2010 Halloween Parade

Hello everyone! I have today, photo's of our town's annual Halloween Parade. What is that you ask? Well, in our town we have an elementary school on Main street. And every year the children and teachers that attend the elementary school get dressed up in their costumes on the last day of school before Halloween and all walk down one side of Main Street down to our small downtown area and then walk back up again to the school. The downtown businesses hand out candy to them as well as our church and the Masonic Lodge and some of the other businesses that are here in town but don't have their buildings on Main St. The weather for this years event was absolutely beautiful! Earlier in the week we had gale force winds! AND it was really getting quite cold out! But yesterday was ideal! And everyone who was involved had a great time! And just for the record... Our church handed out full sized Hershey Chocolate bars! Yup. We sure did! ;-) Ya'll should have seen the looks on the kids faces!

So here are a few photo's from this fun day!

Pastor Marvin helping to hand out candy.

One of the lines of kids in the parade.

Here's one of the many teachers dressed up.

Ooooo, some scary kids.....

Of course, we must have at least one Nebraska Fan!

And here is the Masonic Lodge folks getting in on the fun!

And here is our wrapped FULL sized candy bars!

Because I was helping to hand out the candy again this year, I couldn't get down to the downtown business area to take pictures. These are all photo's near our end of Main Street. Hopefully, next year I'll be able to get pictures of the Businesses handing out their goodies! I think it's so great that there are businesses that participate in what is going on in the town that they have set up shop at.

So, there you go. Another year of the Springfield Halloween Parade. How about ya'll? Anyone else have interesting events going on in your town?

Have a fun, safe and Happy Halloween All!

What is it?.....

Yes, it is a table. But! Do you know what kind? It is....(drumroll please.....) A Kotatsu table! Ta-daaaa! This little table has been in my dreams for a long time! Well, every time we lived in a cold climate, I dreamed about someday having a table like this. When I was growing up we'd go to visit my grandparents house and on cold days we'd sit around their table (which was much larger) and I'd listen to my relatives all talking and laughing and eating around this table as I was laying half under it. I would be so cozy and warm. This table, not only does it have a nice thick blanket over the frame but it also has a heating unit built under the frame top! It is really quite ingenious!

Here is the heating element turned on.

The heating element is adjustable and the outside of the heating elements cage is softly flocked and it never gets too hot to touch. Yesterday I ate my lunch there and then sat for a while to do some knitting. It was very nice.

My mother had this sent to me a few weeks ago and I only just got it put together. I had to rearrange the room to accommodate the table. Then I had to find pillows for the floor (the japanese name for the pillows is Zabuton), and these that are shown are not real zabuton pillows. They are actually floor pillows that I purchased from Pier One. But they work, at least for now.

I am not the only one that has enjoyed this table....

Ethan has been enjoying it too! And when I am sitting there he climbs on my lap and then Ricky (the dog) lays down beside me on the quilt and we are all quite the happy little campers!

Thank you Mom for this table and the good memories! ;-)

Posting as a Grandparent..

Hello everyone! I know, I know, I've been gone for a while and you're probably expecting to see some of the things I've been working on. Alas... it is not to be. I'm still working on the guest bedroom and some of the furnishings that will go into the room. I don't even have a sneak peak for ya. BUT! I do have some photo's of grandbaby. So for those of you who are not interested... you may want to move on to another blog. But please don't forget to check back here again at a later date to see some of the changes I've made to our house.

So here we go.

First up. This little boy is quickly growing... Look at those cheeks and his belly! Just makes ya wanna grab him up and cuddle him!

Next... Here he is with a cute little grin on his chubby little face! In this particular pic, he has a slight asian look to his eyes. But, maybe it's just me seeing that. Anyone else see it? ;-)

And we continue.... You know when I look at these pictures it makes me realize (belatedly of course) how much our parent's missed when my honey and I were raising our kids.

Being in the military we moved around quite a bit and we never lived near either of our parents. Sorry Mom & Dad C. & P.!

Dilly-girl and I bought this baseball inspired outfit for grandbaby when I was out there this summer visiting them. It's a 9 month outfit that we thought he would be wearing in December when they came to visit during Christmas. But, no. He is wearing it now. He is two months old. Hmmm, makes ya wonder what he WILL be wearing come December.....!

And here is a nice little family photo of them taken by their Great-Grand Parents who were visiting them this past week. They got to hold their Great-Grandson lot's and lot's! I am SO jealous!

Grand baby looks like a little monkey! He is SO cute!

Okay, I think I've bored you long enough. I just had to share these photo's. AND lucky for you, it was only a tiny portion of the pictures we have because Dilly-girl is SO good about sending pictures on a nearly daily basis!

And on that note, I leave you to go about your day and hope that you all have a wonderful one!

Check back again and I hope that I will have gotten the room and projects completed and on this blog, by then! Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Fun finds...

