French Christmas

I received the newest issue of the Jeanne d' Arc Living Christmas Magazine and thought I'd start my first series of Christmas Decorating with this issue.  I am loving all that I see each time with this magazine, which to me is more like a book.

This special edition features Christmas at French homes and as their sub-title says "in the french inspired home".  If you haven't had the opportunity to at least look at this book, I'd highly recommend getting your hands on at least one issue.  I know it's pricey and more than most will pay for a magazine, but so worth it.

Take a look:

Of course with the French home or any home for that matter, you have to start out with the Christmas tree.  Whether real or not, large or just a small table top, it's just not Christmas unless you have some type of tree.

I featured this picture a while back as my blog header:

I love old ice skates and the feel they give to your home.  They remind me of my childhood.  While we never had our lakes freeze over so that I could go ice skating, there was always a man made ice skating rink that I remember going to.

So simple and pretty:

A candle just makes things seem alright or at least I think so.  I could stare at a candle for hours and just dream away.

A simple olive branch means so much:



Since there aren't olive branches in my area, I like to use rosemary or bay leaves.

The cross:

I have crosses in several places of my home and I especially love rosaries.  While I may not be a Catholic, that still doesn't stop me from wearing rosaries.  I just love to wear them and they remind me of my faith each day.

Baby Jesus:

I love using the manger scenes in my home.  It does remind us of what Christmas is really all about, don't you think.

The Virgin Mary:

Such a statement is made with no words.  I have a wonderful Virgin Mary garden statue and she stands proudly in my garden.

And last but not least, Angels:

Don't we all need to be surrounded with Angels, especially with all the crazy things that go on in our world.  I'm sure there are times I put my angels to work extra duty for me.  Thank you Angels. 

I hope these French Inspired ideas inspires you to add a few touches such as these to your home this season.  All images used are from the Jeanne d' Arc Living magazine and if you are interested in purchasing this magazine, please email and I'll be happy to share my source with you. 

Joyeux Noël

Simple Christmas Decorating

When it comes to decorating for Christmas each year, do you try and come up with a different theme each time or do you just let it happen as it speaks to you.  I decided that this year to decorate very simple, using as much natural items as I could.  Since I decided a few years back to not use a real tree, I miss the smell of Christmas pine.  I have lots of vintage Christmas items that I also normally use, some from the victorian era, but I don't think that I'm going to pull it all out this time.  I started out as you saw from the first post I did on my porch with the three white trees and then moved on to using more fresh greens, twigs, and just a few Christmas balls sprinkled throughout. 

Here's the front door:


I did leave the white pumpkins, they are still so pretty to not use.  Can you see I used simple cedar tree branches as my wreath with clear balls and angel wings inside them.  I just grabbed a few angel wings as they passed over my house *wink*.  They are actually doves wings from my family of doves.  I have four doves now and I think she may be sitting on more eggs.

This is the side view of my porch:



An overall view:





Here's more:







Then, lite up at night:

I still have a few more small touches I'll be adding.  Each week I'd like to show different Christmas decorating from a cottage Christmas to a homespun Christmas.  Hope you'll check back for more Christmas ideas.  Have a great week!!

White Christmas

I started on my porch today getting it ready with Christmas decorations and I thought I'd also show you who inspired me this year for my decorating:

Here are three of the white trees I told you I'd found a while back, two are in bird baths and one in a pedastol.

Another view:

The view as it gets dark:

Okay, here's who inspired me for my decorating this year:

(Matthew Mead) 

I just loved the look of this green tree in the white pedastol, so simple and pretty.

Then, Sharon did a post on a shop and this one was in a bird bath, loved this idea:

(Sweet Repose)

I still have a bit more decorating to do, so please check back tomorrow for more.

Brown & White Wednesday

Happy Wednesday my friends!  When thinking about what I would write for this White Wednesday post I thought about my brown and white dishes that I like to pull out for Thanksgiving and since Thanksgiving is tomorrow, I though it would be perfect to share them with you.

The day I took these pictures, I had made homemade potatoe soup the day before and was wanting to make white bean soup, which I'll share the recipe with you below, that you'll see in the picture too.

I love all the colors of brown in these plates and how they all go together:

See those cute little pumpkins, I bought them at Laurie Anna's last season. 

