Hope Springs Eternal

Last year I started 13 posts. Today I still have 13 drafts waiting to meet the world. Some will make it, others will remain private. Reflecting back I found some of the plans came to fruition.  I do not look back in regret; I see where I was, where I went, and now ponder what roads do I want to take in 2012?  Where are you headed this year.  May it be a journey that brings love and purpose to your life.


I started a post about our vacation.  Then I started a post about Christmas.  So much time has passed since all of that that I decided to skip right up to the present.  One of the beautiful things about a blog is being able to record life as it happens.  Thanks to the movie Julie and Julia, one year ago I vowed to blog everyday.  Well, that got me nowhere; when I began to slack I just gave up - my personality in a nutshell.  I realized that I didn't have enough interesting stuff to say everyday.  So, this year, I am trying for a weekly blog entry.  Hope springs eternal.

As I look into the new year I have no idea what will come our way.  On January 1, 2010 I had no idea that by the end of the year we would be sharing our home with our daughter and her three children or that I would be a few signatures away from owning my own home (yes, we own our home, but this time I get to help choose the house!).

I can look into the year and plan what I would like to happen, but only God really knows what will be coming our way.  I plan, but always defer to His wisdom, grace and love.

With that introduction, here is what I hope for, will plan for, and focus on in 2011:

Health for all those I love - I know that is generic and not very creative, but without good health nothing else matters.

I want my grandchildren to have a stable home - this is why I am getting another home, more on that later.

Quality time with my husband.  When we actually have time to ourselves we really have fun - what a refreshing thing to discover.  What has always caused difficulties in our marriage is the outside forces of others impacting us.  Couldn't we just live on an island?

Time and space for creativity.  This is my lifeblood.  If I am not creating I die inside.  

A new home - this is actually the first thing that I hope happens this year.  With this all the above can happen as well.  I have never been a part of choosing the home that I live in.  I chose apartments, but for reasons I will not go into, I have not chosen houses.  I want to choose my "forever house."

Earn money.  For many years now I have gone without earning any money.  I am blessed to have a husband who makes a good living and thus far I have not needed the money.  But, I would really like a monetary reward for my hard work.

I want to give back.  I will find a charity that touches my heart and not only give money but also of my time.  This is an important part of life that I have neglected of late.  Because of my dad, military causes always touch my heart as does hospice - those are amazing people.  And, of course there are the animals, the creatures God entrusted to our care and are so often neglected and abused by people.  I can't adopt them all (maybe a new kitty for the new house), but I can find ways to help.

Well, those are my hopes and dreams for the new year.  Where will 2011 take us?  Only God knows for sure.  See you same time next year and we'll compare notes.  

God bless us one and all.

Before The Rush

It is Thanksgiving eve, and in homes across the country, the mad rush in the kitchen is about  to begin.

I will post pictures of our first annual Thanksgiving breakfast on Friday, but for now I want to focus on life and the things for which I am grateful.

A couple of weeks ago I had breakfast with a good friend and very wise observer of the human spirit.  As we were discussing life and what we want from it, he asked me a very interesting question.  He asked, "What have you always wanted to do?"  I went to the typical answers - "Well, at first I wanted to be a teacher, then I wanted to be an interior designer."  He clarified, "No, what have you always wanted, what is your purpose in life?"  I had a classic light bulb moment - without hesitation I said, "All I ever wanted to be is a wife and mother."

I have spent more than half my life as a wife, but I never was able to be a mother.  At least not in the biological sense.  Without hesitation he looked me straight in the eyes and said, "There's your answer.  The kids (my 3 granddaughters) are living in your home for your sake."  I never thought about our living arrangement like that before.  I saw allowing my stepdaughter and her young girls to live with us as a favor to her.  What my friend showed me is that God is allowing me to experience that one thing I always wanted but never got.

Suddenly the screaming at 5:00 in the morning because Savannah doesn't want to wear shoes isn't the worst thing in the world.  The peace and quiet I claim to want is really the sound of emptiness.  The toys on the floor, sippy cups everywhere, and girl emotional outbursts are just a part of the life I am being allowed to experience.  The scales have been removed and I see life through new eyes.  Thank you, sweet friend.

So, this year I am especially thankful for my noisy family.  I have the privilege of helping to raise my grandchildren.  I get hugs every night, I see the minute changes that happen to children every day as they begin to discover the world around them.  What a gift.

Cottage Inspiration: Random Lace Wall

I love to daydream and plan.  Sometimes I like it more than the actual carrying out of the plan.  This  picture is one of my plans.  I want to make a random lace display in my cottage.  I will have a rotating selection of designs, displays, and color themes; lace will definitely be apart of the plan.

I found this photo on a search of window display images.  I don't have any claim to it and wish I could remember where it came from.  I find it absolutely delightful and inspiring.  

I have started collecting vintage crochet doilies from antique & thrift stores.  I can picture expert fingers, dainty cotton thread and a minuscule crochet hook working in unison to create lace from a pattern passed down for generations.  The fingers are gnarled from years of hard work, yet given the right tools they produce strips of delicate beauty.  They are someone's history, their art.  I feel an obligation to save them, preserve them and pass along to the next generation an appreciation for a craft fading from our world.

Until next time,

Sheryl

Modern Jane

I love, love, love this look.  Clutch purses are my absolute favorite bag to carry.  They aren't always practical, but they are infinitely feminine and the perfect accessory.

Another thing I love to do is combine looks - lacy and feminine with a bold bracelet.  I don't want to wear head to toe frills, I just want a touch of glamour.  

If you want to summon your inner Modern Jane Austen, what would you wear?

