Help Me Please!

My stairs is a disaster!

I would love to say that this is my stairs.

or this...

or this.

But ails, just a small little ordinary stairs. In my ordinary house.

The standard kind that builders installed in the 80's when wall to wall carpet was the thing.

Well flash forward to 2010. Every one wants hard wood floors including me. After raising three active children. I think I'm ready for something different. So thanks to you all I have been encouraged to move forward. Sarah at Thrifty Decor Chick is one of my many inspirations. She has a lovely home and some great ideas.

Well I ripped off the old carpet and this is what I have. (Prepare yourself it's ugly!)

Told ya so.

This past summer I took the plunge. After the old beige carped was removed, this is how it looks now. I wanted to cry. I still do. I found a crafts man to repair and install a closet system for my daughter and some other house repairs. (Bear with me.) He said he could repair and restore my stairs. Wow! What a super idea. ( I know, I know!) It gets better!

So he repaired, talked, painted, talked, stripped, talked, and sanded. Did tell you he sanded? OMG! Did I mention he was a recovering prescription drug user? (I know!) Oh, did I also mention he was my daughters BFF's father? She told me he needed the work because the family was down on their luck.

What can I say. I'm a slow learner. Ha ha. Well several weeks later, He just didn't show up one day. (I think he fell off the wagon.) I didn't say anything, I just wanted to move on.

My dad always said " If ya want anything done right you've got to do it yourself". Wise words from my dad!

Please help! Send advise or pictures. Anything!

Wellingtons

Check out the cutiest boots ever!

Now that we have rain in North Carolina again, my feet are starting to get a little soggy.

We received 4 inches today!

What pretty colors. I have always been a sucker for red.

None of those polka dots, stripes, or ducks for me. Nope! No way! Nada!

How about these little beauties!

I absolutely love love these boots! Gotta have 'em!

My Favorite Beach

My daughter and I decided to visit "our" beach this afternoon. Now that the tourist are gone we

have the place to ourselves. If you have never been to the beach on the off season then you have

missed a real treat! It's so quiet and relaxing. Nothing to distract you like loud music or cute

guys. Ha ha! I could sit there for hours and hours. All the stress you brought with you is washed

away one wave at a time. I think it might be partially because of the rhythm of the waves.

The sea oats are there to great you as you arrive. You can be fined a pretty stiff penalty for

disturbing the dunes and the sea oats. The dunes are very fragile. Whenever there is a big

storm (hurricane or nor'easter) the waves really threaten to wash them away. So...stay

on the paths!

Wonder what she's thinking?

It was overcast today. You can see how the colors are so monochromatic.

I decided to play with the color using what my computer has for photo editing. I don't have Photo

Shop so this is all I could do in the way of altering the photo. Actually I like it. What do you think?

I found a blogger friend that does some fun editing to make the photos look vintage. I think it looks

so cool! Check out Kristin"s blog; Faded Prairie

I'm still learning so please bear with me.

I really like this one.

This is what the photo looked like before I edited it.

Now after.

Thanks for stopping by. Please leave a comment and tell me what you think.

Just a few things I like about fall.

1. Mountains and colored trees of North Carolina.

They are the most beautiful I have ever seen! When you are on top of a mountain and looking out, there are endless waves of color.

2. School buses.

Buses are so cheerful. Full of happy children and on there way to a new adventure. Let me say however, I don't like to be behind one at 7:30 in the morning! But if I do find myself playing stop and go, I love it when a smiling face waves at me. Just gives me a warm fuzzy.

3. Pumpkin pie.

No comment necessary. Ha ha!

4. Pumpkin spice latte.

My new addiction thanks to a blog friend. ( You know who you are.) Ha ha

5. Pumpkin donuts. Yum yum!

I first encountered this treat in Greenville. One of those late night visits to Krispy Kream. Well needless to say, when fall comes around, I am on the hunt for a fix!

6. All things pumpkin!

7. Leaves.

8. Jackets.

Finally the weather is cool again to start layering. Jackets and sweaters of all shapes and sizes. Oh don't forget the scarves! Definitely a must! I think I'll turn the AC down and start pulling my fall clothes out for a fashion show. Fun Fun! Yesterday the temperature was 93! Ugh!

and you!

Thanks for stopping by.

Happy Fall y'all!

