The Holiday Bed

Mike washed the bedding with his laundry Sunday night and surprised me by replacing our everyday pillowcases with our Christmas ones a couple weeks early.  I usually wait until Christmas Eve to put them on, but seeing these in bed has been surprisingly sweet this week. I'll add the sheets one of these days.  Yes, why not enjoy them all month.  ♥  I've mentioned before my dream of setting up my dining room--I don't HAVE a dining room, so this is very much a dream, you see--with an assortment of mismatched tables and chairs for holiday family dinners. . .a kids table with seasonal decorations and activities to keep little ones busy, a table for two in a window, a round table with overstuffed armchairs around it, etc., and I've always had the same dream of hosting family overnight around holidays.  'Different bedding in every room,

seasonal pillowcases and sheets no matter the season,

extra touches of throw pillows and stuffed toys that add a little fun and whimsy to guests' quarters,

 no matter the occasion or holiday--

--no matter the guests' ages, since we're never too old for sweetness and silliness, and methinks we need those things as we get older at least as much as we did when we were kids, if not even more-so--

and that make them stop and think, "Ah!  That's right!  It's [Easter, Christmas, Thanksgiving, Halloween, Beach Week, Valentine's Day, whatever]!"  

And just to make them feel special.  ♥  That's no small thing. 

We have no extra bedroom here, nor even a couch, so this remains a "someday" dream, but I so enjoy daydreaming about these sweet little spaces I have yet to own.  Mom and Dad's guest room at Christmas would sport its share of red gingham, I'm sure, and likely some pillows of their children and grandchildren made from old Christmas photos.  'Their own tiny Christmas tree beside the bed.  (Mike laughs because Mom still does this for me every Christmas when I come home.  ♥)  Wherever all the kids would camp out, in beds and sleeping bags and chairs pushed together, a stocking filled with little treats would greet each of them in their spot in the morning. . . .Star pillows and star-patterned sheets for New Year's Eve sleepovers, gardening and bird-watching magazines fanned out on Aunt Laurie and Uncle Warren's bed during a springtime visit. . . .For various reasons, these visits and gatherings are unlikely to happen, but a dream is a precious thing, so I dream on and enjoy each one--and thank Mr. Mike for the taste of it we get here in reality in our own little apartment with each other.  ♥

October, November, & Now December 4th

I spent some time last night looking through twelve years' worth of my photo albums on flickr, and it struck me that all those years--every year of the past twelve except this one--seemed to have been [easier?  more creative?  less of a blur?] than this one, but then it further struck me that this year was just not as well-documented as past years.  :)  I keep a journal as always, and I take pictures almost every day, but since I haven't sorted them all into an album labeled 2019 yet, and since there are only thirteen blog posts before this one to tell 2019's story in images and words here, this year just somehow seemed "less."  (A-ha!)  'Funny how memory works.  This year really has been a blur, though, as every year anymore seems to speed by faster than the ones before.  

It seems like I was home for a visit with my parents Halloween-week maybe two weeks ago.  It stormed almost the entire time I was there, sheets of rain pouring onto the deck's roof and then flooding it.  I baked a gluten-free dark chocolate cake for my parents, 

helped Mom figure out her first cell phone, and watched game seven of the World Series with Dad.  Sometime overnight on Halloween, we lost power.  Mom's many candles were put to good use all over their little house the next morning.  The top photo is of their kitchen island as November began.  It was the most perfect Halloween-week weather. 

Mike's mom celebrated her eightieth birthday just as little Bianca was turning six--six?!  She was just three!  She was just BORN!--and somehow, cards, flowers (mother-in-law), and balloons (niece) made it to them on time.  "She was so cute skating with her friends," Mom reported of Bianca's roller rink party a few weeks ago.  But look at this dear little face--

--and tell me what she'd NOT be cute doing.  'So adorable.  ♥  And still a little imp.  :)  She began kindergarten this fall. . . bows on her knee socks, stuffed animal on her desk, and answering the question of what she wants to be when she grows up with:  "A detective."  A detective!  Of course, at her preschool graduation ceremony this spring, all the kids had facts about themselves announced to the audience as they walked across the stage.  Bianca's?  "Bianca likes cats."  Bianca likes cats!  Ha ha!  Sweet girl.  I get such a kick out of her.  :) 

I got this shot of my oldest and youngest nieces from the Thanksgiving table last week.  ♥  The mind boggles.  And what a rich time for my parents, I have been thinking, to be able to enjoy grandchildren who range from five-month-old to almost-sixteen.  My nephew will be old enough to drive soon.  Baby Dylan!?  Precious times, and precious time. 

Mike and I spent Thanksgiving day at my older brother's home and then spent the night at his mom's.  'Such a sweet holiday, and the craziness of my working life being what it is, this was the first Thanksgiving I'd spent with family since 2010.  2010.  There are a number of changes I need to make in my life in the next few years, and changing things like that is high on the list.  Late last Wednesday night, I finally decided what I wanted to make for dessert to go along with both brothers' pies, and especially given how little planning went into them, I'm so delighted by how both desserts turned out.  'Such a good feeling when a "baking vision" turns out.  :)  I went with gluten-free yellow cupcakes to have an option Mom could eat, and I tried the all-over-the-internet "pumpkin pie wedge" Rice Krispie Treats.  The first batch of the Rice Krispie Treats I made standard pie-slice-size and took to Mike's mom's since there was to be a smaller gathering there.  We totaled  fourteen at my brother's home, so I made mini pie slices with that batch.  'Dollop of homemade buttercream on each to mimic whipped cream.  :) 

The tiny pumpkins were crafted out of homemade fondant, one of my favorite little baking/dessert-making/cake-decorating things to play with the past fifteen or so years.  Mike is careful with his sugar intake, and I (always anymore, alas) need to lose weight, so I rarely make things like these Thanksgiving desserts, but it is so fun and relaxing, I should make the time more often and just give away all but a couple of whatever I've baked.  Or maybe I should play it safe and just buy some poylmer clay to craft desserts for dollhouses.  :) 

Mike's mom had fall leaf-patterned flannel sheets on the bed for Thanksgiving night--so sweet  ♥--and oh my goodness, it was the most comfortable bed and the coziest and most festive way to end the holiday. 

