Happy Fall Ya'll

A lot of fall decorating happened at the Satterfield house over the weekend. The temperatures here in Mobile have been fall-ish, meaning daytime highs in the mid 80's and morning lows in the mid 60's. That is near perfect weather for us. What is not perfect for us is......love bugs. Scientific name = Lovus Bugus. Just kidding. We are subject to these little worrisome bugs two times per year. They have worn out their welcome.
(Thank you Goole images.)


This is the first year that I've decorated my porch for fall. My sister always gets her decoration did and it looks so cute. So, I decided to brighten up my porch. This is what we wound up with:

I found the chair at the auction in Lucedale. The bad thing was it didn't have a base. That's when you call 1-800 Dad. My dad cut the board for the base. I was going to spray paint the whole chair and base navy blue to match our shutters but then decided against it. The wood on the chair is so pretty. I can always paint it later if I want it to look more cohesive. But is junk supposed to be cohesive? I don't think so!

Now to drag out all my inside decorations.........

Recent Yard Sale and Thrift Store Finds

I've had pretty good luck lately at yard sales and the thrift store. When we went to Hattiesburg, I found this precious pink butterfly napkin holder at the Salvation Army thrift. It was 55 cents. It is unmarked. It matches my kitchen perfectly!

I found these nice candleholders for $1.55 each. They are very nice and heavy. I haven't decided yet where I will put these. But for $1.55, how could I go wrong?

We drove to the nearby town of Wiggins and stopped in at an old fashioned trading post. I wish I would have had more time to explore in this wonderful store. Row after tightly packed row of every kind of junk imaginable. I found this cute bowl for $2.00. It's hard to tell from the picture but the bowl has a wonderful polka dot type pattern. It also is unmarked.

Saturday was a WONDERFUL yardsale day. I found so many nice things! But prolly my favorite find of the day was this wonderful quilt for $5.00. My heart almost stopped beating. It's my first yardsale quilt purchase.

Now, granted it is not handmade and was probably mass produced but still very charming!

I found these embroidered pillow cases for .50 each. There is some yellowing and a brown spot that I hope to be able to remove with a good OxyClean soak. They are gorgeous and very detailed:

We found a lot of GREAT stuff Saturday! We literally had stuff hanging out the back of the vehicle. I would count that as success!

Hurricane Gustav and Quilt Progress

Hurricane Gustav was, in my opinion, an over-hyped wind bag. But, after hurricanes like Katrina, Ivan and Frederick, people on the Gulf Coast do not take any chances. There was a lot of irony in what happened to us yesterday with Gustav. It was clear when we went to bed Sunday night that , short a turn of biblical proportion, we would NOT be in Gustav's direct path. So, OK, it's all good. We knew the winds would start picking up and there would be a chance of tornadoes but felt we would be ok. All was well UNTIL.....around 4:00a.m. Monday morning. The mister and I both woke out of a sound sleep to a loud BOOM and said, "What was that?" Well, everything sounded ok, we still had power so we went back to sleep.

Well, I'm kind of antsy about the whole Gustav thing anyway, so when daylight breaks I get out of bed to check out the window and see how the weather is shaping up. It was then that I discovered the origin of the BOOM. A huge mass of tree limbs and part of a dead tree had fallen on the main power line that runs our house. In the process it ripped our whole electrical service off the house. When Mister first saw it outside he saw this:

Yeah, that little box thing should not be dangling in mid-air. And certainly the line should not be that taut. Keep in mind at this point we still had electricity.

