St. Patrick's Day Table 2016

It's almost time for the wearin' of the green -- are you ready?  :-D  It's St. Patrick's Eve, and I've set an Irish-themed table so I can participate in Kathleen's Annual St. Paddy's Day Blog Crawl.  If you'd like to join in the fun, head over to Cuisine Kathleen's blog and prepare to be Irish for the evening.

Finally -- The Guest Bedroom

Happy Friday everyone!  I want to thank you all for the nice comments you've left for me over the last week or so.  I'm very appreciative, and I haven't forgotten about you.  I posted on Monday and haven't been back on the computer since then -- until today.  I'll be paying my regular visits to everyone in the next day or so.

Back in January of this year, I gave a very brief, sneak peek of what I was doing to our son's old bedroom to give it a new look and turn it into a guest bedroom.  I really thought I would finish it sooner and would be showing it to you during the winter months.  That didn't happen, so here it is finally, almost completely finished.  This is a long, picture-heavy post, folks --just wanted to give you fair warning.  :)

Southport Cottages

I can hardly believe it's Sunday night again -- another weekend has flown by.  I hope yours was a good one!  A few weeks ago I shared a cute cottage in Southport, N.C., for St. Patrick's Day.  Here are some more Southport cottages for you.

Brookgreen Gardens, Part Five

Since so many people in the U.S. and Canada are suffering from brutal winter weather, I felt like sharing some images that would, hopefully, warm our spirits until spring arrives.  I'm about to exhaust my stash of Brookgreen Gardens pictures; these might be some of the last ones that I haven't yet posted.  Brookgreen Gardens in South Carolina comprises over 9,000 acres of themed gardens, including a sculpture garden and wildlife preserve.  It's built on four former rice plantations and takes its name from the former Brookgreen Plantation.

Christmas Outside the House

Hello everyone; I hope you all had a nice weekend.  It has turned very cold here in our area of North Carolina.  We now have a bitter wind blowing, making it feel even colder, but we did have sunshine today, which was a welcome sight for sure.

I continue to decorate for Christmas, and hubby is great about helping me out when I ask him to.  Today, he put some small nails in our birdhouse so that it could get a little touch of Christmas --

An Italian Tablescape and a Giveaway

Pfaltzgraff is celebrating the tenth anniversary of its "Villa Della Luna" pattern of dishes this year.  I was contacted by Lifetime Brands and asked to do a tablescape for fall featuring these dishes, and I was happy to oblige.  :)

My Parents' New Sunroom

Happy Monday everyone -- can't believe it's here again already!  :)  I'd like to share a renovation from my parents' house this week.  I think you'll enjoy seeing this cheerful, cozy room.

On Saturday, I paid a short visit to my parents.  I delivered some groceries that my mom had asked me to get for them, and it was so good to see them.  I think my dad is making some progress towards getting better, but it's very slow right now.

Last fall, my mom and dad decided to turn their screened porch into an enclosed sunroom.  You can see how this room looked as a screened porch in this post from 2012.  I just love how it turned out, and so do they.  Thankfully, I remembered to take my camera along yesterday, so I took some pics to share on my blog.

A Fourth of July Table

I don't know about you all, but our town seems to have emptied out.  It seems that everyone is traveling somewhere for the Fourth of July week -- everyone, that is, but us.  :)  My husband says there has been very little traffic to and from work every day, so no complaints there.  Those who have gone to the North Carolina coast may have their trip spoiled by Tropical Storm Arthur, but I hope not.  That happened to us one year, and it was no fun.

We're planning on staying right here for the week, but my husband has taken an extra day's vacation in order to have a four-day weekend.  Woo-hoo!  We'll be going to my in-laws' house for the Fourth, but I set a patriotic tablescape in my "new" kitchen just for fun.

Making A Pretty Bird Feeder

I've been feeling crafty lately --

A Drive-by Photo Shoot

This time of the year, I love to see the pretty neighborhoods in our area putting on their best spring show.  There are two neighborhoods in particular that are just so lovely in the spring -- Ardmore and Buena Vista.

The historic neighborhood of Ardmore is the first one we drove through today.

I love this porch, the windows, the lace curtains, and the American flag -- so homey looking.

An Irish Table for St. Patrick's Day

I'm into my fourth year of blogging, and this is the year I finally put a St. Paddy's Day tablescape together and actually got it photographed.  Yippee!  Mr. Forest Manor did the photography for me (Thanks Honey) -- I really appreciate the good pictures he takes.

Valentine's Day Tablescape

**Note:  I just realized I put the knives and forks on the wrong side of the plate!  This calls for another head slap!!  I was in such a rush to get this table set up last night for pictures, I didn't even notice I'd done this.  I promise I do know where they're supposed to go.  I don't know where my brain was last night.  It didn't help that I was trying to watch the figure skating competition in the Olympics at the same time that I was doing the table.  I'm chalking this one up to another senior moment.  

