Dirty Little Secrets

It's not really a secret per se, but I have a few addictions that I feel I need to acknowledge for the sake of full disclosure.

I am woefully addicted to shoes...no really, I need a 12 step (pun intended) program.  My latest loves are strappy high heeled sandals.  So far I've acquired 2 pairs of brown, 2 pairs of black, though technically one of those is a wedge heel, so it doesn't really count right?!  And I'm still on the hunt for a pair of white and maybe some coral colored ones...I think I need an intervention soon!

I thought I had beaten my addiction to footwear, only to realize that it would likely be replaced by a handbag addiction, so for now I will stick with shoes because I find them on the cheap, and I've not been so lucky with finding dirt cheap handbags!

My other not so secret addiction is to flowers.  According to Mr. Tide, who has been doing a lot of genealogy on my side of the family, I'm descended from some fairly notable royals, so I blame them for this particular affliction...and now that I think about it, maybe for the penchant for shoes as well?!

The other day I was having a Marie Antoinette moment as I looked around and noticed that I had 5 separate vases of flowers all around me, and I was in scent heaven!

If someone were to peek through my windows, they would see me sniffing the wind like a bloodhound, soaking in every single bit of their delightful fragrance!  The peonies have been especially fragrant this year, and one small bouquet made almost my entire house smell like a French Palace...minus the negative 18th Century smells! :)

And I have been known to walk visitors around my yard (sorry family and friends) to make them smell each variety of rose in our garden, while giving them a running commentary of what "I" think each one smells like.  It usually goes something like this..."oh, see that one, it smells like Pez candy!"  Thankfully, no one seems to mind too much...it's not as though I'm saying, "hey, wanna smell something weird?!"

So that's the deal...my deepest, fashionably darkest, and smelliest secrets revealed!  I could probably go to therapy or try and break my addictions on my own, but why on earth would I want to do that?!

I'm off to bed, where it just so happens I can open my windows and have the smell of my New Dawn climbing rose waft into the room since it is growing up the wall by the window on my side of the bed.  

I think my ancestors would be proud...happy that I can still appreciate the finer things in life, all these generations later!

In Search of Beauty

I will be honest, I haven't watched the news about the devastating tornadoes, I have read the headlines online, but not delved any deeper.   It's not that I'm uncaring, or unsympathetic, it's just that I can't handle all of the sadness, loss, and deep, deep pain that those people must be feeling.

Once upon a time, when a tragedy like this would strike, I would read every story, watch every gut wrenching video, and hope that by doing so, in some small way I could take away some of that pain.

I have always jumped into action, making donations, helping in any way I could to mend the wounds that so often happen along the road of life, but today I do it from a point of not knowing all of the particulars, and that seems to work best for me.

Instead, now I tend to search for beauty during times of darkness.  Sadness spurs me on to want to capture and create loveliness and calm amidst the unthinkable.

Last night I had dinner with a very dear friend, and we laughed and chatted until 1/2 hour past the closing time of the restaurant.  They were so sweet and didn't even tell us that they were closed, but the mop buckets and empty room brought us out of our bubble and told us it was time to go home.

We were blissfully unaware, because neither of us had heard the news, that across the country others were experiencing something totally different, something horrific.

Today, I went out into my yard and gathered up a huge bouquet of roses and peonies, arranged them into one of my favorite vases, washed some strawberries, broke out a china tea cup and some tea.  I needed something pretty to counteract all of the ugliness that touches us each day.

Like the fact that a friend lost her beloved dog last week, or that today is a memorial service for another friend's husband.  And the fact that so many are now without homes, clothing, or their greatest possessions of all...their loved ones...not just in Oklahoma, but all over the world.

So instead of focusing on the loss, the sadness, the emotions that I can't fix, can't change, can't take away, I will instead focus my energies on creating beauty and donating money and supplies to Oklahoma so that they can begin to pick up the pieces and move forward.

A friend of mine from HS posted this on his FB page, so I will pass this along to anyone who wants to help with the relief effort.

Click here for a list of ways you can donate to help the victims in Oklahoma.

Pretty in Pink

Here's to...

a picture perfect weekend!

A Peony For Your Thoughts

Although the scent of roses is filling the air at my house right now because we planted 4 new David Austin roses this spring, it's the Peonies that have center stage in my front flower bed at the moment.

The first Peonies to bloom this year were some that I had transplanted from my childhood home before we sold it last year.  I really didn't expect them to bloom as we moved them in December and Peonies are sometimes fickle about blooming the first year you transplant them.  But I was pleasantly surprised to find they had blooms on them, even if there were only a few.

We have a large number of Peonies that were planted by the previous owners, and although they don't smell as heavenly as the older variety I transplanted, I still anticipate their lovely blooms each spring.

The first batch to bloom are always the creamy white ones, and they have such large blooms that you can see them from far down our private lane.  These pretty flowers welcome me home for such a brief period each year, but I love to see them gently swaying in the breeze as I pull into my driveway each time.

And I'm not the only one who is excited to see them each year it seems!  

I hope you each had a wonderful weekend, and that your week is off to a great start!

Little Pretties

Thank you to everyone who commented on my new website and my last post, the website is still evolving, but it's nice to have it mostly done for now.

