Getting a Hand on Fall

Hello Everyone!  

I hope everyone is finding the fall season refreshing and the colors vibrant. I have been very busy doing all sorts of things, but mainly writing and being holed up in the house. So, while being in the home, I thought I would share some news, but also, how I spend my writing breaks - taking photos!

This pretty paper pumpkin was made and given to me by my dear friend, Debbie McReynolds. It was just the touch I needed for my window. Look at how the paper looks with the velvet leaf:

I decorate very minimally in my house, which surprises most people. I can pull out the stops when the mood strikes me, but for the most part, I keep it simple. While working all week, writing and writing (more on that later) I took breaks and found the light coming in through our windows just right and so I stretched my back and took some photos in our family room. My barber husband had bought his little bungalow home in hopes to have a wife to share it with some day (his words) and his little home was built in 1925ish. I put my little touches here and there and he gave me his office to do my "Elizabeth House" look, but the rest of the house is still being "combined" with our styles. I love how our little home is blending together.

I just loved these little gourds in the window that are on vintage butter pats and the candle holder is from our wedding, as is the platter. Most people find it funny that I design elaborate window treatments but I choose not to have any of my own. I love light and old windows. Or, I choose to have old grain sacks hanging up (as in our kitchen). Go figure. But here are some photos of the little gourds....

A couple of days ago, while writing in our little back room, with all the windows, I saw a man walking around our house and looking at our windows. I called my barber husband, who told me he sent a guy over to give us an estimate on what it would cost to take off the storm windows and to clean the windows both inside and out! Yeah! As you can see, not a moment too soon! Actually, these particular windows are about 9 feet off the ground from the BOTTOM of the window and having tried to clean them before, there is no where to lean the ladder on the outside, other than to the side of the window. I can't reach them. So for now, I have convinced myself that this "look" is the "new, vintage window" look. :-)

But I know my readers and you aren't looking at the window, you are looking at that little piece of furniture peeking out of the photo and wondering what it is....see, do I know you or what? Well, that is my, or rather, my barber husband's latest find! And found on the side of the road! After a day of shearing sheep (that is what I call what Randy does - sometimes I walk into the barber shop and I see all this gray hair all over the floor, he is standing there with his clippers in his hand, buzzing, and an old man sitting in the chair with a beard, and it looks like he has been shearing sheep all day!) But coming home one day, he saw this chair, and hopefully, no one was just sitting it out to air it, but home it came !

Until I can put a new facelift on it, it remains in its original state: Road Kill Street Chic - do you love it or what???

And in keeping with the fall colors - which happen to be extra pretty this year, I chose simple gourds to fill my English cream bowl. I am posting extra large photos so you can see what I saw behind my lens:

Randy is very proud of his art deco cabinet. When he bought his house, it was painted white,  he tells me (don't say it) and he said he spent months stripping it and refinishing it. He is not "handy" in that way and no one ever taught him how to do those things. This was his first project and I think he did a wonderful job. When we first got engaged and after he realized I would paint anything and everything, he said, "Four things you can't paint...this cabinet, the window seat, my dining table, and my desk." Hid desk is the one in my office. One down....

Now just in case these super large images are too large for some of you, here are a few in a smaller version:

As you can see, our home is decorated very rustic and simply for the fall season. We keep the dust for the true "rustic" feel - well, that is what I tell myself, at least. :-)

I've been writing a LOT lately, but before I get to that, I would like to say a little something about home life, fall, and just being with the one you love during this time of year. I gave you eye candy up front this time, and now "point of view" time comes a little later....and there is a reason.

This is the time of year that either is in panic mode - holidays around the corner, school schedules, exams, and shopping....or it is relax mode....soups to make, shopping not due yet, and the weather is just screaming for walks outside. I am the latter. This is the time of year that I start to "nest." Get out the cozy lap blankets, dig out the soup recipes, and take walks with the crunchy leaves. And holding hands. Fall is the holding hand season. Not too soon for gloves yet, but chilly enough that a warm hand is all the better. Just a thought - go grab a hand and if you need an excuse, just say you were chilly.

I took these photos just only a few days ago. My honey was up early to leave for fishing and I wanted to go, but I had deadlines to meet and I needed the house to myself to write and to think anyway. I enjoy being by myself at times. He had gone out to the car to load up, and while he was out, it was then that I noticed the light hitting the gourds and the chair in a certain way.

I was still in my pj's, my hair in my "thingy" as I call it (a stretchy headband) and no make-up. Barefoot, I padded over to my office and got out my camera and just went back to the gourds and started to arrange them a bit and started to shoot photographs. I did not hear Randy come back in right away - I was caught up in my own, little "gourd world." When I finally noticed him standing there, and he was waiting on me, I just put my camera down, gave him a kiss good-bye and he loaded up a few more things and on his way he went. And I back to my picture taking before I started my writing again.

About an hour later, my barber husband tells me he is well on his way, made his stop at Bass Pro, got his coffee and I can hear in his voice that all is well with the world. He asked me what I was doing and I told him I was making green tea and cutting french bread and getting ready to start writing. He paused for a second and said, "You know, I thought it was kinda neat how you just got out your camera so early and just started to shoot that bowl..." I was caught off guard because this isn't something he usually says to me. I asked him what did he mean? He goes on to tell me that he felt it was "neat" how I can just walk into a room, see something special, and then just stop what I am doing, go get my camera and start shooting. "I never see stuff the way you do, it is kinda neat," he tells me over the phone. "I was wondering how you do that and this morning when I saw you, I was wondering what you were seeing."

