Candleholders are wonderful decorative accents, and you can find all styles in thrift stores!  Even better, they’re usually very inexpensive

Here are a few of my thrift store candleholder finds:

And here are a couple of closeups:

In the background of the above photo you can see some of the Dark Opal Basil we cut from our garden today to make pesto sauce.  Here’s a closeup:

The crystal vase is another thrift store find

DSH mentioned this video to me a few moments ago.  You have to see it!  >^..^<

This week’s TT features 13 of my favorite feel-good, fluff movies. By fluff I mean that these movies are simply fun, they aren’t meant to convey a deep message and change the world or win an Oscar. These are the movies you watch when you put on your sweats, get yourself a bowl of ice cream with your favorite toppings and settle on the couch with a comfy blanket and your cat and escape for a couple of hours.

As is usual, this list is in no particular order

1. 13 Going on 30 – I love this movie Who as a child hasn’t wanted to be magically older? When Jenna’s wish comes true, things aren’t the way she thought they’d be. She realized that some decisions she made when she was 13 didn’t turn out so well, and she has a chance to change it all. Pure fun I did find one of my favorite parts of the movie and have to share it with you here

2. Music & Lyrics – I’m not a Hugh Grant fan, but I wanted to spend some time with some of my girlfriends, so I decided I could handle watching a Hugh Grant movie. I graduated high school in 1983 and was in love with New Wave music, and when the movie opened with this video, I was hooked!

3. While You Were Sleeping – This has to be one of the best fluff movies of all time. Take an improbable story line, add the charm of Sandra Bullock and Bill Pullman, along with a wonderful, warm and slightly crazy family, and you have this wonderful heartwarming classic.

4. Bring It On (the edited for TV version) – What fun!!! Great cheers, a rousing tale of cheerleading rivalry, and it closes with that cheerleading anthem by Toni Basil, Hey Mickey:

5. Clueless – Who would have guessed that taking the Jane Austin novel “Emma” and moving the setting to modern-day Beverly Hills would work so well? But it did, and quite well! There was even a TV show with some of the original cast from the movie, and it was very enjoyable, too.

6. Sweet Home Alabama – Fun! Reese Witherspoon is charming as a young woman who is trying to ignore her roots and attain all her dreams of the high life, but she can’t quite get away from who she really is. You can take the girl out of the South, but you can’t take the South of of the girl

7. Miss Congeniality – What is not to love about this movie? A female FBI agent has to go undercover at a beauty pageant to stop a serial killer, but she has no interest in anything feminine and is actually quite crude and graceless. In order to stop the killer, she has to win the pageant, and in order to win the pageant, she has to be completely made over. Watching her try to fit in with the contestants has some very hilarious moments, and the end scene where William Shatner’s character is singing the song for the winner is one of the funniest I’ve ever seen.

8. Never Been Kissed – Awww, so sweet!!! Drew Barrymore plays a newspaper editor who was the class reject in high school. Echoes of her nickname ‘Josie Grossie” still haunt her. When she has a chance to go back to high school on an undercover assignment, things change and she has a chance to do it all over again. The expected happens, though, when she’s attracted to one of her teachers and he’s attracted to her. He thinks she’s a student, though, so this romance seems to have no chance. But as with all good fluff movies, it has a happy ending

9. Legally Blonde – Come on, could this happen in real life? No!!! But is a fluff movie real life? No!!! So it can happen! Elle is a sorority queen who has it all, including the perfect boyfriend. But when he dumps her to go to law school, she decides to pursue him and ends up getting the job he wanted and graduating at the top of the class! Pretty good for a bubble-headed blonde who really isn’t so bubble-headed after all.

10. Return to Me – This movie has one of the most heart-breaking openings I’ve ever seen. I was crying and devastated! But it only gets better, and true love can come again. The music, the characters, the story all make this one of the best fluff movies out there. And if you can’t imagine an Irish-Italian restaurant, check this movie out

11. Ever After – This is not your ordinary Cinderella story! She’s not helpless, waiting for fate, a fairy godmother, some mice and birds to help her, this one takes charge, steps out and takes risks! She even rescues the prince! The wicked stepmother is so very wicked. There’s one scene with her that nearly breaks my heart, and one of the stepsisters gets her just desserts, while the other stepsister gets a wonderful reward.

