celebrations

Hard to believe it's August already. Brian and I were talking the other day and saying it seems like summer was just getting going. We both love the summer season and it's much too short here in Illinois. 

The end of July is popular for birthdays in our family. Our oldest son, Philip was born on July 21st. One of the happiest days of my life. He made me a mother, which is something I had dreamed about since I was 12 years old. Philip would've been 32 years old this year. His life ended tragically in 2009 when he was only 21 years old, due to the diseases of mental illness and subsequently, addiction. After 11 years, I thought his birthday wouldn't be so hard, but it was. Brian and I both were glad to see that day come to a close.

And then Brian himself turned the big six-oh recently! He sure doesn't look 60, does he? I got a huge chuckle from a comment on my Instagram that said the first time she saw a picture of Brian, she thought "You go girl with that young guy!" 🤣 We spent the day doing what Brian loves best ~ going back to his home town and relaxing by the lake (Lake Michigan..."The Michigan Ocean" as we affectionately call it) and going out to eat at a hip, new Mexican place that had a huge selection of different tacos. Of course, I made my "young birthday guy" his favorite birthday cake: a banana cake with cream cheese frosting. We purposely avoid processed sugar as much as possible, so I was excited to find a banana cake recipe that used honey. The good thing about this recipe is that you can also make it vegan by using maple syrup and flax eggs, and you can even make it gluten-free by using GF flour. You can find the recipe from Cookie + Kate here. I'm making the cake again today because I have some overly ripe bananas I need to use. I'll skip the frosting this time. We'll just eat it as a snack cake.

More birthday celebrations at the end of the month with my mom turning 80! That's my cute little red-headed mom in the middle with me (with the glasses) and my aunt; my mom's sister. Just like I said about my husband, I certainly don't think my mom looks 80! I hope that when I'm that age, I look and feel as good as she does. She takes very good care of herself, eating a very healthy diet and exercising every day. We celebrated by taking Mom out to lunch at a wonderful seafood restaurant in the Chicago suburbs. The food was amazing (Brian's caprese salad with shrimp; my wild-caught grouper; side dish of wild rice pilaf and roasted potatoes and vegges) and huge portions that gave us plenty of leftovers to take home.

For my mom's birthday gift this year, I posted on Facebook asking any who knew my mom, to please send me small notes of why they love or admire her. I collected the notes and put them in a big glass jar. My aunt made that pretty tag for the jar. I went to Mom's house on her actual birthday and presented her with the jar. She lifted the lid and pulled out one of the notes. She unfolded it and read it and burst into tears. She said, "Are all these messages for me?" I told her yes and she just sat there, softly crying for awhile. We spent hours going through each message; lots of tears shed but plenty of laughter, too. I think this was one of Mom's favorite birthday gifts ever.

 As much fun and filled with love all these "big" birthday celebrations were this year, originally we were going to have a big family party at our house. I pictured our small house bustling with all our loved ones, sitting around the kitchen, living room and patio, talk and laughter carrying through the air, plenty of good food and drinks going around. But with the coronavirus still rampant, we had to cancel the party. It broke my heart to have to do so.

Hope you're all having a good weekend. It's cloudy and cool here today ~ enough where I could turn off the AC and open windows and doors. 

Be well and safe! 💗

these strange days ~ and spring things

These days are now like a blur, one running into the next, not even sure what day of the week it is. I went grocery shopping yesterday and it left me feeling disheartened. It was like being in a strange sci-fi movie. People were like zombies. No one was making eye contact or even smiling. There were no sounds of conversation. All I heard was the music over the speakers. I got home, scrubbed my hands, unloaded my groceries, wiped down what items I could with a Clorox wipe, disinfected my countertop, fridge handle and door knobs, and washed my hands again. Then it was off to the vet with Clementine. She needed routine blood tests and a general exam to monitor her kidney disease. Another bizarre sign of the times where the vet tech comes out to the car and takes the pet into the animal clinic while you wait in the car. 

We had beautiful weather last weekend, so we worked in the yard, raking out the garden beds of all the leaves and sticks and dead matter that accumulates over the winter. I cut down all the perennials, too. You can see the lilac bush to the right, starting to sprout green buds.

This is my small herb garden at the back of the house ~ and all the dead stuff I raked out. It's amazing how much accumulates over the winter. Of course, a lot of it was the dead mint stalks, too. The chives and mint and red leaf sorrel come back every year. I think the thyme might be coming back, too ~ I saw some little leaves.

