In My Home This Week: The Best I Can

 

Another living room that dates to the 1920's.  The room is so calm looking and so well balanced that I just had to share it.

I really like the green on the walls, the warm brick on the fireplace picked up b the brick color in the rugs.  It appears that this room is lit by windows on both sides and that the main doorway leads to the dining room perhaps or an entry hall.  I don't think it's actually a living room though I've called it such.  It might well be a sort of den or a 'morning room' or even a 'keeping room' since it does have that fireplace.   While it is beautifully lit by the windows, I see that there are candles, sconces and lamps for ambient lighting in the evening. The rugs and curtains and the upholstered furniture lend color and laers of warmth and coziness.

I Wonder As I Wander: Gathering In October

 

I said I shouldn't make a daily diary for the rest of this week and I shall not...but I am going to add in snippets here and there of thoughts, random and purposeful over the next few days if I have time and inclination to write.

I'm writing this evening because  I was gazing out the living room window thinking that this month is drawing to a fast close.   October has gone by in a blur of weariness and not quite enough sleep and too much to do while at the same time not getting very much done at all.  It's been a month in which I might have been mightily frustrated and irritable and perhaps a bit worried.  But it was not.  I was tired, yes, but I made up my mind after the debacle of the summer babysitting that I wasn't going to spend my time fretting and regretting.  I was going to do my best to embrace the season in fullness.  And I think I have...

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Please Note...

Foolish on my part, but in a moment of inattention last night, I sent out the Diary post for the week.  I could have recalled it and updated through Friday but I decided to just let it stand as published.   I'm trying to cram in a little bit extra housework and get my hands in dirt with plants and while it's all taken in bursts and odd moments, I'm finding that the little bit extra feels like a LOT extra.  

So I'm going to take the rest of the week off from the blog.  I'll see you all with a fresh post on Saturday or Sunday evening.  I know you all understand that my current life season is both highly rewarding and taxing all at the same time.  

Have a grand rest of the week...and I'll see you again in a few days!   

Diary of a Homemaker: Going Apace

 

Saturday:  Caleb stayed last night with us.  He woke at 7:21...I'd just looked at my clock and heard him cry out that's how I know when he woke.   I got him up and changed, warmed his cup of milk slightly and put him on John's lap wrapped in an afghan and took myself off to shower.  Before I'd stepped into the shower, I heard Kate come up in her car and walk across the back porch.  No she doesn't walk that heavy.  Our master bath wall is also the back porch wall.

In My Home This Week: All Routine

 

Most of the rooms I'm sharing now are from the late 1920's early 1930's.  I'm always amazed at the elaborate designs I find online from various porcelain/plumbing/tile manufacturers for bathrooms.  This bath, as you can see is quite elegant and probably unlike a thing anyone average would have had in their homes.  I say this because, having watched multiple restoration programs, period bathrooms were tiled but most usually in black and white and fixtures overall were rather plain.  

Diary of a Tired Homemaker: Long View

 

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Saturday:  We were meant to be away from home early.  I might as well have saved my breath in asking.  We left, as we almost always do, at 10:30.  I'd cited it being Saturday and crowds coming in to shop but John considered it his day off and therefore we worked on his time schedule.  Never mind. It wasn't as bad as I feared it might be but it was busier than a weekday for sure.  He went into Publix to get the cat food I wanted there and we went into Aldi together.  

Over the Fence: Mid-October

How about a morning playlist?  I've been especially enjoying the videos of music that Jake Westbrook posts.  He has the loveliest vintage ads included on the screens of each.  This particular playlist is called "Morning Coffee".   Two songs that I love are the very first one by Bing Crosby which is just cozy and heart warming as can be and a peppy one a little further on called "Java Jive".  I like that one so well that John and I both tend to sing it when we're working about the house!

Hello there dears...Yes, I do realize it's really past the mid-point of October but never mind.  I have been up each morning well before dawn and have watched the gentle awakening of each day.  I can tell the moment the natural life around us wakes to the second because the dogs suddenly go nuts barking every morning.  I am sure it's because deer and squirrel and birds begin to rustle about in the dry fallen leaves and mice start scurrying about, and rabbits, too.  The dogs stop barking shortly after the world is alight and then they simply dash repeatedly into the woods or down the yard.  The deer no longer cause them to bark like idiots.  They reserve that for strange dogs and neighbor's cats who find our grounds better hunting than their own.  The deer and squirrels just generate the mad dashes now.  It's as though, in the dogs' minds at least, they don't count as highly on the danger list as the stranger pets that come to hunt or sniff about and leave their lingering scents in place of their own.  

In My Home This Week: Not Ready, But Let's Go

 

This week I thought I'd share this lovely bedroom.  I looked at so many images from the 20's including a children's nursery, sunrooms and even a sleeping porch but it was this sunny lovely room that spoke to me most.    Again it's an ad for a linoleum flooring product but the room is so sunny and pleasant that I just had to share.  I could imagine taking my morning coffee in that chair with the sun streaming in and my Bible in hand.

Admittedly at this point in my Saturday, it's the bed that draws my attention.  I'd like to be lying down in that feathery softness right now...Bliss!

