Petticoats on the Prairie.

So, a little late, but as promised, I bring you some pictures of our booth this past weekend. We had a great time, met some good people, had a great learning experience and made a bit of money. All in all... it was fun!!

Of course, not ever doing such a big set up, I (we) were a bit nervous. I had picked up all my sisters big stuff {she lives 2 hours away} the weekend before. Thursday, morning early before work,  I finished loading the trailer with all my stuff, with the help of my darling husband. I worked until noon on Thursday then took the rest of the weekend off. Set up was on Thursday and we were supposed to be open for business Friday morning. So, being by myself, I did the best I can. After a couple hours I had this...

This was the big stuff. I had set up the doors, work bench, curtain, sign and rug. Now I just have to get things put in it!!

 The sign for our booth. We are TEXAS COTTON TALES!!

 There is my lovely sister and one half of our booth

 the other half

 You can see her baby swings hanging from the ceiling!

After my sister got there on Friday morning... that is what it looked like. She brought her swings and we arranged everything how we wanted it. We didn't want to leave the quilts and such out over night, so we finished setting up just in time for shoppers!!

This was our first sell. My scrap pumpkins I made. I guess I should have made more!!

There was a lady that had to back out of her spot at the last second, so along our row out in the steer barn (we were set up at the Fairgrounds), we had an empty spot. Several of my booth neighbors said I should ask the lady if I could put my extra stuff in there, (we had several pieces of furniture that wouldn't fit in our original booth), weird since I had been dreaming of that same thing all night. The lady said she didn't want any empty booths so she would love it if we would fill that spot. YAY!! We went and got the rest of our things and put them in that spot!!

There is not a whole lot to this, but it was wonderful to have extra space to set up our junk!!

We have a first venture under our belt. Now on to the next. We will have to wait and see what that will be. The spring Petticoats is in Ballinger, TX in April. I will be 8+ months prego so we will see if I'm up to that.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!!

Mandie

Some BIG News!

It is relieving to finally get to share this. I have debated on sharing my thoughts for a while now, just never went through with it!

 All those thoughts that I've had the last year and a half of trying, seem so dim. All is forgotten and I am just basking in His Glory with Thanksgiving!! God is so good and his timing is perfect. I know we always say, "In God's timing this will happen or that will happen", but in reality that is so hard to live out.

My mom gave me some excellent advice that gave the "peace in waiting!" That was that there is a time from our kids to be born. They of course could not be born before their time, but we sometimes want them in our time and by our schedule. Her prime example is the the time my dad was born. See, his parents were married 11 years before he came along (he is the first child). In 1940 that is unheard of. I don't believe they used as many forms of birth control as we do these days. If my dad had been born 10 years earlier, there is a huge chance he would have never met my mom. He is already 5 years older then her. Who knows where his life would have taken him.

Though I'm glad I did not have to wait 11 years for my first child, it puts "God's timing" into perspective! I'm so thankful and overjoyed by this new life he has put in me. He is faithful and just!!

Realize that this is a sort of random post. I am definitely not a writer, plus my brain is a bit jumbled. Not only and I dealing with all the changes pregnancy does to your body, I'm also trying to get ready for this weekend. This is the weekend we've been planning for for months. Petticoats on the Prairie. I'm excited, but with that comes lots of nerves. Maybe y'all can say a prayer for me!! :)

Well, that is the BIG News! At around 2 months along, I'm so glad that I don't have to keep this a secret anymore and that I'm feeling very good. I have nausea spells, but no sickness really!! Praise The Lord!!!

I will be back with more updates, soon! As for now, the little gummy bear and I are out!

Have a great weekend!!

Mandie

First Show

Last weekend was the St. Lawrence Fall Festival. That is the little community that Bobby and I live in. It is a huge German community and so this is one of the churches big fundraisers. They make sausage and stay up all night barbequing and smoking sausage to get ready for the 1st Sunday in October. A few years back they started allowing people to come set up booths in the church lawn. My sis and I decided that might be a good small venue to get our feet wet with the new adventure we are on. So, we had our debut and I am so very pleased with how we did. Sadly, I did not take any pictures, but we had the monkey bars to hang all our swings on to display. That worked really well since we sold all but one!! YAY!!

Anyways! My sister and her husband came for that Saturday night and Sunday to help with the booth. And of course Miss G came with. I wanted to share a few pics of that sweet face!

She love getting to ride in the stroller. Good thing I have a long hall that runs through my house. We just rode back and forth through the house... I think she enjoyed it!! And not to mention the rattle the boys made for her out of an empty snuff can! Boys!!

Love that little toothed grin, the squeal she makes when she tickled or happy and watching those tiny feet walk around! She is so fun!! Auntie hood is wonderful!!


Hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

Mandie

Warrenton Trip 2013

In normal fashion, I'm late on getting around to post this. It has been a whirlwind of craziness... which I will share more about later!

Here are a few of my finds this year. It's sad to say, but I petered out a lot quicker this year then normal. Our group was a bit slower, too. My sister was on her first few days of being able to put weight on her healing ankle and we had miss Gracen, too. But the hard part for me was the heat. It was 100% humidity and in the 90's. I'm a West Texas girl who cannot handle the humidity. But we perused and then went back Sunday morning (it was rainy and much nicer) and finished up our purchases and headed back.

