Back to routine...

A bouquet of emotions swirling inside… the joy of reunion, the excitement of families coming together, of seeing each other again, laughter, celebration, delight, enjoyment, exhaustion, stress… goodbyes, yearnings, melancholy…. live goes on.

It’s been a roller-coaster of emotions and activities these few days indeed… and days so utterly full, that it has taken my little heart an entire day and a night to recover and get back to the normalcy of my days and my routine… not to mention that it took me around two full day’s work to get our little white cottage back to its normal pristine estate in and out... phew! I’m exhausted.

Of course, that’s because aside from cleaning and washing loads and loads of bed linens, towels, tablecloths and all sorts of things you can imagine, I also decided I needed to see some changes in the decoration around the house.  Particularly in my little gypsy room.  

I know.  I need to hit the Pause button sometimes… or very often.  But I needed my brain to relax a bit and changing the atmosphere of my home, it really does help.  That’s just how my brain works…

You see, whenever I’m bore, or need to indulge my senses or feel young at heart, I crave for color, and beautiful patters and lots and lots of elements and pretty things put together… that’s when the gypsy girl appears out of thin air, and with her, her beautiful unique gypsy space come to life…

 I change things around often, add more embellishment, more color, more prettiness...

But when I’m tired or stressed or feeling down, my brain works in a contrary way.  I crave for whites and neutrals and a more minimalist style that requires only just a few touches of color and prettiness… so my gypsy room crumbled all down pretty fast yesterday morning… and out of the rubble came the bare white walls and while linens...

I moved the furniture around

tucked away the gypsy rugs and fabric boxes and changed the bedding...

All the colorful gypsy pillows were put away in their boxes...

And out came others... 

Mood boards were taken down and neatly put away

Clean, bare walls came to light... 

Restful, peaceful...

The large blue frame mirror was moved to the other side of the room, the gypsy string lights were put away, and so everything else I had embellishing the mirror... such as the rose garlands, jewelry, an array of gypsy textiles, and the super cute little sequined beaded evening handbag...

Left out only this cute vintage child's petticoat

in white...

I also took down the gypsy altar...

And removed all the silk roses and ribbons off the chandelier...

  Simple and unpretentious

Restful to the eye decor

I brought the little brown stool out, and prettied up with a white tutu…

For an extra touch of femininity 

I put away everything that was embellishing the top of the larger chest of drawers 

And left only a few things...

that don't compromise the eye...

Spray-painted jars in two tones of pink
Love it

And I love the contrast between the pink and the lime-green of the necklace...

Just a few vibrant primary colors and few accessories…  it is incredible what these simple changes can do for your mind.  At least for mine it does ;)

You are more than welcome to share your thoughts and knowledge on how to you destress yourself. Please do share your thoughts in the comments below.

Family and such

Great high blue skies these days. Like the open palm of a departing hand, September is retiring… unwrapping as it departs the colors of coppers and golds. September takes leave and disappears into the miasma of the last horizon. Then the other day while I was pruning the holly hedges that surround our little white cottage, the last winds of summer let loose unleashing the first gusts of autumn. It provoked a shower of leaves... leaves that spread out all over the garden floors in a sudden magical wave of enchantment, and crawled onto the porch and inside the garage with the crimsoned crinkled sound of pure delight. I heard a whistle, a song, a lament... saw those mysterious deep shaded trees, the riotous unconquerable privets and bushes and gnarly trees at the edge of the garden, and I knew... oh yes, it is definitely autumn around here. And it cannot be any more pleasant, or amusing, or magical... 

You see, some very special people came to visit out little white cottage this week… 

Listening to the scurry of little feet and the jingle bells of children’s laughter round the house… 

Then we all got together for two days and a night... 

Sons and daughters, mommies and daddies, uncles and aunts, lovely little fairy cousins and silly mimas and old papas… we all got together and celebrated our togetherness…

  

With laughter and telling tales and dancing with karaoke video games

 Fairies and princesses came to celebrate... 

