pamgarrison

new etsy listings

I've listed a pastel version of the You Are Loved print over in my etsy. Thank you to those who have asked and been patiently waiting for it.

I've also listed two new embroidery sampler patterns printed on cotton. One is the pattern made for Meg's Craft Weekends, and one that I want to embroider and make into a pillow for my desk chair.

                 This is the chair I'm envisioning the pillow on. They both have a similar retro feel to me.

I've had another computer move again, can't quite get it right yet. In this latest move I brought the desktop computer out to the family room vs. the office. I needed a real office chair if it was going to be on this taller table I will use as a desk. {You can see the little children's desk I just got from a friend on the left of it.} I searched on the internet and liked this one,  this one, and this one, and then decided instead to go scrub the one I had in the garage that I brought home from my Dad's office when he was closing down his company. I think he's been using it at various offices since the 60's or 70's. Those I share the house with weren't too fond of it, so I took the instagram above to get quick feedback from people whose taste I trust, just to make sure the nostalgia of it wasn't clouding my decision to override the nay votes here. I got a thumbs up from instagram friends, so I'm going with it and am continuing on with moving my focus out here. I can't wait until I get a system that really works best for me figured out and am not wasting time on it!

caught a glimpse of Christmas

           

Just a glimpse, as it flew by as fast as it came. Full of guests and sweets treats, gifts and good times. It has been a good year, and we're enjoying every last day of it. Until the New Year...

happy memorial day

house book close-ups

Thanks for all the house book love! This little book makes me so happy, and I am glad the love came through in the video. Michelle is getting together some new kits that she will post on her etsy soon, so good news for all of you that want to have some fun of your own. Before putting it away, I thought I'd take a few more photos for you. So much of the fun and the love is in the details...

 
One of my favorite parts of making the book was numbering each page. I tried to use a different method on each page, whether I was stamping, or writing, or cutting the numbers or words out of books like this one here. When putting the book together, I sometimes used a and b after the letter especially when the pages met in the middle like doors.

 

 

Thanks for stopping by my house :). Let us know if you make one of your own!

home sweet home

 

 

Years ago, I bought a house kit from Michelle Ward and went to town adapting it into my very own little ode-to--our-home. I remember how much fun I had working on it, joyfully obsessing over it until it was done. Just a reminder that there are so many different ways to journal/scrapbook/whatever, and endless subjects you can memorialize while doing so. Here's a quick little look into what I ended up with.

{I've asked Michelle if she's got any kits left, I'll let you know when I hear back, but feel free to go look around and while you're over at Michelle's check out the cool way she's making a big difference.}

one step closer to finished

It dawned on me that I already had a vintage towel bar I could use on the back of the new island in the making. I bought it at the flea market long ago and we had previously attached it to a piece in the garage. It works out just fine, nice and light, and about 3' long. You can see the vintage wallpaper I chose to use and bleached, painted, sanded and peeled once it was on. Now to get a piece of marble cut for the top...the final dreaded step...

meet my easel!

Remember how I said I was out playing with a new toy? Well here it is! My Dad made me an easel out of an old rolling clothing rack he found left in the rafters by the previous owners. I put some big paintings on it so you can really get an idea of the size. There are 3 paintings on it and the smallest in the upper right corner is 18x22 just for scale. Anyway..... Isn't it great? I am in heaven. It's so beautiful, but I think I need a wide angle lens to really capture it to show you. Here are some of the details that my Dad made that make it over the top cool to me:

 

Isn't it great?!? So I got down to playing a bit...

 

 

couldn't resist

I'm playing outside today with a new toy (of course, I'll show you more on that soon). While out there I decided to really enjoy myself and cut a bundle of roses and lemons from the garden and put them in a $10.00 jar from the flea market. It felt so indulgent, cutting them to make my creative time more pleasant...just for me. Isn't that silly?  Cutting and arranging them is happy making itself! How could I have forgotten that?

