BUT I've always been terrible at keeping secrets so I'm gonna share with ya'll... ssshhh, come closer cause I have to whisper..

I got a little excited when my October giveaway comment form topped Septembers, and then a bunch more excited when it topped 100, and as I watch it climb closer to the 150 mark I can barely contain myself so I set into motion my plans to have the best giveaway ever next month for ya'll!!

My November giveaway that I am planning is gonna be...............HUGE!!!!

I mean big. As in B-I-G big!! As in over the top big!!

 I'm so excited :-)

I already have double digit numbers of folks lined-up who have made some AWESOME donations just for all of ya'll!! And, I'm still taking emails... yippee!!! There is jewelry, and custom prints, and photographs, and jewelry, and gift certificates, and baby socks and hats, and jewelry... oh, I'm excited!@!@!

So, keep an eye out that first week of November... I'm just saying ;-)

Sallie

I bought this lamp on Saturday at an antique store. I love the chippy paint on it and the worn patina. I also love that its curves and base fit my style and decor (has roses on it -- sorry but couldn't get that in the pic and still showcase the pretty tassel). I found the makers mark on the bottom of the lamp when I was rewiring it with a kit I already had on hand and it is a Rainaud Lamp. These lamps were made in the early 1900's and the rare, intact ones have a tiffany style stained glass lamp shade with them. They can be worth upward of $1500 when complete. Unfortunately, mine is missing the shade, which is the only reason I could afford it...LOL.

Anyway, I think I've found the perfect antique dealer at the shop I bought the lamp at. He's a self proclaimed pack rat and has been buying things at auction just for the sake of buying them for over 50 years. Most of it sits in a warehouse or his mama's barn and he brings in a few pieces every weekend to sit out and sale. He is trying to open a small store but it is so crowded you can't hardly walk around. He has bought another section of the strip mall, too, and is working on getting more moved in but admits it will take many more months. That's one way of keeping your customers wanting to come back... they never know what new stuff you might have!

Don't you just love the tassel I bought from the Nester? I think she must have been loading new items at her Etsy store because I was searching around and looking thinking I didn't want anything and then clicked back to her homepage and this was at the top of the list. I loved it immediately!! Etsy seems to be one of my favorite places lately. I mean, just the week before I bought a silver creamer that had been turned into a pincushion from Dawn's sewmanyroses Etsy store. Unfortunately, every time I try and take a pic, it turns out blurry. You'll just have to trust me that it's cute as a button!!

This pillow isn't an Etsy purchase but I patiently waited for three months for it to go on clearance!! It was originally close to $50 but I watched and watched and finally got it for $7!!! Can you believe it?! It is so romantic and so cute. The white maybe looks like an appliqué in the picture but in reality it is tiny little beads sewn on! It doesn't sit on this chair usually but I put it there to get enough light for a good picture. It usually sits on an antique school desk I have.

I am not typically someone who has stuff sitting around that you can't touch. The desk though was a spur of the moment purchase about two years ago and doesn't get used often. It had just been restored by an antiques dealer (who I personally knew liked to restore his own estate finds) in Yuma and I was just starting back to homeschooling again. It isn't completely off limits but it definitely isn't used a lot because of the older cane seating. We will occasionally use it for spare seating if we have company for dinner because a child can easily sit at it with their plate but it can also still be pulled close to the table. It is pretty much the only "sitting" piece of furniture our dogs can't climb up on, too, so the pretty pillow is safe sitting on the desk chair ;-)

I had fun switching our living room around with my daughter today. I like to try and see what works best and every so often if I think some layout just isn't working then I will move things around and see how the new layout works for a few weeks. I thought the original layout I set up when we moved in on June 1st was best, and maybe for maximum floor space it was, but I think this way will make it more easy for conversation flow. I would rather have good flow than space if having space means guests on one end of the sofa feel like they are screaming to get the person in the chair at the other end of the room to hear them. It's never good to have your guests feel like they have to scream...or to feel left out of the conversation, either!!

Another reason I felt I needed to rearrange the layout a bit was that we have so many doorways in this house! There is a center hall that leads back to the powder room but you can also go into the living room, the dining room, and the office/music room from that hall. The living room also has a door to the dining room. The dining room has a third doorway leading to the kitchen. The office/music room is on the other side of the kitchen, which is a galley so it has two doorways as well (hall and kitchen). I wanted to block off the access to the dining room from the living room so we moved our sofa and sofa table onto that wall/doorway space. For people who love their wide open "every-room-runs-into-the-other" spaces, it probably seems really silly that I wanted to block off one of the doorways but I just wanted the space defined a bit better. I like the way it looks anyway and my husband came home and said it looks good. I guess that's what really counts!

