What a fun weekend! My Place to Yours is the Pink Saturday feature blog at How Sweet the Sound, so let me say a big WELCOME to all of you Pink Saturday readers. If this is your first time here, I certainly hope it won't be your last! The visitors at My Place are some of the best around, and I think you'll feel very welcome here. So to visitors -- new and old faithful -- I'm really glad you've picked today to stop by. This post has been awhile in the making, and it's a topic near and dear to my heart. You regular readers will immediately notice the absence of pictures (very unusual at My Place), but this week it's about words ... and challenge ... and your quality of life ... your future. Seriously, it is. Read ... Keep Reading...
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Santa Fe Simplicity
Welcome to My Place to Yours and another day of tablescape inspiration. If you've been following my blog over the past week or so, you know I've been traveling. As much as I love playing in the dishes, sometimes there's nothing better than letting someone else do the playing. That's how I felt last week in Santa Fe. Come on... Let's go to breakfast at the El Paradero B&B in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The inside light is a little dim from the overnight rain-turned-morning snow... But look around -- The room is bright and inviting! And the food is delicious! But we didn't have to cook that green chile and cheese omelet ... or jalapeno cornbread muffin.< Rested, ... Keep Reading...
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Santa Fe Style
It's been over a week now since The Big Event but -- can you believe it? -- we're still not back home yet. So far, we've traveled 2,300 miles in a loaded-down pickup, and we're beginning to get a little road-weary ... but it's been a wonderfully enjoyable week with my best friend! By the way, you all gave great "couple advice" in your comments to my last post: God first ... pray with and for each other ... best friends ... remember you're on the same team ... don't sweat the small stuff ... keep your promise. After the past several crazy-busy months, Renaissance Man and I decided that our trip from California back to Tennessee would NOT be a rushed one. Even working along the way, we would take time for some much-needed ... Keep Reading...
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Two Hopeful Tablescapes
I'm still traveling cross-country, returning home from The Big Event, but I want to share two quick tablescapes with you this week. You may remember when I showed you how I decided on the color scheme for Hope Unlimited's 20th anniversary event. This was my plan ... but as you can see in the picture below, there was a slight miscommunication, and the navy blue cloths I received were the really dark indigo blue -- so the colors didn't "pop" quite like I'd hoped, but no one was any the wiser. Overall, the mix of small cocktail and tall kiosk tables was a good choice, and the fabulous floral print pulled everything together as I'd hoped. I had forgotten all about the huge "must stay" painting on one end ... Keep Reading...
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20th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION: Hope Unlimited for Children
Whew! The big event that's been Waiting To Happen for over a year is now almost 48 hours in the past, and Renaissance Man and I are taking this week to drive cross-country from California's Bay Area back home to the mountains of East Tennessee. We feel the quickly-changing Fall leaves calling us home for a day of porch-sitting and cool temperatures... Before I share this photo-intensive post with you, I want to thank everyone who prayed for us as we planned, prepared for, and carried out our responsibilities. Some of you even left comments or sent private emails or texts that encouraged us more than you can possibly know. Let me assure you that your prayers were answered and that you participated in an important way in helping ... Keep Reading...
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Autumn Tablescape Inspiration Board
This week while in California preparing for Friday night's big event, I've put together an Autumn tablescape inspiration board for you. It includes many of my favorite Fall-season decorating elements ... * Rich colors * * Texture * * Colored glass * * Metal * * Pottery * * Wood * Autumn Masterpiece Some day perhaps I'll really do this table, but if you'd like, you can see each of these in their original tablescapes ... China: Heart-Stopping-Beautiful China Napkins: Nice Saves! Goblets: Happy Thanksgiving - 2010 Pumpkins: Falling for Pottery Flatware: Watching the Leaves Turn Acorns: Summer to Fall Tureen: Soup & Silver Wooden fruit: Falling for Wood Personally, I ... Keep Reading...
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SPLIT PERSONALITY: Seasons of Life
I have a split personality. No, not clinically, but practically. If you've ever taken the Myers-Briggs personality test (or something like it), you know that one thing it measures is how much of an introvert or extrovert a person is. Well, I've taken the test twice -- 20 years apart -- and both times my introvert/extrovert measurement falls smack dab down the middle of the two. Most people think I'm an extrovert, but they just don't know how nervous I get when I have to "make conversation" with someone I just met but know nothing about ... or how much I need my "all alone" time. Really, though, I think I have the best of both worlds because I can usually manage to fit into different settings fairly easily, even if not ... Keep Reading...
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Fit to be: THE WAY CHURCH SHOULD BE … But Too Often is Not
It's Friday! Do your weekend plans include going to church? "Church" is a topic Renaissance Man and I have discussed a lot lately. In fact, he wrote about it on the Hope Unlimited blog: the least of these. With his permission, I'm sharing his post here, in its entirety. The Way Church Should Be (And Sometimes Is, But Too Often is Not) Our daughter and son-in-law began encouraging us to attend with them several months ago. They had been going for awhile and were experiencing a real difference in their lives; we saw it, too. But it is really different from what we are used to (not our kind of music!), so it took gentle persuasion from them for several months before finally convincing my wife to give it a try. A week ... Keep Reading...
