Greetings and Salutations!

Well hello, long time no see! It was a long and arduous journey this last month or so, and busy, busy, busy!
Once we got the bulk of our lives moved to the new place, then the heavy work began to get The little Green Cottage into shape for market. Scrubbing, painting, landscaping, replacing windows, etc. We worked long and hard and finally said our last goodbye to the old place. So long old friend, it was a good run!

Meanwhile, over at the new house...
There hasn't been much unpacking or making our own just yet, there just hasn't been time. We have spent everyday and evening in the back yard though. The new garden is a gift that keeps giving, and while I am a bit nervous about the amount of maintenance my new "park" is going to require, we are in love!

We discovered that our apple tree is a Gravenstein, an old fashioned variety that I have loved from my childhood. It is an early apple with a very short season and shelf life, but the flavor is amazing.  When we got the keys to the new place, most of the apples were already on the ground, but I couldn't let them go to waste. So I salvaged what I could and made applesauce, delicious! So, first week in the new place and I was already canning!

We also have been snacking daily on the raspberries that just started coming on when we moved in. I do love a bowl full of fresh berries with my afternoon tea!

Pasta and Caprese salad have been devoured made from the abundant basil and some gorgeous tomatoes from the new garden too.

The latest food source comes from a giant old tree and since we haven't yet purchased a fruit picker thinger, we have to wait for them to fall to the ground. Yummy Bartlett Pears!

In the front garden, we have figs coming on as well as a bumper crop of Delicata squash. Next year we shall have 2 varieties of cherries and blueberries to pick as well, plus whatever we decide to plant in the well appointed vegetable beds. So you can see, that though we may have no living room nor dining room furniture, we will not go hungry!

We (by we, I mean the engineer and a friend) did manage to put up a new coop for the girls. Lots of re-use, reclaimed materials were put to good work and the new place is very fine indeed.

Oh, and lest I forget, we also have a fancy pants fountain in the new garden!

As for getting my crafty on, it will have to wait. I have some walls I need to bash down and a whole heck of a lot of painting before my studio is ready for business.

So nice to visit with you all again. Things may be a bit spotty in this space until school starts, but I am back!

Have a wonderful weekend all!
xo

Let the next chapter begin

I do believe the time has come, a little bittersweet - but mostly exciting, to move on.
It is time to leave The Little Green Cottage.
This last weekend we began house hunting in earnest. It is thrilling and nerve wracking both.  And every time I think about packing I get a little queasy.

So much life has been lived in this tiny house. So many milestones passed, all the laughter and tears and funny old business that has taken place in this house that we have loved, oh my.

The day we moved in, the Engineer proposed. We got married in the backyard (right where the chicken coop is now). We brought our daughter home to this house. We have cooked, danced, sung, paced, planned, hugged and hung on to each other in this house.

We have planted 10 years of gardens. Cooked thousands of family dinners. Canned hundreds of jars of jam. Changed the curtains 831 times. Moved the furniture around 562 times. Made the bed 3,450.12 times. There have been washing machine breakdowns, a  near electrocution (of the engineer whilst trying to wire a new light), a small stove top fire and some other trials and tribulations. Still, this house has truly been a home.

We have sanded, scraped, painted and remodeled and made this house our happy place. We have seen the neighborhood change and change again. We have made true friends of our neighbors. This house has been good to us. We have simply outgrown our tiny cottage and it is time to move on...

...and write the next chapter of our lives.

It is time to say so long old friend

Well, we knew this day would come.

It is time to say goodbye to "The Couch that Mocks Me". And even though I have mocked you right back and have moaned your awkward, unflattering ways... you have served us well and taken it all in good humor. Perhaps we were too hard on you, or it could just be your time. You were quite willing to be dressed up and down, and bravely went on, so thanks.

Though you may be propped up with books and bits of firewood, your bench gone all kerplonkety and difficult to sit upon, your mechanics falling to pieces, your inners flopping out... we will take our time saying goodbye as careful thought must be put into selecting your replacement.

Your January clothes a little plain, but that's ok.

So long old friend, you will mock me no more.

