Lovely Days

What a pretty sunrise it was

as Charlie and I headed out bright and early 

~ 5:45 a.m to be exact ~ 

to get him to his job at a local farm stand. 

Today they were picking strawberries. These are some from the quart he brought home for me.

It will be strawberry season for the next two weeks. I can imagine we're going to be having the most delicious tasting strawberry shortcake with strawberries as fresh picked as these!!

 ~ ♥ ~

Almost a year ago (already!) when we moved in, our house looked like this.

Now, after lots of work such as painting, mulching, weeding and planting (the list goes on and on), it's coming along nicely, and it looks like this:

Even after that picture was taken, I've been busy doing more....

We've mulched around the front trees - this one being my bird feeder station.

Before

After

I've painted two benches that were left here, and in much need of attention.

Now I have lovely planters setting on them in the front flowerbed areas.

And I've placed a bit of this and that in my flowerbeds as well:

(The cute 2 tiered fountain has birds sitting on it)

 Lastly, I hung an adorable lighthouse birdhouse in our peach tree (it has lots of peaches coming!)

 About a week later I spotted nesting material in the house!

 Much to my delight, we have a cute little House Wren pair that moved in! I spotted one of them who was busily tending to the nest. :)

 I am awakened every morning to the beautiful song it sings, and continues all throughout the day!

~ ♥ ~ 

Life is good. If you look around and take notice,

 there's something beautiful to be found in every day we live! Wouldn't you agree?

 ☺

Everything New

If you've been looking for me over the last several months, don't worry. There are many days I was looking for myself, too!! ~SMILE~

Well, where do I start? First things first.

This is a brand new year. Happy 2015!!!

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I wish each and every one of you a year full of every good thing that fulfills all of your wildest hopes and dreams.....and everything in between! I think top on my list for personal desires would be a year that is peaceful, for Dean's business(es) to be comfortably busy, but not crazy busy, (there's a huge difference I've learned in this last year) and most importantly, for all to be well with every single one of us in this big family of mine. I just want the Hand of the Lord to be with each and every one of us, and yes, YOU, too!

One of the main reasons I have been missing in action here on my blog is due to the fact that we've moved! While I had been looking to move earlier on in the year, that idea had come to an end when we kind of hit a roadblock. Then, near the end of the summer I happened upon an ad for lovely home that Dean, Becca, Charlie and I fell in love with......AND here we are!!

We have spent a great deal of time cleaning, moving into, maintaining and now, finally, beginning to do a bit of indoor work we've been anxious to start on! Little by little this unattended to house is now being tended to with lots of tender loving care and becoming a beautiful, cozy home for my family and I. Oh, and all the animals! Which is where the next big change comes in. And one more animal.

A huge blessing, and answer to prayer, came about quite unexpectedly. Kind of like our move. (I guess 2014 was a year for the unexpected!) My son, Charlie, who had previously chosen to live with his father, after 3 years, decided it was time to come home. How wonderful! But oh, so many changes. And court. And attorneys. And money. BUT OH, SO INCREDIBLY NICE!! And we inherited another dog. Lovely, sweet Joanna came home to live, too. ~SMILE~

Here is Charlie, and his first true love, Joanna. He just adores her! And he is her whole world. Their relationship is such a beautiful thing...... ☺

Well, my post will have to come to an end for this evening, but I have so much more to share with you! I hope you won't get tired of pictures, because taking pictures is a big part of what I do here in our new home! Our yard is just so lovely ~ all 2 acres of it. (In spite of the 2 hours it takes to mow it!) And the trees. And the birds. And the wildlife. And our home ~ both inside and out. Oooh, the ideas and dreams I have for making this house into our sweet and welcoming cozy retreat! I hope you'll enjoy this adventure with me.

Goodnight, my friends! I'll meet you right back here real soon! ♥

A Day In Pictures

Here at home sweet home:

It snowed.......again. No surprise there! It is, after all, winter. But this time it was a gentle, pretty snowfall, instead of the wind driven, lake effect snows we've had of late!

 ~ ♥ ~

 And since Dean has finally returned home from his long, out of state job.....He'll take care of the shoveling today! Phew....

