I love a parade! (Oh my gosh I've got to stop making all these plans!)

The most dangerous spot for me this past weekend was putting on some blue surgical booties and making my way through the Parade of Homes in Michigan, accompanying hubs on some business related visits.  You know, we wanted to see the homes but it is still a business visit, and we have so much to do around the house that it was difficult to make the commitment to go. I really enjoy these visits though as I usually see some great floor plan or new gadget or appliance, some landscaping or paint color.  

Anyway, the first home was a remodel of a home along the St. Joseph river.  Oh my goodness, the lot, the view, the stunning kitchen.  It was gorgeous.  Very uncluttered and minimally decorated but beautifully so with some nice arts and crafts pieces sprinkled throughout.  What a treat to visit this great spot.  

Another home or two which were equally as nice, new construction,  and then onto another remodel.  Oh dear.  This one had some seriously great upgrades to a home in a well- established neighborhood.  The standout for me here was the entry as on the way up to the parade, hubs and I were discussing entry remodeling and I expressed some ideas that have been rolling around in my head.  Nothing major but to improve our entry, just talk.  Nothing major until I saw this home but now my wheels are really turning.

A couple more homes and our final stop at a very contemporary, almost Scandinavian style home near Lake Michigan. This was a stunner, and so unlike our home and what I thought to be “my taste”.  I could live there for sure.  They had to take down several ash trees on the property because of the dreaded ash bore but they were able to salvage a LOT of the wood and made the stair treads and wood flooring from massive trees that had to be cut down.   Gorgeous. 

A stop at my favorite brewery for a sandwich before heading home, and a bit of my hobby~ conversation with strangers.  Talked to two men who were in Michigan, one from San Francisco and one from Seattle, to attend a weeklong family retreat ~ about their 30^th  summer.  They had been sent to the store for supplies for dinner and were stopping in to have a beer on their way.  They were the sons-in-law of the hosts of the reunion, and in trouble, they knew it and didn’t care…like 16 year olds who had been given the keys to the car and sent out on an errand.  Until one stood up and said to his brother-in-law,  “I’m going to go to the store, but, I’ll be back and here are my sunglasses and cell phone so you can be sure.”  One of the funniest things I’ve seen a grown man do, but sort of charming, too. 

It was a nice ending to a busy weekend and now, do I hate my house? My yard? My trees? No, but boy oh boy do I have some ideas.  Now, where’s that graph paper?

Too soon?

I am sure everyone gets here…this place where you sense things are going to be much different moving forward, and try to prepare for it.  Try to think about it a bit, try, maybe, to hang on to some of the past but also plan for the new.

  

I have been thinking about Christmas.  My mother-in-law passed away earlier this year and although we stopped going over for a big gift exchange a couple years back, we did try to do a Christmas-time brunch with everyone.   She could not really participate the way she used to, cranking out a batch of coffee cakes, rolls and breakfast casseroles for us all, but her daughter sure did her proud and produced some great breakfasts for us the last couple years.  We have gathered at this big kitchen for many years a couple weeks before Christmas to bake cookies together.  Have we seen the last cookie?

What do we do now?  I know it’s time to start new traditions, but what are those traditions? I am used to the old ones! I like the old ones!  I am not sure where I am suppose to go, or if I am to stay home.  A couple years ago we did stay home, alone, on Christmas Day, and let me tell you, it sucked.  I told hubs that would not happen again, as long as I could be somewhere, especially if a grandchild was involved.  We’ve had a couple of perilous drives since then but have been with kids/grandkids on Christmas Day, usually arriving mid-morning and staying a day or two.

 

I wondered about the every other year thing but both my girls wish to stay home on Christmas morning with their families.  This year, youngest daughter will be WAY pregnant on Christmas Day, so she should be home! Besides that, son and daughter-in-law, in a different city, also need to make plans with her family so I need to be considerate of that as well.

Is it too selfish, too decadent, to escape to a tropical location on Christmas? It’s on the list. 

Ethel Merman

It's alright if you think I'm going down a short but twisted path here...I have to recommend battery operated candles.  I can not believe I am saying it either!

I, on a whim, ordered a set of battery operated pillars from QVC.  Again, I can't believe it either!  I thought they would work out well in a couple places where a night light would be good but I just don't care for night lights much.  Weird, I know. 

So I ordered this set of 8 candles of varying sizes by a company called "Candle Impressions" which is funny.  I mean, they are selling items that impersonate a candle...that's clever, admit it.  Besides that, here is what is so cool about these fake candles as compared to other fake candles that I have seen. 

First of all, they are a good fake.  Enough said.

Second, they have a built in TIMER!

I think this is genious.  I have seen them with remotes but I think they are more expensive; these timers...awesome.  They will stay on for five hours.  Which is just about perfect when you think about it.  You turn them on the first time when you want them to come on every night, then they come on the next night at the same time.  Isn't that grand?

So, you know I recommended the set of three green strainers.  You know I recommended the red spatula and most recently I raved about the big yellow bowl.  You can trust me.   I can not recommend the turquoise set ~ that just makes no sense for anyone.  When it comes to fake candles, I think simple and ivory is best. 

Here I grouped three of them behind this fun metal piece on top of a china cabinet.  They're like 3, 4 and 5 inches tall maybe, use two AA batteries and have been lighting up dark spaces at my place since July 5. 

I do a couple impressions, Ethel Merman for example, and maybe one or two of people in my past...er, probably best not to talk about it.   Not always flattering and some that have gotten me in trouble.  But, these Candle Impressions? Dead on.

Something new this way comes.

My little lakeside home is also a little woods home.  A lot of trees.  Over the years, we’ve had one fall or at least a big branch come down and it’s always a mess but sometimes, like the one that fell last week, it brings something else along.

