totally random ~ catching up

First and foremost, the 13-year anniversary of my oldest son, Philip's passing was September 25th. When you're a parent, it doesn't matter how many years it's been since your child has died. The pain of that day will never fade. I had a headache and basically moped around the house all that day. I could finally exhale a bit on the 26th. 

I love this photo of Phil with his bedhead, unshaven face, wearing his comfy worn out hoodie. It was Christmas 2008 and he was 20 years old. It was his last Christmas with us. He's checking out his new phone with texting keyboard. Hard to grasp the reality that he's never seen a smartphone like we have now.

Fall is here in full force with a beautiful color change and leaves falling like mad. As I do every year, I'm documenting the color change of the gorgeous maple across the street.

The leaf blower can't keep up anymore. It's like shoveling during a snowstorm.

The patio table got taken apart today, covered with a tarp, and put up against the house. We left the two rockers out for now because we're hoping we can still sit outside on the patio at least a couple more times before the end of the month. We'll see. The weather here in Illinois can fluctuate anywhere between the 30's and 60's during the day. 

The glider finally bit the dust this year. It still works, but is falling apart, as you can see by all the wicker pieces that are falling off. We've had this set over 10 years and it was given to us by friends. I don't know how long they had it, so this set has seen good use. We'll possibly be in the market for a new patio set next spring unless we decide to stick with just the two rocking chairs for now.

Back in June, I wrote a post about stray cats that were hanging around our property. I'll update you about the female (Goldie) and her kitten another time. Spoiler alert: that news is all good but there was a little surprise. 

The feral male, Blanco, is still coming around. He's gotten friendlier towards me, though I still can't get within 10 feet of him. He shows up at my house most every evening for food now. 

Sometimes he doesn't show up 'til late at night and I see him out my front door, waiting patiently for me on my porch. He's such a beautiful kitty. The minute I open the door, he takes off. I then set a bowl of food for him on the porch and he eventually comes back to eat it. Long story short, I've been in contact with the county Trap, Neuter, Release program and I'm hoping to be able to trap him so he can at least get neutered. I'm sure he was the daddy of Goldie's kittens. Who knows how many more he's fathered around here. 

I also purchased an outdoor feral cat "house" from a local shelter this past weekend. Volunteers made them out of used ice chests and lined them with straw. They have a flap door where the cat can go in and out. I read online that it's to be put in more of a hiding spot and put up on bricks or pavers about 6" off the ground so that the "house" doesn't get wet from rain or snow. I hope Blanco ends up using it, especially in the winter. I worry about him.

My house is cozily decorated for fall and it'll stay that way til the end of November. You can see Clementine curled up on the throw on the sofa. She's is still hanging in there, though she's now in stage 4 of chronic kidney disease. She's showing more signs of decline with UTIs about once a month and now constipation (which is due to dehyrdration, even though we give her subcutaneous fluids). But she still eats all her food, uses the litter box, grooms herself, interacts with us, and plays with her toys. 

Little touches of autumn decor in the living room and "fauxyer"...

and in the kitchen...

Spent a day antiquing last weekend during the 2022 Midwest Shop Hop. Fun to look around, but only a couple of small things came home with me.

Surprise, it wasn't these cats!

It was almost this mirror, which I initially thought would look above my nightstand. But after taking measurements and also realizing it wouldn't go with the modern prints above our bed, I passed.

It wasn't this lovely chandelier either, as I have nowhere to hang it.

If I had a grandchild, I might've purchased this 1970's dollhouse. I had one just like it when I was growing up. I still have the plastic furniture that came with the dollhouse!

Sorry for the bad quality photo - I had to close the blinds on the kitchen door because the sunlight was so bright. See the two vintage wood pieces in the doorway? That's what I bought. I'm not sure I like these pieces here. I was trying to add some interest to the boring builder grade opening from the living room into the kitchen. No big deal if I decide to move them: they're attached to the wall with Command strips.

Here's where I tried the pieces at first. Big nope.

