gifts ready for giving

sandy at

is doing a gift basket giveaway & asks the question: are you organized or are you a last minute gift giver?

do you keep gifts on hand? i do. i have a box that i keep little treasures in.



i showed these rocks & burlap bags a couple of weeks ago.
just the next week, a friend came over for coffee & while she was here, her mother called her to wish her a happy belated birthday. i had no idea that two days before had been her birthday. so, while she used the powder room, i quickly popped a rock(that said joy) in a bag, stuck in tissue & tied it with a ribbon. was she ever surprised! & she loved it.

and when i'm traveling or just out & about, i'm always looking for things for special people. while we were in south carolina the other week, corrie and i went into the closest thriving metropolis, kingstree (population: not very many). there are a couple of very cute gift shops: the cabbage patch & donna's house. the cabbage patch was closed (it was saturday) but donna's house was open. she had a very nice selection of vera bradley things. and i found a vera bradley tape measure. how fun is that! the pattern is cupcake pink & you can buy it on ebay for 15.00 but i only paid 4.95. i'd show you a picture on ebay, but i don't know how to do that, yet.

well, my friend hilda is getting ready to move. and her birthday was coming up, so i knew it would be the perfect gift (actually, i hoped she wouldn't say"what on earth am i going to do with this?" she's a little outspoken & only speaks the truth.) she loved it & said a tape measure was actually on her shopping list. she's a very young 75 & her friendship is such a blessing to me.

anyway, back to gifts. if i find a book i really love, i'll buy 1 or 2 to give as gifts. a very good one to give is "the prayer of Jesus" by hank hanegraaff.

there's a wholesale gift store here in columbus called the flower factory. you have to have a membership to get in (churches, businesses & vendors only). i have a vendors license so i have a membership. whenever i'm there, i pick up journals, notepads, cutesy things to put in my gift box.

and i always have coasters & trivets & tissue holders that i've made ready to give, as well. oh, & dried lavender, too.

in years past, it was bottles of herb vinegar & jars of dried herbs & homemade soaps. but since we moved, i had to start a new herb garden & it's still pretty small.

and if (and that's a big if, at this point) i ever get around to making my burlap & canvas chalkboard tags they'll go with the gifts. if, if, if & when, when, when.

i have been known to regift. also. so if you've bought me a candle with a fragrance, i hope you aren't offended by the fact that i'll be regifting to someone who doesn't get a headache from the candle.

but - i'm really, really bad about waiting til the very last second to assemble things. it's 5 min. until time to leave the house, i'm scurrying around wrapping, writing a note, whatever. a major procrastinator, that's me. so it's a good thing i do keep gifts on hand, isn't it?

hurry over & tell sandy if you're organized. she has 3 different ways for you to enter the drawing: comment, tweet, & blog. wish i knew how to tweet :(

oh my goodness, it's 10:00 a.m. & i'm still in my nightgown & it's not jammie monday. i better get busy!

blessings-

very clever idea for toilet paper storage

kimba at is talking about the backs of toilets this morning & shows some ideas for toilet paper storage.

what a coincidence - i was planning to blog about toilet paper storage myself today.

first of all - this is a true story. i could never have come up with this on my own.
i'm not near that creative.

in the guest bathroom, which is also called "henry's bathroom", i had this toilet paper tower beside the toilet. the purpose of the tower was to hold the extra toilet paper.


a few weeks ago, i mentioned that henry had "whizzed" on my toilet paper tower. well, he's only 4 1/2, & i had never told him not to do that, so i guess it's understandable that he did it?

so, to prevent it from happening again, i moved it to behind the door.

since he uses the bathroom with the door open, the problem was solved. in retrospect, i should have been honest with him & told him that i moved it. i think he assumed i got rid of it.

(he's a very helpful boy. always helping us clean, always nosing around.)

well, imagine my surprise when one day i happened past his bathroom & saw this -
there it was, waiting to be filled with toilet paper. pretty clever, don't you think?

this is where i store the toilet paper in the powder room

i bot an wooden umbrella stand at old time pottery & put a charger & pineapple vase on top.

this is what's on the back of that room's toilet. shelly put an electrical outlet down beside the toilet where it isn't seen. he's very clever, like that.


different subject -
started out to the great stein mart sale saturday morning & noticed a garage sale on the way. they had a small dresser/chest that looked interesting. but they wanted $40 for it. it was the 2nd day of their sale & it was still there but they wouldn't take less than 30 for it. i paid it. even tho it's covered in stickers, i think it was a good deal.



it's definitely what i was looking for for the space at the top of the stairs leading to the basement. can't decide what color to paint it now - black or white? my dining room buffet drawers are jampacked full, so this extra storage space will be great.

i've been cleaning the basement the last few days. wow! i'm really getting somewhere. we now have 14 storage bins of children's clothing from newborn to 3T.
shelly said it's enough to clothe an entire village. as the grandchildren outgrow their clothes they are placed in these bins where their mommies can then "shop" for the current size. it sure helps our 4 kids to come here to select clothes instead of buying new. they outgrow them so fast!


(they also store the outgrown toys here, too. but i don't have them organized in bins yet. henry starts playing with them as soon as they arrive even though they are too young for him. sometimes he gets very nostalgic & talks about when he was little. ha! & sometimes when he hears the music on the mobile above the crib in the nursery, he cries because it makes him think of his mommy singing to him. isn't that sweet?)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CORBIN!

tomorrow is corbin's first birthday.

and in honor of this absolutely incredibly fantastic occasion - a little stroll down memory lane from the last 12 months:

-

God bless you, sweet Corbin -

love from your baba & grandma -

no evidence of before living only for today

well, i did it once again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

my back porch/deck needed to be reconfigured. justin started working on it last week while we were at lizards thicket. did i take before pictures? of course not!

today i did some major cleaning/reorganizing in the basement. finally got around to opening about 12 boxes & containers after 1 1/2 yrs. of being in this house. did i take before pictures of all the mess? of course not!

eva went to lizards thicket with us - did i get some great shots of the many faces of eva?





of course!

what does that say about my priorities?

verizon "wireless" why are you calling my land line?

we got a call this afternoon on our home phone. (oh, by the way, we went to lizards thicket for a week) (oh, by the way, we got back last night). the call was from verizon wireless (the same verizon wireless that we got zero coverage from while at lizards thicket, meanwhile, corrie, who has sprint, had zero problems). &, of course, they wouldn't talk to me (the person who pays the bills) because my name isn't the primary name on the account. shelly's is. so i started to give the phone to ms. shelly (who isn't a ms. but a mr., but, whatever!) but before i could do that, i just had to ask - "why aren't you calling us on our cellphones? don't you want us using our cellphones more than any other phone?"

what i learned - 1) they only call the main number listed on your account
2) they have no sense of humor! whatsoever!

so shelly gets on the phone & asks -
1) are you calling to lower my rates?
2) do you have any new phones for old, blind, fat fingered people?
3) are you calling to lower my rates?
4) do you still make that worthless phone you sold me the last time? (no, it's been retired)
5) are you calling to lower my rates?
6) are you associated with verizonwireless.com? cuz that's the only way i'll order a new phone is online.
7) are you calling to lower my rates?
8) did you know if you order online you don't have to pay an activation fee?
9) are you calling to lower my rates?
10) did you know i have a bag of old phones to choose from if i want to change phones?

do you think they will be calling us again, anytime soon?
(of course they will & it won't be to lower our rates)