Soliloquy

I try to always start with something beautiful—eye candy—for you and this time isn't any different. I love the vibrant pink of this big pompom hanging in the corner of my office behind me to my left. It cheers me whenever I walk into this office.

Just a beautiful roses print I have in my home.

What I'm working on today. Do you think you know what it is? Easy guess I'd think. ;-)
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Are there times when I long for the times of my youth? I think to myself yes of course there are but they are very infrequent. I love being this age, don't I? But at this period of my life, youth is relative. I think now of 45 as my youthful years also. I now whisper to friends who are in their 30s that the best is yet to be and it is. The wisdom of age overtakes the foolishness of youth.

I sit in my chair in the living room with the bright light there for reading a good book, which has been a pleasure of mine for many years, and look at the dry spotted hands of my old age and think of the youthful ones that hubby grasped so tightly and lovingly on our wedding day.

My step is still as sprightly as it always was. I notice a wee difference but I doubt it's noticeable to anyone else. Is it, Connie? I think this is true.

My eyes have always been the same vibrant shade of green and haven't lessened with the passing years, which is prevalent with those of my generation. I've always thought the eyes are not only windows to my soul, but always gave away how I think of something. I am also more than willing to espouse my views on things as hubby, relatives and friends know.

The wrinkles are increasing but my 31 year old granddaughter calls them dimples and is quite serious about it, and I assure myself they are not. I love her for thinking that way about me though.

I've never been a beauty, although hubby would differ on my opinion. (I'm only being honest with myself here.) At best, I've been "attractive" or in other words people are attracted to me. I've never given it much thought; I've just noticed how people will look at me. My presence is commanding as one person told me many years ago. I'm not imperious for I don't want to lead. I'd rather just drift along. I realized this many years ago when I took sailing lessons and one day I had to captain the sailboat with the other students. I hated it. I'd much rather be a sailor than the captain. Too much responsibility for me I guess.

Am I becoming melancholy lately? Probably so but there are and have been things to make me melancholy lately. Another year is coming to an end and there are more behind me than will be in my future.

I now have to pluck my eyebrows less frequently and they are becoming more gray/white than ash brown. So I wish for more hair there and less on my chin that I have to pluck. Sigh...

My feet have grown from an 8 1/2 medium 20 years ago to a 9 1/2 wide. And oh, how I miss the leg flattering high heels, but to walk in them now is just too hard to do. I wonder if my great granddaughter, Caroline, will see the wisdom in 1" heels instead of 3" heels. I sure do hope so for her sake.

I see her lovely, sweet fresh-faced beauty and realize she came not just from her mummy and my daughter, but from me and hubs also. Oooh, how sweet the feeling is to see her and hold her little face in my hands. To kiss that sweet little face, lips and even the drool is wondrous to me. I can never tire of kissing her and those little dimpled hands that will look like mine someday. Her feet are so small, her toes little nubs, the arches curling like banana peels as she pulls her knees to her little chest. I hope she remembers us fondly in her later years.

I think now of young motherhood as something I wish I could do over and do differently. Holding my sweet babies when they're fresh from heaven was one of the true joys I've experienced. But holding my love of 50 years is even a greater joy than that. He is my soul mate and my eternal companion. I need to treat him better than I do sometimes because he's so special and loves me so. I need to heed this advice! My heart is so full of love for him that I still get a thrill when I hear the door open and he enters the house and my heart. A kiss is always on his lips for me.

I wonder why my son and my daughter see me differently. This was brought to reality for me 20+ years ago when I voiced it to a friend and truly astounded me when I recognized it, but I think I've always known it to be true. I always try to be honest with myself. I think I am.

What would I say to younger women I wonder? I think the best advice I can give is to enjoy each decade that comes along. I've never regretted any decade but truly think the 40s are the best years of life. I looked great, was in great shape and had a bit of wisdom, some of which I didn't use wisely. But with a faith in God, a hope of things to come and charity, of which I need a whole lot more, I think I'll be just fine. I certainly pray I am.
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Last Year's Christmas

If you've followed or read me since last Christmas, you've seen my first froufrou tree. We don't do Christmas anymore because there isn't one thing in this world I need and I have very few wants. Well, to be perfectly honest, I have a lot of wants; it's just that I've learned to bridle my wants and desires. Nothing in this world or out of this world compares to my hubby, kids or grandchildren or great grandchildren. They are what life is all about.

