A Southern Wreath

What fun it is to hop in the car and drive up to the charming South Georgia town of Thomasville.   As you can see in the map below,  this little town is a hop-skip-and-a-jump drive from home.  Driving north on Highway 319 it is a short thirty-five minute drive through picturesque plantation country all along the way.

If you would like to see photos of this beautiful plantation country you can click on a previous Sweet Southern Days post showing this area:

http://sweetsoutherndays.blogspot.com/2014/08/plantation-parkway-part-one.html

My sweet daughter Sharon suggested we drive up and have lunch at one of our very favorite restaurants there in Thomasville.  We also wanted to look around town at some of the very charming shops and possibly do a little Christmas shopping.

Below we see a photo of Jonah's, the restaurant where we had lunch.  This photo was taken a couple of years ago.  At lunchtime there is always a waiting line and in the evening for dinner also.

Next door to Johnah' s restaurant is Liam's Restaurant which is also very popular.

You know you are in the deep South when the wreaths on a door are made out of recently picked cotton.     

These wreaths were so pretty with the fresh picked cotton and burlap bows I just had to go get my camera from the car and take the photo seen below.

As you can see, the restaurant sign out front of the restaurant was surrounded by cotton also.  I could not resist touching a piece of this beautiful cotton.  It felt just like the little cotton balls we have for removing nail polish.

A closer look at this very pretty wreath.

If you would like to see other Sweet Southern Days posts showing this charming little town of Thomasville, Georgia you can click the link below:

http://sweetsoutherndays.blogspot.com/2014/09/downtown-thomasville-georgia.html

One of our favorite shops in the Thomasville area is a shop called DDP Monograms and Gifts.  After lunch we spent a good bit of time oohing and aahing over so many items in this interesting store.  I did not take my camera inside, but if you would like to view some of the gift items you can click on the website link below.

http://www.ddpmonogramsandgifts.com

This next week coming up is going to be a busy week as we all prepare for Thanksgiving.  Wishing you wonderful days with many blessings and a very Happy Thanksgiving with lots of turkey and dressing and all of your Thanksgiving favorites wherever you may be.

Visiting The Apple Barn ~ Delicious Apple Bread Recipe

As we drove through north Georgia and entered into the little down of Ellijay, on a recent trip back home from leaf-looking in the mountains of North Carolina, we spotted two apple barns just across the street from each other.  We were curious and wanted to stop and take a look. 

As you can see there were lots and lots of pumpkins as well.

You can see more pumpkins just outside of one of the barns 

and a place for children to play and have fun.

Both barns were full of all kinds of apples.

And other items as well.

As you can see it is peanut and sweet potato season as well.

It is the "raw peanuts" that are used for boiled peanuts, which is a very popular Southern treat.

There were apples for as far as you can see.

And more apples ... We purchased the "Pink Lady" and the 

"Granny Smith" which are some of our favorites for cooking.

Below we see a photo of the recipe made with some of the Granny Smith apples.  

The recipe is called:  Warm Apple Pie Bread with Cinnamon.

This turned out to be one of the most delicious recipes I have ever made and is so simple and easy and a very nice recipe for Fall.  My husband LOVED this delicious apple bread.

If you are interested you can click on the link below to see the details of this recipe ... 

http://www.spendwithpennies.com/warm-apple-pie-bread-with-cinnamon/

If you try this recipe I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

Hope you are having a wonderful week and enjoying these lovely Fall days.  

A Very Happy Birthday 2016

It was always such special fun for me as a child celebrating my birthday.  My brothers and sisters and I enjoyed Halloween and dressing-up, and going trick-or-treating.  Then, the very next day we celebrated my birthday.  As a child it did not get much better than that ... except,  of course ... Christmas time.

Now celebrating a birthday is even more special as the family has grown and there are lots of loved ones sharing in the fun and making memories together.

Our daughter Debi and family in South Florida could not be joining us, but she very thoughtfully sent this beautiful Happy Birthday bouquet as seen in the below photo. 

I could not believe how beautiful this Fall arrangement was.  Of course, this was a perfect opportunity to try to capture these lovely flowers forever with my camera.

The bouquet was filled with lots of different flowers which included lovely red roses and a mixture of  Fall colored Chrysanthemums, and even some Fall colored lilies and leaves.  I loved the ceramic "pumpkin" vase, which will be a forever keepsake.

Our daughter later told me she had ordered this beautiful arrangement from FTD.  If you would like to have the website where this arrangement, and many other beautiful arrangements are available, you can click on the link below:

http://flowers.ftd.com/flowers/Pumpkin

I LOVED these flowers in the pumpkin vase.  They arrived a couple of days before the birthday party.  As you can see in the below photo, by the time we got together for the birthday party, the lilies in the arrangement had opened and looked so pretty.

The floral arrangement made a very nice centerpiece for the dining room 

birthday party table,  seen in the below photo.

And then our daughter Sharon and grandson Lawson made the most magnificent Happy Birthday Cake.

As you can see in the below photo they made a four-layer cake,  and Lawson put a surprise inside.

That is grandson Lawson and daughter Sharon in the below photo.

I think this is the most amazing Happy Birthday Cake I have ever had and 

Lawson and his mom made it from the ground up.

