A Little Deconstruction

Looky here, isn't this what every girl wants? Her very own dumpster!!!! Ah, be still my heart.

I am so excited about the dumpster because it gives me a place to put my porch. Yes, my porch.


It's a very sad story about my porch... see, it has been crumbling for years... and years, since before I even bought the house and made it my own. Though it looks like a nice enough porch, it was mostly held together with paint and fading dreams.

But eventually reality sets in and the thing has to be dealt with...
That's Poor Gordon whose only mistake was dating a girl whose house is a little on the wobbly side. He did the lion's share of the demolition. My son, Adrian came to help too. My job was primarily debris removal -- I got to toss it all into that big not-so-shiny dumpster. Woo-Hoo!!I always get the good jobs.

See that post... the rain found a leak in the roof, dripped in and rotted the post from the inside out. I can't even begin to describe the damage the birds did. They found a little hole, made it bigger, moved in, brought their friends... It was like a starling frat party up there. When the old nest got too decrepit they shoved it back and built anew. Rotten birds.

And here is my porch -- No More...

The plan is to build a new one... though, time is ever the issue. Next weekend my favorite builder boyfriend is otherwise engaged... the follwing weekend my youngest niece is getting married. It could be till the end of summer... but it better not be! I'm going to go find more debris to toss in that dumpster.

The Happiest Mother's Day

Where, oh where, do I begin.... let's say the beginning. My dear thoughtful boyfriend wanted a day just for us doing something beyond the norm, something romantic -- the norm being chores and projects, wild and crazy folks that we are. But this weekend, Mother's Day, to have time to ourselves meant Saturday. So he found a gristmill restaurant and off we went on our private personal adventure. It was so much fun -- this little town north of Beyond-All-That is just a crossroads in the woods where a deep gorge carved out a great place for a waterwheel. Oh, it was so pretty. Breathtaking really. The food was good, our table was right on the edge of the gorge and the service was charming.

No little town that features a gristmill restaurant is worth it's salt without a couple of antique stores. But it is such a little town. Once we'd dined in the mill and cruised through a few antique shops... that was it. But five miles away was another little town, well known as a hippy enclave with all the requisite head shops and pottery shops, stained glass designers and college bars -- think 1968, the summer of love, sandals, peace signs, peasant tops, incense... Groovy. I had more fun than a dune buggy load of Monkees. I picked up Peruvian knitted finger puppets for my wee Grandson and a beautiful blue hand thrown tea pot for my darling daughter-in-law and a surprise birthday gift for my manly-man boy child. Less than never do I simply fiddle and shop --it's a wonder I know what's available at all. We stayed and shopped so long that we had dinner at one of the college bars, outside, after the shops began closing up. It was a great day.

And then Sunday -- the REAL Mother's Day, I worked my fanny off... with this:

I got a brand new stove Saturday morning - I feared it would not be delivered in time for my Gristmill in the Woods adventure.... ahhh, but it was. I would show a picture of the old one, but I was too focused on shoving it out the door to snap a picture. Let's just say... it was OLD. Not necessarily ugly old (though it did lack a certain vintage charm from the get-go). It wasn't even broken... but this stove has a griddle. It's got a convection oven, too and a warming drawer... it's slick and shiny and... oh, I am in love.

So I worked real hard on a Mother's Day Brunch... for these people. That's my son, my Grandson, my daughter-in-law and my Sweetie.

This was the first "event" in my newly redone dining room!!!! Frankly, the china cabinet isn't yet built... but the pieces are cut out and ready... These poeple weren't going to sweat a little thing like "no china cabinet." We were too bust being dazzled by this cake my darling daughter-in-law created. It was as delicious and scruptious and wonderful as t looks. Oh, she puts up with my son and bakes to boot! She is amazing!

It was a real nice weekend. I hope each of you enjoyed a wonderful relaxing, content, satisfying Mother's Day too. To you and your family -- grab as much delight as you can. And eat cake.

