Christmas Stores

One of my favorite things to do at Christmas is to buy gifts for family and friends ...

It's fun to find treasures that are JUST PERFECT for that JUST PERFECT person ...

... and I love how stores display their wares 

Here are some pics from the stores where my daughter and I shopped ...

.. really liked the burlap shrug on this gal ...and white lights on an evergreen tree?  be still my heart ...

Here's a festive way to dress up a holiday table .. or in this case a hot chocolate bar ...hang ribbons or pretty strips of fabric off the top ...  (don't you love the grey and gold color palette?)

Lovin' this for a little girls room ....

Also lovin' the combination of fabric and ribbon to make holiday bows to drape off a banister ...

... as we were walking through the store, my daughter received this text from a friend ... ha ha!  ain't it the truth..

" Paris  Pottery Barn  is always a good idea" for holiday inspiration ...

... I like groupings of candlesticks ...

... oohhh and I love me some narcissus!

Cute store window display of stockings, mittens, and pine cones hanging from a jute clothesline ...

Happy Window Shopping!

American Girl Doll House

Last Christmas, my daughters asked for American Girl Dolls for Christmas .... well ... the conversation was more like this ...

Me: You know what you should ask Santa to bring you for Christmas?

Daughters: An XBOX?

Me: No. An American Girl Doll!!!!

Daughers: Oh.

See-- here was the problem-- the dolls had been ordered PREVIOUS to me asking what everyone wanted for Christmas ... I just ASSUMED most little girls would DIE to have an expensive piece of Americana ... I was waaayyy wrong .... turns out my girls are not doll people AND ... heh ... heh...  turns out once you order an American Girl they are NON REFUNDABLE ... you see my dilemma ...

Well...  my darling girls warmed up to the idea so that by the time they sat Santa's lap and he merrily asked them, "What do you want for Christmas little girl?"  They looked at me and I mouthed "An American Girl Doll" and they dutifully replied, "An American Girl Doll" ... good girls...

While the dolls were being made in Santa's Workshop (aka China) .... I looked everywhere for a little house or playset of something that would fit an American Girl.  Nothing. Nada. Zip.  There was an American Girl Ski Lodge that was like $400 or something ... not going to happen ... so I came up with this idea to house those dollies ... a cardboard folding house ...

Here are the dollies ... patiently waiting for the girls to wake up on Christmas morning ....

And here is their house ...  The living rooom and the breakfast nook ...

The breakfast nook and the kitchen ...

The bedroom ...

Again with the kitchen ...

Oh! And again with the nook ... 

It was so fun putting this together -- the best part was it was VERY INEXPENSIVE to make ... cardboard boxes for the walls... wrapping paper that I already had on hand for the wall paper .. I made the furniture (tables, chairs, and couches) from left over cardboard scraps, duct taped them together then covered them with fabric... my FAVORITE part are the little armoires, side tables, and hutches... I bought those at our local thrift shop -- these pieces of "furniture" are really jewelry cases that I painted ... same goes for the "art", magnet boards, accessories, and kitchen wares -- all from the thrift shop ... it was easy to put together and fun to see the reaction my little girls gave Christmas morning...

November Home

Front porch ... love me some gourds, cornstalks, and chalkboard signs ... 

I saw the base of this side table a street-cleanup-pile ... problem was there was no table top, but I hung onto it knowing the universe would deliver a table top ... sure enough a few months later,  I found a busted clock (no hands) in a cluttered corner of a TJ Maxx clearance section .... it was perfect for the top of my little saved-from-the-landfill-table...

Love the simplicity of this Thanksgiving vignette ....

via

 For the last few Novembers, I've taped these paper leaves to our kitchen windows ... they look so pretty with the sunlight shining through them ...

Family Room ... thank you Mother Nature for free decor ... can't beat the price ....

I liked this Thanksgiving garland that I found on pinterest ... doing this next year ...



                                                                            via

Living Room decor .. my friend Risa found this glass vase at the our local thrift shop and wasn't sure what to do with it ... I was happy when she gave it to me because I wanted to bring nature into this room... it's been fun to change out the branches with each season...

We are blessed to have two families to visit on Thanksgiving - my parents and my in-laws.  Both dinners were delicious and the spending time with the families was even better ...  

Here are some pictures of my mom's Thanksgiving home ...

We were very late to my in-laws dinner so I was a little flustered and forgot to take photos, but my MIL always sets a beautiful table too... 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Pumpkin Patch

Near the end of June, I was rummaging through some pretty pathetic little vegetable starts at our local nursery ... everything was on clearance because it was so dern hot .... I found three little pumpkin starts that  looked pathetic, but at 75% off?  Deal.  We planted them, watered them, babied them, and watched them.... those little guys were troopers in the HOT July weather ... they grew and grew and grew!  In September we harvested  44 PUMPKINS!  WOW!  Can't seem to grow tomatoes or cucumbers ... oh well ... you can't carve a tomato and stick a candle in it ... we'll take the pumpkins!