STOKES Revisited...

A year or so ago, I had the pleasure of working with a friend who also became a client.  She entrusted her house to me, and together we turned it into a warm and inviting home.  Susan Stokes is an entity in and of herself.  She is a successful plumbing and mechanical contractor who long ago took a sledgehammer to the glass ceiling. 

Susan lives in a Florida ranch-style home on the water.  The main room is her everything room...kitchen, dining, living, entry.  It went from being a little chopped up with a few different floors to one open and coordinated living space.  Check out the before's and after's.

BEFORE - Dated white cabinetry, stem wall at the entrance chopping up the space, tall bar impeding the view and space, and oversized pantry cabinets.  Also some ceiling damage due to an a/c unit leak.

AFTER:  Bright, open, coordinated space.  New flooring, lighting, appliances, cabinetry.  Redesigned lower island with an incredible countertop of honed granite (used throughout).  It looks like petrified wood with a beautiful texture.  Bye, bye to the stem wall and we now have an inviting Great Room!

While we were at it, the guest bathroom was redone also.  All new everything.....tub, toilet, flooring, vanity, sink with lovely new custom shower curtain and cornice. 

In the master...new custom bedcoverings and window treatments complemented by the new wall color set off her existing furniture perfectly!

NEW PROJECT: 

That brings us to the present project.  The view from the back is beautiful.  Susan has a lovely yard with a pool and covered patio.  We have begun to add more landscaping and removed the screen making this space more of a lanai than your typical screened-in room.  It is a work in progress, stripped down to the bare bones.  A summer kitchen and beautiful furnishings await.  Keep checking back for more updates.

So for now......

NEW DIGS!!!

I'm so excited to share this new page with you.  It is the beautiful work of Karen Valentine of Valentine Design.  She does amazing work and I'm so proud to call this blog my own. I also say to her, Thank you for your patience with me!!!  She took all my crazy email notes and ideas, and turned them into this beautiful creation.  This is me.  She nailed it!!!  Please take a look at both her blogs. 

I feel there is still much to learn and reconnect with in the blogosphere.  I was out of touch for a few years and this thing TOOK OFF!  My favorites are still here, but there are just so many more as well.  It has inspired me to get in check with what used to be my little business and see what I can do with it on a much smaller scale.  I have pictures of past projects to share.  The list of possibilities is just ticking off in my brain. 

In the meantime, I will continue to just open and stare at this new pretty page of mine, tweak it, move things about, add little things....all the things that will really make this page mine.

See you again very soon!!

Secret Leaves Paperworks

When I first started "A Bird in Hand" it was meant to be as my card read:  "Vintage and whimsical furnishings to feather your nest...garden...soul."  I really enjoyed searching for products that I wanted to represent and wanted to represent me.  Through this wonderful network that blogging is, I ran across Secret Leaves Paperworks.  Please look at their offerings and how they create what they do.

The night before my Australian friend, Glenda, was to leave, we went through my "goodie box."  I still have many treasures from my early venture and I wanted to share some of those with her.  A vintage photo album with an old beautiful sheet music book cover was among these.  It was a Secret Leaves creation that I was thrilled to share with Glenda. 

Today I looked through their website and blog.  I was thrilled to see their new creations.  Their products are still absolutely beautiful.  I know that if life leads me to fulfill my dream of my own little store someday, their lovelies will definitely grace my shelves.

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Dreams are illustrations...from the book your soul is writing about you.  ~Marsha Norman

You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.  ~ C.S. Lewis

Ode to Dad

It is Father's Day.  I have many in my life who are fathers....my husband, my two brothers, father-in-law, brother-in-law, step-sons, and now even my own son is a father.  They are all very dear to me.  And while my own father has been gone for 15 years now (exactly....tomorrow) I still think of him so dearly on this day.

