Pocketful of Blue

Cottage and Vine's Room by Room Party  this month is Dining Rooms. You've seen mine before but I hope you don't mind  seeing it again. Actually, we don't really have a dining room ~  this is our eating area for all occasions so I didn't think Rene would mind if I joined her party with this space.   (She's nice like that!)   We have a leaf for the table for when we have a larger group so  I will definitely be adding it for Thanksgiving. See my little table back in the corner that I posted about here ? I still really love it! • • • • • • • • • • • • We have this fireplace across from our table  and I've always had trouble accessorizing the shallow mantle. I came up with the idea to display some of my China on it. I just kind of layered some dishes and added a  few  other things I had to dress it up. How do you think it turned out? I'm so happy you stopped by ...

Hi Everyone, I have never really shown you the real reason  we bought  our house four years ago. Well, here it is ~ our backyard. Would you join me for a little tour? These pictures were taken just this week. We have about 1 acre of land with many large trees and a stream runs through all of the properties on our street. My hubby will be very busy for a couple weekends taking care of all the leaves. I haven't shown the yard before because it needs a lot of work... but if I wait until all of the work is done,  it will be a very long time. We have done some trimming of trees and things like that but there is still a lot to do. The original owners put a cement block wall all along the stream and much of it is now falling in, not to mention the fact that it's pretty darn unattractive ~ so we have our work cut out for us with that project! ••••••••••••••• I do feel blessed to have a large yard like th...

We are having a beautiful November weekend here in Ohio. Sunny blue skies and crisp cool air. Just heavenly! I hope you are all having the same! ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞    ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞  I've always loved little white country churches. To me they symbolize pure, simple country life ~ good values, family, community. ~ I hope your day is special ~ JoAnne

Hi Everyone, I won a wonderful giveaway from Dolly at Hibiscus House . It's this beautiful book "Christmas with Southern Living". Dolly included a sweet handwritten note  telling me which recipes she really likes. This Prime Rib with Horseradish Cream is one of them. How good does that look! The book also has gorgeous photos of holiday decorating inspiration. Here's another recipe in the book... Blackeyed Pea Cakes with Cranberry Red Pepper Salsa. Okay ~ not something I would normally make  but it looks so good I might have to give it a try! Love this wreath with the dried hydrangeas in the center and doesn't it look amazing mounted on this old window frame? Okay ~ now we're talkin' ~ I'm a huge fan of desserts and this looks super yummy ~ I think I have to go raid my kids'  Halloween candy now!  paperwhites on a windowsill ~ so pretty  ~ look at this chocolate bread pudd...

I've changed the large wall space in my family room...again. This is what it looked like the last time I showed it to you. It was okay for awhile but I kept feeling like I wanted something different. When my Mom gave some old picture frames to me, I decided to try using them here. They were gold so of course I spray painted them white. ~  here is what it looks like now ~ I made my own artwork or I should really say,  I created something (it definitely isn't art)  to put in these frames.   I just used some scrapbooking paper and some rubber stamps that I've had for a long time. I also painted a couple old boards that we had and put them up as kind of a ledger board or plate rail. It's very amateur but I like how it lightened up this end of the room and it's just something very different than I've had there before. Do you find it difficult to fill up large wall spaces? I sure do. Especially when trying to d...

"Shadows of a thousand years rise again unseen,  voices whisper in the trees,  'Tonight is Halloween!'"                                          ~ Dexter Kozen Have a safe, fun and Happy Halloween everyone!

I know, we're not even past Halloween and I'm posting about Thanksgiving! Well, I can't help it! I just found out that I will be hosting Thanksgiving dinner this year. My Mom moved to a smaller house recently so we decided to have everyone at my house. She will be helping me with the dinner ~ thank goodness! Anyway, I instantly started obsessing about the tablescape. I went to our nearby Dollar Tree and bought a few things and used mostly what I already have. This is what I have come up with so far. . . I really like the color combination of aqua blue and deep red this year. This is actually the china we received when we got married 18 years ago  and I still really love it! I can't believe I was insightful enough at that time to choose something timeless or more likely, I was just lucky. I found most of these flowers at the Dollar Tree. I would like to have several small bouquets rather than just one. This basket was a...