There was a dead tree on the far side of our driveway that fell during the last “and why wasn’t THAT a tornado” storm.  It was dead and probably should have been taken down a couple years ago, but, removing trees is a costly endeavor.  We’d be at it all day and all pocketbook if we took down trees that “really should have”.  A lot of living here is cross your fingers and hope nature is kind. 

Anyway, the tree came down in the storm and on the way took a couple of good-sized leafy branches from other trees, perhaps a small tree or two.  Hubs and I spent the better part of two days - so far - cleaning up the mess.

As we worked it became pretty obvious there was going to be a difference in the way things looked, especially in the driveway.   First, it was a lot of low growth that was taken out but also leafy growth.  There were two trees we took down immediately, both dead and not contributing. Secondly, we surveyed the area and trimmed a few branches.  The driveway is now sunny where it had never been sunny.  Interesting.  

We worked for several hours and went for a boat ride.  When we were back at the house I walked through to get something started in laundry.  On my way through the house  there was a new shaft of light on the floor, coming in from this office window.  It hit a few things out in the foyer area that usually don’t get hit by light. Reflections and shadows were just slightly different.  

I guess it is good to clear out some old to get a new perspective, eh? 

Welcome!

For the last couple of summers, when taking a nice, relaxing cruise around the lake, I noticed a house that had placed several big pots of bright yellow flowers near the shore on their property.  I really liked them.  I liked that the people wanted to share these flowers with boaters that went by.  Thought it was welcoming, you know? Not only to their property but to the lake, to the day. 

I wanted to do the same and bought four, what appeared in the store, BIG pots, in red.  I wasn’t sure how hubs felt about this plan as it meant his needing to move to mow and I know he hates that.  I was excited to plant them, to share them…but what kind of flowers?  These pots were going to be in bright sunshine and I’m more used to shade closer to the house ~ hosta and impatients.  Should I go with  geraniums?  Possibly,  but I sure liked those bright yellow flowers on the other side of the lake.  Because I had heard they needed minimal care I decided on marigolds.  Now, I have to tell you, I am not a marigold fan.  To me they are a bit boring, smell funny and generally don’t appeal to me.   I kept going back to the minimal care thing, and the bright yellow, and marigolds it is. I did opt for the variety of color and have orange and rusty maroon as well as the yellow.  

So I planted my four gigantic pots.  They looked great.  I thought they would fill in nicely and I had included a spikey grass thing in the middle of each one.  I liked them a lot.

However, the pots were not as big as they appeared in the store.  When I got them down to the lakefront and lined them all up they were actually kind of puny.  I was pretty disappointed, but kept it to myself.  After about a week, hubs says to me “Those pots are too small; you need to get something else.”  Well, at least I had my answer as to how he felt about them!

The next day I bought four REALLY huge pots and was able to just set the four smaller pots down inside, with a little beefing up at the bottom.  Once the flowers filled in, I was pretty sure this would make the impression I hoped, and I was pleased!  Those marigolds are great little flowers and I'm becoming a fan! 

I overbought on marigolds, probably because of my too small pots, but I had a place for those in a flower bed that had housed a couple rose bushes a dogwood tree, also in the sun.   

My concern was visitors running in to the pots at night, while down at a bonfire or something.  I thought about those solar path lights and purchased four really cute globe solar lights to put in each pot.  Then at night, there would be just a little glow to remind people the pots are  there.  Perfect. 

The solar lights turned out to be flickering - no, strobing - red, green and blue carnival like things.  My sister-in-law looked out the first night they were in and thought a SWAT team had landed on shore or something.  These things are obnoxious, let me tell you.  Nothing indicated they were flickering, or multicolored, and as much as I like the brightness of the flowers there is nothing about me that says flickering carnival lights.  But, I liked the round globe, sunken in the pots and I have accepted their presence.  

I can’t imagine what the fishermen think.  You know what else? Those pots could still be bigger.  

Vacation get-away

It all began about a month ago when I ate my way through the beach city of Destin, Florida and continued on through a family reunion, a few late, late night meals, 4^th of July and then culminated with a seafood boil for family which was too much to be believed it was so good.  My goodness, I am stuffed.

I have had the greatest six weeks or so filled with fun, friends, family, food.  But, staying up way too late, eating way too late, not sleeping enough or drinking enough water…it’s taking a toll.  I need a vacation from my vacation. 

I am not one to just pick a city and travel to it but I have to say, I am considering checking in to a hotel for just one night, enjoying some juice and toast, taking a stroll through an antique store or two and heading home after a light lunch.  Doesn’t that sound kind of divine and decadent?  I mean, it’s silly right?  We just got back from a beautiful, beach filled, doused in sunshine trip.   

Don’t care.  I’m doin’ it! 

   

Sometimes we are so overwhelmed with sad news that it is a struggle to find some good news, you know? We almost brush good news aside because we sit on pins and needles waiting for the “other shoe to drop”.  Sometimes news is really good but may not be phenomenal, and we are almost blasé about it.  You shouldn't have to stand on your head to hear a compliment. 

This week, I have heard a few good stories, particularly about “kids” I have been close with through volunteering…a new house, babies on the way, new jobs, an anniversary, elected officials and so much more ~ many volunteering in their communities or working in jobs where kids are a priority.  I’m really excited to hear this news, guys! I know I may not always say it as strongly as it is felt, but I am so proud  you and what you are accomplishing, the grownups you have become!  Stay involved and inspire the rest of us to get more involved along the way.

We are often so quick to shake our heads when we hear something not so positive, and that’s fine.  Sometimes it is head-shaking worthy, but I am making a promise to be quick to nod my head, to give a shout, to pat you on the back.  I promise you, I will become better at it!

Way to go!