anaritaiam
- May 11, 2018
- 5 min read

Who's Idea Was This?

Hello friends! Happy Summer! Not sure where Spring went, but I'm about to turn on the air condition in this house! No, just joking! We have a beautiful and pleasant breeze going on today and I'm lucky enough to be able to sit in my office, hear the birds fighting at the feeders, listen to several lawn mowers going and feel that light breeze make it's way in through the lace curtains! See?

I think to myself, there's no place I'd rather be, and normally that's very true. I love being at home; we've made it and continue making it our HAPPY PLACE. But...today I would have LOVED being in England. Matter of fact one in particular spot in England. No, not London although next week I would love to be there! Are you ready for the big Royal Wedding? 💂🏼‍♀️ I Am! I'll be up at the butt-crack of dawn (like I was for Will and Kate's) with a pitcher of orange juice, coffee or tea, and probably donuts (I'll envision them as European delicacies even though they'll probably be Entenmann's boxed deliciousness packed with a fistful of preservatives💘) I'll also be dressed in my Royal Wedding guest attire known as an American night shirt and old spandex yoga pants aka pajamas. But I will be there 7am sharp to watch Prince Harry the cute smiling redheaded rebel marry an American actress. I personally have mixed emotions (I'm more vocal at home lol) about her (sense the word 'actress'), but I love Harry so it's HIM I'm happy for! So cheers for Harry🎩 But to get back to today, where I really wanted to be was Beatrix Potter’s Hill Top, in the garden of Castle Cottage, in Far Sawrey, in the Lake District, where Beatrix Potter lived for 30 years with her husband Willie Heelis! Why you ask? Because Susan Branch is vacationing in England/Ireland for a few months and she set up a picnic date in Beatrix's garden for anyone who could join her TODAY! Can you imagine having a picnic lunch in England in the gardens of the writer of 'The Tale of Peter Rabbit'? Well, for me it could have been a picnic in England or a picnic with Susan Branch lol and I'd have been fine. However, the picnic is over. They're 7 hours ahead of us and everyone is probably in bed sharing memories made...😌 Some day I'll have a picnic in England...and maybe even attend a Royal Wedding-preferably with one of my own children walking down the aisle lol...

AND....now that I've I've waken up from that fantasy, let me tell you about the real world since I last posted...Well, let's see...um, I decided to repaint and re-decorate the dining room, living room, and two story entrance/loft area...ummm, I bought a piece of furniture to paint, we have an outdoor project that is alllmooossstt finished, and my house is totally trashed thanks to my dumb idea to re-do everything. I literally have no idea why I decided to do all this. YES I DO! Stupid Pinterest and Instagram! There was absolutely nothing wrong with the colors of the rooms, nothing...but I decided I want to brighten things up. Everything we have is all warm and cozy and I love it, but now I'm craving open and bright with touches of warm and cozy. I promise I'll post pictures when this never-ending process is over, but right now I'll leave you with this. It's a pic of the piece of furniture we bought and I just finished painting it today. It will be going in the dining room to serve as the serving table. I can't wait to show you the end result...but just not today!

I love this piece! I found it while I was yard saleing online lol. Now, I'm not a fan of painting good furniture or furniture with a personal past, etc., but this one had a few bruises, nothing major though and the color is warm (going for cool now) plus I had no personal attachment to it! I'm a HUGE fan of French Provencial so I couldn't let this one go...not for my French Country themed home! It has romantic, shabby chic, french oo-la-la written all over it! And all for the perfect price of $75! I'm just so excited to have this room finished! But...did you ever realize how one little tiny light can throw off everything? Well, we found that out! We have TWO! Our wall sconces give off a golden soft glow (that I've always loved and admired) and after I painted the walls I about died after we turned the lights on! NOT GOOD. I have never been a fan of the "cool" LED lights and was so excited when they finally started selling "soft glow". Unfortunately, the sconces have a warm shade cover so no matter what color bulb we put it, it's going to look golden. Which means...new sconces...my goal was to do a complete change as inexpensively as possible, but now I've found that most of my decor will have to go or get painted as well. Maybe I should have a yard sale 😉 On the upside, everything is bright and open😂

And just in time to see everything blooming! Within a week and a half I have so many flowers throughout the yard that just opened up to smile! Some kind of snuck up on us~ the dogwood tree normally blooms right at Easter, but the weather made sure to change that!

The Bleeding Hearts are still bleeding and surprised us because we didn't know if they'd come back this year-it's pretty rough where they are planted. Then we got a BUNCH of purple columbine bloom all along the fence line. The pink ones I've had for years and a couple of years ago I collected their seed and planted some in the back yard. Well, you should see those blooms. I'll be sure to take a picture when they open! They're double blooms and they're soooo pretty.

This is the first year we have several lilac blooms. We started these two shrubs a few years ago and they were 12 inch sticks! Right behind them we transplanted our red azaleas which seem to be azaleaing just fine. They were in the front yard, but the sun was killing them-it's just so hot up there! And Bill got our vegetable garden going! I already had blooms on the cucumbers before he could put them in the ground! Must be my magic seed starting touch 😉 I still have perennials that aren't quite big enough to go out into the landscaping, but I'm sure within a couple of weeks that will change.

Do you have big plans for Mother's Day? The Susan Branch mugs above are my Mother's Day gift! 💕I'm hoping (hint hint) to be able to get some flowers for our flower pots though. I'm sure it will be a mad house everywhere with everyone having the same idea. I'm sure I'll also start painting the living room, which I'm totally okay with doing on Mother's Day. I'm leaving the worst (entry way/loft) for last. My OCD kicks in gear when the house is in disarray and right now I'm going to be calling for medication if I don't see at least one room complete lol. Who's idea was this???