Daffodil Cookies and Disciplined Days

Our simple Easter dinner was lovely, if I may say so.  I somehow got the grocery store's last pot of miniature Daffodils for it, my Daffodil sugar cookies--and even their trumpets--kept their shape as they baked, the blackberry dessert I'd concocted for myself turned out better than expected, and the Lilac tablecloth I'd treated myself to for the occasion, since I love Lilacs and never see them on anything, looked as pretty on the table as I'd hoped it would.  The actual meal was good too, yes,  :) but the fun part of dinners for me is playing with the desserts and the table. 

My own Easter dessert was a dish of Greek yogurt mixed with crushed and whole blackberries, cream cheese, and edible flowers.  This was my favorite thing I ate yesterday. 

Saturday marked ten months on the job for me, and I can say now that it ended up taking me all of the first nine months on the job to get into new routines and have life feel manageable again.  That's a long time to feel discombobulated on a near-daily basis, especially for someone so appreciative of order and organization.  I get up every day at 7 am now, despite working until midnight some nights.  The extra hours in the morning are the hours that were missing before that now allow me to get things done, and although I would have guessed that this change in routine would make me more tired every day, I feel better than I have in ages and am only sleepy when I finally go to bed, as opposed to the day-in and day-out fatigued-right-to-my-bones that I felt every night (and day, for that matter) even through January.  I eliminated caffeine and sugar from my diet back in February and have been falling asleep quickly, for the very first time in my life, and sleeping like a rock.  Despite still not liking it, I drink about a gallon of water a day now.  Likely because of eating better and sleeping better, I've lost seventeen pounds so far this year, as well.  I used to be hit-or-miss with all the vitamins and supplements I take each day, but the so-obvious-I-didn't-think-of-it solution of a daily pill-organizer/container has made it easier for me to remember to take every pill every day, and there's something satisfying to me each morning about seeing that day's pills become a blank compartment after I've taken them with my glass of almond milk.  This is such a slight change in routine, but it's one that makes me feel better and more on-top-of-things every single day--and minutes after starting each day--so it's worth noting.  I still walk to and from work as often as I can--the nights I work until midnight, I catch the bus--but I also still need to work my longer walks and some writing-time into my mornings.  And I will.  Those will be two of this spring's changes-for-the-better, after having spent the winter focusing on other ones.   

Home itself has been getting sorted out too.  I cook ahead more often now, to make the nights I work until 6, 7, or 8 pm easier.  I'm in the process of creating a go-to grocery/shopping list of all the things I ever buy so I can just make copies of it and circle what I need on each copy for each trip.  (A friend's dad used to do this back when she and I were in the sixth grade, and now at almost 41, I see the brilliance of the idea that struck me as over-the-top at 11.)  :)  I have been wearing a uniform of sorts to work instead of real outfits, since I have that option at my workplace, and not having to choose clothes, shoes, and jewelry has freed up a lot of my pre-work time.  I've begun the past few months with not only my usual daily to-do lists, but also weekly and monthly ones.  I still need to come up with a better laundry system--it may likely end up being something as simple as "Tuesday is always Laundry Day, no matter my work schedule."  We'll see.  I  began April yesterday knowing I had met every goal on my March list, which felt incredible.  

My latest project has been to create--finally, after years of planning it--a writing corner for myself in the apartment.  In February, I bought a used table on craigslist to transform into a corner-desk.  A few weeks ago, I finished re-papering--really "re-fabric-ing"--one of that corner's walls and found a lamp for what will be my desk.  Saturday evening, I finished sawing the table into the wedge-shape I need.  Next is to put the table/desk back together, attach some type of shelf to its top as a sort of hutch, to paint it all, and to redo the chair I'll be using with it.  Finishing the entire corner is one of this month's projects, and I can already tell it's going to be my favorite spot in the apartment.  

