Showing posts with label Winter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Winter. Show all posts

Friday

~ House People ~

 My husband and I have always been 'House People'.
We have renovated over 12 houses, and nearly every one of those houses was an old house. 
 We are still 'house people', therefore we spent a few days going to the St. George Parade of Homes.
We are preparing for our retirement move to that area and wanted to see new homes and builders that we may be interested in.
 Some of the trends in houses that we noted: Walk in double showers, and double shower heads. Also, a return to brass, more notably, antique brass fixtures.
 More of those brass touches. Nearly all the kitchens that we saw were simple white cupboards and the design highlights were displayed in the backsplashes.
 Another double walk-in and double shower head.
 Every home had a fireplace, though not many of the fireplaces were traditional, and most of the fireplaces were these linear styles, with glass,  or rock where traditional faux logs would be.
 Some gorgeous tile was used throughout the homes. I adore these tiles that have an old fashioned feel.
 This was an interesting tile.. tone on tone, but lots of different designs. 
The tile in this laundry room was hands down my favorite tile. I think it's really pretty tile, and I don't think I would ever get tired of it... I've always loved checked patterns.

So... did we find a house?
No.

We found inspiration, neighborhoods, and builders. 

We are currently working on editing our stuff... what we want to keep, what we want to move, etc.
 We have had beadboard and trim for the den stored in the garage, and this week we installed it in the den. Now, we have to paint the den, then we can check off that project.
There is an excitement about moving to into a new house and moving to a new city. 

 On to new adventures!!

Attitude of Gratitude:
Feeling so grateful, once again, for safe travels. We dodged two major snowstorms and visited St. George between those storms. 

Thankful for the talents that our Heavenly Father has blessed me with.



Tuesday

~ Wintery~

Hello friends.

I wanted to share these pictures of an incredible sunset.

We've been quite busy around here. 
Taking advantage of the season to work indoors. We are downsizing. 
Organizing and donating tons of stuff. 
Preparing for retirement.


Some of our retirement plans include traveling.
There are so many gorgeous and amazing places to see, and things to do.

Last weekend, we bought a new travel trailer. 
Ohhh... it's gettin' exciting!
For those of you that are retired, let me know what you enjoy most about retirement. 
Also, what advice do you have for people that are about to become retired?

Attitude of Gratitude:
Thankful for a life filled with blessings. 
Thankful for this season in my life.
Grateful for good health.


What I want to say is....

 It is still very much winter here.
Snow..... and lots of it, covers the ground, meadows, mountain... and lawn.
One of the worst parts of winter, in my opinion, is the wind.
When it blows, it blows that freezing air off the mountain tops and there is no escaping that frozen air.
Brrrr.... just brrrrr!!
 I try and take Rowdy out for a walk every day.
We wait and watch for the sun to come out and for the day to warm up a bit.
He loves going for a walk, and I've been letting him off the leash for part of the walk.
When we walk past the fields, and there isn't any traffic on the road, he gets to walk along with out the leash, and he loves it.
He cracks me up!! He walks along and sticks his tongue out as he's walking and treats himself to a "snow" cone.
He loves munching on mouthfuls of snow.
Too funny!!
 We walk around the college.
The sidewalks are kept cleaned off and so it's a nice place to walk in the winter.
This building is just one of the old building that we walk by each day.
 I have fallen in love with the blue on the door. So much so, that we bought a similar color of paint to repaint my sweet husbands office.
We've been working on indoor projects. Painting, putting up wainscot, etc...
It's a great time of year for indoor projects!!
Believe me, when it's warm enough to be outside, that's just where we'll be !
 Staying busy with projects and crafty ideas helps the winter pass more quickly.
On Pinterest, I saw a tutorial to make colored glass out of recycled bottles.
Gathering up old salsa and jam bottles, I followed the tutorial and ended up with a bunch of colored jars. I rather like the way that they turned out, although I admit I splurged on store bought ModPodge and used it instead of my homemade Modpodge on this project.
It called for glossy modpodge, so I used that.
 I love that the turquoise blue jars ended up being an almost perfect match to the turquoise blue jar candle that I recently bought. The jar with the wire bale on it is the purchased jar and the smaller jar to the left of it, is the one that I made.
Along with turquoise colored jars, I made olive green ones and pale orange jars.
 For Christmas, our daughter gave us some balm from Trader Joes. It's a head to toe balm, and it's wonderful for dry, chapped winter ravaged skin.
I found another Pinterest idea to make some homemade balm, and so I did!
Beeswax, coconut oil, olive oil, almond oil, and essential oil.
It made one and a half tiny jars full, and above it's been poured into the jars and set to cool.
As it cooled it turned a pale, pale yellow color.
Turns out, it works just as well as the Trader Joes variety, and considering that the closest Trader Joes to us is well over 90 miles away, I'd say that the DIY balm is spot on!
Lastly, I'd like to say that spring will come.
Each and every day draws us closer to spring.
Warmer temperatures, greening grass, and daffodils and tulips and pansies in bloom.
As I looked through my pictures from last spring, I was trying to gauge when I'd see green grass again.
This picture is from late April. SO, my heart is full of hope!!!
Oh, and as we were going through our favorite catalog to order seeds from, it dawned on us that we planted garlic last Fall.... so there is that to look forward to this summer too!!

~Things making me smile today ....
* We were supposed to get another big snow storm yesterday, and most of the moisture we received was in the form of rain. Yay! I'll take the break from shoveling, thank you very much!
* Our order is on it's way from Bath & Body works. Again, we live so far from a B&BW that when they have their semi~annual sale, it's just easier and more affordable to order on line.
*This coming Friday, we have reserved ticket to visit the Provo City Center Temple.
That building was our tabernacle when I was growing up and holds a special place in my heart. I am so happy and grateful that it is now a temple and that it could be saved after the fire.
To read more about that temple, click the link : http://newtempleinprovo.blogspot.com/