Greenhurst Nursery #16

Can you tell how much I adored this little area since I keep coming back to it? Yes, it was charming with its little stove and vintage bistro set, which was covered with the most delicious stuff so much that I couldn't get a picture of it. It was a tiny space - about the size of a kitchen in a house but crammed with delicious stuff AND people.

A clearer view of some of those hanging faux desserts. Tiny faux bundt cakes hanging.

And cookie cutters with penguins on top, little cake square desserts with fruit and leaves on top......

Giant cookie ornies. There were also plates to match those cookies. Chocolate dipped strawberries! *Sigh*................

Peppermint candy plates on a pretty red pedestal stand......

Stepping out of the kitchen and into a french country display of a dining room and storage units in that style.........

Aren't these simply adorable if you want a french style Christmas? All in the colors reminiscent of France.

Faux lemons and pomegranates in apothecary jars.....

Penguin cookie jar........

The "cookie" plates hung on a horizontal plate hanger. Uuuuuuh, I had to look over this lady's head to take the pix. I never ever told anyone to "get out of the way"! Waaaay toooo rude. Every single person did when they saw I was doing a photo shoot but I never told them to.

This would go in my office/painting room wonderfully! I'm hoping they have an "After Christmas Sale" and that will be mine if it's still there.

I cannot tell you how much lovelier this is in person. The berries were bright true red but the lighting and camera played havoc with the colors in this area. It was very dim and had incandescent lighting so it was harder to find the best setting.

Seems like I've shown you this lamp before but just in case I haven't, here it is again. Just gorgeous!

More hanging ornies apropos for french country style holiday decorating......grapes and wine casks.... how cute is that?!

Can't you just see Lucy stomping on these grapes?! Lucille Ball of "I Love Lucy" fame.......remember that episode?????

"Peppermint" pillows..........well, that's what they remind me of anyway.

More holiday plates.

I've been going around telling hubs to "Don't get your tinsel in a tangle!" the past week or so. LOL

Blingy goblet.....

More plates.........

In a few days you'll see the last of the tour. And if you have a couple of thousand dollars...........well, we'll keep that for the last post, sweet chicks! ;-)

Being Home #4

First of all, I have to mention this sweet little chick who is having a fantastic giveaway: Jenny! Just visit with her and you'll be entered! I'm so thrilled I could kiss a pig.......on with the show now. ;-) Thank YOU, Jenny!!!

I recently received an email from a sweet lady who wanted me to blog about my old job–telling about it and posting pictures. I don't have any pictures. Remember, this was 17 years ago that I left that job and we did not have digital cameras then and I certainly didn't take pictures at work. But I'll tell you a little bit about it.

It's a very large Fortune 500 company and when I quit to move to Idaho it was among the top 6o of Fortune 500 companies. I was the highest paid woman and I absolutely loved working for them. We were the west coast office and when I went to work for them in the late 70s we'd just started working with computers. I was very good at what I did. That's where I learned to love computers. I retired from there and moved to Idaho and decided to stay home. I know things in life have a reason for being and we've found ours. We joined a church but that's a whole different story. Just suffice to say I loved the career I had there and the company was very good about standing by its women.

We were not a "picture taking" family ever. I know, I know, that's terrible but if you knew the trouble I had with cameras when you had to load it with film, you'd understand. It wasn't pretty, I tell ya. Yessss, digital cameras were not even on the horizon then I think. See what you younger generations have that we didn't!! I do have some from our early days of marriage though and I might post about our travels and places we've lived. But that will be for another day. Actually, I loved her suggestion; it's just that I didn't have any pictures to share from the job. Plus I don't want to name the company publicly as it might just embarrass them knowing I blogged about them. Those close to me heard what happened when I put on the posting about the very ill man in California but I digress and that is a situation I definitely want to forget. *Sigh*..............

Freedom to do as I please is the greatest reason and reward for me staying home. I have more freedom than at any other time in my life. I've never been BUSIER but it's my time to do with as I please and I absolutely love it.

I'm fanatic about my home being clean. I joke about how dirty it is but that's not the norm in this household. Most things sparkle. I don't like waking up to a dirty kitchen. After the computer/office/painting room, the kitchen gets the most usage. If it's not clean I don't function well at all. Yep, OCD in its finest form! Hubs says I'm way too fanatical but that has kept me off the "condemned house" list for 48 years so I've got to go with what I do best, chicks, and keeping my home from being declared a disaster area is high on my priority list.

Just look at that sink. Have you seen anything sparkle that much everrrRRRRRR?? Hmmmm. USMC standards! Spit shine!

Now, dust is an entirely different animal; dust does NOT bother me in any way, shape or form. Dust is my friend. It helps me to realize that some things in this world just are what they are. And dust is dust! It's part of the elements of the earth. Earthy?!?! I'm just helping Al Gore to save the planet by not disturbing it. Doing my part, chicks!! ;-)

Showers??? Hubs' domain. I don't do showers!

Yes, I do sinks. Love Bunny wipes his side of the sink faucets off every single morning without fail. He's proud of his home and wants it to look nice.

Every morning I look in this mirror and see an aging face. I truly feel sorry for women and men who think they need plastic surgery to feel beautiful or keep a partner or hubby. Love Bunny and I have grown up and grown old together. Some mornings I ask him how he could love someone who is getting old and wrinkled and getting brown spots on the hands and back and he has always told me he just remembers me coming down the stairs in my wedding dress 47+ years ago. That's all it takes for me..........ok, well, a little Oil of Olay facial treatments, wrinkle cream, and eye puffer upper! But this is the first thing I see in the mornings–my mirror.

