Away from the garden

I miss our little white cottage.... hours away from it are like days 

and days seems like extra long months.        

I am accompanying my husband who is attending some meetings in Austin and San Antonio, and then it will be a trip to the house in the roses. It will be already the middle of July by the time we'll get back to our little white cottage... I have left angels in charge.

If we could go anywhere we want, even Paradise, would we miss our homes? If my home is not there I know I would.

When we left our little white cottage, the Endless Summer hydrangeas in the front porch were in full bloom... 

And the Iceberg roses were fully clad in all their glories--outfits suitable of queens, 

and angels wings

Hard to believe this hedge here....

is the same hedge of just a year ago...

Some of the Crape Myrtle trees in our back gardens were in bloom when we left...

...a classic sign 

...that summer is here as the tree bursts into bloom with huge, colorful flowers.

The large, drooping flower clusters in gorgeous colors remind me of the lilac trees that grew at the house in the roses.  

Sadly, lilacs won't grow here, but I do have the Crepe Myrtles now...

...butterfly bushes are doing wonderfully too

They attract myriads of butterflies to the garden...

Zinnias are almost as tall as me...

I scattered thousands of zinnia seeds this year... I love zinnias.  They grow so tall and always know how to fill my spaces with color and immense joy.

This is one of my favorite corners in the garden...

It used to look like this only a year ago today...

And this is what that corner looked like even before we put up that fence there... the glorious beam of light I was able to captured that day it certainly filled me up with hope and a sense of clarity... 

It let me see clearly into the future..

 to this now...

and this...

Once upon a time while living in another garden I had this idea that I could never love another garden as much as I loved the one I was gifted with at that time.  Well, I could not have been more wrong.  

How are you all been doing in your part of the world?  

Master bedroom updates

I really love white and black put together.  These two primary colors are so soothing and refreshing at the same time.  Put both together, and you have a placid, elegant combo.  Most of the rooms in our little white cottage are decorated following this palette.  

But things are never the same around here... there's always something different in the decor, something new, something old being renewed... old stuff gets to be revamped, chairs and benches recovered, wall painted, repainted, and furniture get to be moved around a lot too. 

Everything is always revolving around here... but that's just because I love to decorate and would never ever settle for the 'same ol' same ol' kind of attitude ya know...  Are you like that too? ;)

Our master bedroom is a 'never-ending' sorts of a project...  I'm always working on something in that room.

Some time ago all the furnishing there got painted in a lighter color...

You can click HERE to read all about it.

I dreaded doing the task, but the chalk paint surely made all the difference...  Paint colors can certainly change the mood of any room.... I love how the atmosphere of the room lighted up instantly with the new paint.  

Later I added some bold pattern with a touch of gray to the room...  I just felt in love with these pillows, from Ikea, and incorporated them in our room.

And changed the lampshades to white...

Today, I decided it was finally time to change the look there again... I never liked the headboard with the black leather anyway... you know the one I want... an upholstered headboard detailed with deep button tufts and decorative brass nail heads and so, but... since that's not possible, I decided to paint the leather white... something I've been wanting to do for a long time, but hadn't had the courage to do...

I immediately felt I made a mistake right after I started painting.  The job wasn't coming along as smooth as I'd anticipated.  The paint was too thick and the leather kept bleeding through.  But I was determined, and kept on going.   After the third coat of paint I found out that adding a drop or two of water really help in getting the smoothness and coverage I was after, so I kept painting until I was (almost) happy with the result.    

The whitewashed part of the headboard was a painting blunder... an accidental kind of a thing that I plan on correcting real soon...  when I started painting the leather, somehow I got paint on the wood . Instead of correcting this right away, I went ahead and continued painting the entire thing white...  It looked terrible, but when I tried to remove the paint it was already too late...  I will leave it as is for now until I can figure out what to do...

  

Since the curtains in the room are white, the white lampshades were changed to black for some depth.  Black shades and a couple of lime green pillows did the trick.  This simple change made a huge difference to the room.

Lately I'm so loving gold.  So I decided to add some gold accessories there too.  Like this large mirror I spray-painted in gold.  I used Krylon Metallic Brass paint for the project.  I want a little gold glass top table to place in front of the mirror, but until I find the right one, this is what I'm using for now... an old plant stand rescued from the garden.  I used the leftovers Krylon Metallic Brass paint from the mirror to revamp it.

The branches in the large milk glass vase are from the woods behind our garden, spray-painted in white.... I added some very tiny fairy lights to the branches for some whimsy...

I love these crystal bead curtain... I put it against the window for some boho glamour effect.  When the sun hits on the glass, the room seems to be visited by flickering fairy whispering secrets in the sunlight... 

Also from Ikea are the gauzy panels I added to the already white cotton paneled windows.  96" long and very lovely.  2 on each package - only $3.99.  

I am also planing on painting gold the inside part of the black lampshades and will be adding some wall pictures in black and gold as well.

Finally, the biggest parts of the renovations will be, painting the walls in a pretty gray and replacing the carpet for hardwood floors... my dream.  Can't tell when will it come to fruition though, but maybe if I keep thinking about it, it will happen some day soon?  :)

What do you think?  Like it?