The air conditioner was running, lights were on, had computer up and running, etc. I knew what had to happen. I knew that we would be losing power REAL SOON. And, it would be of our own doing. So we called Alabama Power and within minutes a lineman was out disconnecting our electricity until we could have the service repaired. Thankfully Mister is a master electrician so the repair should not be a problem. Everything was fine until we realized that today was labor day and, in addition, most of Mobile had shut down due to Gustav. Our first hurdle was getting a meter from the power company. We drive to Alabama Power and the gate was closed. We then drive to another location hoping to find a body, anybody, that could help us find this meter. No luck. So we make one more effort to check the gates. Well, lo and behold, after an act of congress, the Mister gets the part he needs and repairs the problem. And all this is in tropical, stormy weather. To make a long story short, our ordeal involved the Mobile County Electrical Inspector and Alabama Power coming back out to our house. We got our power restored at 5:00p.m.

I can see God's hand in the quick restoration. Under "normal" circumstances it would have been at least one day before this could have been done. No way could it have been accomplished the same day.

Well, after we got electricity again I decided to again work on my quilt. I rotary cut all the pieces and started making my 9 patch blocks.

This is a picture of the completed 9 patch block. Do the points match? That would be a big fat NO!

So after you get the block made you cut it in 1/4ths. And it looks like this:

I'm loving how these look. They look like a real quilt block!

Ok, so that's all I know. I have to do some research to see how you arrange the blocks. I guess you could just use creative license and arrange them as you like. That's ok with me. I can't read a pattern anyway. I'm A.D.D. like that. I just want my blocks to look the best they can.

I definitely made progress. Only 300 more blocks to go. Ok, well, not literally 300.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims of Gustav. Been there done that!

Mini Va-Cay 2008

I just got back from a mini vacation. We went to the Paul B. Johnson State Park in nearby Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Hattiesburg is only about a 1 1/2 hour drive from Mobile. We had a wonderful time. The weather was near perfect, considering it is the end of August and temps could have been sweltering.

There were large Lily Pads everywhere. The Water Lily blooms were beautiful!

There were also ducks everywhere. Very FRIENDLY ducks. So friendly, in fact, that when they heard the cabin door open they would come waddling up begging for bread. Here is Jacob feeding them:

This was the rear view of the cabin. The cabin had two bedrooms, a bathroom and an open kitchen/living room. It was very rustic and charming. From what I could tell most lakefront cabins had a small pier. Ours did. We stayed in cabin #1. This is one of my favorite pictures from our trip:I love the way the evening sun reflects on the water.

The fishing was wonderful. NOT! We had one afternoon when we really got some bites but the fish were tiny and not big enough to keep. It was kind of annoying because they mainly just ate our bait. Which is another story for another day. Ok, I'll tell you today. I couldn't bait my own hook. I know, I know. If you fish you should be able to bait your own hook. Well, I COULD NOT do it! The fishing really was a disappointment. So, if you're planning a trip to PBJ, plan an alternate activity from fishing.

We managed to get in a flea market and some thrifting. And in nearby Wiggins, we had the best snow cones that we'd ever eaten! All in all it was a very fun trip.

My First Quilt

In the next few days I hope to start my first pieced quilt top. I'm going to use an easy block, the disappearing nine patch. From what I understand you do a simple nine patch block and then cut and rearrange the blocks. I had to fight my passive/aggressive side and go ahead and prewash the fabric. I would rather just cut and sew. But, I want to try to do this by the book. So, this is what I started with:

The sweet little pink rose ticking was my inspiration for the color scheme. Since I'm such a fabric-a-holic, I already had most of the other fabric. I've never really tried to pick fabrics for a quilt so I hope this turns out ok. Believe me, I have no trouble picking out (and buying) fabric. I'm not so sure about my ability to put it together in a manner that will be appealing to the eye. I'm wondering if I shouldn't incorporate some less patterned fabric? We'll see.

My Favorite Yardsale / Thrifty Finds

How can I choose just one favorite yardsale find? I simply can't! I heart yardsales! Rhoda at Southern Hospitality is hosting a favorite yardsale/thriftstore find party! I have a couple I'd like to share.

I found this great chair and the end of a yard-sale-ing day. It was a chore to get it in the car but so worth it! It is perfectly worn in all the right places. I can't remember if I paid $10 or $15 for it.