 

It's the simple things in life, right? I'm determined to see that and work on living that more and more. For the holiday weekend, we went to Palm Desert with friends. On the last night,
after the nightly game of flashlight tag on the golf course (where I was most often "it"-or should have been, but they took pity on me- due to the fact that I was afraid to run full speed for the "safe" lantern on a hilly golf course in the dark...am I getting old, or is the back surgery too prevalent in my mind? Probably a bit of both), we all lay down on the grass looking up at the stars. After a few of the kids said they saw shooting stars (all at different times), and there were doubters among us, I said, "I hope we all see a shooting start that is undeniable go across the sky". Right then, and I mean right when I finished saying that, we did! It was thrilling! We all shouted at the same time, struck by the magic moment. My girlfriend said I literally kicked my legs back and forth in the air. Now, I'm not sure about that, but I do know that moment, the excitement we all felt and shared together, will bring me happiness for years. Joy, it's as simple as seeing a shooting star with some loved ones.

i've been obsessed

I am in love with a piece of furniture. Isn't she a beauty?  It's my new kitchen island, and it's been taking up all my "free" time for about 2 weeks straight. Here's how it looked when I bought it at the flea market:

 
 

Since this photo, my Dad has rebuilt the base for me, (upon arrival home the base fell off as did a wheel), and then I scrubbed and bleached the entire thing, (especially the yucky inside), stripped the paint off the glass fronts of 15 of the drawers (three are wood), primed, sanded and painted inside the drawers, removed hardware, (about here I started to question whether it was going to end up the treasure I imagined it to be when purchasing it), went to Restoration Hardware for paint (pale silver) and bought hardware. Realized how ridiculous their hardware prices were, made plans to return hardware (in other words, it's on my to do list). Went to Lowe's and bought the perfect handles for .99¢ a piece; came home with those to discover they won't work. I have to find hardware that screws in from the front, unless I want to completely take the cabinet apart and rebuild (uh, no thanks-not that I even could).  Then painted the front, top and one side of the outside, sanded, repainted and glazed those sides. Applied vintage wallpaper to the back, bleached, painted, sanded wallpaper. Ordered this beauty to span the entire back of the island (as the back will face the sink) Yes, it was quite pricey, but it's the only 4 foot towel bar I could find. Went on a fruitless internet search for pulls that you screw in from the front that are thin enough for the one centimeter edge. I'm sure they're out there, but I was getting cranky googling/ebaying etc.... began the second round of wondering if all this work was even going to pan out...Went to Muff's antique hardware in Orange Circle and after almost giving up even there, found 18 pulls that I hoped would work perfectly:

I think they do, don't you?!? Here's a view of the drawers before and after:

And then I started to  believe that it was really going to be as good as I'd originally hoped. There's still a bit to be done: I think I'll fill and paint a few of the holes from the old hardware, I've got to get a pane of glass to replace the one I broke while working on it, I think I'm going to have a remnant of carrera marble cut for the top so I can roll out pie crust on it,  and my favorite part: filling the drawers and putting it into use, and admiring the result of all that obsessing! I think it'd be a fortune if found this way at a cool furniture store.

{oh, and yes, that middle drawer is a mirror, I'm going to leave it that way}

After getting home from the grocery store it was great to have a big open counter to put all the bags on!

What got me all fired up to do something cool for the house was this show: oh! their kitchen table, their giant painting, their antique lanterns in the master bedroom, their basketball dome, their clever, clever ideas are soooo inspiring. Another inspiration: this cutie here, that I'm doing this alongside. I love people that love homes and share the tales of making their home what it is.

Now that that's out of my system, hopefully the regularly scheduled crafting can now resume!

problem solving

Surely inspired by dottie angel, I made a snowflake curtain to cover the window behind our tree. It creates a lovely backdrop and I feel oh-so-clever for putting it all together. We have a wall of windows in our living room that are still in need of window coverings. (I just can't figure out what to do in that room, but that's a problem for another day.) The windows let in beautiful light for most of the day, and therein lies the problem for our Christmas tree. It can't take such direct heat and light. See what I mean?

