Poor Blog....Stress = Repurpose & Organize

Poor Blog....so many things I want to write, however the wrath of the IRS continues =( it is relentless and even tho we prove everything they are not accepting it....so needless to say our tax accountant is digging in and words like appeal and litigation are starting to be part of our daily discussions....when we are talking as the stress is getting to both of us and we have had many 'silent' days where we don't want to speak as it would not be pretty....if you know what I mean...in addition Steve lost his Aunt and 12 days later his Uncle....his back is bad and both our jobs are very demanding right now.....I find in my life when chaos reigns I have to organize anything, something!

I have been saving special cards for years in a tupperware container under my bed. I just can't part with these and feel that they are not appreciated in a box under my bed so I finally came up with an idea to organize them with....

Michaels had these 'binder rings' 6 to a package for $2.99, less 40 percent off = great deal. I bought several packages.

Then I hold punched the upper left hand corner of the card and put them on the ring.

Here is a basket full and I am still not done! Had to take a break to watch the boys Friday night and take them to soccer Saturday, so some errands and help Kristen with her H'ween party last night and plan Steve's bday dinner tonight here....moved our bedroom furniture to the fall configuration and dusted and cleaned, did laundry and ran some errands.

I think when I have them all punched and in clips I may go back thru and sort some by categories. When I have the finals then I will put them in my office and leaf thru them from time to time. I even think this is a great idea to take to nursing homes (as long as the cards do not contain anything personal). I found several birthday cards from Steve's mom and dad to him (they passed away years ago) so I tucked those inside his gift bags for a special treat.

Spooktacular 2011

The spookiness of our house this Halloween...gotta say I am not feeling the love this year but going thru the motions.

2nd Annual Spoon River in a Box = Delightful!

My incredibly sweet and thoughtful cousin Biz that lives in Illinois sent me a 'Second Annual Spoon River in a Box' that arrived yesterday.....each and every bit of thoughtfulness is loved and appreciated.....I wrote before about Spoon River, a fall event in Southern Illinois where all these little towns near the river on the same weekend hold festivals and people drive on several different routes enjoying shopping and eating and the beauty of the fall colors and goodies for sale and enjoy seeing friends and the crisp lovely feeling of fall.....you see Amish young people meeting up and Quaker ladies selling beautiful mums and elders that carve walking sticks, farmer that bring trailer full of colorful gourds and each stop has their own food special and they are all good! How Biz can capture all that in a box and send it to me amazes me, but when I open it I can see it, feel it and share it with her.....I was lucky enough once to go with her and I hope next year I can be right beside her to share this together!

This years box: The most precious bunch of Bittersweet, an incredible hand painted square by a local artist, Kettle Corn from the Shed (Steve made quick work of this!), Pecan Brittle from the sweet ladies at the Methodist Church, a huge Sycamore leaf from the banks of the Spoon River at one of my most favorite stops (Bernadotte), a corn husk, an incredible quilted square, most likely done by some Amish lady, and two most adorable hand painted ornamental pumpkins from Bishop Hills for my boys....

Close up of the bittersweet - I just love this....bittersweet represents 'truth' and that is why I named my Blog after it....in Victorian times the children would bring it to their teachers once the 1st frost turned the little buds to this beautiful crimson...it just makes you feel good to look at it!

Close up of the hand painted ornamental pumpkins, so much detail, ghosts, witches, trees, cats - what a talent!






So I put the leaf and the corn husk into my fall table centerpiece

....and this lovely bunch of bittersweet on my fireplace grate

The quilt square goes perfectly on my grandmothers dresser in the guest room with my cranberry glass!

THANK YOU BIZ - you are so thoughtful, so kind and I miss you so much. You touched my heart and brought so many wonderful memories fresh to my mind. I so appreciate your random acts of kindness. I hope everyone has a cousin/friend like you.

Sisters of the New South do Savannah!

So.....one of my besties invited me to meet her in Savannah....she used to live in SD and we have traveled together all over the world and had some wonderful trips....she lives near West Palm Beach and offered to drive to Savannah and pick me up....who was I to say no?

had been awhile since I had been in the 'Deep South"....I love the South, however, I forget certain *charms*. This was the kind of trip where we would look over to side of the road and if we wanted to stop we did....this place was a swap meet at the Beer Pond - all men go to the Beer Pond for $1.50 pitcher of beers and these storage units are filled with indoor swap meet stuff that the ladies shop at....I don't judge, I only observe....

When you are in the South it is all about the food....here is one of our fine breakfasts, me: the patty melt with sweet potato fries; Tracy had the scrambled eggs, bacon , hash brown and biscuits.

We stayed at the beautiful and delicious Amelia Island Omni Plantation in an incredible villa....the nightly rate was a whopping $350.00; however, due to the many power outages because of a tropical storm warning we negotiated a rate of $92.00....sweet...it had a full kitchen which we never used, a lovely living room, a balcony overlooking the surf and a huge bedroom with 2 king beds......luxury!

We also went to the famous Tybee Island - they were having a Pirate Festival and many of the locals dressed like this......very professional pirates....we loved the lighthouse there! They say Tybee Island is a drinking town with a fishing problem :)

Of course we stopped at Cracker Barrel....we had to play the peg game, Sorry Tracy, I am ''brilliant" according the the pegs and you are a 'dimwit'....love you anyway.

Savannah has incredible historical homes filled with antiques like this lovely.....mmmmmm















And if you go to Savannah you must visit the Bonaventure Cemetery...it is incredible, large trees with Spanish moss and the most unique cemetery stones....from back to the Civil War! We kept thinking this would be the most fantastic place for a Halloween Party!!!













Comfort food at SoHo South Cafe....yum.....best of both worlds, food and art!

The museum in Savannah.....'Midnight at the Garden of Good and Evil' based here....
love that book and movie~have you read/seen it......it really happened!

Such cute kitchen shops near City Market....one of the towels said 'Happy Fall Y'All! I got a 10% discount for wearing Leopard - my kind of shop!












Tracy and I at Macks, cate te corner from Paula Deens - a real 5 & 10.....it was like stepping back in time, I LOVED it.











.....more fun shops

City Market.....beautiful and fun...yes those are fresh Pralines....and had so much fun in the Junk/Antique shop
















I would have purchased this church window, but hard to put in carry on on Continental! I loved pilfering thru all the junk and found this cast iron english springer spaniel door stopper for a price I could not refuse!

How cute is this "True Grits!'


















The lovely Savannah Waterfront....













Loved the architecture and the squares......I should live in the South sometime

Yummy comfort good...lima beans over rice; fried chicken, mac & cheese and cornbread!




Tracy had the fried chicken, lima beans, okra and sweet pods....





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Loved the service!

Awwwwww Savanah....I will come see you again!