~an autumn table~

Couldn't pass up this lovely little set of handled soup bowls 

at Wal-Mart this past weekend. 

Just waiting on the cooler weather to arrive to enjoy some soup!

Here are some of our favorite soup recipes -

broccoli cheese soup

chicken and gnocchi soup

farmhouse hamburger soup

tortilla soup

I plan to try some new ones this fall as well. :-)

Farmhouse Kitchen Decorating

Recently, I bought myself a special birthday present 

for my slowly evolving "red farmhouse kitchen."

 A chicken wire space rack and spice jars with red lids.

I LOVE it. :-)

It sits on my stove and gets used everyday.  

~easy christmas decorating~

While I was decorating for Christmas this year, 

I printed out a few chalkboard signs and put them in frames that I had on hand.

So quick and easy!  I really enjoyed these.

Just google christmas chalkboard signs.

~simple christmas decorating~

"snow" candles

simple center piece

clove fruit

~christmas tree for feathered friends~

Sure wish I had the time this year to decorate a Christmas tree for the birds.

I had so much fun with this a few years back and wanted to share the ideas again.

Maybe I'll decorate a tree for my feathered friends in January! :-)

Here  are all the how-to's!

~peppermint candy ornaments~

I'll be honest I was really thinking these might be a "Pinterest fail..." ;-)

But they worked!

I followed the instructions here.

I used a bit of shortening on the cookie cutters

instead of the cooking spray the original instructions suggested.

I also used a straw instead of a toothpick to poke the holes in the ornaments.

(I found if you wait a minute or so after they come out of the oven it is easier to make the holes.)

The whole process took just a little more than 30 minutes.

They harden back up really quickly.

I put some red ribbon on to hang them with,

and added them to my kitchen Christmas tree.

I thought they really turned out cute!

I would have made more, but only had a dozen peppermints on hand.

I put the star one on the top of the tree! :-)

More peppermint!

peppermint oreo truffles

peppermint biscotti

peppermint bark

~gingerbread ornaments~

I LOVE gingerbread!  

It tastes good.  It smells good.  And it's SO Christmas-y!

This afternoon I used this 

"no spread" gingerbread cookie recipe

to make gingerbread ornaments for my kitchen Christmas tree. :-)

I had a bit of dough leftover, so I used tiny cookie cutters

to also make a cute little garland for my hutch.

More gingerbread!

gingerbread houses

gingerbread scones

gingerbread cookies

little house gingerbread

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

I'm almost done with my Christmas decorating.

Just a few things left to go.

I try to add one little thing to my decorations each year,

and this year it was this cute little salt and pepper shaker set that I found at HEB.

SO sweet. :-)

This was our 10th year to set up our family room white light pre-lit tree 

and this year we discovered it wasn't "pre-lit" anymore. ;-)

We had to string new lights onto it

and the kids wanted to go with color instead!

Merry Christmas decorating to all! :-)

Christmas Home Tour 2013

Welcome!

I'm linking up with Kelly's Korner Christmas Tour of Homes.

Come along with me and I'll take you on a little tour of 

Heritage Schoolhouse all decked out for Christmastime. :-)

Mr. H. and my son are always in charge of outside lights.

The first year we lived in this house, Mr. H. hung lights on the roof.

Our roof is high and pointy.

We both almost had heart attacks.

Then Mr. H. decided to just put lights on what he could reach from the ground.

Christmas is less stressful now. ;-)

But, just as beautiful!

When you step inside the first little tree you see

is decorated with brown and gold balls

and my tiny little western ornament set. 

I put lighted garland on the mantle and hearth 

for the first time this year and I really like it!

Our big tree in the den is covered with all of our sentimental family ornaments.

And, it's Daisy's favorite place to be during December.

The snow village is on top of the piano.

And, I like to have greenery and pinecones everywhere!

Of course there are bows on ALL the antlers.

Six sets just in the living area! ;-)

I keep my fancy Christmas dishes in the hutch.

And, my more fun dishes on the butler's pantry.

These are my newest dishes this year.

Love. :-)

The tree in our bedroom is in our front bay window.

It's my "matchy matchy" tree with my 12 days of Christmas ornaments,

my fancy red and gold glass ornaments,

the special crocheted popcorn that my grandmother-in-law made,

and some very sentimental gold ornaments that I was given

 each year during childhood from a special aunt.

I have a Christmas quilt on our bed,

and this year, instead of putting the Christmas pillow shams on the bed

I used them to temporarily "recover" the bedroom rocking chair to match the bed!

Daisy approved. :-)

I haven't finished my Christmas kitchen for this year just yet,

so that will have to be a tour for another day.

I hope you enjoyed your visit!

Thank you Kelly for hosting. :-)