The roller coaster weather brought about everything from my girlie hibernating from the cold temperatures (and the fact that I keep the heat at 63 degrees) to putting up our Christmas tree in swoony temps that begged doors and windows be propped open.

It was a glorious long weekend. A dinner at my mom's unrivaled by any past. Christmas tree shopping, donning our car grills with Christmas wreaths (and the reminder, out of this tradition, that no man will ever win my heart without wearing a Santa hat to Christmas shop), and nesting to Christmas music whilst crafting and cooking (my neighbor's Thanksgiving gift of a smoked turkey equals a turkey corn chowder that I'll enjoy for the next 8 months out of my freezer stash).

And Harleigh had two dear friends over last night who basked in the Christmas glory that Chateau Gahan wears like a badge of honor this time of year. And Hannah, dear Hannah, told me, "Mamma G, if I ever win the lottery I'm going to buy your house  and everything in it. Maybe even you."

Enough said. I set out every year to create a home, a true home, in every sense of the word. When a 19-year-old gets it, I think I've struck gold.

This year's tree is all about being girly. Lots of pink, including a swathing of our dear tree trunk in a vintage hand-embroidered tablecloth in pinks and greens.

And Gideon now sports his Christmas collar.

[Pictures tomorrow of the aprons Harleigh made for all her roommates for their Christmas baking extravaganza. She made me so proud as she worked through patterns, fabrics and trim to make the ultimate heartfelt gift. You go, girly!]

The girly theme made its way to our front door where pretty-colored ornaments garnish a white wreath.

The Kids' Table — The Feast 2011

This year's theme allowed me to channel the inner kid within this 51-year-old constitution. And it came quite easily, a pleasant reminder that I'm only as old as I feel.  I decided to do The Kids' Table, a light-hearted theme that I knew would bring instant childlike abandonment to all those at the table.

I begin thinking of a theme for the next Feast right after one ends. And once I settle on an idea, then that leaves me a year to plan and craft. This year's was actually pretty easy. Instead of our usual drop-cloth tablecloths, I used plastic, and covered the table in one long sheet of white butcher paper, the idea being for everyone to write on the table using crayons and markers (hence the plastic underneath). To hold all the markers and crayons, I covered tin cans in yarn and in brown craft paper decorated with puff balls and pipe cleaners. I had forgotten just how fun it is to craft with pipe cleaners! It didn't matter that you could see tape holding the craft paper in place . . . it is the Kids' Table after all.

 Each place was set with a large oval dinner plate and brown paper napkins rolled around utensils and secured with pipe cleaner napkin rings, each uniquely different (which we girls all turned into rings, dahling). Some of the rings had a Dr. Suess quality to them.

 Down the center of the table I used oil lamps and small tealight candles.

Since this year we had a number of guests from outside the office, I made nametags, gluing writing/alphabet paper onto cardstock, adhering felt pilgrims (had both boy and girl figures with different colors of hair), using yarn to make a necklace, and then writing the names using Sharpies. Everyone proudly wore them . . . a big hit.

No Kids' Table is truly for children unless it has a crepe paper folding turkey.

 I put signs out everywhere to stage where everything goes, and then throw away the signs as items make their way to their proper place. Next year (especially if we have guests like we did this year), I'm going to have to create prettier labels that serve to ID the food (not just help me get organized).

 The Publix pilgrim salt and pepper shakers show up in the kitchen on the Monday of our Feast week, a reminder of what's to come!

 And we have this morbid (but so very fun) tradition of doing a weigh-in before and after the meal. I won't go into all the details; you get the idea. (I do post all the results from past years.)

 We even start the day with homemade goodies. These bacon date scones were a new addition this year and much loved.

 Tod, our president, bringing out one of two 20 lb. birds.

 And of course we MUST make crisp white cuffs for their little legs.

 And you can see in the upper left . . . a treat I made for everyone. Setting on a construction paper leaf, two "acorns" made from a Hershey kiss, a mini vanilla wafer (held in place with a smidge of peanut butter) and then topped off with a "stem" of peanut butter created with a decorating tip on a pastry bag. Found this idea on Pinterest. If anyone has a genius idea for how to transport these, please do tell.

 Here I am in my Christmas shirt. Such a freak.

 Everyone gets in line to scoop up all the homemade goodness. Tod is carving at the head of the buffet table, taking requests for white vs. dark.

 At the beginning of the meal I encouraged everyone to decorate the paper cloth and not to worry about spills and drops. That's half the charm.

 Tod acknowledging our guests, our blessings (he's got last year's "thankfuls" in his hands as a reminder that every year we have so much to be grateful for) and the meal to come!

I plan on displaying the table art this coming Monday. And I'm onto next year's planning! (For past Feasts, see my event list on the right column for links to their posts.)

And thanks to Buzz Busbee for taking most of these photos!

