Spring to Summer in One Week

Well, I can't believe a week has gone by since I last wrote.  I hate when that happens!  In that week we've gone straight from a few days of Spring right into the hot and humid days of a Northeast summer!  I'm not complaining!  I'm just sayin'!  This is the weather I love.  It's been about 75 degrees first thing in the morning, which makes it so nice to sit out on the deck early in the morning drinking my first cup of coffee.

This is where I sit. My color scheme on my deck, obviously, is red, yellow and black 

This is my view

 I can also tell summer is here because my "rockin pneumonia and boogy woogy flu" has now made way for allergies, complete with sneezing, itchy eyes, stuffy nose and headache.  Oh well - just taking different pills!

Last Memorial weekend was just beautiful!  Hubby (unwillingly) helped me work outside for the weekend to get the yard and gardens in order.  And when I say help, that's what I mean.  He'll do what I ask, but with a little growl! He would never think of what needs done on his own.   Why does he think this is unnecessary work?  Being the organized person I am, I knew with our schedule that we had to get as much done last weekend as we could.  Every weekend up until the 4th of July is booked.  Then the weekend of the 4th we're having a party.  Planning ahead and scheduling is the only way to do all this.  I would prefer to not be quite so busy myself, but that's just the way our life is right now.

I still have quite a bit to do, but I feel much better with this good start.  More flowers will be added, weeds will continually be pulled, and a few more old leaves and sticks need to be picked up.
My little garden in front of and under my deck is coming along.

This garden is mostly white, pink, and some purple.  The green bench back against the wall is going to be painted white.  The purple cat nip is now blooming, along with the chives and some lavender.  My pink roses  and the other pink flowers haven't bloomed yet.  I'm no master gardener and there is a lot of trial and error, but I keep at it every year.  We have such a huge deer population so I need to plant deer resistant perennials. Then just when you think you've only planted what the deer don't like, they come along and eat it!  I have to keep all (or most) annuals up on the top deck or hanging high enough so deer can't get to it.
These "angel wing begonias" I just found at the farm market.  I've never seen them before.

The impatient I just got today.

Then I found this cute little wall hanging at JoAnn's at 50% off today.

My perennial garden beside my shed always looks a little wild.  But I kind of like it like that.  Deer can really flock to this place in the middle of the night, so it's very difficult to grow.

Not too much is blooming here yet.  The purple ajuga ground cover has bloomed and is now about ready to be cut down.  The purple irises are just now blooming.

 I have butterfly bushes that are coming up but won't bloom for a while.  Out growing season comes late and doesn't last long.  The chiminea we had for years on our deck, but after so many years it started to disintegrate, so Hubby stuck it in the garden.  I kind of like it there.  I'll stick some flowers in it later.

My seating area by the lake still needs cleaned up, but I at least got the furniture cleaned off from winter grime.  Fresh coats of pink and blue paint have been applied where needed.  Pink and blue is my color scheme for this area.

I had this old bird cage that was getting very rusty, so I decided to just paint it pink, too.

I love this sitting area in the evening with a glass of wine and when the kids are here we'll roast marchmallows and make smores.  They'll be here Saturday night, so that's exactly what's on the schedule as long as it doesn't rain!

Linking to Cindy's Show and Tell Friday 
and Alison's Fridays Unfolded

My Favorite Room

I have three rooms that I consider my favorites:  My sewing room, my loft and my tea room.  I consider these rooms my favorites because they are the only rooms in the house that I decorated the way I wanted, without any thought of it being too feminine for my husband.

I'm showing my tea room today only because the other two need a little cleaning and straightening first.  They are not photo ready!  I've shown my tea room before at Christmas time here.

Here's my very "me", froo-froo, feminine, room in the Spring.

Notice the little chandelier above the piano.  You all know how I love chandeliers.  The piano is at least 60 years old, passed down to my mother from my grandmother, and then down to me.  We've all taken piano lessons on this same piano, including my two sons when they were young.

The fainting couch was given to us by my sister-in-law.  She had it re-done and it's very old and beautiful.  The arms come down so that it lays flat.  When SIL was re-decorating her home she no longer had a place for this and knew it would go perfect in my room.

I have a small collection of red transfer-ware plates.  Some are hidden in a cupboard, but I love to see these hanging on the wall.  The small counted cross stitch quilt  of a piano next to them I made several years ago.

A hanging cupboard holds tea cups, a miniature crystal collection, and a Maude Humphrey collection.  The little purse necklace hanging on the door I knit from crochet string and beads.

This cupboard holds more teacups.  My better ones.  I also have a small collection of antique fan and floral vases.  The pillow on the floor is a cross stitch that I made.

More tea cups on the tea cart, along with a pewter coffee service that was given to us as a wedding gift by my cousin almost 32 years ago now.  Those rhododendron bushes in front of the window are almost ready to pop open and will be a beautiful purple any day now.  I'll get a picture of that when it happens.  It's so pretty, but they just don't last very long.

