Treasure Finds.

I'm a bargain shopper ... I love finding a deal.

I guess that's why I ♥ yard sales so much.

When Bonnie, Jerome and I went to yard sales when we were in Florida, I found some really amazing deals.

I spent $6.25 and walked away with these treasures ...


$2.00 ~ this is my favorite find of the day. My daddy used to have one of these cracker tins in his kitchen. I'll be honest, I did not like it when I lived it home. I thought it was old and ugly. I will tell you as soon as I saw it at the yard sale ... I *had* to have it because it reminded me so much of my Daddy. It now sits proudly in my kitchen.


$1.00 ~ another great find. The children's book "America A Patriotic Primer" by Lynne Cheney. Only a dollar ... and it's even autographed!


Yes ... that's right ... an autographed copy of Lynne Cheney's children's book for only a buck!


$1.00 ~ you may recall this little wooden chair. I thought it was adorable the second I layed my eyes on it. This is the one Bonnie & Jerome "John Deere'd" up for Griffin. You can read about that here.

$2.25 ~ three movies
Finding Nemo, Shrek 2 and Ice Age. I think this is the *best* money I've ever spent. They were only $.75 each. Griffin has watched Finding Nemo almost every day since we've been home.

Finding a treasure at a really great price is such fun. I'm always on the lookout for the next great yard sale.

Speaking of yard sales ... some ladies from my mommy group are planning a multi-family yard sale on June 6th right here in our area. I will be participating again this year. If you would like information about when, where and how to get there just email me at mgmh@aol.com!!

Wall-E And Eva.

When we were in Florida, you may recall we went to Downtown Disney and Griffin was very happy to be able to bring his favorite movie character Wall-E home with him.

If you have ever seen the movie, you know the other main character is Eva. Of course Griffin wanted Eva too, but at the time we decided to just get Wall-E. He asked every single day if he could have Eva.

Seriously ... what is Wall-E without Eva?

So ... when we went to Disney World, the last store we stopped in had a huge Eva display. He asked so very sweetly and he had been such a good boy all day long ... well ... Eva found her way home with us too.



Wall-E ... $89.00



Eva ... $39.00



A very special friendship ... PRICELESS!

These little robots are amazing. They interact with each other ... it's pretty cool how they do that.

Griffin loves them and plays with them all the time.

It was a good decision.

Wordless Wednesday.

Poplar Tree Blossoms.

We have this tree in our yard, we think it's a poplar tree.

Come springtime it has the most beautiful flowers bloom on it.


I took this picture of the tree this morning ... it's pretty misty outside, so it's not the best of pictures.


Isn't this just the prettiest flower? It's bright yellow with orange highlights on it.

We've never seen anything like it ...


And a closer look at the blossom ...

Can anyone confirm this is a poplar tree?

Mother's Day.

When Mike asked me what I wanted to do for Mother's Day I told him I wanted to go to the Air & Space Museum in Washington, DC.

He said everyone would think it was his idea ... but I assure you it was not. It was completely and totally MY idea.

I wanted to do something that all of us would enjoy. We've been to the strawberry patch the past couple of Mother's Days and I think we were all past the point of wanting to go there again. So ... to the Air & Space Museum we went.

We went three years ago and there were many new additions and displays.

I have some wonderful pictures I would like to share, however Blogger keeps timing out on me ... so I'm giving up. For now. I will share them maybe later in the week.

We actually went to the museum on Saturday. It was a rainy, dreary day ... it was a great day to spend inside at the museum. My boys treated me to lunch at MiMi's Cafe and then we stopped by Outback for a delicious steak on the way home for dinner.


The reason I get to celebrate Mother's Day ... my little, sweet man Griffin and me.


I love this picture of Mike and Griffin. That's the Space Shuttle Enterprise in the background. Love the American flag there too.

Sunday was an absolutely gorgeous day.

We started the day with Mike cooking breakfast ... eggs, bacon and good 'ole southern grits. Yummmmm!!!

