Cherries, Baby!

I found this beauty at an antique store in Alabammy...

$18.

Every single corner on it looks like this one.

Me likey.

Back Roads Beauty: Through a Fog

Thanksgiving is done for another year.

It's one of the best holidays there is.

The simplicity, the beauty of the colors...

The wonderful smells coming from the kitchen the night before and the day of, are nothing short of heavenly!

What smells better than a pumpkin pie or an apple one in the oven?

Not much!

And then there's the rolls, the dressing, the TURKEY, and all the trimmings, too.

All of it is just divine!

And the anticipation!

And then dinner...

And then the LEFTOVERS!!

I think having the leftovers is one of the best parts of the holiday!

And having pumpkin pie and fruit salad for breakfast...with your coffee...DELIGHTFUL! 

What's your favorite part of Thanksgiving?

I'd really like to know...

I Recommend "Salon Manicure"

My daughter told me about this drugstore nail polish from Sally Hansen.

It's a wonderful product:  "Sally Hansen COMPLETE SALON MANICURE" goes on so smooth, the brush I LOVE and the finish is gorgeous.

ALL IN ONE is the best!   No fooling with a base coat, top coat and a couple layers of color in between.

I haven't yet taken the polish off, so I have no idea if not using a separate base coat will make my nail bed a wonky color or not, will try to report back to you.

I don't recommend something unless I REALLY, really like it and this meets that threshold.

I am pretty sure it was under $7 at Walgreen or maybe it was Kroger.  The colors are gorgeous

And..

I'm not part of the "black Friday" madness.  Can't handle it.  I don't think there is ANYTHING I need that bad.  I actually like to stay home and relax, and eat fruit salad and pumpkin pie for breakfast with my coffee, have turkey and rice soup for lunch and then best of all: enjoy all day long the thought that I DON'T have to think about what's for dinner...and I don't have to even make it, it's already done!  LOL!

Greetings from the Farmhouse...

Back Road Beauty: Fog & Frost

It's hard sometimes to shoot a bad picture with perfect conditions:  fog and frost.  

Come along as I travel the back roads near our home and enjoy some of the scenery that I found.

I will have to take several days, as I shot for almost two hours, until the sun burned off the fog and erased the ethereal backdrop and made it all seem ordinary again.

What is so wonderful about shooting in the fog and the results from it are that you realize how different the light is, depending on which direction you aim.  This shot is heading into the sunrise...warmer light.

And then shooting away from the sun....less light and more fog, less color and more lonely...

But I should hush up now and just let you enjoy the beauty and magic that is an ordinary late fall morning...

Enjoy what God put here to embellish what he saw fit to create ...

And take a minute to see what a hard-working farmer puts here too...

Have a wonderful day...and look for the magic that sometimes will come to what you might think is just an ordinary place...

It's what makes for a special feeling:  just being alone with the surroundings that are ordinary in a magical way.

School's Out!

I found this vintage print at an antique store for $3.

It HAD to come home with me, it exudes joy.

Right now, it rests in an easel on the vintage ironing board that sits behind my sofa.

I can't look at it without smiling, and remembering the PURE JOY...

That I felt on that last day of school every June!

Cozy @ Home: Thanksgiving

A turkey platter and a pumpkin as well as a vintage book called "Moccasin Trail" nestle among soup toureens and a sugar bowl, as well as a vintage kerosene lantern.

Indian corn hangs from a nail on the old five-panel pine door. 

The watercolor leaf painting is one done by my son when he was in elementary home school.

A wooden pumpkin sits on the window ledge with scattered leaves.

A garage-sale turkey platter is the centerpiece of this buffet display.

On the left are Indian figurines found years ago at Cracker Barrel.  

They are an excellent place to find beautiful seasonal decorations.

And their after-any holiday clearance sales a great!

These nesting bowls are always used on our Thanksgiving table.  

I found them years ago at Sam's. 

You can never have too many nesting bowls!

The Bible is opened to Psalms.

It's been a comfort to me lately.

A little display centered around a $1 vintage child's chair found at a garage sale:  

I love this story of Sqauanto...The Miracle of Thanksgiving.  GREAT for kids.

Find it here.  

About the book: 

This paper-over-board picture book biography approaches the holiday from an evangelical point of view. Beginning with Squanto's kidnapping, at age 12, by the Spanish from his Patuxet village in 1608, Metaxas (The Birthday ABC) follows him to M laga, Spain. His friends are sold into slavery, "but God had another plan for Squanto." Monks purchase Squanto and teach him their beliefs, then entrust him to a kind man in London until he can find passage back to America. Finally, in 1618, he arrives home, only to find his village wiped out by disease. The discovery tests Squanto's faith but does not destroy it ("As he pondered the great sorrow in his heart, he talked to God"). 

When Squanto comes to the aid of starving English newcomers, Governor Bradford predicts the hero's role: "Perhaps God has sent you to be our Joseph." In the end, Bradford and Squanto both give thanks to God for using Squanto in "such a way that would bless the whole world for centuries to come." Of all the offerings this season, this account comes closest to describing the holiday's religious roots and historical beginnings, even though many may argue with the book's politics and/or theology. Stirnweis's portraits tend to be stiff and inconsistent, but his realistic renderings of M laga and London architecture are atmospheric. The culminating illustration portrays Squanto in a pose like Christ on the Mount. Ages 5-10. (Aug.) 

Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

My little recipe book shelf in the kitchen...is a favorite spot to decorate.

It's one of the best little spots to keep things cute!

With garage-sale find crocheted potholders warming it up, a cowbell, and little pumpkin candles.

I like to use the fronts of seasonal recipe books to decorate with, they're too cute to hide!

Fall leaves "scattered" on a Coke crate turned on it's side, 

and a set of vintage coloring books in a little box my sis gave to me...

Scattered reminders of fall on the hutch, 

mixed with blue...

The old farmhouse is finally decorated for Thanksgiving...

I was a little slow this year.

Something different every year, I never do the same thing exactly the same way twice, but one thing doesn't change!

And that is...

The warmth and beauty of the Autumn and Thanksgiving!

Let us now remember...

How we have been blessed.