Get- R- Done

Wooohooo! It’s the last day of August.

Tomorrow, we get to usher in the month of September, the first month of my very favorite season. I love fall and can hardly wait to fill this house full of the sights and smells of it.

Unfortunately, I have a bit of a problem.

It seems that in the past months of moping, whining, sewing and crafting, I have developed a bit a mess around here. It’s the little stuff  I've left unattended.  Little stuff, however, has an annoying habit of congregating with other little stuff to become big stuff. Can anyone relate?

It moves from counter...
to shelf
then to a box.
and then to a bigger box.
and then to a decorated box to be camouflaged as part of the décor.
Finally, it takes up residence in what we call a banana box in some Innie Paradise. If it resides there for 6 months, it gets permanent resident status and the right to vote on domestic policy.

It isn’t commendable, people. Though visitors might not know it's there, I do, and it puts a pooper on my fall decorating party.

So my Next Thing is to take a cue from Suzanne at Southern Inspiration. She's hosting a Get It Done Challenge  and has asked us to join her in posting a concrete list of goals for the month of September.

Mine are as follows.

1. A good old fashioned fall cleaning which will include every single nook and crannie from port to stern, pillar to post, and all metaphors in between. I plan to organize my kitchen cabinets, laundry/sewing room, craft area, painting/DIY supplies, seasonal supplies, and the home office. After the leap off Tablescape Mountain, I also need a better place to store dishes, too.

2. With the two days I’ll probably have left after that, I plan to repaint the front door and do some fall front porch decorating.

3. I will also pull three items from The 101 List which sits mocking on my sidebar and give them a facelift.

A few candidates:

 or

or maybe...

or how about...

If I do not complete their facelift, they will be put in a yard sale which I am planning for the first weekend in October.  (Now October, you see, is not September. Therefore, if that part doesn’t come to fruition, it doesn’t affect my September grade.) I’m always thinking ahead…

So there you have it. I have put my September list out there. Is anyone else willing to join the challenge?

What are your plans for September?

The Great Bedroom Breakfast Adventure

Just a little update from the

breakfast for two that I yakked about

 on Tablescape Thursday...

 in case anyone is sitting on the edge of her seat waiting…

Anyone? Anyone?

I didn’t think so, but here’s the update anyway.

The husband arrived home late Friday afternoon and headed upstairs to unpack his bags as usual. I chirped along behind him as usual.  He spotted the table immediately. Why, he even complimented it.

Is that for your tablescape?

(Because, you see, I yak all about the tablescapes…)

I said that it was, but then I continued that

actually, it was for us.

He shook his head,

and I saw that smirk begin to appear on his face…

which is why I didn’t look at his face

as I launched in to an explanation

of the Great Breakfast Adventure…

which is why I failed to notice him

 whip out his bottle

of Snickering Testosterone
before he  proceeded to sprinkle

all over my breakfast table.


Apparently this is not a man's coffee cup.  

According to him, it is a tea cup.  Mr. Coffee also informed me that no man after the 19th century wanted to use a cup of  that size first thing in the morning.  He wasn’t sure, he opined, that they could get their fingers through the holder if they wanted to. He tried though, holding the girly teacup with pinky perched in the air.

Such a smarty pants I married.

I was seriously close to sticking a pear in his mouth, but I chose instead to act a little wounded, and although he knew that I was being a big fat faker, he agreed to meet me for breakfast and leave the snickering testosterone behind. 

I knew he would.

But I made a few changes in the name of marital compromise.  I replaced the dainty tea cups with some simple white coffee mugs.

And while I was at it, I replaced the embroidered linens with some simple green cotton ones. I removed the plant to give a little more room to the bull in the china shop and replaced it with a small vase of daisies. Then I moved his big old man chair over to the table so that he could smirk in comfort. 

And we enjoyed our breakfast.

I took that shot after the fact. You just don't bring a shiny red Kodak to a romantic breakfast for two, people…

He talked about his week and his visit with the girls and Miss Whimsy’s affection toward him right in front of her new friends. I talked about nothing at all, and he listened.
As usual.

He even said that he would like to do it again.

So there you have it.

I dub The Great Breakfast Adventure

a smashing success.

Now, I’m thinking about, 

a  candlelight dinner in the garden. 

Too bad I don't have a garden... 

Simply Driving

The husband and I had a simple pleasure this week which we don’t often afford ourselves.

We took a drive.

As a child growing up, our family often enjoyed the pleasure of the leisurely cruise to nowhere, following where the road led on a Sunday afternoon. Then the economy and the energy crisis of the 70’s interrupted our fun, and the Sunday afternoon drive seemed to go the way of the Amana radar range.

The other evening, however, the empty nesters decided to throw caution to the wind and enjoy a little aimless driving before the sun went down.

Now, this is one pleasure that I could never enjoy solo. Not only is it more fun to share the delights along the way, but I’m also directionally challenged. While a motor meander might be fun, finding myself lost in an adjacent county with no possible idea as to how I got there…
is not.

