Hi Janet. And Welcome to our gang. Sounds like you will love it here. Hope you can discover how to do photos,its easy once you get started. Especially if you use Photobucket for your album. We'll help with directions any time you need too.

Yep, thrift "treasure shopping" (as Luvs calls it) is far more fun and satisfying than the mall. I hated those anyway, LOL. Give me dollar stores and thrift stores and I'm a happy woman. (tho Michaels, Marshalls, and a few others are great too. Just no malls. LOL)

I have 8 grandkids, 6 to 25, and a hubby like yours. ;o)
That's why some of us just do small tablesettings for our "Invisible Friends" here to see. Its fun to share the craziness. Besides, no cooking or clean up this way, so that is my favorite part. But I'm trying to learn the dish stuff, mostly I'm into decorating for holidays. We've got some real Christmas nuts here too, which makes it such fun that time of year. Dishes and vignettes get us thru the summer till the holidays come around.

Did you know about our Inspiration albums on Photobucket?
The tablesetting one is on my main front page, which you can get back too easily. But I'll attach the link for the Holiday albums, we've got over 1000 photos saved now. So lots of ideas and eye candy to drool over.

Glad you joined in and nice to meet you.
hugs, Karen

Here is a link that might be useful: Holiday Inspiration Albums

Hi Janet...
Let me be the second to Welcome you here.
Glad you felt it was time to join us. We love 'Enabling' new friends with 'Must Have Dishes'... & 'Stuff' to go with them'!
I'm retired too with 4 Gkids - ages 13-6. They grow so quickly and I love spending time with them whenever possible.
I don't know how long you've 'lurked' but as Karen mentioned,it does get a little quiet here during the Summer months and then really picks up again around the Fall.
This is the right group here when it comes to TS/GW and $Tree. 'My kind of shopping' along with Flea Mkts.
My friends still think it odd, when I talk 'shopping finds'...they think clothes...but I'm all about Dishes!
Hope you get to post pictures soon, to share with us.
Once again...Glad you've joined us...look forward to seeing you again.

jane

Welcome Janet, we have quite a few lurkers who have been coached out of lurkdom just lately!

You must have one of your GK's show you how to use Photobucket & then how to post pics, we LOVE pictures here!

If we can do it, anyone can!!

Alot of us are grandma's with a herd of GK's so you fit right in!

I only (LOL) have 6, so I'm outnumbered by you & Karen, but that's OK! LOL

I'm in my little sale heaven right now with all the garage sales going on in my area, so I stock up all summer & then try to figure out why the heck I bought half of it, all winter!

It's an addiction for sure, but I think a pretty harmless one!

Glad you decided to come out of hiding !!!

Welcome, Janet! I'm "jeannes pines" & I've only been here about 6 mos. and fallen hard for all these gals & their postings/pics! Been a dish lover for many yrs & love seeing all the beautiful tables here...my DH & I are "recliner diners" so don't use the table much except when kids/g'kids are home. LOL! Love decorating for holidays!

I've been on the Garden Junk forum here for about 3 yrs. or so (who knows, time flies!) & I love it there, too! Always sharing garden art ideas & recycling those things headed to the dumpster! So it's fun also.

Looking forward to seeing pics of your dishes/sounds like great finds! Just sign up at Photobucket...it's free...and we'll try to get you started...along with your GK's help! Jeanne S.

Hi Janet,
Welcome to the forum!
This is a fun place to play and everyone here is super!

I just joined a few months ago and I have a word of caution for you....beware, because not only are the group members wonderful, but they are HUGE enablers. ROTFLOL

I see something fabulous that gets posted and then I am off to the TS to try to find one for myself.

Now I have to create tablescapes and buy dishes, and furniture, all because of how much fun I have "playing" here with the group. LOL

They also taught me how to post pictures, and if I can learn, believe me, anyone can do it.

I also have 9 GK's, 17yrs. down to 1 yr., although only 5 live close.
Christmas is when I pull out all of the stops for decorating, hence the name, and it is also my b-day, so I figure that is a license to decorate.

You're gonna love it here!

TTFN,
Candy

Welcome Janet, so glad you are joining in. I'll be looking forward to when you can post pics and share some of your "treasure shopping" finds with us. I too love the thrill of the hunt.

First step is to take pictures and download them onto your computer. Then go over to Photobucket and open a free account. Then come back and we will help you upload your pictures and post them over here. Photobucket really makes it pretty simple.

Please join in with comments on any of our posts, the more the merrier.

