On the Shores of Lake Erie

Mike and I returned from our anniversary weekend away last night:  A day and night in Erie, PA and a day and night at his parents' home.  Perfect little getaway for us right now.  A month has passed since Mike's dad died, and the sounds of the seagulls and the tides were balms for the soul Friday. 

Ice-cold water--some snow was still mounded under the shade of trees--but restorative for us, nonetheless.

I didn't notice until I uploaded the photo below from my camera that the word "Hope" is clearly written in the sand here. 

Mike said he had noticed at the time that there was something drawn in the sand, but he hadn't paid any real attention to it.  Hope, I tell you!  That's at least as sweet as all my found hearts. 

The last time I'd visited Lake Erie, I was about thirteen years old.  The beach and woods bordering it are just as I remember. 

This time, though, instead of making the trip with my dad's older sisters, I was with my husband--

--and instead of spending a humid summer day giggling as my aunts teased me about having crushes on lifeguards, I was using my husband as a windbreak as I huddled for warmth against him on a log.  It was really too chilly for bare legs and bare feet, but that's what beaches are for, and the comfort of sand and waves against my skin was worth every second of mind-numbing FREEZING COLD.  :)

Ducks--Mike's favorite--and seagulls paddled before us, and to hear the gulls later outside our hotel room too was just bliss to me.  ♥  Although we were only staying for a night, we allowed ourselves the one-bedroom hotel suite that offered balconies and a rare-to-us bit of luxury.  I figured we deserved to treat ourselves a bit, and so we did.  

Saturday evening, we were greeted at my in-laws' home by their gorgeous-eyed cat--

--and equally striking spring flowers. 

A rock wall is a "must" for my dream home and Mike has known this for ages, but it didn't occur to him for the longest time to mention that oops, oh, that's right, his parents have one out in the corner of their backyard.  Methinks this is the same lack of attention to detail that made him oops, see that someone had written something in the sand in front of us but not care enough to read it.  Gah.  :)  My mother-in-law's flowers looked heavenly in front of the rocks, making it hard to decide if it was the shore or the cat or the wall that counted as Today's Charming Thing. 

The rock wall may have won.  ♥

More beauty on my in-laws' back porch--

--and inside their home, an adorable picture of Mr. Mike from a less recent beach trip.  :)  My all-time favorite photo of him, I think. 

And yes, after Anniversary Cupcake Fail, Mike did, indeed, get his Krispy Kreme doughnuts over the weekend.  The bee-topped one was mine. 

A lovely getaway, and a couple more days off to get caught up here at home.  I'm redoing our bathroom and requesting permission from the landlord to paint our bedroom.  ("Dare to dream.")  And in the next few weeks, we will be visiting both Mike's family and mine, and I will get more interstate driving experience, so as sad as this past month has been, there is more to look forward to on the horizon.  

♥

Making Me Happy Tonight

Have I mentioned here before how much I love the little Art Deco-ish storybook houses like Hugh Comstock's famous "Hansel" cottage in Carmel, California?  I've saved images of similar cottages  in my home/decorating scrapbooks and inspiration folders since I was thirteen.  

The steeply pitched roof!  ♥  The rounded door and windows!  ♥  The stone exterior!  ♥  The crazy crooked chimney!  ♥  

 If I could jump into any of these illustrations, I would.  Ohhhhhh, I would, I would, I would.  

I've always found it fascinating that certain styles of houses simply seem like Home to us--and others, not so much.  The tiny storybook cottages--ideally set in the wild woods--make my heart ache, just as huge Victorian houses speak to Aunt Laurie and almost any small blue house will be loved by Mom.  

I love hearing about peoples' dream homes.  

In an old issue of Mary Engelbreit's Home Companion (aka Sweetest! Magazine! Ever!), a feature on a guest bedroom in Engelbreit's own home shows some of her collection of miniature houses, and the accompanying caption from Engelbreit reads:  "For me, a house is a symbol of everything good."  Yes.  And for me, a little Art Deco cottage, especially so.  

You know, then, how much I squealed when I finally found not only a vintage vase I loved for our mantel here, but also one that is a nine-inch-tall model of my dream house.  ♥  Look at the chimney!!  And the cute little window!  And how the exterior is even made to look like brick and stone!  It's the find of a lifetime. 

My patience for projects like the mantel makeover drives my mom crazy.  I'll go a year--or in this case, a year and six months, specifically--without a vase for it because I want The Right One, not just any one.  Still on my list for the mantel is The Perfect Hooked Rug for in front of it.  That search continues.  (This rug, in the fourth, fifth, and sixth photos down, made my heart beat faster when I saw it, but alas!  Someone else out there is enjoying it.  It's such gorgeous work.  ♥)  In the meantime, a vase is finally in the spot I had set aside for one.  Bit by bit, and find by find, it is coming together.  Look at the tiny lamps to either side of the front door!  ♥ 

It is a little thing in every sense, but let's hear it for little things.  :)

I'm a happy lady here tonight.  ♥  

Be Still, My Heart!

While looking for something online this morning, I came across a picture of a set of old playing cards with this unbelievably accurate drawing of me and Mike's dream home on one side.  It's a tiny maybe-one-story house! With a fishing pond! And ducks for Mike! And cats and dogs! Rounded window/frame above the door! Cobblestone path! An apple tree like the one in Great-Grandma's yard! A big old mailbox up on a pole! Shutters AND a window box! There are even Cattail plants edging the pond! A few years ago, Mike and I were emailing back and forth, and I sent him another one of my dream home pictures along with the following email:

Now, picture yourself on the (bigger-than-this) front porch in a comfy chair with a pillow behind you and your feet up, reading the newspaper to Stuffed--you underestimate him: he's probably quite interested --and looking up every now and then to watch Rowlf/Buster/Buckingham patrol the grounds. The scent of apple pie is wafting out to you from the kitchen, and the honeybees are (at a safe distance! and) buzzing around the flowers and their boxes. A better-than-water-beverage is at your feet. Our pet groundhog  is chasing squirrels. Your girl lounges beside you, happy happy happy....Can you dig it?

He wrote back "Let's make it happen." And bit by bit, one Craigslist-acquired-wing-chair and Daffodil-bulb-from-a-friend at a time, we are. I'll save the new picture-find for inspiration and take it as a sign that we're on track here. ♥

His House Was Perfect....

"His house was perfect,
whether you liked food, or sleep,
or work, or story-telling,
or singing, or just sitting and thinking, best,
or a pleasant mixture of them all."
 ~ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

Although I've found myself loving many of the quotations from A.A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh stories over the years and understand the charm of the characters and their (mis)adventures, I've never read the books or felt any urge to do so. While looking for something cottage/decorating-related online the other day, though, I came across two illustrations by E.H. Shephard's that depict Pooh's home, and oh! my! goodness! It's like someone was poking inside my mind and drew the exact picture Of Val's Dream Home (s)he'd found there. Ever see a photo so "you" that you ache to jump right into it? I could happily and most contentedly live in these illustrations, and indeed, I kept thinking things like "Hey, I have that quilted patchwork pillow!" "I already have those tablecloths!" "That looks just like my stool from Papa and Grandma's house!" "That's my pink floral wing chair slipcover!" "There are the brick floor...the pink/yellow wallpaper... the cupboard for canned goods I've always wanted!" Who knew Winnie-the-Pooh and I share the same dream home?

I learned five days ago the titles of the specific books these illustrations came from, and in the strange way these things tend to happen, I stumbled upon both books at a thrift shop after work today. So now I head to bed to read, at long last, Milne's stories and to squeal over more of Shepard's sweet depictions of my colorful little "someday" cottage.