2016 Western Gourmet Party

As I write this post on a Sunday afternoon, we just returned from Sunday School this morning and I thought it would be a nice picture of introduction for my post today.  I have a country pew from an old church that my husband purchased about 25 years ago.  It’s been placed everywhere but now is in our den.  I though since it was Sunday I would dress it up to look like a western Sunday go to meeting pew.  Especially since I will be sending it in a few weeks to my daughter’s new home in Cumming.  But that’s another post for later. 

Also, there are a lot of pics here so please be patient with me as we stroll along......

I also thought I would show you some western pics to continue to set the western mood that we took while traveling this past February to Dallas, Texas!  This is in the stockyard at Ft. Worth Stockyards and the cattle drive there that we watched.  It was very amazing to see the types of cattle herded through there.

 

While there I considered purchasing some cowboy boots for myself (always wanted a pair of red ones) but decided I might better wait.

Now to my post…

In looking at a website for some cowboy boots I ran across King Ranch Saddle Shop at www.krsaddleshop.com and thought it would be great to create a post about a western theme in our home and present it to you guys for viewing.  And by the way, you can visit King Ranch on Pinterest.  

Then I realized it might fun to post a western event of something that really occurred in our home.  That was last fall 2016 when we hosted our monthly gourmet club.  I did a western theme and even though the western decorations were all over our home, we had some really good pictures and tablescapes that I wanted to share with you

Because we had a large number attending I had 4 tables that I had to prepare.  Here is a pic of our dining room dressed for our western dinner.  I used tin plates from the dollar store as chargers and put a red checked table cloth on the table.  I thought it turned out really well with my husband’s booths and hat.

There are even a few poker chips on the table for a quick game!  A few of them are some my husband has collected from antique stores.  Gives that vintage feel.

This is the table on the porch and here I used my husband's Daisy Rifle on top of a blue checked tablecloth all bunched up, with my grandson's cowboy boots and hat. 

 On the rock patio near the outdoor fireplace I used burlap runner with a chalkboard strip on it, along with another of my grandson's cowboy hats.  Also I used an old rusty iron pot that belonged to my Big Daddy's (It was used to make lye soap back in the 1920s).  Also I have an old black kettle used on the open fire. We live on Carnes Road and there used to be an old plantation on our property.  The wagon wheel that is in the background was one that we found on this property along with a hatchet.  These were found when we were digging up flower beds here and there in the back yard.  Pretty cool huh?

 The fireplace has a burlap wreath on it with a toy guy in the middle with a kerchief tied on it.  The banner says "Kiss A Cowboy". 

And... that's just what we did!

I loved the pics taken in front of the outdoor fireplace of couples that were enjoying our western party! 

In the kitchen I set up the three tiered Pottery Barn tray with mason drinking jars, a red kerchief and silverware for everyone to pick up on their way to their table.  And you can't have a western party without sunflowers.

The deck was donned with an additional drinking station.  The antique washbowl held ice.



And, as the night wore on the lights came on so we enjoyed the evening even more with our friends.

Hope you enjoyed my post today.  Please share your comments as I love to host parties and create new tables capes.  Always looking for new ideas. 

Daughters of the American Revolution

Today I'm going to blog about my experience in joining the wonderful ladies of DAR Augustin Clayton Chapter. I joined many years ago (probably around 2002).  I'll have to check to see when the

actual date was and come back to update this post for accuracy since I have a brain fog today.

Anyway, it took about a year to find all my paperwork.  As you all probably know, you must do the research to prove that you are a descendant of an American Revolutionary War Veteran.  My war hero was Captain James Cartledge.  He served in North Carolina but died later died after the Revolunary War in Washington, Georgia.

But I didn't come by this information very easily.  In the beginning, I wanted to research my lineage on my mother's side as she always wanted to become a DAR. Since her passing in 1987 it was a desire for me to complete this as a remembrance of her.  So, I started out with my maternal grandparents, Etsie Harris and Wilson Reames.  I researched it all the way back to the Revolutionary War and used many books and documents to complete my application.  After completion, it was submitted to Washington through my current chapter.  

After about 6-8 weeks our chapter was contacted to say that my lineage could not be proven because there was one book that was incorrect and the National DAR in Washington had received paperwork for other applications from the same area and found this particular book "The History of Harris County" by Elisabeth Barfield stated some incorrect information.  I knew that my part in this book was correct because my Big Mother, Etsie Harris (pictured above on the left in my heading) was interviewed by the author as Mrs. Barfield was in her Sunday School class at our church, Rose Hill Baptist in Columbus, Georgia during the 50's and 60's.  My Aunt, Lois Harris Geiger (also pictured above in the fur coat and hat) had told me this story many times and also told me the history as it was also stated in the book. In fact, Aunt Lois (AKA: Nannie) was present for the interview with my Big Mother.  My mother even had a copy of this book in our home as I was growing up.  Well this information was devastating and I was so assured that the information I had submitted was correct and didn't understand why they had denied my application.  

However, something good did come out of that disappointing phone call.  It seemed that when they denied this application, they wanted to approve another line for me that was already proven in the National DAR records.  The one of my father's line, being my paternal grandmother, Ruby Dean Cartledge.  They already had all the information on file there in Washington and sent my approval on that line.  We just had to resubmit another application stating my lineage to Ruby Dean.  And we did and I was inducted into the DAR.  

However, I always vowed that I would prove the lineage to my mom's heritage.  I never have done that; however, I did do a DNA testing out of Houston to see if there was ever someone out there that had a line I belonged to for my maternal side.  One day maybe