My husband and I won the "Lucky You" award today! We had these three young students for lunch and the weather was just too perrrrrrfect to waste indoors. We settled around one table outside on the deck.
No Applause please ~ it was soooooo easy. Just grabbed some 'unmatched' and too small tablecloths from my stash, overlapped to pretend they were the perfect size-pulled down one of my favorite teapots [ western Kentucky/Hawesville ] The flower bed alongside the patio conveniently provided an abundance of yellow and purple blooms to fill that teapot then all we had to do was fan away the 'natural beauties' [insects] ..carpenter Bees and something that was harmless but looked a bit like yellow jackets. Nooooo problem, don't panic, they were only interested in the pollen laden blooms,not us.Nothing more needed for decor after laying out the multiple colors of Fiesta dishes. Our meal was simple- the "crowd size" recipe of homemade Chili, [some for the freezer] homemade cornbread- a little fresh green salad and ended the meal with a homemade Pecan Chess Pie topped with [fresh!] whipped creme. [You can applaud now-I made two so there's a spare on hand to share with someone.]
Our three new friends were Troy University students -one American/southerner & two Chinese. Kolby the American student provided transportation and helped when I had trouble communicating clearly with our precious guests from China.
One of the girls..I think it was Liao came bouncing in the Kitchen after doing the "free house tour" and in that bubbly vivacious adorable way she has delivered her opinion of our house. She said "I really like your house-it feels like a HOME."
Liao, thank you sweetheart-that was a priceless compliment and I will treasure it. That is after all what we decorators, designers, stagers, bloggers and Moms are trying to do isn't it- Make our house a Home~I found myself wishing I had a better 'ear' for their language-it makes me feel badly thinking that they may have not understood things I tried to communicate. I have much room for improvement.
We and our guests made an effort to share things about ourselves, our families and life experience and in the process we learned that a normal size family in China is one or at most two children in a family. Liao told us she felt very lucky to have a brother and Queenie is an only Child. Liao shared with us that her father and her brother work for the Railroad and her mother was a stay at home Mom and she obviously took pride in that-fully understanding the value of the work and sacrifices her Mother made to do this. Queenie's Mother was a fashion designer [if I understood correctly] and [in her early 50's] is now retired. I must double check to find out what her father's work was [ooops I forget so quickly] Our American visitor, Kolby has roots in the deep south-Alabama and Georgia as the Harrisons do and she comes from a blended family of 6 siblings.
I hope the girls will accept an invitation for some local informational tours about the area or perhaps girly things like checking out the local, Troy and Brundidge shops. S.H.O.P.P.I.N.G Thank you ladies for so generously enlightening and trying to educate us It was a joy having you and with our exchange of all our network connections [facebook,email,blog] we can expect to keep in touch
Note: Thanks to our church's [FBC-Troy,Al] participation in an effort to make International students welcome in the homes in our community- easy to do. Just volunteer, prepare a meal and expect to be blessed-we certainly were.
Looking Forward-
Jonell
No Applause please ~ it was soooooo easy. Just grabbed some 'unmatched' and too small tablecloths from my stash, overlapped to pretend they were the perfect size-pulled down one of my favorite teapots [ western Kentucky/Hawesville ] The flower bed alongside the patio conveniently provided an abundance of yellow and purple blooms to fill that teapot then all we had to do was fan away the 'natural beauties' [insects] ..carpenter Bees and something that was harmless but looked a bit like yellow jackets. Nooooo problem, don't panic, they were only interested in the pollen laden blooms,not us.Nothing more needed for decor after laying out the multiple colors of Fiesta dishes. Our meal was simple- the "crowd size" recipe of homemade Chili, [some for the freezer] homemade cornbread- a little fresh green salad and ended the meal with a homemade Pecan Chess Pie topped with [fresh!] whipped creme. [You can applaud now-I made two so there's a spare on hand to share with someone.]
Our three new friends were Troy University students -one American/southerner & two Chinese. Kolby the American student provided transportation and helped when I had trouble communicating clearly with our precious guests from China.
One of the girls..I think it was Liao came bouncing in the Kitchen after doing the "free house tour" and in that bubbly vivacious adorable way she has delivered her opinion of our house. She said "I really like your house-it feels like a HOME."
Liao, thank you sweetheart-that was a priceless compliment and I will treasure it. That is after all what we decorators, designers, stagers, bloggers and Moms are trying to do isn't it- Make our house a Home~I found myself wishing I had a better 'ear' for their language-it makes me feel badly thinking that they may have not understood things I tried to communicate. I have much room for improvement.
We and our guests made an effort to share things about ourselves, our families and life experience and in the process we learned that a normal size family in China is one or at most two children in a family. Liao told us she felt very lucky to have a brother and Queenie is an only Child. Liao shared with us that her father and her brother work for the Railroad and her mother was a stay at home Mom and she obviously took pride in that-fully understanding the value of the work and sacrifices her Mother made to do this. Queenie's Mother was a fashion designer [if I understood correctly] and [in her early 50's] is now retired. I must double check to find out what her father's work was [ooops I forget so quickly] Our American visitor, Kolby has roots in the deep south-Alabama and Georgia as the Harrisons do and she comes from a blended family of 6 siblings.
I hope the girls will accept an invitation for some local informational tours about the area or perhaps girly things like checking out the local, Troy and Brundidge shops. S.H.O.P.P.I.N.G Thank you ladies for so generously enlightening and trying to educate us It was a joy having you and with our exchange of all our network connections [facebook,email,blog] we can expect to keep in touch
Note: Thanks to our church's [FBC-Troy,Al] participation in an effort to make International students welcome in the homes in our community- easy to do. Just volunteer, prepare a meal and expect to be blessed-we certainly were.
Looking Forward-
Jonell
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