Small joys today

I've been pretty eeyore-ish lately. I can see that, looking through my last handful of posts. But there are still those daily glimmers, some small joys to notice and celebrate:

~ stumbling upon The Waltons while Maddy and I cleaned out our closets and sorted through old clothes the last two afternoons. So wholesome, so days-gone-by. I always thought Olivia was a beautiful, wise mom and had a little crush on Jim-Bob (hey! he could fix lots of things!). I still dream of a white farmhouse on a mountain...

~ my newly-weeded out closet

~ my sunny office/crafty room, formerly Maddy's bedroom (+ she's happy to now have the former studio for her room):

~ installing long-owned items with lingering good (inactive) intentions, like these ledges that are still works in progress but much better on the wall than in the box:

~ finding quick solutions to my problems today via Facebook: a dog sitter and a CSA crate picker upper. Who knew that all I needed to do was post a status and all my wishes could come true? Thanks, Facebook friends. 

~ watching this video, which makes me want to (a) join in and (b) get some vintage dresses (let's bring back hats! yes?) (via kotke.)

So that's how I'm trying to outrun Eeyore who is, after all, a slow small donkey. Not to mention fictional.
What small joys have you found today?

Lilac with envy

Apparently my sideyard lilacs felt bad that I was going on and on about the beautiful lilacs in London.  Who knew they could be such jealous flora? Well, here you go, dear lilacs, your moment to shine. You really are my favorites:

In the house where I grew up, our backyard was surrounded with three walls of tall lilacs. I can't smell them without thinking of those old 55 East days and feeling a bit childhood-y. Olfactory time travel.

Well, happy weekend. There really should be 7 weekends in May, don't you think?

p.s. This afternoon, after days + days of rain, the sun has come out! Hooray.

You may have heard

that it snowed here.

A lot.

Dear future grandchildren,

See? the snow really WAS up over our heads

(or almost)

and we didn't have a snowblower

and we could barely reach to shovel it up over the walls of snow

(uphill both ways and all)

Ahh....photographic proof.

Our 4-5 snow days = Last day of school bumped to June 24th

(for now...).

So far we're holding on just fine. Lots of games and baking and elliptical machine-ing.  It's times like these that my floral philosophy is especially crucial.

Curtains!

We have curtains! On our windows!

We moved here three and a half years ago, folks.  And it's taken me that long to weigh options, decide, doubt my decision, weigh again, postpone, repeat. As Fanny Price says in Mansfield Park, "I have no talent for certainty."  You're going to laugh, because after all those years of hemming and hawing, I went with a very basic white linen drape (and, by the way, it's actually a lot thicker than it looks here with the light glowing through).

We really wanted this little den-like space to feel like a cozy timeless library, like it could have been assembled by your librarian great-aunt in the 20s or 40s or in 2010 by, well, us. Eclectic. Maybe a little quirky.

 

Because of this--and I know this will not be everyone's favorite--we also chose antique brass hardware.  I love it for this room, though. (By the way, I've been seeing a lot of brass and gold in magazines so maybe the trend is turning back to gold and brass?)  

Linen drapes on sale, here

Rods and such, on sale here

No, I don't get any fees for mentioning this.

Just trying to be helpful and informative here

in case you are three years into a curtain decision and need someplace to turn.

I'm glad we got this vintage, scraped-up postcard spin-me-round at Brimfield last month:

(^You spin me right round, baby.)

But it's kind of awkward there on the trunk/table.

Any ideas?

October sprucing

Oh, I love autumn. October, I welcome you with arms wide open.

Unfortunately, my front porch wasn't reflecting that love and was in need of a serious makeover. It looked more like a place to sit with a rifle slung across your lap to scare trespassers away while muttering "git off my propity" between clenched teeth. Not the welcoming message I was after. 

{Maybe my mind just goes there because we started reading To Kill a Mockingbird out loud and I've been thinking about porches and scary neighbors.}

I've had the corners folded down on a couple of catalogs for ages and, lo and behold, when I checked online they were on sale.  It was a sign, a giant green light from the universe.

Ah, much better. It's getting there anyway.  Amazing what just a couple of changes will do.

Red bench , on sale.
3-tiered wire baskets stand , on sale.
Fall cattail wreath (not pictured), not so much on sale. Hey, 2/3 isn't so bad.

Come and sit a spell, you hear?

. . . 

Listen: Theme from To Kill a Mockingbird, Elmer Bernstein

{The whole soundtrack is wonderful; it says childhood + autumn to me.}