Deruta Italian Pottery & Birthday Flowers

I still can’t believe I was blessed by the chance to live in Italy last year. While there, being the dish lover that I am (can I have an AMEN! from the congregation?!?!?!), I of course purchased some Italian pieces.

The famed Deruta selections were dazzling.

And then a few months ago I found some SUPER BARGAINS on Deruta pieces at Marshall’s. YUP! The exact same pattern that I had purchased in Italy for rock-bottom prices!

Can I have another AMEN?!?!?!

I know my fantastic friends at Susan's Tablescape Thursday are givin' a shout out!!!

I apologize profusely for these over-exposed photos. I was, again, experimenting with my camera on manual….I think…the operative word being *think,* that I slowed down the shutter speed TOO much, which resulted in TOO much light coming in; hence, the overexposed photos.

I kind of like ‘em in a weird way, though.

Serendipity is one of my favorite words and concepts!!!

The beautiful flowers were given to me by my super sweet neighbors, Dr. Short and his gorgeous wife, Myra. They live right across from us and are just the best neighbors you could ask for.

Because of all of my traveling/prep work for Alexandra’s college auditions and a gazillion other things, including Kate-Elizabeth’s birthday party prep right before mine, in addition to Tom being gone, I didn’t celebrate my birthday…so those flowers really made my day, as did a fun card/present from the in-laws and some new camera equipment from Tom…the Internet is so awesomely cool in that he could order stuff online all the way from Afghanistan and have it arrive in time for my birthday!!!

I have been PINNING LIKE MAD on Pinterest because it’s the simplest way to relax my brain after all the INSANITY at my house these past few weeks and I haven’t visited all my blog buddies enough. I will rectify that shortly!!!

Love/Hugs/Blessings & Italian Pottery Joy,

Lana

Rome Remembered

I’m reminiscing, remembering Rome. Sorry for the alliterative overload, but those are the words that jumped around in my brain, demanding to be used.

Ahhh…the cliché of waxing philosophical about time gone by. Feeling nostalgic for yesteryear. Trite, I know, but nonetheless applicable.

And literal in this case…feeling nostalgic for yesteryear, that is, as it was just last year that we were living in Italy. Almost exactly a year ago in March we sojourned for the first time to Rome.

Kate-Elizabeth was turning eight and that was her birthday request.

It was titillating to my wee little brain that we didn’t just DREAM about taking our little girl to Rome to see the Colosseum, but we could jump on a train and be in Rome in a mere two hours.

Dreams coming to fruition.

The pungency of the ancient is what I remember most.

Yes, I believe that Rome has the most unique smell.

And despite the frenetic whir of a behemoth of a city, I recall an “amber” essence.

Not the color, though the sepia tones of some of the ruins did seem to cast a slight amber glow, but the bee suspended in the amber.

We were standing still in time, part of the past, present and future.

Surreal to say the least.

And dazzling, absolutely dazzling.

I have never met a column I didn’t love, and Rome was so full of resplendent architectural fragments, with marvelous columns around every corner, that I swear I bear-hugged a few.

Yes, me and some fabulous thousands-of-years-old-stone “having a moment.”

My little Kate-Elizabeth got her birthday wish.

And me?

I’m still enchanted by a city whose remnants of the past do more than just draw tourists.

They breathe.

They give off light.

They sing.

Rustic Romance

Thank you everyone for reading/commenting on my last post sans photos/fluff. I was waxing philosophical and flexing some of those journalistic muscles I still use from time to time in my “professional” life. Ya’ll are just the best, really the best folks around!!!

But…back to some fun fluff. I think I’m going to start writing once a week without photos and then once or more a week with some fun stuff. But, hey…the best laid plans…I know to get a gazillion followers I need to post ALL THE TIME and sometimes I go weeks…and have gone MONTHS…between posts. But, alas, life can be crazy here in the Austin house! I’m looking forward to catching up with everyone this week and stopping by and visiting.

This tablescape (which I joyfully share with my friends at Between Naps On the Porch’s Tablescape Thursday, My Romantic Home & Courtney at French Country Cottage) is probably my favorite thus far simply because the rustic lux essence is my favorite. I am IN LOVE with these chicken wire/fleur de lis cloches I got for “a song” on One Kings Lane. There’s a fourth one, but it’s going up in Thomas’s Castle Themed Room.

This table utilizes my burlap again and everything is old except for the cloches I got a couple of months ago.

