pumpkins – The Salem Garden

~Just a Few of My Favorite Houzz Thanksgiving Ideas

Gosh I love Houzz. It is just so much fun to sit with a snack or cup of coffee for a few minutes and look over all of the ideas. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and I like to make it special so I usually make place cards and decorate the table with a little twist. I need some inspiration this year so I spent a few minutes looking around Houzz.com this morning. I could post a thousand photos, but here are my favorites so far:

Thanksgiving Tablescape traditional-dining-room

See more traditional dining room designs

This first arrangement is just classic and pretty. I like the way the textures of the runner and ribbon accent the shapes of the pine cones.

Custom Dining Room traditional-dining-room

Photo by Jennifer Grey Color Specialist & Interior Design. See more traditional dining room designs

Beautiful pinecones and textures again, but with a little bit of glam…

Photo by It's The Little Things.... See more contemporary spaces designs

I don’t have a mantel but I have a server that I could decorate like this.

Photo by Ann West Interiors. See more spaces designs

Simple and restful… I love it!

Photo by Delicate Creature. See more spaces designs

And a different take on the idea,pumpkins that were painted white. The “white” centerpieces really allow the food to shine.

Photo by FOCAL POINT STYLING. See more spaces designs

Candles and acorns…

Strictly Simple Style traditional-dining-room

See more traditional dining room designs

More white (white seems to be all the rage this year) embedded with upholstery tacks…

Photo by Rikki Snyder. See more dining room designs

And finally, mason jars, candles, greenery and a nice natural wood base…

At the moment I may use white pumpkins, pine cones,mason jars, candles and some greens, with some asparagus foliage for color.

I’ll keep you posted!

Love, Michele

Thanksgiving Tablescapes (interiorsbystudiom.com)
White and Gold Tablescape for Thanksgiving (30smagazine.wordpress.com)

What We Do With (Old) Pumpkins

Get this, we bury them, strategically, around the yard and woods… We really do! We have put them into the compost before but they take a long time to break down and we’ve been known to end up with crazy pumpkin plants coming up everywhere. So, we prefer to make a sport of choosing some good growing spots and plunking them into or sometimes, onto, the ground.

I love this white pumpkin. This one wasn’t carved this year because we didn’t get all of them carved. It’s kind of a long story that involves the emergency room and stitches. We won’t go there today.

Michael and I worked together to clear off the front steps and load the wheelbarrow… (not barrel, barrow, thank you spell check!)

Winnie was helping us, he loves to help whenever he can!

Did I mention that it’s very cold here today… 38 minus the wind chill. The wind is blowing at 30 or 40 miles per hour… it’s cold!Hence, the lovely hat and scarf 🙂
We identified a spot for the white pumpkin on the hill leading to the woods… This gets a good amount of sun in the summer and the vines will have a place to spread out.Michael just dug a little hole and buried it in..
I helped him… we are a team after all! Now, its good to go. In the spring the vines will come and if weather conditions are good and the bee population does it’s job, we’ll have lots of pumpkins from this. It may be run over by sledders all winter, but that’s okay. I think the kid activity actually helps things grow in a weird way… it’s just good energy!And the process is repeated with the hardy mums, they’ll likely re-emerge to enjoy next year. We just look for a good spot, plunk them in and see what happens…

Spring will be here before we know it! This gives us lots to look forward to all winter..

Stay safe and warm today!

Love, Michele (and Michael)

Pumpkins Pumpkins Everywhere!

It started with these two pumpkins that we grew…

then a few more were added to the landscape in the front yard…and onto the front porch…

Some of those came from our Columbus Day trip to Russell Orchards..

All of our kids were with us that day, nothing else makes me happier!

This sign ended up in the front porch planter this year..So, we now have this…Then the older girls went to youth group and came home with these amazing creations!And my oldest daughter baked a cake with fondant pumpkins…