Organizing And Tags

With my true spirit of complicating things, I don't think it would surprise you to know I have an obsession for tags. Big ones, little ones, round ones, square ones...I can't seem to pass them up. 

Some time back, in a moment of zen creativity no doubt,  I even tried to make my own just to see how they would turn out. Don't laugh now...I'm going to show you how I attempted to make some round ones by painting cardboard coasters from a local sandwich shop. Ya gotta love the effort, right?

I used chalkboard paint and had big plans to add holes for ribbon. Then I found some real, round-shaped wooden ones at Michaels that looked much better than my concoction and that put an end to that artistic endeavor. 

Someday I'm going to paint this cabinet as it's dark and just sucks in the dust. But for now, I'm on an organizing and purging kick so painting will have to wait. When I do get around to painting, I'll know right where to find my miscellaneous paint tools.

 I have collected so many tags, I even have a basket with a "tag" for the tags!

I bought these smaller tags the other day at Michaels. I didn't take a before picture so I'll just tell you how ugly it looked with a variety of larger tags, all mixed up together, on the baskets. I don't know why I waited so long to make them all match. Yes, we tend to be a little Cray-Cray around here!

Besides Michaels, Hobby Lobby and Target are good places to find reasonably priced tags. The best tip I can give you is to make sure you buy more than you think you'll need. If you have to go back to buy extra, they may not carry them anymore. And don't throw the used ones out...you can always paint over the writing with white paint and use them again.

Here's an example of how mixed up colors and tags can make an otherwise organized closet look messy. I'll be tackling this area next. I plan to use the larger tags like the three with the ribbons shown here, but use all the same color and size. I also plan to add more bins in the same gray color and same size to hide the lampshades and such.

So that's it for my organizing and purging progress this week. I keep going back and re-reading Marie Kondo's book, The Life-Changing Magic Of Tidying Up, just to remind myself to stay on track and "purge" the unneeded stuff out of the house and only store what I'll actually use.

I'm joining Mrs Olson's Share Your Cup party. Hope you'll pop over and see what everyone is sharing.

Thanks for dropping by!

Joining The Party Here:
Mrs Olson's Share Your Cup

Fruitcake...Yea Or Nay?

One thing about fruitcake...you either really love it or really hate it. 

For those of us who hate it, this sign is an oxymoron.

I'm proud to say I'm in the "Really Hate It" camp. 

I'm a single hold-out here in Texas though where my husband, mother, father-in-law and mother-in-law all love it to death. 

But they only like the fruitcake from a place here in Texas called COLLIN STREET BAKERY. The bakery was started in 1896 in Corsicana Texas and has operated continually since then. 

Luckily, they've branched out and there's a bakery shop in Greenville, Texas, which we pass by on our way down to Trade Days in Canton TX, which is the home of my favorite Texas store... LaurieAnna's.

I do love to stop by the Collin Street Bakery shops though. The decor is why I stop. Here's the lights, which are made out of rolling pins. We were there for Christmas season, and I loved all the Christmas decorations. See the two large Nutcrackers standing guard over the room?

The bread boxes were incredibly cute too. It is with deep regret that I left without one. Especially since they were on sale for $19.95

The fruitcakes were priced around $26 each and were eaten within a few weeks despite getting one for each person so they didn't even have to share. 

How about you...Would 25% off sound like Heaven-In-A-Cake-Tin to you?

Me? I'm more of a chocolate gal. This whole cold case was calling my name! They don't call me Sugar for nothing...

Next time we go down to the Canton 1st Monday Trade Days, held the last weekend of each month, I'll be stopping by for everything anything in this glass case and a nice hot cup of tea. 

Oh yeah...one of those breadboxes too please.

Thanks for dropping by!

Standing On The Corner, Winslow Arizona

Hey...did you miss me? We took a road trip to the West Coast, and part of it was on the old Route 66 through the American Southwest. 

We've been down that road between Albuquerque, New Mexico and Flagstaff, Arizona too many times to count. When we get near Winslow, Arizona my whine factor goes up considerably until Wild Bill finally agrees to stop. 

Why stop in the tiny town of Winslow, out in the middle of nowhere, smack dab in the hottest part of the desert? 

Well here's 5 reasons why...And it all has to do with the Eagles' song, Take It Easy, or sometimes referred to as the "Standing On The Corner" song. Joining Amy today at Love Made My Home for Five-On-Friday and Fridays-Fav-Five at Living To Tell The Story.

One: The Song.  Jackson Browne and Glenn Frey (Eagles band member) wrote this song, which was a hit for the Eagles in May 1972. If you were "of age" during the 70's I think you're probably already singing the lyrics in your head, right? 

Especially the part that goes...

...Well, I'm a standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona

and such a fine sight to see

It's a girl, my Lord, in a flatbed Ford 
slowin' down to take a look at me

Come on, baby, don't say maybe 
I gotta know if your sweet love is gonna save me...

Two: The Town  The people of Winslow took down all but one wall of a building, on a corner lot, and put up a memorial to the song. Over the years, commenerative bricks have been added, which help pay for the upkeep of the corner. Donations are also appreciated.

Three: Route 66  For anyone who traveled Route 66 as a child or teen, packed into the family's old station wagon (the SUV of its day) and elbowing your sister or brother for more room in the backseat (while suffering heat-stroke from the hot air coming in the four windows rolled down for ventilation in that pre-air conditioning era), Route 66 can bring back a flood of memories. 

