JUST IN CASE YOU DIDN'T KNOW!!

ENTER MY GIVEAWAY HERE!

THE LAST TEN DAYS HAVE BEEN GREAT !!

FANTASTIQUE!!  

Yesterday, I received this beautiful sterling silver and turquoise necklace in the mail!

It is awesome! I won a fabulous giveaway over at

Tablescapes by Diane

Thank you so much Diane. Such a lovely gift.

THEN, I was featured on Some of My Favorite Things @ Bargain Hunting and Chatting With Laurie February 18th. 

  Thank you so much Laurie, You know how to make an old gal feel great!

Then, this Friday I was featured on Inspiration Friday @ At The Picket Fence 

Thank you soooo much Heather and Vanessa.

I am honored to be in the company of such talent.
I am still on cloud nine. 

I hadn't mentioned it previously but I have been going to physical therapy two days a week. I would get home and take a two hour nap. One night I went to bed for good at 6:30 pm. 
                                                         

SO!!  I started to see improvement this week.  I am beginning to maneuver without bumping into walls and stumbling (no, I have not been nipping from the vine).  

I told the therapist, when she throws me a pack of gum, I chew it and walk a straight line, that I am ready to graduate.          

All in all things are looking up in 

"MY FAIRYTALE"

Spring is coming soon and so are my girls.

I have been so blessed. For those blessings I am eternally thankful.

Now a hint of things to come!

What do you think is going on here?

Stay tuned, changes are coming next month.

Don't for get to enter my GIVEAWAY HERE!

If you enjoyed your visit please leave a comment. I would to know you dropped by.

SAINT PATRICK'S DAY

SAINT PATRICK'S DAY

IN SAVANNAH, GA

IS MAGIC!!
and Granny's having a giveaway
HERE !!

I am not sure who let her in. I can see I will have to call security.

It is our Mardi Gras. The parade lasts hour upon hour.

The city fountains are flowing green, we're eating green grits and leprechauns are trolling the streets. 

The hotels are booked a year in advance. It is best to have a relative or good friend to visit.

My two awesome daughters are visiting me for 

the special week.

I will be back later with lots of pictures and a narrative of the BIG day.

Since you are here don't forget to sign up for my giveaway. HERE !!

I didn't get a chance to do a new tablescape this week but I would like to share a few pics of last year's tables.

I wasn't blogging then. These pics are just candids

I hosted my garden club's monthly meeting a couple of days before St Patrick's Day. Our club's name is 

"The Heritage Garden Club".

Don't you think that's an appropriate name for the oldest city in Georgia?

Early arrivals

A great time was had by all, as is usual and customary. 

We range in age from 30 to 95. 

If you remember the Women's Bridge Club

in "Midnight in the Garden of Good Evil"

You have seen our garden club. 

My dining room is not large so we had two tables. This is the kitchen table.

Enameled charger, white dinner plate - HomeGoods, Salad plate - HomeGoods and TJ,  Flatware - everyday, Green Boopie - my collection. 

Dessert dishes, Green Boopie - My collection

One dear member is a 95 years old and "hot to trot". She has her own meeting in the midst of the rest of us. She speaks of triumphs and conquests of years gone by. Don't make eye contact or you will get flashed. 

There is the sweet member who always gets lost driving to the meeting. She refuses to accept a ride, meet in a central location or follow. One particular member always goes out to find her and brings her along, in time for dessert. 

Everyone started arriving before I got close ups of the dining room table.

We have our beloved "Seasonal Sally" (not her real name). She is our belle of the ball, always dressed to celebrate the holiday of the month. This lovely lady will knock your socks off.

I am not identifying anyone!

Then you have me and my cohorts. We watch it all, while giggling like school girls. We're ever thankful that we haven't gotten to that point, just yet. Of course we secretly wish we had the guts to emulate "Seasonal Sally".  Our pic was not publish worthy. LOL!
I sincerely hope you enjoyed joining our garden club meeting. You are welcome back anytime. Just bring along your sense of humor. You will need it!

As mentioned afore, I will have my lovely daughters down for the week leading up to the festivities. I will be reporting back about THEIR antics.
I am linking up to everyone I can think of so be sure to hop over to party with these gracious hostesses.

