On Your Mark, Get Set, September 1st. GO! \(^-^)/

It is no secret that I am crazy for fall. Crazy, crazy, crazy. In all honesty, I just tolerate the other three seasons and bide my time until autumn comes around again. I look forward to fall more passionately than I look forward to most things. While I do enjoy completely surrounding myself with "cinnamon pumpkin scent," oddly, I've only once partaken in the quintessential fall girl drink - the Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte. (It was good, just not my thing.)  Which is troubling to me.  Am I not the biggest autumnal fan that I can be!?

While I've been worried about not being in love with the Pumpkin Spice Latte like I'm supposed to, I did see that they just released a new fall drink. The Chile Mocha. I might need to try one of those. They sound like the Mexican Hot Chocolate that I used to drink in San Francisco, only the Chile Mocha also has coffee in it. Incidentally, while drinking Mexican Hot Chocolate at The Canvas in San Francisco, I learned that the film that forms on the top of fresh hot chocolate and other heated dairy products, it is called a "ploika" in yiddish.  The end.

Back on track.... Fall. Of course being the fall maniac that I am, you'd better believe that I had my house plastered both inside and out with autumn decorations on September 1st.  Psych! Just kidding, why would I wait so long? The 1st. was a Thursday and I knew that I'd be homeschooling that day, so I just went ahead and spent August 27th, which was a Sunday, putting up every last foam pumpkin and faux leaf that I owned. I also put up an apple wreath that I made for the front door, and apple pie window decorations that I crafted, and the plastic acorns and the scarecrows and black cat and the mini-apple stool with the wool felted gnome and the autumn dish towels and rugs and hand towels and the fall wax warmer with the cinnamon wax melts and the golden glitter pine cones...........and....and....and...and....... THIS YEAR....this year do you know what I did? I SCALED BACK ON THE DECORATIONS!

Here is some of what it looks like. Don't judge. (Not that you ever do.) I just couldn't help myself!!!

A tip that my Mother gave me: If you can't change out your rug at the moment, and it doesn't exactly go with the look that you're trying to create, just ignore it! Pretend the rug is a neutral and just do what you want! That is why I have orange fall cushions and a bright red rug. Just be like: "WHATEVER!"

Excuse me, your slipcover is showing!

Noah was not as enthusiastic as I was about fall decorating.

I fully realize that with the fall bathroom I kind of crossed a line. This room is a bit...out of control and corny. Ha! Pun intended. But I couldn't help myself and Noah loves it, so WHY NOT? 

Why the "H" not?

This is why not. Because you can end up doing this. On the back of your toilet...

Don't tell anyone.

 Did I make up for the bathroom with this "elegant vignette?"

 But LOOK how RESTRAINED I was in the family room. Nary a decoration in sight.

 Thank you Mom, for giving me your couch. And thank you couch for having a slipcover that is PERFECT for the fall and winter, that covers up your 1992 yellow floral chintz that is PERFECT for for spring and summer. Winning.

Jon is not fazed by the decorations. He is a real man.

One day I spent HOURS and HOURS making these paper and marker decorations for the windows.

And I made this faux apple wreath! I love it and had so much fun. I was inspired by The Wood Grain  Cottage.  All you need is a foam wreath frame, some burlap, a hot glue gun and a bunch of fake apples. Voila.

Happy fall y'all!!!!

Love, 

Lauren 

Grateful For.... Fall Decorations and More

This post is from early September. I meant to finish it up right away but I unexpectedly became really busy! Lol. Anyway, I figured that if I didn't post it now, it would be winter by the time I did, and an ode to Autumn makes no sense in the winter. ;)

I think one of the best feelings in the world is to be full of gratitude. Only the lucky ones get to feel gratitude. That's because they have something in their life to be thankful for, and they see it.

........I AM GRATEFUL!

I was just thinking the other night about an old app that I have on my phone called "Gratitude." I've had it since 2009, it's a little gratitude journal! Each day you list several things that you're grateful for. You can add a picture and rate your day. While I haven't kept up with daily entries this whole time, it is one of the only apps that I go back to time and time again. I love looking back through the years and remember great days and small things that made me smile from the inside out. (Although more entries than I want to admit include chocolate).

