Stunning roadside attraction

Lately I've started taking a new route to work that allows me to spend almost half of my commuting time on back roads instead of the highway. There are so many benefits to this, one of which is that I have observed lots of plants that look beautiful in winter. Some of these have berries, and others are just colorful bare branches. This morning, in a field, I saw a whole line of bushes that were covered in ice and looked like crystal chandeliers growing up out of the ground. I wish I had my camera with me. They were just so beautiful.

Thar She Blows!

Over the past week nearly all of our beautiful snow had melted. The yard was still more white than green, but the green was quickly encroaching. That is, until Monday. Sunday the weather men were predicting 11-14" of snow for us, and nearly every school district in the greater Boston area had already declared a snowday for Monday (but not our town...we're hardy folks).

Monday I awoke to beautiful snow. Light fluffy flurries with about four inches covering the railings on the deck. Despite the snow, there was a small flock of dark-eyed Juncos at the birdfeeders (I had remembered to fill them on Sunday) and under the rhodedendron out front. Our woodpecker also ventured out into the snow to peck at the suet.

Unfortunately I had to disturb this quiet wilderness with the loud and bright snow eating machine called our snowblower! D is going to start traveling for work, so I needed a lesson on how to use the snowblower. I'm a very liberated woman, but there are certain jobs that I'm more than happy to let the man of the house take on---mowing the lawn and removing snow among them. However, I don't want to be left begging the neighbors for help, so I learned to use the snowblower this Monday.

There are some things I'm really ignorant of...engines are one of these things. Throttle and choke are foreign words to me. And pull ropes are not my friend. Luckily, our snowblower has an elctric start (I did try the pull rope first, but I was too weak). Once the snowblower was running, I was off! It took a while to get the hang of, but I did the whole driveway--and didn't mangle the lawn, eat up the bushes, or throw the snow into the garage by accident.

One thing about snowblowing---it's important to be stylish. That's why I pulled on my old LLBean boots (gore-tex and thinsulate--from college), by snowboarding pants (I don't snowboard), my yellow sailing foul weather jacket (used more for outdoor concerts than sailing), and a red scarf and hat for some additional color. Add this to the bright orange snowblower and I was a vision of color in the whiteness of the snowy day! Of course, when snowblowing visibility to oncoming cars and plows is a good thing!

Opinions Please!

D and I have had our dining room furniture since September, but I've yet to decorate the dining room. The room needs window treatments, artwork, a new light fixture, and a rug. I want to start with the rug since that will inform the colors for everything else in the room. Today I went to HomeGoods at lunch to browse. One of their rugs struck me--it was the right size (approximately 8x10), was made of wool, had no fringe (a criteria of mine), and the colors really appealed to me. It's shades of cream and brown with some rust, sage, and gold mixed into the pattern. Also, the pattern isn't too intricate. I was drawn to a couple of rugs that were more contemporary looking, but I thought I should stick with something fairly traditional. I don't want to buy an expensive rug for this room since we eat at this table on a daily basis, but I want something that complements the furniture.

What do you think of this choice? Be honest...I have 30 days to return the rug!

Just Say No to Catalogs

When I was a kid, I loved catalogs. I would wait for the Sears "Wish Book" to come every fall and start planning what I wanted for Christmas. And, when I was 10, I got to pick a new bedspread from the Sears Catalog. I was so excited about my blue calico quilt-top ruffled skirt bedspread! It looked somewhat like this, but it was colonial blue and navy:

In high school, I really got in to catalogs. In fact, when I would babysit, one of my favorite things to do once the kids were in bed, was to look through catalogs. In this way I was intoduced to the Hanna Anderson and the Tiffany catalogs. I loved looking through all of the catalogs and imagining my future life. I also used to cut pictures out of catalogs--my favorite was a particular J.Crew model from the early 90s. He had brown hair and green eyes (coincidentally, so does D). I still like to cut pictures out of catalogs for decorating ideas (and recipes from Williams Sonoma).

I still love catalogs, but I'm now completely bombarded with them! I would love to receive a catalogs from selected merchants as often as once per season, but that's it! I could handle 4 LLBean catalogs a year, or 4 from Crate and Barrell, Garnet Hill, Ballard Designs, J. Crew, Pottery Barn, Restoration Hardware, Williams Sonoma, etc. But, I think I receive a catalog from LLBean and Land's End almost every week! And we often get 3-4 copies of the same catalog--one in my maiden name, one in my married name, one in D's name, and one in the name of the previous owners of our house.

Furthermore, I never order from catalogs. If I do order, it's online. Occasionally a catalog will point me towards something I must have (or a good buy), but this rarely happens. I think the only time this has happened in the past year is with Garnet Hill. I purchased a Hanro nightgown from them last week for $48.00--a major bargain. And, before my wedding I found the perfect sweater in their catalog (I ordered both of these items online).

