Feeling Fall ish?

Can you feel it yet?  That slight shift, that ever, ever so slight, cooler breeze.  Maybe it's just my sailor side coming out, looking in expectation, but I certainly am feeling it.  Last night while sitting on the deck as hot as it was, when the wind would blow, I swear it felt just a little bit cooler.  Now I do live in the south and it is August here so I know full well not to get excited but I just can't help myself.  The winds of change are creeping in my soul.  I am looking forward to fall and all it's glorious colors!


I want to change out my existing vignettes so bad to fall but it's just not quite time yet.  It all started with a gift I purchased for my girlfriends birthday.  I promised you I'd show you after she received it.  So here it is and just in case you are wondering, she loved it.

I knew she would just fall in love with this candle basket.  Her home is decorated in a rustic style that is gorgeous.  I will try to feature it one day soon.  I found the basket w/glass insert at Marshalls and the large scented candle to go inside from Ross.

This is what started the change for me!  This beautiful candle with all it's texture and color.  I haven't been able to get that feeling out of my mind.  Since it's not quite time for me to switch over everything, I have decided to make a slow approach starting with small changes.  The coffee table that used to look like this...

Now looks like this below...

It not quite a fall scene but has some elements of fall creeping in, can you spot them?

I kept this small hydrangea and shells for now, it is still August remember?

The warmth of this basket really speaks the coming of fall for me.  I already had this as it used to sit above our TV cabinet.  It has a bottom that is in the middle of the basket making it more like a stand.  I can reverse this for different uses too.  I just loved how nicely the hurricane jar sat inside.

My new tray also adds such depth and warmth and is a wonderful addition for holding extras, like this candle snuffer I've had for some time.  I love beaded things, and the red and rust colors on this also seem very fallish to me.

This little bird that I got on vacation has flown from the dining room where it's been waiting patiently.  The colors on this piece really say fall to me!  Wouldn't you agree?

I just had to light the candle after setting this up!  That's another fall thing for me, warm scented candles glowing on a cool afternoon.  Are ya feeling it yet?

Okay, if that doesn't do it for you, how about this vignette below.

You may have seen this in my rooster post but I don't think I've shown it yet.  Do you remember these oil jars I got from GW awhile back.  Well, I've had them set up this way in the kitchen for several weeks now and maybe that's whats spurring this desire for fall as well.

I just love the contrast of these rich golds and reds next to the rusts of this metal vase.

Such warmth here, I can hardly wait to add more of these colors around this fall! 

I hope you enjoyed your visit and will come back to see more again when I really start changing it up.  I'm trying really hard to wait!  How about you?  Are you getting excited yet?  I sure am!

Please be sure and visit http://astrollthrulife.blogspot.com/

for Tabletop Tuesday

and more wonderful inspiring vignettes!

Please be sure and leave me a comment if you stop by, I always enjoy hearing from you!

Happy Tuesday!

Mary

Enjoying the Steps

Boy do I have a major Metamorphosis to share with you today! Sorry I don't have any before photos but I am 100% sure you will be able to envision them.  I will try to keep the wordiness of this post to a minimum but in order to understand how big of change this is you'll need to know the whole story.


This is a post of my mothers new stairs down to her dock.  She lives on the beautiful shores of Lake Murray, that you have seen in many of my boating posts.  This has been a long awaited transformation, since she built her home back in 1991.  That's almost 20 years ago, 19 to be exact!  This is how her house now looks as you approach it from the water.

Her actual dock was built many years ago.  We have spent many weekends swimming and launching off of this dock.  We have also spent many weekends hiking treacherously up and down that hill.  It has always been a test of endurance in more ways then you can imagine.

My mother is not one to make a decision lightly or to be easily coerced.  She is a strong independent woman who has raised 4 children as a single divorced woman while maintaining a life long career as a psychologist.  She thinks things through very thoroughly, unlike me who is prone to snap decisions.

For years she has talked about building these stairs.  We have discussed these stairs more times then I care to recall.  But with her daily work schedule and life priorities it has never came to be until now.  She has always adored her quaint little home at the lake in the woods amongst the trees.  Her home has been a retreat for her from a life time of service to others.  Her weekends have always been about relaxing and unwinding quietly and free from the usual worries of yard maintenance.  So hopefully now you can imagine how difficult a decision it was for her to disrupt this environment even for her own convenience. 

She is now in her mid 70's and only just retired last year.  I was thrilled to see a small deck was included at the bottom of these stairs.  This space will be a key spot for her to sit and relax to enjoy the water closer without getting into the sun.

