We’ve just had a record snow here in middle Tennessee, 8 inches. I know for other areas of the country that’s not much but for this area that is a lot.

Nicole, thank you so so very much for sharing this. I’m so glad Norman is back home. I, too, have cats and live in the woods (the Blue Ridge mtns in Harpers Ferry, WV). One particular cat, (a rescue and foster failure) with one eye and many many extra toes has caused me grief similar to your Norman. His name is Tony Too Many Toes Toprano. He was a feral for many years but was finally trapped prior to a spay/neuter/vaccination event at our wonderful local vet clinic. I’m with a small group up here that runs a trap/neuter/return program and those cats we trap that are friendly (or will become friendly) as well as kittens …. so many kittens…are fixed up, vaccinated, neutered/spayed and adopted into families.

Anyway, I’m blathering on. I do want to mention, though, that one thing with my personal cats as well as the TNR cats we’ve rehab’d and adopted out is to make sure they all have microchips. Those simple little chips have helped us locate lost cats and get them back home. All mine are chipped…Tony Too Many Toes does like to rush the door and then taunt me from the woods until I can coerce him back in the house. The chip is a blessing and is a HUGE help in getting missing critters back home.

Have a wonderful Christmas and give Norman lots of love from my WV mountain cats!

So very happy you found Norman!! Pets are family and glad you all are together again. Merry Christmas!

What a miracle! I just finished sitting with my granddoll’s goat as it is passing and we just lost a lamb a couple of days ago. It sure does take away some of the holiday happiness.

Oh my, I was hanging on every word! I’m so so happy you have found Norman and that now you can enjoy the holidays together. What wonderful friends & neighbors you have…that is truly such a blessing. We have an orange tabby as well…the sweetest boy, I can understand why you were so worried – they really become such a part of our families. Happy for your Christmas Miracle – what a wonderful post for this Christmas season, thanks for sharing! Mary

Nicole….I want you to be my neighbor as you are an amazing woman. I read your stories and messages and no wonder your neighbors all love you as much as I do. You would do anything you could for another person. For sure, you are a wonderful human being.

Thank you for sharing your year with us. God bless & have a bountiful “farm” in 2024 .

Beautifully written Nicole, all of us have so many things to be thankful for.
I am most thankful that my great nephew Wally should be arriving into our life’s at anytime. It has been many years since we have had a Fischer Baby in the Family We are all so Happy, Joyful, Thankful and so Blessed to have our little Blessing to be arriving just in time for Thanksgiving
Happy Thanksgiving to you and your Family My Friend
Hugs,
Debbie

Oh how lovely. My daughter and I just did our annual pilgrimage to New England from PA and got back last night. How awesome that I have the large vintage ghost holding the pumpkin oversized fiberglass decoration as well as some of the other decorations you have displayed. I know that I read before your location but can you email me where you are located.
This trip we spent alot of time in Providence RI which I fell in love with.
I truly love New England, especially during this season.

Jacqueline

Beautiful pictures, looks like a fun time.
Kathy

Yes summer went by fast . I didn’t have much if a garden. I only got a few tomatoes. Maybe your eggplant. Makes me not want to do a garden next year. But plenty of berries and grapes. Hopefully that means we won’t have much snow this winter pumpkins and skeletons have been out for a month now. Halloween will be here before you know it.

Thank you for sharing your collection! I have two
chicken -shaped potholders that were my Aunt
Anna’s. One is perfect to use when pouring hot water from our whistling tea kettle! Two works well for safely gripping the handles of the Corning “Cornflower Blue” patterned casseroles from the oven. They were my mother-in-laws.

MORE THAN TWO is a collection? I have MANY!

Thanks for sharing!

Jean

Such a fun post! I have several of my grandmother’s crocheted potholders–sweet memories.

Hi Nicole … I just love your collection of vintage potholders. I remember them from my childhood and I have been able to find a number of them at local thrift stores. My kitchen is red so my favorite potholders are the little dress and the matching bloomers which I have displayed on a bulletin board. Another tip … those nice round ones make nice, washable coasters! Great post! Carol

All those beautiful potholders!!! I just love them. My accidental collection is full of teapots. It started with taking home from my mom my grandmother’s teapot. Mom didn’t want the “dust collector” any more. I suppose because of that one teapot my kids thought I should have more and now I have eleven sets, teapots, creamers, sugar bowls, and trays! I enjoyed your post and I just love your kitchen! Wanna trade? Jus’ kiddin.’ Be blessed!

