Mother’s Day: Cookout & A Tribute

On May 10, 2016May 10, 2016 By ArlynnIn Special Occasions6 Comments

Being a Mom is what I know, what I love, and what I cherish. I never really had a desire to “be” anything else, some say I should have been an Interior Designer, possibly a Nurse, or maybe a Teacher, instead I have learned how to decorate my home in my own way & style, I certainly felt like “Nurse Mom” when my girls were little, and goodness knows I’ve done a lot of teaching through the years (and learning as well). I was lucky enough to be able to choose, and the hubby and I made the decision together, that I would not work outside of the home while the girls were growing up. That said, I volunteered a LOT when my girls were in school. 🙂 I have continued on as a “Domestic Engineer”; the girls are now out on their own and flourishing, and I still stay home and do my crafting, decorating, DIY projects, and now this blog (which has grown outside of its original parameters of being *only* a ‘crafting/home decor’ blog)…I am so grateful!! ❤

Anyway, we just celebrated Mother’s Day on Sunday so I thought I would give y’all a glimpse of how we celebrated–We didn’t do anything all that exciting, but, we had both of our grown and gorgeous girls here at our home along with our daughter’s boyfriend. We had a lovely day, one filled with tons of laughter, fun, hugs, and love. 🙂

I must take a moment to pay tribute to my beautiful Mom who passed away 3-1/2 years ago after a long battle with Alzheimer’s. Oh how I miss my Mom and oh how I hate Alzheimer’s and how it takes our loved ones from us one teeny, tiny, infinitesimal, bit at a time–It is torture to watch them go through the stages of Alzheimer’s, just torture. A bit about my Mom though, she was brilliant, she was beautiful, she was sweet, and she was the best Mom to me (an only child) that she could have been–she was an amazing woman! I will not lament further about her battle with Alzheimer’s today–maybe one day I’ll be brave enough to write a post about how she fought so long and so hard–but, not today. I will share a few pictures of her though…Here is her graduation picture (from college–she was a Biology teacher).

Here is a picture of her on her wedding day to my Dad; I always thought that she looked like a princess:

And here she and I are on one day when I was visiting her in the nursing home not too long before Alzheimer’s was finished ripping her away from us:

To say that I loved my Mom to the moon and back is an understatement. ❤ My sweet cousin Stacey, sent me this beautiful saying the other day–It completely expresses my feelings about my Mom:

I didn’t mean to get maudlin ^^up there^^, but, I couldn’t write this post without paying a bit of a tribute to my sweet Mom. ❤

Moving on now, here are some pictures that I took as the hubby and I were preparing for the kids to stop by on Sunday. As a rule made up over 3 decades ago, the hubby usually handles preparing the outside and I handle preparing the inside. I have found those lines to be somewhat blurred now-a-days though because truly, he and I help each other out here, there, and everywhere. ❤

Our grass has come in beautifully this Spring, the hubby has done an amazing job seeding, fertilizing, planting, and I’m sure doing many other things that I’m not in the know about…haha. Here are a few pictures of our home after he was finished mowing and spiffing up the yard…

And of the pups sitting out on the front sidewalk flanked by my favorite flowers, Gerber Daisies. Left to right, Gracie the Golden Retriever, Samson and Sophie the Newfoundlands:

The hubby also power washed the entire patio, it was pretty messy after the winter. I arranged the furniture, and put a few touches of this and that around to try to make it feel comfy and cozy out there–I love using red as an accent color:

The kiddos arrived on Sunday afternoon and we had a lovely time together…Here are just a few shots of us enjoying the day…

Left to Right: Dustin, our daughters Candace and Christin, & me–Sophie and Samson (brown) the Newfs in front:

And I can’t forget the fur babies:

Something on that grill sure smelled gooooooood!! 😉

Speaking of the food, the hubby cooked hamburgers, hotdogs, and chicken on the grill…along with peppers, onions, zucchini, and mushrooms…And I, for once in my life, bought (instead of making) macaroni salad, potato salad, & cucumber salad. Christin brought her wonderful deviled eggs and we added baked beans, chips and dip, and a cheese ball to the mix. We arranged it all out on the kitchen island and had a little buffet line and then carried our plates out to the patio (and are all on diets now…goodness…between the Hawaiian Cruise <~~~link to my cruise blogs~~~ and now this day, I’m struggling, but I will get back to my good eating regimen…really had already after the cruise, but, I did splurge on this most special of days). 🙂

I had prepared the island the day before–As I said up above, I really love using red as an accent color, I feel like it is a happy color (used in this way) and one that really pops. 🙂

I had the very best Mother’s Day that one could ever imagine–Having my family here with me was the best gift they could have given me… ❤

I did receive this too…VERY special!!! Thank you Christin!! ❤

How in the world did I get so lucky as to have two such wonderful daughters (and Dustin too, because he is fast becoming a member of our family)?! I sure don’t know, but, I do know I feel blessed and am so grateful to have them!! I definitely felt the love on this most special of days!!

Until next time, y’all take good care!

~Arlynn ❤

A Mishmash of Winter Weather (Doggies & House)

On February 16, 2016February 16, 2016 By ArlynnIn My Dogs2 Comments

They were calling for 1-3 inches of snow, we got over 6″, then it all turned to sleet and then eventually to freezing rain. They were calling for the temperatures to rise above freezing by 9pm last night, the temps didn’t rise above freezing until after 8am this morning which left us with quite a coating of ice. OH joy, joy, what a mishmash of cold wetness we’ve experienced in the last 24+ hours. 😉 Well, hey, I can’t complain too much, I’ve been safe and warm in my home, the hubby has been here with me, and my pups have had another snow day to enjoy. 🙂 Here are a smattering of pictures that I’ve taken in the last 24 hours or so. 🙂

I started my day yesterday with letting the pups out in the backyard to play…This was the first picture I took as I walked out the back door, a smidgen more than 3″ of snow I’d say…

Of course, our Newfoundlands Sophie and Samson and our Golden Retriever Gracie had a blast romping and playing. 🙂

These pups just love the snow, I swear they eat their weight in it as well…OH well, they will remain well- hydrated. 😉

I walked around and took a few pictures of the house too…It was quite the winter wonderland…

The hubby came home early as the roads deteriorated quite quickly…This is what his car looked like…yikes!!

Thankfully, the sun is shining brightly today and the ice and snow are melting quickly. Folks are bustling around town again today and all is just about back to normal. 🙂

I will admit, it is so hard to stay staunchly on my diet on those days when we are kind of stuck in the house, but, I didn’t do horribly badly…haha…still though, I have plenty more to lose…one second, one minute, and one day at at time. 🙂

No more snow is predicted in the foreseeable future, but, in years past we’ve been known to get a good storm in March, so we’ll see what happens as we move forward in time. 🙂

For now, I will enjoy this beautiful day and thank the good Lord above that we are all safe, warm, and happy. 🙂

Until next time, y’all take good care! ❤

~Arlynn ❤

Transitioning: Outdoor Touches

On January 7, 2016January 7, 2016 By ArlynnIn Transitioning Seasonal Decor4 Comments

I try to be a positive, upbeat person all of the time, I figure I have so much to be thankful for and I’m extremely grateful that I can put my feet on the floor each morning and traverse through my day with only a semblance of pain (in my knees…stupid things). Regardless, I would be fibbing if I said that I am a lover of the winter months because honestly, looking at the trees devoid of leaves is not my favorite site to behold. 😉 SO, I try to brighten my world a bit by adding some pops of my favorite color red into my outdoor decor, nothing too over the top just a little bit of somethin’ somethin’ here and there.