Tis just the tiniest bit sad, but I will be brave.

Have a lovely weekend all!

Wordless Wednesday 12.12.12

Time Out

Me, my girl, and the Buddha Cat have been feeling poorly so we are taking a little time out until we get back to our usual mayhem. See you soon and take care.

xo

In The Kitchen with Lola - Banana Berry Applesauce Walnut Bread!

I thought I would take a break from my travel tales to share a recipe with you today. It was one of those happy accidents that come from a sudden necessity to diverge from one's original plan.

I had some over ripe bananas and a need to bake, but not enough banana to make my usual favorite banana bread. After hunting for recipes calling for 1 and 3/4 ripe bananas and ending up nowhere, I figured I'd just wing it and hope for the best. What else do I have on hand that isn't quite enough to make a tried and true recipe that I could throw in to make up something entirely new?

And so...

Banana Berry Applesauce Walnut Bread was born, and it is good!

While I didn't measure everything I wrote up a recipe immediately after tasting that should do the trick.

Banana Berry Applesauce Walnut Bread

Dry ingredients:
2 Cups All Purpose Flour
3/4 Cup Sugar
3/4 tsp. Baking Soda
1/2 tsp. Salt
Aprox. 1 Cup Chopped Walnuts
1 tsp. Cinnamon
1/4 tsp. Nutmeg

Wet ingredients:
Aprox. 2 very ripe Bananas mashed (about 1 cup)
2/3 Cup Unsweetened Applesauce
1/2 Cup Plain yogurt
2 Eggs lightly beaten
4 Tbs. Butter melted and cooled (you could use veg. oil as well)
1 tsp. Vanilla Extract
1 Cup Frozen Berries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees with rack on lower middle shelf.
Grease and lightly flour one large loaf pan or 2 smaller loaf pans and set aside.

Mix all the the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
Mix all of the wet ingredients in another bowl.

Pour wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until just incorporated. Lumpy batter is good.

Pour the mixture into loaf pans and bake in oven for aprox. 40 minutes if using 2 smaller loaf pans and aprox. 60 minutes if using one large loaf pan; until you stick in a toothpick to the center and it comes out clean.
Baking times may vary!
Let the bread sit in the pan for 5 minutes then turn onto cooling rack to let cool completely or as long as you can stand it before cutting into it and gobbling it up!

And yes, it is a bit more cake than bread, but never mind that, it is delicious!

Happy baking!

Today

Today there is a big wind sweeping the sky, liberating the leaves from the branches and tossing up a change. The Indian Summer is giving up it's foothold and passing the days over to Fall. There is suddenly an abundance of squirrels in the garden frantically scurrying, burying and scolding. I am wearing a sweater indoors for the first time in a long time, wishing I had a sweater with pockets, for I do love a handy pocket.

Today there is a menagerie underfoot, wee animals in groups of twos and threes and fours scattered from one end of the cottage to the other. It is very important to my girl that her four legged friends form families, so that no one is all alone. The polar bears were discovered in the fridge this morning when I reached for the milk.

Today I am studying maps, organizing collections, and wondering aloud. Today I promised my girl we would bake something sweet together after school, something with berries and cream. We will talk about the day and have two spoons to lick clean.

Today I have decided it is high time I got something going on the hook again, and the dust settling on my sewing machine creates a deep longing to spend time with my old friend. The wind has stirred up my creative sap and today I am dreaming up what I will make with my hands.

That is my today.

Tomorrow I sew!

What is your Today?

P.S. Thank you everyone who left me such wonderful comments on my last post and fantastic recommendations for my travels, what a wealth of information! especially to Patti who went above and beyond, I had no way to reply to your comment, I so appreciate it!

The Couch that Mocks Me: A Retrospective

I threatened, now I follow through! A brief pictorial history of "The Couch that Mocks Me" From the early days to the present, a look at the many shades of mocking. You have been warned.

The couch in it's pure state, before I started to play dress up in an attempt to mellow it's mocking ways

Ah, the beginning, before the white walls!

