Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real: Curtains And Such Edition

Capturing the context of contentment
Every Thursday at Like Mother, Like Daughter

I've recently remembered why I started this blog in the first place: it was way back when we were renovating our kitchen and I felt bad for boring all of the readers of my first blog (no, this is not the original) with endless posts with endless details about the kitchen reno.  So I started this blog as a place where I could dump all of that drivel.  And then, eventually, I just began posting here more and more and then it got complicated and I won't bore you with those details (not those, mind you) and I made the switch and here we are.

So now there is no option for you but to read EVEN MORE about the living room.  If you are even still here.  I am fully aware that I do not have the reader base that I had at the other blog.

Perhaps that should tell me something...

Anyway, ONWARD!

Pretty

Looky!  Mom made me some curtains!  She had bags and bags of some great-aunt's custom-made curtains up in her attic and decided to bless me with them.  And all I can say is this great-aunt must have had TONS of HUGE windows because there was enough material to make curtains for all of the windows in the living room, dining room and master bedroom and that was AFTER Mom had made herself a set of curtains and a duvet years ago.

This was yet another one of our brilliant hack jobs.  We do those really well.  But this one required math.  And for that we needed Redheaded Snippet because 1) Mom and I ran out of fingers for counting 2) The Vicar wasn't home and 3) Redheaded Snippet is currently acing Pre-Calc.  She did the math, Mom did the sewing and hand-wringing (there is always a point in every project she does--whether it's giving a haircut, giving a perm, altering a dress, sewing a Halloween costume--when she throws her hands in the air and declares it ruined and then a second later looks a bit closer and says, "Oh, wait, nevermind, it's fine,") and I cooked and cleaned up.  And because The Vicar was away, Mom came to stay with us and we made a weekend out of it that culminated in a ladies' game night with some of our favourite friends!

Because this is a post about contentment I won't harp about the too-small and wrong-coloured rug or the lack of drapes.  All in good time, all in good time...

It's coming along nicely, though, isn't it?

Also, ignore that cardboard box.  It'll be gone soon.

Here, you get a glimpse of one of the dining room windows as well.  I'm not sure I mentioned that The Vicar's parents gave us the sofa and love seat.  They had it in a den in their basement that had probably been used a total of five times.  The pieces are of very good quality and in mint condition and I am very grateful to have been blessed with them!

Happy

Do you see this?  Well, of course you do but do you know what this is?  Well, of course you don't, other than it is a candelabra.  Anyway, this is one half of a set that I bought my mother at some outdoor jumble sale in London almost ten years ago.  Our favourite bed-and-breakfast had a set like these on the dining room table and when I saw these at the market, I decided to get them for Mom.  I probably paid way too much and the gentleman selling them probably laughed at me all the way to the bank, but I don't care.  These were the perfect gift for her: something that seemed typically English (at least to us ignorant Yankees), something pretty that she could use while entertaining, and something to say, "thank you," at least in a small way for everything she has done for us (and continues to do).  She has loved them and I have, I confess, coveted them.  And last weekend, she brought this over for me.  She doesn't entertain anymore and decided it was time to pass them on to me.  I was so excited I didn't even care that she couldn't find the other one!  It's packed away somewhere; we'll find it, you can be sure of that!

I know the quality of this photo isn't great, but I was shooting stealthily through the screen.  That, there, is Redheaded Snippet, enjoying a lazy afternoon in this most glorious weather we've been having.  I came in to sit in my favourite spot, on the sofa in front of the window, and spotted her out there, having dragged the futon and her favourite blanket and a book out underneath the maple tree.

I chuckled and said to Mom, "Look at her out there, being all Anne Shirley."  And then I noticed the book: Anne of Avonlea.  That's when I knew I had to get a photo, if for no other reason than to document the last languid days of her girlhood.

Speaking of finding happiness in a good book, I crept into Calvin's room one morning this week to find this.  At first I wasn't sure if he was awake.  Then I wasn't sure if he had been asleep at all!  I had left him in pretty much the same position the night before.  But though he had been reading into well into the night, he had gone to sleep and simply reached for the book to resume where he'd left off first thing upon waking.  I was delighted.

And this stupendous book?  The Hobbit.  I spent probably most of a year trying to encourage him to read it to no avail.  One of his best friends even brought it along to a sleepover but Calvin didn't bite.  Sad to say, it wasn't until The Vicar took him to see the movie recently that he became interested.  So score one for the motion picture industry, I suppose.  But score one for the mastery of Mr. Tolkien as well!

And this, this blurry photo (through another screen--why don't I just go outside for heaven's sake) is of what I am pretty sure is a lilac bush on the very front edge of the church's property.  I spotted it through the open front door from where I was standing in the kitchen and was so excited I almost dropped whatever it was I was holding and ran to the door!  I've been bemoaning the loss of my lilac bushes back at the Cottage and to find a bush here is just another teeny-tiny prayer answered!

Happy and Oh-So-Cute

Remember Izzy, Calvin's guinea pig/birthday present?  He loves her so much!  He takes such good care of her, feeding her, changing her water, cleaning out her cage (WITHOUT ME ASKING), and, yes, giving her baths.  He likes to put a little warm water in the baby pool we found in the shed and let her splash around in it.

He coos and fusses over her like a mother hen.  I caught him scolding her for playing in the dirt and getting all dirty and he looked up with a sheepish grin and said, "Boy, I sound just like you!"  Hahaha!  He was so gentle, drying her off with a dishtowel (that was already on its way to the washing machine).

Apparently, cuddles are an essential part of the after-bath process.

Funny

I'm sure I send mixed messages to this boy by first taking photos of his mischief and then telling him to knock it off.  Is it my fault I find his antics so hilarious?  Yeah, probably.  Anyway, today's activity was attempting to throw Wheat Thins into Izzy's cage from his vantage point on the futon.

He shoots...

He shoots...

He scores!  Yeah, and then I made him stop.

Real

There's The Vicar, in his vicar's office, doing all sorts of vicary things...

...which, apparently, do not include posing for photos or having a silly woman invade your office with a camera.  Poor man.

I think I'll be going now.