. Yikes! They require sooo much attention! Yesterday was a great day. I discovered thrift shops. Honestly, I've never been a big fan of them. Never been to one, and never thought I'd like them. (Used stuff? Yuk! No thanks!) But, during breakfast with my friend, Shannon, I convinced her to take me. We had time to swing by one and guess what??? I LOVED IT! I scored a great punch bowl set (with 12 super cute little glasses). Shannon and I are on a 2-woman quest to bring the punch bowl back into style. I'll post a picture of it when I get it all cleaned up. I'm thinking the next bookclub that I host needs punch. I also picked up this rug for a couple of bucks:

It reminds me of my grandma, and I needed a rug at the back door. Doesn't really go with the decor in that room, but it's cute. And I also got this mail sorter for the office. It had a few marks on the front of it, but I liked it because 1) it kinda goes with the shabby chic feel I like and 2) I love me some organizing tools!

But I didn't like the pen marks, and I wanted to jazz it up a little, so I did this:

I had some of this map scrapbook paper, which I thought coordinated with my (very small) globe collection. I am not thrilled with the result, but I showed Tom 2 other options (both floral), and he thought I should stick with the map paper. And, since it's his house too, I kept it. Shannon got some really cool things as well. She picked up a cheese plate and dome and a doily. She loves doilies. I would have purchased the cheese dome, but I have several and really just couldn't justify it. Even if it was practically a steal! So I'm all for thriftin' now! We're going again next week. Can't wait!