Changing Seasons

The past few days have felt more like spring than fall, with temps in the high 60s and low 70s.  I have been running around in t-shirts and jeans, but with booties just to remind me that it is in fact autumn.  Today, mother nature gave me a gentle reminder that as much as I would like it to be springtime, it is in fact just a few weeks from Thanksgiving, and colder weather is on its way.

I can't believe we are in the middle of November, and as the falling leaves so vividly remind me, I can't do anything to turn back the clock, or hang each leaf back upon their branches.

I am a huge tea drinker, with my current flavor obsession being green ginger, and on days like this I grab a mug not long after I roll out of bed.  I have never been a coffee drinker, except when I was very little and my grandmother would fix me a cup which consisted mostly of milk and a healthy helping of sugar I am sure!

Even though the weather has been playing tricks on me, I did break out all of my turkey day regalia last week.  And though I don't like decorating for Christmas until after Thanksgiving has come and gone, I am strangely excited to put out Christmas, but I will fight that feeling until Tom Turkey above has had his day in the sun. :)

I am working on a story at the moment, it's a lovely home located in California.  I will keep you posted on when it will be out, and in which mag, I know you will love it!

Whenever I am working, I always have company of the 4 legged sort.  Whether I am working, processing pictures, or just surfing the web, I almost always have a furry foot warmer.  Quinn and Misty take turns at laying under my desk, and as you can see from the picture above, Quinn leaves me very little space for my tootsies.  Misty is more generous with leg room, but Quinn seems to think this is his spot and I should work around him!

Our border collie Kylee used to have this spot all to herself, no one dared take her place at my feet, but Quinn and Misty have managed to work it out so that both of them get a turn.

Even if it's not her turn under the desk, Misty Belle manages to settle in not too far away from her mama.  I love these two, even if they bark too much sometimes!  

I used a grunge overlay on the pictures in this post, I love how it creates contrast, adds grungy texture, and really makes things pop.

Along with tea, I listen to lots of music while I am working, so since I haven't shared any music with you lately, I've linked one of my favorite songs below.  It is sort of melancholy, but reminds us that we really can't slow down the days, the seasons, or the years as they fly by, but we can learn to love every moment as it is happening.

I hope you have lots of wonderful moments to cherish each day!

                  

Ringing in a New Year

In order to make it to midnight and the celebrated dropping of the ball in Times Square tonight, I plan to fortify myself with this...a bit of Paris I brought back with me.

It won't be the same as taking tea in one of Laduree's beautiful tea rooms...I splurged and went several times while I was there, each time to a different location.

There is something magical about tea rooms, the tea always tastes better there, and they are ideal locations for people watching, so I never mind drinking a few cups alone.

At the Bonaparte location, I spent a lovely hour sipping from my pastel china, nibbling macarons, and eavesdropping on french conversations that I could only catch every 3rd word of...but it was still wonderful.

And even though I'd picked up a sizeable amount of tea to bring home already, when Mr. Tide and I popped into the Rue Royale shop on a very rainy evening to warm up and grab a bit of dessert (before dinner), I added to my reserves just before they locked up for the evening.  For a true tea lover, you can never have too much tea!

Mr. Tide does not drink tea, so my tea obsession is a bit of mystery to him...though he gladly gulps down chocolat chaud with something decadent and chocolatey whenever we go to a tea room, so he never minds too much!

We have long since given up the desire to attend fancy parties, dress in all of our New Year's finery on New Year's Eve, and we now opt for something much more low key.  So I will be one of the boring ones this evening.  Armed with yummy tea, warm pjs, and a few friends from around the world via our computers.  Mr. Tide and I will share a kiss, and we will wish all of our online friends a very Happy New Year...some on London time, some on Oslo time, some on East Coast time, and places all the way out to British Columbia.  So the night will be filled with many New Year's wishes throughout the evening.

Our kids may or may not be here tonight, we will share dinner early, but we will phone them if they aren't here the second that the ball drops to shout Happy New Year!  And then tomorrow we will begin our adventure into 2013.

How do you ring in the new year...I would love to hear your plans!  

Happy New Year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A Little Beauty

In life sometimes we just need a little beauty.

Something to remind us that life is sweet...

Even in times when life seems unfair.

When things happen that we just can't understand.

Like a friend who has cancer, or a life taken too soon.

As I picked the tiny viola flowers for a completely different sort of post today I was struck by how frost bitten their delicate petals were.

But how despite their blemishes they were still so very beautiful.  Reminding us that life is imperfect, and that even with the bumps and bruises we gather along the way, there is beauty deep down.

As I have been having some of the best weeks of my life career wise, some of my blog friends have been having some very hard days.  So this post is dedicated to them...especially Jenni.