Here's to new routines and better days.  Happy spring to you all.  ♥

And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom. ~ Anais Nin

What a sweet past week!  I returned today from four days of visiting family--mine and Mike's--and had such a great time with everyone:  A late supper out with Mike's mom and sister Friday night, a Thanksgiving-dinner-in-May with my family Sunday, a drive out to my grandparents' cemetery with Mike Monday afternoon, the softball and Little League games of my oldest niece and nephew Monday evening--and both their teams won their games, and my nephew hit a home run that won his game, and seeing his PURE JOY as he ran into his teammates' arms after crossing home plate is one of my all-time favorite Dylan moments.  He was THRILLED, and the coaches let him keep the ball.  My parents, sister-in-law, and I were yelling our heads off in the bleachers, so happy for him--my nephew's first band concert Tuesday morning, what's become a traditonal tea party-ish stop for lemon meringue pie, fresh strawberries, a roll with jam, and tea for me and Mom yesterday afternoon, and a drive out to the cemetery with Dad later to place a bouquet and a photo of my driver's license cake at Sommer's headstone.  I'd been imagining myself doing just that at Som's headstone since before I got my license, so to get to leave my flowers and photo there finally was so sweet, one of those moments when I could look at myself and think, "Ah!  I have grown!  I have made progress!  I really did do something with this past year!"  Last May, I don't know if I would have believed that a year later, I'd be driving to my parents' house--I DROVE us home from my in-laws' Sunday, and I drove to the cemetery--and getting to visit Som's headstone as a licensed driver for the first time too.  Truly:  Progress!  ♥ This entire past five days was full of sweet moments, but finally seeing my simple bouquet and celebration cake at Som's stone just made the trip for me.  Let's hear it for personal growth!  :) 

Daffodil Cupcakes and Random Acts of Kindness

In the wee hours of the morning, I baked and decorated two fondant Daffodil-topped cupcakes--Daffodils were my bridal bouquet flower--so Mike and I could share from afar a belated anniversary dessert while I'm at work tonight.  Ooh ahh, I was quite pleased with these little cakes, and pride goeth before the fall, for they tipped over and into each other right before I took this picture.  Then after prying them away from each other and fixing the frosting and flowers as best I could--notice the careful placement of our wedding cake topper--I decided to try a bite of mine, since it was already looking the worse for wear, and Disappointment Number Two was that the new-to-me white cake recipe I used for these had produced cupcakes that tasted like Play-Doh--and had the same consistency.  Anniversary dessert FAIL!  We are going out this weekend, though, and there is a Krispy Kreme doughnut shop along the way, so maybe I will treat Mike to bakery-made anniversary doughnuts instead. 

A sweeter-than-smooshed-Play-Doh-cupcakes anniversary surprise came a couple years back while Mike and I were out for breakfast.  As we ate, the woman in another couple in the restaurant called over to us, "Will your meal cost at least [such-and-such amount]?"  I was wondering why someone would ask a stranger such a thing when she continued, "If  it will, we have a half-off coupon you can use."  And she brought it over to our table, and we four talked and laughed for a moment, and that kindness became one of the highlights of our anniversary and remains one of my favorite anniversary memories. 

Daffodils and ~Downton Abbey~

It is still a snow-covered world here today, but the first Daffodils have hit the stores.  I look forward to this little treat all year.  And it is a gorgeous blue-skied sunny day so far, making Daffodil Bouquet Day even sweeter.  

March 6th already.  Bring it!  This February was rough.  "And the hits just keep on coming" kept coming to mind each week.  I had five days off beginning February 28th, and I!  completely!  vegged!  out!  I finally watched "Downton Abbey"--ALL of "Downton Abbey," beginning season one Saturday morning and watching the season five finale late Wednesday night--and was as charmed by it as everyone assured me I would be.  Mr. Carson--"[the] old booby!"--has won my heart.  Love that character.  And Violet's laugh makes me laugh every time I hear it.  Mrs. Hughes' "Oh, heavens, girl!  You're building a fire, not inventing it!"  The aqua drawing room with the cream doors.  The swishing of the dear pup's tail in the opening sequence.  The music.  The DRESSES!  Violet and Isobel together.  Lovely Sybil.  Ah!  It was well worth the wait, and it was the perfect way to put a horrid February behind me. And now March is here, and here with Daffodils and sunshine.  Happy day.  ♥