Luvs

Welcome Janet...I love being around here, but since I still work I don't get here as often as I would like. I have a herd of GK's plus DH's grands and great grands...whew!
I'm so glad you could join in, you can keep my seat warm for me!
Blessings to you,
J

Hi to all you great gals and thank you for such a warm welcome to your group. I could not believe that I didn't read my whole post(I read my message, just not the subject) and that I had spelled lurked wrong. It's typical of me to get excited and goof up. I really enjoy reading everybody's posts and seeing all the great pictures. I can't wait until my GS gets a chance to help me with the camera and computer so I can post pictures. I stopped at a couple of ys's yesterday and found 2 pretty good treasures-one a BIG pfastgraff bowl. I wasn't familuar with the paticular set it would have matched. It was a cream color with a really narrow light green band around the top. I thought it would work with a lot of things, although when I bought it my main thought was it would be great to let bread dough rise in. It was $2. The other was 6 strands of wooden "cranberry" beads for a Christmas tree,for .50 I have a little tree I use in the kitchen and I thought they would complement gingerbread ornies.I have so much Christmas stuff; untill I found you gals, I wasn't that interested in the other holidays--I sure see that changing now. This is the most excited I have felt about anything in a loooong time. I can't pass the computer without wanting to stop and drool over the pictures.I think I just might have found my little bit of heaven. Thanks again for including me, Janet

Janet, you sound exactly the way I felt when I first found this Forum. Its my 'other home'. And now I'm enjoying decorating for ALL Holidays. I'm still trying to remember, when I pack up all my Christmas things, to leave some red out for Valentines and Patriotic decorating. Old habits die hard. LOL. Also some green things for St Paddy's. The last few years, I hit "after" sales at Michaels to pick up stuff for the smaller holidays since I had nothing before joining this gang. And Goodwill has been a wealth of decorations for me. I buy Christmas stuff all year, any time I see a bargain. LOL. Tho I don't think I can hold a candle to Candy, and a few of the others on here. Good thing too, I'd need a bigger house!

Those cranberry beads sound PERFECT for your kitchen tree!
Nice find on them.

As for your subject line spelling...I figure you came up with a new word with 'lueked'. You combined looking and lurking. ;o) Works for me!

So, once you get the photo thing nailed, then you can play with dishes this summer and help us keep things going here.
And I have to take my own advice, LOL....I'm running out of excuses for failing Dishes 101.

hugs, Karen

Yep, you sound just like most of us felt when we found there were actually lots of other people who liked the same kind of stuff we did--and you can't beat that excited, eager feeling of anticipation when you sign on.

Sounds like good finds, and like Karen said, keep in mind that many things can be used for multiple holidays. I read an email once that said as long as the first and last letter of a word are correct--the brain will fill in the rest! Don't worry about a misspelled word, we will figure out what you mean and we are really glad to have you joining in.

Luvs

Welcome to this great forum, Janet! It really is a special one, isn't it? When I first joined, decorating a home was very easy for me, but I totally stressed out at the very thought of trying to create any tablescape! I've learned so much here since then!
My DH is at the opposite end of the spectrum, I think. As good of cook as I am, he's even better! I just wish he had more time to cook for us! He loves gourmet meals and really appreciates my tablescapes (now). But I think what he appreciates most is the other very valuable thing I've learned on this forum . . . that you don't have to spend a lot of money on expensive dishes and things to create a beautiful or fun tablescape; some of the best finds can come from the Goodwill, garage sales, making them yourself or from "shopping" your own home for unexpected things to use. I've always been a bargain hunter and these talented gals here have shown me a whole new set of places to look now.
I haven't been around here much for the past month, as our 16 y/o DD was finishing up the last couple of hectic weeks of her school year. I'm married and we have two kids, although no grandbabies yet. Our oldest will be 26 this summer. His Army unit was just deployed to Afghanistan two days ago.

I'm looking forward to seeing your pretty dishes and tablescapes and am so glad you've decided to come out of Lurkdom and join us here!
Lynn

Janet, so sorry I'm so slow at Welcoming you but I'm excited to have another one here with us. Hope you are here to stay and post with all of us. It's a wonderful place to play.

Punk

I am late for the welcome too! I hope you enjoy yourself here. And Luvs and another gal Sandi who no longer posts taught me how to post pics..It must be almost 5 yrs ago now! Time flies!

Welcome Janet! I don't get here as much as I'd like to due to a demanding job, but I still do plenty of entertaining and tend to set simple tables with nice linens/dish "finds". For many of us here it's all about the "score".....finding good deals on dinnerware and linens.

My DH and I are empty nesters and both work full-time. We have 3 DD's: 29, 25 and 22. We have always enjoyed fine dining and entertaining.

We just got back from a Mediterranean cruise and I'll post some pics of the tablescapes soon. For me, it's all about keeping it realistic at this point. I love fresh flowers, candles and simple things.

Can't wait to see your pics! Welcome :)
Bonnie