Sweet Little Guest Bedroom.

We've had a bit of laundry room plumbing

disaster, which our builder, the original

old plumber and our new plumber are all

trying to figure out. They are back today!

I won't give any details now as I'm fuming

and will put my energy in to other projects.

A project that is at least now 90% complete

 is our sweet and pretty little guest bedroom. 

It needs a dimmer switch on the light (our

electrician is coming next week), curtains

to complement the lace curtains, crown

moulding (our Fall project) and a couple

more pictures to add to the walls. I found

an amazing oval vintage print last week.

Here is the wall that needs a few more

pictures to round it out and make it full.

More books have gone in to the little house

bookcase since I took this picture yesterday.

Extra curtains and a box to hide the fittings

to hang the curtains up on. I envision a small

print, Laura Ashley style, flowing in the

wind when the windows are open. Pretty!

Do you have a sweet little guest bedroom?

Does it get used often or is just always ready?

~ Chy

More Bookcases.

As promised, I've captured the last few

bookcases around our cottage. I didn't

take a shot of the open bookshelf in

the laundry room or our walk in closet.

We love our little bookcases on either side

of our fireplace in the master bedroom. I

have started to put some smaller books in

here, which right now is my Beatrix Potter. 

The other side has some petit point pictures,

candles, a pretty rose bag, a painted vase and

a tiny set of salt and pepper shakers that we

found when we cleaned out gramma's house.

Our wall unit in our bedroom is another

book storage source. It is actually three

pieces but we recently split it up as it

truly swallowed up the wall too much.

We placed the other piece in the turret as part

of our office space. You can see that up above.

Can you spot a new old piece for our bedroom?

Isn't that the sweetest blush arm chair? It was

listed and then reduced on our local marketplace

so I was suprised when I contacted the seller and

she told me it was still available. When I went to

view it, we clicked and then she surprised me by

reducing it again! Very happy and it is so comfy.

It came from a family who had lived in a heritage

area in the Big City and they said it was made by

the great grandfather back in the early 20's. It's

been recovered by the fabric is period and so

perfect. The small bookcase is in our upper hall.

On the left, the little house bookcase we have in

our guest bedroom that holds books for our grand

kids when they sleep over. I love buying books for

the two of them to truly enjoy! The final picture is the

end of our island in the art studio. This was meant

to be just one more spot for books but I've switched

it up a bit. It now holds all my scrapbooks along with

pads of paper and some art books. It works very well.

Well friends, that's end of my bookcase tour. 

Hope you enjoyed seeing our book nooks!

~ Chy

Stalking ....

Dh and I met when we cast together in a local production at the big theatre in the Big City next to where we live. It was the early 80's and we were just 18 years old, with our whole lives ahead. We were brought together by a director who knew me but had never met my dh until he had his audition and was offered the role opposite me. And the tale began.

The production was to run for the entire Summer that year ~ 8 weeks. The first part of the run was to be at the theatre and the last bit would be in a northern community about 4.5 hours from here. But our director skipped town with the proceeds from the first few weeks and the production was shut down. A first in our local theatre community. It was devastating for us but also the beginning of our long relationship. Unfortunately, it did give us some trust issues for a while in the community but actors are tight and we soon moved through it. Bad experience turned good. Grateful all the time. It taught us valuable lessons at a very young age that we've fallen back on many times.

When we were in the Big City a week or so ago, dh asked me if I had ever driven past the director's old apartment. We had spent time there writing the production, dh had his audition there and we had at least one rehearsal or read through there. I hadn't driven by as I am rarely downtown and hadn't remembered which street it was on. But he remembered and we drove by that day. It looks the same, though in a bit better condition then we both recall. It was, at the time, getting quite run down. Looks good now. It was a very boho kind of setting, with lots of actors and writers. As we drove by, I wondered who lived here now. We know the director didn't stay here ~ he moved out to the coast. I've often thought about sending him a note to thank him for getting us together. I've always wanted to let him know that despite the experience, we survived it and thrived and here we are, all these years later, with our kids and our cottage and our memories. And they're all good. I think he'd be happy to know that something amazing did come out of something that was supposed to be great and turned sour. 