We did some yard work and some playing under the water hose. While Griffin played outside and Mike worked around the yard doing various things, I did some reading.

Mike made dinner too ... grilled country ribs. They were delicious!

It was truly a peaceful, wonderful Mother's Day.

Missy Made It!

I've been making Tear Bears for over five years now ...

One of my all-time favorite Tear Bears to make is my Monogram Letter Tear Bears.

I haven't made them in a couple of years ... but yesterday I was inspired to make them again!

I have to say ... they are so much fun to make!

Here's a little sample of the ones I've made ...





If anyone is interested in purchasing a custom Monogram Tear Bear with your custom letter and your choice of color please email me at mgmh@aol.com with your request. I would be *happy* to make one for you.

I have most any color you could want ... red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, baby pink, bright pink, baby blue, teal, dark red, dark green, navy, black, dark brown, white, offwhite ...

And as a little bloggy "Mother's Day" *added* bonus I would be happy to include the extra letters to complete the name through Sunday, May 10th. The Monogram Letter is 4", so the extra letters would be about 2" each.




They are only $3.95 each and that includes shipping.

This special offer is good through Sunday, May 10th, 2009.

C'mon ya'll ... keep me busy making some of these sweet Monogram Letter Tear Bears!



I have these and other cute Tear Bears listed in MY EBAY STORE right now.

Cookies.

I love it when Mike cooks ... especially when he bakes cookies!


My sweet husband is a fantastic cook ... and it made my day when he decided to make some cookies the other day.


Piping hot chocolate cookies with white chocolate chunks ... yum!


Uh Oh ... it's the cookie monster ... ready for his share of cookies.

Happy Friday ...

Last Game Of The Season.

Last weekend Griffin's soccer team the "New England Revolution" had their final game of the season.

He really enjoyed playing soccer. He learned many valuable lessons during his time on the team.

Of course the "best" part of the whole season was getting the trophy after the final game ...


Here are our (truly) wonderful coaches presenting Griffin with his soccer medal.


Just look at his face ... he is SO proud ... and SO happy!


Our little soccer star ...


One final picture of Daddy and Griffin in front of the "soccer tree".

We had so much fun as a family participating in this season's soccer games. I'm thinking he will for sure play again in the fall.

Little Blue Bird.

Our bird feeder stays pretty busy with the different variety of birds that visit ... dove, cardinal, bluejay, robin, black birds ... and even more that I can't name. I even saw a woodpecker the other day.

Our hummingbird feeder stays busy too ... although we've had a little bit of a cold spurt the past few days and I haven't seen any hummingbirds out there lately.

I have to admit my favorite daily visitor is this beautiful bright blue bird that pays us a visit right before the sun sets ...


I took this picture through our screened windows, so it's not very clear.

Isn't this bird gorgeous? He's bright blue with a yellow beak and sings THE most beautiful song.

I've tried searching online to see if I can find out what kind of bird it is. I thought it might be either an Eastern Blue Bird or a Mountain Blue Bird, but they both have black beaks. This one has a bright yellow beak.

Is there a bird enthusiast out there that can tell me what kind of bird this is?

I took a picture of a bluejay too ...


See how drab blue the bluejay looks compared to the other blue bird?

I'd just love to know who our little visitor is ...

New Favorite Thing.

I have to share this new favorite thing at our house ...


Blue Bunny's "no sugar added" Peanut Butter Fudge ice cream.

Seriously ... it is SO good!

The best part? It's sweetened with Splenda so that means fewer calories.

Next time you are in the grocery store I highly recommend you pick some up.

It's THAT good!

Mother's Night.

Griffin and I had "date night" at his preschool Mother's Night Friday night.

It was a great time ...

We had a wonderfully delicious dinner ... accompanied by great conversation with our friends ... followed by a fun filled Field Day Game activities.


This is a picture Griffin took of me ...


Griffin with one of his favorite girls, Hannah.


