Snow! Glorious Snow!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. We had a great time here at the Vintagesouthern household.
The grand babies were such fun. Their excitement and energy level was endless.

I am so excited. This is my first white Christmas!  They say we had one here 47 years ago but I don't remember it.It is a first for Skipper too.

We struck out for our walk this morning all bundled up and ready for fun. Skipper used his nose as a snow plow funneling the snow down the neck of his sweater.I had to take the sweater off of him five minutes into the walk as he was turning into a little snow dog.

We were walking along one minute and I was anticipating the beautiful pictures I was going to get and the next minute my bottom was flat down in the snow. How did that happen? I didn't even have time to brace myself for the fall.  After checking to see that no one was looking,  realizing I was still alive and had all of my limbs safely attached, I just sat there in hysterial laughter. My camera batteries must have fallen into the snow when I fell because when we got to the river for some shots they were gone :(   So much for the beautiful photos.

Once I defrost, and find more batteries I will be out and about again but I am realizing I would have never made it as a pioneer woman. Enjoy your day where ever you are and stay safe.

 Linking to  Outdoor Wednesday

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all my friends out there in blog land!

I started blogging this spring on a whim and had no idea of the warmth, fun, and friendships I would make.

I have so enjoyed visiting your blogs. I have laughed out loud at many of your antics and have been moved to tears by some of your tender stories. I am amazed at the talent you all have and your willingness to share and help those of us that are not so talented.

Thank you for your visits and your sweet and helpful comments. I enjoy reading every one.

Have a wonderful holiday, stay safe, stay warm,  and remember,  He is the reason for the season!

The Christmas Gift

I love everything about Christmas! I love the decorating, the shopping, the wrapping, the baking (well, not so much but I do it).It is such a special time of the year. A time to see some friends and family that sadly I see no other time of the year.
Although I love every single minute of all the "hurry and scurry", I have to step back and think about the true meaning of Christmas.

Christmas is not about the best decorated house or the prettiest Christmas tree. It's not even about the perfect gift I get for someone because there was really only one perfect gift.
It was the gift of love to all people. It was not wrapped in pretty paper and it was not placed under the perfect Christmas tree in an awesomely decorated house.  It was wrapped in swaddling clothes and placed of all places in a lowly manger. There has never been and will never be a greater gift.

Have a Blessed Christmas

and remember...

You are loved!

I am joining Spiritual Sundays  Drop by and visit for many uplifting posts.

Christmas Home Tour 2010

The Nester is hosting the  Christmas Tour of Homes  and I am so excited to participate for the first time. Hop on over and see lots of beautiful decorations for the holidays.



Welcome to my home. The stockings are hung and Santa is waiting patiently on the mantel for the big day.

Snoopy has been around a long time. He has been placed under one of the trees every year since my son was young and now he waits for hugs from the grand babies.

The wreaths are on the windows and the tree is on the porch as well as the little trio of trees near the entrance. All that's left is to drape  the garland and to be honest, I am waiting for a warmer day. We are just not accustomed to this cold weather here in the south, brrrrr!

From our house to yours,

Merry Christmas 

and

Happy New Year!

Sunday Reflections

"I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David  a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord."      Luke 2:10-11

Hail the heaven-born Prince of Peace!

     Hail the Son of Righteousness!

Light and life to all he brings,

Risen with healing in his wings,

Mild he lays his glory by,

Born that we no more may die,

Born to raise us from the earth,

Born to give us second birth.

Hark the herald angels sing,

Glory to the newborn king!"

                               -Charles Wesley

I am so thankful that the herald message was to all people and that it includes me and you even today.It is so wonderful to know that we don't have to worry about death and that we have been given a second birth.

Please join me at Spiritual Sundays

Kris Kringle and Friends...

Today I want to share with you one of my lifes simple pleasures, my Kris Kringle and his friends. I painted him back in the 80's with a group of my friends and every time I bring him out it makes me smile, remembering the fun times we had. Some I still see today and others I have lost contact with as life  sometimes gets in the way like that.

The center Santa I found at a little antique shop and the Woodsman Santa on the left I painted as well.

The wooden tray is a thrifting find from Hobby Lobby half price sale.

I am especially happy to be able to enjoy lifes pleasures after the way this week has played out. This

 week has been really crazy. I started out Sunday with a visit to the emergency room for  chest, left arm, left neck and back pains. Stress test and enzymes were normal. Thank you Lord.I was released Monday night with pain and cholesterol meds and advised to see my family doctor to schedule an x-ray and ultra sound of the neck for possible blockages. I will have those done tomorrow.

