November Blooms & living room bookcases

Hello Folks ~ Can you believe it is almost Thanksgiving, and then Christmas is right around the corner? This year really has zipped by.

This week I changed out my bedspread from spring/summer to fall/winter.  Miss Tork doesn’t care what the season is, she enjoys the bed anytime of year.

Also put on a favorite sheet set that I got at a small flea market for $8. I save these for this time of year also. I was thrilled when I saw these. They are queen or king size and my bed is a double, but they work for me. I love the floral design.

As I start to work on this post, I listened to some lovely instrumental Christmas music. Really early for me with the music, but I felt like it.

Christmas Songs

I emptied containers of books into the new-to-me bookcases and added bits & pieces of decorative  ‘objects d’art’ from around the cottage.

The bunch of grapes are made of alabaster. While we were living in Spain, when DH was in the US Navy, 70-73, a Navy friend of his went to Italy and DH asked his friend to get these for me. The stem is a real grape stem. The brass oil holders were bought at a flea market while we were there.

Books on next shelf are most of my ‘first’ cookbooks. The little pumpkin I crocheted this year from a pattern I found online.

The clock doesn’t work, and is set to the time when God called DH home.

More cookbooks.

Bottom shelf has bookends that are DH’s initials that I bought at our flea market many, many years ago, 50 cents each. They might be made of walnut. They are resting on sweet, wonderful books by Jerri Landers. I love these. She is an exceptional artist in many mediums. You can visit her blog here, Hopalong Hollow Gazette.

On this shelf is an old ‘white or pot’ metal statue we bought at our local flea market a long, long time ago. The jug we bought in Spain in an area of the country where they are famous for making all sorts of things using the red clay and painting technique.

Next is a piece of coral. Then in the background is an old icon of Mary and Baby Jesus. The ‘Bible’ is made out of marble. The lettering is etched into the marble. on the side it says, ‘Learn of Me’.

This shelf is filled with natural ways of healing, aromatherapy, herbs. The brass mortar & pestle were bought in Spain.

Some of our rock collection. The two heart shaped rocks DH bought for me from a garden center that had different bins of rocks. He asked the lady if he could pick out two rocks shaped like hearts and only buy them instead of by the pound or however they were being sold. She said yes, and he looked through them and picked out these two.

I bought David and Venus at our local flea market for $6. They are some sort of composition material.

Gardening books.

Now for some blooms from Plum Cottage Gardens

‘Blue Lips’

‘Mexican Petunia’

Orchids

‘Plumbago’

‘Wild Petunia’

Unknown

A ‘carpet’ rose.

‘Granada’

‘International Herald Tribune’

‘Louis Philippe’ or ‘Florida Cracker Rose’

‘Mozart’

Unknown

‘Pink Muhly’ grass

‘Hibiscus tree’ bloom

‘Hibiscus tree’ leaves’

Let your hearts be filled with thanksgiving. Let us give thanks to our Creator God, Jesus, for all that He has done for us out of His GREAT LOVE for us. Let us trust in Him, believe in Him. He is the Savior of the world.

Happy November

FlowerLady

Latest Project

Hello Folks ~ I want to thank all of you once again for your kind comments, your encouragement and your prayers. It all is priceless and boosts my spirit.

I’m happy to report our weather now is a bit ‘fallish’. Since Sunday the temps have cooled down and the humidity has lessened, making for delightfully perfect weather. We are supposed to have night time temps in the 60’s the end of this week I think. That will really be nice.

Sunday morning I got a 2” x 12” x 67” shelf that DH and I had picked up somewhere, out of the cat barn, where it was stored. It’s been waiting to be used for the right project. It was a light color and I wanted it darker to match the bookcases that I was going to pick up yesterday. So, I got out some small cans of min-wax stain from DH’s workshop, opened them up to check out colors, and decided on Provincial first, stained the shelf, nice and a deeper color but it was still too light, so then I put on a coat of Jacobean and it came out just right. I love it.

                                            Before                            After

     

The bookcases that my dear BIL & SIL gave me were stored where my BIL works. Since neither of their vehicles were large enough to haul them, I suggested I could drive my van up to pick them up. Todd, was going to be at a work related meeting yesterday, south of me, so he asked would it work for me to pick up the bookcases in the morning and then he’d meet here back home after his meeting/lunch to unload them. 

That would work for me, so I ‘geared’ up mentally for the drive, an hour each way, and had a lovely short visit and brunch treat with dear SIL. I drove up to their condo first, to pick her up as she’d tell me how to get to workplace. Two nice young men loaded the bookcases into my van, then we headed back to condo to switch to her vehicle and go to a neat little place called ‘The Nook’. I had a ‘Wimpy Burger’ with sweet potato fries and an Arnold Palmer to drink. She had one fried egg with French fries covered with sausage gravy and sweet tea to drink. That looked good. Afterwards it was back to the condo and just about time to head back home. We said our goodbyes and hugged and off I went.

Driving distances takes me out of my ‘comfort zone’. But I did it and I had some nice ‘loot’ in the back of my van that was going to look so nice in my small living room. I was excited. Todd got here awhile later and we unloaded the bookcases and talked about the mantle shelf which will go over the TV. Strips of stained wood will get nailed to the bookcases, and a painted one will go on the back wall, for the shelf to rest on & be nailed to. That will happen when he comes back another time.

Below is what I’ve been picturing in my head since dear friends of mine bought me a new TV, and I said I’d take the bookcases and media stand that BIL and SIL were getting rid of, (due to moving and change of decor). Now it is reality. The mantle shelf will be great over the TV, and I look forward to decorating it with change of seasons, or whenever I feel like changing things up. That painting won’t stay there, it’s just to fill the space at the moment.

The cooler weather has me itching to work outside, with more clearing out of ‘junk’ and working in the garden spaces that are overgrown.

I am thankful for the gift of each new day, for the ability to be able to do things on a limited income and because of other people’s generosity. I will be shopping my little home for decorative bits and pieces for the shelves and have plenty of books to fill them as well. I will be weeding out more books as I look at them again, planning to keep only what I truly want as visual/mental inspiration/ideas, in gardening, cooking and health. This is exciting. I know DH would like this new look and is happy for me.

I just got an idea for using a piece that we found curbside. Actually, we found 5 of them and sold 4 of them at the antique shop I managed for 17 years. This is 11” high by 70 1/2” wide. I’ll see when Todd is here next and we can put it up on top of bookshelves. It may or may not look good. It is in storage right now. I’m even more excited now thinking of seeing this piece where I can enjoy it. A reminder of the good times we had ‘junking’ as we called it, in other words, ‘curbside shopping’. These are made out of some kind of composition. It is a bit heavy, so I can’t put it on top of the bookshelves by myself. Patience.

Ok, that’s it for now.

Enjoy life, moment to moment.

FlowerLady

Edited 4:46 p.m.

I got home from visiting an elderly widow friend and decided to bring in the architectural piece so that I can look at in the space. Oh my goodness, the piece is much heavier than I thought, but I got it in here with the help of a dolly and some 69 year old muscle strength. My neck and back are feeling it a bit, so I need to take it easy and relax.

I’m also playing with bits and pieces from the cottage. Not going to load it up until we are finished with the mantel shelf.