Tuesday, January 31, 2017

Winter in the Foyer and Living Room Part 1





Hello Sweet Friends,


Hope most of you are having way
better temps that the last few weeks.
Can you believe this is the last
day of January????  Yet it seems
like Christmas was eons ago!  lol

We have had the feel of Winter here
 since last Friday which has been
 a bit refreshing for us. Back to a 
high of 76 tomorrow tho, course,
 even that is cooler than before.....

Spent most of the day cooking and
 watching HGTV (since I can see 
the TV from the kitchen). I made
some Brocoli cheese soup, some
Peanut Butter energy bites, and a
colombian dish called
 "Beef Bistec". 
Got the last 2 recipes from my 
daughter, she has already made 
them and said they were great!
I have only tasted the Beef Bis-
tec, we will be having it for din
din tonight, but the taste was 
great, so looking forward to
having it tonight. We had the
 Brocoli soup last night and I
 tried out the PB bites at Break-
fast and really liked them too.  

I love to cook when it is cold
outside, it warms the house and
it just seems the best time for 
cooking as far as I am concerned.
Many recipes are one pot meals, 
which means less clean up and
 that works for me!!  lol

My dad was a Chef and he and
my grandparents owned a diner
together.....and when I got older
and started cooking I used to tell
my Dad Now, I know why you 
love to cook....cause you always
have someone to clean up after
you.....I could love to cook like
that too..........the worst part is
the clean up...........
A few times when he visited
he would make things for us,
which were wonderful but after-
wards the kitchen would be a 
huge mess....and guess who
got to clean it up.........lol


Thought I would share some
Photos of this years Winter
Foyer and Living room.
We are really enjoying all
the neutrals and a more 
pared down look.......
Just seems to so fitting
for Winter.................




I tried to crop this pic but it just
looked wierd, so just left them
as is.....
This is what you see when you
step in our front door. Still
loving my new lil table.




I posterized this pic cause it made the 
white floral pick look more like it
 should, but it doesn't look the same
 here for some reason.  Anyway, it 
has some silver and irridescent 
qualities to it for some glitz.







Found these lil Tree ornaments a few
years ago, and found some more this
year.  You can't really tell in the pic
but they have a lil bit of glitter on
them and really look pretty.  So 
added one to the wreath........
I hung the rest of the windows,
but the pic really didn't come out
well, so left it out, but they do 
look quite cute........





If you go straight down our foyer 
you wind up in the family room.
If you go to the left that is our
 living room which you will see
 more of in these pictures.  If you
look closely on the left of the pic
you can see a hutch and that is
our dining room, 





Now you are entering...
 the Living room. I have gone with 
neutral colors with a touch of 
blue here and there.





Added a bit of glitz and glam 
in this room too.
With the silver dish, key, candle and 
antique looking Christmas balls...........




I got these Christmas balls a few years
 back after Christmas,so the first time I
 used them was for Winter,  so now I keep
 them just as a Winter decoration.




Got silver mercury glass candle dish
 at the same time......






Like that it can be used like a dish 
or a candle......





and here is a long time 
trusty decorating friend,
Beauregard.


Glad you could stop in.....
and hope you have a really
great rest of the week.
Keep your light shing brightly!




Love, Hugs and
Last day of January Blessings,

at 6 comments:

Saturday, January 28, 2017

Sunday -Quotes to Ponder #10 - At times of Loss


























Happy Sunday
Sweet Friends,

Hope yall are doing well
this fine morning.....


Here's Todays Quote...............



“At least at times of loss, 
we are reminded of our priorities, 
of our many blessings. 
In times of gain, 
we can so often lose our way.” 



Isn't that the truth, we can all take
so much about our lives for granted,
and lose track of the things that are
really important in life......
Guess that is why the bible says:

It is better to go to a house of mourning 
than to go to a house of feasting, 
for death is the destiny of everyone; 
the living should take this to heart.
Ecclesiastes 7:2


I know everytime I have to go to a
funeral it causes me to think and
ponder about my life and priorities
 and definitely awakens me once
 again to all the blessings God has
 bestowed on me and also makes me
 so grateful that I know my eternal 
destination is Heaven one day.
I don't remember that every 
happening after a party or fun
 time.... as sweet as those are!