And so it begins in earnest with the white walls and my collection of vintage sheets

Perhaps one of my favorite 'on the wall above the mockery' displays

So there you have it, a good and strange look into the life of such a sofa.
And this, this is only a small selection in the history of 'The Couch that Mocks Me'! What does the future hold? What guise will it take next? Will it continue to mock me? I do believe the answer to that is a most inevitable Yes!

We are off on a last Hoorah! before Summer ends and school begins! Have a wonderful weekend!

Always On the Sunny Side...sort of

This blog is my shiny place; my haven of happy where I get to reflect on the good life I have, to appreciate the beauty in the everyday, and where I occasionally ramble on about the goofy, amazing, and crafty things that happen in my real life. (Though I will admit there hasn't been a whole lot of crafty lately.)

I don't like to dwell on the hard times, the heavy days, the tedious, or the crappy in between stuff. However, the truth is it's just how real life goes sometimes, for everyone. And lately...well.

It's been a bit overwhelming these days at the little green cottage. I'm in a slump, a real humdinger of a crappy in between a rock and a hard place kinda time. My thoughts and deeds have been elsewhere.

You know, one of those times when you can't think of anything to blog about...

One of those times when you suddenly realize you haven't taken a shower in a couple of days and when you go to take that shower you realize there are no clean towels because the laundry is your nemesis...

One of those times that you are missing deadlines which isn't like you, but there are so many pressing concerns and sleepless nights and anxious mornings that you just can't seem to pull it together...

One of those times where you have to fight the big bad machine with all your strength and might just to make sure your child gets a fair shake in this world...

One of those times where really lame T.V. ads catch you tearing up...

One of those times that you remind yourself that if you can't say anything nice, you shouldn't say anything at all, so you bite your tongue till it bleeds...

Do you have days, or weeks like that?

What do you do when that happens?

I'll tell you what I'm doing today. This morning when Pony Girl pretended to be a little sick in order not to go to school, I pretended to believe her. We went and ate do-nuts for breakfast and plan to spend the rest of this rainy day cuddled on the couch watching movies. When Pony Girl fessed up and said she wasn't really sick I told her, "That's O.K. We're taking a mental health day."

I'll see you soon, but right now the movie is about to start!

Hello Monday!

What a brilliant weekend we've had! After days of rain, the sun came out in all it's glory for a Summer like weekend. Of course we took full advantage.

There was a three cousin sleep-over at the little green cottage. A raucous mayhem ensued, followed by a wild rumpus!
There were grand sprinkler follies...

We got crafty with paper plate mask making...

There was dinner alfresco and fire roasted marshmallows and s'mores for dessert!

There was an evening movie in the living room theatre, then a lot of late night giggling, and two very tired adults come morning. Blueberry pancakes got the day started off nicely though.

Once the boys had gone, there was a bit of garden therapy for me and I spent the afternoon tucking little sprouts of veg into their beds.

Oh what a happy tired bunch and a brilliant weekend!

I would like to mention here that The Engineer is a super-hero! It was he who mowed the lawn and cleaned up the yard. It was he who planned the mask making, and the fire roasting. It was he who baked the mac & cheese from scratch, grilled the hot dogs and got up in the middle of the night with the littlest cousin (for this was his first sleep-over ever and it was all a bit disorienting to him). So 3 cheers to The Engineer, my hero!

Now what did you get up to this weekend?

This and That and a Brand New Hat

Oh my goodness, such a busy week! I haven't had much time for photo shoots or making, but that's ok. Life is moving along at a swift clip and I'm just going along with the ride. I thought I'd share a few of my happy snaps from the Instagram to show what's been going on 'round here.

Firstly, the Engineer and I had a real honest to goodness date night last weekend! Pony Girl was on a sleep-over at the cousins so we had the whole night. It all began with a trip to the haberdasher for a new "gentleman's" hat for the Mr. Oh and did he ever look handsome!
Later we met a couple of our friends for a feast at a Japanese Pub and enjoyed a most delicious cocktail called a "Twisted Kite". It was warm enough to sit on the patio so that our laughter floated out on the breeze. It was lovely!