To those of you who are struggling, I wish you strength, love, support, and comfort.  And I hope that even in the darkness you will find the beauty.

Goodnight Irene

As Hurricane Irene whirls her way up the eastern seaboard of the US I've been busy gathering the necessary supplies to help us weather the storm.

A good book is a must, since TV and internet may be scarce for a few days.  I've been down this road before, and though we have a whole house generator for just such an occasion, invariably trees come down and service is disrupted.

Perfume is nice to have on hand, just in case you can't shower for a day or two.  My Lollia "Calm" should do the trick.

And you really need cake, we all know that cake makes everything better!

Along with a good book, it's important to have a few magazines on hand.

Ok, maybe more than just a few!

Bringing in all of the garden veggies is important too, so I've harvested the ripe tomatoes and peppers and I might whip up a yummy sauce or salsa.

And of course we need tea, lots of tea!  You may have noted that no alcohol is included in this "must have" hurricane ready list.  I'm not irresponsible my friends, you have to keep your wits about you in a storm!  I will bet donuts to dollars that someone on my street will host an impromptu hurricane party though! ;-)

If we don't lose internet due to Irene, I will also be taking the next few days to reply to the many wonderful emails I've received in the last few days...thank you to each and every one of you, many of whom brought tears to my eyes and a smile to my heart!

To everyone in Irene's path, let's hope she bids us goodnight and veers off to sea.  But if she insists on stopping by, I hope each of you will be safe and sound!

My Cup Runneth Over

Sometimes when I think I should just quit blogging and move on to other things, I do a post and you all remind me of all the reasons why I'm still here.

You leave comments or email me about something I have written, and I know that on some level we have connected...if only for a moment.

It's those connections that make us human, which help us to grow, and what makes each of us special and able to bring something unique to this world, thereby making it a better place.

There is so much beauty in the world, found in people, places, and even things.

Yet sometimes that beauty is diminished, lost behind the pain and ugliness that exists in our world.

The good in the world is never buried very deep though, and sometimes all we have to do is to open our eyes, and our hearts, in order to bring it back to the surface.

Prejudice is the veil that some of us wear in order to color our own perceptions of what is beautiful.  And I've always thought that it's much easier to judge others than to look deep inside ourselves to find out what is truly making us dislike what we see around us and in others.

My hope is, and always has been, that my children, and their children, will one day live in a world where people learn to judge someone for who they truly are.  And the only way we can do that is to get to know the other person.   To reach out a hand to your fellow man, even if they aren't the same size as you, practice the same religion you do, love the same gender you do, or live in the same type of house you do.

I also hope that if I have ever just lost everything I own, including those I love, to a tornado, an earthquake, a flood, a hurricane, or any other natural disaster, that no one will judge me based on how I look.  I hope that my first thought when I see people suffering is not what they look like, but what I can do to help them in their time of need.  Because if someone can focus on a person's appearance above all else, and not on how they can help them, then I think that says way more about the person doing the judging then it ever could about those being judged.  

In the blog world we like to share what is pretty and perfect, but like some of you who have been so sweet to email me have said...sometimes it's nice to go a little deeper, and that's what I tried to do in my last 2 posts.

Now it's time to move on, but before this topic is laid to rest, I have to thank each of you for sharing a little bit of yourselves with me each and every day.  Through you I learn so much, and in the end that makes me a better person...someone whose cup runneth over, and someone who sees the world as a place where the glass is half full and not half empty. 

Perfect

Anyone who knows me, knows that I am not a morning person.  I tend to go to bed late and wake up after the sun is up and brightly shining.

So when I asked Mr. Tide to wake me this morning as he got ready for work (when he goes into the city he has to get up at an ungodly hour) so that I could watch the royal wedding, even he was skeptical that I would actually get up.

I have to admit that after going to bed at 1:00 am, I was a bit skeptical myself, but when he did wake me this morning I was bright eyed and bushy tailed and ready to tune in to watch history in the making.

I haven't followed along all these months with the hype and speculation about this wedding, but I think as a mother there was a part of me that wanted to be there for Prince William on such an important day when his own mother would be absent, at least physically.

And as I sipped tea I purchased in London from my very English Wedgwood china I was filled with emotion, something that caught me completely by surprise.  If I was asked to pick just one word to sum up what I thought of the wedding, it would be "perfect."  From the dress to the pomp and circumstance it was all very magical to watch.

Although we all know that life is never perfect, I hope for Kate and William what I hope for every bride and groom...that their life will be as close to perfect as it can be, and that they will know the kind of love that Mr. Tide and I have shared for almost 25 years!

Today, I think all of us were a wee bit British!