Fortunately, I married a homing pigeon. No matter where the path takes us, he can always find the way home.  So off we went, the silent chauffeur and the yakking pointer.

Dirt roads are my favorite, and living in rural Georgia, we have an abundance of them.  It was on one of those dirt roads, that we stumbled on this place.

I. Was. Delighted.

If there is anything more fun than the motor meander, it is being the adult in the car when you’re doing it. Adults, you see, can stop the car and take a gander if they have a mind to.

I had a mind to.

So the husband pulled to the side of the road,

and I hopped out of the car

and across the ditch

and through the weeds

to the abandoned old house...
with my shiny red Kodak .

I walked around it a few times

and then figured out a way to get up on that porch.

I peeked in the windows.

I even tried to turn the knob.

The husband gave a little toot on the horn.

“Don’t forget to take a picture of that sign,” he said.

Sign?

Oh, that one.

Phooey.

So Bonnie snapped the picture while Clyde idled the getaway car. Then I walked back through the weeds and across the ditch and into the car to join the party pooping smirker.

Which way now?

As if he had to ask.

And off we went to find more treasures
 beyond the bend in the road.

A leisurely evening drive is this week's simple pleasure.

*****

I'm so happy to be joining Dayle
at A Collection of This and That.
Please visit and enjoy the other simple pleasures.
You'll be very glad that you did.

A Breakfast For Two

A simple enough pleasure, surely, to have breakfast alone with one's husband, but how seldom married people in the midst of life achieve it.

Anne Spencer

Today's tablescape is actually one that has been 26 years in the making. 

I have planned to set up a breakfast table in the master bedroom for pretty much our entire marriage. With the new empty nest, I thought it might be the perfect week to begin a new tradition.

So I called in the team.

We started with this skirted table from the living room. I've been collecting dishes in the room colors of yellow and green for a while, putting this table together in my mind in bits and pieces.

It will remain set up in the room.

 Next, we added some pears for the center.

 Pears are the husband's favorite fruit.

(and it doesn't hurt that they are the right color, too...)

Both the cow creamer and the pear dish belong

 to the Duchess

This dish is Haviland Limoges.

 It's on loan until I find a suitable replacement...

 

... because I love the pears there.

I'll have to susbstitute faux ones when we're not actually using it.

Real ones wouldn't last a day with the husband around.

After 26 years, he still doesn't *get* that whole

just for looks thing.

Maybe, I 'll decoupage some....

Everything else is actually mine.

As I said, I have been collecting for this table every time I visit an antique or junk shop.

 

I have had the linens for years. They are tea towels from one of those trunks of previous yakabouts. 

Of course, now that I think about it,

 that makes them technically from the Duchess as well.

I loved the dishes because not only were they the right colors, but they also said, "breakfast" to me.

Of course, when I turned them over, I found this.

Well, of course...

Only in Debbie Land would the stuff not pilfered from my mother 

still bear her mark.

I found the stemware at the same shop.

I liked the color.

The flatware is Act I by Oneida.

It's from The Great Wedding Adventure of 1984.

I am on the lookout for some gold ones to use here... 

 Eventually

My favorite thing on the table is the coffee server.

It's another second hand score.

I flatly refuse to check out the bottom.

Adding the food.

Just for this tablescape.

I'll reset with fresh food for the husband on Saturday morning.

 Sorry I can't invite you,

but this is a  table

for two.

****

Sharing this on Between Naps on the Porch for

****

I guess it's also a Simple Pleasure, but that would be cheating...

I haven't yet had the pleasure.

Moving Day

It was hot and humid on Saturday

when we moved our freshman into her dorm room.

One of the best things about Mercer, though,

is that freshmen are moved by the trusty

Mercer Movers,

orange clad upper classman and even professors who do all of the lifting.

(photo from the Mercer website)

That's a good thing

since she was near the end of the hall...

on the third floor...

with no elevator...

We still packed lightly.

After all, what goes up must eventually come down.

*Somehow* 

big sister managed to be on our team of movers.

It might have had something to do with the
17 text messages sent back and forth

giving estimated time of arrival...

Or perhaps it was that demonstrative arm flagging when we turned down the street...

Or maybe just luck. You be the judge.

Here's the room when we opened the door.

Yep.
Just about as tiny as we expected.

Perhaps even more so.

Apparently, the dressers have been victims
of downsizing.  

They used to have three drawers. 

Now, they have two.

The first thing we did was unbunk the beds.

Tiny as the room might be, they still wanted their own spaces.

Then, she started tossing things underneath the bed
to see how high she was going to have to lift it.

Actually, not too high
due to the dinky downsized dorm dresser.

So she made her bed.

The comforter is reversible with zebra on the other side.
If she gets a notion, she can whip it over,
and turn all the pillows to the solid side for a whole different look.


