Grow Up...

When I awoke this morning there was a fabulous treasury featuring my emerald necklace.  But it was the title that really made me giggle.  It's called "grow-up," and just made me snicker.  Here it is below:

Grow-up by Efratul

Enjoy!

~Maggie~

Disconnect

My husband got home early last week -- I think Tuesday (the days all run together for me). He was only gone for about three weeks this time -- miserable in Idaho because of the heat.  We were pretty miserable here too because of the heat -- but it was about 20 degrees cooler here than there, though only about 6 hours away.

This last temporary duty seemed so long, almost longer than trips five times as long.  It's not so much that it's unusual for him to go away for a few weeks at a time here and there -- it's that we got the keys to the house on June 4th -- and he has been home only about 10 days since then.

So while we spent Tuesday evening just resting -- getting back into being at home together, Wednesday he had a few things to do at work -- then a surprise longish weekend.

It was never actually said -- but we pretty much disconnected from everything.  Except each other.  It was like a stay-cation without worry of checking email, facebook, really much of anything.  Sure, if I had an order, I packed it up and sent it, but then I went back to our staycation.  

Hubby bought a few artwork reproductions -- knowing how much I love Van Gogh, I was excited to see "Terrace at Night" in the hallway near my kitchen.  Just so fitting.  Though it's a reproduction -- I still love it, and frankly, I am not sure I could ever hang (or afford) a real Van Gogh in my house -- let alone so close to where I make pasta sauce.

It's sort of got the bug in me to actually decorate the walls in my office in here. They're pretty barren -- and while I am kind of used to bare walls because of never really feeling like a house was our home, I think some artwork would look nice.  And photographs -- especially scenery, so that there is always some inspiration around.

Hubby and I talked endlessly about what we loved about the house -- words like "reprieve," "calming," "relaxing" always escaping our lips.  We're technically in city limits -- no more than 2 miles from the actual city center of this smallish city outside Seattle.  But, it feels like miles away.  Like we live out in the country, away from the hustle and bustle -- yet we're right here for all my creature comforts.   We discussed things like: "When you were dreaming up your dream house, what was it like?"  "Well, it wasn't this -- but I couldn't imagine a better place now."

When we were in the apartment -- we felt on top of each other, always in each others way.  My "office" was a corner of our bedroom -- that doubled as the TV area when we watched netflix on the computer. I often sat in bed creating long into the evenings.  We were cramped. This house is technically only about 200 square feet larger -- but it feels like another 1000 square feet.  Hubby walked by the kitchen over the weekend, and puttered into my office (my office is off the kitchen, originally designed as a very, very small dining room) and said "I always forget this room is back here -- it's so nice."

It's so relaxing and calming to disconnect for a few days.  I get why people sign up for offline conferences and retreats now.   While we didn't intend to go offline -- I think we may plan that in the future. (And, we weren't completely offline, truth be told -- we still watched netflix a little at night).

Do you "go offline" from time to time? Is it rejuveinating, or do you freak out a little?

~Maggie~

What to do...

So yeah, I love my back yard.  Sure, I can also see the millions of things I need to do to make it super pretty.  But for now I love it.

There are three sections -- divided most ingeniously by the previous owners of my house.  While I do have certain plans to take out some of the items they grew here (I am not a fan of ivy going pretty wild) -- the general separation is just plain calming. 

I spend much of my time in the middle back yard -- an area just covered in fruit trees and greenery.  It's raised on a bed of rocks that remind me of growing up in New York -- like those huge rock-walls around grand estates.  The people who lived here before put in so much time and effort into those rock walls -- I just can't bear to take them down. 

So, I sit -- on a raised 'circle' of grass, which is separated from the rest of the yard by an apple tree, a cherry tree and a plum tree.  Those three trees make a triangle that the circle sits inside.  Within that area -- I allow my husbands dogs to have their dog houses and play as much as they want because they just didn't get that in the apartment, so we're making up for lost time.  It provides shade, grass for them to roll around in, and apples -- which the midget doggy just loves.

Surrounding this raised bed of grass and fruit trees and fully separating the front back, the middle back and the back - back is a stone path that meanders through hazelnut trees, roses over an arbor, rose bushes -- my planting beds for gardening are on one side -- and my little shed that eventually I will "re-purpose". 

I am back there all the damn time.  Instead of making jewelry.  Instead of cleaning house.  Heck, instead of unpacking.   There is this innate serenity back there, a calm that is almost indescribable.  It's addicting, like not being able to put down a good book.  But the trouble is -- the book never quite ends.  I am back there constantly.  Moving my lawn furniture to either follow the shade or the sun depending on the temp outside. 

