Redoing Some Rooms In The House

As I've said before, we're "down sizing" the house a bit. Through the years my hubby has put up with me buying lots of froufrou for this house. We're now getting rid of a lot of it. I recently had a woman in our church ward and her two oldest girls come over and help me get rid of a lot of stuff in the craft room. Having 4 bedrooms in this house only one has a bed in it—ours. The rest were used for offices and craft/sewing rooms. In this stage of our lives the time has come to scale down and redo the rooms. We need at least one bed in one of the other rooms. So that's happening now. When our granddaughter and her family come, our daughter comes or our son comes with his boys we need at least one bed.

I attacked the plant shelves, cleaned them up and put less back up there. Put a few things on craigslist also. Now the time has come to actually take stuff to the thrift stores. A huge desk and credenza, books, etc. I buy very little for this house anymore as it's decorated pretty much as I like and the furniture I buy is Ethan Allen and that lasts a long time.

I'm not one that has to change frequently. When I achieve the look I want and love, why change it? I keep it fresh by moving things around in the rooms or from room to room for a fresh look. I cannot tell you the number of times someone has come to our home after many times before and said, "Oh, I've never seen that before." Well, one reason is because I change things around and two, there is so much "fluff" in this house they don't catch it all at once.
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Hubs and I went to see the movie "American Sniper" and absolutely loved it. In fact, it was showing on all 14 screens of each of the 2 huge cinema complexes in our city and one hour apart. We still had to wait in line to see it. I think it was about one hero's insight into his job. And he was a hero in my book. He was ready to defend my country from evil. When it finished with scenes from his funeral and memorial in a huge stadium in Texas and highway over ramps lined with thousands of people and the freeways lined with thousands of people you could not help but cry. When the movie was over there wasn't a dry eye in that theater and silence was overwhelming. It just caught you in the throat. I've never seen our complex so crowded with people. My heart swelled at the love those people have for our country. So if Hollywood would make more "hero" movies they might make more money as I keep seeing where "American Sniper" is on its way to be an all-time highest grossing war movie. My congratulations to Clint Eastwood and the hero, Chris Kyle. War sure is hell but someone has to protect our country and the Marines, Army, Air Force, Coast Guard and our policemen do a bang up job! My heart will always be with our fighting men.
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Loving this porch.

I visited Pierre Deux in Carmel once and it was a feast for the eyes with all the fabrics they had. This is one of my favorites.

I'm not so sure that sofa would be comfortable to sit on but I love looking at it.

And yes, I love this room.

A bit of purple eye candy.

Those pretty bowls on the middle bottom shelf are what caught my eye.

Don't you just love quaintness in these small towns?

If I ever redo some of my lamps I'm definitely doing this on one of them.

Another one of "my kinda room"!

Beautiful table, setting and seating.

Love these potholders but I never see them anywhere around where I live.

See what you can do with a plain old stool, pink paint, ribbon and upholstery tacks. Voilà.

This is in England, another quaint shop that the British do so well.

Elegance combined with Farmhouse style.

I love this setting but especially the bougainvillea draping over.

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Just Rambling Today

Okay, I’ve been a bit lazy lately.I woke up last Monday in an absolutely euphoric mood. It was odd but I got a lot done with my hubby. Getting back on track is a slow process but it’s happening. What have I been doing? Well, for the most part I’m being a slug watching trashy videos on Netflix on my iPad. I love not having commercials but since we gave up television 20 years ago it’s not something in my life but it truly is great watching old things without any commercials.

I especially like Poirot and Foyle’s War, two British series taking place in the early 40s. The costumes are so much more modest than the modern day movies. I got hooked on Burn Notice. There is so much action and comedy in it I wish there were more to watch. Great series. But Sherlock is absolutely the best series I’ve ever seen. Everything about that series went well, the cinema effects, actors getting along with each other so well, action, the main character being very talented playing a high functioning psycho. Just delightful.
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Then of course the grand girls being here for Thanksgiving and having them be so funny with their antics and sayings was a true delight.

Miss C told her mother that her baby sister is a little nutcracker in the moonlight of her heart. (Where does she come up with this things?!)

Then her mummy saw her crying out in the yard because a bee was chasing her and told her mum that she forgot how to survive.

One day her mum was telling her about dinosaurs because she was interested after I sent her a link for a diorama of the NY museum on dinosaurs. She was fascinated with dinosaurs then so her mum was trying to tell her anything she could about them. I think it got a bit quirky because Miss C then told her mom to “get a grip, Mum. This isn’t funny. It’s about dinosaurs.” She comes up with the strangest things.

Her mum was telling us in her preschool the teachers were telling her that Miss C knew a lot of words. Miss C said, “No, mummy, I have a large vocabulary.” This kid will never have a self esteem problem! :-)

Lately she’s been punctuating her sentences with “don’t you know” every time she tells us something. Sigh…..

Anyway, she’s a delight to us but I think she’s gonna be a handful as a teenager.
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I've been a bit nostalgic lately since we're scaling down the "junk" in our house.

I'm seriously thinking of Ethan Allen and another new chair for our family room.