So I grabbed a really old and destroyed tablecloth that I was saving to make big lapkins out of. Um, not sure what happened here, but it looks like it's been through a lot. There's a large tear as well as the burn.

 

Since doilies are having such a moment in the craft world, I too have caught the fever and been gathering a few. The rest are from JoAnn's Fabrics and were $1.00-$3.00. With those and a few upholstery tacks, it looks like we'll have our own version of a white Christmas.

Now for the yucky part: off to put the lights on. Not sure how or when that became my job, it didn't start out that way. But I want to have the tree ready for a family trimming  tonight, and that makes it worth it!

{Ed: Hey! Check it out, maybe it wasn't only dottie angel in the back of my brain, but Martha. After seeing Alicia's post on her darling doily packages, I clicked her inspired by link and there was a snowflake curtain! Although, of course, Martha being Martha, and Martha's people being Martha's people, it is perfect and beautiful. I like it better on a sheer fabric even, although, for my sun exposure purposes I wouldn't have been able to go that way. Everyone loves doilies, don't they? Martha has more ideas here}

hope you had a happy thanks

As I continue the clean up and put away, I wanted to stop and say thank you to you: friends I know, and friends I don't, lurkers and commenters, regular visitors and first timers. I am grateful for all this blog has brought to me and that includes you. With many thanks and good wishes, xox, pam

this morning in my playroom

       

        

 

 

 

                             

     

 

in a 70's sort of mood

When taking photos of the wall project of last post, I edited out this plant, but then I started taking pictures of it and the other two I had recently bought for inside the house. It surprised me how much of a 70's vibe the plants have to me. This next one is in the living room and I had been looking everywhere for one (although I don't know the name of it, sorry) as I had seen it in every home magazine and wanted one for a giant pot I have. Isn't it funny that plants go in and out of fashion? This big leafed beauty is even in the current Pottery Barn magazine for proof of that point.

 

And while at Home Depot this past weekend figuring out a way to hang the wall art boxes, I stumbled upon this guy and couldn't resist bringing him home. All the plants were bought at Home Depot in the houseplant section, but none had tags on them, so I don't know what it is either. Here it sits on the dining room buffet. That's a French antique wine bottle drying rack on the wall next to it. I've got a good idea for it to come in a future post!

fini!

{Grrr...I double photo-ed here, but lately, if I delete a photo once added, everything else becomes underlined, so I'm not going to bother. You'll just get to see it from both sides :)}

I'm finished with my little wall art project for now, and we even figured out how to make them hang-able and hung them too! I had to toss around the phrase, "we've been here for well over a year with nothing on the wall" a lot to get full cooperation with the above,  but it was worth it. I like them!  Thank you for all the great thoughts and suggestions. It's so fun to brainstorm creatively with others; you know I can't get anyone in my house to discuss a craft willingly with me! Happily, this little set seems to be appreciated by the whole family, which is not always the case with things I make (my daughter still "doesn't get" the coffee filter garland...). They all probably like these because they were involved in the gathering of all the parts. Using just a few shells from my childhood made the house piece extra special to me, so I suppose they feel the same. Speaking of the shell house, it ended up  looking like this for now:

I did extend it a bit, but I couldn't bear to cover up the Paris postmark on the paper I bought there last year (see it below?). I also filled it in quite a bit with tiny shells.

The third piece is a tray made using a family photo taken by Tara Whitney at our favorite beach a few years ago. It sits on top of a piece of marbled paper cut out of an old ledger. The marbled paper reminds me of the ocean. I wired it on under a piece of glass. I tried mica instead of glass, but you couldn't really see the photo. My printer is l.a.m.e. so I may reprint and switch out the photo when I get new ink, or change to black and white, but for now it doesn't bother me enough to worry about. Here's the finished box on the same shutters I used to show you the others:

 

I hung a tiny little bottle off it and I'm either going to put some sand or water in it that we collect next time we are at the beach. First I thought sand, but then remembered Janice Lowry's cool water collection and liked that idea better.  So, when you look at the other things hanging, do you read it as "us" or "U.S." ? It's funny, it took me awhile to see it as "us", but now I do.