This was the house all decked out for Christmas:

We had wreaths on all of the window, and I decorated the front porch with little lit trees flanking the front door, lit garland around the door, and with my little red wagon filled with Christmassy accents. I also added that great “Let It Snow” Snowman:

I was completely thrilled with those decorations, and transitioning over to a more generic decor was going to create a less festive approach to the front door. Regardless, I soldiered on…The first thing I did was make several bows to go on the front door wreath along with the light post wreath, wagon wheels wreath, and mailbox. I didn’t want to go and buy new ribbon for this task, so I went to my honey hole (where I keep all things crafty) and found that I had enough of this white and burlap chevron ribbon:

I didn’t change out all of the wreaths out from my pine wreaths, instead, I just changed out the bows:

I did hang up that snowman trio — I change out that sign with each season, I’ve gathered quite the collection of these signs over the years. They are actually meant to hang on their own holder; I get them from Piper Classics, check out that link and you’ll see what I’m talking about. I choose to hang my signs on my mailbox though as here in our neighborhood it is the *in* thing to decorate up one’s mailbox…well, I’m all over that! lol 😉

I changed out the decorative flags in the front flower bed to ones with a wintery scene and with cardinals <~~A pop of that red color that I mentioned above….

Then I set to the task of tweaking the little red wagon decor, I certainly didn’t recreate the wheel here, instead I did more removing of the Christmas decor. I left the pine wreath and the lit pine garland (looks pretty in the evening), and I added back in my favorite doggie sign (pop of red), a bear (his bow is red), and a few other little items that add a bit of interest and they have touches of red as well–the little sign that is hanging on the crate and the red star ‘garland’ hanging on the front of the wagon. I really do love red and tend to gravitate toward it a lot. 🙂

I chose to leave the Snowman sign on the other side of the porch…

Gracie the Golden and Samson and Sophie the Newfoundlands approve. ❤

Here is the wagon in the evening hours:

And here are a few pictures of the house in the evening hours. My hubby worked really hard on all of the outdoor accent lighting, if you’d like to see what he did with up lights and wash lights, check out my blog entry entitled Special Outdoor Lighting.

So, now that everything is redecorated for the winter months, I think I might take a little break…uh huh, sure I will! 😉 Honestly though, I’m not positive what I’ll get into next, but, I’m sure it will have something to do with making something to add to this house that is gradually becoming a home filled with warmth, love, and cherished memories with each passing day.

Until next time, y’all take good care! ❤

**In decorating there are no mistakes, just unique creations!**

~Arlynn ❤

Christmas 2015: Lantern Centerpiece & More (Traditional Christmas Colors)

On November 14, 2015November 14, 2015 By ArlynnIn Seasonal Decor1 Comment

Continuing on with showing y’all how I am decorating our home for Christmas; I’ve been working for almost a solid week on the rooms that span the back of our home (family room, kitchen, kitchen eating area, and the staircase–all of which are completely open to one another). In this entry, I will be highlighting a couple of centerpieces that I made, one, a lantern centerpiece for the kitchen table, and two a centerpiece for the kitchen’s island. Also, I’ll be showing you how I decorated my kitchen window sills–I change the decor on the sills with every season.

So let’s start with the kitchen island arrangement. The first thing I do when I go to make anything like this is to gather all of the materials I *think* I might use.

I decided to made a candle ring to go around the candle first. I cut off some stems for the big bunch of red berries and used floral wire to hold it closed.

Then I started to add all of the accent pieces starting with a piece of pine garland, cutting apart the red berries bunch and sticking it in here and there and finishing off with burlap poinsettia flowers (they had a clip on the back, so I clipped them to the pine garland at each corner). It turned out to be a fun little piece one that can easily be picked up and moved out of the way when necessary.

Next, I’ll show you how I decorated the window sills; we have large windows that crank open and the sills are really wide, so I’ve had fun changing up the decor on them; here is a link to my Ever Changing Window Decor blog post so you can see what else I’ve done in the past.

