Halloween Decorating!

Greetings! I finally went out and got a few Halloween decorations yesterday. I only have a few things, so I decided to put them in my "little kitchen corner" that I recently showed you in Sheila's "Heart of the Home Party."
(Click HERE to see how this corner normally looks.)

Well, I am not going to write a lot today, just show a lot of photos. I couldn't decide which ones to pick, so I uploaded everything. I hope everyone has a fun Halloween.

Oh, and I am branching out today and linking to the following parties, so please be sure to visit these blogs too when you get a chance!

Cindy at: My Romantic Home for "Show and Tell Friday"

Courtney at: French Country Cottage for "Feathered Nest Friday"

Niartist at: Color Outside The Lines for "Vignette Friday"

Happy Halloween!

Gloria

Christmas Decoration from HauteLook

Greetings! Yep, I've gone and spent more money online this past week. I bought a decoration for Christmas. I belong to yet one more internet store, HauteLook. If you'd like to join, please click HERE.

This is another online place where you get great deals, new ones every day, for a limited time. So, here's my new item -- it will probably arrive this coming week, and it will then sit in its box until Christmas. (Yet one more box to clutter my floor.)

It is so shiny and bright! I am planning to set a little gold twig reindeer next to it. Sorry for the teeny picture, I couldn't find any other one; this was from my confirmation. I will take another photo to show you after it arrives and I check it out.

California Floral & Home - 13" Gift Box Light

Best,

Back to my little obsession!

After being "obsessed" for quite a while with the CATFISH documentary, I am now back to my 'old' obsession: Gorgeous little artistic clothespins from Caroline's Etsy Shop! (Cinderella Moments Shop) I am now purchasing her new Christmas set. I hardly gave her time to sell them to anyone else. As soon as I saw them in her Etsy shop, I asked for her to reserve them for me. I am looking forward to getting them, but I am not quite ready for Christmas yet!

Here they are below. Aren't they adorable with all of the cute accents? And look at how beautifully she painted EACH clothespin and added all of the details!

Click HERE to visit Caroline's Etsy shop, and click HERE to see her blog. She has a lot of her "in- process projects" shown on her blog. They are so amazing and fun to see.

Thanks for visiting and I hope everyone is having a great week.

Best regards,

Gloria

Heart of the Home Party: In My Own Little Corner of the Kitchen

Welcome! I am FINALLY joining Sheila's Heart of the Home party, albeit VERY late! Apologies for my procrastination. Here's the link! Click here.

So... this is my own little corner of the kitchen. My kitchen is very small, and I do most of my cooking and prep work right at this spot that you will see below. I am NOT showing you the other 'side' of the kitchen, because I am NOT like other bloggers, who have a gorgeously clean and organized kitchens all around. I "moved" a some stuff in order to get nice pics. Yes, even for this teeny corner! So for anyone who does not have to 'move' things to make things appear "nice" on their blogs, I admire you!! But I, for one, must say that photos are great for me, so that I don't have to show my 'total' messy life!

Anyway -- I love all of my "things" in this corner, hence this post! I will describe all of these little items of mine. My first picture is of the FRONT of my house -- I sent my son out this afternoon and asked him to take a picture. I have loads of pictures of the front from over the years, but none on my digital camera! So he went across the road to take a photo for this post, per my request. He's a good kid. And don't forget -- it's Autumn here, so you can see a lot of fallen leaves! I still have one 'lacy maple' that transforms into a BRILLIANT crimson in the late Fall. From the picture below, it is on the right hand side, all the way in the back. My mother planted it, years ago. When it changes color, I will post a picture...

First, here's the full picture of my "little corner... " Yes, it looks a little congested, but I wanted to show all of my favorite things! (I normally do NOT have that turquoise urn there, on the left -- I got the urn from Anthropologie (I did a post on that!) and in it are dried hydrangeas that I purchased from Ebay. Aren't they pretty?

OK, to start with, this is what I see outside of my window when I am preparing food, or "doing the dishes." (In the second picture, you can see my neighbor's white house in the background.)

(I made (oh, I mean ASKED) my son go back out and put the umbrella back up to take this picture again. I took the umbrella down because of the bad weather we had a couple of days ago. It would have blown off! But it is STILL sometimes nice to sit outside at the table, even at this cool time of the year.)

And this is my little bird sugarbowl that my son gave me for my birthday. It's from Anthropologie. I did a post on it when I ordered it for my son to GIVE me for my birthday! :)

(Hey, when kids are teenagers, a Mom HAS TO give them ideas of what to get, right??)

These next little "nesting bowls" are from Tracy Hutson. I LOVED the colors so I had to have them! They are from QVC. I LOVE QVC, and have purchased a TON of products from them. You can also see in the second photo, the set of Xochi dish towels ("tea towels" they called them!) that I purchased from One Kings Lane. They are very pretty. I got nine towels, in total, for a good price. Each were individually wrapped in a set of three. You can see the set of three here. I think I may do a give-away for one set. They are so pretty and I know someone would love them, as I do! (So stay tuned for that give-away!)

