Birthday Boy!

I’m getting behind again on my postings AND my blog visits. It just seems the hours go no where every day! I’m trying to plan on staying in more often but yesterday was another day I had to go out. . .  it was time for my ‘yearly well woman’ appointment at the Dr’s – glad that is over with is all I can say about that!

I wanted to post yesterday but never got around to it and here we are nearly the end of the week again, and not only that but the end of the month :-0  Can you believe it’s October tomorrow? I can’t. It’s my birthday month (and I know a lot of bloggy friend’s birthdays too) so, I may have to get creative and come up with ways to make it a very special month? I know some have birthday weeks, but I might actually go one step further and make the whole month about me! Hmmm? but I’ll have to get my thinking cap on first.

This week we had a birthday in the family, but it was no ‘human’ birthday – it was our baby boy Boo, he turned 5 on Tuesday :-)

Of course we have to wrap up gifts and give him a special treat.

I need to make this a quick post so I will leave you with some cute photos for now.

 

His special treat – doggy icecream! I took video of Jason and Kristen singing happy birthday to Boo, I will have to try and upload it later ;-)

Brrrrrrr!

Oh, you don’t know how long I’ve waited to type that title :-)  It is 57 degrees here this morning – finally, it feels like Fall is really here.  Cool crisp mornings – reminds me of days like this. . .

Taken in October 2002 – Cider Mill Farm, MD

Had a busy weekend so didn’t get on here much. Thursday and Friday night was spent next door at Cheryl’s, tasting wine ;-)  Saturday was quieter, I had to take Kristen to her friend’s birthday party but it wasn’t until 5.30pm! It meant I couldn’t have a drink before I went to pick her up, which was at 8pm, so I just had one glass of wine and watched tv with Jason when we got back.

My sister called just before the weekend to tell me Mam is in Hospital again :(  More stomach pains. It seems certain that she has gallstones which is causing pancreatitis too. Still waiting for an ultrascan though to confirm this, which means the hospital obviously won’t treat her for anything until they’ve diagnosed her with something! It’s always a waiting game. I’d appreciate your prayers for Mam.

 

I’ve Been Featured!

I was surprised to get an email yesterday from someone on Etsy saying they had featured my fingerless mittens at their shop. She sent me the link to her page . . .

You can click on the picture to go there, or CLICK HERE to visit my Etsy shop. See my red mittens in the center :-)  Today is perfect weather for wearing them, that’s for sure.

As the weather finally turns cooler here it totally puts me in the mood for Christmas shopping. I’ve decided to try and do a lot more of it on line this year, especially for Kristen’s gifts for her birthday and Christmas.  You might have to pay more for shipping but to be honest I think I’d spend less, because half the time I go to a store, can’t find what I want and end up buying something else I didn’t need!

Well, I better jump off here, go do my workout with Jillian! I totally missed the weekend but not going to beat myself up about that.  Hope you all have a great Monday.

 

Denise

Show Us Your Life!

I can’t believe it’s Friday already, this week really seemed to fly by. It’s nearly the end of September already? Crazy!

I can’t think of what to write about today, so I thought I would join in with the ‘Show Us Your Life’ party going on over at Kelly’s Korner. I don’t really know Kelly, haven’t read her blog before I don’t think (which I will now that I’ve found it!) but Melissa and Kristen both posted about this today on their blogs,  and I thought ‘why not’. It’s always fun to see inside someone's home, don’t ya think.

This week Kelly has asked us to share our master bedrooms. I’ve shown a few pictures of this room before as and when I’ve done some decorating in there, but here’s a look at it all from beginning to now (having just added something new in the past couple of weeks which I hadn’t blogged about yet.

We moved in to this house about 4 years ago. It was newly built and all the walls were a builders ‘white’! This is how the bedroom (above) looked that first day. Very bare, very basic. You can see I have the mirror for the dresser propped up against the wall there!

It’s hard getting a full picture of our master bedroom because of the angle of the door, you either have to aim straight at the bed, or turn to the left to see the rest of the room. Above is the rest of the room. The dresser sits against the wall on the left, the french doors lead out to the balcony. There is a ton of sitting room at the bottom of the bed. It’s still my aim to get either a chair or small sofa there one day. Ideally I’d even like to remove the dresser and put in a fireplace, with a tv above it! But I don’t know if/when that will happen.

