My Newest Addictions

Thanks everyone for your well wishes following our accident in Williamsburg.  We are slowly feeling less sore, and working towards getting our car repaired.

I've been taking it easy this past week, trying to get my cortisol levels back in whack.  When you have an adrenal condition like I do, what would normally not affect someone else can really throw my body for a loop, so I'm taking baby steps until I'm back to normal again.

One of the most important things I can do is to eat right and get plenty of rest...oh and avoid the news at all cost...Mr. Tide is keeping me up on current events so that I don't sound like a total dimwit!

Over the last 6 years eating organically, eliminating all sorts of things from our diet like transfats, etc., and in the past 9 months going gluten free, has been key to my feeling better.  And when I'm under stress, or have experienced a stressful situation like our accident, it becomes even more important for me to keep up a strict healthful diet.

I really try to eat mostly fruits and veggies throughout the day supplementing those with protein, and I've become a little addicted to Whole Foods spreadable cheeses...like the Pepper Jack Cream Cheese pictured above.  I've actually been out of it for a few weeks and I have to say that withdrawal has not been easy!

The other thing I am totally in love with are these Glutino Gluten Free Bagel Chips...both the original and the Parmesan flavor...YUM!  When gluten free tastes this good, you kind of forget that it can be a royal pain to stick to a gluten free diet.

The only problem is that our local stores don't stock either of these, and I've yet to find a good spreadable goat or cream cheese that can match the stuff they sell as their store brand at Whole Foods.

This was my lunch a few weeks ago, and let me just say that it was delish!  Usually I would have less fruit and more veggies, but our local grocery stores are severely lacking in good organic produce, and because Mr. Tide was on a trip, I hadn't made the 2 hour trek to our closest Whole Foods for awhile.  In fact, we are long overdue for a visit, but that will likely have to wait until sometime next week.

So curse you Whole Foods and your delicious spreadable cheese...and curse you local grocers for not getting more organic fruits and veggies so that I wouldn't have to drive to the ends of the earth to find some!  Oh and curse you people who have a Whole Foods or Trader Joe's right down the street and take it for granted...envy, thy name is Kat!

On a totally different topic, but still pertaining to addictions...let's chat about roses shall we?!

When we moved into this house 5 years ago we had the ubiquitous knock-out rose bushes, one pink tea rose, and another yellow hybrid tea...I really have no clue if they are hybrids or teas, but it makes me sound more educated so I'll go with it.  In total, we had 9 rose bushes...4 of which were knock outs and 2 were some sort of spray type bushes...and yes there will be a test at the end so keep track.

Thanks to the world of blogging, I met Connie of Hartwood Roses.  Connie is what I like to refer to as a rose "dealer."  You know the type, they talk about roses with a passion in their voice, invite you to their property which looks like a rose garden from an old English estate...well because it is an old estate and she has lots of rose gardens, and they slyly lure you in!

Then they put their crafty, mesmerizing spell on you and BAM you suddenly think to yourself..."hey, I could do this, I could grow roses with names I'll never remember, and care about each individual plant as though it's an adopted child!"

And so here I am, just a year and half later, with 25 rose bushes...yup 25...and counting!  A few of them are knock outs, but most are old fashioned roses that I've purchased from Connie or been gifted by friends and family.  I also have some David Austin roses, like the white one above, but please don't ask me their names.  

Unlike the gardens of true rose enthusiasts, my roses are not neatly tagged, beautifully trimmed, or probably even in the right soil or getting the perfect amount of sunlight.  But they do bring me joy and happiness, and I do care for them in my own way.  Heck, I'm even thinking about buying a wide brimmed straw hat so that I at least give the appearance of knowing what I'm doing!

Connie has taken a break from selling roses in order to tend to the many beautiful plants in her own gardens.  What she may or may not realize is that she did way more than sell roses to unsuspecting people like me...she actually created little rose loving addicts in the process.  And as I wander my yard cutting fragrant blossoms to place here and there throughout my house, I know it was never about the "knowing" part of growing roses she was trying to instill in others...it was always about the "loving" part and finding my inner rose addict...for that I will always be thankful to her!

What are you addicted to lately...do tell!

And for those of you in Isaac's path...STAY SAFE!

Did You See Me?!

First of all, thanks everyone for your wonderful feedback on my last post where the talented Kelley of The Polished Pebble guest posted and rocked the  house!  I knew you all would love her style as much as I do.  Thanks again Kelley!!!