And it was nice to see that I'm not the only one who makes lists and enjoys scratching off the finished tasks!  I cracked up at the comment by Marcia aka Laxsupermom who said that her camping spreadsheet is the stuff of legends...too funny!

Yesterday and today, when I woke up and came out to start work, my house smelled so good!  These beautiful peonies are to blame, and they filled my whole house with the most wonderful fragrance!  My peonies in my front flower bed have begun to open, but for whatever reason, mine just don't smell as wonderful as these.

There are some at my parent's house and at the farm we still own which are really fragrant, so I need to dig them up and move some of them to my house.  I've heard peonies are hard to transplant though and that they will often not bloom for a few years after being moved. 

Have any of you had any luck with transplanting peonies, and when did you do it...right after they were done blooming or do you have to wait until they are dormant?

I love rearranging my accessories and little pretties around the house throughout the year and for the different seasons.

I bought this sweet little bird box awhile ago at Lola Belle Co. in Leonardtown, Maryland.  I think it's perfect for springtime and looks pretty on my white bucket bench with my milk glass vase filled with lovely peonies!

Another question about peonies for you.  Have any of you found a home fragrance or candle that smells like fresh peonies?  I would love to have this scent all bottled up so that I could spritz a little whenever I feel like it!

I'm off to a photo shoot, but tomorrow I'll be showing you what Doug did for his garden club program so be sure to stop back by if you have the time.  I hope you are having a wonderful day! 

Police, Peonies, and Patience

Sometimes in life there are events that are inexplicable.  Things that defy reason, understanding, and even explanation!

I personally love those times in life.  The times when you realize how tiny you are in this big universe of ours and that sometimes you just have to stop for a moment and take your finger off the tip of the world and realize that it won't go spinning out of control, but instead, it will continue to revolve with a calming rhythm.

Yesterday was one of those days.  I was at the grocery store, minding my own business, buying the "stuff" we all buy from week to week.  My cart was full of organic veggies and fruits, and I was placing my order at the deli counter when my phone rang.

It was a friend and real estate agent who had gone out to take photos of a rental property my siblings and I own in preparation for maybe selling it.  She told me that the back door of the house was wide open!  I knew this couldn't be true, the back door would never be left open for any reason unless someone was home, which they were not!

I immediately headed over to the house, cell phone in hand ready to dial 911 and call the police.  Mentally preparing to find the broken windows, and stolen property,  I then realized that I didn't have my set of keys to the property, and I had to phone my son to meet me since I had asked the agent to lock and close the door.

I got to the house in about 10 minutes time and either stupidly or bravely walked around to the back of the house and peered into the window.  Much to my relief everything was as it should be, nothing had been disturbed, and all was right with the world.  

Except for one thing...sitting on the kitchen table was a vase, and not just any vase but a pretty cut crystal vase.  Now that may not sound that exciting to you, but this wasn't any ordinary vase.  It was an exact match of two other vases I had just recently seen at the home of my mother's dear friend who is the florist who will be doing the flowers for the wedding of my friend J's daughter in just a few weeks.  

Ok, is this story still not sounding very exciting to you?!  Well, when I had visited the florist just a few days before, we had gone through all of her containers trying to find just the right vases to use for Katy's wedding.  She has lots of containers, but none were what we were looking for to create the romantic, vintage feel that the bride was hoping for.  We did find "2" tall vases that would work, but we needed 3 tall vases and 3 shorter vases.  There were plenty of short ones, and we were so disappointed that we couldn't find just 1 more tall one to match those other 2.

Are you with me here...the vase that was on the kitchen table was an EXACT match of those vases.  And I've never seen vases like them anywhere, I had no idea that it even existed until that very moment when I saw it through the window as I peered inside to make sure that no one had broken in to the house!  My heart went from racing at the thought of a breaking and entering to the thrill of finding a matching vase!  And the other really scary or exciting part was that there were also two smaller vases on that table, and those matched the smaller vases we had planned to use!

Now, if you knew my mother, you would know that she was pretty proud of herself for leading me to that vase.  Even though she's been gone from us for years, she was making sure that Katy had the "look" she wanted for her wedding, which is so like my mother!  And when I called to tell my friend J about my find, she said, "between your mother and my father (who is also deceased)...", meaning that both of our deceased parents had a hand in this miraculous little find.

You see, J's father was a police detective, and here's another little secret about me.  I'm what you might call a woman with badge envy.  Yup, I once applied to be a police officer in my younger years but then changed my mind.  But although I don't feel the need to carry a gun and flash a badge like I did when I was younger, I do have a propensity for all things police like!  So J's father knew that a breaking and entering would get me where I needed to be, that I wouldn't wait for the real police and would head straight for that back door.  And my mother knew that by placing that vase right where I could see it, that I would find the perfect vase for Katy's wedding!  

The vase was one of the things that we had pulled down from that house's attic just a week ago, but I never remember seeing it and none of us chose to take it home with us, when we had taken so many other things.  So there it sat, waiting to be discovered.

I'm sure you're wondering where peonies fit in to this story.  Well, Katy wants peonies at her wedding and if you've checked the price of peonies, even wholesale, lately you'll find that they are very expensive!  I have lots of them waiting to bloom in my front flower bed.  So Mom, and Mr. M, if you're listening....thanks for the vase, and could you see about timing these blooms perfectly for Katy's wedding please?!  Thanks xoxo!