Modern Jane by sherylmeans featuring vintage jewelry

Free people dress
$128 - revolveclothing.com

Fogal crochet stocking
€22 - pret-a-beaute.com

Luna pink shoes
$20 - product.madeinchina.com

Givenchy clutch handbag
$1,945 - barneys.com

Manumit hammered jewelry
£12 - fashion-conscience.com

Dorothy Perkins tahitian pearl jewelry
£6.50 - dorothyperkins.com

Alcozer J vintage jewelry
$245 - forzieri.com

Finding The Beauty

I sit in the same place everyday and all I can see is a bunch of stuff.  On their own merit, these things are beautiful.  As I said last week,  I have collected and inherited many beautiful things.  In this I am very fortunate.  What I am having trouble doing is maintaining a unified sense of beauty in my home.  


As we have made room for our extended family to live with us I have just shuffled stuff around from room to room and, at some point, I gave up.  This isn't their fault, it is mine.  I grew up with a mom who flew off the handle whenever we made a mess or broke something; and I now live with a husband who reacts in much the same way.  Determined not to follow in her footsteps and make things more important than people, I have allowed the pendulum to swing too far in the other direction.  Oh, and for the record, mom has mellowed greatly with age.


Back to the subject of beauty in the home.  I have used the kids and our tight living arrangements as an excuse to let the house go.  Because I don't want them to spill, scratch or break these things I hold dear.  Somewhere between living in a museum and a warehouse must be a beautiful life worth living.  My challenge is to find that place.


The first step is to teach mother and children about how to care for things while providing a safe place where they can eat and play with messy stuff.  Then I can feel comfortable decorating our home.  Providing a beautiful and safe home is the job of the woman of the house.  Yes, I am just that old fashioned.


Here is a montage of some of the things that I consider the beautiful components in our home.

1940's era chair and a book case.

Slipper chair, recently recovered.

Marble top table.

Gentlemen's windsor chair that I found in a group of stuff destined for the trash.
After refinishing it is fabulous.

Antique writing desk in need of refinishing.

I am surrounded by beauty...it is up to me to create a home for my family that is filled with love, beauty and memories.

Live in love....

Sheryl

Forced Sabbatical

What began as a fun evening out with our granddaughter - to celebrate her 8th birthday - ended with a trip to the emergency room and a very clumsy splint on my arm.  Water on a stained concrete floor in a darkened mall combined with fast past walking and high heel boots is nothing less than a recipe for disaster.  The fact that I am able to type is a miracle.

The preliminary diagnosis is a severely sprained left wrist.  Tomorrow, after a follow-up visit to an orthopedic doctor, I will know if it is more than that.  More importantly I will know how long I will have to wait before I can knit or crochet.  My need for constant creativity is forcing me in another direction.  Actually, I am going in reverse, back to one of my pre-yarn passions: home decor and collecting vintage items that speak of a time gone by.

Several life events caused me to suspend the decorating and nurturing of our home.  Those events are not important now, what is important is that I have a renewed interest and passion for nesting.  The first step will be to build an addition on our house so that our daughter and her children will have a space of their own.  Then, I can reclaim our house as our own.

I am fortunate enough to have inherited many beautiful pieces of furniture and decorative accents.  Most of these I have put away to protect them from three small children.  I feel like I have had a breath of new life has filled me as I anticipate this new phase of our life.

I have found many new and wonderfully inspirational blogs to follow.  Through these blogs I am reminded how much I love things that are used, white, chipped, and worn.  Things that tell a story.

Intellectually, I love things from so many eras - 1940's post war bright and cheery, mid century cool, as well as modern traditional comfort.  I like to look at them, but they don't move my soul.  The look that generates a visceral reaction is the visually complex layers and textures of the Victorian shabby chic genre.  My version is pared down with interesting vignettes, soft neutral colors with accents of black and aqua.  This is the direction I plan on taking my living room.  A large "great room" popular among home builders of the 1980's.  There will be a formal side and a more casual side unified by color.  A neutral black, cream and gold will be accented with aqua on the casual side and aqua with a touch of pink on the formal side.





Sound bizarre?  I think it will be a challenge to pull it off, but have the foundation of some beautiful furnishings and a pair of Art Deco style lamps from the 40's.  These were my mother-in-laws and I loved them from the moment I first saw them.  Now they, along with her Duncan Phyfe sofa are the cornerstone of my vision.




There are other pieces of furniture and other rooms, but that is for another day.

Until we meet again...

Sheryl

Passages

We had a new front door installed on our home this week.  This was a decision years in the making and the final choices were agonized over and made very carefully.  We will be looking at this door for the rest of our lives.  It needed to be right.

I'm not sure when it happened.  If I press myself to remember I would say that it started many years ago while driving in the country; I needed to clear my head and make sense of a very emotional situation. 


I love to get into the car and drive, stopping to take pictures - artsy pictures as my husband calls them.  Looking through the lens of the camera I can create a reality that is all my own.  No one else will ever view the scene in exactly the same way that I do.  It is mine and mine alone.

To enter or not to enter, that is the question.

At some point, on one of those drives I became enamored with doors.  Oh, the stories they could tell.  Doors allow people in, keep the weather out, and give clues about the people inside.  Doors can be utilitarian or decorative.  But, the one thing that all doors have in common is that they provide passage.  Passage in and passage out.

Very old building (1600's) in Montpellier France.

There are doors we all walk through as we pass from one phase of our life to another.  Some of those doors are beautiful and others are not.  There have been some deceptively beautiful doors in my life that I wish I had never opened.  I often wonder, what was behind those doors I ignored?  I'll never know - this side of heaven anyway. 

Never being a risk taker,  I have I probably walked past more doors I was to have opened, than going where I didn't belong.  These days I try to choose my doors wisely, asking and trusting God to guide me according to His plans for me and my life.  All I can hope is that I listen and trust in what I can't see more than I believe in what is visible.