I also got a great deal on some vintage metal patio furniture... you know, the metal slatted iron kind that you put cushions on?! I got two chairs and a loveseat for a whopping $10. The loveseat is missing the arms. However, I have actually been on the lookout for a backless/armless bench to sit in a small alcove by our front door, so I am just gonna take the back off and it will fit perfectly! The two chairs are in great shape and all I have to do is purchase a few new cushions and I'll have a major portion of my much wanted bistro set taken care of. I'll also keep an eye out for a large unbroken white metal sofa to add later.  So, that means my front patio is almost taken care of and my screened porch is coming along nicely. For that, I already had a double size lounge. I want my screened in porch to actually be a bit romantic so we are fitting it out with a pretty white battenburg lace bedskirt, a shabby chic kind of comforter, lots of fluffy pillows, and some hanging glittery wicker ball lights. I am keeping an eye out at walmart for some pretty (but cheap... like $2 a panel cheap) lace/sheer panels to hang on tension rods between the posts of each screen section. I can perfectly imagine sitting out there and reading a book or just relaxing and talking to my honey. I'll try and get pictures of all that up as soon as I get the new cushions and such.

Oh, do you think I should add artwork to my screened in porch? I've thought about it but not sure how it would hold up in humid North Carolina. Let me know if ya'll have up artwork in your outdoor "rooms" please. Even if you don't have porches, I'd still love your opinions :-)

Sallie

Our family reads Proverbs nearly everyday. We try to read two or three to catch up if we miss the weekend because of scheduling or whatever. There as so many words of wisdom that it always feels as if we are reading them for the first time. For school and other studies, we are reading more than just Proverbs. We have been going through the bible from the beginning in the Old Testament and also some of the New ( but not straight in order like the with the Old). One of the passages I enjoyed reading today was Acts 17 starting with verse 22 and continuing on through the end of the chapter.

Paul had been traveling along and noticing things on his way to Athens. He was now in front of the Areopagus (or governing council of elders in the citys) and tells them that he can see in every way they are a very religious people. He tells them he saw many items of worship on his way there to include an alter to "the unknown god." Paul then tells them that what they have known as unknown he will explain to them. Verse 24 begins this part:

The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for " 'In him we live and move and have our being'; as even some of your own poets have said, " 'For we are indeed his offspring.' Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.

I was immediately taken back to a moment Caleb had with his AWANA leader when we had only been here in AZ for a year or so. Caleb was younger (maybe 9 physically but that doesn't always equal out mentally/ socially/ emotionally with AS kids) and we were just realizing the full spectrum of autism. We had only just found out why Caleb seemed so strong willed... because everything was pretty black and white to him. We have always taught all of the children that the Bible is the true, without error Word of God. Well, we found out later we would probably have to change that to say THE WORDS are the true, without error Word of God. His Bible had pictures and so when they came upon a discussion about satan Caleb knew what satan looked like because he had a picture in his Bible to prove it!

This passage only made me think of that I'm sure because it also made me wonder about how often we place God in a box of what we think we know, or just in case "don't know" like the Areopagus. God really is simple to grasp.  The problem most people face is they just can't by faith accept it. For instance, there are folks who don't think that people on remote islands somewhere on the face of this earth can know about Jesus Christ. Sometimes we don't trust God to be able to do these great and unexpected things such as reach everyone even though the Bible tells us not only that He can but that every one will know who God is. It is no different now as it was then. The last few verses of the chapter tell that some men were opposed and made fun of Paul for what he said. Others needed time to think about it and yet others accepted and believed right away. At the end of time, I think we will all fit into one of these categories.

So, which crowd do you fit into? Mocker, thinker, or believer?

As always, I encourage you to read the whole passage in your Bible or you can find it at Biblegateway.com

(pulled from my archives because of a discussion we had in church this past Sunday... it was a timely reminder)

Sallie

Sallie

There is some funny business going on in these elections... but some good things, too. Of course, you don't need me to tell YOU that cause ya'll are just average families like mine.

A few things worth pointing out:

Don't think Obama bought Powell's vote? Read here and see who will happen to have a job in Obama's cabinet...

I so love Huck!! I really wish he'd gotten the nod for president but he didn't. I watch him on FOX when I get the chance. He had Aaron Tippin on singing his new song Drill Here, Drill Now!! I loved it.. You can watch it over on my honey's blog if you want to see.

Michelle Obama is trying to dig in and sound like she really cares about military families (aka steal the military vote away from McCain). I'm sorry.. but this is someone who said she wasn't ever proud of her country until "now" and someone whose husband would be willing to cut the already underpaid budget right out from under my families dinner table.. All I have to say is "Honey, don't hold your breath!"

Oh, and since Biden thinks its SOOO patriotic for the rich guys to just hand over their money free and clear to poorer folks like me (which I am TOTALLY against... heck, they earned it.. why do I deserve it?), then I suggest it would be extremely patriotic of him and his co-hort in politics to hand over this HUGE intake of money to pay off the national deficit.. Don't you agree? Or, I mean, gosh, they could even send a little pinch of it back to taxpayers since we are all the ones being lambasted with all the junk they are force feeding us.. I mean, being how they think sharing is so patriotic and all!!

And the most important thing? God is in CONTROL!!! I don't worry about the election. Sometimes I get a bit hot over some of the issues but the end of the day always takes me back to the knowledge that God is right where He always has been! I can live with that... no matter who ends up "winning!"

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Sallie