So now -- where in the apartment I was always behind because I was always stressed -- I am always behind here because I am seeking out the calm far too often. (In fact, once I finish this post I am going out there to check on the garden and relax before I clean house -- yeah I will totally get to cleaning house.)


Here's some green -- so you can love the outdoors a bit today also.

Hello by OOMISEH

Soft Pastels

Gentle Touches

Curated By: Gheet

ArtFire.com

Handmade Jewelry

The golden hour

I've been working hard at putting together my "home".   While it's been very exciting for me and the hubby, the poor guy I am married to is not going to get much time to enjoy the place as he has so many trips away from home to train soldiers with the Army this year. 

Last year would have probably been better as we were in that budget battle that caused a lot of training to be cancelled -- if we had closed last year, maybe he would have gotten more time to enjoy the place.  As it is, it seems like it's about a week or two home to every 4-5 weeks away for this year.

With all that time away -- it's a double edged sword, really.  On one hand, I can kind of set up places around the house how I want -- on the other hand, he doesn't get to experience the wonder of the new place at the same time. 

Also -- I am kind of doing it all by myself, so my poor shop is suffering and I am not getting nearly as much done as I would like.  Like right now I have some fabulous peach moonstone and some fabulous Swiss blue topaz I just have not been able to touch.  It's sad to me, because they are so pretty that I wish I could just make them into something and post them.

I did however, get a few new items listed -- finally, even though I am still not caught up on creating my work-spaces.  I will show you those later in the post.

I think, however, the thing that is messing up my desire to work in the office / studio here is the golden hour.  It's this time of day that my yard is bathed in this fabulous golden light. I sit back in the back yard during that time every single day, enjoying the fabulous lighting hitting my fruit trees and my gardens.  When raspberries were in season (you know for about a week) it was like heaven in my back yard during that time.

Hubby has been home for almost his two weeks now -- and he can't seem to drag himself away from the back yard golden hour either.  It's like this moment of heaven on earth -- peaceful, serene, and absolutely stunning. There are several photos of the golden hour on my instagram, you'll see what I mean.

This is a Peridot colored Swarovski starfish.  I love it, because finding actual Peridot in this size would not in any way be cost effective -- or probably possible as Peridot cracks easily.  Think August birthdays.

This is a simple rutilated quartz wire wrapped pendant -- except the rutilations are purple.  OOOOH purple!

This was a custom design -- Rainbow Tourmaline Teardrops.  I have only listed these as a custom order -- but may list them for the greater shop later this week.

I bought this strand of Ruby on a whim -- and oh my goodness I am so in love. I wish I could keep the whole strand for myself, but that's not really fair is it. Minimalist Oxidized Ruby Necklace -- July Birthstone

This is a statement pendant -- a gorgeous specimen of Labradorite with all the flash you could imagine.  It was so pricey that I only bought two gemstones and am thinking my mother would love the other one :)

So...you've got a summer cold.

Summer colds are brutal, nasty and no one wants to deal with them.  Colds are expected in winter, almost as a seasonal right of passage.  But, when something creeps up on you in the summer-time it's such an annoyance -- you just want to throw your hands up and scream.

Last Friday, I was lethargic.  I was pretty certain I was having allergy issues and too much stress from the move.  So, I took a day off from everything.

I sat in my bedroom, watching netflix the whole day through.  I went outside just to water the garden -- and look at my trees I love so much.  I figured that if I took one day to recuperate, I would be fine to keep on keeping on the rest of the weekend.

I noticed my eldest son laying down covered in a blanket that afternoon -- so I checked on him, sure enough he was with fever.  But I figured maybe he had a allergy issue also that just became a "sinus infection."  So, I went to the store, miserable and hating every single minute, and got tons of juices and drinks for he and I to just veg the rest of the evening with.

And, I got home to the youngest starting to cough and having watery eyes. Followed the next morning by my daughter just not being able to get out of bed.   So -- I called my mother:  she is coughing and hacking on the other side of the phone-line.

Well, there we go: a summer cold rears it's ugly head.

It's a miserable situation -- because it's so pretty outside, and I have a million tiny little things to do to clean out the apartment and we are all kind of stuck here waiting to be correct when we say: tomorrow I will feel fine.

We have yet to be correct -- and now we are to the point of "well, we will finish the apartment tomorrow so that we can set everything up properly after that."

It's tough for me though -- because I really want to show you all how the studio is coming along.  However, I really can't because it's really not coming along.