Well I finally got around to painting our room about a year later. . .  I bought new bedding when I did too, so it changed from burgandy and greens to gold and terracotta.

Here you can see the main wall color. It’s Laura Ashley Gold #4 The bedding is from Kohl’s.

This is the bottom half of the room. You can see the new curtains I hung. These were a perfect style so we could still open the door to the balcony. And you can see the contrast color I used on that wall, the color is called ‘baked clay’ by Waverly Home. Still had pictures to hang.

Here’s the top of the room again, with some pictures and candle sconces hung. And that’s how the room has stayed for the past couple of years, until recently. . . .  I added one more thing (for now – is a room ever finished?!)

Can you see what it is?

  I love it!

So, here’s how our cozy retreat looks right now. I added more pillows to the bed, but these are actually taken from the game room, so I will be looking for some newer ones for here.

A closer look, and the room looking a little lighter with the blinds open.

The bottom of the room isn’t looking as complete. . . .

 

I took away the silk flowers that were on the dresser to use in another room, so I would like to find something else to put there. Right now it’s got one lonely candlestick and two photos – pretty sad looking to be honest. 

Well, I hope you enjoyed the little tour and before and after pics. Hop on over to Kelly’s blog and take a wander around some other lovely rooms.

 

Denise

Wine Lover!

There was a time when I didn’t like wine. Back in my early twenties when I was first married and started hosting dinner parties with my other ‘couples’ friends I wanted to start drinking wine along with the rest of them. I was told to start with a sweet German wine like Liebraumilch or a Reisling. I did, and I got rather used to the taste. Over the years I tried many other white wines, went to fancy dinner parties, hosted more fancy dinner parties . . . it was a whole lotta fun.

Over time the dinner parties stopped… I eventually divorced in my early 30’s, stayed single for a couple of years then found my ‘dream guy’, moved to the States  - and the rest as they say is history ;-)

What I’m getting at really is that I’ve drank wine for many years now ;-) but not really expanded my knowledge or my taste buds for that matter, until . . . . well, until just a couple of weeks ago (not so much the knowledge part yet but the tasting part).

Over the past year or so Cheryl (my neighbor) and I have had our own little wine tasting nights but just a couple of weeks ago we both went to a local Winery for their monthly taste testing night. It was only for an hour but was such a fun night. We tasted 6 wines and had our own individual plates with a small selection of meats and cheese. Since that night I’ve wanted to try more different wines. One thing I just discovered this week is that I actually can drink a red wine. I’ve never liked them, or so I thought.

Anyway, I could go on and on here but I’ll leave more to tell in other posts about wine (because yes, I’ll be talking more about them now). What I wanted to post about today was my new ‘Wine Station’ . . . inspired by the lovely Becca who just this week showed pictures of her Fall decor and also of her lovely Wine Tasting Bar. Here’s a picture of it (I’m sure Becca won’t mind me sharing it with you) ;-)

It was love at first sight when I saw this, honestly I think I swooned! You can CLICK HERE and go see more lovely photos at Becca’s Blog  - Adventures In Decorating.

Of course as soon as I saw it I said “I want one too”!  I told Becca I loved her idea and wanted to make my own wine station, and she said ‘go for it’!  So I did. . . .

As always, using what I had (mostly) here is the start of my own little tasting station.

The one thing I didn’t have was the grapes and cheese. So I popped up to Hobby Lobby, grabbed a bunch and a fake wedge of cheese and came home to put it all together.

It’s not exactly how I want it yet, for starters there needs to be more wine, if you notice the rack is totally empty! I’d also like to make a sign to hang on the back of the tiles. Because I can’t stencil like Becca did I thought about getting a long frame and printing the words on it. That might work. I’ll also keep my eye out for some ‘wine’ signs’. The station is pretty small, so I won’t be able to add too much. What would really be nice is a wine fridge right next to this :) Then I could add some other accessories on top of it, like a free standing wine opener.

Hmmm, guess I should start working on my Christmas wish list :)

 

How bout you, what’s your poison?!!

Oh My. . . . it’s here!

At least this morning it felt like it was! I’m talking about Fall. Beautiful, wonderful, cool, crisp . . . FALL. I think this morning’s temps were actually below 70!