The AMAZING damask plates/napkins are the ones I purchased from Rhoda, the amazing Southern Hospitality lady herself, when she visited this fall. They’re from the Biltmore collection. Aren’t they gorgeous? I’m so happy that she’s my friend in real life…like the lovely Bonnie, too, from AL who came at Thanksgiving. I SO NEED TO EDIT AND POST THE PHOTOS FROM THESE TWO BLOG FRIEND VISITS.

Of course, I still have photos from Paris and Italy to post, too, and we’ve been home since September!!!

I was really experimenting with the photos here in Manual Mode, so some might have a little too much “noise” and be over-exposed a tad from me cranking down the F stop and cranking up the ISO. I hope I just wrote that correctly. I am NOT a technical person. This new camera I got at Christmas is super snazzy, but I need to learn everything on it. I miss my Pentax that got stolen!

These last photos were taken as I perilously dangled from the stairs so I can get a view looking down into the dining room.

I couldn’t get it straight on, so the photos aren’t following my laws of symmetry….but I still thought it was worth trying.

I also wanted you to see the top of my truly RUSTIC LUX chandelier that I bought for SUPER CHEAP on lampsplus.com when we moved in.

And, yes, when the whole world was painting their house all white, I decided to go with Tuscan colors except for the girls’ rooms.

I’m just crazy like that.

Oh, and I wanted you to see the antique, chippy column in the back corner. LOVE LOVE LOVE that column! I have another one in my bedroom!

Let’s see….whazzup at the Austin House?

Crazy times. Alexandra, my little effervescent light, continues to fly from coast to coast to audition at various conservatories and schools with great music programs. Please, please, please pray that she gets into these oh-so-competitive colleges/universities…and some scholarships would be great, too, as long as we’re on our knees!

My darling Kate has a birthday this weekend and I’m crazy enough to host a sleepover while Tom’s still deployed. She really misses her daddy, so I caved and decided to host the big event because I want her to know how grateful to God I am for the blessing of her birth and that I treasure her and want to try to bring her a tiny bit of the joy that she has brought Tom and me.

Speaking of Tom…

Tom was “stuck” in a few places in Afghanistan the past couple of weeks and finally made it “home” to Kabul safely. If you read the news, you knew there was immense unrest and some gargantuan anti-American sentiments and activities flying around Afghanistan in recent days. I praise Jesus (AMEN!) that Tom finally made it back to his main base, where I believe/hope/pray that he’s safer.

Thomas continues to be Thomas, which is just light and joy. He went through a real whining phase at Christmas but is growing out of that and is back to his perky self and is just the best little reader/math guy and he skips and sings and is FUN!!! He’s started piano now with Kate on Fridays and it’s a joy to witness his enthusiasm.

I’ve started directing an operetta at Ars Nova Productions and am crazy busy, but this will be the first and last time that all three of my kids will be in a show I’m directing at the same time. Thomas and Kate are just sheep, but they’re going to be so cute. I didn’t cast this show, but I’m overjoyed to work with the stellar cast, including my own daughter, Alexandra.

So, whazzup with YOU????

Love/Hugs/Blessings & Rustic Romance Joy,

Lana

No Shoes/No Shirt: No Service; No Pics/No Fluff: No Readers???

Everyone’s read or heard, sometime in their lifetime, about the No Shoes/No Shirt/No Service, right? To those in New York City or other bustling metropolitan areas, that might seem preposterously unnecessary, except for perhaps a very small, very sad contingent of homeless people.

I hate to cave in to the cliché, even demeaning, picture of those of us in the rural South having this slogan be truly applicable to us, but I have seen this scenario in action more than once my lifetime.

It’s not because we’re all poor and stupid…some of it is pragmatism and living in such an agrarian environment means there are lots of folks associated with that real-world-hard-working-farm is first-and-to-hell-with-the-rest thinking…and sometimes that means taking off shirts and boots and “coming as you are” for a quick bite to eat.

I won’t judge. Nosireebob….even if my kin were never guilty of such a (what others might perceive as a) crude behavioral crime, I have witnessed the disdainful looks given when some young fella, having just finished actual back-breaking (farm hands really do back-breaking work—that is never a hyperbolic descriptive with them) work in the tobacco fields, shucked his sweaty shirt and dusty boots as he jumped out of his truck to run in for some quick victuals be thrown stiletto stares.

And then the point.

The waitress or manager will point to the No Shoes/No Shirt: No Service sign.

I’m sure some of you are thinking, “Well, if he’s redneck enough to try to go into a restaurant of any kind, even of the humble sort, without his shoes and shirt, then maybe he can’t read.”

For the sake of brevity, let’s just assume he can read.

