Winter Wonderland

     My goal this year was to use silver, white, turquoise and jewel tones to create a winter look that wouldn't be screaming at me to take it down immediately after Christmas. My family has always teased me about wanting to take the tree down as the last present is opened. I really do put things away very quickly because I'm usually so sick of looking at them. I hope that maybe this year I've used a few things that can stay out through the winter. The vintage silver tray and compote were my mother's. I've used them on the library table at the top of the stairs. A mercury glass turquoise votive, silver and white seashell balls and a lidded jar full of jewel tone ornaments add a bit of color to this part of the house.

The opposite side of the table holds a snowy white church

and a collection of sparkling trees.

The book was a favorite of my children's.

 It brings back many memories.

I don't think you can ever go wrong when you add vintage postcards.

     My china cabinet is a bit unusal this year. The fox was a HomeGoods find. I bought it thinking it would look so cute curled up under the tree, until I realized that I couldn't have a tree on the floor with the new puppy. Wouldn't that fox tail be fun to chew on?? So, I put some fresh greenery on top of the cabinet and added the fox, a wintery birdhouse, some snowballs and an icy wreath. I know the fox is a little large for the spot, but I don't care...I like him.

     The cloche holds a reindeer of my grandmother's and an ornament from my in-law's just to add a little of the turquoise to this space.

     I did buy a new wreath for the wall above the stairway. It isn't showing up in the picture the way it really looks. Our walls are a fairly dark taupe and the wreath is heavily snow covered greenery with pinecones. I wanted something I could leave out all winter and this is perfect.

I am joining Marty @ A Stroll Thru Life for Table Top Tuesday

Kim @ Savvy Southern Style for Wow Us Wednesdays and

Susan @ A Southern Daydreamer for Outdoor Wednesday

Please take time to visit our hostesses!

Christmas Traditions

     Saturday, for the first time in many, many years, we went to St. Charles, MO to get in the spirit of Christmas. St. Charles is just outside of St. Louis and a quaint town with a beautiful Historic District full of shops, restaurants and brick streets. We hadn't been since our children were young, so with the weather perfect (it was 60 degrees) and a day with no plans, we took off early to enjoy Christmas Traditions in St. Charles.

Most of the shops were in buildings like the one above.

Everything was decked out beautifully for Chistmas.

We stopped for a look at the old mill.

A blacksmith was busy at work.

     Chestnuts were roasting over an open fire. The lovely lady in the cape was one of the "flower girls". She walked through town with her flower basket. She handed me "her card" which you could see children collecting from all of the characters.

I loved this Santa.

     This is the "Sweet Tooth Fairy". Until this year, for the past 5 years, she (Laura Coppinger) has been hired by the city to be the Sugar Plum Fairy. She was evidently one of the most popular and well-loved characters. According to news reports, Coppinger's problems began when she was sent by the city to take a drug test. After she filled a cup with her sample, she flushed the toilet, which is against the regulations. She said she used a curse word after she was told she would need to provide another sample. According to the Rules of Conduct, "Christmas Characters don't know naughty words" so she was not allowed to be the Sugar Plum Fairy this year. Two of the businesses, a candy shop and a cookie shop, hired her to be the Sweet Tooth Fairy instead as people were so upset about her not being the Sugar Plum Fairy. She was darling and human. How silly.

     It was a wonderful day. It was also very crowded. I was surprised at how many were there with small children in strollers. The brick streets and sidewalks, stores with steps and many businesses with signs that said "no strollers" made this seem like an impossible task in my opinion. Some of the stores were so crowded that we couldn't get in the door. So, my suggestion if you live anywhere near St. Charles, take time to visit. It is wonderful. I also suggest that this is one place you don't want to take a stroller.

     I also had to tell you about my cupcake. The picture above is from the website of Jilly's Cupcake Bar. I didn't take a picture of mine because I ate it too fast. Mine was actually better looking that this one, the frosting covered the entire top and it was huge. This is called the Bee Sting. It is vanilla cake with honey lemon curd filling and topped with lemon cream cheese, toasted almonds and a lemon candy dust. The top had a piece of white chocolate that looked like honeycomb. Jilly's has several locations in St. Louis and also had them for sale at a shop in St. Charles. Jilly's won Cupcake Wars on the Food Network and I certainly understand why. My cupcake was over $6 and worth every penny! Take a look at the Jilly's website, you won't believe these flavors!

  

Simple Holiday Salad and My Sister's Table

     For the past few years, my husband, son and I have spent Thanksgiving at home, just the 3 of us. With family scattered, it was just the way it worked out. We really didn't mind, most years we just ordered our meal from Cracker Barrel because I wasn't going to cook all that food for 3 people. This year, when my sister invited us to her house (about an hour and half away) we said yes. She cooked, I cooked, and while both of us had one of our kids who couldn't make it, we did have 4 of our 6. One of the things I took was my mother's very easy recipe for Cranberry Relish/Salad. I don't like the "normal" cranberry sauce, but I like this and it is so simple to make.

