HAPPY NEW YEAR

NEW YEAR arrives in the blink of an eye, the chime of an hour, the turn of a new calendar page.

As I sit here in the cottage pondering what 2009 will bring, I send my best wishes for good health, much happiness, and prosperity for you and yours. My sincere hope is that this will be a good year for each and every one of us.

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The song "Auld Lang Syne" is sung at the stroke of midnight in almost every English-speaking country in the world to bring in the New Year. At least partially penned by Scotsman Robert Burns in the 1700's, it was first published in 1796 after his death. An old Scottish tune, "Auld Lang Syne" literally means "old long ago" or simply, "the good old days".

Auld Lang Syne

Should auld acquaintance be forgot

and never brought to mind?

Should auld acquaintance be forgot

and days of auld lang syne?

For auld lang syne, my dear,

for auld lang syne

We'll take a cup of kindness yet,

for auld lang syne.

Sing out tonight!

Beautiful Gifts

Santa Claus actually arrived at my front door this past Christmas Eve! True, he was wearing a suit of blue, had apparently shaved off his white beard due to the unseasonably warm weather, and was driving a truck.............but he was carrying a good sized box, nicely wrapped and addressed to me, and this made him "Santa" in my eyes.

Mandy at Herbgirl of Calendula Court had a

recent great giveaway and I was the winner!

Look at these fabulous gifts. Mandy was so generous and picked such lovely things to share. The vintage silver dish is gorgeous, perfect for holding the delicately perfumed herb and floral "Cottage Garden Potpourri" from Mandy's own garden. The sweet embroidered pillow "Don't Forget to Smell The Flowers" is trimmed with a little fabric flower and button. The plaque stating "A Garden of Friends is Always in Bloom" will be hung in the garden come Spring. Love the paisley patterned Vera Bradley makeup bag ~ just the right size for my purse. And the book............I'm thrilled with this Rachel Ashley of Shabby Chic fame "The Gift of Giving". I'd never seen this book despite having Rachel's other decorating books. There are so many fabulous ideas inside, all beautifully photographed, for making, gathering, collecting and putting together the perfect gift for anyone by recycling and reusing things we have, or can buy, without spending a lot of money. I am going to use this special book often!

Again, many, many thanks Mandy. I'm thrilled with everything the box held............and I'll always believe!

Sparkles

My quick visit to SuzAnna's Antiques last Tuesday, was to meet with and wish "boa viagem" to sweet blog friend Vanessa of Vanilla Lavender who headed home to Brazil on Boxing Day. She and little daughter Luna will have a long anticipated visit with her family. I know it will be a great time for all. For me, it brings back memories of visits across the pond in the '60's, lugging suitcases loaded with kid's clothes and necessities for extended stays with grandparents, no easy feat, and even more complicated now with security issues and so many more people travelling.

Have a great time Vanessa ~ we'll be missing you ~ but she'll still post on her blog while in Sao Paulo ~ hooray!

While at SuzAnna's we had to look around, of course! Everything was sparkling on that cold but sunny day. Linda, shop employee/decorator extraordinaire had turned on Christmas music, and then sweet Jenny (Susie's delightful daughter) of The Red Bulletin Board arrived to liven things up even more. Susie and Anna were at home decorating their houses ~ missed you.

A dress form lamp decked out in sparkly neck wear - necklaces and dainty beaded scarf.

Beaded evening bag, great for the theatre, and sparkling napkin rings.

Pretty idea for Summer or the beach house - sparkly starfish in the palest ocean blue.

Great idea for a cut glass dish - turn it into a hanging candle holder by adding sparking beaded chains.

Love these miniature bottles with velvet wraps and sparking rhinestone embellished corks. Many uses including storage for craft items ~ which reminds me, I need to organize mine!

And................before leaving SuzAnna's, Jenny gave me this lovely gold sparkly candle for Christmas which is just perfect in my hurricane. Thanks so much Jenny, as you can see I've already been burning it.

Pink Saturday

aturday, pink Saturday, what does it matter day!!

