Second day in Blowing Rock

Here are some more pictures from our trip to Blowing Rock. Most of these are from Saturday...but they are not all in order. I'll put up Sunday's pictures in the next post.

Saturday we walked around the shopping are in Blowing Rock and had lunch. We all kind of split off to go in different directions and then met again around 2:00 near the cupcake shop. This is everyone except me and Shannon near the cupcake shop.

Aunt Sue and I and Julie and Shannon had lunch at this restaurant. The food was not so good, but it was a nice place to sit outside and enjoy the cool air and fall colors of the leaves.

Saturday morning we went to the Watauga County Farmers' Market. So many pretty things to see and good things to eat. On Kristie's advice, I bought some sour dough buns for the paninis and they were really good. Got some pumpkin butter and raspberry jam, too.





This is the entrance to the Tweetsie Railroad in Boone, NC. We could hear the whistle blow all the way up at Kristie's place. During the month of October, it turns into a Ghost Train at night. The whistle changes from sweet to scary...it really sounds creepy, too.

Saturday evening we went to Bistro Roca for dinner. It was good and a very happening place. It was crowded...but Kristie and her husband had gotten reservations so no problems for us.

These animals were at the farmers' market. I think their people were selling yarn.

My dream would be to have a place like Kristie's in the mountains. This just dreamy to me. This is the side deck. It's just perfect for staying out of the rain but also for watching the little birds and chipmunks that come to the feeder.
This is my favorite view...it's the back deck. This deck runs the length of the house. Just perfect! I think I could just stay out here all the time.

These beautiful hydrangeas were everywhere up there. These were in Kristie's yard.
Cute little bike/flower pot scene.
Pretty border made with wine bottles.
Pam and Julie and Chalica enjoying Saturday morning in the living room.
I'll be back with more pictures. I have to post about our new family member tomorrow.

lily goes to the vet

I'm looking for a certain picture from the trip to North Carolina. So I'm going to share this picture of Lily and then get back to the North Carolina trip.



Here is Lily with the vet we use. She was biting her feet. I wasn't sure if she was having a reaction to the treats we gave her or if her butt needed expressing ... if you know what I mean. So doctor examined her and gave her some more of the annual shots she needed and took care of the butt problem. She was much better and no more biting her feet. I haven't tried another one of those treats with her, so don't know if that was part of the problem.

She is such a sweet girl. She insist on trying to wake me up at 3:10 every morning. And I've been trying to get her to wait a little bit. She seems to be getting the hint that I'm not going to get up and deal with her that early. But she still likes to get up early.

Blowing Rock Meetup 2011

Two weeks ago, October 7, on a Friday, Aunt Sue and Magnolia Sun and I left about 6:00 in the morning to go to Blowing Rock, NC., for the bloggy meetup group of friends get-together. Girlville and her husband hosted it at their mountain house. They were great hosts and made us all feel welcome. It was truly was a great time with friends. It was so nice to have it at their house because you could spread out and be at the dinning room table or on the deck or in the kitchen or living room. Everyone stayed at the mountain house except Aunt Sue and I. We wanted to stay at a bed and breakfast because we were not sure if the house would be so crowded and we like to sleep with the light on and the TV on..and that sometimes doesn't work out for others.

Aunt Sue and Julie and I stopped in Atlanta for a chick-fil-A. We actually had a picnic on the back of the car in the parking lot. We were tired of sitting down. It felt good to stand up for a few minutes. We then headed on through South Carolina and then into North Carolina. We stopped at a CVS and got a few things. We found that gas was pretty good bit cheaper up in the Carolinas.

We finally made it to the Crippin Country Inn where Aunt Sue and I were staying. We checked in. The room was small. It was clean. It's an old house with guestrooms upstairs and a nice restaurant downstairs. The floors creaked a lot. That was only bad because we would come in late at night from being up at Girlville's place. I felt like our walking around that late would wake every else up. The Crippen has the good little chocolate covered dinner mints in a bowl upstairs for the guests and you could also have bottles of water and half cans of sodas...all you wanted. I put so many of those mints in my purse that I had some every day for a week after I got back home. The breakfast at Crippen was okay. It was grits and gravy and biscuits and bacon and scrabbled eggs. Orange juice, coffee. I never did see any fresh fruit or yogurt or anything like that. I didn't ask for it either. I do like biscuits and grits and bacon..so all was okay with me.

