Happy Fall, Y'all!

Remember this disturbing sight? Well, in June I talked my sweet husband into disposing of the Little Shop of Horrors for me. Then I replaced the formerly lovely real succulents with these not-so-realistic plastic plants. Horrors, indeed. But I must say I'm sleeping better, knowing the creepy crawlies are gone!

Here's the line-up:


These two jars contain identical faux flora:


While this one holds a lovely plastic orchid.


It's a temporary fix...got me through the summer! They'll soon be holding pumpkins or gourds or something equally and delightfully ::::sigh:::: falllish!

A Door is Ajar...A Jar is...

We used to have a car that said "A door is ajar" whenever someone took too long getting into the car. It was...annoying. Know what else is annoying? The ICK inside my apothecary jars. Remember these? Well, now they look like this:



Jar #1 isn't too bad, but the plant is growing too tall.

Jar #2 is still fine.

But Jar #3...

Well, it reminds me of this:

Yes. Ick. ::::shudder::::

So. Looking at the ick in jar #3 leaves me totally uninspired. I need some great, cheap, INSPIRED ideas for what to put inside my apothecary jars (after I clean them out). I like natural-ish looking things, but I'm open to other ideas. That moss in the bottom of the jars is probably still useable, except for the moss in jar #3. Here's what I've done thus far. Near Easter, I filled my apothecary jars like this, and when I first got them, I filled them like this.

Here's where you can help. I need your suggestions, photos, links, etc. As Kari and Kijsa would say, "What's an Apothecary Jar to Do?"

Viva Fiesta....Wreath

Here in San Antonio, we're celebrating Fiesta. The cool San Antonio people are celebrating Fiesta by attending festive events downtown and in cool historical districts. Brian and I, on the other hand, celebrated by eating enchiladas at a church supper. And I made this gaudy tacky colorful wreath. Ole!

Wanna celebrate Fiesta San Antonio style in the privacy of your own home? Take a grapevine wreath base. Grab a handful of colorful ribbon. If you're smart, look for remnants in your closet or shop for remnants in the bargain section of your local fabric store. If you're lazy or foolish (and I am both), stop by Michael's and have an assortment of ribbons cut. I purchased 2 yard lengths of several different colors, then purchased a few 99 cent rolls of printed ribbon. Buy some cheap colorful silk flowers at Dollar General (or better yet, a thrift store or garage sale...or check your attic). Pull their heads off. And some leaves. Stick a low-temp glue stick in your low-temp glue gun. Glue some leaves down here and there. Arrange the flowers in a pleasing pattern. Lift each flower, add a dab of hot glue, then press into the wreath. Cut ribbons into short, medium and long lengths...I think I cut roughly 9", 15" and 20" lengths. Hot glue them in a row, alternating colors, along the bottom back side of the wreath.

Hang with Tex-Mex flair and have a couple of Nachos.

¡Viva Fiesta!

I'm going GREEN in April

Well, just barely in April, and, well, just a little green. As in green plants. In my house. In my apothecary jars. Nah, I'm not really the crunchy type. I'm not even sure I "planted" these correctly. But they're awfully cute, doncha think?

I intended to put some potted herbs in my jars, but I couldn't find any in small enough pots. Then I saw these sweet succulents, and I had to have them. I tucked a bit of sheet moss in the bottom of each jar, then stuck the succulents in. I'm hoping for a terrarium effect...minimal watering...but I think you have to put charcoal or something like that in them to prevent mold growth. Anyone out there know about such things?

Here are the other 2 jars:

A Hint of Spring

I'm well aware that Easter is not about Bunnies and eggs (hence my recent blog makeover), but I do love me a touch of spring! I refreshed my new apothecary jars with some eggs, and added some nests and bunnies. You like?

Bye Bye Birdie

(I totally hate that musical, by the way). So remember when I shared my ideas for the Widows' reception at our church? Well, today was the big day. I thought I'd post a few of the highlights.