Owls comprise my accidental collection. The owl is my sorority mascot, and one of my “sisters” & I started gifting each other with small owls. My thrift store finds are usually the most unique. I decorate seasonally, so my owl collection is on display in fall.
I love getting reacquainted with my collection every fall.

I had an accidental collection of teddy bears when I was a teen. I loved stuffed animals as a kid. I hated barbie. My Great Aunt would make me handmade stuffed dolls, as well. One was a Raggedy Anne and Andy doll set.

I too back in my heydays loved my collectables but unfortunately didn’t have any of these cute potholders. I collected the blue/white Delft as my Mother was Dutch, collected the Pyrex bowls but when we moved from Indiana to Florida, I gave most of them away to family but I did keep the original blue/white Dutch pattern set of three. I still love going to antiques stores to browse and bring back childhood memories of my mother’s kitchen.

I am blessed to have a few potholders. I love to collect anything vintage for my laundry room. Love the photo’s of your collection’s. What a wonderful feeling it is to have thing’s in our home’s to make us smile.

Thanks for sharing. I live in Hawaii and everytime we go to the beach we find coral. They call it stick coral because it looks like a white stick.

Hi i love your kitchen and i look so forward to your blog my collection is blue n white snowmen my son brought one home from a beach vacation and so it began Have a good weekend

Your collection, front the luxuriosly intricate to the beautifully simple is so fun to see. My favorite digs at thrift store are the vintage handcrafts. It’s amazing the uniqueness you find. Thanks so much for sharing.

I found a vintage snack set at an antique store years ago and was head over heels in like with it. I have since collected 18 more sets. I love using them for lunch or desserts with friends.

Makes my heart full to read this post and see photos of all the unique pot holders. Reminiscent of the good ole days! Beautiful work where perfectionist hands put in a lot of time, detail and love. Thank you for sharing.

I have accidentally ended up with a collection of old tins and coffee tins and a lot of cannin jars from the 30s. I also love old patchwork quilts and all kinds of vintage kitchen textiles. My country dining room is like a trip back in time. I honestly have a little of everything.

Hi Nicole! I really enjoyed this post… I too love vintage potholders and I have a few but I have a collection of the doilies with crocheted flowers. I can’t seem to pass one up when I find them. Growing up my mother had a large one that she starched and hung on the wall in our family room. Sara

Love your kitchen and your potholder collection! I have some old potholders mostly given by family members and others that I’ve picked up at yard sales. My home is a collection of collections, all things collected over the years, all things that I love … I like what I like and it all comes together! ❤️

I use to collect elephant knick knacks, now it’s lamps. Everytime I am in a thrift store I go for the lamps.

Thank you for sharing your collection with us! I had collected everything strawberry at one time, but no longer do. Now I am collecting granny chic floral plates, dishes,, bowls and pitchers.❤

I have an accidental collection of vintage embroidered dresser scarves and tablecloths. I was in a second hand store years ago and found a dresser scarf with embroidered flowers just the right colors for my bedroom and as a bonus it has a crocheted lace border. I inherited a few more pieces and it seemed very time I was at an antique store I would see more scarves or tablecloths I just had to have!

I have some from my Grandmothers – – precious to me. Since I last wrote to you I have increased my doll collection – – sewing for them is a joy. We have a cottage now, we remodeled our vacation cottage for retirement – – and I kept the cottage look although much is new. Love your appreciation for dear vintage things!!

Love the Hoosier!

It was fun to read this article. Both of my grandmas and my mom crocheted all those potholders! They also crocheted doilies and tablecloths, quilted, and embroidered dish towels. I just retired and moved out to my parent’s house which stood empty for many years. I have it livable and comfortable. I kept the old sink in our utility room and decorated with pink, which is my favorite color. It’s great to be home. I embroider dish towels and crochet simple dishrags to use as gifts and donations. I like to quilt and hope to do more. It’s fun to carry on the traditions!

