Thanksgiving Favors…Adorable Candy Corn-ucopia’s

You know I love making favors for every celebration, and Thanksgiving is an especially endearing time to send your guests and family home with a token of the special day you’ve spent together. These “Candy Corn-ucopia’s” are perfect favors for Thanksgiving, but they could also be used as unique place cards on your Thanksgiving table with the names or initials of your guests written on the tag of each candy corn-ucopia…and just think how adorable these would look placed around the “kids table!”

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Autumn and Pumpkin Nights

I wanted to wander inside to see if there were any toadstools that we could sit upon and enjoy two cups of Darjeeling tea.

One of our favorite things we try to do each autumn is to go to Silver Dollar City in Branson for “Pumpkin Nights.” Every corner of the park is filled with autumnal magic and displays of pumpkins. Come along with me as the afternoon shadows lengthen, the night slowly creeps in, and the park glows under neon lights and carved pumpkin luminaries.

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DIY Halloween Banner – Quick & Easy Craft

I love the nostalgic and rustic appeal of this Halloween banner. It’s so easy to make, the only hard part will be deciding where to hang it.

“Trick or treat, bag of sweetsA, ghosts are walking down the street.”

Author unknown
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Antique & Flea Market Finds

Last year after I wrote about our antique and flea market trips, many of you wrote in the comment section and in letters, that you enjoyed reading about our shopping trips and seeing the treasures we found. We’ve been on several shopping adventures since then and I’ve been saving some of my favorite finds to share with you!

I like adventures, and I’m going to find some.

Louisa May Alcott
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Easter Place Cards and Favors-DIY Mini Flower Pots

Ready for Easter and perched on a stack of plates in the cupboard, this little planter would look fitting in Old Mrs. Rabbit’s shop alongside her… “rabbit-wool mittens and muffatees…her herbs, and rosemary tea, and rabbit-tobacco (which is what we call lavender.)”

It’s hard to believe it’s time to celebrate another glorious Easter! Here’s a fun and easy DIY favor that is so whimsical and garden-esque, even Peter Rabbit would happily forgo marauding Mr. McGregor’s garden patch to come sit at your Easter table! These little flowerpots, covered in chippy white paint and decoupaged labels, have twiggy handles adorning their tops and look like rustic, little baskets! Guest’s names are written on the back and the flowerpots serve double-duty as charming “place cards” (showing every bunny where to sit) and can also be given as favors, and a sweet remembrance of the day.

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Part 2 Spring in the Cottage Greenhouse…DIY Whimsical Spring Arrangements

…the wild iris kept waving and beckoning me to come over. Finally, worn down by their flirting and persistence, I stopped working and went into the cottage greenhouse to fetch my trowel.

Dainty wood violets, wild irises, perky daffodils, fragrant hyacinth’s, azaleas in all shades of pink, creamy white Lady Banks roses, and woodland ferns are making their spring debut at Cottage Green!

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Our Season Bright and The 12 Days of Christmas

On the “12th day of Christmas” Richard and I finished our morning coffee, then got busy storing away our Christmas decorations. I began packing Christmas treasures and memories…music boxes…wooden pyramids from Germany…feather trees…and angels, while Richard went outside and took the Christmas wreaths from the windows…stored away our manger scene…and carefully put Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus away for another year.

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DIY Woodland Swag and Autumn Tablescape

~ by Trenda

It’s that cozy, all things pumpkin, sweater weather, cider sipping time of year…and time to decorate Cottage Green for autumn. Seeing the shadows of autumn sunshine coming through our shutters, while smelling the apple cider fragrance in our diffuser, I was inspired to make a woodland swag. A swag that looked like it was made with treasures found during a walk in an autumn forest…some bittersweet, wild blossoms, red, golden, and orange leaves, pinecones, wild grapes, and hawthorn berries, all weaved into a fir garland and mixed with discarded pheasant feathers and antlers shed from the deer in autumn.

Where the heart is the mind works best.

Louisa May Alcott
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Fish Camp Tablescape and Recipe for delicious “Cajun Beans”

Oh, I love summer nights! The deep blue of twilight makes the lake almost glow in the distance and the stars grow brighter and brighter as nightfall deepens. Great blue heron squawk farewells when they fly by going to roosts high up in the treetops, ducks murmur goodnight as they come gliding by, and the tree frogs sing a craggy lullaby.

Oh, the summer night, has a smile of light, and she sits on a sapphire throne."
Bryan Procter
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Summertime at the Lake and Easy Rice Krispie Favors

Family vacation…swimming and lazy afternoons on the dock…watermelon and water guns…cookouts and ice cream…July 4th and fireworks…corn hole and fishing…it’s summertime at the lake!

Summertime at the Lake
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