I am a little stunned as I gnaw on some chewy french bread, while standing in my kitchen with bare feet.

My husband is impressed by me.

Now I know he has been impressed with my "stuff" before, but for some reason, this resonates with me differently. Maybe it is because I never gave it a second thought about pulling out my camera. Maybe because I just assumed that OF COURSE ANYONE would have noticed how the light hit that tiny little gourd stem just "like that." 

Or maybe, I just realized right then that when my barber husband came back into the house that morning as I was taking photos and thought he was waiting on me, he wasn't waiting on me to finish up, he was actually watching me. Watching and wondering.  For a moment, he was wondering what I was seeing through my lens that was so fascinating, that I didn't even bother to eat breakfast yet, or even put on socks, that I would stand on a cold floor because I didn't want to miss the light. 

And it is at those moments, when we can look at our loved ones and either really wonder at them with amazement or wonder what we ever had in common with them and brush them off so easily because our own agenda is more important at the moment. I am guilty of the latter so many times. Always in a rush, it seems. I hate to admit that, it isn't intentional, but it happens. But yet, I do find myself wondering so much about my barber husband, but I don't speak of it often enough.

For example, those "sheep" he shears all day - those haircuts. I will sit there, in the barbershop and read and chat and sometimes, a guy will enter with a head of hair that looked like has never seen a comb and I wonder, what the hell is Randy going to do with that?? And I will watch my barber husband as he sits this mess of guy in his chair, and as he puts the cape around his neck, and ask his usual question, "So, what are we doing today?" I think, What are we doing today? What are we doing today? Buzz that crap off? What else can you do??

So, I sit there and watch in wonder. And I get impressed. I wonder how he sees the haircut that is to be. I only see a billy goat. I wonder how he knows what "take a little off the top" means and how much is a "little"? But by the end of the shearing session, Mr. Billy Goat, looks like he has joined the human race. Oh, I do tell my handsome barber husband how much I love seeing what he can do with those clippers of his, but I should tell him more. He impresses me so often.

How we wonder at one another is a sign of affection. Wondering means we are curious enough about the other person in a good way. We want to know what makes them tick, how they think - all without judgement. We enjoy that person for who he/she is and have no desire to change them, only to get to know them, and without taking any of their glory, only being happy to be invited into their life.

So these above photos, are just a mental break from all my writing, and are simply a visual of how I see my world inside my tiny home on one given morning, while waiting for my husband to pack up for his fishing trip and while standing around in my pj's. And my husband, minding his own business, walks in and sees his crazy wife, bent over, studying a bowl of gourds, and he was just wondering what I was seeing behind my lens and how I manage to find it all so fascinating.  And now you can see what I was seeing as well and whether or not you find it fascinating, doesn't matter, it only matters to me that you found it (me) at all. :-)

I just wanted to share the moment that took place right at the beginning of this little photo session.

And now on with some news - and then off to bed! It is late and I must try to get some sleep - sleep is important to me lately and haven't been getting much.

Well, as pretty as that part of the house is, below is another case...this is how my last week or so has been spent, writing, in our little back area....not glam at all - but content.

You see, I wasn't lying about that "thingy" in my hair, no make-up, and my pj's and french bread. Oh, I have so much news, but I am so pooped. Well, for those of you that I am driving crazy about my website not being up, get in line....right behind me. My hard drive crashed about a month ago - and I don't even want to get into it. But it is from my new Mac - and in 25 years, I NEVER had a hard drive crash - and if I keep typing, I will just keep getting upset - but lucky me, the computer guys said, "this is so rare..." and my hard drive is STILL at the repair center and can't be totally recovered...and is looking like well over $2000 to recover data....okay, I am stopping now....

That is why I am in the back room, with all the windows so I can see the trees and leaves and not face the my huge desk top, that I have yet to RELOAD all the programs and everything and working off my laptop for now....

But you know...I am really pooped. I think I will have to finish this post another time. I know, I know, I never do this, but I am really tired.  I will say I am writing and interviewing chefs and food bloggers for a book coming out, Where Women Cook Celebrations - very exciting, but will talk about that and other news next time. To be honest, blogger cut me off and this is the SECOND time I am doing this post - so it should have been done about 2 hours ago. That is why I am pooped.

Okay, much more news later. Once I am caught up. I hope you enjoyed the photos. On a design note, for those of you who may feel the pressure to always go "all out" and decorate your home for family member or friends who are coming over to visit...just remember that sometimes, less is more. I know how much fun it is to decorate, believe me, I do love doing it. But sometimes, if life doesn't allow the time, or the energy, or even the expense, sometimes, keeping it really simple can be a quiet way to make a nice statement about a season. 

Let your heart and your words decorate the souls of your friends.

A home is a place for lovely wondering...

A house is a place to wonder where to put your butt to sit and feet to rest...

Don't kill yourself decorating for butts and feet...just my opinion, but what do I know, I just spent an hour taking photos of a bowl of bumpy gourds.... :-)

From my house to your house,