We returned home Friday evening to a cuddled-up-on-a-chair Stuffed, still going (relatively) strong at twenty years old.  ♥  I remembered just in time last week to get this fall's photo of him with the yellow trees outside the window, and he spent most of today on a nest of blankets beside the space heater while snow fell.  Dear sweet Stuffed.  ♥ 

I say life's been a blur, but I will also pat myself on the back here and point out that my Christmas cards have been ready to mail for a week, I'm almost done with my shopping, and I put up the tree a couple Sundays ago.  'Unprecedented holiday organization here, and it's making the entire month ahead feel better.  Onward and upward, then, and may it not take me three months to find my way back to my little online space here.  Happy December to you all.   

♥

Merry Christmas Eve

'Two new-old Christmas pillowcases added to our bedding here tonight.  Chinese food takeout, homemade sugar cookies, and dear Emmet Otter are up next in this little apartment.  I wish you all a sweet and cozy holiday season.  ♥

Treats

Oooohh, a delightful day here.  ♥  Sweater weather this morning.  A brisk and beautiful walk to work.  I love fall, I love fall, I love fall. . . .  Strawberries, string cheese, and iced tea for lunch.  A sweet interaction with one of my on-the-job kiddos.  Laughs with one of my coworkers.  A relaxing walk home.  A grilled cheese with my mom's potato soup for supper.  Funny texts back and forth with one of my brothers.  A new book.  Blanket weather tonight.  A few books I treated myself to will arrive in the mail in the next day or two.  Library and museum visits tomorrow or Friday.  Two new bookshelves I ordered are arriving this weekend.  And the next three days off work.  Late October Bliss!  ♥

Lampshade Love

Finally, the lampshade is finished and tucked back into its little corner.  I feel like I've been covered in loose threads and bits of hardened hot glue for a month although it's only been a week.  It turned out exactly as I'd envisioned it, which is always so gratifying.  

I couldn't find the lavender plaid fabric I thought I'd saved, but the touch of pink floral suits me better anyway and its crocheted trim at the top complements the ball trim along the bottom.  

I like the way the shade looks in every light--

--and I love all its many colors and patterns.  Love, love, love.  ♥

This makes me so happy.  :)

And it makes reading in bed that much more of a favorite thing. 

Bliss!  ♥

A Day Off

After working about thirty hours of overtime this week:  Finally, a day off.  And with The-World-at-Large seemingly spinning out of control, I feel a bit guilty saying that it has been such a sweet day here.  A big bowl of cinnamon-topped berries this morning.  A nap that didn't leave me feeling groggy.  A small birthday package mailed to my almost-twelve-year-old nephew.  Emails to and from cousins.  A grilled cheese-and-zucchini sandwich for lunch.  A taco salad for supper.  Iced tea with lemon all day.  And ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, best of all, a run tonight that was the first in my life I think I've ever loved.  It was 9 pm when I left the apartment for it, making it the latest I've ever run, and it was like a beautiful dream the entire half-hour.  The sky was setting as I did my warm-up walk, the moon misty behind coral-pink and deep lavender-gray clouds.  Fireflies appeared and disappeared in front of me as if lighting my path the entire run.  One even landed on my shirt.  A cat peeked out at me from a yard's side-gate and didn't make a move toward the street as I always fear cats will even though I'd impulsively cooed, "Oh, pretty!  Hello, Sweet Face" as I passed him.  I ran faster than on all my previous runs since re-starting the running last month.  The trees were soon silhouetted black against a now-all-lavender sky.  A family was playing tag under the lights on a school's lacrosse field.  And I ran so easily tonight, it made up for the harder moments from this past month.  I'm now halfway through the nine-week program, and it is so exciting to feel my own progress.  By the end of next week, I should be running twenty minutes without stopping.  Twenty minutes!  I treated myself to a bouquet of pink roses this evening to celebrate.  ♥  And soon will be in bed with a book.  Bliss.

You must begin to think of yourself as becoming the person you want to be. ~ David Viscott

The past two weeks have been wearying, and aside from a Saturday when a combined headache, kink in my neck, and day without sleep found me waving the white flag from my bed, I have plodded on and even have some good things to show for it.  The bathroom has been put back together post-painting, with new shower curtain and curtains too.  The bedroom wall-painting is almost done.  The headboard project is at least begun, with stars, string lights, and waiting-for-payday pillow shams next on its to-do list.  The bedroom curtains are up but lacking their ruffle-trim, tie-backs, and the hankie-patchwork-type sheers I'm planning to hang underneath them.  The 1980s childhood memoir-writing continues. The healthy eating continues.  It feels, though, like I've just been hanging on and getting through this fall so far.  Do you remember the brilliant exchange between the frustrated sheriff and his secretary in Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men?  It keeps coming to mind this month.  "What is it that (Justice) Torbert says?"  he asks her.  "About truth and justice."  She distractedly answers, "We dedicate ourselves anew daily.    Somethin like that."  The sheriff responds, "I think I'm goin to commence to dedicatin myself twice daily.  It may come to three fore it's over."  Hear, hear.  I brought in Halloween cookies for my coworkers this week, and the cashier yesterday morning told me "I love your smile" while bagging my groceries, and I'm choosing to accept both gestures as signs that hope is not lost.  :)  Here's to the plodding-on.