Ideas for decorating your Thanksgiving Table

Find inspiration here.  And remember... everything looks enchanting under a glass cloche.  



2012Forum



Felted Wool Acorn Napkin rings just $2.40 each





Mini pumpkins as casserole dishes





Image from Good Housekeeping




Great for a door or the back of dining chairs (County Living)



Mod Green Pod

Have you tried this online Room Creator yet?  So fun... from Mod Green Pod - known for their 100% certified organic cotton fabrics.  The website is great... where else can you pretend-decorate a cat?

It's a Giveaway!!!!!

Those oh-so-clever women at The Blog Guidebook are hosting a giveaway this week... and guess what they're giving away???  ME!  Well, my acorns, to be more specific.  Check out their blog, which is all about blogging and note the super savvy style of their site (I might be a smidge jealous).  And enter to win... the contest ends on Tuesday, October 19th.  All you have to do is become a follower of The Wool Acorn, leave a comment telling us your favorite acorn color, and leave a comment at the giveaway on The Blog Guidebook.  That's one follow, two comments.  Piece of cake!!!  And if you want to see a whole slew of acorn colors... click here.

Halloween decor at A Shore Thing

Every now and then I experience the great thrill of walking into a retail space and getting the urge to pull out my camera.  They just seem to get it right.  Everything from unique and sharp merchandise to a magnificent display style.  My dear friend, Laura, took me one of these places... a fabulous, creative new shop in Newburyport, Massachusetts.   A Shore Thing at 1 Titcomb Street was a feast for the eyes and I finally just had to ask if I could whip out a camera.  That's when we met the most delightful shop owner.  Ever.  Melissa Sievert was in the shop that day and with her business partner, Carol Gautreau Bent, they've created a shop to see!  We ooh'd and aah'd over everything which is currently all done up for Halloween.  I can't wait to see what they do for Christmas.  They had so many great ideas for decorating your own space and lots of treats that would make perfect gifts.  My cell phone pictures don't do them justice... I have to go back.

A plant stand used to elevate smaller pumpkins

Orange crinkle paper under a glass cloche

Tree branches on the ceiling with hanging paper lanterns

Bat garland in triple swags

Gourds inside a display case



A wire crown over a plate as a cloche



Birds on top of pumpkins on top of a plant stand of top of a table - Great height!

These ceramic vases in white were spectacular.  Decorated on the inside they illuminated the image with a candle inside.

Deer heads on the wall are all the rage!  This one is made out of twigs.

Tunkables - so clever!

Urns and pumpkins

What's your pumpkin going to be for Halloween???

Graham Brown Wallpapers all about drama

I wish I had a picture of the powder room my mother wallpapered in 1977.  We were living in Acton, Massachusetts and she was thrilled to bits when she found a bright green fern pattern.  Since the half bath was super tiny, and the wild ferns were super enormous, it was like walking into a jungle.  Or a green crime scene.  I think she covered the ceiling.  Don't get me wrong... in 1977, it was funky and fabulous.  I think wallpaper sort of fell out of decorator favor for awhile... but boy, is it back and bigger than ever.  Take a look here at Graham Brown wallpapers.  They are hip and chic and oh so inspirational.  Even the website is divine!   They also happen to have the Exclusive Amy Butler Wallpaper Collection.  I'm in!

  

Hands on hips

Don't you think this design is perfect for me?  My children do.  They call me the squirrel.  Because I make handmade needle felted acorns, I am forever searching for another magnificent oak tree that produces acorns that are just the size and shape I need.  Some trees offer up a cap that's too small, too wide, too rough, too, too, too!  So if I find a tree I like, I hang around.  A lot.

But then there's the issue with the squirrels.  Some squirrels delicately remove the nut, leaving me a perfectly intact cap.  Other furry terrorists rip 'em apart all willy nilly and bite big chunks out of the cap.  I stand there, with hands on hips, glaring at the squirrels and threatening to get a cat.  Then the big yellow school bus comes and my children (plus a few others) look at me with a stupefied stare.  I've offered the squirrels a training seminar, we're in negotiations.  I'm going to ignore the bus thing.

The image... that's from Iomoi and, boy, do they have some beautiful stuff.

Glass artist Andy Paiko

These are very cool.  Created by glass artist Andy Paiko, each piece is stunning and unexpected.  I can't take my eyes off the mirror.  And what do you suppose is in that last cloche? 

What are you going to be for Halloween???

Every year my neighborhood has a couple of great traditions to celebrate Halloween.  Our favorite has to the be the "boo".  One night in October, you'll be sitting down to dinner when the doorbell rings.  In my house, the gig is up...  my kids knock their chairs over to race to the front door, throw it open and try to catch the person running pell mell across the front yard to jump into an awaiting vehicle.  It's not a ding-dong-ditch.... it's a reverse tricker treater!!!  The child running with the adrenaline rush has just left us a package of Halloween candy - often beautifully decorated - and a note.  The note tells us that we've been "boo'd" and we now need to do the same for 2 other families.  No problem, my kids have plotting this for months.

Under cover of darkness, my children strategize... and plot out the perfect target.  A house that has an easy get-away, young kids, and a working doorbell.  Imagine our disappointment the year the house we hit had a broken doorbell.   Anyway, I have to change the settings in my get-away mini-van so the lights don't turn on the minute we open the doors to get in.  Again, a lesson learned from a prior year.  Sometimes we don't even run far, we hide in the woods and watch as the whole family comes to the door and we listen while they speculate... it was a boy, a girl, I saw blonde hair, who's car is that, etc... 

Our other tradition is a party the hour or two before trick or treating begins.  And last year, I saw some great shoes.  What are your traditions???

My battle with breast cancer started at 38

Breast Cancer Awareness Acorns

At age 38, two weeks after my first mammogram, I found a lump under my arm in the shower.  I wasn't concerned, the mammogram report was all thumbs up.  But I sailed into my doctor's office 5 days later expecting an antibiotic... or something... and could you hurry?  I've got a few errands to do.  Next thing I knew, he was writing a prescription for a sedative and saying I shouldn't be alone.  I looked at him like he was nuts.  But I was shaking.

Many days, tests and doctors later confirmed it... Infiltrating Ductal Carcinoma, Stage 2B.  It had gone to my lymph nodes and I faced a very long stretch of chemo, radiation and surgery (7 to date, but who's counting?).  To make it more complicated, I had a less common type of cancer - triple negative.  I went through every bit of treatment including extra chemo to participate in a drug trial.  But just 7 months after I was done and my hair was coming back, the cancer came back.  I'm a single mom and telling my three children was one of the most difficult moments in my life.

As I write, I can tell you I don't think about the odds they gave me.  I guess because I just don't believe them.  But I wanted to do something to push the research along because, even though we hear they've made great strides in the battle against breast cancer - there's still a long way to go.  So I started creating my acorns in pink - with pink ribbon - and I'm donating a 10% of the sales to Susan G. Komen for the Cure.  I'm 2 years into the countdown of 5 years hoping to remain cancer free.  And I'm holding my breath.

Purchase on my website

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My shopping trip to the Arhaus store

Arhaus opened a store near me about 2 years ago.  It's filled with great furniture, lighting and accessories - with a pretty broad range of prices.  I've purchased a few decorative items but not any furniture pieces.  I was in there the other day and snapped a few not so great photos with my iPhone.  I thought you'd want to catch a glimpse.  They do a magnificent job styling the space so it's always fun just to walk through since it changes up quite often!!!