On to the butterfly garden. I raked all this out and cut down the phlox, purple coneflower and black-eyed Susan. See how there's a border in the front of the garden with holes in the ground? That's where we had buried colored wine bottles, neck down to make a pretty border many years ago. Then we had filled in the border area with small landscaping rocks around the wine bottles. Over the years, the rocks have found their way out of the border and wood chips and moss have moved in.

I pulled out all the wine bottles and we soaked them in a tub of soapy water and scrubbed the dirt off. Brian will dig up the border area and we'll start all over with the wine bottles. We don't want to fill in the area around the bottles  with rocks again though. Not sure what we'll do.

 Another spring project we got done last weekend was cleaning off the patio and setting up the patio furniture that had been covered up all winter. We didn't unbox the cushions for the seating yet though because the weather is still too rainy. And Brian will eventually power wash the patio, too. The patio looks so bare with just the furniture sitting there and no plants and flowers, but hopefully soon!

 I love seeing all the perennials coming back to life...

 the tangled mess of clematis...

lilac buds that remind me of miniature grape hyacinth...

hostas that first look like asparagus...

rhubarb (can't wait to make a rhubarb-strawberry crisp!)...

and how cool is this reviving peony?

I'm still taking my daily walks down to the lake, though I've missed a couple of days here and there due to either rain or laziness. A few evenings ago when Brian and I were walking, the sky was still that perfect blue and the almost-full moon was like a beacon.

So peaceful at the lake.

Indoors, not much has changed for spring except the mantel. 

I love the combination of pussy willows and daffodils in this blue and white pitcher.

That's about it around here. Hope you all are safe and well and hanging in there. These are trying times ~ physically and mentally ~ for many. 

a few minutes of diversion ~ decorating

Hello friends, how is everyone doing? I'm definitely going stir-crazy and have moments where I feel sad and/or anxious, but I know everyone else is feeling the same. The main thing is that we all stay well and healthy. I'm enjoying reading on blogs and social media what everyone is doing to stay sane and upbeat...there's a lot of good ideas out there. I've been puttering with decor and rearranging some things, walking every day outside every day even though the weather is still pretty crappy (it feels good to get some fresh air and exercise; grateful we can at least go outside!), practicing yoga, cleaning out drawers and closets (ho hum!), talking every day via text or phone with friends and family members, reading, and doing even more cooking. I even tried my hand at acrylic painting, though it pretty much looked like a five-year old got into the paints.

To take your mind off the pandemic for a few minutes, I thought I'd share some of my latest putterings with you...

I didn't do much decorating for Easter. If we can't get together with family or friends, I feel there's not much of a point. I do like some of my bunny decor though, so I made a vignette on the dresser in the guest room.

I lightened up the china cabinet for spring and used washi tape to line each shelf.

The washi tape was such an easy, quick way to add a little cheer, so I stuck a couple of strips on the shelves on the kitchen wall, as well.

This yellow spring chick that I've had for years adds a little whimsy under the spider plant.

That's a new philodendron plant on top of the china cabinet. I grabbed a couple of plants when we had to run to Home Depot a few days ago for specialty light bulbs.

Here's the other plant - some sort of succulent - on top of my fridge. 

 The console table in the living room got a couple of small changes. The blue bottle used to be on the ledge of the wall cut-out, and I also added a couple of little bunnies.

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Do you remember my lamp dilemma in Brian's office? I couldn't decide whether to keep this lamp, as it wasn't the right height with the "window" above the black cube unit. Well, once I put a couple of books under the lamp and added decor to the cube and the shelf, I decided I liked the lamp after all. Brian likes it, too and said the lamp gives off the perfect reading light for when he's sitting in the arm chair. We still need a rug for this room, but I haven't found "just the right one" online yet.

Back to the Coronavirus (my few minutes of decorating diversion are up), Brian and I have been playing cards and board games on the days he's home from work. He's in the emergency services field, so yes, he's still working outside the home. Clementine loves to be wherever we are, which often means right in the middle of one of our games.

Lastly, I'll leave you with this piece that I just read on Facebook.
Love to you all!

******************

We (all of us) are currently going through

a collective traumatic experience.

Trauma is often thought of as "too much, too fast“…

which is exactly what’s happening.

Of course you’re exhausted. Of course you’re afraid.

Of course you’re overwhelmed. Of course you’re

clinging to certainty in the midst of so much unknown.

Of course you aren’t as productive, feeling foggy,

or wondering how you can possibly go through

so many waves of emotions all in the same day.

This all makes so much sense in the context

of our circumstances. Be gentle with yourself.

Have compassion for your process.

Give yourself grace. You are good,

no matter how you are managing

this completely new experience.

(Lisa Olivera)

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.
💓