First Time Antiquer

Today, Jason and I have lived in our house for one year... our first house we have ever built, but not to be the last! To celebrate, while Jason stayed home watching college football, I decided to go downtown Thomasville to buy stuff to help fill up our empty walls and windows. My mission included buying window treatments for at least one of the windows AND some sort of wall art to go above a new console table we bought a few weeks ago.

Well, I bought none of the above. I did however find my way into one of Thomasville's largest antique shops, Toscoga Market. The first floor itself was overwhelming, then the proprietor told me that there were TWO more floors above me, boasting an extra 10,000 square feet! I looked at my watch, and the proprietor and I realized that I had 45 mintues to shop before the store closed. She sent me on my way with a shopping bucket in hand and a smile of approval after learning it was my first time in her shop. And I was off!

One of the first things that caught my eye was this fabulous, simply fabulous, chair with black and cream damask fabric. What girl doesn't love damask?!?! And the price tag was to die for... $98! I took a picture of it with my cell phone so I could send a viewing to Jason for his approval... but sadly, my email decided to quit working. If I would have bought that without Jason's approval first, then he probably would have put me on shopping restriction. And no one wants to be on shopping restriction! I thought it in my best interest to let that good buy slide by... at least for now!



After being a tiny bit saddened by my smart move, I quickly became thrilled with my next find. I have a thing for intricate details on glassware, especially when it happens to be my favorite color. I saw several mis-matched glass tumblers, water stemware, and tea glasses. There was not enough of each one to make a full set. So I decided to mix and match to get just four. I can always go back to add to my collection.

With four glasses happily dinging one another in my shopping bucket, something else with sparkles and glitz made me turn my head. I have always thought that crystal ring holders were classy, and I believe I even registered for one on my wedding registry. All the years of my life, I have never owned one. I picked up the beautiful piece of crystal, and to my surprise, that $5 price tag made it even more appealing. There was no contemplation in my head about whether or not to buy it. As far as I was concerned, it was already mine. I added it to my bucket, ever so gingerly, along with my other breakables.

At this point, I was pleased as punch and on my way down to the bottom floor to check out. But... uh oh... one more sparkly thing got my attention. How do I begin to describe this jewel of a find? First off, it's a mirror. Okay, but the detail in this oldy goldy is nothing short of immaculate. It looked as though it came straight out of a European Cathedral or even a Tibetan Monastary. Small in size, and in price at just $24, I knew I could find the perfect spot for it in my house.

Pheewww! Can you believe I came in under $50? At the checkout, the proprieter congratulated me for my fabulous finds. (I'm not sure if I've ever been congratulated for shopping!) She said I did pretty dang good for it being my first time there. And, I managed to do all this 15 minutes before closing time. That's right, in just half a hour!

Let's hope my husband is as proud of me as I am of myself! Luckily enough, when I got home, he surely was. Another Pheewww! Now it's time for some show-and-tell! (I already did the telling, so here is just the showing.) Check out my fabulous finds...

Church softball proves to be something I'm totally into.

My husband grew up living and breathing baseball... from being a tiny tyke up to college baseball! Since we started dating after he had "retired" from baseball, all I got to hear about was just the stories and memories with a a few pictures here and there. I know how much it means to Jason and how much he misses it... especially since he'll sit hours at a time glued to a baseball game on tv.

So the opportunity came up at our church for there to be a church softball team where all the surrounding churches in the Thomasville area would play against each other. I'm sure most cities do this. It's the thing to do for towns with a ton of guys and gals who love the sport, but all of their baseball-playing opportunitues have been exhausted due to growing up or what have you. Thank goodness for the local churches who band together to afford our sportsmen the chance to get back into the "swing" of things! It's a great way to let our friends and family regain and reuse their competetive spirit in a healthy way.

Jason has attended several practices and three games so far. He didn't want me to attend the first game of his, as he was a bit nervous as to how it would turn out. (I think he didn't want to be embarrassed since he hasn't played in years.) But he did want me to come to the 2nd game. So I loaded up my blanket, jackets, water bottle, game face, and camera phone and headed to that game on Monday April 6, 2009.

It turns out that there was a game that next night, but at 9:00pm... in the extremely cold weather! I wasn't going to let that stop me since I had so much fun the night before, and I wanted to show Jason and the rest of the team my support. Below are a few pictures from both Monday and Tuesday nights (in backward orders). GOOOO TEAM NEW COVENANT!!!

(Just so you know-- They won Monday night 13 to 8 against First Pres. but lost Tuesday night against Ione Freewill Baptist... not mentioning the score.)

Throughout the whole process, I am beginning to learn something about myself. I am learning that I am getting to be very protective and competetive when it comes to my man. I can only imagine how it's going to be when we start having children and I'm cheering THEM on from the fans. Y'all watch out... that crazy redheaded lady is in the stands!

Another Two Months Have Come & Gone

Happy one year anniversary to us! We just got back a couple of days ago from celebrating our anniversary at the beach. We went to Seagrove Beach, FL... one of our favorite new vacation spots. And that just so happens to be the place we honeymooned one year ago. Our stay lasted from Saturday March 14th through Thursday March 19th. Five fabulous nights on Florida's Emerald Coast... aaahhhhhh! I'm hooked on that beach now. I think we should get some real estate on that famed Scenic Route Highway 30-A, whose motto happens to be "Life Shines." My life was surely shining this past week. Let me let you in on a few moments, all of which were captured with my not-so-sharp Blackberry phone camera.

Two Months Later

Well, it's been two months since I last wrote a blog. December was a dooooozy! Two huge events going on at work: Opening of new retail shop AND Holiday Gift Boxes shipping out! The Dairy was very busy, needless to say. Here are a couple pictures of the new shop called Sweet Grass Dairy Marketplace.

Happy New Year! For the holidays, the Smiths, Lloyds, Stokes, Subicas, & Beggs went to Waycross for the annual Christmas Gathering. This was the first time with a new baby addition to the mix... Carter Stokes! He was a JOY! He knew exactly how to keep the crowd going by making HULK impressions. Here are funny pictures of "Carter the Hulk."