Pie Delivered to Your Door!

You might just be the LUCKY one that gets a delicious pie delivered to YOUR door! If it's not ME, I hope it's YOU! Trisha from The Red Door is having a giveaway to celebrate her 100th post, which she said she past several posts already (uhhhh....70 to be exact!), but she was a very busy lady doing Texas doing wonderful shows all over Texas and beyond. I guess while in Texas she discovered one of our wonderful secrets......It's Royers Cafe and they make the BEST pies! Besides having a really cute cafe with delicious Texas style (and sized meals) they have a great mail-order pie business. What's better than having a delicious delivered right to your door. Anyways, if you've ever had Royer's pie and have just yearned for it, then you don't want to miss leaving her a comment and posting it on your blog. Check her out for more details and don't miss it!

In case you just can't wait to WIN the give away.....I've included the link to Royer's. It's definitely a place you should visit if you get in this neck of the woods!

http://www.royersroundtopcafe.com/

It's An Elephant!

Please forgive me for not posting sooner. My computer is giving me trouble. I've been working hard on some projects and am anxious to post them, but in the meantime...here's a cute little story!

We who have taught, or just love children know this is funny!

From the diary of a Pre-School Teacher:

My five-year-old students are learning to read.

Yesterday one of them pointed at a picture in a zoo book and said,

"Look at this! It's a frickin' elephant!"I took a deep breath, then asked..."What did you call it?""It's a frickin' elephant! It says so on the picture!"

And so it does...

" A f r i c a n Elephant "

Hooked on phonics! Ain't it wonderful?

I Got a Letter from Honduras!

If you've read my blog from the beginning you'll know that partly what started me blogging was my desire to share my Sponsored Child from Mission of Mercy. (However, now it's morphed into all sorts of subjects) Last summer I turned 50 and wanted to do something to monumentaly mark the event. My plan was to sit on a tropical beach and celebrate reaching the 1/2 century mark while being waited on by handsome cabana boys. Well, God had other plans and lead me to sign up for a mission trip, even though I didn't know a single person going on this trip. I was out of my comfort zone but in the end had the most AWESOME adventure. I met life long friends and forever changed my outlook on life. I've got an awesome life and I need to be thankful for it, enjoy it, share it, and praise God for it. Below is our first walk into "the projects". The little ditch/trough on the right is an open sewer. The people in the projects were grateful to be living in the city...with amenities with included the sewer, SOME running water (a spigot outside) and electricity (one lone light bulb hanging from the ceiling). Yet, they were happy and satisfied. My little girl in Honduras is named Iris. She was 6 when I met her and this year she's going to school for the first time. The Mission of Mercy monies sent monthly cover her medical costs, at least one meal a day provided at the project, biblical teachings, tutoring assistance, playtime equipment, school supplies and school uniform. Below is the description I got of Iris when I picked her to be "my child".

This picture of Iris was the first one I saw and she just tugged at my heartstrings. Don't you just want to scoop her up and hug her!?!

Our team was awesome. There were 80 people in total on the trip and we were divided up and sent to four different projects. The young adults not wearing orange tee-shirts were our interpreters and they were so fun. I amazed myself remembering a lot of Spanish from my 7th and 8th grade Spanish classes.

Teaching the children praise and worship songs was a fun time and the boys liked singing for us and including the hand/dance motions.
On the last day of our visit, I took many pictures of Iris and me. She (and the other girls) like to "strike a pose". She's wearing proudly the cross necklace we made together during art.

One more hug and goodbye.... and whew...it was HOT there....my face was beet red! LOL!

So, perhaps now you can understand why I get so excited to receive a letter and updated picture of Iris. I feel like I left a part of me in Honduras and I love to hear how well she's doing. Below is a tiny section of the letter (and translation) that she sent me.

And here's a sweet little picture she drew for me!

And LOOK how she's grown! Isn't she precious? I'm SO glad to see that she has on nice shoes that fit. So many of the children wear shoes that are too little or are falling apart. She looks a little pensive in this picture but I bet if I were there to hug and tickle her...you'd see that BIG smile again!?!!? I'm planning on writing to her tonight and hopefully I'll hear back from her soon.

Warrenton Antique Festival Shopping

Our Warrenton Antique Festival day trip was awesome! The weather was wonderful; with bright sunshine and pleasant breezes. Just in case you don't believe the EVERYTHING in Texas is big; check out this oak tree next to the pasture we parked in.

I didn't buy this sign but it sure did crack me up!

This is just one example of the cleaver marketing at Warrenton. This just a little shed that usually is forgotten, but during the Antique Festival Week all real estate is prized and used.

Still glowing from my FREE bike (see previous post!) I kept seeing bikes and telling myself...I SAVED myself so much money (most bikes were priced around $75). I did however, buy a wire basket for MY yard art bike that will be filled with pretty bright flowers.

