Niagara Falls

We just celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary and our tradition has always been to celebrate each anniversary by the water (lakes, oceans, rivers etc) and this year we have booked a Caribbean Cruise for February. On the actual date, to keep up with tradition, we spent a few days in the Niagara Falls area. It's only a 3 hour drive and the Falls are beautiful - the power of the water makes you wonder how anyone could ever survive going over them!!

The American Falls

The Canadian Falls

The Skylon Tower (revolving dining room and observatory) - where we had our anniversary dinner:

American Falls from the Skylon Tower Dining Room

The Canadian Falls from the Skylon Tower Dining Room:

The Whirlpool River before it meets Lake Ontario:

Niagara on the Lake - a quaint little town with lots of shops and restaurants:

One of my favorite artists' gallery - Angie Strauss - unfortunately she is closing down - so I bought one more print (of Niagara Falls, of course)

The area between the Falls and Niagara on the Lake has many, many wineries, so, of course, we stopped at a few. Ice wine is quite popular in this area - a sweet dessert wine in a lovely tall thin bottle:

My favorite wine at Konzelmann's was their Peach wine, and we can only bring back 2 bottles through customs, so that we did!

More great fruit wines:

While eating lunch at an outside restaurant in Niagara on the Lake, I spied this beauty:

NY has so many great areas to take day trips or short vacations, and if you've never been to Niagara Falls - its a MUST DO!

The summer ends for me this week as school begins the day after Labor Day... summertime goes by so quickly! But I do look forward to the Fall in the Adirondacks.

I couldn't find a bottle gift bag....

...I searched the whole house and there was no "bottle gift bag" to be found and this was the gift we were bringing to Mike's Birthday Party:

A sheet of decorative paper and 5 minutes of effort turned into this:

Easy peasy!

Sharing with Met Monday at Between Naps on the Porch

Gift box for home made goodies

A few weeks ago PittpPat Paperie had a post that reminded me of something I used to make many years ago. She took a six pack beer carton and decorated it with a Halloween theme. I have made similar gift holders with wine cooler cartons:

I cover the carton with decorative paper:

I add a bit of tissue paper and a deco flower from paper scraps:

And then I fill the sections with homemade goodies such as vinegar, pickles, dried herbs, etc:

A cute hostess gift when all put together!

And I plan to make some of Mary Meanderings Pineapple Vinegar real soon!

The dining room diamonds...

Joining Color Outside the Lines again this week to share this vignette in my dining room:

The mirror is an old Chippendale mirror that my mother refinished over 40 years ago.

I LOVE this tassle (Hobby Lobby)

Visit Artie's blog to see what vignette others are sharing!

I Have a Winner

"Moogie and Pap" is the winner of the milk glass...email me with your home addy and I will send it out to you - Congrats!

A quick little gift box...

What can you do with a "tp" roll or a paper towel roll and some decorative paper?

You can make a cute box to hold a little gift or candies:

I used spray adhesive to adhere the paper and stitched one end of the "tp" roll closed. The top tube was slit open to expand it, to allow extra space to cover the other tube, then covered with paper:

I made a paper flower and adhered it to the large tube, and then tied a ribbon around the lid:

Perfect size for a few lottery tickets!!

Don't forget to enter my giveaway for milk glass sugar and creamer
HERE:

The Mantle

I am joining Artie at Color Outside the Lines again for Vignette Fridays

I just removed all of the purple glassware from my family room mantle and put the nuetral tones back:

Don't forget to enter my giveaway to win this milk glass creamer and sugar - click here

Milk Glass GIVEAWAY

This past weekend I got lucky - - I found this sweet set of milk glass (dishes, platter, cups and saucers and creamer and sugar) at a garage sale - - but I already have this creamer and sugar, SO.....

I thought I would do a giveaway - - For no special reason - - Just because!! So, you should have the routine memorized by now - -Three ways to win: Leave a comment, follow me, let me know if you are a new follower or an old friend, and if you want to advertize it on your blog it will be another chance. I'll pick a winner next week!

This giveaway is advertised on GiveawayScout!
A giveaway search engine that lists the latest giveaways on the web.

Good Luck!