And before I forget, to the reader who said she couldn't get the subscribe thing to work on my blog, thank you for letting me know!!!  I will look into it and try and get that fixed ASAP.  And to the nice person who liked my kitchen, thank you so much!  Your email isn't enabled, so I couldn't reply directly back to you or the reader who was having trouble subscribing...:(

The photos in this post are what you would call random.  They are random because in a way they signify my day yesterday and today, kind of crazy and a little disjointed.

And that's how my brain has been too, a little wacky and all over the place.  But hey, you get what you get when you pop by this here blog, some days it's awesome vintage bathroom beauty, and other days it's a votive holder and some bird photos.  I like to keep you all guessing, or at least that's what I tell myself as I cobble together posts every now and then. ;-)

The reason I wanted to show you this votive holder, which was a lovely gift from my mother in law a few years ago, is because I think it would be such a cool project for all of you super crafty bloggers out there.  Notice I did not say "us" but instead said "you."   As you read further through this random post you will see why I don't have time to be crafty.  I have time for another c word...namely to be CRAZY, just not crafty.  Those years ended when my children entered middle school and I realized I had been forcing that craft gene for far too long.

Anyway, back to this pretty votive holder.  It's actually bigger than it looks in these photos, but you could use any size you like, just keep in mind the size of the tissue paper you will be using on it.  What the crafty person who made this did was to take a glass bowl and then to decoupage pretty tissue paper inside the bowl.  Simple right, yet so so pretty when it is all aglow, like tonight!

Now you crafty people probably know what to use to make this work.  I'm assuming you select something to adhere the paper to the glass that is non flammable, I think that would be a wise idea.  So if anyone has an idea of what to use, or has done something similar, be sure to comment away and let us know so that the crafty readers of this blog can get crackin' and make one of these pretty votive holders for themselves.  One which won't catch their houses on fire please!!

Today I wandered out to take more photos of the bluebirds.  I truly think I need a 12 step program for my bird photography these days!  And I want to give a HUGE thank you to Laura from 52 Flea for helping me out with some beautiful new textures!  She provided me with this very cool ephemera!

Ok, now on to a brief run down of my day yesterday.  I got up, did the usual work stuff, and then headed out to visit my friend Ms. M and take her some chocolate chip cookies I had made for her.  After a nice visit, I headed out to run some errands, including hitting up the bank.

I had some cash from the sale of my dining room table that I needed to deposit, so I pulled up to the drive-through window at the bank and put the nice crisp bills and a check into the little drawer.  The paperweight they had in the drawer was way far back, and in my big honkin' SUV it was hard to reach.  So as I was reaching for the paperweight to hold down the bills and the check, a big gust of wind came up and started blowing the money out of the drawer and all over the world.

Now let's just say that a few choice words flew out of my mouth as I screamed at the poor young guy working to shut the #*$% drawer before it all blew away.  At this point, I tried to get out of my big ole vehicle, but you know what?!  You can't get out because your door won't open!  So I may, or may not have gunned it and gotten up to a point where I could exit my vehicle and I began running like a mad woman chasing down my money which was truly blowin' in the wind!

You could cue a version of the song Blowin' in the Wind right now if you like, but it was more like that Charlie Chaplin scene where he is blown all over the place.  I mean it people, I was running, all the way to neighboring parking lots, major roads, you name it as those nice crisp bills were gleefully floating away.  We're talking $20s and one $50, not chump change, so I was determined!  It was like I was on one of those game shows where they put you in the booth and turn on the wind machine and you grab as much as you can, only I was lacking one key feature...the booth!

I'm sure the rest of the folks at the drive through, and anyone else in a large radius was wishing that they had a really good video feature on their cell phone so that they could post it all on You Tube!  Finally, out of breath, frustrated beyond measure, and mad at myself for not using the drive-through window the dang tube things that I hate, I ventured inside.  I'm sure I looked great, kind of a like a crazed wild woman.

A nice young man working as a teller asked if he could help me...poor dear soul, he didn't have a clue.  So I began to tell him how I had been at the drive-through, that my money had flown the coup, and that I was REALLY hoping the rest of it and the check were still in that drawer!