Maybe winning the lottery isn't such a good idea

 Weekends are so wonderful. After a tough work week, there's nothing like settling into two days so very different in complexion from the work week routine. By Saturday at noon I had:
1) gotten groceries
2) made a dessert, crab cakes, the fixings for a caesar salad, and an artichoke and parmesan dip for my parents coming to dinner that evening
3) gotten a Feast project completed
4) listened to 5 Christmas CDs (one 3x — Andrea Bocelli's "My Christmas." Who knew that "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" could wind up becoming a favorite of mine!?!? I've yet to tire of listening to it. His duets with Mary J. Blige, Natalie Cole, The Muppets, Reba McEntire, and Katherine Jenkins. . . one is better than the next. And his "The Lords Prayer" with The Mormon Tabernacle Choir is touching beyond words.
5) and was ready to run errands, go to the gym, and, of course, listen to more Christmas music.

For dessert Saturday evening, I really wanted to have something fruity that I could pair with vanilla ice cream, so I went to my recipe file and found a recipe from, believe it or not, a file of good eats I had compiled from when my Pap Pap passed away. My Nana's house had been overflowing with food when he left us, every dish delivered from a friend stopping by with condolences in the form of hugs and casseroles — food never ceases to make a heart feel warm.  There was everything from a delectable chopped ham spread, to dips, to this apple "pie" (at least that's what it was titled) that is really more of an Apple Betty.  Easy to make and, in typical fashion of anything worth baking or cooking from scratch, better the second day. Here's the recipe.

6 cups of peeled, cored and sliced apples
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup Bisquick
1 1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1 cup sugar
2 Tbsp. butter — melted
2 eggs

Preheat oven to 325. Grease pie plate (I used a quiche dish and think it works better than a pie plate). Mix apples and spices, turn into plate. Beat remaining ingredients until smooth. Pout into plate. Sprinkle with streusel. Bake 50-60 minutes. [I made the whole shebang the night before and just put the streusel topping aside and put on right before baking.]

Streusel Topping

Mix 1 cup of Bisquick, 1/2 cup chopped nuts ( I used pecans which I think were way better a match to the apples and spices than if I'd have used walnuts). 1/3 cup brown suger, 3 Tbsp firm butter cut into small pieces.

P.S. And as much as I'd love to win the lottery, would weekends still be such a treat if every day were a weekend day? Perhaps reason enough to stick with the day job and be content with those two little gems in the week that shine with creativity, family, nesting and Chateau Gahan. Besides, where else but on the weekend can you afford to make typos? On a cozy Saturday morning, "continuous" can be spelled any way you dang feel like it (especially if it's on a fridge dry erase board).

And the etsy shell crosses are coming along. I so don't want to do this etsy thing half-arsed. They are done, photographed (but not to my exact standard of how I want to them to be portrayed), and the backs need my signature (a branding element) along with a scripture that fits each cross. The bottom line . .  . I need another weekend. 5 days and counting.

TV Weaknesses

One of the perks of going to the gym (and, in fact, what makes me want to go in large part) is that I can watch cable TV while on the elliptical or treadmill. Chateau Gahan gets about 8 channels; I'm just too cheap to subscribe to anything other than the $21-a-month package. And so I head to the gym a little before 8PM and settle into a good hour of the kind of programming I can't get at home, everything from The Housewives of [whatever city] on Bravo, to House Hunters on HGTV, to Dance Moms on Lifetime.

Once I'm back home, showered and in my jammies, there's crafting to be done, Gideon-snuggling to commence, magazine reading to catch up on, and one show (on network tv) that I never miss . . . Parenthood.  If you've not seen it, it's worth catching-up on (Hulu and Netflix both have past episodes). It takes me back to the great TV of "thirtysomething," the show that I couldn't get enough of, and "Lipstick Jungle," which to this day I'm ticked was never picked up for another season.

[Yes, a drivel of a post. Guilty as charged.  Craft posts to happen this weekend. Promise. The Feast, after all, is next week, and there's a tablescape just waiting to be created!]

Feel-Good Sunday

What feels good today?


I woke up early, having gained an hour. The house was a bit on the chilly side, which is OK, 'cause I like putting on a pot of coffee on a crisp Fall morning in my jammies and wearing a woolen cardigan.


Within minutes of my feet hitting the ground out of bed, the Christmas music was on. That feels better than good.


I put a big enamelware pot on the stove and boiled chicken breasts to make chicken salad for lunches this week. Fasten the seat belt, it's gonna be a crazy one at Unboundary. I'll need lunches to grab on the go. The homey smell of chicken coupled with the Dutchman's Tangello candle burning on the kitchen island . . . one of the many reasons I love Chateau Gahan.

I got all of my errands out of the way yesterday, with the exception of grocery shopping, which I love, by the way. Besides shopping in thrift stores, I'll leisurely walk the aisles of Ingles any day over mall or retail store shopping. I've got to pick up items for an office birthday breakfast (I'm making my standard fare breakfast casserole with salsa side), for The Feast (I do the stuffing and Nana's cranberry salad; might do a green bean casserole as well. Oh, and I have a special treat I'm making as goodies for everyone to take. A little secret . . . this year's theme is "The Kids' Table"), and for our family Thanksgiving meal. What's better than grocery shopping? HOLIDAY grocery shopping!!!!

