Fresh or Frozen?

I'll take frozen please or at least fresh from the grocery store. This is a picture of my Grandmother taken before the depression. I'm pretty sure they were grateful for this turkey but I'm grateful for the grocery store! Happy Turkey day!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!! I am reposting my "pretty bird" from last year because I always need a reminder how to do it myself. If you haven't put your turkey in the oven yet, try this out...



OK. This wing hanging out (at least I think it's a wing, I don't want to know) is not very attractive. The first year that I made a turkey myself, my mother tried to explain to me over the phone how to tuck it under. It's easier if you can see it instead of having it explained to you, so the following are pictures of how to do it. Every year I do this, I don't think I'm doing it right because you really have to force it sometimes and it feels like it's going to pop.

First, pull the wing towards you while lifting up the main part of the bird.

Start forcing it under the bird. It might fight you a little here...

Now that it is under, repeat on the other side.

Now put the back side of the wing under the leg and you're ready to oil and season.



My husband and I have done a little experiment every year. We make a breast and a whole bird and we switch off on each using either butter or vegetable oil. Every year the vegetable oil is the favorite and it's a lot easier to spread over the bird too. If you usually use butter, you might want to try it out and see what YOU think.

Then we season with salt and pepper and in 3-5 hours it will be ready to go.YUM! The house smells great!!

I hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Christmas Decorating at Mom's

The call came early this year. The one that starts with, "Do you want to come over?" I wouldn't have guessed that it was to decorate for Christmas because it's not even Thanksgiving yet and I know my mom's attitude towards that. This year, though, she had the excuse of being out of town for 10 days between now and Christmas so, it's OK. While I am not one that decorates before Thanksgiving either, I don't shame other people because they do. What am I...the Christmas decorating police? Well, not this year at least. :)

So we had fun being naughty little elves, throwing caution to the wind, and heading out to the nearest Home Depot to buy some fresh greenery and poinsettias. The intoxicating smell of pine definitely put me in the decorating mood....along with the hot buttered rum and Krispy Kreme donuts!

My decorating style involves keeping things simple...

incorporating natural elements like greenery and fresh flowers...



blending rooms together...

combining bling with rustic elements...

using everyday items along with seasonal ones...



placing decorations in unexpected places...

and having someone to bounce ideas off of.

The kids helping out and using their creativity.



The end to the day.

Decorating is fun but exhausting. I'm glad I have a couple of days to recuperate before I start on my house!

sharing with ~

Savvy Southern Style

Jewelry Storage Idea

Some of you might already know that I am currently "working on" my closet. One of my dilemmas has been how to store my jewelry. Then the other day as I was putting away the Halloween stuff under the stairs, I came across an unused frame...SCORE!

It was nice and deep and had a bit of a rim around the inside.

The hanger on the door just wasn't working for me and I have plenty of wall space so I combined the fabric hanger with the frame to get this...

Sorting out all of my jewelry actually took longer than doing this project.

Since the fabric organizer and the frame were similar sizes, all I had to do was turn over the frame and staple the fabric part to the back of the frame.



Now I just need to stop putting off painting the walls so I can actually hang it on the wall. I also have a plan for the necklaces which involves another frame I found. Please come back to check it out!

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Transform an Old Window into a Piece of Art

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You might recognize this old window from one of my Halloween posts. (It had bloody hands on it.) I didn't originally buy it for that purpose of course. I had been having trouble finding something for my mantle until I found this window. The size was good and I liked the distressed finish. It just needed a little something extra...

Here is it's transformation...

I took book pages from one of my architectural books, decoupaged them on and stained them with aged oak...

Next, I made a template for the chandelier, drawing just half on poster board to trace on the paper...

After drawing, I filled in the rest with paint, starting out with a brown and then contouring with a blue-grey...

I thought there was a little too much contrast for me so I decided to sand down what I had painted...

After looking at this for a while, something looked "funny" to me. I decided to cover up the bottom part of the chandelier with paper. (Note: Because I tore and overlapped the paper that was decoupaged, it was easy for me to correct mistakes in the drawing or paint.) I added just a bit of white to lighten up the piece a little more and this is the finished look...

Now I need to figure out what to do with the rest of the mantle!!!

sharing with ~



http://theshabbynest.blogspot.com

http://frenchcountrycottage.blogspot.com
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http://www.commonground-do.com/

http://www.redouxinteriors.com/2013/11/redouxinteriors-link-party-november-14th-130-and-les-features/

http://diy-vintage-chic.blogspot.com/2013/11/fridays-five-features-no-17.html

http://linda-coastalcharm.blogspot.com/2013/11/nifty-thrifty-tuesday-no188.html

Motivational Writing

While straightening up Jackson's room yesterday, I found a little surprise. Being a decorator, you can imagine my horror when I saw that my precious son had taken an ink pen to his wooden desk. I was pretty upset until I read the inscription.

He had written his own little motivational encouragement. I couldn't have been more proud even if it had said, I love you mom." A good lesson in life, never to be erased. It will stay there as a reminder always.

This is a good lesson in decorating too. Always keep the things that are special to you. It makes your house a HOME and individually YOU. Sometimes the beauty and interest is in the imperfections.

I did point out to my son, however, that while I appreciate his creative writing skills, I would like him stick to paper or a sticky note next time, and to please not deface the furniture in the future. (All while making sure that he knew that I really loved it, of course!)

Fall Is In The Air

On the way to school this morning my nine year old told me that this was the best Halloween ever. Nothing could please me more. To top off this great day, we had a cool front come in to San Antonio and the weather is beautiful for taking down all of the Halloween decorations and going back to the Fall feel again. Of course it's still a high in the 80s, but no humidity. My husband always like to say, "It's not the heat, it's the stupidity." I get that stuck in my head when I start complaining about it, but it REALLY IS the humidity!



Enjoying the weather outside this cool day in Texas...

 HAPPY FALL Y'ALL!!!