September? Seriously??!

Okay, so that's just too long to have left a new blog without a new post.

But I've been busy.

But then, don't I always use that as my excuse? I suppose so.

So here's a brief run down to update my life so far:

October: Rocking along like usual; went out for Halloween with friends. We all dressed up, drank alcohol, and played pool. NONE of the evening's festivities deviated from the usual USA type of Halloween I've always celebrated. YEY!

November: I went home for Thanksgiving, the first Thanksgiving home since 2005, and HAD A BLAST! While I was home I saw Cirque du Soleil and got to spend SO MUCH TIME with family and friends. It was EXCELLENT! :)

December: Now. Returned to England, the month flew by. I got Christmas shopping done for US and UK, we had Christmas AND Boxing Day, and tomorrow is our sister-in-law's mother's wedding. Then New Year's Eve, and THEN: NEW YEAR'S DAY 2010!!

Wuhhhh.. Where does all of the time go?

2010 is bringing some PRETTY AMAZING THINGS for this family!! I'm truly grateful! Until then, we'll have a LOT of hard work to get everything prepped in time. Makes me tired just THINKING about it, but hey, NOT LONG NOW!!! :D

See y'all all in 2010! ;)

New..

So the pictures are now up over the bed, and as of this evening the radiator is painted a fresh, new shade of "Hemp". Over the weekend we actually found some really awesome wooden picture frames, so intead of our photos being printed on canvas we're getting just straight prints to put into the frames.

The carpet arrives in one week, and hopefully the installation won't take TOO long. I'll be in town, though, when that's happening, so hopefully by the time I get home the carpet fairies will have swooshed in, waved their magic wands, and left again effortlessly. Oooh, I can't wait for the feel of nice, new, soft carpet under my feet!

In other news, we watched Angels and Demons tonight. It was great. And even though the twists didn't show up until the end, they were INCREDIBLE! I can usually figure out the "bad guy" but I was SO SNOWED by this one, until the very end. I like that; it gets a bit boring when you're watching a movie and already have everyone sorted as to who's what in the first ten minutes.

In MORE other news, I made my first loaf of bread today! My friend Emma gave me her bread machine --I'd JUST mentioned a few weeks ago how I'd wanted one, and here she comes with it Saturday afternoon! She'd even prepared me the basic ingredients for a plain white loaf, and included a packet of yeast! Emma's SO awesome. So I had a chance to fiddle with the new machine today, and in less than four hours, I had my very first loaf of bread! The kitchen smelled DELICIOUS, and I felt like Betty Crocker ALL. DAY. LONG. In fact, I need to look in my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook, and see if there are any bread machine bread recipes in there?! NOM.

Okie dokie, I'm running along for now, but I'll write again soon. I'll leave you with a picture of the Two Cats from earlier this year:
I woke up around 3am one night, and for some reason decided to just take a picture of the back bedroom in the dark, and see what turned out. This is what I saw after taking the picture in the dark, with only the flash lighting up what I was taking -AS I was taking it! This picture STILL makes me laugh!

Slow and Steady Wins the Race...

So some of the pictures are on the wall in the freshly painted bedroom now, and we've ordered the carpet. We've also had to order the mirror because it wasn't in stock at John Lewis, and it should be here in a few weeks at the absolute latest. I've chosen some of my photographs to be printed up on canvas, and the E.M.'s in the process of choosing his. When he decides, we'll get those printed up.

On the garden front, the second border has been turned over, and the weed control fabric will be laid down today. The plants will start going in later today, and hopefully will get established before it starts getting TOO VERY COLD here. For the garden, it's a race against time now.

But this is where these projects stand; I'll try to get some pics up as soon as possible.

So Far So Good.....

