Antique Irons

When I was a very young child we used to visit some old timers and I would see these old irons being used as door stops. For some reason I was mesmerized by them. Over the years I would see one from time to time but never owned one. Recently I got my hands on two very small ones. According to my mother they belonged to her grandmother. They are well over 100 years old. They are small and were probably salesman's samples. I absolutely love them. They are both cast iron and one has a trivet to place the iron upon. The one with two pointed ends is known as a sad iron. I placed a quarter in the photo to show the size. I love them and knowing they belonged to my great grandmother makes them even more special.

Debbie Turns 50

Whoo-hoo! My little sister is 50. Well technically she won't be 50 until Wednesday the 25th but we celebrated it in a big way yesterday and had more fun that should be allowed. Debbie took it all very well and even showed her sense of humor during the event. What fun we all had!!! Below are some photos from the party.

We had enough candles to cause a major fire. Debbie huffed and puffed and blew them all out! It did however take her several tries before getting them all extinquished.

No milestone birthday as you age is quite complete without black balloons. We only had 5... one for each decade.

Debbie was quite the model. I told her before she opened any gifts that she had to wear any thing that was wearable and she didn't disappoint us. Here she is showing off some of ribbons and buttons.

For those who don't know, The Red Hat Society is a club for women once they turn 50. All members wear red hats to their get togethers. I searched thrift stores in the area to find a red hat and came up with this one. After a trip to the craft store to purchase ribbon, big flower and shiney sequins we were all set with the perfect red hat for Debbie.

The red hat wouldn't be complete without the purple shirt. Mom gave her this shirt complete with little red hats to go with her hat.

The kotex vest complete with tampon fringes was a big hit. Too funny!!!

Another find at the thrift store was this green suitcase that was perfect to use as the Old Timers Survival Kit. I had purchased a ton of small items associated with aging and had each one wrapped in black paper and placed inside the suitcase.

A pair of big old Granny panties were a must for the kit.

This cup has been in our family forever! It belonged to our father many years ago and Debbie had it in her possession and gave it to me on my 50th birthday. I kept it and returned it to her on her 50th. Who knows where it will turn up next. It's the gift that just keeps on giving.

Every old timer needs a little pick-me-up for extra energy. Geritol was in the kit along with other items such as Metamucil, Centrum Silver vitamins, Fleet enema, a big pill holder, magnifying glass, denture cream and cup, hemorrhoid cream and a ton of various other items.

All women over 50 need this... a bottle of Menopause Merlot

This vest was hilarious! Front and back are covered with aging signs.

Debbie even tried on the Granny panties and modeled them for us.

Some time ago our cousin Irma and I saw these signs in a little town near here. After the election we grabbed them and put Debbie's name over the person's name on the signs. We put these up in various places around town for Debbie to see. Hee...hee....hee.... we are bad to the bone!


Aside from all the gag gifts I gave Debbie also gave her something nice. I cross stitched this group of kitties in a barn window and made it into a pillow for her. She loves cats. Took me forever and I possibly never have the desire to ever cross stitch again but i got it done and am happy with the results. Hope Debbie likes it too!

So that was our little party. So much fun! We have the best family in the world. All with a sense of humor. Anytime we get together there is lots of laughter.

Weekend Fun

We had grand daughter Hannah here for the weekend. What fun! She is always such a delight and brightens our world like no one else. We made hats this weekend and below is a photo of her wearing one of them. Got it as the flea market and added the lavender ribbon and bow to it. We later went to the craft store and bought some lavender sequins that we added to it as well. She loved it and wore it the rest of the weekend.

More Characters

Street performers were everywhere and we came across a few like this man below. They would appear to be "frozen" and remain perfectly still. I don't know how they did it, they don't even blink their eyes. One guy was holding a hammer in the air like he was going to hit the sidewalk with it and he had his tools there. Another guy was painted all in gold, another all in silver. I have seen these types of artists in other cities across the country and in France but this was the first time I had seen "men at work" being so still. The fellow in this first photo was pretty amazing... he was balanced on the ladder in mid air, never moved.

And this guy was not a street performer but rather a man with his bird on the ferry we were on coming back from Algiers. He may have been a performer heading off to work or something but he was just on the ferry holding this colorful fowl.

I'm Lost

In case you got lost they had these signs posted on Canal Street. No excuse to be lost now.

Louis Armstrong

No trip to New Orleans would be complete without seeing Louis Armstrong. On our last day there David and I took the ferry across the mighty Mississippi River over to Algiers and this big statue of Mr. Armstrong was there as we got off the ferry.

New Orleans Trees

I love photographing unusual looking trees and stumbled upon several worthy of a shot while on our trip. Check them out.

Jamie took this photo of the roots growing right up thru the sidewalk at the cemetery entrance

These big birds were up in a tree with Spanish moss hanging on it

This one certainly grabbed my attention, it looks like a face with the iron fencing coming right out of the mouth, how cool!


I loved the tall palm trees lining the sidewalk on Canal Street and if you look closely you will see big white snow flakes up in the palms

Another tree near the entrance to the cemetery, the trunk was so smooth but also extremely knotty

For Those With Long Legs

This was a really tall bicycle that we saw one day. Would love to have seen the person climb aboard it. I wonder how they stop and get off??? Come to think of it we did see a girl on stilts one night... perhaps this was her bike??? Naa... we actually saw a guy riding it another day but he was too quick for me to get a picture. By the time I got the camera turned on he was out of range. Oh well...

Mr. and Mrs.

Just a couple of photos of David and I enjoying our time in New Orleans on the last day. The first photo is us on the St. Charles Streetcar and the second one was taken while we were waiting for the IMAX movie to begin. We didn't actually need the 3D glasses for the film we saw which was a special on hurricane Katrina but we put them on for the photo anyway.