Oh Nicole, this blog post really resonated with me.
My first thought while reading it brought me right back to that day, probably 45 years ago when I helped a neighbor friend clean out her Auntie Sue’s house after she’d passed.
Aunties Sue’s house was FULL of “accidental collections” she had a few pairs of those finely crochet cotton clothing pot holders. All startched and faded but in excellent shape. She hung them in her kitchen on small metal seafoam green hangers. I can still see them after all these years. Auntie Sue had LOTS of finely crochet cotton potholders; kitty cats, owls, chickens, Christmas bells. I came home that day with a cookie jar of hers with hand painted cherries on it. It lost it’s lid years ago but still sits on my counter as a handy utensil holder. But oh how many times I’ve wished I took just one pair of those cotton crochet clothing potholders home with me. Perhaps it was that day that started me on my own collections of all things old, colorful, crafted, quirky and loved.
Thank you for writing such a a beautifully descriptive piece that was able to bring me back to such a wonderful day spent with an old friend with sweet surprises inside every cupboard and around every corner. I will share this blog post with that same neighbor friend, now in her 80’s herself. I’m sure it will do the same for her. And I will cross my fingers, hoping to be the lucky winner and have the chance to finally have my own set of fancy crochet cotton potholders to remind me of that day filled with magic and wonderful treasure.

Have a lovely birthday, sweet lady!

Love the photos. Nice swallowtail butterflies…and a praying mantis. We seen them very seldom. Almost stepped on a praying mantis two years ago. And it was huge. I thought it was a stuck at first. You have ai lovely greenery and flowers. And what kind of bird was that. It looked like one that was under my awning. I see hummingbirds nest with four eggs you go the next day and they are hone. I think the dam snakes eats them I wish I knew how to keep the snakes away as the hummingbird puts their best in bushes and it’s so easy for the snakes to get at them. I wish I knew how to protect the birds . I know when a snake us around as the birds will fly back and forth and won’t land even on a house. They told me if a powder but it doesn’t work. If any one knows how to keep snakes out if my garden I’d appreciate it.

Oh Nicole, where do I begin?? Luv the Lilacs,, Luv your sewing buddies, Your Trailer, your Apron,,,, and your Blogg…

Happy Spring my friend…

Hi Nicole What a nice Mother’s day gift from your daughter. The machine is lovely. The apron is so cute. Your garden is doing nicely. The Lilacs are gorgeous. We have our annual Lily Of The Valleys blooming,the pansy is striving as are the azalea bushes,. We just purchased four Geraniums. They are hearty and do not mind the heat. Our red roses have bloomed. The white ones have buds but no flowers yet. We did have to buy a lawn mower, The old one did. Fortunately, we have great neighbor and they have mowed our lawn until we get the new set up. Nicole enjoy your garden an new sewing machine. Have a safe Memorial day.
Joan,Marion and Marilyn

Nicole, I do love your blog. I too live in New England and it is nice to read about this area. I am in Vermont and have always wanted to visit Mystic CT you have just encouraged me, I will have to see how long of a drive it would be. Do you get those biting black flies we get here springtime in Vermont? if so what do you do about them, I swear bug spray is my perfume of choice this time of year, LOL. Keep up you great blog & pictures.
Sheila

Wonderful blog! Sorry about you bb. It sounds like your daughter is doing well and that’s makes a mom and all moms happy! Happy day!!

My heart goes out to you having to say good bye to your little Pip.Our pets bring us so much joy! I love your posts and the photos are beautiful. We have had an unusual winter/spring with weather and health issues in our family. My tulips may not bloom as they’ve had so much snow on them as they tried to push through! I think the garlic will survive. God is so good to us we are reminded by sweet spring ‘firsts’ that hope abounds! Thank you for these reminders.

Hi Nicole☀️
Happy Springtime. You are truly an inspiration and I enjoy reading your blog. I would very much like to see a yard full of dandelions among the manicured yards in the neighborhood. My backyard hen flock would love dandelions also. Blessings to you and yours!

Dear Nicole… Hugs for your loss,, Sweet Pip…
I agree,, the pain is tearing at our hearts, but we would/will gladly open our hearts again to the pain, to have the love of a sweet devoted fur & paws child as well as loved ones..

Hugz-n-squisches always
katmom

Hi Nicole,
I am so sorry for your loss of Pip. I know that horrible emptiness our amazing friends leave. I agree with you while the loss is so hard, the gifts our fur babies give us make the loss bareable. Finding joy is the key, as you point out and joy is what our fur babies teach us. Thank you for your joy filled post.

Hi Nicole, First of all, I’d like to say how sorry I am for the loss of your dear little Pip. It is one of life’s hardest things, to lose a pet who has become part of the family….I am glad to hear that you are being inspired by the beauty and business of Spring. Your photos are beautiful. Thank you so much for taking the time to take and share those, And to be so gracious as to lift the rest of us up with your positivity despite the pain. You are an inspiration. 🙂 Blessings, Tammy

I’m so sorry about your sweet Kip. They are worth the joy! Your blog post does bring me joy too. Thank you for that joy even with a sad part to share with us. Loved his pictures over the years.