Painted jars and roses

I love decorating the rooms in our little white cottage with antique and vintage mason jars... but really, any jar would do fine for me... old repurposed jars from the kitchen, jars I collect from thrift shops and so on...

I love to see dainty little flowers in dainty little jars spread around the house... 

Jars painted in pretty spring pastel colors like soft pinks and robin’s egg blues.   

But if you are looking for a quick and easy way to tint your jars, here's my secret tip:  Tint them with food color dye!  Just fill your mason jars almost to the very top with water and add one drop of your favorite food color dye.  Give it a good stir and you're done! 

Adding food color to water is such an easy way to make the glass look tinted, but when you go to the dollar store and you find this pretty little dollar jar you see here, things can get even easier and better real fast...  

Isn’t this such a pretty color?  And it last forever because the jars come already tinted... 

Because the jar is tinted only in the bottom part of it, it gives the illusion that the water is tinted.

I will have to go back for more.... they come in blue, green, yellow and this pretty pink....

Roses from the garden...

in pink too!

 I so love these little pink roses...

The garden is teeming with them these days...

From the Kordes® rose varieties

I am happy... good things in the horizon, church this morning, lunch with dear friends, great conversation, great food, high hopes.  A new place, new friends, new life, new climate, and I think a new me too in a sense, as I see changes taking place in me as well as in our lives.  Tastes are different, preferences in styles are changing, thoughts and ideas too.  Life is a constant movement thread in hours and moments.  We need to treasure them, love each moment, love those we come in contact with...  treasure your family, treasure your friends and loved ones.  Love them all, and don't forget to include yourself in that precious circle of love too! 

See you soon!

My day...

Joy swirls all around me.  There's this kind of newness to the morning that is a welcoming respite of joy, and gladness and thankfulness.  Within my heart there flickers a little light, and above me over where shaggy green canopies of giant tress sway in gentle breezes, there I see what eyes cannot see, but the heart knows all too well....  

Closer is He than breathing... 

I stumble into Him... God is near.  I am elated...  He fills the garden around and above me...

The weather has mellowed in a sudden taste of fall too, and the chilly morning is melting in golden globules of sunshine.  

I sit here and, deep within my heart I treasure all I see and hear...

How wonderful it feels...
and how wonderfully beautiful everywhere I see. 

Even leaves carry the signs of the near future in their russet hues.  

And deep in the enchanting woods, dappled sunshine is making polkadots on trees and garden floors....

I've been working in the garden since early this morning, replanting, re-potting, weeding, cleaning the herb and vegetable beds... the knockout roses are doing marvelous, and so is the Ellie rose and Paradise bushes... they are such joy.

The slender twining Cypress vine is taken over the fairy garden...

in delicate ferny threadlike leaves...    

I cut some hydrangea flowerets this morning and made bouquets for my little white cottage... 

The sun in its journey is a lovely demoiselle, and from the window in my humble little castle I delight in recording her journey through the clear blue sky... it never cease to amaze me--the sun in its faithful journey through the day.
         

I wasn't expecting this change in temperatures today, and what a lovely and welcoming feel it was the minute I opened my door and step into the garden... this early autumn-like air is like a breath of magic swirling all around... The calendar tells us that autumn is still a few weeks away, but we nature lovers know better.  Have you seen any changes in your neck of the woods?  It feels like only a short countdown until leaves start falling from the trees around here...  

The flood

It's been raining rivers all day today.  Have I ever mentioned how much I love rainy days?  And have I ever mentioned how on certain rainy days when heat and humidity levels are such that strange vapors would exude from the earth like little soulless ghosts, strange and puzzling occurrences are most probably bound to occur?

And would you believe me if I tell you that on those certain rainy days imps and fairies and dwellers of the woods at the outskirts of our gardens would come out of their dens and hiding places and cross the old wooden bridge that connects woods with gardens?  Would you... would you believe me?

Ah yes, I've seen some very strange things happening... strange sightings....  puzzling occurrences, like fairies secretly converging for tea and leaving remnants of their soiree behind... between the sun and showers, while grasses whispered tiny things... about you, about us, about this world of ours!

But you would ask, do fairies, gnomes, sprites and goblins really exist? Well, suspend your disbelief for a moment, for all sorts of real-life encounters with creatures from the land of make-believe can, and do happen sometimes... how else would you explain what we're seeing here on this photograph I took of the rain the other day?  

I don't know about you, but I see a giant nymph... and I can attest that this photograph hasn't been photoshopped in the least whatsoever...  an optical illusion?  A trick of the light?  You tell me...