And who would have thought of doing nothing else but engaging in the marry making of fairies and little mischievous witches?  Cause oh yes, witches came to celebrate too!

One by one down the stairs they came... 

They danced and rode their brooms

half-naked under the full moon...

Yippee!

We hugged we squeezed we kissed...

Our littlest fairy.  Isn't she just adorable!

 And dressed alike...

 To visit the Aquarium...

Then all of a sudden at the Aquarium we all discovered that little Pebbles had somehow decided she rather liked wearing her shirt backwards…. The surprise on big cousin's face says it all!  We couldn't really tell when exactly did little Pebbles had done this...  you go figure ;)

Oh oh and can I share something amazing with you? A new line of makeup from Younique, which I was introduced to by my daughter Cindy, who just recently became a presenter for these products. I’m totally heads over heels with their products, particularly their mascara, which it gives you lashes you would never thought you could have… see what I mean.  Hard to believe these are my real lashes… 

I was so impressed with this product I had to ordered it immediately… forget about those faux eyelashes, which, by the way, I have never ever used, nor will ever wear.  This product, all natural, with 100 percent natural fibers taken from Green Tea would extend your very own lashes by 300 percent and make them look fuller and longer than you’d ever dreamed of. The name of this mascara is Moodstruck 3D Fiber Lashes and you can get them easily on her website.  Click HERE, and tell her I sent you.

Thank you for visiting my friend!

 

Of Iceberg roses and more...

“Sometimes since I've been in the garden 

I've looked up through the trees at the sky 

and I have had a strange feeling of being happy 

as if something was pushing and drawing in my chest 

 and making me breathe fast.

Magic is always pushing and drawing 

and making things out of nothing.

Everything is made out of magic, leaves and trees, flowers and birds, 

badgers and foxes and squirrels and people. 

 So it must be all around us. 

In this garden --in all the places.” 

 ― Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden

And we're back home after what it had seemed three seas and a world of a time.  There’s an island in my heart, and I’m thinking that people build too many walls and not enough bridges… I want to build bridges; be a channel, a conduit between people, between races, between cultures, between families and friends; always building, always trying to find common ground through love.  But sometimes you just have to wonder what kind of things may be waiting for you and those you love on the other side of those bridges… what motives, goodness or wickedness awaits in that dark end to stalk you; to haunt you beyond your fears?  Bridges can certainly be destroyed in a moments notice to no fault of your own.  I’m just praying my little heart out that the only and truest thing awaiting at that dark end of our bridges is true love...

The garden is a little oasis of joy and delight these days. 

The Iceberg roses in the front flowerbeds are blooming wonderfully again after some necessary ruthless cutting at the beginning of summer.   

They bloom but did not produced much foliage, and only spindly, thin branches.  They had to be cut almost to the ground. 

Now... lovely little miracles...

 What great gifts roses bestow unto our souls…

endless expanding, wonderful gifts.

They look lovely on our table too...

One little piece of advice to pass along about Iceberg roses... if you want more blooms and less scraggy thin limps, don’t just deadhead them.  Cut far back with long stems. If you cut the blossoms with very little stem, they tend to throw very spindley new growth.

Is it already getting autumnally in your neck of the woods? 

It is here… slowly and inconspicuously, but Autumn is around the corner for sure. How can I tell? You see, the other day…. the woods drew around me while out weeding early one morning… something spectral moved between the trees… a white shadow, a rushing wind among the trees.  I stopped what I was doing and stood up still, very still... listening, my heart pounding. 

What was it, I couldn’t tell.  Except perhaps, that nothing should surprise us, really… why, the season of enchantment is upon us and anything of the spooky variety can surely happen at any given time.  I’m sure if you listen and pay close attention you too would hear it—the cackles, the songs, the music of dragonfly charms and beads of ankle bracelets of witches as they trot the sun-warmed earth almost in a hurry.

What else do you see around you 

that’s foretelling the soon arrival of autumn

in your little world? 

Do share!