The Pottery Barn Holiday Decorating Seminar was great!

I went to the PB Seminar today with my two daughters, Megan and Jenny. We had alot of fun and got some wonderful ideas. The picture above is of the mecury glass candle pillars. They come in varying sizes and range in price from $19.00-$39.00. The had red velvet candles on them and they put the red berries they sell in a spray around them. They looked just wonderful! They used 6 of the pillars though, which would amount to alot. Then They switched out the red candles for silver sparkle candles and switched out the berrie swags for silver, shiny balls on a swag. Absolutely gorgeous. They also did an arrangement on a mantel with their beautiful silk amaryllis, greens and some other silver ornaments. They really knew how to get you excited about decorating!! It was a fun time with the girls. We did a little shopping and then came home and crashed!! Just a note to everyone: PB does these seminars every year all around the country, so check it out next year!

Well Sherri did some Christmas Decorating!!

This is my Willow Tree Nativity Scene. The Bible to the left of the display is my bible I was given in 3rd Grade. I always put it out every Christmas



This is the fireplace in the Great Room. There are alot of stocking this year! I added the 2 son in laws and Teddy, our dog and Cash, Jenny and Kevin's dog! The green antique wooden sled with the Santa on it was painted by me. I used to take decorative painting class and this is my greatest achievement!!



Closeup of the Dining Room Table Decorations.



The whole dining room table decorations.



This is the blue cupboard in my kitchen all decorated with snowmen and a Santa wooden plate.




My Sunroom has a lovely fireplace in it too. So I decorated around my wooden swan.


The Kitchen Fireplace is the all decked out for the holidays!


I decorated the kitchen granite ledger very simple this year. Candles, some shiny Christmas balls and I'll add some magnolia leaves from my tree closer to the holidays.


I had to show off this picture my mother painted for John and I. She does watercolor. I had a card that I had gotten and asked her to put her spin on it and it came out beautiful! This picture doesn't do it justice but it really has alot of detail. I love cardinals and North Carolina has a lot of them. I'm glad she decided to take on the challenge!

That is it so far! I'm not decorating as heavily this year because of the house being on the market. We have yet to put the tree up, but that will be next! Merry Christmas everyone a little early!!

I just won the Bookworm Award!

Lynne at Lynne's Little Corner of the World gave me this Bookworm Award! Thanks, Lynne!

There's a meme that goes with this award. Here's how it works: Open the book closest to you, not your favorite or most intellectual book, but the book closest to you at the moment, to page 56. Write out the fifth sentence, as well as two to five sentences following there.

The book closest to me right now is Sugar Cookie Murder. I am currently reading this book.

The Bascombs would put on the appearance of connubial bliss for the crowd of constituents that hd gathered for the party, but it was all for show.

"Lovely dress, Mrs. Bascomb," Hannah said, admiring the white wool dress with white on white wool dress with white-on-white embroidered snowflakes forming a border around the hem and the neckline. Tiny snowflake earrings made of small diamonds twinkled in her ears, and Hannah suspected the worst. It was a well-know fact that Stephanie bascomb bought herself an expensive new outfit every time she thought her husband was cheating on her. And this time she'd bought diamond earrings, too.

Now I need to tag five others (I could only think of 3) for this award and meme. How about:

http://kays-read-scrap-live.blogspot.com/
http://bookfan-mary.blogspot.com/
http://iyamvixenbooks.blogspot.com/

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

Everyone in our household had a great Thanksgiving! This is a picture of Jenny (on the left-our youngest daughter), myself in the center and Megan (on the right-she is our oldest daughter). I was really tired and exhausted from cooking so I don't look so good. I also have this horrible sinus infection, but the girls insisted they have a picture of the 3 of us. We all went to see Bolt in 3-D at the theater near our house. It is was cute. We usually don't go to the movies on Thanksgiving but the girls decided they wanted to do something different. It was a good day had by all. Today I'm resting pretty much. Everyone have a great evening!

Thanksgiving Preparations

The Thanksgiving preparations are all complete for today! I made an apple pie, a pumpkin pie, the dressing, set the table with my Green Depression Glass, peeled the potatoes and clean up a little. My daughters collect yellow and pink depression glass. One year we used all three colors for Thanksgiving. It looked really pretty!

I had a strange thing happen with the turkey. I thawed out the turkey and I always boil the neck and giblets for stock for my dressing. Well I pulled the neck out of the carcass and I went to pull out the little bag with the giblets and it wasn't there! How could a turkey not have the giblets??? Oh well I used just the neck to made the stock for the dressing. Never had that happen before.

I went to the Dr. this morning and I do have a sinus infection and the start of an ear infection. Good thing I went to the Dr. I've only had one call so far from the office.

Now it's time for me to rest, read and take a nap!!

My Bookclub was Great!

My Bookclub read The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls and tonight we met and discussed it. We had a really great discussion. Everyone liked the book but some of the subject matter bothered everyone. We couldn't believe the children all lived! It was really great to listen to everyone discussing this story.



I won this book tonight! I almost won Knit Two but the person next to me won it. The Knitting Circle was on my to read list and now I've got it to add to my pile of reading!

We are skipping December because of everyone's schedules and obligations. We are meeting in January to discuss Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo. I'm anxious to read it. It is suppose to be very good.

February we will be meeting at a little book store near to where I work and we'll be meeting an author. Can't remember the book or author right now.

Here is My Great Grandmother's Pumpkin Pie Recipe

I'm cooking this pie right now for the office. One of the guys in my office that I do alot of work with really loves pumpkin pie and his wife won't make it. I thought it would be nice to bring in a pie for everyone!

Pumpkin Pie
This is the recipe my Great Grandmother always made.

2 cups Pumpkin, cooked and mashed
3-4 Saltine crackers, crushed
2 eggs
2 tblsp. Flour
1 cup sugar
¼ tsp. nutmeg (also enough nutmeg to sprinkle on the top)
Milk (there is no measurement for milk, so you just keep pouring milk into the bowl until you think your pie shell will be filled.)

Mix all ingredients together and pour in a pie shell. Cook pie at 450 degrees for 10minutes and then at 350 degrees for 40-50 minutes. Stick a knife in center of pie and if clean remove, if not cook a little longer.

Enjoy!!

I decided to stroll around the house for some Thanksgiving pics since everything outside got hit by frost this week.



This creamware bowl is on the granite ledge in my kitchen just behind the sink. I have all sorts of Thanksgiving/Fall things in there. Very festive touch!



In the sun room we have a double fireplace (the other half is in the kitchen area). This is the mantel I decorated for Thanksgiving.



This is the leaf candle arrangement and turkey that is on the granite ledge in my kitchen with the creamware bowl.

The day after Thanksgiving I will be taking everything down and starting the Christmas decorations. I'm not going to decorate as much this year because of the house being on the market. I don't want anyone to think it is cluttered!