HomeGoods Giveaway at My Romantic Home

Cindy at My Romantic Home is hosting a $50 HomeGoods Giveaway at her blog.  I absolutely adore HomeGoods, only recently discovered a larger store close to me.  Before I only knew it as the back section in a local TJ Maxx store. I had no idea of the selection of goodies until I saw it in its own store, which is where I bought this charming snowglobe. Isn't it sweet? Very Victorian, I think, and it was all of $12.99. That's what makes HomeGoods one of my favorite places, not only are there tons of unique dishware and home decor, but it's all priced so reasonable. Dreaming of a tiered snack holder but not seeing it at the big box places? HomeGoods has it, about a dozen of them, pick the one you like, they're probably no more than $15-$20.   And look, that's where the other ladies found their cloches and beverage dispensers and so many other delightful things. You'll want to check out the lovely items Cindy and her daughter bought for $50 at HomeGoods, they came home with some nice pieces.

So Santa Baby, throw a little HomeGoods love my way.  And since it is the Christmas season, I'll wish it for all the rest of blogland as well.

Thanksgiving Reflections

Some Thanksgiving celebrations go smoothly. You have your shopping done the weekend before, the house is clean, and most of the dishes are prepared the day before. All you have to do that actual morning is stuff the bird and put it in the oven to bake while the family starts the day off with a special breakfast. This Thanksgiving was not one of those.  We definitely put the effort into it. But the groceries got bought late, my hubby, who does the most of the cooking, wanted to try a couple new dishes. Errands kept getting in the way, his mom needed his help with shopping and other errands earlier in the week, I worked up through Wednesday, and one thing after another meant that we didn't get anything done early.  We are used to the occasional bumps in planning, so we remained calm and carried on. My hubby left me to make breakfast while he picked up his mom, who does less and less driving on her own. Okay, I can handle french toast and scrambled eggs, my youngest daughter jumped in and breakfast went fairly smoothly.

After we ate, hubby put the bird in the oven and started cleanup. Wouldn't you know it, the sink backed up.  I don't know about other sink configurations, but when ours gets backed up, there's nothing to do but crawl under there and remove the pipes until you have that pesky area just before it goes into the wall cleaned out, that's where the clog usually is.  So that took over an hour, and in the meantime our bird got a bit browner in the skin than we intended. Oops. It was still fine, not quite at the burnt stage yet, we tented it and pulled it out 3 hours later.

With the late start and the plumbing emergency, I didn't get as much done for table decorations as I had originally intended. I did pull down the good china and silverware, but forgot to put out the crystal water glasses I intended, and everyone grabbed a glass from the cabinet, just like it was any other day. Nothing wrong with that. I put up a few decorations as a centerpiece before my family instructed me to remove them, as they were getting in the way of the food. Really, is it just because I haven't done a centerpiece on the table for past dinners that it seems 'in the way' when I attempt it now? We have got to get used to working around it. I suspose that will happen about the same time I get everything together and don't find that I forgot to allow for a butter dish and am passing around a plastic tub of margarine next to the good china. Eventually. We as a family shared a wonderful meal and followed up with a game played with 5 mismatched dice borrowed from 3 different board games. It was a really good day.

As a final note, I found this lovely compote the other day at Goodwill.  It has a light irridescense to it, is an amber color, and I'm wondering if it is Carnival glass. This picture is dark because the lighter pictures didn't show the slight irridescent gleam to it. Anyone know anything about it?  It's probably one of the cheaper productions, I did some research on it, and the patterns on true Carnival glass are very intricate, this one is not nearly as detailed. I still think it falls into the category, although it might be a more recent take on it. Really hard to know for sure, so good thing I like it for itself, and at $15 it didn't break the bank.

I know I'm posting this very late in the game, but considering Thanksgiving was yesterday, and that's when I set the table, for the minor amount I actually set it, this is it. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday, no matter how many bumps you encountered along the way.

Linking up with Between Naps on the Porch for Tablescape Thursday.

