Sooo Long, but Not So Long

These last months have passed in a haze of unpacking, nest fluffing, entertaining, celebrating, kitchening (a word used here to describe spending as much time as possible doing whatever I can think to do to spend more time in the kitchen) and a really good amount of time in the studio. 

Life has been treating us really well. I believe we have seen the last of subcontractors for awhile, we are loving only paying living expenses for a single residence, we've had entire weekends given over to doing absolutely as little as possible, our new grandbaby is an absolute delight of round, cherubic perfection and we are generally just settling back into our lives.

Spring has been showing up a bit earlier in fits and starts to give us a little taste of what is ahead. I sit here in my studio, the sun streaming in and warming my hands and heart. We have had so many grey days that the sunshine and the shadows that play on the walls have become a novelty I cannot stop feeling wonder about. I get in the car to go somewhere and think what is that bright light shining in my eyes? I need sunglasses! Where are they even at? I can't recall the last time I wore them!

Generally, I'm spending as much of my extra time as possible making whatever I am led to make on any given day- a new journal, wax seals, practicing caligraphy, art journaling, bad paintings, slow stitching pages for my 100 day stitch project, visible mending, a colorwork sweater vest reminiscent of All Creatures Great and Small- a show which is inspiring every wardrobe choice I make these days. Also, every wardrobe choice I make for my Sweet Man. I ask myself, would Helen wear that? Would Mrs. hall? Would Jim wear that sweater? What about Tris or Siegfried? It's such a lovely and cozy world to escape into and sometimes that is what I need. And for the life of me, I cannot find much else of value to watch on television. With all of the choices out there, I find there isn't too much that appeals to me.

I'm just now starting to come out of the renovation fog and starting to think about next steps and doing some projects to finish up some areas that got cut because, I don't know if you know this but, everything is SO expensive right now. I'm so grateful we were able to move ahead with our project but that budget did not stretch as far as we hoped so we cut things we could do ourselves. The tricky part is finding motivation but I find that I'm starting to dream about the next layer of prettiness and while our wallets are still in a bit of a fog, we will be tackling some small things here and there this year.

Late spring and summer promise to be full of life with Emmy graduating from College and moving to Ohio for a job, a couple of fun trips on the calendar and all the fullness of Village life when the temperatures are steadily above 60. I look forward to being in the house for spring and summer and savoring all of the things we missed last year. I'm excited to get my hands in the dirt and to get to look outside to my gardens whenever I like. I'm going to porch sit like it's my job. 

I don't know if anyone reads blogs anymore. I know I forget to. I forgot my own blog for awhile until Maddie sent me a link to one of my recipes on it today. That made me nostalgic reading about what 2014 Jen was up to. I do love recording what's going on in my life here in my little diary. Thank you for coming back and checking on me for all of these years. I've gotten so out of touch with getting my camera out but have plans to do that as well. I didn't take a single photo with it last year and am embarrassed to tell you that I forgot how to turn it on! Seriously. So as soon as I figure that out ;) I want to start seeing the world through my lens again. Until then, I hope you will kindly put up with these photos from my phone that likely have nothing to do with anything but are here purely to give you something pretty to look at while reading my drivel.

I hope to do a more in depth post of our house soon as well as before and after photos for all of our amusement. I even want to do a video tour and put it on youtube for anyone interested in seeing more. We had our contractor over for cocktails a couple of weeks ago and she asked if there was anything we'd do different and you know what? There is not!

I'd love for you to say hello and tell me what you've been up to if you are so inclined. This space will always be a special place for me. 

Honey, I'm Home

I'm coming out of my hidey hole to say hello. We moved home 4 weeks ago today and are finally feeling settled. There are 2 boxes that I know of that are still to be unpacked, but for today I am pretending they do not exist. Although, even though they are labeled in a way that would indicate otherwise, they are probably holding the handful of things I still can't find and which continue to vex me.

To say we are happy to be home would be the most glorious understatement in my personal history. I often don't want to go to sleep because I honestly don't want to let go but waking up at home after almost 6 months of being away, is a delight that arrives anew every morning.

For the better part of this year, I have longed for slow days. Since May, the idea of slow days spent in our home post renovation, is what kept me going. Since we got home I have pushed myself to get settled in and not let the chaos linger. It would seem no sooner had I gotten one space set up and organized, that the contents from another would get redistributed, disturbing my peace.

Yesterday was the beginning of my reward as I spent the entire day in my pajamas in my studio. And today…a Monday spent in my favorite way- making the house tidy, meal planning for the week, moving around at my own pace, doing any number of small jobs that I forget as soon as I’m done and nobody else even thinks about, until at the end of the day I ask myself, “what DID I do today?!” But I know what I did…I lived out my perfect simple day and enjoyed every moment of it. I’m vowing to myself to stop keeping track of what I checked off the list, purely so that I can justify whatever joy I might squeeze from what’s left of the day. I realize my life would be better served by starting with the joy and letting the rest fill in the space left over.

Speaking of joy- this little love, Genevieve Mae, who calls me Honey (or will one day) joined our family in October. So much goodness for us this year.

Now I'm off to walk the dog and bake some bread and start my Thanksgiving list. It's so good to be home.