{GHP} 10 things I can’t live without

29 Wednesday May 2013

Posted by Karen B. in Personal Information

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Really? Maybe that’s too strong of a statement, but here are the 10 8 things, that in a perfect world, I couldn’t ~~live~~ be truly happy without. (I’m not sure I can even say that with conviction). {Please know that I realize I can live without all but health to keep me alive, maybe not in happiness, but I could be alive}

Here you go: 10 8 things that ~~I can’t live without~~ make me very happy. The bluebird of happiness flies very close when all of these things are in sync.

1) Coffee, good, rich and strong. Two cups per morning. Occasionally, in the afternoon when I feel like I’ve hit the wall, one more cup o’ joe, please.

2) My family and friends. Maybe it’s because I’m an only child or I am simply a needy person, but I thrive on contact with others and the relationships I enjoy with family and friends. I love them all, and each time I hear from them it brightens my day. Mr. B. is my best friend and I feel fortunate to have him in my life all these years!

(Above) son #1 – Kyle, standing; son #2 – Kevin, sitting, talking with Olivia our granddaughter, all essential components to my happy place.

3) Fresh plants and flowers indoors. I really delight in fresh, live plants indoors. I am giddy with a bouquet of fresh flowers, even simple greens from the garden with a few shrub roses thrown in the mix, I am happiest when flowers are present and live plants are in the room.

4) The few blue and white accents in our home. The weird thing about this is that for most of my married life I have not had blue and white in my life through no fault of anyone except myself. I started married life trying to forge my own way where color was concerned. Many of my best friends were using blue and white as their base colors and I longed to be different…all the while, I really loved the look of blue and white and the way it made me feel {I believe color has a big impact on how we feel in our homes, do you?}. I know, I’m an idiot, why wouldn’t I just concede already? Anyway, I’ve finally started, in earnest, introducing blue and white into my home and I must say I wonder how I managed without it all these years?

5) Books, all kinds and topics. I have less time to read these days and have adopted using Audible, an audible book store that allows you to upload unabridged books onto your iPod (great for multitasking), but there is something about the presence of books that calms me. I can sit down with a book, begin to read and feel my blood pressure drop.

6) Music. Same as a above…really a lot of different styles of music appeal to me. I tend to listen to classical in my car. Hey, I live in Southern California, have you seen the traffic? There is nothing like Mozart for putting a stop to the negative reaction that tends to take over when you encounter careless, clueless drivers, which are found in abundance on the busy streets of the greater Los Angeles area, including Orange County. {Note: I was going to try to insert a little button you could push to play a song, but I didn’t figure it out}

7) Work in the garden. Communing with earth, if you will. I do love to labor in the yard and living in Southern California affords us nearly year round weather to accomplish this.

8) My dogs, really all of the pets I’ve ever owned have brought me such pleasure. Raising our sons we had a veritable zoo at one time, including a Texas tortoise named “Timothy”, a lop-eared bunny named “Lucy”, cats and dogs, a canary, and our youngest son had a lizard and some mice at one time. If you are a pet lover, you know what I mean. Winnie and Madison are rescue dogs. Madison is a Jack Russell/Border Terrier mix and Winne, well what can I say? We don’t know what she is, we only know that when we adopted her she was 30 lbs and the shelter told us she was full grown, she just turned 9 years and she weighs 90 lbs!

Do you have a list of happiness triggers?

I hope your upcoming weekend brings you joy.

I’m over at Ricki Jill’s Art @ Home, sharing my “happy list”, stop by.

{Home} Furnishing a home over time

22 Wednesday May 2013

Posted by Karen B. in Decorating, House and Home

≈ 22 Comments

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furnishing

“I believe in living in a house and letting it give you answers. You don’t have to put it all together at once.

Warning: Keep this post out of the hands of husbands who might use it to detain your progress with the decorating of your home.

When Mr. B and I bought our first house I wanted it furnished with what I thought, at the time, was our style. I wanted every room to be pretty and furnished. So, we searched and purchased, as our budget would allow, and had each of the 3 bedrooms and living areas “decorated” for living. Or so we thought. As time went by we realized we should have bought a single larger sofa since the two love seats didn’t really work with our family and entertaining needs. They took up space that could have offered additional seating beyond a two-person sofa. I settled for stuff I later regretted purchasing. Some of this was the inexperience of my 23 years and some was trying to blend our newlywed tastes. Note: Mr. B, a long time ago, decided to leave most of the design decisions to me. He’s such a wise man!

Anyway, I learned the hard way how to go about furnishing a home, which seems to have been my MO for many years. Once I figured out that when you move into a home, it’s advisable to let the house give you its clues about what you and the house need to do to create the comfort and livability that we all long for. It took me a couple of houses to realize that by holding off on purchasing ANYTHING that was a make-do piece, and that by saving my money and waiting for what my heart desired, was so much better.

