Updating my Pine Cone wreath for spring.

With spring in the air here in Texas, I have updated my pine cone wreath for spring with ivy, ribbon, bunnies, eggs and a nest. However, today we are back to colder wet weather :(

Tablescape Thursday

I am excited to participate in Tablescape Thursday for the first time. Many thanks to http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/ !

I am ready for a spring luncheon with my Johnson Brothers dishes - Fleurette pattern - and my wooden roosters!

The glassware belonged to my husbands grandmother.

Beaded strawberries look as if they are sugared.

Stop by Smiling Sally on her Blue Monday!

Texas Bluebonnets

This is my first Blue Monday post ever. The first thing that came to mind - Texas Bluebonnets.

These photos were taken in Brenham last April when my daughter and I were driving out to Austin on Highway 290. We had the babies with us - our two shih tzus - Barnum and Bailey, and couldn't resist pulling over and getting out of the car to check out this beautiful field of wild flowers. There were quite a few people who had also stopped, so the challenge was to get a photo without other people in the frame.

Happy Monday!

I collect bunnies and rabbits...

I have been collecting bunnies and rabbits of all sorts for over 20 years. They are all around our house, inside and out. I honestly don't remember how I started with this obsession, but they are simply a part of our home. My mother found this wonderful fellow at a market in Boston. I remember the day she came across him. She called and told me she was sending me something very special. We have moved many times, but this guy always manages to find a lovely spot of honor in our home no matter what the season!!

Welcome to my Pine Cone Retreat.

When I was a little girl my grandparents lived next door to us. We lived in Massachusetts, out in the country with lots of nature all around. We lived near the top of a hill on an old winding road. There were horses in the pasture across the street, a long stone wall bordering the yard, a garden filled with roses, and pine groves and woods behind us. My grandmother was way ahead of her time. She baked, cooked, entertained, washed, ironed and she did everything well- as we would say today, she was a domestic diva. Not only did she do it all well, she did it all while whistling. I could hear her out in her back yard whistling like a bird as she hung the clothes out on the line.

In the fall grandmother and I would go on walks into the woods gathering pine cones. She with her walking stick and a large canvas bag. Once the snow began to fall we would descend into the basement of her gray cape style home. She had a long work table set up with folding chairs surrounding it. On the table were wire frames of various sizes, pine cones and chestnuts. She invited friends and family over to make pine cone wreaths for the holidays. She did this every year for as long as I can remember. I have sweet memories that I will always treasure. Here I am - 50 something - and I live in the midst of tons of pine cones - Texas pine cones. They are different from the long, slender, finger like pine cones of New England. Instead they are large and very plump. Oh how I wish my grandmother could see these!

This past winter I decided I would wire some pine cones together and see where it brings me. Well, it has brought me here to this blog which I have begun in honor of my grandmother - Annie Thayer. I think about her often. In some ways I am like her. I enjoy baking, entertaining, gardening and the keeping of our house.

Thanks for reading. I have many stories to share, of grandmother and of myself making my way through life.