In the midst of all my to and fro'ing the last couple of days, I did manage to take my own advice last night and slow down. Yesterday was one of my favorite poet's birthdays, so Emily Dickinson and I hung out by the fireplace last night, selecting our own company and shutting the door to the world.  It was a much needed respite--a room lit by the soft glow of my Dickens Village and the fireplace, a warm Christmas blanket wrapped around me, my sweet Willow curled up in my lap, and the lovely words of Amherst's poet to warm my soul.

Snow

It sifts from leaden sieves,
It powders all the wood,

It fills with alabaster wool

The wrinkles of the road.

It makes an even face

Of mountain and of plain, —

Unbroken forehead from the east

Unto the east again.

It reaches to the fence,

It wraps it, rail by rail,

Till it is lost in fleeces;

It flings a crystal veil

On stump and stack and stem, —

The summer's empty room,

Acres of seams where harvests were,

Recordless, but for them.

It ruffles wrists of posts,

As ankles of a queen, —

Then stills its artisans like ghosts,

Denying they have been.

Photo credits

Thank you, Emily, for a calm and peaceful night.  You never disappoint.

Have a peaceful Wednesday!

PrettyByHand

By the time a woman reaches her fifties (my children might point out "is close to her sixties" is more apt but since Christmas is coming hopefully they will remain silent) one would like to think that she has learned a thing or two about procrastination.  As in, don't procrastinate.  My husband is a big proponent of the DO IT NOW school of thought, and my mother is prone to quoting "let us now be up and doing, with a heart for any fate..."  and I...well, I would rather find a book, a couch and a nice warm blanket.

PrettyByHand

I always justified my procrastinating ways by asserting that I work best under pressure...that the looming deadline gets the creative juices flowing, but I think I'm finally realizing that the last minute hustle and bustle just creates stress, not creativity.  I manage to get things done, and usually done at the level my silly perfectionism requires, but it takes a toll.  And, more to the point, it leaves me disappointed, because I never seem to have the time to sit and relax and enjoy the ....(insert word here, holiday, weekend, day off, special day...) because I'm scurrying around trying to finish my impossibly long to-do list that I've left until the last moment.

NanaCompany

Case in point.  Have you noticed the lovely Christmas tags I've posted in today's blog?  I really wanted to make some of these lovely tags for special presents.  I admired them last year in two of my favorite blogs, PrettyByHand and NanaCompany, and even downloaded the tutorials and bought the patterns.  In December last year it seemed completely do-able that I could make at least one tag for each family member. And yesterday I read that Kristyne and Amy, the creators of these two awesome blogs, are DOING IT AGAIN this year with even more amazing designs.  And my tags?  Well, I know the pattern is somewhere on my desk (I think) but that's about as far as I have gone with this idea.

NanaCompany

I'm not beating myself up--I work a full time job and it's been a crazy, stressful year.  But moving forward I need to figure out a better way of incorporating the things I want to accomplish along with the things I must accomplish.  But even if I'm feeling a pang of regret that these beauties aren't going to happen at my house this year, I will enjoy how gorgeous these are and hopefully plan better for next year.  Because hope is a good thing at this time of year, right?  

PrettyByHand

This poem by A.A. Milne (of Winnie the you know who Pooh fame) made me laugh at the end of a long day, probably because I could really relate to the old sailor.  Perhaps if I am shipwrecked I might have time to stitch my Christmas tags!  

The Old Sailor (AA Milne)

There was once an old sailor my grandfather knew 

Who had so many things which he wanted to do 

That, whenever he thought it was time to begin, 

He couldn’t because of the state he was in. 

He was shipwrecked, and lived on a island for weeks, 

And he wanted a hat, and he wanted some breeks; 

And he wanted some nets, or a line and some hooks 

For the turtles and things which you read of in books. 

And, thinking of this, he remembered a thing

Which he wanted (for water) and that was a spring;

And he thought that to talk to he’d look for, and keep

(If he found it) a goat, or some chickens and sheep.

Then, because of the weather, he wanted a hut

With a door (to come in by) which opened and shut

(With a jerk, which was useful if snakes were about),

And a very strong lock to keep savages out.

He began on the fish-hooks, and when he’d begun 

He decided he couldn’t because of the sun. 

So he knew what he ought to begin with, and that 

Was to find, or to make, a large sun-stopping hat. 

He was making the hat with some leaves from a tree, 

When he thought, “I’m as hot as a body can be, 

And I’ve nothing to take for my terrible thirst; 

So I’ll look for a spring, and I’ll look for it first.” 

Then he thought as he started, “Oh, dear and oh, dear!

I’ll be lonely tomorrow with nobody here!”

So he made in his note-book a couple of notes:

“I must first find some chickens” and “No, I mean goats.”