This is not his picture.  There are a couple of pictures I think of when I think of him though.  A picture of he and I by the front door of our house.  I was in high school with long blonde hair and braces.  He looked very dapper in his tucked-in shirt and white belt.  I can only imagine he was wearing white shoes also.  So 70's.  Behind us on the wall, a string art picture.  Again, so 70's.  I love it.

I also think of him sitting at our kitchen table when we lived in Niagara Falls in a turtleneck and cigarette in hand.  So 60's.

When I was in a school play, he was there.  When I went flying down the driveway on my brother's mini bike with a stuck throttle, he was there.  When I got stung by a bee, he was there to spit on my hand and add dirt to make mud to make it stop hurting.  Singing in chorus--there.  Dancing in Lancerette's--there.  Guarding my sophomore homecoming float all night from marauding seniors--there.  He was also there on the worse day of my life 19 years ago.  In my mind, he was always there for me.  To me, he is still there for and with me.  His laughter is just as present in my mind as it always was.  The way he walked, talked, and even smelled.  All I have to do is visit my brother, Tim, for all of that to come back too.  He is his spitting image.

I love you, Dad.  I always will.  Your words of encouragement have never left me.  When I think of you now, I picture you having a grand ole time in heaven.  I can hear your laughter from here.  Enjoy your day, Dad.

To all the other fathers in my life, I love you all as well.  Never forget to fill your world with love and laughter.

Work in Progress

(This is the first present-day entry to what will be my permanent blog site.  It is a duplicate from my wordpress.com blog dated today.  Some beautiful changes to this blog are coming soon.  Can't wait!!  Please stay tuned...)

We are getting back to normal at the Bass household these days. Our visit from Glenda has come and gone already. That is hard to believe. The following weekend was a visit from my husband’s brother. Both he and his wife were down, but wife was at a class reunion and brother got to have some free time. So the brothers enjoyed a morning of kayak fishing in our sweltering heat. Still, the water was beautiful as always.

Meanwhile, I am working on a new blogging project that I will share soon. I’m making some changes, but this time change is good. I can’t wait to fill you in. So for now, I’ll just share a few pictures/sites that I love.

You know we love our chickens. Owning chickens (or CHOOKS as they are called in Australia) has become a popular hobby. Anytime I see someone’s coop and yard, I have to save the picture. I love our set up and will look for some pictures I already have on hand. In the near future, I will take some pictures of all the upgrades that have taken place in our yard and house. It all looks so great!

This is one of my favorites. I’m not sure where I found it, so unfortunately I cannot give credit where credit is due. Love, love, love the roses and chickens together.

Then there is this entry from Heather Bullard’s site. I mentioned her in my previous post.  Heather is the senior editor of Flea Market Style magazine. Check out their new blog at the link. She is also an accomplished photographer, so all the pics are her own. She and her “man” visited Santa Barbara and found this set-up behind a store they visited. So charming!! She says that the children of a family come in daily to tend to the hens. How sweet is that?. Click on the link to see all the pictures from her post. You will want to add her sites to your favorites to visit often. I have! We have said that our next coop (when would we need a next one?) would be a walk-in type and this is great inspiration.

I had intended to show our own pictures next, but I believe they are saved in my other computer. So I will wait and take current pictures to share instead. While you wait, here is our kitty….Gracie Allen Bass. She is sitting on top of the opened chicken coop door, but appears to have her eye on something in the distance. She is our miracle cat who survived a near fatal dog attack a few years ago. She has even had one of her hind hip sockets removed as a result, but seems good as new these days. When we have had a few rainy or chilly days she looks to maybe have some arthritic pain there though. She is a beauty!

If I hadn’t started painting, I would have raised chickens. ~ Grandma Moses

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Links and Recipes

(Reprinted from my wordpress.com blog dated June 10, 2010.)

I just realized this morning that I had incorrectly typed the link to Seeds of Change in the list to the right. I have since corrected it. I also added a few new links to new-to-me blogs.


Chelsea Blue Whispers is a lovely blog from Australia. The author is in business with Cathy Penton of Simple Things-Small Joys in Queensland. They each have their own blogs as well as the business blog.