I made this tiny little Tea for Two quilt that sits on the tea cart.  My mother decorated the old antique silver spoon sitting next to it.

Now I need to get my other two girly rooms cleaned up and ready for their photo shoot.  Keep checking in.  My darling loft has yet to make it's pictorial debut.

Linked today to Show Off Your Cottage Monday
The Plumed Pen's Tuesday's Tea for Two
Lady Katherine's Tea Time Tuesday
Martha and Terri's Tea Cup Tuesday
A beach Cottage - Good Life Wednesday

Powder Room Reveal

Here it is!  It's done!  Well, almost.  The side splash to the vanity top isn't in yet, but I tried to camouflage  it with a plant for now.
This remodel came with it's share of frustrations, as most remodels do.  From the huge hole in the wall behind the old light fixture to the plumbing pipe that had fallen down through a large hole in the bottom of the cabinet and into the floor.  You notice all the shortcuts taken by builders when you take on a job like this.
Hubby became very frustrated over these things because he insisted on doing the work himself.  My frustration came when I would ask him if I could call someone, such as a professional electrician and plumber.  His response to me would always be, "I can do this myself!".  O.K., O.K. but is it worth all this frustration?  Well, I now must say, he did a great job.  Much better than the original builders!
I showed the before pictures in a post several weeks ago, but I need to show them now next to the "afters".

Here's the "before" bathroom.  Not horrible, but very basic and low grade building materials.  Notice the solid green walls.

After:

The marble top, copper vessel bowl, faucet, toilet paper holder and towel ring were all ordered through Lowe's.  They were very helpful and knew their stuff.

Before:

After:

The Tuscan wash paint and murals were done by a professional painter/artist friend of mine.  As you can see, I didn't want to go with a basic bathroom light fixture.  I saw this little rusted metal chandelier and fell in love with it.  I already had the mirror and little "powder room" plaque.

Here was the big hole left behind the old fixture.  This was partway through the drywall patching that Hubby had to do.  It was just one big hole!

This is the cabinet before:

I asked Brenda, my painter, to make it look like a hand painted old piece of furniture.  That's exactly what she did.  She even put two little legs underneath the front.

Then came the new valance, from Lowe's

The new rug, from Wal-Mart

Just yesterday I finished up with accessories.  The rusted bronze vase and eucalyptus are from Wal-Mart.

I found this picture at Ross for $9.99.   It looks like Tuscan scenery to me and I just loved the frame. 

These wall sconces are also from Ross and they are hanging on the wall above the toilet.

Here was the old plastic wastebasket and basket for magazines.

This is the new magazine basket and wastebasket, from Ross for $4 and $5.

Much more Tuscan looking, don't you think?

I also wanted to change out the old plastic switch plate cover, which wasn't an easy thing to do.  The configuration of it is not a popular one and the only place I could find one to replace it was on-line.  I had it in a few days from Switch Plate Superstore.

There it is!  I'm very happy with it and find myself just turning on the pretty chandelier and just standing in there looking at everything!  

I'm linking this post to Cielo's Show Off Your Cottage Monday

and also to Creative Bloggers Party

Changes

"The only thing constant in life is change".  I don't know who that's a quote from, but it's true.  And it's also true that the older you get, the harder it is to want to or accept change.  That's true for me in some ways, such as my routines, habits, and schedules.  When it comes to decorating, remodeling, or re-arranging furniture, I'm all for it. I just did a major clean of my bedroom and decided to move this antique rocking chair from my living room to this corner of my bedroom.

This rocking chair was sitting in front of my doors going out onto my back deck.  Those doors don't get used in the winter.  Now in anticipation of Spring and Summer that door is used all day long, so the chair needed to be moved.  I believe this chair was my great grandmother's and has been re-glued and re-finished and re-upholstered by a couple different members of the family.  It's finally ended up with me and I love it!
And notice where the necklace hangar is on the wall next to the rocker?  I want to get some sort of small shelving unit for the wall to house my growing collection of little boxes.

Sometimes they are called Limoges boxes, although they are not true Limoges from France.  My mother has given me most of these.  These are now sitting on my dresser but are starting to take up too much room.  Aren't they cute?

And here's another update on the powder room remodel. I love this change!  Hubby finally got the chandelier up yesterday.  I stood by as the go-fer and the sounding board for his frustration, but he did it and I love it.

Everything is coming together so nicely in my little bathroom!  We're now just waiting for the sink countertop to come in and then we can finish.  I'm hoping next weekend it will be done.

This past Saturday my DIL gave my son (her husband) a surprise party for his 30th. For some reason, this seems like a major change in my life!  I don't know why it affects me, but it's a milestone for him and me.  I just can't believe I'm the mother of a 30 year old!  Anyway, he was surprised.  His wife did a great job.  His boys wanted him to have a super hero cake and they helped him blow out his candles.