When I'm able, I'd like to blog more posts of gratitude. It makes me happy and puts life into perspective. Sometimes in the morning, before I open my eyes, I silently say to myself all of the things that I am thankful for big and small. I thank the universe. I go throughout my day when I'm mindful enough stopping and feeling gratitude along the way. "Thank you gorgeous yellow leaves falling , I'm so happy to watch you blow in the wind. I'm grateful for you September sunset. I'm so luck to see you again."

And when I do these things continually, or at least every morning for a while, a change occurs. There's a shift! I can't explain it, and it's almost too magic to be real, but truly, when you learn to come from a place of thankfulness and awe, life gets better. Life is happier, more gentle, less frenetic. Try it! You might really enjoy this.

And now, some things of late that I have been grateful for.....

I'm thankful for......

Small, beautiful, wonderful diversions from everyday struggles. Places like the Cider Mill!!!!  And the fact that Noah still wants to have his picture taken on the tractor. I'm glad he doesn't feel  too old for that . :)  Btw- my parents used to promise to take me here after nursery school for cider and donuts if I didn't cry at drop off. I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree! (Pun intended).....

Thankful for historic places. I love history, especially the domestic history of 19th century rural America. I know it's a bit narrow of a field but... The cider mill above was completed in 1837! It's pretty cool. They have found many artifacts around the mill and in the walls over the years and they're all on display. In the same small town as the cider mill, we went to see a house that was for sale recently! (I'm laughing because around this time last year, we also went to see a house in the same neighborhood for sale, and I blogged about it.) And once again we returned to our current house and said: "HOME SWEET HOME!" It's ridiculous, our house is our home, we'll never move! Probably.

I'm very grateful for good, supportive veterinary care for Josie. Poor Josie came to us at just 10 weeks, itchy and scratching. We ruled out fleas or anything like that, and I watched her for patterns. Like winter, much less scratching in winter. She seemed to scratch more outside and always on the grass. We eventually found our way to a wonderful veterinary specialist. She is a dermatologist/allergist. She was so great. Our vet wanted to first rule out food allergies as they are simpler to treat and fairly easy to spot. So, that's when we started a three month food elimination challenge. Three months in and scratching was still there. It seemed like she was allergic to every protein. We were down to just fish. That's when summer turned to fall and her scratching really ramped up. So much so that little Josie, to our horror, scratched a hot spot on the side of her face! :(

We ran her up to our regular vet, and this is where actually a good turning point came about. I'm sooooo thankful. Our vet listen to me when I said that I really really sense this is environmental and seasonal inhalant allergies, not food allergies. She believed my instinct!!! So, Josie's wound was cleaned up and we were given a cone and sent home with some topical medication and anti-histamines. The itching lessened a bit and the wound healed. Finally we were able to take the cone off  about a week later, but when we did.... as soon as she was out of our sight for a minute,she scratched another small wound! We decided to consult with our vet again. This time we all agreed that it was worth a try of a short round of steroids. We trust our vet to be safe and conservative with these and to have Josie on them for the shortest time possible. Her hunch was that Josie was having bad fall allergies, just like last year!

To our great joy, Josie's scratching was 80% GONE within two days of being on the new medication!!!! And after that, I have almost not seen her scratch or paw at her eyes of nose at all! This is a BIG DEAL after having an itchy, little pup for so long!

As we taper her off her medications, I don't know what it will be like when she's done, but I am hopeful that once the first frost comes, things will get better and I'm just grateful for our wonderful vets!

And now for my OBSESSION I mean something I'm REALLY thankful for.....FALL DECORATIONS!!!!!!

I need to breath my way through talking about this because I can go on excitedly about fall decorations for DAYS! Let's start with this I guess. Before I get to what I already owned and what I purchased (with coupons and deals of course) this is what I made. I was short one throw or pillow for this chair. I don't think my crocheted candy corn blanket came out too gorgeous, but it does what I needed! A little fall color and something to help keep us warm when the fall gets going. 

I have some big bins that we store in the basement and hold all of my fall decoration bits and bobs. Its an ever growing collection over the past ten years and my favorite season to decorate for. In my mind, I would like to have gorgeous, sophisticated, matching decorations. You know, like catalogue worthy things from Restoration Hardware and Pottery Barn and Crate and Barrel! In my HEART though, I know that my rag-tag group of scrounged up decorations is just perfect because they do the most important thing - convey the warmth and joy of what fall means to me. 