I have had the kitchen canisters for a while. I loved the color. I am always afraid of chipping them though! These are also from QVC, from my favorite "designer" on QVC: Valerie Parr Hill. I have a LOT of "Valerie" things, which I will show you at another time (when I get the gumption to do so. Look how long it took me to do this!). I paid maybe ~$45 for these kitchen canisters, and I saw them elsewhere, in a high-end catalog, for $95, a long time ago. So, needless to say, I was very happy with Valerie/QVC.

And, of course, you saw my red Keurig (also from QVC!). It is the "personal" size. We don't drink too much coffee, and this is perfect. I love it because you can just make one cup of coffee at a time. The little "K-cups" are expensive though!

And this is one of my favorite coffee mugs. I got two, to match the kitchen (red!), when my son and I visited my cousin and her husband on Martha's Vineyard a couple of years ago. You can see some of the photos my son took on the right hand side of my blog.

It is SO pretty there, on Martha's Vineyard... I love all of the little houses and all of the little shops. We had Breakfast at The Black Dog, and it was so delicious. They made their own breakfast sausage and it was so good. This is where I bought the mugs -- they had a little shop, a few steps, right across from the restaurant. Although the mugs are nice, I think it is the 'memory' of staying with my cousin and her generous husband (who is like my own flesh-and-blood cousin to me after all of these years!), that makes me love the mug/love my memories of being on Martha's Vineyard with them and my son...

This is what I have on my window sill. I have two blue birds that I purchased from Ebay. I love them. I also love the real preserved boxwood mini topiaries that I bought. Aren't they adorable?

This little ceramic heart is something my son gave me when he was 10 years old. He got it at a "Swap Meet" when we visited friends/family in California. When my friend said, "We're taking you guys to a swap meet, I said, "What's a swap meet??" On the East coast, when I was little, they called it a "Flea Market!"

This is another Ebay purchase. It is an 'original' bird tealight holder (at least it's original for ME! I don't know how many the artist made and sold! LOL!)

And last, but certainly NOT least, here is a new photo of my son below that I took from outside the window today! His birthday is in the near future, and soon I can no long say (or give excuses for him) that he is a 'teenager.' WOW, he will be 20 years old. Amazing. Especially since I feel like I am only about 30 myself. So, really, he must still only be 5 or 10?

Well, I guess that's it! This has been just a little peek into my corner of the kitchen, one of my favorite spots. Thanks for visiting.

Best,

ideeli

I subscribe to Good Housekeeping magazine and I just received an email "invite" to join a new online store "ideeli." Ideeli is based in New York City and is a new online shopping destination, "having prices up to 80% off on the most sought-after brands in fashion, home and beauty." And this is another online store that if you refer people, and they make a purchase, with this store you will get a $25 credit! Click HERE.

IMPORTANT! Visit as soon as you can because they are having a give-away for a trip for two (for two nights) to NYC! And it ends Wednesday, Oct 20, at 1:00 PM Eastern time!!!!!!! SO HURRY!

Ideeli even has an "O Shop" - yes, meaning Oprah!

So if you are interested in checking it out and possibly joining (for free), won't you please click on the link, so that in the event you make a purchase, I will get a credit to my account for it?

Click HERE. And thank you so much!

Best,

Gloria

NOTE: Also included in the two-night stay are these great extras: Two haircuts with Edward Tricomi and two makeup applications; Tickets for two to: MOMA (Museum of Modern Art), two tickets to a Broadway show and two admissions to "Shop Gotham" and dinner for two at Juliet Supper Club.

In My Own Little Corner of the Kitchen

Greetings! I will be joining Sheila's "Heart of the Home" Party TOMORROW! I will be out today, and have not gotten my photos uploaded, so I will be late, as usual.
(I always say: I will be late for my own funeral.)

Until then, please visit Sheila's blog, click HERE, and enjoy the party -- it's already started!

Best,
Gloria

CATFISH on 20/20

As anyone could imagine, I watched ABC's 20/20 on Friday night. I was glued to the set. I couldn't get over how much of the story that they let out of the bag about the film, Catfish. They told all of the secrets!

If anyone wants to know about the episode on 20/20 and did not see it, you can click HERE and this will take you to their website and you can see all the parts of the show, plus extras. (There is also a section, to the right, where you can watch previous 20/20 episodes, so you can click on to see the Friday night show.) Jay Schadler was the journalist/episode host and he did an outstanding job.

Well, from when I watched it on Friday night, to now, I have two different opinions. When I watched 20/20 on Friday night, I believed the film 100%. But now, I think that although it is true, I think that Nev and his brother, and Henry (their friend), knew WAY earlier that there was something "fishy" (pun intended) about Angela and Megan and Abby. I also think that Nev was really 'hell bent' on getting some sort of revenge on Angela. He fell in love and was duped. He might have looked calm and smiling in the film after he found out what was going on, but I think that he was having the feelings of "revenge is sweet." Although, I do NOT think they expected to find what they did at the house.

All in all, I cannot wait for the DVD to come out. They mentioned that the DVD will have more film time included, and other extras. I already informed my son this is one of my Christmas presents that I want from him! :)

To all those who have visited here, thanks for sticking with me through all of these Catfish posts!

Best regards,

Note: Photos courtesy of Google Images.