Back home!

The world, in these northern parts where I live, has turned green, and exuberant.  If you let your eyes repose above the canopies of trees all the way to where the mountains arise to the heavens below white, fluffy clouds, you’ll understand. That’s the view I am seeing right now from my window on the second floor.  Every color of green and yellow-green covers roofs and tall houses; letting only the peaks of mountains in the distance visible, in their dark-blue tones... like some sleepy mythological gods whose heads are bended down, looking into our homes and into our lives… and it is good to be back home after a few days of intense living in Rome; good to feel the familiar, smell the familiar, sleep where you have always sleep, and eat what you want to eat.  It is good.  All is good. 

Yesterday, I worked all day long in the garden.  A full-time job mowing the lawn and pruning and pulling out weeds.  I also fertilized and sprayed every rose bush with Neem Oil.  The house and gardens are looking wonderful under any and every light… from afar and from a close distance, everything is looking awesome, and the garden is back to glory days. Some of the old roses are still not performing as they should, or as I expect them to, but either way they are roses, and I’m still loving them and are bringing them into the house by the dozens, to embellish vases and urns, and jugs and bottles and any container that fancies my imagination.

  

On one of those claustrophobic days when the painters were here and I was trapped inside a taped down house, I decided to turned one of our guest rooms on the upstairs into a shabby chic retreat.  With all the number of roses the summer garden is bestowing these days, it was almost a sin not to change things around the house... because, well, nothing could be more appropriate, or perfect when you have a garden bursting with roses than to have a Shabby Chic room!  Right?  Somehow, roses and the Shabby Chic style goes hand in hand, don't you think so?

So, I put away some things and brought out some more and then, made myself a little Shabby Chic, girly space!

I’ll show you more later, and maybe I’ll also share with you a little about Italy and what we did when we were there and places we visited. I’m still dreaming with a quaint little ancient village in southern Tuscany, called Pienza on the top of rolling hills, and in the middle of green grassy plains.  It is a small picturesque town with beautiful doors and windows with flowerpots at every turn! For now, I hope you are all doing well.  I hope you missed me, and still remember me!

PS: I put a little music on my blog for you to enjoy (for now), but is it too much?  Does the background music makes it difficult to read?  I know that something like that bothers me sometimes when I'm reading... so let me know and I will stop it!  ;)

   

Home and garden

The garden is doing marvelous after that pruning of the other day... everything looks and feels so fresh and new!  The roses, or the few roses that I now have are also doing splendidly, considering they have been so neglected and doing so poorly for years.    

My little paradise is not disappointing me... it gets prettier and prettier each day.  Yesterday, we went to the annual garden tour our city sponsors every year, and I’d have to say that my little urban garden proves somewhat deficient, compared to some of the gardens we saw at those houses at the top of the mountains with the amazing view, but this is my haven, my refuge and the place I want to be from all places.   

And what can I say about my newly painted home!  I love it... I just love it!

I love the colors I ended up choosing for the exterior painting of our home.  All from Benjamin Moore, but because most, if not all of our local painters use Sherwin Williams, the colors had to be matched… but here are the names, in case you want to know:

Main body of the house:  Benjamin Moore HC-168 Chelsea Gray

Top accent walls:  Benjamin Moore 2121-10 Wrought iron
Trims, columns and garage door:  Benjamin Moore AF-5 Frostine White
Front door:  Benjamin Moore 2155-30 Yellow Marigold

The old settee that I have been moving with me from house to house to house is still here… now spray-painted in glossy black, with new patterned cushions in black and white.  All from Walmart.  Remember what it looked like back then at the little white cottage?

I love black and white patterned everything… it gives a room that classy look!

The small yellow/red pillows I had forever.  They had been in my gypsy caravan for years, and then last week when we went camping and found them I immediately thought of my front porch, and how well they would look with the black and white cushions and front yellow door.  So they are here now! This combo is perfection to me!

My newly painted succulent pot is looking lovely sitting outside too.  I’d prefer some type of annual flowers here, like petunias, but for now, this is it.   And my little marigold yellow table... I'm loving it!

The same old lantern I had sitting in the porch at our little white cottage!  Now on another thrift store 'new' to me table.  

