Sharing Shadymont, My Mountain Cottage

For several years we have put up a tiny Christmas tree.  We're getting older, and I'm always happy when it's time to take everything down, that I used a small tree.  I tried to put our big one up, but it has so many plugs and sockets, I couldn't get all the lights to burn.  It would take an electrical engineer to figure out how to run those cords so that tree would light, so I lugged it back downstairs a section at the time and decided to forget it and put the small one up again. This year I chose gold and silver ornaments to decorate the tree.  I also added some pine cones, magnolia seed pods, and other natural items from the lake house property, to the tree for this year.  magnolia seed pod  I'm not sure what these are, but I wish I had more. I love the natural look of this tree ornament.  I have 2 of these, and would love to have more of them too. We all love a little animal print so I made my topper from these leopard b...

Thursday I visited a favorite antique mall, and spent a couple of hours browsing all the booths. I found this beautiful Christmas swag for only $18.00, so I quickly placed it in my shopping cart.  It had been marked down from $28.00. It would look wonderful on the front door, but I decided to use it on top of the china cabinet in the dining room.  See how large it is? Here it is in place on the china cabinet. The berries add just another touch of red, and I really like how it looks with the two little urns. This close up shows the huge pine cones and snow covered pine. I will be on the look out for a couple of cardinals to add to this swag.  Hope I can find some that are kinda large. I went to my daughter's home to let the dog out, and while waiting for her to "do her thing", I walked around the yard and gathered some Nandina berried, and fronds from Pampas grass.  When I returned home, I clipped some junnipe...

Do you remember the beautiful Festive Holly (Nikko/Japan) dinnerware I bought last year at the consignment sale I helped my daughter with?  I researched on Replacements.com, and they would have cost $419.50 if I'd bought them a piece at the time (doesn't include shipping).  I got all this for $19.50!!  Probably my best bargain EVAH!!  Not even a single chip! Last year, I used gold chargers.  This year I'm using silver.  They are the only new item on this table, and were 98 cents each at Wal Mart. I could hardly wait to get them out again this year. Aren't they pretty?? This table cloth was bought at the same consignment sale for $4 - $5.  I just draped it over the drop cloth table cloth on the table, since it's only 52" x 70". A perfect cloth with the dishes, don't you think? This pedestal was a KMart find a number of years ago for $5.00.  The green bowl was purchased at a consignment shop near our SW Georgia home.  The...