The weather was beautiful. We were there on what I believe was the best weekend for the fall colors of the leaves. I have never seen anything so pretty in the mountains as the leaves turning colors....so many different colors and then green grass just sets those colors off.

After checking in at Crippen, we went on to Girlville's. We had the GPS on the phone, which is pretty reliable. But the mountain that Girlville's house is on is ... it's a mountain and it's in a neighborhood that is curvy roads and it's pretty high up...so the GPS was not getting us to the address as easily as it should have. So we had to call...I heard that everyone had to call because they got lost around that area. Finding it in the daylight is one thing, but one night we left there to go back to the Crippen and it was dark. We didn't take the correct turn and ended up a ways down the road before we realized we didn't know where we were. So the GPS did get up back the right direction. But it's dark dark dark up in those mountains at night...my imaginations was really working overtime.

This is one of the roads near the Crippen in downtown Blowing Rock.

This is what we saw going up to Girlville's place. It was a pretty meadow with that tree.

This is the room at the Crippen. It was supposed to have twin beds...and this is twin beds but there is a mattress thing that covers both twin beds. If we ever stay there again, we'll know to tell them to move the beds apart or get a bigger room that has the beds separated.

When we got to Girlville's place, Punchy and Chalica and Courtney and Girlville and her husband were there. They had fixed chili and pumpkin cornbread for dinner. It was good!

Another picture of the room. You see that wall where the picture is hanging...there was a fireplace downstairs and that wall was the chimney going up. It was so hot...and it heated up the room. Even though it was cold outside, I still had to open the window to cool off.


Pam and Shanny showed up with the next hour while were eating dinner. Shanny sells Thirty-One products. It was really nice to see them in person. They are different bags and items to keep you organized. Shanny is so FUNNY. And Chalica was her right-hand saleswoman. I almost wondered if Chalica was a salesperson, too. I bought a thermal picnic tote and got another item for a discount. I got free monogramming on the picnic tote. I'll show a picture of it another day. And Aunt Sue got a wristlet.

My next post will be about what we did on Saturday!

I have to say I have good memories of this trip and will always think of it as a very special time.

Our new member of the family: LILY

I just spent four lovely days up in Blowing Rock, North Carolina. It was so beautiful it's hard to describe the colors of the leaves changing on the trees. Thanks to girlville and her husband for having a lot of us up there for a meetup. I will be posting about that in my next few posts.

Right now I want to introduce Lily also known as Lily Bean. She is a little doll. I hope to hear from her former mother so that she can fill me in on any details that I don't know. Plus just so she can feel better about what Lily is up to and know that we will love her and take good care of her.

This is Lily on her way home from Atlanta on October 11, 2011. She rode in the back seat with me. We stopped at Home Goods and got a blanket for her to wrap up in. It's purple with paw prints. She came with a pretty collar an leash, a couple of toys and a bed and some food and treats.

Here is Emma and Lily enjoying the sunshine on the front courtyard area.


Here is Lily in the bed this morning. She loves to get up early and walk on top of you to get up. This is opposite of Emma. Emma loves to sleep until I get up.

Here is Lily wanting to get back inside. There was a noise going on that she didn't like so she was pretty insistent to get back in. Those are the new front doors that we FINALLY got. No glass in them...which I would have loved but the husband did not want anyone to see inside.


We got Lily from SEPRA. That's where we got Emma from back in 2008. Lily and Emma both were adopted out in 2008. They came from the same puppy mill situation. They look and act a lot alike. I think they may be related. I understand that Lily was very protective of her former mother and that her former mother had gotten married and is expecting a baby so she felt like the best thing to do was give Lily back to SEPRA for them to find her the right home. I know that must have been the hardest thing to do for her former mother. My heart goes out to her. I know when Chalica gave us Alfred and Holly, it was hard but I'm glad to know that Chalica trusted us to take care of them and love them. So Lily will be our new "baby" here.