It is just large enough for a small seating arrangement.  Already she is making decisions about what furniture to buy.  She was actually even going out to look at a table and chairs set the day we stopped by, and asked me if I thought that was a good idea to do now rather then waiting until next season.  Of course, Mom go for it!  I know she already knew that but needed the encouragement too.  I've already told her what I thought would be best but she has her own ideas, imagine that.  LOL!  I will just be thrilled for her to have a place to sit down here.

But not nearly as thrilled as I am that she now has a way to get down here safely.  Aging brings about many changes for all of us.  This hill has always been a challenge, but increasingly more difficult as each of  us climb the hill, not only literally but figuratively speaking too!

Of course my youngest had no problem sprinting to the top to greet his grandmother.

Sorry for the blurry photo earlier, maybe this one will be a little clearer.  Here is my beautiful mother at the very top of the stairs before coming down to greet us.

As you can see from the top looking down this photo shows you how steep this hill was.  She decided for now she did not want a railing on both sides.  This way it is more open to the woods.

As you descend the stairs you get a better look at the smaller deck below before the dock.  It was built around the existing dogwoods. 

This sacred tree will offer much needed relief from the heat as well as a place of sanctuary for my mother and the rest of us.

 

It has been a long awaited arrival, these stairs.  What a journey it has been to get here!

I am reminded that for some like me, change comes easy.  For others it is a lifelong process, filled with many steps to enjoy along the way!

Thanks for visiting today and I hope you'll stop by 

 

http://www.betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/

for Met Monday

and more amazing stories of change.

Mary

Birthdays,Sailing & Thrifty finds!

I  am having a wonderful weekend so far, and it's not over yet!  Today is my oldest sons birthday!  He is 20 years old!  He will be home tomorrow for a few days, and I will be baking him a cake to take home with him this year.  That's new to us but not such a bad thing.  It will keep me from having too much cake around, which I really don't need right now!  I know what you are thinking, too much cake, is she crazy!  Here is picture of our birthday cake dish.  It is called Emma's Garland by Spode.

There is a logical explanation to my comment about too much cake.  You see, Friday was also my youngest sons birthday.  He was 17.  I was lucky enough to have two August babies!  We used to have combined Birthdays when they were very little but that soon changed and they have each required their own cake for years now.  With their birthday only two days, August 6th and August 8th, that meant a lot of cake around!  This is my youngest sons cake.  He loves chocolate!  This is a chocolate, chocolate chip bundt cake.  This is how I usually serve this cake! 

However, this is how he wanted the cake this year.  I really tried to tell him it would be too much, but he insisted.  Then after one very large slice he said, Mom, your right, I think the chocolate icing was too much! 

 I got this recipe a few years ago from a friend and absolutely fell in love with this cake.  After making one for my family they declared it their all time favorite too, so now it is our new birthday cake favorite.  I love it because it is so easy and tastes like a fudge brownie.  I have to share it with you too!  If you love chocolate you will love this cake.


Chocolate, Chocolate chip Bundt Cake
1 box Moist Yellow Cake Mix
2 small boxes of Chocolate Fudge Instant Pudding
3 large eggs
1/3 cup of oil
1-1/2 cup of water
12 oz of  DARK chocolate chip morsels


Mix first 6 ingredients together then spoon and stir in the morsels.  Bake in greased bundt pan 50 minutes at 350*.  Check and bake further until done if needed. 
 This is a stand alone recipe and really doesn't need any additional icings or toppings IMOP.  Great dessert to take presliced to pot lucks and get togethers.  Enjoy!


Speaking of great food, Friday night we went to a wonderful local Greek restaurant for my youngest sons birthday.  It was delicious, and I am looking forward to dinner out Monday with the oldest son.  Whew!  Can we say..exercise needed!


Saturday we got in a little sailing, it was a beautiful day.  We were trying out a new sail that a club member may be selling to us.

  It worked out well on our boat and is really quite different looking.  It's almost clear made out of kevlar or mylar or something!  Basically this is a sail meant for light air sailing.

  We had light winds on Saturday and managed to average 5 to 6 knots without much heel (that means the boat didn't tip much) which I loved!

  You always have to have some heel to really pick up your speed while sailing but I always feel the less the better since this makes me kinda nervous.  My husband loves to heel the boat but like to please his wife too!  I am very happy about this sail!

 Today we are taking the motor boat out to do some tubing and sightseeing.  Yeah, that's "Ain't Life Grand"  LOL!

 One sight is to my mother house.  She lives on the lake and has finally built steps down to her dock after nearly 16years.  Talk about putting things off, but more on that later.  I'll be taking my camera to share that with you later.


For those of you who are still with me now and haven't gotten bored yet, here's a few things I found while out and about gathering birthday goodies.  I stopped by one of my favorite resale stores and picked up these items.  It's not much but I thought you'd like to see my finds anyway.


