Eli, The Patient

He may look grouchy here....but believe me...he is feeling much better today than he has been. Eli has had "stiff" legs from time to time. The vets have checked him and he has never acted like he had any pain. He has been better in the last year. Then suddenly about 2 weeks ago he could hardly walk. So a trip to the vet was in order. His bloodwork came back normal and he did not get any worse. He just was not happy. He walked in baby steps, head down, did not play with toys. He did not miss any meals. But we were worried! Then Sunday night he began to whine, turned down food, and his ears and tail were down. I spent most of the night on the kitchen floor with him. Monday morning it was back to the vet. X-rays and meds and 2 days at the vet. He probably has a bruised disc and will require bed rest and meds for 2 weeks. He feels 100% better.

He is playing with his "babies" and walking so much better!

Our pockets are empty but the curl in this wagging tail is priceless!

Thrifty Thursday -Merry Christmas!

My yard sales, estate sales and thrift stores this week have all had a theme... Vintage Christmas! This must be the time of year to start collecting these cuties! I wish I could find the room to keep them all but, my house already could qualify for the "Hoarders" TV shows!

Found these three cuties out in the country at a little church yard sale...

From the thrift store came Frosty...

And this Santa mug with tiny vintage balls....

Some of these also came from my favorite thrift store.... I love the details of these teeny vintage wooden ornaments- that piano is so cute!

And look at that clock!

I think this one came from an estate sale.....

Most of these angels came from an estate sale....

Of course I want to keep them all but Hubby says they are destined for ebay and etsy...What will I sneak away? Well, this little angel is broken so I will give her a home...she is missing a bird but that does not bother me!

But my favorite thing this week is this baby angel found at that same little church sale!

After I got her home I found that she had been passed down a family.....

1947 to 1968 to 2001.... She will be at home here for as long as I'm around!!!

So now I'm off to what other thrifty treasures are turning up at Leigh's Thrifty Thursday!

Thrifty Thursday -Back to School

I have not changed the tabletops in our hall since Spring! So I decided this week to make it my goal. To be thrifty I only spent $.80 and shopped my house and storage for vintage school items. In the hall I have an antique library table- a good place to begin.

I found teacher's plan book from 1907 - and NO- I was not teaching then.....

An old advertisement for school shoes, some old books, and an apple paperweight (which was a gift from a student of mine.)

Blue Horse Composition book- I do remember these from the 60's

My Hubby made these bookends for me -they always sat on my desk.

Old school photo from an estate sale...

The other side of the hall-

The Cranky Queen showed some eye glasses cases she made from old neckties this week-this is a pillow I made from ties...

I used a bunch of old encyclopedias to elevate things and make it more interesting-

Chalkboard tray-

My $2 typewriter, some globes found last year at Goodwill and another estate sale school picture.. The only $$$ I spent this week is for the new crayons I put in the glass jar! How I always loved the smell of new crayons at the start of the new school year!!

I'll be linking up to the party at Bloggeritaville for Thrifty Thursday!

World's Longest Yard Sale

The World's Longest Yard Sale runs from Michigan to Gadsden, Alabama in August. At the last minute my Hubby and I decided to take a couple of days and see how far we could get. Since I had done this once before with a girlfriend I knew there was a little town, Mentone, that is a good rest stop. We made some reservations at 2 different Bed and Breakfast since things were booked up at this late date!

We drove up Wednesday night to stay at the Mentone Springs Hotel. It was built in the 1880's.

We had a small room with a fireplace and a shared bathroom- which turned out OK since we only had to share it with one other couple. We had a huge breakfast (steak, grits, eggs, biscuits) on the wrap around porch.

We headed up to Lookout Mountain, but the yard sales were few and far between.

It picked up a little after Chattanooga but rain and getting lost wore us out. We decided to turn back to Mentone where we were spending the night at Crystal Lake Lodge.

We were so tired that we fell asleep before dark and slept to the sun was up in the morning!

Our room was the "Forest Room"- it was huge. The bathroom was so cute. It had an outhouse and a waterfall shower.

It was like being at Disney World!

Breakfast was wonderful- pancakes, bacon, coffee cake, fresh fruit grown on the farm. We will be going back- there was a lot to see- llamas, a fishing pond, trails- but we were off on the treasure hunt-

This is going to keep us busy on ebay and etsy for a while!!!!

Thrifty Thursday

I am not sure how thrifty this pumpkin pillow really is! In theory it is thrifty- in reality ...I have a lot invested in it! It started a year ago at the Country Living Fair where I saw them and knew I wanted to make one. So the idea was costly...3 days at the Fair.....$$$$$

I have a room full of fabric scraps so finding some in fall colors should not have been difficult...the stress of tackling the mountain of fabric....not to mention the time involved....$$$$$

I finally found two patterns I liked, cut 3 panels out of each. It took longer to sew them up than I thought it would and took a lot more stuffing than I thought it would!!! $$$$$$$

The stem and leaf are made from felted wool sweaters. I have plenty of brown but am almost out of green. Spent a couple more hours at the thrift stores looking for another green wool sweater....$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Am thinking about adding some of these to my Etsy store......I figure this first one only cost me about $350.00 to make! And people wonder why handmade things are not always thrifty!!!

I'll be linking up with Leigh's Thrifty Thursday .