Here's the buffet centerpiece:

The plants are Dusty Miller. They were sold in 6-packs in the Walmart nursery, and they were 50% off, so I paid 84 cents per 6-pack. My original intent was to use English Ivy or another trailing plant, but I just couldn't find any cheap enough and in small enough pots. We cut the 6-packs apart and wrapped the little pots in burlap, then tied them off with synthetic raffia ribbon. We also tied on little "You are loved" tags. In addition to this centerpiece, we clustered several more Dusty Millers in pots on a few of the tables.




We put squares of burlap on the tables, then added a large twig, a next (or a pot with Dusty Miller), a few eggs, and a couple of glass bowls filled with crinkled paper (we put Robin's Egg malted eggs in these bowls).




I even made cute little nest cupcakes. But I forgot to take a picture of them at the reception! Here's a picture of the buffet table, and you can kind of see them:


When I realized I didn't have a better picture, I took the leftovers out of the freezer and took this picture of a few cupcakes on top of the washing machine! And just so you know, after I took this picture, I had to eat one. Oh yes I did. And just so you know, Brian had to eat one too. I love frozen frosting. Reminds me of those little Baskin Robbins ice cream cone clowns I used to get as a kid. But I digress. So anyway, here's a closeup of the cupcakes on the washing machine. The colors are kind of wacko. In reality, the jelly beans are very pale mint green and a pretty turquoise blue. I only made small cupcakes for the reception, but I made 4 large ones because I had a little extra batter.


At the end of the reception, each of the widows received a long-stemmed rose:

(the cute nametags, by the way, were made by another deacon's wife, Rosalyn)

They also took home a Dusty Miller plant and a box of goodies:


We had a good time visiting with these sweet ladies. Some of them are under 45. Some of them are newly widowed. Some of them have been widowed for many years. God tells us to care for the widows and the orphans, but we were blessed today by our time with them.

It was a fun reception, but now it's time to put all the birdies and nests away. I'm going to share one nest with one of the ladies that was there today. But now? Right now it's time for this little chickie to get some rest!

file under "Remember this next December"

dried Christmas greenery
Originally uploaded by thingspondered

I'm just now getting around to uploading this picture and posting about it...so it's not exactly timely, but it still might be helpful to someone out there. Just file it away in your next Christmas idea bank, ok?

So I mentioned a few times that I used some free greenery in our home this past Christmas (here and here, for example). I collected some of it at Lowe's, when we purchased our tree. They allowed me to take scraps for free. Then Brian clipped our Buford Holly, so I carried those clippings inside. We made our annual stop for mistletoe, which we clipped out of an oak tree in a vacant lot. Then we had a reception at our church, so I collected juniper and cedar and pyracantha from roadside bushes. After the reception, I brought those clippings home. Finally, I clipped a bit of Texas sage and boxwood from our shrubs to finish things off. What resulted was a very Texas spin on Williamsburg natural decor. It was fragrant (though perhaps a bit rough on our allergies), and it looked lush and beautiful. This basket is one load of what I took down...I had three baskets full!

All this is to say that nice looking garlands and wreaths can be costly. If you can get them after Christmas, they are more affordable. However, if you find your Christmas decorating budget is tight this year, take a look around your town and see what you might be able to bring inside!

You Won't Mind, Will You?

If I give you just a little more tour? I finally recharged my batteries and took a few more pictures of some of my favorite Christmas treasures!

Here are the Christmas bed linens I didn't have a picture of yesterday. Actually, we use that comforter all fall and winter, switching to a lightweight quilt the rest of the year. I just added Christmas pillows!


These are our Christmas dishes (the salad plates) on top of our wedding china. The Christmas dishes feature 4 different types of Christmas greenery.


A crystal trifle dish filled with vintage ornaments adds some sparkle to the coffee table. Most of these ornaments were picked up at yard sales for pennies. Some came from my husband's grandma.


A couple of carolers my mom painted for me, for my first apartment:


Mixed greenery and berries collected from roadsides and friends' yards deck our mantle and other spots about the house. Don't you love the radio antenna wire accent?


