Reaching for the light...

week 1

week 2

week 3

week 4

viola!

Lately, I have been searching, reaching, in oh so many ways, for the light.  Hoping for an early spring...

White Wednesday...

...I am joining in with Kathleen over at Faded Charm for my very first "White Wednesday" post.  I hope you enjoy some of the pretty whites that I get to live with and enjoy on a daily basis!

flowers for a friend

Thanks for stopping by...join me next week for "Milk Glass."

some days are diamonds...

...some days are dust.

I am going to speak from my heart here and not my head as the two seem to be so far apart lately.

I am not the kind of person who easily gets her feathers ruffled.  I rarely get on my soapbox but when I do, watch out, I take no prisoners.  I try to be respectful of others feelings, opinions, and beliefs and I expect to be treated in the same matter.  I tend to wear my heart on my sleeve and am very sensitive to having my feelings hurt, especially when it's "personal."  I've just never been able to toughen up nor am I able to dish it out, unnecessarily.   I am an enigma...I am a paradox.

There has been so much pain and suffering in the world lately.  The big world and my little one included.  I often get caught up in all the suffering and find that I have spent hours upon hours in thought.  It is overwhelming.  I don't know any other way. 


When I lost my first born, well intentioned-well meaning, friends and realtives made some of the most painful comments to me. I immediately took those things to heart and wondered how someone could be so cruel. It is difficult, even now, for me to find forgiveness for such insensitivity.


I appreciate all of your supportive comments, you are my diamonds and will always have my gratitude.  I am beginning to find some comfort and peace with all of this.  I know that keeping busy will help.  We have weekend plans with the kids, I've decided to paint my kitchen, and there is always the purging of the house to sort through.  Hell...I even laughed today!   Take care y'all and have a good weekend.

making sense??  I think not!

Quiet time...

...I've been remiss in my blog posting lately.  Quite frankly, my heart just isn't in it.  We've had a loss in our collective 'family,' a neighbor, a friend, a joyous soul.  Sadly, she fell in her garage over the weekend while putting away the last of the Christmas decorations.  The neighbor boy found her a few hours later...gone. 
I look out the window at the dark dreary skies and see her daughters packing their mama's life into boxes...and I cry.

Do you see what I see?

...two legs, two feet, two shoes!  Yipee!!!  After three hideously long months of wearing a cast it. is. finally. off.  Now I am free to drive again and roam the streets and thrift stores of my little burb.

It has not been an easy road, getting to this place today.  I can tell you now things that I was unable to earlier.  No one knew but the doc and my hubs.  I had surgery for a persistently painful hammer-toe in October.  At first glance all appeared to go well but, when I went in for my post op check at one week, we had a situation.  The x-rays showed no new bone growth which was not a complete surprise as I have known bone issues.  What was a surprise was that the screws and pins were all out of place...diagonal and floating.  The toe was quite swollen and discolored, which I thought was normal but I was wrong.  The doc was very concerned and said that it would have to come off.  I assumed he was talking about the hardware and said to take care of it as soon as possible.  He meant the toe.  I simply could not go there...again.  I asked, begged, pleaded with him to please let's watch it for awhile before we made such a huge decision and he agreed with the stipulation that if there was any sign of infection he would proceed post haste.  I saw him every few days for x-rays and it wasn't until just before Thanksgiving that he felt we were in the clear.  A month later things looked good but bone growth was still lagging...today however things seem to have caught up and the bone has regenerated.  What a relief.

I must say that I feel a little silly about all of this right now.  The saddest music in the world are the cries of the people in Haiti today.  It is so difficult for me to find the words, to know what or how to pray for them.  And so I simply speak from my heart and ask for Grace.  If you are so inclined then I ask you to do the same.  And to consider making a donation to your local Red Cross or World Vision.  Take care my friends...

A whole lot of nothing...

...I had plans...oh, I had such plans!  I was going to participate in my first ever "White Wednesday" today.  I roamed around the house for days thinking of what I would photograph and the story my 'whites' would tell.  Yep, I had big plans.

Then I lost track of time.  Me...who doesn't have a job, doesn't drive because of this stinking cast, doesn't go anywhere, who can't keep up with laundry or cooking, cleaning or playing, lost track of the days this week. 

What was that...about "intention" and "inspiration."  geesh!


google images

A little ray of sunshine...

...if you are like me, and always complaining that time is flying by, then welcome to January where time seems to s-l-o-w way down.  I don't know if it's the let down after the holidays, the longing for spring, or the cold, dark days that give rise to contemplation, re-evaluating, and sometimes just plain old depression.

January is a lonely month...there are no big festivities as in December or cute holidays as in February.  Unless you have a birthday in January then it is seemingly long.

When I was at Target the other day I saw some Amaryllis on clearance and thought I would pick one up.  actually, I did pay for it! I've always liked the Amaryllis flower and they are quite easy to grow.  They are quite interesting to watch grow too!

this is the one I chose, a light pink color, the only other choice was red and I always end up with red.  Time for a change.

it comes with everything necessary...a nice ceramic planter, the growing medium (dirt), and the bulb.  This one was already sprouting in the box.

after making dirt soaking the planting material for a few minutes (outside, in a bucket) it was then transferred into the pot with the bulb...here it is all ready to go.

These babies grow pretty darn fast, the one up top there was about 2 inches after it was planted and the one below, measured a week later, is about 5 inches. 

