Glorious New England Break

We took a trip last week for three days to some of our favorite locations! How I love New England in the Summer, and visiting Salem, Concord, Rockport and Marblehead sure put you in the mood for Fall and Halloween! What a great trip it was and it took careful planning and organizing due to Mom' condition but it sure worth it! Unfortunately, my son could not join us as he was working but Caitlin, my husband and I fit in as much as we could. We started off in Salem (as we always do) and visited our favorite locations from Hocus Pocus,our favorite movie. If you'd like to see the photos from that you can join my Fall/Halloween page on Facebook, Halloween at Home & More!, and I posted several. We visited our favorite sites in Salem, especially our favorite, the House of the Seven Gables. I could just spend all afternoon there. The grounds, the home~~~And I feel like Nancy Drew every time the guide reveals the hidden staircase in the fireplace!

We walked for miles because it was so beautiful out and we agreed it was perfect to park the car and just roam along the Derby Wharf. We visited the Judge's home too. He was the presiding judge during the Salem Witch Trials. We ate in Salem at the Witch's Brew for lunch and in Peabody for dinner and I had an awesome shrimp/beet & goat cheese salad! Caitlin had a big fisherman's platter and my husband had a giant prime rib he could barely finish!

Our first evening we ended in Gloucester with the famous fisherman!The water at night was gorgeous and we took a cool photo of our shadows!

The second day we still spent in Salem and then it was off to Concord where we shopped and had lunch at the Colonial Inn!

The trip would not be complete if we didn't visit the schoolhouse where the real Mary (Sawyer) "brought her lamb to school one day", and visited the beautiful grist mill.

Dinner was at Longfellow's Wayside Inn.  The Inn is a very special place to my husband and I. We had drinks before dinner in the old tavern and then onto dinner which was incredible. We had lobster bisque, scallops and steaks. I think because the weather was cooler, I was really feeling like Fall and when I went to bed that night, I was already thinking about my Fall decorating. Plus all the Salem and Hocus Pocus stuff had sent me into the whole old fashioned Halloween feeling. 

Our last day, we spent in Marblehead and Rockport. We visited the historic cemetery that they filmed in Hocus Pocus 

and then we went to the water and enjoyed the shore. More shopping, lunch and then we were on our way. Back to Home Sweet Home! Hope you enjoyed the trip with me!

Hello August!

Good Morning! August is here already and my plants are still thriving (surprisingly) with the heat we've been having! I have my sprinkler system working overtime! I hope everyone has been enjoying their Summer! I don't know about you but as soon as August rolls around, I am already dreaming of Fall! I want so badly to pull out my Fall accents and arrangements and just decorate! I will wait as I always do until the last week of the month! By Labor Day, we will be decorated for Autumn.
We have a special trip coming up and that will put me in the Halloween mood for sure! Details to follow!

I have some visitors coming today and I think I will use these great new napkins I just bought! They are under the sconce I purchased as well!

I need to get a set of black ones too. BY GRACE PRIMITIVES is the site on Facebook I bought them from and I have bought many other things as well. Great prices and she is lovely.

Caitlin and I are sewing this Summer. We both made some pillows.We are hand sewing them and its so fun. She made bandana pillows, and I made a few with an Amish couple on them.  I am  working on a table runner but my sewing machine jams and is quite frustrating.

On my Country Decorating page, I was mentioning how much I love timer candles, the battery operated ones. I have an obsession. Its the first thing I look for when I go to PA or into a country store. Some people only have them timed for the evenings. I do both day and night. I do that because I know when I go into a favorite country store to shop, I enjoy seeing them lit. So....I'm helping to keep the battery industry thriving! hahahaha

Say hello to two of my girls! This is Loretta and Delilah! They are five months old now! And they are very nosey so they enjoy seeing what goes on around them!

I hope you have a wonderful day!