in the meantime

Hello friends, time for a break from vacation photos to show you a little bit of what's going on here. Hope you all are well and hanging in there as we all go through this Coronavirus epidemic together. I think together is the key word. Even though we can't physically be together because of self-quarantine, we can support each other emotionally right now.

As I was taking a walk the other day in my neighborhood ~ the only sunny day we've had all week ~ I came upon my neighbor-friend who was bundled up, sitting in the sunshine in her front yard. We talked for a bit about how much this isolation sucks. That it's ridiculous we can't even give each other a hug. That we can't watch the news or go on Facebook often because it fuels our anxiety. That we feel like we're living in an alternate universe. Then I turned and saw snowdrops under her pine tree. She said they weren't there before; they only recently appeared. I told her they were our little bit of joy that we found in the day. Those are the things we have to look for right now.

My lilac bush is budding. Another joy.

 I was trying to explain to an online friend recently why I needed to stock up often on grocery items, especially fresh produce. Brian works 12-hour shifts in the emergency services field. He is not allowed to leave his work place to go out and get food. That means he has to bring three meals ~ breakfast, lunch and dinner ~ to work. When he works three 12-hour shifts in a row, that means nine meals he has to prepare ahead of time! This is what our fridge looked like the other night after he was done packaging up his meals. And yes, I do feel blessed just looking at this photo, as it means we have access to an abundance of food.

A local vintage shop is moving their current location and so the owner is selling certain items at excellent prices. She's been posting photos on Instagram of what she's selling and when I saw this red bench, it called my name. She warned me it "needed work", but I didn't care, because it's going to stay outside. Once the weather warms up a bit, I'm going to move this into my side garden. It won't be for sitting on; I'm going to use it for potted plants.

You can see where a piece is missing. And one of the arms on the bench falls off, but I think it can be screwed back on. If not, no big deal. With a little bit of clean up and potted flowers and plants, I think this piece will add some charm to the garden.

This vintage metal plant hanger was the other thing I picked up from the shop. See that ugly bench in the background? That's where the red bench is going. I'm not sure yet where the permanent place for the plant hanger will be. To be determined once spring yard clean up starts!

I'm still working on decorating Brian's office (what used to be Tim's bedroom). I admire those of you who can put together a room in a weekend, or even a week. Or a month! I found this window in my basement the other day and I thought it might look nice above the black cube. Thing is, before we hung the window, I had just purchased the lamp on top of the black cube: That's why the plastic is still on the shade. The lamp looked great there before the window was hung. (That little chick is not staying on the window shelf. I just stuck it there when I was working in the room.) 😉

But now that the window is hung, I'm not so sure about the lamp. Is it okay that it comes above the shelf of the window? We really need lighting in this space because of the chair next to this piece of furniture. I guess I could put a floor lamp between the cube and the chair, but this room is so small, I don't want anything else on the floor. If I buy a smaller lamp that would go under the shelf of the window, that lamp wouldn't be big enough to cast enough reading light. Thoughts? Do you like the current lamp where it is?

A recent purchase ~ a little decorating pick-me-up ~ was this bird pillow for the entryway bench. I found it at Walmart, of all places. I think it's cheery and perfect for spring.

I've also been working on a little spring decorating.

The daffodils in the blue Mason jar will look so pretty once they burst open.

 I have my Easter decor spread out on the guest bed, trying to decide what I'm going to do with it. I'm not much into holiday decorating anymore. Most of it will probably end up going back into the storage container.

 I'll probably do a little vignette on top of the dresser and maybe on the kitchen table or shelves, but that's it.

 Thank you all so much for your friendship and kind comments. They really make my day. Your comments come through my email account and I've noticed there's some of you where your email shows up as a "no-reply blogger". So if you ask me a question in the comments, I can't answer you privately. Or, if you're new to my blog and leave a comment, I can't email you back to thank you for visiting. How do you know if you're a no-reply blogger, or what to if you want to fix this? That's too much (and too techy!) for me to answer here. Your best bet would be to Google it and find a site that can directly answer those questions and offer help.

Until next time, wishing you all peace and good health.
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