Celebrating Special Occasions

 I love celebrating special occasions.

Often I'm 'too busy' with day to day stuff that just has to be done right now to take the time to make these occasions extra special.

 Well, last week I made the time. It was my dear friend Nicole's birthday and it deserved to be celebrated with style.

The first thing to decide was the menu. Nicole loves homemade soups and salads so I started there. Potato soup is always welcome on a chilly winter day so out came the carrots, celery and onion, along with garlic, potatoes, chicken stock and seasonings. Lots of chopping , a bit of sauteing, a long simmer, then a quick whiz with the immersion blender and . . . voila! Delicious homemade potato soup!

My plans for a homemade dessert were scrapped when I started to run late, but I found the perfect substitute at the grocery store.

Out came the prettiest table cloth I could find, my china got a quick rinse to get the dust off and the kettle was put on to boil for some fragrant green tea.

A bit more chopping to add veggies to my baby greens, a good oil and balsamic vinegar and I was pretty much ready to go.

We had the loveliest time.

It was such a pleasure to slow down and make a delicious lunch for the two of us. I could have just put the soup pan on the table and grabbed a couple of everyday bowls from the cupboard and we still would have had a lovely time.

Adding in the pretty little details just kicked it up a notch and allowed me to express how much our friendship means to me . . . .

Happy Birthday Nicole!

Decluttering My Basement . .(Shudder!!!)

I am a small time hoarder.

Most of our married life we have been on a tight budget and each new (to us) thing we brought into our home was precious because we had so little to start with.

Both Henry and I look at stuff (i.e. junk) and see potential for . . . something.

The thing is, we will be celebrating our 29th (gulp) anniversary this fall and after 29 years we've seen a lot of junk coming  in and not a whole lot has going out. After all . . . what if I need it???

The time has come, however to look my hoard in the eye and get ruthless. Free myself from all the stuff that jams up my hallways and leaves me feeling like my house is never, ever truly clean.

The time has come to stop cringing inside every time the kids head downstairs with their friends and wanting to shout down after them "I'm not really a messy person!"

So I've decide to call in the Big Gun. To enlist the help of the most organized person I know.

My good friend Joyce has volunteered to give up a few days of her precious holiday time to help me conquer the beast.

We're going at this Peter Walsh style. Everything in the basement hallways and storage cupboards will go onto the driveway where it will be sorted, condensed and organized within an inch of it's life before going back into the house in an orderly fashion.

And because we are crazy like that, both Joyce and I independently thought about painting the hallways and cupboards (outside only) before putting things back.

I think we may just go for it . . .

I have the best friends ever! If it weren't for Nicole my kitchen would still have ugly brown wood cupboards and without Evelyn the rest  my upstairs would be in even worse shape. (and that's only painting . . . if I had to list everything else friends have done for me over the years, this post would never end.)

I may not blog much this week. Projects like this tend to be all consuming so I expect most of the week I'll be doing quick updates on Facebook rather than here. Feel free to stop by my Life of Whimsey page to check out our progress.

Have a great week everyone and wish us luck! And if you have some free time . . . many hands make light work . . .  ;D You know where to find us!

Also a big thank you to the sweet ladies who offered their hosta and rhubarb leaves so I can keep sculpting this summer. Thank you so much! I'll be by next week . . .

Christmas Traditions. . . A Tree Decorating Party.

Ever since the kids were small, the first Saturday in December was set aside to decorate the tree.

As I have a bit of a problem with keeping things simple, I would combine this activity with the chance to have various family and friends over at the same time, giving me the opportunity to start the holiday season out right.

In the early days, before I amassed an ornament collection well able to decorate three trees, we would start the evening off by creating decorations with the kids and our guests.

 We fashioned garlands of froot loops and paper then crafted ornaments of clay and painted paper doodads galore.

Well do I remember the the happy exclamation made by one of Henry's younger brothers at one of these marathon sessions. . .

"This is awesome! It's so tacky!"

To be fair he was only 17 at the time. . . but still. . .  Tacky???  Not quite what I was going for. . .

For the last several years we have had the same family over and it has become our way of getting in a good visit before the holiday season gets crazy.

We have known Lorne, Nicole and their boys  for over 20 years and, while our kids have all for the most part grown up, (ahem) my kids still insist on upholding tradition.

This year we added Rebecca and her husband Evan in the mix.

Oddly. . .

 When they moved to Alberta, they moved two doors down from Lorne and Nicole!

For the first time ever, we old people did nothing more than supervise and we had a fabulous time.

The kids did a great job!

 Which is likely because they are not actually kids anymore. . .

Check out our evening . . .

Holly and Morgan thought they would start a new tradition and hit Value Village in search of ugly Christmas sweaters.

Morgan lucked out and found an entire Mr. Rodgers outfit right down to the loafers. Not exactly what he went for but. . . he is my son and improvised.

Holly looked for the ugliest sweater she could find, but, unfortunately for her, everybody thought she looked fabulous in it!

Jada loves Lorne  and Nicole. Nicole was the first person she met after we brought her home from the SPCA.

   Dinner was simple. two of the lasagna's my sister Lisa made when she was up before my surgery, french bread, ceasar salad and a good red wine.

Evan and Rebecca. If you want to have lights hung right. . . get an engineer to do it. . . If you want a tree fluffed up. . .get a girl to do it. (Evan's contribution to the fluffing was respectable as well. . .)

In one of my Christmas magazines, a family had a hot chocolate station for the season. I thought that sounded fun, so we set one  up for the evening. Hot chocolate made with milk, mini marshmallows, whipped cream, chocolate sprinkles and, for the grown ups who were so inclined. . . a little Baileys.

 Crystal loves her funky pajama pants!

Supervising.