He had just seen a goat (which he knew by the shape)

When he thought, “But I must have boat for escape.

But a boat means a sail, which means needles and thread;

So I’d better sit down and make needles instead.”

He began on a needle, but thought as he worked,

That, if this was an island where savages lurked,

Sitting safe in his hut he’d have nothing to fear,

Whereas now they might suddenly breathe in his ear!

So he thought of his hut … and he thought of his boat, 

And his hat and his breeks, and his chickens and goat, 

And the hooks (for his food) and the spring (for his thirst) … 

But he never could think which he ought to do first. 

And so in the end he did nothing at all, 

But basked on the shingle wrapped up in a shawl. 

And I think it was dreadful the way he behaved - 

He did nothing but bask until he was saved! 

Have a Happy Day!

I tried, really I did.  Instead of freaking out immediately after Thanksgiving about the shortened time frame between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I took a full week to continue counting my blessings (did I mention my first grandchild is on the way??!!) and tried to keep an attitude of gratitude.  That lasted until this past Saturday morning, when I thought I'd "jot down" what I needed to accomplish over the weekend and it took more than one page to write it all down.

Help.

About those lovely handmade gifts I thought I could whip up, no sweat?  They are now on next year's list. Maybe I'll get smart in April and start thinking ahead about the holidays.  Oh wait, first grand-baby due in May. Maybe I'll get smart in August then and start thinking ahead about the holidays. Oh wait, daughter's wedding in September.  Maybe I should just transfer the handmade gifts to the 2015 list and call it good??

Suffice it to say that I don't look like this right now.  In fact, I would never allow anyone to take a picture of me at the moment...I was in my warm robe all day yesterday, not even getting dressed or bothering to fix my hair (I think I brushed my teeth, but don't hold me to it) on my mad dash to the computer to finish some design projects.  

I kind of look like this, except worse...

I think the elf got more sleep than I did...

I've gone from blithely counting my blessings to frantically trying to "pull off Christmas" and the sad part is...I'm the only one putting any pressure on myself.  Truly, I think my family would have the same response that the Who's in Whoville gave upon finding all their Christmas toys and decorations gone on Christmas morn...

So today it's back to the drawing board...I've got to figure out how do I keep from giving in to the ridiculous pressure to create the "perfect" Christmas, which includes a beautifully decorated home, thoughtfully chosen gifts that are craftily wrapped and adorned with homemade tags, and a kitchen full of homemade treats.  Yikes.  I'll start by staying away from Pinterest...it's too much of a good thing!  I'll keep you posted on my success...

 

The sweetest blessing of all

Happy Friday!  My heart started racing early this morning when I realized I have 18 days until Christmas. Eighteen.  Days.  I have boxes of  Christmas decorations still spread across my house, fall decorations from Thanksgiving stacked on my dining room table, and a shopping list that doesn't have anything (anything!) marked off yet.  I think I'm in trouble.  But before Christmas panic takes over, I have one final blessing that I want to share with you today.  And of all the sweet blessings I have written about this week, this may be the sweetest of all.

My oldest son and his wife gave my husband and me an early anniversary present before Thanksgiving, and asked us to open the matching boxes together.  Unsuspecting, we did so, to find coffee mugs nestled inside that said "We not only think you're great, we think you're grand."  Ah, sweet!  We love special coffee mugs and what a nice thing to say about us.  But wait..........there's more!  As my son and daughter-in-law sat and smiled at us, I slowly turned the mug around to find the rest of the message...

Oh my!!  The tears of joy began flowing, as you can imagine!  I've waited patiently (okay, maybe a little impatiently) to become a grandmother, and my heart is filled to the brim with happiness and excitement for them.  It seems like only yesterday that my son was in my arms and my heart was filled with joy at his arrival and now in May I'll be holding his sweet baby in my arms instead.

My husband and I were up very early to stuff the turkey and celebrated our anniversary/Thanksgiving Day/new grandchild by enjoying our first cup of coffee in our new mugs at 4 am.  Here we are greeting the dawn and sipping our coffee with pride!

 

And when I stop to count my blessings, I am a rich woman indeed!  A woman, wife, mother, daughter, sister, friend, and now on to the next great adventure....a grandmother!  I can't wait.  

And on this very happy note, my week of counting my blessings draws to a close.  And before I can do any more celebrating, I think I need to go clear the dining room table and figure out a game plan for these next eighteen days!  Christmas countdown begins!

The countdown continues...

As I reflect on all I had to be grateful for over Thanksgiving, of course one of my greatest blessings was being surrounded by my family and spending time with them.  I mentioned our anniversary dinner the night before Thanksgiving, but that didn't mean that holiday cooking had stopped...oh no, there were plenty of extra hands in the kitchen the night before Thanksgiving!  First it was the pumpkin and cherry pie makers (and by pie, I mean from scratch--starting with roasting pie pumpkins, homemade pie crust and real cherries!!)

