zoom in

It bothers me a little to rip down all the Thanksgiving decorations so soon after I finished putting them out.  I would rather like to read a good book in such lovely surroundings and enjoy the fruits of my labor.  But Christmas is fast approaching and so is out-of-town company, so, off with barely enjoyed and on with the new. A few weeks ago I spotted some Christmas lights at Big Lots.  I remembered getting very frustrated last year with strands of 200 lights where half the strand worked, and, other strands that worked 1/2 the time.  I reminded myself most of those lights were probably 20 years old or better.  So after that conversation with myself, I bought PINK lights for the tree.  As long as I was making the change, I thought it should be something obvious. This, of course, starts a chain reaction.  I have ornaments from the years when the tree was red and gold, and the years it was white and silver, and even some from the years when it was pal...

If you read the previous post, you saw the table where half my guests will be seated for Thanksgiving dinner.  Now let me show you where the other half will have their meal. Because the dining room has a fireplace, I chose the foyer so the rest of my guests could be seated next to a fireplace as well. I used the red toile dishes in this room because they worked well with the rest of the décor. The napkin rings with the orange and red seeds have been previously used for a another Thanksgiving feast with lime green napkins.  This time red worked best with the centerpiece. All the flowers for this arrangement were 80 % off at Michael’s.  I added a few cones made from the yellowed pages of an old book.  The container comes from Hobby Lobby.  It is a wooden box with slated sides and a handle.  Purchased it at for 1/2 the original price.  I lined it with burlap and arranged the flowers in desert floral foam. Look closely and you will see the red w...

As I mentioned earlier, I am expecting about 20 for Thanksgiving dinner so I am setting one table in the dining room and another in the foyer. Because the dishes on each table are different I focused on the reds and oranges of Fall on one table and the browns and golds on the other one. Let’s take a look in the dining room first. These dishes were the starting point.  To pull in the Autumn colors I picked up some dessert plates at Pier 1.  They were purchased with bonus coupons so that was a guilt free purchase.    There were four designs and I purchased two of each.  Then I found complementary dessert plates at World Market and used them alternately on the table. I found pillar candles at Hobby Lobby in the same golden color as the plates.  They were 50% off in the rush to clear the shelves for Christmas.  Everything else was something I had or could pick up for free…like pinecones. The books were something I had folded for another occasion....