I'll be honest, Griffin was all over the place. He was here, there and everywhere but in his chair eating dinner. But once Hannah sat down with us, he decided to sit still. This is a little artwork Hannah created in Griffin's honor. Thank you Hannah.


One of the highlights of the evening? When I was pushing Griffin on the swing and he said "Mommy stop I wanna do it myself" ... yessssss .... loved that!!


Griffin is showing off the gifts he made for me ... a beautiful piece of artwork and a framed picture of him. The best gifts ever!!

Thank you little man for a great date ...

What A Surprise!

Over the years I've been blessed to make some really great online friends.

As time goes by we sometimes lose touch with those that touch our lives, however we never forget them.

Imagine my surprise when I received a comment on my blog from my sweet long time friend Deb Famularo.

It's been years since we've touched base. I was thrilled!


At one point Deb had an online business called "Button Kisses". She made paper piecings and embellished them with buttons and rhinestones. She was one of the first (if not the absolute first) to do this.

Her designs were cute and delightful.

I borrowed this picture from her blog (hope you don't mind Deb). It's a wonderful mesh of her current style using some of her darling "Button Kisses" designs from the past.

Deb is a doll ... and absolute D.O.L.L.

If you have a moment stop by her very inspiring blog by clicking here

Happy Sunday!

Disney World: This & That

Okay ... so this will be my final Disney World post ... I think.

I'm going to share some random pictures taken throughout the day.


This is Bett (Grandma) in front of Minnie Mouse's house. She was so sick that day. I felt really bad that she didn't feel well. We are glad she came with us and made it through the day.


Tigger and Piglet were walking in the park ...


Here's Griffin in Tomorrowland checking out one of the robots.


I love these Mickey and Minnie topiaries ... would love to have something similar at my house.


Catching a sweet moment with my amazing little boy.


And another sweet moment caught with the love of my life.

Walt Disney World was an absolute joy to visit. I'm so glad we took Griffin. Right now we are enjoying all the wonderful memories from our magical visit.



ps ... do you see a link on the Google Ads (to the right) that you might be interested in? There's some fun scrapbooking and vacation links on there right now.

Our Thursday.

We haven't seen our dear friends Keisha and Darius in far too long.


Yesterday after preschool we met up with them at the YMCA for some swimming fun.

It was great seeing them and catching up ... life just seems to get in the way too often these days to enjoy time with our dear friends.

I have a little story to share with you ... it made me very sad.

The other day when Griffin and I were driving to our little town to attend Mommy & Me we came upon a dog in the middle of the road that had been hit by a car. After I drove past I looked in my rear view mirror and noticed he was wagging his tail.

I put my car in reverse and pulled into one of the drive-ways to see if I could help this dog. I got out of the car to check on him ... but honestly, there was no saving him. It was SO sad. He was wagging his tail ... but way beyond my (or probably anyone else helping him).

I noticed he had a collar with phone numbers on it, so I tried calling both numbers on there to see if I could reach his owner. I thought maybe I could reach the owner and they could at least come down and get him. No one answered either number and I did not leave a message. I just didn't know what to say in a message.

I got back in the car and headed into town once again. I saw a police officer pull into the grocery store, so I pulled in after him to see what he could recommend I do. He told me to call animal control and they would take care of it. I did that. I was torn about calling the owners again last night. I know if something had happened to Wyatt (our dearly departed dalmatian) I would want to know. Mike said animal control had probably already called them.

It was such a sad situation ... out of my control ... I sure wish I could have helped that sweet little dog.

This blog post is going all over the place ...

Now, I would like your input. As you may know I've started this little thing with my scrapbook business I'm calling my "Delightful Daily Deal". At first I thought I would list those right here on this blog. Then I thought ... no ... I'll add them to my paper piecing blog. Now, I'm torn about whether or not I should add them there or here.

What do you think?

Would you like to see my "Delightful Daily Deal" listed here on my personal blog, under the daily personal post. Or would you like to see it on my Paper Piecing blog? Your opinion matters.

Hope you have a great day.