2 Yankees take on Tupelo

The first week of December we took in the annual Tupelo Christmas Parade. We started with dinner at the Amsterdam cafe. Pretty good but a little spicy! Then we staked out our viewing post at a picnic bench and waited for the parade. Lots and lots of people came out for this and it was a long parade. We stayed for about an hour of it and it wasn’t quite done yet. So we missed Santa…but look!!!

The highlight for me was an actual Elvis sighting…there he was in all his glory, waving and singing to the crowd. But then I am also a fan of all the obscure “Elvis Lives” documentaries , my favorite being the one that has him alive and well, living in California complete with a pink caddy!

There were also lots of cool floats, 4 or 5 marching bands and even decorated 18 wheelers. Quite the parade it was!

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Yes there were flames shooting out of the top of this one. WOW

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It was a little on the chilly side which is why we didn’t wait for the end. Our temps have been up and down and all over the place. Yesterday was close to 70 and today…well, the last time I looked out we were getting a little snow. We are in northern Mississippi after all, guess we should have gone farther south!

We would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas! Keep warm and think happy thoughts!

Our big news for this month is a brand new stove! This was a much needed improvement as the old one had a bad scary burner and an oven that didn’t heat properly. So just in time for Turkey day we have our brand new stove. They had to cut out part of the counter top and cupboards and they did a fabulous job. Looks great and its works great too!

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Now I think the major issue is going to be to get some meal trays so that we can freeze some tukey dinners. I suspect that neither of us know how to make a Thanksgiving dinner for two! Good think we like leftovers huh?

We also went to a neighborhood meeting, The Lee Acres Neighborhood Association. We thought it would be a good place to meet some neighbors. Well, there was a grand total of 6 people that showed up……2 of which were us! And one was an elected official to report on city issues, etc. The main topic of discussion was whether to disband the whole shebang or not. It was decided to cancel monthly meetings since attendance was so poor and try for once every few months. Such a shame, but not surprising with the frenetic pace everyone seems to keep these days. We did have a nice lunch of pizza, cookies and sweet tea! And we met a couple of nice ladies too!

Our temps have been mostly in the 60’s so we have been enjoying the days. Not a lot of work on projects right now as we are both doing crafty things for Christmas instead. The next big project will be painting the kitchen cupboards and we don’t want to start that before holiday cooking so will probably not be until next year. That sure isn’t very far away when you look at the calendar. We do already have a couple of free calendars for next year so bring on 2020…..but first lets get at that turkey!

November 10, 2019. Patti and I took a little day trip to Fulton, Mississippi to the Midway Marina located on the Tn-Tombigbee Waterway. Very impressive marina with cabins to rent and lots of boat slips. Some of the boat owners actually live on their vessels.

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The Nina & Pinta were docked there for the weekend. The Nina is an exact replica to the original Nina and was built to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Columbus’s voyage in 1492. The Pinta is about 20 percent larger than the original. They travel on tour 11 months of the year and this was their last stop before taking a winter break for repairs. The original Nina had a crew of 24 and the Pinta 26, today they operate with 7 on the Nina and 9 on the Pinta. The crew are volunteers from all over the United States and the Caibbean.

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. They are looking for help too! The ships were built in Valencia, Brazil by 8th generation Portuguese shipwrights. It took 32 months and 20 men for the Nina and the Pinta took 36 months.

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The ships are black because they were covered in pine tar, a natural water resistant.

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The weather was absolutely beautiful with a clear blue sunny sky and temps in the 60’s. Here we are on the Nina!

We enjoyed our visit on the ships! and the answer to where is the Santa Maria?? The Columbus foundation does not have a replica for 3 reasons: she never made it back to Europe, she is too big to make it throught the waterways these ships go through and Christopher Columbus did not like the Santa Maria because she was very slow and clumsy. There are no plans to build her….Sorry Santa Maria. A watery grave somewhere for her, location unknown.!

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We took a ton of pictures, some of which are here and we will share some more on facebook. So glad we got out to enjoy the day as now the weather has taken a big turn for the worse . All over the U.S. so I guess we are sharing the cold with everybody else, lucky us! Oh and we also visited one of the Antique Malls in Tupelo that day, we made it through one floor, left the second story for another trip! Huge place and lots of fun things to browse. I did find a couple Fiesta pieces that I could not live without! Keep warm everyone!

Well I can’t believe it is already November. I swear I can blink and another week has rolled on by.