Though our weather has been all over the place lately, I couldn't resist picking up some flowers for the garden. I love these English Daisies, such happy flowers...I imagine they are the sort of flowers that Muppets might plant.

As I was planting flowers I noticed the sale sign has gone up on the house across the street. For a moment I had a little daydream about buying this house, if only to save her. She was once most certainly a grand lady, but years of neglect and mistreatment have done her in I'm afraid.
In her large overgrown yard there is a magnificent Dogwood tree, one of the tallest I've ever seen, with fat butter-yellow blossoms. I do think given some serious TLC and a fresh coat of paint, she would make for the perfect Lola Nova headquarters, don't you?

And whenever I have a moment here and there, I've been slowly unpacking boxes from my grandfather's house. Finding pretty vintage treasures.

Well now, I see by the time that I must run; errands, chores, meetings and much to-doing!

I hope that all of you are having a swell week! Take care.

More good things

Alright, continuing on with the good things...

You may recall that Good Thing #1 was The Weather.

Now on to Good Thing #2: A Bedroom Spruce Up

There has been much discussion of late regarding the painting of my girl's bedroom walls; let's just say that her vision and mine differ slightly. It's not that I have great objection to vivid pink, or scarlet red, or bright blue; it is rather the fickle nature of my girl's passion for color - by that I mean that she changes her mind every few minutes. My suggestion was to go with something in the white/cream range (which was met with a roll of the eyes and a "Booorring") so that whenever she felt the desire, she could change the color scheme with accessories. An impasse was reached and we both agreed to spend a little more time mulling it over before making any long-reaching decisions.

In the meantime, a shuffling and sprucing up seemed to be the order. With the removal of an armoire and the addition of a desk, she now has a creative space of her very own.

The bed was prettied with some quilty love along with twinkle lights. Oh yes, it is a dreamy spot for sure.

Good Thing #3: A Delivery

On Saturday a big truck pulled up in front of The Little Green Cottage to deliver 2 very large crates containing things from my grandparent's home. Family antiques, furniture and a few 'mystery boxes'! It was a little like Christmas. There was a beautiful old dresser, an antique steamer trunk painted by my grandmother, that was once in my childhood bedroom - now claimed by my girl as it is clearly a pirate's treasure trunk!

A deliciously green vintage metal shop cabinet that once held my grandfather's lapidary specimens and will now house my vintage kitchen ware and other doodads.

And of course, the Pièce de résistance!

Oh my yes, that is indeed a Hot Pink Velvet loveseat! I have had my heart set on this settee since I was 7 years old! Highly impractical? Yes! Totally nonfunctional for our space? Certainly! Is there room for it in the LITTLE green cottage? Heck No! None of this matters for swoon it is a hot pink velvet loveseat! 'Nuf said.

I'll be showing you more family treasures as I clear paths through the house; there are still those 'mystery boxes' to go through! It is interesting to have some of these items in my home after growing up with them in my grandparent's homes. It is nice to feel a connection to my family, my history. Now if only I can figure out where it is all going to fit.

Tomorrow I have even more good things to share.

What good things are going on with you?

A little cheerful

Oh but it is a gloomy day out there today! Let's find something bright and cheerful to bring a smile and a spark!

Such as these gorgeous ribbons that arrived in the post from the wonderful Jane of Flaming Nora! I can't think of anything so wonderful as a cheery parcel brought by the mail lady. This wee package certainly changed the mood from dour to delighted! Thank you so much Jane!

Looking around the little green cottage, I spied some other cheerful bits.

Some beautiful new linen designed by Valori Wells for Free Spirit fabrics called Floral Birds. Now this is seriously cheerful! The colors are vibrant and stunning, and the feel of the linen is nice and drapey.

And one more shot of happy...

The new comforter for the bed. New to us anyway, picked up the other day when I popped into the thrift store for a minute. It is rather soft and lovely - though it does make getting out of bed on a gloomy day a little harder. And even though it is quite a lot more floral than any we have had before, it has been Engineer approved.

So, what sort of cheerful have you got going on?