Happy New Year's Eve - a new year and a new name... again!

Well, I seem to always find myself coming back to writing.

During the process of starting this blog, Blogger (the publishing platform I use) kindly told me I've been a publishing member since 2007. Twelve years! I can't believe it. I've been away most of that time but now I'm back with a slightly modified vision.

At first, I published under the name Eclectic Entertaining. I do love home entertaining. I host everything from family dinners to alumni receptions for our schools to bridal showers for young friends to 70th birthday parties (for 70 people!) for my in-laws in my home. I've always entertained at home. Southerners do love a party and that can be accomplished at a restaurant or venue but the essence of true Southern entertaining takes place at home, with food prepared by one's own hands.

But even back then, I found myself wanting to talk about more than just entertaining. I've always loved old things. Heck, I live with a house full of old things: furniture and portraits and decor, inherited from previous generations. Some are precious and some are mundane. I treasure them all, truly, alike. And so I moved, slightly, in my publishing footprint and rebranded as Eclectic Etcetera. Yes, I realize it's a pretty silly name. I guess I wanted to stick with the alliteration. I began posting about the things I love: furniture found at antique malls, antique linen towels, gardens, and posts like this one where I talk about how I used to feed my own babies off of antique baby bowls and cups.

Now I'm back, once again, and the footprint has moved just a bit more. I'm really still the same person, though. I still love these snapshots of what I think of as a Southern aesthetic: bowls of pecans sitting out on a coffee table with a nutcracker; antique French towels in the bathroom; Grandmother's cast iron skillet collection, used for roux and cornbread and biscuits. Why buy something new when something old will do? That post from eleven years ago about fabric mangles is still very me. I still love to press my antique linens and I spend time thinking about how to clean them and preserve them.

And one day I'll get that mangle.

I hope you will also come find me on YouTube! I have several "how to" videos on topics such as cleaning antique linens and entertaining at home.