A trip to the Bedford Village Inn

Every year after Christmas, my sister, me, and our friends Duane and Lori Lee visit the Bedford Village Inn in Bedford, NH.  We have dinner, exchange presents, and then we tour the inn and view all the beautiful holiday decorations.

We sat in a lovely room with a warm glow. I ordered the pork chop with pomegranate puree, polenta, and cauliflower. It was delicious.  My sister had the halibut and Lori Lee and Duane had pasta fra diavolo.

For dessert, I had the chocolate bag, the Inn's signature dessert.  It is a "bag" made of Belgian chocolate filled with sponge cake, chocolate mousse, assorted berries and whipped cream. I knew I was ordering this before I ever entered the inn!

After we ate, we went to the various rooms to see the decorations.  There were snippets of Robert Frost poems on chalkboards throughout one of the rooms.

This chandelier had a frosty glow, so pretty!  I should steal this idea!

All of the wreaths at the inn were gorgeous. The decorations are always unique.

This dining room looks so inviting. Maybe next time we will request this room. The inn is so old and many of the rooms are very small. It makes for an intimate dining experience.

I love the clock display on this wall. My sister thinks it looks like steam punk.

 A fireplace graces another of the small dining rooms. Any room you choose to dine in is special.  I have eaten in a few different rooms and each experience was enjoyable.  The service is excellent as well.

A number of designers decorate the inn so each room has a totally different look.

If you get a chance to visit the Bedford Village Inn by all means go, you won't be disappointed!

Christmas Light Police

Every year my Sister and I like to ride around our hometown and surrounding towns and critique some Christmas light displays.  We didn't do it this year but there is still time!

I decided to visit a few houses myself and snap a photo or two to share with you.  Mind you it is more fun to be critical. For example, anyone with inflatables on the lawn gets bonus points for bad taste. And if said inflatable is deflated that's even worse.  The worst one we ever saw was an inflatable nativity scene. We found it in poor taste.

This is much nicer than an inflatable manger don't you think? Although there are lots of lights on this home I actually don't mind it.  I tend to like a simpler approach.

This home in Wakefield caught my eye.  Sometimes when a homeowner tries to outline their home with lights it looks just awful.  I think these people got it right.  Too bad I did not get it right in my photo, too blurry!

As I said I go for a simpler approach, I like a flood light on the door with some well placed or interesting decorations.  My neighbors down the street get style points for this display.

They have some lovely architectural details over the door and the flood light does a great job of highlighting them.  Cool snowshoes too!

Another neighbor's home. The home is accented with a deep purple and lavender so hence the Christmas light color scheme.

It is a profusion of purple and blue led lights. They were much more vibrant in person! Like it or not it makes a statement. Very creative people live here.

Still trying to get a good shot of this display. I had to give up. It was 28 degrees out and that was not the wind chill temperature.  It was very windy out tonight!

Since I've been battling a nasty head cold I decided to go inside and warm up and turn my camera to my own decorations. The ski over the french doors is a new addition this year.

Here's a closer look, the writing was done by an artist friend of the owner of Nesting on Main in Concord.

I put my paper Christmas angel (purchased last year from Nesting) outside of a vintage frame.

The angel looked lonely hanging on the large wall over the sofa. My sister thought I should put something in a second frame on the wall. So I looked through my Christmas decoarations and came up with these two peace doves. My sister had to do some repair work on the frame and then she hung it for me too.

Here's the finished project.  I like the color scheme and the two subjects seem to work well together.

Here's my feather tree. I decorated it with vintage clip earrings and pins.  It looks unfinished to me. I may have to add some bird ornaments to it.  The mirror underneath it is an antique.

Here's one of the clip earrings.

I love this crown tealight holder.

Here's a close up of the crown.

I have a pair of them on my bookcase. They make the prettiest shadows on the walls.

You can see it better in this shot.  Nice glow and firelight shadows.  I think I will keep this out after Christmas too!

I hope you enjoyed your little tour of my neighborhood and condo.  The kitties and I were glad you could stop by.

Christmas in Georgetown

Georgetown?  Not THAT  Georgetown, I'm talking about Georgetown, Massachusetts.  Last night, my sister and I and my sister's friend attended a fabulous Christmas party in this lovely north of Boston town.

I have so much to tell about the party. I thought I threw a good party but this one was really fantastic.

First of all, I got invited to the party as a guest of my sister.  My sister is friends with the home owner/party hostess. You can add a number of titles to home owner and party hostess such as gourmet cook, interior decorator, etc. Jolie is one talented woman and all of her guests benefited from her talents.

I'm sorry but many of the photos came out blurry. I guess the low light made for a beautiful ambiance but not for beautiful photographs. This shot of the dining room shows how charming this home really is. It is very old, built in the 1700's old and it has many wonderful details.

Our hostess made her own garlands. She is an artist by profession and her home decor is elegant with a touch of whimsy. Just the kind of style I admire.

Just look at that mantel. Fantastic architectural details. So elegant and Jolie of course made the wreath. Oh to have such talent!

Stockings complete the look of the fireplace. I think the fireplace actually works but it was not needed last night. There were so many attendees at the party there was enough body heat to go around!

There is a bar off the living room. Some of the guests relaxed in the pub atmosphere.  I loved the green doors leading to the bar.

Jolie's sister played keyboard and my sister accompanied her on the violin.  We even had a sing along. It put everyone in the Christmas spirit.

And then it was time to eat. Morgan, the English Mastiff was well behaved.  He did not go after anyone's food. What a gentle giant! I have never seen a dog that big!

Did I mention that Jolie is also a gourmet cook? She and her daughter made all the food for the party. We had crab cake appetizers and they cooked a turkey, pork loin and a ham! The scalloped potatoes were my personal favorite and they went fast.

There were so many desserts and again they were works of art. A buche de noel.

Assorted cookies, swedish wafers, greek cookies, spritz, and so many more! Cheesecake and a tart. I could not possibly try everything. Jolie gave boxes for any one who wanted to bring some treats home.

These "mushroom men" were made from marzipan and look at their adorable faces! So cute.

I forget what this dessert is called.  It's french and made with cream puffs and a spun sugar accent. It was tres magnifique!

Eating in the kitchen and eating in the dining room. No one was going to go hungry at this house!

I told you Morgan is a very large dog!

A beautiful tree at the back entrance.

The Christmas village took up an entire wall in one of the rooms. It was magical!

After all the eating, we had a Christmas concert. We relaxed and enjoyed our favorite Christmas tunes.

It was a most enjoyable evening.

Jolie created such a warm atmosphere in her home and I

am very grateful that I could enjoy the experience. Thank you Jolie for inviting me

and making me feel so welcome!