Waking Up

Good morning fellow bloggers and Happy Saturday!!! I am getting ready to go in and make some coffee, but I have just been enjoying a quiet morning of  internet fun: searching for old favorite decorating web sites, checking my email, catching up on FB and so on. Quietly reflecting on the sweet and simple life we have here at our little cottage in town. I simply love mornings like this!!!

I was hoping that we might be going for a little day trip somewhere today, but that was just not in our tiny budget right now, gas prices being what they are and all. We are hoping to make a long-over-due trip to North Carolina real soon to visit my family there, but I am really just needing a little excursion somewhere local; sight seeing if you will. I tend to choose places that are a bit quaint and county for our little trips; "keep it simple sweetie" is my motto. There are several places which are my favorites for such a trip. Our beautiful mountain state has many parks and historical landmarks to visit. One family favorite is Hawks Nest State Park where you can go white water rafting; if you are brave and so inclined. I just usually enjoy the gorgeous view from the overlook to Hawks Nest Canyon and maybe a bit of hiking if the old legs are up to it. I enjoy their good restaurant, too.

Another favorite is beautiful Black Water Falls! It is a bit farther away from us, but oh-so-gorgeous!!! The path down to the falls is a good stretch for the legs; a downward decent down by way of trails and walkways. There was some recent damage caused by Superstorm Sandy, but they are working hard to get everything repaired. The falls get their name from the tannic acid from fallen hemlocks and red spruce needles which color the water amber. Rushing over huge rocks, the falls make quite a dramatic display. The temperature in this area of our state stays refreshingly cool much longer than many other areas. This morning the weather tab on the BWF web page indicated a chilly 59 degrees. The humidity level is most usually high due to the mists created by the falls. If you love a wooded wonderland you really need to make a trip here. 

There are a couple of farm museums that are fun to visit here, as well. We have made a couple of trips to the WV Farm Museum  My mom and dad used to go here a lot and they introduced us to it. There are several old buildings on the site including a school house, a blacksmith shop, a log church and a saw mill. They also have a little country kitchen that is opened only on special event dates. A little closer to us, near Huntington, WV there is the Heritage Farm Museum, but I have never been to this one. It looks wonderful and I have had some homeschool friends tell me that it is a great place to spend the day! There is a charge for their tours but they do have some super Way Back Weekends events that look really special!  

I could go on for pages about the many other places that I love to visit around good ol' WV, but my coffee is ready and the morning is passing, and the front porch is calling my name. Hope you are all having a super Saturday whatever your plans. 

God bless and Stay Cozy, 

Charlotte

Loving the Online Business Life

Good afternoon to everyone of you, dear blog friends! I am really having a sweet day here at my little cottage. I woke up this morning to discover emails from Celebrating Home telling me that customers had placed online orders! That was a GREAT start to my day, I can tell you for sure! I went to my web page and printed them off so that I could send out "Thank You" cards to my online customers. One lady had ordered a Bean Pot and so I also mailed her a bunch of Bean Pot recipes to inspire her meals. Then I helped my sweet hubby to put away some groceries, got our lunch and then went outside to rock on my front porch for a bit. So relaxing! (sigh) 

I started thinking about the online direct sales experience. Have you ever looked into the window of a store and just fell in love with the displays and the products that were inside only to find that the service was just not your cup-of-tea? Maybe you just did not hit it off with the sales staff, or the manager was cold and inattentive to your questions? Maybe the prices were too high and there was no chance of a sale or some type of special which would allow you to purchase the items you wanted for half-price or maybe even get them for FREE! This is precisely I find the direct sales approach so inviting. My online store is opened 24 hours a day, the service is quick and, should you have questions, you can send me a quick email or even call me direct (my number is on my FB page) and I will be glad to help you with your questions. I try very hard to be available to my customers. When your order is $39.00 or more, you can choose selected BONUS Buy items for a really ridiculously low price of $9.99. When your personal order or combined sales order (you and some friends decide to order together) reaches $200.00 in retail merchandise, then you can choose your choice of 20% of the total (before taxes) in FREE merchandise! WOW!!! No other brick-and-mortar retail store has that kind of program running, at least none that I know of. 

Now this is the real beauty of it all, remember the above scenario about the lovely shop with the unfriendly shop staff? Well, friends, if for some unforeseen reason you are not happy with my customer service, then you can leave my little "shop" but still have access to the same beautiful wares I offer there through thousands of other Celebrating Home designers all across the USA. Though I will do my absolute best to keep you happy and coming back to my little "shop" online. 

