Thanksgiving

What am I thankful for... I am incredibly thankful for my family and I am thankful for Mustang Man's family. They had me over for my first Thanksgiving without my blood relatives. I did have my niece for 5 days though, but she couldn't come with us for dinner, so she cuddled up in the blankets and slept while we were away.

 

When Mustang Man and I arrived at his Aunt's his Ma and Jeffrey were dancing the cooking dance in the kitchen, sampling the dishes, deciding what they  might need more of. 

Everyone else was playing Trivial Pursuit, being protected by Oliver.

 And Mustang Man's Ma brought the center piece straight from her garden. I had no idea she had so many different flowers, and the arrangement was fantastic! Helen made the escort cards on the fly and they looked great!

We all wrote down what we were thankful for... and a few were very moving for much deeper reasons.

Then Helen and I sat and drew Alexander McQueen's shoes... and polished off the bottles of wine...

 It was a wonderful Thanksgiving... amazing family and friends.

Beautiful Wedding

This last weekend Mustang Man and I ventured into wine country! We weren't there for the wine though, it was just a bonus! We were there to see my cousin marry his bride. It was the story of fairy tales! College football player falls in love with a cheerleader. They get married and live happily ever after.

Here are some of the awesome DIY Details

The bridal party and Aunts and moms did all the center pieces. They looked amazing and all the colors they chose were so vibrant!

The tent and lanterns were all decorated by the family as well! They did such an amazing job with the tent!
They also created the programs.

I think they executed everything so well! It was such a treat to see my cousin marry his little lady!

Oh... and if you are wondering about the wine... Yes, we went to a few wineries, and there was even a wine bar in the airport. Mustang Man and I stopped in there for a pre-flight flight!

(photo taken on 5 year old camera phone)

Easy as 1-2-3

I had some lovely guests over for a Saturday night bbq. I needed to spruce the place up! What better than fresh flowers. I didn't want to go to the store, so I went outside to my bougainvillea bush a snipped a few pieces off. The colors are so vivid and are a great contrast with the cool colors that make up my abode. After the snipping, I needed a shallow vase... which I did not have, so I improvised. I grabbed my short wine glasses and filled with them with water. Oh what fun wine glasses can be! The bougainvillea weren't enough, so I ran down (well, Mustange Man drove me in his Mustang) to my local market to get some carnations! I know, I know, they aren't anything but a filler flower, but I think they worked exquisitely!

I had some left over carnations so I thought, I know the dudes are going to be outside, why not give them a little floral funness!? Initially the arrangement looked a little drab, so I used the stems from the first group of carnations to add some height.

 

I am not sure they enjoyed it as much as I did... but I think it is lovely.
Today when I arrived home from the 9-5 the bougainvillea was all droopy, so I pulled it all out and have a single short wine glass with an abundance of lovely carnations. And I think they are divine.