End of Summer Blooms...

Here are some photos of the Swamp Rose and Confederate Rose that we planted in our yard this year. It seems like by the time August rolls around, plants in the yard just look tired. Even the trees look tired. It’s a wonderful surprise to look out the window and see these HUGE burst of color in the yard. The blooms are as big as dinner plates. What’s even more interesting about both plants is that Jon’s father gave us the plants in pots before we moved last year and due to our busy fall schedule and the move coinciding, we never got them in the ground. Jon trimmed them down to about ankle height for the winter and we finally got them planted in early summer. Well, they’ve both gone wild!! Both are as tall as me and have bloomed consistently throughout the summer. They are two of my favorite new plants….

Those ears.....

I just had to post this picture of Henry flopping his ears. I happened to get the shot just as he started swinging his head. As most of you know he had both ears half way chewed off when he was homeless......sad but true. Still....this photo shows exactly how lethal the flopping ear can be!

Dining Room...Take Two

I've had several people comment that they would like to see the entire set of the dining room furniture that I was lucky enough to acquire from my parents. So, here it is....up close and personal.

First, is the buffet. A large piece that has a quarter piece mirror on the back. The lovely part of this buffet is the amount of storage it actually has. There is one long drawer at the top that has sections. One of these sections even has a wood flatware bin that fits in it. Below the drawer is three doored cabinets. On each side the cabinet is just open space. Deep enough to store a platter or long baking dish. In the middle is the best storage. There are built in drawers. My mother always kept her dining room linens here and I am following suit.

The second piece of furniture is the china cabinet. If you could only see the glass up close. It is quite obvious how old the furniture is then. The nice part of cabinet is you can really see the twisted legs that highlight all of the pieces. Another bright spot.....it holds alot of dishes. As you can see!

Next, there is the server. You rarely see a server in a modern day dining room collection. Its always been one of my favorite parts of this set. Its small but its sturdy and makes a great place to store the dishes, china, or crystal that you want to display.

Lastly, I will show the base of the table and the head of the tables chair. I want to show these as you can really see the detail in the base and on the leg's of the chair. This twisted feature is just absolutely gorgeous.

Hope this show and tell gives all of you who "wanted to know" a little better insight to the beauty of the set. I feel very fortunate that its become a part of my home now. There are many memories of holiday dinners, Sunday dinners, and craft making on this table. I hope that we can make many more!