If you stuffed yourself with Christmas goodies, drank often to the good health and happiness of absent friends, lost your cat in a mountain of wrapping paper, and slept the sleep of the exhausted - because you were............ it does matter! Yes, Pink Saturday matters. It means a normal day again. Sharing fluffy pink, silly pink, anything pink.................to get you through to the next big bash, New Year's Eve!

My pink stash is hitting rock bottom. Who would have ever known Pink Saturday would be so popular. Many new bloggers are joining in the fun every week.

Some pretty pink china pieces that were passed down from my mother are much-loved. Have you noticed how most roses painted on china are usually pink? These are sweet rambling roses. This Royal Albert oval dish is a favorite ~ the scrolled pale green edge touched with gold ~ especially when holding a few really good dark chocolates!

Please visit our great hostess Beverly at How Sweet The Sound today. I just know that even with all she had to do for Christmas she still made time to host PINK SATURDAY again. Just think, if you miss this week we won't see you again until next year!

Boxing Day

Today we celebrate BOXING DAY, also known as the Feast of St. Stephen (after the first Christian martyr)..................well we do in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. I think we're missing out by not having it here in the USA, thus giving everyone a proper two-day Christmas holiday break from work!

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This celebration is traditional, dating back to the Middle Ages, and consisted of the practice of giving gifts to employees, the poor, or to people in a lower social class. In Victorian times it became a holiday for members of the merchant class to give boxes containing food and fruit, clothing and money to trades people and servants. The gifts were an expression of gratitude similar to bonuses many employers give their employees today....if you're lucky! Also related to the origin of Boxing Day, is the tradition of opening the alms boxes placed in the churches over the Christmas season - the contents were then distributed amongst the poor, by the clergy, the day after Christmas.

Today, Boxing Day is a time for family and friends to spend together with lots of food and fun. Outdoor sports are popular on this day too.

You can build a little charity into your holiday season (while reducing your own clutter - and we all plan to do this, right?) by cleaning out and giving your discards to someone in need. If you don't have anything to clean out, you can always give of your time.

On Christmas Night

Joy to the world the Lord is come, let earth receive her King.

Angels With Trumpets ~ Phoebe Anna Troquair 1852-1936

(Oil & Gold Leaf on Panel c.1903)

On Christmas Day

Wishing you and your family all the joys

and blessings of Christmas.

The Sleep of the Child Jesus - Bernardo Luini

On Christmas Eve

Angels from the realms of glory..............

It came upon the midnight clear,

That glorious song of old,

From angels bending near the earth.

To touch their harps of gold.

"Peace on the earth, goodwill to men,

From heaven's all gracious King",

The world in solemn stillness lay

To hear the angels sing.

A Gift of Thanks

little gift of thanks to all who have stopped by this year to read my words, view my images, and leave heart-warming comments. In turn, you have shared the moments of your lives and I too have been gifted by getting to know you. It's been wonderful meeting several of you in person and sharing time together here in North Carolina or across the pond in France in October. In Spring I'll be going home to England again ~ yes, more cottages and Devon cream teas ~ and meeting up with friends. I hope you will journey with me again.

Early in this coming New Year, I will be making my 500th post! At that time I will be gifting a dear reader with something special. Who wouldn't enjoy a little package to unwrap on a cold, blustery late Winter day as we long for green trees and warm breezes..........so keep on visiting please.

Many of you are now taking blog breaks, quite understandable as life is hectic as we ready for Christmas. If I haven't been able to stop by with a personal wish for the holidays, know that I have thought about you.

Stay safe if you are travelling to visit your loved ones.

Blessings of peace and joy to each of you and your families.

Thank you, yes I mean you, for being such a special friend.

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Just A Dusting!

I know many of you are assured of a White Christmas this year.................do enjoy it and then send some my way................just a dusting would be fine! Meanwhile, here in central North Carolina, it's more like a soggy, cold Christmas season so far. Raining again today but not cold enough to change to snow. Very cold later after the rain stops so again, no snow. The tall piles of sodden leaves at the curb are ugly now, a dusting of white would turn them into mini-mountains. Children would climb, pretending to be mountaineers. Grown-ups would sigh with joy knowing 'just a dusting' would mean passable roads to get out to finish the Christmas shopping, and visit family and friends.