In the below photo we see my husband, the birthday girl and grandson Lawson.
The "Happy Birthday" on the cake lit up and flashed.

Sharon used a wedding cake recipe she found on Pinterest.  Then she and Lawson used their creativity and filled the inside of the cake with Butterfingers candy because they know it is my favorite candy ... Now, isn't that so very thoughtful. Filling the cake with Butterfingers was Lawson's job and he loved helping to make that part of the cake.

Two of our daughters live here in town and it was wonderful having them here on a special day.

And, while all of the family could not be here, it was so special to have the members of the 

family who live here in town come to celebrate.

In the below photo, to the left,  is daughter Stephanie, (her husband John is taking the picture.)  Then son-in-law Charlie, daughter Sharon, the birthday girl, my husband, grandsons Dillon, Ryan and Chase (they belong to Stephanie and John).  In the front, grandsons Preston and Lawson (they belong to Sharon and Charlie) ...  

They have two other brothers ... the oldest brother John Scott is away at Troy University in Troy, Alabama.   The next to oldest brother is Will who is away in Japan doing modeling.

Also missing from the picture is Debi and family, and Carmen and family in South Florida, a son Carson and family in South Carolina and daughter DNai and family in Kentucky.  But they were all with us in spirit.

How wonderful it was to share this special day and celebrate with family.

Each birthday is a new beginning.  During the next year it will be fun for me to get my camera as 

often as possible and try to capture some of the amazing beauty all around us.

As we remember our Veterans and all of their sacrifices, we wish you a special weekend with many
blessings wherever you may be.

Fall In Americana 🍁🍁🍁

Each Fall we travel to North Carolina to spend time in the beautiful mountains and see the tree leaves changing colors.  It is s special treat to see the large and brilliant multi-colored trees as the leaves turn from green to gold, rust and red.

I saw a quote the other day by Albert Camus who said,  "Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower."  I never thought of Autumn like that, but how true that is when we see the the beauty of the Fall leaves.

I love to take my camera and try to capture some of the beauty all around us.  As we visited in the  North Carolina town of Robbinsville, North Carolina we spotted these beautiful trees seen below.

In these photos we see some of the many colorful trees 

in the downtown area.

How pretty the leaves are on these trees.

As we drove around town  I spotted this old barn with vines covering the walls.

Just a simple vine can be so pretty!

During our visit to the mountains each Fall we love to take a drive over to the old tourist town of Gatlinburg, Tennessee.  Gatlinburg is definitely a huge tourist trap, but we don't mind at all being "trapped."  Everything in the town is so festive and fun and all decorated for Fall.

Wherever we travel I am always on the look-out for the beauty around us to capture with my camera.

We attended a craft show in the area.  Just outside of the craft-tent we 

spotted this amazing multi-colored tree.

Aren't those leaves incredible!

It is so pretty to see the many different colors on some of the leaves.

As you can see this particular tree in the below photo was beginning to 

lose some of it's leaves, but it was still magnificent.

Traveling on our way through the little town of Pigeon Forge, Tennessee on Highway 321 we spotted this very picturesque field of freshly harvested bales of hay.  If you look off in the distance you can see the many trees at the base of the mountains with the multi-colored leaves.

It was so pretty to see the clouds drifting over the mountains.

And, not too far away we spotted this old country barn.

The Dogwood tree in the below photo was losing it's leaves too.

As we drove south on Highway 321 toward Townsend, Tennessee we spotted this colorful Fall display.

Nicely decorated front porch at this old farmhouse-style restaurant.

Breakfast at this charming old restaurant was very good.

And, again, the tree seen in the below photo was beginning 

to lose a lot of leaves, but it was still pretty.

There is something about old barns that always catch my eye.  

Love the colorful tree to the left of the barn and the newly harvested hay.

We took a side road that looked interesting ... Along the way this old tractor with the colorful trees in the background caught my eye.  Someone had been working hard cutting all that grass up on the hill; did not see anyone, so they must have been taking a break from the grass cutting.

It was so much fun to sightsee and try to capture some of the beauty with my camera.

           

           It was interesting to see these rural homes surrounded with colorful Fall foliage. 

As we left the Townsend, Tennessee area we looked for the Foothills Parkway 

to take us across the mountain back to our cabin in Robbinsville.

In the below photo we spotted this picturesque valley.

The Good Lord is such an amazing artist.  How blessed we are to have this kind of beauty to enjoy.

The Historic Tapoco Lodge was along our route on Highway 129.  We decided to stop in and have an early dinner.  As you can see the Lodge was nicely decorated with Fall pumpkins and flowers.

The Grille at the Lodge had a very nice casual menu and we enjoyed having dinner there.

This cute sign in the restaurant caught my eye.

Below we see a photo of the outside of the Grille.  

The weather was cool so most folks were dining inside.

If you look to the left-middle of the above photo you can spot 

the creek that runs along the back of the Lodge.

And in the below photo we get a closer look.

More Fall decorations around the Lodge.

In the below photo we see the back of Tapoco Lodge as seen from
Highway 129 as we were driving away.

Thank you for traveling with us as we enjoy this beautiful Fall season.

🍁🍁🍁

Wishing you many more beautiful days and special blessings.