Happy Fall Y'all

Welcome again for another Tablescape Thursday.
Be sure to check out all of the beautiful tablescapes
at
Between Naps on the Porch

Thanks for stopping by.

I have seen several Fall tablescapes lately that have wonderful

pumpkin tureens and plates and I have made a mental note

to keep and eye out for some.

And guess what was waiting on me at Wal-Mart the other night...

yep, pumpkin salad plates...

And yes...8 of them followed me home.

They were $2.98 a piece

These metal pumpkins came from Big Lots.
All of their Halloween items were half price last weekend.
I think technically these were with the
Thanksgiving decorations, but when I asked the girl working
at the check out she replied..."It's a pumpkin, so I would say it's a
Halloween decoration!"...into my little cart they went.
There is a larger one too, but I thought it looked a little big on the table.

I used a mix of my Fiesta dinner plates in Ivory and Chocolate

under my little pumpkin salad plates.

My everyday Oneida flatware in Julliard pattern

And just our everyday glasses that are from a box set from

Big Lots....

I am thinking that I need to start making a list for Santa...

I am thinking some cute stemware needs to be on 

his sleigh this year (wink, wink)

I tried to stand in the chair and get a shot from over the table.

This is when my three year old walked in and said

"Momma, we do not stand in the kitchen chairs"

Hmm...think he's heard that a time or two

Thanks again for visiting my little tablescape today.
Have a wonderful weekend!

Family Fun Day

Scott's office had a Family Fun Day last week on the field out
in front of their building.  It was a beautiful Fall day.
We headed over after I picked Austin up from school
and had a little fun.



There were several inflatables for the little kids.
Jackson LOVED the ball pit.

He did not want to leave.

There were also some things for the bigger kids too.
Austin enjoyed the paint ball shoot.

He also tried test driving one of the robots that they are working on.
He thought it would be fun to show up at their
Robotics competition in a few weeks with this bad boy!

We really enjoyed the break for a while.
The weather was just beautiful and spending time with together as
a family was the best part of all!

Simple...but it's a Start

After spending many weeks drooling over all of the
beautiful Tablescapes that are featured over at
Between Naps on the Porch
for Tablescape Thursday
I have been wanting to run out and buy every dish I could find.
Every where I go I find myself looking at plates,
chargers, place mats and napkins...
Would this make a good centerpiece?
Looking at trays, platters and bowls...Oh My!

I bought a set of red flatware one day while
shopping with Mom and told her I could use it
for Christmas, Valentines Day...4th of July...
so many uses....
She thought I was nuts.
But, we have to eat...every day...and we have to use a fork too...
right...might as well be a pretty fork.
That's my story and I'm sticking too it.

But I have had to stop and tell myself that these beautiful collections
of dishes that I drool over and dream about did not jump into these ladies
cabinets overnight.  They are collections that have come over time,
and mine will too...
I have a good start, I just need to learn to mix and match.
Use what I have and add to it over time.

Soooo.....


I decided that tonight I was going to set the
table for our family dinner.
For the last six weeks, Scott and Austin have been so
busy  that dinner together was only
on Wednesday night before church....and that was because we
were eating out!

But tonight I decided to try my hand at a
Candy Corn Tablescape.
It is simple...still room to add to it,
but that is fun part, right?




I removed the leaf from my kitchen table to make it
a little more intimate...you know...
Make the kids talk to us!
Austin says he still feels weird eating at the
smaller table, but I think he'll get used to it.

Pull up a seat and let's see what is on the table.

I used my Phaltzgraff Heritage white dinner plates
that I have had since college.  I placed them on the orange
place-mats that I found at TJMaxx.
The black napkins came from TJMaxx as well.
The Candy Corn bowls came from Kohl's
this year in their Halloween section.
They were on sale, had an extra 20% off coupon...
and I had $20 worth of Kohl's cash,
so they were a steal.

