{My Very 1st Blogpost: Romancing the Home}

As usual, I forget my Blog Anniversary!
Maybe it is because of such a sad period in my life, you can read more below blog post from previous links...
Anyway, now in 2014 on November 23, I had a total of 1,205 blog posts written.
So let's go Back to Basics and show the beginning.
On November 23, 2009 I started blogging and here is my very first post:

Autumn is the time of year to turn inward again, for making the home into a warm nest where we savor the memories of summer and sunshine. All about Romancing the Home...

A few last Midas Touch roses from the garden in a lovely silver vase adorned with a silver rosebud (that will at least last all winter long!) while indulging in a cup of hot chocolate with a Bon-bon, while reading an invitation to a winter wedding on February 13th... How romantic the outlook; just a day before Valentine's Day!

After all, these special moments will pull us through the dreary winter. With the memories of warm sun rays kept alive inside our hearts, we will get to springtime again.

Romancing the Home... Indeed, trying to extend the season of roses all year long!
The yellow roses on the tablecloth are hand embroidered by me...

Detail of the silver rosebud vase with rose...

{Post # 484 and my blog is 2 years old today!} | previous post by me with the sad story...

{First Advent Week 2014}

Already Advent Season for 2014... 

Can't believe it but it is TRUE. 

Wishing you all a Meaningful First Advent Week.

Just using a red Point A la Ligne candle from France with fresh Rosemary sprigs from the garden.

Rosemary emits such a lovely fragrance!

The beautiful pineapple doily was hand crocheted by my sister-in-law Elly VandenMunckhof, she is a loyal reader of this blog.

The red rose ribbon is French too.
And so is the Baccarat vase...

For such a Perfect French Baccarat Crystal Candle Holder with etched mark including the fragrant red candle, you can have a look on my online Boutique. Just click the above link.

Sorry all sold out...

Related link:

{Point A La Ligne the Rolls Royce of Candles} | previous post by me

{Gratitude for Thanksgiving 2014 - Like the Mayflower Pilgrims in 1621}

Yes, we both being 1st generation immigrants, do have a lot of Gratitude for Thanksgiving 2014! 

Being alive and healthy and living in freedom with new found Friends that became Family, is a Blessing. 

'Friends are family members without kinship'. -- Ronald Giphart Dutch writer

Like those 1621 Mayflower Pilgrims who celebrated Thanksgiving for God's goodness.

Thanksgiving By Jennie A. Brownscombe ←click it

What a fate for half of those passengers that survived the sea and the first harsh winter...

And what a FEAST after those Mayflower conditions:

Sleeping with 80 persons in a cabin made to hold 30 people...

Food - Ship's biscuits that were infested by roaches, weevils and maggots...

Warm meals were too risky because they would set the sails at fire due to winds blowing those flames...

For 66 - Sixty Six days living like that!

The Pilgrims Come to the New World - Mayflower Conditions ←click it for excerpt above and below.

Indeed, after a Prosperous Growth during the Summer of 1621 they had a Thanksgiving Celebration for God's goodness... Only 50 pilgrims survived of the original 102

The Food - Wild turkey etc.

No wonder that this became a NATIONAL FEAST - Thanksgiving History (←click it and just scroll down)

as early as 1777 but without an official Proclamation. Franklin Delano Roosevelt did just that in 1941.
PILGRIMS, NOT PURITANS...

Often those early Mayflower PILGRIMS are being confused with the later PURITANS

Pilgrims, Not Puritans ←click it

     The story behind the first U.S. Thanksgiving  ←click it to link of the above

Wishing all American readers a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Related links:
Samoset 1590-1653 | information about this great Native American Diplomat!

List of Mayflower passengers | check those names of passengers that came from Leiden, South Holland in The Netherlands

Mayflower Compact | list of 41 male aboard and list of those that died at sea 

Mayflower passengers who died at sea November/December 1620

List of Mayflower passengers who died in the winter of 1620–1621

Thanksgiving Day: Pilgrims were a surprisingly worldly, tolerant lot | Great Information!
The Red Friends of the Pilgrims
{No fewer than 7 American Presidents are Direct Descendants of the Leiden, Netherlands PILGRIMS}| previous post by me
{Happy Thanksgiving - From Pilgrim to President} | previous post by me