He went to talk to the guy in the booth, and quickly came back to say that he could see more money flying around outside and he would go try and get it.  In the meantime another teller, a woman about my age was NOT very helpful and acted like it was my fault that it was windy outside and that their window was inadequate to handle such tasks.  She pointed out that that's why they have a paperweight in the drawer...really?!!!!  

Before I could put the smack down on her, oh yeah, I was close, the nice young man came back in with a crisp $20 bill and we sat down and counted up what was left in the drawer and what I had collected and all was accounted for, thank goodness!  I had chased down $190 in fast flying cash and he had found the last rogue $20 bill!

At the point when we discovered that all of the money had been recovered, we then realized that my driver's license was missing...sigh!  We found it outside too!

Ahh, all's well that ends well right?  But I think it will be awhile before I go back to the bank again.  My family reminded me that maybe my grandparents weren't so happy about me selling that furniture after all...yikes!  Or more likely they just wanted to have a little fun with me!

So there you have it, a typical day for me, and the reason I don't have time to do crafts!!!

Have you done anything that could land you on You Tube?!

Dreaming of French Flowers

It is cold and damp here today, and it even snowed earlier.  Hard to believe when just 2 days ago it was in the high 60s here!

Tonight at dinner, my son and I talked about where he wants to go for his special trip this spring.

When our daughter was the same age, we sent her to London and Paris with a friend.  It was to be the first of many trips abroad on her own.  She loves to travel, and if her finances would allow it, I think she could be happy living the life of a Nomad.

We consider ourselves very, very fortunate to have been able to expose our children to different cultures through travel.  And the college our son attends actually requires a study abroad experience in order to graduate.

But before he goes abroad for an entire semester, we want to give him the same opportunity to travel for a week or so to some place he finds appealing.  Right now, he and his friend are having trouble deciding just where they want to go.

Of course if it were up to his dear mother, well I would have to say France...maybe Normandy.  I've never been to that part of France, but both the beauty and the historical significance of that region has always appealed to me.

For now I will have to settle for looking at these beautiful flowers and day dreaming about my time spent in France last fall.  I think if I ever win the lottery, I will become a world traveler.  I would love that way more than a big fancy house and an expensive luxury car!

If you won the lottery, what would you spend it on?  Would you travel, or would you stay right where you are and build your dream home?

Beauty in the Breakdown

I'm so glad you all enjoyed hearing about my new camera bag in the last post.  I'm in no way affiliated with Kelly Moore but wanted to give a shout out to a great company.  I hope that those of you who said you might be looking for a good camera bag will have the opportunity to own one, I know you will love yours as much as I love mine!

This week is one of those crazy weeks where you have a list of emails, phone calls, and appointments that stare you down each morning when you wake up.  I am slowly addressing each of those, but there never seem to be enough hours in the day.

When I feel buried by "real" life stuff, I sometimes do the complete opposite of what I should be doing, and veer off into projects that could wait...like playing around with photography.  I blame people like Kate for this, since she always posts such gorgeous pictures, both her own and those of others, on her blog.  In a recent post she included some amazing images from flickr and one of those was a still life that was breathtaking.

I've been enamored with still life photography for a long time, really since the first time I stumbled upon an example of it in a cookbook of all places.  I've longed to recreate what Dutch Masters of old captured in their paintings, the subtle use of light and shadow, vivid colors, and an almost 3-D quality that draws the viewer in.

The people who are really good at this type of photography make it look amazingly easy, but it is not.  It takes more than a simple knowledge of photography, there are also things like lighting, angles, and most importantly...composition to consider.  The end result should draw the eye to one primary part of the image, similar to having a star of a show, and the other pieces are simply supporting characters meant to create a sense of place and scene.

Texture and background are also important, and I've used a variety of textures, mostly by Florabella and Kim Klassen.  If you haven't signed up for Kim's very generous and always lovely free textures, you really should.  

I think that to really become a master at creating images that resemble artistic master paintings, it wouldn't hurt to have a background in art, which I am sorely lacking.  I feel like artists have an innate sense of composition, color, and lighting, which are all things I have to study and think about.  The other key ingredient is to have the proper lighting equipment.  I've been fortunate to find used lighting equipment (a soft box is a must when you are starting out with still life photography) through friends and contacts who were getting out of the business.  Lighting is crucial in creating the look you want in the finished image.

The process of breaking down an image has become a key element and driving force behind taking my photography to the next step.  If you surf the web enough and stare at enough photos you begin to see the way certain images come into being.  From there you can create your images using your own sense of style.

