Table Runner

Table Runner in Progress......

Please be aware I am the slowest seamstress (in training) in the world. So I actually have to do progress pictures because I am so slow. I can't believe how fast some people can get projects done, but I am not one of them.

In a perfect world it would have been finished around 7:00 tonight. It didn't happen, perhaps tomorrow.

I couldn't find a table runner to fit my dining room table that I actually like so I decided to make one to look similar to the one on my kitchen table.

This is what I have so far. I am going to have to redo one end because I don't like it so I am going to fix it. Hopefully it will be done tomorrow.

Dough Bowl Decorating for Free Part 2

Well my hydrangeas have become a huge part a decorating this summer. Good thing since I love them so much.

My dough bowl had gone into hiding literally. I had to call Dennis to find out where he put it, under our guest bedroom bed. What?!?!?!? He refers to it as my canoe. Thanks, hun.

Thankfully our hydrangeas have been drying themselves so whenever we have people over I just make new arrangements and and let those dry out. This arrangement went into my hurricane vase.

The only question was what was I going to do with all the dried hydrangeas. I was going to decorate my dough bowl for free, of course. This isn't the first time I have done this you can see those results here, but hey this one needs no maintenance.

I used florist foam that I had on hand. I cut each stem fairly short and stripped all of the leaves off. I stuffed each steam into the florist foam. This allowed each bunch to sit in the bowl without tipping.

The first group looked really good, but......

It needed more.

So it go more.

I love the finally result and they even look good close up. The dough bowl is currently on the kitchen table, but not for long. It will be moving to the dining room shortly. I have a little project planned.

My Camera

My Camera is currently traveling Europe with my little sister. She is studying in Germany for the next couple of weeks. Lucky her, lucky camera. I am not real sure how my camera ended up going but anyway. I am going to be using my mom's I just haven't picked it up yet because I started a new job. Well I guess I need to explain what happened to the old job.

While on vacation in Disney World in early May I really enjoyed my time off and just couldn't fathom going back to work full time. So after much thought and discussion Dennis and I decided it was time for some time off. I turned in my notice in early June. I left on very good terms. I worked for them for many years and was very sad to leave. We have a vacation planned for later this summer and I was going to look for a part time job after we arrived back. This would have given a few well deserved weeks off.

Well as things would have it the part time job fell into my lap before we left. So far so good. I am extremely busy and only work four days a week. I think that will allow me to do everything that I want to do. The funny thing is people keep on wanting me to do more things......people this is my fun part time job.

I am leaving you with a picture of Dennis and I at Disney World. This is the same spot where we stood during our honeymoon trip. Our trip was so much fun we met up with Dennis' sister, her husband, three wonderful daughters, and my mother-in-law. I always love going to Disney.

Free Mantle Decorating

Dennis and I hosted a Father's Day Party at our house this year so our mantle needed a little tweak. It may or may not have still had some leftovers from the Easter Mantle..........

Since I had a major life change occurring the mantle had to be absolutely free. More on the life change in the next post I promise.

So what is a girl to do when looking to decorate her mantle for free.........snag items from her yard.

I first broke off some branches from our Confederate Rose tree that is just not doing very well and spray painted them with colors we had on hand. My spray painting skill are not very good plus in South Alabama in June you really don't ever reach the perfect temperature or humidity.

I also stole a bird's nest from a bush in our backyard. Don't worry the baby birdies had flown the coop a few days early. I knew this because Shea had finally stopped barking at the nest. Plus the birds had stopped buzzing the dogs when they were in the yard.

The best piece is our hydrangeas. Last year when we moved into the new house the hydrangeas had a great year. Not so much this year. We are having a major drought so I won't show you pictures of the bushes because they don't look so good but I will show you some of the blooms.

So there you have our free mantle decorating. By the way our mantle is very hard to photograph and I am still working on it. Hopefully as the seasons move on I will get much better at it.
By the way the hydrangeas dried themselves and I have a new project I can't wait to show you.

Party Settings - I Should Iron Tablecloths

Well I am going to take a short break from talking about real life because I don't want the blog to be to heavy. Most everyone who reads the blog on a regular basis knows the biggest change in my life and I go over that later in the week.

While on break though I did have a lots of fun. We had a girls night at my house back in mid-April. Most of my close girlfriends from high school were able to make it except for Brandi and she was sorely missed.

I of course have no pictures of us during party, but here are the pictures of my table before the party. I used my good china. Yippee!!! I am always happy when I get to do this:) Plus we sat at the dining room table another big plus for me.

I did decorating on a budget. One of our florist here has a great deal that you can buy a stem for a dollar. I take them up on this offer all the time. This time I bought five spider mums, five roses, and three some sort of tall stems.

I cored out five apples and and cut florist foam to fit into the apple. I was amazed how long these little apples lasted.

I used the rest of the flowers for a vase on our little side board.

Overall I was extremely happy with the way everything turned out and I always love spending time with girlfriends we never seem to get enough of it.

(These pictures do tell be one thing. I need to iron tablecloths..................)