She follows me and only wants to spend her time where I am. Hopefully, once she gets to know us, she will spend time with the husband. We've had so many pugs over the years, I know they get more into the routine around here after awhile. She ate dinner shortly after we got home from picking her up in Atlanta. I was afraid she wouldn't eat, but that has not been an issue. She eats at meal times and takes treats and is drinking water just fine. I'm already in love with her! I am going to dress her up in black and yellow knit dress from Punchy's Originals when it gets cooler outside. And Lily and Emma will be wearing the red and white Christmas dresses that belonged to Chichi and Tiny. Chalica, I wish you were here to take their Christmas portrait!

When we picked her up from the foster mom in Atlanta, it was so fun to see the other pugs that she was taking care of. She is a special needs foster mom. She tries to get the pugs back into good health. They were so sweet. She has a big black pug that is the most beautiful black pug I've ever seen. His name is Brick. He is up for adoption. But he will have to go to a home that is very calm. He is blind and you can read his story over HERE. His coat and skin are beautiful now. But he still will have to have more care because of his eyes. I wish the husband was with me, because I think he would have wanted to adopt him, too. We are so happy to have Lily with us now. We are so lucky that these little ones just want to be loved and taken care of and are always happy to see us. Plus they are never going to grow up and ask for the car keys! I hope every one who loves pugs can one day adopt at least one from a rescue group!

There will be more pictures and stories to come from Lily and Emma. And also pictures and stories of the trip to the mountains.

nice day for a beach wedding

Saturday a couple from church were married at the beach. I've lived here 24 years and never attended a wedding on the beach. When I think about that, I'm surprised. It was a beautiful day. Not hot and no clouds and no waves. No waves means that we could actually hear them say their vows.

The bride asked Aunt Sue to do her cake. This is the third cake this year she has made and she's not even in the cake business.


Aunt Sue and a friend of ours from church. She is originally from the Philippines. When you get invited to lunch at her house...you are in for a treat. She cooks so good.

The couple saying their vows.

The day was perfect for a wedding. No waves crashing.

Aunt Sue and I and another lady from church worked on the cake. The other lady baked the cakes and Aunt Sue decorated. I made helped with the shells and pearls. The hardest part was the coral. Aunt Sue piped it out with royal icing. It was really fragile. We made a lot and most of it broke anyway.

Christmas Reindeer

I love to decorate with glass reindeer. I saw this display in Hobby Lobby the other day. The was an acrylic standing reindeer and a sitting one reindeer. They were both $99. With a 40 percent off coupon, it would be a better price...but still too much for me to get both of them. I'm going to take my chances and see if there are any left later on in the year.

Winner of Halloween giveaway

I want to thank everyone that wanted to participate in my annual Halloween giveaway. I do enjoy giving things away. I should do it more often. The winner is No. 8. That's Punchy! Hey Punchy...You won!!

Annual Halloween Giveaway

It's time for the annual Halloween decoration giveaway. Girlville is having a giveaway, too. Please go over and leave a comment on her blog for a chance to win her Halloween goodie. I hope everyone who comes by here will leave a comment. The winner will be chosen next Wednesday. This is a tea light holder from Yankee Candle. I do not have a tea light to include, so this is just for the decoration. But do not use a voltive in this...only use a tea light.



I've been stopping by different cupcake stores when I see them and trying out the cupcakes. This was a cream cheese pound cake cupcake. Aunt Sue and I cut it in half and shared. I wonder how well the cupcake shops are doing. I think the cupcakes are expensive, but the shops all seem to have competitive prices.

old oak trees get cut down

I want to thank everyone for the sweet comments about Alfred. We sure do miss him. The husband is doing okay, but I always make sure to put Emma with him when he's watching TV. She tends to stick with me all the time. Alfred ALWAYS hung out with the husband...so I know that's lonely for him.

Today the tree cutting service cut down trees between our neighbor's house and our house. They were between their driveway and ours. I was not all for them getting cut. I think it was done because the neighbor has a new boat that gets parked in his driveway and trees were dumping leaves and acorns on it. He asked the husband if he could cut them down and the husband told him he could if he got permission from the city to have them cut. The neighbor said he would pay for it. Can't cut big trees here in the city limits without permission. So they cut them today. I was sad to see them go. I think part of them may have been rotting, so that's the only way I feel okay about cutting trees down.