And there you have it! I'm done for now...but I do wonder if eventually I should add two more...hmmm...

oh my!

Ok, I'm so behind on all the news out in the craft/blog land, I know. But in case you are too, I wanted to share. Just recently I was told that Rachel Ashwell has a blog, which I've been enjoying. But apparently Kaari Meng has had one for quite some time now. I have been a fan of French General's ever since I saw an article on Kaari and her cute sister Molly Meng (who has her own stationary business) years and years ago. I think it was in Victoria? or maybe Martha Stewart Living? I can't put my hands on the article but I tore it out and dreamed of visiting their New York shop and Tinsel Trading while I was at it. Speaking of which, check this out...oh, heaven on earth! Even the rustle of the old paper packaging makes my heart skip. To be on the treasure hunts that Kaari describes on her blogs would be thrilling for me. I love to dig for treasure, but I don't have to tell you that, do I? Well, how about this treasure hunt? I can only hope my place in line is up high enough to go, and I don't even know any details. I think Kaari might have to stay in France for the summer entertaining groups and groups of interested folks- she just might have unknowingly opened Pandora's's box! Oh that Chateau...I could go on and on but know I don't need to, her post will make you swoon.

Anyway, those are two new blogs to me, you all might have been reading them for awhile now. If you know of any new blogs or have started one up yourself, feel free to leave us all a comment so we can follow the link.

Hope you have a creative day! I'm getting off the computer now to go make something. The kids are back to school and my fingers are itching to get lost in something.

{The photo has nothing to do with anything posted, but what's a post without a photo? This is the kitchen chandelier with the sun hitting the remains of the birthday bash still on it. I thought it worked for new years, so I left it up. Off to take them down now...}

we spend memorial day in the garden

Hope you had a nice Memorial Day weekend, we did. The weather was gorgeous, and it is always a great feeling at our house when there are no sports engagements and no work for my husband (although his damn blackberry did buzz all weekend, and he did have to reply, at least he was here). Three days with no commitments feels like heaven. My Dad is home and feeling much better (thanks for the well wishes), so it was smooth sailing. My husband and I went out to the oh-so-neglected garden. After not too long, I took a break and went in search of my garden journal. Funnily enough, I found the last entry was Memorial Day a year ago. I told you, I was really into it once, but not anymore. I'm back to wanting all the results, but not wanting to do the work. I can see the potential, I have always believed in it's potential. I thought I'd show you my garden journal...I am going to journal in it again before a year from now too!

I bought a garden book for about $5.00 at Borders over 4(!!) years ago.  It had some pretty herb pictures, so I just write or paint etc. over the other pages when I make a journal entry.

As I said, I used to be really into gardening, and I was really into documenting all the beautiful flowers that grew in the garden. I would take photos (film) and then spend hours cutting them out and gluing them down. As you can see, I've always been a bit mad for the David Austin antique roses. Here are some pages from my old garden journal.

Back to this weekend... While chatting out front with a neighbor I heard this loud humming, looked up, and saw thousands of bees gravitating toward a tree. The next morning, I took this photo assuming that it was a hive. The kids were all excited so when the other neighbor children came out, they called them over to see. There was nothing there, they were completely gone. What gives? Any bee experts out there?

Anyway, we pretty much only worked on the side yard , I tend to move slooowwwlllyy in the heat, but here's a shot after we called it a day. I think that we should hire a gardener, too much neglect goes by if you wait a year to really tend to things.  If you were up close, you'd see the weedy lawn and empty spots. Here's the view from the back of the side yard looking to the front yard:

and the reverse view:

as found in the garden

Almost everyday from 2pm until we have some other activity, I can be found out front, watching my son and the other neighbor children with the other moms. Today I thought I'd show you my favorites from what's blooming. At left is one of my all-time favorite David Austin roses, Abraham Darby. I mean, Come On!!! How gorgeous is this rose?!? Reminds me of a peony. It smells divine as well.

