Keep In Touch #91

Hello, Friends! 

How are you? 

Thanks for stopping by our 91st Keep In Touch. It's hard to believe that we've had that many. 

 How was your Thanksgiving? Ours was great. My wingman was down since he had foot surgery two weeks ago. Bill is an enormous help when we entertain but my family pitched in to help since we wee a man down.  My right hand man was missed, however.  Bill commented that he felt like he was really able to visit with our guests since he had to remain stationary. Overall, we had a really good day. The turkey was one of the best we've ever done. 

I think that the Christmas decorating is almost done. The back patio needs a good cleaning and then it can be sprinkled with a bit of Christmas cheer.

Plaid decor is trending again this year and it makes a good showing in our decor.
I've even jumped on the plaid pants band wagon.
Jump over to my previous post to see our front door wreath. Stop by the other blogs with another great hop hosted by Amber of Follow The Yellow Brick Home.

I'll have a post up in the morning in which I discuss a favorite new Christmas pitcher and how I've styled our big dish cupboard turned library bookcase. Are you intrigued?

Now for the feature.
I love these angel wings by Linda @ Crafts A La Mode.
It's not too late to craft some of these for your Christmas tree.

I'd love to have coffee in Penny's sunroom. 

I also love this entry by CoCo at The Crowned Goat.

Now for the link up.
Thanks to all who linked up last week.
Katie

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Happy Monday/ Oops I Mean Sunday

Hello, friends. 

I've been a little MIA. 

I used to be an avid magazine reader. After all the wonder of fall and Christmas the January issues seemed a little blah. 

That is how I'm feeling about my blog. 

I have been busy though and I thought I'd share. 

I had some ladies over on Wednesday night. 

I made a yummy soup. 

Here is the recipe. 

Italian Wedding Soup 

5 links Mild Italian Sausage. We like Johnsonville. Brown, drain and cut up into slices. 

1 14.5 oz can of chicken broth

1/2 jar of Prego traditional Spaghetti sauce

1 cup of water

1 can of Delmonte Whole Green beans (drained)

1 can of baby carrots (drained)

1 can of dark red kidney beans (drained)

Mix together and simmer for 45 minutes or so. 

Serve over any cooked pasta. We use Penne. 

Store leftovers in the refrigerator or freeze. 

I have no pictures of our soup but we just love this recipe. Several ladies asked for it after dinner.

We also had bread and salad to go with it. 

I did a little thrifting on Friday. 

Everything was at least 30% off. 

Christmas was 75% off. 

This gravy boat had stickers which looked like this came straight from an antique store. 

The antique store price was $45.00. 

I got it for $3.50. 

The knife was 70 cents. It needs some cleaning but it should polish up with Bar Keeper's Friend. It cleans everything. 

 I've complained to you about our bedside tables. 

This Lane furniture is about 10 years old. It was supposed to be our forever furniture. 

I had water on it only a few times and the top started to chip and bubble up. 

 We found a night stand at the antique mall when we were looking at Christmas for art for our daughter. 

We put it on my side of the bed. I'm thrilled with the marble top. No more ruined wood. 

I love antique furniture with marble tops. 

I think it's an amazing match with the bed which honestly I didn't notice until we put it in place.

The curve at the top of the headboard matches the curve on the drawer front. 

We had to beef up the leg a little to get it high enough. 

I'll blog about that later when I can get better pictures. 

I just love it. 

I love that it is the reverse of the dresser - white and brown/brown and white. 

We just need to find something for Bill's side. 

I always need to sleep on the side farthest from the door. Bill has to protect me from the Zombies, I guess. 

I stocked up on cleaning supplies for the new year. 

I couldn't take how gross it looked under the kitchen sink so it got cleaned out. 

Bill suggested that I lay the left over flooring from the trailer remodel. 

They are gray distressed peel and stick tiles. 

I failed Geometry so this was not easy for me. 

