Thursday Favorite Things! Autumn Changes with a Twist

 Hosted by Amber, of   The Yellow Brick Road..  Amber  joined a team of  bloggers who all share in the  meme, Thursday Favorite Things.  and it is a super fun meme because  anything that you might be into   goes.  Well,  it is September!!!!  YAYAYA!  and  of course, for me, that means fall is  on the way, if not already here. I can actually feel a bit of autumn in the air so  then the sunflower and pumpkins came out!

This is  my first real  season where I am decorating   my blue  rooms.  I love them,   but  it is  different from my  more    rustic  stucco   walls.  So  I  have yet to  get into  the  blue attitude,    but I am sure it will come  with the passage of time!So for the  table topper  I used this   table runner I made  to celebrated  apple in the sunroom when   we used the sunroom for  a secondary dining room. That  dining set  has been donated and it is more of a sitting room now so the runner I think is just right  now because of its light blue   background.

I love my seasonal  tree which is so much fun to decorate through the year. And the light is perfect to  have on on the evening as we pass through here  on our way  to bed each night!

This  vignette  is a bit odd I will admit,  but I  just had to use my new  table runner I purchased at the  Glamis Castle   gift shop.  I loved the colors  light blue with a  hint of  autumn colors in the flowers.  I folded it to fit on the hutch top. That arrangement is  a bit odd, as well.  

I was definitely in the mood to purchase fresh flowers when I did my marketing this week,  but everything looked    a bit  stale,  except for these  crazy decorative cabbage stalks.  I  loved the purple and pink  of the  centers even though you can't really see them now. They looked  strange in any  vase I used to  I thought what else can I add to these stalks.  I had some dried hydrangea in another  vase   so I  pulled a few blooms and "Whallah, "  I liked that..  but still not dramatic enough!  ha! So I added some teal  feathers.  AHAHAH  I  laugh every time I see it,  but I think,  well it is crazy enough to  be thought,  at least, interesting!    It  has to go  soon anyway because  the bloom is    turning a bit golden,  but hey,  golden is  autumnal, as well!  Maybe it will  actually redeem itself!!!

Now I have really gotten into

 the idea of gallery walls,  my problem is  many of our rooms    have  very limited   wall space. But  I really wanted a wall to commemorate our trip to Scotland and I already had a painting of sheep with we had seen.  But we, also, saw other  wildlife that needed to be     incorporated.  So at the Loch Lomond Games we bought  a lovely  print of some Highland cows,  and  then I ordered online  a  great  print which    completed the  actual wildlife we saw with our eyes!

You can see our space was limited  but  since it was only 3 paintings  I am thrilled with the finished  product.  We found the stag on Fine Art America.  We   were  thrilled with the quality!We have two more gallery walls in our home.. We  are still working on this one in our  new den.

It doesn't look quite right  .. the two large ones in center of our daughter and her family are supposed to anchor the rest  but the family one I can see now,, (Couldnt last night) needs to  be reset!  BAH!.The apple  art,  also,    but these photos tell a story about our family!I haven't fiddled with it today,  but some of them may just need to be  wriggled a bit!  hehehehe! We have a few more to add, as well!

           

  We are super excited about our  freshly painted bookcases..  unfortunately this  project is about 3/4 done,   but this last fourth  will take a bit of time  so I  couldn't wait to share  what we have so far!!!

Lastly,  this is our now completed gallery wall in the kitchen.  Our last addition is the  Aunties Biscuits and Cake   sign we purchased at the 'going out of business' sale of our favorite  restaurant earlier this summer.   We are thrilled to have this  momento to  commemorate  the best place in our fair city!  

God Bless America

         

Cannot believe it is finally June.  I have something very exciting happening at the end of June  which involves my family  which means the most to me and Lynn, my hubby.

We have been planning something for  a long time and now that it is finally June, I am all a twitter inside. But that aside, I will try to concentrate on today!!Actually  May  and Memorial Day ushered in a season of patriotic holidays  that stretch into  several weeks.  So  it is  fun to  raise the flag outside,  plant the red, white, and blue , and  really express  the   flame of love of country in the  heart.. no matter how things seem to be deteriorating in the  the Capitol,   what matters most is family, the church, and the heart of the home!  So we  continue to celebrate with joy and singing!

My pot of red white and blue  was a bit  beat down by the  unrelenting rains over the weekend,  but  the warmth of the sun has already  brought much of them back to    good health!

 Many of the blue blooms have been washed away,  but it, too, will recover!

My Shasta daisies will soon be a mass of glowing white and gold! 

The dragon wing begonias still smile their bright red glory in the aftermath of the storms.

And Old Glory is showing off her unfurled beauty. 

Inside this week we had a quiet moment of prayer and reflection after the horrific things that have happened in our land, but there is a resolve in the heart of many to  return our holdings and that of our descendants back to God and purpose in life to radiate His glory inHis land, the land that many gave the ultimate sacrifice to secure our freedoms and opportunities to worship the one true God .. the one to whom, we sing this song!

Thursday Favorite Things

Hosted by Amber .