Hubby and I don't exchange gifts anymore. We buy for our youngest grandkids and will now buy for Caroline, our great granddaughter, but we've talked with our son and daughter and told them not to buy us anything. We don't need it! But once in a while when our daughter comes to visit I'll buy her a box of Good and Plenty and that's her gift. You have no idea how freeing it is. Being Christian, we celebrate it in church and during the day on Christmas but there isn't the need for us to buy gifts. We don't have the hustle and bustle others go through and at our age that's very important to us. So the season is very easy for us. We do have a Christmas dinner however. Love Bunny won't let me get around that. ;-)

So last year's photos are below for you to see. I just had a little Canon point and shoot back then so the pix aren't very good. But this year I hope to be able to do better photos with the Canon Rebel I got in February of this year. And when I do get it up, I'll photograph it for all to see. Our artificial tree is green and I don't know if I can talk hubby into a white one, but I'm gonna try! Again, we'll see. [Update! Since I wrote this blog post the very end of November, hubby insisted I buy a white tree. Squeeeeeal, I couldn't believe it. The other night we were at WM and he actually mentioned buying it. I am just thrilled. Now we have 2 choices each Christmas—white or green.] And since we downsized we have to move furniture in the living room around since hubby wants it by the front window. Sigh...

If you'll recall, I spent several weeks making, painting and buying pink and white things for this tree. Yards and yards and yards of tulle went into it. Flowers galore were purchased and hung on it. Gifts people have sent me went on it.

I later put some pretty boxes under it to look like presents, but they were all for show. There were NO real presents under it.

And I ended up making this little topper for it. It will go back on the tree again.

Merry Christmas and may your holiday season be wonderful and filled with love and the Spirit of Christmas. Ooooh, and since I'm feeling a lot better, I'll be posting more now. Aren't you just thrilled?! :-)
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Red, White and Blue Gloriously Displayed for Pink Saturday 12/4/10

Welcome to Pink Saturday and a thank you to Beverly of How Sweet the Sound for hosting it. Just click on the logo below to go visit all the participants.

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Do any of you know what it's like to be posting all these scans of photos from the Ethan Allen Treasury of American Home Interiors? I have to scan, edit, PhotoShop them—which I don't do as fastidiously as I wanted for lack of time, and then upload them to Photobucket, which just went through a transition and took me a while to get used to the new version. Can I have a cheer? Please!

These books used to cost $14.95 about 10 years ago, but they were free if you went in and looked around and showed an interest in purchasing something, which I did. But I got such great ideas from them, plus you all know how much I love eye candy. These decorating ideas are timeless. BTW, I don't get a cent from Ethan Allen for promoting their products. I just love their furniture.

Now, there's an aside to this post. My daughter was lamenting to me the other day on the phone about her family room sofa. She bought it as Sofas, Inc. or some inexpensive generic store several years ago and her animals have trashed it. I can barely sit on it because it's so broken down, but she had refused to replace it for the animals to just trash another one. ??? So she was lamenting about the lack of pretty fitted slipcovers. (Trust me, I don't know why frugality is taking over now; it's NOT an issue.) I recommended to her to go to Ethen Allen and look at the quality of their furniture. She got her Rachel Ashwell living room sofa at Layla Grace about 5 years ago and loves it and it looks like good quality, but it doesn't even compare to EA.

Anyway, I told her about the blog posts I'm doing on EA here and recommended she visit one of their stores in the SF Bay Area, where she lives. She mentioned Ikea, which is an inexpensive store, and their sofas are not the best quality. It's more for college students and people just starting out really. Good enough but not great. Now, I've raised this kid and she knows my stuff and my standards on certain things. She mentioned Pottery Barn. I told her that's a couple of steps up from Ikea, but better value can be had at other furniture shops in her area; after all, I lived there and know what the stores are like. So instead of following her mother's advice, she orders a sofa and 2 chairs and the 3 slipcovers from PB. Now, don't get me wrong; it's good but not the best. So much for a mother's recommendation.

As I've said before, I love red in all its value, pink especially. I think this room is stunning.

It's kind of funny but the tulips are what drew me to show you this room. Oh, I do like the room and the furniture, but I prefer skirts on my sofas.

Notice this bedroom has 3 different kinds of stripes on the bedcoverings.

This is a variation on my own sofa I've had for 15 years. The only difference are the pillows. These are "knife-edged" and mine are rounder and softer.

Again, the harlequin rug drew me to this room along with the red walls. Red is just such a commanding color.

Same sofa as the white one 2 photos above but with a different fabric.

This is one of my favorite rooms. I once considered painting my walls yellow, but pink won out many years ago; although, I did paint my bedroom in California yellow once but it was a snap decision brought about by hubby demanding I make up my mind at the paint store quickly. I hated that hue for a couple of years and then painted it another color. Just wasn't exactly like I wanted and got rushed. Never, ever again!!!

Can we say fantastic?! I could live in this bedroom. I love it, more specifically the bed coverings and textiles in the room. I'd love to have the exact same linens for our bed but it's not happening because I know they'd be too expensive and hubby would cry...a LOT...maybe even divorce me. But they are gorgeous!!!!

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How to Acquire Food Storage

Last year at this time I was trying to figure out what would go prettily on a plant shelf in my living room and would be suited for all seasons since I'm just too old and lazy to decorate with the seasons. I'd rather do other things if possible. So I bought a large vase/urn and started painting things pink to put in it. It has branches, cards, watches, ribbons, beautiful things my group has made me or things I've made and a sweet tutu-ed ballerina on the top. Just a froufrou tree in silver and pink and red.

