99% Finished

Good Morning!

Remember the bathroom remodel we were working on earlier this year? Well, it was mostly finished this summer before the wedding preparations began.

I've hesitated doing a long awaited reveal (yes, a reveal - cool!) because my little phone camera doesn't take clear photos in that space. I've tried from different angles using different lighting. Now I've decided not to wait any longer. 

First, here is the bathroom some 25 years ago.

And here it is today.

Between than and now I took down the wallpaper, painted the walls green and purchased a new shower curtain (after some 20 years using the lace one - it wore like iron plus I was SO indecisive, heh!). I can't seem to find any photos of that stage of the room.

I love, love, love the new hardware which will also be installed in the rest of the house. No more shiny brass!

The 1% unfinished is a mirror for the built-in frame. We just hung up the old one for now.

I am loving the heated tile floor. Highly recommend it!

A couple of pumpkins decorate the room for Autumn, of course!

I am very Thankful this season for my new bathroom.

On to the rest of the house!

Creativity

I was having a Facebook discussion with a friend recently.

She has been sharing a beautiful painting she is working on and I've been amazed at the strokes that produce such art. I told her I wished I could paint or even draw and hoped to give it a try someday. But my expectation was not to do anything like she is doing, it's not "in" me.

She then reminded me of my garden and I once again realized that it is such an important creative outlet. 

It is most definitely "in" me!!

I overflow with gratefulness when I am getting my hands dirty

or visiting a nursery

or filling the trunk of the car with plants

or weeding (truly).

I overflow with thankfulness when gifting someone with cut flowers

or a bag of homegrown carrots

or sharing photos of blooms.

Or hosting a wedding in the garden!!!

Thank you, friend, for reminding me of this.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Autumn home continued. . .

Here's a few more snapshots of Autumn around our home.

The first thing I display every Fall is this darling pumpkin made by my niece when she was in high school. Makes me smile and feel at home.

I think deep orange tones compliment blue so amazingly, like Autumn leaves against the blue, blue sky.  

Like my comfy throw against the blue couch. Many a nap is taken snuggled under it!

More fun pumpkin treasures. I look for natural toned or deep orange colors instead of Halloween oranges.

Love this cute little box that I use for napkins.

I used to collect tea cups and saucers, not so much anymore. But I've kept some seasonal ones to enjoy on display.

This flower handled set is a favorite.

Old, old Royal Albert Maple Leaf cream and sugar.

My niece and I both like to have seasonal books in a basket. (How do you like my "hardwood" floors, heheh!)

There are a few flowers left in the cutting garden for the table.

I did make the table runner (machine quilted by Anne Jones). 

And I am taking notes on which dahlias were excellent cut flowers and which I'd like to replace.  Deep purple (like the wedding flowers - gorgeous!) and a rich orange bloom.

Maybe next year I'll even grow pumpkins!

I love my house best in. . .

Autumn!

My favorite tree, a Japanese Katsura, is beginning to turn yellow. The leaves fill the air with a sweet smell as they fall, very etherial. 

This greets you by the front door.

Open the front door and come on in - this is the first thing you'll see. I love to decorate my hall tree seasonally. 

I love, love, love pumpkins and have gathered sweet ones over the years.

The painting is an original by Cathy Horvath.

An autumn quilt I made awhile back.

And a fun mini quilt I purchased.

Even though my favorite seasons are Spring and Summer, I fall in love with Autumn every year. Pumpkins seem to capture my heart once again.

The story of an arbor.

Howdy, I'm back!

It's been a crazy, awesome, amazing summer.
But I have a background story to tell.
It's the Story of an Arbor.


Years ago, over 25 years ago, when we moved to the island I had not been a gardener. I began poking around the garden at our rental, planting a few things, enjoying the rhododendrons, clematis and rhubarb. A few years later we ended up building our house and then I had a whole bare yard to landscape. I loved to drive around the island and spot colorful gardens. I especially loved to find white rose arbors.

One beautiful day in May I decided to photograph my favorite, over there on Falk Road on the East side of the island.

As I began snapping photos, I noticed an elderly man standing at the end of the walkway behind the fence. I quickly went over to him to tell him what I was doing (and ask permission after the fact!).

He warmly said, "Come in, come in!" I then met his wife who suffered from a bit of dementia but was as warm as her husband. They gave me a tour of their vintage house and yard which I immediately wanted to buy!! The dining room had windows that viewed Puget Sound and Mt. Rainier.

