family sayings

[Lady Toadflinger]

I was talking with a friend last night, and I said "Well butter me and call me a biscuit!" That got us started on funny/odd/quaint sayings passed down in families. My mother's favorite was "Can't died in the poorhouse, right next door to won't." (she brought this to California from Ohio)
What sayings are common in your family, and where did they come from?

[Mairte]

My mom always used to say "its not the the size of the dog in the fight but the size of the fight in the dog".

[Lady Rebecca]

In my family, we say "that really boils my potatoes" instead of "that really frosts my cookies," because frankly, frosted cookies are a good thing.

(And since I've tried to explain this to some people who have never heard of the "frosts my cookies" phrase, it is the same thing as "that really gets my goat.")

[Merlin the Elder]

One of my favourites is "from hell to breakfast." It's one that apparently very few people know. I've gotten some really strange looks and a couple "what's that supposed to mean?" on occasion. I don't know the origin for certain, but one source said it referred to a herd cattle scattered all over.

I also used the term "cookie duster" last year in front of some students and got some blank looks...

[Lady Renee Buchanan]

When my kids were little, they wanted everything in sight and to do everything, as children do.  I used to say, "sure, when pigs fly."

Of course it backfired one year, when I opened my Christmas present.  They had bought me a pair of socks that had pigs with wings on them!

[Mairte]

Another thing my mother used to say when we were wanting something. "If wishes were horses, beggars would fly".  And another in the same circumstances though I DONT know where it came from "Tough titty said the kitty but the bags still sweet" often shorted to "Tough titty".
AND a sibling saying when one of us would tattle. "Tattle tale, tattle tale, hanging on the bull's tail. When the bull takes a pee (insert name) will have a cup of tea!"
Yeah. We were weird.

[Merlin the Elder]

I think, Mairte, that you may be mis-remembering...common among old wizards, but you're way too young... "If wishes were horses, beggars would ride."

[The Rabbi]

The one saying I heard most and have found to be so very true in many different situations "If you aint making mistakes you must not be doing much"

[Merlin the Elder]

My dad had a few sayings that he'd use from time-to-time. They're really funny, but I can't post them in mixed company... LOL!

[JimsDana]

"That's about as useful as a screen door on a submarine."
I see "you got your ears lowered."

[DonaCatalina]

One of my favourites is "from hell to breakfast." It's one that apparently very few people know. I've gotten some really strange looks and a couple "what's that supposed to mean?" on occasion. I don't know the origin for certain, but one source said it referred to a herd cattle scattered all over.

I also used the term "cookie duster" last year in front of some students and got some blank looks...

'from hell to breakfast' is one I remember, though most of my more colorful relatives have passed over,  often used interchangeablly with 'to hell and gone'. Then one of my uncle's favorites 'fuller'n a tick on a fat hound dog'.
Then there's 'scratching after something like a chicken in the dirt' followed closely by 'happy as a sow in hog heaven'.

[dbaldock]

My Mom's Dad used to say, "We waited on you, like one ol' hound-dog waits on another" when someone showed up late to the dinner table, and we had already begun eating.

[arbcoind]

Steeper than a horse's face

Longer than a month of Sundays

I'm so hungry I can see biscuits floating on crutches

He/She could mess up a soup sandwich

He/She could mess up a one car funeral

This thread has my brain going...I'll probably be back with more.

Gina

[Mairte]

LOL, you are right Merlin, I did misremember, it IS "then beggars would ride". 
Another one.
You are about as useless as throwing a jam sandwich to a drowning rabbit.

[BubbleWright]

When I was  kid, at bed time I was ordered "to climb the wooden hill".