Then there's these lovely viburnum. I love this plant.  I don't know if it's in the hydrangea family, but both the flower and the leaves seam like it to me. It starts out this wonderful shade of chartreuse and turns to white as it opens up.

These are two foxglove plants, you can see where they get there name, huh?

And here are some pincushions, or scabiosas. I love the early stages of the bloom, all tight and compact and creamy chartreuse and lavender...the second picture shows them in full bloom, pretty too.

Here are some of the many kids in the hood, taken last week.

You guys are so cute with your comments, I'm glad you're excited about the paper. Kathy and I are cutting more tonight and getting together tomorrow to put the second set of paper packs together. Getting them on Etsy Friday is our goal. I promise I'll let you know here first, no need to check over there until then. Hopefully I'll get to do some other creating tomorrow as well. ...In other exciting news, escrow finally closed on the purchase of my domain name...so, I finally have a website! There's nothing there either, except the page that says coming soon. I sent the artwork to my brother and he put it up there for me (thanks Dave!)...so, in a few weeks (months?) maybe there will be a lot more to see. ...have a good night, xo p

friday night "in the house"

Hello friends old and new. It's Friday night and I am just hanging with my family; glad that we're all in for the night nice and early. I am tired because I was up until 2am trying to figure out flickr. I think all this computer stuff may get in the way of me ever creating again. Not really, but uploading photos and posting can sure take up some time, not to mention the steep learning curve that exists with all things computer for me. Sheesh. So I was trying to add my "corners of my home" photos to the actual group. After many hours I was able to get some uploaded. Of course, it's just a beginning with my little files, but there are soooo many cool and creative people out there with so many photos...it could take a lifetime to get through them all, but there  is certainly inspiration there for the taking. You can go to my limited photos here. If you are brave enough to risk addiction you can see the few people I discovered last night by clicking on the "profile" link to the right, then scroll down to the little pictures of other people...then you  can see their photos and their "contacts"...it's a never-ending thing I tell ya...don't say I didn't warn you.

I thought I'd share a project that I loved working on and still love at least 2(?) years after finishing it. I thought that you might like to see it because it began as a kit that I bought from Michelle Ward,so you too can make one of your own. Once you are at her site click on house book samples under Gallery heading. (I tried to link it for you, but it's not working-it's worth the effort of finding your way.) You will see the original book she created, her kit available for purchase, and some samples from other people that took her class. I first saw her house book when she taught it at artfest a few years ago, and although I wasn't in her class I knew I wanted to make one of my own. The kit is great. You will see that I deviated from the materials in the kit a bit; Michelle has a more architectural aesthetic in her sample. Anyway, I ordered the kit and I thoroughly loved creating a book about our home. It was also a really fun puzzle -like project with the two sides opening to a third middle section...I loved how she numbered each page and after making my own I realized how necessary those numbers are to keep the book in order.  Here's my book:

Man, that was a lot of photos! Thanks for sticking with me. I probably should take some down  and move to flickr...but not today!

So, don't you want to make one of your own? Fun, fun, fun! Have a good weekend. xo

another corner

Another "corner of my home" for Thursday. This is the corner of my vanity area. These are little home-made jewelry hangers. My friend Kelly (miss you Kel) made the one on the right which inspired me to make the one on the left.  They are just fabric and paper on wood scraps with old knobs and finials attached. Don't you love the wallpaper on the wall? Yeah, that's actually the backing from the wallpaper I pulled off the wall when we moved in...um...fifteen(!!) years ago. How's that for honest? It's just brownish plain paper so there have been many other things that have needed attention first over the years...and then there's the whole, "well, if we're going to work on this master bath then we should do it right, but what is right? add on? work with what's there? blah blah blah,"  the bizarre perfectionism that sometimes paralyzes me, which ended us up right here, 15 years later with wallpaper backing walls. I try to see it as a funky Anthropologie treatment, but it's losing it's appeal...maybe this year (stop laughing, it could happen). Other corners of my home here.

what lies inside

For "corners of my home" Thursday, I've taken a photo of a cupboard in my art room.  I love this cupboard with it's peeling, slightly chartreuse, paint. On the outside hangs a Wendy Addison star from last year (that was the top of the tree this year), a cool little collage that I bought at Artfest a few years ago from an artist named Phoenix Forrester, and an invitation to a party that my friend Amy and I made together and sent out. Underneath you'll see baskets and boxes and containers that have ribbons and laces and sewing notions inside. 

