It's that time again

Tomorrow, my sisters and I go on our yearly get-away. This year, because of the Hub's heart attack last fall and my wish to not be too far away, our destination is Fredericksburg, about an hour's drive from home.

We've rented a log cabin a block away from Main Street so we'll be close to shopping.

(I snagged this pic online. It doesn't capture the brilliance of a spring day in Texas, but it's pretty representative of Main street.)

We're also just a short hop to the Peach Tree Restaurant.

What's not to love about a place that serves apricot fried pies?

And black bean pizza? (Recipes for these two items--and more--can be found here.)

Saturday afternoon, we'll be attending the matinee at the Rock Box Theater, again a short distance from our cabin. It's gonna be a fun weekend!

We always celebrate a sister's birthday, rotating calendrically. This year it's Alice's turn. She'sa ma baby sis. (My 'nother sis, Daisy's birthday's the end of this month so we can't forget her!)

This year, I made birthday cards--my first attempts. Since Alice won't have a chance to read the blog and Daisy might, I'll only show the former's card right now.

The outer front.

 

 The inside.

I can also show the package wrapping, which I'm pleased with since I not only reused some old gift packages but also used these stacked button hair clips for adornment.

This is Daisy's. 

 And Alice's.

(In each gift, I included the hair clip to turn the stacked buttons back into hair jewelry.)

That's all for now. I've got clothes to pack!

Ta, y'all!

Billie's New Lamp (Singular)

The online lamps I found (see post here) for my sis's new apartment didn't work. Poo! The cool green one shattered in shipping,. (Luckily, the seller refunded the money.) And the Goodwill lamp, while Billie says it's as pretty in reality as it was in pics, doesn't suit what she had in mind.

So I went searching again, this time locally. Billie will be down here next weekend for our sisters' get-away (more about which later). And I found a treasure trove for lamps just up the street...okay, up the street, over one highway, down another. Not far at all. I found lots of cool lamps, made me wish I had room to use some of them--but I don't. This one, though, this one if Billie hadn't wanted it, I'd have found a place for it.

It's Capodimonte, probably from the thirties. I found one exactly like it in an eBay listing where the starting bid was $249. I paid $45.

Take a look at the base. This isn't a great angle--and the lamp has already been put away--but those are dolphins supporting the lamp. The base is supposedly brass, but it's definitely tarnished over the years.

The seller included a lampshade, which I took, but once I got it home I realized it was too large for the lamp. Don't want that. The shade above is the one I had in my office, switched out in my redo. (I know, I haven't shown any pics of that, the reason being that I haven't finished! My makeover-in-a-month may yet turn out to be a makeover-in-a-year.)

But doesn't the lamp look scrumptious? Shall I tell my sis I broke it, then hide it whenever she visits? I'm beginning to think it'd look terrifical in my bedroom. (In response to that, the hub said, "Well, we did pay for it.")

Next week, the sisters and I are heading to a little town about an hour's drive from here for our annual get-away. I'll post more about that later.

Ta, y'all.