I used the water pitcher that matches my 

white Heritage dishes and placed some 

Candy Corn colored daisies in to use

as the centerpiece.

As I looked back at these pictures, I decided I have

a lot to learn about floral arranging as well...

Should have cut the stems down just a bit so 

all you see are the flowers...

I just grabbed one of the bunches of flowers from Publix

when Jackson and I made a grocery run this afternoon...

Something about the neon orange daisy it just a little weird...

anyway...

I pulled out this orange set of Cambridge Flatware

that I had found at Old Time Pottery.  I originally

bought it thinking I would use it for an

Auburn Football Tablescape,

but Halloween is a good excuse to use it, too!

The table is set and we are ready to eat...
Won't you join us?

I did not know how my three men would take
sitting down to a table set with matching
accessories and such, but I think
they enjoyed it as much as I did.

I know I have a lot to learn about properly setting a table,
and I think that is a good thing to know, and a good
thing to pass to my boys.  I want to raise them to be
fine southern gentlemen and know which fork to use for dinner.


It was a lot of fun setting the table and having a nice
dinner ready to eat when Scott was home from work.
Our lives are so hectic and we are always on the go,
but it is nice to sit and talk for a while
and enjoy a few minutes of peace with my family.

So as simple as it may be I am going to be linking up to
Tablescape Thursday at
Between Naps on the Porch

Hop on over and look at all of the beautiful
dishes, dishes and more dishes!!!


Thanks for stopping by.

Wanna Win Free Dishes?

One of my new favorite blogs is

Stone Gable

Yvonne shares beautiful Tablescapes, decorating,

and has "On the Menu Monday"

which I have gotten several new yummy recipe ideas from.

This week she is celebrating her

Blogiversary and is celebrating by

sharing a wonderful giveaway for all of her readers.

Mikasa has generously given 

8 place settings to be given to one

lucky reader...

and they have now offered a 

5 Piece Serving Set to another lucky reader.

How exciting it that!

So stop on by, and take a minute to see the beautiful

fall tablescape that Yvonne has created with these dishes.

Be sure you have a few minutes to look around at some 

of her older posts...makes me want to go out an buy dishes!!

Stone Gable Giveaway

Proud Mommy Moment....

                                         

Athens Bible School "Trobotics, Inc"

Six weeks ago, this group of young men and women

decided to take on a challenge.

They signed up to participate in the 

Tennessee Valley's B.E.S.T Robotics Competition.

B.E.S.T stands for Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology.

These kids were given a box full of parts and motors and sent

away with a task.  They had six weeks to build a robot

that would be used in a "game" that would be against

several other schools in our area.

For six long weeks, they spent two nights a week and 

all day on Saturdays working towards their goal.

And there is more than just the task of building the robot.

They were involved in community outreach, fundraising,

and marketing, not to mention the building, programming,

CAD drawing, and testing that had to go along with it all.

And their regular school work too!

They even got up early one morning, on a school day

and were on the Morning Show with Jamie and Gloria Cooper!

I mean, out the door by 5:30, on the air, grabbed some breakfast,

and then went to school, early!

They spent countless hours working on their Robot 

making sure it was just right...

And on Saturday, October 15th they put it to the test!

The "game" field where there were different objectives that

the teams had to try and get their robot to accomplish. 

 Different tasks were worth different points...

the harder the task, the more it was worth.

Soon, the gym was packed!

There were bands playing, kids cheering,

and music cranked up LOUD! 

And it was ON...they competed from around 11 until about 4...

and then it was time for the results...

There are many different awards given at the competition...

but we took home

First Place in Marketing Presentation

First Place in Website Development

Third Place in T-Shirt Design

Third Place Most Robust Robot

(means it didn't break down very much)

And Craig Adams, our Sponsor, was awarded the 

Toyota Teacher Leadership Award

This award is given to the teacher who best inspires 

leadership, teamwork, respect for humanity and continuous improvement

in their school's program.

