{pretty, happy, funny, real} on February 26

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~

Brought to you by Like Mother, Like Daughter

I'm barely squeezing in with this post this week! But I knew I had a few pictures on the camera that I wanted to share.

{pretty}

Are two bottles enough to be considered a collection? This is my blue glass collection! I'm not sure where I picked up the jar on the left, but I've had it for a few years. The bottle on the right was found in the "back 40" of our property, half submerged in dirt and rubbish! I think they are definitely {pretty}.

I found a home for them on the old electric box in the dining room, alongside a milk bottle also scavenged from the back yard.

This little broom was a gift from mom a few years back. I think it goes well in the dining room.

{happy}

Some of you may remember my struggle with contentment in the living room. Well, I had an accidental stroke of brilliance this week! The love seat had been sitting in the corner of the room, but when I had a few ladies over for a movie night, I moved it closer to the other couch for better TV placement. Now, I had tried the L-shaped couch set up before, but not with the couches this close together. I had always left a big space between them for traffic to flow through. But suddenly, this time, this way, it all made sense!

Now it feels like we have a more defined space, especially for conversation. Before it felt like the room was all doors and furniture on the edges.

I also removed the rug I had in there, as it was driving me nuts! I think the issue was competing patterns. Now I'm on the lookout for a new/used rug, something neutral and preferably wool.

See, there's plenty of room for traffic flow behind the couches! And Arden's bookshelf fits neatly in that corner.

Another small change - I took down the heavy white curtains which just looked blah against the walls, and put up these lighter pair with a delicate grey pattern. (You can't really see them well in this shot.) I think it adds more of my personality to the room as well. Slowly but surely, I will make this room the comfortable refuge I have in my mind!

But even this simple furniture rearrangement has made me quite {happy}. :)

{real}

Lent began on Wednesday. I had decided to give up my one, precious, delicious cup of coffee in the morning! When I got up on Wednesday, Micah had already made and poured me a cup of freshly roasted, freshly ground coffee. Oh how good it smelled!! But I left it untouched and made some tea instead. I'm going to try and wean myself off caffeine altogether, but thought I should start with limiting it and gradually letting my body adjust.

There's my coffee in the background. And tea steeping.

And now, along with tea, a little Lenten reading below. I am planning to read through this book and Matthew's Gospel.

A quote from yesterday's reading by Barbara Cawthorne Crafton:

How did we come to know that we were dying a slow and unacknowledged death? And that the only way back to life was to set all our packages down and begin again, carrying with us only what we really needed?

Ah, that is the {real} question. What is it that I really need?




~lg

{pretty, happy, funny, real} on February 16

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~

Brought to you by Like Mother, Like Daughter

It was cold enough this week for the river to freeze over. Micah tested out the ice and took a few shots of the frozen world. I suppose this post is mostly {pretty}.

Micah on the ice

A dazzling day!

What a beautiful house! :)

There's something calming about a still, white world.





~lg

{pretty, happy, funny, real} on February 9

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~ 

Brought to you by Like Mother, Like Daughter

{pretty}

A clear, crisp February day.

Winter's jewels...

{happy}

Quiet mornings in the sun.

Playful afternoons.

{funny}

These are Arden's wooden cars.

And this is her trying to stack them up!

She figured it out in the end!

{real}

Arden is fascinated by the camera. She knows which button to push to see the picture just taken, so we were having fun today taking pictures of various things. Here is our self-portrait!

Hope everyone is having a good day out in blog land!





~lg

{pretty, happy, funny, real} living room inspiration

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~

Brought to you by Like Mother, Like Daughter

Last week I showed my struggle with the living room decor, but this week I wanted to post the things I have that I consider my inspiration for the room (and adjoining music room/library) and a future palette. The overall effect I'd like to have in these rooms is a mix of comfort and elegance. I'd like the rooms to be warm, soft and inviting, and of course, child friendly!

{pretty} & {happy}

These are my pretty pictures that hang on the walls.

This used to hang in a cafe in Cannington, Ontario. Now it hangs in my music
room/library!  It's quite large. I love the soft blues and greens and browns.

Here is a close up of one of the gold framed pictures hanging in the living room.
It complements the large picture, I think, in both palette and theme. 

This is the other gold picture. It's a signed reproduction of the original cover of
Anne of Green Gables. (I picked up the frame at a garage sale.) I'm not necessarily
a fan of gold, but the two smaller pictures complement each other nicely. 

And here are some other things that make me happy when I look at them.

Two little mice on a stack of antique books

This is such an interesting ornament. I love birds!

Wool blanket brought back from Scotland

Birchbark container with porcupine quill detail, from my hometown in the Northwest Territories

100th anniversary edition of Anne of Green Gables

An old fashioned world map. I like the colours in it!

Pretty Ikea curtains

A piece of green marble from Martyrs Beach on the island of Iona, Scotland. It is said to have "magical" properties :)

So these are the things that inspire me when I think about what I want my living rooms to be.

I have also joined Pinterest recently (still figuring it out), and started a board with more ideas for living room decor! You can take a look here! 





~lg

What to keep?

I'm taking stock of what I have in the house and trying to decide what to keep and what to toss. I think I'm the kind of person that likes to save stuff "just in case." I have a hard time getting rid of things that are useful, even if I haven't used them in months...or ever!

This house, while quite large, doesn't have a lot of storage space on the main liveable levels. Three out of the four bedrooms have small closets, and the biggest one is not completely useable because the plaster is coming off the walls in it and needs renovation. I don't have a linen cupboard. The main floor has one coat closet, and another closet under the stairs, aka, the "Harry Potter cupboard."

The basement is a mix of finished and unfinished. The main finished area is just a big storage area at the moment. We don't have any utility shelves, so things are just piled and stacked everywhere. I'd really like to be a little more organized down there, but I think part of the problem is there is just too much stuff.

What should I do with stuff like this?

• Original boxes for china, glassware and other breakables
• A bunch of different sized cardboard boxes that could come in handy for storage or mailing parcels
• Boxes of bubble wrap and packing paper 
• Good quality plastic bags (shopping bags from nice stores)
• Lots of washed, reused ziploc bags 
• Glass jars from food products (honey, pasta sauce, applesauce) that aren't canning quality  
• More mugs than we can use
• Corelle cooking/serving dishes still in the box (but I really like the look of them!) 
• Old issues of Kraft and other cooking magazines (there might be a recipe or two in them that I've used), decorating magazines
• Hair products that I haven't used in a couple years but might need again - hairspray, mousse, special conditioners 
• Extra bedding and curtains given to me that are not really my style (but might come in handy for lots of extra visitors)
• Knick-knacks with some sentimental value or that have been passed on by someone I know, but that don't really get put out because they are not my style or there are just too many of them

Is it worth keeping these things because it might cost me down the road to replace them? Or is it better to free up space (physical and mental) and toss/recycle/donate? 

~lg