Au revoir!

LINKING TO:

FEATHERED NEST FRIDAY

The magical bridge

Are you one of those people who think that relief from emotional difficulties can be found through seeing a psychologist and stuff like that?  I once heard Oprah said that negative feelings and things that hurt you emotionally must be brought out to light so that the healing process can begin in you.  Well, my brain works in a very different way.  I'm afraid of expressing negative feelings too much, and seldom do... I feel that if I start talking about the things that make me feel sad, or angry or whatever, it will do more harm than good in me than anything.  Life would surely become chaos if I consent on letting out all that darkness and expose my soul bare.  That is why I tend to keep negative feelings tucked away deep down in some quiet place in my heart and try very hard not to think about them or expose them too much... maybe, just maybe, if I keep them quiet for some very long time, they will go away some day? I know, this is puerile of me, but that's just how I am.

Thanks to all of you who were able to read between lines in my previous post and felt impelled to leave your heart-felt comments.  The only words I have are:  It means a lot to me.  Thank you.

I'm always dreaming of making new things, a new project, a new endeavor to keep my creativity flowing... always thinking about what I want to see done here and there, and all the while contemplating the finished product from the beginning in my mind as clearly as a perfect picture...

And thus, another project had been thought of and now completed in our garden....  one that just came out of my mind in an instant the other day all of a sudden... and it was done just as quickly... 

Oh yes.... a magical bridge!

A bridge to connects my garden to those 'once upon a time' worlds beyond the woods...

Not that we didn't have one already, of course...

You see, this bridge here it truly is magical.  

I discovered by pure luck, one day right after we moved to our little white cottage when I decided to followed some magical creature I saw going into the woods beyond our gardens.

 Can you imagine?  

Alice in my own Wonderland for sure!

I followed my rabbit all the way to the end of  that bridge.  Then, stood there for the longest time, deciding what to do next.  Of course, I didn't get to find out where the little rabbit lived, like the real Alice of the story did, but that was just because I was very much afraid of all that poison ivy that lives in those woods, otherwise I'm sure I'd had followed him right into his hole and thereby entered Wonderland.  One day maybe I would?  Oh I hope so!

Our newest bridge is not completed... something is missing or something!  I am planning on adding some solar light to the four corner posts, but I want to do something creative... like maybe using some recycled light fixture and add a solar light head in it or something like that?  Any suggestion?

It's been extra hot around here lately and rain is scarce.  The other day, however, we were blessed with a sudden heavy downpour of rain when we were sitting outside.  Everyone stood closely together under the big umbrella trying not to get wet... watching me while I danced and giggled and opened my mouth really wide to drink from above under a most fantastic and warmest of rain... nourishing me from above, drenching me with soaking joy...

May you all have a blessed day my friend!

LINKING TO:
FEATHERED NEST FRIDAY

Life in a garden...

I've been entertaining some very special people for the past few weeks and the woods are alive and magic is afoot...  the heat of summer is causing us to plead for mercy, but even so, the garden is still the place where I dance on the ripples of hours... 

Zinnias as in full bloom...

And there's a mermaid living in our pond...

The goldfish are doing wonderful. They have adapted beautifully to their new environment. They remind me of little children running freely in the opened fields behind their country homes when I see how happy they are. Magic is felt everywhere. Flowing along the wind, some mysterious creatures have been seen lately and strange songs have been heard coming from the woods too... who sings? Oh I want to know... it leave no trace of wings in the air, that song. 

The Elephant Ears bulbs I planted in late winter are popping up in the most unexpected places... have they decided to bloom in their own chosen place and perhaps have moved without me noticing it, or have I forgotten the exact location where I planted them?  All the bug-infected and damaged roses of early spring have put up new, healthy leaves and now the pretties of buds painted in the color of a baby's room are embellishing healthy bushes everywhere...     

I work the ground I entertain my guests and consider life, I plan a new project, a better project to work on, a new dream to bring to fruition, I try nurturing this old soul, I think I can handle life's stresses, I dream I cry I hope and go back and forth throughout my days and don't reach any destination.  Life is a moving cloud hanging from God's fingers.  

The other day, a very strange woman stood in the shadows just at the edge of the forest...  a gypsy? 

Look at your cards again, milady, and tell me if you still see these woods in my future? 

My mother keeps asking the same questions over and over.  She resembles the mother I once knew. But who's this woman now?  I listen.  I answer her again and again. My heart is filled with silent tears.  I know what's coming:  “You're so beautiful," said Alice. "I'm afraid of looking at you and not knowing who you are." "I think that even if you don't know who I am someday, you'll still know that I love you."  "What if I see you, and I don't know that you're my daughter, and I don't know that you love me?"  "Then, I'll tell you that I do, and you'll believe me.”  (Lisa Genova, Still Alice)

And then there's my ageing father.  Have you ever seen a man crying?  No. Not just any man--your hero.  Your father.  A lost child before the impending future.  I look up at the sky and feel certain that loneliness and helplessness are just a lie... 

Oh, what's the word that's burning in my heart?