So, I’m sharing rooms from my home and those that I drew inspiration from in decorating our house.

the foyer:

Our foyer isn’t large but the wall you see here separates it from the long entry hall.

the master bedroom:

The wall color will be changed this summer, should I go with a light color or the darker walls in the first bedroom above? Our bed is only about 8 years old, when we bought a new mattress and box spring we decided to switch to a queen from a king. I like the fact that the bed has side rails and doesn’t require a dust ruffle, which when we had a dust ruffle on our old bed, attracted dust bunnies and doggie hair. [This is a true confession moment]

the dining room:

The dining room in our home used to be the living room, for that story visit HERE. The dining room table is the very first dining room table we purchased in 1980. We had it refinished last year, but I still love the overall design. the Windsor chairs were bought 25 years ago from an antique store that imported them from Ipswich…I love that story being an Anglophile!

the guest room:

The story of how I finally got my blue and white guest room is HERE. This picture was taken before the small pillows had been changed to a RL blue and white stripe. The furnishings in this room have traveled with us for years. The nightstand on the right is an antique, the nightstand on the left (which I realize isn’t very visible) was from a consignment store.

the family room:

The Carol Glasser room [above our family room image] was the inspiration for the red and cream checked sofa. Our walls were red when I made this upholstery decision and now I would like a solid fabric sofa…I can be patient, that’s the point of this post.

the reading room:

The loveseat is one of the pair we first purchased. It’s been recovered and restyled but it’s a well-made sofa and has served us well. The other one was given to our oldest son for his first apartment, I believe he sold it on craigslist when he married. So that’s the tour, we haven’t purchased a piece of furniture in years, the decisions we made early on taught us to buy what we love…not an original idea but on that works.

Tell me, did you have a similar experience in furnishing your home or did you know immediately what you wanted/needed and voila!?

{Garden, Home and Party} Celebrating the season with a party!

15 Wednesday May 2013

Posted by Karen B. in Decorating, Entertaining, Flowers, House and Home

≈ 23 Comments

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Spring

Garden: Spring is truly magical, with the seemingly overnight transformation of our outdoor surroundings from austere to vibrant. I marvel at how quickly the yard can burst with color, including large doses of every shade of green. I’ve shared with you how work in my garden always makes me happy. I understand not everyone shares my enthusiasm, but those of you that delight in planting summer flowers or bulbs, understand the joy the warmer, longer days can bring the avid gardener.

I planted hydrangea in the urn to the left of the door, it’s the softest pink. Most of the flowers in the front yard are white or blue. Pink was my nod to the fresh innocence of spring. I’m such a dare devil with color, lol.

When the warm weather visits we spend a lot of time in our backyard. {Sorry about the glare on this image below, even though it was overcast, it was still very bright, one of the things I like best about spring}.

I know this spring has had issues…like snow in late April in some parts of the U.S., but when it’s perfect weather-wise, do you enjoy the great outdoors?

Home: Some of the steps I take around the house to seasonalize for spring:This time of year, with the addition of a few extra hours of daylight, the windows are open more often, the woolen throws are carefully stored and I put out some birds nests I’ve collected over the years. {I only take the ones that are vacated by the family of wren, sparrows and hummingbirds}. I’ve found most of them in our yard, and I love the intricate construction of each one.

I have a lot of roses in my garden, but surprisingly the ones that provide a constant source of flowers for cutting are the hardy, shrub Iceberg roses and my Eden climbing rose. I love bringing fresh flowers into our home all spring and summer.

I love the color of these orchids (above), a gift from a friend. They look like spring to me, along with the twig planter, it almost reminds me of a nest.

Fresh fruit is another way to give a room a touch of spring.

…and finally, I bring out my little bronze birds to remind me spring is in the air.

Party: I like to cook, I find it to be a creative outlet. Mr. B and I don’t usually eat large meals during the week. My work schedule facilitates simple menus for the weekday meal. By entertaining friends and family, I’m able to try new recipes with the added bonus of trying out new table settings (another passion). Spring swings the door wide open with possibilities and options for mixing things up in the table setting department.

I use this white planter (which you can barely see in this picture) outdoors when it’s not providing me with plenty of maiden- hair fern and ivy for a table arrangement. I buy small pots of seasonal flowers and plug them in where needed. It’s an inexpensive way to dress the table with natures best work.

So are you ready? Share some of your favorite ways to enjoy the season…

I’ll be eager to see what you’ve been up to.

Note: Due to my blog being hosted by WordPress.com, Inlinkz has you click on the icon below to insert your link. Sorry for the extra step. ~and~ a huge thank you to my friend Victoria “Restoring our 1890 Victorian” for helping me with this.