Let’s just assume that he’s walked right past the sign a gazillion times before when he was fully clothed and never paid it a bit of attention. Let’s assume the sign is a surprise. Of course he hangs his head in shame and walks back to the truck. Or, he throws a hissy fit, or whatever the male version of that is…gets in a rage I suppose and tries to buck the system.

No can do.

No Shoes/No Shirt: No Service.

So, why this long anecdote about my hometown-that-was-so-small-it-didn’t-have-a-stoplight-and-folks-wore-no-shoes-and-got-turned-away-from-restaurants?

I’m not saying I side with the farmer. I’m not saying I’m siding with the waitress.

It’s just a fact.

No Shoes/No Shirt: No Service.

And that fact occurred to me when I was thinking of blogging.

Stay with me now. I’m gonna make a connection. I promise.

I have so many photos left from my living in Italy. I have photos of my kids. I have tablescapes. Ancient ruins. Beautiful architecture. Gorgeous children.

Pics and pics and pics.

But editing photos and uploading them and then narrating them for a blog post takes a long time.

And while I’ve come to love photography, I’m still a writer at heart. I simply view photos as another way to tell a story.

I miss words.

But the blog world is perpetuated, for the most part, by amazing, magazine-worthy photos.

We love being voyeurs into other people’s real lives.

We want to SEE their homes/families/LIVES.

So, what would happen if I posted with no photos?

What happens if, because I’ve been sick, my kids have been sick, Tom’s deployed to Afghanistan AND I’m preparing to direct another musical that I just haven’t been able to edit photos and put together a full post?

What if I’m just feeling particularly verbose today?

Are you going to read this?

Are you going to read it all the way down to this part?

Are you still with me?

Do you want the musings, perhaps even mindless rants, of someone in Huntsville, Alabama in a post with no pics, no fluff, no visual aesthetics whatsoever???

I honestly have faith that the friends I’ve made in blogland, at least some of them, are what I call CORE SOUL PEOPLE.

That means, at their core, I believe these people have fabulous souls.

Yes, they are aesthetic geniuses….my blog friends have gorgeous blogs/tablescapes/homes/families/LIVES.

But what is truly beautiful about them is that they have beautiful SOULS and that the core part of their blogs, even when they post about tablescapes, is their amazing souls.

And folks with amazing souls will read.

No Pics/No Fluff: No Readers???

NO WAY!!!

Love/Hugs/Blessings,

Lana

Tiffany’s Sends You a Love Note: Part III In A Series

I think the Tiffany’s blue box is one of the most romantic things in the world!!! So, I thought it’d make a perfect pre-Valentine’s little love note to you all at Susan's Tablescape Thursday, My Romantic Home & French Country Cottage!

This is the 3rd and final part of this series where I’ve re-utilized the same silver chargers, white plates and silverware for three different tablescapes.

This week I changed out the glasses for my new aqua bubble glass ones! LOVE!! SCREAM!!! I got them after Christmas on super sale and I LOVE THEM! I can’t wait to do many more tablescapes with them as they are my favorite color.

I also changed out the napkins from the silver to the white and the napkin rings from the silver to the aqua ones that I scored for less than a dollar a piece at Old Time Pottery.

I also incorporated the aqua tulle and little Tiffany’s boxes that I got a couple of years ago for Alexandra’s Sweet 16 Party. (that party featured the Tiffany blue color and chocolate brown and it was a dessert party and we had candy favors in the adorable little boxes!).

The beautiful coral/peachy pink roses as the centerpiece were from Alexandra’s most recent show she was in and I thought they were a truly beautiful contrast to all the blue.

I really wish I had those inexpensive slipcovers for my gold parsons-like chairs right now that I saw on ETSY. Maybe I should go buy them?!?!!

I hope you enjoy this. It’s far prettier in real life…I wish you could see it in person. it’s like the flowers are floating on top of this cloud of aqua mist and the boxes against the white are truly gorgeous!

This week is the week that I’m going to go visit all of my blog friends. I’m sorry I’ve been mostly absent with only being able to get to a few folks’ sites, but after we got back from Christmas Thomas got sick, then I got sick, then Alex started all of her new show/audition stuff, then Kate just had oral surgery…..man, this is all humbling without my wonderful husband, Tom.

Please say a prayer for him this week as he’s about to travel and that’s the most dangerous part.

I pray that YOU ALL are wonderful and aren’t too cold. It’s been amazingly warm and them amazingly cold back and forth here with surreal weather changes!

Love, Hugs, Blessings & Tiffany’s Blue Joy,

Lana