A FEW VINTAGE THINGS, VIBURNUM BERRIES, AND A KITTY

 

Hello everyone!  I hope you all had a nice weekend.  Are you all ready for Halloween?

The kids had fun dressing up for school this morning.  Hopefully, I'll be able to get some

good pictures of them tonight, so I can share their costumes with you.  I'm not very good

at taking photos at dusk though, so we'll just have to see how they turn out.

This morning, I decided to try and get a little more photo taking practice in.  I pulled

a few vintage things together and used some berries from our viburnum bushes for
the photo shoot.  I was so happy when one of our seven cats (yes, I did say 7) got a little
curious about what I was doing, and I finally was able to get some good pictures of her.

This is Maisey. :-)

There are lots and lots of photos today.  I was enjoying trying different perspectives

and playing around with the props.  I hope you enjoy them...

 

 

 

I WISH YOU ALL A...

...HALLOWEEN!!

Linking to these fun and inspiring parties:

White Wednesday 
Feathered Nest Friday

Thanks for visiting and your lovely comments!

'Til next time...

~ Jo :-)
 

IMAGES OF FALL FROM THE GARDEN

Hello everyone!  Happy Friday!

First of all, I want to say THANK YOU for all of the wonderful feedback you guys gave me on
my last post.  I've decided to keep my comments on, so I'm looking forward to reading all of your
lovely thoughts with each new post that I do once again. :-)

I'm so excited to say that fall has finally arrived here in Central California... YAY!  The leaves are
starting to change color on the trees, and we've had some of the most enjoyable weather lately...
cool in the mornings and evenings with our afternoons in the 70's.  To me, that's PERFECT weather!
Now, if it could just stay that way year round...

The roses in our garden love this cooler weather.  Spring and fall are the best time of year in the

garden for us.  During the summer heat, our plants just don't perform very well.  The roses don't
bloom as often or hold the blooms they do get for very long.  So, I'm always thrilled when fall
finally arrives.

 

  The roses in this post are called Heritage roses, and I bought them from the 

David Austin Rose Catalog. 

Below, is a picture of our Dogwood tree.  This is the first year that it's produced... well, I'm not
sure, are they berries or hips (like a rose hip)?  I tried to look it up on bing, but couldn't find any
info on it.  I'm very curious though... anybody have a clue?

 

Linking to:

This or That Thursday

 I still haven't figured out how to get the comment button directly under my blog post, so

unfortunately, you still have to click on the blog title if you want to leave a comment.  Sorry
for the inconvenience.  I've changed all of the settings I can think of to fix it, but without any
luck.  If any of you have any suggestions, I would love to hear them.

Well, that's all for today, my friends.  Thanks so much for visiting!  I hope you all have
a lovely weekend and a HAPPY HALLOWEEN! :-)
  
'Til next time...

~ Jo

A LITTLE REDECORATING... and QUESTIONS ABOUT COMMENTS

Hi all!  I hope you're all doing well.

**COMMENTS ARE ON FOR THIS POST**

There's a bit of heavy reading below all of these pictures regarding comments that I'd love to get
your thoughts on, but first I thought I'd share a simple change I made to this corner of my dining
room.  There aren't a lot of pictures today.  I mean, there are only so many pictures you can take
of a little corner like this, right? ;-)

I use to have a galvanized bucket that held my most recent Jeanne d'Arc Living magazines
sitting in the chair, but this corner had been bothering me for a while, so I decided to switch
it out to soften it up a little.

I added one of my antique grain sack pillows and hung a little burlap bag with a dried hydrangea in
it over the back of the chair.... done... simple.  I think I like it better.  What do you think? :-)

I don't know if you've noticed, but I've also redecorated my blog a little bit.  I made a new header,
and I also switched formats.  I've been wanting to switch to this new format for a long time now.
I  just think it looks prettier.  I hope you all like it.

OK... SO, NOW ONTO THE QUESTION OF COMMENTS...

I have gotten so many questions about having my comments turned off ever since I

chose to do that.  Questions like:

"Why did you choose to turn your comments off?"
"How has it effected your blogging experience?...
...your followers?"... etc. etc.

Of course, this always makes me rethink whether I should turn my comments
back on or not.