I’ll be linking up with Tracie at a Fishtail Cottage, stop by and say hi.

{Garden} Made with love – link party at Victoria’s

14 Tuesday May 2013

Posted by Karen B. in Family, Flowers, Gardening, Gardens, House and Home, Renovating

≈ 22 Comments

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Gardening

Victoria, over at Restoring our 1890 Victorian, really stumped with her Linky party theme, “Made with Love”. This isn’t because I haven’t put love into nearly everything I do, especially where family and friends are concerned, it’s that I wasn’t sure I had photographs that I could use to document this project “made with love”.

So at the risk of seeming to be in a landscape/garden rut, the most recent project that seemed viable to the topic, one that I knew I gave a lot of thought, energy and love to, was planning and planting the front yard of our youngest son, Kevin and his wife, Sarah.

I apologize for not taking “before” pictures of the jumble of ivy and juniper…the landscape was so grim it never occurred to me. This is the yard prior to the final removal of the odd shaped bushes and a struggling ornamental plum (the tree in this picture).

(above & below) the left side of the steps are a garden I planted late last year, we mirrored the style for the larger portion of the front yard. The Iceberg roses and Santa Barbara Daisies have doubled in size

The newlyweds recently purchased an older home. This older home had been owned by an elderly gentleman, whose wife had passed away some time before. When he passed, his children put the house on the market. The yard had been “maintained” by a mow, blow and go kind of guy. Salvageable shrubs had been hedged into misshapen boxes and other odd shapes not natural to the plant world. Many of the plants were overgrown beyond trimming to any effect.

(above) The plants with the white flowers are the Iceberg roses…they will put on a couple of feet of height over the summer. There will not be very much ground exposed once the grasses and other plants fill in.

(above) the green on the front of the house is the espaliered apple…it should be very happy in its new home.

The majority of the front yard is a slope that meets the sidewalk. It was covered in runaway ivy and low growing juniper and because the slope was neglected the two varieties married and intermingled into a mess, complete with spider webs and weeds.

(above) Sarah and her mom bought some slate stepping stones and we planted Thyme ground cover. Once that fills in she can cut thyme for cooking and enjoy a lush, green lawn of an herb that has a small purple flower, when in bloom.

Just before the wedding in December, Sarah’s mom paid her gardener to rip out the entire mess. I began planning for the new yard in February and with the help of Jose (my gardener extraordinaire) we installed the finished plant list in April.

Planning took some time since Sarah and Kevin wanted a California/Santa Barbara look. Translation: Olive trees, grasses, lavender, white Iceberg shrub roses, Penstemon and other perennials. The space at the front of the house was begging for something showy and structured. We selected an espaliered apple. We asked Jose to make sure the sprinklers were in good working order, since we didn’t want the hundreds of dollars in plant material to shrivel up in the upcoming warm weather. That ended up involving hours of work! He amended the soil and planted.

Next will be some work in the back yard, although we have worked on some areas already…Sarah recently re-planted the herb/vegetable garden we installed last year and the space under the trees has been an inviting respite from hot sun since they first moved in.

Any and all involvement has been made with love. ♥ Check out the linky party at Restoring our 1890 Victorian

I can guarantee, you will be entertained!

~and~ because this garden makes me happy I’m joining Ricki Jill at Art @ Home for her linky party ~and~ Fishtail Cottage for her Garden Party

{GHP} Happy Mother’s Day

08 Wednesday May 2013

Posted by Karen B. in Family, Holidays

≈ 20 Comments

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Mother's Day

My mother passed away 3 years ago, it’s hard to believe it’s already been that long! Still, I’m getting great joy in watching our oldest son and his darling wife raise our granddaughter. It’s the circle of life and there’s nothing quite as satisfying to me as seeing them nurture and teach the sweet toddler.

On this upcoming Mother’s Day, I wish all of you a much-deserved day of love and adoration, and a fun day with family. If you are fortunate enough to still have a mom to visit and celebrate with, cherish the time.

These are things that remind me of my mom…Thank you, Mom!

for introducing me to the love and joy of gardening

for supporting my hobbies and interests

for always being at my side through good and bad

for helping me out of a few jams

for all the time we spent together, talking, laughing and reminiscing

for sharing my love of antique searching

for making childhood fun and filled of love

I miss you mom.

Happy Mother’s Day this coming Sunday.♥

Reminder—next week I invite you to join me in celebration of spring! Link up your favorites about the season, the garden, home and or party you take pleasure in during this time of year! See you Wednesday, May 15th.

{Garden} Progress update on New Year’s goals

01 Wednesday May 2013

Posted by Karen B. in Flowers, Gardening, Gardens, Maintenance

≈ 31 Comments

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Gardening

HAPPY MAY DAY!