Here's hoping that this weekend is the last weekend of stress (now that hubby is coming home and can help with the tiny little bits remaining in the apartment).  I have about half a dozen half finished new designs -- which kind of makes me chuckle when I think about it.

Here's hoping you also have a great weekend this weekend.

~Maggie~

Behind as behind can be....

I've been moving this month.   It's long, arduous and often annoying.  

We closed on a beautiful house (with lots of new room to set-up for a studio) with an exciting old-growth property.  I have yet to set up the studio fully yet -- because the move is taking me forever -- you wouldn't think that a 3 mile move would take all month, but here we are, entering week three on having the keys.  I am about to head out with the kiddos to finish moving out of our apartment.   I hope that goes well.

But part of the problem is the timing -- I needed to get the garden in almost the moment we closed because it was so much later than we planned. Part of it is the kids just getting out of school yesterday, and hubby out training soldiers in California.  So, I have been doing the moving tiny load by tiny load mainly into the garage here at the house.

But, I think the biggest part is my excitement -- every time I go into my back yard, I find something new to enjoy, which stops me from setting everything up because I have to identify it (thank you google images for help in that process.

 

When we were first looking at the house -- we saw this blossoming.  Oooh, cherries.  But -- we didn't know what kind until they started 'ripening' a week or so ago. They are Rainier cherries -- those lovely golden and pinkish red variety. 

 

After we put the offer down, we found the tree below blossoming.  I went home and identified it as apples of some variety.  Again, we won't know until they come in, but how exciting. 

It looks like it may be a grafted tree -- with a few different varieties now. (you can see the base of the cherry tree in the background.  That sucker is huge. Oooh la la. While those are ripening, I find myself out there every evening picking ripened cherries right off the tree and having "dessert".  Bonus side effect of that dessert?  My weight is dropping like winter rain in the pacific northwest.  Maybe I will be totally thin by fall. 

 

After a bit of time tooling around, waiting to close, my husband found this beauty.  So I had to identify it.  I looked like plums -- but they were still pretty small, so I had to check.  This time I took one of the fruits and went to a nursery to check.  We were pretty sure it's Plums.  Oooh, plums, you know that's right.  Now there's the whole "what in the world am I going to do with all those plums?  Looks like gallons of sugar plums are in our future as you can see below -- how many plums are on that sucker.

 

So I went out this morning -- to check on my garden (above is a portion of it) and I bump head-long into a tree that seemed like something ornamental.  But, there are little nut type things laying on the ground -- and I HAD seen a squirrel having a field day yesterday near that tree).

So, I called my mother, as I often do and said "I think it's hazelnut, Mom -- I can't really tell until I get on google images inside, but I am pretty sure that's hazelnut scraps on the ground."

So, I look it up -- sure enough, looks like hazelnuts.  Looks also like I will be making another trip to the nursery today to get this identified -- because Mom LOVE hazelnuts.  And maybe, just maybe, I can make my own Nutella.  LOL.  Of course I am thinking about Nutella.

Makes sense why my studio isn't set up fully yet -- right?  I am pretty sure I saw some pear trees this morning, but I won't know until I get those identified also.   So exciting.

Does anyone know if that really is a hazelnut tree?  Answer in the comments :)

~Maggie~

Weather ... or Commit to a Season Already!

I have a habit of checking the weather, daily.  It's odd I know, because generally if you know the five day forecast -- you really should be okay.

But, not here.   For example, when I checked the weather yesterday morning it said today was going to be bright and sunshiny -- like go find those sunglasses you put away last September, Seattlites: You're finally going to need them.

It's pretty much the same for me though -- either I wear my sunglasses in the rain because I am obsessive about having something polarized during the fickle Pacific Northwest Weather spurts -- Or, come April or May I am buying a new pair.

This year it was kind of both -- because for whatever reason I kept breaking my mid-winter sunglasses.

But back to Seattle's fickle weather forecasts -- Yesterday it said today would be bright and sunshiny.  Today I awoke to overcast, foggy, totally confused weather.  And weather.com told me this morning that today was now going to be AM clouds / PM sun.  Sigh.

There's a bit of a nip in the air -- but it's the level of nippy where you don't know whether or not to wear a light sweater, because you will just be taking it off and putting it back on until the Sun finally burns away the clouds.  At which point, I may add, you will be wishing you could just wear a tank top without getting funny looks from people.

Wow -- what a bunch of nothing for this blog post, my bad.

Anywho -- I found this fabulous Blue Treasury just wonderful for today's weather -- so I had to have an excuse to share it.

Blue Fashion by Ilaria at IlMondodiPetra