This cute little scale needs just a bit of cleaning up. I'm sure when it's clean the pale blue on the base will show up better. The front face of the scale indicates that it's from the early 1900's.

I'm going to make some Easter art out of these flash cards and playing cards. Doesn't it seem like I've ALWAYS got a project on-going or coming up? LOL!

Since I collect Coca Cola stuff I snapped this picture of the local grocery store. There was a vendor selling old rugs and textiles out front. Good place to grab a coke and smile and SHOP!

This metal sign for my shed came from one of my favorite booths at Warrenton and they come back year after year each year bring new and really cute things. I'm going to paint (well, of course I am!) the heart portion of the sign red.

Here is my BIG STEAL of the show. I got these cute metal brackets with the dragonfly's for $2.25 each. I saw a cute garden sign in a booth but, me being me, I didn't want to spend the money they were asking for it. I took a picture and hopefully can make something similar with these brackets, a board, some paint and creativity.

This is the sign I'm going to try and re-create.

Here's my shopping buddy, Susan A. with some metal art flowers from the same booth I purchased the Shed Sign. These little beauties are going to decorate her back yard!

I love old magazines and this is a copy of Life Magazine that was published the week I was born. It's fun to look through it and see what was going on SOOOOO many years ago. And MAN, they sure had a lot of cigarette ads back then.

My friends and I have a dream of buying an old car (almost like this one but we want it to be a convertible and not quite such a low rider). Once we have the car we want to go on a super duper road trip across the country. This one had red leather interior....mmmmmmmmmmm!

By the time the sun was setting at Warrenton we were very tired but very happy with such a productive and beautiful day! And if anyone says shopping isn't a sport, they should try walking around in cow pastures all day...and they will change their mind. Our legs were so sore we could barely stand to get out of the car after the one and a half hour drive home. We hobbled in the house slowly, but glad we had experienced the thrill of Warrenton!

An Adventure Deluxe!

Sunday afternoon my neighbor asked me to ride with her a few blocks to visit the house below. There was an "Estate Sale" there last week. Tyra (my neighbor) went and bought a few things but there were a few things left behind she wanted to check on. As you can tell, this house is in dire need of some TLC. The original owners passed away several years ago, after owning the home for 70+ years. The remaining relatives are not interested in fixing it up and I sure wish I could afford to buy it and bring it back to it's original charm. When we arrive the gates were locked and no one was home...but we saw some friendly neighbors next door on their porch. So they wouldn't think we meant any harm, we introduced ourselves to the sweetest little lady named Lucy. This is her yard below! Isn't' it great? She has freesia, snapdragons, begonias, roses, calla lily's, calendula, pansies, herbs, hydrangea, etc,etc. and the place smells like a florist. Lucy is 80 and has a bad hip but said if WE wanted to dig anything up, she would be glad to share. And share she did...we dug for hours (her back yard is even a bigger BloomFest!)

These are just two of the eight Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow bushes she gave us that I have planted in my yard. Both Tyra and I ended up with tons of plants and I sure hope I can keep them alive. Lucy told us HER secret to gardening....it's Osmocoat (Spelling??...a fertilizer I MUST go and purchase!)

Then...as if our new friendship and all the new plants weren't enough...I came home to this bag of anemone bulbs from another neighbor!......Did I mention I have the best neighbors EVER! Carson was very curious about the bulbs and wanted to know when we were going to plant them. He even offered to DIG the hole for me....what a SWEET helper, right?? LOL!

But the BEST find EVER was found in Lucy's driveway....she was just about to drag it out for BIG TRASH DAY! I've been looking for over a year for an old bicycle that I could use as Garden Art...and lo and behold...I found this one. She WOULD NOT take any money for it. And what a lucky day that was for me because the previously mentioned estate sale had a bike like this and they wanted $75 dollars! SCORE for me with the FREEBIE!!!

As we stood in the driveway and she told stories about the bike my heart was soaring. I couldn't believe our luck, meeting this SWEET lady, getting free plants and much needed advice for them AND a chippy, old bike! She really didn't quite understand why I wanted it but I told her I would be sure and take pictures once it got set up in my yard. She was worried that the paint was chipping and tried to brush it off but I said that made it perfect!

Call me crazy but I LOVE my new bicycle! The brand is "Texas Star"....How PERFECT is THAT!??!

PS: After visiting with Lucy for almost 3 hours, the caretakers of the house next door came by and we "shopped" a little over there too. I got, but did not take a picture of, a old black bowling ball. You'll have to check back and see what I do with that! It will end up in the yard too, but it will be re-purposed......Keep guessing...it's gonna be cool! AND Tyra got some really cool OLD terracotta pots that had a lot of aging on them. They came in handy as Lucy kept loading us down with plant and plants.