But you'd think we live in Alaska by the way he's bundling himself up ~ Lol! He says being in Florida for so long has spoiled him.....anything under 60 is freezing!! :D

I couldn't help but to snap a few pictures of him "enjoying" the cold and snow. ;) And he can't resist but to smile at my pleasure in all of this!

~ ♥ ~

It was a day to get several loads of laundry done......Mmmmm, I just love the clean scent of laundry fresh out of the dryer!

~ ♥ ~

In between laundry loads, I looked through one of my favorite bird books. I'm getting excited for new ideas to attract birds to my yard this year!

~ ♥ ~

Well, what do you know? I found a large cutting board that I completely forgot I have! Now where do you think I might have found this - perhaps tucked away in the back of a kitchen cupboard? No, silly! It was tucked away in my roll top desk, just where I'd think to look for it, right? 
(Apparently, after having used it as a lap board for my old computer, I never thought to put it back in the kitchen for future use! Wow. I wonder what else I may have hidden around the house?)

Gee, and this is such a nice cutting board to have been without! Since I have a few others, I just never gave the whereabouts of this one much thought! Well, anyways, I'm glad to have it back where it belongs. :)

~ ♥ ~

The house smelled fabulous with the scent of this fresh baked bread. (The loaf didn't even last 24 hours. After all, I'm not sure I know of many people who can resist a slice or two of warm bread just out of the oven!)

~ ♥ ~

And last, but certainly not least, Romeo entertained us with quite a few funny faces....among them was this one. It's like a sideways grin that really cracks Dean up, especially when Romeo is looking quite shaggy like he is now!

Oh, Romeo, you funny little man!

~ ♥ ~

THE END

A Future Home

When I think of a future home, my first thought is that it has to look welcoming and cozy ~ to me, anyways. As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I'd love for it to have a front porch, decorated with some comfortable chairs and a nice coffee table, all weatherproof, of course! I think dormers, shutters, or windows framed in a contrasting color to the house always give the home a bit of interest. too. (Though I once had a house where the bees loved to go in behind the shutter louvres and make nests that were hard to get rid of. Then I detested those darn shutters!) 

I've always admired a well defined sidewalk leading up to the front door. If flowers were planted along either side of it, that would really make it stand out in my eyes. A few neatly pruned trees in the front yard would give a nice touch to the overall picture as well. Norway Maples are my favorite. My husband, Dean, gets a big kick out of how I'm always pointing out a tree that looks so nice to me, and it's always a Norway Maple. Lol! They just have such a nice fullness and rounded shape to them, what can I say?

So when it comes to houses that seem to catch my eye, here's a few pictures to give you an idea. ☺

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And lastly, here's an example of windows framed in a contrasting color. Wish I could have found a bigger picture, but this'll have to do. I like how sharp the contrasting colors make the design style of the house look.....

~ ♥ ~

Are you house hunting? What types of homes, styles and design elements most appeal to you?

Refrigerator Cleaning Duty

I honestly dislike leftovers. They rarely get eaten as intended, and they clutter up the fridge. Especially when several people are rifling through them every day and I hear something similar to, "What do we have in here that's good to eat?" I end up with a refrigerator that looks like this:

UGH!!

 I've gotten to the point of putting leftovers into ziplock baggies (except things with liquid, of course!) so that if they start hanging around too long, I can throw out the whole kit and kaboodle. Mostly I try to be very conscientious of just how much I make of something to avoid leftovers, but sometimes dealing with them just can't be helped. I figure if they're at least in baggies, I don't have to deal with washing out plastic containers, which is one of the other things that I really dislike! (After all, what's the point of wasting water to wash out the containers from food that was saved, but didn't get eaten, and that got wasted, too??!) So I go back to my original thought - MAKING ONLY WHAT I THINK MY FAMILY WILL EAT! ☺

Here's my clean, now practically empty fridge:

Ahhhh.....much better!

Now it's time for me to do some sensible shopping!

~ ♥ ~

What's your trick in dealing with leftovers?

Wrap Around Porch

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Homes like this make me yearn for the simpler times and less stressful days where you can pull up a chair on the front porch and watch the world go by.

Love Is...

When I was young, I remember my aunt cutting these out of the paper every week and putting them in a scrapbook. ☺

Sunny Dining Room

Computerized ink sketch

I love when sunshine floods through the windows.

 

Spring Cleaning Checklist