Christmas Tables

Hello everyone,

    First, a New Year's wish for you from a photo I took at our kitchen table last week.Isn't it hard to believe another year is almost over?  If life is a journey will someone put on the brakes!!! It is definitely true the older you get the faster time flies. Anyway, I am enjoying the journey and I am very thankful for all of our blessings.

Now, I thought some of you might have wondered how we could fit our large family into our kitchen and dining/library. So I took some photos to share with you today.. 

Many of you have also seen these rooms many times before but with a few changes we are able to bring our long folding tables,take up some mismatched chairs,put on some tablecloths and set our tables with my red and white transfersware china.

It is definitely not the fanciest table setting in blogland but I kept in mind that we have no dishwasher and so simple would  work best for us- there were 23 of us to enjoy our family turkey dinner.

 We set up the tables on Christmas Eve Day, which of course saved a lot of time on Christmas Day. We sit down to eat around 1:00 p.m. as some of our family have evening commitments.

I use a mix of red and white dishes.

I love the candle chandelier -very inexpensive but cozy!

Lila, our youngest granddaughter had her own little chair right by the tree. Lila is enjoying my homemade cheese bread- a family favorite.

Now, this is our kitchen before we took out the smaller table but this is how it looked before.

 I thought my husband had earned a little quiet time by the fireside by evening. 

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Thank you to all who have visited me today and though out the last few years I have been blogging- I hope you  know it wouldn't be any fun without all of you!!!

I hope the New Year will bring you health, joy, peace and love and may you all have time to enjoy your blessings each and every day.
I am joining Susan again for Tablescape Thursday at Between Naps on the Porch. Thank you Susan for hosting once again.

Love & Blessings to all of you,

Carolyn

Adverse Growing Conditions

Looking back on 2010 we did nothing but battle adverse growing conditions.  The problem is battling these types of conditions can be rather difficult.  A dry growing condition can be compensated by extra watering, irrigation and shading but a too wet of a growing condition if difficult to battle.  Raised beds help somewhat but traditional row gardening is at the mercy of the extra moisture. 

a little break

Taking a little break from the blog this week (in case you hadn't already noticed) to enjoy family and relax. Hope you all are having a lovely holiday season!

Came across this enchanting little winter picnic and thought I would share. Doesn't it make snow look so magical?

Do you live where it snows? Is it this wonderful or do you get sick of it fairly quick?

See you in the New Year!

Christmas at Home

 Hello everyone,
      I hope you all had a joyful Christmas and maybe now some time to relax and enjoy family and friends. We enjoyed having all our family here at our home for our traditional big turkey dinner and seeing the excitement of the 'little ones'.
  The photos above and below is our granddaughter Jessie who is 5 years old.

We are blessed with a few of these little angels who come to visit. Last week it was a different angel wearing these wings.

 Snow!  Well, we didn't really have a white Christmas this year but we did get a dusting of snow by Cristmas evening. However,since then we have had quite a good covering of the fine white stuff! Today was windy and stormy most of the day so it was a cozy day indoors.

Our little garden cottage nestled in the snow.

Christmas night at our house.

Winter has arrived!

Thank you for popping by today and also a big thank you to all who left good wishes to us over the past week.

Enjoy the rest of the holiday season,

Carolyn

White Christmas Indeed!

I know I said I was on a blog break until New Years, but I just had to tell you a sweet Christmas story and show you some beautiful pictures.

We woke up Christmas morning around 7AM and 5 minutes later it started snowing.  We were suppose to get between 1-3 inches, and we ended up with about 9 inches.

Our back yard.

The garden sitting area.

The fire pit.

So.......Our company that was suppose to come for Christmas day and dinner, could not make it off their mountain.  Mr. Comforts of Home and I thought we would be having Christmas dinner all by ourselves.

But....our sweet neighbors called.  They were not able to go where they were suppose to and invited us over for Christmas dinner.

So we bundled up, and hike through the snow to our neighbors and had a lovely Christmas dinner.  After all Christmas is about sharing and giving isn't?



My surgery is scheduled for 2PM Wednesday...I will post a few days after, when I am able.

Welcome Home,

Penny

Constructing a Garden Pond

All garden pools regardless of their size are constructed pretty much the same way.  You can use a rigid, pre-formed black pond liner or black pond liner however if you want to save a bit of money you can use a pre-formed kiddy pool.  Ideally the pond should be at least 3 feet deep at its deepest but if over wintering fish the pond should be deeper.  The pond excavation site should be leveled

Living room : 6 beautiful designs with fireplace.

Living room with a warm fire burning is so inviting right now. It is winter and I was looking for some new ways to rearrange the living room centered around the fireplace. Since much activities and conversations happen around the warm fire, I have in this post a collection of  living room designs with fireplace as the theme.