 

Inside the same cupboard are lots of baskets and boxes and tins that hold buttons, millinery flowers, millinery fruit, old hats, sequins, buckles and small odds and ends. Although I love little boxes and baskets, the truth is that it's not the most practical storage system and sometimes I don't use things because it is too hard to find them in there. It's always a struggle for me; the desire to be totally organized, yet not wanting to use new, more practical systems, like plastic storage containers. Hm.

This old heart shaped candy box is on one of the shelves. I offer it up as a belated Valentine's greeting.  Hope you had a lovely day. I thought I'd share some recently discovered blogs I'm reading here since I can't figure out links on the side yet. Hope you enjoy! :
Nina Bagley, Corey Moortgat, and Lauren Mumford

corners of my home

Playing along with soulemama's Corners of My Home Thursday.  I may even try to figure out how to post to the flicker group (i.e. call my brother and ask him).

This is a corner in my son's room.  It's decorated in a sort of vintage theme.  Since he was a baby he has loved airplanes, so there are a few of them buzzing around in the air. My favorite thing is the antique picture of old fashioned kids playing...it's hard to see, but it's really old and very sweet.  I'll probably have to remove it when he gets a bit older, that'll be a bummer.  The old wooden horse holds the key to the french door behind the rocker (yes, it's a rocking chair). I also love the charming little coat hanger.  I bought it for a song (I think $10.00) at an antique mall. Looking at this picture makes me realize that I need to move it back over to it's original location by his door, so it will get more use, and so this corner won't be so cluttered.

bits of happy

There are some great crafting bloggers out there that really inspire me to make something that I had no plans on making until I saw what they did.  I love that. That energizes me. I love their writing, their sharing, their constant inventiveness. The way that their posts allow me to see through their eyes. 

On many of these blogs people are showing "corners of their home"...and I thought that I could at least figure out how to do that on my blog...any participation beyond that-sending the photos to a larger group etc.  is again, beyond me at this point.  But hey, I was able to get a couple pictures up by myself.  "I bet you didn't think I'd learn so quickly did ya Dave?"  I say, knowing my brother will not read my blog as my crafting does nothing for him :).

...so some little bits of happy as I see it in my home...

The photo at the top of this post is a little ex-voto (I think that's what they're called).  The initials PGR stand for "pray for grace received"-which I love in itself, but is made even better by the fact that that is the monogram for my husband and I...although proper etiquette probably would have his first initial (R)before mine (P), I don't know... not sure of the proper etiquette for monograms. I found it in a little shop and it hangs on a cabinet in the livingroom.

The first photo above is a corner of the dining room...a cheap candle sconce found long ago at a thrift store that I painted white.  I love the striped cream and green candles and wish I would have bought more wherever I found them.  Hanging from the middle is a little paper doll ornament made by Nicol Sayre that I bought from her at a folk art boutique (I love her and her creations)...I hung it there one Christmas and it has lived there since. At Christmas time I add some antique mercury glass balls to the other arms of the sconce.  The oil is nothing special, just pretty to me...it was inexpensive because it has a tear, which doesn't bother me in the least, and I love that it is unframed.

The bottom photo is what I see each morning when I wake up.  I love our bedroom ceiling.  There is something so humble and honest about it, and bright, and happy. 

