Off to a THUNDERBOLT COTTAGE! At Last!!

WOW! It has been over TWO MONTHS since I Blogged!! I have definitely SHOPPED! But have not Blogged.. not sure what happened.. well actually so much has happened! WHERE TO BEGIN!??

I am reading a book by Sandra Magsamen's book LIVING ARTFULLY and it has but me back on track! Well... That and the fact I am moving into my Thunderbolt Cottage next Saturday, October 29th! I know I should have never left Georgia to move across the river to Bluffton. I did it, it was fine, Party in Bluffton it OVER! :) Bluffton is fine... but if you are going to live there you should live in the Historic area or on the May River! I did neither of these.. I lived in the 'burb.. Something I swore I would never do again. WHAT WAS I THINKING?!? 

So back to Thunderbolt, to my lil cottage at Tuberson Avenue, just across from Tubby's and with a view of the Wilimington River if you stand on the far corner of the front porch!

So here she is...

I took this two days after I discovered she was for rent! I had lovingly viewed her in the months I lived at River Crossing in Thunderbolt. She is in need of some repairs and she is getting those now! I LOVE HER! 

She has yellow shutters on the side.. AND A WHITE PICKET FENCE!!

So these are the before photos.. I will post more when I move in next week! SHE IS PRECIOUS and I cannot wait to live there within her walls! MY THUNDERBOLT COTTAGE!!

She was built in 1900. She has a non-working fireplace, small kitchen with pantry, small closets, small bathroom, two bedrooms, and WOODEN FLOORS! The washer and dryer go on the back porch.. how old skool is that! :)

She has a fresh paint job on the inside. Bright yellow kitchen and bath! 

So.. to get ready for my move Vic has been painting furniture for me.. Lots of Furniture in Lots of Bright Colors! Marianne calls them my Fiesta Colors...

Here are a few we have completed and a few we are working on..

Sign to go on Picket fence.. I am not happy with this and we are going to re-work

This was a plain brown laminate bookself! Flat Black Paint! AMAZING STUFF!

Another awful brown laminate bookshelf; Now Black!

BAR STOOLS and Jazz!

Little table that goes at end of guest bed

Bedside table for Guest Bed. Wish you could have seen it before! YUCK!

Amazing Red Stool!

Once country blue, now tangerine!

The most amazing Transformation of all.. This 1960s China cabinet is now STAR SPANGLED BLUE!

Rustic TYBEE Sign! Cannot wait to have this on wall. We are also doing a EDISTO sign in blue.

And for an amazing transformation.. This lil wooden cabinet is now the most amazing Tybee Turquoise lil Gem! I plan to hang it in bathroom to hold toiletries!

ISN'T SHE CUTE!?!

I have loads more to share.. but I am T I R E D!

HAPPY SHOPPING!!

I Do Love a CHURCH RUMMAGE!

Up by 6am last Saturday and off to Savannah by 7am. My goal was to be at Grace United Methodist Church for the annual Rummage Sale by 5 til 8am.. as the Craig's List posting said NO EARLY BIRDS. Their listing also said they had been gathering items since the past year so I knew it was going to be GOOD!

I arrived at 12 minutes until 8.. and what do I see? RUMMAGE SALE IS OPEN and the locals are Rummaging! DARN I SAY! :) I could not park and get in there fast enough!

First think I see is Antique School Desk with inkwell hole and even the named AYN carved in the corner! IT ROCKS! $25. Next, a vintage round coffee table with tag of $20.. I offer $10 and SOLD! Next, a new linen rack for $4 as mine is a bit bent for moving. I find a stack of very old farm scene plates, $3.  Another vase for my seashells, $.75.  BOOKS! $1 hardbacks, $.25 softbacks. The books include 3 on Depression Glass collecting, 3 Cookbooks (Carolina Jr League, Detroit Jr League and vintage The SPICE ISLANDS COOK BOOK), found an old Seashell Identification book (these were $16 at Edisto), a 1950s CAMPING book, and a book on early American Tools (random). 