Although there were other things I should have been doing, this wasn't really a waste of time, I will be adding them to my portfolio on my website, so it was kind of like doing work! ;-)

And speaking of beauty in the breakdown, the wonderfully wise A-M posted an article about decluttering (you can read it here) on the very day I had done some decluttering of my own.  Having 7 bins, yes I said 7, of fall, Halloween, and Thanksgiving decor was feeling like a wee bit too much...well that and the fact that Mr. Tide snidely said, "so...fall is your favorite time of year?...because you have more bins for it than you have for Christmas!"...so I knew it was time.

I've always been someone who goes through my things regularly and gets rid of them.  Moving 6 times in 7 years when we were first married makes you appreciate the notion of packing light.  But even though this house is much smaller than our last, and we did get rid of a ton of stuff when we moved, I've been a bit neglectful about taking stock and getting rid of things as frequently as I once did.  Throw in the fact that my parents both passed away and so I inherited a lifetime's worth of their stuff to boot, and well, things had gotten little out of hand when it came to my holiday decor hoarding.

So I sat there in my living room, surrounded by tubs full of stuff, some of which we had had since we first got married, and some of which my parents used to decorate their own home, and it hit me like a ton of bricks.  Right then and there I broke down...something I almost never do!  Mr. Tide came to see what was wrong, and I blubbered and sputtered about how it was just hard, getting rid of things that held memories from a simpler time.  He of course told me not to get rid of the stuff if it made me sad.  I explained that I was ready, it's a complicated emotion, but that it was just hard letting go.

By the time I got my shower and we loaded up the huge bin (I emptied 3 bins total) to take to the donation place I was fine...I felt lighter really, like a weight had been lifted off of my shoulders.  So when I read the article linked above I knew I had made the right decision, I was ready to get rid of something old to welcome something new into my life...a little breathing room perhaps!  So there really is Beauty in the Breakdown, and sometimes it's best to Let Go!

If you would like to learn more about creating Still Life Photos, click HERE

Chatty Cathy

When I was a little girl my parents bought me a Chatty Cathy doll.  I loved that doll and spent hours pulling the string that made her recite a handful of sayings.  Even though my name was spelled differently, and my parents often called me Katherine not Kathy or Kat, or Kath like my other family and friends, I just knew that that doll was made especially for me.

In case you haven't noticed, I talk a lot...no, I mean it, I talk a WHOLE lot!  Mr. Tide once told me that he thought I could talk to anyone...or anything for that matter, and he is right!

Today, Connie from Hartwood Roses met me in the town of La Plata, Maryland.  It's kind of halfway in between where she lives and where I live, with Connie having a little bit longer drive to get there.  We decided last week that we could both use a girls afternoon out and that as exhausted as she was from her daughter's wedding a few weekends ago, and as crazy as both of our schedules are that we needed a break from real life to chat it up.

The thing is, I tend to do a lot of the chatting, and Connie, the saint that she is, does a lot of nodding and squeezes in a word edgewise every now and then.  She knows that when I'm under lots of stress, like I am right now with trying to sell my parent's house, on deadline for stories, and the fact that my mother in law had hip replacement surgery (that thankfully went off without a hitch), that I will be even more frazzled and even more chatty than usual, but that never seems to bother her...hence the "saint" designation on her part!

After lunch at Panera, we headed to Waldorf Pottery, which is located just north of La Plata in an area known as White Plains, Maryland.

I hadn't been here for awhile, years in fact, and once we got out of the car I wondered why the heck it had taken me so long to come back.

They had gorgeous plants, not the droopy, sickly looking plants you sometimes find at a nursery, but the kind you want to fill up the back of your truck with and hurry home to plant them.

And it's not just the plants that are wonderful, but the vast array of statuary and garden ornaments that they carry.  Around every turn there was something new and interesting to help you create any sort of garden you might want, from a zen garden to a more traditional formal garden.

Connie and I both agreed that we aren't really water feature people, but she and I were both enamored by several of the pretty options they had available.   They had one fountain in particular that I didn't get a shot of that was so unusual and calming, we both loved it!  I also liked this little frog that was hanging out in a small pond underneath a huge white crepe myrtle tree where he could stand watch over the water lilies.