The main reason I turned off my comments was just the pressure of feeling obligated to
respond to all of them.  When you have as many as 60-80 comments per post, and I know
a lot of you who have blogs do, it can get very overwhelming at times.  I know from a lot
of the emails I've received , that many of you can relate to how I feel.

Well, I have this idea, and I'd LOVE to know what you think about it...

  I've been thinking about turning my comments back on, because I LOVE to hear what
all of you think and truly miss that part of blogging.  But, I DON'T want to have that
overwhelming feeling again, so I thought instead of responding to everyone's comments,
I would answer any questions that you guys may have in my posts.  I also thought I could
add a "Comments From my Readers" section and list three of them in each post.  I thought
these ideas could be a fun way to incorporate your comments into my blogging without
having the pressure that comes along with responding to comments.

For those of you who have questions for me and would like to ask them in a  more
private setting, you can still always feel welcome to email me.

So, WHAT DO YOU GUYS THINK???  I would LOVE to know.  This will

help me decide whether to turn my comments back on or not.  Thank you so

much for your time and input. :-)

I know that was a lot of reading... sorry for that!

Thanks so much for visiting!  Hope you all have a great day!

'Til next time...

~ Jo

**To leave a comment, just click on the title of the post and
scroll to the bottom of the post where the comment section is.
For some reason, even though I've changed all of my comment

settings, the comment button still won't show up at the bottom

of my blog post.  Hopefully, I'll get that figured out soon.
Thanks! :)**

B is for BOO!

Hi everyone!  I hope you're all having a wonderful week so far.

I have been inspired... yes I have... by my good friend, Tricia of A Rosy Note.  she put out

a beautiful fall post today. I just loved her chalkboard with the word "Boo" on it in a

pretty handwritten script, so I went right to work about thinking of how I could use that

in my home.  Of course, it had to be simple, because that's what my decorating style is all

about.  This is what I came up with...

I used simple brown paper wrapping that I had stored in a closet.  I cut a strip of it off the roll

to make it easy to work with, wrote the letters B-O-O on it with a black Sharpie marker in the
pretty script Tricia used, and used pinking sheers to cut the letters out with.  It was all done free-
hand... nothing's perfect or exact, and I kind of like it that way.  It literally only took me about
15 minutes to do.  I punched a hole through the top of each letter square and used white twine to
tie them onto the pitchers.  I added the hydrangeas, as I have an abundant supply of those in my
garden right now, and that was that.

 Thanks for the wonderful inspiration, Tricia.  I sure needed it!  :-)

Linking to these fun and inspiring parties:
Vintage Inspiration Friday
Farmhouse Friday
Feathered Nest Friday
Show and Tell Friday
Saturday Night Special
White Wednesday

I also wanted to welcome my new followers and say thanks for clicking that button.  I

haven't done that in a while... just wanted to let you all know how much I appreciate you. :-)

Hope you all have a great weekend!

'Til next time...

~ Jo

THE LAST FEW FALL IMAGES...

Hello everyone!  I normally wouldn't blog this often, but I wanted to join in on Debra's

fun fall tablescapes party for Vintage Inspiration Friday over at her lovely blog,

Common Ground... thanks for hosting, Debra.

All of our hydrangeas have turned gorgeous fall colors with lots of purple and pink in them.

I couldn't resist bringing some in to make a bouquet for my dining room table.  I took out what

I normally have in the vintage French tool caddy and added the hydrangeas... without any

water.... they'll dry nicely that way.

I kept all of the pumpkins white in here for a fresh and airy look.  It also allows the

eye to be drawn to the hydrangeas on the dining room table.

 

I added some lavender to my vintage milk bottles, continuing the purple and apple green color

scheme I'm using for fall this year.

 

Well, these are the last of my fall images.  I really enjoyed taking these photos.  I

hadn't taken any pictures since all the way back in August (except for the few apple

pictures), so it was nice to get a little practice in. 

Linking to:

 Vintage Inspiration Friday 
White Wednesday
Farmhouse Friday
Saturday Night Special

Thanks so much for visiting today!  I hope you all enjoy your weekend!

'Til next time... 

~ Jo :-)