I have had my eye on these candle sticks for some time.   They are ceramic and were painted just like you see them.   They are not chipped at all, they are just painted that way to have a chippy look.  

  I am not going to change them at all!  I love the coloring on these!  They were originally listed at $10.00 for the pair but were and additional 40% off.  Not a bad deal for the set!

Then as I was exploring another new booth, I came across these.  They were on the bottom shelf, rather dirty with previous sticky paper price tags that had been torn off.  I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw the price tag.  It was $5.00 for the pair! 

 Even the lady at the counter could not believe the price, and was visibly and verbally (ha ha) shocked after reading the stamp on the bottom.  They are stamped Dansk Designs, a number, Sweden.  They have removable hurricane shades that sit on the base. 

 The base itself can be used on either side to hold different sizes of candles. 

 I absolutely love the avocado green color too!  I am definitely seeing some great tables scapes in my future!  Woohoo!


Linking up to the following parties, please be sure and visit both of these if your a bargain shopper too!
 http://debbie-debbiedoos.blogspot.com/ for Garage Salen Saturday
http://linda-coastalcharm.blogspot.com/ for Nifty Thrifty Tuesday

Hope you all are having as wonderful a weekend as I am!  Thanks for coming by!  Have a great day!

Rounding Up the Roosters

Just what is it about these Roosters that gets so many of us clucking about like a bunch of fussy mother hens?   Quite frankly, the whole rooster collecting phenomenon has been one that has escaped me for some time.  At least that's what I've always claimed!

You see, it's not that I've had my head stuck in the grain somewhere, it's just that I've kept my eyes turned elsewhere, outside the roost.  I've had several friends who's homes are full of feathers. So full are their homes that I have sat and listened to the tales of husbands and young children desperately trying to escape the overcrowded living conditions of their own pens.   I have heard the muffled chuckles and seen the eyes rolling all too often from those living with a rooster collector.  I have vowed never to become like those women.  I will not give in!  I will not subject my family to such nonsense, roosters belong outside and that's that!  So, I began a quest to purposely ignore these divine beauties, no matter how often they crossed my path.  No matter that they also held such magnificent colors as one has ever seen.  I would not give in!  Not me!

Then this spring I came across a fantastic deal on an old washstand.  I did some restoration on it and set it on my front porch.  It was farmhouse divine!  The only thing missing was, well, a rooster.  No problem, I'll just see if I can't find one of those cute metal roosters, surely ONE rooster outside can't hurt!

It doesn't really have a lot of color either, unless you happen to notice that beautiful patina of brown, green, gold and hints of red.  Not many feathers either unless you happen to love those beautiful cutout swirls.  So this surely cannot be one of those Roosters that sends someone into a frenzy, can it?

I mean, just because it looks so proud and sure and appears to have such an attitude, that's not reading to much into it, is it?

And you must know that I have always been a fanatic about candles, and I really love candle shades.  The deal I got on this shade from a yard sale was so good, I hardly even noticed that cute little rooster on the shade.  No matter that he has such wonderful coloring, it really means nothing to me!

I promise you coloring means nothing to me! That is...until, I came across this beauty!  My heart stood still!  It was at an estate sale and I spotted him in the pictures on the Internet prior to the sale.  No, I did not go to this sale just for this rooster, surely you know there was other stuff too!

Just look at those colors though!  Have you ever seen such fancy?  I just certainly have not!  I was totally smitten and fell head over heels when I saw that he was no ordinary fine feathered friend.  It was a Coq Du Village of the Fitz and Floyd family!  

I am starting to think maybe there is something more to having these roosters around then I had suspiciously suspected.  Suddenly, I am feeling very comforted with each and every glance of my new feathered friends.  Perhaps they want more friends to join them, just to keep them company you know, when I'm not around of course!

They even called out their friends from corners of my house I hadn't known they were hiding in.  How did I miss this dearie on my favorite old coffee mug that has a chip on it! 

Or this Old friend hiding in my sons room!

Did I really not notice them when I brought them into our home years ago?  IDK!

 They can be quite tricky, these clever birds!  Invading your home without notice, and taking up roost in the most unusual spots.  So please take it from me, proceed with caution where roosters are concerned!

Or you may just find yourself inviting them to the table,

And treating them as a guest of honor...

In good standing, because they are so purrrtty,

Or appear to be so well bred!

If you think I've become one of those crazy rooster collecting women you might be right.  Click on the following link to see more collections and roosters of distinction @ http://barbsgoodlife.blogspot.com/

for a Rooster Blog Party

Hope you enjoyed your visit today, please don't fly the coop without leaving me a note.