Happy Halloween!

Trick or Treat!

Boo!

Have a fun and safe trick or treating!

Diane

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Country White Decor Inspiration

Country White Decor

Series #2

Sit back and enjoy some white country decor ideas and inspirational quotes.

Click HERE for last weeks post for more inspirational quotes from great authoress 

Sarah Breathnach, A Simple Abundance

Let's continue on with some white love and the discovery of our authentic selves!

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"Faith is the very first thing you should pack in a hope chest."

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"Every time we remember to say "thank you," we experience nothing less than heaven on earth."
 

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 "Each day offers us the gift of being a special occasion if we can simply learn that as well as giving, it is blessed to receive with grace and a grateful heart."

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"As we become curators of our own contentment on the Simple Abundance path... we learn to savor the small with a grateful heart."

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 "The authentic self is the soul made visible."

 

Diane

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I will be joining these linky parties

White Wednesday at Faded Charm

Potpourri Friday at 2805

Show and Tell Friday at My Romantic Home

Christmas, Dishes and Mom!

Wanting what you need

and needing what you want. 

When I was a young mother, I would look after all the necessity's that I needed to raise my family.

Mortgage, utilities, school stuff, food.

Now that I am entering into my empty nest years
I am finally purchasing the things that I want, but don't necessarily need.

And loving every minute of it!!

I have in my mind, what I want to collect and what treasures I wish to accumulate.

And the big idem on this wish list are dishes.
What is it about dishes??

The above dishes I found this week at the thrift store.
Snowhite Regency by Johnson Bros.

Sweetest pattern, I feel in love with them immediately.  Great for fall dinners.
I bought 7pcs for $3 - that was all they had - bummer.
I am wanting to add this pattern to my dishes I would like to collect list.

I also came across Merry Christmas by the Johnson Bros
I would like to start a collection of this set.
I notice them around blogland last Christmas and was very interested.
Isn't this the pretties scenery on the plate?
Reminds me of my Christmas childhood for some reason....well.... minus the fireplace.

When I was 17, my Mom gave me for Christmas a place setting of
Royal Albert, Poinsettia
Since then, she has given me all the serving pieces and several tea cup and saucer plates.
I have just started to work on getting a 12 placing setting....wish me luck, they are hard to find and very expensive.  If only I could find them in the thrift stores!

Moving onto another must have Christmas dishes.
Lenex, Tartan
Having a bit of a hard time spending $129 per place setting,
but I am doing my best to talk myself into it....so far, I am doing all kinds of talking,
but the brain is shutting it down!
This pattern is so Scotland to me.  When I was 27 I went to Scotland and feel in love with the country.
It's just a feel good pattern to me.

Lets think pink now.
Royal Albert, Serenity, very elegant, classy pattern.
Again back when I was 17, sweet Mom started me on this collection as a gift for my birthday.
She knew how much I loved pink.  So it was only fitting that she bought me the pretties pattern in the shop!
Love you Mom!!

I just love, love, love this pattern.

They have their graceful place of honour in my china cabinet.

And because I love my Mom so much, I have copied her China collection choice.
Royal Doulton, Samarra
Back in the early 70's my Mom started her collection.
I too have started collecting this same pattern, just because it reminds me of her.
Each time I buy a new piece of this pattern I always give her a ring.
She says to me "Diane, this is silly, why don't you just buy something newer"
I just smile.


There are so many beautiful dinner place settings I could collect,
but I know I just have to stop somewhere
....but then again, maybe not!!

Diane

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Gingham Love

Life In The Country

I just love gingham.

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Red and pink gingham, such classy and calming colours.

So country.

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I can see myself living in this fine English country manor.

Horses, beautiful botanical gardens, chickens, sheep in the pasture and friends visiting for tea.

My definition of a good country life.

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Missing from this pic should be a big fluffy white dog.

I am all for windows and lots and lots of natural light.

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I bet I could curl up in this beauty with a good book.

Something or anything by Dan Brown maybe.

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I could see myself sitting at this dining table with a cup of coffee, chatting away to my kid sister.  

Always giving advise to her whether she wants it or not.  

And yes I know she has teenage children, but that doesn't matter, I am still the oldest!

Country Living

I think I will have a cup of tea today in the sun room.

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Most go out to feed the horses, it looks like rain so best grab my wellingtons.

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And my umbrella.

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Warm up when I am done....now, where is my hot coco....

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....found it no problem....along with some cupcakes...yum.

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After a long day in the stables, I will take a good book and retire for the evening.

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Diane

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I will be joining these link parties

Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style
Rednesday at It's A Very Cherry World
What I Love Wednesday at lollipops
Open House Party at No Minimalist Here
Show and Tell Friday at My Romantic Home
Pink Saturday at How Sweet The Sound
Homemaking Link-Up Party at Hope in Every Season

A merry little Christmas

Like a kid in a candy store,  I am excited about and can't wait for Christmas!

