Holiday Containers

Ceramic and cast iron by front door

Concrete planters in front

Concrete planters by garage

Hayracks on the shed

Brown Ceramic Planter in front

I can't see much of the containers now since they are covered with snow and ice, so I am glad I have these photos to remember what they look like!

A Christmas Tree Tea

I was invited to a Tea Party at the home of the only other blogger I know personally. She gave me carte blanche to photograph everything in her home!  Mary Anne is an Interior Designer but she is also an awesome gardener when weather permits.

The first tree I saw was at the entrance but I had no idea how many more were to come!

A little niche in the hallway (which had been a former closet) displayed another little lighted tree with a wonderful large lantern type enclosure for a manger scene.  The candle is battery operated so it can stay lit safely.

At the end of the hallway in this dimly lit room, I spy another little tree.  It is in the powder room sparkling with the lights on the tree and candlelight.

Another little tree in the guest bedroom.  Don't you love this chair, so unexpected amongst the white linens!

On the kitchen counter tucked away in a corner.

A beautiful gold adorned tree in the family room

Do we ever think of using our cut and pressed crystal as candle holders?  I know mine is coming out of the cabinet where nobody sees it.

This is the most elegant tea party I have every attended and I don't even drink tea!

Vintage cake plates and a fruit display befitting of the season

Mary Anne loves flowers so she had a mirrored niche built behind her sink.

Above is an area for dishes and decor

Another surprise in the formal living room with a traditional needlework pillow

Flow Blue above the greenery adorned  mantle

More trees as I get ready to leave

Well. I have worked my way back to the front door and it has been a wonderful tea party or should I say tree party.  Mary Anne is a very talented designer and I hope to get back to her home in the spring and summer to photograph her garden.  You can visit Mary Anne at http://alwaysrobinseggblue.blogspot.com/

Happy Holidays to all of our fellow bloggers!

It's Time To Cool Things Down

Only in the world of my Ziva Paperwhite Narcissus!  As you can see they have started to bloom and certainly won't be pretty on Christmas Day.

Ziva is very fragrant and floriforus

I will have to cool them off if I want them to last through the holidays.  My plan was to put them in my attached garage where there are windows that let in some light.  However, it has been down in the single digits!

Out of the three small pots only the middle one is a little behind the other two.

It is time to insert some branches to keep them upright.  I did find out that these are sprayed birch branches, thinner than the Red Twig Dogwood.  I did find these at Home Depot but I have also seen them at some of the garden centers.

The larger container (with the eleven bulbs) is a little slower so I will probably keep this one inside a while longer.

The branches can be trimmed down to a lower height.  The flower stems are pretty flexible and can be gently wrapped around the thin branches.

I do have a storage area in my basement that is above freezing, but if I put them in there I will have to leave the lights on!

Misunderstood Bloggers

Bloggers come in many different categories, some blog for a living, some blog for a little living, some blog for technically nothing, and some blog for nothing. 

Do we realize that the general public believes that bloggers are in it for the money?  I have had several questions through the past year wondering what I make!  When I say I make nothing,  they ask why there are advertisements on my blog.  Sometimes, I don't know what to say since I have only racked up $10.00 for a year and you only get paid in merchandise when you have accumulated $100.00.  Well, I calculate this to be ten years until I get paid.

I have been told more than once, we would love you to take pictures of our artwork, home, etc., only to be notified after you have spent a great deal of time, NO, we do not wish to be on a blog!

Blogs are everywhere, but have they really come into mainstream America?  I don't think so, they are not in the neighborhoods, they are not down the block yet.

I guess if we exist in our own little blog world there is not a problem, but when we advertise ourselves with our friends or the groups that we belong to we realize that we are not yet understood!

I have learned so much this year about blogging, communicating, photography, computer skills, gardening, plants, plant zones, countries, people and most of all about myself!  Thank you blogging friends, I look forward to an even more productive year!

Eileen

The Smaller Christmas

I am having the smaller Christmas this year as every other year my brother and his family go to my sister-in-law's relatives.  I say smaller because there are less people, but we all know that the preparation is the same, the same baking, decorating, table setting and decor, less food but the same recipes.  Since I have a small family, I will miss that other part of my childhood.  He is my only sibling and my sister-in-law is a good friend,  we have so much in common.  I get over it each year and look forward to the next when we are all together.

The table is set each year with the china I have had since I was first married.  It is Franciscan Rondelay, extinct (only to be found at replacements.com), overlayed with a depression glass salad plate called Dogwood.  I have Waterford crystal from Ireland (actually ordered from Ireland many years ago) but this year I will use my aunt's depression glass water and wine goblets.  I have brought them to the depression glass shows and no one can name them, close to many others but not the same.  They were one of her wedding gifts in the late 1920's.

Rondelay Franciscan Fine China (small pink flowers with gray leaves) no longer available

Overlayed with MacBeth Evans Depression glassware in the pink Dogwood pattern

An interesting story about her glasses, she had painted her pantry shelves and put the glasses back top down only to realize they had all stuck and pulled off some of the glass rims.  I had them all restored by the crystal grinder (expensive) and have used them with many memories ever since.

Depression glassware, made during the depression years, some sold in dime stores and some made in specialty glass factories.  These were of a finer manufacturing process with flutes, jewels and intentional ripples in the pink tinted portion. 

The Christmas Amaryllis are in their full glory, probably won't be for Christmas.

The tablecloth is vintage overlayed on an older Irish linen tablecloth called Adams.  Both were purchased at antique shops with the Irish linen still being in the box yellowed with age and the Christmas one having several age marks.  I had bought some concoction a few years ago for soaking vintage linens and it worked, both coming out as good as new.  I wish I knew what to tell you it was but I have not been able to find it since.

I bought some LED candles a couple of years ago that are wax coated and I have used them for just about everything including power outages.

They do flicker like real candles when lit (I know it doesn't show in the photo) are safe and will last a very long time on batteries.

I intersperse them with real candles that I do light, but it is nice to leave the LED candles lit even when you leave the dinner table.  I have some pretty glittered ones also that I will put on the living room coffee table.

Birds are a good luck symbol at the dinner table.  I purchased these a few years ago at an after-holiday sale at a local florist shop.  I have them on the table for every holiday meal in some form or other, i.e., next to the Easter display, pumpkins, etc.

I am so lucky because my children are with us for Christmas as we share them with other relatives for Thanksgiving every other year.

I am beginning the non-stop baking that I have done each year for I would guess about thirty-five years, breads, cookies, candies, etc.  When working full time, I baked each year for all of the moms who used to help out in my classroom, giving their time without pay each week throughout the year.  I would enclose a little scented candle with their special bread and some years sugared pecans and white chocolate peppermint.

I am not a fan of faux, but I am beginning to become a fan of the more realistic greens now on the market.  I do not bring any real greens into my home anymore until the last minute.  So, I will mix real greens with the faux greens above and also work in fresh flowers throughout the tablescape.

A work in progress!