And when those pies were done, the apple pie makers took over:

 Followed by the dessert makers:

who crafted darling cookie/marshmallow pilgrim hats and turkey (red velvet!) cupcakes:

Which all led to all around merriment and good cheer and lots and lots of desserts the next day, that were all clearly enjoyed:

Desserts so good that you had to try more than one!

(not my plate...)

(this one wasn't mine either...I know better than to photograph what I eat!)

But I have now literally put dessert before the meal!  After all the cooking and preparation and dealing with a really big bird (27 pounds...too big to fit in my roasting pan!) and before all the sweet treats at the end, my biggest blessing was seeing all these smiling faces around my table (we all squeezed in close so we could fit the "kids'" table at the end of my dining room table so we could all be together--which made for different tablecloths, different plates and mismatched silverware, but there was the same smile on everyone's face and that's all that truly mattered):

And if you have read my blog for any length of time now, you already know what followed--lots and lots of lively discussions at the table for hours!  

It was wonderful sharing this time with my brother and his lovely wife:

as well as getting to hang out with him, since we don't get to see each other very often:

And perhaps best of all, sitting back and watching my brother and husband take care of all the dishes following our holiday feast!!

Now that's something to really feel blessed about!!

Thank God for dirty dishes

Thank God for dirty dishes,
They have a tale to tell.
While other folks go hungry,
We're eating very well.
With home and health and happiness,
We surely shouldn't fuss.
For by this stack of evidence,
Life's been good to us.

China cupboard, round two

I had this bright idea a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving that I should try out the new chalk paint craze that has everyone abuzz and redo my old china cabinet.  Two weeks before Thanksgiving.  Was I insane??! My husband and I gifted a dining table set and the china hutch to each other on our first anniversary and it has graced every home we have lived in since our wedding.  But four children, three dogs, three states and six houses later, time had taken its toll and it no longer looked nice enough for my dining room.

So it had been relegated to the basement where it held trip souvenirs, and my china resided on a bookshelf in the dining room.  Project fever held me in its grip, and off I set to buy the chalk paint.

The table departed several years ago, and our new table has a wood top with vintage looking cream colored legs, and the chairs also have the creamy white paint that looks slightly worn and antiqued.  Surely it would be an easy process with the chalk paint to bring my cabinet back to life and match my new table and chairs? I carefully read all the blogs and reviews about different chalk paint companies, and also debated the diy chalk paint recipes, and in the end I chose CeCe Caldwell paint.  In the nonsensical way I have of choosing my Super Bowl team by who has the "nicest" quarterback or the most endearing story (unless its the Vikings, in which I case I ALWAYS root for the Vikings!) I ended up choosing CeCe Caldwell paint because I read how nice the company founder (CeCe) was.  One really nice feature of the paint is that it is eco-friendly and non-toxic.  Perfect for a basement project.  I chose the vintage white color and came home excited to start.

Chalk paint's claim to fame is that there is no prep work involved--no stripping or sanding required at the beginning.  It is supposed to be painted on, then sanded off in spots to achieve that perfect vintage look. Well, let me tell you here and now, it ain't that easy!  Here's the first coat on the side of the cabinet. Nothing to write home about.

Second coat was better.  Third coat even better.  But then it started to get gloppy and was more difficult to get a smooth finish.  Even though I knew it was supposed to look different than regular paint, I kept thinking I was doing something wrong because it wasn't as smooth.  I decided the inside of the cabinet would look better with a color instead of more white, so I primed it with regular primer and painted it the soft green of my dining room accent wall.

I was probably over ambitious by choosing the cabinet for my first project, but with company coming and Thanksgiving right around the corner, there was no going back.  I can get a little stubborn that way, when I have a vision in my head.  All the little grooves and detail work, plus plenty of glass, made for slow going. And have I mentioned I'm a perfectionist?  But since I'd already completed the banner to hang on the cabinet I was determined to finish what I'd started (we won't talk about my closet full of uncompleted projects, ok?). I spray painted all the old brass hardware with a nickel finish to match my lighting fixtures, and I love how it looks against the cream paint.

Once the paint was dry,  I really struggled with using the sandpaper to actually rub OFF some of the paint I had spent so many hours applying.  There was no instruction manual on how much to take off, and there is a fine line between creating a piece that looks vintage and not just plain banged up.  Since I had put on several coats, taking it off wasn't very easy.  After serving an apprenticeship with Mr. Miyagi--paint on, paint off--it was time to put on a protective finish.  I chose endurance cream, a wax designed for tables and kitchen cupboards that are used a lot.  Back to Karate Kid school--wax on, wax off!  You apply the wax with cheesecloth, and then once it dries you sand softly, then apply another coat.  Maybe I needed this poster to motivate me?