If you have a partner, how did you meet?

Is there a story behind your beginning?

~ Chy

Light Reading.

Magazines were not something I could

indulge in while raising many children.

Not a budget item but we were frequent

users of the library, so I could borrow.

But now my kids are grown and we're double

income, so I do let an indulgence (or two!)

hop in to my shopping basket on occasion.

I love a great read on cold evenings in a hot tub.

I've figured out a few spots to house my "light reading"

magazines that I've begun to collect. All are centered

around farmhouse, country, English cottage living,

gardening and quilts or scrapbooking for a few extras.

Do you have any favorite magazines?

Do you have any favorite collections?

~ Chy

Reading.

"Reading gives us someplace to go

when we have to stay where we are."

~ Mason Cooley

I'm a lifeline lover of the written word. I recall being fascinated by letters and word well before I could read. I couldn't wait to learn and was super disappointed when I found out in Kindergarten that I would be introduced to the alphabet and finger plays but I wouldn't actually learn to read the books I had in my room and playroom and at the library. What?? I was told by the teacher I had to wait until Grade 1. I recall pouting all the way home that day! Grade 1 couldn't come fast enough. And then when I did get there, I still had to wait. We all had to learn to read together and that meant starting at the beginning with the alphabet again. I was sooooo frustrated. But by that Christmas, I was a full reader and couldn't put books down. When I look back now, it wasn't just the stories that captured me but it was also at times, an escape from the struggles of every day, of growing up with 2 very young parents, too young to parent then and who fought a lot but I will say managed to figure life out and they were married for 40 solid years before my dad died. Reading was a way to block out the shouting and the slamming of doors. It helped me disappear to another time and it helped me to dream of what I wanted for life and for my kids in time. Didn't make me a perfect person or an amazing parent but it did give me hope, vast amounts of hope that anything I would be faced with, I would survive and thrive. I loved stories of despair with triumph. Hope!

Books have always been my favorite gift, not just to receive but to give. Thankfully, I live in a family with a dh who adores reading as much as I do and kids that always asked if we could go to the bookstore or library as they were growing up! The only thing we hoard in our house? Books!! I haven't even unpacked all of them as we're still figuring out where they could all go. We have 2 built in bookcases on either side of our fireplace in the great room that almost go to the ceiling. It's not filled with books as we did use a few shelves for some special items. I may have to change that. 

We also have the shelves above our built in desk and with rearranging, we could place many more books there too ....

At the end of our kitchen island, we also have this sweet little spot for our cookbooks and again, cherished items ....

I'll add another post later to show the other spots in our home where we store books. So far, we have 4 spots on the main floor. There are 2 more to show and then up in the upper level, the art studio and even in our walk in closet. Plenty of spaces that we could use for book storage. Next house, maybe we'll create one room that is lined with bookcases and call it "The Library!" That would be a dream ....

Do you love reading? Do you collect books?

If you do collect books, where do you keep them? 

~ Chy

Happy Easter!

Wishing you and your family a beautiful and

Happy Easter! I hope wherever you are, you

are making memories this weekend. Enjoy

this lovely Spring day and the warmth of the

blooming Earth. My family is still away but

my dd and I are celebrating outside in the sun!

~ Chy

Vintage Bookstore.

A recent Sunday downtown to visit a bookstore

we haven't been to in years. A favorite spot to

explore and spend time in. When we lived in the

great Big City, we used to go often but don't now.

Sunny day and vintage entrance.

Long rows of books and treasures.

Everything in order but hard to find.

No computers to look up our finds.

Under a table towards the back

of the store. A sweet little space.

Kids areas downstairs. We spent

time looking for our grandkids.

Look at those railings. Can you imagine

how many hands have held on over the years?

Prayer flags gave a holistic feel. Dh

at the top of the stairs as we walked.

The outside with a vintage feel that

welcomes all who seek atmosphere.

