My boy turns 16 today, and I say , “Yikes! How’d that happen?”  Every Thanksgiving weekend is Conor’s birthday weekend.  This year, as part of the Thanksgiving/Birthday celebration I planned on baking him a cake – a very vanilla cake.  But you see, Conor doesn’t like cake.  Yes, I can’t believe it either.  All these…

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I love to decorate for the holidays as naturally as possible.  And finding just the right mix of planted and cut foliage and flowers is my well-balanced decorating solution. Every year, one of my absolute favorites is the Narcissus Papyraceus – a part of the Daffodil family, also commonly known as Paperwhites. They grow to…

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Found the early cinnamon brown chintz quilt – with the allover pheasant pattern – folded in a basket at the bottom of the linen closet.  I thought it would bring a lot of charm as an unexpected tablecloth for the old farmhouse table. I cut fresh bittersweet from a tree on the side of the road and…

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A “Happy Thanksgiving” e-mail yesterday from a really lovely lady, Julia, inspires today’s posting. We met a year ago, just before Thanksgiving, when I showed her the blog I was then working on – Homemaker2words.com – and the posting titled “Oo-la-la!”, featuring the step by step recipe for a fabulous French apple tart inspired by…

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About a year ago, I took a good hard objective look at my dinnerware – especially my serving pieces.  They were all over the place in color and style.  Quite honestly I felt like the food we were creating and plating was not showcased in the best way it could be.  Here’s all this hard…

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Azaleas blooming in Connecticut – in November?  That’s right. And in my powder room, to boot! I have a pair of freaky miniature Azalea topiaries that bloom twice a year – late spring, and fall. This sweetest pair of Mother’s Day presents from the boys is truly a gift that keeps on giving.  I’ve nurtured…

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As a rule of thumb, I love to use nature – in some form – in decorating throughout my home. And the beauty in decorating with nature is that I can create a very natural ebb and flow attitude in my home, so there is always a nice natural transitioning from one season to the…

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On the 6th day there was light.  Hurricane Sandy packed a huge punch, but fortunately our loss of power was the very worst of it.  So needless to say, I am so very grateful.  On Monday, during the thick of things, I paced around the house like a caged animal – very anxious and worried…

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