A Winner, Puerto Rico and Pink Jewelry Holder

It's Saturday, another one of my favorite days of the week. Why? You guessed it right! It's Sightseeing Saturday time, which I am hosting, so we get to go on a tour. Today, Chandy of http://whatnowtablescapes.blogspot.com/ is again taking us on a tour also. And what's more, it's also Pink Saturday, hosted by Beverly of http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/my_weblog/. Please be sure to visit Chandy and Beverly to see what cool stuff they are sharing with us today.

Today, I am especially excited cause we have a winner of my 100th post giveaway.
What I did was print all my comments from last Saturday's post.
Then, I cut them up. And then, I cut up more papers and wrote down the names, 5 x for each Sightseeing Saturday participants last week.
I rolled them all up and mixed them very well and had John pick one for me.
And the winner is........."Drum Roll Please!!!!!"
It's Dot of http://picketsplace.blogspot.com/
Congratulations, Picket! I am so happy for you and I can't wait for you to get these goodies. Please email me your home address and I will package them up and send them to you.
Now, let's proceed on our tour. Let's go to San Juan, Puerto Rico, which is a US territory so currency is in the US dollar and passports are not required. Of course traveling with us today is none other than my sweet granddaughter AJ and my darling hubby, John.
There's AJ in our hotel balcony. Isn't that a beautiful view?
The beach is simply gorgeous! We really enjoyed it especially because the weather was perfect.

and there's AJ ready to go snorkeling.

Aj had fun swimming and ordering drinks from the wet pool bar.The food in Puerto Rico is delicious. We did not have to go far. Every night, there was a buffet in the hotel restaurant and it was so good. We always looked forward to it. They had a different variety of food every night. Do you see the roasted suckling pig? I was the only one asking for the crunchy skin, which is my favorite part, LOL!

We took the bus to Old Town, which is one of our favorite places to go there. Shown in the background is Fort San Felipe del Morro, which was used to guard the entrance to San Juan bay and defend the city from seaborne enemies. This is the entrance view.

We explored the fort. I don't know about you but I am always fascinated by something really old. Construction of El Morro begun in 1539 so that's really old.

"The hills are alive!"

This building is right across the fort. I am not sure what it is.

We always walked the streets of Old Town San Juan. And of course, we always had to buy bird feed for AJ. She enjoyed feeding the doves.

Streets of Old Town. No! They are not peddling again! LOL! It's John just carrying stuff that we buy from shopping around there. I like the colorful houses.

and the cobblestone streets

Great view for this cemetery.

We walked and walked to search for a store that sold a kite and John and AJ flew it.

We also visited the El Yunque rainforest. Isn't that a pretty waterfall?

I hope you enjoyed seeing San Juan.

Just as I said, it is also Pink Saturday today and I would like to show you my pink jewelry holder. I bought it from TJ Maxx and it was discounted, just loose from the stand. I glued it and it's perfect now.

Thanks Beverly, for making it possible for us to flaunt our pink items.

And thank you all for the visit. I hope you enjoyed my post today. Congrats again to Picket!

Now, let's go visit Beverly and Chandy!

Magnolia as Inspiration and Serving Birds

After today's double anxiety, I am so glad to have Thursday come so I can forget my troubles and start playing. I will do a twofer today, Tablescape Thursday, which is hosted by Susan of http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/ and Thrifty Thursday, hosted by Leigh of http://lbratina.blogspot.com/. After we are done here, let's visit these 2 beautiful ladies and their wonderful blogs and then check out posts from all their participants.

My inspiration for this tablescape came from this white vase with magnolia. BTW, this could very well be an entry to Thrifty Thursday too cause it ended up being free. When they picked up the armoire that was delivered broken, they handed me back my full check (was not deposited yet). The dealer said she did not want to lose us as customers so she refunded me the money I paid for the armoire and everything else, I guess to compensate me for our antique angel that the delivery guys broke. I did not want her to do that cause I felt bad but she insisted. This is just a simple setting for 2. We had rice (we have it everyday) and chicken with soup, potatoes and different kinds of veggies. The stemware has a very pale pink band on the rims.
I used our "Cameo Florals" dinnerware with the lace plate chargers. I also used the crocheted table cloth I brought back from Grand Cayman. I really like the tablecloth and it hangs on the table beautifully.