Now I normally take "my stash", which is money I've saved up, to spend on our girls weekend. That being said I normally just buy things for me. Well, this year I wanted to get the sweet hubs something and I found just the thing!

I'm not sure if I have told you guys about my husbands awesome skills, but he has made us a chuck box. He loves history and wanted a version similar to what was used in old chuck wagons. It is a bit smaller, it was made for his Willys Jeep trailer, but it turned out really nice. Anyways... I found this old coffee grinder. It is a wall mount grinder that is an original one used back when. You can tell that there is lots of wear and tear on it. I was so excited to find it. It was a last minute stop on the way out and I'm so glad my mom spotted it!
I also got him a t-shirt from Buc-ees on the way out that says, "Come and Take It" with the canon on it! He loves it!!

Other things:

 Just some metal flowers. I should have picked some up on Saturday, because they were picked through by Sunday, but I still like what I got!

 New Scale. Yes, I got one last year, but it was not rusty enough for me. So I found this one and will be selling my yellow one at Petticoats.

 I was calling this a decanter, but my mom will have to tell you the real name. Apparently a decanter is for liquor. This is for vinaigrette's and pepper sauce. That is why I got it!

 Just some cool metal letters. I'm loving this. I got it to use in our booth, but not sure what I will do with it afterwards. But hey... it's cool! They also have tons of just letters by themselves that are just metal rusty looking. I loved them, but didn't know what to do with them, so I held out. I should have broke down and got some. Oh well! They were everywhere, though. I should be able to find some easily if I want some.

 Basket to use at the booth!

And a aluminum cake saver. Been needing one and I love this!!

Other then that, I just got me some clothes.

That is about the extent of our trip. We had a good time, enjoyed each others company and shopped till we dropped!
There are a t-shirt I saw that said, "What happens in Warrenton stays with the girls!" It was $40 or I would have gotten it. So, with that being said, I guess I can't say much else!!

Till next year Warrenton!!

Mandie

Tell is ALL Tuesday!

It almost a month has past and I haven't blogged. It would be an understatement to say that I've been busy, but it seems like everyone is that way now a days! I will try and update you as best as I can remember!

First off: my husband has been gone a lot. He has been to Oklahoma to farm on two separate trips. Both at least a week. So, I've used that time to work on projects. I didn't get quite as much as I wanted done, but such is life. It gets in the way of projects. My problem is I have WAY to many of them in my head that I could never be able to accomplish them all... or so it seems. I guess maybe I need to stay away from Pinterest!
The latest busyness is Bobby left for Oklahoma on the 13th of September, returned the 22nd of September, then left for Del Rio {with his boss to work} on Wednesday {the 25th} the I left the 26th to go on my girls trip weekend {more on that later} and he returned home the 26th after I left then I got home on the 29th. Lets just say we haven't seen each other much. I'm sure most of you don't even care about our schedule, but it seems to just be getting busier. AHHH!!!

On a good, stress removing note, I have narrowed my employment down. Not sure if I've shared this before, but I have worked in 3 separate offices within my county for almost 2 years (November would have made 2 years). So now, I have quit one office and just work in 2! If this sounds crazy... that is because it is. Gotta love small communities!! So starting today, which is the first day of our new fiscal year, I am just working for the extension office and for the county judge. I'm loving it so far. I love not having to worry about all that other stuff! I didn't realize how much of a relief that it would give me, but it has!

Another thing that has added to my busy, crazy life is Texas Cotton Tales. My sister and I have started this "company" if you will. We make things for babies and for home decor and such to sell. We have an etsy shop and are about to have our first booths at shows. This weekend is the first one. The little community I live in has a huge fall festival every year. So we are going to have a booth there and see if we can't sell anything. I've actually never been to this fall festival so I'm not sure quite what to expect, but it's so close to home I figured, "what the hay!" Then the big one is Petticoats on the Prairie, October 18-19 in Colorado City, Texas.  This will be a bit bigger. Which is more intimidating, but ready or not....
This has somewhat to do with why I've been trying to get all these projects done.... well it has everything to do with that!!
If you're close, y'all should come check it out. There are details on Petticoats on the Prairie's facebook page.

I will try and get some more pictures up of projects for our booth. I have a couple I can share. Sorry if I'm re-sharing some of these.

That is just a brief glimpse of some of the stuff we have going! Much more to come!!

And I've also finished a couple of chalkboards.

some blank ones to sell or to do custom stuff on!

This is one I sold!

This is one I made for myself... maybe I will sell it too!

 I know that my work is not the best, but I have so much fun doing this stuff! And I think the more and more I work on, the better I will get!

We went on our girls trip to Warrenton for antique week this past weekend. It was hot, but it was fun. Let's just say when you're used to a very dry climate and you go where there is 100% humidity, your body is in for a shock! But Sunday was much nicer and we found some good stuff. The best part of the trip was getting to hang out with the girls in my family and spend time with my sweet, walking niece, Miss Gracen! Love that little girl to pieces! She is so happy and has the most wonderful laugh! I love it!!!
I will try to get pictures of all the goodies I found and update, soon!

Welp... That's about all the good stuff I know. I know fall is here and the mornings are chilly! Can't complain with that!

Happy 1st Day of October!!

Mandie