Pawing thru the Thrift Shop

You know you are home when you don't want to be any other place in all the world.  Home is always the most beautiful place in the world, it is also filled with the friendliest people on the face of the planet.

Home is where you feel comfortable and safe.  Home is where all of your beloveds live, 2 legged and 4 legged.  At home the autumn colors are the most beautiful, the flowers smell the sweetest and the birds sing the prettiest.  I love my autumn colors and they really are the prettiest right here in my own neighborhood.  I think Dorothy said it best..."there's NO place like home!"

It is definitely autumn, one day warm and the next two, cool.  There still hasn't been any rain to speak of.  I have chicken thighs and legs cooling after I cooked them in a pot.  I am going to shred them and make some Taco Soup!  I forgot to get the green chili's for the soup when I was at MY HyVee this morning  so we will have to suffer without it.  I did manage to spend 135.00 though and I know with prices today, that doesn't take much. Getting back to the Taco Soup, one of the lovely managers at work suggested it to me and I thought it sounded yummy!  My one and only truest love (the Professor, just in case you were wondering) doesn't like soup and stews.  I suppose it doesn't suite his Royal, Caribbean Princely upbringing, but he will have to suffer because I am not in the mood for ketchup with anything.

I am thinking I want to bake a pumpkin or date nut bread but that shall be tomorrow I think.  And horror of horrors, there are NO cookies, so maybe I will make some oatmeal cookies.  I know what you're thinking, when did this girlish girl become SO domestic?  Well it happened April 5th around 1pm when I picked up the Professor at Kansas City International and brought him the Thicket to begin a life of domestic bliss with me.  Well "bliss" maybe a very over stated word for learning how to live with one another without ripping each other's face off.  We have been doing better, it has been over 2 weeks since we blew the roof off and THAT IS a new Lilac Thicket record!

I want to introduce you to my "older sister", Hip Hop Dot.  This is her at work saving another life with her caring and loving ways.  We met when I was her mentor during her training 5 or 6 years ago.  She is an amazingly creative and talented woman.  She cooks, she sews, she crochets, she draws, she is a fashion guru and she is my Catholic sister.  I love her so much.  We trade recipes and we show off our projects to one another and when I need advice or just love, Hip to the Hop Dot is always there for me.  I am blessed to have her in my life.  Every girl needs a big sister like her.

Speaking of work, I applied for a new position at work and I was selected for it.  I will be working off the phones, but in a department that makes sure all the different phone queues are cleared, moving representatives around in those queues, scheduling breaks and trainings and lots of other phone support activities to keep our call center humming along.  I am beyond thrilled, excited and anxious to begin learning.  I will be moving to another part of the call center, away from the team I have been a part of for the past 4 years.  I applied for this same position 6 years ago and was not selected, but this time God knew it was right for me.  I start in 2 weeks, I can't wait.  This has definitely been the year that God said, "it's yours my Beloved daughter...your dreams all of them I am granting!"  Thank you Lord for giving me all my heart's desires!

 

After taking the Professor to church and after spending all that money at my HyVee, I went to the Thrift Shop.  I found the above pictured plates, dinner size, $1.00 and I am thinking pretty plates to put holiday goodies on to give as gifts or take to work.  When I got them home I was disappointed that one has a small chip in it but...oh well.

Now normally I wouldn't have paid $3 for the above book however it had a set of nice cross stitched ornament patterns in it and I thought you CAN'T find one pattern for $3 any more so it came home with me. 

I ran across these darling decorated cookies in the same book.  Aren't they cute? 

And here is the picture of the page with the cross stitch ornaments.  I think they are wonderful!  Well worth the price, at least to me.  Not only that, there are recipes I want to look at a little more closely in there. 

So here is the find of the trip.  I got this Shepherd's Bush kit, pattern, silk floss, cotton floss, charm, beads, needle and floss holder for, hold on to your seats...$2.50!  It is the design "Winter Moon"!  Love it, love the price better!  Great deal, am I right? 

This single blue bowl was 25¢ and it is deep and it will work well for soup or cereal but I was thinking of photography, when I take a picture of something I bake or cook, it will photograph better.  Plus the single cotton pillow case with the pretty lacy trim was 50¢. 

The picture is a bit blurred but I love these kind of fund raising cook books.   This one is from 1984 and I looked through some of it while I was waiting for the love of my life to come out of church.  This isn't printed on a computer, the pages are type written!  There are some good sounding recipes, Cake Mix Cinnamon Rolls,  Cox's Best Buttermilk Rolls, Strawberry Bread, Old Fashioned Upside Down Cake (with peaches instead of pineapple), Chocolate Applesauce Cake, Fern's Coffee Cake (who's Fern?), Black Oil Cake, The Best Sugar Cookie You Ever Ate (uses 5 cups of flour!), Cherry Mash Candy and on and on!  If any of these sound good and you want the recipe before I make them, leave me a comment with your e-mail and I will send it to you.

Well I suppose I have stalled long enough and I need to get that chickie pooh pooh shredded.  I was sort of hoping to stitch some today and will if the good light holds out.  I hope all my gentle readers are enjoying their autumns.  I pray for all of you to be happy and content!  God Bless Us Everyone!