Imagine my delight when I discovered these drapes at my favorite thrift store. They were the inspiration for the entire room. My heart started pounding when I found these! They were in perfect condition. The panels were $16.96 which was a little pricey, but much easier to swallow when I found that they were Croscill. I bought the matching ascot valances on ebay.

I found this table at a yardsale for $10 dollars. The glass was missing so my sweet husband helped me get it replaced. I have enjoyed the table for YEARS since! It even survived the country blue and mauve era! It's now in our bedroom in the little seating area. What you can't really tell from the picture is that it has a beautiful wrought iron detail under the glass.

Ok, I could go on forever but this is the last one, I promise! I also found this beautiful buffet at my favorite thrift. It has the prettiest legs and is the most perfect moss green color. My favorite part about this piece is the pencil markings that it has on the inside of the doors. How sweet! I keep my cookbooks in the little compartments on each end. Here is a close-up:

Rhoda, thanks for allowing me to participate in the party! I love your blog and read it often!

If you'd like to see the finds of others, go here.

Azaleas

Here in glorious Mobile, Alabama, the Azalea City, we are smack in the middle of Azalea season. For most of the year the Azaleas are big, green, bushy plants. And in that big, bushy state they're pretty boring. But then, just at the right time every year...they bloom! Oh my goodness! Unless you live in Mobile or have ever been to Mobile when the Azaleas are in bloom you just simply cannot imagine the magnitude of Azalea season. There is nothing like taking a drive and seeing these beautiful, colorful flowers everywhere you look! Huge clusters of magenta, fuschia, sweet baby pink and white flowers! Simply breathtaking! Now, some people will try to shape them and manicure them but listen to me people! LEAVE THEM ALONE! A typical Mobile Azalea could be as big as a car! All that said, imagine my delight when thrifting recently at the Goodwill store and I ran across this:

It's a scarf that depicts all things for which Mobile is famous. It has the Senior Bowl, Bellingrath Gardens, Oakleigh, Mobile Bay, the U. S. S. Alabama, the Junior Miss program, Mardi Gras and of course the Azalea, and more. When I ran across this scarf it made my heart skip a beat! I knew instantly what I would do with it. I would save it until just at the right moment when the Azaleas bloomed and I would do this:

I paid $2.00 for the scarf. To me it's worth so much more. I found the grapevine candy dish yesterday at an antique consignment shop for $6.00. I could not pass it up! It perfectly matches my grapevine vase that was also thrifted. Here are a few close ups of the scenes:

So long for now!

Happy Easter!

If you take these:

And add this:

You get these:

Or in different light these:

These cupcakes are made with made with Duncan Hines Yellow Cake Mix, which is my humble opinion, the best cake mix brand on the market! The icing is buttercream. The buttercream paired with the DH cake mix = YUM! The bagged coconut was tinted with green food coloring for the grass effect. Then I topped them with mini jelly beans. Was there some kind of secret jelly bean shortage this year? I had the hardest time finding your average, run of the mill jelly bean. Normally Wally World has gads of them but that was not the case this year. I finally found some at a grocery store this morning and they were already half off! What's up with that? I spent most of my day in the kitchen. I made the cupcakes and my dessert for tomorrow's lunch. I made the coconut cake with sour cream, sugar and coconut filing. It's best if it's allowed to sit a couple of days. I'm hoping 24 hours will do the trick. I've never made one before so I'll be anxious to taste it! It was super easy so depending on how it tastes it may be a keeper!

Our Easter weather should be beautiful! I'll leave you with one of my favorite Easter passages from the Bible:

[1] In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.[2] And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it.[3] His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow:[4] And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men.[5] And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified.[6] He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.

Matthew 28:1-6.

Out with the old-In with the new.

The Valentines decorations have come down and the Easter decorations have come out! I love the pieces I have on my table.