Happy Pondering!!
Love, Hugs, and
Restful Blessings,

at 2 comments:

Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Thankful Thursday Jan. 26, 2017, fun with Hyacinths


 The grass withers and the flowers fall,
 but the word of our God endures forever.”
Isaiah 40:8 NIV


Greetings Sweet Friends,
Hope you have all had a lovely week.


I think that ours has been lovely....lol
I am trying to remember what all has
gone on this week,  had to scroll thru
 my thankful list a minute, and yes,
it has been............lol

 One thing I got to enjoy this week
 was watching these hyacinths grow 
amazingly fast.  When I brought it
home Sunday before last I forgot 
to take a picture, but if you look 
at the picture after #2, you will see 
there are 2 pods. When I brought
it home the big one looked just
like the smaller pod, and 2 days
later it looked like the header
picture, could not believe it grew
 so fast. Then once the pods get 
bigger they start opening up and
 the fragrance is heavenly. If
you have never gotten any, they
are really fun and they were only
 $4 vase and all, at the grocery 
store.  Anyway, took some pics
 almost daily.
If you look at the next to the
last pic where the flowers look
 sort of yellow, it was because
it got so heavy it fell out of the
 vase onto the table top and I
 didn't know it....so it was out 
of the water awhile, and even 
tho I put it back in guess the 
damage was already done and
 it just got looking worse,  so
finally had to cut it off and
now just have the small one,
but it was fun and fragrant
while it lasted.......lol
So thought I would let you
 see the beauty too.

 Well, on with my post.


I am thankful


#1
that my daughter-in-love and
Granddaughter got to go and
visit my daughter for the week-
end and that they had a great
time, and that they made it
to Charleston and back safe
and sound, especially on 
Sunday with all the bad
weather.


#2
that all our family faired well
in the bad storms on Sunday.
We were under Tornado watch
for about 40 mins. but thank-
fully we had none.  PTL







#3
for our home. Was just walking
across the house and had this
overwhelming feeling for how
much I love our home.  That
happens every so often....and
in March on my hubbies birth-
day we will have lived here
for 36 years.




#4
for a really longg phone call with
one of my dear friend's, Becky.
 We have not talked or seen each
other since sometime in late 
November or early December,
 so it was great to catch up







#5
for my techy husband, cause
 without him I would never be 
able to continue blogging.
He figured out how to put
the new featured post gadget 
on for me this week.
Thanks Honey!!







#6
for Salted Caramel Heath Bar cake
 from our local Publix bakery. 
 It is amazing!
#7
for a new President who has
 consulted and thankfully.....listened to
 highly respected biblical leaders in our
 country, and realizes that if we want
 God to Bless America, then we have
 to do things according to his biblical
 standards. It doesn't mean we have to 
like him personally or agree with his 
every decision.....cause we don't agree 
totally with every decision that most 
people make......and that is life........




With paint daubs affect.


#8
that my daughter and son-in-love
 got over their stomach flu bug
 very quickly, guess it was just
a 24 hr. bug., Thankfully!


 #9
for sleeping a whole 9 hrs. and 
 feeling great today! For some
 reason I have been waking up 
about 5 or 5:30 every morning
 and can't go back to sleep, 
so was having a lil sleep
 deprivation this week.





 #10
that we got to see our son, Scott
 yesterday when he came to get lil 
darling, as he has been quite busy
 and out of town a lot
#11
for Scott's thougthfulness....
he brought his dad coffee and an
 iced coffee drink for me from
Starbucks....so that was sweet.


Paint daubs affect



#12
for the delight of watching hundreds
of crows (we think it was) fly over
us as we were in the backyard today.
and for about 50, I would say Robins
(we think, as they had a red breast)
that were in our yard and our neigh-
bors yard yesterday afternoon when
we walked Scott and the lil darling
out into the front yard. I have seen
Robins in our yard before but not
all that often, so to see a whole
flock was quite interesting!
Love these divine surprises.....