So this is what we've got going so far. We've got the walls painted, and the headboard attached. The carpet estimate came in yesterday at approx £200 LESS than we'd expected it to be, and that's WITH their full labor costs (they move the furniture out of the room and back in when they're finished, they take up the old carpet and remove it) included!! Surprised with the low cost of the really nice carpet we chose, and from a really reputable place, we're considering which bedroom needs it next. ;)

It'll be about two weeks from Wednesday, when we place our order for the carpet, until they put it in. That gives us enough time to finish all the little decorating projects involved, now, like hanging the pictures, choosing and hanging the mirror, getting our photos printed up on the canvasses, putting on the new switch plates, etc.. So not long until it's finished! And we get to move on to the NEXT room. UGH...


And here's one of the Two Cats, enjoying THEIR new bedroom!

Bedroom Redo

As if totally reconstructing the back garden from the ground up these recent weeks wasn't enough challenge for us, the E.M. (my British husband, the "English Muffin") and I have decided it's high time to revamp our bedroom: headboard, paint, window treatments, new carpet, new wall art, the whole shebang.

So far, we've chosen the new color --William Morris and Co's "Sage" the third square in the bottom row of three colors-- and have chosen a roman shade made from a heavy, taupe colored beautifully woven fabric, with a delicate, leafy vine pattern running through it. The headboard is "Ardo" from The Original Bedstead Comany. The radiator will even get a new 'do, with a lick of oil-based William Morris and Co's "Hemp" the second color in the bottom row of three squares. The new carpet we REALLY took our time to find, and have decided on a really SOFT, but really dense and durable pile. The carpet color is called "Hessian".





All of these elements in combination with our bedroom furniture set --all the pieces match! Who do we think we are, grown up, or something??-- give us the really organic, comfortable retreat look AND FEEL we've been wanting for our bedroom.





On to the wall art, now. We're talking about getting a large, wood framed mirror to go over the dresser and move our much loved forest triptych over our bed. Scattered on some of the other walls, though, we're talking about using some of our own photography and having our own loved and meaningful pictures of places we've visited put on canvas and set in the tiny nooks of the room. I seriously CANNOT WAIT to have the whole project completed so we can enjoy the space we've created together!





And speaking of completion, hopefully the fact that the carpet layers are coming to measure the bedroom this coming Monday will get our asses in gear for getting the bedroom painted and the shade installed over the window so when the carpet finally arrives, that will be the LAST MAJOR STEP in the bedroom project!



I'm getting tired just THINKING about all the work, but I seriously can't WAIT to get stuck in and get it all done!!

The Dreamer versus The Thinker - You Decide.

One Girl. (16:40:01): you know what I just thought of?


One Boy. (16:40:25): I could put a hamster in orbit?


One Girl. (16:40:30): the whole getting close to Christmas season here. And maybe this year we can go to Chatsworth to see the decorations again. but go at night, or something


One Girl. (16:40:36): wow, you think the most bizarre stuff

Completely Exhausted!

This has been a draining week.

I've been trying to figure out how to word what's been going on this week; I suppose I'll just have to out and write it down to really get it to make any sense. I don't think anyone involved would be reading this --it wouldn't matter if they did, anyway, it's not like it's a bad thing, or a big, dark secret-- but all the same, since I'm still in the decision making process I'd rather wait until I know my decision WITHOUT A DOUBT before I go writing about it.

Well, I'd like to wait a bit before writing about it in any way other than hugely cryptic sentences, that is!

I'll post about it soon enough; I've pretty much made my decision, I just need to think it over and consider it as the big picture in progress. We'll see.

/fingers crossed

Weapons Goodness

Don't make me go medieval on yo' ass!!

Because I'll pull out my foam maces and battle axe; what YOU got?!

Pa-TOW!!

Good Friends

Kick ASS!!

Garden Planning

With the addition this summer of our gorgeous, HUGE deck --deckzilla-- David and I have been planning on redoing/redesigning the entire back garden from bottom to top.

Even with the "outdoor stage" on the back of the house, we still have a large, almost square amount of space with which to work. We're VERY FORTUNATE, too, as the majority of houses around here have smaller narrow, sometimes longish, gardens. SO having all of this space, we need to fill it. And being as there's so much space, we can "assign" different things to different areas; i.e., an area where I can finally have a clothesline (YES!), David his veggie patch, an area for a shed so we can store things there instead of in the already too tiny garage, and so on.