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With Christmas fast approaching I find myself thinking and planning for the holiday.
What better way to get into the festivities than a good Christmas movie from Hallmark!

Let's have a look at one of the newest Hallmark Hall of Fame, Christmas movies.

Hallmark Hall of Fame, 2011 Christmas Movie

November Christmas

November Christmas tells how neighbors come to help a family trying to cope with their daughter’s illness.

The story is narrated by the daughter, who grows up to become a writer after overcoming the illness.

The father comes up with an ambitious plan to “move the clock,” so his daughter will experience an exciting Halloween (albeit in August) and a magical Christmas (in November) no matter what happens. Without help, he can’t make his advance-the-holidays dream become a reality. He gets that help – in spades – from his neighbors and their friends.

Watch the trailer

 

Diane

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White Inspirations

Country White Decorating Inspirations 


Enjoy some pics of white country decor inspiration,
along with wonderful inspirational quotes from
Sarah Ban Breathnach, A Simple Abundance

Greatest book every written.

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"The world needs dreamers and the world needs doers. 

But above all, the world needs dreamers who do."

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"Always remember that striving and struggle precede success, even in the dictionary."

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"The authentic self is the soul made visible."

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"Life is always movement, always change, always unforeseen circumstances. 

There will always be something to grab your attention."

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"Learning to live in the present moment is part of the path of joy."

  

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"You've got to make a conscious choice every day to shed the old

- whatever 'the old' means for you."

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"Expect to have hope rekindled. Expect your prayers to be answered in wondrous ways. 

The dry seasons in life do not last. The spring rains will come again."

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 "Let's choose today to quench our thirst for the "good life" we think others lead by acknowledging the good that already exists in our lives. 

We can then offer the universe the gift of our grateful hearts." 

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"Real life isn't always going to be perfect or go our way, but the recurring acknowledgement of what is working in our lives can help us not only to survive but surmount our difficulties."

 

Diane

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I will be joining these linky parties

Anything Goes at Type A

White Wednesday at Faded Charm

Potpourri Friday at 2805

Halloween Paranormal TV Shows

Countdown to Halloween

9 Days

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So far in our Countdown to Halloween series we have looked at 

Haunted Halloween True Stories HERE
Scary Movies HERE

Halloween Historical Facts HERE

Today, lets have a look at some supernatural hocus pocus TV Shows that are on the tube - past and present.

These are my own personal favorites.
While there are several shows from the past and currently playing, these are just my favs!

TOP 5 Choices


#1 
The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead (2010 - present), based on a comic book series with the same name.

The series is about a small group of people who survive a zombie apocalypse.

While season one only had 6 episodes, the second season has 13 episodes - yeah!

Some blood and guts, but we do get to follow the lives of each of our charaters. 

A lot of shocking twists and turns in this TV series. 

A great show to watch - makes the hour go by very fast!

#2

Supernatural

The series follows the brothers as they travel throughout the country hunting demons and other figures of the supernatural.

While the locations and storyline change on a near weekly basis, there is a 1967 Chevy Impala, it shows up as often as the brothers.  Its trunk holds all their demon weaponry. 

Good, clean entertainment!

#3
True Blood

 


True Blood is based on The Southern Vampire Mysteries series of novels by Charlaine Harris. Detailing the co-existence of vampires and humans in Bon Temps, a fictional, small town in the state of Louisiana.
 The series centers on Sookie Stackhouse, a telephatic waitress and those that surround her life.

The series started off great, following the book fairly closely, but this past season was pretty disappointing.  Not sure what happened, change in writters??

Adult content - produced by HBO - nuff said!


#4
Bewitched



 A fantasy sitcom (1962 - 1974) chronicling what happens when a witch and a mortal fall in love and get married in 1960s and '70s suburban America.

When I was a young girl, growing up watching this TV series, I so, so, so wanted to be a witch. 
If only I could twinkle my nose and make my annoying brother disappear!
Or snap my fingers and I could disappear from school.
I was so convincted I would make a great magical witch.
Never happened, as hard as I tryed, I was just a plain ordinary girl!
Anybody else love this show as much as me?


#5
The X Files

The Truth is Out There

In the series (1993 - 2002), FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully are the investigators of  X-Files -  marginalized, unsolved cases involving paranormal phenomena.
Mulder is a believer in the existence of aliens and the paranormal, while Scully, a skeptic, is assigned to make scientific analyses of Mulder's discoveries.

Throughout the show there is an romantic undercurrency between these two charaters.
They skirt around it during the entire length of the show.  However in the second and last movie, they have apparently got together.  Just like that?

An entertaining show - Trust No One!

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Diane

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