I think this is going in corner of living room with books stacked on top!

Needs a FIX bad! but great character! maybe paint it Blue!

Love my Vintage Tablecloths! Those are subject for future blog I think!

Just add Edisto Seashells!

Add books!

I also found two French Bulletin boards and an amazing PILOT RULES Poster from 1950 that had been housed in a new Poster Frame which had probably saved its integrity.. I new Vic being a Boat Captain would just LOVE this!!

My total ... $63. WOW! I was so excited!

I was done with the Church sale by 8:48am. So, next, I headed north on Waters Avenue and I see a sign for "HUGE GARAGE SALE".  Took a turn and found an amazing lil Sale at the home of some rather odd accented NEW AGE Preacher types.  GREAT STUFF!

I found an amazing Folky ANGEL Looking at Bowl of Cherries Painting in an amazing frame! She tells me $20.. I cannot believe I had to think about it.

MY FAVORITE PURCHASE OF THE DAY!

I found classic Christmas DVDs for Coleman, $1 each. Books for Coleman, $1 each. A rug for $2, and a Green Lantern with candle, $2.

And then, I found the Desk! BEACH SCENE painted on top with glass to cover! $35!!!! GORGEOUS!

I had to make a road trip to Work to dump off some furniture in order to go back and pick up my new desk! I found another lil yard sale while I was in Port Wentworth and bought this gorgeous blue metal basket for $1.55. 

I think I will fill it with Seashells from Edisto!  I have it sitting in my living room atop my wonderful jumbo white wicker storage basket that was slated for makeover and to be sold.. But OH NO! I think I should keep it. :)

Sweet Sista Carol is on the way down today! 5 days with the Sista! I CANNOT WAIT! I am going to take her to all my fav places and we shall do some shoppin'!

HAPPY SHOPPING!

MEATBALL STUFFED PEPPERS! Amazing!

So Saturday afternoon, after a long day of Rummaging around Savannah, Vic asked me what I would like for dinner. I thought and thought and since I have been doing the low carb thing for a week had to think extra hard.. He suggested Spaghetti which sounded FAB but I can't do the noodles due to my low carb diet.

Thought about it and thought about it and thought FINALLY.. STUFFED GREEN PEPPERS! I was graving that Spaghetti after he mentioned it...

so here is what I came up with

Casserole dish
1 lb of Hamburger meat
4 Peppers
Jar of Spaghetti Sauce
Pkg of grated Chedder Cheese
Parmasean Cheese
Onion

Clean out the Four Peppers
Prepare a lb of hamburger meat with lil bit if bread crumbs, onions, S/P, worcheshire sauce
put loosely meatball size of meat into bottom of Pepper
next layer about inch of Spaghetti Sauce top with chedder cheese
another layer of meat
another layer of spagehetti sauce and cheese.
Top with few slices of onion
Sprinkle with Parmasean

Roll out remainder of Meat into meatballs

Place Peppers in square casserole dish and remainder of meatballs in casserole dish beside Pepper.
Pour remainder of Spaghetti Sauce into casserole dish on top of meatballs and around Peppers
Sprinkle entire thing with Parmesan Cheese

Cook for 45 minutes at 375 (I think)

IT WAS THE MOST AMAZING THING!




STUFFED PEPPERS!
We left off Spaghetti Sauce in this batch! :(


With the leftovers, Sunday morning SWAMP MAMA SPECIAL OMELLETE as we are now calling it.
Cut up remaining Stuffed Peppers and meatballs
Heat the remaining with a bit more spaghetti sauce and some diced onion
Whip up 3 eggs with a lil milk for beginnings of Omellete
when Omellete is about ready add the heated up left overs.. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and chedder cheese...

THAT IS ONE AMAZING OMELLETE!

ENJOY
and

HAPPY SHOPPING!

Seashell Hunt on Edisto.. Like Shopping for FREE Treasures!

