~~White Wedding~~

What could be better to play along with Faded Charm's White Wednesday, than a beautiful wedding dress?  How gorgeous my new daughter-in-law looks in her beautiful dress.  I only wish I had gotten some close ups of the beautiful beadwork.  (Word of the day:  beautiful!!)

Sending beautiful wishes your way...and special birthday wishes to my sweet hubby...


P.S.  Please stop by Margaret Roach's A Way to Garden.  It is publication day for her!  Congratulations Margaret!!!!  (I've already downloaded my pre-ordered NookColor version and can't wait to jump right in.)

Who Moved My Cheese??

Do you remember this book that came out some time ago?  I have not read it, but it may be a good time to get it.  Ten days ago, I was told my job would be eliminated in the department I had worked in for the last seven years.  While my boss (and best friend) worked hard to find me a new home prior to her breaking the news to me, it was and has been a bit of a hard pill to swallow.  Not only was I being moved, I was loosing my Sanctuary.  That is what I called my office.

That news was delivered to me just as I was leaving for a surprise trip to my mother's in Georgia.  My older brother and I made a very quick, but wonderful, trip to visit my mother for her 70th birthday.  I now got to carry this new heavy burden with me on the trip.  It was a wonder the plane got off the ground.  (The trip to my mother's was wonderful, however.  We've never surprised her so!!)

When I returned, I came in and started deconstructing my work haven.  I had some big items....a large picture (my last official purchase while at Ethan Allen), a chair, a cabinet, mirror, pilaster, plants, etc.  It did me a bit of good to come in on a Sunday, when no one was there, and spend some time in control of my situation.  (pictures above)

I find it funny.....as in interestingly quirky.....that I am brought back to reality by movie lines.  Let's go back to one of my favs.  We've visited here before, but I just had to go back again....

"People are always saying that change is a good thing.  But all they're really saying is that something you didn't want to happen at all....has happened."  Kathleen Kelly (aka Meg Ryan) in You've Got Mail.

Here is one more.  It came crashing into my brain this very morning when I had to go visit my old department only to see a former co-worker's daughter playing on the computer in my now empty office.  Ouch!  Many other changes are still happening and will continue to happen for the next six months or so.  In the course of conversation regarding some of the upcoming changes, I said I wasn't sure if "they" would want me in one of the supposed new positions, I was told, "Of course they would.  This wasn't about you personally.  It was just the position."  Maybe so....but it feels personal to me.

Joe Fox: It wasn't... personal.



Kathleen Kelly: What is that supposed to mean? I am so sick of that. All that means is that it wasn't personal to you. But it was personal to me. It's *personal* to a lot of people. And what's so wrong with being personal, anyway?


Joe Fox: Uh, nothing.


Kathleen Kelly: Whatever else anything is, it ought to begin by being personal.
 
You got that right!!  So....here I sit in my new cubicle, with all my favorite things surrounding me, with not a clue of what to do.  I've been told I will be trained, but so far....no.  So I will write to you instead.
 
Blessings do abound here.  I know.  This could be a wonderful change, to a new office, possibly even a new career path.  I know I am one of the lucky ones.  There will be many in the months ahead, who will not have a place to go and will be jobless.  I am thankful.....really I am. 
 
I even clipped a tiny version of this little picture to remind me what I should be doing and concentrating on:

I'll work on it.

So between getting canned (I mean moved); a whirlwind trip to see my mother in Georgia; moving my office to a cubicle; running around from fabric store to tile store to workroom for two projects I am working on; keeping abreast of my husband's neice who, out of nowhere, became gravely ill; to learning of an old friend's sudden passing; I have not made it to blogland in a while.  As a nice turn of events, however, I spent my birthday (this past Saturday) at a lovely wedding aboard a yacht in Ft. Lauderdale.  My husband's youngest son, Todd, married his sweet Lisa aboard the Caprise.  The weather-incredible, the scenery-magnificent, and the company-full of love. 

This picture was taken from the hotel balconey
where everyone gathered to get ready prior
to boarding.

All five of my granddaughters in one shot!!
From the left:  Brianna, Reagan, Taylor, Kennedy
and Kloe (in the stroller).  That's me in black behind her.
The groom is the man on the left.  My son in the middle
and my son-in-law on the right.

Mr. and Mrs. Todd Bass

Todd and Lisa.
Beautiful homes on the water in Ft. Lauderdale.

Hopefully this will start an upward swing and things will begin to settle. I'd like to catch up with my favorite blogs and even throw a couple of posts out there myself.  I promise to be much more entertaining in the near future!  If you've made it this far, thank you!!  No more wallering for me!!!

White Wednesday ~ Florida Style!!

I've been tossing this idea around for a few weeks now.  Living in South Florida, as I do, I have a LOT of shells in my house.  Many of which are basically white.  The perfect thing for a Faded Charm White Wednesday entry.  Here are some pictures I made tonight in my home.  Please take into consideration that I don't have one of those fancy cameras that so many other bloggers have these days (though I love them AND the beautiful pictures they take!!);  AND that I probably don't know how to take advantage of the settings that my little Olympus Stylus TOUGH (shockproof/waterproof) camera has.  I had to get this one as I dropped our last camera in the water on a kayaking trip.  I'm a little rough with cellphones and cameras, but that is another blog post.....

