A sitting area for my area...

I sometimes during my days think about our little white cottage, and how the gardens might be coping these days… and is it sunny over there, and are light-filled mornings letting the birds out, and has Winter the cat been visiting the gardens, and can one still go out in the front porch around 2:00pm when the sun is warming up the earth the strongest and sit out there, and would the yellow school bus go up the hill half emptied half full, and the children... would they turn their heads to the left and look down the hill looking for me sitting there? 

Days here are cold and quiet, and the garden is a most solitary place.  Old birds have fleet and the doves are not the common dwellers anymore, and my heart is searching for excuses to go out into this garden and search among low branches for forgotten nests and broken twigs, but these old bones seek the warmth of the hearth as birds themselves seek the sun, and would not stand more than half a dream outside.  And on the West, blue mountain tops are shrouded in fine white coats, and the streets are not like those hilly country roads up the hill at the little white cottage, and you'd sit down and look outside the large windows from the upper floors and make yourself believe that this shall past soon, and that the sun will return to the land of your heart soon, and again, I’m one with my dreams, until my dreams become me.  

Then, on November 16, just the day before we headed off to FL for an early Thanksgiving with our parents, our painter, Gary, came back to finalize the last details… like retouch the paint, painting what he hadn’t painted, or forgotten to paint, and remove paint where paint was not supposed to be, and reinstalling all the hardware in doors, ceilings, as well as putting up all the curtain rods in the upper floors and so on.  

This guy Gary had such complicated life.  He was into something big with the law/court (he finally confessed to me) and had so much going on with his personal life, that only took him 16 days to finished up a job that was supposed to be completed in a week, for the most.  Had I known this aforehand, I’d had never paid him in full right off as I did, before he finished.  I tell you, life is a classroom, indeed.  

We came back home from FL that Wednesday, and on Thanksgiving day the following day we didn’t go anywhere.  Instead, we worked in the house from sun to sun finishing up several projects we had left unfinished… like installing all those window rods and putting up all the curtains in our new 'sitting' area, next to the kitchen.  

I'm using here the same panels we have in the dining room.  I'm totally in love with these panels, and only wish I could have bought more of them, instead of all the whites I got.

I love how this space turned out.  When we lived here before this space was our dining room, but it always felt crowded, and small to me, and I never liked that our big, square table took almost all the space.  I wanted to do things differently this time, and thus decided to make this space into a green-house-sitting area of sorts.  The armchair is part of the furniture in the family room, and I love the flow it establishes in this open space, as it echoes the furniture in the family room with its camel undertones and the patterned black and white details. 

I also filled this space with all the amount of potted plants it could take, because I love plants and because houseplants add the perfect amount of natural character to any space, even in this urban little sitting room. 

Green plants function as a unique and balanced centerpieces. 

And of course, ferns and houseplants have to have some fairylights twinkling on then!

Now that we're not using the blinds any more sunshine streams in almost all day long through those windows, and the northern rooms are now bright and full of life.  Plants love it and I love it too.

We later brought in one of the large mirrors and installed it in this wall by the armchair.... it gives the room a sense of amplitude.

And after everything was done here, we went to work on the garage... to unpack all those boxes and boxes of mirrors and artwork we still had there.  Oh friends, I can hardly believe the number of mirrors I own!  How in the world was I ever able to hung this many mirrors, pics, artwork and frames on those walls in our little white cottage, it truly escapes my imagination!

As one may expect, more boxes of things were sent to the Goodwill, more precious treasures given away.  For some, I just had to close my eyes and pretended I never had them, for others I was practically forced to give them away.  You see, the Fisherman is a minimalist, and does not support my primitive gathering instincts.  So I had to pretend I did not needed any of these things before I could parted from them... in a way, oh yes, I'd have to thank the Fisherman after all.  I know I'd surely be a hoarder otherwise.  

These days, however, for some reason my spirit is turning into the minimalist that my husband is, and I too feel that my life is heading towards “less-less-less is better”.   It does make you feel free, getting rid of all things you don't need anymore, or want anymore, and I feel I should go even further into this practice and deepens the decluttering in my life.  The garden is next.  I've brought so many things from the little white cottage that should be put in the trash...  so yes, the garden must come next...

For now, I'm enjoying decorating this old house in the roses the way I envision.  Strange, how one changes styles with the flow of life.  I remember how different my decorating style used to be not too long ago from what I love today.  But I guess it is like that in every other aspect in life.  We should learn to love and accept who we are, or become as time and circumstances change us.  Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don't resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.” Lao Tzu.