A recent sunny day was a pleasant surprise between the damp drizzle and 'pouring cats and dogs' rains that have plagued us.

The porch looked pretty and it was warm enough to sit on a chair and just think about all that needed to be done for Christmas.

So, here are the words, clear and bright........................I'm ready for it, but 'just a dusting' please!

Thanks be................

My dear one made it home after spending most of the day at the airport. The snow was swirling across the runways. Delta had him on and off the plane twice due to problems de-icing. He made an airport hotel reservation for tonight, just in case, however I canceled it when I heard he was really on his way home, hooray!

It's been a frustrating day ~ we are all home safe, warm and dry. Christmas is almost here. It won't be a white one in North Carolina but that's OK. We plan to enjoy it quietly at home.

New York can wait.............perhaps a trip in the Spring will be easier.

The best laid plans...............

..................of mice and men...............and girls trying to get to New York City in a snow storm!

Robert Burns penned those famous words as "the best laid schemes o' mice an' men (from 'To a Mouse').

Confucius said "plan ahead or find trouble on the doorstep" ~ I think we tried that. Even Will Rogers told us "plans get you into things but you must work your way out".

Found solace today in these words though. "When defeat comes, accept it as a signal that your plans are not sound, rebuild those plans, and set sail once more toward your coveted goal". Napoleon Hill, American Author, Speaker, Motivational Writer.

I had already asked my angel to watch over us knowing how wings get slick and need de-icing this time of year. As I loaded the bags and heavy jackets into the car this morning, the phone rang and Delta announced flights from here to New York canceled. Thick fog and very warm here, huge storm headed toward New York with up to 6" of snow in Manhattan today, more 'wintry mix' tomorrow and then a second storm following close behind. Weather Channel showed 2,000 snow plows at the ready, tons of salt to spread...............and smiling faces of the natives thrilled to be getting a white Christmas perhaps. Lucky them, sulky us!!

However, we are fortunate compared to many others around the country who are having extremely severe weather and loss of power.

Snow is falling, blanketing the grimy streets and sidewalks of the city. It will be pretty. I'm sad we'll miss it.










And where is my dear husband? He's already up there in New York City. Left yesterday for a business meeting and is now trying to get home as our weekend is canceled! I'm beginning to believe there is no place like the safety and warmth of home.

Friday's Favorite Family Foto

he envelope bore a pretty English Christmas stamp. The Christmas card was a beautiful winter snow scene. The words from a cousin across the pond were thoughtful and full of good wishes.

But the other small envelope inside held the treasure. Several rather time worn photos of my mother and her twin brother, both deceased, and two of me as a child. My mother's brother's wife recently passed away, age 96, and my cousin found the photos among her possessions and kindly sent them to me.

My mother Gladys and her twin Edward (Ted) ~ no date on the back unfortunately, but I'm guessing late 1930's. Taken in Devon, England I'm sure.

I love my mother's camel coat and wonder if she made it. She was apprenticed to a London dressmaker who made clothes for royalty. She became an excellent seamstress and tailor.

Receiving these long lost photos are the best Christmas gift.

Thank you David.

Please pay a visit to Deborah at Pictures, Pots & Pens, our hostess for Friday's Favorite Family Foto ~ there are always great photos of great family members being shared.

Heading North

Tomorrow I'm leaving the comforts of home behind for a few days. Packing a light bag with warm clothes, tall boots, hats, scarves and gloves. Grabbing something to read.

Flying northward to New York City.

City lights, Christmas glitter, window dressing, busy shoppers, Rockefeller Plaza, skating, skyscrapers, riverboats, Lady Liberty, high kicking Rockettes, yellow taxis, bells ringing, children singing.........and snow expected!

Hopefully I'll capture some images showing the 'Big Apple' dressed for Christmas.

See you next week in time for the joyful celebration ~ and I just know you'll have done all your shopping, decorating, baking and wrapping.................you promised, remember!