I thought the white duck soup tureen would blend in well because of the lacy pattern on it. I won the ruffly crocheted doiley from Ebay.

We ate on the kitchen dining table by the fireplace and TV (too hot for fire though). You probably notice that I set the table in such a way that we are both facing the TV so we can both watch.

The flatware has a floral design too.

and so do the place card holders.

Hope you enjoyed my simple tablescape.

And now for my Thrifty Thursday contribution. I bought this set of bird servers yesterday at Marshall's in Baton Rouge. Aren't the birds cute? The set costs $3.99. Now, that's thrifty, isn't it? The birds are great for serving sauce and condiments.

Thanks Susan and Leigh, for taking the time to host these 2 fun events.

And thank you all for coming to visit. Hope you enjoyed this double post.

Anxiety Wednesday, Just Venting

Just thought I'd give you an update from my post below. I got my full refund and more. The antique dealer was very gracious, gave me my whole check amount back, which means I got everything I bought that day for free. I did not want her to do that but she insisted. She said she did not want to lose us as customers.

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I have double anxiety today. I have a dental appointment at 8:30 this morning (just venting while waiting) and I have to show you what upset me and John so much yesterday and we're still upset today. If you visited my blog a few days ago, you muct have seen this armoire that we bought from an antique shop downtown. I was shopping with a friend in Baton Rouge when the store owner called to see if anyone is home cause thay were ready to deliver. I called home and thought it was lucky, hubby was home so I called the owner back to tell her to go ahead and deliver.

But look what they did to the crown!
John called and was so upset. He said the 2 guys who delivered were so sloppy, they delivered the armoire and the top was broken, broke it even before they got there and told him just to buy Elmer's wood glue and just glue it. And he said they did not even take out the shelves which kept coming off, falling and damaging the wood as they were wheeling the armoire in. And as if, that was not enough, they broke our antique angel trio that was on the foyer and did not even apologize nor felt bad about it.

The cabinet was going in there and I was going to display my Meissen firgurines and Sevres vases in it.
There's our angel figurine before it was broken. I move things around and I had moved it to the foyer next to the little fountain.
Here it is now, with a head, hand and fingers broken off. My chest is tightening up just looking at it now.

It used to sit on that little stool there. I probably would have moved it seeing how sloppy the movers were if I was home but I wasn't.

John wanted me to call the owner to tell them to pick up the cabinet with our full refund, including delivery charges, plus pay for the figurine. I called the owner and expressed our disappointments. She said she was in the hospital with her daughter in labor and I hated to vent during her happy moment so I just told her about the cabinet being broken and that my hubby wants them to pick it up with our refund. I did not mention about her paying for the figurine cause she was so gracious apologizing and not giving me a hard time about giving us the refund.

I am supposed to call her back as soon as I get back from my dentist. I hope today will be a better day. But, I had fun shopping yesterday, LOL!. You all have a great day! Sorry to vent on you all!

Mississippi River and Update on Yard and Pool

Hi everyone! It's hump day, which means it is Outdoor Wednesday, a fun meme hosted by Susan of http://asoutherndaydreamer.blogspot.com/. Go visit her blog where you can find beautiful outdoor pictures and a list of participants so you can see their gorgeous outdoors too.

For this week, I would like to show you the Mississippi River by us. As you can see, the water is really high. I took this pictures about 2 weeks ago so it's probably lower right now cause it has not rained as much. God is cooperating because He knows we are building a pool and it needs to be dry.
Do you see the sand bags on the left? They are all that's keeping the streets from flooding.
A couple friend of ours took us out to dinner at the casino. We have lived here for almost 3 years and that was the first time we ever stepped foot in there, not to gamble, but to eat at the seafood buffet.

The water got so high that even this alligator floated. Do you see him on the log?

Now, I just want to show you our garden. I was finally able to harvest some tomatoes from the vegetable garden.

The rosemarie, parsley and lettuce are doing very well too.

Does anybody know what these flowers are? They are growing on trees.

Remember this from last week? It is blooming now.

What about these? Do you know what they are? They are growing on a small tree too.

And now the pool update. They installed the pipes and electricity. Do you see the water filter and the pool heater by the side of the house? The men are busy, all 8 of them.

and that's me who looks so tiny compared to the pool....LOL!

I hope you all have a Happy Ourdoor Wednesday! Thanks Susan, for being such a gracious host and thanks all, for coming!