The Stand

So, Talia, The Wee Queen of Oh-So-Much, is pretty sure she can not compete with this little man (and hiding back there behind chair legs is Natalie poised to beat a hasty retreat) So goes my days of late -- Stay and fight it out or cut my losses and run? THAT is the question.

Ahhhhh. I so apologize for my lengthy absences. I am tied up and covered over with project after project on top of project to where just mowing the lawn seems a monumental undertaking.


In fact, under all those limbs, mowing my lawn IS monumental.

As you can see, my cottage is very old... i.e. decrepit in the most adorable way, but decrepit all the same. That porch needs replacing, the driveway is a crumble. We won't even peek at the back porch. Those tree limbs had to come out... I was so grateful for the few days they lay on the hillside -- so long as the hillside was buried I was relieved of the chore of mowing. Hooray. Yet, I am still engaged in indoor projects. The china cabinet got cut out yesterday, the dining room drapes await hemming, new shelves for a kitchen wall are now painted and might (might) get installed this evening... or not.

I haven't yet decided if the issue is money or time or bodies to actually do the deeds. I do know that when I pass by neat and tidy and completed little condo parks I am sorely intrigued.

And for a bit my computer and my camera were so annoyed with one another that they ceased to chat. After many long deliberations I have brokered an uneasy peace. For now, at least, the works are, well, working again.

As it is, I will continue plugging along as best I can, ever mindfull that all work comes to an abrupt halt upon the arrival of this little face:

Kai William -- 10 1/2 mos.

As Good As It Gets

So the snow has melted and given way to these:

I love crocuses -- in their Sunday Best they trumpet the arrival of spring like a happy surprise. Just seeing the little shoots pushing up through the cold earth shakes off the weariness of winter and fills our collective heads with a new beginning, a fresh start. That's as good as it gets.

I've been so wickedly busy these past many weeks that frankly I could use a fresh start. I was in Pennsylvania all last week helping my boyfriend and his brother spruce up their parents house for sale. It's been sitting empty for some three years now -- suffice it to say that "sprucing up" doesn't really begin to cover it. If ever anything was in need of a fresh start that house tops the list. And now what I could use is a nice nap... in the sunshine... in a hammock. But I am getting ahead of myself.

My living room and dining room projects are nearly complete -- a few drapes to hem and a china cabinet to build. I tend to loose steam when I'm so close to being finished... Does that happen to you? The week before going to Pennsylvania I was in a big push to get the dining room drapes finished and up and got as far as the hem. Now that I'm back I don't yet have the itch in me to wrap it up. But by Saturday, ready or not, I'll get them done. Maybe I need to gaze at those crocuses a little longer, to breath in more of that "fresh start" air out there.

What does spring evoke for you?

Snowed In!!!!

The snow came and came and came some more. It fell on fences and trees and roofs. It covered sidewalks, driveways and roads... And when I thought there was not another flake left to fall, there fell more.


The snow started shortly after 8 a.m. Friday. I stood at the kitchen window and watched it begin... by 10 the yard was covered, by noon the roads were treacherous. It fell and it fell and it fell.

There is a street between my house and that gray one. But you'd never know it.


Hmmmmmm, guess there's nothing for a snowbound girl to do except... play.


Stay busy and keep outta trouble.


Every now and then this is just what we need -- a Snow Day.

Are you Snow Bound? What did you do?

It's About Time

Lest you suspect I've fallen off the planet, fact is I've been sewing and painting and building, never mind that work thing too. But my house is coming along -- two steps forward, three back, right on schedule. The living room is feeling more and more warm and inviting. Remeber this piece of art my boyfriend had framed for me for Christmas. Ahhhhh. It takes my breath away. And it's finally been hung...


But what to do with that empty space... leave it alone... add more art... shelves... Hmmm? Finally it occured to me that what it wants is a clock...

But this one, hanging in my garage, is too big, too tattered...

