Tuesday, November 22, 2011

2011 Happy Thanksgiving



Heavenly Father, on Thanksgiving Day
We bow our hearts to You and pray.
We give You thanks for all You've done
Especially for the gift of Jesus, Your Son.
For beauty in nature, Your glory we see
For joy and health, friends and family,
For daily provision, Your mercy and care
These are the blessings You graciously share.
So today we offer this response of praise
With a promise to follow You all of our days.
--Mary Fairchild


Happy Thanksgiving 2011

Monday, October 31, 2011

Chillin' with my Ghoul friends

Two of my "Ghoul friends" had birthdays in October and we haven't gotten together to just visit for a while so I decided at the last minute.....which is my usual plan, to have the celebration at my house.  I had just taken my Halloween decorations down to share with another group and I was going to go for decorating my house for Thanksgiving but while I was on a shopping trip, I purchased these beverage napkins and I knew I had the theme for our party:


"Chillin' with my Ghoul friends"


 Happy Birthday Beverly!


Happy Birthday Sandra!

 Here are the Birthday Ghouls...

All the Ghoul friends




My Mom was my right-hand Ghoul

The table was set with sparkling Autumn leaves and colorful velvet and glittered Pumpkins.  The white candles add ambiance while dripping black wax.  The colorful Fiestaware gave a cheerful touch of color for the celebration. It is not about the scary but about the fun even though there was a orange and black furry spider crawling on the table.









They only dared to enter with this dress form
dressed up as a headless witch.  Her hat was too cute.






The medicine cabinet was filled with poisons.



 Who would dare to eat dessert on these plates after passing by that cabinet.







Can you believe that rat perched on top of my antique books. Take a look at the pumpkin made from pages of a book.








There were other creatures lurking in the shadows.






Even the pirate's ship landed to check out all the ghouls.








We tried to stay up until the bewitching hour but
all Ghoul things have to come to an end.



My Grandson, Eli having fun.


HAPPY AND SAFE HALLOWEEN!


Friday, September 9, 2011

Follow me on Pinterest

This retired life has gotten in the way of my blogging but don't give up on me.  I have found I can scan some sites and get a fix on decorating in a flash by checking out boards in Pinterest.  If you haven't checked Pinterest out, click on the  "Follow me on Pinterest" on my sidebar to see what has been inspiring me.  In case anyone is wondering..... the wedding category is because my great niece is getting married next June and the kids ideas are because I am the mentor mom for MOPS (Moms with Pre-Schoolers) and I'm speaking on decorating next meeting.  Also, we have been entertaining so food is on my mind.  I really don't have to be entertaining for that to happen.  You can really pin about anything of interest to you and it gives you a place to organize your ideas and have a point to go back to.



  My husband didn't know I was taking his picture but we love to take our laptops outside in the cool of the morning.  He loves to listen to music and get the latest news and I love to blog and check out Pinterest.  I never realized our retirement years would be this grand.


Just enjoying the sound and view of the waterfall.



Enjoying the crimson crepe myrtle against the greenery and a touch of goldenrod. 
Perfect combination.

Enjoy your weekend

Monday, August 8, 2011

2011 Road Trip - Missouri "Meet me in St Louie, Louie...Meet me at City Museum"

Since I have been back from our U.S. trip, many people have asked me what was the most fun place we went.  We had so many fun adventures, I can't even pin point it to any one place but I do know the most unique place we visited so I thought I would share.


Let me start out by saying that I can't even describe it.  My son, Nate, just told us "When you get to St. Louis....  take the boys to City Museum.... everyone will have fun"  We sure did!


This is an old shoe factory that artists have used their creativity and made a museum.  I believe it was opened as an attraction in 1997.




That is a full size school bus hanging over the corner of the building.  There is a Ferris Wheel on top too.  Look closely you can see the people climbing through the re-bar cage to make it to the airplane that is soaring above the play area.


You never know where someone will appear.
This huge floor is a colorful mosaic.





When Papa was following Eli through this maze, at one part you are upside down and all his money started dropping out of his pockets.  Luckily I  was standing on the stairs below where he was climbing and recovered most of it.


This metal masterpiece dumps water every few minutes.


This staircase is built from factory assembly rollers and artfully painted.



Following are just a few of the collections you can view.




Most of the adventure is built around salvaged architectural pieces from demolished buildings.
























How often can you go see shoelaces being made.


After we went to a Cardinals baseball game, they went back to museum for hide-n-seek in the dark. 
They liked the 10 story spiral slide that was originally used to move shoes.


Eli
C J

Davis



This is the largest pencil I have seen.  I couldn't even get a picture of the whole thing.



New adventures have been popping up all summer for our family.
The City Museum in St Louis Missouri is a very unique experience and highly recommended from our family.

I know we will never forget this trip.




Hope you are having a fun summer too!