Answering the Front Door

The flowers in this mosaic are all from my gardens.

The winner of the giveaway is Olivia of Olivia's Romantic Home. She's been notified and is very excited! Olivia, I've told you before that you have one of my favorite names. I also want to thank you for joining in. The ribbon tree, Living Beautifully book and coffee filter roses have truly found a darling home in which to live, Sugar!
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We have a security system in our home. We had one in California and after several years here, I decided to have one installed in our new house. Just a precaution after a bit of a scary experience once when hubs wasn't home. The security system was installed by a professional. We installed cameras where I can see who is on our property around the house. Very simple and easy to do. The significant fact here is that hubs is gregarious and I'm not. He chats up anybody!

Anyway, sitting here in my office/computer room or sitting in our living room are 2 small (by today's standards) 19" televisions I purchased at a thrift store for $10 and $15 a piece. I don't have to answer my door if I don't want to. And I don't if I don't recognize the person at the door. There's also a sign out front that says: 'Absolutely Positively No Soliciting of any kind!!!' You'd be astounded at the people who cannot read! I've been thinking of adding 'And we've found Jesus', but if they can't read the first part then why would I presume that they could read the second part either. Sigh.

Anyway, a few weeks ago, the doorbell rang. Hubs was in his office and can't hear the doorbell in there. I looked at the TV and it wasn't anyone I knew. I went in to ask th' hubs if he recognized the man out front with a clipboard (Does this not scream solicitor?!). He said no, but he was edging toward the door. I stopped him immediately because 1) He's a sucker for any sales pitch, especially if it's a woman. 2) He'd invite anyone in just to chat. He kept edging and I kept holding his arm to keep him from opening the door. In the end, I won, but I could tell he was itching to open that door and see what the guy wanted. I'm not so curious. ;-) However, next time, I may just have break his arm to keep him from answering the door.
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A quaint and pretty restaurant entrance in France.

I just thought this photo was so colorful and cute with that darling lamp and shade, wallpaper and table I had to share it with you.

A pretty gravel-strewn patio for resting and eating. Looks like a restaurant. Certainly, one I'd want to visit.

Colorful door and enchanting entrance, even if the photo is not very good.

Pretty roses-strewn vintage, rustic gate.

Probably a store with luxurious white goods, towels, sheets, gowns, pillows, etc.

More luxurious embroidered linens.

A dreamy sitting/living/music room.

Today I'm wishing I were here as I've been stuck in this house now for a week without going anywhere. Sigh...

Colorful quilts and linens. I must be on a linen kick here! ;-)

The minute I saw this patio with the red umbrellas I was enthralled. An old stone building that the resident in this apartment jazzed up with vibrant color.

Lamps are a weakness of mine and I change them more often than most people do. I truly believe they add one of the essential finishing touches to a room. Hubs agrees with me on this. And, trust me, he doesn't agree with much of what I do in the way of decorating but he lets me fly on my own wings. He loves me beyond any reason I can comprehend.

I have no clue where this mall is but a mall that has this gorgeous lighting is a place I'd love to shop.

A luxury bath I thought you'd like to see and dream about.

Just a bit of eye candy to leave you with today.

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 By creating beauty and order where you live and work, you will be controlling the private hours of your life.
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Linking up with Mosaic Monday.

Our Romantic Roses Dinner

We were alone this Christmas and it was actually very nice and relaxing. Our daughter came for Thanksgiving and we had the traditional turkey so for Christmas we had ham, which is one of our favorite meals. I've been known to do "outside-of-the-box" dinners and luncheons for friends and senior ladies from our church and love doing it. But today I decided on the non-traditional dinner for Christmas - a romantic roses dinner.

As I said, today was a very relaxing and easy day for us. I puttered around in my office; Love Bunny was out in his train room doing something with the electrical on his never-ending layout for his model trains.

I had decided to set the table early - right after breakfast. I put on a beautiful lace and roses embroidered cloth that was way too big for our table which is 42" x 42" without any of its 2 leaves in it. But so what? So the tablecloth almost touched the floor on 2 ends. I loved it!

Then I selected some old dishes I have that aren't china but probably Homer McLaughlin creamy white with silver roses embellishing the edges. Well, just come along with me as I describe each thing.

Hubs knew something was up when he came in from his train room and I was on a ladder with my camera in hand photographing the dining table. Men are sometimes clueless when this happens so I put my beautiful little hands on his cheeks and said, "Photoshoot, photoshoot"!! He knew immediately what that meant. BLOG!! See, they get it after a little show of tender affection. *Wink*

This was the picture from the ladder. I only set it for two as it was just the two of us. I have a vast collection of china dinner plates and salad and dessert plates so I mixed it up for a more informal romantic feel.

I then took some rose candle holders from our living room coffee table and put them down the center ends. A few paper roses for all four corners with some tiny paper roses scattered about and some faux candies in the middle just set the mood. (He'll be verrrrry happy tonight, chicks! *Wink*)

Pretty little salt and pepper shakers in the form of cottages was set at his place. Note the lovely dish in the upper right corner for bread.

Closer view

Spattering of roses and the candle holder roses. I had no candles and besides it was about 4 o'clock when we ate. Hardly dark but I would still have lit them if I had had some.

My place setting with my little salt and pepper shakers. I have a couple of sets of these and when I have a large group for dinner I set several sets of shakers on the table so no one has to say "please pass the salt and pepper." It's a thoughtful thing to do when you are having a dinner party.

My bread plate is just a tad different from hubs' plate.

Ahhhh, yes, I was going to have sparking white grape juice but hubs informed me earlier that we were out. This led to a "discussion." I shan't repeat the "discussion"!

This is our good silver that hubs bought us about 40 years ago when he was overseas. I love the pattern, but don't remember the name. It is very pretty in person though.

Just after I placed 2 of the vintage crystal glasses on the table, I reached across and one of them tipped over and broke. My "chest" did it! Hubs was sitting right there and didn't say a word. He was as heartbroken as I was but he knew it was an accident and I grieved for several seconds and went on. I have several but if my "chest" keeps getting in the way I won't have them for long. They are truly gorgeous. I have several stemware pieces because I love drinking out of them: water, juice, soda, anything. I popped a strawberry in there for flamboyance!! Hah.

All in all, it was a lovely day with Love Bunny and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I lamented about hubs maybe spilling something on the tablecloth. I want you to just guess who was the first to spill! Hmmmm, anybody wanna guess? Wasn't Love Bunny, but he didn't say a word. That man loves me a lot, chicks!!! A LOT!