I am trying not to worry and remind myself that God is in control and that he that he is never surprised or taken off guard.

For the next day or two I plan to decorate less and enjoy the decorations you all share on your wonderful blogs. Thanks for stopping by.

P.S. I have not forgotten how to space and start new paragraphs but Blogger will not behave. Please excuse the format.

I'm joining Dayle's Simple Pleasures

                 Alphabe-Thursday

                 Junkin Finds Friday

                 Cindy's Show and Tell

Be sure to visit and enjoy lots of fun creative posts.

Sunday Reflections

There has only been one Christmas... the rest are anniversaries.

I read this this week and it really stuck with me. Why had I not ever thought of Christmas that way? I know there would be no Christmas without God's precious gift but I never thought that all of our Christmases are anniversaries.To me it makes it even more special. One Christmas so many years ago and we are continuing to celebrate the anniversary today.

Our world has changed so much since His birth. Generations have come and gone. Science has progressed at rocket speed. Things that man could not even imagine in His time have come to be part of our everyday lives and yet we continue to celebrate The Birth, the precious gift of God's own Son.

I shamefully realized I need to stop hurrying and  rushing around, making lists and worrying about getting all of my "important" things done and just bask in the fact that I have already received the greatest gift mankind will ever receive. It's amazing, sometimes God can humble me with one little sentence.

Linking to Spiritual Sundays  Drop by for wonderful uplifting posts.

Joyful Christmases, Past and Present...

Hello everyone! I am so glad to finally get back to blogland! I have really missed y'all. I am trying to catch up on all of the wonderful things you all have been doing and have decided I will just have to give up sleep from now until  the first of the year to do everything I want to do!
Isn't this just the most wonderful, joyous time of the year? I seem to turn into a child at Christmas time. In all honesty, my family probably thinks I am a child more often than that but what are rose colored glasses for anyway if you aren't going to use them"?

I got my skinny tree up in the family room and it just makes the room glow.

Tiny little vintage cherubs adorn the tree reminding me of Christmases past.

This little fellow will be joined by other bear friends as Christmas draws near. Unfortunately Skipper likes them too so it is easier to leave them out only for a very limited time for the grand babies to enjoy.

I will be adding other pictures as I dig in my mountain of boxes. I really need to weed out some things but it is so hard to let go of Christmas things.Each box brings back a rush of memories of Christmases past.

I posted this thrifty find earlier. When I saw it I knew it would be perfect for my cloche that I had found on another junking trip.

I added these silver glitter balls and it is temporarily  resting on the island. It will be going to the beach condo where the decorations are pretty much all white. I love how it looks but it has caused me a big problem...

every time I walk by it it reminds me of those delicious sugar doughnut holes from Dunkin Doughnuts and I head straight to raid the refrigerator.

Maybe I should replace it with a Santa or something... because I have NO will power!

I'm so glad you dropped by please come back again. In the meantime I can't wait to sit and read more of your posts I have missed. Think I'll get a snack and read a while... two of my favorite addictions, sweets and reading my blogs!

Linking this post to Jenny Matlock for Alphabe- Thursday
                              Colorado Lady for Vintage Thingie Thursday
                               Junkin Finds with Linda

Thanksgiving Medley -Sunday Reflections

Wishing all of my friends in blog land a Happy Thanksgiving Week! Just  pausing to remember that he is responsible for All our blessings and without Him we would have and be nothing.

May the Lord keep you safe in your travels near and far and those staying home and in all lands,           Bless you all.   Annette

Please join me at http://bloggerspirit.blogspot.com/ for Spiritual Sundays

It's finally here...

Some of you may remember I posted here that I had taken my oxblood Dansko's to match something I was going to purchase... well I am so happy it has arrived. But first let me show you what it is replacing

this uuugly floral sofa and loveseat!

Let me share a few tips from the" learned the hard way ole' soul"

1.Never buy a sofa when you're bone tired from looking.

2. Never give your old sofa away until the new one is in route... and

3.Never say it's not what I want but I can make it work.

I just spent five years of my life hateing this furniture everyday!

                                                                                                                                                               The sleeper had never been slept on and it was good as new or should I say "ugly as new."

This thing was indistructible... I know,    I tried!

Finally here it is... my red leather suit.

It looks brown in the photo but in real life it is a rich, oxblood red color.

The love seat is closer to the real color.

I found this fabric to make pillows and rod covers for the doors and windows

for seven dollars a yard.

After cleaning all of the cobwebs behind the sofa and chasing away dust bunnies,
I did get in a little thrifting. I found this cute cottage at Goodwill for $3 and this little
vintage stocking for $1

I'm using them at the condo as it is decorated primarily in white vintage.