So what's my point here? I discovered today, via the Apartment Therapy blog, an online service called Catalog Choice that allows you to choose which catalogs you no longer wish to receive. I registered today and started going through the process. I'll let you know how it turns out! You can check it out by clicking the link below:

Decorating: Vintage Ugly

When D and I moved into our house in June, my mom and dad unloaded all sorts of stuff of mine from their house. In addition, my mom also gave me some other things that might be "helpful" including a collection of vintage decorating/sewing booklets. I can only assume that she got them when she moved into her first house in 1973, though they could be from the days of her first apartment. In any case, the booklets are definitely going to come in handy when I decorate my own house. Check them out:


Here's a peak inside-- I love the overlapped ruffled curtains (since they're light yellow, this picture doesn't do it justice--I may have to scan the page). Much of the book is devoted to how to make ruffles!

In fact, all 3 of these booklets have some fabulous curtains in them, all of which I'm considering for my house (if only I can find the right polyester fabric). I like this picture where they've entirely covered the windows in drapery, I mean really, why would you want to see the outdoors?

In these next pages, they've also entirely covered the windows. Did I miss the memo that said sunlight coming through windows is unhealthy? Maybe if I read the booklet about caring for my upholstered furniture, I would find that my furniture purchased in 1973 would look brand new in 2007 if only I had kept the windows completely covered. All I can say is, I hope that by 2027 I'll have the means to replace my (then faded) recently purchased upholstered furniture because I plan to let the light in!!!


Oh, and in case you can't read the fine print, that room with the hideous yellow curtains is a lilac and yellow BATHROOM! It says, "A complementary scheme can whisper its message as in this violet and yellow bathroom." I guess that's actually the shower curtain, as the booklet goes on to say, "A vinyl shower curtain was also dyed to match the nylon rug and terry-topped hassock." Wow! Don't even get me started on the red and green room!

In this next set of pictures, I actually kind of like the room on the right--what can I say, I dig the pink and green color scheme.

And I actually kind of like these 2 pictures too. The kitchen is shaped somewhat like mine. The red and yellow dining room looks almost as if it could be a sketch made recently with the globe over the table (and finally they're letting some light in!)

I'm feeling very inspired to decorate right now! Who needs Apartment Therapy or Design*Sponge when you have these booklets!

Diagnosis: Bronchitis

After 2 weeks of this cold, I finally went to the doctor today. I hope those antibiotics kick in soon!

A Slow Start to the New Year

I had such high hopes about posting frequently in the new year, and perhaps even posting all of the stuff from December that I never got around to posting about. Unfortunately, work has been busy (the quarter just ended and everyone wants something), and I've had a bad cold since last week. It's not at all uncommon for me to get sick around the holidays...I pretty much always do, but this cold I have just won't go away, and it's not getting any better or worse. If it got worse I would go to the doctor, but I don't need to go to the doctor for just a cold.

So, I've been treating my cold with medicine I got when I was in Greece this spring for my honeymoon. The day before D and I left Crete to fly home, I had wicked sinus pain. There was no way I was going to spend 8+ hours on a plane with my head like that, so I spoke with the concierge at the hotel about seeing an English speaking doctor. He said they have a doctor that has office hours at the resort twice a week and I could get an appointment in a few days. I explained that I was flying home the next day. He asked what was wrong and I gestured to my sinuses and said I had a sinus infection.

After a quick conversation in Greek, the concierge said the doctor would be at the hotel in 1/2 hour. When she arrived, she was looking at me very strangely and said "you don't seem to have an infection of the face"--that's what the concierge told her I had! So she ended up doing a quick exam and agreed with me that I had a sinus infection. She wrote me 3 prescriptions--a 5-day antibiotic, a decongestant nasal spray, and some cough syrup. She had the pharmacy deliver them to my room. Oh boy, I thought, what's this going to cost?? It ended up being 80 Euros for the doctor, the prescriptions, and the taxi for the pharmacy delivery! I was ecstatic, but also felt guilty--the Greek government should really charge American tourists more for medical care--I mean, I don't pay Greek taxes.

So, this week I've been taking Ronal, the decongestant nasal spray, and Bisolvon, the cough syrup. I have a 250ml bottle of Bisolvon--that should last me a while!

In other news, it's cold!! Last night when I got home from work it was already below zero (this is Farenheit folks). It's supposed to warm up this weekend and next week. I hope we get more snow. We've had about 36" so far this season -- more snow then I've seen since I was in college. I am so glad that I have a garage! I'm so glad that I don't have to dig my car out of the snow on the side of the street and then pay a ticket for parking in a snow emergency zone. The snow this winter is a good introduction to the burbs for me. I remember when I first moved to Middlebury, the winter of 1994 was almost recordbreakingly cold and snowy. It was a good initiation for me. I learned to almost look forward to my nose hairs freezing the moment I stepped outside.

No nose hair freezing yet this year thankfully, but here's a picture of D and the snowblower in action!