There are many, many mistakes but I doubt anyone will notice. 

My son got me a darling bird house for Christmas. 

He was passing a gift shop in Seattle and saw this in the window. 

How cute is this? 

This precious bird cage is getting styled for Valentine's Day. 

The faux artichoke was hard to understand. It's already been thrown away. 

I'm playing with some trucks from Christmas to see how they will look for Valentine's Day. 

I pulled out my Valentine's Day decor for a blog post, took some pictures and then put it away. 

I put my winter decor back on the mantel. 

It's 62 degrees today. Tomorrow it's supposed to be 72 degrees. I'm going to lose patience with our snowy branches and pinecones unless it cools down a little. 

That is about it for now. 

On Facebook the other night, several of us had two interesting discussions about blogging and what has happened to so many bloggers. 

Our sweet friend, Stacey at Poofing The Pillows shocked our Texas blogging group when she announced she is calling it quits. 

Kim of Savvy Southern Style is cutting way back on blogging and is giving up the WOW party. 

Several others chimed in on her post to announce they're cutting back as well. 

So sad.  

I am always playing with decor around here and I decorate for each season. I hope it's not boring for you to see what I'm up to. I plan to keep blogging but more when I'm inspired instead of trying to crank out 2 or 3 posts a week. 

I don't want to be one of the bloggers that slowly fades away. I will tell you about it if I ever decide to quit blogging. 

I don't know what the future holds for my Keep In Touch Link party. 

It may be back but it may not until February. 

Kim seemed to feel that link parties are a thing of the past. 

I don't know.

Tell me your thoughts. 

I'm thankful for you my faithful and loyal readers. I appreciate every visit and every comment. 

Katie 

My Thrift Store Addiction

A Look At Christmas Past

There is certainly a lot of Christmas decorating going on at various blogger's homes. 

No pressure. 

I pulled all my finds out, yesterday, but I'm not decorating yet. 

I got of a lay of the land with all of my purchases from the year and then I packed it away this afternoon. 

Here is the thing - I love it at first but by Christmas Eve the clutter is driving me nuts. 

It happens with almost every holiday. Most of the turkeys got packed away today. 

I was ready for a cleaner, un-holiday look before everything gets rolling next Friday. 

We can still be inspired. 

I thought that we could look back at some of my favorite Christmas decor through the years. 

I love this garden basket from last year. I had it in my room. It's a repeater. 

The guest beds will get needlepoint pillows with a black ground. 

I found the icy nest on clearance after Christmas last year. It's paired with my chickadees. This pair was thrifted and they are some of my favorite winter decor. They may come out early this year. 

My winter mantel last year was cute. My topiary from Hedge Scapes had been on hiatus since last spring. I pulled it out today. 

The snowball garland is darling! 

My German snowbabies are all set and ready to go in a display. They were featured in the kitchen in 2016. 

My collection of elves has grown since last Christmas. 

This display from 2016 was cute. I should recreate it again this year. 

The Christmas tree in the green house is one of my favorite things. 

The old green car and a bottle brush tree is a staple around here. 

In 2015 we had pink Christmas. 

In 2014 we had black and white Christmas decor. 

In 2013 we had a woodland inspired Christmas. 

My flocked tree with cardinals was my favorite tree of all time. 

It wasn't expensive and it came from Walmart. 

Sadly, it turned brownish in the attic. 

In 2012 we had a white Christmas. 

In 2012 it was all about the gingerbread man. 

Read a sweet story. 

I started blogging on December 11, 2011. 

My first blog photo. 

The cookies are cute. 

A lot has changed since then. 

That is all for now, my friends. 

Are you decorating for Christmas yet? 

I'm crafting a lot. 

Here is a sneak peak at my color scheme 2018. 

Join 10+ bloggers for Creating a Cozy Christmas blog hop on November 27th. 

I hope you will find some great craft and recipe ideas. 

By for now. 

Katie