I'm Back!

Well it's been since December since I've posted anything and some of you may have wondered where did I go?  Okay maybe nobody missed me, but I sure did miss you guys and writing and visiting blogs.  You see in the fall I decided it was time for me to go back to college and get my degree in Accounting.  My son was old enough to drive so that freed up alot more time for me.  Following the closing of my store I spent a lot of time reflecting what I wanted to do in Act II of my life (Act I being a Mom/Administrator/Shop Keeper).  I still want to open another shop, and I know I will some day, but I can't be preachy to my kids about the value of education if I'm not willing to complete my own!  My daughter is entering her third year of law school in August and my son is a senior in high school.  Exciting things are coming my way in the next few years as I graduate school and become an empty nester and the same time!
I will need lots of advise from you sage empty nester veterans on what you would do if you could redo your first years of empty nesting.  Please comment!
For now I'm in school full time in the evening and working full time during the daytime.  Along with my family duties this has kept me super busy.  I have set a mini goal for myself to try and post once a week following completion of my homework assignments.  Wish me luck!

Mad for Plaid Tassel House

After winning this stunning tassel from Tassel House at Susan's Between Naps on the Porch, I knew I wanted plaid to be apart of the decorating in the breakfast room this year.

See the delicious layers of ribbons including the plaid!

I hung the tassel by the desk area of the room.Over by the eating area I put two apple and pine cone hurricanes.

All three of these pictures were taken one after another.

Sigh, someday I will learn photography and my pics will be normal.

I like the beaded fruit in combination with the rustic pine cones.

The shelves above the island were decorated with a pine garland
along with some cardinal birds and plaid votives.

I thought these matched well against the woodsy feel of the room.

I'm joining Between Naps on the Porch for Met Monday; A Stroll Thru Life for Tabletop Tuesday and From My Front Porch to Yours.

Ready for Christmas time!

Hope your Christmas decorating is coming together - our cat Marbles seems to be ready - he came in the front door walked over to the tree and sat like this in front of it - just had to take a picture! To me it says come on Christmas I'm ready for you!

Seated Dinner for 30

Welcome to our seated Thanksgiving for 30 (ok it was 27 but who's counting). I went with neutral dishes so that the accessories could shine, quite literally since I used silver and gold. Another bonus from using silver and gold is you can use a lot of pieces you already own, therefore cutting down on the costs. I rented the plates, which were ivory with a gold band, for 35 cents a piece. This meant we could scrape and load them back into their carriers and no dishes to be done! The silver chargers were on sale at Christmas Tree Shops for $1 each. I will reuse these next year when I host Christmas Eve dinner for my family.

We were chasing rain clouds the day I took these so some are quite shadowy I apologize! Here you can see the base linen round tablecloth's I rented for the three tables along with the gold toppers I bought at Christmas Tree Shops for $4 each! I think I will get miles out of the toppers for both autumn and holiday.

My candle rings for each table are actually the napkin rings from this post.

Each placesetting had a Thanksgiving cracker, caspari turkey napkin, and an ivory sheer bag which contained the flatware and was adorned with a gold acorn. I found the gold acorn's at Wal-Mart in the Christmas ornament aisle. Six for $1.96! Caspari napkins, while paper, are so beautiful I couldn't resist! More from the visit to their store in Virginia here.

After scattering some fall leaves around the tables, I filled the silver mint julep cups with roses and glittered gold and silver curly que picks. What would a Kentucky Thanksgiving be without mint julep cups! These were a gift from my Great Aunt Helen and I cherish them.

Hope you enjoyed the tour and will visit more tables at Between Naps on the Porch with our host Susan.

Telegram, Text and Twitter

While watching Boardwalk on HBO last night, one of the main characters travelling in Ireland received a telegram that he should return home immediately, due to the illness of his child (well not really his child, but you don't want me to go into all that detail). At that same time, my daughter sent me a text that said "call me if you're not in bed yet".
It occurred to me while technology has certainly come leaps and bounds from the age of the telegram, our use of text and twitter is not really any different.
Important news and message communicated thru short bursts of information.
I'm all for ways to communicate, but some of the best nights I have are relaxing on the porch or in front of the fireplace just talking with Mr. B sans phones, laptops or technology.
Hope your week is off to a great start!

Living Room Transformation

Thank you so much for all of your comments and suggestions

for table setup at our Thanksgiving.

I decided to rent three 60 inch round tables and 28 chairs to transform the living room into our dining room for the Thanksgiving day. As you can see below, it was all hands on deck for setup day Wednesday. Madison is, of course, in a supervising role.

We moved most of the furniture out of the living room and pushed back the remaining pieces to make as much floor space as possible.
With the linens pressed, silver polished and flowers arranged it was time for table setting.

More detail on Thursday of the table settings, which I hope will provide some inspiration for Christmas as well as your next Thanksgiving. I'm joining Susan at Between Naps on the Porch.

Thanksgiving Tables

I'm going to host my in laws again this Thanksgiving and I have a question for ya'll I need feeback on so please comment!
We have a very large family. My husband has three brothers and a sister and they have 14 children. This Thanksgiving we total 28 -12 adults and 16 children attending. In years past the children were smaller and either didn't have a seated place or I set up small tables and chairs. Now many are in high school and our youngest neice is two. Do I do three tables of ten or a table of 12 for the adults and send all the kids down to our family room? Is a sit down meal really practical for almost 30 people? I will buffet set the food in our dining room either way as serving would be a nightmare.