That's it in a nutshell. More I could talk about, but this post is already too long. Life is busy and it's hard to keep up with blogging sometimes. Other times, I'm simply not in the mood to post. Thanks for sticking with me.

💓

mid-march this and that

Hi friends ~ even though technically it's still winter, we're having some beautiful spring teaser days. Today it got up to 67 degrees! I had all the windows open in the house and it was wonderful to hear all the birds chirping and sandhill cranes flying overhead. March in Illinois is fickle. Friday will only be 39 degrees and rainy, with snow mixed in.

Still fluffing my nest for spring, I took the pitchers off the mantel that I had there before and played around with other decor...

I'm liking this look on the mantel much better. 

I have to say, I'm tired of my boho curtains. I've had these for about seven years and I'm wanting to change to something plain, most likely an off-white cotton or linen. 

Clementine is still hanging in there. I took her to the vet last week for a follow-up to have her gums and broken fang looked at, as suggested by the vet dentist. The vet said she has a little bit of inflammation in her gum where the fang broke off, but there isn't any infection yet. That was good news.

Back to thinking about changes in the living room...I'm tired of this rug, too. I got this one from Wayfair a couple of years ago when I used to write sponsored posts for them. This rug hasn't worn well, I think it's too small for the room, and I don't like the white and gray with my white sofa. I'm now thinking of something larger and colorful. 

On a sad note, Brian's father ~ my father-in-law ~ passed away on March 5th. He was 88 years old and had been in a nursing home for a few years with many health problems. We were able to say goodbye to him before he passed and to be with him as he took his last breath. 

(Brian and his dad, 1981)

I did some antiquing recently...

What do you think of the hat ~ is it me?

Or perhaps I should've taken home this lamp?

I passed on the lamp and brought home this pillow instead. Even though not an antique, the shop I was in had other pretty decor mixed in with their antiques. I bought a vintage blue and white tablecloth too, but no photos right now since I don't have it on my table.

I also stopped by one of my favorite independent shops, The Backdrop. This is one of those stores where you can find all kinds of unique gift items...and little things to spoil yourself with, too. The owner of the shop told me that these quilted cats were made by a retired Kindergarten teacher, who uses vintage quilts to make these cuties.

Another find from The Backdrop was this little 1970's snail planter.

It's been such a busy month that I just realized today that St Patrick's Day is tomorrow. Not that we do anything special to celebrate, but I do have a few St Patrick's Day decor items that I usually dig out and display. Oh well, not this year! 🤷 🍀

a whirlwind of holiday activity

Hi there! How was your Christmas or Hanukkah? My celebrations were good, though truthfully, I'm glad it's over for another year. Every year just seems to be too much in every which way. I'm glad I decorated less this year but next year I vow to say no to most party invitations. I am peopled out! Too much socializing for this introvert.

Christmas Eve, we went to my cousin's house. We witnessed the most beautiful sunset on the way. This photo was taken out the car windshield. (No worries, I was the passenger.)

 I didn't take many photos at my cousin's house as I kept my phone mostly put away in my purse, but I did manage to get this one of Hank the dog kissing my mom. The funny thing about this photo was my mom was scared of going to our relative's house because of her two pit bulls. Turns out, they were incredibly sweet and my mom fell in love with Hank.

Christmas morning, it was just the two of us and the kitties. This was the first time in 31 years that we didn't have any children at home with us on Christmas morning. This was our 11th Christmas without Phil and as most of you know, Tim moved to California last month.

 I still made my traditional breakfast casserole. And I poured my coffee into my new thermal Dunkin' Donuts commuter mug. That was one of Brian's presents to me ~ with a DD gift card inside. I love their coffee and it just so happens that our little town just opened a store right up the road from our house. I didn't know until I saw it on social media from someone else, that DD discounts their coffee if you bring in your DD commuter mug to get it filled.

With our temps being almost 60 degrees on Christmas Day (!!), we later took our usual walk around the neighborhood to get a little exercise, then my mom came over for pizza. After she left, we video-chatted with Tim and opened up our gifts to each other.