The entrance is the first thing people see when they come by, so why not make your home stand out from the rest!  I'm loving mine!  I also love indigo, orange, chartreuse.  I almost chose orange, but felt in love with this deep yellow!  And guess what?  I went to the Internet the other day to find out what the color of our front door means, and I found the most interesting article  about front door colors and their meaning.  This is what it says about a yellow door: “While it ups your curb appeal, a yellow door also says you’re logical while also creative. Like the color, you have a positive attitude and may even be a morning person!”.  So utterly true! 😉

One of the fastest ways to amp up curb appeal is by painting your front door a fun and bright color.  If you haven’t done it yet, try it!  It’ll not only alter the feel and look of your house, but it will also upgrade it!

The entrance to the garden looking marvelous against the freshly painted house... I love how the new paint showcases all the beautiful garden colors with a lovely background. All the colors, forms and texture seem to be more visible, lovelier, and grand!

The back of the house...

Thank you for all your comments and thoughts.  Thank you for your good wishes and blessings and I hope I can be of a blessing to you too in whatever form or way I can through this little blog and this little life of mine... be happy, be blessed, be spontaneous and dance a little by the shady of the trees in your backyard... when nobody is looking!  I love you!

Painting the exterior or our house - part 3

Morning, June 8—Last day of painting, so I hope.  Raymond showed up a little after 8:00am all by himself, and that was it.  Nobody else showed up.  

Then, when the Fisherman and I came back from running some errands there was another young man working on the house along Raymond, a new painter I hadn’t met before.  

Santos will be spray-painting the gutters and whatever else still needs painting, but thus far, he hasn’t shown up.  Then it will be the cleaning up.  I can hardly wait!

Things are taken longer that I had expected, and the work should had been finished by yesterday, but these professionals are so busy and their business is so thriving, that they just have to take turns among themselves and among the houses they’re working on… and thus, I’ve been left behind sorts of speak… most of the work is done, so they are taking it easy with me now.  I must learn to be patient and wait.  It’ll all be done today.

Early afternoon, June 8—Santos is here now!  The gutters and last of the trims are being spray-painted, spots retouched, last details taken care of.  Santos is cleaning everything with the power washer, tools are being collected, painter's tape removed and thrown away, and everything is already looking marvelous... the back porch will have to be hose down too and floors re-stained, and then all furniture will be put back in place.  I hope we can finish this today.

It is hot, so hot!  And the garden, is like another garden—so much has transpired there while in my absence from it.  It is almost hard to believe how much it has grown and thrived in just this week alone.  I hadn’t been out there at all, that’s why.  Because of all the guys working around the house all week, I’ve kept away from it, and now weeds and broken branches are welcoming me into their green world with awesome, smiling faces that, too soon are ripped away and taken out by my intolerant hands.  So alas, while the guys finish up and the Fisherman (who is here today), mows the lawn, I’m cleaning the garden… pulling dreadful weeds, pruning the roses and vines, and bringing in handfulls of roses and perennials to make bouquets...

Late afternoon, June 8—the house is a new house now, and it’s looking so pretty and sophisticated in her new gray and white gown and marigold hat—like a real lady!  I should name her... oh yes I should!  But, what?

 

It occurred to Santos to paint the bottom part of the columns in the darker shade of gray, instead of painting them all white as it was my original idea, and I cannot love them anymore!  The dirt and stuff which is normally collected at the bottom of the columns will be less visible too, and I totally love the contrast.

One of the best things I love about this new paint color is how it showcases all the beautiful garden colors with a lovely background.  The deep red roses look particularly lovely against the gray backdrop.

What satisfaction this is!  The old house looks and feels like a brand new house, and all the colors of the garden seem to shine against the freshly painted background!  I am happy, my soul and heart are happy and I am immeasurably thankful for all we have accomplished in this old-new house of ours since we moved back!  Ready to start this new chapter, this new life with its ups and downs.  I hope my garden gives me hours of pleasure and healing… healing from my brokenness and losses, and that our comfy nest continues hosting angels, and that we can continue lighting up a candle on the altar of love, for anyone and everyone who enter here.

Tomorrow, I will be posting more pictures of our little front porch, which I am totally loving, and also the back!  Hope I won't bore you! ;)  Love you all!