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A Hopeful Color Scheme
If you've ever planned a big event like a wedding or a family reunion, you probably realized at some point along the way that it had taken on a life of its own. Near the end, especially, you may have said, "What will be, will be." (Listen carefully and you may be able to hear Doris Day singing Que Sera, Sera in the background.) Well, that's the experience I had this week. As I told you in THIS post, we've been working hard preparing to fill 6,000 square feet of this multi-level space with an exhibit telling the story of Hope Unlimited for Children in celebration of the ministry's 20th anniversary. The first three levels will be exhibit, but the top level will be set up for a cocktail-style party and short program. In other ... Keep Reading...
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A ROSE BY ANY OTHER NAME … The Tyler Rose Garden Center
Hello all! I hope you've had a wonderful weekend. It's been gorgeous here in already beautiful East Tennessee. As I was admiring the last of the roses in Renaissance Man's garden, I remembered a field trip I'd already intended to share with you. But ... it's not too late yet. In fact, it turns out that the timing is perfect because this Thursday is the start of the 78th Annual Texas Rose Festival. Another Rose Queen's lavish gown will be added to the collection that began in 1933. Tyler, Texas holds the title of "Rose Capital of the Nation" and is home to the United States' largest rose garden. What once was "nothing special" land is now 14 acres where over 38,000 rose bushes of 500+ varieties are grown amidst beautiful ... Keep Reading...
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It’s My Party …
Aging gracefully ... Last year about this time, I wrote about it in THIS post. Well, I now have another year of practice behind me, so Renaissance Man and I threw a party. It was just a little party because our free time is virtually non-existent right now (yep, still working on THIS "little" project) ... and because, quite honestly, we're pretty simple celebrators when it comes to birthdays. All we needed tonight were a few flowers from the garden... some fun new Happy Birthday goblets from Dollar Tree... I LOVED these when I saw them! They actually had two different styles, but these were my favorite! Can you believe they only had 3 of these -- so obviously I'm looking for a few more! and some ... Keep Reading...
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Cha-ching! CHANGE is in the Air!
WELCOME to My Place to Yours and the beginning of a new week! Today I'm sharing a metamorphosis I look forward to every year. It happens just about the time the last of the daffodils are blooming. I begin to see peeks of pinkish-purple flowers ... and they make me smile. Before we moved into our old house, I'd never had this plant in my yard, although I was familiar with it. That's one of the things I love about living in a house that's lived an entire lifetime before me -- I get to see what plants come up. It's always a surprise. This plant has the added benefit of being pleasantly fragrant! This is a Money Plant, although it also goes by the names honesty, silver dollar, satinflower, penny flower, Judas' penny, and ... Keep Reading...
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A Tray of Tranquility
Hello all! I hope your week is going well. At My Place, Renaissance Man and I are still busy preparing the exhibit for this space I told you about HERE ... But since I'll probably be busy working on it until the day I die of the event, I'm taking a little sanity break to write this post ... and saying a big thank you that we have a couple of other people working as hard as we are! Projects like this take everyone, don't they?If I could do what I reeeaally feel like doing right now, I'd pull out this tray ... and some pretty dishes ... Then I'd pick some dahlias from the garden ... ... and add the current Southern Lady magazine that just came in the mail ... ... and disappear ... Keep Reading...
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DE-STRESSING with Simple Pleasures …
I learned this week that Dayle at A Collection of This and That is ending her wonderful Simple Pleasures series ... just as I was thinking how much I'd love to join the party! Even though I've never participated, I've often enjoyed reading about the simple pleasures that she -- and some of you -- have found ... and it's caused me to open my own eyes and look around my own world a little more closely. I'd say Dayle's mission was successful. Unless you are as relaxed as Little Man, I dare say that some (most?) days you're so busy that you have to make a conscious choice to de-stress. Am I right? How do you do that? Do you take a long soak at the end of the day? Pick the green one ... It's great for ... Keep Reading...
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A New Friend at My Table
Finally ... a tablescape I've been dying to do! Back in July (where DID the past two months go?), I had the fabulously good fortune of winning a one-year-of-blogging giveaway at the beautiful tablescape blog Entertaining Women. The blog host, Cherry Kay, generously gave away a set of 12 (yes, twelve) antique Theodore Haviland pink floral luncheon plates from her vast collection. They're my newest friends in the china pantry! When blogging about her giveaway, she used some of the plates in a "girly" Spring tablescape. After you finish reading this post (shameless, I know), you should click on her blog link above and check it out. It's gorgeous! Oh, all right. Here's a peek ... Notice how the luncheon ... Keep Reading...
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Waiting To Happen …
It's been over a year since I first walked into this building. I had no idea what I would see. I certainly didn't expect this ... but it was perfect. It WILL BE perfect. It's the space Renaissance Man and I selected for Hope Unlimited for Children's 20th Anniversary Celebration. Source In a few short weeks, we'll be traveling to the beautiful Bay Area of California where the organization was birthed... ... and filling this 8,000 square foot, multi-level Redwood Hall with an exhibit telling the story of Hope's 20 years of ministering to at-mortal-risk children in Brazil. It's a metamorphosis we've been planning for a long time. So long, in fact, that it's just ... Keep Reading...