I Give Up

Thanks everyone for all of your wonderful well wishes for our son Bugs.  He was at the ophthalmologist's office bright and early this morning and they said that although he has a ways to go, his eye is healing!  So thank you for sending so many wonderful emails and good vibes his way!

You may have noticed that you haven't received a reply to your comments or emails and that would be because my desktop has once again gone to a place where no one can communicate with it!  A bad, bad land where computers rarely come back from without some intensive care or a transplant of some sort!

Now I know a lot of you just LOVE your laptops (Connie dear) and swear by them.  Well I don't, and I usually swear at mine, not by it!  So I'm going to be taking a little hiatus while Mr. Tide wrangles with the video card company and tries to sort all of this out.

I'm taking it as a sign to get some things done around here that need doing, and I might even make my bed every day, but don't hold your breath on that one.

In an effort to make myself feel better, I've bought enough flowers to fill this house and make it feel like springtime, even if it's been a little on the nippy side outdoors.  And after having lunch with a friend yesterday, I came home with yet another beautiful flower, she gave me a pot of tulips in the prettiest shade of tangerine.

Buying flowers has to be cheaper than therapy for blog withdrawal right?!  And I'll sit around sipping tea and wander around this place prettying things up a bit.

And I might also learn to slow down just a little so that I don't keep putting the wrong words into my posts...thank you Bird for catching my mistake.  I have to tell you that Mr. Tide and I both looked at the word pension and thought, why doesn't that look right?!  I've corrected it to penchant and I appreciate you letting me know.  I may be a writer but when our fingers are flying and we're tired, we writers love the fact that we have wonderful editors to double check us...Mr. Tide is now officially relieved of his editing duties since he's missed maniac and pension in my last 2 posts!!!  Somehow I think he's ok with being fired!

So for now, I will leave you with this pretty little gerbera daisy, because I give up!  Maybe I'll learn to like this dang laptop, but I'm an old dog friends and I have to say that I'm not loving learning these new tricks! ;-)

And thank you to everyone who has already entered my current Giveaway.  If you haven't yet, you can stop by HERE to enter.

Spread the Love...

Talking Trash

Le Domaine des Bruyeres

Lakehouse

My New Favorite Thing and a Winner

It's no secret that I love to entertain, it's something I inherited from my mother.  She had enough dishes to open a store, and even more napkins!  She loved to gather her friends and family around, prepare a good meal, and dress a table to the nines!

With lots of renovating going on at our house over the last few years, we haven't done much entertaining , but that is starting to change.  If I would ever get my backsplash installed maybe I wouldn't worry so much about having people over!

Actually I have kind of gotten over that, and we even hosted a neighborhood Christmas party here last year.  I do want to get the darn backsplash installed at some point though!

If you love to entertain, then you'll understand the need...ok want...for lovely dishes, glassware, and wonderful serving pieces.  I have been longing for a beverage dispenser ever since I saw them at my publisher's home a few years ago.  She had them set up with various types of wonderfully colorful drinks and fruit in them, and I just fell in love with the look and the practicality of it all!

Not only is she my publisher, but she is also a dear friend, so when I emailed her recently asking where she had purchased hers, I got a message back a few days later saying that she was standing in BJ's Wholesale Club and that they had some beautiful glass ones for only $25!!!

And as much as I love to entertain, I love a bargain even more!!  So I hurried on over the following day to pick one up!

Today I decided to have a little tea party and try out my pretty new drink dispenser!  Of course you can't have a tea party without a few cookies!

Or lovely plates!  I have a set of these, each with a different flower.  They were a wedding gift from a dear friend's parents, and came from the ever stylish Gumps department store in San Francisco, California.

Any tea party worth its salt should have some lovely flowers, and a few sweets in pastel colors!

And if you have your fine china all packed away and never use it, go get it out of hiding right this minute!  What's the point of owning it if you never get to enjoy using it?!

That goes for your crystal stemware as well...what are you waiting for?!  Holidays aren't the only time to enjoy all of the wonderful things you own.  These glasses were inherited from my maternal grandparents.

This lovely little scarf came from a small shop in the south of France and is the perfect table scarf for an afternoon tea party!

Don't forget to have a some fun with your accessories when you have guests over.  This pudgy metal bee is guarding the napkins just in case a sudden breeze decides to blow through!

So there you have it, my new favorite thing, a lovely glass beverage dispenser for a song, and an afternoon tea as a special treat!  What have you treated yourself to lately?

I'd like to give a special thanks to everyone who entered to win Trish's beautiful artwork!  And now for the winner of that gorgeous Zinnia painting from The Old Post Road!  (Thank you Trish!)

It's Stacy from the wonderful blog Red Door Home!  Congratulations Stacy!!

Don't forget to check out my latest Giveaway by clicking HERE!