Cats and the Red Theme

Hi everyone.  I just wanted to pop in for a quick post. I've been enjoying all the beautiful Holiday decorating on your blogs. I try to get in each day to look at all the beautiful pictures and the wonderful stories of Holidays past and present. Now the largest tree that I put up each year has a white and silver and gold theme. I still plan to get that tree decorated but it will go into the newly painted keeping room. I still planned to have a couple of smaller trees in the living room but I also remembered that I have a still young baby kitty, named Sugar Bee that is into everything. I could imagine her climbing the tree and playing in a rubble of crushed glass ornaments while I was away.  So  I decided to decorate the trees anyway but with non breakable ornaments. Anyway I'd seen these beautiful red pinecone ornaments at  the Crackle Barrel when we ate there a few weeks ago. I started with a few of those and ended with this sweet tree all decked out in berries, birds and pinecones. I even found a couple of birdhouses and lots of cardinals. I mixed in a few other non breakable ornaments and ended up with a very nice tree. Can you believe she has not even noticed it?  Not once has she climbed it or even swatted at an ornament. Well I love the tree anyway and just in case she changes her mind I know there isn't anything here that she can break and get cut on.

                                                                                

It willl be here soon! Have a great week!

Time is getting away from me!

                                                                              

WOW, time is really flying by. I usually get my decorating done the weekend after Thanksgiving but this year I've barely gotten started. I'm posting just a few pictures of what I have gotten done so far. Painting has gone well in the keeping room but I won't  get finished until next weekend. Then the larger tree will go up. In the mean time I have everything from that room scattered through my house so I haven't been able to get my other decorating done.

I did get a little  Christmas tree on Brother's tree. I wish the pictures had turned out better, the tree is straight but it looks as if it's tilted in the picture.

                    

                                       I bought two of  these trees from a sale that was an antique store that had gone out of business. She had used the trees for decorations in her store. It has vintage copper bells, pieces of vintage jewelry and old buttons with little square mirrors that are glued on to the end of the boughs; they catch and reflect the light. Sometimes when the sun hits it just right the mirrors just shimmer in the light.             

                                                                                                                                      

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You can't see them in the picture but there is a little bike, a teddy bear and lots of cute things.

I managed to decorate the mantle anf get the big Santa and a few wreaths up. Hopefully I'll be able to post pictures next weekend of the tress decorated and the keeping room finished.

We had a terrible storm right after I got the wreath on the cross and it blew it down and lots of ornaments were broken. That's OK I've been wanting to replace them with some prim ornies so now would be a good time to do it.

Have a safe happy week.

Do You See Him There ??

Do you see him there??

Years ago Brother had a big yellow cat. He named him Yellows & Yellows. Yep, Yellows & Yellows.

That was when he was maybe about 25 or 30 years old, long before our parents died.  Now he'd had other cats but all of his life he fondly remembered Yellows & Yellows and talked about that kitty all the time. He loved all of the cats that I had rescued over the years and I still have his Wallace who is now 12 years old. Anyway, a few months after brother passed away this gentleman started visiting me. He won't allow me to get more than about 3 feet near him but he's not a shy one. He peeks in the window at us from the porch. He has no problem letting me know in a quite a loud howl that his bowl is empty and he wants food.   He is a beautiful boy and I've named him Yellows & Yellows. I worry about him. My neighbors are not cat lovers but I can't deny him food. Sometimes I see him over by the tree where Brother was attacked. I always feel that Brother is still close to me and watches over me. Who else would he send to care for me while he's off visiting places that I can't even imagine but Yellow's & Yellows.

 

Happy Beautiful Thanksgiving and the Aprons I Promised

It has been a beautiful mild day here and I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving just as we did. I never started out to collect aprons; it's just that I seem to run across them quite often and I love them. When I was young every woman had an apron or more likely a half dozen or so.

My aunt's wore aprons when they cooked Sunday dinner after church. They had plain and fancy aprons which they wore depending on who was coming for dinner. My Grandmother and Mammie Roger's wore aprons all day, everyday. Their aprons were longer. They always wore long mid-calf length dresses, always. It was not the proper thing for women to wear slacks or jeans. I remember that all of the house cleaning was done right after breakfast at Mammie and Grandmother's.

                                                                 

The meals and house cleaning were done in pretty print aprons but at Grandmother's when lunch was finished she would put on a proper apron as she called it. A proper apron was a long white apron with pockets large enough to hold her crochet thread or embroidery, She made all of her aprons on a treadle sewing machine and the pockets were always trimmed with lovely crochet lace.  The afternoon was time for stitching. I don't think she ever spent an idol moment, except when she slept and I'm sure she dreamed of the next sewing project that she would be starting. Thus began my love affair with aprons and linens and quilts.

 

I found this little beauty a few months ago, the apron  has a row of sweet Christmas trees across the hem. It doesn't show well in the picture but the tress are cross stitch, topped with a green ribbon bow.

I'm always amazed at the work that went into these aprons, even these newer machine made ones can be very intricate.

I guess the red ones are my favorite but I collect any color or pattern that I can find.

I remember Mammie and Grandmother using the hems of their aprons to open the door of the wood stove. I do wish I had some of their aprons for my collection.

And now this next picture is a little bit off of the subject.

Please pop over to my autumn Halloween blog at Familiar Sprits http://familiarspirits.blogspot.com/ to see the story and more great pictures of this fantastic stock car. You won't want to miss this it is incredible.

Have a wonderful safe weekend; it's back to work for me tomorrow but if all goes well the keeping room make over will start on Saturday.

Thanksgiving blessings to everyone.

 

                                                                                

Happy Thanksgiving

Wishing everyone a safe and Happy Thanksgiving

Bright Blessings