Cotton the warrior

Photo by Meredith.

This is Cotton, my Mom's 18 pound Westie. 

He is growing old and well, quite frankly, pretty grumpy most of the time.  No matter how old this dog is, he will always be the number 1 warrior in our household.  How do I know this?  Over Christmas weekend, Cotton and Thomas, my sister's dog, got a little too close and butted heads.  No permanent damage was done to either dog, but I have to admit I was pretty impressed with this 12 year old (maybe older?) scrapper.



Photo by my sister.



This is Thomas, he is a 60 pound beaglador (beagle - Labrador mix).

Happy Thanksgiving

Today is Thanksgiving and I'm wishing all of you a wonderful holiday.  As I sit here and write this all I can do is get excited for the gingerbread building competition that is in my near future.  I'm getting giddy about it!  For the past few years, my family has engaged in a competition of building gingerbread houses.  We pair off and get to work, then my Grandma, Dad and Uncle come through and rank the houses. 

I wanted to share some pictures of this amazing event.  But first, I must give you a warning that it shows the really, really messy side of this family.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Oh no! No camera!

In all my glory, I left my camera at the folks house this past weekend.  I'm really depressed about it too because my camera goes with me everywhere - I mean everywhere.  So, for this week I will have to share photos taken with my iPhone.  The quality may not be as good and I can't do that many fancy tricks with the Photoshop App as I can with the full blown program, but it will have to suffice.

Maggie on our way home from the folks house... she was soo sleepy.

Shabby Chic Goodness

I've been in a shabby chic mood lately.  The look of furniture being passed down from generation to generation mixed in with soft colors makes me smile.



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I have been finding a lot of green inspiration lately, maybe the color is starting to grow on me. Plus, look at that dresser, it's perfect!

 

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I think this room above is screaming my name, it's simple yet elegant. 

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I really like this idea of wall art.  I mean every flea market, antique store, yard sale you go to you can easily find a mix match of white plates.  Add some ribbon, hang on the wall, and you're done.

Family History

One of my favorite past times is to sit around with my parents and grandparent to hear about our family's history.  I'm always fascinated about how the family came to live in Missouri, how family names were passed down, and how I got my smile from my Great Grandpa. 

This past weekend I went home to visit the folks and we sat around the dinner table telling stories from the past.  My parents started telling me about my Great Grandma Creasy.  I only met her a few times and I barely remember her.  One of the most vivid memories I do have was visiting her home one day, we walked in and I was amazed by all of the stuff inside.  It wasn't a big home by any means, but I'm sure all of the stuff she had could have filled a mansion several times over.  To say it nicely Grandma Creasy was a pack-rat.  After getting sick the family, including my Mom, went over to her home to start cleaning it out.  My Mom was telling me how they had lined up folding tables throughout the home and sorted the belongings there to be either packed away or sold at yard sales.  Apparently, there was so much stuff that they had about 6 or 7 yard sales to sell the items that were left and still had a lot to donate to the local Rescue Mission. 

One of the belongings that my mom took was a set of China, there were over 30 sets to choose from!  Last weekend, my Mom gave the set to me for my keepsakes.  I don't have a place to display the set yet, my rental is quite small.  So, I have cleaned them, and carefully packed them away for another day.  Hopefully soon I will be able to display these beauties with other items I've collected from my family's past.