I was really looking forward to creating a centerpiece for the kitchen table using a pretty lantern that I purchased last winter. This would be my first attempt at creating a Christmassy arrangement. In anticipation of how I wanted this centerpiece to look, I purchased a new Christmas tablecloth and built my design around that; burgundy and white would be my accent colors. Again, the first thing I did was to gather all of the accents that I thought I might use. I planned on reusing the big metal and mirrored tray that I’ve used to make every other centerpiece utilizing the lantern. Here is a link to my A Lantern Centerpiece For All Seasons blog post just in case you’d like to take a look at what else I’ve created in the past year. Anyway, back to this piece, here we go…

I purchased this candle at Lowe’s and it is so pretty!
I’ve chosen to have it turn on in the evenings and go off 5 hours later…It looks like a snow globe when it is turned on.

Now, this may seems silly, but there are times that I definitely improvise. I needed to elevate the candle just a smidge inside the lantern, but I didn’t have a candle holder big enough (in circumference) to fit the candle, so I used this little ramekin turned upside-down. 🙂 I knew that it’d be hidden by a pine candle ring, so it worked like a charm…The candle base snugged down over the ramekin nicely.

I used an old pine candle ring that I had in my stash to go around the candle inside of the lantern…

My only other accent pieces were these big bunches of red sparkly berries and pine, a Merry Christmas sign, sparkly poinsettias and white burlap wired ribbon…

This was honestly so easy to put together, I just placed a red berries bunch on three sides and placed the Merry Christmas sign on the front and cut apart another berries bunch and arranged it behind and over the sign. I used 4 of the sparkly poinsettias, one one each side…

I made a bow, here is a link to my How To Make A Bow Tutorial (Video) if you want to know how to make one of these bow. In addition, I made a little ‘handle’ for lack of a better word, and tied it and some red berries to the bow. I slid that handle over the top piece on the lantern and completed the project.

When my hubby got home from work that evening, he took a look at this centerpiece and said “Wow, that looks beautiful!!!”, I took that as a huge compliment considering he sees everything that I create on a daily basis…haha. 🙂

I’m almost finished decorating this part of the house, in my next post, I’ll highlight a couple other little centerpieces, a couple of cozy corners, and the powder room.

Sneak Peek:

Until next time, y’all take good care! ❤

**In crafting there are no mistakes just unique creations**

Fall Colors Around the House

On October 29, 2015October 29, 2015 By ArlynnIn Home Tour6 Comments

Cool crisp mornings and the changing of the leaves usher in one of my favorite times of the year, Fall. Since I’ve lived in the South, I am so very grateful when the humidity of summer dissipates and sitting outside becomes pleasurable again. While my hubby and I were out enjoying the cool weather last weekend, we took some time to click off a few pictures of our home, the dogs, and a battlefield. We live out in the country and with each passing year, the trees that surround our house get prettier and prettier, the first couple of Falls that we were here I think our trees were not happy campers because they had been ‘disturbed’ by the building of our home, but, now, it seems that they have settled down and are starting to fill out with more foliage and hence presenting us with a colorful little show this Fall. 🙂

My hubby took these next pictures with the wide-angle lens on his camera:

And then he took some shots of the dogs and I snuck in there with them for a one…

We decided to take a ride around our town into one of our Civil War Battlefields; wow, what a gorgeous ride that was!

As we were pulling back into our driveway I took a moment to reflect on how lucky and truly blessed we are to be living in a place that provides so much beauty as each season passes. If I’m honest, I’ll admit that winter is not my favorite season, I don’t care for looking at baron trees especially after seeing the trees that have just given us a beautiful show as they trumpeted their last hurrah. I do enjoy November and December because Thanksgiving and Christmas are my two very favorite Holidays and I get to see my family, eat way too much, laugh, cry through laughter, sing a few carols and exchange gifts (although, I dislike wrapping said gifts…<erg>). In December we always take many evening rides around our town to see the Christmas decorations and lights…Ahhhh yes, we do see quite the array of decorating styles, some absolutely gorgeous, some just good, some bad, and yes, some just plain ugly (haha). Of course I love to do my own decorating and this house presents me with new and exciting areas with which to display my creations. But, ugh, January, February, and March are pretty bleak and very cold (relatively speaking). Ever the optimist and one that tries to find the positive in any given situation, I will say that I do enjoy a good snowstorm and hunkering down with a nice pot of homemade soup and watching my dogs romp and play in the newly fallen blanket of snow. Also, snow is always pretty to photograph, so bring on Winter, I’ll be ready for you when you arrive. 🙂 Anyway, I digress…;)