My ideas for what sort of flowers and things I'd like to have back there, though, as changed constantly, though I'm starting to narrow it all down, and I've got some definite favourites that will take important focal roles. When I first started planning out the flowers beds and all in my head, I wanted an extremely fragrant, garden, with nothing but white and cream and the palest of pink flowers.

BUT...

The more reading I do, and the more plants and flowers I see, the more I've been going for the mishmash of colour. I have to say, though, I have so far stuck to whites, pinks and purples, but I'll add more colour in. The most important criteria now --aside from the obvious "will these do well in our soil/area?" is fragrance. My dream is to walk outside to sit on the deck, or maybe to go to the shed, or to hang laundry, being able to smell the perfume of the garden from any area OF the garden. So when we go to garden centres and nurseries, even walking down the street, if I see something I think is pretty, and might consider for our garden, you can believe I've stuck my head in it, and am smelling the flowers. It's almost therapeutic!

So far, we've chosen buddleias (Maybe "Butterfly Bush" rings a bell? That's how I knew them growing up.) with their fragrance and long, draping cones of flowers, and hydrangeas, in white and pink --hopefully they'll stay those colors! Also some Corkscrew Hazels, which, even though they have no flowers really to speak of, I LOVE them for their fall display of catkins, and twisty branches. We also have plans to get some Osmanthus Burkwoodii (a relation to the "Tea Olive" I love so much back home), some "Mock Orange" and some "old" or "cottage" roses. But wait....

Did I say hydrangea?! And my criteria is fragrance for the flowering things?!

Well yes, but people should ALWAYS consider an exception to their own rule. You see, I've got history with hydrangeas: The palest pink of hydrangea heads were on my wedding reception tables and delicately dotted on my wedding cake --I've always seen hydrangeas EVERYWHERE back home, and I've known since I was a little girl that the colours of their flowers can change depending on the acidity or alkalinity of their soil. Also, my mother sent me a lovely white hydrangea for my birthday this year, to remind me of home. The huge mopheads of flowers turned pink after a few days of being the most crisp linen white, and having my own hydrangea plant so very up close where I can see it grow and change has caused me to fall madly in love with them.

Along with fragrance, though, I'm also wanting texture and interest, which I hope to achieve by using different plants, shrubs and compact trees --cue those gorgeous Corkscrew Hazels! Fatsia Japonica, as well, is on my list, for its deep green, large waxy leaves that lend themselves so well to floral arrangements. Just yesterday I found dogwoods at one of the local garden centres; even though I don't remember those flowers having frangrance, the compact body and destinct leaves would add yet another dimension.

So far, though, this is about all I've planned out. And although we already have three hydrangeas, three buddleias, and two hazels, we don't have any of the other plants, yet. Hopefully we can decide on more plants and things soon, really get down to the business of finalizing the designs of the planted areas, pick up the rest of the plants, trees and shrubs we'll need in the next few weeks, and get everything in!!

Excel is a BIATCH!

But Mama needs a new pair of shoes. And money for bus fares to the US --along with a house, some furnishings, and some wheels.

So she's brushing up on her Excel and overall Office proficiency and is gonna knock 'em dead in the UK job market with her extremely fabulous style, looks, accent, personality and resume.

Oh yeah, and mad MAD Office skilz...

Sadness

I'm a facebook addict, and have been for a good while, though it took me longer to really get IN to facebook than most. But I'm fully hooked now, and through FB I've been able to find long lost friends and old classmates, ex-boyfriends, family, and people I know from back home, but don't really see that often. It's nice to be able to keep in touch, or at least read the statuses of all of these people.

But for months now, I've been watching the transition of a friend of mine -via FB- from a happy guy with a great life and the best relationship, to a single guy with lots of anger and doubt, and a lost love he can never get back. It's heartbreaking.

