Sheila Turnage DAR Award and Book Signing

We are fortunate to have an award winning author in our area. Sheila Turnage is the author of several books including the entertaining Three Times Lucky and Ghosts of Tupelo Landing. If you haven't read them, check them out today. You will laugh your bottom off!

My local DAR chapter awarded Sheila with the DAR Woman in the Arts award in Literature in January and yesterday we had a celebration for that award and for her newest book Ghosts of Tupelo Landing. She graciously gave us a reading and signed books for all the attendees.

My friend Ashley of Little Sister Cakes provided the delicious "map cake". Some of the attendees had two slices it was so delicious! 

In the first book, Three Times Lucky, Mo and her friend Dale come to her family's cafe and find that both of her adoptive parents are not there. One of the very wise rules is to not operate the oven so the daily special is Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches and organic vegetable soup (this can be microwaved). We took this scene in the book as inspiration for our menu and decor. The arrangements were a vegetable bowl and a vase of sunflowers and peacock feathers.

The vegetables were in a bowl that was made from a magnolia tree that was struck by lightning. The tree stood in the chapter house front yard for generations before it met it's demise. The ladies wanted to maintain some of the memory and found a talented artist who honed the wood and hollowed it out. I wish I had a better picture of the bowl. It is beautiful. The vegetables I used were bell peppers, potatoes, mushrooms, brussel sprouts, squash, zucchini, corn, eggplant, artichoke, string beans, and carrots.

The menu included peanuts, fudge, chex mix, ritz crackers with peanut butter and jelly, and...

...delicious peanut butter and jelly bars. The bars on the right were made with grape jelly and the bars on the left were made with strawberry jelly.

Beans and rice were in mason jars as were tea lights. I love mason jars and have a collection of sizes and colors that we use for everything from food, to markers/pens, to flowers and candles. They are so versatile!

With a projected attendance number of anywhere from 30 to 100 (we had 91!) I felt it was important to have separate beverage and food stations to prevent bottlenecks. The beverages were lemon/lime infused water and Mountain Dew punch. Mountain Dew was also on the menu at Miss Lana's cafe. We were fortunate to have old coca-cola crates, soda bottles and a coca-cola cooler from the 1930's. All of these were used for decor. Visit my cooking blog to get some recipes from the event. Also go out and buy both of these delightful books!

DAR Hostessing

I was head hostess for the first time for our March chapter meeting for my local Daughters of the American Revolution chapter. The program was on the "real" Edenton Tea Party. We learned a lot about what really happened and who was really there. The oral history passed along had a lot of errors, but historians believe they have determined the truth. For the event we decided to have a tea party with no tea to honor the pledge that the Edenton residents made in solidarity with their Boston brethren. For the decor I took advantage of the spring like day to use white, cream, and pink.

I used my childhood tea set as part of the decor. The set has lots of chips from being well-loved but with light pink roses, baby's breath, and white lisianthus it really shines.

The main centerpiece was a large airy arrangement of light pink roses, white lisianthus, and baby's breath. I used my grandmother's tea pitcher. We no longer use it for tea because of it's age, but we do use it for flowers. It's the pitcher that my mother remembers as always having tea ready for the family.

We had lemonade instead of tea, Edenton Tea Party cookies, Sally Lunn bread with jam and butter, cucumber sandwiches, and pimento cheese sandwiches for our menu. Check out my cooking blog for recipes.

Christmas Decorations 2013

I realize that I only took a few pictures of Thanksgiving decorations but I promise we did celebrate ye old Turkey Day and we did have decorations :-). I guess in my declaration of simplification, I included not taking pictures. Oh well...but back to the declaration of simplification. I decided that life needed to be simpler so this year the decorations were natural when possible and much more streamlined. Boy was it enjoyable! No stress about making elaborate garlands, no budget busting, just simple natural pieces that were put up (and taken down!) easily.

The sled in the middle of the bookshelf was something that my grandmother always put out, she passed away several years ago and all of her 5 children got a few decorations from their childhood collection. It's nice to look up and think of the fun Christmas times that we had at Grandma's house.

The mantle is one place that really is simplified compared to years past. I found these gold reindeer at a warehouse sale in town. I got them for a steal and they are perfect for the mantle. The wreath is a simple greenery wreath. I had a ribbon on it, but decided I liked it better plain.

The holly tree came from the warehouse sale as well. I was able to get two of these as well. The pot is terra cotta, I may spray it gold in the future.

On the front door I had another simple green wreath, but I did add a bow to this one. The wreaths were so fresh that they lasted from Thanksgiving weekend to Epiphany. We get our wreaths and tree from the same stand every year and they have never failed.

The flash washes this out a bit, but on top of the Have yourself a merry little Christmas sign is a cute little pin. A few years ago JCPenney had a contest where people went to the store and got pins each day, then entered a code from the back to try to win items. My sister and I were more concerned with getting as many pins as possible, because the collection was great. There were funny pins, beautiful pins, and sweet pins. I wish they would bring the contest or at the very least the pins back.

Again no garland on the stairs this year, but of course we hung the stockings with care!

