Last week I talked about

the process I used to let my hair go natural...

This week I want to share a bit about my grey hair philosophy [ha], 

how it's felt, reactions from others, etc.

 First of all, I think grey / silver hair looks best if it has a good cut and is kept styled and neat. And for the first time in YEARS I now go to see Kristie every six weeks to keep it all shaped up. I love this cut, inverted bob, stacked bob, whatever it's called.

 

Stacked in the backand a little longer in the front...

I like that it's long enough to pull back out of my face at times, 

but looks full when it's not... 

It's perfect for my hair - 

I only wash it every few days [ewww, it's true] and I rarely have to do more than brush it out in the following mornings after it's been 'styled' once.

 I've also noticed that what I wear makes a HUGE difference in how my hair looks.  

I had 'my colors done' years ago [who remembers that?!] and was told I was a 'spring' and thought that was just ridiculous because I knew I was an 'autumn' - I LOVE all the autumn colors and am drawn to them in all sorts of ways...

Well. 

Turns out, I think I just might be 'spring' after all. 

The brighter pinks, greens, blues, and yes, yellows 

make a dramatic difference in how bright this ole natural hair looks. ha

I've also picked up reds, greys, and whites 

that I always thought made me look washed out before...

These days the fall colors make my hair and face look dull, dull, dull.

I've found it a little humorous that many people will compliment me on my hair and then as we talk a bit and I begin to say why I did it [no more color, etc.] I can actually SEE their defenses go up as they say things to defend their decision to put color on their hair. 

So let me be CLEAR:  

Going natural is a personal choice. 

I found my first grey hair when I was 21 years old, 

looking in a mirror in Ft. Walton Beach.

[Hows' THAT for a MOMENT - ha] 

And I put color on from then until I was in my 50s. 

Nothing wrong with that.

I just got tired of it.

And I really do LOVE not seeing the line of growth every few weeks...

Another thing I've noticed is that It seems like I'm treated with a bit more respect 

[we teach youngins to respect your elders and all that down here in the south, you know] 

and I'm [surprisingly] kind of embracing that...

I also tend to feel much more comfortable doling out a bit of 

[my own] 

thoughts - wisdom - instructions 

here and there - 

But that could just be AGE - lol. 

I remind myself of my mama over and over...

It's not a bad place to be in life...

[And that photo up there? two days after a wash - 

styled with a curling iron on the day it was taken.]

So my best advice?

Go find a REALLY GOOD stylist and get the cut that's best for your hair!

The World's Longest Yard Sale

I first heard about The World's Longest Yard Sale a few years ago and thought it might be fun to do. [We do love thrifting!] And since we already had a couple of days planned for a get-a-way we decided it was the perfect time to give it a go!
- so we did a little research [not too much] and decided that we'd start around Crossville, TN and drive South through Chattanooga and to Mentone, AL - & possibly Gadsden, if we made good time. As the day grew closer I begin to think it was either going to be REALLY FUN or possibly, depending on the traffic / crowds, REALLY TEDIOUS.

We love seeing the crazy - quirky side of life and we were tempted to get this [park playground] duck for MK - but honestly didn't know if we could lift the concrete tire into the truck [and with the glider / chairs, where would it fit anyway?]

And you never know when you might need a motorcycle with a CANOE side car - too funny -

But here is Friday's deal of the day -

a bottle tree - shown at home with my little collection of blue glass transformers. I may outfit it completely in these little beauties, or I may go for some green and blue bottles. The premise behind a behind a bottle tree is that the upside down bottles capture evil spirits and keeps your house safe. There are those in the 'old south' that truly believe this - but in recent years bottle trees have become more like little works of art in the yard. Loving ours... sitting where the butterfly bush used to be [before it got too big for its britches.]

So here's my take on TWLYS - there are areas where 20 - 50 people may be set up in a field or huge yard, areas [miles] where there's nothing at all, and areas where people have just thrown things out on their lawn to sale --- soooooo, there needs to be some rules. Number one - no commentary on the goods until you've stopped; # 2: You say STOP if you want to stop, otherwise, you keep driving to the next area... The other 'rule' for us was - we just weren't in a hurry. In fact, on Saturday we probably didn't get started until nearly lunch time. Rule # 4: You can turn around, if you both agree on it. Rule # 5: Don't eat the food sold along the way [no matter how good it sounds; fresh fried pies and pinto beans & cornbread y'all? That was hard to resist, but we couldn't risk stomach upsets when we were set on going the distance.]