This month started out with a visit to Tupelo by our POTUS, however even though we had tickets to attend the rally, we passed it up due to the fact that the weather had turned chilly. It would have entailed standing outside for hours and we just didn’t think it was doable. So I guess the fact that he was in our town will be the closest we ever get to a President!

We have been finishing up some projects around the house. The remodeled night stand for the guest room is finally done. We had some issues with this thing, but in the end it turned out A-OK!

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You also might remember the lamp that Patti had picked up some time ago. Another hair pulling project as we struggled to get the paint removed. Turned out it was just a matter of finding the right stripper–namely Citristrip. This stuff works fabulously with paint removal on glass or medal, however I had less success using it on wood. Here’s the lamp in all its glory. She decided to leave the bottom portion the original color. Well, not really sure what the original color was, but this is the finish that was on both the base and the lamp shade when she rescued it from Goodwill. So pretty now!

Now on to the footstool and the odd little table/stand.

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This is what they looked like when we brought them home. Now after some TLC, here are the finished projects in our home!

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And we rearranged the living room – for the third time—I think the third time is the charm! Still need to paint the fireplace mantle in there and then that room will be done!

The weather has been up and down here with temps in the 70’s and then down in the 30’s, usually in the same day LOL. Dress in layers seems to be the best idea to cope with the rapid changes. And if its just too chilly – well—just curl up with our knitting and crocheting and wait for a warmer day! Gotta love retirement right?

Found these pieces at the Salvation army- The footstool is Patti’s project and the other big thing is mine!

I’m not sure what this is exactly but its very solid and heavy.

. I was originally just going to strip the top and stain that and repaint the lower part, but after i started sanding, I just couldn’t stop. The wood is so pretty and I discovered that it already had 3 coats of paint on it.

Some of the guesses as to what this is were a computer table or a small podium. After working with it I have come to the conclusion that it was most likely a school shop project. It has so many different elements to it–from measuring, sawing, sanding, nailing, screwing, gluing, dovetail joints, deco on the drawer and the wavy base on the front, not sure what that is called. Remember when schools used to have shop class where kids learned something useful?! I don’t think they have those classes anymore do they? Wish I could take one now LOL! If I remember correctly, these fun shop classes were only for the boys back in the good old days!

I think this is supposed to be a small desk. The post in the front makes it easy to “sit up” to it and use the top. So that is my guess as to its original use, however it will make its new home when finished next to my easy chair. The bottom will be utilized with a basket or something to hold my yarn and latest knitting project, and the drawer will be handy for knitting tools, etc.

See the curvy front board–I have no clue how you do this but it’s for sure a cool little feature! I can see some kid taking a whole semester to finish this project! Good job whoever you were!

I still have some paint removal to do in the crevices but making good progress! Now to pick out a stain color–what do you think–dark or light? I am leaning towards dark walnut with a light coat so that the grain shows through well.

Rainy and gloomy here today. Good day for working on projects in the garage or…..hmm..maybe snoozing in that easy chair!

So we planned a fun outing for Saturday, October 26. We had seen signs and articles about the Robins Street Art Stroll. This was a block or so of arts and crafts vendors, food trucks and the high school band entertaining. Sounds like a lovely fall day event doesn’t it?

The day before, the weather man hit us with 100 percent chance of rain on Friday and rain it did all day long. Saturday the chance of rain was down to 80 percent! The event was then rescheduled to be held indoors at an old school building. Still doable and still sounds fun!

Saturday dawns but who could tell the sun was up with all the gloom. Patti had a fun video call scheduled with some of her kin back home so the day still started with a smile or two! The weather soon turned uglier and we were under a severe thunderstorm watch. The winds came and blew and bellowed. Our electricity suddenly stopped . When the storm finally seemed to have passed we surveyed our damage, just some small branches to pick up in the yard and the outside table umbrella had taken a little flight to the other side of the yard, some shingles gone from the old shed out back (scheduled for roofing anyway!) – so all told no major damage. We decided what the heck, nothing to do here, no electric so nothing to do–let’s go see if they have power at the school and see if the Art stroll is still going!

On the way, we noticed many traffic lights out (but not all of them!) and trees down here and there, some across the roads and some on houses Yikes! The song of chain saws filled the air. We saw some businesses closed with “no power” signs on the doors. We wound our way down to the school and yep—they had power ! Lots of vendors set up inside and we enjoyed seeing all the different craft ideas. Poor attendance though so I felt really sorry for the craftspeople. Food trucks not in sight , I guess they all bailed and who could blame them. No high school band either. By the time we came out of the school, it was spitting rain again so we made a quick stop at KFC and got some take out in case we still had no power! We didn’t but luckily it did come back on not too long after we got home. Hurrah!!