 Jada keeps her eyes peeled for any accidental droppage. . .

What is is with boys and their inability to tuck garland?

Jesse loves a good cup of hot chocolate!

Mr. Rodgers is doing a great job..

These guys keep me entertained daily. . .

Our finished tree. Didn't they do a great job?

Morgan of course, had to add his string of Yoda lights. . .

Jesse feels every tree needs a face. . .

And,  for the 17th year in a row, Morgan's kindergarten lamb tops the tree. . .

A bonus to having a tree decorating party?  Sometimes people bring you beautiful ornaments.

Why not have a tree decorating party of your own?

A good time will be had by all.

Getting Out Of The House. . . Vintage Inspiration

I have had a few busy days. . .at least they seemed busy to me. . .to you they would probably feel like  lovely, leisurely days. . . but it's been wonderful to realize that I have a little more oomph every day. . .

On Monday Henry decided to stay home with me rather than go hunting. ( I may possibly have been the teeenist bit cranky about the fact that he had already been gone for three days. . .)

I still can't drive and needed to pick up new, good quality paint brushes for a project I hope to get done before next week's bazaar (I have a table), so Henry agreed to drive me over just before lunch.

As we drove the sun hit my face and. . . I burst into tears.

Poor Henry reached over and took my hand. "I'm so sorry I upset you. . ."

"It's not you. At least. . . mostly not you. . ." I sobbed.

"This is the first time in a week I've stepped outside the house and now the sun is shining and I'm. just. so. h. h.  h. happy. . .!

As a result, once we were done, he decided to stop at home for Jada and my camera and head off to my favorite neighborhood for a walk.

It was fabulous! Slow. But fabulous!

We even went for a few groceries. I expected to be exhausted the next day but, no.
Holly and I walked a few blocks to Tim's for lunch and I got to feel the sun on my face again!

Which made me realize that I had better find a way to get outside regularly. It is harder than I knew to go from walking Jada for an hour most days to not going outside at all. (Unless it's really cold. Then I'm totally okay with staying inside.)

And I'm still not allowed to walk her so. . . I may just have to sneak out of the house to walk around the block once in a while.

Which I can. Because yesterday???  I was able to put both my socks and boots on. . . by myself!

Whoo hoo! Progress.

Now, lest you think that my friends have forgotten me in this regard I have to tell you that Joyce took me out for dinner two weeks ago and Nicole picked me up and brought me to two wonderful stores in the Highlands area the day after.

Of course, at the time I walked so slow I couldn't cross the street before the light changed.

The first time it happened I just thought we had crossed halfway thorough the light but, on the way back. . . well. . . It was quite clear that what I thought was a speedy shuffle was in reality not much more than a very slow mo shuffle.

Since I can't seem to go out without a camera in my hand. . .

I thought I would share my little adventures.

Apple Box Boutique

Chickies

I am so coming back in the spring!

And if I didn't think this lady likely costs $700 or more, I would totally get her. ( well, not really because I don't have any hundred's of dollars to spare, but, you know what I mean. ..)

I find her fascinating and she would probably get moved from room to room to room looking for the perfect spot to put her.

She might even live outside in the summer and inside in the winter.

I would  feel compelled to do something I am sure no real collector would do though.

Repaint her.

As Holly pointed out, with the paint peeling she looks as though her nose is missing. . . and who wants that???

Sigh. . .

I think I may have to go back and take some better pictures of her.

Even if I can't have her in person I can have her picture on the wall.

* maybe if I shoot her from another angle her nose will look a little better too. . .

Now I am off to bed.

Tomorrow is going to be another busy, fun day. (Don't ask about the state of my house though. . . sigh.)

Encouragement From Some Readers. . .

I have been having a pity party all weekend and Monday wasn't looking a whole lot better. Not for any large reasons just. . . dealing with the healing process.

The thing is, although I was told what recovery after surgery would possibly be like and I did all I could to prepare, what I didn't realize was. . . Deep down all I was really focusing on was whether they would find more cancer and what that would mean. . .

Being told I was cancer free was such a relief. . . and then the reality of recovering set in.

And it turns out that that was a lot scarier than I thought it would be.

 And I haven't even had complications set in. 

Just odd, painful, unexpected things that are part of a normal recovery.

 My nurse visited today and told me I was healing very well. . . She thought I would likely even have my stitches and drain removed next week!

Stitches. . .  maybe.  Drain. . . not for another month according to the surgeon.

So why was I sobbing like a baby in the shower this morning???

The nurse suggested that was a bit like a relief valve, and, I must admit I felt a lot better after my shower and her visit.

I decided to do something productive. All the beautiful flowers I had gotten in the hospital were looking rather tired. Just throwing them out wasn't an option, so I picked out any flowers that still looked fresh, found them new vases and spread them around the house to brighten as many spaces as possible.

Then Rebecca came by for the afternoon and we crocheted like little old ladies until supper time.

The day just kept getting better. The mailman brought a beautiful handmade card form one of my readers ( my cousin Chris) and she had enclosed a magnet with a very timely poem on it. ( And Chris? No need to feel stalkerish. . .I hardly ever comment either. . . ;D )

And to end the day?

Another lovely reader sent me this poem as encouragement. . .


STEP BY STEP

He does not lead me year by year,
Nor even day by day;
But step by step my path unfolds,
My Lord directs my way.

Tomorrow’s plans I do not know;
I only know this minute.
But He will say, “This is the way,
By faith now walk ye in it.”

And I am glad that it is so,
Today’s enough to bear,
And when tomorrow comes, His grace
Shall far exceed its care.

What need to worry then, or fret?
The God Who gave His Son
Holds all my moments in His hand
And gives them one by one.

Author unknown

Thank you Cecile!!

Tomorrow is going to be an even better day.