deciding on curtains

I bought my living room curtains over seven years ago at World Market. I like them: They're cotton and lined. The colors and pattern are pleasing to me. However, I'm tired of them. I've been looking for neutral curtains so that I can use different colors in my living room decor...not just colors that go with blue and yellowish-green.

When looking for a recent photo of my living room curtains on my laptop, the only one I could find was this one with Monkey in it from February 7th, the day before he crossed the Rainbow Bridge. 💔 I miss him so much. It hurts my heart just to look at his photo.

Home Goods has a good selection of curtains at great prices. I came home with two pairs to try. First up were these slightly sheer white curtains with button tab tops. I didn't like them in the living room - I thought they were too stark and too sheer. I don't think it helps that we still have faux wood trim around our windows. Ugly, I know. But we're not DIYers and so it's one of those things on the handyman/contractor list to be done.

Next up was a pair of sheer beige linen curtains. At first I thought I liked these, and then realized they were way too sheer.

We ended up putting the white button tab top curtains in Brian's office (formerly Tim's bedroom). We thought they looked good in there. Clementine approved!

The curtains that were hanging in this room before, got moved down to the basement family room over the window well window.

This is what the white curtains looked like in Brian's office in the morning. We're having a lot of gray, rainy days now, so not much light. But I'm loving the softer look.

Back to the drawing board ~ or in this case, stores and online ~ to find living room curtains!

Have you had to shop for curtains lately? What are your go-to places? 

curtains and a new rug

Hello, friends!

In my last post I showed you how I was getting the guest bedroom put back together. But before I forget, a couple of people had asked me the name of this paint color that we used. I'm ashamed to admit that I don't remember! All I remember is that it was Behr paint that has primer in it. I looked on the paint can and the name is not on there. We used this color in our kitchen and in Brian's office, too, so you'd think I'd remember. If I eventually find out, I promise I will let you all know.

I finally got the curtains hung in this room. I still need to have Brian hang the iron "chandelier" in the corner above the dresser and we might possibly hang a heavy mirror on the other side of the room. And I found some pretty contact paper on Amazon for the closet shelf which came in the mail today, so that will be another small project to work on. Slowly, but surely.

I wanted some kind of tie backs for the curtains to hold them together in the middle. Previously, I used pieces of ribbon I had lying around. I wanted something nicer-looking this time. I went looking on Amazon and found these magnetic curtain clips.

 Aren't they pretty? They were easy to use and look much nicer than a piece of ribbon.

Here's the other window in the room where I have my desk.

I liked these magnetic curtain clips so much that I ordered another style for our bedroom curtains. I always had the gray curtains pulled to the side (closed at night ~ they're blackout curtains) and just the sheers hanging down over the blinds, but I like this new look. I would've taken a photo of the entire window ~ the curtains look the same on the other side ~ but I have a standing fan in front of the window and a pile of clean, folded on Brian's nightstand, so I left that reality out of the photo. 😉 The two framed photographs on the wall are our son's work.

I finally found a new rug for Brian's office! I've been looking for about six months. I've looked online and in stores. I've even purchased various rugs and ended up returning them because they didn't look good. This is a small room and we didn't want a rug taking up the entire space. We also didn't want a thick rug, as Brian's desk chair needs room to roll back without getting caught on a rug. His desk and desk chair are to the immediate left as you look into this room. You can see a peek of his desk chair wheel in the photo, if you look closely.

 I was at TJ Maxx the other other day and was not even looking for rugs. I happened to walk by a display stand with folded rugs on it and this cotton one caught my eye. I unfolded it and thought it might work. Brought it home, laid it on the floor and thought, "I think this is it." Brian got home from work, took one look at it and said, "Yes!" So it's a keeper.

As always, thank you for visiting and for your kind comments. They are much appreciated. 

Be well and safe.
💓

out of the house, around the house

This past Saturday, Brian and I took a little road trip to our favorite vintage shop, Secret Treasures. They're currently open for online orders and then you pick up curb-side. It was so strange to see the empty streets and sidewalks that are usually bustling with traffic and people, especially on a weekend.

Brian had ordered a lamp for his desk and I had ordered a brass horse bookend. When we were standing on the sidewalk waiting for our purchases, I window shopped. I found a beautiful glass cake plate and dome, plus two pieces of vintage pottery that also came home with me.

 We ordered a sandwich online, picked it up curbside, and took it to our favorite park by the lake. Sat on a bench and shared a sammie, enjoying the beautiful day. There were lots of people out and about, walking dogs, playing Frisbee, having picnics on blankets with their family, but keeping their distance from others.

 One of my favorite Lake Michigan views.

