Blessings

Although I spend way more time on Facebook than I should, I somehow missed the memo on Thankful November.  I finally put it together this morning after days of seeing posts about being thankful.  I just thought people suddenly had woken up and realized how truly blessed there were! Silly me.

 

Since I didn't get on that bandwagon, I decided to write a quick post that gives an overview of my little corner of the world and all the blessings we have and have experienced to be thankful for.

 

Last month Mini was on fall break and Wonder Hubby and I took vacation time.  Other than our family vacation in the summer we are rarely ever all off at the same time.  We planned a few activities, antiquing, visiting colleges and seeing a movie (yes, that is a big deal around here, Wonder Hubby and I just never seem to get to the movies).  It was a glorious 9 days.  I truly mean that, I told both Wonder Hubby and Mini I don't know when I have enjoyed our time as much. 

 

Although Mini has been accepted to several different colleges (more blessings) she had not yet heard from the college she was most interested in.

 

These are pictures of the first couple of acceptances (then she lost interest in me taking pictures!).

First Acceptance!

 

Part of vacation week we planned a visit to her college of choice. It turned out to be a beautiful day here in Tennessee for a 3 1/2 hour drive there and the tour.  I didn't photo journal the visit, I just tried to actually live in the moment.  After the tour we met with her recruiter and she was told of her acceptance.....and let me take pictures. 

 

I think she may have been a bit overdramatic for pictures, but she was very happy!

 

We also took a day and drove into Kentucky to do a little antiquing.  We all enjoy digging through junk for treasure. 

 

 This trip Mini was on the hunt for a lamp.  She ended up finding one that she fell in love with and snapped it right up.  Turns out she was making her first purchase for her college dorm room (girl, please stop hurrying to get there you are killing me!).  I didn't realize what a big deal this was with her until I read her blog (which btw it a Christian based blog that features some of the content of her newspaper column and is AWESOME).  It was such a fun day.

 

We took in the Sandra Bullock movie Galaxy, which I loved cause I love some space stuff.  Toured another college and then ended up with a last minute home improvement project.  We decided to rip out the carpet in Mini's room and put down hardwoods.  It was a lot of work but she loves her floors and I am thrilled to have one less room with carpet (only 2 left to go!).

 

It was a great, relaxed and totally chilled week and I was so grateful for that.  Since then, well I am thankful we managed to get a tree that was leaning toward the house dangerously taken down, just before severe storms.  I am grateful to have had a really good sales month at Lottie and Molly not to mention that I have so enjoyed the pieces I have been working on as of late. 

Wonder Hubby was off last Sunday and we were able to attend church together which is huge because he is never off on Sunday!

 

How blessed are we that we have a nice home, a reasonably healthy family, cars with no major problems to drive to jobs we are blessed to have?  I would say very, very blessed and for all these things I am very, very thankful. 

 

Today, I am blessed with beautiful sunny skies and sweet texts from my children to start my day!  I hope you all are enjoying your blessings this minute, this day, this month and always.

Who's Watching You Tablescape/Halloween Replay

Since I haven't had time to create a new Halloween table this year, I thought I would look at last years table. After I saw it I was sad I hadn't put it out again and thought I would share it with everyone again this Halloween. Hope everyone enjoys a Happy and Safe Halloween!

I have been anxiously waiting to use the owl I have blogged about here and here since mid Summer.

 

I have been waiting so much that I almost didn't actually do a tablescape using him! I have been wrapped up in fall fun, kids on break, hubby on vacation, son home from afar, and a trip that I hadn't changed my table since I did this tablescape.

 

So today I made a point to get this table completed so we could enjoy it at least a week before the big day.

 

Let's tour the table and see exactly who is watching us!

 

Who is watching you.....Who is my owl's name.  He stands tall and casts an eerie glare over this spooky table scape.

 

I love the way the candlelight catches the sequins of his attire.

The candlelight in this table scape is more sweet than scary.

 

This dishes in this tablescape are my highly versatile white Food Network favs as well as some really old octagon black plates Wonder Hubby gave me years ago.  The glasses match the black dishes....I've had them for years and never get tired of them.

 

 

The napkins are layered white/ghoul green, white/pumpkin orange or white/midnight black and are caught up in the owl napkin rings I blogged about here.

 

Who isn't the only one watching you at this table.  Each and every glass is peering back at you.  The glass stems are tied with tulle to match Owl's ascot and accented with a spooky spider.

