Caylee Roxanne and our Father's Day Cookout!!!!

                                        

Papa holding Caylee Roxanne!!!!!

                        

Aunt Kate holding Caylee outside at the cookout!!!

                                        Proud Papa with his sons!!!

We had a Father's Day cookout in our backyard!! The weather was so great and sunny!! We had a blast and loved on Caylee, of course she was the center of attention!! Ryan is the proud Daddy holding Caylee, and Nick is the one trying to be cool!! LOL It was so good to have them here and made Father's Day so special!!!! Can't wait to see her again!! She'll be 8 weeks tomorrow!!  XO Fran.

"The House That Built Me"

"I know they say you can't go home again. I just had to come back one last time. I thought if I could touch this place or feel it, this brokenness inside me might start healing. Out here it's like I'm someone else, I thought that maybe I could find myself, if I could just come in, I swear I'll leave. Won't take nothing but a memory from the house that built me."

I love this  Miranda Lambert song. The words are so perfect for something that just happened to me. This is my Grandma's house I grew up in most of my childhood. This is the front and back porch where I played all the time. Over the years my Grandma's house became very run down and neglected. But recently it was totally remodled on the inside and out and is for sale by a realtor. I don't live in this town where the house is but I was going by there one day on my way to somewhere else when I saw what they were doing! As I went by I noticed that the old windows were leaning against the garage. I told my husband (my hero) that night what I saw. He said on the weekend we would go and try to get them. So we did! But it wasn't that easy! Sim called the realtor on the for sale sign and talked to him and offered to buy two of the 9 pane windows. The realtor said that he didn't know what the workers were gonna do with them but he'd let us know. Well, we thought for sure we'd never hear from him. The very next day Sim was at work and he called!! The workers had taken the windows and some other materials up to the dumpster in town and they laid the windows on top for us so they wouldn't break and we could have them for free! Sim called me and said he had good and bad news!! The bad news was the windows were in that dumpster! and he was at work!!! Well, I grabbed my daughter Brooke jumped in the car and drove to Davison a thirty minute ride, praying all the while that they would still be there!! Brooke and  I looked at every dumpster up in town and we couldn't find them!! But she looked over by the railroad tracks and said Mom there's one more over there!! Guess what that's where they were!!! So I climbed up in to that dumpster and Brooke and I got both of the windows and a few pieces of wood trim!! I told Brooke I wanted to stop by the house one more time. She took these pics for me with my cell phone! I just keep thinking of that song. And this is the house that built me!! Thank you Grandma for the memories!!! XO Fran.

Our Bluebirds are back!!!!!!

This is so amazing! Last year we had an awesome bluebird couple nest on our front porch! We were using our back door so we wouldn't scare them away. This week I've been on the couch resting and as I've been looking out the window I've been watching the birds. My husband set up a couple of birdfeeders for me to watch. As the week has gone on I've watched the bluebirds coming and going. They have picked a different birdhouse this time that I have outside. I have many rustic birdhouses. The funny thing about the houses they have picked out both times, I have found in the trash and have had them for years!! This time the birdhouse is in front of the house near the front deck. We don't use that porch but I do container garden on that porch! and I still need to plant!  I love the birds and they are such great gifts from God!  XO

I missed you and a spring supply swap!

I have missed everyone so much!! I had surgery on Friday and I've been down for a few days! I've been getting tired easy and sleeping alot! but I am starting to feel better! Thanks to everyone for their prayers! they help alot!!! I wanted to post pics of the spring swap supply I did with Jill from BucksCountFolkArt! Here is what I sent her! This might look like it's Christmas but it's not!! She loves Christmas! So I sent her a tin full of Christmas goodies and supplies, I put alot in that tin! Above in these pics are handmade by me. I love making tags so much so I made her a tag with her blog name on it! She loved it! I found the perfect picture on The Graphic Fairy blog. She shares the best pictures with us to use! I coffee dyed a little doiley, and that is a small yo-yo candle mat I made and a flower bowl filler. Since my camera isn't working I borrowed these pics from her blog. She has alot more pics on there. The best part was how much she loved what I sent her! She is a very special person and very talented! and this is what I received!!

 This is a little Mrs Claus she carved out of a small piece of wood! She is self taught and this is amazing! 

This is the rest of the goodies she sent me! Jill knew my favorite color is orange so she dried a real orange for me! How cool! There were cute little rusty items, tiny baskets, fabric, lace, Mary Engelbriet cards, wired ribbon, a little bag of thread glitter and beads! The cutest birdhouse that I am putting on my porch and some cute little ones to hang! There also was the cutest little piece of cherry fabric and an orange fat quarter! Jill gave all of this to me with her heart and I love it and I am also so very blessed to have been paired up with her! Thank you Gina for putting us together!!!

CHECK OUT THE GIVEBACK I WON!!!!!!!!

Well I gotta say April was an awesome month for me!! I'm asking God what I did to deserve all that I have received!! Not only did I get a new grandaughter and win the game of Dollyoply. I won Theresa's giveback from 612Riverside.blogspot.!! I received all of these awesome treasures that she made! Her talent is just amazing! Theresa is a very down to earth person and very caring! Check out her blog! One of  the gifts in my box was a tag with a grubby tape measure on it! I had been wanting one for so long! She altered alot of the items, a bird on a silver tray, ATC, old roll of crepe paper,tags, quite a few boxes she recycled with prints, lace, buttons, etc. etc!!!!! Thanks to her daughter Hannah for picking my name!!!! I am so amazed at all of the wonderful women here on the blogs! So caring!! and talented! I praise God for giving me all of these bessings and gifts!!! XO Fran.