Hello everyone! Hope ya'll had a great Saturday. Today I spent the day working on a few projects that I've been putting off. One of those things are these cute little acorns.

I've seen other bloggers and Etsy sites that have had these. And I've been wanting to do this for a while now. The problem was, I couldn't find oak trees that were dropping acorns! I know, silly. I knew I'd seen some somewhere, I just couldn't remember where. And then the other day I was cutting across the grass under some trees to get to the commissary entrance and I heard crunching sounds. I looked down and... voila! Acorns! I quickly grabbed my portable, re-usable bag out of my purse and proceeded to fill it with acorn caps. And today I pulled out my bags of wool roving and started making them. At first I tried to wet felt them into shape. But that didn't work out so well. (I was really hoping that it would cuz I'm pretty nervous about working with those needles you use to needle felt with). But there was no getting around it. So I very carefully began poking with the needle and after a while I had enough to put together. I love how they look. And I plan on making more. But I think I may make some with caps that have not been varnished. I think maybe it'll look better if the caps aren't so shiny.

I also wanted to show ya'll what I found at the new (to me) Antique shop that I found. I love, love, love, leaded glass windows. And I got this one for a steal!

And then, the lady that runs the shop took me down to the basement because she thought I might like to see more of her things that she hadn't put out yet. And there it was! The little table I've been looking for! It was exactly the right height (I know because I measured it with my handy, dandy measuring tape that I lug around with me everywhere!) And I knew exactly what height I needed because I checked my list (yes, I carry a list of all the things I'm looking for with the measurements listed)! I got the little table for $2.00!

So, for a total of $5.00 I got two items. Okay so only one thing was actually on my list. But who can pass up a leaded glass window for only $3.00? I mean, really!

Unfortunately, in my excitement to get this pretty little table painted, I forgot to take a "before" picture. (oop's.) It was in pretty good condition. Some scratches and cup rings but other than that.... What I really like about this table is the little detail on either side of the legs. I thought it was just lovely.

And the way the table under the top is cut, all curvy like. And the top of the table has a scalloped edge along the side and back. Anyhow, it was a rather sad looking mahogany color and now it is a pretty shade of green. It's actually one of the colors I had initially picked for the house. I like it better on the table. ;-)

So, this guest bedroom is coming along. I am about to begin work on painting the other guest bedroom. Currently it is blue. All blue. As in a dark blue on the walls AND the ceiling! Not sure what color I'll paint it, other than white for the ceiling for sure.

And that is it for today. Tomorrow, after church, I'm going to go to an Antique Flea Market in Omaha. It occurs on the first Sunday of every month. And I only heard about it when I went to the Antique shop where I found my goodies. The lady there was telling me how she was getting ready for it. I am SO excited!

So, hopefully I'll have some fun things to share with ya'll in my next blog. ;-)

Here it is folks...

Hello everyone!

It's been a while since I last wrote. Things have been going on and keeping us super busy. And obviously, I'm not as good about blogging and being busy as many of you bloggers are. I just can't seem to find the time to sit and post. But! Here it is. The house is FINALLY finished. As far as the painting is concerned. ;-)

Can you see how they are working on the house? I'm not so sure that the guy on the ladder is really going to be able to do anything if the ladder that is laying on the roof actually begins to slide. And I'm not so sure Miss. Ally will be able to hold the ladder in place if it begins to get pushed from the top. But, I must admit, she'll look cute trying!

So they couldn't get started painting the house because it rained on Saturday. Sunday they began scraping the house and when they did that they found a few places that had "issues". So we are not exactly all done yet. We have to get the handyman out to replace a couple of the slat siding and the porch rail. But then the guy who painted the house will return and paint those new pieces. I'm telling you what. We had the best guys come out and paint our house! They did a fabulous job and cleaned up each time and just plain worked their butt's off!

So, without further a do.... (by the way, for some reason the paint color is showing up more on the blue side. Not sure why, because it really does look a bit more green in actuality)

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

And I must say... We LOVE IT! It turned out better than I had anticipated! AND, I was just looking at my October Better Homes & Garden Magazine and on page 92 was a house that is exactly the same color as ours! Well, theirs is showing more green than ours, but that may be because of my poor handling of the camera! Anyhow, if any of you have that magazine, check it out. AND just to let you know, I plan (eventually) to have the stone work done on our house so that it will look more like the photo in the magazine. As I mentioned in the past, I'm working on getting the house to have more of that Arts & Crafts sensibility to it.

My poor honey, I'm sure he feels like he's working just to pay for the work on the house. But I know that it's only temporary. (Honest dear, eventually, we'll get to that point where we you can sit back and just enjoy.)

Okay, I'll post a couple of things that I found on my Omaha Antique shop jaunt earlier this week. Oh, and a DIY. ;-)

Ya'll have a great weekend and I'll be chattin' with ya soon!