I know I already added some Fall decor at the front of the house and to be honest I didn’t really have that much left in my box to add to the inside – but the nice thing about our home is that the color scheme is really already quite ‘Fallish’. The walls for instance are a nice terracotta,  and the curtains have  orange and gold colors in them too.

So, I added a few things here and there today to start making the place look cozy. . .

  These are the pillows I put outside on the front porch, but I wanted to try them on the couch. They probably won’t stay there for long because of course when we sit there we’ll just have to move them. I don’t usually have any pillows on here but I want some, so I was trying this out just to get a feel for the ‘look’.

I also moved a piece of furniture. Remember this table,

I first had it here in the hallway, but then changed it around and put it in the dining room and but my black buffet in the hallway. Well, I changed it again (you really couldn’t see it in the dining room) and put it here . . . 

This wall leads to the laundry room, bathroom and Jason’s office. I want to add some fall pictures to those frames and a little more fall decor to that table.  And of course at Christmas time I can change it to Holiday decor too.

Here’s how the living room is looking from this angle.

The batteries died on my camera at this point so I couldn’t get more shots. I’ll try again soon once I’ve finished adding what I have.

I’m linking up with Susan’s MET MONDAY  Thanks for stopping by. If you’ve never commented before, why not make today the day you say hello :-)  I would love to know who’s reading and would love to return the visit if you have a blog.

Hugs

 

Denise

Sunday Musings – September 19th

Hi Everyone, hope you’re all enjoying your weekend. I thought I better jump on here and write up a post. It’s been one of those weeks where I’ve not really known what to write about, hence the reason no post since Wednesday, but thank you for leaving your kind comments and birthday wishes for Mam.

Can you believe this past Thursday marked the 100 days til Christmas! If you like the idea of getting ahead of the game and starting to get organized you should check out the website 100daystochristmas.com I followed along last year and it was fun, although I didn’t do everything they posted to their site.  I do have my 3 ring binder though and will start getting that sorted out and updated this week. I also found another great site today over at ‘Organizing Your Way’. They have a great free Ebook that you can download with lots of good printables too. 

I’m a winner! I found out this week that I won this cute giveaway from Cheryl at ‘My Own Snug Fireplace’

 

Kristen loves to freeze her yogurts, so I know she’s going to love this. I haven’t told her I’ve won yet, so it will be a fun surprise for her when I recieve it. Now her frozen yogurts can actually look like an icecream cone:)

Horse riding was a go this week too. If it’s not canceled for the heat, then it’s the rain. The week before last we got a TON of it as you know, but this week all was fine and Kristen was thrilled. It’s becoming her favorite thing to do.

For me, this week has been a ‘sore’ one as I started Jillian Michael’s 30 Day Shred. I jumped on the band wagon when I saw Jen at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam posting about it.

Today was day 5, and I can really feel a difference.  I’m determined to do this for the 30 days. It would help if I ate better too but I’ve not been so strict with my diet this week. It’s not that I need to lose the pounds, it’s all about toning up and feeling fitter. I do still manage to eat lots of veg and salads for lunch, I’m just not totally cutting out the chips or wine (both of which are my downfall)!  I’m writing a little daily post over at my Healthy Den if you want to see my progress. I might post a weekly before and after picture over there next week!

Have a great Sunday, I’ll hopefully post more next week.

 

Denise

85 Today!

Happy Birthday to my dear sweet Mam. 85 today!

I didn’t mention this last week but Mam was admitted to hospital – again :-(  She was having pains in her stomach last Wednesday so they took her in. They aren’t quite sure what it is but the Dr’s are saying she may have passed a gall stone? They were waiting for her to have an ultrascan to find out.  Guess what. . . . 7 days later, she was still waiting for the scan! (don’t you just love socialized medicine – not!). 

They let her come home yesterday, I think only because the family had been telling them they hoped she’d be out before her birthday. It’s a good thing they let her come home because she really doesn’t eat that well when she’s in there and as frail as she is, she can not afford to lose any more weight.

But thankfully she’s home, she’s a little more comfortable than she was, doesn’t have the horrible pain in her stomach any more, and gets to eat birthday cake today.  How I wish I was there with her.

Here’s one of my favorite pictures – my Mam with her baby girl’s ‘baby girl’!!  (yeah, I’m her baby girl) in her pretty little back garden when we went home to visit in 2008.