A store we were able to check out in person (donning masks and keeping our distance from others) was Evanston Rebuilding Warehouse. From their website: 

The Evanston ReBuilding Warehouse is a non-profit organization that promotes the reduction of waste in landfills through sustainable deconstruction and renovation building practices. Reclaimed building materials are sold at our warehouse at low cost to the community and the proceeds support our education, job-training and job-development programs which foster individual, community and economic growth in Evanston and beyond.

This place was much bigger than we expected with aisles overfilled with anything and everything you could think of for inside and outside a home. Love this bathroom sink made by Jacob Delafon, Paris. Too big for either of our small bathrooms though.

Isn't this old range amazing?

The back right burner was like a "well" and had a silver pot down inside.

 Does anyone know what this was used for?

If you have a huge kitchen, how about this amazing Miele ventilation hood? Great price. These go for over $2000 brand-new.

Lots of chandeliers...

All kinds of interior doors...

So, back at home, here are my two pieces of gorgeous vintage pottery from Secret Treasures. The green one is Shawnee and the blue one is McCoy.

I added the pottery to my collection on the shelves in the living room.

The lamp that Brian found is filled with old radio tubes. Brian is a big radio and electronic aficionado, so this lamp is perfect for his office. We're still looking for long, floating picture shelves to go on this wall above his desk ~ and that's where this propped up art on his desk will go.

 My brass horse bookend...it may not stay here; I just put it here for the time being.

 I don't collect horse figurines, but for some reason, this bookend spoke to me when I saw it online. I did have a horse when I was a teenager and living in Kentucky...a beautiful brown and white quarter horse named Judy. I still miss her, over 40 years later. And I've always thought that horses were one of the most beautiful creatures I've ever seen...so maybe that's why I was drawn to this particular bookend.

 We're still experiencing an overabundance of rain. These past few days have been in the high 80's, too so with the heat index, it's in the low 90's. Too early to be this humid! On the plus side, everything is so lush and green now.

 The heat and thunderstorms weren't kind to my lilacs this year. They were here and gone in a little over a week. Barely got to enjoy them.

We're in the middle of contracting renovations in the front of our house. It started with our little Village redoing our front swales and an asphalt company digging out our old driveway. Today the concrete contractor is digging out our old sidewalk that leads up to the porch and digging trenches in our yard on either side of the driveway that lead down into the swales. They're installing pipes on the downspouts in front of our garage that will go down the trenches and into the swales. When this work is done, then the new asphalt driveway can be put in. 

Hopefully, before and after pictures to come in the near future!

Have a good week, my friends ~ and stay well and healthy.

a few minutes of diversion ~ decorating

Hello friends, how is everyone doing? I'm definitely going stir-crazy and have moments where I feel sad and/or anxious, but I know everyone else is feeling the same. The main thing is that we all stay well and healthy. I'm enjoying reading on blogs and social media what everyone is doing to stay sane and upbeat...there's a lot of good ideas out there. I've been puttering with decor and rearranging some things, walking every day outside every day even though the weather is still pretty crappy (it feels good to get some fresh air and exercise; grateful we can at least go outside!), practicing yoga, cleaning out drawers and closets (ho hum!), talking every day via text or phone with friends and family members, reading, and doing even more cooking. I even tried my hand at acrylic painting, though it pretty much looked like a five-year old got into the paints.

To take your mind off the pandemic for a few minutes, I thought I'd share some of my latest putterings with you...

I didn't do much decorating for Easter. If we can't get together with family or friends, I feel there's not much of a point. I do like some of my bunny decor though, so I made a vignette on the dresser in the guest room.

I lightened up the china cabinet for spring and used washi tape to line each shelf.

The washi tape was such an easy, quick way to add a little cheer, so I stuck a couple of strips on the shelves on the kitchen wall, as well.

This yellow spring chick that I've had for years adds a little whimsy under the spider plant.

That's a new philodendron plant on top of the china cabinet. I grabbed a couple of plants when we had to run to Home Depot a few days ago for specialty light bulbs.

Here's the other plant - some sort of succulent - on top of my fridge. 

 The console table in the living room got a couple of small changes. The blue bottle used to be on the ledge of the wall cut-out, and I also added a couple of little bunnies.

le

Do you remember my lamp dilemma in Brian's office? I couldn't decide whether to keep this lamp, as it wasn't the right height with the "window" above the black cube unit. Well, once I put a couple of books under the lamp and added decor to the cube and the shelf, I decided I liked the lamp after all. Brian likes it, too and said the lamp gives off the perfect reading light for when he's sitting in the arm chair. We still need a rug for this room, but I haven't found "just the right one" online yet.

Back to the Coronavirus (my few minutes of decorating diversion are up), Brian and I have been playing cards and board games on the days he's home from work. He's in the emergency services field, so yes, he's still working outside the home. Clementine loves to be wherever we are, which often means right in the middle of one of our games.