This tree's limbs were already cut before I took this picture.


I'll be calling the tree service tomorrow to get an estimate for some branches to be trimmed. We have a lot of trees and some dead branches need to be cut out. I'm always scared something is going to break the roof in a hurricane. We had several trees come down in Hurricane Ivan and had to have a crane take them off the house. They only broke the eave of the roof in one place. I dread it when there's hurricanes out there coming this way.

Alfred earned his angel wings

Sweet Alfred earned his angel wings this morning. He had been diagnosed a while back with a collapsing trachea and had been taking medication to help keep him comfortable. This past week he had been showing more symptoms but never had a really bad episode with his breathing until last night. He started not being able to catch his breath and we took him to the emergency vet. They admitted him and gave him a sedative and x-rays and put him in an oxygen tent. Ed was able to pick him up this morning and he was not doing well at all and took him to our vet we use and they had to go ahead and let him go to the rainbow bridge. I like to think of Holly, his sister, and the other loved ones that have passed on being there to greet him and run and play.

Chalica was his first mom. He was her baby. She loved him so much and gave him a good home and he was in her wedding when she married her husband. She gave us the opportunity to take Alfred and Holly when they moved to Korea for her husband's job. Aunt Sue and I drove to Atlanta and met her and her friend and her sweet Jackson who was just about 8 months old. We met in a parking lot of a mall and she said goodbye to Alfred and Holly and we took them back to Florida with us. I still do not know what it feels like to have to give my doggies up because I can't take them, but I'm so happy that she chose us to give them to. That's got to be a hard thing to do, but I know she knew we'd love them and take care of them.

He was such a sweet and easy-going pug. He did not get upset with other doggies that came to visit. He loved people. We had workmen here this week working on our front door and he just sat there and watched them forever. He loved Tonia who comes over every couple of weeks to clean. He would follow her around while she's here. He loved to sit outside and sleep in the sun. He loved pot roast. I made that this past Monday and it has to cook for 4 to 5 hours. It started smelling up the house after an hour and he was just beside himself after about 3 hours. He was whining for me to get up and do something about it! I'm glad he got some pot roast this past week. Most of all he loved the husband here. He spent every moment with his daddy when his daddy was home. He sat by his chair or in the chair with him. He sat outside the bathroom door if he was in the bathroom. He waited at the front door when it was time for his daddy to get home. He loved to get a taste of our food at dinnertime. He would make a little grunty noise and just stare at us with those sweet eyes. He and Emma would get in the same little bed together most of the time. I rarely see the husband get upset but he was so upset about his buddy leaving today. He will miss him so much. Alfred could not hear so I used some hand motions to tell him to come on in or that there was no more food to eat or to go potty. I am going to miss all these things about him.

Emma did not know what to do this evening at dinnertime when her "Bubbie" was not here. She like to look in his bowl and then her bowl and see which one she wanted to eat. He would let her do whatever she wanted to do and then he would take whichever one she didn't want. Sometimes if she was taking too long to decide, he would just go ahead and start eating. Then she would butt in and he would just walk over to the other bowl and start eating. He just was so good not get upset.

This is the last picture that I took of Alfred and Emma a couple of weeks ago. They liked to sit in the same bed. We have two beds in three different places in the house.

Here they are just sitting on the couch.

I love this picture of them together outside in the sun. One of their favorite places to be.

Here is Alfred in a bed in the living room. There is another bed that stays by that one. This is where he will sit while his daddy is watching TV unless he is sitting beside his daddy in the chair.

This is Herbie, Emma and Alfred. They were all good buddies. Herbie enjoyed coming over. He would lick Alfred to death and sometime Alfred would look at us like "make him stop" but he never acted bad to Herbie.

Alfred out by the pool. He loved that sunshine and warm concrete in the wintertime.

He has this tent in the room where there is a treadmill. He would get in that tent when his daddy was on the treadmill. There's usually a lot of toys in the tent. Alfred loved to shake his monkey toy and his Santa toy. His santa toy was sent to him from his other mother, Chalica.