And this one, thanks to T.J. Maxx, is too new...

I went to a middle of the road antique store hoping to find just the right clock, just the right age... at just the right price. (A girl can dream.) The Antique Owner was on the funny side, "I haven't sold one of thjose in quite a while -- do you know what they run?" Odd question, I thought. And, "No, I haven't a clue... I'm thinking $60 to $80." The Antiques Owner's eyes grew wide: shock, horror, offense registered on his face. "You won't find it!" he said. "You just won't find it -- not for under $180." (A minute before he hadn't sold one in a long long while and had no idea what a nice old clock might cost -- but now he was sure my price couldn't be had. And that I should be smacked for even thinking it.)

But this one... I rather like this one. And I sure didn't pay $180 for it. I didn't pay even $80 for it.

How it came about was after dinner. At our favorite neighborhood Italian place I'd been telling my boyfriend the tale of the obnoxious Antiques Owner. "You won't find it," I repeated. My boyfriend laughed. We finished dinner. We jumped in the truck and upon leaving the parking lot the truck headlights swept a trash pile of the apartment across the street from the Italian place. I caught the headlight reflection on the clock face first. "STOP!" I think I very nearly gave my boyfriend a stroke. I lept from the truck, darted across the street, snatched up the clock and Looky there -- it looks nice on my wall next to my print, don't you think? A few more pieces of ... something are needed there... maybe a lantern... maybe a piccolo (why not?)

And now, back to sewing and painting and building... There's more to come... lest I fall off the planet.

A Little Birdy Told Me

Finally, updating my living room and dining room has come to the art collecting segment... maybe I rushed ahead a bit -- there is still a chair to upholster and a cabinet to refinish, lamps to select. But art is the fun part and, trust me, I could use a little fun.


Sadly, my favorite, most reliable antique mall recently closed. It was one of those monster malls with row upon row, booth after booth, fine antiques mingling with middle-of-the-road junk. I loved it and then, like an errant boyfriend, just when you thought it would be there always, it wasn't. It was gone. Ahhhh me.


Forlorn and woebegone, what was I to do? Wander into every antique and thrift shop in the city, to beat the bushes for a few integral pieces of art? Mighty inefficient and haphazard if you ask me. But then, quite by chance, I overheard two men chatting... about a new antique mall. The minute I became aware of what they were talking about I began eavesdropping in earnest. What new antique mall? Where? How would I find it? Shhhhhhhh...

It's on Route 4, they said. (Oh, Bully, Route 4 is one of those busy thoroughfares with every fast food restaurant, department store and chain shop known nationwide crammed within a five mile lenghth.) Those were the only directions I had. No specifics, not even a name for the place... How would I find it?


About two miles off the highway, up Route 4, as I was beginning to wonder... there was the sign, big as life: Antique Mall. Hooray!!!!.

The wonderful thing about an antique mall, if you ask me, is the whole conglomeration of antiques in one place. If I am looking for bowls or tables or candle sticks, it is a sure bet, at an antique mall I will find not one but fifty. I can choose this or that, discard a piece that doesn't quite go....


And so it was with the art. I started looking for pieces that just "grabbed me"... and what I began to notice were bird prints... Pretty, pretty bird prints. I didn't mean to zero in on these pretty birds... they just caught my eye and wouldn't let me loose. I got several bird prints that I think will make a nice grouping. (Another grouping I got was of children, but we'll look at them another day -- today I wanted to show you these lovely birds. Aren't they nice?)

And as it happens only recently I got a mini-yard-long from Francie's Scented Cottage that features a length of birds perched on a wire. They are too too cute. Don't you think? (Even with a fuzzy picture those little birds are unbearably sweet.)


Finding the new antique mall was a mightily entertaining treasure hunt. Finding all these dear birdy prints were the bonus nuggets of gold.

So I am wondering, are the antique malls in your area fairing well... or are they dying on the vine? And when you go antiquing what do you most like to find?