Flowers for a Friend

I was so disappointed when I got to the flower market yesterday morning. I had to buy flowers for a Revealing Redesign photo shoot that afternoon, and I also really wanted to find gorgeous blooms to arrange for dear friends who are going through a rough time. I was hoping to walk in and just be inspired, find all kinds of fantastic flowers and foliage, be filled with creative ideas.

Nope.

Blah, blah, and more blah. I came home with just one anemic bunch of daisies, and a dozen peachy-orange roses.

"Why did I buy these?!?" I thought to myself. Well....there wasn't much else...I guess it is better than nothing....hmphf.

I wandered out to the garden to see what I could find to round things out, and THAT is where I found my inspiration. I know, I know~I have played this tune for you before. Just the same, the hydrangeas were doing their thing and showing a carnival of colors due to the autumnal changes outside, my Ninebark shrubs were glorious in their dark purple, and the silvery green delicate leaves of my Bridal Veil shrub also beckoned to me. How beautifully they would complement each other!

Arranging them I felt so happy and blessed. A gift for my friends to cheer them, and also a wonderful gift for me.

With Mother Nature's Help

As most of you know, this past weekend we opened our home for our township's Founder's Day Historic House Tour!  Now that I am finally able to hold my head upright again (man, was I house tour tired!), I would love to share some photos of the house wearing its fall colors, and invite you to the Fall Decorating Party at Hooked on Houses--one of my very favorite blogs!

My husband and I chuckled (maybe it is more accurate to say we weakly smiled) yesterday as we recounted all the craziness we put ourselves through these past few weeks as we feverishly prepared for the big day. All of the scrubbing, painting, arranging, inspecting, vacuuming, re-arranging, revisiting, revamping, and never retiring--it is enough to make one Historic House Tour Hysterical.

This is my favorite time of year in the garden. With the days becoming shorter and the nights cooler, the colors intensify and become more saturated.  Everything has grown and grown all summer, and is putting on a wonderful show before going to bed for the winter. I  was happy to have my crab apples greet people as they approached the house.

I plunked some red mums in my new planter.....

I love the tight little buds of red on the blooms that haven't quite opened yet.

and put a cabbage in the old birdbath by the porch...

In years past, my ornamental cabbages were afternoon snacks for our resident family of groundhogs. I really do think that they believe that they own the house, and that I am just the sucker who pays the mortgage.  Let's just see if they can get to the cabbage this year! HA!

For inside the house, I bought some eucalyptus greens and snapdragons to round out the cuttings from the garden.

It has been so nice to have them around to enjoy. When I finish rooms for clients, I almost always incorporate fresh flowers....but I admit, I don't always take the time to do so for myself, especially not throughout all parts of the house.

While the house isn't yet filled with pumpkins, gourds and other fall items, I am pleased with the simple embellishments that Mother Nature has so generously provided with all her September splendor...all right outside my door!  Please visit Julia's Fall Decor Party to see how others are celebrating the change of seasons!

The Little House

Once there was a Little House way out in the country. She was a pretty Little House and she was strong and well built. The man who built her so well said, "This Little House shall never be sold for gold or silver and she will live to see our great-great-grandchildren's great-great-grandchildren living in her." --Virginia Lee Burton

I have such wonderful memories of sitting with my children and reading many an afternoon away. This book was one of our favorites. Virginia Lee Burton's The Little House was first published in 1942, and won the Caldecott Medal in 1943. It is the story of a cherished little abode, built with love and pride, sitting pretty on a hill in the country. We travel through the seasons with her...

Watch the stars above her at night...

But as the story goes on, the lights of the city grow closer on the horizon. Over time everything changes around the little house.

Looking back through this book now, I love it just as much, if not more.  Of course I love the fact that the story is about a house--one that is simple, beautiful, and well-built with love. Her story takes a sad and dark turn as she is lost and forgotten among the smog and confusion of the city: "her windows were broken and her shutters hung crookedly. She looked shabby..." But Ms. Burton is quick to remind the reader: "...she was just as good a house as ever underneath."

In the end, it is a story of redemption. The house is recognized by the great-great-granddaughter of the man who built her. They know that she is a little house worth saving, and they do just that.

Ms. Burton wrote so many of our family's best-loved books such as Choo Choo, Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, and Katy and the Big Snow. If you haven't ever read any of these stories, whether you are young, old, or somewhere in between,  I urge you to do so. And share them with a friend!

How Firm A Foundation

Having a safe, welcoming, and comforting place to go at the end of one's day out in the wild, demanding, tiring and sometimes dangerous world is something that people have always needed throughout human history.

In that safe haven, we are strengthened and restored so that we have the energy to go back out into the larger world and share our gifts.

While most of us no longer cross the threshold to go hunt for our supper in the vast woods, or till the fields for our family's food, it is still just as important today to be able to return home at the end of a day to a place that restores us--to close the door behind you, and know you will be welcomed by a space that is comfortable and comforting, beautiful and simple. It is a foundation upon which so many important and positive things in our lives can be built.

Zen Space

During a recent conversation with a friend about the frustrations of house upkeep, she shared with my husband and I a practice that she has employed to help keep her sane during the busy days of the week, when the house can get away from the best of us.

There is one place in her home (I believe she said hers was her night table) that, through thick and thin, come hell or high water, is always a lesson in simplicity. It is clear of dust and clutter, with just a few of her very favorite pictures and beloved items carefully arranged on it. While the rest of the household may be falling into disarray with the family's comings and goings, she knows she can go sit on her bed, take a few breaths, look at her Zen Space, and find a little peace amid the cacophony of clutter and chaos.

As she finished explaining this to us, I realized that my husband was unusually quiet.  I looked over at him to see his mouth agape, his eyes wide & glassy. He blinked a few times, slowly turned his gaze to meet mine, and whispered with enthusiasm:

"Wow. I am so getting a Zen Space."

That night when we returned home, the minute we walked in the door, he declared to me, the kids, the dog, the cat, the fish, and the dust mites in the corners that the dining room table was now HIS. He was staking his claim, his right, his due. The dining room is a Zen Space--do not dare put anything on it.

My husband is a truly wonderful person, one who likes order.

One who likes things to be where they should be.

One who is still wondering what the hell happened after the crazy entreprenuer wife, two kids, the dog, the cat, the fish, dust mites and furballs entered stage right.

If you can keep a secret, this is what his Zen Space looked like this morning...after I went shopping for a few clients.

Can we just keep this between us?

This whole "zen space" thingee is one I really like, and that is why I am sharing it with you.  We do work together to make sure that that space is not dumped upon.  Being greeted by a clean table when I arrive home is a peaceful and pleasant thing.

SO, the next time you come to my house and you have a load of stuff in your arms you need to drop somewhere, follow the lead of my children and walk past that blissfully neat and pristine dining room table surface, beckoning to you just inside the entry, and continue on into the next room: my office.

Yep. You can go ahead and dump it in there.

first photograph compliments of mudmom.com