Food and Shopping Fun in St. Francisville

 Walking around the grounds of the 

Myrtles Plantation made us hungry.

Susie knew the perfect place to take us,

Magnolia Cafe.

We could not resist trying out the Alligator Bites...

Believe it or not, unlike popular belief, alligator is not featured on to many menus around here.

Blaise and I shared a pizza...

Ok now that we were filled up...time to walk it off.

Next stop Grandmothers Buttons,

much more than a gift shop, it also includes a museum.

They have a wonderful website.

 To view click the link below,

Grandmothers Buttons

The shop is in an old bank, they use the vault to house very rare and antique buttons.

I never knew that buttons held so much history.

Of course, they have beautiful pieces to purchase.

Can you guess what this is? 

Yes, its opened books.

I am in love with the way they have used them as wall art above a fireplace.

We all see these books at the thrift shops...

I am in love with the colors

Wouldn't this be so cool in a kids room?

  Of course Blaise was not to happy about shopping,

 so we promised him a chocolate pretzel at

 Mandies

{Yes, I know not a toddler, he's 18...but everyone can be bribed with chocolate, right?}

That satisfied him enough to let us run in

The Shanty Too gift shop.

Susie found the cutest dress.

(sorry I did not get a picture)

The outside of the shop was all dressed up for fall.

If I have any LSU fans out there...they fabulous LSU items.

What a fun time we had on our little 'Road Trip' thanks for coming along to see our part of the world.

If you ever have the opportunity to visit Louisiana  ~

 make sure St. Francisville is included in one of your stops.

Myrtles Plantation

Step back in time as Susie and I tour the
Myrtles Plantation Home

in

 St. Francisville, LA.

Ok...Well maybe we won't step that far back in time.

I was trying to imagine my self living back in the day strolling the grounds with these magnificent mossy oaks and along comes the Dr. Pepper truck!

Below is a little history of this beautiful home.  More history and information on the home including the haunting maybe found at this link Myrtles Plantation.

We arrived at the Myrtles the same time as eighty school children were about to embark on a tour,

so  this allowed us plenty of time

 to leisurely stroll the grounds.

The front of the plantation is difficult to photograph due to all the large oaks and crape myrtle trees.

The back of the plantation is just as grand with a
 large patio and fountain.   

As we were walking around to capture a side view of the home we were joined by

the two resident black cats...

I could not seem to get a picture of them, although they give me the creeps

even more so than the dreaded whoot owls!

Welcome ... Time for our tour of the home.

 Sorry to disappoint...we were only allowed photos in the foyer!!!

In the foyer hall they allowed me to take photos through to the ladies parlor.
Below is a mirror that is supposed to
have images that show up in it.

(No...that's not a ghost...that's the tour guide. 
 He was kinda creepy and to my disappointment did not give a very good tour. I actually knew more about the Myrtles than him and felt sorry for the couple touring from Belgium)

Here is a picture my son took...

Still I only see the reflection of my son smiling back in what appears to be a very dirty mirror.

This is another photo taken of the ladies parlor... Not sure what the white image is, to me it could be a reflection from the flash, my son thinks one of the spirits that is said to roam the home and property.

 Leave me a comment on what you think it could be...

Here is a little video we taped for ya'll

Please do not laugh to hard.. keep in mind we are not professionals. LOL

Not to disappoint my quilting friends,

checkout this awesome piece of hanging wall art 

The picture does not even do it justice. 

This weekend so many of you have already had your first dusting of snow (lucky),
I hope that you enjoyed our tour, as we are still celebrating fall in the south.

Beauty In Anxiety ? Yeah Right.

Fog...

Mornings that I awake to fog, my anxiety builds... 

The thought of my children on the foggy road gives me

 that nervous feeling in the pit of my stomach.

I call up to the kids...need to leave early fog ahead,

Silently hoping that the worst of the fog is just at the end of my driveway and they will soon encounter a clear path.

As with anything that causes anxiety...we seldom find beauty...

But, this morning was different...as I walked my daughter to the door, I let out a sigh.  The fog was lightly waifing across the field.

At that moment, there in the distance I see the fog and ever so slowly...there like the answer to a prayer,

the sun rising behind this majestic tree.

What beauty, I stood and just smiled that God allowed me to see beauty in the thing that gives me my morning anxiety...

My prayer for you today ...