I will measure it every week and we can watch it grow up and bloom together...just a little ray of sunshine for an otherwise drab January.  And hope that spring will come soon!

For the love of...

...thrift stores!  I must admit that in the past I have not been a fan of thrift stores.  My memories of them being smelly, dusty, stinky, dirty, allergy inducing, moldy, garbage like.

When my children were growing up there were a few consignment stores in our area and I would find some great things there for all of us, and make a few dollars by re-selling back to them.  But we didn't go to thrift stores.  Didn't go when I was growing up either...probably for the same reason.

In our town we have an antique mall.  You know the kind of place, where different vendors set up their booths and sell all kinds of wonderful finds.  My husband and I would go once or twice a year, usually during a time when the town was having some sort of celebration.  We'd be walking down the sidewalk and "remember" the antique mall, head in there, find a few things, and leave wondering why we never come here!  But we didn't go to thrift stores, yard sales, garage sales, rummage sales...we just didn't.

I would go into Bargain World occasionally looking for scrub tops or table linens (my lifelong passion) but that was about it.  I never really ventured to other parts of the store knowing that I had already too much stuff and not really interested in starting  another collection.

About a year ago I started reading different blogs...DIY, home-improvement, decorating, and gardening blogs.  What I discovered from all of you is a passion for all things old, chippy, rusty, painted vintage.  I started checking out the thrift stores in our area...Goodwill and Value Village...and found the most amazing thing.  They don't smell!  I don't want to scratch my eyes out, shower, or vomit after being in there for more that five minutes.

I rekindled my love for vintage table linens and have added to my one piece of milk glass.  I now have several pieces, but they are hard to come by.  I've ventured into different areas of the store and found wonderful sewing notions, ribbons, lace and craft items (rubber stamps).  I've found several pocket vases and I just adore them.  And a few weeks ago I found two shirts...and if you know me then you know that is trouble!!  The hubs even found a complete set of golf clubs, name brand, for $35. Now that is a steal.


I get a sense of excitement when we head over there since it is always a treasure hunt of sorts but I have learned not to go too often.  Once a month seems to fit the bill for me...and keeps my pocket book in check.  And since this is the year of purging at our house I have to be careful not to get carried away. I will be selling some of these treasures in my  Etsy shop as soon as I get organized but I get the priviledge of enjoying them until then.  AND I get the priviledge of seeing your blogs and checking out all the wonderful ideas you have and projects you are working on.  Transformation...it's a good thing!

Found...

...my latest thrift store treasure...$1.99.  Are you a thrift store junkie too?

Seventy-five percent...

...I stopped off at Target yesterday, I had to.  The hubs had a prescription to pick up and since I've been stuck in this house forever, I wasn't busy I tagged along.  In case you are counting...8, eight, more days until the cast comes off or else!

I was quite surprised at how much Christmas inventory was left.  Rows and rows of all sorts of ornaments, wrap, decorations and oodles of trees...all of it 75% off.  If I was in need of a tree that would be a fantastic deal but since I was only "browsing" there was little I was interested in.  Until, I went around the next isle, the one with all the leftover Christmas food, and there it was.  The cutest little "tree" that I have seen in a long time.  In fact, the hubs has named it the "q-tip tree."  It's only about a foot tall and already decorated...

I also got this little package, it's made of metal and all wrapped up pretty with a bow...

Since tomorrow is Epiphany the real tree will be coming down and then I can get all these decorations packed up and into the rafters until next December.  Oh, and here is one more thing that is 75% off...

my daughter Lindsay and I on Christmas.  Is my head really that big???! Happy Wednesday y'all.

We call it a reVolution...

...I have so many things to say yet when I sit myself down to do so I am suddenly at a loss for a coherent sentence.  I feel such a disconnect lately and when I tell you that I have done nothing for the last few days it is a vast understatement.  We are on a new page (of the calendar), a new year...a new decade.  Forward we must go for the alternative is completely unacceptable to me.

I am not one for resolutions.  I rarely make them and even more rarely do I keep them.  Thus the forty ten pounds that I need to lose keep climbing, and the exercise daily three times a week has dropped to one...o.k. none.


Some people call them "resolutions," some "goals," some just don't call them anything at all.  This year I am trying something new, that I shamelessly stole from someone else (Hi Kelee), and I'm calling it "intentions."  There is a book called "The Power of Intention" by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer that I have not read yet, but intend to read this year, and writing down said intentions is a great way to keep them in the here and now.  With that in mind...here goes:


*my first and most important intention is a very personal and private one and will remain so, except to say that it involves my walk with the Lord.


* I would like to become a more friendly person.  Not that I consider myself unfriendly but I know that I can step outside of my comfort zone a little more, especially on days when I feel like crap under the weather.


* I would like to learn to live with imperfection (not the hubs) and to stop beating myself up for not only my personal imperfections but also my inability to forgive myself.


* I would love to nurture and embrace creativity.


* more...more family time, more travel, more reading, more movie-watching, more time.


* less...drama, worry, stuff.  While I am sure it will not keep me from the thrift shop I am trying to purge my home of 'stuff' and live more frugally.


there you have it in a nutshell.  The only little problem I see here is that every time I refer to my "intention" all I can think of is the road to hell is paved with good intentions!   Happy New Year y'all.