The designs here are centered around the fireplace, are beautiful, elegant and perfect for comfort during winter months.

Fire place adds a old world charm to any house. The shelves lined with books and the interesting clock on the mantel, beautiful pale wall paper all combine to make this really elegant space. A cozy and charming living room.

This living room looks so inviting for long evenings spent in conversations or alone reading books. The fireplace is the focal point and the cushions and beautiful throw make it look like a stylish cocoon for spending winter hours.

This living room design is centered around the fire place and is uber stylish and elegant in design. The place has a formal look but is cozy at the same time. The mantel has some really interesting display too.

This living room is so colorful and full of energy ! Love how every thing is so co-ordinated and yet not overwhelming. The fireplace is beautiful and the space lovely !!

This living room is so sophisticated and elegant. The fire burning and the black and white photos all make for a very nice setting. The room has old world charm and is uncluttered. Beautiful design!

Living room with rustic design elements. This living room has many interesting accents and they look so gorgeous together. Love the vintage mirror on the mantel as well as the wooden wall panels. Vintage delight :)

Get your creative juices flowing, a little inspiration can go a long way. With the season changing, get the most of these living room designs and create your very own corner of warmth and building memories.

Happy Holidays!

Please enjoy this original music from The Boys from Carolina. Dobro and vocals: Chuck Schutte Mandolin and vocals: Wright Young Standup Bass: Richard Roach (my husband) Guitar and vocals: Larry Nunnery Banjo: Bob Wilkerson Happy Holidays! Freda, Richard, Garrett and Chris Video by Freda Cameron, Defining Your Home, Garden and Travel.

'twas the night before christmas

'Twas weeks before Christmas when all through the house

there was plenty of stirring, even the mouse.

The stockings weren't hung by the chimney with care,

the Nativity was still packed and I was pulling out my hair.

The store was not ready, no cranberries were strung,

no visions of sugar plums, no wreaths had been hung.

The children weren't nestled, they had sports to partake in.

I needed a drink, one stirred and one shaken.

I sat by the fire with my scarf and my cap

and dozed for 10 minutes, for a short winter's nap.

When out in the kitchen there arose such a clatter

I sprang from the couch to see what was the matter.

Away to the oven I flew like a flash to find my cookies all burnt

and now fit for the trash.

Twas' weeks before Christmas and I was hardly prepared

from design blog to blog I sat and I stared.

And then in a twinkling to get away from the noise

I went to the beach in hopes of shopping for toys.

As I woke the next day and walked down to mass

The quiet, the peace, no schedule - alas.

The feeling of Christmas, that's all that I need,

forget the decor or my cute jacket of tweed.

Forget all the shopping, forget the stress of the store,

forget holiday crafts, forget the festive decor.

Remember my blessings, remember of the things that I should,

Thank God for my family and all that is good.

Just for a minute, everything seemed right.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

Wishing you all the merriest of Christmases and hoping you are enjoying your family and what is really important!

~♥ Merry CHRISTmas ♥~

12/24 - I added a few more pictures of my kitchen at the bottom of the post, so please take a look if you haven't seen them before.
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Thank you all so much for your visits and sweet comments on my last post...I really appreciate it!

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Last weekend I hosted a cookie exchange at my home with some of my dearest friends...I thought I'd share a few pictures with you.

Did you notice "The Farm Chicks Christmas" book?  If you haven't gotten yours, you are missing out...what a darling book.  I found mine at Michaels.

What a wonderful time with dear friends.  We all received a nice selection of cookies...now, if I can just control how many I eat.

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Here are a few pictures of my kitchen at CHRISTmas:

Thank you all so much for your visits during this past year...I'm taking a blogging break until the beginning of 2011.

Have a blessed CHRISTmas, blogging friends.

♥ Kim

Christmas Blessings to All !

Hello everyone,

  I know you are all very busy with all the joys of the season so I am just giving you a quick tour around today. the photos above are of our bath with a few Christmas touches.

This is our family room(photos taken last year but much the same as this year).

Our little garden cottage decked out for Christmas.

Our upstairs sun room of the master bedroom and bath. I love the touches of greenery in it.

Our kitchen before the tree went in the bay window.

our tree

our library-taken from the stairs

library taken from the kitchen/dining room

our bedroom

my bedside table

our veranda back a few weeks ago when we actually had snow- still raining here but snow flurries at least for tomorrow so they say!

guest bedroom

fireplace in  library

Once again I would like to wish you all  Christmas blessings and some quiet time to reflect on the wonderful gift we were given on that first Christmas morning!

I am joining Cindy at My Romantic Home for Show & Tell Friday.

Wishing you and yours all the joy of the season!

Carolyn