The pink shimmery fabric I got from the $1.00 a yard Wal-Mart bin. It is just pooled on the table with the unfinished (unsewn) edges turned under. The ceramic bunny and basket came from Old Time Pottery. You can't really tell from the picture but the basket has little ceramic eggs suspended right below the rim. It is so cute! I bought the eggs at the Goodwill. I bought two huge bags for $1.48 each. The colors are perfect, so spring-y! I bought the grapevine milk glass vase at the thrift store for either $5 or $10, I can't remember which. It was a little pricey but such a nice piece. The flowers are .97 stems from Wally World.

I really found good deals yesterday. This vase was marked down to .75 and the stems were were .50 each.

Jacob did my arrangements. That boy is Talented (with a capital T)! Jacob if you're reading this give a blogger a shout out! This arrangement is pink dogwoods.

I have one more thing I'd like to do before easter. I found some cute things yesterday at Ross Dress for Less. If you have on in your area you should check them out! I'm going to decorate my living room coffee table. I'll post a picture when it's done.

Wonderful Day and Yellow Bedroom

I've had a wonderful day today. My sister Diane and I hosted some friends for lunch. We had a great time. Lots of laughter which is so good for us! I made spaghetti. We also had salad and french bread and Diane made Strawberries in the Clouds for dessert! Yummy! Too bad I didn't take a picture! Since I was having friends over I spent my morning cleaning house, which in turn, encouraged me to take more house pictures. Today I'm showing our yellow and purple guest room. Yellow and purple you say? You have to remember that Mobile is the original birth place of Mardi Gras. So maybe Mardi Gras inspired my colors. Nah, I doubt that! I've lived here all my life and have never been to Mardi Gras and don't really care to go. So maybe it was the quilt that's on the bed. Or wait! It must have been the cute green tapestry chair I found at a yardsale for $15.00. I had to bargain with my husband over that chair but I stood my ground and it stayed! Whatever the inspiration... this is the result:

As I told someone the other day, disturbingly, my decorating tastes are turning to the cottage-y, Paris Flea Market chic. So many things in this room are special to me for different reasons. The bed and dresser were my Great Grandmother's. The pitcher on the dresser was also my grandmaw's. It's special because as babies my mom and her brother were bathed in this bowl. My mom is 65.



The curtains are special because they were my first curtain project! I made the panels and Mister did the cornice. I also made some of the pillows on the bed and the purple table skirt and dresser table runner.



The chair is one of my favorite parts of the room. Mainly because I love pieces with character. And I love a bargain! Getting it in my already full car after a day of yardsale-ing was the fun part. Thankfully Jacob was there to help me. Hmmm-He seems to be my partner in crime. I couldn't help myself. I had to add the crocheted arm and neck protectors. Did your grandmaw have these? Mine did. (Too, they hide excessive wear on the chair arms! Shh!)

Chicken on a Stick and More Blue Room

Mister and I made chicken on a stick last night. Oh my goodness! It was dee-lish! I came up with my own recipe and if I must say so it is quite tasty. Onions, thinly sliced red potatoes, dill pickle slices and chunks of boneless chicken on a wooden skewer, marinated in my special marinade and then dredged in flour and fried to a crispy golden brown. SINFUL! Is your mouth watering yet?

I decided to go back and post more of the blue bedroom to show some of the beautiful detail in the ceiling and some more of my favorite accessories. This is a close up of the ceiling and molding:

After searching endlessly for the perfect chandelier this one was actually Mister's idea. We went to the antique consignment store and this was not what I had in mind at all and had actually overlooked it in the store when he said "Hey, what about this one?" He added all the prisms. To me it just pops against the cornslik blue walls.

This is the view facing the closets. I love the new 6 panel doors. It makes a world of difference!This is another picture taken from the doorway. I love the morning light! This is a close-up of the bed. My mom gave me the crocheted bed spread for Christmas a couple of years ago. I made the blue pillows.

Close up of the bedspread detail and throw:

The tapestry pillow in the chair in the corner came from Hobby Lobby! I paid way too much even with 50% off. But is this not gorgeous?