FINDING INSPIRATION

Happy Saturday!  I hope it's a good one for you so far.  It's gloomy and muggy here and I think we have thunderstorms coming any minute (of course I just watered the lawn).  But we had a wonderful week weather~wise here, just perfect, mild fall weather.  Our trees are being very stubborn about changing colors, but I had to pause and smile when I went to let the dogs out in the backyard yesterday.  Through the window I could see the leaves fluttering very slowly and gently from the walnut trees.  It was like December, seeing the first soft snowfall.  So pretty!

I picked up a little something for Milo and Layla to wear for Halloween.  They hate it, of course (kids!).  Actually, Layla's is like a little jester's collar and is made for a cat!  Milo likes to be "chill".   I really don't dress them, someone gave me a sweater that I put on Layla on the coldest of days.  Now, if I could knit...

I mentioned my spring bulbs came and I was getting a little anxious as the week went on.  For some reason my asthma kicked in and I was getting breathless doing the smallest of things.  I had to really step back and slow down.  In my mind, the work I have to do outside is weighing on my mind the most because I feel November approaching fast and the last thing you want to be doing is planting or moving summer furniture when the cold wind is whipping in your face and your fingers are frozen.  "What the heck was I doing last month?" running over and over in your head.  Today I opened the box to see that it's only a partial order so I felt okay...15 minutes tops, if I do it before the rain.

I gave The Husband a little tour of the grounds last week (he was impressed!), but I had a bit of a hard time remembering which plants were which.  Very few are blooming and none of them are very big.  I found this little book in with my gardening books, it's pretty old and I never used it.  I sat down and listed my plants and all the little details.

There are also a few pages for diagrams that I can work on next.  Very handy.  Once a journal lover, always a journal lover!

Okay, on to some good stuff.  I'm still making tweaks and changes in the master bedroom.  The duvet came so yesterday I washed my down comforter and I need to sew some ties on each corner.  The duvet has them and this will make the comforter lay better in the duvet without moving around and bunching up.  Anywhoo, I was still at a loss for what else I wanted to do to add some character, to add some "Me" to this room.  I needed color, I needed pattern, I needed texture.  I spent one evening going through this book by Cabbages & Roses founder Christina Strutt.  I was totally enchanted and inspired seeing the light handed touches of color and florals bringing simple rooms to life.  I felt myself sigh, not for having found something new to me, but for rediscovering elements that I've loved all along.  All of the rooms in my home have gone off in their own direction it seems.  The underlying cohesiveness is that these rooms are comfortable, cozy and livable, and they are filled with pieces I love and treasure. 

The plate racks that I painted...I was going to bring them up to the lakehouse, then I had a vision.  I went through a few stacks of mismatched china that I keep in the den and pulled out pieces that spoke to me; small patterns, chintz's, delicate pops of red and blue.  I think it gives a decidedly feminine touch to the room and a bit of the old cottage look I love.  I hope that I can continue to play along these lines with the little bit I have yet to do.  I'll give you close ups when I'm totally done with the room, but in the meantime you can right click the picture to enlarge it.  Oh, the lamp is driving me crazy, but we need it to read.  I actually like the base with the crystals, I just want to find a different shade.

Remember this wretched looking excuse for a vanity bench I showed you a few weeks ago? 

Ta Da!  I recovered it the other day.  How does it look?  I found the fabric, a simple cotton with light brown flecks at Joann's for less than $10.00.  I bought the foam there as well.  It all went surprisingly smoothly, I'm just wondering if I should have trimmed the edges of the foam so that I didn't have such a "sheet cake" look?  I am pretty pleased with myself as I don't sew and I never in a million years would have that I could recover this if I hadn't seen it done in Blogland.  

We have a simple weekend planned, or you might say no plans at all!  I haven't forgotten about making that pie...I'm going to "tackle" it again when The Husband is watching the Bears game tomorrow!

One other thing, while I've been a little slow getting around to visit all of you, I was really surprised when I received a few emails from some blogging friends wondering where I've been, if we were still friends...I felt terrible.  I looked into it by going to their blogs and I found I was no longer on their list of Followers, so, they weren't coming up on my blogroll.  I checked out a few other blogs I normally see pretty often and hadn't and sure enough, not following.  I have no idea how this has happened, but I want you to be honest and speak up in the comment section of this post and let me know if you've been wondering why I haven't visited your blog.  This could be the problem and I can then pop over and re~follow.  Thanks so much.

Have a great weekend everyone! :)

Joining in with Brenda at Cozy Little House for Tweak It Tuesday

XO,

Jane