Home Today

♥

We've Been Painted :)

Since Mike and I skipped all the hoopla of a wedding to marry more simply--a ceremony at the courthouse in the town where we had met in the 1990s, a decision to save money now and vacation later, a dress that was actually a vintage nightgown and vintage jacket combo, a storebought cake for us and homemade cookies to share with the courthouse and hotel staff, a handmade bouquet--this painting is my one wedding-related splurge, and I finally treated myself to it this fall.  In August, I contacted folk artist Heather Sleightholm to ask if she had the time to complete a wedding portrait for me and Mike.  I love Heather's work, and as soon as I discovered her, I knew I wanted her to capture our simple wedding day for us.  We emailed back and forth in August and September to ensure she had enough photos and details to go by--the spring green outfit, my braided hair, our simple silver wedding bands, the wintry rainy April 2011 weather that had broken into sun just for our day and then turned into cold rain again that night, the trees that were still bare-branched, Mike's tie that matched my outfit, our courthouse in the background somewhere, and "Heather, would it be possible to add Stuffed to our painting?  :)  Maybe at our feet or in a tree, but just somewhere?"  Our portrait arrived on Halloween, and as you can see, Heather captured it all perfectly.  This is one of my if-the-apartment-were-on-fire-and-I-had-time-to-save-a-few-material-posessions items.  I love it. 

I had made my bridal bouquet of Daffodils, Pussy Willows, and Cattails.  Heather incorporated them not only into my bouquet, but also into masses of blooms on the ground around us, along with patches of half-melted snow. 

My sweet Mike, or "my big bearded friend," as I call him, with our courthouse behind him.  The courthouse is the most beautiful building in our former college town.  I used to live a block behind it when I went to school there. 

My bouquet and my beloved cream tights and T-strap shoes.  Heather even included the embroidered details on my jacket's collar. 

Mike's ring in the painting is even the simple silver band it is in real life.  Heather's attention to detail and the care she took with this just make my heart happy.  And below is our Stuffed watching over us from a tree-top.  Dear face. 

We are now blessed enough to have both the wedding pictures we had taken (with the cameras on our phones and on a disposeable camera I'd bought at Target the day before [blissfully simple, as I'd said!]) and this lovely painting too.  And where else to display it but on the mantel Dad made for our first anniversary.  It is a treasure.  ♥

♥  "An April Wedding" by Heather Sleightholm  ♥

Easter Breakfast

Mike and I will be having our Easter dinner tomorrow--He's cooking a ham and asked me to make macaroni and cheese to go with it, while I'm excited about the broccoli-cauliflower salad and cake--but this afternoon I surprised him with a late Easter breakfast so we would have something festive on the table today too.  

I love holiday foods and tables.  My mom is the same way, and our conversations on the subject, usually held while looking at pictures we're clipping from magazines, always find us saying the same things:  "Look at this, Vally!  Isn't this cute!"  "Oh, honestly, Mom, the people who come up with these ideas for magazines have the BEST job!"  "I'd eat themed food every night if your dad would go for it."  And then she tells me again about how when she and Dad were first married, she was in her Daisy-collecting period and had them on everything, so the first breakfast she made for him was sunny-side-up eggs cooked into Daisy-shaped molds.  "I think he started wondering then what he'd gotten himself into," she concludes.  When I called home a little while ago to wish my parents a happy Easter, I told Mom about today's rabbit-shaped pancakes, egg casserole nests with potato eggs, and bacon Tulips, and predictably, she ooohed and ahhed.  

The practice I got painting those bunnies onto my Easter cards last week paid off during batter-pouring today:  Mike's pancake actually turned out bunny-shaped on the first attempt.  :)  A donut hole rolled in coconut flakes made the tail.   

