It was cool on Tuesday and when evening came the heavens opened and it rained all night! We woke up yesterday to an emerald green world. My mom and I threw on shoes and went out to play in the garden in our pyjamas. Weeding, cleaning up and looking in amazement at all the beauty that seemed to spring forth from the dirt in a single night.
It rained most of yesterday and was still raining this morning when we woke up. We used the rainy day to clean up a few things around the house and feast on homemade pimento cheese sandwiches, fried chicken and bread & butter pickles. With sweet tea and banana pudding for dessert of course!
The pitter patter of raindrops have stopped now and we are ushering in the first day of May with a cloudy grey sky and lush green grass and foliage. Almost over night everything has started to come into bloom. It truly feels “spring like”!
I just know this woman is welcoming us into her home. Don’t you just love this woman’s outfit and the wallpaper. What a photo!
This weekend is the beginning of the end of my time off with Mr. Michie. I treasure this time. We’ve spent the morning doing odd jobs. We’ve ordered a few bins to finish off organising the closets and then that job is officially ticked off the list. We’re catching up on podcasts and we’re listening to a lot of music. We seemed to have moved back into a Jazz and 70’s phase. So lots of Dexter Gordon, Miles Davis and ELO are being played in the house at present.
We made BBQ this week and are turning the leftovers into tacos for dinner tonight, we just need to plan a menu for the next few days. The first week back to school is always a killer, so if we can be organised about it, it makes everything run much smoother on the home front.
This weekend also heralds in The Masters, so I think some fried chicken and pimento cheese sandwiches just might be in order along with some sweet tea, of course! I have my favourite and I’m pulling for him, just like I was last year.
I’m looking forward to a weekend filled with walks, coffee, candle light, good music, great food and even better company! Here’s to the weekend, long may it last!
Today we attacked our bedroom closets and I am now sitting amongst a scattering of bags filled with items to donate to the charity shop. The house smells amazing because we are slow roasting a pork shoulder to make BBQ for dinner tonight. So dinner and another area decluttered are two things I can tick off of my list today.
To fortify us for an afternoon spent gutting closets, we made bruschetta for lunch. I marinated the tomatoes over the morning so they were extra flavourful before spooning them over a loaf of ciabatta that I had drizzled with oil and rubbed with garlic before toasting. Fresh mozzarella sat on top while the tomatoes were delicately nestled all around.
A few sprigs of torn basil and a splash of balsamic vinegar and lunch was complete!
It’s crisp today with a silvery grey sky. I don’t mind, I’m staying cozy inside. My candles are lit, I’m listening to music and working on a weekend menu. Tonight we’re having a big Greek salad and home made tiropitas. One of my favourites! My mom has always made them and I learned how to do it through her. They remind me of Spring and being little. The taste of warm salty feta oozing into your mouth as you bite through the buttery crisp pastry, makes my mouth water.
I’m taking a break from decluttering and downsizing and working on a personal project. We now have two more large bags of items to donate to the charity store and I know that there will be more to come, once I tackle the bedroom closets. It is a refreshing change to be able to easily walk into the pantry and grab a cookbook or mixing bowl without having to complete a yoga balancing move to get what you are after. I have yet to miss anything that we have donated or recycled.
I have secretly worried that I was one step away from being on the TV show Hoarders, but considering that I am an excellent de-clutterer, organiser and cleaner and can make these decisions myself without someone putting all of my possessions in my front yard to go through, I think I’m doing alright.
We’re each planning for a quiet weekend, doing things around the house, completing a few work tasks, eating good food, going for walks, listening to music and just being. Here’s to the weekend, long may it last.
It’s a rainy morning here today. It’s cool outside and I was up not long after five with Mr. Michie. He has a long day ahead of him and a late school night, so I made one of his favourites for breakfast: buttermilk biscuits and sausage patties.
I am not always a morning person, but I do love being up early, when the rest of the world is still asleep and everything is quiet. I like the amount I can get accomplished in the morning before the clock turns to double digits. I turned on a lamp in the den and put on some music while I went about making biscuits.
This morning my music of choice was Carole King. She is one of my favourites. You can’t go wrong with a good cup of coffee, a hot breakfast, and Carole King on a rainy morning.