Tablescape Thursday @ BNOTP

Thrifty Thursday @ Tales from Bloggeritaville

Vintage Thingie Thursday@ Colorado Lady

Feather Your Nest Friday @ The French Country Cottage

Feature Yourself Friday @ Fingerprints on the Fridge

Flaunt It Friday @ Chic on a Shoestring Decorating

It's a Hodgepodge Friday @ It's a Hodgepodge Life

Inspiration Friday @ At The Picket Fence

A Few of My Favorite Things @ Bargain Hunting and Chatting with Laurie

Junkin Finds Friday @ A LA CARTE

Home Sweet Home @Charm of Home

Seasonal Sunday @The Tablescaper

St Patrick's Party @ Holiday Haven

Now don't forget to sign up for my giveaway. HERE !!

If you enjoyed your visit please leave a comment to let me know you dropped by.

GIVEAWAY TIME AGAIN!!!

YOU, MY AWESOME FRIENDS HAVE HELPED ME REACH 200 FOLLOWERS!!

We are gonna celebrate!!

Our dear friends at CSN Stores have graciously offered a $35.00 gift certificate to be used at any one of their 200+ fabulous online stores. 
If you need it or want it they got it. If they don't got it, you don't need it. LOL! Truly, they have everything!!

They have awesome HOME OFFICE FURNITURE!

Click on the link above. Browse around their extensive selection. Be sure to visit their other stores while you are browsing. 

While you are there you might take a look at this

this

or this

In addition to their generous gift, I am sweetening the payoff with these neat gifts!

In addition to the gift certificate you will receive this beautiful book by Jo Packham entitled "Decorate Rich".

I am sure we all want to do that.

Jo Packham has authored more than 13 decorating books, won awards for her photography and published for more than 100 other authors. 

This book is filled with neat ideas and fantastic photography

This lovely and handy 2011 appointment calendar published by: 

"The Garden Club of Georgia, Inc." headquartered in Athens, Georgia.

The handy appointment calendar is filled with gardening hints

Photos of beautiful flower arrangements

There is even a great recipe section in back!

You will also receive an assortment (not all are shown here, the pic didn't turn out) of pyramid tea bags from the " Charleston Tea Plantation".

This is the only tea garden in the U.S.

All the plants are descendents of plants brought from China and India more than 100 years ago, to the Charleston area.

There will be one surprise gift that is only produced in Savannah, Ga.! That will be a real treat.

Well, there you have it. What do you think?

All you have to do is!!!!

Chance #1 Mandatory!! Click on this link

 Home office Furniture. Browse around there or one of their 200+ stores. Come back here and tell me what you would purchase with the $35.00 gift certificate.

Chance #2. Leave a comment telling me that you are a follower, previous or new.

Chance #3. Promote my giveaway on your sidebar, telling others about this giveaway. Leave a comment letting me know. 

This giveaway is open only to contestants in the USA and Canada. This is a requirement of CSN stores. They ship only to USA and Canada.

Good Luck!! You may enter until Thursday, March 3rd. at midnight. The winner will be selected by Random.org

and announced on Friday, March 4th.

GOOD LUCK AND HUGS TO ALL!

Ginger

LUCKY OLD BROAD!! YOOHOO!!

I JUST CAN'T BELIEVE IT!!

I am one lucky old broad. 

I won this beautiful turquoise and silver necklace at Diane's awesome giveaway!

Diane publishes Tablescapes by Diane

Click above to visit Diane

Isn't her work beautiful. She does something totally different each week. Don't miss her!

Please hop over and browse her fantastic blog. Diane does some of the most beautiful and creative tablescapes around blogtown.

Thanks Diane for the wonderful giveaway

you so graciously provided for your friends.

I am so incredibly lucky to have won.

I am so glad that angel next door drew my number. Many hugs and thanks to you.

Ginger


Now, all of you out there! Listen up, come back tomorrow cause 
Granny is having another giveaway!!
You don't want to miss this one.

Please leave a comment so I know that you visited.

Hugs, Ginger

FIFTY-TWO YEARS AND COUNTING!!

Laurie, thank you so much for stealing one of my photos and linking to my blog.

I know most of you in BLOGLAND love vintage things!

I DO TOO!!
My Sweet Old Bob and I are very vintage!!

 Sweet Old Bob and I have had fifty-two

  Valentine's Days

as husband and wife.

We married very young. I was eighteen and he was twenty.

We didn't have a lot of money. Let me tell you it is hard to pay the bills on LOVE. You CAN make do with a lot less on

LOVE!

For our first Valentine's Day as a married couple,

Bob asked what I would like to do.

I told him that I would cook a nice dinner and that

I REALLY wanted a flip top kitchen trash can.

You guessed it I got exactly what I asked for and I couldn't have been happier. However, it was not in the league with this one. 

Over the years there have been many Valentine gifts.

Jewelry, flowers, candy, you name it. There is nothing material that this lady needs or wishes.

