Pink Saturday – the last one this year!

Just don’t know where the holiday season has gone! This year has been a lot of fun. Seeing what everyone else has done and sharing mine has made the holidays very special. Stepping into everyone’s homes has made it seem like we have gone to so many holiday parties when in reality we have spent some delightful time at home just the two of us. We celebrated the holiday itself with close friends and will celebrate the New Year with friends as well. We missed family and friends up north but June will be here before we know it.

Each Saturday Beverly at How Sweet the Sound  hosts Pink Saturday. This is a fun event and during this holiday season we are taking some liberty with “pink” so red is very permissible.
This year I even decorated the powder room. Machine embroidered guest towels share the spotlight with a plaid ribbon covered glass tile and plaid guest towels.

I shared with you how wrapping is a struggle for me. Well, this year I really concentrated and the presents looked much better!

I think that happened because the bears helped!
Little Miss Prissy whom you have met before supervised and Sidney and Perry (the bears I made) offered a lot of encouragement.

So today my sister and her husband will stop by on their way further south and then tomorrow Jack and I will put the decorations away until next year. Have a wonderful Pink Saturday!

Deck the Halls with a Festive Table…..

 

 

Another Deck the Halls Tuesday from Susan at Thoughts from over the Rainbow.

 

I am going to double post with Susan at Between Naps on the Porch as I finalize the decorations, menu, presents, etc.. The table has been fun and is almost done.

The photo shoot is imminent.

The frosted fruit I bought at Michael’s years ago and it has survived several moves and storage in plastic bins in a Florida attic.

The Santa is not chocolate but resin and made in an antique chocolate mold. He was a gift from a dear friend

I am not a good wrapper. I try so hard and the results are less than splendid. This year I am really going to make an effort so wish me luck! If they look splendid, I will photograph them and if not – oh, well.

We are making one more batch of Gram Potter’s Date Nut Bread for house gifts and hopefully the smell of it baking will spur me on to finish everything up.

Gram Potter’s Date and Nut Bread

1 ½ cups boiling water
1 8-ounce package dates, chopped
1 ½ cups sugar
2 Tablespoons melted butter or margarine
1 egg
2 teaspoons baking soda
3 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup chopped walnuts

Pour boiling water over dates and let cool. Cream sugar and butter. Add egg and mix. Dissolve baking soda in date and water mixture. Add flour, salt, vanilla and date mixture and mix. Add chopped nuts. Pour mixture into 2 loaf pans and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until cake tester is clean. Wonderful with whipped cream cheese.

I will make mini loaves today and put them in little gift bags with bows and Jack will go happily to the neighbors bearing presents.

I set the table with my wedding china and some silverplate that I picked up at an antique shop in the clearance room.

I discovered some LED candles at Pottery Barn this year and set them in shot glasses. I like the way they look and I can also use them on the Welsh cupboard without fear of scorching the shelf above.

So, on to the wrapping……

Deck the Halls

 

I have been most remiss this last week with my postings. I have been thinking of you all and do have a lot to share but the energy at the end of the day has been absent. Many of you know that I am a quilter and machine embroiderer. I also like photography and now blogging. I have an oversized guest room for my office and sewing room. It was just not working. I rarely have guests who stay. So…I needed to make a change and that is where I have been and what I have been doing! And what a job.

The Murphy Bed is installed (mattress is backordered but that's ok), the easy chair and ottoman are in place, the new desk is in place and project table is near the window with the embroidery machine sitting happily on top. I will do a Metamorphosis Monday soon on the room.

The embroidery machine has been busy. Last year we saw this wall hanging by Anita Goodesign and I made it. It was a job but I finished it before Christmas Eve. I think it had a million or more stitches and I had to do 2 of the blocks over because I messed up the colors. The air was blue…

The detail from this designer is amazing. 

 

I have a few more tea towels to embroider before Christmas.

Thanks to all of you who sent “where are you” e-mails. Dont’ forget to stop by and see Susan at Thoughts from over the Rainbow.

Pink Saturday – A Christmas Memory

 

 

I love Christmas and all that goes with it – the music, the decorations, the food and the reason for its being. I always have. Growing up in New Jersey, we always made a fuss about Christmas. Gram Potter would come to visit and there would be a wonderful dinner at Uncle George’s in Green Village. There was a new dress, a doll, and books. My dress was usually red. The books were so that my sister and I would not bug the adults as they celebrated in another room.

Each year there would be a new ornament or two for the tree. As we got older, my sister and I got to help pick them out. My mother liked to decorate the tree. Each strand of tinsel needed to go on separately. It took forever and the lights could not go on until the tinsel was on and it took forever….. My dad would offer to help but one at a time did not work for him. The front of the tree always looked better.

I found this picture buried in a box while I was cleaning out paperwork. It was taken in 1953. Such different times. Gram Potter (my dad’s mother) was truly an influence on me even after she was gone. Her love of her home, her gardens, her family and friends was legendary.

 

Notice my sister has the Madame Alexander Bride doll…….I loved Madame Alexander dolls. I still think Santa may have made a mistake on that one….

 

Be sure to visit Beverly at How Sweet the Sound to see other memories and pinks.

Tablescape Thursday and more…..

Susan at Between Naps on the Porch hosts Tablescape Thursday each week. If you have not seen her blog, you really must. She is truly the hostess with the mostess.
I am sitting in my chair in my soon to be completed studio/office/guest room. There seems to be some semblance of order in the room itself but the guest bathroom is off limits (no media) and shall be for a while. Susan Boyle is singing softly in the background and I have some Christmas music to play as well.
The embroidery machine has been busy. Tea towels and snowflakes are wonderful presents. I shall try to make one a day until Christmas. I use the snowflakes on the Christmas tree. I place them on the boughs just as if they had just landed.




I have quite a few different snowflake designs. Some I do in white and some in ivory. I like to mix them up. The days of the real tree are over. I don’t miss the needles until April but I do miss the wonderful smell. Our tree is a tabletop model and works quite well. I set it on a round table covered with a Christmas quilt made just for that purpose.

I decorated the Welsh cupboard and the coffee table.



A big glass jar holds some of the ornaments too large for the tree.


Then I started on the table. This setting is just the holiday setting. For Christmas Eve and Christmas Day there will be different ones. I haven’t decided what but it is still early……


So that’s what I have been doing. Now I have to go and say hi to all of you who have been stopping by and leaving wonderful comments while I had that bug. I will take some more pictures as well.

Deck the Halls

We got through Thanksgiving and it was wonderful. I love the meal itself with all the accompaniaments. Even though I didn't cook the meal, I set my table. So that is all away now and we have started on the house. I am almost there. The last remnants of this cold still linger.

When we were back in Maine, we went to North Conway to the Christmas Loft and I took many, many pictures. Today I am sharing a mosaic of the ornaments and Christmas decorations I saw there.

Be sure to visit Susan at Thoughts from over the Rainbow for this fun December event. Now onto the rest of my house.