Barbed wire and roses...

Tonight I am sitting in bed trying to catch up on all of my sweet blogging friends. I haven't felt good at all today. The weather is getting bad and my body is hurting. My skin burns all over and my arms and legs hurt really bad too. I found this photo in my mom's box of pictures a few days ago. My step-dad took it years ago for my mom. The roses were growing along side her fence. They were so pretty and the barbed wire behind them made such a good picture. It's kind of like how I'm feeling tonight. Me ...the southern rose and the barbed wire causing me pain. I don't mean to complain on my blog but sometimes it makes me feel better to let it out. I wish the pain would just give me a break sometimes. I will not let it get the best of me though! I know that there are so many people out there with more serious ailments than mine and I feel for them. Tomorrow will be a better day! I think that I will soak in a bathtub of hot water and listen to my playlist and relax. The song that I am playing now gives me comfort. The words are beautiful to me.

A gift for my sister...

These pictures were taken in Louisiana at my sister's a few nights ago. We had so much fun together. We hadn't laughed that much in a while!

We plan to visit more often and spend good quality time together. I've been to see her once since then already. They had a little get together at their house. I wasn't feeling too well but I went anyway and I am glad that I did.

I surprised her with some dishes! I've had them for 4 or 5 years and I only used them one time and that was for Thanksgiving one year. I thought that they would look beautiful in her home. She inherited the china hutch and buffet from our great Aunt and Uncle. (I got the table and chairs). Don't they look pretty in here! She has a red accent wall in her dining room and it looks perfect in here.

Melinda arranging her dishes. She loves them and still have 2 more place settings to give her so she will have 8 in all. I'm glad that she likes them and I hope that she will use them more than I did. I'm trying to downsize some things in my little cottage. I'm also planning on using the things that I have and not just storing them.

Isn't this china cabinet pretty? I'm glad that you like it Melinda. Enjoy!!

Beautiful old house

Look at this beautiful house that is for sale in my hometown! It is on the same block as my dad's house. The backyards almost connect with each other. This house was built in 1900. It has 6 bedrooms and 2 parlors. A huge kitchen and a butler's pantry. A dining room and a sun porch. Several bathrooms.

It has beautiful stained glass windows and large wrap around porches upstairs and downstairs. Beautiful mantles...6 or 8 of them.

This is the side and back view. It has around 5000 square feet. I could just see myself decorating this whole entire house! It needs some work but it is in pretty good shape. It would make a wonderful restaurant/ beautiful bed and breakfast. It even has a vacant lot next to it that could be made into a parking lot.

This is the back of he house. It has a huge backyard and on the property is a small house that is said to be one of the first houses in my town. That is why no one has ever torn it down. I just love hearing the history of old houses. In this big old house a dentist use to live here and practice out of his home in the old days. There is a sink in each bedroom.

I would have to fix this little house for my 'potting shed' to keep flower pots, tools, etc. The yard is huge and could be a beautiful garden. It is so nice to have dreams! My friends tell me that I should go into real estate because I love old houses so much. I really do love this one. 5000 sg.ft. of old southern charm for the asking price of $145,000.00. Oh I wish... I wish!

Our 'fun' day together

This is my little sister, Melinda. We had such a great time together yesterday. We went out to eat at Brady's in Hammond, La and we went shopping and caught up on each other's lives. It had been so long since we had done this. I wanted to take this picture of her in front of this neat truck that was parked outside of the restaurant. I thought it was so cool and it even matched her purse! She was afraid that the owner of the truck was gonna come out and say something to us about taking a picture in front of it! I told her that if they didn't want their truck to be noticed and admired, they should not have painted it to look like a Zebra!! Can you imagine driving around in that?

I ordered a salad and New Orleans Barbecue Shrimp. It was so good! I had to take a picture for y'all. It was a bit spicy and I couldn't eat it all because I had eaten all of my salad. She ordered fried shrimp and I ate one and it was delicious too. We both love to eat shrimp!

That looks like a cigarette in my hand but believe me it is not! It is my straw in my drink! I hate cigarettes and I have never tried to smoke one before and never will. We had the waitress take this picture of us.

This was a very good place to eat and it was my first time to eat there.

I would love to go back again. I bet it is very pretty at night time.

I tried to take a picture of us outside of a really neat furniture store...but all I could get was part of our faces! LOL Melinda doesn't think that I will put this picture on here...surprise! LOL

This one turned out a little bit better. My arms are not very long so it was hard to see if I was getting it right!

A lady stopped to help us. She snapped a picture for us. Look a that beautiful brick building behind us. I thought it was so shabby!

Well...we had to go and visit our favorite boutique! We love going to the Goodwill! We have so much fun in there and we find some really neat things in there. I ALWAYS do! This one was in Covington, La. and it took us a while to find it but it was worth it! I bought a pretty little sofa with a chaise on one end of it. Of course I will have to have it recovered in the perfect shabby fabric one day. I will be on the look out for some pretty, durable, fabric. It was made really well and I got it for a great price! The only thing is...we didn't have a way to get it home! So now I have to go back and get it in a few days! LOL ...I can shop, again!

