A Holiday Pillow, Stylish Jackets & Tales From My Garden

Today on Weekend Meanderings a beautiful holiday pillow, stylish utility jackets, planning for 2024 and an update on my garden.

Welcome friends!

It’s Saturday and I’m joining Kim and Elizabeth for our weekend roundup.

All manner of inspiration and goings on.

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The fun continues with our Bartesian Cocktail Machine.

This week we tried the Aviation for Jim and the Mango Margarita for me.

Two thumbs up for both.

Did you have a nice Thanksgiving?

If you still have family and friends in town,

it’s not too late to make the Pumpkin Coffee Cake recipe I shared last week.

It’s delish!

We’re officially in the holiday season.

I did my holiday shopping this week and I’m done.

That’s not really a big flex.

My holiday shopping list is small.

That said, I’m feeling a little smug about it.

Here’s what’s inspiring me this week.

 

DID YOU SEE MY HOLIDAY GIFT IDEAS?

My annual Better Late Than Never Holiday Gift Ideas posted yesterday, but may not have gone out to my mailing list. It was a day late because I’ve been under the weather. Oof. Anyway, my gift ideas are made up of stuff I’m gifting this year and things I love and think you and yours might too. If the post didn’t make it to your inbox, you’ll find it here.

 

HOLIDAY BOWS LUMBAR PILLOW COVER

When I saw this beautiful holiday bow lumbar pillow cover from Jansen Home my heart skipped a beat. It’s made with the loveliest linen fabric and comes in navy (below) and pine (further down).

Right now it’s 20% off so I generously gifted myself a pillow cover in pine. It will go on our great room swivel chair. Happy holidays!

The pillow cover measures 26″ x 15″. I ordered this pillow insert. I’m not sure the insert is of the highest quality but I’m using it in a seasonal, decorative pillow so it doesn’t have to be. When it arrives I’ll report back.

 

UTILITY JACKETS

A few weeks ago I scored a Boden utility jacket at Wayside Inn, our local Assistance League shop, for $20!

As I hung it up in the hall coat closet, I realized that I have a few others these types of jackets must be my thing. I’m not sure this one is a true utility jacket. There are so many names for similar style outerwear from field jacket to barn coat. But let’s keep it simple and say utility. And this time of year is made for utility jackets. With much cooler, not yet freezing, temperatures they’re roomy enough to fit nicely over layers and bulky sweaters. It’s been dry, sunny and windy around here and I’m seeing so many wonderful styles and colors running around town.

I really like this L.L. Bean version in navy.

It comes in several colors including a pretty honey brown and copper brown.

The Gap makes a great version at a very great price in army green or black.

Banana Republic (of course) does it right with this pretty desert green. They call it a field coat and it’s little pricier but currently 40% off.

My favorite jacket from Wyeth has corduroy trim detail on the collar and pockets. It’s the most expensive of all.

Here’s a well priced version from Land’s End in moss and navy. And this one from Macy’s in a slew of colors including red.

 

Click image to shop ~

 

ERIN CONDREN LIFEPLANNERS

A couple weeks ago I mentioned ordering my 2024 Erin Condren Life Planner. My sister introduced me to Erin Condren years ago, she’s a planner fanatic and uses all the bell and whistle planner accessories Erin Condren offers. Pens, highlighters, stickers, etc. Prior to becoming an Erin Condren convert I used a similar but not as fabulous planner following in the footsteps of our mother who used the Sierra Club’s weekly calendar for as long as I can remember. Her planner sat on a shelf in our kitchen which was the pre-technology command center of our home. Anyway, my 2024 planner arrived and it felt good to transfer 2024 appointments, travel, etc. from rapidly accumulating post-it notes. Yes, I know I could use an electronic calendar. But I don’t, and won’t.

Erin Condren LifePlanner with Rose Gold Coils in a Weekly Layout

EDIBLE GARDEN UPDATE

Last week the garden elves from Homestead Design Collective arrived for our monthly raised bed garden maintenance. It was a major post-summer clean up and the garden suddenly looks a little bare. Not to worry, Tuscan kale, arugula, little gems, snap peas, garlic, edible flowers and many others were planted and the garden it will fill in quickly. That said, we’re still learning what will, and will not, thrive in our side yard in each season.  During the late spring through summer the garden got a lot more sun than we’d anticipated and our summer flowers and veggies really took off. Now that we’re well into fall, the sunlight situation is a lot more challenging and we’ll see how it goes.

It was a pleasant surprise to find Stefani Bittner herself in our garden. She has a new book, her third, coming out on March 5, 2024 with co-author Alethea Harampolis and it’s available for pre-order now. Of course, I pre-ordered it.

The Fragrant Flower Garden: Growing, Arranging & Preserving Natural Scents

In sad garden news, one of our two (very old) magnolia trees had to be cut down this week. It didn’t survive our initial garden renovation back in 2020. We did everything we could to revive it. Over the last few years we’ve called in arborists and followed their advice to no avail. And now it’s gone. It’s so sad and disappointing to lose an old, established tree and it changes the landscape in so many ways. When Stefani’s team begins our replanting in February they’ll replace it with a fasting growing elm. Let’s hope it’s really fast.

The day after the tree came down, the stump was ground up and it’s as though the tree vanished into thin air.

Romans Tree Service took down the magnolia and did some other tree maintenance around our yard. If you’re local and need tree work, I highly, highly recommend them. We’ve had our fair share of tree work done over the years, with several tree services, and it was mostly fine. But this is artistry. Look how they wove our dogwoods together to form an arch!

 

Odds & Socks ~

I was sad to hear the news of Rosalynn Carter’s passing. As a teen when President and Mrs. Carter were in the White House I didn’t pay much attention to politics, mostly absorbing my parents views. My mom was a Southern democrat and my dad a northern republican. It made life interesting. There is much about Mrs. Carter that I didn’t know and I’ve found it fascinating to learn more about her this week. She was ahead of her time in many ways. It’s said that she took President Carter’s re-election loss harder than he did. But they accepted the election’s outcome and left office with grace and dignity. And the same can be said for the way they conducted themselves in the decades since, living quietly and in service to others. Theirs was certainly a great love story. One of the things I admire about our nation is our historical ability to come together in times of difficulty and challenge including the loss of a national figure. And how we have conducted ourselves with regard to presidential elections. We cast our vote, sometimes our candidate prevails, sometimes they do not. As disappointed as we may be, we accept the outcome and we respect the office of the presidency and therefore the individual holding office. And that extends to the president’s spouse and family. It’s my hope that Mrs. Carter will be remembered as an honorable woman of integrity who served our nation well. May she rest peacefully.

Last week I shared some bubble lover gift ideas (champagne pajamas anyone?) from Toss Designs. Right now you can take advantage of their Black Friday Sale for 20% off site-wide through November 27th. Use code TOSS20 at checkout.

This wood Christmas tree tray is ideal for holiday entertaining … I’m going to create a crudité tray for an upcoming Christmas party.

Current Favorites ~

 

And that’s what I have for you this week.

Let’s see what’s inspiring Kim and Elizabeth …

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA STYLE

PINECONES AND ACORNS

If you missed my last post, you can catch up here.

Any thoughts you’d like to share?

I’d love to hear from you in the comments below.

Cheers from  Snowberry!