I am so excited about my post this morning that I can hardly contain myself! First of all, today is the first day of rounding up and starting the canning process in the Moon household. My dad is even going with me for all the fun, and guess what sweet hubby brought home??

Yep, he found these quart size Mason jars with lids, fully intact, by the dumpster at work and knew that I would LOVE them!

And guess what else I found on my table when I got home? A very special gift! I finally got my copy of Good Housekeeping’s Guide to Homemaking!!! Check it out!

I am linking up today with Tackle It Tuesday and Tabletop Tuesday

Here is the link for the Blogger home.

Thanks!

Because it’s easier to keep everything together, I blog in my bedroom. I should not that my bedroom also contains my office and we have done NOTHING by way of decorating in this room. I am a bit embarrassed after seeing all the other nicely decorated spots, but that’s okay. Maybe these photos can just double as my “before” pictures!

As you can see, almost everything is covered in some shade of white or cream. Unfortunately, this isn’t because we particularly like this color palette, it just happened to piece together that way against our white apartment walls. My desk is a wooden door set atop two filing cabinets. This will be MUCH cuter when I finally get to decorate the bedroom and add some color.

I mostly sit between the desk and the bed, but mostly the bed because I can fluff up all my pillows around me and put my feet up!

I am really excited to share what I found last week with you. I went to Goodwill and got some really neat things.

I have wanted a napkin holder for quite some time now, but never found one that suited me. If I did find one that suited me, it was always more than I wanted to spend. This one was too cute to pass up and will soon be introduced to craft paint and flowers. I also found a sassy red purse. I love looking at purses but have a hard time picking them out. My mom is the same way. This one was perfect for me at $2!

These small roses will also meet up with a little paint to make the petals a bit more vibrant and the base will get some glaze to add more depth. For 50¢ you can’t really go wrong there. For $1, you can polish up this pretty silver burner, add some sort of dish on top and a candle on bottom and you can heat up some great smells for the home! Now I will have to go back and find some wax tarts to go in it.

This next piece is one of my favorites and I am pretty sure that it will be a favorite among my boys as well! It’s a candy dispenser made from a mason jar. How stinking cute is this!

Since my name is not April, I will be painting the base and adding my surname to it.

Remember my post this past week about fabric roses? Well, I found a great white sheet with blue roses at Goodwill and for $1 it makes a great expanse of learning material for a first time rose maker. Here is a picture of the first two rosettes I made. I pinned them to my blue shirt yesterday and wore them to church. My husband agreed that it was adorable and I got several compliments on them!

I can’t wait to see what everyone else has found lately! I am linking up to the following today:

Today’s Thrifty Treasures
Weekly Treasures
Mosaic Monday
Metamorphosis Monday
Jenny Matlock: Suffering the Down in the Dumps followed with the Oh Poor Me's!

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Last Sunday I posted on etiquette and actually got a great response from it! I got lots of emails, comments and messages on facebook about the post. So I am thinking maybe we should have a weekly etiquette recap from either Miss Emily Post or Miss Manners.

I grew up hearing about Miss Manners from my North Carolina grandmother. If ever there were a gentile southern woman of upstanding stock, this woman would be the prototype! She was the southern belle you have heard about that would have attended cotillions and such. I learned a lot about how to smile and be polite while in the company of unpleasantness, along with how to deliver unsavory news in as gentle a manner as possible.

I think the quote above was well demonstrated through all of my grandparents. Random acts of kindness were praised highly as to encourage more of the like. Many times it’s easy to get so caught up in the day to day of house keeping and tending family and forget about the simple things that bring smiles.

-Opening the door for others.

Gentlemen, this is important if you are courting a lady (and the courting doesn’t stop after you are married). My 7 year old has watched my husband do this for me for so long that he has been known to run around to my door to open it when my husband isn’t with us. It’s a great thing to instill in your children!

-When you pass someone on the sidewalk, in a store, etc., smile and nod or say hello.

You would be surprised at how much of a difference this little act can make to someone’s day. It also helps us to remember that we are all connected in a way. We are all a part of the human race and it’s time we started acting like it again.

-Say “please” and “thank you”, think before you speak, and always consider that what you say affects others. And most of all, there are some subjects that are just plain inappropriate to discuss.

-Women should be lady-like, polite, well-mannered, and soft spoken. Men should be slow to temper, well-mannered, and well spoken.