This is the Goodwill that we always go to in Hammond, La. We both found some great deals. I bought a few things for my Vendor's booth and a few things for me to work on for my little cottage. I will post about them soon. I already took a few things to the booth today after work. We had such a good time together. We tried to do so much in such a short time! We didn't get to go to our other favorite store...Hobby Lobby. (Mom calls it Hollie Hobby) LOL We plan to get together more often from now on.

me and my little sister

I've decided that I need to spend more time with the people in my life that mean the most to me. So many things have happened in the last few weeks that have really opened up my eyes. Life is more than just ...Work. Life is just too short to let it pass by so quickly without sharing it with your friends and family. My sister and I keep trying to get together and haven't been able to since Christmas! Here we are already in February! Tomorrow is my day off and I plan to go and visit her. If she can't get off work maybe we can at least go out to eat lunch together. We need to spend time together. I miss her. This picture was taken a few years ago at at tea-party at her church. Everyone was asked to bring a teacup and saucer that you could exchange with the other ladies. They numbered each cup and everyone picked a number out of a box and that was the teacup that you got and the prayer partner you would have for that year. Wasn't that a good idea?

Memories of a Valentine Tea Party

Hello...everyone. I was going through some old photos and found these from a Valentine party that my cousin Angie had a few years ago. It really was more like a tea party. We had so much fun. This is the invitation that she made. Angie, me, and Aunt Jenny. (Angie's mom) There was an oval framed picture behind me on the wall. It makes my head look like I have a huge wig on! LOL

This is Angie's best friend...Leslie. She is a lot of fun!

Me and Angie. She has such a beautiful voice. I love to hear her sing! I directed her wedding a few years ago and she pre-recorded a song to her husband and had it played at the wedding. She wanted to sing it to him herself live...but she was afraid that she would start crying. It was beautiful.

Aunt Jenny sitting all pretty with her Valentine 'happy'. We all exchanged gifts. We had a ball.

Angie, Leslie, and Aunt Jenny.

Me and Aunt Jenny. We have had a lot of fun together. She is my daddy's sister.

This is the pretty table that she had set for us. It was so pretty. Thank you for stopping by and sharing these memories with me. I plan on making many more sweet memories this year with the ones that are dear to me.

Special Valentine's Day

I wanted to share a few of my Valentine pictures with you from last night. My friend Stevie took me out to eat at a sweet little restaurant in Wesson,Ms. That is about 40 minutes from my house. It was so beautiful. I took a lot of pictures! LOL I would've taken more but people started looking at me funny, so I stopped. LOL

The name of it is 'Porches'. It is in a very old house and this is a picture of the side porch that they had enclosed for dining. To the left is a pretty little courtyard.

I'm glad that we decided to go. We almost didn't. Stevie had some bad news that morning about a friend of his. I told him to cancel the reservations but he still wanted to go. His friend had passed away in a car accident the night before. Please everyone pray for Stevie as he grieves for his friend. I only met the man one time but had talked to him several times on the phone. He was a very sweet and giving man. A couple of nights before my son left, he and his wife took me, Stevie, Cole, and Garrett out to eat. His wife was in the wreck with him and she didn't get hurt. Their son had just gotten out of the hospital a couple of weeks ago. He had to have heart surgery and he is only 26 years old. Please pray for his wife Anita. She needs all of our prayers.

This is the courtyard. It was so much prettier in person.

Well...I have a new favorite flower. We call them 'old folk's flowers'. I just found out last week when I took the 'What kind of flower are you' quiz, that I am a daffodil. I was shocked to see that they had daffodils on the tables. It made me smile.

This was a picture that someone had painted of 'Porches'. It was hanging above our table.

I even took pictures of the menu!! Stevie had prime rib and I had a shrimp pasta dish that was so delicious! I'm starting my diet today...so I pigged out last night!

Sweet Stevie has been such a good friend to me.

I know that we won't ever lose the special feelings that we have for one another.

This was the closed in porch. Look at that mosaic water fountain on the wall. I loved it. It has roses on it.

I loved this porch swing also. Click on the picture to make it larger and you can see all of the detail of the painted roses on it. I want one of these for my little cottage.

This is me...sad to leave this beautiful place. We will be going back again! I want to go in the daytime and take pictures of the outside grounds. Maybe for my birthday in April.

They still had some Christmas decorations out...just like me! LOL

So pretty!!

The gift shop had so many beautiful things. I was afraid to take pictures in there. One day...I might.

Thanks Stevie for taking me there for Valentine's day. It was very special.

I hope that I didn't bore y'all with so many pictures. I just loved it. I hope you all had a Happy Valentine's Day!