From my journals...

Monday

The mothballs I hide around the settee in our front porch to use as cat repellent seems to be the best remedy to keep those wild cats away.  But I haven't been able to replace the bags lately, and felines don't forget don't forgive.  So the stubborn feral had taken possession of my front porch again.  He has been coming back regularly as days get cooler, and my settee, which I had festooned with new pillows and new red sit covers to match our red front door, is again being soiled by this creature whose ferocious insistence has win over my will, so it seems.  But I'm not giving up.    

Tuesday

I renewed the grout on our kitchen tile floors and on one of the bathrooms today. It amazes me the amount of time I spend trying to maintain our tiled floors looking perfectly white and clean and still not being able to achieve this permanently.  Over time, tiles become hazy no matter what you do and just always look dirty. The only thing that targets grout stains as far as I'm concerned, it is this little miracle product called Polyblend Grout Renew.  I'm loving my super white floors again.

Wednesday

Today, I cleaned the newly renewed floors on both bathrooms and in the kitchen area, including all the trims there are.  Which means, I had to get down on my fours again today to clean the ones closest to the floor.  I am exhausted.

There’s a tool for every job, even cleaning floors, I know.  But I'm one of those who believes that nothing can do a better job than using your own two hands.  Cleaning all those trims closest to the floors had also proven that age plays a huge role in your life when it comes to deep cleaning.  

Tomorrow, or some other time next week it will be retouching the paint on walls, trims and doors and wherever I see a need for it.

Friday

We used the leaf blower today to clean that patch in the front yard where the giant sugar maple tree keeps scattering its big brown jewels in such colossal abundance.  We also trimmed the holly hedge that surrounds and guards our little white cottage and later decided to make concrete stepping stones, using the huge elephant ears leaves in our gardens as mold.  

This was sorts of a test, as we had never tried doing this before.  We learned that to really be able to step on your concrete stepping stones they will have to be made of a thicker width than what we had, and probably use a chicken wire or other type of wire mesh in the concrete for reinforcement.  Ours came out way too thin for its purpose, so these will be used as garden decorations only.

Tuesday

I'm still bringing in flowers from our garden.  

This plant with lovely spires of deep cardinal-red blooms it really is a herb.  We couldn't remember the name of it, so we had to do a little research on it.  The name is Pineapple Sage. 

We didn't know either that this herb was supposed to reach such height and grew into a branching plant of about 3 to 4 feet tall and nearly as wide.  

Their lovely blooms were also a surprise to us late this summer.  And it looks that blooms will continue for a little longer into the winter.  Butterflies and hummingbirds loved it during late summer blooms. I will definitely be planting more of it and filling flower pots next spring.

Today

It's been raining on and off around here for the last couple of weeks and the garden is wearing a suit confectioned in raindrops and autumn tinted leaves. 

It is looking quite marvelous splashed in small raindrops, and it is supple and toned in deep greens. Behind the gardens, the woods has opened up, thinned out now by the cooler season.  You can hear the hum of small insects and tweets of birds with a clearer ear, and although there hasn't been much sun to shine on it, it still shines in a light all of its own.  It is life from eternal life.  

I have so much to learn from my surroundings...

How does fall speak to your heart? 

Do share!

The moon in my garden...

I have brought in all my ferns and geraniums from the garden to winterize.  The geraniums remain in the garage under the two windows where indirect light will sustain them throughout the winter months.  Some ferns remain there also, as I don't have space inside the house to bring them all in, but some of them are now festooning our dining room area with their green preciousness and vibe. 

I love the amount of light and atmosphere of this room 

...and I love that the green from the ferns goes so well with all the black and white there... like magical burst of life.  

 Witches cauldrons have been filled with pansies for the winter too. 

Witches cauldrons intended for collecting candies on Halloween.  But perfect flower pots to me... and for less than $7.00.  Per-fect!

When I was out there planting pansies, it occurred to me it was time to transform the old thrift store table that I had there since the day we moved to our little white cottage, into a cheery accent.  I'm not a decorative painter. I'm not even good at stenciling anything either, but I can always opt for a decorative furniture makeover trick that it can make me look like a decorative painter ;)

Self adhesive shelf paper.... An easy way to fake a decorative finish when you don't have decorative painting skills.  

Voila! A decorative table that required no artistic painting skills.  I love this black and white zebra design.  The thick glossy paper is easy to clean. I'm using a plate under the flower pot to protect the finish. 

 The moon must had fallen down from the sky the other night.  

It now resides in our pond.

If you look closer 'round the pond, you'll discover a brighter second moon....

Late, on autumnal evenings, mermaid Maritza sings lullabies by it, as she guards it

Did I mentioned that these lovely moons were originally bowling balls?  Yes, now turned into magical garden gazing ball... or moons.  Love it.