At a different warehouse sale (yes there's a theme going it seems) I found this cute ice scoop perfect for the holidays.

In middle school, my English teacher read us the book A Cup of Christmas Tea. I fell in love with it. My mother bought me the book and two tea cups and an adorable little tea pot. Her goal was to get me a set that I could use with company, but Hallmark only produced them for two years. Maybe I need to add thrift stores and barns to my warehouse sale trips.

Finally, a picture of the tree. This is the best, most perfect, most beautiful tree we've ever had. Of course we say that every year. The star on top is another item from my Grandmother's house.

This is the dining room table ready for Christmas Morning Brunch. The meal was delicious. I made my first cheese soufflé and it was delicious! The Fresh Market had and always has beautiful roses. Red roses aren't my favorite, but these were such a deep rich red and they were loose buds. Gorgeous! For New Year's Eve (Of course no pic!) I used cream roses and holly in the same vase.

Merry Christmas!!

CPC's 25th Anniversary

Last night my church celebrated it's 25th anniversary at the Hilton. It was a fun night with former pastors back for a visit, delicious food, and a glorious cake by Little Sister Cakes. I was asked to do the decorations for the tables, stage, and cake table. They wanted something simple and elegant. What better colors for a silver anniversary than silver, white, and green. I also used a lot of natural elements.

One of the table decorations was a wooden candlestick spray-painted silver with a globe of baby's breath.

A second table decoration was simply a vase of branches spray-painted silver with rice to anchor. Silver painted leaves were also in the vase.

A third table decoration was a simple cylinder of pine cones with battery operated white lights. (Not the greatest picture and I evidently only took one.)

There were three reserved tables that had simple arrangements of blush roses, baby's breath, and greenery.

For the stage I used two large tulip shaped glass vases that had curly willow spray-painted silver with cream roses, bells of ireland, and baby's breath.

For the cake table I used grape vine that I found in the woods behind my home that was sporadically spray-painted with silver. I strategically placed silver leaves and pine cones to appear to grow out of the vine.

Year in Review: 2012-2013

As I mentioned in the last post, it's been a busy two years. I thought I'd post some pics of the few times I decorated (and remembered to take photographic evidence).

Christmas 2012
I took two pine garlands and one mixed greens garland all from Lowe's (they were on huge sale Black Friday) and combined them for thickness. I also added some magnolia from the woods and some greenery from our tree to make a very fragrant and natural garland for the staircase.

Our annual Christmas Eve luminarias and candles in the window. I believe I've mentioned this before, but the local Ronald McDonald House sells packages of luminarias as a fundraiser each year and we always buy several packs. It's a beautiful look and a great way to raise money.

Independence Day 2013
I don't have a flag pole, but did make use of festive bunting. I also found some beautiful hibiscus trees at Sam's Club. They are still doing well though they decided they like the backyard a little better. I finally got the little leaner to stand up straight too.

As you can see, it was not a year of a lot of photography. Perhaps I can post some before and after pics of the house. There has been a lot of landscaping and painting going on since May 2012...

Happy Halloween and Welcome Back!

It's been some time since I've updated this blog, finishing grad school, starting a "real job", moving, and other life have gotten in the way. Fall is in the air though so I was in the mood to decorate and to update the blog.

The foyer has a simple, but welcoming greeting. I've been looking all summer and fall for my favorite Yankee candle flavor, Farmer's Market and finally found it at our local Hallmark yesterday. I probably should have bought them all, as they only had three.

 

The new house was built in the 1940's (the old one was built in the late 70's) so there is great detailing everywhere. The living room mantel is one example of the detailing. I spent one late summer night last year painting the fan detail with a tee-niny paint brush, but it was worth it. The good news is I can neglect dusting for a month and people will think the dust is intentional :-).

 

The neighbor's sweet cat likes our front porch because of the sun, she kindly posed for a Halloweeny picture.

Happy Halloween!

Fall is Here

It has been a busy summer so I haven't done much in the way of arranging until recently. It was time for a new arrangement for church and a wreath for the door at home.

I just created one arrangement because the stage area gets a lot of use in the fall with our fall fest and the children beginning to practice for the Christmas program. Luckily this arrangement only looks heavy. I used a mix of dried and artificial flowers in this piece. The eucalyptus, seed pods, yarrow, and cat tails are all dried. The mums, dahlias, artichokes, and leaves are artificial. The container is a barrel, which I think is fun for fall. 

Our church is hosting the area presbytery meeting this month so I was asked to make an arrangement for the foyer too. I found this great large cornucopia at the pottery several weeks ago and just had to have it. I decided this was the perfect use for it. I created some asymmetry with an arrangement containing a cream rose, a pomegranate, a seed pod, an artichoke, an ornamental cabbage, some leaves, and wheat.

I had three more pomegranates and some chinese lantern flowers that I removed from their branches. I placed these items in a glass bowl. I love these colors!

After the fun at church, I was in the mood to make something for the house. I used the rest of my wheat and some red and orange grass. I added a curled bit of bamboo for interest on the right side of the wreath. I used a greenery base. This picture was taken with my phone so it's a little fuzzy.

Happy Fall!