Instead, we stopped on a [North] Georgia mountain ledge and ate our leftovers from a little mom / pop Italian place we'd had dinner at the night before. Delish - even cold.
Could have been the company and adventure of it all.

We laughed because our phones / cameras [I hardly carry my 'real' camera at all any more - lol] said we were in two different locations even though we were standing mere feet apart...

So here's the goods:

Canvas & frames for painting, AU shirts, laptop sleeves [$1 each!], five of those little wooden cars, a couple of green flowered [retro] pyrex bowls [so fun!], a small milk glass compote [for my ever growing milk-glass collection], a bag of tomatoes, a basket of peaches, a couple of paintings with scriptures on them that I plan to vamp up a bit with mixed media, a chamber pot with lid that I plan to use for my compost before it goes outside, and a precious little matted light house painting that's already sitting on our side board in the dining room.
Not shown is the fun NASCAR book Craig bought for a friend, a phone holder, and three smaller [and cute] frames for art work, [and the bottle tree, of course.]

Note: We took a little stop at Rock City - I wanted to buy some magic rocks [such fond memories of going there as a kid and then with our boys.] But alas, the wonderful rock building that was the entrance / gift shop full of rocky novelties is now a STARBUCKS. And I'm sure that's heaven to many of you - but it was very sad to me. The new and improved gift shop was inside the gate and you had to purchase a shopping pass to get pass this guy:

Who knew?
Even Rock City has gone commercial...

One of the things we enjoyed most was seeing the gliders / sliders that were for sale. Craig even helped one guy sell his for $100 more than he was first asking. But the glider we wanted most was a little further south... so we stopped the yard-saling in Mentone and drove over to Guntersville for dinner at our all-time-favorite catfish place, then on Sunday we drove on south to pick up this:

And for us, THIS is the grand-prize of gliders. The wedding ring pattern. This is the only one we've ever seen IRL [in real life.] And it's in pretty good shape. It'll be painted a nice creamy, buttery yellow. And while the red set is gorgeous up on the hill under the trees, this one will sit on the patio for us to enjoy each day too. Yay.

Favorite Photo Friday

It was just so nice to share a hot doughnut with my Aunt Carol and Uncle Elton while we were all in The Shoals last week. And very fitting too, I think - since it was my Uncle Elton who first introduced me to those Krispy Kreme delights waaaaaay back in the sixties when I was visiting with them for a few days when they lived in Huntsville. They took me to Krispy Kreme after church on Sunday evening and my little eight-year-old self was completely blown away by so many choices of doughnuts in one place!



This is another slide from my dad's collection [not re-touched.] And from most people's recollection it's my Aunt Carol and Uncle Elton [in the 50s] at my grandmother's house, holding their oldest daughter. Of course, I didn't know them then since Bonnie's a few years older than me, and that side of my family is HUGE, with ten daughters + spouses + 35 grandchildren - so who knows who this might be... but I like to believe it's my Aunt Carol and Uncle Elton, and until someone proves to me that it isn't that's my story, and I'm stickin' to it.

Mama's Biscuits

My Mama has always made the best biscuits ever! Growing up our breakfasts were always centered around her fluffy white biscuits – in the summer I’d have one [or two] with sausage and a slice of tomato and a side of cantaloupe. In the winter there’d be sausage [almost always O'Guirre’s – specially made at a little shop in town – so good!] white gravy, and her famous biscuits with butter and hot blackberry jam.
It just doesn’t get any better than that, y’all!
When we all married and moved away
coming home to Mama’s big breakfasts was always a treat
[even if she did serve us gravy one time that she said the dog wouldn’t eat – ha!] I love this photo of Matt when he was around two years old – standing in a chair at the kitchen counter to help cut out the biscuits we loved so much. It perfectly captures this gr-mother tradition of letting the boys be a part of her “everyday” – even if they did make a mess. And it reminds me so much of those big [delicious!] breakfasts we used to all share together!

Blackberry Jam –[Mom - feel free to correct me if I'm wrong!]

