I Love Dishes!

I love dishes. It's a family trait. My mom loves old covered dishes. My sister also loves dishes. We once drove 40 miles mostly to look at a tablescape. My grandmother was not a woman who was frivolous about anything. She was all business, frugal, and straight as an arrow. But, even she loved dishes. She had beautiful Noritake china which was divided up among all the female children and grandchildren when she went to be with the Lord. I have a very treasured platter from her pattern, and several stems of her crystal.

When I was a young mother, I discovered flea markets and garage sales. I bought a lot of 10 cent pieces of crystal and china over the years and have quite a collection now.

My favorite set of dishes are my turkey dishes. I bought these at a flea market about 15 years ago for $65 which was quite a splurge for me then. The set came as 8 turkey plates and the platter. If you've read my blog before, you know that I love Martha Stewart. I've seen an old Thanksgiving special of hers, and was very tickled to find that she has the exact same pattern. I would love to find a few other pieces in this pattern, but it's very old.

I have found that even though I really really love all dishes, I like the old dishes better than new ones. I like transferware, and plates that have a lot of "stuff" on them. I have Blue Willow, and Old Britain Castles, and a set of Royal, Old Curiosity Shop...all richly patterned. Blue Willow has a special story behind it. I used to tell it to my children every time we ate Chinese food. My daughter bought me a tiny Blue Willow tea set once for Mother's Day. It's a treasure! I am now in love with Wedgewood Fallow Deer an old pattern that Martha uses on some Christmas specials. They are way too expensive for my flea market taste, even if I could find them.

Lately, I've been enjoying this blog, Between Naps on The Porch. Every Thursday, Susan hosts Tablescape Thursday. I've decided to participate in a Tablescape Thursday very soon. Each year, we have what we call the "First Fall Weenie Roast". It happens when that first, highly-anticipated cold front manages to push through our Texas heat. I'll be posting a "mini-tablescape" then...using my collection of old, mis-matched brown dripware. Hope you stop by.

Volvo

I want a Volvo.

Now, in case you're wondering, I'm not a car person. I am currently driving a Buick that I've had for about 10 years. It has over 185,000 miles on it. It still looks fine, and is very comfortable. I'm hoping it lasts for 3 more years. But, I've wanted a Volvo for a long time. The problem is that I want an old, square, red Volvo. My sister calls it my hippie car.

My nephew works for a Volvo dealer. When I asked him to hook me up, he said that he couldn't possibly let me drive that kind of car! I guess what was really, really cool to my generation is not cool to his at all. However, not ever having been very cool in the first place, I still want my square, red Volvo.

What I really wish is that Volvo would re-introduce the old model...sort of like Volkswagon did the Bug. Anyone out there have any pull with Volvo?

Pecan Crusted Chicken

My husband is a really good cook! Tonight he made pecan-crusted chicken breasts. He takes chicken breasts, and rubs them with olive oil. Then he chops pecans with salt, black pepper, red pepper, and garlic, and smashes them into the chicken breasts. He bakes them covered at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, and uncovered for 20 minutes. They are very delicious. I'm so glad my husband loves to cook! What's your husband's best recipe?

AAVP

My son's band (AAVP) in a benefit from Austin to Africa. My son is in the white shirt.

Lifelong Friends

I am very blessed to have many (almost) lifelong friends. A couple of them came to stay with us this past weekend. I consider Jennifer my very best friend. We've been very close since we were 12 years-old, having met in 7th grade band. Kent has been my husband's friend that long as well. I don't remember how we met, but she says that I asked her what kind of shampoo she used! We all married within a few months of each other, and we lived next door to each other at the beginning of our marriages. Our children are similar ages, although they had a 4th child while we abstained! As you can imagine, we've been through a lot over the years. We don't see each other often because we live a couple of hundred miles apart. But, when we get together, it's just like we've never left. We love them, and pray blessings and protection over them every day. They are really more a part of our family than just friends.

Jennifer has a younger brother, Jeff, who has been singing and playing the guitar pretty much all of his life. I met him when he was 8, and he was singing then. He's grown into an excellent singer/songwriter and appears at various venues in and around the Austin area. His band is called Double R Nothin. If you are in the Austin area, check him out. It will be an evening well-spent.

Miss Kitty

Miss Kitty died yesterday.

She adopted us about 5 or 6 years ago. When she came to our house, she was a baby, and very shy. It took me a very long time to get her to realize that I was not going to hurt her. She knew I was the one feeding her, but wasn't sure if she could trust me. When she finally did, she became the sweetest cat that has ever owned me.

She was a hunter, and I'm sure was the property sheriff to many an interloping mouse, snake, bird..and yes, even a rabbit once, who came on her turf. But to people, she was sweet and shy. My baby granddaughter loved her, and Miss Kitty tolerated some rough love from her, or would just get out of the way. She loved to jump up wherever I was sitting and take a nap. She was a talker..always letting you know she was there and needed some sort of attention.

Miss Kitty was just a good cat. I am sad about her being sick, and I will miss her. If you read the bible, you'll find that there are animals (horses for sure, anyway) in heaven. I'm not sure how all that works, but I choose to believe that Miss Kitty is there now, happy and well, talking and cat napping in perfect peace.

My Beach Vacation

It's my personal belief that it's mandatory for me to spend a few days every summer at the beach. It probably comes from the fact that I spent a lot of time at the beach growing up, and my parents ended up with a cabin near Galveston, TX. When my kids were little, it was the cheapest vacation we could take! I love the mountains, but I must have my sand, surf, and shelling adventure each year.

The beach is messy and hot. It usually takes a few days after you've left to get the sand out of everything. Sometimes there's a little sunburn souvenir to take home as well. But, oh...to lie on the beach with nothing to do but people watch and talk; to hunt shells for an hour or so, to sit in shallow water and have waves wash over you, to read a book totally for fun....now that's the kind of therapy that should make psychiatry nervous.

We take our summer beach adventure each year with my husband's brother and his wife. My SIL and I have developed some routines/traditions that we don't allow anyone to mess with, and that we add to (we're into growth and improvement) each year.

This year we decided it was important for us to set up a comfortable/cute (if you don't have cute, what do you have?) little camp for ourselves. We have a colorful umbrella, colorful chairs, and we laid a floor with a floral tanning mat. I bought us a little flag that says "Beach Bums", but forgot it at home. We have plans next year to have a main camp and a satellite camp. Such is the nature of the things you think up to do when you are truly vacated from your real life!

My husband rented a pink golf cart one of the days. When I was a kid, it was cool to have a Dune Buggy..now it's golf carts on most beaches. We tooled around in our cart on the beach to see what we could see, but mostly we just sat on that beach. We went from pajamas to swimsuits and back. At night, we played dominoes. Our husbands went to buy supper...we didn't even get dressed for that. It was fabulous! I hope everyone out there has a wonderful getaway this year.