Catching Up

Summer is here. The temperatures are soaring, so I have to water plants twice a day now. 

I am finally settling into retirement life. 

I had to do a reset on my emotions earlier in the summer. I found myself distressed with Mama being so sick, and I think I was still somewhat in that mode of thinking summer had to be a long list of projects to finish in ten weeks. 

I hit the pause button!

I stopped and thanked God that I am able to see about Mama, and decided to take everyday as a gift that I have her, EVEN IF it wasn't what I had planned for us.

I also realized that I don't have to go back to school this fall, so I can enjoy those long summer days and enjoy the beach...Those projects will wait until fall or whenever!!!

So, here are a few things going on here...

We have a wedding to attend today. I gave the lovely bride a shower a couple of months ago. You can read about that here. The thing about this wedding today??? Well, it made Hubby and me behave like adults. Why? IT IS THE HOME SHOW FOR THE BLUE ANGELS. It is a tradition in our family to go by water to the Pensacola Beach show each July. We are going to miss them like so bad today, but, we are so excited about Tommy's wedding. His parents are great friends of ours, and Tommy has been in our youth group when Hubby and I worked in the youth department for many many years. They are such a wonderful young couple.

My mom's farm finally sold. That was a big one for her. It was all too much for her to take care of.   We have been busy still taking care of things...cleaning out a garage, having a yard sale, taking it all one step at a time. I am hoping we can get her sinus infection cleared up soon. She has had two sinus surgeries, but she is still suffering there. I am slowly seeing a light in her though. I am praying we can get all of this cleared up soon. I think that will put a spark back in her.

I have been busy just trying to settle into my routine of keeping a home clean, preparing meals, volunteering at church one day a week, and finding the things that I really love to spend any free time on. One of those has been sewing. I am such a driven, task-oriented person that I can find myself stressed if I am not checking off a list at a break neck pace. Therefore, I had to take a step back and reevaluate. First, I cleaned up all the projects I had lined up and put them in boxes on my sewing room shelves. I will pull them out if I have time and desire to sew. 

The biggie on the reset of slowing down on my checklist was to halt a counted cross-stitch project that I was so sure I would complete. I printed out the pattern on my last day of work. It was by far the most complicated project that I had ever seen, but I wasn't worried because, I was sure I could handle it. At one time in my life, I was a cross stitcher extraordinaire. Anyway, this project was a heron pattern made from an Audobon painting. I have never seen anything like that in my life. The colors were all so near the same, changing on each line after two stitches. I found myself stressed instead of enjoying it. I had restarted three times. Finally, I just asked myself, why was I doing this? I finally decided to pack it up for awhile. I may come back to it later, but for now, I am going to choose something else to stitch. I have been following other stitchers on Instagram and have seen so many cute things that I wanted to try.

It is actually 15 pages put together. I wanted to do it, but I am just not there yet.

Well, I have soooo... much more to say, but I will save some for next week. 

I will be posting some next week. I will never have a schedule, because this is for posterity's sake and a hobby, so if anyone pops in, I am glad to have you visit!!!

Counting my blessings,

Sandy

Second Time Around for the Guest Bedroom

After sharing my guest bedroom, I shared how the pictures told the story. I realized I just wasn't happy with it, and it needed some changes.

I decided to paint the walls first. I felt it needed some contrast. The blue had worked in the daughter's teen years, but wasn't giving me that calmer feeling I was seeking.

I think the new color goes much better with the blue drapes. It gives some much needed contrast.

There were some things that I just had to live with for the time being. The biggest thing was the white bookcases, so that was the reason for changing the paint. I felt that would give me the biggest bang for my buck in making those bookcases appear less as the unintended focal point of the room.

I also pulled a few things off of the bookcases and changed out the baskets. 

I don't want to get rid of the shelving for now. I know that changing them out to something else would be my best bet and make the room much better, but it is just not gonna happen yet.

I added the driftwood and shell to the top instead of the Christmas moose (story behind her).

I also moved some of the pictures around on the walls, namely the one over the bed and my bird picture. That choice really made a big difference to me. 

Getting rid of the red pillows and the colorful baskets on the bookcases were also good choices.

I moved the birds to this side of the room instead of over the bed. I love it here. I might look for some twigs for the vase.

The final piece was the bedspread. Originally my daughter had a very colorful comforter during her teen years that led to the choice of paint color and barrel chair color. Her comforter was done for, so while she was in college I purchased the other paisley comforter. It was at that time that I took down her bright picture above the bed, and then recently took a heaping ton of stuff down from the shelves, dresser, etc.

I moved the landscape to above the bed. I think the colors go well with the bedspread, and the size gives some space between the bookcases.

I liked the comforter, but I must say it wasn't working for me, and...that green chair had no purpose in there anymore. There is no where else to place it in the home. It has sentimental value, so I was toughing it out. I was at Dillard's when I saw the new comforter. I had spied it back in the fall and really liked it. It has a touch of green in the paisley, thus really tying that chair in. 

It was on sale! 

The last one and the right size. 

Who could pass it up?

I am much happier with the look. 

The big changes were: new paint, new bedspread, new baskets on shelves, ditching red pillows, and removing a few items on the shelves.

Future plan: Pass on the bookcases to someone else, and purchase something more grownup to hold the treasures.

That is for now...

Sandy