Here was our view as we pulled back into our driveway…

<Sigh> Life is good and I appreciate and am so humbled every single day that I wake up, put my feet on the floor, and maneuver through my day with only small normal aches and pains, ones that seem to be arriving a bit more frequently as I age…haha. Regardless, I’m so very grateful.

Until next time, y’all take good care! ❤

~Arlynn

Special Outdoor Lighting

On October 18, 2015October 18, 2015 By ArlynnIn Home Tour9 Comments

Good Day All!

I will be completing my “Home Tour” series of blog entries with this post describing the outdoor lighting that we chose to brighten up the front of our home. My hubby and I worked in tandem to choose and arrange said lighting; he did do all of the installing though, but, I was definitely there for moral support. 😉

The first lights that I want to tell you about are the candles in the windows.

Here in the South, many of us leave lights lit in our windows throughout the entire year; I have done this for years and years now (even in our old house before we moved here). Old traditions tell us that the candle was often placed in the window when a member of the family was away. The lit candle was also placed in the window as a sign of good news or as a welcome to weary travelers. Candles also represented friendship and were seen as a sign of welcome to others. One of my favorite schools of thought regarding placing candles in the window was that it served as a beacon to solders who were away at war, kept ever burning so that they could find their way back home to their loved ones. For all of these reasons, we keep candles lit in all of the front windows day and night. We took advantage of a spiffy lighting package that our builder offered, a “Holiday Light Package”, this package provided us with an extra outlet at each window and all of those outlets lead to one switch, so when on the rare occasion that I do turn out all of the candle lights all I need to do is flip that one switch.

I’ve always loved the look of a home subtly lit at night so we went on the hunt for lighting that would highlight the different rooflines and ‘sections’ of our home. All of these lights are on a timer, they come on at dusk and remain on for 6 hours then magically turn out all on their own. 😉 🙂

We purchased pathway lights:

And “wash” lights, that softly light parts of the front of the house:

My hubby installed wash lights up on top of the porch and on the porch itself as well:

We chose “up” lights to highlight whatever decorative flag I have on the flag stand and some of the prettier trees and shrubs in the flowerbed. (I purchased the flag stand from Plow and Hearth):

We even found a flag pole with a solar light attached, that way the flag that we have flying will always be lit as well. This is especially important when we have the American Flag flying, it is not supposed to be flown at night without it being lit:

Last, but not least, we have several solar lights dotted throughout the flowerbed, they change colors very slowly and subtly and add a little touch of whimsy:

The lighting is pretty throughout the entire year, but it is especially pretty right after a snowfall:

Well, there we go, with the completion of this blog entry, you’ve now had a tour of pretty much the entire house. My hubby and I work every day to turn this house into a home, a home that will provide a warm and cozy haven to family and friends. My greatest hope is that when folks stop by that they feel welcome and like they can sit down, put their feet up, relax, and enjoy their time here in our country home.

Until next time, y’all take good care! ❤

~Arlynn

⚜️ Arlynn's Country Craft Corner ⚜️

Tag: Country Home

Mother’s Day: Cookout & A Tribute

A Mishmash of Winter Weather (Doggies & House)

Transitioning: Outdoor Touches

Christmas 2015: Lantern Centerpiece & More (Traditional Christmas Colors)

Fall Colors Around the House

Special Outdoor Lighting

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