I'm Late, I'm Late, For A Very Important Date - A Holiday Cloche Party

I'm joining Marty for her holiday Cloche Party - I'm a bit late, although it is still Friday!!  Thanks so much to Marty for hosting such a fun event.  You can see all the great cloche creations by clicking here. 

First of all, join me in a cupcake and a spot of tea or cup of coffee...what is your choice?

A little Christmas scene with candleholders doing double duty as cloches. 

How about a little old fashioned ribbon candy?

Shiny baubles at Christmas - always a winner.

Sweet little bird houses.

Santa's Reindeer barn.

Pinecones lightly dusted with snow...kept in a refrigerated cloche.  No, really......

More snow with pinecones and shiny ornaments.  We love snow here in the South.

All the best,

Tablescape Thursday - Season's Greetings

Joining Susan at Between Naps On The Porch for Tablescape Thursday.  To see all the great tablescapes posted this week please visit Susan by clicking here.

This weeks holiday tablescape is done in red and white with black accents. 

Chargers are from Home Goods, dinner plates from Target and salad plates are Town and Country by Fitz and Floyd. 

Seed glasses are from Home Goods and have cute little peppermint swirls molded into the glass.

Silver Santa salad fork and spoon I have had for years and purchased at Waccamaw.

Centerpiece is a twig and holly wreath topped with a white cake plate and cloche stuffed with pinecones and snow.  Two little Angels join us, bringing a sense of calm and peace. 

All the best,

North Pole Limited aka The Polar Express

For the past five years, since the birth of my first grandbabe, we take a train ride on the North Pole Limited at the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum.  This year, we purchased our tickets and waited patiently in the train station for the 7:30pm train.

Once on board, the engine toots and the steam rolls and we are off. 

During the ride, before we get close to the North Pole, the storyteller reads from The Polar Express and leads the passengers in several Christmas Carols

.....then the Waiter/Chef enters and serves Hot Chocolate (aka Yahoo) and Gingerbread cookies. 

Here is my new Grandbabe, by the way...he is currently nestled all safe and sound with Mommy, and will be our little Christmas present this year. 

The train winds through the hills and dells and enters a tunnel in Missionary Ridge (aka 'the clouds') on our trip to the North Pole.  As we near the tunnel, which cannot be seen in the dark, the engine picks up speed and the whistle blows loudly...suddenly, we are in the dark tunnel and the storyteller lets the passengers know that we have entered the clouds and will be arriving at the North Pole shortly.  Once we break through the cloud cover (aka leave the tunnel) there are Christmas lights and scenes on both sides of the train and then we move into the station at the North Pole where we see Santa standing outside the car, waving at everyone. 

We wait patiently as the steam engine moves from the front of the train (which is now the back of the train) and chugs back past the passenger cars to the front of the train (which was once the back of the train).  Confused yet....hey, go with it, we are at the North Pole where magic happens every minute.  Once the train is in place, we are ready to begin our journey back to the land bound train station.....but what is that sound, a door opening and an elf handing out bells....and who is that behind the elf.....OMG, it's Santa Claus.

Santa walks through the passenger cars on the ride back and speaks to each boy and girl.  Santa takes his time and winds through 4-5 train cars on this ride and he always takes his time and he always makes it to the end before the ride....Santa has time management down to an art. 

As Santa leaves each car, the storyteller fills the time with engaging everyone in singing carols and soon we are nearing our destination.

As we near the station, Santa magically departs the train and Mr Conducter makes a walk through the cars with his railroad lantern and talks to the children who are curious enough to engage him.

We disembark into the chilly night air and head toward home, safe with the knowledge that we personally told Santa exactly what we want for Christmas and don't have to worry that it will be under the tree on Christmas morning. 

I'm joining Susan at A Southern Daydreamer for Outdoor Wednesday.  Please be sure and visit her to see other great OW pics.


All the best,

Our Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving 2009, but it whizzed by.  I set up food stations around the kitchen to make it easier on the traffic flow and get everyone seated and down to business quicker. 

Ham and Turkey

Side dishes

Desserts

All the ones that I love and am thankful for every day.  I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

All the best,

Christmas Wreath

Slowly easing into my Christmas decorating so that I don't have so much to do this weekend, after Thanksgiving.  I made a Christmas wreath this week for my entryway.  This is a large 30 inch wreath, so it has lots of presence. 

I started with a green wreath and two differant ribbons. 

I needed a large bow, so I made my loops about 6 inches each.

I made 10 loops and left streamers of about 22 inches.  Once I had my loops, I fastened the center with a twist of floral wire....pipecleaners are easier to handle but I did not have any handy.  Be sure that you twist the wire tightly and then fluff the bow by pulling and twisting the loops in place.

I cut a 1 1/4 yard piece of each ribbon to use for an additional streamer across the top of my wreath.

Pinch the center of the ribbon and wrap one of the green wired stems around it to hold it in place...the finished bow will fit right on top of this center ribbon and twist the wire around the wire form of the wreath, tucking the ends out of sight. 

Each streamer is seperated and attached to the wreath about midway of each streamer by twisting one of the green stems around the ribbon...don't pull tightly, leave some room for the ribbon to puff up. 

Once finished the wreath looks like this with all the streamers tucked, also trim the ends on each streamer to give a finished look.

Time to add the greenry...I use many differant types of greenry and not just Christmas related...this will give the wreath dimension and the differant shades and textures will add interest.  Simply cut the stems and run a bead of hot glue on the front and back at the bottom of each stem..place where you want by tucking the stem deep into the wreath and the glue will take hold. 

Fill in greenry until you are satisfied with the look and shape of your wreath.

Hang your wreath and enjoy.

All the best,