Ingredients:

2 bags of fresh cranberries, rinsed

2 oranges, washed and with just the stem end removed

2 cans crushed pineapple, drained

1 cup celery, chopped

1 cup (or more) nuts-chopped (walnuts or pecans)

1 1/2 cups sugar

In a food processor, coarsely chop the cranberries,

place them in a large bowl.

Next, place the oranges in the food processor

and chop them peeling and all. Add to

cranberries in the bowl.

Chop the celery, add to the mix.

Add the cans of drained pineapple.

Add the sugar and the nuts and mix well.

This is a colorful and really fresh tasting salad/relish.

 It not only works well for Thanksgiving,

it is also perfect for Christmas.

     It was the first holiday meal my sister and I had been together without our parents. My dad was in Florida and my mom has now been gone a year and a half.

My sis had the table set beautifully.

She used my mom's china, sterling flatware and crystal.

We had all the trimmings, way too much food and a really great day!

I am joining Susan @ Between Naps on the Porch

for Tablescape Thursday, and

Michael @ Designs by Gollum for Foodie Friday

I'll Have a Blue Christmas...

     It has been a busy few days at our house. I'm sure the rest of you have been decking the halls, putting up the outside lights, shopping, wrapping or at least thinking about doing some of those things as Christmas suddenly seems as if it is almost here. We decided to do things a little differently this year and "walk on the wild side" by adding some blue lights to the mix. We have only used white lights outside for more years than I can remember. The above picture is the right side of our front porch. I always hang out my old skates, a vintage lantern and some lights, greens and berries.

    The left side of our small front porch has our twig trees and a sleigh that my husband found at an auction for $15 this summer. I filled it with fresh greenery and a few more blue lights. Ignore the roping, it is so windy here that we just can't get it to stay put. The large wreath above our garage is also blue this year. It was surprising to see that several of our neighbors mixed blue in with their white lights this year. There is a blue glow in the neighborhood.

     I decided to use the blue outside, because I was using the blue inside! With the puppy (she is 11 weeks old now) I knew that we couldn't have our regular tree. I bought this silver tinsel tree at an auction for $1 this summer. It isn't as tall as what we normally use, so I could sit it up on a table. So far, the pup hasn't discovered the packages. There are way too many shoes, toys and people to chew on.

     I knew I wanted to use turquoise with the silver. The topper is a variety of silver twigs and sprays along with three turquoise fan shaped pieces. I wired them together and then added a single turquoise peacock. I like to use more than one ribbon color, so my bow is layered with turquoise ribbon and a silver/jewel toned ribbon. I also added royal blue, hot pink and purple ornaments to the tree. You can find instructions to make both bows and tree toppers on my sidebar.

A mix of silver wrapping papers tied with both colors of ribbon finishes the look.

     Last year I put 1300 lights on my tree. This tinsel tree has one strand of lights wound around the center "trunk" of the tree. The tinsel sparkles from just those few white lights. I also put fewer ornaments so that the tree would be more visible. It was like taking a vacation from tree decorating this year. I have to admit, I loved the fact it only took an hour to decorate instead of the normal 8 or more. I may never go back to my usual look!

I hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving. I'll be around to visit you soon!

I'm joining Susan @ A Southern Daydreamer for Outdoor Wednesday and

 Kim @ Savvy Southern Style for Wow Us Wednesdays.

 Please take time to visit our hostesses!

It's Beginning to Sound a Lot Like Christmas...

     Every year at this time, I try to make a music playlist of Christmas songs that are not "traditional" but touch my heart in some way. I have many Christmas CDs that I play often, but I love finding new or at least "new to me" holiday music. I thought I'd share my playlist for this year. I found all of the songs on iTunes. You can click on the ones that are highlighted to hear them. Enjoy.

The Heart of Christmas-Matthew West
Bring Christmas Home-Lee Greenwood
I Pray-Benjamin Utecht & Jim Brickman
Day After Christmas-Matthew West
Christmas Just Does This to Me-Matt Wertz
When Love Was Born-Mark Schultz
Christmas Eve-Benjamin Utecht
Christmas Spirit-Richard Marx
Give This Christmas Away-Matthew West & Amy Grant
When the Rain Turns to Snow-Lee Greenwood
The Blessings-Alabama
It Could Happen Again-Collin Raye
December Makes Me Feel This Way-Dave Koz
Christmas Eve With You-Glee Cast Version