I finally got a chance to set a pretty table in the dining room.  Unfortunately, we've kind of been using our dining room as a storage area for the past year and a half.  Not cool.  Now it's back to being what it's supposed to be, and that makes me happy.

The Big Chill

I feel kind of like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz -- "Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore."  Wow, what a snowstorm!  It just stopped snowing here about an hour ago, so we had 24 straight hours of snow, at times mixed with sleet.

I can't pretend I didn't enjoy it -- I've been longing for a pretty snow this year.  

A New Kind of Flameless Candle

Have you seen the new flameless candles with the realistic moving wick?  Oh wow, I love these!  I'm probably the last person to find out about them, since I'm always late to the party; but in case you haven't seen them, let me share with you.

Puppy Update

Hi folks.  Thank you so much for your response to my earlier post showing pictures of our new pup!  You were all so encouraging and sweet -- I really appreciate it!!  I'm still a little nervous because for starters, I really miss MacDuff; and then it's been so long since we had a busy puppy in the house, I hope we can keep up.  We are excited, though, and looking forward to his arrival at our home.

The breeder sent us some really cute pictures yesterday, so as promised, I'll share them in order to keep you updated.  As of Friday, they were four weeks old, and as the breeder said in the e-mail, "...they're now halfway to your homes."  She has put collars on all the puppies in order to more easily distinguish the black females from the black males.  :)  I think they really look adorable in their plaid collars!

Snow Men Brighten the Winter Days

Hi everyone!  Have you had a good day?  We spent the day running errands, so I'm glad to be sitting down, finally.  One of those errands involved buying a new, much-needed grate for our fireplace, so now we can have some cozy wood fires in our den. 

The Christmas decorations are finally down and mostly packed away.  I enjoy them so much when they're out, but our house feels much more spacious once I've put them away again.  I used to feel a little melancholy after packing all the cheeriness away.  Then I discovered that if I put my snowmen out in January, it helps to jolly things along during the long cold months between Christmas and spring.  :)

Images of Christmas Past

Alma, who blogs at The Tablescaper, has a wonderful idea for a link party.  Tomorrow, for her weekly Seasonal Sundays party, she's suggested we link our posts from previous Christmases.  I think this is a brilliant idea because we're all busy as bees trying to get ready for this Christmas -- decorating, shopping, wrapping, baking, addressing Christmas cards.  Soooo, I went through my archives and found some things to share from previous Christmases.  Some things were published in posts, but others are just pictures we took, but I never got a chance to do a post on them.  I hope you enjoy!

Our Kitchen -- Before and After

I noticed yesterday that a post I wrote early in 2012 is now being viewed again.  The post was written at the time that we were just beginning our kitchen remodel, and I showed lots of pics of our kitchen as it used to be for the first 15 years that we lived here.  Then I showed some more pictures of the ongoing renovation, but I've never shown a real kitchen "reveal" since we've completed everything.  That's mainly because we waited about three months to hang anything on the walls because we couldn't stand the thought of messing up that pristine paint job.  :)  By then, we were into the 2012 holiday season, so again, I put off showing the kitchen until after the holidays.  I wanted everything to look perfect for my reveal pictures, so I kept putting off doing the post, and I finally realized that I just need to show you how everything turned out.

*WARNING*  Picture Heavy Post

There are several pictures here (the understatement of the century).  They were taken on different days at different times during the day with two different cameras, so please overlook the fact that the quality of some are not as good as others.

Diane's Garden

I want to say a big "Thank You" to everyone for your sweet comments on my mom's pink and green tablescape!  My mom enjoyed seeing her table on the blog, and she really appreciated all the nice comments!

I'll bet many of your thoughts are starting to turn towards fall, yes?  Mine too; I pinned some really pretty fall images yesterday.  :)  But I'm still trying to hold on to the nicer parts of summer; the older I get, the more guilty I feel about rushing the seasons and wishing my life away.  Life really is so precious, and it goes by much too quickly these days. So for this post, I'm going back to late spring/early summer to share with you some pictures from my mother-in-law Diane's garden this year.  I always enjoy walking around my mom and mom-in-law's yard every spring and summer to see what they have blooming.

A Pink and Green Tablescape

Back in the first week of July, we gathered at my parents' house to celebrate my dad's birthday, which was July 3rd.  We had a delicious summer meal of grilled hot dogs with all the fixings (including my mom's homemade chili), baked beans, potato chips, Asian coleslaw, deviled eggs, and homemade ice cream for dessert.  It was wonderful!  :)

My mom had set the prettiest table in her dining room -- just a summer tablescape that she planned to leave out for a few weeks or a month, since they only eat in the dining room on special occasions.  I just fell in love with these dishes and the tablescape, so I wanted to share it with you.