I haven't done this for awhile and I'm in the mood (woo woo!). Here are some recent favorites:
From Wendy's Shabby Nest "Frugal Friday" on December 28, 2012:
I just absolutely fell in love with Lily and Jugsy at Homespun blog, "The Dogs Enjoying Our First Snowfall", posted December 21, 2012. I borrowed this picture, hope Debra won't mind. I would have contacted her, but I'm no longer on Facebook and I did not see a contact me button at her blog so I could write and ask for permission to use this wonderful photo of her dogs:
Cheeky, rambunctious and much younger Jugsy goes up against older and wiser Lily who rolls her eyes and thinks "Really?" LOL! This post brought tears to my eyes as I scrolled through the narrative and the pictures, reminded of my much loved doggies, gone many years now, and our own romps during first snowfalls. Oh, how I miss them. But Jugsy's bright smile and obvious joy just made me smile ear to ear.
From Gina's The Shabby Creek Cottage "Transformation Thursday" on December 26, 2012:
We have a 16th floor cook-off every year at Christmas time. Entries are restricted to hors d'ouerves and desserts, although the hors d'ouerves is regularly stretched to include many different things. I have entered every now and then, and one time I even won a golden spoon award for best hors d'ouerves (it was a delish cucumber spread!!!) This year, after a hiatus of several years, I entered again, making chocolate fudge cherry cupcakes, YUM! People loved them, but they were too large for many people to sample as a dessert after stuffing ourselves with hors d'ouerves, and I did not even garner enough votes to receive an honorable mention. Oh the horror, the horror! LOL! Well damn, I knew those suckers were good, but what I should have done was make them in a mini-muffin pan, and tested out baking times until I got it just right. But I'm not really that competitive (except when it comes to chess), and I didn't do that.
However, I learned an important lesson that should have sunk in long since: make sure things are bite-size and manageable for every one to try out! Anyway, I saw this recipe at Gina's Transformation Thursday and am thinking this could be a winning entry for desserts in 2013. This could be cut into quarters for easy bite-size and sampled by all...
From Posed Perfection, December 20, 2012, Orange Cranberry Nut Bread. Ohmygoddess! I have a cranberry orange muffin from the cafeteria in our building where our office is located at least 3 times a week (we have access to it although not bank employees). YUM! LOVE LOVE LOVE orange/cranberry! So I was very quick to save this recipe.
How do you make these delicious photographs? Oh yum, I want to eat the screen!
FROM baking to bedroom... I don't know what it is about bedrooms that so consumes me. I didn't used to pay any attention to my bedroom other than as a clean rather spartan place to sleep. It was ho-hum and boring, snore. Which I suppose one might want in order to fall asleep quickly every night from sheer boredom, but as a sanctum sanctorum within which to shelter and renew my spirit at the end of each hard day, it left MUCH to be desired. MUCH. This became more and more important to me as I gracefully aged (ahem). And finally, I couldn't take it anymore, the boring and ho-hum had to go!
As you may know, in February, after receiving so much inspiration from decorating and home blogs I'd been visiting for about a year or so at the time, I took a big gulp and redid my own bedroom. It was a mighty undertaking for me -- not by junking my ancient inexpensive (but not to me at the time) furniture, or painting it, or adding many newly-purchased things. I read some articles on feng shui, shoved my existing furniture around to comply with some of the major principles of the discipline as best I could, given the architecture of the room, and I bought and put up a net canopy hung from the ceiling over my bed, to give the illusion of a four poster. I also purchased a picture frame at TJ Maxx to go above my bureau and filled it with things I printed off from the internet, and I shopped my house to add other touches, such as creating a totally glam (for moi) dresser-scape that I never bothered with before (too putzy). Now, every night, I firmly shut my door, not just when I have company visiting. The world goes bye-bye! Now, every night when I turn down the comforter, fluff my pillows one last time, and undo the ribbons to let down the net curtains at the foot of the bed, I hear an internal and sometimes vocal aaaaaahhhhhhhhh. I so love love love my bedroom! It is now the haven and sanctuary it should be.
Sometimes this summer I sat up there, late at night, with the windows cranked wide open and no sounds around me except the crickets and the critters foraging in the backyard, and the distant hum of traffic from the expressway, with just a few candles burning, and I read, like I imagine Abraham Lincoln used to do before the fireplace in the log cabin home he grew up in back in the old days. Yeah, I'm a sappy historical romantic :) Every morning since my bedroom re-do, when I wake up, I roll to my back and look up at the net canopy above me, and the curtains draped about me, and I smile and stretch to greet the morning. Another day. Thank Goddess.
This bedroom caught my eye, at Meredith and Gwyneth, New Yorkie, Room Reveal: Cottage Guest Room, December 27, 2012 -- another stolen photo:
At Savvy Southern Style's Wow Us Wednesdays, December 26, 2012, I found another incredible bedroom that just made my heart go zing zing. Only wish I could have seen more of it:
From Opulent Cottage, Toile, Plaid and Gingham Christmas Bedroom, December 18, 2012 (another stolen photo):
Be still, my heart! Years and years ago, long before the internet was invented, I clipped out of a decorating magazine three pictures of toile, check and floral bedrooms. Always meant to have a bedroom that had those elements. Still have not done it, LOL! Well, I tried, but the toile curtains I bought for the bedroom in 2009 just do not go with the comforter I bought, etc. etc. Someday I'll get it right, if I live that long. And maybe I'll even have the time to enjoy it for a few years, rolling over every morning and smiling up at my net canopy...
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