I've always liked pink and green together, but my favorite color combo is pink and a beautiful shade of yellow such as the yellow in the French settee in the photo above.

One of my best friends would love this room. She's more into traditional decorating.

For being so small I like this kitchen a lot. Perhaps it's the open door to the patio and the pink accessories.

See, eye candy can be real candy also! I'm been chowing down on Mounds bars a lot lately. I have an uncontrollable sweet tooth lately!

I truly like this elevated dining room. The rest of the house must be gorgeous also.

I am ALL about froufrou and netting!!

Another room my friend would like also. Her hubby loves when they go to the woods and rent a cabin. It's the only time he gets rest being the manager of a large store.

I've always had a fondness for this color of blue. Back in the 50s and 60s we called this French Blue.

This looks as if it could be an English home. Comfy and pretty.

What can I say about this beautiful nook in a kitchen? I love the color and the window treatment.

Okay, ladies, it's a gorgeous home but would you really want to clean it or replace the roof when needed?

I have 3 of these tiny birdcages in my home and put flowers in them. One hangs over our garden tub in our bathroom, one in our bedroom and one in our family room hanging in a corner.

I love the colors in that chair and the blue of the leather sofa. I do like to have a leather chair in our home also.

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Back to Blogging

It's been a long while since I've posted a regular blog post but today just felt right. I think I'll be back at least once a week. A lot has happened.

I did another round of physical therapy—fourth time for the same injury in a fall several years ago now. I was exhausted, physically and emotionally and still very emotional and my sweetheart of almost 54 years helps and supports me a lot.

I had a "breakdown" in Costco in July; it was a Friday. I went over with hubby for his eye exam to help drive him home if they dilated his eyes. While he got examined I strolled around for some groceries. I was in one aisle and just felt myself welling up with tears. Immediately I went back to the optical department to wait for hubby. He finished and wanted to shop some so I said okay even though I really didn't want to shop.

In the "syrup" aisle I just stopped and told him I couldn't go on any more. He went over and picked up our last item in the back of the store. A woman in the aisle I was in accidentally dropped an huge gallon of maple syrup all over the floor. That did it for me. I just broke down in tears. Hubby got me out of the store. I cried all the way home, went right into our bedroom and sobbed and slept until Monday, 3 days. It's been an uphill battle since then. I'm much better now, but my neighbor is a licensed social worker and referred me to someone who would be good for me. She knew I needed someone "neutral."

So I had more PT with another therapist and that did better than all 3 times with the former therapist. I finally got an MRI and there was spinal stenosis and nerve damage and my left hamstring is atrophying. I'm still doing the exercises but at home now. But I've had a great friend who has helped me along and I love her to pieces. She definitely understands as she has depression also. I can deal with it but it's harder in my 70s than the small bout I had in my 40s when we decided to leave California and move to Idaho.
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This is my 2 year old great granddaughter, Miss J. She has her own style and insists on dressing like this now and even going to daycare, this is the outfit. You can see she loves glitz and glam. She takes after her Nana, which is what my grand kids and great grand kids call me.

We're calling this style "Dollar Store Chic" as just about everything she has on came from our local dollar store. I think they went there 5 times while they were here. It was their favorite place to go and went there 3 times in one day!

Yep, got her cowgirl hat on backwards and unhappy she isn't getting her way.

Sunglasses are accessories to ALL the girls in this family. We never go out without them. Notice she even has on 2 different shoes. Her favorite thing right now is shoes, even if the hand-me-downs from her sister are too big. Th' girl has style AND attitude! Just like the rest of the girls in the family.

Spaghetti is her favorite meal, along with raspberries.

This is big sister, Miss C. She's also a pip!

This is Christmas day. My granddaughter, their mother, said they unwrapped presents all day. They believe in "overdoing"! But I called them that night and they were still unwrapping Christmas presents.

This is the bonus room and it is stacked wall to wall with toys and shelves holding toys. This is a "clean" room day. Most days you cannot get through it for the toys on the floor.

This is her big sister on Halloween. I have no idea what the costume is. But it's Miss C's style also.

The kitchen cabinets were painted white over Thanksgiving so they came over here to visit us as the paint is oil-based and odorous and they had to leave the house. The light you see in the upper right hand corner is gorgeous. They have 2 lights over the island and they're crystals. I lost my breath the first time I saw them. I'd love to have them in my kitchen but we have vaulted ceilings and it would be a chore trying to change from the recessed ones we have. They are truly breathtaking in their kitchen.

I love this room. Just cozy and a great room for company. I'd add pink of course.

An adorable porch. Love the chairs but I'm sure they'd get dusty in this area.

Another sofa and chairs I adore. Just a glamorous room and I love glam.

I'm not fond of the natural color of wood. I prefer white but this is gorgeous. Some people won't paint wood. I'm NOT one of those people. If it's too dark I paint it! Wood is not sacrosanct in my book. But this room is beautiful with lots of light.

If I had this kitchen I just might cook more but we know how I feel about cooking every day. Not for me.

I also love this sweet entry area. It's welcoming as most entries should be.

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