Rose-Colored Glasses (29)

Do you remember these?  I believe these are from 1984–Avon Cape Cod, ruby red, salt & pepper shaker set/perfume bottles.  They sort of have a ‘Rose-Colored Glasses’ look to them.  I got these at a second-hand store over summer, not because I occasionally collect salt & pepper shakers, but because I specifically thought they’d be outstanding in a Victorian window.  And that’s just what I did, I set them in my dining room window to showcase a gorgeous ruby-rose color through the cut glass and shape of the bottles when the light peeks into the window in the afternoons.

They were still filled, full to the brims, with Avon perfume when I bought them.  The intention for Avon customers, housewives, was to transform these into exceptional use after the perfume was spent–wash and clean them for dining room table-use to fill with salt & pepper.  What a splendid idea, the practicality… so I resorted to emptying the bottles, washing them, and simply having them for display because that’s what I bought them for!

The Avon shakers are in this room, currently my favorite room in the house.  And this room is always changing!  It changes to the seasons, keeps up with appearances of the months and holidays, and the goings-on in my social life and family.  I have fun in this room, it’s my playground!  This is how it looked for Halloween.

And this is how this room was for my Mary Kay studio–pretty in pink with black lace–partied up!  And I like the fern that nearly fills the entire fireplace.  “Your vibe attracts your tribe.”  So if anybody doesn’t want to come and go with you, it’s their loss–just saying it outside myself…

Now the room is being transformed into a Fall/Thanksgiving banquet area with all the trimmings!  I love Thanksgiving, don’t you?!  It’s not just about the food. It’s about the gathering of loved ones–family, blessings, the getting-over of hard times that bring people back together, the continued celebration of life.

Thanksgiving is also about forgiveness, which is a part of being grateful, thankful.  It doesn’t mean that it’s okay for family or relatives to seemingly, by way of their actions, ignore phone calls, texts, eliminate visits–it just means that you have to find the goodness in the season and holiday without them–if they give you no other choice.  You can’t chase people to be in your life no matter how good or what good you’ve done for them out of the love in your heart that you felt and still have.  Celebrate with yourself if you’re shut out, and be filled to the brim with the ones who do welcome you in their hearts.  That’s what it’s about.  It’s Thanksgiving.

November in the South… Still, flowers from summer, pleasant weather!  There are buds on my Hibiscus; impossible to get depressed, no holiday blues, here!

There’s just this kind of ‘blue’–and it forms a heart.

This pleasant weather still causes me to fry Southern green tomatoes.  Oh, my!  Good with breakfast or dinner!

Here’s a rock I found that a child wrote on with marker… Can it melt your heart that a child’s faith can be that great–this much, this good?

These are rocks that my firstborn collected when he was a kid… those days when he climbed trees, horsed around in the dirt on a bike–he played with the geckos and frogs, sticks… and yes, rocks.

So back to the topic of Thanksgiving, I’m going to bake a mincemeat pie, one of my dad’s favorite pies that he enjoyed baking this time of year.  This is the best, the BEST, in a jar from a store… my goodness, my golly, it is.  I’ll be adding bourbon to this mincemeat when I bake my holiday pie.

Of course, there will be pumpkin pie on the table, too.

Here is a recent picture of my sweet dog, Rosie.  She likes looking out the front door windows when she knows it’s time for somebody to come home!  I think she has her own internal clock to each person’s comings and goings; she keeps up with each person.  She is loyal.

Another birthday celebrated!

SO much fun…

She made up her own face for Halloween–most of it with Mary Kay cosmetics.  Possibilities are limitless.

So enjoy your month of November–take in everything… a walk, a drive in the country, spiked hot cider, warm pie and coffee with your best friend; just anything you can think of to come up with to celebrate the season.  Celebrate the season in the most meaningful of ways.  Make it a rose-colored moment.

[September-October–photo taken of a soybean crop, Southern Illinois]