 

Happy Birthday Mam

I love you and miss you like crazy.

I can do this!

Can I do this? Eeeek, actually I’m not so sure. What am I even talking about you ask? This. . . .

I’m talking about this, Jillian Michael’s 30 Day Shred!  If any of you read Jen’s blog at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam, you will have seen that she started Jillian's 30 day workout yesterday. She’s asking anyone who wants to, to jump on board and do it with her.   She’s even posting daily on her Facebook page about it.

I wouldn’t bother buying a new workout dvd at this point, but Jen mentioned that a lot of people are renting it from Netflix! We just joined Netflix so I decided to look on line, and there it was. I received it today – I will start tomorrow!

Some of you may know that I have a separate blog called The Healthy Den, some of you may not know ;-)  I don’t really link to it on here, but it’s a place where I try to keep myself motivated when I’m feeling in the mood to diet and exercise (the feeling comes and goes!).  I haven’t posted on it since last month, but after tomorrow, I will try to post there once a day as I try to ‘tackle’ the 30 day workout.  I wanted to start walking every morning once school got back in, but the high temps put me off every morning, it’s usually nearly 80 degrees by the time I come home from taking Kristen to school, and that’s just too uncomfortable for me. I’m all about motivation, if something will motivate you to do something, then cease it, if that means joining in with others as they start a new workout, then by all means join in. Call it ‘jumping on the band wagon’ if you like . . . . I simply call it ‘motivation’.

I’ve heard it’s hard – it’s very very HARD!!!  Have any of you tried it?

I’ll keep you posted on how I do ;-)

Listed!

Hi everyone, I hope you all had a great weekend. Ours was fun, just hanging around the house and chillin with the neighbors as usual :-)

I finally got around to taking some pictures of my ‘Fall Knits’ with the help of my sweet princess. I’ve made a start at listing them in my Etsy shop. I was so pleased with how clear the photos turned out. . .

These two beautiful cowls are already listed. I have some others to list along with some fingerless mittens and some cotton lace trimmed hats - here’s a sneak peak at some of them . . . .

 

  

It’s still so hot here and feels like it will never cool down, but I wanted to get these listed. For some, the leaves are already falling, the mornings have a crispness in the air. For others it’s even time to start thinking about Christmas gifts!  ;-)

Making a start

So I pulled out my Fall Decor box yesterday and made a start on the front porch. AND . . . . I was also busy with my sewing machine, looky what I made :-)

Thanks again to Richella for sharing the wonderful idea with us on her blog. I have two other covers sewn but I need to buy more felt. I just so happen to have the orange in my craft box from making something for Kristen months ago. I plan on getting some green and brown felt to make the others. I love this idea and might do some more cushions for Christmas. I could add a green Christmas tree or holly and berries would be nice, and perhaps cut out the shape of a Cardinal in red, or a gold bell?  I also bought a new throw in Ross yesterday. I love the colors of this plaid and I think it will look just as nice out there for the Holidays too. We sat out with the ‘neighb’s last night but I certainly didn’t need the throw – still SO hot out there :-/

I changed out the candle sconces too – remember I bought these ones a few months back. The problem with them is the glass votive is too small and the candles just keep blowing out in the breeze. What I’ve found works best on the front porch is tall candle holders with small/low candles. That way they are protected from the breeze.

So, here’s what I have put there now. These candle holders were up on my porch outside our bedroom. They came from Kirklands and are really meant for indoors I think. But they seem to fare ok outside. It’s just the greenery that looks a bit worn (they came with the greenery already attached but it would be easy to change it and renew it any time. For these I simply added some fall leaves I have and a ribbon underneath.

I left the candles in it but thought they might be too high. I was right, I lit them last night but they didn’t stay lit. I shall replace them this weekend with two new ‘small’ candles that I just bought when I got the throw.

  I still have a few things to do out there, then I will get some better pictures of the overall look. The ribbons on this topiary need changing for a start. I added a few silk leaves to the pots on the wall.

Next will be buying Chrysanthemums and putting out the pumpkins. The ‘mums’ aren’t even in the stores yet but as soon as I see them I’ll be sure to get some.

Don’t forget there’s some wonderful Fall Decor ideas at The Fall Nesting Party at The Inspired Room

 

Denise