Words of Christmas Past

Besides the biblical story of Christmas, we are also familiar with wonderful fictional Christmas story books and poems. Two favorites immediately come to mind. Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" penned in 1843, and Clement Clarke Moore's "Twas the Night Before Christmas" ("A Visit From St. Nicholas") written in 1822.

Dicken's wrote.........."I have endeavoured in this Ghostly little book, to raise the Ghost of an idea, which shall not put my readers out of humour with themselves, with each other, with the season, or with me. May it haunt their houses pleasantly, and no one wish to lay it."
Their faithful Friend and Servant,
C.D.
December 1843

Meanwhile, prior to Clement Clark's poem, St. Nicholas, the patron saint of children, had never been associated with a sleigh or reindeer! Now the poem has become a worldwide favorite and is traditionally read on Christmas Eve.

My favorite has to be Dylan Thomas reading his 1955 Welsh classic, "A Child's Christmas in Wales". I've been listening to this tape in my car for the past couple of weeks - I play it over and over, enjoying it more each time. His colorful, hilarious description of the chilly Welsh holidays with children's games and feasting adults, brings back similar memories of many a childhood Christmas in England.

The story ends with these wonderful words.........

Looking through my bedroom window, out into the moonlight and the unending smoke-colored snow, I could see the lights in the windows of all the other houses on our hill and hear the music rising from them up the long, steady falling night. I turned the gas down, I got into bed. I said some words to the close and holy darkness, and then I slept.

A few days ago I found these and was delighted! Tiny blank notebooks waiting for words to be written..................

.................."in the bleak midwinter"

................................"it came upon the midnight clear"

.............................................."hark, the herald angels sing"

............................................................."the first Noel"

Perhaps a new Christmas story can be penned, a lilting poem or carol written. We need more of these old fashioned reminders of what Christmas is all about.

Christmas Smiles

The faces of Christmas are everywhere. As I walk briskly through the shops for those last minute items, I look at faces. Some are serious, even sad, happily most have a smile or even a grin. They sip on little complimentary cups of hot coffee, or frozen mocha chocolate mint cream something or others ~ I was handed one in a bookshop yesterday. Who makes up those fancy drink names ~ the same people who come up with the colors for lipsticks? Who buys those full size drinks which cost the same as a half pound of great coffee beans that will last 'til New Year? Oh well, it's Christmas, and despite the fragile economy, somehow we all find ways to celebrate the season be it a pricey holiday drink, or giving a few dollars to buy a toy for a needy child ~ I like the last one best.

These little faces around my home aren't really smiling, more like thinking, pondering, wondering and dreaming. They make me smile though because Christmas requires cherubs, angels, old Santas, even fairies, to bring the magic home.

Sail on silver moon.......

Did you peer at the moon over the weekend? It was huge, low and so silvery bright you could see all the craters clearly with a pair of regular binoculars. If you had a telescope the view must have been awesome.

Our four year old neighbor stood in the cold with us ~ we let her look through the binoculars and told her that men had walked there. She looked at us in disbelief.

We still look and feel the same amazement.

Silver moon glow above the garden ~ Friday, December 12, 2008

Christmas Memories

Sometimes we just have too much on our plate.

Caught up in the hustle and bustle of the season, we let the true meaning of Christmas slip into the background until a sudden jolt brings us to our senses. The commercial aspect of this holiday has jaded us in modern times. It didn't happen this year, last year, or in the past five years. It crept in surreptitiously many, many years ago, gradually pervading society around the mid-1950's I would say.

In England, and most of Europe, the years following WWII were lean and Christmas continued to be somewhat sparse when it came to decoration and gifting. Those were the years of my childhood, and what a wonderful childhood it was!