So this past weekend was the Great CAMPOUT 2011! Let me tell you, Camping in August is HOT HOT HOT and I do not mean HOT in a good way. I mean MISERABLY, CANTCATCHMYBREATH HOT!

But let me start from the beginning...

We had had reservations since June for this weekend to camp at the Live Oak section of EDISTO STATE PARK Campground. Last Wednesday we hear Tropical Storm Emily is headed directly for us by Sunday. BUT.. that didn't stop us from our Great CAMPOUT 2011.

We had all the gear and headed out Friday morning. First stop was in Beaufort, SC. I hit Dollar Tree with my list and Vic went to Walmart with his! I quickly completed my list along with the funniest lil photo EVER (SEE BELOW! HE IS GHASTLY!)  I have seen these in PRICEY Gift Boutiques in downtown Savannah and loved that I found this one for $1.00 at the Dollar Tree!

 Handsome Man in Uniform or??? 

As you turn off for Edisto Island, there is this funky-do lil shop called BEFORE EDISTO. The two times I have been to Edisto before it was closed,.. but not this time!  We stopped there before heading down to the Campground. This placed ROCKED! So very cool! Full of antiques, primitives and Gullah folk art.

The owner was this nutty lil waif of a woman (I swear she was a ghost). I found these adorable four lil plates in a stack of $1.00 plates and a Fish Ceramic plate. The Ghostly woman told me that she and her business partner had bought the contents of a house in downtown Charleston on St. Phillip Street that had not been entered in 22 years! How cool is that! She had stacks of old linens that she had painstakenly cleaned but I just do not need. I cannot imagine entering a home that had been closed up for 22 years but I imagine it was an incredible adventure for those ladies!

My favorite of the plates is this lil German GNOME with Fairy plate!

We arrived to our campsite No. 105 around noon. We set up, ate lunch and headed for the beach. All of the beaches on Edisto are amazing but I must say the State Park beach is almost as great as Botany Bay that we discovered in June! 

The Seashell hunt is AMAZING! A new treasure with every wave and in every nook and cranny.  I love the hunt for the perfect Seashell almost as much as I do as shopping for treasure and actually would compare it to digging for treasure. I must have filled my JackO'Lantern Bucket four times. We learned that SHARK Teeth hunting is huge on Edisto! I needed my Reading Glasses for that.. We did find Three!

A lil Sea Turtle I found!

Me at the beach.

The bugs on Edisto are HORRIBLE! Flies, NoSeeUms, Red Ants and those damn Mosquitos! I hate them all.. and the HEAT .. Oh the HORRID HEAT! Sleeping in 77 degrees and humidity,, UGH! I did give it my best effort though. We did have an amazing Hamburger Grillout!

Saturday was another day.. We were on the beach bby 7:00am for more Seashell hunting! My hair had already had enough.. hence the bandanas and CURLS! (AKA POODLEHEAD)

 and then trying to stay cool! Vic is now calling me the ICE PRINCESS.. To fight the heat I put my feet in an ice bucket, cold towel around my neck, fan in my face.. HA! Very sad! Call me WIMP!

Dinner was the most amazing BBQ Chicken on Vic's new grill from The EDISTONION General Store! Vic fell in love with that place and will now never go to Piggly Wiggly on the island again. 

We had a few woodland creatures visit us! CARDINALS and more Cardinals!

The female

The Male

But most of all.. I just loved my SEASHELLS!

I can shop any where!! I found a cute blue bandana $1.89, EB Edisto Beach Keychain $2.49 and bumper sticker $1.99, and Purple Edisto Souvenir t-shirt $10.49 at the Edistonion.

By Sunday morning.. GAME OVER. We had had enough of the heat and the bugs! We luckily never had any rain!  Got up at 7am, packed it up, went to the SeaCow for breakfast and headed home!

Lesson learned? NEVER CAMP IN AUGUST :)

Oh I forgot..

HAPPY CAMPING!