This is our little writing desk decorated. I love this book by Susan Branch. It's called "Autumn from the Heart and Home" and is full of autumnal recipes for your family and for entertaining. There are Susan's gorgeous watercolors too and quotes and tips, all celebrating this cozy season.

Here is our living room! I always worry that the big, red rug will clash with my seasonal decorations but I also always remember my Mom's suggestion of just ignoring the rug. So I did. This year I used all of my old fall decorations, including a ceramic pumpkin that held a flower arrangement that was sent to me last fall! Also, this year I decided to add some pillows to my collection, so I purchased these pillows at Kohl's. I waited until they were 35% off and I had a coupon!

 This year my Mom asked if I wanted to borrow her antique panted acorns. I said "sure!" and knew that I could find a place for them. She brought these little painted acorns and a few larger fabric acorns that she purchased at the art center where she paints.

So now I have an acorn chandelier for a while!

Oh! And I can't forget this month's window decorations!!! I made these early because I foresaw a busy autumn. Little did I know....

October is always pumpkin or Halloween or leaves. I wanted to find something "early autumn" to represent. Last year it was apples, footballs and pencils. School is a good September theme I think. And so is the cider mill, something that most everyone around here gets excited for in September.

So I made little red schoolhouses (IRONIC IN RETROSPECT!) and apple trees and baskets with apples. And then I made jugs of apple cider and donuts! That was the most fun. I tried representing the cinnamon and sugar on the donuts with some translucent glitter paint but it didn't translate too well visually.

I'm still happy with how things turned out. 

Another super deal at Kohl's this simple faux berry wreath. It's just what I needed. (Well, maybe).

 Here is a detail from my living room. That's the ceramic pumpkin that came from a flower arrangement that I received. My Mom gave me some of the little acorns and faux pumpkins years ago. Even the ribbon was recycled!

Same for this little corner of the room. It's nothing special and even a bit odd, but it makes me happy. 

Our whole writing desk dressed up.

So that's the scoop! Until next time, think about your "Thankfuls!"

xoxoxox,

Lauren

I've Been Eaten Up by A Puppy! And Other Things.

Hi everyone!!! I miss you! I miss blogging! I miss my old life!

Here's what I've been doing. I'm not exaggerating.

Puppy.

Basically, now everything is just puppy! My life is puppy! I love this dog so much, but how could we have not realized that a puppy = total halt to life as we know it? I should have learned when at six months pregnant with Noah I said to my best friend: "Oh, don't worry, things won't change THAT much. You'll still see me, I'll just bring the baby along!" Yeah right. Do you think that ever happened? No it did not. Noah wasn't a very "portable" type of baby. Neither is the puppy for that matter.  And she likes to barf in the car.

This whole puppy ownership thing is a bit extreme. Everyone forgot to tell me just how all-consuming this is. At least, if you have a puppy like mine, one who tries to eat every single pebble, wood chip, pine needle, cabinet pull, chair, rug, table, dish cloth, button, zipper pull, hand, leg, foot or face that she comes in contact with. Oh, and given the opportunity, she'll pee on all of those things too.

Today while I was sitting half-naked in my dermatologist's office, waiting for my yearly skin check, (check your skin people!) it dawned on me that puppies are basically ten-month-old babies who put everything in their mouths, and are already able to RUN, but refuse to wear a diaper.

K. Miss you. Gotta go. Byyyyeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!

Just kidding, (not kidding.)  Josie will be up any moment and I've been too lazy to get up and change the laundry for the past ten minutes, so I should probably go soon. Here are some super quick updates:

I promise to quit with the puppy spam soon. The other day I took my big camera out with Josie and I. Here are a few pictures that I took. She looks kind of sad to me, but I assure you, she was thrilled to be out running in the rain on this day.

Noah is slowly becoming less apprehensive about Josie. She's still teething and chewing everything and everybody that she can get her mouth on, but we've gotten better at directing her to "appropriate" chew items.

Josie and Hector. It's complex.

We spend a lot of time in the backyard these days.

Josie won't leave the poor chipmunk holes alone. She's trying to dig into them! This is what we came up with, a tiny picket fence. I need to get a daytime shot of it.

No potty accidents in the kitchen this week! YAY!!!! (The family room is another story...)

(The cats are less scared, more curious these days.)

