Christmas all through the House

SO glad to have my dining room back! Loving the new kitchen and butler's pantry as well!

Here's my dining room ready for Christmas Eve Dinner!

 As you can see, we have a small live tree in this room which has white and colored lights and has a Nutcracker Ballet theme.

 The mantle is also decorated with Nutcrackers from the ballet.

At each place there is a nutcracker place card holder, as well as a paper nutcracker tucked into each napkin. I am using my Spode Christmas Tree Grove china which I think fits my Victorian house and dining room perfectly.

Nutcracker salt and pepper shakers stand guard on the table as well!

On the small buffet, my punch bowl and cups are ready for some creamy eggnog.

On the hanging shelf, I have various Christmas pitchers and teapots.

In the Parlor, we have a larger real tree with colored lights and our memory ornaments.

The perfect place to read a good book or look at the Santas on the mantle.

In our sunroom, we have our Bethlehem Village.

The Wise Men coming through the desert, complete with sand dunes.

The Roman Soldiers taking the census at the city gates.

A stable behind the Inn.

A Moravian Star over the manger.

Have a Very Merry Christmas!!!

I will be joining Cuisine Kathleen for Let's Dish, Rustic and Refined and Between Naps on the Porch. 

I've Got Plenty To Be Thankful For!

Just like the Irving Berlin song



Bing Crosby – I've Got Plenty To Be Thankful For - Single Version

As you may know, things changed for me dramatically on Sunday, January 26, 2014! My husband and I walked in the back door and were greeted with a waterfall in our sunroom. As we were screaming and running around, we realized there was also a waterfall in our butler's pantry. Our next door neighbors came over and helped us move our belongings away from the water and a friend who owns a plumbing business sent one of his men out on a cold Sunday night to cut off our water. Then our neighbors helped us mop...and mop... and mop! There was a LOT of water! It was determined that a pipe in one of the upstairs bathrooms had frozen and later thawed and burst. All the water had collapsed the ceilings in both the sunroom and butler's pantry.

Next morning, our insurance agent came over along with our friend who is a historical building contractor. The insurance company OK'd the removal of the vinyl flooring in the sunroom, butler's pantry and kitchen, since it had flooded at least part of all these rooms. Several visits from an adjuster (who got sent to Atlanta during their deep freeze, which delayed our claim for a month or so), we could finally start the repair portion of the project.

We decided that this was as good a time as any to go on and renovate the kitchen, the small mud room attached to it and the butler's pantry. These needed to be renovated, so with everything already being torn up, it seemed like a good time.

BUT all the contents of the Sunroom (which has 4 closets), the Butler's Pantry (which has a walk-in closet), the Kitchen and the Mud Room (which was basically a storage room) had to go into the rest of my house. The Dining Room got filled up first - which made my tablescaping impossible. By the end of the project, the Dining Room looked like Mrs. Haversham's in Great Expectations. The dust of months with the dust of four rooms being sanded added! And NO, I didn't take pictures!!!

But as of a week ago, my Dining Room is back! Just in time for Thanksgiving! I'll be sharing the new room renovations in the next couple of weeks, but for now - here is my Thanksgiving Table! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving everyone!

I will be sharing with the Tablescaping Party at Rustic and Refined.

A Sneak Peak at My New Kitchen

My kitchen is almost finished as well as my butler's pantry and my sunroom only needs painting and a new ceiling fan. But I really don't have everything back in place yet and don't want to give too much away until I can do a full reveal!

But fall is my favorite season and not being able to fully deck my house out for fall is really getting to me!!! SO, I falled up a section of the kitchen and want to share that today!

When you walk into my kitchen on the back wall (where the washer and dryer were) are upper cabinets with glass doors above lower cabinets. On the left is the door for the new Laundry Room (formerly known as the Mud Room) and on the other side is a window (which makes it hard to take pictures), Here it is...

As you can see, I went with a brownish red called "Cinnamon Stick" for our newly plastered kitchen walls with off-white all new cabinets and cherry butcherblock countertops. My floors are the original pine which was covered by LOTS of layers of linoleum. These are the only glass front cabinets in the kitchen. I need to hide my stuff in the rest! But in these I have lots of my Evesham china on display.

I still love this pattern as much as when I picked it out when I got married! You can read my post about it HERE.

Now to the Fall Decorations!

I added a few fall tea towels and a wire turkey full of fruit. Then a pumpkin cheeseboard and a new favorite platter - Woodland Turkey by Spode. I actually got this for my birthday in February along with a chip and dip and gravy boat and stand all in the Woodland Turkey pattern.  As you can see I look forward to fall all year long! 

Next is an off-white turkey from Walmart. I had actually made a vow last year not to buy any more ceramic pumpkins, but now that I have a new off-white kitchen I NEEDED it, right? Also the little gold stemmed pumpkin from Target. 

Lastly, I put out my Spode Woodland Pie Bird. Isn't he cute?

Well, here's hoping that your fall is going great! I hope you have enjoyed the sneak peak of the kitchen. Just another peak before I go! 

I love the beadboard sides of my cabinets!

I will be joining Tablescape Thursday at Between Naps on the Porch.

♪♫ The Sound of Music! ♫♪

First of all, let me repairs/renovations on my kitchen, butler's pantry, laundry room and sunroom are getting close to being finished, but are still not quite done. All of the "stuff" from those rooms are all over the rest of my house, so tablescaping has not been possible for me, but I will return!

I have been decorating tables other than my own though!

Last Friday night my church sponsored an event to raise money for 5 mission programs. The event was called "An Evening with Dan Truitte." Dan played Rolf in the movie "The Sound of Music" and he is still a wonderful entertainer! I was on the decorating committee.

The evening was at one of our country clubs and we had about 36 tables to decorate. We decided to get as many local roses as possible and decorate with Raindrops on Roses and all of "My Favorite Things."

Nine of our green-thumbed friends contributed about 30 dozen roses from their yard! We put them in small glass vases and put the vases in brown paper bags and tied them with string/twine. Each table had a mirror in the center with roses tied up with string and we surrounded each of these with acrylic "raindrops." We put votive around this for a dreamy candlelight effect.

Red and white are the colors of the Austrian flag, so we used white tablecloths and red napkins.

Outside the country club, an Austrian flag greeted our guests!

The country club had sunflower wreaths on their doors and we hung paper dancers in dirndl and lederhosen - not exactly Rolf and Liesl, but close!

In the foyer, we had a few of our "favorite things" on display - see if you can spot: Bright copper kettles, warm woolen mittens, cream colored ponies, white dresses with blue satin sashes, brown paper packages tied up with string......

We saved the longest stemmed roses for the foyer.

A member of our committee had this toddler size doll and I had a toddler sized lederhosen.

My very old Madame Alexander dolls came in handy. I even tucked some snowflake ornaments in later, but never got pictures of them! Our meal was delicious and ended with, of course, "crisp apple strudel!"

One of our friends even brought her "Maria" jacket and hat!

Some of the children from our church started the evening singing Do Re Mi.

Then Dan entertained us by singing, dancing and telling stories.

He was a hit with fans of all ages!

It was so much fun we hated to say "So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Good Night!"

It was a truly magical evening for a wonderful cause! I had so much fun working with my committee members, Anna, Barbara, Marilyn and Susan! And thanks to my friend Mary for letting me use some of her pictures!

I will be posting this on Between Naps on the Porch for Tablescape Thursday and Cuisine Kathleen for Let's Dish.