12. Blast From the Past – Oh, no list of favorite fluff movies is complete without this wonderful, impossible story of a young man born in a nuclear fallout shelter to Sissy Spacek and Christopher Walken, a couple who took shelter there in the 60s during the Cuban missle crisis, convinced that Los Angeles had been bombed. After 35 years, when their supplies are running low and the lock on the shelter finally opens, Brendan Fraser’s character finally goes above ground for the first time in his life. He’s sweet, innocent, seemingly naive, and a very good swing dancer! (yes, Brendan Fraser really is a dancer!) He not only gets all the supplies they need, he finds himself a potential wife. This is a wonderfully funny movie, and the characters played by Sissy and Christopher are priceless.

13. Bride and Prejudice – This movie is another Jane Austin remake, and it’s wonderful! Who would have imagined that Pride and Prejudice set in modern India and Southern California done as a Bollywood musical would be so well done? But it’s not only well done, it’s lively and bouncy with great music, color and atmosphere. It pulls me out of my chair and gets me dancing! Plus, there is the handsome Naveen Andrews

And there you have this week’s TT. If you were wondering what to do this weekend, now you know!!! Watch one or two of these absolutely wonderful fluff movies…I think I’m going to be watching #13 this weekend…that video has me hankering for some Bollywood

Please be sure to visit the official Thursday Thirteen site to see other fabulous TT lists.

I was tagged by Auction Girl over at Auction Girl Vintage blog with this award – thanks! Now I need to do the following:

Answer the following questions with one word answers … then pass it on to 7 other bloggers.

Drat, I can’t do all one-word answers….oh, well Auction Girl can’t take this award away from me if I break the rules…it’s too late! Besides, she broke the rules, too

1. Where is your cell phone? On my desk in front of me
2. Where is your significant other? At his desk behind me
3. Your hair color? Brown with copper highlights, and some gray
4. Your mother? She’s a very sweet woman with a kind and caring heart
5. Your father? He’s a redneck without the guns and beer, very blunt. You never have to wonder what he’s thinking…he’ll tell you!
6. Your favorite thing? Riley, my cat
7. Your dream last night? I don’t recall a dream from last night
8. Your dream/goal? To be where God wants us (DSH & I) to be
9. The room you’re in? The computer room. It’s full of books, a treadclimber, computer stuff and some junk that we need to go through. There’s an open window right by my desk, I love it
10. Your hobby? I don’t have one specific major hobby, there are a few little things I enjoy, like gardening, cooking, making crafts like the baskets in a recent post, just little things that fill a need.
11. Your fear? That I won’t be liked for who I am.
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Debt-free!
13. Where were you last night? In bed, sick Earlier in the day I was at the zoo with DSH and our niece and nephew
14. What you’re not? Logical.
15. One of your wish list items? Our own home in a rural setting
16. Where you grew up? All over, I’m an Air Force brat.
17. The last thing you did? Cleaned off the dining room table
18. What are you wearing? a comfy summer dress
19. Your tv? C-SPan
20. Your pet? 2 cats, Sir Riley the Cute and Princess Lotus Blossom
21. Your computer? a Dell, and I’m over at the forums on Faith Community Network
22. Your mood? Mixed right now.
23. Missing someone? Nope, I’m not
24. Your car? A gorgeous black PT Cruiser
25. Something you’re not wearing? My wedding ring, I never wear it at home, I only wear it when I leave the house. The same with all my jewelry.
26. Favorite store? CBD.com
27. Your summer? Busy
28. Love someone? Yup
29. Your favorite color? Green and purple
30. When was the last time you laughed? Yesterday
31. Last time you cried? Today. Check out the post below titled, “Through The Eyes of a Child”

Now I need to go tag 7 other bloggers with this award! Auuuggghhhh!!!

