Christmas Tree Decorating Ideas

This is our Family Tree in the living room. It has all different kinds of ornaments on it that I have gathered over the past almost 50 years. Every one has a special meaning for me and a story about why I added it to my ornament collection. The tree tells our family story in some ways.

This is the Santa Tree in the family room. It only has Santa ornaments on it, again gathered over 50 years.

This is the newest tree, Elves and Reindeer, that was added this year because I was running out of space on the Family Tree. On the bottom there are a few tin village ornaments too.

I have a soft spot for this Gingerbread and Candy Tree in our guest room. It is a fun tree to decorate.

This is the snow people and snowflakes tree in the Main Bedroom. We grew up where it would snow in the winter once in a while and our cabin has lots of snow right now.

This is the Reading Tree in my study. All the ornaments are related to libraries and reading. During my Librarian career it was always up in my office every holiday season.

Whatever your interests may be there are often ornaments to tell that story. A quick google search will help you find them.

My son has put together a video showing all our trees as well as our other Christmas Decorations. Turn on your sound and you can see it here: Christmas Jinkies, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unVL148fIfM

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Spring in my Southern California Garden

Time to take a walk around my Spring garden. I am not sure what planting zone we live in but we are about 1 1/2 miles from the Pacific Ocean as the crow flies, it never gets too hot or too cold here. My garden is a bit wild and wooly right now. I got behind last year with radiation and I need to catch up now. The weeding has gotten behind but we will take care of that. Spring came a bit late this year with the cooler weather, rain, and my late pruning but plants are finally blooming. Snaildon guards the front garden. I found him at a local nursery a few years ago but Hubby wasn’t enamoured with him as much as I was. (For one thing he is about 3 feet tall and weights about 500 pounds! He is solid concrete.) I visited him off and on for a year or so continuing to tell Hubby that we needed him. One day after I had given up, Hubby went to the nursery to pick up some flowers for me and came back and told me that Snaildon was on sale and he had bought him! It took a bit of work to get him moved into place but I love him! And every child who comes near climbs on. I just love the expression on his face! He is surrounded by two of my regal geraniums and in the background purple Osteospermum and Bird of Paradise. You can also see the bottom of my bougainvillea that I will talk about later.

This is my Pinkerbell regal geranium that I bought last year, I think it was at Armstrong Garden Center. It was such an unusual color and it is doing very well. I love regal geraniums (look at the spiky leaves), ivy geraniums (grow like ivy) and scented geraniums, but not zonal geraniums (fuzzy scalloped leaves). The zonal geraniums can get budworm caterpillars that will eat the new flower buds. I finally gave up buying them several years ago because the caterpillars were having a feast on them.

These are mostly ivy geraniums. I buy them in different colors and they can make quite a show. I found the white metal stands at an antique mall many years ago. Hubby has repainted and repaired them more than once. Full disclosure, this photo was taken last June but the geraniums look about the same today. You can see my purple agapanthus (or Lady of the Nile) blooming in the background. (It wouldn’t be blooming this early yet.)

This is one of only three zonal geraniums that I have. I have kept this one because of the unique variegated pink color of the blossoms. I can’t remember where I bought it several years ago. It was either at Armstrong’s or online. I have bought geranium plants and daylilies online in the past with great results.

This is one of my scented geraniums, they tend to have smaller blooms and they can get huge if they like where they are planted. I am going to have to prune this one way back this fall. You can see my agapanthus buds in the background, they will flower later. There’s a white regal geranium in the back left too.

These geranium blossoms have almost a neon pink color to them. This is an example of how a geranium can just take off and grow into a bush! I will need to prune it back in the fall for sure.

There are five different colors of geranium in this photo. In the foreground you can see the buds from one of my daylilies.

There are three or four different colors of regal geraniums in this photo. You can never have too many regal geraniums!

This purple Osteospermum grew from a small 4” pot. It can take over an entire garden area if it is happy where you plant it. When it gets too large I yank it out and it often comes back again. If you deadhead it, it continues to flower for quite some time.

Found a friend on the milkweed while I was taking photos today. This monarch caterpillar is the first one I have seen this season. I am losing them to pests I’m afraid.

I love double impatiens, they look like small roses but they like shade. The nursery sells out quickly so I have learned to start watching for them early in the season. I bought the basket online somewhere a few years ago.

One of my irises that I bought. I didn’t like the color at first but it is growing on me. I like to plant perennials that come back every year and bloom all season. I love irises and daffodils but they last such a short time.

Another happy geranium.

Love these colors! They are all just a bit different from each other.

And another regal geranium, the hanging planter came from an antique mall in Missouri a couple years ago. We brought it back in the car much to Hubby’s chagrin because it isn’t small! We enjoy the neighbor’s bougainvillea on the wall too.

I planted this bougainvillea about 15 years ago at the front corner of our wood fence. It was in the shade a bit so I was afraid it wouldn’t do much. I was hoping that it would grow enough to catch the sun at the top of the fence. It sat there for three years doing nothing and then took off. I learned later that they sulk a bit when planted sometimes. I wanted it to grow down the fence completely so I could see it from the kitchen window. Last year the neighbor wanted to replace the wood fence with this white vinyl one and we shared the cost after they promised me that the bougainvillea would carefully be taken down and then put back up. It is doing fine.

It has reached the kitchen window and moved on down toward the back yard. The neighbor is getting ready to prune their pine tree a bit, it is coming our way and it is blocking the sun for the bougainvillea a bit more than it should. I will have more blossoms when there is more sun.