Thanks for dropping by and y'all come on back.

Linking to the following parties, come join in the fun
Nifty Thrifty Tuesdays
Rednesday
Junkin Finds

Sunday Reflections

Flickr -Leo Reynolds

Sing... to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything.

Ephesians 5:19-20

With Thanksgiving quickly approaching we think of giving thanks for our many blessings. It is good to be thankful at Thanksgiving but we should be thankful all of the time.

No matter what the source of the evil confronting you, if you are in God and completely surrounded by Him,  realize that it has passed through Him before coming to you. Because of this, you can thank Him for everything that comes your way. This does not mean thanking Him for the sin that accompanies evil, but offering thanks for what he will bring out of it and through it. May God make our life one of continual thanksgiving and praise, so He will then make everything a blessing.

Exerpt from Streams in the Desert

I am linking to Spiritual Sundays Drop by for lots of uplifting posts.

Simple Pleasures

When I think of life's simple pleasures our fur baby is one of the first things that comes to mind.

He is a 18 month old shih-tzu, and his name is Skipper.

He radiates love, unconditional love. God's little creatures are gifts to us from God.

They not only provide us with companionship, joy and laughter

they are a constant reminder of God's unconditional love for us.

I just recently finished reading And Thereby Hangs a Tale a gift from a dear friend.

The author, David Teems, uses his dogs as powerful images of devotion to give you a glimpse of what a devoted life really looks like.

"A dog makes devotion look as if it is the best part of life."

It is filled with lots of sweet lessons for living a Christian life.

I am linking this post to

Simple Pleasures  at A little of this and that blogspot

Go visit and check out all the other simple pleasures.

Some Vintage Goodies

Before heading to the coast I stopped in at a seasonal thrift shop in town and found what I have been searching for all year... the perfect little vintage coastal print! It was in a yucky gold paper over wood frame. I know, I am just too impulsive to take my before pictures but trust me it looked bad.
I painted  the frame with white Rustoleum and it did the trick. I couldn't wait to get it to the condo.

It is such a sweet little print. It makes me smile every time I look at it.

I know Thanksgiving has not come yet but I am decorating the condo for Christmas. I will not be back down until after Thanksgiving and time will be so limited I decided to go ahead and start Christmas decorating now.

I'm sure it's going to blow my mind next week when I go home and start putting turkeys all over the house.

These are some of the goodies I found at the Goodwill and thrift stores over the summer.

This teddy bear was just sitting there waiting for me to take him home.

I found three Santas on different trips this summer and re-painted them all white.

I didn't repaint the facial features. Their original owners did a great job on them and painting eyes is not one of my strong points. The one on the right was painted red, green and purple!
He's much more neutral now.

I was so excited when I found this little  toile plate at the Goodwill. It is New England Toile and it was priced at $2.50. I can't believe someone gave it away.

I love the little Victorian characters.

and finally...
one of my dumbest Goodwill purchases

I decided to stop at the Goodwill, on my way in to Myrtle Beach, Mr. Vintagesouthern was not happy but I promised I would only take a minute!
I spotted this little church up on the shelf as I hurried along. The roof color is what caught my eye. It is very unusual to find one with a robins egg blue roof.
Off course I grabbed it up and went on my way. I already had visions of it with my hutch here

Notice anything wrong?
You're right...
It's missing its' chimney! 
 I still did not notice it until I got it home and plugged it in. The light was shining out this hole in the roof,   aargh!
Note to self, make appointment with optometrist in the morning.

I am open to any "construction" ideas for my little church. It is such a sad little thing.
Glad you dropped by and y'all come on back!

Linking this post to

Rednesday as Suelovescherries blogspot

VintageThingyThursday at Coloradolady blogspot
Junkin Finds at alacarte blogspot
Cindy's Show and Tell at Romantic home blogspot

Sunday Reflections

Country Church Sevierville, Tenn
Mary and her camera - Flickr

I saw this cute little country church and I found myself thinking of generations past, simpler times and  how our lives are so very different today. We have all of the modern day conveniences and  technology that past generations could not even imagine and yet our lives are more hurried, stressed and hectic than ever. We have so many things to distract us from our tasks and even from His plan for us.

How can we deal with these distractions?

Distractions happened all the time in Jesus ministry. The difference in the way he handled distractions and the way we do is that he just worked the distractions right into the main focus of his life! He didn't see them as distractions but opportunities.