These are the 7 that I’ve chosen:

Of Bluebirds and Roses
Coffee in the Morning
Honey Bee’s Bliss
Journeying to Lose 200 Pounds… The Triumph of Perseverance
The Crepes of Wrath
Sliding Down the Stairs
Ohmystinkinheck

Here’s one of the 3 baskets I decorated to use as containers for the mini-muffins I made on Friday evening.

FOR TODAY
Sunday, October 26, 2008…

Outside My Window…an unseasonably warm October afternoon. It’s in the low 70s at the moment and will reach almost 80° this today. This is one of the wonderful things about living in Sacramento The cats are in the backyard basking in the afternoon sunshine. I love days like this.

I am thinking…that growth is difficult.

I am thankful for…flowers

From the kitchen…this afternoon I’ll be making a Tortellini Vegetable Stew. I found the recipe on The Crepes of Wrath blog, and it looks like a yummy stew for lunch this week. I’ll also be preparing some cornbread to go alongside.

I am wearing…a very comfortable summer dress in shades of green, teal, navy blue, and purples. It has a nice Hawaiian feel to it.

I am creating…Friday evening I made 3 different mini muffin recipes and also decorated 3 baskets to hold each batch.

I am going…to the grocery store in a couple of hours. I have to do the food shopping for the week, and I also received a coupon for $10 off a $50 purchase that’s only good through today.

I am reading…Whirlwind by Cathy Marie Hake.

I am hoping…that I do use my gym membership which I reactivated last week after a long, long time on hold.

I am hearing…the dryer running and Sarah Palin on C-Span.

Around the house…I’ve made a little progress with organizing, so I’m feeling good about that

One of my favorite things…is sharing yummy recipes…look down the page for some yummy mini muffin recipes!

A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week: Nothing new…more organizing and cleaning around the house, hoping to hear from an Avon rep, I’d like to begin selling Avon soon.

Here is picture thought I am sharing…

We took our niece and nephew to the zoo yesterday. It was great! They had a lot of fun as well

I really enjoy teacups, especially the old-fashioned kind.  Mugs are handy, and are great for coffee and hot chocolate, but for hot tea nothing compares to a delicate teacup with a dainty floral design.  I have quite a few, and some of them are displayed on this shelf:

On the top shelf are two crystal vases along with two teacups and a pretty saucer.  These are all thrift store finds

The middle shelf has a miniature tea set, along with another miniature teacup which is a thrift store find from my teenage years, at a Value Village in Tacoma, Washington.  The teacup on the left is one I bought from a coworker, and the one on the right is another thrift store find, from a Catholic thrift store in South Sacramento.

The teacup on the left on the bottom shelf is from when we lived in West Germany when I was a little girl.  It’s a July teacup, with the official birthday flower of the month and the word “July” painted inside.  My father found this at a dump of all places!  The teacup in the middle is one that I bought at an antique store.  The teacup on the right is another thrift store find, and the flowers between the teacups are also thrift store finds, from different thrift stores at different times.

This is Logan, who is being called the Sky Angel Cowboy.  He called a radio station to share something God taught him through a difficult situation, something that touched my heart, and I think it’ll touch yours as well…

Out of all the muffins I made, this one was the best. It tastes just like a peach cobbler! I used fresh peaches for this recipe, and I think that was a huge reason they turned out so well. I found this recipe on Allrecipes.com.

Peach Cobbler Mini Muffins

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
3 eggs, lightly beaten
2 cups white sugar
2 cups peeled, pitted, and chopped peaches

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 400° F. Line the mini muffin tin with mini muffin papers.
2. In a large bowl, mix the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, mix the oil, eggs, and sugar. Stir the oil mixture into the flour mixture just until moist. Fold in the peaches. Spoon into the prepared muffin cups.
3. Bake 17-20 minutes in the preheated oven, until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes before turning out onto wire racks to cool completely. Makes approximately 48 mini muffins.