I never did find a bouquet of my beloved Daffodils at the store, so I tucked a couple sprigs of my silk ones around the table.  The yellow gingham tablecloth is actually a small bedspread I found at a thrift shop a few years ago.  It was a simple table and a sweet breakfast with my Mike.  I hope you've all had a wonderful Easter too.  ♥  

We Make Our Own Sunshine

Likely because I have had to spend the past few days inside the apartment waiting for packages to be delivered, I am craving sunshine and light and fresh air and bold colors like mad lately.  The joke has been on captive-feeling, Cabin Fever-ed me so far this week, since although online shipping notifications stated that the packages were "out for delivery" starting in the morning both Monday and yesterday, the buzzer didn't ring until 3 p.m. Monday and until 6 p.m. last night, so I had stayed indoors "for nothing" hour after hour both days when I could have bundled up and headed out for a walk.  I love my little home, but even a homebody needs fresh air and exercise, especially a homebody who recently polished off most of a Valentine's Day carrot cake by herself.  :)  

This reminds me to tell you that in last Sunday's post about my grandmother, I should have mentioned that whenever my dad would try to get Grandma to join Papa on his daily walk or to do a bit of exercise on her own, Grandma would shake her head and reply, "But I did that already!  When I was a schoolgirl, we all had to do fitness exercises!"  As if physical activity was a life event.  :)  Year after year, Dad argued the benefits of a daily walk, but Grandma never budged on the issue.  She had done that already, end of story.  Remembering their frustrating-to-each-other arguments on this still makes me laugh.  ♥

Meanwhile, back at the ranch. . . .Stuffed and I have spent my time off this week here in the apartment, Stuffed more often than not cuddled up with paws outstretched under the space heater or radiator while I've tried to get some more projects crossed off my seemingly epic To Do list.  I have been faux-upholstering (just kind of making it up as I go along) the wing chair above for awhile now.  A post for another day, and hopefully, not too long from now either, as I'm eager to be done with this project.  After rearranging the fabric squares with straight pins the past couple days, I think I have the patchwork the way I want it.  (A quick glance behind me and I see it's changed a little more since I took that photo, but you get the idea.)  The seat, for now, is a vintage pink roses baby blanket.  It's not at all a cutter, and I almost hate to hide the size and condition of it by using it as a chair seat, but it's also perfect for the project, so for now, it stays.  I haven't touched the chair's sides or bottom/skirt yet and have only begun to re-cushion the arms, so there is still much to do, but it's beginning to look the way I'd envisioned it.  And Stuffed has been content to nap in the warmth instead of nosing around the needles, thread, and hot glue, so we're both happy.  

A few rays of sunlight have been spotted in here this week. 

Pay Day will find me treating myself to this year's first bundle of Daffodils.  They are my favorites, so they show up here and there in various ways in the apartment year-round, but there's nothing like a real Daffodil, especially during these dreary end-of-winter weeks. 

February wraps up tomorrow.

March is almost here. 

And today itself is cozy and certainly good enough, with its comfy cat and spots of light and its colorful patches and tea and a husband on the way home from work soon.  There is even--although Grandma would shudder at the thought--time and opportunity for a brisk walk.  Life is good, life is very good, and let me not forget it.  ♥

The Patchwork Cupboards Project

One of my favorite little projects in our new apartment (or new-to-us-since-summer-2011, but it's still so much a work-in-progress that I'll think of it as our "new" apartment awhile longer) has been dolling up the two small cupboards we use for dish storage. The cupboards mark the entry to our tiny kitchen, and I wanted them to pop with color.