Yes, he had built the arbor.
He had also built all the picket fences around the property from old sewing machine crates! He had been a sewing machine salesman for years and kept the crates. He'd built birdhouses, too, that dotted the property. "Bring your husband over," he said. He wanted him to take any arbor measurements he needed in order to build me one.

And hubby did, almost an exact copy.

With our youngest son's help, he built the arbor and a picket fence.

Yup, I hand dug the shape of the garden and began planting.
I think I fell in love with gardening right about then.

Things began to grow!

And grow!

And grow!

Until one day my young niece looked at the garden and named it The Wedding Garden all the while dreaming of getting married there someday.

But when she married 5 years ago, she needed a bigger venue and chose a gorgeous farm setting.

I didn't dream that one of my sons would get married by The Wedding Garden. Um, they just don't talk about that stuff much while growing up :)  But to our surprise and delight, our oldest son got engaged this summer and our soon to be daughter-in-law loved The Wedding Garden.

So we busily got ready.

New pickets and fresh paint.

We had painted the arbor (and house exterior) last summer, thankfully!

Until all was complete (well, as much as a garden is ever complete!)
And on September 7 our son married in front of the arbor.

(Photo credit Christin Spradling)

It was an amazing day.

Thank you, Mr. Hamro, for generously sharing your handiwork. You would have been delighted to see what became of your inspiration!

If you give a gardener. . .

. . . the garbage to take out she will see a weed in the lawn.

When she sees the weed, she'll get her weed tool from the greenhouse and remove the weed.

When she is removing the weed she'll see the clover that has encroached on the bed around the shed.

When she sees that clover she'll begin to pull it.

When she begins pulling it she'll decide she needs another tool, the sharp one.

When she is using the sharp tool on the clover she'll decide she needs gloves.

When she is getting the gloves out of the greenhouse she'll see the kneeler pad.

When she sees the kneeler pad, she'll grab it.

When grabbing the kneeler pad, she'll see the cultivator.

When she sees the cultivator, she'll decide she needs it, too.

If you give a gardener a weed tool, a sharp tool, a cultivator, a kneeler pad and gloves she'll decide she needs the long handled edger too.

When she has the long handled edger in hand she'll begin edging the entire length of that side of the garden by the shed.

When she is edging that entire bed, she'll hear mosquitos around her.

When the mosquitos she heard begin to attack she'll quickly put away the weed tool, and the sharp tool, and the kneeler pad, and the cultivator, and the long-handled edger, and her gloves.

When she puts away her gloves she'll go back into the house to finish cleaning up the kitchen.

When she is cleaning up the kitchen she'll realize the kitchen waste can is still on the porch.

When she realizes the can is still on the porch, she'll retrieve it.

When she retrieves it, she'll see it needs a new liner.

When she sees the can needs a new liner, she'll put in a new liner.

When she puts in the new liner, she'll look out the kitchen window.

When she looks out the kitchen window, she'll see a weed in the lawn. . .

TRUE STORY

Journaling

Oh my, I have SO much to tell you all but it'll have to wait until another day.

  Then I'll be blogging like a mad woman.

In the meantime I want to write a bit about something I mentioned on Facebook. I'd been having a couple of days of anxiety - the kind where you can't seem to catch your breath and thoughts swirl around in your mind.  I am talking about a generalized anxiety that you can feel physically and your mind cannot rest. 

I have thankfully learned to journal. 

This type of journalling is basically pouring out anything and everything you are thinking. No correct spelling or sentence structure. No "good girl" ways of explaining things. Just the raw emotions including words like "I hate. . ." or "I am afraid. . ." or that "makes me so angry. . ."

No one will ever read these words (I am burning my journals before I die - haha!!). It is real, unedited emotions being released and it is quite amazing how it diffuses the anxiety. My counselor taught me to do this so even though I am not an "expert" this has been so helpful to me.

The second thing I do is make lists.

I am a list maker to the core. I love lists. I love to cross things off my lists. I am very visual so I need to get those to-do's out of my brain where they rattle around and into a concrete form. The beauty of lists is that many things that cause anxiety need to be seen in black & white. 

"We don't have enough money" ends up with a list of what needs to be purchased and how you will pay for it. Or not! Black & white, this is what we can or cannot afford.

"The whole house is a mess" ends up with a prioritized list so the things that are bugging me the most get accomplished first. Sometimes the other things on the list don't matter after that.

Maybe this will be helpful to someone out there. I buried my feelings and anxiety for years which resulted in major depression. Through counseling I've earned some tools to head off relapses.

I am thankful for those tools and sweet health.