 
But in the end, I love how it turned out, although I can't say I would want to use chalk paint for a lot of projects.  No prepping in the beginning is nice, but the waxing at the end is hard work!

It was so satisfying to lovingly place my china back in the cabinet.  The top shelf holds some of my special display plates, the second shelf my beautiful china from my great aunt, and the bottom shelf displays my special cake plates.  All in all, I just couldn't be more thankful with the way it turned out!

And for no reason other than it's Wednesday and we all need a little something to make us grin, here's a fun poem by Shel Silverstein to shake the giggles right out of us!  Trust me, you won't find my furniture carrying on like this...my furniture is very well behaved. That's English china in my cupboard and all the plates and tea cups are quite proper indeed!

Furniture Bash

The hand of the clock
Pinched the foot of the bed,
So the foot of the bed
Kicked the seat of the chair,
So the seat of the chair
Sat on the head of the table,
So the head of the table
Bit the leg of the desk,
So the leg of the desk
Bumped the arm of the couch,
So the arm of the couch
Slapped the face of the clock,
And they pinched and they punched
And they banged and the knocked,
And they ripped and they flipped,
And they rolled and they rocked,
And the poor dresser drawer
Got a couple of socks.
There was sawdust and springs
When I turned on the light
After that horrible furniture fight.
And that’s the truth, no lie– – no joke.
That’s how your furniture
All got broke.

Have a wonderful Wednesday! 

Home blessings

I'm taking this week to reflect on all the blessings that led up to our wonderful family Thanksgiving, and one of them is that I have a home I love and enjoy decorating for the holidays.  When my children were little we had an exuberant abundance of window clings and school art projects hanging everywhere, and I loved how cheerful it made my home look.  Now we just have grownups (and Willow, who thinks she's human) rattling around and I miss the wonderful, slightly mis-matched but heartfelt homemade decor of former days. Therefore, it was time to do a few arts and crafts projects myself!  

Project one:  Mantel decorated with vintage blue mason jars (recycled from my son's rehearsal dinner three years ago), filled with autumn leaves, and a literary decoration that turned out pretty swell, if I do say so myself!  I simply chose vintage books of varying heights from my library, tied them together with an autumn colored ribbon and stamped an appropriate message on the end papers.  

If I could do it over again, I'd choose black ink over brown to make the letters stand out a little more, but I thought brown was more "fall."  It's a little light, but I was really pleased with the way it turned out.

I am so thankful indeed!

Project two:  change the door decoration in my cross stitch picture.  I cross stitched this little house twenty-two years ago as a fun way for my husband to let our three sons know the birth of our fourth child.  He had a "it's a boy" and a "it's a girl" decoration to hang, and according to my husband the boys were jumping up and down to see which one got hung on the door!  I have all sorts of little door hangers to celebrate holidays and occasions and love changing them out.  

Project three:  hang my favorite framed Thanksgiving piece in the hallway.

Project four:  create a banner garland for my latest furniture project (more on that tomorrow!).  I saw a similar banner online and decided I could make it.  The instructions promised it was a ten minute project, but it took me a little longer than that. So that the garland had the vintage feel I love, I used pages from an old copy of the Junior Classics set I have.  Can you guess which book I used?  The poetry book, of course! And, since I tend to be slightly OCD (my family is laughing at the "slightly" description) I hunted for the perfect poems for the banner, using fall poems to convey just the right tone.  The fact that no one could really see the poems or read them in their entirety is beside the point. I also included my grandmother's favorite poem, Thanatopsis, in her honor.  

While it did take longer than the promised ten minutes, it was a fairly simple process once I was satisfied with the poetry selections.  I cut a template, traced the pattern and cut out the pendants, then affixed the chipboard letters to spell out the message.  I used small slivers of double sided tape to secure the letters, and then punched small holes at the top to thread the twine through.  I was quite happy with the result!

And then, on Thanksgiving Day, one final house blessing arrived...a picture from my niece which I proudly hung on my kitchen door.  My final "home blessing"...a child's art work graced my walls again!

Bless this house, O Lord we pray, 
Make it safe by night and day ... 

Bless these walls so firm and stout, 
Keeping want and trouble out ...

Bless the roof and chimneys tall, 
Let thy peace lie overall ... 

Bless this door that it may prove, 
Ever open, 
To joy and love ... 

Bless these windows shining bright, 
Letting in God's Heavenly light, 
Bless the hearth, the painting there, 
With smoke ascending like a prayer! 

Bless the folk who dwell within, 
Keep them pure and free from sin ... 

Bless us all that we may be, 
Fit O Lord to dwell with thee ... 

Bless us all that one day we may dwell, 
O Lord! With Thee!