Lastly, I'll leave you with this piece that I just read on Facebook.
Love to you all!

******************

We (all of us) are currently going through

a collective traumatic experience.

Trauma is often thought of as "too much, too fast“…

which is exactly what’s happening.

Of course you’re exhausted. Of course you’re afraid.

Of course you’re overwhelmed. Of course you’re

clinging to certainty in the midst of so much unknown.

Of course you aren’t as productive, feeling foggy,

or wondering how you can possibly go through

so many waves of emotions all in the same day.

This all makes so much sense in the context

of our circumstances. Be gentle with yourself.

Have compassion for your process.

Give yourself grace. You are good,

no matter how you are managing

this completely new experience.

(Lisa Olivera)

in the meantime

Hello friends, time for a break from vacation photos to show you a little bit of what's going on here. Hope you all are well and hanging in there as we all go through this Coronavirus epidemic together. I think together is the key word. Even though we can't physically be together because of self-quarantine, we can support each other emotionally right now.

As I was taking a walk the other day in my neighborhood ~ the only sunny day we've had all week ~ I came upon my neighbor-friend who was bundled up, sitting in the sunshine in her front yard. We talked for a bit about how much this isolation sucks. That it's ridiculous we can't even give each other a hug. That we can't watch the news or go on Facebook often because it fuels our anxiety. That we feel like we're living in an alternate universe. Then I turned and saw snowdrops under her pine tree. She said they weren't there before; they only recently appeared. I told her they were our little bit of joy that we found in the day. Those are the things we have to look for right now.

My lilac bush is budding. Another joy.

 I was trying to explain to an online friend recently why I needed to stock up often on grocery items, especially fresh produce. Brian works 12-hour shifts in the emergency services field. He is not allowed to leave his work place to go out and get food. That means he has to bring three meals ~ breakfast, lunch and dinner ~ to work. When he works three 12-hour shifts in a row, that means nine meals he has to prepare ahead of time! This is what our fridge looked like the other night after he was done packaging up his meals. And yes, I do feel blessed just looking at this photo, as it means we have access to an abundance of food.

A local vintage shop is moving their current location and so the owner is selling certain items at excellent prices. She's been posting photos on Instagram of what she's selling and when I saw this red bench, it called my name. She warned me it "needed work", but I didn't care, because it's going to stay outside. Once the weather warms up a bit, I'm going to move this into my side garden. It won't be for sitting on; I'm going to use it for potted plants.

You can see where a piece is missing. And one of the arms on the bench falls off, but I think it can be screwed back on. If not, no big deal. With a little bit of clean up and potted flowers and plants, I think this piece will add some charm to the garden.

This vintage metal plant hanger was the other thing I picked up from the shop. See that ugly bench in the background? That's where the red bench is going. I'm not sure yet where the permanent place for the plant hanger will be. To be determined once spring yard clean up starts!

I'm still working on decorating Brian's office (what used to be Tim's bedroom). I admire those of you who can put together a room in a weekend, or even a week. Or a month! I found this window in my basement the other day and I thought it might look nice above the black cube. Thing is, before we hung the window, I had just purchased the lamp on top of the black cube: That's why the plastic is still on the shade. The lamp looked great there before the window was hung. (That little chick is not staying on the window shelf. I just stuck it there when I was working in the room.) 😉

But now that the window is hung, I'm not so sure about the lamp. Is it okay that it comes above the shelf of the window? We really need lighting in this space because of the chair next to this piece of furniture. I guess I could put a floor lamp between the cube and the chair, but this room is so small, I don't want anything else on the floor. If I buy a smaller lamp that would go under the shelf of the window, that lamp wouldn't be big enough to cast enough reading light. Thoughts? Do you like the current lamp where it is?

A recent purchase ~ a little decorating pick-me-up ~ was this bird pillow for the entryway bench. I found it at Walmart, of all places. I think it's cheery and perfect for spring.

I've also been working on a little spring decorating.

The daffodils in the blue Mason jar will look so pretty once they burst open.

 I have my Easter decor spread out on the guest bed, trying to decide what I'm going to do with it. I'm not much into holiday decorating anymore. Most of it will probably end up going back into the storage container.

 I'll probably do a little vignette on top of the dresser and maybe on the kitchen table or shelves, but that's it.

 Thank you all so much for your friendship and kind comments. They really make my day. Your comments come through my email account and I've noticed there's some of you where your email shows up as a "no-reply blogger". So if you ask me a question in the comments, I can't answer you privately. Or, if you're new to my blog and leave a comment, I can't email you back to thank you for visiting. How do you know if you're a no-reply blogger, or what to if you want to fix this? That's too much (and too techy!) for me to answer here. Your best bet would be to Google it and find a site that can directly answer those questions and offer help.

Until next time, wishing you all peace and good health.
💓