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
at 7 comments:

Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Some simple ways to add a bit of Glitz and Glamour to your decorating



Happy Tuesday Sweet Friends,


Hope this find those of you who have
 been blasted by these Winter storms
 out from under the piles of snow and 
so hoping none of you had damage
 from these storms on Sunday.

We and our family faired well, and
 it wasn't as bad in our area as we 
originally thought it would be, altho
 we were under tornado watch for
 about 45 mins. but thankfully we
 didn't get anything!!

I am officially finished with our 
Winter look home, thank heavens.
Most of it was done, but needed to
get some leftover decorations put
away and then get the leaf out of 
the dining room table and find a
new place to stash it....then put a
 tablecloth on and do a centerpiece. 
Happy to say  All Done.....Finally!!

Think I told yall before, that I
 typically do dark reds, blues and 
greens, but this year I just wasn't in
 the mood for that, so I wanted a
 more neutral look, and a bit more
 glitz and glam for a refreshing
change.  So used a lot of gold with
 my green and white this year, and
 we have really been enjoying it.

 So thought I would share a few
simple ideas for adding some
glitz and glam to your home.





#1
Look around your home in the other
 rooms or in your stash,if you have one....
and see if you have anything that is brass,
 gold, or silver. 

  I wasn't even looking when I just walked
 by this cute serving cart in my bedroom
 that we use as a side table for our love seat
 and thought wonder how that would look 
by the sofa in the family room to add some
glitz and glam for a nice change.

 It was my late Mother-in-law's.
We gave it to her as a birthday present 
years ago and my sweet sister-in-law
 gave it to us back when we were doing
our daughter's Wedding reception at our
 home. I used it to put her wedding cake
 on.......and it looked lovely.............







#2
Use any sparkly item on the
table top.....gold silver or whatever.

 I added more glitz here by using a gold
glittered sequined Pear that is really a 
Christmas ornament, so it need not
be an expensive item.










This snowflake candle holder is
a perfect way to add some glitz
and glam....since it is gold on
 the inside  and mostly silver on
 the outside, and puts off the most
beautiful shadows when  he sun
shines thru it.......
See the dining room table behind
the sofa........
#3
Add things that are glittered or shiny
and candles work well too,
of course.

Well here is a close up of the table
vignette.  Had to round up whatever
I had that was leftover from all
the other decorating.  lol






Kept the irridescent beads out from my
 christmas decorations, cause thought they 
would look elegant and add a bit of
 glitz and glamour somewhere, and
so added them here......







You can't tell real well, but that netting
 has some glitter on it to add a bit of 
sparkle.

It is hard to tell unless you click on
the pics to enlarge them, if you
click on just one pic it should
enlarge them all...............






I put a posterized affect on this picture 
cause even tho the candle (on the right)
was burning it really didn't show up
 in the original picture...so decided to 
just make a fun picture.





#4
You can use glittered flowers!

My real fresh tulips finally 
bit the dust. (May they rest in
peace) lol

So replaced them with these pretty
 faux hydrangeas that are glittered
just perfectly...enough to look
beautiful but not tacky.   lol
and then the silver star next to
the flowers adds that lil bit more
glitz and glam.





 Also stuck
 in some pine greenery and pine cones to 
complete the winter look and add a lil
contrast to the white.






Decided to posterize this one too,
 just for the fun of it.








Here is a shot of the whole family room
 and dining room, with all the table tops 
you have already seen. Can't believe 
this chair seems like it is so far away
 from the sofa but it really isn't.....
optical illusion, I suppose..............







#5
Adding a throw or pillow that
is made of velvet or has that
look of velvet...will add a
 glamourous looks as well.



 The throw is just sooo
soft, cozy and warm and
I love, love, love it..........
It also has a nice creamy
 neutral lamb wool look on
 the opposite side that adds
 texture when needed........




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