All over social media, I've seen memes and people talking about how the week between Christmas and New Year's Eve is weird...no one is sure what day it is, everyone is tired of heavy foods and cookies, and binging on Netflix seems to be the norm. I can relate to the too much heavy food and sweets, but otherwise I've actually been pretty busy since Christmas: Christmas clearance shopping (we buy our Christmas bags and wrapping paper, and calendars and planners for the next year all at 50% off the day after Christmas); taking photos and listing items to sell on social media; taking down all the Christmas decor and getting it packed away, plus donating a ton of Christmas decor that I no longer felt a need to keep; and deep cleaning and setting the house back to its "rights".

We took a day trip to our favorite antique store where I found this large, awesome jar for only $8 and we also tried Afghan food for the first time. I had the vegetarian platter which was amazingly delicious, especially the baby pumpkin which was cooked with honey and onions. Entrees are served with traditional Afghan basmati rice - topped with raisins and carrots. 

New Year's Eve is coming up in a few days. But that's no big deal for us. We'll most likely just have a quiet night at home. Brian's back to work super early on New Year's day. 

My hope for all of us for 2020 (sounds so futuristic!) is much love, many blessings, peace, and good health. God bless you.

here come the holidays

It's been a lovely, long weekend around here. My mom hosted Thanksgiving dinner and this year it was us, my sister and her family, our cousin, Greg, and my mom's neighbor-friend who otherwise would've been alone that day.

Brian and Greg had the honors of carving the turkey and ham.

I tried to get a selfie with Tim, but he wouldn't have any of that. Instead, I got a photo of lots of hair. ;-)

As always, we were blessed with an abundance of delicious food. We had turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, homemade rolls, stuffing, and veggies (I made a corn casserole, green beans with gremolata, and roasted carrots and parsnips with honey and fresh thyme. They got a little burned when rewarming them in my mom's oven, but no one seemed to mind). Mom also made a layered Greek dip as an appetizer and two homemade pies ~ french silk chocolate and pumpkin.

It was a low-key few hours of good conversation and laughter ~ what family and friends are all about.

 No Black Friday shopping for us the next day. We chose to browse a few little antique shops about 20 minutes north of us. Low-key, no crowds, no mass merchandise. My kind of shopping. (Besides online shopping.)

See the set of four wooden Santas towards the front bottom right of the table? They are vintage wooden bells ~ and they came home with me. 

The only other thing I bought was a 9 ft long vintage garland made of red and green wooden beads.

We tried going to the lighting of the Woodstock Square last night. This is where the movie, Groundhog Day was filmed. It's a beautiful, small town in our County, just 1/2 hour from our house. Little did we know this once-small, neighborhood event has now turned into a commercialized frenzy of thousands of people due to social media. We looked for a parking space for about 25 minutes, driving blocks away, to no avail. There were throngs of people walking everywhere and crossing streets in the dark...it was just nuts. We gave up and went home.

(Google images)

We ended up watching several episodes of The Kominsky Method on Netflix last night. We loved it! Great acting with Michael Douglas and Alan Arkin, with a lot of laugh out loud moments. Can't wait to watch more tonight. Too bad there's only eight episodes.

We are due for a whopper of a storm tomorrow. Depending on how it tracks, we could get as much as 8-14" of wet, heavy snow ~ what they call "heart attack snow". And winds will be whipping at 45 mph. They are saying with the wet, heavy snow being on power lines and the high winds, a lot of people could lose power. The contractors that are working on building our new front porch/little deck are supposed to be back on Monday to finish up. They said before they even started the project that they work in the snow, so we'll see. Sneak peek...porch demolition.

Obviously, we're staying home tomorrow. We didn't have any plans, anyway. I think it will be a good day to dig out the Christmas decor and start decorating, though it will be minimal. I swear, it seems like I just packed all this stuff up and put it away. Doesn't it seem like Christmas comes quicker every year as you get older?

Here we go...