And...Third Place Overall in the B.E.S.T competition

which earned them a chance to compete at 

the Regional Competition to be held at Auburn University

in December!!!

I was so excited for them...

they have all worked so hard and it paid off...

Now, on to Auburn!

Wait!! What?? It's October!!

OK, Seriously!  October?
Wow...time is just flying by and I feel like I am
falling behind!  We have not even started looking
for Halloween costumes or any of that!?!
And it will be here before we know it!!

But I have been a little occupied the last week.

Nana has been here and we have been having LOTS of fun!
We have been behaving ourselves, for the most part,
and have gotten a few things done.
We usually make these grand plans to accomplish
great projects, and then get side tracked and don't do a thing!

We only went shopping one day!
Shocking, I know!
But we got to spend some time in the dig stores...
Marshall's, TJMaxx, Ross....
and I picked up this cute little vase for
Ten Bucks!

I bought a inexpensive bunch of flowers from Publix,
from the 3 for $12 variety and have had them
on the table all week.
I think I may start picking up a bunch each week
and keeping some fresh flowers around to
brighten up the kitchen.



Since Fall is in the air, we also did a little decorating.
A few weeks ago I helped host a baby shower for
a girl from church and her mom had made us all a big
bag of goodies for doing the shower.
Inside were all kinds of Fall finds.
One of them was this cute metal pumpkin and a
pumpkin spice candle.
YUM and cute to boot!

 

I also had seen an idea of using pillar candles and place

candy corn around them in a dish for decoration off of Pinterest.

I had this dish in my closet, not doing anything except collecting dust,

so out it came.

Jackson and I took a quick trip to

Hobby Lobby to see if we could find some candles and

thought these Polka Dot ones were perfect!

So home we came...unwrapped the candles...

opened a bag of candy corn...maybe ate a handful of two...

and fixed up a cute little arrangement for a Halloween table.

 

It is sitting in the Kitchen window for now,

because Jackson would have it eaten in a matter of minutes

if it was on the table!

Mom and I also decorated the porch for Fall.

We may or may not have gotten a dirty look when Scott

asked why we didn't wait for him to get the

pumpkins down from the attic.

Let's just say, attic access in our house is

not for sissy's...enough said!

But, Mom and I were able to get them down without a

trip to the emergency room and their smiling faces

are ready to welcome Fall!

 

We bought some Mums and Gigantic cabbages to plant in the pots

and placed our happy little pumpkins around

I found these cute little BOO signs at
Old Time Pottery
for less than $3 a piece
so I grabbed a couple and put them in
the pots with some rust colored mums.

Mom and I have just been piddling around here and there...
we cleaned the carpet in the living room and in the Master bedroom
and Austin's bedroom...
Let's just say...no photo's were taken before,
because the living room carpet was just GROSS!
Raising two little boys on that carpet had not been kind!
But, with the help of the Big Green Bissell machine
from Lowe's...I think this carpet will hold on for a little while longer!

But the BIGGEST news that happened while Nana was here....

Yes...It finally clicked!  I have laughed this week and named
my mother the "Potty Whisperer"
She has now trained both of my boys within days...
Austin was trained in one day...literally...one day.

Jackson has done a great job for her...
me not so much...
I had been trying off an on for a couple of months with no success...
Nana comes for a visit and told him one afternoon she was going to
put big boy pants on him and he was going to learn to use the potty...
and he was off and running!
He has been doing wonderfully!  He has even been staying dry at night.
I am  still putting him in a night time diaper and he will wear a pull up
when we go out and about...just in case.
But he has been doing great!

Well...that's about all of the excitement that has been happening around here!
Austin and Scott are in the final weeks of their Robotics season...two more weeks...two more weeks!
And then hopefully things will calm down a little...NOT!

Then we have Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas!!!

AHHHHHHHHH!!!!

I guess I better hold on and enjoy the ride!

Happy Fall Y'all