The 2nd photo is of a sconce, one of a pair that hangs above our bedroom fireplace.  I bought these over a year ago, with much hesitation.  They were at an antique mall-type shop and were inexpensive enough to make me think about getting them even though I didn't love love love them...what I did love about them was the mercury glass and that screw thing at the bottom that the crystal chain hangs from, love that too, the crystal drop.  The two different paper sleeves one white, one cream, seem charming to me.  What I don't really care for is the glass hook thingy that is at the top, but I think it disappears...maybe it is for some purpose?  I did decide to buy them, and after finally getting them hung, I find that I'm glad I did.  I added some beaded little lightbulb covers that are sold at Anthropologie as napkin rings...the wattage is so low that even if they're not the same beads as the other lightbulb covers out there, there is no melting.

The 3rd  photo is of a corner in my "art room" - the drawer unit was once in someone's garage as tool storage.  I scrubbed it and added some old crystal knobs where the original handles were missing. I consider this good fortune, because I doubt I would have ever thought about switching what was already there.  I have labeled the drawers with paper labels (are you obsessed with vintage paper labels like I am?  aahhhh, love em...these are not vintage though, just new in a package), stating contents like: metal found objects, glass paper weights, keys, brads and fasteners, doll parts etc. I love drawers and storage unit things- again, I'm sure you do too. Three (or 6?) drawers were missing at the bottom, and with such luck (!) the reproduction wire locker baskets that are out there right now fit perfectly and house my seam binding rolls. Sitting on top are two big baskets holding wrapping paper/wallpaper etc.

So that's it, some visuals in my house that bring a bit of joy when my eyes meet them.

I'm off today to Target (which I have now been informed is not target, but "the red dot boutique") to return a couple things and buy some new pillows to lie our heads on at night...did you see that disgusting segment on the Today Show?  It freaked. me. out!   All the gross bugs- the gist of it is change your pillows every few years...I think I've fallen behind on that here, yuk.  And then, laundry, laundry, laundry.  I can wash it no problem, it's the folding and putting away. Ugh.  Hope to get into my art room at some point, but truth be told, that's really hard when the family is home...most weekends it goes unentered.  Hope you, the reader that doesn't exist yet, is finding time to create/play, and hope you have new pillows and no laundry, and at the very least remember some of your "bits of happy" around your house today.

roses in january

If you came to my door today, this is how you would be greeted.  It is a little dark because we are having a bit of rain today, unusual (and welcome) for sunny so cal. But, look at those roses, cut from the garden just now.  There aren't really too many more in bloom right now, as I have not fed or cut the bushes back this year.  When we first moved in I hated roses, I found the flowers to be so typical, the bushes so ugly.  But then I learned to see the beauty...they grow like weeds (i.e. easy), they smell divine, and they are wonderful in arrangements.  My favorites are the David Austin old fashioned roses- the more petals the better.  I went rose-bush crazy for awhile there many years back.  I would anxiously await the new catalog from Hortus (a magical garden center in Pasadena, although I don't know if they are in existance anymore), researching the roses by color, form, type and, deciding whether I had to have it, and where I could squeeze it in.  I placed an order for the bare-root plants and patiently waited.  There were a few springs that our garden was spectacular, I was into it, spending most of the day out there while my daughter played in the yard, a toddler quite content to toddle.  But then the gophers got aggressive, eating the entire root system of over 40 plants (I told you I was obsessed, squeezing them in everywhere!), and my daughter grew and wanted to play out front, on the street, with friends, and I got pregnant again.  That all seemed to be the end of that phase for awhile.  Reminiscing about it makes me long for gardening again, but there is only so much time in a day.  Maybe this spring, now that my son is in school all day for the first time.
   The roses on my door are tucked into an old bottle that is wired to a scrap piece of wood.  Vintage wallpapaer is glued on top, as is a bit of old accounting paper.  A wood stain was rubbed over the whole thing.  A glittered bird is peeking through, old seambinding tied on here and there with an old rhinestone button and shoebuckle attached. A Wendy Addison glittered heart hangs from some old tinsel ribbon, and an old tag that now states "love lives here" (because most of the time it does). Velvet ribbon is tied so it hangs from a drawer pull (Anthropologie) that I screwed in the door.  Unfortunately, if you came to the door today, I'd try to visit with you outside because the house is a MESS!  Off to try to get it under control.