Brett's 30!

My baby is turning 30 on Monday. We celebrated last night with a Cajun food fest! His niece, Mekaila, wanted Uncle Brett to have a "Hannah Montana" themed party. She called him on the phone to tell him "her plan" and she had a Hannah Montana balloon for him for his birthday. Mekaila looks a mess in the picture - she'd had lots of running around outside and sweating going on before the picture!

Brett's Remodel

Our son, Brett, owns an early 1900s brick bungalow house in Leavenworth, KS; and has been remodeling it since he first bought it. These pictures show the last project which was to tear down most of the screened-in side porch and replace it with new framework, screen, stair decking, and screendoor. He did a great job! It's always more of a job than it originally looks like when you first start tearing into it and this was no exception. His dad helped him. My pictures show the "after" pictures first and the "before" pictures after - wasn't thinking as I was posting.

Vintage Thursdays

This is a small vintage secretary/china cabinet that I purchased at a garage sale many years ago. I display my miniature tea sets in it along with a few other treasures (like baby items from my father). I had a great aunt who had one like it when I was a child and I loved it then so I fell in love with this the minute I saw it.

Go on over and visit Vintage Thursdays over at http://anapronaday.blogspot.com/. See the treasures that other people cherish and hear their stories.

Autumn Begins

Piracantha berries are brilliant. The birds will have a feast all through the winter on these. I read that they are intoxicating to birds - I do know there's a lot of "rabble" going on from the birds as they partake!

Burning Bush has started to burn that brilliant hot pink color. The Virginia Creeper even has some pretty purple tones in it. Of course the mums are really brilliant and just starting to open in the garden. Yellow shows up the best but the burgundies are definitely going to be there tooAsters show off their petite purple blooms too.

More Ladies' Birthdays

The Ladies celebrated a couple of more birthdays this past weekend. Bobbie and Gail are seeing another year creep up on them. We all ate at Bagatelle, a little Mediterranean cafe, in Wichita. Not all of the usual crowd was there. It seems the older we get, the more difficult it is to find a time for us all to get together. When we all were working, it didn't seem to present such a problem.

Bottle Tree Lore

The story of the bottle tree is that African slaves from the Congo brought the idea for the bottle tree to the United States. The bottles trap evil spirits in them and keep them from entering your home. We have this bottle tree out by our fire pit hosting the "evil spirits". This was another of my ideas for DH to do. He used a dead red cedar tree; drilled holes in it; placed cut pieces of re-bar in those for the bottles to rest on. Many friends and my kids have added pretty bottles to the tree. A fun source of conversation when people are visiting the yard.

Bridal Shower

We had a bridal shower here yesterday for a friend's oldest daughter. Isn't this a beautiful cake? It's an apricot cake with an apricot glaze. Janice had seen the picture of it in a Country Living magazine but she couldn't find the recipe when she went back to find it - so she used one off the internet. It looks exactly like the picture in Country LivingThe bride's mom and I were best friends in high school 40 years ago. Here we are - the hostesses, bride, and her mom: Janice, me, Gail (the mom of the bride), Amy (the bride),and Ruby. We had a great brunch and presents for the bride-to-be. We had a lot of fun!

Fall Nesting

I like using the cloche for various seasons.

I've seen so many great ideas that cost quite a bit of money so I do try to come home and copy what I see - imitation is the greatest form of flattery, right? The painting on the mantle was a paint-by-number that my grandfather did 45 years ago. Melissa at The Inspired Room is hosting a Fall Nesting month and it is so great to see what others do to decorate their homes for Fall. You need to go visit if you want ideas. Really is fun!

Loving Frank

Ladies With Books met last night to discuss Loving Frank by Nancy Horan. We all liked the book but found it near impossible to like Frank Lloyd Wright as a person (architecture would be another thing). We also didn't like Mamah Borthwick - we just couldn't understand abandoning her children. Dayle found a great video online with Nancy Horan narrating her tour of Oak Park, Illinois, as well as giving background for her writing of the book. It's a great read - pick it up!

Glory in the Morning!

The morning glories have decided it is time to bloom! Thank you! There are a ton of blooms on them so I look forward to its blooming from now until frost gets it!

Happy Labor Day

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