Arriving in a town on Route 66 meant being sprung from the car and given an hour to roam! 

Back then, no one worried about kids wandering around alone in a strange town, and dads dispensed a dollar to each kid, which could buy them a hamburger and a drink with change left over for a cheap tourist trinket. Man...that was a vacation!!!

Four: The Memories  In Winslow, on that tiny street corner, you can almost imagine the people who traveled there (some many times over) by the memorial words left in the bricks and blocks. Here's a few of them...

I have to admit, I shed quite a few tears as I read some of the words of sadness and celebration. Can't you just see Stephanie standing on this spot in the park and carefully reading the bricks at Juan's insistence? I wonder if he went down on his knee as Stephanie read the words Juan surprised her with that day? 

"Stephanie Will U Marry Me (heart) Juan"

March 18, 2000

Almost exactly 2 years (to the day) later, we made our very first visit to the Standing On The Corner Park in March of 2002. A few days later our first granddaughter was born several months early, with complications, and never got to take a breath or know her sweet parents. Perhaps someday her name will be added to the memories on the bricks of the others shared here.

Some of the memories are of rowdy friends like "THE BUST-OUTS" here. And then below them...some time later...another group who called themselves "NEAR BUST-OUTS". Was this a group of younger siblings who were always trying to follow in their older brothers' footsteps?

Five: The Art  After his death last year, a second statue of Glenn Fry was placed in the park as a tribute to him. People like to stand next to the statue on the corner and take pictures with him. Here's some of the people who were there posing that day. I didn't get their names, but I did tell them I would be posting them here on the blog.

On the wall (left from the building that stood here at one time) a mural has been painted as if the window reflected "a girl in a flatbed Ford" driving down the street. 

 Here's a picture of the reinforcement they put on the other side of the wall to stabilize it. Looks like it will hold for a good long time!

If you're ever doing a road trip in the desert Southwest between Flagstaff and Albuquerque, stop by and stretch your legs in the little town of Winslow. I guarantee you will not be able to get the lyrics to Take It Easy out of your mind for days. A small price to pay! 

For more information:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standin'_on_the_Corner_Park

Thanks for dropping by!

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Five-On-Friday at Love Made My Home
Fridays-Fav-Five

Five On Friday: White And Rusty Kitchen Things

Joining Amy today at Love Made My Home for Five-On-Friday Won't you stop by, if you have the time, and add your five to the mix?

I've been far too serious on Fridays lately, so I'm picking a lighter subject. I'm taking you on a quick tour of our kitchen and some of the rusty and white things in it.

1. The Portable Cabinet And White Pig:

The kitchen pig always holds court in the middle of the kitchen on a movable cabinet. The builder distressed and aged the wall cabinets a little too much. I plan to dry brush them, with a little white to lighten them, as soon as I learn how to do a better job of dry-brushing. 

For now, I try to add as much white as possible to lighten up the kitchen since it's in the center of the house and doesn't have a window.

2. Messy Dark Corner: 

You hear it all the time...don't keep a bunch of stuff out on your counters! I try, but it all just creeps back out. Most of it is white as you can see. The white helps lighten up this dark corner.

3. Rusty White Stuff With Holes:

Seems all my old enamelware has holes. This flour bin is worn almost through on the bottom right.

 It doesn't matter to me, I find it charming. I don't store flour in it anyway as these big flour bins were used back in the day when people made their bread at home and had to store their supplies for a long time between trips to town.  If you opened the flour bin up, you would find cloth placemats rolled up inside instead of flour.

This rusty white enamelware washpan holds my kitchen towels. If you picked it up and looked below, you would see holes in the bottom of it too. I buy my dish towels at Sam's Club. I love these plain white, sackcloth-type dish towels. 

4. Rusty Bottle Rack/White Lazy Susan:

Long ago in 1992, my older friend Sally from Oklahoma always served me "Okie Tea" from canning jars.  I was hooked and gave away all my glasses and started using canning jars. The small ones live on this bottle rack right across from the ice/water dispenser on the refrigerator. I use canning jars to store food in the fridge too. So many uses! 

5. White Preserved Roses:

I'm obsessed with these preserved roses with barely there color. I stick them inside things all over the kitchen. Here's a close up of a few of the roses. In the nest on the bottle rack...

In the old canning jar...

 In the pottery with little white pumpkins...

Well, that's my quick tour of the kitchen stuff. If you noticed I still have some of the little twinkle lights up from Christmas, don't be shocked. Sometimes the lights stay out and stay lite (along with the pumpkins) all year long.

Thanks for stopping by!

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Keeping Lemons Fresher

Recently I needed lemons and Costco's lemons looked real good so I bought a big bag of them. Something I usually don't do because there's just two of us and the bags are huge.

After a week, I had to throw a few lemons out. I squeezed quite a few of the lemons that were left and froze the juice...still there were three lemons left. 

I had heard you can keep lemons fresh by covering them with water in a container, so I thought I'd give it a try. Here's the container after one week...

 The lemons in the water actually looked fresher after a week in the water than when I put them in the water.

I hope you'll let me know how yours turned out if you try this.

Thanks for dropping by!