I haven't really created a TFT post for some time...  but today it kept crying out to me.  SInce we are coming up on a wonderful  holiday  that holds  such marvelous memories for me.. I was feeling inspired!  I grew up going to   Grandma's on Memorial Day to celebrate  Decoration Day.  It was   the day we honored those of the clan who had passed on before us, especialy those  who had served  our country well!  The weekend began with us cousins walking the  country road  picking wildflowers all along the way.  Black-eyed susans,  Queen Anne's Lace,  Sweet peas,  and   chickory lent their  grace to  to    the  flowers  that grandma gathered from her garden .  With these we created several  baskets of flowers to place on the  dear  family members  graves at our  family  plots! 

I really miss gathering such gorgesous wild flowers.

I would like to  honor my  wonderful grand father,  who  lived on  to the ripe age of 88, but he served his country  valiantly   in France during  WWI.  

  I do not have photo  but Lynn''s father who  served  on several fronts,  He served in France,  Italy, and North Africa during WW2.  We were  blessed  that they did return home  to live out the rest of their lives and enjoy  their families, but  these wars certainly had taken a great part of these men in exchange for their heroism!

And we remember  each year!

                    The gardens are glorious  at this time of year!!!

So this   glorious season is  a time to  reflect,  remember,   all  loved ones  who  went befofe us  and    to  enjoy the many blessings taht their lives  provided and continue ot provide for us..   May we never lose  the  freedoms and    precious  country  they  fought so  bravely to secure!

Our Post Christmas Dinner Party~ Thursday Favorite Things

 Today I am   joining along with Amber   at Follow the Yellow Brick Road.

Last night we were  so fortunate to be able to host a small dinner party for 4 best friends. These two couples  attend our church and we have been   socially distancing and wearing our masks  for a  few weeks now and  felt it was safe to  be able to enjoy   the seaon together.

Earlier in the season while shopping at Hobbie Lobbie,  I found these cute  place setting holders  and knew  I had to have them.. The  little country red truck had  captured my attention last Christmas and  always reminded me of  going to grandmas as child, so  these just jumped out at me.  Immediately I had   the  thought of creating a tree farm  on the table  where " shoppers" could  buy their trees and  cart them away.

I was thrilled to find a whole slough of  trees at once at Amazon!  Note, in the center is  my hubby's  cute little  torquoise colored  sedan   he  kept from his childhood. - the perfect size for my  tree farm!

I thought the black buffalo  cloth would    be just right  for the   back drop  and I remembered I had red   checked napkins, so I was in business! I love pairing the   black check with my  black    with the ring of holly  place mats I found at Stein Mart last year.

That move prompted me to substitute  my white plates for the red transfer wear  ones I had  planned.  I like the contrast in tones!

  

And I had  at least 6  of each pattern I purchase.

Our menu was  perfect:

We started with :

 sausage balls witha  hot mustard dipping sauce

Mixed nuts

Homestead Creamery Eggnog (YUM)

Then we sat down to:

Cranberry punch/water

cabbage winter salad with cranberries and walnuts and a  homemade honey mustard dressing

roasted pork tenderloin

fresh cooked green beans with country ham

potato stacks  with gruyere chesse and bacon

blueberry crisp with vanilla ice cream

You might be wondering what the canisters were for?  Those canisters went right along with the theme so I had to have them,  as  a vehicle to    for sharing treats with my friends!

This is  our great band of buddies1    Always a great time with  these special friends!!

I like to retire to the parlor between dinner and dessert!

It was to balmy   yesterday for fire,  but    the  conversation was  still  wonderful!

I k now a lot of folks a re  starting to get their decorations down and put away if they havent already.  Not me.  I believe in  going straight through to Epiphany, January 6th.  I get my  best holiday   revival  in  during the post Christmas days when I can sit by a fire, listen  to carols and  contemplate  what has gone   behind us and what is  coming  upon us.    I  have all my  getting ready  and cooking behind me and   now it is all JOY!

Thursday Favorite Things

Katherine's Corner

This week I've been going through my Google Photos for   autumn images  from 2010.  I think it was  a very good year!! 

In 2010 hubs turned 60!  So I bought him roses!

That autumn there were various decorations in  various room!

I hope our  autumn will be this brilliant..  This photo was taken out our back door!

2010 was the year I inherited Hub's   mother's china.  I absolutely love it!  So  I used it for Thanksgiving!

Hubs  was one  handsome 60 year old guy!!!  Actually, he still is!!!

Celebrating Green!

Yesterday I finally got around to  working on the sunroom.  There were  still  wintry  items    that needed to be  put away.  Sad to say  now that we have no one coming to see us  I  get  pretty  bad about keeping the house in  proper order.. The sunroom   just wasn't calling to me at all.  But the gorgeous greens from outside were..So many shades of green at this time of year!

No matter  which direction one looks...
 
As the trees  come out each one  is adorned in its own verdant hue!



So I can't help but    bring out the green transferware!

Johnson Brothers,  The Fruit Basket pattern.

Last year  I used it to celebrate St. Paddy's Day.  but this year,  we missed that  and  the opportunity to celebrate our wedding anniversary in March!

So  now  to celebrate 'Green"  
 I set the table for tea for two!




I am still looking for the scone recipe,    but Im definitely making scones   this afternoon!!  

Table Scape Thursday

Thursday Favorite Things