Here is how it all began. This is Chalica saying goodbye to Alfred in Atlanta. I captured the moment on the camera, but you can hardly capture what's in the heart in a picture. Those two loved each other.


Alfred will be cremated and he will be with the others here that have gone before him. Our plan is to not get anymore doggies but to get a cat whenever Emma grows her angle wings. Hopefully that will not happen for many years. We will probably bury all our pugs' ashes after Emma leaves us one day. But I say this and at the same time I cannot imagine not having a pug in my life....so you never know what lies ahead. Just know that we miss the ones we had and so glad we had them for the little time that we did. It's never long enough.

wedding cake decorating

Last weekend Aunt Sue made a groom's cake and wedding cake for someone at church. I thought I'd share some pictures here of it. The cakes were baked by someone else at church and then she picked them up and brought them to my house for decorating. She does a wonderful job. The calla lilies were gum paste and bought from the local cake shop, but she did the rest of the decorating. I made up the cream cheese icing for the groom's cake. I think I sifted 6 or more pounds of sugar. I got had so much sugar everywhere in the kitchen. It was a lot of fun, but also a lot work!



The groom's mother brings her little doggy everywhere she goes. It was at the wedding reception.

The bride and groom and bride's daugther while the marriage license is signed by the preacher.

Aunt Sue decorating.

Trouble also known as Bobbie Lee and Emma sitting nicely while cakes are decorated. Alfred was somewhere close by....probably in the kitchen.

Fill in the Blank Friday and a pesty tale

I've been bad about posting here. I really have not been doing much to tell about, but I thought I'd participate in Fill in a Blank Friday today. And after that, if you want to hang around a minute, I'll tell you a story about about devils and snakes that live in this area.

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This Fill in the Blank Friday is all about summer. You can find the main page at Lauren's blog at The Little Things We Do.

1. One of my happiest days ever was: I'm going to center this answer around summertime. When I think about happy and summertime, I think of the vacations we went on as a family when we were little. The parents would rent a beach house most of the time with our grandmother and aunt and uncle and cousins. So many good memories from those days. I can't think of a "day" that stands out for "happy."

2. Summer is wedding season and weddings are: They are sweet and fun usually. I love any chance to eat cake and other yummy things.

3. This summer: This summer seems to be moving along quickly. I hope it continues to move along quickly. It's been extremely hot with little rain.

4. My summer food of choice has been: Well, I consume too much sugar all the time...but watermelon is my absolute favorite summer food. It also has plenty of natural sugar in it.

5. My summer uniform has been: shorts, t-shirt, flip-flops or sandals.

6. If I could spend the entire summer in one location it would be: I think I would love to spend a summer in the Blue Ridge Mountains. But I want to be close to a town but still be in the woods. I just want to be in a cooler place than I am right now.

7. My summer anthem is: Anything by Jimmy Buffett. His music is just beachy and summery. I think Margaritaville is my favorite summer song. My grandmother loved that song. She didn't drink at all, but I think she liked the catchy tune.


Now, I have a short story to tell. One night Aunt Sue and I were at a church function. It was dark when we left there, and I took Aunt Sue home. We drove up in her driveway. She has a wooden gate into her patio that you have to go through to get to her front door. She also has a big old oak tree in her yard. Well, if you're from the South, you know where I'm going with this story. There was a big old devil on that gate, and it has wings and can fly and/or run fast. Plus there were some on the driveway, too. So we started an ambush campaign from the passenger seat of the car. She threw things at the devil on the gate and missed every single time. Here is a list of what she threw at the devil: Three or four 20 oz Sunkist bottles (empty), one Southern Living Magazine, a Triple A travel magazine, one Christmas gift bag, 1 trial size tube of toothpaste...by this time we were laughing so hard that she was afraid her neighbors might think we had been drinking. All these items had been riding in my car...now you know I'm not so neat. She had to call her husband to come out and open the gate so that the devil would move on. He came out and said, "What happened out here?" It really was funny. Looked like someone had dumped a lot of trash on her lawn.