The picture above is the Tupelo mayor’s home. He was trapped for over an hour according to the news, but expected to be okay the last we heard. The storm was aftermath of Tropical storm Olga. Well Olga was ugly! We sure seem to have issues with planning outings. It’s not the first time we have planned to go somewhere and mother nature just wanted us to stay home! At least she didn’t drop a tree on our house, so bless her for that!

This week has started out great! Monday was cool and rainy but we had a sunny visit from Jeremy, Brandi, Travis and Anita from good ol’ North Dakota! They are on vacation in Nashville and came down to see us! The weather was not nice for touristy things but we had a nice visit and went out for linner (late lunch/early dinner).

We tried a nice restaurant close to us named Harveys. It lived up to its reviews, everything was very tasty! And it wasn’t busy since we were there at an odd time, we had our waitress all to ourselves!

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Of course the next day, the weather was beautiful, sunny and 70’s. I started out the day in long pants and soon had to change into shorts. I got started getting rid of the green door. Do you know how it is, you live with something long enough and you just forget it is there? It’s been that way with this door that I have been meaning to paint for the last 4 months! It was put off because I knew it would need a coat of Kilz to cover the green, so finally got off my butt and got that project going! Also we putzed with sewing (Patti) and painting the night stand for guest bedroom (me). All in all, a great start to another great week in Tupelo!

So the first visitors are under our belt, who will be next? Remember the guest room awaits! Reservations required LOL!

September in Tupelo was the hottest and dryest on record. October has rolled in with cooler temperatures…so now some outside work is getting done!

We now have a nice clear front yard with all the bushes removed! We put flower pots by the house. Still need to go Magnolia tree shopping but I suspect that project will wait for spring.

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In the backyard we have a little flower garden started and part of the fence coated in sealer. Lots more to do as we have what seems like a mile of privacy fence. We are also in process of tearing down some useless gates and hopefully will use some of the boards for replacement in needed spots. Hard work and slow going, but like everything else, it will get done eventually!

We have gone from 90 + weather in September to” oh gosh close the windows would ya?” in October. I’m not sure if its really that chilly or just the fact that we have gotten used to 90s and anything else feels like sweatshirt weather. At this rate we may be packing up and moving farther south when winter gets here! Just kidding, I think we own enough warm clothes to struggle through! After all, if we get to shivering a bit, we just need to go on Facebook and look at all the snow falling up north and we feel warmer instantly! Keep warm and keep smiling all you northern people! Remember we have extra beds if you can find your way south!

The guest room is ready! Just 3 short months ago this room was full of boxes and totes. We certainly didn’t think we would get to this room for quite awhile, but yet, here it is -almost completely done. A couple more things to hang on the walls, maybe a throw rug or two, a dust ruffle for the bed and finish the night stand project.

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So the color for this room is called Vegas green…here we go again with these silly color names. To me it would be called John Deere Green or maybe 4-H green LOL. Anyways, you know the music is always playing in my head and one of the recurring tunes has to do with John Deere Green, so of course this picture has to be in this room!

Do you remember the tool holder project from the garage…we had a piece leftover, namely the lid from the original piece. Well we found a use for it!! Waste not, want not right? It is now a sweet little bedside shelf! What do you think?

The only questions that remains is who will be first to stay in this room?!?!?! Here’s what it will look like with YOU in the bed!!

Here is a picture of the headboard that Patti found at the Salvation Army store. Another great find, now customized to our guest room! It looked as rough as the room did before we started! Originally we weren’t going to paint this room, but I decided to paint the wall board and then of course the walls looked dingy, so they got painted, and that made the floor look awful, so flooring was next. But now its ready for occupancy, so ya’ll come on down! p.s. we have a couple of blow up beds too!

Gosh the days are just flying by. We have already been in Tupelo over 3 months! So much accomplished but so much left to do! The upside of that is, we will not be bored!

Of course, a good chunk of almost everyday has been watching Patti’s beloved Cardinals play ball. And it’s not over yet! Come on post season!

Patti found this headboard for the guest room at the Salvation Army store (one of our favorite junque places!) Speaking of guest room, it is in the final stages of completion and the mattress and box spring are due to be delivered today! Start planning a trip to Tupelo- you will have a place to stay!

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We were so excited to finally get all the monster bushes taken out of our front yard and in front of the house. Wow is that going to make a big difference! Next step is for some dirt to be hauled in and then we can go shopping for our very own Magnolia tree! It’s just too exciting!