 

Since I am a bit batty, it was only natural that Owl perch on a bat themed cloth.  Bats around the table. 

 

A close up of an owl napkin ring.

I love the witches shoes...there are a couple of different ones in this tablescape....not candy filled though....I can't fill things with candy here because Mini and I can't control ourselves.  I had to threaten to cast a spell on her to keep her out of the candy filled candle holders until after pictures!

 

The signs are several years old and I love finding new spots for them every year.

 

 

 

 

 

The table is set for a Frightening Family dinner or a Ghouls Night out .

Either way we will have a spooktacular time!  Thanks for stopping in....Happy Halloween!

 

I am linking up with Susan at Between Naps on Porch for

 

 

Changes are in the Air....and I like Them!

Everyone that knows me knows I am not a fan of cool weather, and I loathe cold weather.  I am a hot weather kind of gal.  I like to work in the yard and come in worn out and drenched, I will sit on my deck, porch or the beach at 110 degrees (okay so I go in more if it is that hot but you get the idea!).  I can always cool down but I NEVER SEEM to get warm.  Given all that, I am generally quite grumpy about fall. Fall to me was always an ending...an ending that signaled nothing but bleak skies and cold.

Over the last few years I have gotten better about Fall by ignoring it.   I have expanded my collection of fall décor and extended gardening until almost Thanksgiving.  This year is different though.  The weather here this Spring and Summer was downright weird.  It was cool way longer than normal.  So spring and summer gardening was running late.   I was nearly a month behind on planting my annuals and tomatoes and that never happens.  I generally have to drag every towel, sheet and newspaper I can find to the yard to stave off frost since I have planted way too early.  Not this year.

Once it did get warm enough to plant, the rains came and came and came.  In fact I think it literally rained all but 4 or 5 days in the whole month of July!  Thankfully there was an upside.  A normal mid July walk in the yard would be accompanied by the sound of crunching grass.  This year with all the rain our yard is just now beginning to crunch and water bill stayed low because I hardly ever watered.  The downside to too much water and not enough heat - a sluggish growing season. 

 

For the first time ever my inpatients didn't grow to knee high, my tomatoes never grew to any size and suffered rot from the excess water.  Weeds however, thrived! 

So as we roll into fall this year.....here is the big shocker..... I am actually enjoying it!   My plate is full already between work and my antique booth so I am (dare I say it?) almost giddy that the growing season won't last until Thanksgiving for the bulk of my plants.  This weekend the inpatients, vinca and callibrochoa are all going bye bye.  I will leave the sweet potato vine, other greenery and the mums to carry us till the holiday season. 

 

Hopefully having all the annuals out of the way early will allow me to clean up the beds early.  Even though there will be tons of leaves to clean up, not having to work around still blooming plants will make it much easier.

Yes, I am embracing seeing the fall décor, nippy evenings and the beautiful crystal blue skies that September and October bring. 

 

This photo from last fall reminds me there is true beauty in fall.

 

 

 My list of yummy fall goodies to bake and cook is quite lengthy already and I REALLY MUST get started on my Christmas shopping.

 

I am also looking forward to a couple of days in Gatlinburg in October....with pretty scenery like this.

 

 

 

So this weekend when I am not working on furniture for the booth, I will relax and piddle in the yard, watch a lot of football and fill the house with the smells of fall. 

 

Thanks for stopping by I hope you all are enjoying this beginning of fall in your little corner of the world.

 

Guest Post - Mini Speaks of Love

This week we received some great news.  The newspaper our sweet Mini writes for is expanding into 5 more cities!  Now Mini will be able to reach even more readers with her column and is considering starting her own blog to allow her to have more personal contact with her readers.  In the meantime, I will continue to help her spread her positive message by featuring her columns on my blog (mama's prerogative you know!).  This week's message is all about love so it is perfect for Valentine's Day.  Enjoy.

 

Words of Hope

 

It’s the season of love, everyone! It’s that time meant for us all to pour out our hearts to that special someone and to “spread the love”, so to speak. All that fills the boutiques, commercials, and drug stores are chocolate hearts and singing cards. People everywhere are urged to cuddle up to their loved ones and utter those famous three words. But why are we only urged to do this with people? Why aren’t we ever urged to think about a greater love- the greatest love, to be exact- on this lovey-dovey day? The biggest valentine of all came from our loving Father, packaged in the shape of a man.