(I'm actually a lot more jazzed about that than she is. Sometimes my girls just go with my flow...)

Can you see that annoying little jut out beside the bed?

It kept us from being able to put the beds in a "L" shape
which really irritated her  us  me.

She just put her tall skinny cubbies there.

The lamp was a graduation gift.
It was amazing how many gifts she got for her room which matched.

 

Adding a little wall cover

She set her desk up on the wall opposite her bed

It sits between their closets and the bathroom

Adding yet more wall color.
And even a picture of the family.

This shot shows just how close are the quarters.

That's their microwave resting on top
of her downsized dresser
under the bed.
She also has several black storage bins.
Fortunately, it all sort of disappears into blackness.

Here's the view from the other side.

The cubbie nightstand has canvas drawers in the bottom.

She's going to keep edible stuff in there.

since the refrigerator opens to that side.

Finishing touches...

Some flowers, just because...

 And a canvas covered with her favorite scripture.
It was made by a younger girl in her youth group.

It says,
My heart is confident in you O God;
My heart is confident.
No wonder I can sing your praises. 

So there you have it. All moved in with her pink and green and zebra.  There is still a lot of blank space, but there will be plenty of time to fill it up.  I will add one update  for those who have been following the story: The roommate assignment was modified. She is not rooming with the bear hunter after all.

I'm pretty sure the zebras were relieved to hear it. 

An Empty Nest

Look at the treasure that Duchess found

 in her garden this week.

an empty nest...

Just like my nest this morning.

I don't mind saying that I'm sad.
And I'm kind of scared.

So I went to God's garden to find another treasure.

You will keep in perfect peace,

him whose mind is stayed on You,

because he trusts in You.

Isaiah 26: 3

Trust.
It's the Hebrew batach,
about which Gesenius's lexicon says,
"to confide in; to set ones hope and confidence in... "
I think, sometimes, we lack the confidence 
because we fail to confide.
 
So I'm confiding my fears in Him this morning...
For his eye is on the sparrow...

Have a Sunday filled with perfect peace.

****
Sharing this this week at a new meme called
Inspiration Friday
at
Southern in my Heart.
Come see what's inpiring others!

Simply Blue

I had planned to put this week's simple pleasure here last week to coincide with our Colonial Blues tablescape. (I'm "themey" like that...) You may recall, however, that my focus was interrupted by the simple pleasure of being a mom, and the blue themed simple pleasure was put on the back burner.

I'm OK with that.

I don't want my life to reflect my blog;
 I want my blog to reflect my life.

I'm sharing my simply blue pleasure this morning instead.

Here it is.
Capturing the blue hour.

This simple pleasure is actually very new to me. Until reading about it in blogland several months ago, I didn't even know such a thing as the blue hour even existed.  But it does, and it exists with amazing consistency.

The blue hour is the name for the window of opportunity that God opens every evening and morning, just before sunrise, and just after sunset. It is the phrase that describes the few moments twice a day when the sky becomes an incredibly deep blanket of blue.

It. Is. Beautiful.

When I first saw pictures of the blue hour, I fell so in love with it that I tried to catch it spontaneously. I was certain that I'd be able to capture it most beautifully over an open field or other such quiet space.  I kept my eyes open, and when I thought that I might be in the moment, I would race to the nearest field with the shiny red Kodak, point, and click.

Nothing.
I blamed the shiny red Kodak.

Finally, I did what I should have done in the first place; I did a little research. In so doing, I discovered two things. First, the blue hour is easily predicted. In fact, when I enter my zip code at bluehoursite.com, I am given the precise time, roughly 30 minutes twice a day, in which the blue hour is visible in my local sky.

Unlike most simple pleasures, this one is intentional, not spontaneous.

I also discovered that the blue hour is best captured when it is illuminated. No wonder I couldn’t capture it over an open field! I had been expecting God to fly solo.

It doesn’t work that way.
Think about it:

To capture the blue hour,

you must look for the Glory of God

reflected in the light of men.

I can hardly stand it.

So now that I have the rules down, I plan this simple pleasure.

I seek out the illuminated places,

 and make an appointment with God.

Here’s the blue hour over our local courthouse.

Here it is in Macon.

This is the steeple over the church that The Practical One attends while in school.

Look at the difference mere minutes make.

Here's the same spot just a few minutes later.

This one was taken over the Hay House, also in Macon. We went there recently for a Parent’s Weekend dinner. I almost missed this. I thought the show was over for the night but stopped the car and got out when I saw this curtain call.

I am so enthralled by the blue hour that I find myself gushing about it. I’m 48 years old, I lamented to the husband. How in the world could I go 48 years and not know that such a beautiful thing existed?

Silly woman, he explained.

You weren’t looking.

Capturing the blue hour is this week’s simple pleasure.

*****

Sharing with Dayle at A Collection of This and That.

Clickity click to see the other simple pleasures.

It's a weekly treat.