I believe it was late last year when my friend's partner was diagnosed with a brain tumor. He'd been a smoker all of his adult life, as I understood, and had been diagnosed with a brain tumor --a product, if I'm not mistaken, of lung cancer having silently spread throughout his body and deciding to settle in his brain, as well as other places. This beautiful friend of mine, and his beautiful love now had a third entity in their relationship. The trips they took to beautiful places slowed and then stopped, as the entity crept along and took over. Surgeries were performed, treatments and drugs prescribed and tried, but in the end there was nothing they could do as the entity took over. Once graceful steps had become shufflings and stumbles, once sound ideas had been replaced with obsessive behaviours, and the youthful vigor was slowly drained from entirety. My beautiful friend had gone from loving partner, to loving carer, in a matter of months.

My friend is an amazing writer, working for a magazine that I pick up from time to time when I'm lucky enough to be home visiting, and I've always marvelled at his articles. When everything struck their lives, my beautiful friend --whether he consciously did it or not-- began to write about it all. He wrote about how he felt, how his partner felt; how this day was alright, or that day had been hell. He explained it all clearly but with a strength and love that shone through brightly. Looking back, now, I can clearly see the progression of the entity, and how my beautiful friend's partner was slowly, relentlessly taken from him.

I'll never forget when my beautiful friend's partner died. There was merely a short sentence of an update, something so subtle that had you no idea what was going on, you'd have thought it a positive statement. I had considered quoting it in this post, but I think I'll leave it out. It's not MINE to be sharing; I just needed to relay a bit of background.

Through my beautiful friend's clear and thoughtful writing you could tell that when his partner died it was the most decimating, liberating, confusing, hurtful and raw journey he'd ever had forced on him. Everyone's heart must have died just a little bit with his, when reading his delicate and loving description of his partner's passing. I know mine did.

What I saw next, though, worried me a bit, but I knew it was the natural way out of the situation he'd been in. He seemed a bit relieved, although that's not the ONLY thing he was feeling, I'm sure, but he seemed like a burden had been lifted --hadn't it, anyway? Surely death has to be better than the pain and suffering leading up to it, especially when that's the only possible outcome?! His writing of course had slowed down, but seemingly happy pictures of my beautiful friend started surfacing on his friends' FB pages; his smiles seemed genuine, his face relaxed.

But I knew (from personal experience) that that relief would eventually subside and the rest of what he was feeling from it all would come through: Sadness, confusing resentment, hatred and burning contempt for the entity that had ruined his life and taken his partner from him.

That's where it is now. I'm watching my beautiful friend go through his depression, his mourning, his loss, with the mixed emotions that only death gives us. His strong writing has taken a break for now, being mere responses to a meme he has posted. His brusque answers are a harsh departure from his demeanor; he is again telling us how he is feeling through his writing. And it breaks my heart to see his suffering. His offhanded comments about anti-depressants and counselling, his legitimately bitter, acidic remarks about not being able to marry the one he wholly loved, simply because they were both men, and the fact that he mentioned not getting out of bed until 1pm, all tangle together into an easily seen state of confusion and depression my beautiful friend has fallen into. My feelings cry for him.

This post doesn't REALLY have anything more to do with Facebook than the fact that that's how I'm most easily able to keep up with my friend; what REALLY matters here is that a beautiful, lovely, gorgeous, and vivacious man, easily full of all the kindness and love and thoughtfulness that people STRIVE to have, is hurting. An unfair, unrelenting, piercing hurt.

And I'm having to deal with my own feelings of unfairness for what he's gone through, and continues to go through.

I love you, Egg. Hang in there.

Moving (Virtual) Home

Well, I've had a blog off and on for YEARS now, and from time to time I get the urge/need/yearning to switch it up, and move it around.

This time, though, it's just a little bit more than simply continuing on from where I left off. I've come over to blogger and I've changed the name a little bit, but it's still me, and hopefully this will encourage me to write a little more often than I had been.

Only time will tell. But for the moment, I'm having a good time playing with colors and layouts, and seeing what I can do with my space. Awesome.