          One thing we all tend push to the backs of our minds is how great the Father’s love is. Sure, we hear about how he loves us and I guess we know it, but we completely take what that means for granted. In the Old Testament, God showed his love through major blessings and through leading poor, destitute people into great kingdoms, all with His mighty hand. But then there came a point where our sin far out-weighed the good and Satan toyed with our hearts, leaving a gap between us and our God. So what happened? God entered Earth in the flesh to take on our sins. Romans 5:8 says “But God showed his love for us in that when we were still sinners, Christ died for us”. “We know this story already, Hope, you tell us all the time”, some may be thinking. But that’s not all. Not only are we saved and have a place with God in heaven and gain this whole, incredible new life on Earth, but God also gave us the promise that this will NEVER be taken away from us. What love! Romans 8: 37-39 says “In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”. I find it very hard to find words more powerful than those words spoken to us in that verse. God loves us enough to be patient with us in the times when we don’t deserve it. He loves us enough to not only give us a new life and make us into a new creation, but waits until we are ready to accept it from Him. He loves us enough to send his son to die the worse death, worse than any death that has EVER been died, so that we have a place in Heaven. And He loves us enough to promise us that no force on Heaven or Earth will EVER separate us from Him. How amazing is that? This is a love so great that it will never be able to be mimicked on Earth. We will never love someone as much as God loves us. That is a fact. So on this holiday, I urge you to sit down with the word of God, and let the pages talk for him. The Holy Bible is the best love story, and I pray that our lives are an echo of the great love our amazing, wonderful Father has for us. God bless.

 

Thanksgiving - Something to Think About

Good morning all!  I hope each of you enjoys at blessed Thanksgiving however you are celebrating today. 

 

Today is the first Thanksgiving in 27 years I didn't wake up to a long list of things to accomplish and the smell of turkey.    Due to several circumstances I decided to take the year off this year and we will go out to eat. 

I felt completely out of sorts yesterday and today just feels strange.  I haven't been covered in flour, and spots of this and that for days, and I didn't get up exhausted but frantic to finish everything.  I would love to say it feels good, but it just feels strange! 

Mini is over the moon about the whole thing.  She has begun pretty outspoken over the whole inequality of the holiday.  She has real problems and opinions about the fact that women cook for days and then do dishes for a day after Thanksgiving, and then the men just enjoy the meal and then lie about and complain about how full they are while watching football.   I suppose she is right, I do tend to treat preparing Thanksgiving dinner like labor and forget the pain of it all as soon as the last piece of china is put away!

So, as I loll about this morning (hey, maybe I will actually sit and watch a parade!) contemplating the decorating I will start later today and driving the family nuts, I will leave you with these thoughts.

In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

1 Thessalonians 5:18

O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever.

I Chronicles 16:34

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.  

John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Now that I have had time to think about it, I believe I will probably whip up some Chicken and Dressing and a vegetable or two for us to have for dinner tonight. I just can't imagine everybody not searching for the leftovers about 7 tonight!
Happy Thanksgiving!

Visitors from Afar and A Mountain Trip with a touch of Christmas

Last week BDJ was home for a visit, Mini was on Fall break and Wonder Hubby took the week off.   It was a great week but filled with too many activities.  Truthfully, we were worn out.

He brought home his girlfriend for us to meet.  First time he has been home since last March and bringing home someone special made for a nerve racking time! lol  Thankfully that turned out well.

We always try and get the whole family together when he comes in and this time was no different.  We planned a huge cookout with family and friends.  We picked BDJ and friend up at the airport a 1 am, drove home, visited for a bit (oh yeah, I stayed up another 2 hours with the dog thanks to storms) got in bed at 4:30 am.  Up at 8 when a friend of Wonder Hubby's brought his giant smoker over.  I think the timing of the cookout was questionable don't ya'll?    Sadly, it was such cooking chaos (or maybe lack of sleep) I got NO PICS of Wonder Hubby doing that southern pork smoking thing! 

Mini and BDJ....I know they are glad to see each other.

The Nana, BDJ and P

I did happen to catch Wonder Hubby playing corn hole..hmmmm maybe his smoking meat wasn't as big a job as he made it seem?



Wonder Hubby and best bud Fred in action



BDJ, Dad and P



That's right even I found a little time to play!