May you find beauty, even with life's little anxieties.

Today I will be linking to

Inspirational Friday @ The Picket Fence

Please join me in visiting a few of the others linked there...

Fall In The Foyer

Slowly, but surely fall will arrive at my home

here in the south.

I started out with my lamps on my foyer table.

 ( My foyer table is actually an antique buffet.)

I taped three little leaves on the shades

 and

 then added some twine.

This past weekend we went hiking and I picked up a few acorns that I tucked in around my pumpkins and leaves.

Added a scarecrow and a new/old stain glass window.

(The stain glass is from Susie, she was getting rid of it so I saved it to use in a project thats in progress)

The gold tones in the stain glass reflecting 

off the mirror in back is beautiful.

Using fall decor verus halloween...saves me lots of time,

I leave the fall decor until Thanksgiving.

This was the look in the foyer last year.

I was  never really happy with it,  

I just could not get the look I was trying to achieve. 

I really prefer this years look over last...What do you think?

Do you use Fall instead of Halloween ? or both?

Today I am linking to a great party hosted by

Three Mango Seeds ~ Motivational Monday



Revitalized Roses

Take a look at what a few days of cooler

temps did for my roses...

These are the Knock Out variety.

My favorite is the little cluster of red roses climbing along the fence, not sure of the name of those.

What a happy way to say...'Good Morning Monday',

Fabulous Friday Four

As I sit here sipping on my second cup of coffee...
welcome to another Friday with Four Fabulous Blogs.

Do you ever go to visit a blog friend and click on another blogger in the comments...and so on, until you meet new bloggers and can not remember how you even got there???  

 I do that ALL the time. I have made some wonderful connections that way...

I hope that you will take a moment to visit and comment each one..you never know who you just might meet.

Hostess With The Mostess

If you are planning ANY kind of party or even thinking about ever planning a party...this is the site to see!
She has free printables, favor, food ideas...sooo much to see, but it is a very easy site to navigate around.
Check the time before you go visit, because you will spend alot of time there. I promise!

Diana ~ Nana Diana   
       
Right now at Nana Diana's she is blogging about some serious stuff  ( A dear friend of hers is in need of prayer)...but most the time as she says,  I have a wacky sense of humor.  I just love looking at all her wonderful northern pictures...she lives on the bay in Green Bay...I am sure it gets really cool up there.
Stop in for a visit, I am sure she would love to meet you.

Mississippi Artist

What a fabulous blog...she takes her readers on tours of southern homes...including one from the recent movie "The Help".  She also includes in her blog wonderful tablescapes she has created for her home.
As her header states "Grab a cup and stay a while".  Drop in and tell her I sent you by for a visit.

Glory ~ Glorious Treats

Just look at the blog banner....how could you not go visit Glory???  Yes...that is her name. Cool huh?
her blog is spooktacular right now!  Its all decked out in black & white treats... I wish they would just 'POP' off the page...can you believe I am not really a sweet eater, but her blog has me wanting to make cupcakes today...like right now for breakfast...


Hope you enjoyed our stroll through Blogland...I hope you stop by and become their newest followers..

Have a Fabulous weekend...I will be spending mine at our 'Little House In The Big Woods' ,

DIY Covered Headboard II

Welcome Back

At the end of day one we had a little too much fun shopping for the materials at Home Depot and Lowes.

Susie visits them so much they know her by name...haha

Surprised they have not given her an orange apron to wear.

We have become quite the experts at getting

 things loaded up...

You learn really fast how slow you have to drive

 with the door open. 

I felt so sorry for the poor people that had to

 drive behind us...pokey slow.

This is a video of day two...Susie had been up all night making the box and attaching it to the existing

headboard, so she was not up being on the blog screen...

That sister, what a great idea to use a drop cloth...very durable and looks like faux linen...cheap!

When I left Susie she had run out of the bronze nail heads...She gives advice on this over at her blog,
her link is @ the bottom of this post.

But its looking great...now I want to make
 on for my bed at the
 "Little House In The Big Woods"

Checkout more pictures of the DIY process, at

 Susie Harris.

Join me tomorrow when I introduce you to my Fabulous Friday Four...see you then,

I linked up today with  At the Picket Fence   for their Inspiration Friday Linky Party...

AND

The Flaunt It Friday at Chic On A Shoestring Decorating