I have managed to create my own private piece of heaven in my own home.  No  small feat, as many of you will agree.  After too many years of sharing bathroom mirror, kitchen table, dining table, coffee table…and moving my daily To-Do’s around that circuit and finally into bed at night.  You may be familiar with being chased from one location to another in search of focus and peace.  Or of being faced with the distractions of household and family whenever your eyes stray from paperwork or computer screen.

No more.

Slow Down

Well, it has been March Break in our corner of the world.  But we didn’t get a break from Od Man Winter.  Far from it.  But an opportunity to slow down nonetheless.  Sleep in.  Lazy breakfasts.  Walks.  Movies.  Read by the fire.  Heavenly in its own way.

While the blog was on a break I learned a few things about Instagram and did some experimenting. Very fun.  Click on the button above to see some more results. If you are an Instagrammer let me know and I will check out your feed.

Lest you think it was all quietude and lolling around however, there are always three things in this household to keep us moving along.  Children.  Dog.  Renovations.

Children and pets do insist on waking up and being fed and exercised at regular intervals.  Sigh.  And renovations will take over your household and are best to have some momentum.  As a domino/snowball/explosion result, behind the scenes there has been some commotion.  Disassembling of furniture.  Relocating it.  Refinishing it.  Repurposing it.  The camera has been at work documenting the process.  Reveals coming soon.

Meanwhile The Dog has taken it upon herself to watch the piles of snow to see if they are receding. Are they?

 

You can only tell if you slow down.

What Lies Beneath

Another pretty snowfall during the night.  And look what it is falling on at this time of year.  Trees already budding with the promise of spring.  An opportunity for some pretty photographs.  Before the sun comes up too high, changes the light, and melts the snow.

That’s what the sun will do.  Melt away the cold and the heaviness that covers and weighs down.  Nurture and feed the hope of new life beneath.

What a beautiful life lesson from nature.  Allow what is hopeful and good to be nurtured.  It will bloom in its time.

I see the snow already melting.

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”  Ralph Waldo Emerson

How to Create a Transitional Winter to Spring Mantel

It’s that time of year when Mother Nature and the Calendar are at odds with each other in our part of the globe.  Yesterday there was the slightest hint of Spring.  Sun, birds singing, and slightest of mild breezes.  But mild breeze gathered strength and brought with it a System as the meteorologists call it.  Not at all descriptive of the inches upon inches of slush that are accumulating today. 

The Calendar declares that Easter is imminent.  With winter urns frozen solidly into place but the home otherwise long since de-Christmased, what’s a stylish girl to do?

Well, she looks to the seasonal display at the local Big Grocery Store for some inspiration.  Sponge Bob Square Pants chocolates and Dora baskets didn’t really do it for me.  But this little white ceramic rabbit was calling my name.  I set him on the mantel beside the then-empty lantern for a few days to see if he felt at home. 

Eventually some lime green accents starting keeping him company.  Decorative vine balls, mums, a wreath.

Now we’re getting somewhere.  A Transitional mantel.  Still the lantern and candles from Winter but a touch of green and my little White Rabbit for Spring optimism.  Are you watching, Mother Nature?

An ironic thing happened when I went to the bookcase to find some colour-themed books to add to the display.  I love the juxtaposition of The Tale of Peter Rabbit with the volume of Frost poetry.  Sorry for the pun on your name Robert.  But doesn’t this just say it all?

I leave you with a little bit of Robert Frost verse:

See that Mother Nature?  We can make our own optimism and inspiration.

Tea and Colouring

In our household we have this happy coincidence of supply and demand.  Maybe you have something like it too.  We have Youngest Son who likes to do his Work…homework, colouring, crafts…wherever someone else is also around.  And so his little supplies need to be quickly and easily portable, and not take up too much space.  Good requirements for all children and their stuff, actually.

Enter coincidence.  Teenaged Daughter loves her cuppa tea.  Sustenance and stress-relief through our long dark winters.  Hot tea transitions seamlessly into iced tea for the summer months.  There is a steady stream of these cute little containers becoming empty.

And so we use them to corral crayons. Mini markers and pencil crayons. Scissors and glue sticks. Erasers and those little IKEA pencils that keep turning up around here.  Supplies easily tidied up mid-project and moved off the kitchen table before dinner.

Craftier moms or children would decorate the containers with colourful paper and embellishments.  Beautiful idea! 

Live creatively whenever you can.  And enjoy a good cuppa tea.

DIY Chalkboard Tabletop

So, I have this little vignette in the front room of our home.  The room is alternately referred to as our living room and our music room.  The music part you would understand if I showed a photo facing left.  More instruments than family members, years worth of music books and sheets per instrument, and teaching paraphernalia.  And truthfully, since we are not formal people, this space rarely gets used as a formal living room.  And the music part quickly migrates across.  Nevertheless I work with what I’ve got.

This is what I’ve got:   a child sized table and chairs which doubles as a music teaching/music homework spot and a pseudo coffee table.  It has sentimental value since it came from Husband’s childhood home.  It has the name of one of his Siblings childishly markered on the underside.  Hmmm.  Hope you didn’t want it back Annie H.

This is what the table looked like before…

…quite unacceptable as a pseudo coffee table.  I have debated for too long what to do about it.  Restain?  Paint?  Replace?It needed to be tidied up at the very least. 

You can see in the first photo that the chair situation has already been addressed.  So while there was a lull in the basement renovation (can you see the flesh-coloured linoleum flooring?  Oh man I can’t wait to reveal the After of this space!)  I lugged the child-sized table…it weighs a tonne…they don’t make them like they used to…downstairs.

This is what I found in our storage room to use for my little makeover.

The primer seemed like it would be perfect.  Since there were marker stains, even burn marks, to cover.  And it worked great.  But turned out I wrecked the paintbrush.  Oops.  So don’t use this kind unless your paintbrush is disposable!

The chalkboard paint I had bought a while ago for another project that I never did.  Oops.  But see, I’m using it now.  Read the instructions carefully because you have to wait many hours and then cover the surface with chalk and then brush it off, and not wash it for many days after that.  Here’s the finished product.  Perfectly acceptable (and practical) for a not formal living room doubling as a music room. 

I mentioned that the chairs had already been fixed up.  When the Personally Teens were in Junior High they did them as an art project at school. 

Personally Teen’s project was done as a Bateman.  Miss Personally’s as a Monet.  And mine as a Chalkboard.  Tidied up quite nicely.

Thanks for visiting.

xo andrea

Family Valentine’s Day: Table Decor

What a fun occasion to celebrate as a family.  Ever since we have all been able to sit at the table in a civilized manner…wait…actually maybe we’re not quite there yet.  Ever since I have hoped we could all sit at the table in a civilized manner, we have been celebrating Valentine’s Day with a festive family dinner.  Decorations, dessert, the works.  Not fancy necessarily.  Just festive.  A theme is usually helpful to simplify things but still have it pulled together.  My usual…red.