The coleus started a bit late but it is beginning to grow now.

I have a few early daylilies blooming, I really love their unique color combinations.

Another daylily, I wish they bloomed longer!

Time to do some work in the garden!

In My Mother's Kitchen

After my mother died and we went through her house I brought home a few bits and pieces from her kitchen that reminded me of our kitchen while I was growing up. She had moved from a house to a retirement community and she had a small kitchen there so there were only a few things left from those years. I remember this meat grinder. She made the most wonderful ground roast beef sandwiches in the 50’s and 60’s, probably with Miracle Whip and sweet pickle relish and maybe something else. I wish I had that recipe, I can still remember them. With five children including four growing boys, to save money my parents bought part of a cow every year and froze the meat in a deep freezer on the enclosed back porch. Mom would send me out there to get meat for dinner. I remember there would always be several wrapped meat packages waiting to be thawed and used.

I saved some of her recipes in her handwriting, I wish I had saved more. I remember these, I need to make them again sometime.

My memories of this large slotted spoon go way back. I can see Mom at the stove stirring things with it and straining various foods. I love using it.

This pie plate is another constant childhood memory. It is just marked USA on the bottom. My mother loved to make pies and pumpkin was a favorite, many memories of pumpkin pie and other pies in this dish at holiday dinners.

This serving bowl was in constant use at dinner time. For holiday dinners it often held some kind of Ambrosia salad, one of Mom’s favorites. It was made by Fostoria in the American pattern, the pattern was made between 1915 and 1982. This bowl was a wedding present to my mother in 1938.

It’s difficult to see all the frosted fruit on the outside of this bowl. I don’t remember it being used for food, I think she put flowers in it sometimes. It may have been a 1938 wedding present as well.

This is a large shallow bowl or tray. Every Easter it held plastic green grass and Easter eggs. It must be over 60 years old now.

Someone online recently helped me identify this large frosted shallow bowl. I had wondered about it for years. I think it was a wedding present to my mother in 1938. I am showing the bottom because the design is on the bottom. It isn’t marked so it was probably made in the United States using molds from Verlys in France. The pattern was created in France in 1935 and was called,  “Les Canards Sauvage”, (Wild Ducks). It has also been identified as kingfishers and koi. I remember Mom floating flowers in it sometimes and also a vague memory of some kind of floating dessert.

In my mother’s recipe file were a few recipes from her mother, my Nana. She would have been cooking after she was married in 1909 and in the 1920’s and 1930’s. She had a large family to cook for. I always wanted to try this one!

This is another recipe from my Nana, it took over 15 hours to make this one!

A photo of my mother in 1956, she was 40. We were living in Elsinore at the time and there were lots of pepper trees. Every time I see pepper trees, they remind me of Elsinore. I love having bits and pieces from my mother’s kitchen.

Bits and Pieces from My Mother's House

After my mother died, we emptied her house and we each took a few bits and pieces. She had a list of who got what and she put our names on the bottom of special things too so it all went really fast and it was easy. This blog talks about a random group of things but that’s what our houses are filled with. This print was always on the wall when I was growing up. There were actually two different prints but the other one was in poor shape so I didn’t save it except for the frame. (I later bought a replacement for that print on Ebay and used the original frame on that one.) I have always loved this print, it is so colorful. The original frame for this print was imitation bamboo but it was in bad shape so I had the print reframed. This print is actually the cover for a 1940’s ship wine list, the S. S. Lurine owned by Matson Lines. The ship was built in 1932 and traveled between California and Hawaii. The artist was Frank McIntosh, he was born in 1901 and died in 1985. He did many designs like this for cruise ship menus. I don’t know where Mom got the prints, I wish I knew. It’s partly why I am writing these blog posts, so my kids will know the stories.

When I was growing up this was always a lamp in the house. At some point, Mom took the lamp parts off and it became a vase again. I think she bought it in the 1950’s somewhere maybe in Vista or Elsinore where we were living then. It doesn’t have any markings on the bottom. I think it came from China as an import for purchase in the United States.

I have always been fascinated by the dragon design on this side, and looking so closely at the vase for the first time, I see what looks like a butterfly on the bottom!

I turned it around to take a photo of the back and suddenly I saw the bird design, I have never seen that before! I thought this side was just a random design. I never looked that closely at it. Looks kind of like a flying chicken but I’m not sure. If anyone knows further, let me know!

As a child, I remember this hanging on the wall. I’m not sure where it came from. It was stained with age and so I treated it carefully with Biz and reframed it. It hangs on the wall just inside the front door and I think of my mother every time I see it. She loved people and she had many friends who she kept in touch with all her life.

As a child I remember this print hanging on the wall too, it came from my Nana. In one corner it says, Moden Z 1841. After my Great-Grandfather died in 1880 in Indiana, my Great-Grandmother took her two small daughters and moved to her brother’s in Kansas to learn how to make hats. I think this fashion print probably was hers because it shows different bonnet designs. It is very old and fragile. I had it reframed because the original frame was falling apart.

One of my regular chores while I was growing up was setting the table every night. There were seven of us, my mother was a stickler for proper etiquette, and I learned early on how to set a table correctly. At some point she bought these aluminum napkin rings, one for each of us I think. I wonder if any of the boys still have theirs.

This sterling bell came from my Nana, it was used to summon the maid I think (when they still had a maid, before the Depression). Sometimes when I was sick my mother would let me keep it next to my bed so I could ring it if I needed her. I love the delicate flower design on it and it still has a wonderful tone. I cherish all these bits and pieces from my childhood and the memories they recall.