Displaying Gratitude part 2

In assembling Thanksgiving tablescapes, I played quite a bit with my elements.  I used my fabric pumpkin, and pulled out a cornucopia I had. I filled it with sunflowers from another arrangement and really liked the look of it.  A smaller birdhouse filled in an empty spot, and a lime green candle provided a pop of complementary cool color. I really like this grouping.

Really digging that green with the bright orange colors and the dark yellow of the sunflowers. It was somewhat of a whim to include it, too.

I changed out the sunflower cornucopia for a fabric turkey I've owned for years. It was purchased for about $5 at Big Lots several years ago, and I've just always liked him. He's a primitive rag stuffed gobbler, who always warms my heart when he gets pulled out. I had a close-up of him, but I guess I didn't load it.

Hopefully everyone is right on schedule with their Thanksgiving Day preparations.  I'm linking up with Marty for Tablescape Tuesday at A Stroll Thru Life.  I am also joining Cindy at My Romantic Home for Show and Tell Friday.

Displaying Gratitude

Thanksgiving Day is a jewel, to set in the hearts of honest men; but be careful that you do not take the day, and leave out the gratitude.  ~E.P. Powell

I spent a frustrating hour the other morning in search of a fall tablecloth I recently rememberd owning. It is a distinctly fall tablecloth, leaves all over in browns and golds, it doesn't really work for any other season. I never found that tablecloth, but my linen closet is now a lot more organized.  In search of that cloth, I came across several more elements which would contribute to the Thanksgiving vignette I wanted to arrange. 

 I spent some time putting together a variation of looks for the perfect Thanksgiving grouping using different elements. I really like this one, but have another I'll share for next post.  This grouping includes a new fabric pumpkin, plus the ceramic pumpkins I've picked up earlier.  To acknowledge the dinner table feel of the centerpiece, I added my new gravy boat set I found on clearance at JCPenneys recently.  The final touch was the wooden church birdhouse, which I wanted to represent the spiritual message of the holiday. I like this final touch a lot.

My new turkey  salt and pepper shakers are taking proud front row here. I've been meaning to get a pair of turkey shakers for years, and can't even tell you why it hasn't happened before now. This year I was looking at fall linens at Ross in August, on one of the hottest days of the year, and in the midst of rows of pumpkin s&p shakers, found these jolly gobblers. I'm sure they'll be featured on our November table for a long while to come.

I am linking up with Marty at A Stroll thru Life for Table Top Tuesday.

Dressing Upwards

It has been a busy past week, and I am very behind getting stuff together for November.  In fact, I just put away the Halloween decorations over the past few days.  Busy working mom, sick with a cold, if you need the excuses, I got them. But it's finally down with the gleeful ghoulies and up with the somber thankfulness of the new season.

I picked up this fall wreath several weeks ago at Goodwill, and really like the collection of berries and leaves. I figured I'd add more to it, since it didn't look as lush as I wanted.  So far I've only added this sparkly ribbon from Joann's Fabrics.  I was originally thinking I'd find a grapevine wreath or maybe another leafy wreath to incorporate it into, but looking at it, I'm thinking maybe more a leaf garland, an ivy leaf, like a grape ivy maybe.  It still needs some reshaping as well, I'm not loving the current angular look of it.  Nonetheless, I put it on my door, right next to the final skeleton which still needs returning to the storage area. Yeah, yeah, I'll do that later, I have a teenager nagging me to help her dye her hair a ruby red/auburn.

Before I go to figure out how to mix the six components needed to achieve the exact shade of red hair my daughter desires, I want to share this latest find.  I happened upon it at the Goodwill, and while I don't consider it a big bargain, it was still in its original packaging, and at $10 was probably retail price, I do love it.  The phrase at the bottom is 'A family is a little world created by love.'  That really speaks to me, and I did like the design of the plaque, so it came home with me.  It was a little large for the area I first envisioned it in, so it's now hanging by a closet we use often. Hopefully it won't be in the way there, it's amazing how people can bump into stuff hanging off my walls, but we live in a small condo, so sometimes I have to move things around before they find a practical place for keeps. This one is a keeper, no matter where it lands.

I'm linking to Funky Junk Interiors for Saturday Nite Special.