Clippings from the garden

Memorial weekend, making memories

Sleeping it off

Tristan, after a New Year's Eve binge. *not really* he's just napping.

Wintry white Christmas

Several inches of snowfall on Christmas eve gave a wonderful sight to behold on Christmas morning. Our resident neighbor squirrel stayed in his little house and blocked the opening with oak leaves to keep the cold, cold wind out.

Snowy Christmas eve

Woke to a pretty softly white Christmas morning. after the fierce snowfall last night.

Over the river and through the woods

The fun started at the airport yesterday. We arrived and the fun continued. Wintery weather expected tonight, maybe tomorrow a snowball fight, who knows?

Christmas brunch dining table

While Cristy is busy cooking bacon, I thought I'd stay out of the way. Not an animal product eater, myself.

So, even though this is a casual brunch for just a small handful of friends, I couldn't help myself. Had to add a touch of easy splendor to the dining table. Courtesy of limes and apples from the farmer's market, green baubles from the dollar store and leftover ribbon from Williams Sonoma packages. Couldn't be prettier.

A helping of Christmas

Tomorrow at this time I'll be working on a few final preparations for Christmas brunch for a few friends. Nothing formal, but I want it to be pretty anyway. Collection of red and white for the serving table.

Signs of the season

My beloved collection of Santas.

O Christmas Tree(s)

4 beautiful trees, 1 glorious occasion for filling the house with sparkly loveliness. I adore them all!

The very small pink tree features my late grandmother's silver eyelash tinsel. I only have 1 strand, but it is precious.









The largest tree has the most sparkles, glitter and glam.






































This tree in the bedroom has homemade stars, garlands, old fashioned decorations and a couple of my mom's treasured ornaments from many years ago.











This small tree is decorated entirely with wooden toy ornaments that belonged to Cristy's mother.

Sharing joy on Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was the first holiday that Cristy and I shared in our new house and it was extra special this year because my mommy and stepdad made the journey from Oklahoma to join us.

This photo was taken at the Hubbel & Hudson Bistro, one of my absolute favorite restaurants.

Homemade garland

Inspiration landed and Christmas decorating started in earnest. First on the agenda was the creation of a new garland. Stars cut from old greeting cards on one side and wrapping paper on the other with strands of rafia glued in between to form a light, cheerful garland.


















And it looks just lovely on the tree too. Due to the scale of the house, there are now only two large trees rather than 3 smaller ones. This one is my favorite with old fashioned ornaments and two treasures that were my mother's favorite decorations.

Thanksgiving - in the mood

The cutest candy-corn Thanksgiving cupcakes in the world! From the Apartment Therapy Kitchn blog.