Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

It has been a whirl wind of a holiday season. With Thanksgiving so close to Christmas,
I feel like I am flying by the set of my pants. I found out that my former father in law
came down with pneumonia on Thanksgiving day and was hospitalized. It was pretty
much touch and go and he passed the Thursday before Christmas. His funeral was Friday,
just after Christmas. The service was at my old church, St. Mary's, and my daughter Ellie
was helping with a lot of the preparations, including the Star Gazer Lilies on the alter. I
bought some for my kitchen, I live fragrance and the color.

 I got some sweet gifts from my children, a wine pamper box from Ellie.

And a framed picture of her engagement picture taken on Monument Avenue
with she and Wes.

A lovely orchid from my son Edmund from Chadwicks Orchids.

A sweet little glitter angel from my aunt.

And a last little celebration to send 2019 out and bring 2020 in to the new year.
Champagne and asparagus, herb cheese endive bites.

More blogging in the new year, 2020.

Decorating My House for Christmas

I do not do a tree in this house, there is no room for one. I emptied my Christmas
tubs and decorated the house  with my homemade garland and my favorite ornaments.

Every dish or bowl is filled with Christmas. each room has a little Christmas.

This really puts me in a good mood, you have a little glitter all around the house.

I did a little more decorating this year than I did last year, I hate when it comes time to
put it away.

I will end this post with a picture of the pretty triple  flower Paperwhite that I found at
Harris Teeter.

Christmas Decorating

So it has begun, today is December 1st, it is time to put the pumpkins away
and start decorating for Christmas. I decided to start on the front porch, I found
my decorations from last year and went out on a mission to find some greens. I
was driving around looking for nandina or red berries, but decided that tresspasing
on someone property might not be a good idea. So I headed to Lowes and found a wreath
and fresh cut greens for sale.

The ribbon came from the Dollar Tree and I may add more berries to fill the urns out.
I thought they looked good until I looked at my pictures, I see a few holes. My tacky
decorations are the red light bulb solar lights.

I just thought they were so cute, they are a lot bigger than they look here. Next, I will
start on the inside.

Christmas Cactus

Last year one of our furniture reps brought us a Christmas Cactus, after the
season was over I took the plant home because I am the only one with a green
thumb. I had never had a Christmas Cactus before, so after it bloomed I was like
what now. I kept it in the window with my orchids until it was time to take it out
to the porch for the summer with the rest of the guys. So to my surprise, this is what
I saw last week....

This funky little plant is full of blooms and they are opening up each day.

The blooms have so much caricature and the color is amazing.

These crazy little buds become a beautiful blooming plant. Next up, as we wind down Fall,

get to Thanksgiving, I will start thinking about decorating for Christmas. This house is too 

small for a tree but I will have fun planning my decorating inside and out.

Colder Days to Come

With colder days in the forecast, I made a big pot of soup yesterday
to last me all week.

I made a batch of Bear Creek's Minestrone Soup, it calls for 8 cups of water and
makes about six servings.

They are calling for days in the low teens, so a big pot of hearty soup will keep me warm.

Happy Veterans Day, stay warm and safe.

Welcome to November

Now that October is gone, I have one last post for last month.
We had an open house at the new store in Charlottesville with
little participation. I had made some mini honey butter rolls with
brie and prosciutto  and had a lot left over. last Sunday on my dog walk
I was thinking about what to do with the left overs. Well I was watching
Food Networks Thanksgiving left over show and was inspired to create
a strata. I have eggs but no milk and I cannot  soak this overnight. Anyway
I got home and diced up the left overs, whisked 6 eggs and added all to a
greased pirex and baked for a great breakfast.

Yum, I never eat like this. Food coma!
As I was cleaning up the dishes, this is what I saw out of the corner of my yard.

 We had a terrible storm on Halloween night and the rain and wind was crazy, I had the
privilege of driving over the mountain in it. This happened sometime that night, you can
see where it split from the tree and hit my back garden and thank god not the house. I welcome
November, cozy nights snuggling with Mandy under blankets in our warm little farm house.

New Decorating Job

I have a new decorating job that has been in the works since
this summer. This is a client of mine that I helped with her old
house a few years ago. She has since purchases a new house in
downtown Staunton, a historic Victorian house on New Street.
The first part of this house is working on the two units in the back
that are now two Airbnb rentals. We were working on these while
the house was being renovated, so it all came together as the house was
being finished. The first one has a blue and white theme and  I got to
use one of my favorite fabrics by Schumacher, a beautiful toile called
Birds of Paradise, for the curtains.

The Airbnb is called the Labrador Manor and these are the pictures of the listing online.
I forgot to take pictures when I was there. The second rooms were done in Stouts Flicks3
in grey.

I think these back two rooms were at one point servant rooms with double back
porches and separate entrances.

 The next rooms will be done soon, one of the fabrics is on back order. If you want
to see more of the house, check out the listing.

Mini Vacation to Figure Eight Island, N.C.

For my birthday last week, I took a couple of days off to go to Figure Eight Island
in North Carolina with my mom, my sister, my aunt and cousin. We stayed in a huge
house on this beautiful island.

There is a bridge you take to get over to the island, this is a view from the porch.

There are only a few houses on the island, surrounded by marsh and water with loads
of wildlife.

My lense fogged up while I was taking the picture of the Herond. Saturday the storm
came through and the temperature changed to cool. I went down to the dock to take
more pictures.

This is the water side of the house.

And the front of the house.

Each morning we walked the island to explore the surroundings, above is the water
across from the front of the house with two men fishing. Below is a picture of my
favorite house.

A view of the beaches and if you look close on the bottom picture, you can see
Wrightsville Beach at the end of the beach.

 A picture of the storm coming in above. And below, a few paintings from the house and
in my bedroom.

It was a great trip with lots of shopping in beautiful stores and great food in wonderful
restaurants.