I still find myself thinking back on the first Valentine's Day of our marriage. I still get a chuckle and a warm feeling just thinking about that day. We were young,

had no idea what we were doing but it was good.

This was my gift this year. 

These beautiful roses along with the one from whom they were given are my Favorite Things this week.

And just in case you think we didn't stay grounded.

He got them FREE!

Those who are familiar with Bob and me know 

the significance of free flowers.

You can read about his free flowers 

HERE and HERE

I pray that each of you reading this are blessed

with fifty plus years of Valentine's Bliss!

I am joining:

A Few of My Favorite Things @ Bargain Hunting and Chatting with Laurie

Seasonal Sunday @ The Tablescaper

If you enjoyed your visit please leave a comment to let me know you stopped by.

Hugs, Ginger

GRANNY'S SILK DRAPERIES!

I AM VERY PROUD OF THIS PROJECT, I HOPE YOU ENJOY LOOKING!

SEVERAL OF YOU REMARKED ABOUT THE DRAPERIES IN MY RECENT POST

A SAVANNAH VALENTINE!

I would LOVE to tell you about them. They are made of a beautiful silk by Duralee Fabrics. I ordered the fabric through a decorator but I make the draperies myself. I had made curtains and pleated draperies for many years. This was the first time I attempted to use silk.

The fabric was very pricey so it languished on the roll in my bedroom for a year because I was afraid to cut said fabric. 

I searched the internet and studied tutorials for silk draperies. I learned that it is a "cardinal sin" to make silk draperies without lining AND interlining. Well, I had never attempted an interlining of drapes before. There were a lot of firsts and I was nervous. I am not a professional seamstress but I will try anything!

I found and ordered what was touted as a must for drapery construction.

"The Complete Encyclopaedia of Curtains"

"The Complete Curtain Maker"

Authored by Catherine Merrick and Rebecca Day
Published in England 

This book has instructions for making all kinds of soft goods. The pages are filled with photos of elegant English homes. Lots of eye candy.

This book is just as beautiful as it is informative. It is now my favorite coffee table book.

I took the next step and purchased a serger. This was another fantastic purchase. I don't know how I ever lived without a serger.

I was beginning to run out of excuses for further delay.

I had assembled the necessary components. I had the FABULOUS fabric, lining, interlining (this is a very lightweight flannel and sold for this particular use), threads, buckrum and trims.
No more excuses.


Think I was ready to start the draperies? NOT!!
But I started here. I decided to try making the valances for the living room first. At least I wouldn't ruin as much fabric here. I liked the way they turned out SO!

One of three windows in the living room

This was familiar territory. I had made many valances. These were double lined and attached to a single 1x5 board. The trim was stitched by hand and the valance was stapled (I used a pneumatic stapler) to the board then mounted to the wall with angle brackets. 

I know, I know! That was one puny looking plant.
It had a short life.

Now I can do the big stuff. This was before my blogging days so I didn't get photos of the process. I cleared off the dining room table, covered it with a tablepad. I measured and measured and measured.  I then cut and cut and cut. I made only one minor cutting mistake. 
WHEW!!


The hardest part was matching the checks and making sure each panel started and ended, top, bottom and sides, with the coordinating color check. I rechecked my self too many times to count.

The rods were special order, from my beloved internet. I love shopping the internet, don't you?

The pleats are called "goblet pleats". They were hand gathered and stitched in that form. My thumbs were aching for weeks.


After three weeks, this was the finished product. You will notice I made tiebacks. That was about three years ago. I have since decided to let them hang free for a while. I will probably go back to the tiebacks at some time. I really enjoy that look as well.

I love the tiebacks. I think they look prissy!

Here are a few pics from my earlier post.

I hope you enjoyed hearing a bit more about my drapery project. I really was proud of this accomplishment. 
Sweet Old Bob was also.

If you would like to see the Valentine Tablescape 

go HERE

I am linking to the following gracious hostesses:

Wow Us Wednesdays @ Savvy Southern Style

Feathered Nest Friday @ French Country Cottage

Feature Yourself Friday @ Fingerprints on the Fridge

Flaunt It Friday @ Chic On A Shoestring

Inspiration Friday @ At The Picket Fence

It's A Hodgepodge Friday @ It's A Hodgepodge Life

Junkin Finds Friday @ A La Carte
Home Sweet Home @ The Charm of Home

A Few Of My Favorite Things @ Bargain Hunting & Chatting With Laurie

Seasonal Sunday @ The Tablescaper

Please leave a comment so I know you visited.
Hugs, Ginger