I am sipping a cup of blueberry tea as I type to you and thinking it is about time to go and start our supper of chicken-with-dumplings. Remember to visit my page on FB for even more fun, product reviews and recipes, too. There are always many pretty things to see there and I love when everyone comments and has fun chatting together. I hope that you all have had a beautiful day and worked in some time for just relaxing and sitting on the porch for a bit. That is my favorite time of this season. 

God bless and Stay Cozy, 

Charlotte

How Does Your Garden Grow

Oh my, sweet friends; don't think I'm running a fever or anything, but here I am writing a second post for the day! Well, you know for me it's all or nuthin'~heehee. I am either in a writing frenzy (and that hasn't happened for the longest time) or completely dry of all words. We are having one of those GORGEOUS days today; not too hot, not too chilly and my sweet hubby is out mowing the grass for the little insurance business next door. He does it for them every-other-week and it is pleasant work for him. I have been on this old computer on and off during the day and have been having fun visiting friends and family on Facebook. In between FB visits I have been doing dishes and laundry and a bit of straightening up and decided to go out on my back porch for some fresh air and sunshine~ahhhh. I took my good old camera to capture some photos of the sweet little Annabelle Hydrangea given to me by my cousin late last summer. It had died down during the winter and I was really afraid that it would not come back, but here it is~growing and thriving and BLOOMING!!! Aren't those blooms just gorgeous! I can't wait until this little plant grows into a HUGE shrub at my back steps! I am on my way to having real "grandma" flowers around my home~YAY!!! I would love to get some roses out by next summer.

I also took time to snap some pictures of our various tomato plants. They are all growing well and starting to get some pretty nice 'maters on them.

Here is a shot of the potatoes that we have planted. This is our first year for growing potatoes and I think we might want to find a bigger place for them next year. My hubby bought a bag of mixed varieties including one that is blue! We will see how they turn out. 

So glad that we have things growing around our home. I am missing the good pepper plants we had last year. They were so good and produced so many yummy peppers. We planted some seeds but they did not come up for some reason. Oh well, there is always next year. Thank you friends for letting me share a little of our life with you through this little blog. You are all so sweet to stop by and read about us. 

Hugs and Stay Cozy,   

Charlotte

Our Home; Our Haven

Good morning, dear ones! I am having one of those sweet, quiet mornings that seem to be too few and far between as of late. To top things off, rather sweetly, I am not in any great amount of pain from my fibro this morning, either~YAY! I am just thankful for this sweet time of rest and my dear little cottage home. I am glad for this place to keep clean, to enjoy my family, to prepare good meals, to decorate and express myself. It feels so good to have this place that God has given us as a temporary nest for our family here on His earth. Just wanted to share a quick post about it this morning while I am sipping on my cup of coffee during a little break. Hoping that you are all having a day that is sweetly blessed. 

Hugs to all, 

Charlotte

A WAHM Day

Hello swee friends! Today I am blissfully working from home! I haven't had a chance to do this for a while and OH, how I have missed it. I have printed off flyers from the Celebrating Home news emails and called a couple of customers. I have posted some specials on my Facebook page and my personal profile page and now I am taking time to blog a bit to you. I have been giving some thought lately to closing down my little home business as time for it has been a bit sparse, what with my mom and my mother-in-law needing us more and more and my own health issues rearing their ugly little heads. Not to mention the fact that I am just not as organized or enthusiastic as I was in past years. I really don't make huge marginal amounts of money with it, but sometimes the earnings do come in handy and I really do love the freedom of working from home. I said a HUGE prayer over it yesterday and this morning my Lord has motivated me to get busy and try to do better. My plans and goals for the next few years include finally opening a small brick-and-mortar gift and home decorating shop~that would be my dream-come-true!!! I pray that the Lord will make a way for me to do that and that my little shop will honor Him and all that He has done for my life. For now I will continue to promote my humble web page with Celebrating Home and tell you that this little company has been such a blessing to me over the past 20 years~creatively, spiritually and financially. I have met so many wonderful friends and customers through them and learned so much about decorating and providing a valuable service to others, I am just so glad that I took the leap and joined (then) Home Interiors and Gifts, Inc. back in 1993. It was truly a step in the right direction. I would invite each of you to use the link at the top of my blog and visit my personal Celebrating Home web page and check out all of the GORGEOUS home and fashion accessories they offer! Remember, you can contact me via this blog, Facebook or email if you have any questions about the products or about decorating in general anytime you wish. I am here to serve you and love doing so.Well, back to my work day. Hope that you are having a very blessed day!!!

Hugs and Stay Cozy, 

Charlotte