I finally finished knitting the black hoody sweater that he requested from me two years ago!  I have to be honest, it was not my most favorite knitting project.  Black is very hard to work with because it's so hard to see.  It turned out just OK as far as I'm concerned, but he seemed to like it.

(It looks crooked in this picture because he has the top and bottom buttons unbuttoned)

Yesterday, the weather was so nice here, about 78 degrees! Believe me, this is a huge change around here.  Monday is normally my house cleaning day, but I just had to get outside a little bit to add a few flowers.  It's still too early here for real flowers, but I put out fake ones in the upstairs window boxes and on the bench in front of my bedroom window.

I still have a lot of work to do outside.  You can see all the old fall leaves left over on the mulch.  Everything just still looks very brown and dirty.  No leaves are out on the trees yet, but I did notice the buds starting to come out on my rhododendron bushes.

These will be a beautiful purple landscape in the front of the house in another few weeks.
By the way, this warm weather lasted one day.  Yesterday was freezing and rainy and today it's 43 degrees!  Back to inside work.

The most recent change I made yesterday.  I had grown my hair out a little bit but it was really starting to bug me.  The bangs were long and constantly falling in my face and I'm "blessed" to have thick, coarse hair and it tends to get very heavy and flat on top.

This is the "before".  It looks OK in this picture but it didn't look like this most of the time.  I even had the color lightened up a little yesterday.

Here's the "after".  It feels so good!  I woke up this morning and it still looks exactly like this.  Awww! No more smoothing and moisturizing products and flat irons to straighten.  I just didn't want to take the time for that every day.  Oh, I'm also wearing another new necklace I made.

Change can be a good thing!


I'm linking for the first time today to A Beach Cottage - Good Life Wednesday
Also to Cindy's Show and Tell Friday
And Alison's Friday's Unfolded

So - What Do You Do All Day?

I get asked this question quite a bit.   I decided about seven years ago, at the age of 46, to sell my insurance business and stay home to work with my husband at his home office and his financial planning business.  I now work from home part time for him and do his marketing, advertising, and computer work.  So I tease, and when people ask what I do, I tell them I'm just Bob's trophy wife!  Yea, right!!

It has always been a dream of mine to be able to stay home.  I had a stay at home mother and she always encouraged me to work, have a career, and be able to support myself.  So I did.  But deep down I envied those mothers and women that were able to stay home.  I loved my career for many years, but I always wanted to be like June Cleaver.  I love homemaking, decorating, cooking, and just making a house a home.  I guess I've been very fortunate in being able to have both lifestyles.  I'm now a SAHW (Stay At Home Wife) and a SAHG (Stay At Home Grandma), and I love my life.   I'm busier than ever.  That's the part people don't understand.  Just because you don't work outside the home doesn't mean that you're not productive and contributing.  I know Hubby wouldn't be as good at what he does if I didn't do all that I do.  I could go on and on about this point, but I won't right now.

This is what I do.

My little office space in my kitchen, where I work my job for my Hubby two to three days a week.  And see the hand weights sitting there?  I'll do arm curls while I'm sitting and waiting for a download or something to print.  I'm the queen of multi-tasking!

Then there's the laundry

And the ironing.  Yes, I iron.  I still wash and iron all Hubby's work shirts, and I even iron my sheets. 

I clean all the floors



and dust.

Clean the toilets.  I have four of them.

Once a week I clip and print coupons and go through the store's specials and make up my grocery list. I cook dinner usually five or six nights a week.  We try to eat fairly light and healthy, so we don't like to go out to eat too much.   Every Wednesday I keep open for all my errands.  I really hate to have to leave the house any other weekday or I just can't get everything done.

Then there are my babies that go to the door every few hours and need to go out!  Little Fergie doesn't always wait for me to let him out, if you know what I mean!  He's such a little stinker!

This past couple of weeks we've also been remodeling our powder room.  I showed you the progress up to last week here.

Here's an update:

I got the towel ring and toilet paper holder up.  They are oil rubbed bronze and will go well with the decor. and sink and faucet that aren't in yet.

I just hung the new valance this morning.  It goes perfect with the paint and art work.

I found this crackled copper vase and filled it with thiss smell good stuff that I can't think of the name of right now (senior moment).  I love the smell and the colors were perfect.

I haven't even mentioned my hobbies that I keep busy with in the evenings and in my spare time.  I'm going to have to designate a separate post to show you what I've been up to with my knitting and quilting.  I've been pretty busy lately in this area.  I have a lot of new creations to show.  There's also my blogging and Etsy hobby. 

Then, of course, there's a lot of time spent with my family including my parents, my son and his family that live nearby and my precious grandchildren. 

So there.  I'm busy with almost every minute of my day filled but it's filled doing everything I love!  There aren't enough hours in a day for me and I can luckily say that I am never bored! 

Aren't trophy wives supposed to just be pampered all day and sit around eating bon bons?  Not this trophy wife!

Linking this post to Cielo's Show Off Your Cottage Monday