...what I believe of the paranormal, is that there are things our brains just can't understand.

But I do like to believe that fairies do exist...
Are they invisible and inaudible little things-like angels?
or are they more like us humans?

All I know is that magic sparkles everywhere in nature for sure!

Today, a cat I discovered in the garden between rain spells disappeared in front of my very eyes the moment he saw me.  And I had seen a small gray dog who wanders around here from time to time disappear right in front of my eyes... On both these occasions, we've looked at each other, but the moment I turn around they were gone.  Where did they go?  Really, where?

These creatures must be well aware of some invisible hideout somewhere, from where they can freely come out and go into another dimension or something like that.  Otherwise, I don't have an explanation for these occurrences.

Magic swirls all around here...  If you step into that entrance between those walls you see here for example, your hair will flow in a magic fairy dust wind and your skin will get the goosebumps with the mystery floating in the air...  

Maybe it's all to do with an inquisitive imagination and the soul of the storyteller?  Maybe all is true and there are things we just cannot understand? 

Whatever it is, I believe a garden must combine the poetic and the mysterious, don't you think so!... and maybe that's just what I'm trying to achieve here? ;)

It all has to do with all that rain, I'm sure... for rain surely holds the key to all my tales!  And it was a crazy rain what we had last evening...  It rained so much that I was sure our little white cottage was going to float away, and the little creek on the back of the garden got all swollen up... waters rushed frenetically, while thunder cracked the skies in glimmering flames.  It was scary, and awesome...

Good night world... may your troubles be less and your blessings be more!

Bedroom update

Good morning my lovelies!  

Any one for a 'tasita de café?'

I had to come back and show you my darling upholstered headboard again... did you notice too?   Ah yes, I had the upholstered pieces on my headboard placed wrongly and the patterns were not even... you can see that on the pictures on my last post.  It is funny thought because you could only had noticed this on the photographs.  In real life, the patterns looked perfect... only on the photographs you were able to see the blunder.  I did, and so did my husband and I'm sure many of you did too!  Hahah!

Thank you Barbara for pointing that out!  I corrected the slip-up and for fun added a new accent pillow to the bunch!  

 Love the pop of color!

I cant stop buying fabric now... the options are endless...

Oh and thank you to whoever offered the idea of painting one more wall to see if I like it...  I had considerate doing that myself.  Now, which wall should I paint?  Can you guess?  Here's my inspiration...

Found on cozybliss.com

Isn't that beautiful!  Oh I need more mirrors!

It rained so much last evening I truly believed my dreams were about to materialize and that somehow our little white cottage was going to be uplifted from its roots and float away for real.  The little creek on the back of the garden got so swollen up it almost overflow the bridge.  Waters rushed with such force, and above us, thunder lighted up the darkening skies with terrifying sounds.  All this time, we were outside under the gazebo getting soaked up while I screamed terrified by lightening and enjoyed every minute of it...  unforgettable.  Posting about it soon! 

LINKIG TO:

FEATHERED NEST

Thoughts on a rainy morning...

I cannot love our master room any more... and I cannot come here often enough and not stop and just admire the beauty all around.  I'm so in love with this dark gray paint, I want to paint the entire room in it... but, I am listening to your advise and I too think that the light of the white walls, which plays off the beauty of the charcoal, would be tainted and the beauty spoiled.  The only way to find out, of course, is to try it.  But I am procrastinating over it thought, not being sure.  

Wouldn't this wall look awesome painted in that same charcoal paint!  

Oh did you noticed? More mirrors! I know, whatever happened to my quest to want little? I'm still on it, but I discovered a few more mirrors in my treasure boxes the other day and I love them so much, I decided that I didn't care! ;)

Oh and remember the fabric I tore down from the entry?  I am now using it here...  on the HB.  

I love this fabric so much!  

And I love that I can now change the look of my room in an easy and inexpensive way whenever I want!

I adore everything black and white. Stripes, spots and strokes, geometric... they are now all over our bedroom and living room. 

It always amaze me how our taste changes with us, as we grow older and many other aspects in our lives change too.  I remember when I use to embellished my books like what you see here...

Still pretty... but I am now more into this:  abstract, bold, and geometric. 

I found this photograph this morning and had to show you... my mom and dad when they were young.  I have many people who love me, but I can sincerely and humbly say that nobody on this earth love me as unconditionally and as deeply as these two dear ones do.  They just love me for who I am.  No questions ask.  No why's.  Love and acceptance, regardless anything I do or won't do, anything I say or won't say.  Love, from the rest of the world, I have to earn it.  They just do.  They are the wind beneath my wings...