first snow

It only takes a little snow to make us happy here in Nashville.
We are not guaranteed one every winter.
It makes it hard to find Jack.
It is nice to have a hill in your back yard.




All the pics were taken by my hubby.

christmas clip art

I am loving this vintage clip art wreath from The Graphics Fairy. Now I just need to figure out how to use it.

Goodwill for me

Yesterday late in the afternoon I headed to one of my favorite thrift stores, the goodwill outlet. It is not for the faint of heart. It is a step down from your average goodwill but everything is sold by weight and is at least half of what it is at a regular good will.
I picked through loads of boxes to find as many old ornaments as I could find. Could you ever have too many? My daughter grabbed most of the blues and reds to go with her union jack vibe room.
I was thrilled with my leftovers.

Got these two plastic candy canes.

The bottle brush trees (from an earlier goodwill excursion) love to sit around our table. I love the added sparkle from our vintage ornaments just right for Sunday morning breakfast.

Happy Birthday Caroline

At the office we love a reason to have a party. Today we had a party to celebrate Caroline's Birthday.
I found two boxes of bottle brush trees at Goodwill that made the table look very festive.
Of course we use our napkins.
I had been wanting to try this recipe and this was the perfect event. We all loved it. It is my new favorite winter salad. (Roasted Butternut Squash salad with warm cider vinaigrette from the Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics.) I served it with some of my home made whole wheat bread and mimosas.

a little more Christmas

I am not very good at keeping them alive but at 99 cents each I couldn't help leaving home depot with out 6 poinsettias.
I love my faux holly garland that I have had for years.
This is what NOEL looks like with 7 children. (The "E" is in the large to be glued pile)
I have never meet a bottle brush tree that I didn't like. I am going to be adding some to the store in the next few days.
With decorations finished I can concentrate on a few goodies for my little ones. If only their lists didn't keep changing.

It's begining

We always get our trees and decorate the day after thanksgiving.
I love getting all of the goodies down from the attic. Little touches here and there.
Most of my ornaments are from my favorite thrift stores.
I have a thing for tinsel trees.
Some of my favorite were made by my very talented children. These were made by my 17,15,13 and 11 years olds when they were respectively in Miss Donna's 4 year old class.
All photos by me.

I hope that you all have a wonderful weekend. We have two friends staying with us. One I haven't seen for 16 years. It should be fun.

thanksgiving

I thought you might like to see a couple pictures from our thanksgiving. It was just us and my mother in law. My girls were in charge of decorating the table.
And they insisted that we get dressed up. (I was very happy in my jeans.) Charlotte is wearing the dress she had me make her for her graduation. It is our Gigi dress (much shorter).
We only eat in the dining room twice a year so it feels very special. If you have little ones stop blinking because they that's how long it takes for them to grow up.