This is my first attempt at decorating a table and putting it out there for all to see. I have always liked to decorate the house but I have never showed it off before. So...please be nice and don't make me cry. Ha ha.

How do ya like my fall sign? Isn't it cute? I made it last year out of wood from a pallet.

I'm so talented don't ya think? My table doesn't look so good in the picture. I think it's the glass top. Or maybe it's too busy with the fabric color and the display. I purchased the table and chairs two years ago from Pier One. On of my favorite stores. The table runner came from there too. I have a thing for table runners. Isn't the fabric pretty! I also got one with little spiders on it.

This is a good example of a plain white door that needs to be painted. Any suggestions? With all the white trim I figured it should be just plain white. But.. when I was visiting a blog sister, Simply A Farmer's Wife,

she referred to; The Twice Remembered Cottage and she had some beautiful painted doors. So now that is my dilemma.

Thanks for stopping by.

Farmers Day in Richlands Check out all these really old tractors. I was feeling a bit jealous hearing about all the festivals everyone is talking about. I heard Farmers Day was going on today in a neighboring town. So I hopped into my Jeep and off I went. I took lots of pics with my handy dandy camera. There wasn't any cool antiques to sift through. But they had a cool tractor display. I really enjoyed seeing the old men gathered around. Only one thing on their minds. Tractors!

Most of theses tractors are way older than me!

This little beauty below is a 1936 Unstyled B. Way older than me!

Wow! Some people have put lots of time and money into these tractors! There were some mighty proud men there. I think for some people it's a reminder of simpler days of the past. I over heard one gentleman telling his grandson that when he was a kid he drove one just like it. How cool to pass down memories from one generation to the next.

Today I was leaving my school and I noticed the tobacco field across the road. This is the same tobacco from an earlier post. I have never seen tobacco harvested. So..I turned off the road and make a U-turn. I know I'm crazy.

It was a really beautiful day and I had my camera with me. So here I go a woman on a mission. I don't even know these people. I bet they thought "who is this goofy woman out here with a camera?" I proceeded to tell this man that I have never seen tobacco harvested and that I wanted some pictures. I said that I wasn't from here and ....blah, blah, blah. This poor man didn't even speak English. Nice smile though. How funny! Anyway.

I know this isn't a very good picture because the sun is in my face. Don't know the name of the machine. I will call it The Tobacco Picker. The one middle tire goes down the middle of the row.

The tobacco ends up in the hopper on top. A side door drops open.... and the tobacco is pushed out of the hopper and onto the back on the trailer.

An empty field.

The end.

Yea!!! I have a new microwave! And it works!

I have gone through so many microwaves! It's crazy I tell you! I have bought 3 in the past years.

First one broke down so I replaced it with a more modern stainless steel. After only a few years it stoped working and the repair man told me it would cost $300 to repair it! OMG!!

Soooooo I decided to get another one (same name brand) plus a repair warranty. .

In less than 2 years it too started to have problems!

This past school year I had to call a repair man 3 times!!

OMG! My right eye was starting to twitch! I called the manufacture and the retailer!

Does anyone care if a product doesn't work!

A second repair man took the microwave out of my house in the middle of June.

Almost 3 months later I now a brand new microwave!

Ya know I really missed having one! Now I can have my popcorn in a bag, reheat my coffee, and thaw out my food.

Well, I do use it for more than that.

Isn't it beautiful. I'm so happy!

Have a great day.

Hurricane season in full force!

Well I thought we might not have any big storms this year but....

Hurricane Earl is knocking at our door. I sounds like it will just skirt our coast. But hurricanes aren't always predictable. Earl could go north or come west right at us. We still can get winds and rain. Lots of rain! Our schools might even close. We never know what will happen. We just wait.

So......

If it looks like Earl is coming ashore there are several things to do.

1. Fill gas tank in car full. Gas for generator if you have one. ( I don't)

2. Get plenty of water. Fill bathtub, large pots. buckets etc.... (remember if the water gets cut

off you will want to flush the toilet)

3. Get drinking water.

4. Food (snacks and stuff you can cook on the grill or the Coleman)

5. Radio and flashlight with extra batteries.

6. Medication

7. Charge phones.

8. Keys

9. Cash and credit cards.

10. Books and games.

11. Tools

12. Call family and let them know your safe.

13. Put away thash cans, out door furniture, and hanging plants.

There are to many things to list, so this is a good web site to check out.

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/HAW2/english/intro.shtml