Starlight

White Flower Farmhouse is a blog I follow...and they have beautiful things. When this went up in the store, I was hooked.

It's vintage, and french, they say. I just love the shape. It surprisingly sturdy for such an airy form.

Got any ornaments that you love, old or new?

The Road Home

Yesterday it was rainy. The ceiling was low: see how the tallest tower in the Southeast disappeared into the clouds?



When I have to pick up the dogs because they've gone to doggie runaround (to wear them out) I go by Merry Mac's, an Atlanta institution. You can get a plate of good food there : a meat and three. It's always hard to choose.

I couldn't remember which building was glowing green here. But it shows up in the top left of the photo.

It was just another rainy night in Georgia.

Early Present

When you're raised on football played in front yards, under Friday night lights and on Saturday afternoons...when your Southern Living magazine subscription comes out with an SEC conference issue in August...when you grow up watching SEC football every Saturday in the Fall...and when 'mixed marriage' means a household split between Alabama football and Auburn football...you enjoy it when your team plays well.

Mark Ingram completes a 69 yard run with a pass from McElroy.

Dec. 5, 2009 Alabama 32, Florida 13 Georgia Dome (Atlanta)

Photo courtesy Birmingham News/Mark Almond

In Merry Pin

I went through a relatively short but intense pin phase. During that time, I gathered pins to wear with my suits because at that time, there was little to do to express personality because the uniform was a navy, charcoal gray or black suit with blouse and sedate heels. The pin was the only dash of color or expression of whimsy one could make.

There are a handful of seasonal pins in the collection: the Junebug, snowflakes, a poinsettia that was a gift (you know who you are ), a Christmas tree in shades of green crystals, and my favorite, a partridge in a pear tree.

I believe traditions are what you repeat each year that bring meaning and depth to an event: certain foods, the Christmas eve midnight service at church, get togethers with friends...repeating these things each year creates a link back through the years and makes an unknown future here on on Earth less anonymous. Knowing that we will repeat these things with family and friends is something to look forward to.

Each year as Christmas approaches, I find myself wondering when I will reach for the Christmas tree pin, the poinsettia or the partridge, because that is the indicator that holiday has started for me.

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In Merry Pin: in a merry mood or good spirits. Old tankards were divided in eight equal parts, each marked by a silver pin. The cup held two quarts and the amount from pin to pin was a Winchester pint. By the rules of good fellowship, the drinker was to only stop drinking at the pin and if he drank beyond it, he was to drink to the next one. As it was very hard to stop on the pin, the efforts gave way to much mirth, with the drinker obliged to drain the tankard.

December 1

I love that Christmas decorations are up when we return from Thanksgiving. It's like a gift from the office building to us. I'm pursuing permission to take some lobby shots - I noticed tonight that the tree and chandelier lights reflected in the atrium's glass ceiling are magical. Since Sept 11, building owners do not lightly tolerate photographers taking pictures of their buildings.