Bittersweet with a pumpkin, it just wouldn't be Fall without them:

An overall view:



Can you see the soup, yum it's so good:



See what I mean, okay are you ready for the recipe:

I will be pulling out more of my Thanksgiving dishes by the time this post is completed and glasses and decorations and adding more to this place setting.

The candle that's burning is one of Jill Suzanne's awesome candles that I buy each time in Warrenton.  Contact her if you are interested in purchasing them.  You can click on her name to be directed to her website.

White Bean Soup Recipe:

As I mentioned, I had leftover homemade potato soup from the day before and thought this would be a good base since it already had the broth and potatoes to make a good thickening for this soup.  To make the potato soup all I did was chop potatoes into cubes and add to broth and cook until tender.  Then, I took the potatoes with very little broth and blended in the blender with milk.  This will make the soup mixture very thick.  Add back to the pot and you will need to either add more broth or more milk and even a little water if it is too thick.  Once it returns to a boil, laddle into your soup bowl and add cheese and crutons on top.

Now, for the Bean Soup, I sauteed bacon until very crisp and then I removed bacon to drain.  To the bacon fat, I sauteed 1/2 an onion chopped, 3 large carrots and once soft I added a few leaves of collard greens that were chopped and cooked for a few minutes.  I also had leftover pork roast that I chopped and added to this (it might even be good if you have leftover turkey).  I then added this mixture to the potato soup base, added more broth, and returned to a boil.  Sorry, I don't measure anything so you'll just have to add as much of each as you like.  I added salt and pepper too.  Enjoy!! 

Be sure to visit Kathleen's blog for all the other White Wednesday participants. 

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!!

Christmas at Winnie & Tulula's

Just a reminder that Winnie and Tulula's in Athens Texas is having their Christmas Open House on Friday:

This is how the shop looked when we stopped by there a few weeks back:































Here's the bistro area:

The Bistro is really cute and the food is really good.  We had such a great time just relaxing with good food and good company.  There's a special menu that will be prepared by the chefs of The Bistro just for their open house.

Peg and John of French Vanilla are going to be their special guests for their Open House.  As you can see, there are so many great things here that you won't want to miss it.  I know it's going to be so much fun.   Get their early for wonderful finds.

Thank You!

Thank you all so much for your sweet comments and emails on the passing of my mother-in-law.  Your words of encouragement mean so much and I can't really express how much they really meant to our family.  We have such sweet memories of her.  Thank you all again!!

She Was...

My mother-in-law

Cruz's Mom and mother to 9 other children

Grandmother to 28

And Great Grandmother to many!

She passed today, to a better place

No more pain or dealing with Cancer

She was 75 years old

I have to tell you what kind of woman, mother, mother-in-law she was

She was STRONG (raising 9 children as a single parent)

Opinionated (Oh boy was she, but that's what we loved about her) 

Adventurous

Witty

Smart

Faithful

Loving

Kind

Happy

The best COOK ever

Hard working

Living Life to it's Fullest

But above all, she loved God with all her heart!!

White Finds

Do you want to see what I found during our road trip this past weekend:



Click HERE and you can see more!

The Road was Calling

So, would you like the full story on where we went on Saturday and who all we saw:

Well, I know you do.  So click HERE for the full details.  I'll be doing another post on the other place we stopped at so keep watching for it.  Happy Sunday!!

Ann's Place ~ Part II

This is the last part of Ann's place.  I just couldn't wait to show you what Ann had created in her bedroom.  She took the top part of a dresser header and hung it from the top of her bed and draped fabric over it.  So pretty:

Next, I wanted to show you this cute manny that had this pearl necklace:



Here's another view:

So, I quickly called my mom and had her pull out my grannie's pearls and she gave them to me today.

Here's one of her pretty pocket pillows:



This cute tree was in her room too:



Take a closer look at these cute shoes:



And the picture of the little girl.  It looked like maybe she was an angel, maybe for a Christmas play.

This cute cabinet was in the corner:



Look at all the wedding cake toppers.

Vintage gowns:



too cute!

A collage frame created by Ann:



Such a pretty dresser:



The top of her cabinet had such pretty things:



Loved the frame of the angel wings.  Oh and look at her ceiling, she papered it herself!

I'll let the rest of these pics do the talking:







Loved this frame collage so:









I hope you enjoyed a peek into Ann's world.  Didn't you think it was just magical.

Ann has a booth at Heritage Antiques in Lufkin Texas and this was her space that I stopped and visited after I left her place:



Stay tuned for tomorrow's post to see where we went today!