This is what the cupboards looked like when we moved in:

For the first six months or so, I left the cupboards "bare" so that the dishes were visible in each of the wood-framed panes, thinking that since our dishes are all pretty colorful and since I had lined the cupboards' inner shelves with green contact paper, the effect would be pretty, but instead, we could only see the dishes that were right along the front of the shelves and it just didn't thrill me.  Next I attached just big rectangles of pink strawberry-themed oilcloth behind the cupboards' doors so that every pane of both cupboards showed the pink strawberry print.  "Blah!" to that too, but I lived with it until I figured out what I wanted to do.  And the answer should have been obvious to "Pretty Little Rough Patches" herself, of course, but it took another few months for me to think of it:  I finally used a bunch of different colors and patterns of oilcloth to create patchwork cupboards.  ♥

I had already had the green and blue ginghams and the pink strawberry oilcloths, so I looked on etsy for a few more prints, hoping to find a sample/lot-style listing so as not to have to pay separately for a bunch of pieces, and the ModernJune shop came through:  For only two dollars, I got a wide variety (of my choosing) of colors and patterns for my project:  Pink roses on white, yellow gingham, red cherries on yellow, pink and white polka dot, yellow orchids on black, red gingham, dahlias on orange. . . .Awesome variety at a great price. 

I attached each piece of oilcloth to the back of the wood frames with little dabs of hot glue.  I tested a corner a small scrap of oilcloth first to make sure it wouldn't damage the wood, and it peeled right off after it had dried, so no worries.  After an hour or so of arranging, cutting, and hot gluing, I had finally finished the cupboard project, shaking my head at myself the whole time as I wondered this hadn't been the obvious choice all along. 

The small two-tiered shelf on top of the cupboard at left had been a happy three-dollar Goodwill find in 2010, and I recently finished redoing it too.  When we moved here, I decided to keep it on the kitchen counter and sawed off half of the top shelf to make it fit around the window, but then I realized the cupboard door above it wouln't open if we stored things on the top shelf.  Measure twice, cut once.  :)  I moved it to the top of one of the now-patchwork cupboards and covered the front, back, and right side with green gingham oilcloth and the left side with black gingham oilcloth.  It now holds a few flowers and cookbooks.  The space left by having sawed off part of the top shelf perfectly fits my beloved vintage Daffodil vase (another great Goodwill find) too, so it all worked out.  

I still need to find artwork for the side of the cupboard at left, opposite the die-cut coffee, iced tea, and chocolate milk (the three things Mike and I drink the most) signs, and I want one more drink-themed sign (and have one in-mind) for the open space under the milk and tea ones, but that's piddly.  That, then, at long last, concludes the Patchwork Cupboards Project.  ♥

Anniversary Love from Aunt Laurie

Mike and I stopped at my parents' house on Sunday the 15th for what we thought was going to be a simple one-year wedding anniversary dinner with my family, but my mom and my visiting-for-the-weekend aunt Laurie had been working like elves since Friday evening transforming my parents' kitchen and dining room into a Daffodil-Filled Pink Party Central in our honor. :) While I wait to collect everyone's photos from the day, I can show you two of the gifts Aunt Laurie made for us, a beautifully matted and framed photo of me from my wedding day and a scrapbook marking our first married year.

Aunt Laurie said this was her favorite of all our wedding photos, and she trimmed it in a pretty spring green that matched my wedding outfit. :) Since my bridal bouquet was mostly yellow Daffodils, she pressed some silk ones under the glass too. What a treasure she and her gift are. 

And tucked into a gift basket Sunday was a 40-page scrapbook she had made filled with images depicting our wedding, our life together, and our pink first anniversary party. There is even a page in it with a magazine clipping of a black and white cat who looks like Stuffed. :) She and I and my mom have been creating these little books for each other for years, but this one is one of my all-time favorite gifts, period. She outdid herself.

The pages above are my two favorites. She even created those paper doll-type cut-outs to look like my wedding dress and jacket and Mike's tie. :) And my Daffodil bouquet! Love, love, love.  She managed to find pictures of not only my bouquet's Daffodils but also its Cattails and Pussy Willows. "My" Daffodils are on almost every page. :)

For traditional first anniversary gifts of paper, her book and matted photo take the prize. They are just the dearest, as is she. ♥