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.

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lighter look in the living room ~ and a semi-update on clementine

It is still very much winter here in northeast Illinois. Nary a sign of spring: no bulbs poking out of the ground, freezing temps, biting winds, but at least not much snow. We've actually had a lot of rain lately, which is weird to hear in February. 

I'm done with winter. At least I can bring a lighter, brighter look into my home by changing up some decor. Pretend that daffodils are blooming and the winter robins are back.

It's a challenge for me to decorate my mantel; I think in part because it's extra long. When I saw a post from Brenda at Cozy Little House and how she decorated the mantel in her new apartment, I was inspired by how she used white pitchers. 

Other side of the mantel.

You can see how this fireplace takes up a big chunk of my small living room.

I changed up the decor in the "fauxyer", too. Spring art, a bright scarf, and a springy looking pillow. I need to repot the snake plant into a smaller container so the stalks don't fall over. See the framed art on the wall to the left? That is there temporarily. There used to be a vintage teardrop shelf that didn't make that area have too many hard lines....

When I was moving things around, I experimented with putting the teardrop shelf in another area. I didn't want to put a nail hole in the wall, so I cut off a small piece of a Command strip and used that on the back of the shelf. It wasn't strong enough and the shelf crashed to the floor.

 I mentioned in my last post that Clementine was now having dental problems. The results of her blood tests came back and besides her kidney values not being good (we knew that...she's had kidney disease for over four years), now there's some markers that show possible heart problems. She is having a simple heart test done tomorrow that will tell us more. We have already decided that even if this test shows that her heart would be strong enough for dental surgery, we're still not going to put her through that at her age (13) and with chronic kidney disease. We realize that she can't live much longer with the broken fang though, as it will become infected without surgery. So we know more heartache is coming in the near future. All we can do right now is take one day at a time.

Thank you all so much again, for all your compassionate comments and emails. There are many of you out there that are also animal lovers and fur baby parents, so it helps to know that others understand what we're going through.

Just so you know, since comments on my blog are moderated, they come through my email. I reply back to comments if I'm asked a question or that warrant a return reply. However, if your comment comes to me with your email address being a no-reply comment blogger, which some of yours do, I can't respond. There are ways you can fix this in your Blogger, Word Press or Google settings if you're interested in looking it up and changing your email settings.

Have a lovely week!

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how to make a "faux-yer" when your house doesn't have one

A couple of weeks ago, my friend and I visited a local shop that we enjoy exploring. The owner of the store fills it with all kinds of found vintage treasures, as well as some creative handmade art pieces of her own.

You might remember my "new" quilt from my last post. This was found at the same shop.

The quilt wasn't the only thing I came home with. As we were browsing around...

I came upon this coat rack.

I have been toying with the idea of hanging a coat rack on the wall inside our front door for a long time. I knew I wanted something handmade and/or vintage; not anything from a commercial store. I had looked on Etsy several times and never found anything I really liked. I took measurements of the shelf and went home to measure the space on the wall.

Our house doesn't have a designated foyer. When you walk in the front door, you'e right in the living room. I made this little area right inside the door into a "faux-yer" (you heard it here first, folks) by using a bench where guests could sit down to take off and put on their shoes. Coats always went into the small hallway coat closet, which wasn't a bad thing, but I always thought it would be better to have some kind of coat rack in this space.

I bought this mirror years ago and always liked it and thought it went well in this faux-yer space, but it competed with the large, round mirror above the fireplace. And I love the mirror over the fireplace, so that wasn't moving. Anyway, I measured the wall space for the coat rack and...perfect! Buh-bye round mirror.

Hello coat rack!

Here's a view of my small living room. See the round mirror over the fireplace? Now you can see why the round mirror that was previously in the entryway competed with the fireplace mirror. (That's Monkey in the cat tree and Clementine on the blue chair.)

Looking into the living room from the other side.

There's other changes I want to make in the living room, including new furniture and painting the interior door white ~ but for now, the faux-yer was a good start.

the best laid decorating plans

 I had mentioned in my last post that I had ordered a bench from Overstock and was

going to try to make my little front entrance area more foyer-like and guest friendly.

I had it all planned out...a bench to sit on when coming or going to take off or put on

shoes and boots, plus a good spot to dump purses and packages. I was going to

remove the mirror and hang a cool coat rack. I was thinking of trying to find a long

piece of reclaimed wood and installing various types of vintage hooks and knobs

on it. I'd hang that on the wall above the bench and then put some pretty art prints 

above the rack. 

The bench was delivered yesterday and Brian put it together. I put it in place and...

NO.

I actually love the bench itself. The retro look, the color, the texture, the cool legs.

But, there's a couple of problems. First of all, it turns out that trying to turn that little

 wall space into a foyer just doesn't work. That area needs to be blocked off somehow

 and as you can see by the (terrible) design of my small living room, there is no room 

to do so. Blocking off that area wouldn't leave any room for foot traffic. Secondly, the

color of the bench is all wrong for this room. All the blue accents in the living room are

turquoise, not aqua. I thought this lighter blue would blend in, but when you see it with

the turquoise wicker chair (it's hard to see the color of the chair in this photo, I know)

and the turquoise blanket on the couch, etc., you see how the aqua clashes with the

 turquoise.

When I think of blocking off a small, open area to make it into another space, I think

of a friend's house where she did just that. You see how she used a bookcase right

inside the entrance to her living room to make a little office area? I love this. But it

doesn't block the flow of foot traffic, so this idea works perfectly in her home.

So, it's back to square one with putting the console table back in place. (No, the sun

didn't miraculously just come out - this is an older photo.) I wish I could use the bench

elsewhere in the house...it would be lovely at the end of our bed, but we don't have

any room. So, the little blue bench is going to be taken apart, boxed back up, and 

sent back.

 Brian's now taking the bench apart and boxing it all up for me. All without 

complaint or saying a word about my continual rearranging. What a smart man.

And one who now deserves dinner, so off I go.

 

   

spiffing up the living room for christmas

 I started my Christmas decorating this week. I don't do any major decorating, but still

have enough decor where it looks like my house exploded until I get everything into

place. Which takes all week because I take my time...and I constantly tweak stuff.

 For today, I'll take you on a little tour of my living room. Instead of decorating "big", I 

prefer to add little touches here and there. I found this vintage sled, ornaments and

Christmas cards at an antique shop several years ago.

 These nesting Santas were found last year at Goodwill.

 A trio of miniature vintage mice decorate my collection of Mary Oliver books.

Mary's my favorite poet, by the way.

I kept the fall runners on the buffet (the burlap bird one was made by Judy of 20 North Ora).

I think they easily transition into Christmas mode with other touches of burlap, as in the little

tree on the shelf, and with touches of gold and red. On the other side of the buffet is our

tabletop Christmas tree, but I'm still decorating it, so I didn't take any photos. I use this

tree to display my boy's childhood ornaments. We don't put up a big tree anymore.

If you've been a follower of my blog for awhile, you know that I don't have a proper

foyer in my home. When you walk in the front door, you are smack dab in the living

room. This is the wall to the left when you walk through the door. I kept the console

table very simple on purpose...as I'm re-doing this area! I'm trying to make it more

foyer-like and guest friendly. I ordered a really cool light blue leather mid-century

bench from Overstock. It will go in place of this console table - which will be going

downstairs behind the sofa. The bench will be much lower than the console table,

so the wall gap between the bench and the mirror will look awkward. For now, I'll

fill in the area with some pillows on the bench, against the wall. I do have a long term

plan/redecorating idea. ;-)

Another last year Goodwill find, tucked among the floor plants by the fireplace.

 How are you coming along on your holiday decorating?