Tobacco Basket

I'm aware that not all of my readers are Southern, bless your yankee hearts.  ;)  Kidding.  You know I love y'all.  So first, a quick Vocabulary Lesson.

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Tobacco Basket-   once the tobacco leaves were dried out, they were bunched and bound together then loaded onto a tobacco basket so that they could be displayed and sold at the market

Pack House-  a barn where the tobacco leaves were hung to dry

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About two months ago, I came into possession of an antique tobacco basket.  This particular tobacco basket came out of my great grandmother's pack house.  They had a lot of tobacco baskets, but there is a really good chance that my grandma, my great aunts, and even my dad have used my tobacco basket.  It even has the name of our town spray painted onto the side.   

How beautiful is she?!  

You might think that tobacco baskets are boys...but they're actually girls.  :)  Or at least this one is.  Because she is gorgeous.  

My great aunt and uncle found this in December and gave it to me, knowing my love for all things vintage and historical.  I have a particularly strong love affair with anything considered a family heirloom or sentimental.  I jumped up and down with excitement when I first saw this tobacco basket.  It is old.  It is quirky.  It is not a typical home decoration.  It is big and chunky.  It is heavy.  It's magnificent.  It represents how far my family has come - from shuckin' tobacco to owning a factory.  After almost two months exactly, I finally found a place for the basket.  I've moved it all around.  It's hung on one wall, leaned against two, and finally...

I hung her up yesterday!  She's hanging in the kitchen, which I love because I get to look at her all the time.

When we moved into this house, the house I grew up in, it was still full of stuff.  All of the walls have nails and hooks and hangers already...the tricky part is finding the right hanger for your project.  I finally found TWO heavy duty hooks that were already in the walls!  They were hiding behind a picture of us that my parents put on the wall while we were on our honeymoon, so we didn't know that what the picture was hung on.  The two heavy duty hooks are perfect for a tobacco basket, which is quite heavy.

Another thing...when I lived here with my parents, they never used their front door.  We always came inside through the mudroom because the garage is connected to it.  They always had their friends come up that way, too.  When Mr. Robinson and I moved in, we decided to put the pretty front door & foyer space to good use.  People rarely come over at all, but when they do we condition them to use the front door.  Sometimes, people still come up to the side door and enter through the mudroom - which I always hated.  BUT... now I won't be hating it as much because when they walk through the door, this is what they'll see: 

  

So, that's how I added a little bit of flair to our home this weekend.  What's your idea of a good, unique way to decorate your home or let your sense of style shine through?  

Thanks for reading! 

My First Vlog :)

These accent vlogs have been all over the place.  So, what better time than now for me to make my own?!
It's a little awkward...I keep laughing at myself...and apparently I have shifty eyes.  So...sorry about that.  :)  I did this at work with the video-camera on my iPhone.  I had the questions on my computer screen, so I kept looking back and forth.
Anyway..I'll introduce myself as a SOUTHERNER first.  And now, please watch my video because it's my first one and I feel like a moron.  (That's pronounced MOW-RON down here in South Carolina, by the way, y'all.)  :)

Aunt, Route, Wash, Oil, Theater, Iron, Salmon, Caramel, Fire, Water, Sure, Data, Ruin, Crayon, Toilet, New Orleans, Pecan, Both, Again, Probably, Spitting image, Alabama, Lawyer, Coupon, Mayonnaise, Syrup, Pajamas, Caught

And answer these questions:
What is it called when you throw toilet paper on a house?
What is the bug that when you touch it, it curls into a ball?
What is the bubbly carbonated drink called?
What do you call gym shoes?
What do you say to address a group of people?
What do you call the kind of spider that has an oval-shaped body and extremely long legs?
What do you call your grandparents?
What do you call the wheeled contraption in which you carry groceries at the supermarket?
What do you call it when rain falls while the sun is shining?
What is the thing you use to change the TV channel?

Now that y'all have heard how southern I am, I'm going to go enjoy a little SOUTHERN cooking!  :)  

And for those of you concerned about my diet... :)  I have lost 10 pounds!  Yay!  However..the last three pounds came off because I've been hurling my guts.  I had some sort of stomach bug Wednesday and Thursday.  And I only ate saltines and drank gingerale and threw up.  So...there's that.  I haven't really ate anything for the past two days!  This bbq plate is my reward to myself. 

BUT...this is actually a pretty healthy choice.  :)  BBQ is soaked in vinegar, which is great for dieting.  And I chose two sides of veggies instead of a side of rice and one veggie.  PLUS, I ate less than half of the plate.  I haven't had much of an appetite lately because of my virus.  And even before then, I've been eating much, much healthier.  I can already tell a difference in the way my body reacts to food.  Mentally & physically, I have zero desire to STUFF MY FACE full of food.  Three weeks ago?  I would have forced down every single bit of bbq on that plate.  Baby steps work, because today..I had no such desire.    

I'm also a firm believer that depriving yourself of everything good and yummy and beautiful is not the way to lose weight.  When I have a craving, I'll eat what I want *IN MODERATION*.  This will keep me from blowing my new eating habits later.  :)

And speaking of health...my blood work results from last week came back clear!  Forgot to tell y'all.  AND the dr. forgot to call me.  Good think I wasn't dying.  ;)  

Happy Friday, errybody!  XOs