Diary of a Homemaker: Making Choices

 

* Designates a leftover or gathered fragment that I've used to prepare a main dish or side for our meal.

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Saturday:  John mentioned the fair again today and after discussing the three weeks ahead and the obligations before us in the coming months we've determined we'll skip the fair altogether.  Yes, we'd love to go, but we've been making choices since we got married and determined we'd be debt free.    Well, you might think skipping the fair will hardly put a dint in any of the obligations coming up and that's true.  We seldom spend more than $20 when we go to the fair but it's $20 more than we want to spend at the moment.  I could pay for so many other things with that $20: a Christmas gift for someone,  for instance, or it could be set aside and saved towards next month's propane tank rental fee.  Never fear, we do treat ourselves and we like to do so but we don't choose to do it with every single thing that comes along.

Over the Fence: The Blessing of Now

 

Hello dears.   Isn't it lovely outdoors?  We had a wet sort of summer, with frequent rain and then our usual lull between where we didn't get rain for a couple of weeks.  It was rather nice but you certainly start to notice that the ground is looking dustier than it had all summer long.   Well it poured last Sunday and rained gently off and on all day Monday and then it came down by gallons on Tuesday morning.  Tuesday afternoon, I walked across the yard and the ground didn't squish under my feet even once.  In fact, all the great swells of puddles that surrounded the house were completely disappeared and there wasn't even mud left behind.  

The Week Ahead: Fourth Quarter of the Year

 

Isn't that a lovely living room?  Would you believe it's a room designed for Ladies Home Journal in 1912?  Yes, it is.  Aside from the lack of television or radio, the room appears almost modern.  The room is uncluttered, one might almost say minimalist and yet it is really a lovely room.

First let me share the blurb beneath the picture:  "The first requirement of a living room is to give a feeling of cheerfulness and hospitality."

Diary of A Busy Homemaker: October Blue Skies

Saturday:  I meant to sleep late.  I woke at about 7:30 this morning and yes, that is an hour and a half later than I've been getting up, so technically I can say I slept late but I really thought I'd sleep until 9 or even 10.   I'm not in the least sorry I was up early.  No sunrise to watch this morning through the fog but I created a special weekend brew of coffee and that made it seem special.

I used a dark roast k-cup, some French vanilla dry powdered creamer that Bess kindly left here last week, a sprinkle of cinnamon and a healthy splash of whole milk.   This is such a warming, wonderfully scented and flavorful cup of coffee!   The perfect fall weekend morning treat.  It's so good, that I like my frugal version quite well enough to put off looking for a flavored coffee to purchase.  I plan to savor this every autumn weekend and then I'll see what I might come up with for a winter weekend brew and then a spring one.  I like the blueberry cobbler one for summer quite well.  I think it would add to my simple pleasures list to have a seasonal weekend coffee treat.  

In My Home This Week: New Month Hopes

 

Lana suggested last week that bathrooms from the past would be of interest to her when I asked you all last week what you'd like to see.  I've decided to just keep sharing things from the 1920's-1940's era.  Hazel Dell Brown did living rooms and baths, basement rec rooms, studio apartments, sun rooms and bedrooms for Armstrong.   I've collected a lot of images over the years of the main living/dining rooms of houses from the 1920's and '30's that I admire greatly.   For one thing they are such a nice mix of old and new and for another they often are calm but cozy looking images.    After thinking it over, I've decided I'd share some images of all rooms and I'll tell you why I like them so well.  I am not going to share rooms I don't care for...I find if I don't like them I can't tell you what about them I DO like so I will stick to what I like!

This week's image:

This bathroom design was made up by Kohler Manufacturing in 1929.    I encouraged you strongly to open this image in a new tab.  It comes up much larger and the details are well worth seeing!

Goals for October 2021

 

I've just been reading over my September list and all in all...I did some things but not all.  I didn't get ALL the mulching done.  I bought six bags and laid those out and I put down more weed mat, but time has not been on my side, nor has weather.  We had rain, lots and lots of rain and that meant that the mulch at the diy stores was soaking wet and I just don't want to haul it wet in my car.  I don't have any other means of getting it home but even with plastic in the back covering the trunk flooring, it leaks, and it stains.   So, I didn't even bother to ask.  We've had roughly a week dry now.  So, buy and lay some more mulch at town house cycles onto this month's goal list.  I doubt I can get it all and if I do buy it I can't see how I'd get it laid out, but I'll keep doing the little bites method.

Diary of a Busy Homemaker: September Went Fast

Saturday:  John commanded me to make today a child free day.  I didn't argue with him.  I needed the break.  

He planned a date to Buc-ees.   That might not sound like much of a date, but it was lovely.  The air was cool enough to ride with the windows down. Golden rod was blooming absolutely everywhere.  The sun was shining.  It was a lovely ride over to the place.

Once there we looked over our menu options and ultimately decided on the Chipped Brisket sandwiches, RC colas, and some dill pickles.  We drove home along the familiar backroads and highways and admired the views and ate when we got back here.  It wasn't cheap but it was delicious, and it was a nice respite for me.