The ballerina is the tree topper but can't be seen very well from down on the floor.

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The snowstorm we had recently is one reason to have food storage. Oh, we also have a generator so if power goes out we'll be fine. But with dried milk we don't even have to worry about anything but fresh salads. We have it all in case of power outage due to snow, ice storms, or anything like that. We're not in a flood zone so not much need to worry about that.

There is no hard way to get food storage; it's all easy. While it looks daunting, it isn't. It can be done. You just have to do it.

What I first started doing is putting the date on the food cans and containers we bought, on the lids we'd put 5/08 or 8/09 or 11/10. But rotate them. I've had to throw out some things because they were so old as to be inedible. Tomatoes are one thing that will deteriorate in a can. I had an explosion in one house because I had not noticed that the can was "rounding" at the top. Tomato sauce all over a certain section of our garage. Not pretty.

On boxes of soap, detergent, fabric softener, I'd put the actual date I purchased it and then when I started using it, I'd put that date to let me know how long it lasted. So if it took me 6 months to use the detergent then I knew I needed 2 boxes, but I'll usually have 3 big boxes on hand. I'm compulsive about it. (There are too many stories from friends about losing jobs and having to live off of food storage or having some of it destroyed in a basement flood. I'm one of those who lost a good part of it in a flood but it didn't take long at all to get it back up to where I needed it.) Buy cans that are on sale but be sure and check the "close date" so they won't be beyond that date before you eat them. I don't ever buy just one can of corn or beans. I buy 8-12 at a time. Just figure out how many cans you'll need for a week or month and multiply that for a year's supply. Don't just depend on pantry items, get freezer items also. I recommend vacuum sealing HIGHLY!!! Foods vacuum sealed in the freezer can last for years with absolutely NO deterioration.

Start collecting soda pop bottles to put water in if you can't get a water storage tank like I have. Just put some aside. Start with a 3 day supply and work up. It's all up to you. Personally, I don't want to risk being without food.

Dried foods also. I have dried carrots, onions, beef jerky, etc. Those work well. You can buy a lot of stuff from LDS canneries. They will sell to anyone! If you have one near you, go and purchase.

Our church recommends the basics for life: wheat, rice, corn, oil, sugar, pinto beans, rolled oats, pasta, potato flakes, apple slices, non-fat dehydrated milk and carrots. Every single one of those items can be stored for 30+ years with no deterioration in food value. Those are the necessities, but I prefer normal food so I have it all stored.

This is a sheet of what we use. I created it as a spread sheet and just put all the items we use on it. We simply went through our cabinets and marked down just about everything in there. Yes, this takes a bit of time but it is well worth it to see where you stand with your food storage. BTW, if anyone would like this inventory, just email me from the address on the sidebar and I'll zap it over to you. That way it's already done for you and you can add or cross off anything that doesn't apply to you. I'd be happy to do it for you. It's 5 pages total. You can just print it off for your own use.
Storage in a bedroom closet with the food storage list hanging on the right side.

Another pantry closet in the laundry room. Some items will go in here soon. I've been rearranging things to make more room for the food.

One shelf is for my painting and cleaning supplies and two shelves will be for food.

We keep the dried carrots, onions, soap, detergents, bleach, etc. out here.


You can store under your bed, but we bought those risers to raise it up enough to put cans under there.

Two bags of potato flakes are under there along with candles, which would melt outside in our summer heat.

Kitchen pantry where I normally keep a good supply on hand.



Candy is essential for periods of stress also, but you can use it to bargain if the need ever arises.

Please understand: we are NOT survivalists, just realists. Hard times are coming. Prices will go up. Food shortages are predicted. You may lose your job or source of income. We just like being prepared. If you do nothing, then you'll suffer the consequences when you could have been prepared. Our church leaders encourage us to be prepared temporally, spiritually and financially. We try to be good Christians by following their advice.
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What We Woke Up To This Morning

It's a beautiful snowy day here. Snowed about 8", hubs went out to shovel at 8 am and at noon we had the sidewalk and driveway packed with another 2". It was grand. Of course, I'm not going out in it. I think I need to buy hubs a snow blower, but not today.

I call this photo "Roses in the Snow." It's just your eye candy for the day. I'll have more soon but I'm so caught up in reading I haven't been doing much crafting lately, which is weird but I'm just being lazy. :-)

This little sachet was a gift several years ago. It kept its rose fragrance for a very, very long time. I've kept it and scented it again with rose fragrance and just can't throw something so gorgeous away.

Cream of Wheat! Tasted scrumptious when lots of sweetener and butter in it.

More snow on this later photo than the earlier one below. Looks like a snow cake.

This shot does NOT show off his bum to full effect. He's got a great bum but those insulated coveralls make him look like an old man.

Do ya see those huge flakes?

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