~ Chy

Cozy Morning.

It's been a bit of a mixed week. Dh, eldest dd and dgs are off on a trip to the Magic Kingdom. Second dd was not able to go due to work and her month long trip coming up in the Summer. I truly didn't want to go this time as it's a busy time of the year at the Park (just before and during Easter) and with a move at work, timing wasn't the best. In the end, it did turn out to be the best decision. They are having a blast, dh misses me (a break is doing us good!) and just before they left, I had a sore throat. Which translated to strep throat, which turned in to pneumonia. It would have been a miserable trip if I had gone and gotten sick. But thankfully, I took this time off while they were away to work on projects here and get ready for the big work move. In between, I've been able to rest and not have a busy schedule. Today I can tell the meds have kicked in as I woke up not in pain and my cough is much better. I promised myself I'd stay cozy in our warm bed all morning. My plan is to keep this day light and fun. So far, I'm staying on track.

Once I'm up, I'm going to try the treadmill today. I was doing really well and have managed to lose 4.8 pounds. But then my body caved to pneumonia and there was no way I'd be able to keep my pace without a coughing fit. I was kind to myself this week and didn't exercise other than some stretching. I weighed myself this morning and I've managed to stay at the same weight all week, despite no exercise. Likely because my appetite hasn't been great. But I'm staying well hydrated and on my way to wellness. 

After the treadmill, a few minutes of light weights and some stretching, a nice shower, then fresh clothes and a quick tidy of our bedroom. Later this afternoon, dd and I are off to town to feed the animals at our Centre (yesterday was a holiday and another family took on this task for us) and make a stop to meet a lovely lady who is holding an item for me. If I do purchase said item, I'll do a post about it as it's quite neat. Then we're going to pop in to visit my mom for a bit and bring her a sweet Easter gift from all of us. After that, we're heading to a restaurant that we made reservations at for dinner, a treat from both of us to both of us. We're celebrating surviving this week and the days to come before dh, eldest dd and dgs return to our home next week. Can't wait to honor our skills for survival all week.

So what did we survive? Besides strep and pneumonia. Well our contractors came out to work on our laundry room. Our house is amazing but the laundry room has had an issue of being very cold in the Winter. At first, we thought it was maybe not insulated enough and our builder showed us it was but he added in more just for good measure. That didn't stop the issue and we had 2 floods from a frozen washer line ~ 1 last year and 1 this year. Both we caught quickly and the damage was minimal (a water line on some of the base boards). This year, we couldn't use the space for about 6 weeks when we had a history making cold snap ~ the last time it was this cold was over 40 years ago. Crazy! We had hoped with our builder, the heating guy and the plumber here, a discovery, then a solution and a quick fix would be in order. But it's taken a bit of a turn and we ended up with a bigger concern, a 3rd flood (no frozen water line this time and very small flood but still water came up) and now we're faced with a bigger fix that likely will either be covered by the warranty or the contractors as clearly something was not put in correctly. So far, everyone is on the same page and we're all perplexed but smiling. The original plumber is no longer around but I have asked myself a few times how someone can blatantly install something so incorrectly and walk away from the job, knowing it will create an issue and not have a care in the world. Happy to hear he's no longer in the trade but really? This could have been so much worse, like a whole house flooded but thankfully we've been diligent and avoided that. Now the big work will have to be figured out and hopefully a final resolution so we can do laundry without worry. How does something this big pass inspection? I will be questioning the County about that as we know inspections took place (we were here) but trusted the inspectors did their job efficiently. Clearly, that didn't happen!! I'm thankful everyone has been professional too.

After our lovely celebratory dinner, we plan to come home and watch the last 2 episodes of "Good Girls" we need to view to end the 2nd season. Then it's on to season 3. It's cold and super windy outside. We're wishing the promised rain that doesn't show up will finally appear and make our landscape green again. A warm fire and good company ~ a nice way to end a crazy, busy week. 

Tell me how about your week. 

Did you get to have a cozy morning?

~ Chy