Sometime in early January I posted about my “goals” for the year. I used this word to avoid the utter sense of failure I experience when I’ve set the usual “resolutions” and then dropped the ball within the first month of the new year. This year I was determined to set realistic “goals” for myself and keep them in my thoughts to achieve some measure of success. How did that work out, you ask? Well, it’s only May 1st, but I would give myself a solid B for achieving 2 of the 3 goals so far.

If you’re interested in reading the post visit me HERE, otherwise, here is a bit of proof of my work towards accomplishing at least 1 of the 3 goals. Goal #2. Plans for the Garden :: As I explained in my previous post, I have regularly worked in my garden, but in recent years, only to maintain it. I had really dropped the ball where adding new “bones” to the space was concerned. The pictures I had taken for blog purposes revealed lots of bare spots and some much needed updating. {You really can see your yard, or rooms in your home, more objectively by taking a picture and looking at it}

Our house is stucco on all sides, except for the front where we had stone applied some years ago. I’m sure there are stucco walls that are smooth and somewhat attractive, that is not what we have in our 1968 Southern California tract house. Which is why I’ve have ivy growing on many of the walls. In our side yard there is a particularly large expanse of stucco and the wall happens to get full sun. I had always thought about planting something that could be espaliered. My trusty nursery suggested White Lady Banks rose so I’m giving it a go. Don’t judge Lady Banks just yet. I’ve only planted her this past weekend. But with time, I’ve been promised she’ll grow and will at least break up (figuratively) some of the stucco wall.

I’ve got a David Austin ‘Heritage’ and an Iceberg rose growing in front of Lady Banks, she should enjoy their company while she puts on growth.

Iceberg are so easy and provide the best white blooms nearly 9 months of the year around here.

The other roses in this area of the yard are French Lace

~and~

a Burgundy Simplicity rose. They both put their best face forward in spring, but perform well all summer long.

Last year I discovered that by planting my herbs in pots I could avoid the little slug holes that plagued all of my basil and flat leaf parsley.

The patio bed was revamped a couple of years ago, but even with the Iceberg roses and climbers, Cecile Brunner and Eden, the rest of the bed needed some interest. This spring I was able to buy foxglove in color packs (a smaller, 6-pack of starts). The ‘foxy’ variety will last most of the summer and could be coaxed into blooming again next spring if I could tolerate the stage where they look so sad. They are up and strong and about to burst into a full riot of beauty. (Please pardon the boxwood, they are transplants and have been over hedged. I’m hoping this summer they will recover and be lush and green once again).

The back corner of our yard is deep shade most of the time so in 2011 we decided to throw in the towel on trying to grow grass and instead had our gardener create a pea gravel patio. The corner plants never did much since the trees that create the shade sucked the nutrients from the soil and water was a problem since the soil was filled with roots and little else. We have moved 3 sizable concrete pots to that corner and my hope is to plant them with a Japanese maple, Annabelle hydrangea (Thanks, Keri! Ivy Clad posted the best information on this hydrangea) and possibly a Camellia japonica in white. This is a work in progress so I’ll have to follow up with a future post on my progress.

Under the kitchen bay window, on our patio, we have had 2 large concrete oval pots. Last year I planted white azalea ‘Alaska’ and white ivy geranium…

and this year, the ivy geranium won. The white azalea have been moved to a more suitable spot in the garden and the white ivy geranium are having a party.

The formal garden is still under renovation. It needs plants that can tolerate massive roots from our neighbor’s beautiful Alder tree. I love their tree but it does wreak havoc with the planting beds. I continue to amend the soil and hope for the best. The Sally Holmes climbing rose is happy on the fence and the roses in each of the boxwood framed openings seem fairly happy. I had to replace one of the hybrid teas with a Romantica ‘Bolero’ this past spring. I’m have frequent chats with the rose, encouraging it to grow up big and strong.

The last addition so far is a favorite for Mr. B. I bought and hung a bird feeder. We get a lot of really interesting birds in our yard and Mr. B loves to watch their antics. I hung it outside of our kitchen window and I must confess, it’s been fun to watch the variety of hungry birds.

Have you begun to work in your garden yet? Spring has sure taken its time arriving here in California.

I’m linked to: The Polohouse {Favorites on the First}~and~

Savvy Southern Style {Wow us Wednesdays}

~and~ Stone Gable {Tutorials Tips and Tidbits}

~and~ Ricki Jill at Art @ Home: My Happy List

In two weeks, May 15th, I’m hosting my very first Linky party. I’m celebrating all things SPRING! I hope you’ll join me with your favorite things about this season…your gardening tips and projects, the touches you add to your home as the weather warms and your favorite recipes, table settings and entertaining ideas for SPRING, or really just anything you’d like to post. I hope you’ll join me, I think we’ll have fun.