And speaking of water lilies, I nearly lost my footing while taking this photo but thankfully I didn't or I would have fallen face first ie. camera first into the pond.  This was the point in the visit that Connie reminded me why I should have purchased the extended warranty on my camera!  She speaks from experience since she stepped on her last camera...yikes!

I loved how organized all of the plants were, and the variety they had was really amazing. 

I fell in love with this fern, known as a foxtail fern.  Isn't it so unusual looking?!  It was like a fuzzy aloe plant or like Connie said "an asparagus fern from Mars."  At least I think that's what she said because I was probably still talking at the time...

Here's a little more info on the foxtail fern.

I wish I had a nice wall to display some outdoor art on, like this happy go lucky sun!

And if you need a pot, well never fear, Waldorf Pottery has plenty.  Green ones...

Red and orange ones that reminded me of roasted chili peppers...

Bold blue ones...

And earthy glazed ones that ranged from golden brown to turquoise.

At one point we rounded a corner and found this!  A hardy Hibiscus that had blooms the size of dinner plates!  The bloom pictured above was about 10 inches in diameter!  Connie had just mentioned how I should get some "swamp" hibiscus to plant down near the water at my house, something she said that loves to have its feet wet.  It was then that we saw these beauties that do love having their feet wet and will come back year after year, even in my zone!

When I showed Mr. Tide the picture he asked why I didn't buy some.  I told him I would go back to get a few but didn't purchase any today because it would have had to sit in the car and bake while Connie and I hit a few other stores.

It was a scorcher today and while I looked like a drowned rat with hair like the wicked witch of the west...Connie looked like she had been sitting under a large shade tree all day sipping mint juleps!  I don't know how that girl does it, but she never looks tired, or sweaty!

We lingered in the shaded container section of the pottery for a bit to escape the heat.

They also had some lovely ironwork throughout the pottery and I found a trellis that I loved, but Connie assured me that it wouldn't work for my beautiful New Dawn rose that I bought from her last fall, so I will wait and look for a larger one that will give my rose plenty of room to stretch and grow!

After browsing around outside, we moved inside where it was nice and cool to look at the gift area of the pottery.  Connie found a few things to take home, and I'm sure she will show everyone those items in an upcoming post. 


 

Just as there were lots of things outside I wanted to bring home, the same was true for the inside shop.  I love the metal dragonfly bench you see at the top of the photo.

My mother in law collects stones, and these, which featured phrases and words on them, would be so pretty by themselves or in a grouping.  I love the one that said "Marry Me," wouldn't that be a wonderful way to propose?  To go hand and hand down the beach skipping stones together and then to have your fiance pull a stone with Marry Me on it from their pocket to pop the question...so romantic!

There were lots of pops of aqua and blue throughout the store, and you all know how I love aqua and beach inspired colors!

And see that birdcage in the top right of the picture?  It was huge, but in my head I was planning an entire conservatory around it!

Also in my imaginary conservatory would be a set of these chairs and a marble topped potting table.

And I forget the name of this plant, but the conservatory would be filled with beautiful and unusual flowers all year round.  And I would invite Connie (who I referred to as an Heirloom Rose Farmer today) to come to my house and have a cup of tea and I could talk, and talk, and talk!

If you are ever near White Plains, Maryland, I strongly suggest that you stop by Waldorf Pottery, but just be forewarned, you will want one of almost everything!

And if you want some beautiful heirloom or historic roses from a certain awesome rose "farmer" who will let you blather on for hours, then go here!  Thanks Connie for a wonderful afternoon!

Celebrations and a Winner

Yesterday we celebrated not only Memorial Day, but also Mr. Tide's birthday!

His favorite cake is chocolate with chocolate frosting, all served with a heaping helping of mint chocolate chip ice cream.

When he was younger, he always thought that the reason people got the day off, or kids didn't have to go to school was because of his birthday, not because it was Memorial Day.  Wouldn't that be nice, to have your birthday be a special holiday for everyone?!

He had a nice day, filled with pampering and presents, and organic homemade chocolate cake with fudgy frosting.  It was a nice end to a very busy, work filled weekend where we planted 11 rose bushes and did lots of other yard work.

And speaking of roses...the winner of my latest giveaway is lucky #5...the wonderful Sherri from Sherri's Jubilee!  Congratulations Sherri, I know you will find just the right place to plant your new rose!  Just send me an email with your mailing address, and a wonderful Hartwood Rose, plus the other goodies, will be on their way to you right away!