2nd Annual Spoon River in a Box = Delightful!

My incredibly sweet and thoughtful cousin Biz that lives in Illinois sent me a 'Second Annual Spoon River in a Box' that arrived yesterday.....each and every bit of thoughtfulness is loved and appreciated.....I wrote before about Spoon River, a fall event in Southern Illinois where all these little towns near the river on the same weekend hold festivals and people drive on several different routes enjoying shopping and eating and the beauty of the fall colors and goodies for sale and enjoy seeing friends and the crisp lovely feeling of fall.....you see Amish young people meeting up and Quaker ladies selling beautiful mums and elders that carve walking sticks, farmer that bring trailer full of colorful gourds and each stop has their own food special and they are all good! How Biz can capture all that in a box and send it to me amazes me, but when I open it I can see it, feel it and share it with her.....I was lucky enough once to go with her and I hope next year I can be right beside her to share this together!

This years box: The most precious bunch of Bittersweet, an incredible hand painted square by a local artist, Kettle Corn from the Shed (Steve made quick work of this!), Pecan Brittle from the sweet ladies at the Methodist Church, a huge Sycamore leaf from the banks of the Spoon River at one of my most favorite stops (Bernadotte), a corn husk, an incredible quilted square, most likely done by some Amish lady, and two most adorable hand painted ornamental pumpkins from Bishop Hills for my boys....

Close up of the bittersweet - I just love this....bittersweet represents 'truth' and that is why I named my Blog after it....in Victorian times the children would bring it to their teachers once the 1st frost turned the little buds to this beautiful crimson...it just makes you feel good to look at it!

Close up of the hand painted ornamental pumpkins, so much detail, ghosts, witches, trees, cats - what a talent!






So I put the leaf and the corn husk into my fall table centerpiece

....and this lovely bunch of bittersweet on my fireplace grate

The quilt square goes perfectly on my grandmothers dresser in the guest room with my cranberry glass!

THANK YOU BIZ - you are so thoughtful, so kind and I miss you so much. You touched my heart and brought so many wonderful memories fresh to my mind. I so appreciate your random acts of kindness. I hope everyone has a cousin/friend like you.