Friday, November 29, 2013

Tis the Season Blog Tour!



I am so excited to be a part of the Tis the Season Blog Tour that will begin Monday December 9th and go through Saturday December 14th!

I hope you will join the bloggers listed below as we celebrate the Christmas season together. Across the Way will be on the tour Saturday the 14th, with my part being "Tis the Season -- To Set the Stage."

Monday December 9th Jemma of At Home With Jemma
Monday December 9th Chris of The Cafe Sucre Farine

Tuesday December 10th Poppy of Poppy View

Wednesday December 11th Sherri, Jess and Nel of Red Rose Alley
Wednesday December 11th Patty of Home and Lifestyle Design

Thursday December 12th Melanie of Comfy House
Thursday December 12th Brenda of Cozy Little House

Friday December 13 Melinda of The Refeathered Roost

Saturday December 14th Dewena of Across the Way
Saturday December 14th Kathryn of The Dedicated House


During the month of December I will be writing here about my Christmas Mentor. Yes, I have one. Do you? For some, 1973 is ancient history, but it was when I met Dee Hardie, my Christmas Mentor.

For me, long before there was Martha Stewart there was Dee Hardie, Mrs. Tom Hardie of Thornhill Farm in Maryland. I met her when I bought the 1973 December issue of House & Garden magazine in an article called "How To Make Christmas A Very Special Day." It was to be the first of many meetings over the years, the first of her mentoring me. I still have the tattered pages of that first article.


Timing is everything, so they say, and Dee Hardie showed up in my world just when I needed her the most. When I read her first two sentences, it became my pot of gold at the end of the rainbow:

"Christmas, if you look at a calendar happens all by itself.
But to celebrate Christmas, truly celebrate,
takes direction."
Dee Hardie

It does take some direction to celebrate Christmas, and I finally recognized in 1973 that in our family that direction had to be done by me because R.H. was busy around the clock as we were in the garden center business. He lived and breathed Christmas trees from the day after Thanksgiving through  Christmas Eve.


Over the next decade, in articles in House & Garden and House Beautiful and in her books, Dee Hardie had a lot to teach me because I had a lot to learn. Dee was, is, and always will be my Christmas Mentor. I hope you'll join R.H. and me here at Across the Way in December as I tell you more about what Dee taught me.

And please join Jemma, Chris, Poppy, Sheri and Jess and Nel, Patty, Melanie, Brenda, Melinda, Kathryn and me in the Tis the Season Blog Tour.

It's off with the pumpkins…



And on with the Christmas Season!



12 comments:

  1. Dewena, It will be nice to see everyone's Christmas decor . I hate seeing a pumpkin when it's time for trees. :):) xoxo,Susie

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  2. Oh Dewena, congratulations. What fun to be in a party like that I look forward to seeing your decorated home and those of all your friends. I hope you had an enjoyable time with family yesterday. I love having chris here. We have plenty of snow so we will stick near home today...perhaps a movie downtown and playing cards. Enjoy your day, peg

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  3. Wonderful....I look forward seeing your Christmas decorations!!! :) Marisa

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  4. How fun! I have never heard of Dee Hardie. I am looking forward to learning more.

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  5. Can't wait to see what beautiful and inspiring lessons Miss Dee taught the young housewife and mother, Miss Dewena, back when Christmas was, I believe, quieter and less commercial than it is today. Your first impression of this talented lady was obviously a lasting one, as you are directed by her mastery even today!

    xo
    Poppy

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  6. Looking forward to learning all about Dee Hardie visiting all the bloggers on this tour.

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  7. I have been taking down fall decor today in preparation. I still have pumpkins outside, too!

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  8. A mentor! How wonderful! I think everyone needs a mentor at some point in their life.
    Brenda

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  9. you've done it!
    and so well!
    i cannot wait to spend christmas through december here in your little farmhouse in the valley.
    and to visit all the others too.
    what fun we'll have! XOXO

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  10. Hello friend! I hope your Thanksgiving was wonderful and I will look forward to this! You are such a fun and amazing lady. I am so happy I know you here! Hugs Anne

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  11. What a wonderful post, Dewena!

    The Christmas Tour sounds great.I can't wait to see all the homes.

    We are going on a local tour a week from today. We scouted out the houses yesterday. One of them is an antique log home at the end of a gravel lane. Our kind of spot for sure.

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  12. I just want to sit in your kitchen ( the one that you don't like,. ha ha ha ) and eat the veggies that you guys took pics of the other day.
    But I WOULD really like a cookie or two after the veggies...so I'll be over...I AM assuming that you are baking and RH is photographing while eating them in between? :)

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