It is well with my soul

Winter came back this weekend but we didn't let it stop us!  It was 37 degrees and very windy yesterday morning when we loaded up a dresser that my sweet friend, Stacy, gave us for Baby Charlotte, and headed up to Atlanta to deliver it so Rhiana could paint it and get it ready for tiny pink clothes.  Larry sanded it down last week so all she'd have to do is paint it.  It's beautiful, solid wood and very old. The date on the mirror is 1958. Rhiana loved it.  And she's already painted it white.  It's going to be so beautiful in the baby's room.  We stopped on the way in Juliette to have lunch at The Whistle Stop Cafe, one of my very favorite places to be!  I posted on Facebook that I was going to see Idgie and Ruth and I sure did!  I even have photographic proof.  :)   I love these sweet girls!!

After we had a plate of those famous tomatoes, we had a pulled pork (or is it??) dinner plate with sides, cornbread and sweet tea.
  

We got there about an hour and a half after they opened and they were sooooo busy!  They always are, though.  We ate at the counter rather than wait for a booth and I'm so glad we did.  I'd never eaten at the counter before, in all the times I've been to The Whistle Stop, and I found that I actually preferred it.  The atmosphere is so much better.  

This plaque was right where we sat.  I'd never even seen it before and I've been up there at least a dozen times.  The tea was sweeter and the tomatoes were the best they have EVER been.  I took a few to Rhiana and Baby Charlotte.  They enjoyed them, too.  :)

I took a few pictures of Larry while we walked around.  This was his first trip to The Whistle Stop and I tried to show him everything.  Here he is at Big George's smoker grill.  I love how they're trying to keep everything the same.  It's been 24 years since the movie crew left and so much of McCrackin Street is exactly the same.

Here's Big George doin' his thang back then.

 This is how he does it now.  :)

We stopped by to see old Smokey Lonesome, too.

Larry tried to see whose mouth was bigger. The donkey barely won.

We took back roads into Atlanta since we had the dresser on the back of the truck and that was soooo nice.  The sun was shining, we had a beautiful view of blue sky and green everything around us and we just enjoyed the drive.  It took a little longer and the girls were getting antsy by the time we finally got there.  We had a great visit full of hugs and giggles, got home late so we've had a very lazy day today.  Unmade bed, pancakes for breakfast, pajamas until the afternoon, a pretty relaxed, awesome day.  :)

We hit a few yard sales on our way out of town here yesterday and I stayed in the truck while Larry checked them out.  We struck gold at one of them!  Literal Pyrex Gold for a DOLLAR.  75+ old rock and country albums for $12 and a 1964 Milton Bradley Password game for two dollars.  This casserole is a pattern I'd never seen before!  Golden Honeysuckle.  Just in time for summer!  Pyrex made this beauty sometime between 1962-63.  It's older than me!  (Oh yeah, Larry put me up a clothesline, too!!  Yay!!)

We put this up over our back door today.  I just love it.

When peace like a river attendeth my way

When sorrows like sea billows roll

Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to know

It is well, it is well with my soul

(Horatio Spafford)

Fort Benning Revisited

On the way!  We thought this view was beautiful!

Warning:  Picture Overload!

We had a day full of sunshine, fun and thrifting yesterday.  We drove over to Columbus so Larry could look for some Army patches.  We stopped at Commando Military Supply and their Discount Surplus store next door, Ranger Joe's and Columbus Armory before heading over to Fort Benning, where we got on base using our ID cards from Robins.  I've never tried to get on another base before and it was so easy!  Have a blessed day!  Ha!  Fort Benning is a huge, beautiful base and we just drove around looking at everything.  That place has really changed since Larry was there for Engineer School in 1970!  Here are some pictures I took!

 

We went back over to Columbus to check out Front Porch of the South because their web site claims to be the south's largest antique mall.  It was large, true enough (130,000 square feet!), but it was full of junk.  I was so disappointed!  Most of the stuff was 80's and 90's stuff, not at all vintage or "antique".  I was mostly bummed at their lack of Pyrex.  We saw maybe 15 pieces total and my goal yesterday was to find a pattern I don't already have and preferably have never even seen before.  Most of the patterns we saw, you see everywhere and I already own a piece (or three!).  I FINALLY lucked up as we were about to leave.  We walked the entire mall in about two hours.  It's huge but there are a lot of empty spaces that are not being used.  

I found a white and blue Horizon 1 1/2 quart casserole...

 

...and a Federal Glass black and gold Starburst baking dish.

Both designs I'd never even seen before.  I also picked up a Pyrex yellow fridgie with lid...

...and a FireKing Meadow custard cup.  I think ramekins and little custard cups are my favorite!

I took a few pictures inside the mall.  I just loved this little life-size Simon!

 Come on, Crystal.  Make up your mind.  Are they brown or are they blue??

This little lady made me happy just looking at her.  She wasn't for sale, though. Good thing because I probably would have bought her and put her in my bathroom.

 Amazing old doctor's buggy!!  I immediately thought, "Doc Baker!"  :)  $2,350

Awesome! :)

This was my favorite thing I saw all day.  A copy of The Beatles Abbey Road cut into a peace sign.  Be still, my heart.  I was totally offended at first, thought what a sacrilege it was to cut up Abbey Road but when I saw the deep scratch all the way across, I calmed down.  That's cool.  Somebody gave it new life!  And then we brought it home and hung it on our wall.  :)

On the way home, we stopped in Box Springs to take a picture of this, an old Marion County fire truck holding up a flashing sign.  We just thought that was hilarious and an awesome way to reuse and repurpose!  As soon as I stepped out of the truck to take this picture, though, as soon as my foot touched the ground, I stepped on a snake!!!  I screamed and jumped back in the truck, slamming the door behind me and Larry's looking at me like I'd lost every bit of what little bitty mind I had left.  I said, "Snake!!  There's a snake!!" and he just laughed and laughed.  He leaned over to see but the snake was long gone by then.  I scared that little guy a whole lot more than he scared me!  Then Larry goes, "You gonna take the picture??"  I just love that man.  He keeps me laughing.
 