Here's a framed vintage Christmas card. I used pastels to color a background on art paper and applied fixative, then wrote the lyrics to "I'll Be Home for Christmas" with silver pen. Mounted the Christmas card on my "matte", then framed. Isn't that a sweet little cabin?


Finally, here a few cookie recipes waiting in my kitchen for my baking marathon tonight...we are having a cookie exchange tomorrow! We just finished remodeling our kitchen a few months ago, and I was so tickled last night to discover that I could use magnets on the backsplash to hold up my recipes as I mix them!


Thanks for coming back for more (you glutton, you!). Speaking of gluttons, I'll post my cookie exchange recipes after I've tested them. Stay tuned!

Wooly Cuteness

From a $3 wool sweater I picked up at Goodwill I made 15 ornaments for office coworkers. I brought the sweater home and felted it by washing it in hot water and drying it on high heat.


Cut out simple shapes (hats, mittens, hearts, stockings, & trees)and stitched them together, then added a few vintage buttons and some hanging ribbon and voila! I'm keeping the heart and the tree. They make me feel all snuggly inside!

Oh There's No Place Like Home for the Holidays

Crackle....ssszzzz....pop.....The internet's a-buzzing today, thanks to Boomama's Christmas Tour of Homes. Everybody's doing it!


Here's where you're saying, "And if everybody were jumping in a lake, would you?" In a word, yes. WARNING: epic-length post to follow!

So, let's jump in the lake, shall we? Here are some highlights of our Christmas home (click on any photo for a larger picture):

In the post below, I shared our manger in the front yard, as well as a picture of the front of the house. We love the traditional look of the simple garlands and red bows. We also have a sled and a pair of skis (purchased at Canton), which hint at snowy Christmas traditions (something we rarely have here in Texas, though it did snow in my hometown on Christmas 2004 - for the first time in recorded history!).

Closer to the front door, you're welcomed by Tera the pig, in her holiday finery:



Then you're greeted with the scent of fresh pine at the door.


Come in, come in! Don't mind the dog bouncing at your knee! To your left is our dining room. The table has been set with our Christmas dishes (on top of our wedding china), and we'd love for you to pull up a chair! (I don't normally keep the table set, but I did it on a whim this year!) Brian's grandma's vintage cardboard village is featured atop the china cabinet. The reindeer on the table boasts vintage ornaments on his antlers.


Not hungry right now? That's ok...save your appetite for the Oreo Truffles I'll share at the end of this post! Shall I continue to show you around? Straight ahead is the living room.

Our Christmas tree is a giant this year. We normally buy a Fraser Fir (similar to a Noble, but less expensive), but this year, opted for the cheaper and more fragrant Douglas Fir. It is a gorgeous, lush, very aromatic tree, but it has wimpy branches! We've been collecting heavy mercury glass ornaments since we got married, and this tree just isn't "man" enough to hold them up! I guess we'll go back to the Fraser next year. Anyway, since our ornaments weren't showing up very well, I resorted to a lot of lightweight filler. Fresh holly clippings and gaudy jeweled berry picks, velvet ribbon pieces & bows. You'll notice the colored lights. That was a big issue the first year we were married. Brian grew up with colored lights, while my family chose white lights. Our first year, I decorated the tree with white lights, and Brian was very disappointed. Wanting to please my new husband, and knowing that this issue would return every year unless we reached a compromise, I stayed up half the night undecorating and redecorating our tree! The end result was something we were both pleased with. Our compromise involves wrapping white lights around the trunk...they add depth (though, again, you can't tell as well on the Douglas Fir), then wrapping colored lights around the branches. And honestly? I'm kinda glad to buck the white light trend. True, white lights are classy and timeless (we still use them outside), but colored lights are kind of magical. I think that's why kids love them so. Anywho, here's our living room tree:



See the red velvet stockings on the mantle? There's a matching tree skirt hiding under the tree. I sewed rhinestone initial ornaments to our stockings. We bought the stockings and tree skirt with a gift card after our wedding. We were married in November, so we received a lot of wedding-themed ornaments. They're a special part of our decorations on this formal tree. The stockings and tree skirt, as well as the romantic ornaments, influenced the red highlights on our tree. Speaking of romantic, that's (artificial) mistletoe hanging from the ceiling fan cord. Grab your hubby and lay one on him! Ahem....I think we'd better continue our tour!