Part Two - Tornado

If you are just reading this part one of this story can be found here.

As I started talking to Lex the magnitude of how bad it was shocking. She was explaining to me how there was a woman trapped in the gas station down the street from her apartment. The Big Lots on the the opposite corner from her apartment was gone.

The windows of her apartment were busted out and her car was heavily damaged with the windows being shattered because she had decided not to stay at track practice like I had first assumed. Eventually it was determined that her car was in fact totalled.

Then I turned on the T.V. and started watching the news, this was probably a mistake. I couldn't believe the images that I was seeing. I was truely stunned and horrified. I think the one that stands out to me most was the one I saw on the Today Show the next day. It is the one where the guy is standing with his camera facing the hospital and it looks so close to the hospital. Well Alexis apartment is just south of the hospital. It really hit me then how close this monster was to her.

We headed up to Tuscaloosa at about 9:00 Thursday morning to pick Alexis up and bring her home. As we drove into town we went in a back way so didn't see to much damage. We parked near the hospital and proceeded to walk over the railroad tracks. We then entered a war zone. The buildings looked like they had exploded. Across the street from Alexis apartment complex was gone. The parts of the buildings that were standing had marks on them signfing that they had been searched. Just like what people saw during Hurricane Katrina. This is what we could see from Alexis front door.

Her friends were very excited to see adults and were ready to go home. I don't blame them I was ready to go home. They then told us about their experiences. Alexis left track practice early because the weather had taken a turn for the worse and she wanted to go home. Her strength coach asked her to stay but she told him that she would be fine.


She headed home and the sirens started. The sirens had been going off almost every other day for three weeks so it didn't really affect her. She jumped in the shower. Meanwhile her other roommates were downstairs. One was cooking a snack and the other was in her room. The one cooking heard something and ran upstairs and looked out her window and thats when she saw the monster headed towards them. She banged on Alexis shower door and told her to get out and get downstairs.

Alexis grabbed a towel, her dog, and of course being a college student her cell phone and ran down the stairs. All three of the girls and the two dogs crouched in the closet while they heard the windows break. At some point Alexis called her best friend Stephen. All he heard them breathing real hard and loud noises. Then he said it was just silent and her started yelling their names. He wasn't sure what happened.

Alexis came back on the line said they were okay and she had to call her dad. That is about the time my dad called me. Around the same time several of Alexis friends were on campus watching the tornado barely miss the hospital and just knew that Alexis apartment was in the path. In fact her good friend Billy along with several of his fraternity brothers headed towards her complex thinking they needed to look for her. As they drove down one of the main streets they could see through what use to be a neighborhood and saw Alexis apartment was standing and stopped. They started helping people who were trapped.




When we left Tuscaloosa that afternoon, I had changed. I have become more thankful and the realization that life is to short and you need to love every minute of it because things can change in an instant.

Where In the World Has Dawn Been?

I will admit that I have been absent for far to long. Many of the things that are in this post are still extremely fresh and every time I hear them my eyes feel up with tears. My family though is very blessed and very lucky.





I have talked about my younger sister Alexis several times on this blog before as being on the track team at the University of Alabama. She was extremely lucky during the tornadoes of April 27th that touched down in Tuscaloosa.



The day started as many others had this past semester, including a 15 minute conversation with my sister that morning about what was going on her life. Living in south Alabama our weather had been steadily getting worse all aftday and by 5:00 when I left it looked like it was going to storm. I checked Facebook before I left work and Lex had posted a picture from track practice where the weather looked like it was turning bad.





About two to three minutes into my drive home my best friend called and asked if I had talked to Alexis. I told her I hadn't and asked her why. Her husband is the district manager for Wintzel's and was in their Tuscaloosa store. He had called to tell her about the tornado. I wasn't really worried they had bad weather for weeks plus she was at track practice. They would keep her at there in the basement.



She and I stayed on the phone for the rest of drive home as she told me what she was seeing on T.V. boy it sure wasn't pretty. It was the longest 20 minute drive ever. As I was pulling into my neighborhood my dad called. I clicked over and and asked if Alexis was freaking out. He said "Yes, That's her I will call you back."



I have to apologize because you have to understand it is only 5:20 I have no idea what is going on in the rest of the state. I haven't seen the T.V. I am clueless but I won't be for much longer. I clicked back over to Brandi and said my dad was going to call me back because Alexis was calling him.





As I pulled into my garage (thank goodness I made it home) my dad called me back. I will never forget these words, "Alexis is okay, the tornado hit her apartment and her car is totalled. Goodbye." Yep, thanks dad, don't hold back or anything.











I clicked over to Brandi asked if I could call her back and immediately called Dennis and started hyperventilating. He didn't help telling me there wasn't anything I could do. Thanks not what I wanted to hear.



I hung up from him and figured that I would try Alexis, but doubted that I would ever get through. I was wrong. I have never been so happy to hear someone's voice. (By the way I still hadn't turned on the T.V., this probably was a good thing.) She started explaining what she was seeing. I couldn't quite grasp what she was telling me.

Did I ever the next day when we went to pick her up and heard her side........................