1 Pick plump juicy blackberries down by the spring,

2 Wash and place blackberries in glass canning jars

3 Seal jars with the water bath method and put away for winter

4 In a pot over medium heat combine equal parts blackberries and sugar

5 Bring to a boil. Turn down heat to keep warm

6 Serve over buttered biscuits – yum.

Putting Up Vegetables

This was such a BIG part of my ‘growing up’ years. Something I despised doing most of the time – but can now understand the thriftiness of it – and also the feelings of camaraderie as the job was done. But at the time – oh how I hated it. After Debby had the pool put in I can remember there often being a requirement of shelling a bushel of purple-hull peas or butter beans [or whatever happened to be ‘ready’] before we were allowed to swim for the day. [And, as a result, I don’t eat butter beans to this day -]

But I also remember the good times of sitting out under a shade tree [or under Ma’s carport – with her smiling as we talked and giggled], working away, as I listened to my Mom and her sisters talk about life. I remember how one might grow a bunch of stuff in their garden [or have fruit on their trees] or another might find it at a good price and purchase enough for all to share. I remember the smells of jams and jellies being made, the fun of water bathing tomatoes, and listening to hear each jar pop as it sealed. And I remember the simple beauty of jars of veggies and fruits lined on the shelf [peaches, green beans, tomatoes, blackberries, peas, apples, and beans] – somehow so much more special than the stuff we buy in cans today. I guess because they had a little love thrown in – what are some of your summer memories?

Judy's How-to Guide for Managing Face Book –

[My tips for organizing and staying in contact with my friends without giving up my life
&a nod to our study over on FBP Classes about de-cluttering our lives...]

1. Set aside a self-determined amount of time to review and update with Face Book friends.
2. Organize friends into groups [lists] such as high school - college; scrapbookers; friends; designers; family, etc.
3. Limit your friends to those you know personally [unless you are a ‘known’ personality, and hey – I’m not.]
4. Please don’t ‘friend me’ if you plan to hide me – I don’t post often and I’m not going to be sharing what I eat for lunch everyday…and I HATE being ignored [where's the 'dislike' button when you need it?]
   
5. Likewise, limit groups and things you ‘like’ to only those groups you want to receive information / advertisements from. [Why clutter your updates with useless information? It's like inviting spam into your fb page.]
6. Check upcoming events to see your friends' upcoming birthdays.
7. Click on ‘Top News’ at top of page and scroll through the posts to see information that all of your friends has posted.
8. Hide the games your friends play unless you’re joining in on the fun. [This alone cuts your fb clutter in half]
9. Click on the left side bar ‘friends’ and go quickly through the lists [that opens up underneath this] to get the most up-to-date news quickly. If time is limited, choose those lists that are most important to you. - See #2.
10. Check upper left to see notices about friend requests, email notices, and updates to posts you have commented on. These updates will also inform when someone has commented on your posts or photos.
11. Remember, you do not have to click on every website, video, or note if you do not have the time or interest to explore further…
12. Chat with friends [instant message] by clicking on ‘chat’ and a list will come up of all your friends on face book at that moment [maybe.]
13. Check your profile page to be sure you see everything someone has sent to you directly. [It’s very frustrating to me to write something on someone’s wall and not get a response…]
14. Check your security settings – do you want everyone to see your information / photos, friends of friends or just friends? – It’s up to you!

Stories to Tell

Stories to Tell contains random - crazy - often inaccurate [but real-to-me] memories I want to record for my scrapbooks. I'd love to hear how these might prompt some of your own memories-

Green Stamps:

I have vague and random memories of green stamps – how many of you collected them in your household too? When we would do our bi-weekly grocery shopping at the Liberty Grocery Store [which always began with dinner out – a treat for us--- at Southland] my mom would receive a certain number of green stamps depending on how much we’d spent on the groceries. [Sometimes we’d get the big yellow ones that were ‘worth’ more.]

After we got home and the groceries were put away [my job was to put all the canned goods in the bottom cabinet], I’d plead for the chance to put the stamps in the little books where they were collected. Each page held, maybe 50 stamps [but again the yellow ones took up more space] and once the books were filled we’d go to the Green Stamp Store to redeem them. I have memories of looking through the Green Stamp Catalog, but I can’t remember what it held – small appliances? Toys? I’m just not sure. But I do know it was a treat to look through and dream of how the stamps might be used.

I have a [very] vague memory of a Green Stamp Store over in Sheffield, but during a recent visit to the Shoals Craig and were driving around Florence and reminiscing – and came upon the old Seven Points Shopping Center and he vividly remembered the Green Stamp Store there – and I can also remember visiting it – was it the only one, or was it larger than the other store that I recall?

Random memories of simpler times… did any of you ever send off the tops of cereal boxes for a treat? I could ramble on about that too, but I’ll end with sharing the best thing I ever got with cereal box tops: a print of horses running in a storm, larger than 18x24, and still framed, and in my attic today – fun.