Since our kids have left home over 25 years I thought we'd have less laundry. Nuuuuu, we have more laundry for some reason. I do more laundry than most women because I'm a clean freak. But I'm not too keen on washing more than once a week or so and I told hubs that we're buying more underwear so I don't have to wash so much. He agreed but said he couldn't get any more underwear in his drawers so I stopped and just wash now about every 9 days.

I may a 12 year old Maytag washer and dryer and love it. I have been known to leave the clothes in the washer so long they've dried in there. I try to watch it now but sometimes I just get busy with the computers or crafting or sewing and forget about housework altogether.

The first thing I do after leaving the bedroom is open my family room blinds, then the patio blinds and then the living room blinds. I like light in my home but it's a dark house because of the north facing front and a huge covered porch.

My headboard is supposed to get a coat of white paint soon but it's getting too cold to paint outside so I may have to wait till it's warmer. I want my pine bedroom set white. It has little appliques already on it and will look adorable when I'm through.

My bed has to be made every single day and if for some reason it's neglected in the morning, we'll make it before we get in it at night. This frustrates hubs but I CANNOT get into a bed that isn't made properly. Taut and tight corners are a must!!!

This garden tub came with the house. I would not have put it in but Love Bunny likes a soak every once in a while so it's there for him. I use the shower unless I'm going to shave my legs and then I sit on the little seat on this tub and do that job.

Our array of shampoos, conditioners, soaps, facial cleaners, washcloths, Olay body shampoo, razors and net scrubber and pumice stone for the feet. Really does help, chickees.

Now wasn't that just tooooo excitin' for ya?! Just goes to show ya tha ya never know what I'll put up on here. Hah........ More coming up in the coming weeks.

Greenhurst Nursery #15

I was telling Love Bunny last night that if I ever mention doing a series of posts with 335 photos again that he can just shoot me right then and there!! But I had to share this special place. However, I doubt very seriously that I'll do something for posting with this many photos again. It's taken an enormous amount of time to take them, edit them, decide which ones were worthy of showing, uploading them, writing text for most of them and then scheduling them all for future dates. This has to tell you how much I love blogging, chicks! It is another "passion" of mine.

An aside here:
My blog will always be a happy place - a place where it is safe to come and read, not much controversy as I see it, no ill feelings towards anyone, just a relaxing, calm, serene place to come. If you want things other than that I'd invite you to visit them on the internet where they certainly have them! But for me and this blog I want to lift people up and hope they have a joyous time reading what I write. I want it to show love and humor and happiness. That's my goal.

I also thank the nursery for allowing me to take the pix. They looked at me as if I was a bit nutty but they agreed. I had no control over lighting, it was what it was and there was nothing to be done about it but for the most part it was certainly adequate. I worked around the staff and customers, who were kind and gracious when noticing I was "shooting" pictures. But you might see a head in some of the pictures. I think it just adds to the festiveness of the whole shebang! They always got out of the way without me even commenting to them. That's how people generally are around here: kind, loving and gracious. That's why I love Idaho so much.

Cup of hot chocolate anyone? Nuuuuu, not real. Since this place sells candy it was sprinkled around the little kitchen area of the nursery. You could tell what was fake and what was real because the "real" candy had cellophane on it with an "ingredients" sticker on it. Most of the stuff was faux though. :-)

Cookie Jar and some "real" sweets!

Oh, be still my heeeartttt!! Chocolate cheesecake - my most favorite dessert of all desserts in all the whole world.....faux though. Hah

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire, Jack Frost nipping at your nose.......(singing in my most melodious tones!) and cookies baking in the vintage oven.

Sparkly balls on stems.

Who would have ever thought of a "chocolate" tree?!??! Yesssssssss!!!

I showed these cupcakes to my ebay group and they asked me what they were made of. I don't know; I didn't pick them up. But they sure looked real and delish, chicks!!

Little tarts........uhhhh, the desserts, not you, my little cherubs! And little chocolate and red sparkly "peppermint" drops.......

Okay okay, so you've seen the snowman apron in another post, adjust and live with it! This is just a close up of his sweet face and mitten-hand pockets.

Ice cream cone hanging ornies, ribbon candy, banana splits, tarts and candy garlands! More to coooooooome!! Hehehe and hohohoho.......

Frosty gum drops..........

I want this clock more than you can ever imagine. It may be mine when we go back there this weekend.

Ice cream sundae hanging ornies........

Ummmmm.......wonder if this would fit around hubs' neck and I could bite it every once in a while. LOL Yep, it's a real one - cellophane and ingredient sticker, remember???? ;-)

Looks like a peppermint sweet candy but it's a pedestal cake plate.

Another pedestal cake plate, just a tad different from one above. And some bon-bons, faux, under a cloche.

Dive right in my sweets!

Lemon meringue pie hanging ornies, cupcakes, cherry pie and chocolate cake! Whoooooa......like a kid in a candy store.

This cone looks more like a yogurt instead of ice cream and then there's the pink and yellow faux cupcakes!!! Yummmm

Well, that's it for today, but I'm telling ya I'm saving the pièce de resistance for the last. However, there are more things coming with the next couple of posts that I doubt you've seen anywhere else. You think the above stuff can't be topped???? Au contraire, mes amis, oui, il peut!! Just you wait. This is the 15th in the series and there are a total of 18 so only 3 more to go after this one. It ain't over yet, my little chickees......