Colorful Gratitude

I know I am a few weeks early to be doing a post on gratitude, but every time I go outside I am grateful. Grateful for changing seasons.

I am grateful to have a yard alive with color (this bush really is that red).

I am grateful for trees, always grateful for trees.

Leaves too.

I am grateful for mums. No explanation necessary.

I am grateful for the bounty of the season - pumpkins included.

I am grateful for the good times had while searching for "Jack".
I am grateful the weather has been nice and my kids haven’t been stuck inside with cabin fever. Instead, they have been busy playing in the mud.

Burying each other in piles of leaves (one of my hooligans is hiding in this picture).

And busy making witches brew. They can do this for hours. Love the rotten apple & plums - very nice touch. Anything that can capture their attention for long periods of time makes me especially grateful.

College Memories

When my husband and I were first married, we were the beneficiaries of extreme generosity. His grandparents invited us to live in their basement apartment for free while we attended the nearby University. Their gift was a blessing to us in so many ways. We were able to get through college without having to take out student loans, we spent the first few years of our marriage living in an idyllic college town, and we had two of our favorite people living upstairs.

(Beautiful painting available at this gallery)

The apartment came furnished, and although the avocado green shag carpeting and orange floral wall paper would be considered retro & chic now, it wasn’t so in 1995. We painted, wall papered and made slip covers to cover the dated furniture. Before we moved in, Grandma Eddie had used the apartment living room as a quilting room and we would still find sewing needles and tacks from her quilting frames buried deep in the shag carpeting from time to time – ouch! We loved our first home together and remember those newlywed years with much fondness. When the time came for us to move on, we inherited my favorite chair from the basement apartment. The fabric was worn and dated, but it was comfortable and had always been my favorite spot to sit and read in front of the fireplace. I intended to have it reupholstered, but for years it sat forgotten, collecting dust and piled high with boxes in our basement. Last fall we finally got around to finishing our basement and during this process we purged ourselves of much of the clutter we had collected throughout the years. I didn’t know when I would ever get around to redoing the old chair, so one Saturday morning it was loaded up with a bunch of other castoffs and hauled off to the D.I. Gone for good, or so I thought.

Last week my husband and mother-in-law had a surprise for me.

I guess instead of hauling the chair off to the D.I. that Saturday, my husband took it to his parents’ house where he and his mom conspired to have it reupholstered for me. They picked out the fabric and hired someone to do the work. Such a thoughtful gift! Right now it is in my living room, by the window. Just walking past it makes me so happy. When I have a spare moment to stop and sit for a while I am overcome with gratitude. This is a gift I will especially treasure because it reminds me of so many other gifts in my life – my amazing husband, our generous families, and the best memories ever of our college years. Truly, they are the best.

Autumn Bliss

Just so pretty, I had to share. There is a lesser known canyon in the south/west corner of our valley that is absolutely breathtaking right now. Every fall we take a Sunday morning drive up this little canyon to admire the beautiful fall foliage. The leaves may not be changing down where we live, but autumn has arrived in full splendor up in the mountains. The top picture is from the same week last year, and the bottom two are from yesterday. Right now there is still a lot of green, so I think it will be beautiful for a few more weeks. If you know which canyon I'm talking about and are tempted to check it out, take a picnic - just over the top and down a little on the other side, there are some picnic areas. Beautiful!!

Pictures as Promised

We've been having problems with our IP & I have to say, one of the pros to being without the internet is I have been able to finish a few projects. The craft room is finally put together, or at least well enough to take a few pictures and share.

Here is the BEFORE, when it was a rarely used playroom (a dead zone)...
And here it is now...

Three projects I finished this week:

Words to live by...

Somewhere to display a few masterpieces...

A skirt to hide the inevitable clutter...

A project still on my to-do-list: a window valance out of this vintage pillowcase.

We use it all the time,which is why it took so long to take pictures - I had to clear the table off. I love finding my children sitting at the desk coloring pictures. The best part is that this transformation was very affordable. Most of the furniture pieces were ugly freebies we revamped with funky colored paint. I have a few more ideas in mind, but for now it's done!

Two Roads Diverged...

I have been in a bit of a quandary of late. I like blogging about my hobbies, and I like blogging about my family, but it hasn’t been working out for me to do both simultaneously in a public forum. About a month ago, I decided to create a private family blog/scrapbook – One that I can fill up with all the family photos & stories I want, and not wonder about who is looking at it or care if it is lacking real entertainment value. Not as convenient, but by doing so, the social recluse in me will feel a little bit more comfortable. I really am more of a “hideaway” sort of person than a public one. So, if you are visiting this blog to catch up with our family, and wondering why I keep posting about projects and other impersonal things, please send me an e-mail.

I'll keep posting on this blog from time to time, just not ALL the time. Writing posts for blogs, reading other people’s blogs, thinking about what to blog, even talking about blogs, is kind of addictive. Entertaining as it may be, it has been consuming too much of my life, and distracting from that which is more important. One of my biggest fears is time passing too quickly. I don't want to look back and regret the way I spent my time when my children were young. I want to be making memories with them and cherishing every second we have together. Guaranteed, if I am sitting at my computer, there is probably something else I could or should be doing that would be more beneficial for my family, and for myself. I guess what I am trying to say is, I am cutting back. Like any addiction, it will be hard. I'll probably have cravings and experience withdrawal, and always be wondering what exciting things are happening out in the blogosphere. But I can do it... Need to do it.