Thankful Thursday

Tomorrow, Rhondi is hosting a Thankful Thursday. I think this is a nice way to re-connect to our inner selves and think about what we are thankful for. I am posting mine now because I will be at work tomorrow. Please go visit Rhondi's blog to see the participants. Thanks Rhondi for hosting this.
I consider myself blessed. I have a family which is in good health, and my kids seem to be going in the right direction.

I am also thankful for rain and sun. My garden beds are extra nice this summer. I am sharing pictures of my dahlias. I love the redness of this one below, deep red; the tubers were given to me by my boss last spring. Feel free to click at images to enlarge.


This one is a dinner-size dahlia... it is about 8 inches in diameter. I have these in whites and yellows. The yellows are slow bloomers ... the buds are still tight.



I love this one too; variegated orange. I should try to find the catalog where I bought this; I think this is called Mrs. Eileen, not sure.


This one is variegated purple. I used to have only one of these, but they multiply every year, so now I have more than a dozen. This is it for now folks. I wish I had more time to think but it's past 11pm and a girl has to go to work tomorrow. Hope you enjoyed looking at the pictures ... they are all a part of God's creation and we have Him to thank for!

Moving Sale

Last weekend I helped price stuff for a friend's moving sale. He is a Pastor and is moving to Chicago to be near his sons. Well, I'm not really sure if it was a good idea, going to help, because I ended up buying a lot of the stuff. One of them is the milk glass pitcher pictured above. It goes with the flower vase that I already have. For those of you who do not know me, I collect milk glass ... and what's a girl to do, lol ... I can't just have somebody else buy it. (click images to enlarge if you want to)



Then one of the ladies (Gail) who was spearheading the moving sale, showed me the sweet green pepper shaped cookie jar with a McCoy marking at the bottom, a McCoy ...in perfect condition, for only $5.00?! ... hmmm, I can't let that go either! lol and the lamp was only $10.00, the silver bowl - $2.00? ... can't remember.



And I also bought the above linens which included an embroidered table runner, eight placemats or maybe napkins, crocheted doily (?) and 2 more napkins, for a total of $5.50! Can't beat that either! :)


BUT here's my best buy! A 40 piece set of Limoges china for only $50.00!!! I think that was a steal! I did not notice the markings at first until the next day when I went back to help set them up on the porch. There was a lot of good stuff like more lamps, end tables and plant stands. I bought a few of those and a baker's rack, but my goodness, where will I put them in our house? Russ (Gail's husband who was also helping) jokingly suggested that I kick my husband out to make more room! lol Our friend (the Pastor) asked if I could leave the furniture until he moves in September, which was fine with me. I shouldn't go to sales like these... I just can't pass up a good buy. And oh yes, my friend Gail is as bad as I am, :) ... she bought a lot too.

Glider Project

As promised and mentioned in my older post, we have this "ancient" glider that I planned to refinish. And we finally did it this past weekend. It was a family project, hubby and our son carried it to our backyard and me and my daughter sanded and painted it as you can see below.


And thanks to the magic of digital camera, here's what it looks like after it was painted. Funny, because when you're in the store you'd pick a color that you think you would like but once you apply it, it looks different from what you thought. I thought of painting it white but my husband discouraged me from it ... said rust will show more on white paint. Oh well, it still looks much better than before.


We carried it back to where it belonged ... our front porch. I am not real happy with the cushion, but since we were late buying cushions, all the nice designs and colors were gone. I'll see what I can do next summer.


And here's the other end of our front porch. I prefer sitting here now than our deck since porches have roofs and decks do not. It is so relaxing just to sit and read or just watch cars go by. Also, my plants in front are just starting to bloom so I'm enjoying them too.
Ok, one project down ... now if only I can make the kids wash our windows, I'll be a happy camper! lol