Beyond the puppy update, things are ok, but there are some stressful hurdles at the moment and I am feeling more overwhelmed and exhausted than I have in a long, long time. I'm not sure if I really want to talk about specifics here on the blog, but rest assured, everyone is totally fine. It's nothing major, just several medium size stressors piled on top of each other creating long days and less sleep. Things always have a way of working out though. Just takes time and problem solving. I have faith life will settle down soon.

Before when I would feel stressed out or anxious, I'd exercise or write on the blog or try to do something creative to manage my worries. Now it's tough fitting it all in. I've made exercise one of my top priorities. This is because it makes your body and brain feel good!

I've been doing Element's Pilates Weight Loss for Beginners DVD nearly each night for about six weeks and LOVE it! To be honest, I only do the 20 minute "Cardio Pilates" workout, and even then, I skip the lunges and squats and still love what it is doing. I skip the DVD's leg work, only because I broke my ACL in half in my right knee during a Teakwondo class in college (don't laugh). I found the squats were hurting my injured knee. Even so, with the ab work and then my own, modified versions of leg exercises, in just six weeks, I've gone down about one size and have taken inches off my waist and hips. Everything just feels tighter and my core is much much stronger. I can plank ! :)

Part of the toning up is probably due to walking multiple times a day with the puppy. We live at the top of a very steep, large hill, so that can't hurt either. And, I've decided to try to challenge myself to not eat after dinner. But really, I'm just too scared to go downstairs after 8:30 at night, in fear of waking up the puppy! That's a good weight-loss tool. ;)
For the record though, my goal was to just keep up with the exercising habit that I began last year, and to make healthy choices. It's not about weight-loss, although that would be welcomed, it's about being healthy.

I mentioned that creativity was one of my outlets. It totally is! I never "create" anything important or of worth, but just the meditative act of cutting and pasting paper and dreaming up cute window decorations has been so nice for me. October is my favorite month, and the BEST month if I should say so! I really wanted to make some decorations for our front windows, just to get everybody in the Halloween spirit. So, over the course of about four days, I spread my paper and crafting tools out on the kitchen table, and spent an hour here , an hour there, trying to make my "Trick-or-Treaters" until they were done. It was a lot of fun, and I'm really glad that I figured out a way to make time for being creative. Nighttime worked the best, but I also asked Jon to watch Josie a couple of times, and he gladly obliged.

I was inspired by Paper Source's "Halloween Paper Dolls Kit."  They're cute! I wanted to make my own, with a twist. I'm not a huge fan of all the overly- gory costumes out there these days. I wanted to make six trick-or-treaters in more traditional costumes, so I came up with a simple ghost, a pumpkin, a cowboy, a non-spooky witch, a robot and a princess! We still have the children from the nursery school down the street walk by on their class walks, so I wanted to put up decorations that they might enjoy! Here's how they came out:

I liked the finished product, and this time I covered them in clear, matte contact paper. Hopefully they won't fade too much and I will be able to use them again sometime!

A lot of you dear readers, come for the gray hair posts! I'm so sorry that I haven't had anything new lately. Before, when I would post about my hair, I would take time to dry my hair nicely or style it, or I would take a picture right after the salon. These days, I just haven't had the time to get all gussied up. I'm sorry, I do feel badly about this, but again, just like a puppy doesn't stay a puppy forever, one day I will get back to my old hair-self. LOL. That sounds funny, doesn't it? I won't have to rush as much in the morning when Josie is older.

What I do have for you on the hair-front, is this picture of me from today, hiding in my bedroom, trying to be reeeeeeeallly quiet so Josie would nap. I'd been outside three times already, in the RAIN, by the time I took this picture, so I'd say for ME, on a frizz -scale, my hair held up pretty well! I've been using White Hot's range of products and LOVE them still. I think their Shooshing Creme helped me today with all of the rain!

Also, I was sad after I recently trimmed my hair, but glad to get the scraggly,old ends off. They were yellowed and purple shampoos and clarifying shampoos were just not helping. It was time. Now my hair feels a lot thicker to me, and it's growing. Having to grow my gray hair out has taught me patience. If you're doing the same, you probably know what I mean! So now, waiting for the 3" or 4" that I cut off in August to grow back, doesn't seem as upsetting as before I was gray. It's just hair. 