Matthew 19:13-15

Some children were brought to Jesus so he could lay his hands on them and pray for them. The disciples told them not to bother him. But Jesus said "Let the children come unto me.Don't stop them!For the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to such as these." And he put his hands on their heads and blessed them before he left.

How can God use distractions?

Exodus 3:1-4

One day Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law,Jethro...Suddenly the angel of the Lord appeared to him as a blazing fire in a bus. Moses was amazed because the bush was engulfed in flames, but it didn't burn up..."Why isn't that bush burning up? I must go over to see this." When the Lord saw that he had got Moses attention, God called to him from the bush.

Moses was just out on an ordinary day doing his ordinary job.God used the bush, a definite distraction to get his attention.

Acts 9:3-4

As he was nearing Damascus on his mission, a brilliant light from heaven suddenly beamed down upon him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?"

God can use distractions to refocus our sights on his ways, distracting us from our ways. Paul was on his mission to persecute Christians when God got his attention with a distraction that was even harder to ignore than Moses' burning bush and changed the course of his whole life ( and the lives of many others to this day)

A promise from God...

Hebrews 12:13

Mark out a straight path for your feet.Then those who follow you though they are weak and lame,will not stumble and fall but will become strong.

Lord, help me to stay on a straight path with my eyes always on you. Help me use the distractions that come my way for your good and ignore the ones that can not be used for your glory. Dear God, give me the wisdom to see and understand the difference.


Linking to Spiritual Sundays Please drop by and visit for many inspiring posts

A little of this and a little of that...

The past few days have been so hectic I am just now getting to the things that happened in my life LAST week. I think I need a "do over". Do you ever feel that way?
Saturday we went to The Enchanted Forest in Greenville for some treats and lots of fun. I don't know who had more fun me or the grandbabies.

Grandbaby #Two went as a cute little pink poodle.

Grandbaby # One went as Superman.

We said,"hold your baby sister." ... guess we should have been more specific.

It's not as dangerous as it looks. The camera just caught that second. He really is a good big brother and helps mom and dad take care of little "sisa!."

There were lots of story book characters in the Enchanted Forest.

Earlier in the week I felt like I was in an Enchanted Forest when I visited one of my favorite

antique malls...

I was so excited when I spotted this cute little pitcher.

It is a lamp.I had been looking for one for my kitchen. I wanted a silver teapot and may have to make my own lamp later but this one will do for now.... after all, you can never have too many lamps or pitchers, right???

Please ignore the electric cord. Cords are often a decorating challenge for me. Any ideas on how to hide them on a kitchen counter and island? I seriously could use some help with this.

moving on...

I also scored these little vintage Christmas ornaments.I plan to use them at the condo.

The faces are painted with such cute detailed expressions.

and finally

After about my 100th visit to a store I went home and got these to take back with me to the store.

No,Your computer has not bit the dust and you do not need your eyes checked.It is just what it looks like. My red (oxblood) Dansko and a red tie-back. I used them to match a color on a purchase I finally made today.
Any guesses???
 I'm suppose to get it tomorrow.

I'll be back with a picture when it arrives.

Glad you stopped by. Hope you have a great evening and y'all come on back!

I'm linking to these great parties. Go visit for lots of fun!

Nifty Thrifty Tuesday

2nd time around

Rednesday with Sue

Vintage Thingy Thursday

Junkin Finds
Show and Tell

Sunday Reflections

Flickr - Muffett

What to do when nothing seems to be going right...

Wait for the Lord's help. Be strong and brave and wait for the Lord's help.   Psalm 27:14

I find rest in God; only He gives me hope.   Psalm 62:5

But the people who trust the Lord will become strong again. They will rise up as eagles in the sky; they will run and not need rest; they will walk and not become tired.    Isaiah 40:31

Let us hold firmly to the hope that we have confessed, because we can trust God to do what he promised.

                                                                                                                                     Hebrews 10:23

Linking to Spiritual Sunday  Go visit for many uplifting posts.

Pumpkin Party

I am excited about joining the pumpkin party. When I taught, I always did a pumpkin theme and we had such fun!
Some of these photos have been posted before but some are new.

We have pumpkins on the door ...

pumpkins in the kitchen ...

pumpkin in the dining room ...

Pumpkins on the mantel ...

pumpkins in the foyer...

pumpkins in the family room...

pumpkins in the tray ...

pumpkins on the porch ...

and pumpkins on Skipper.

The plan was to let Skipper wear his cute little pumpkin head band but he ate it! See what I have to live with!
He really is a keeper even if he doesn't like photo shoots.

Linking to Beth's Pumpkin Party.
                                                      Cindy's Show and Tell Friday