(And I was made to grocery shop today, and not at the usual Ingles, because I ran into friend Melinda at Publix and we're long overdue to get together.)

My sister Beth, living through a bit of upheaval and healing now, took time out of her crazy schedule to cross-stitch and sew these Christmas hangers for me. She knows I start Christmas November 1, and these arrived in time to kick-off the holiday season with a bit of Sissy to make me smile (and cause me, as always, to miss her like crazy).

Good is getting to the gym both yesterday and today. Come to find out, an hour out of the day to stay healthy is not only doable, but it feels amazing.


Church this morning, as it does every Sunday, made me well-up, especially this day as it is All Saints Sunday, when names of the departed are in print and read aloud, each name to the sound of a church bell. And I was in charge of setting the altar table for communion. I love Altar Guild, all the ritual and holiness surrounding the Lord's Supper.


And one of the sweetest musings of this Feel-Good Sunday post is what began Friday when I got home from work. A phone message awaited me. A woman named Laura who had just found my blog, gushed praises that reminded me how worth it it is to share The Gahan Girls, and apologetically said she had googled me on whitepages.com to find my phone number (All of us bloggers have felt like stalkers at one time or another. Laura, no apologies necessary. In fact, for the most part we're an over-trustworthy lot of well-meaning folks.). Anywho, she had an embroidered piece of art that she's had for awhile, and after reading my blog, she knew she was meant to gift it to me. I called her back and we hit it off immediately. Made arrangements for her to stop by (she lives two towns over), as her son had a sporting event in my neck of the woods. The embroidered piece has my name written all over it, but most heartwarming is that she and I have a ton in common and I've found a kindred spirit in a once-was-stranger. 


On the right, it is covering my fireplace and so you can get an idea of its grand size.

Here it is in Harleigh's room where it goes so perfectly with her color scheme. She'd been drawn to embroidered artwork the few times we've gone into thrift and vintage stores, so there's a good chance she'll be smitten with this one!

May you have a Feel Good Sunday and a feel good week. 

(And thank you, Laura, for doing such a generous thing, for making me feel so good!)

Being a mom, through a chair

When Harleigh was little I never tired of making her days special. Whether it was helping her make a blanket fort or hand-crafting a Halloween costume like no one else's, there was such joy in the simple act of being creative. As she grew up, I thought that would change. That there would be fewer and fewer opportunities to show her my love and appreciation through crafting and imagination. I figured that holding her up as the wonderful being she is might be through words more than actions. But I've been proven quite wrong.

She appreciates my love-fueled creativity more than ever, especially as she sets out in the world to create her own surroundings and moments of beauty and happiness.

Her college-apartment bedroom desk and chair, a French Provincial set handed down from a graduating senior friend, is a great staple in her ever-growing collection of her own furniture, which someday will grace her first place when she's graduated and on her own. We kept the desk ivory with gold accents, but I wanted to spruce up the chair.

Found this gray and yellow floral satin fabric to cover the seat (not one of my best upholstery jobs at all, but it'll do). I wanted the chair to mimic one of those drop-dead gorgeous gowns, pretty from the front but, wow, when you see the back.

Oh so pretty back.

French Tomes

Walking in the charming St. Simons Island this weekend past, I came across a book market and snagged these French tomes. They were corralled with a piece of jute, too sweet to pass up.  Ya know how certain things just call out your name and you've no idea why you feel must bring them home? Dawn Gahan, I introduce you to five tomes of Le Vicomte de Bragelonne. A match made. 

Spider Invasion

For this year's mantle and spreading Halloween ghoulishness, 

I opted for the invasion of the plastic, glittery spiders. 

Boo.

Happy Friday!

Harleigh comes home today for the weekend. 

All is good because I get to spend time with my favorite person in the world.

October 22

At yesterday's book sale, I found an older edition of Harleigh's favorite devotional book Streams in the Desert. I was happy to start my morning off on such a great note, and am looking forward to asking Harleigh if her daily devotionals from the newer edition mirror mine.

After breakfast and a slow, slow push to start the day, I made a trip to Christ Church, an historical landmark (and an operating church) set amidst huge oak trees dripping with Spanish moss. It was so very quiet, very few people on the grounds. I wasn't there at the times that inside tours are offered, but I was happy to walk the cemetery, sit on a bench, and take in the serenity.

Below right is one of the books I bought yesterday, Robert Browning's Poems, for a mere $2. I shot it on the sand, nature's loveliest backdrop.

For lunch I went back to the outdoor cafe where Julie and I had eaten yesterday. I liked that it wasn't a super busy place, there are tables in the sun, the food is good, and even though it's on the main drag of Pier Village, it's quiet enough that I knew I could read my paper and eat in a calm quiet.

After lunch I headed straight to the beach where I set up camp with a chair, an umbrella, and nary a piece of reading material. The sun was out, the temperatures enough to warm and not to sweat. I watched kites in the sunlight, dogs catching frisbees, kids building sandcastles, and closed my eyes every once in a while to concentrate on and savor the sound of the waves. October 22, a good day.