I think I need a blindfold like this! I’m in the process of thoroughly gutting our pantry. This is no small undertaking. Especially when I discovered that some of my beloved art history books had been ruined by mildew. Because, unbeknown to us, we had a damp problem along the side wall of the pantry, where the bookshelf is. Now, those gorgeous books are in the recycling bin as they are completely and utterly in disrepair.
We have been living in and amongst chaos all week as most of the pantry is sitting in various piles in our den. We live in a very tiny cottage, in fact, so tiny, we could have started the “tiny house” movement that is all the rage today. But, as I write this a storage bin we have ordered is winding it’s way to me through the streets of London today. So hopefully by nightfall, I can have everything neatly and safely stored and the pantry more organised, so you don’t have to move like a Ninja to grab something.
It is exhausting yet cathartic completing this process. It’s amazing to realise how much crap you accumulate and I’m not ashamed to say that a good portion of it was mine. I have cleaned off my “crafting” shelf and all the little magazines and scraps I’ve kept for so long, have now been gone through with precision. There is no point in keeping an entire magazine for only one page, is there? I’ve been ruthless.
We are pairing down, stripping back and streamlining. By the end of today, we should be nearly there and then I can take a break before starting our next room overhaul, to work on a project that is very dear to me. I’m keeping my fingers, toes and anything else that can be crossed, crossed, in the hopes to be published soon.
Here’s to Wednesday, we’ve almost made it through the week!
{Image: Anne Taintor}
OH! Sweet glorious Friday! You finally came! This has been a busy week and one that has seen us at times, crawling toward the finish line today.
Yesterday, I did a few of those “unseen” jobs around the house. I scrubbed down the inside and outside of all the cupboard doors in the kitchen. They are now sparkling. I think I’ve been bitten by a spring cleaning bug. My next project involves scrubbing down the refrigerator, but I’m saving that one for next week along with re-organizing the pantry. Slowly and methodically, I’m moving through the house. I’m on a de-cluttering mission. We just want everything more simplified.
This weekend we’re out to dinner two nights in a row. A friend’s flat on the river tonight and a neighbour’s house on Saturday. Tomorrow, I’m in charge of bringing dessert and as there are food allergy issues to be concerned about, I’ve had to go back to the drawing board about a million times. But I like a challenge. Let’s just hope it tastes good!
Here’s to the weekend, long may it last!
{Image: PINNED}
Do you know that scene in Adventures in Babysitting, where they end up in a night club and once on stage are told by the band that “No one leaves this place, without singing the blues!”? That is how I feel today, I’ve got the blues, the Monday morning blues.
I have so much fun during my weekends, I just want it to keep going! I’m sure I’m not alone in this feeling?
Mr. Michie was sick this weekend, so we were quiet. There was music, candles, movies, homemade chicken soup and fresh bread. We stayed snuggled under blankets and rested. After such a hectic first week back to school, it was a wonderful way to spend two days together, even though Mr Michie was under the weather.
Enjoying the art of everyday living is something that the Danes have completely figured out. Mr. Michie and I feel like Denmark is a second home. It is a magical place. Heading out to find breakfast in the morning, you will find coffee shops with candles lit in their windows and blankets laid over the outside seating to keep yourself warm. Everything is cozy. And the Danes have a special word for that: Hygge (pronounced hue-gah). There is not an exact translation. It is more about a feeling; the ritual that comes from taking joy in the simple pleasure of everyday living; in making the ordinary – extraordinary. We try to do this at home. From the moment we wake-up at the weekends, candles are lit, music is on, and the aroma of freshly brewed coffee permeates the house.
I feel that making things cozy becomes even more precious to me when the sun is late to rise and early to bed. I love the Winter, but I like it on my own terms. I want to be able to go for walks; to bake cookies and bread; to stay indoors and be cozy. What I don’t like is leaving for work in the dark and journeying home in the dark. However, following our “Hygge Mantra” makes for a happier household and definitely fends off some of the Monday morning blues, no matter how dark and cold it is.
We spent yesterday afternoon making gingerbread. The house smells wonderful and cozy. When Mr. Michie kissed me goodnight, he told me that my hair even smelled of gingerbread, which made me smile! Happiness is…