Please enjoy my little pictures....

This is a picture that I gave my husband for our anniversary one year.
If you've ever been to Key West, you may recognize Pepe's.
It is one of our favorite restaurants and where we ate our first meal
as a married couple years ago.  It looks EXACTLY like this...
down to the graffitti and bike.

I got this at Pottery Barn a few years ago.
I know it isn't real, but I like it just the same.

White shell frame.
This is my older brother, Jerry, with a prized tarpon.

There are lots of bowls of shells here in the Bass household!

I live in a little historical Florida house....
lots of little nooks and crannies....
perfect for a conch shell!

Speaking of nooks and crannies....
I believe this once housed an ironing board....
IN the dining room!!
I wallpapered sea charts in the backgound
and added MORE shells!

More shells in the kitchen...
When we go to the beach and pick up little
treasures, it gets dropped into this vase.
The Madonna & Child ceramic once lived
in my Grandma Schmitz's kitchen window.
If the house sets afire....I run to the kitchen to save
this (after getting my Kloe-Angel, of course!!).

Shells in the bathroom!



A little vignette I put on my dining table.
My favorite things....an old silver tray,
pink depression glass salt and pepper shakers,
beautiful flowers and herbs from my garden,
a clear footed dish full of....you guessed it....
SHELLS (and purchased seaglass).

 I hope my Florida-style whites fit the bill for this week's entry.  Can you believe there have been 86 White Wednesdays????  Incredible.  I am getting this prepared tonight as I expect a busy Wednesday at my work tomorrow.  I pray your day and the rest of your week is MOST wonderful!!

VIF, Early Birthday Present, Little Changes to Come

I received an early birthday present from my husband last Sunday when he said to me, "I think I'm going to make your potting bench today."  I said, "Really???"  He said, "Yes!"  I said, "Okay!  My only request is that we only use material we have on-hand and not buy anything."  Off to work we went....

I stumbled across an old iron country kitchen sink a while back.  And when I say "stumbled across" I mean I saw one in someone's trash pile, made a quick u-turn, and asked my strapping son of 23 to "Quick...throw that in the back of the truck!"  Okay.....I'm not proud!!  The owner of the house in which we raided her trash pile even gave her blessing!!  So off I ran with a very cool sink. 

A day or two of hearing "What are you going to do with that thing?" from my son and husband had me envisioning a lovely potting bench. Truth be said, I never even got a good look at it. My son put it face down in my truck. It went face-down in a cart in the backyard by the shop. It went face-down in the yard while my husband and I worked on bench. Little did I know that it needed a good scrubbing. Of course it did....why wouldn't it?

Okay....back to Sunday. Here are pictures:

One can't get started without the proper
foreman.  My Kloe-Angel was really the
one in charge!

Scrap wood from building the chicken coops,
hen houses, and sunroom was used.

I had to stop Mr. Handy Hubby before
he got too far so I could paint!

Leftover exterior house paint. 
Brushes already on-hand.

One of two cast iron brackets/corbels.
I've had these for a few years now.
I.love.them.
My husband does not as they each
EASILY weigh 150 pounds!
What in the world could they have been
originally used for??
(Did I tell you I.love.them???)

This is my worst-off stained glass window....
(did that make sense??)
one I would not be too upset over seeing it age
some more being out in the weather.  Plus I liked
the green panes with the green paint.
I did put some clear poly on it to seal it a bit though.

It had to be moved into its new position
before we could tackle adding the brackets and
sink.  That cool backsplash is actually the
footboard of a bed I bought during my first
trip to Maine several years ago.  I use the
headboard in my son's room, but have had
this out in the garden.  I happened to walk by it
while we were out there and said, "Hey...I have a
great idea!"  It is absolutely perfect!!!

Sink in place and looking exactly as I had
hoped.  Gracie is giving it a once-over.
We had to make one purchase....the metal
bands that are holding up the brackets.
Not bad!

And here she is....
my beautiful New/Old/Vintage Potting Bench.

Some lovelies from the garden....roses, rosemary in bloom,
marjoram, and a jalapeno pepper.

Every night I go out there just to gaze at this lovely creation.  I can't wait for this weekend to start so I can continue tweeking it.  I want to add more old brass hose nozzles (as I collect more over time) to the top shelf and collect old watering cans (to join the lovely plastic one) to add to the bottom.  I have another storage container that is housing still more pots and supplies.  That will all be added as well.  Then at some point, I will actually put a stopper in the sink, pour a bag of potting soil in it, and pot something!  How cool will that be???

And with that....I am linking to Debra's Common Ground Vintage Inspiration Friday!!  Please stop in to see her beautiful Valentine's Day inspired porch.  I am in love with the bulbs in the red/white transferware.

As for the little changes to come....I'm making a few changes to my blog page with the help of Karen Valentine.  I've been wanting to make some changes here and there now that I've lived here in this room for a little while.  That's what we designers do, right....rearrange and then rearrange again?  Who better to give this tech-challenged blogger some pointers than Karen, who did my page design in the first place.  So I've started cleaning house a bit to make some room.  Please let me know your thoughts as you start seeing the changes.  I value your opinion!
Wonderful weekend wishes to you!!