Another day Aunt Sue saw a snake with a big frog in its mouth. She opened the door and the frog was crying...so she threw something at the snake and it dropped the frog and the frog got away. I'm glad I didn't see that.

That's enough excitement for now. It's so hot here that it's just crazy. We had one day this week that it rained all day...but we're still well below average for the year.

Emma and Alfred are doing well. Alfred was diagnosed (I don't know the proper name) but his trachea is collapsing or closing. He is on medication and seems to be doing pretty good. We make sure he doesn't stay outside but a few minutes at a time. No walks while it's hot or even warm. He loves the husband so much. The husband was out of town earlier this week and Alfred pouted the whole time. When he got back, Alfred was his happy self again. He is a good big boy. Emma went with my over to my parents' house for the Fourth of July and she would not sit down in the seat. She had to ride on top of me the whole time, and I was driving. I am not doing that again. She is going to have to get a seat belt or ride on top of someone who is not driving. Alfred stayed home with his daddy for the Fourth...I think they sat in the recliner and watched TV all day.

The twins have their fourth birthday party this Saturday. We are going to the party. The invitation says "No gifts please." What should I do? Any suggestions would be so welcome.

when birds make a nest in your tree

Aunt Sue has a pretty oak tree in her yard that gives off good shade. Some green herons made a nest (right over her driveway where she parks.) Three babies hatched and she had fun watching the parents take care of them and finally seeing the babies when they were old enough to be seen. Aunt Sue lives near the water and she was finding small fish on the ground under the nest. She noticed that the parents had not been around for a day or two. Then she found one of the babies on the ground. It didn't seem to have much energy. She called the wildlife sanctuary and they told her to bring it in if it didn't start moving around trying to get back to the nest. She fixed a bucket with some paper towels in it and put the bird in the bucket.

We drove the bird over to the Northwest Florida Wildlife Sanctuary. The man that helped us was so very nice. Aunt Sue had to fill out a form. He took the bird in the bucket and gave the bucket back to Aunt Sue after he cleaned it up. After we got back home, the man called about an hour later and said the bird died. He said it was very undernourished and probably was sick.
The other two babies seemed to have been able to grow and leave the nest without problems.

I found this picture on the internet of a green heron.

Fourth of July

I wanted to share this Fourth of July paper craft banner. I bought a banner kit from this store on esty. This lady makes beautiful cards and banners and other things. Her work is just always so nice. I sometimes buy cards that she makes so I'll have cards to send when I don't have a chance to make my own. This kit came with the materials and instructions. I only had to use some of my ink and a star stamp of my own. I added a few embellishments of my own, too. But I didn't need to. She included everything that you see except a couple of the little sparkly things. Her instructions were just right. She said she is going to try to make some other banner kits for her etsy shop. I hope she makes a Halloween one...I'll be getting that.

Girlville has very cute fabric banners in her esty store. She will custom make them for you, too. I recently purchased an apron from her. I let her pick the fabrics and she always does a wonderful job. They are so cute!

I will be back soon with more pictures!

gone too long so back with food pictures

I have been gone too long from this blog. Nothing much to tell about. Went over to the parents house and cooked an onion pie with a saltine crust. It was pretty good. When I do that again, I'll take a picture and share the recipe. It's been so hot here and only had two rainfalls that combined made half an inch. So the back yard still is a mess. Just dirt. The patio builder is ordering the pavers so we can get that done sometime soon. I hear thunder now, so that's promising but not guaranteed that it will rain here. Lots of activities going on at church this summer, so hopefully I'll get some pictures of that. This time of year, I just like to stay inside because it's so hot.

Aunt Sue and I went to SanDestin yesterday to go to the Fresh Market for some ingredients that I needed to make a salad for the Fourth of July. Wish there was a FreshMarket here near us. While we were over that way, we ate lunch at Tommy Bahama restaurant. I have pictures to show.

This is the restaurant.

We shared this fried green tomato stack.

We both ordered this salad with green apples and blue cheese and corn and bacon. It was so good.

We shared this pina colada cake. It was cold and really good.


I'll be back soon to share a cupcake picture and books that I've read and a Fourth of July banner that I paper crafted (sort of).