 

We stopped in Reynolds looking for ice cream and found yet another antique/junk store.  Now this one was slap full of treasures!  From a 1959 jukebox that still works (he played it for us!) to a vintage pink toy goldfish hanging on a hook near the bathroom, they had it all.  And the smell.  Oh, the smell.  Larry and I have grown to LOVE that old, vintage store smell.  Smells better than roses to us!  We bought a very old clear Pyrex bowl in there that dates to sometime between 1926-1948, an old iron clock, a groovy orange floral pedestal coffee mug, a cast iron trivet and, oh yeah, that goldfish. 

We saw some paragliders near Fort Valley that we stopped to watch. 

And a beat up old barn and truck that reminded me too much of Jeepers Creepers but Larry still made me get out and take pictures.

We had a wonderful day!!  The best part of it was just being together exploring the countryside.  We came a long, long way to get to this life and we sure are enjoying it!

Peaches to the Beaches!

We didn't see no peaches and we didn't see no beaches (dang it!) but we saw just about everything else!

We went to the Peaches To The Beaches yard sale yesterday, Georgia's largest yard sale, starting up in Barnesville and ending at the ocean in Brunswick.  We had big plans to make it all the way to the beach but there was just SO MUCH to look at.  We started in Perry and only made it to McRae.  And we were exhausted!  We'll have to be much more selective next year if we want to make it all the way.  Or start Friday and go halfway each day or something.  There was a booth or table nearly every five feet!  And the official vendor sites had hundreds of booths and tables.  It quickly became really overwhelming and too much to see.  I had no idea this had gotten so big.  My friend Donna and I went in 2003, the first year it started, and it was waaaaay smaller and a lot more manageable.

We had a blast, though, as usual!  What was really funny is how we kept running into my friend, Debbie, and her husband, Jerome.  I said it's because Deb and I are kindred spirits and we're both after the same things!  It was really hilarious.  We ran into Lisa and Bryan Hudson, too, twice.  Out of those thousands and thousands of people, I thought it was pretty awesome to run into folks we knew. 

We saw some really cool stuff!
  

This poor baby was walking around strutting, not even aware (or maybe he didn't care!) that he was missing most of his tail feathers!  :)

It's not every day that you see this!
 

This was my lunch.  The best pulled pork sandwich I have ever had.  Plus mac and cheese, potato salad and cold Mountain Dew.  After hours of walking and looking, this thing hit the spot!

We started out a little cool, rainy and foggy but the afternoon turned into this!  80 degrees and absolutely gorgeous.  I had to get a picture of this old Dairy Queen sign.  He sure does!

 

I've been wanting a 1960's two-tier table forever.  Like the ones Mama and Daddy used to have as their nightstands.  We found TWO yesterday!  Got the first one for $10 and then found the second one for just $11.  I couldn't leave it behind.  We also found a yellow rotary phone, another thing I've been looking for for a long time.  Not necessarily yellow, that was just a bonus.  All I've seen up to now are black ones and none for less than $40.  This one was only $17!

This adorable little cow creamer has a funny story.  This one is the third one I saw yesterday.  I've never seen this style before.  I saw one at a yard sale and I passed her by, I saw one at a church sale and again, I left her there.  We were at an antique store in McRae and I looked up and on the top shelf was this one looking at me and smiling.  I told Larry that was it.  "That's the THIRD one I've seen today.  I'm getting it."  So she's here now.  :)

  

We found a complete blow mold nativity set at a yard sale and a Santa at a church sale, some grapevine reindeer for the yard, a few pieces of Pyrex, some adorable Easter and Christmas draft stoppers, a 1968 Empire blow mold Santa that I got at an estate sale along the way (for 17 cents!), a gravy boat that matches my Christmas china (for $1 at a church sale!), a pair of jeans for me, a couple of ball caps for Larry, patches, pins, team pennants, a Vietnam era Army helmet that we bought to resell and a bunch of other stuff I know I'm forgetting.  

We had so much fun visiting each town along the way, talking to folks and finding things we couldn't live without.  I get asked sometimes what we DO with this stuff we find.  We have a bigger house now!  Ha!  Seriously, I put things on a rotation, bringing things out, packing other stuff up for a while.  That's the only way you can do it without living in clutter and chaos.  Lucky for us, we have two attics now!  :)

Calendula Dreams: Two Weeks!

Here are my little calendula plants at two weeks old.  They gettin' big!!

Beautiful Sunday!

We have been outside all afternoon, enjoying this gorgeous, sunny weather.  It's 71 degrees right now, blue sky, bright sun.  I am absolutely beside myself.  :)

We Easter-decorated a little outside, too, since I'm just about done with the inside.  That little tea cart won't hold no more!  So now it's time to start on the yard. 

This little bunny was light pink and rusty from age and exposure so we gave him a fresh outlook on life today and painted him white!  I think he looks great.  I bought him my first Easter at the condo so he's about twelve years old.   He looks so much better white!

Larry got this little bunny windsock at a yard sale for a dollar.  :)

And we made an egg tree!  I love how the wind was blowing them when I took this picture.

I was so worried that the cold had gotten the camellias but the bushes are full of sweet little buds just like this one.

We switched back to Daylight Saving Time this weekend so I hope we've had our last cold snap for the year.  We got things to do!!  We have plans to (finally!) get this house pressure washed, paint the shutters and plant some stuff!!