The little tree, always a live one as there was no such thing as faux anything back then, was picked out a couple of days before the 25th. and carried home on the local bus as my parents never could afford to own a car. It stood proudly on a table decorated with our handmade ornaments and real candles which were only lit briefly under close supervision! Long, brightly colored 'paper chains' which we made by gluing strips together, hung from the hanging light fixture to each corner of the living room, and sprays of holly with brilliant red berries, picked from the nearby hedgerows, were tucked behind the oval mirror over the fireplace and pictures around the walls. And that was about it! Any extra money was spent on good food for the Christmas Day dinner, a couple of boxes of good chocolates, and a few bottles of cheer to welcome any and all who stopped by for some Christmas spirit.

Of course my Mother always made the Christmas Cake. It was baked in mid-November and 'fed' with a little brandy or rum over several weeks until it was time to roll on the thick layer of almond paste followed by the white icing forked up to set like drifts of snow. By Christmas Eve it was decorated. Tiny bottle brush fir trees, a snowman, a sled holding Father Christmas, and a sprig of holly, transformed it into a scene representing the white Winter wonderland which we all hoped for at Christmas.........but which usually didn't happen in our mild South coast climate. Yes, the English fruitcake baked by one's Mum, was always fabulous!

I hope your childhood Christmas memories, swirling like snowflakes through the mind at this special season, are happy ones, and that this year you will have fun sharing them with your family and friends.

Sometimes, perhaps always, simple things are best.

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All images taken recently at SuzAnna's Antiques, Raleigh, NC.

Christmas Pink Saturday

As I look around the house at my Christmas treasures I don't see much PINK.

However, there is a glorious old European looking Saint Nicholas who refuses to wear red Father Christmas robes....................so I'll share him with you on this Pink Saturday!

O0ops, almost missed this touch of pink. Pretty pink velvet roses adorn a garland wrapped around my cherub on the dining room table.

Same old guy.................he refuses to stay in one place very long, likes to view Christmas in the cottage from different angles.

How's your decorating going? Bet you're all done, sitting back,

and truly loving it now all the work is completed!

Enjoy Pink Saturday and be sure to visit Beverly our hostess

at How Sweet The Sound to see a lot more Christmas Pink.

Just one ornament............

This was the year I said "no more ornaments." The decision to simplify ~ remember all I learned in France in October ~ made me decide not to unpack many from other years as we are not having an indoor tree. If you are still a sweet young thing, you've no clue as to how Christmas ornaments have a tendency to multiply..........very quickly! By the time you become a grandparent your entire home can be a repository for Christmas stuff! The secret is to have a yard sale as part of your New Year celebration or, better still, donate them to a charity shop, as many of us refuse to do a yard sale on a sub-zero Saturday morning in January. Otherwise, the only remaining option is to run to Target for a pickup truck full of those green plastic 'ornament storage' boxes which then take up your entire attic or basement.

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A quick trip to the mall this past weekend had me stop in my tracks when I spied a Christmas Shop. There's probably one in a mall near you too. Inside.................yes, I just begged a minute to pop inside.............was every imaginable ornament ever made. Nice thing was they were categorized such as Disney, Birds, Fairies, Snowmen etc., making it easy to just look at what you enjoy collecting.

Of course I don't really collect chandeliers............yet! I have one in the dining room, one in the 'Paris guest room', and a little one in the Potting Shed - hanging there because the electrician refused to hang it in a bathroom............apparently it's "against code" if reachable when one stands dripping wet on the rim of the tub, and we all do that, don't we!!? I would have those beautiful glittery prisms dangling in every room if dh would agree to dump the ugly ceiling fans.

So I broke the vow of 'no new ornaments' this year. You have to agree it's really lovely. Even dh knew this mini chandelier wouldn't require taking down a ceiling fan ~ guess that's why he treated me to it, thanks dear.

I hung this miniature beauty around the cottage, loving how it brightened up each place. Near a dark wood door it glowed.......................reflected in a vintage oval mirror it sparkled.


Hanging from my old French frame and glass glitter sign in the Paris bedroom, it made me think of the Opera Garnier and a certain phantom!


Tonight it's hanging beneath the real dining room chandelier. The porch lights are on, 'snowflakes' are at the window........................and as the rain pours down the little chandelier helps light up the room.

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Did you buy new ornaments this year? If so, which one is your favorite?