Can you relate? For whatever reason, new trims and cuts, it just doesn't feel so monumental. I'd like to be able to take more things in life in stride just like this! :)

What else........? Let's see........

Did I post the hat that I crocheted? This is about a month late, but for several weeks I was working on a hat for one of my best friends who has breast cancer and is going through chemotherapy at the moment. :(

I really enjoyed making this hat, and I just want to help my friend in any way that I can. Purple is her color! I used a free pattern called "Hope" from Oombawka Design. I added my own flower and leaves.

It's funny because while I was making this hat, two very sweet readers asked me if I ever sell the crochet hats that I make. Thank you so much you guys! I would consider it if I had more crochet time, but at this rate, I'm averaging one hat a month. I'm a liiiiiittle slow. Lol. Maybe sometime though!!! :)

 (Simply wrapped with some tissue paper and yarn.)

I don't write too often about "the saga of the mini-pool!" but let me tell you, it IS a saga! I would have to say, that this small, 18" deep pond, pool, bathtub-thing-a-ma-jiggy, has cost us more money and more head-scratching and more stress than most anything on this 150+ year old house! You just have to laugh because who would have thought a little thing like this could make us so annoyed? It all started when we bought the house in the early springtime, and after the snow melted, found that there were major cracks throughout the pond. And, that the filter and parts of the pool/pond pump were broken. It took two years and three tries with different pool companies and different materials to finally keep this thing from cracking and having the earth collapse in. In the end, the mini-pool had to be totally resurfaced. The old cement walls were sandblasted down and rebuilt. It was an ordeal. We can barely afford a mini-pool. Omg.

Anyway, one of the problems with a mini-pool is that in the fall it fills up with dead leaves and gunk, and in the winter, you have to drain it, but also keep it from cracking. It's complicated. We've found that leaving a tiny bit of water in over the winter, exerts pressure on the walls and against the earth pushing in on it. Actually, we didn't "find" this out, we were told to do this from our pool company, and it did help! We've tried different types of temporary pool covers over the past three years. All total eye sores, most not doing a great job. (Don't even get me started about last year's bright blue tarp idea.)  A custom cover for our oddly "L"- shaped "mini-pool" would run about $1,500, something that none of us really wants to spring for. So, Jon and I figured that we could make our own! And guess what!? It worked!!! A BIG "thank you" to our friends, the "B. family" and to our friend Colonel, who came to help. Here is a picture of just the frames. After this, the individual covers were primed and painted to seal in the wood and brackets to waterproof them a little. Then each frame was covered with a nylon mesh to keep leaves out. So far, they're working great! And, it cost a tiny fraction of having a custom cover made. I was pretty impressed. Good job guys!

I put up some of our fall decorations inside. Hector enjoys them.

And finally, here are a couple photos from our backyard this week. I just can't get over how beautiful the leaves are right now. It's amazing! Fall is incredibly beautiful, isn't it? 

Nothing else is very new. Noah only has school two days this week due to conferences and teacher in-service days, and we have a full week planned. Wednesday included hosting a playdate, Jon home painting our storm windows so that they can go up soon, and my Dad coming into town and going out to dinner. Today we are hosting another playdate, then have plans with friends to go to the cider mill, and then parent-teacher conferences. 

Oh, also, I know I have said in the past that I rarely watch television, but whilst trying to get the ironing done over the weekend, I looked for something fun to watch from our cable's "On Demand" section. Have you ever heard of the History Channel's show: "The Curse of Oak Island?" Oh my gosh, it's gripping! At least to me. They have the first season up on On Demand at the moment, and the new, second season begins on November 4th. (Oh! You can watch the full episodes of last season online here!)

Basically, two brothers and their team hunt for ancient treasure in the north Atlantic on Oak Island. There is a long history and  back story with legends of pirates, possible Knights Templar, and they have found hidden tunnels, boobie traps, and ready...COCONUT FIBER from the 13th century! (That might not make sense but go watch the show!) Anyway, the only show I follow is Madmen and that won't come back on for a while, so my new show will be the next season of The Curse of Oak Island. It's great!

And that's the scoop folks! I'll be back with more soon. Until next time, thank you so much for reading and for all of your nice words in comments and letters. Gosh I love you guys. :)
See you soon!!!
xoxoxoxoxoxo,
Lauren