Incidentally, while you're standing in my living room, take a look up at the nativity scene (in my header). I'm sure many of you are familiar with the Willow Tree by Demdaco nativity scene. We used to sell Willow Tree in our store. I love the simplicity of it. The "star" is one of several Moravian Star lanterns we used at our wedding reception. We just stuck white lights into it, as they last longer than a tea light!

Now, as we head back to the bedroom, take a look at our yummy fresh pine swag over the front door, and breathe deeply (unless you're allergic!).


OK...now, just down this hall...here's our bedroom. We have always had a "lodge tree" in our bedroom. It's a skinny artificial tree, and we light it with white and amber lights. We have made this more rustic, and it showcases ornaments from our honeymoon and other trips. It features pinecones, cabins, skis, snowflakes, and even a hiking boot! I've also tucked in vintage Christmas postcards with cabins. The bows on this tree are made from ribbon used in our wedding. This tree holds so many special memories!



Over our bed is a fresh pine swag (made with free clippings from Lowe's). The pine cones are from our store. We have a nearly identical set on our lodge tree that we bought on our honeymoon. I just this weekend added a sprig of fresh mistletoe, but I took the picture last week, so you'll just have to imagine it!



I normally put a few more Christmas touches up in our room, but I didn't get that far this year! Our bed is decked in Christmas finery, but the day I was taking pictures, it wasn't made up, and I didn't want to stop to make it pretty! Oh well! I also usually put up small trees in our guest room and craft room, but that didn't happen this year either. So....

Let's move on to the kitchen, shall we? Remember I said something about Oreo Truffles? Back through the Dining Room...forgot to show you Brian's Grandma's Christmas plates (Johnson Bros., and a hand-painted plate that I made for her several years ago). And the aluminum plate on the plate rail sits next to our first Christmas card of the season. I display all of our Christmas cards on the plate rail...love seeing them up there. Oh, and here's another peek at the vintage village!




In the kitchen, I've added several things since taking these pictures (and cleaned up a bit, I might add), but I'll show you what was there last week. I've tucked little Christmas treasures into my pie safe, and I've hung the stockings made for us by Brian's grandma. I love having a little kitchen tree...Oops! I forgot to turn on the lights! The kitchen tree has antique and modern cookie cutters and ceramic cookies. It puts me in the mood to do a little Christmas baking.



Well! You must be exhausted from this tour of my home...and my incessant chattering! Why don't you sit down now for some coffee and Oreo Truffles. This deliciously easy recipe was shared by a church friend, who for some inexplicable reason, calls them Pelican Balls. I prefer the more elegant title of Oreo Truffles! You must try these for yourself. But I warn you, you may only make them at Christmas. Oh, and maybe Valentine's. And your birthday. But that's all. If you make them any other time, you'll hate yourself for it. Because you will eat.the.whole.batch!



Oreo Truffles

1 pkg of regular Oreo cookies
1 8 oz pkg cream cheese
1 pkg chocolate melting bark - I use Ghirardelli when I can find it.

Set out the cream cheese to soften. Crush the Oreo cookies to coffee ground consistency ( I usually crush them in the food processor, several at a time). Place the crushed Oreos in a bowl and add cream cheese. Use your hands to mix the Oreos and cream cheese until it is one large ball. Then shape into smaller balls of desired size (about 1"). Place them in the refrigerator until ready to coat with chocolate. Melt the chocolate bark as pkg directions suggest. Dip the Oreo balls into melted chocolate until coated then set on wax paper until hardened. Refrigerate.

Yummmmmmy. Hope you enjoy them.

Thanks for visiting our Christmas home. It's been a pleasure having you! Merry Christmas! And remember, Jesus is the reason for the season!