This does not mean that women don’t have a good brain, it simply means that we are considerate of our surroundings. Whether you are a man or a woman, there is a time to speak your mind and a time to keep your mouth shut. Watch how you say something just as much as you watch what you say. You may have a valid point to make, but if you are making it using “ain’t” and double negatives, you still don’t sound very intelligent.

By all means, teach your children from an early age!

If there is an etiquette topic you would like to discuss or even hear more about, please leave a comment and let me know what it is. I hope you all have a beautiful Sunday!

I am linking up with Chari at Sunday Favorites

Not only will these produce some mighty cute cakes for school parties and desserts, but they will also look SUPER cute hanging on my wall in the kitchen! I found a few more things at Goodwill that I will be sharing this coming week, along with hopefully some after pictures of the items as I fix them up.

Now lately I have been seeing lots and lots of fabric rosettes on shirts, lampshades, shoes, headbands, and all kinds of things. I am so very excited to pull out my glue gun, scissors, fabric, needle, and thread and get busy on spicing up my wardrobe. Here is a great little tutorial on how to make your own.

And if that isn’t enough, I was visiting some new blogs the other day and found the cutest idea for a new purse. I may even have to make a few for Christmas gifts this year. I just love how much more feminine things look when covered in roses. Here is the one from the blog La Maison Reid.

Alright chickadees, the day is now coming to and end and I must retire, but I hope everyone has a most fabulous and blessed weekend!

So in the spirit of comfort items, I thought quilts would make the perfect subject! Although I never had the chance to learn from them, the women in past generations of my family were amazing quilters. Big Mama Puckett (I know, only in the south right?? She really wasn’t “big”) was, as I am told, a fabulous seamstress. She could mix sleeve and skirt styles, make her own patterns, custom tailor all her girls’ clothing, and make beautiful quilts. Here is one that she made. It has been laid across my grandmother’s hope chest all my life, and probably most of hers.

This quilt is old and thread bare in places, but it reminds me of the women who worked hard to take care of their families and it makes me happy.

The next quilt is one that my Memaw (dad’s mother) made for me when I was a baby. I am hoping that one day I might have a granddaughter to give this to!

So in the fine tradition of these wonderful women, I am making quilts for the babies. Since the two youngest will end up sharing a room, I wanted them to have coordinating bedding without having to spend an arm and a leg. So when I was at the craft store I found these materials and snatched them up!

These quilts for the babies are going to make great Christmas presents for them! And speaking of presents, here is one more quilted item that all three of my boys will be getting on Christmas morning. (And yes, I know it’s early to be talking about Christmas, but if you are frugal shoppers, as we are, you start your shopping right after Christmas for next year!) I found some adorable Peanuts material on sale after Christmas last year and couldn’t resist getting it to make stockings for the boys. Here is what they look like so far. When they are finished, each will have a different colored cuff and their embroidered initial!

I hope everyone has a terrific weekend! I’m going back to my Donna Reed and Tissues, maybe even curl up under one of my special quilts, and enjoy the goodies my mama brought me yesterday!

I am linking up with Cindy for Show and Tell Friday, Debbiedoos Garage Sale ‘n Party, and Vignette Fridays.

Finding Beauty Friday

Today there are some incredible parties going on! Between Naps on the Porch posted about Lemonade, and Jenny over at Alphabe-Thursday chose the color blue for her Rainbow Summer School.

I recently acquired some beautiful placemats, kitchen towels, and oven mits to go with my newly painted dining room set.

These lovely blue and yellow placemats go perfectly with the colors in my dining room and give it a little more femininity (what with all the boys in my house I am outnumbered!).

I also found a great milk glass vase at Salvation Army for 50¢ and am looking for some yellow roses and blue hydrangeas (silk of course) to go in it for my center piece.

This piece goes perfectly for Vintage Thingy Thursday, as do the pretty little quilted oven mit I found at my favorite “store on the square”, my cheese plate, and my grandmother’s Waterford crystal fluted dish.

I hope you all have a wonderful Thursday! Remember Friday is just around the corner!

Wordless Wednesday

White Wednesday

I found these at Joann’s on my last trip with my mother-in-law. But you can get more information on the company by visiting Kay Dee Designs or just google Domestic Diva products.

As you can probably guess, these are all on my Christmas list and those weekly 40% off coupons might even help mama to by herself a couple of Christmas gifts…from the family of course!