This afternoon, we thinned out some of the trees resting at the edge of the garden.  If we were to let things be, soon the woods that skirt our gardens will take over our tiny cottage and swallow it up.  I like the canopy of gentle branches that hangs over the pea gravel paths that flow like rivers throughout the garden, but tree branches had gotten super bushier during the summer and had spread out so much that they were practically covering the entire paths.  It looks really nice now that the area has opened up a bit, letting some light shine through. 

  

Aren't those patches of afternoon light filtering through branches behind the cherub lovely!

"Oh, listen, little Dear-My-Soul to the fairy voices calling, for the moon is high in the misty sky and the honey dew is falling; To the midnight feast in the clover bloom the bluebells are a-ringing, and it's come away to the land of fay, that the katydid is singing". - Eugene Field

See you soon!

LINKING TO:

WHAT'S IT WEDNESDAY

WATTS HOUSE

FEATHERED NEST

Of fairies and witches

The darling little fairies of my heart who visited our little white cottage the other day had an exciting time playing in the garden...

While playing, they discovered some old, thrift store one dollar bowling balls scattered around the flowerbeds and shrubs that a certain witch must had forgotten behind...

And decided to turn them into something else... ;)

With a bolt of white light from the tip of their magic wands they
transformed them

into some lovely fairy gazing balls.

"Alohomora!"  They commanded
and puff....

Some pieces of art with a bit of their own personality they got!...

Even Dumbledore would had been impressed~

The white witch... 

and her white cat 

came back for another stroll in the garden 

and found the little fairies' gazing balls

Boy were they proud!

They could have not been any happier... 

What a fun day that was!

We still have one more bowling ball to finish up.  I wonder what it will look like this time or what it will be turned into, as our magic is not always that precise and you'd never know what we can come up with... Hopefully our spells will be the right one and no frog will be turned into a prince or anything like that... although I'd not mind if one of the fishes in the pond could be changed into Mr. Darcy any day! ;)  Oh well friends, I best be going to bed now, as I'm starting to see swirls of nonsense bursting out of me... my eyes widening with anticipation... ;)

What to do when you can't sleep?  Bah!  Make more bad stories?

Or go to the darkened garden and deadhead the roses?

Do tell me what do you do when you can't find your sleep!

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FIVE STAR FROU FROU

Coffee nook and open shelves

Right after we moved to our little white cottage, one of the first things I did was putting together this cute little coffee station here...

I really liked it for a while, but the space was a bit crowded and the furniture there disproportionated.  I needed extra available working space and a place where all necessities were found in one same spot.

All of our dishes were originally storage on our World Market Emerson Shelving, next to our coffee station.  

Most of them were and still are used on a daily basis.  

When we moved to our tiny cottage I decided to practically keep only what we needed... yellow, pink, blue dishes, I gave them all away, and kept only our everyday whites.  Open shelves are a great savings and they fit how I live and work in our tiny kitchen.  But as you can imagine, still I needed some extra space/storage...

It took me a long time to convince my husband to help me build some shelves on this wall where our little coffee station/dishes were.  "Husband" lacks my vision, you see ;)  He's usually very much comfortable with the way things are.  As for me...  nothing ever stays the same if I can make it look better or improve it in any way.

After I transformed this French Provinca chest (you can read the story HERE and make it into our new coffee station, "Husband" finally got enthusiastic and decided to help me build the shelves I was envisioning.  Yeah! 

We went to Home Dept and got a large board cut in three 5".  I painted the boards in my absolute favorite stain color, Kona, by Rustoleum.  "Husband" installed the brackets and boards, and this is what we came up with...

A nicer, sophisticated space that it is also much functional too!

The drawers hold an assortment of coffee related things... teacups, saucers, napkins, Keuric pods, tea bags, etc. 

I just love it!  

What a huge improvement those shelves made in our small kitchen.  They not only hold coffee supply, but I can now storage a lot of other kitchen necessities as well, that otherwise would had to go outside in the garage for lack of space in our very small kitchen.

...essentials within easy reach.  Love love love it!

Despite my preference for minimalist spaces and clutter free kitchen counters, the open shelving concept has always managed to escape this trend in me...  this really helps a small kitchen feel bigger. Having open shelving also help keep small spaces airy and help banish that closed in feeling.

I placed this old, vibrant rug in that area and love it so much!  This little corner is now another happy place in our little cottage to walk by and enjoy...  Love it!

Strange as it may sound, I have to admit that this humble little cottage thus far is my very favorite house ever.  Maybe it's the smaller size, less upkeep, more nature, more free, country days to enjoy... whatever it is, I'm just so in love with our little white cottage!

LINKING TO:
THE SCOOP