$1,000 Giveaway!!

Hi There!  I just had to pop in to share this wonderful giveaway!  Go take a look.

http://shabbyfufu.blogspot.com/2012/12/1000-giveaway-from-shabbyfufu-and.html

I love this blog, her photography and her wonderful style!  I hope you enjoy it too!
 

Thanksgiving decor and newly painted furniture

I'm so excited.  Hubby painted my furniture!  I know I could have done it myself, but he does it better!  Just in time for our Thanksgiving family holiday.  I just love the results. 

First up is our coffee table.  It's oak.  I love cottage/shabby and I have wanted this table to be white for the longest time.  It turned out fabulous!  Here a before picture:

And here it is white:

The next thing he painted was the entertainment center.  I hesitated to go to any trouble because we wouldn't want to keep it if we got a flat screen tv.  Now that it's painted, I don't even want a flat screen tv!  I hated the cabinet so much that I couldn't even find a picture to show you the before.  Here is a partial of it with Christmas from last year:

And here it is now:

The candles on top are from our centerpiece on Thanksgiving.  The girls helped me make them. 

I printed the letters and we glued them on.  Apparently, I can't spell.  I was short one candle.  Luckily I had something similar in my cabinet, whew.  I loved how they looked on the table and wanted to keep them out. 

This idea would be great for any occasion, you can spell anything you like!  They are sitting atop some small liquor glasses.  You could use wine glasses, really any kind of glass.  And, you could make them different heights with different glasses if you wanted to.

The hearth in our living room is the center piece of the house.  For all these years, it's been the setting for prom pictures, family pictures, it's just so pretty.  It was built by the lady who first lived in this house.  She made many rock walls outside too.  When my in laws first moved in to the house many many years ago, the rock fireplace was beginning to crumble.  So, they put a few beams around it to stableize it.  I would like to put up some crown molding, but in leiu of that, hubby painted it white.  The only "before" I could find was from a few Christmases ago and you can hardly see the whole thing...very brown.

And, NOW it's white:

 

I'm really looking forward to putting up my Christmas decorations with all this fun white!

But before I do, here are a couple more Thanksgiving/fall decor to look at:

 For Thanksgiving, I realized that I didn't have enough dishes for 13 people.  I thought about getting dishes at the thrift store and doing mix and match china, but I just couldn't find the right things.  And, it was going to be expensive!  Then, I found these great dishes....wait for it.....at the DOLLAR STORE!  

What a find!  The table was so pretty.  I had an old table out in the shed that was a pretty good match to our dining room table and I borrowed chairs from my MIL.  

The centerpiece was the candles and in between we put little tiny pumpkins.  My granddaughter and I carved a place to put a little tealight candle and we filled in with some fall leaf decorations and pine cones from outside.  

Things I would change for next time.  First I would take more pictures.  I wish I had made napkins and place setting signs for people to sit.  

All I had to do was set the table, since my son did all the cooking.  I'm happy with the way things turned out!

The Mouses get together again

Mouses?  My dearest friend, Connie, says that she is "city mouse" and I am "country mouse".  Right after Thanksgiving....before I had any time to get sad about my kids leaving....Connie came to visit.  

We had an awesome time!  We enjoy just sitting around talking, we can talk for hours.  And, we played tourist as I took her to all my favorite places.  

From the minute I picked her up from the airport...it was go go go.  Or should I say shop shop shop?  

Since we both love Isagenix shakes...meals were easy...except when we ate out, which we did!

I took her to Bonnie's to get a pair of magic pants.  They are magic because they always fit, they always look good and they always make you look skinny.  She was sooooo happy! 

Of course it had to rain on us!  But, we didn't let that stop us. 

Here we are in the Santa chair.  

A friend took our picture on Main Street.  We went to every shop around.

And, then....boo hoo....she had to go home....back to being a "city mouse" again. 

Home for Thanksgiving

We usually have a quiet Thanksgiving around here.  In recent years our kids have been busy working, living far away and the result is a quiet dinner with whoever can make it.

This year was different!  With our new little addition to the family, our new grandson Jamie, everyone wanted to come home.  The house was full and the visit was just the best ever!  There is talk of making Thanksgiving a time for everyone to come home EVERY year! Wow!  That would be the best!  Here are the highlights:

My granddaughters were so excited to meet Buster.  He was happy too!!

It's easy to see that it was all about the baby.

Uncle Jesse burned the cookies.  We all think he takes after his Dad in this.

Pookie was in heaven!

My granddaughters are growing up so fast!

 

My oldest son, Dance (read his blog here), did almost all of the cooking!  

Best Thanksgiving ever!!