It was freezing pretty cool outside but everyone seemed to enjoy hanging out and playing corn hole.  We had a couple of serious corn hole games going outside and football inside and lots of food.  All in all it was pretty awesome (must have been since some folks didn't leave until 1 am.).   We had great food....thanks to all the family for contributing! It allowed me to have some time to enjoy and not just slave in the kitchen :)  

This is the only pic of food I took!  Yummy cocktail weenies wrapped in bacon!  Hands down favorite...thanks Nana.  Yikes, I have to start chilling out and take the time to take pictures.  What a shame to have that much beautiful food and no pics! 

Next morning we packed up and headed to Gatlinburg for a couple of days in the mountains.  I was so excited to take in the fall colors and awesome views.  Day one was cloudy and drizzly but that was okay since we were all exhausted.

Our chalet was so cozy.  Lots of wood, stone fireplace and huge wraparound porch.

Love the stone on the peninsula.

  Day two......pouring rain and fog!  Mini, Wonder Hubby and I were disappointed but BDJ and friend were thrilled.  BDJ has only seen rain a half dozen times in a year and a half in Vegas.  We drove up the mountain to see some awesome views fog.

Believe it or not there is a beautiful mountain behind the kids.

Wonder Hubby insisted on pictures of us.....naturally since on this day I let the hair go all natural and didn't fight the humidity!

We gave up on seeing any stunning mountain views and headed off to Pigeon Forge.  Had lunch at Big Daddy's Wood Grilled Pizza.  Great pizza but pricey, yikes!

 Then we visited the Titanic exhibit.  I hate that you can't take any pictures but trust me if you have any interest in history you will enjoy all aspects of this exhibit.  Plan to take your time there is lots of reading but it is fascinating.

After that, off to The Christmas Place.  I completely lose my mind in this place.  There is just so much Christmas I could spend 3 days there.  Here are a few pics of my favorites.

Wonder Hubby has a huge nutcracker collection so we had to study these close in case we need to add a new one! lol  We did not purchase one this trip but Wonder Hubby is taking Mini and I back Thanksgiving weekend to spend the night at The Inn at Christmas Place (I can hardly contain my excitement!) so I will have another chance.

I loved the organic elements on this tree and adored this little bird with hat and scarf.

We had absoutely no room in the 4runner or this baby would have been hanging over my fireplace tonight.

 

I think by now everyone knows I am Christmas crazy so I am always adding trees or changing themes.  I have been working on a ocean themed tree but this door decor with flamingo and shells made me think it might make a great tree.

 

I love elves yet I don't have a tree of them.  Guess I need to add one of those too!

 

 

Candy and a Snowman....heaven :)

 

 

I really need this 3 ft tall gingerbread beauty to sit beside my gingerbread tree.

 

More stunning nutcrackers, I love the pastels.

 

The winter wonderland tree was stunning in white and blue.

 

 

My favorite part of shopping at The Christmas Place......the village room.

When I first started coming here Halloween villages didn't exist. 

When they first displayed Halloween they had only a couple of haunted houses and a gypsy wagon....look at it now!
 

 

 

So many spooky houses and creepy characters.  I love it, right down to the little bitty lighted jack-o-lanterns.

 

 

Of course there are the traditional villages.

 

 

The diner is just precious!  Oh heck they all are and I want them all.

 

 

So as I skip wander about completely engrossed in this miniature world I see Wonder Hubby with this face....

 

 

This is his "oh no she is going to want it all face."  At first glance it just looked like more village until I saw the sign above his head.

 

Yes, it says Merry Grinchmas!  For those of you that don't know...I LOVE THE GRINCH.  I mean love, love, love it.  Watch the cartoon version and movie multiple times per year...so Whoville was a dream.  Funny thing was, about the time I spotted it BDJ (who had by the way, escaped this area before I saw it) called me on the phone to tell me and sell his dad out!

 

 

This is was cute.  It was complete with plenty of Who's, The Grinch and even had Mt. Crumpet.  I was so well behaved and didn't purchase a single thing.  I mean just because we were packed like sardines on the trip up and couldn't fit another thing in might have played a part.  I suppose the fact that we are going back in November might also have been a factor, but I prefer to look at it as an excellent job of self control.   After this area was discovered, everyone was about getting me out of the place asap!

 

The whole trip was such a treat and despite the drizzle, clouds and fog we enjoyed it very much.

 

How bad can it be when you are able to have all your family with you? 

 

Wonder Hubby and BDJ

Thanks for taking a wee little trip with us!