52 Flea is a new blog to me entirely. I actually picked it up (and the others) from Chelsea Blue Whispers. That is how the word spreads on this interesting medium. I used to be referenced on others’ blogs with my first blog a few years ago, but not this one….not yet. Anyway, 52 is most interesting. Just looks that I love and wish to share.

What luck I had in running across Cannelle et Vanille. I have no idea how to pronouce this pretty-looking set of French words. The author is a chef, food stylist, and photographer. What a great combination! Interestingly enough, especially for me, many of her recipes are gluten free. They look absolutely yummy, something not always found with gluten free. I can’t wait to try a few.

And finally, Heather Bullard. Another woman after my own heart. Her entire site is quite lovely.

PINEAPPLE-GINGER RICE WITH EDAMAME ~ I tried this new recipe last night. I had intended to make it while Glenda was visiting. I even had it clipped to the refrigerator, right in plain sight. I finally made it last night and it is my NEW FAVORITE!! I can see me making a batch each week for me to take to work for lunch and nibble on for dinner. For me, it is a complete meal. For some, it would be a side dish. I got it from the Whole Foods Market website. Please click on the link for the full recipe. I think I will put my own spin on it in the future by adding different nuts and/or seeds, other herbs from my garden, and maybe apples or pears in place or addition to the pineapple. The more I add, the more vegetable broth I will need to add to compensate. It is good warm or cold. For lunch today I added a drizzle of Drew’s Rosemary Balsamic dressing on top. YUMMY!! Hope you will try it and love it as much as I do.

Those who don’t pick roses in summer, won’t pick them in winter either. ~German proverb. HUH???

My How Time Flies

(Reprinted from my wordpress.com blog dated June 9, 2010.)

It has been well over a week since my last post. Many, many exciting things have happened in that week. It began with two friends meeting after over 40 years. That sounds strange, doesn’t it? For over 41 years I conversed with who would become a lifelong friend via “snail” mail, a few phone calls, and finally email. Many, many times we referenced meeting one day. Maybe we just thought that was what we were supposed to say. I’m not sure we ever really thought it would happen. We come from very different lands on opposite sides of the world, on opposite sides of the equator, in different hemispheres. Amazingly enough, the time came when, yes, we would meet and spend a wonderful week getting to know each other. What we found was that countries apart, worlds apart, people are the same. We have parents, husbands, children, and friends. We deal with the same situations that having those things brings. We also found that we had an uncommon amount of things in common. Our views were often the same on many topics.

We shared the same favorite things, favorite foods, favorite colors, favorite styles. When we met for the first time, we were both wearing the same color shirts. We wear similar styled glasses. The list continues. The more we talked about our daily lives, the more familiar our stories were. How we looked at our day-in, day-out activities. Why we made the choices we have, how we rationalize things…..so, so similar. The more we were made aware of our similarities, the more we realized that we had not conversed enough thoughout the years to have influenced each other’s thoughts. It is just how it is. A sisterhood that was formed many years ago, came full cirle.

The timing of it all was also very interesting. I shared with her that my favorite musical artist, James Taylor, would be coming to her hometown of Melbourne, Australia. She said she wished we could see him together instead. Then she said that she would be traveling to Canada to participate in an international Dragon Boating celebration/competition. If she visited with me here in Florida the week before, JT would be in my neck of the woods. Another “amazingly enough”……we did just that. We attended the Carole King-James Taylor Troubadour Tour concert last Saturday in Ft. Lauderdale. You’ve Got a Friend never had more meaning as it did that night.

In this high-tech world in which we now live, this story will never be repeated. You will not find two young children who will find each other via Brownies, begin writing….as in handwriting words and thoughts onto a piece of paper, placing a stamp on an envelope, and sending it off into the unknown with great anticipation of a letter coming back in return. Today it will be an instant response via email. We even conversed with her husband and children in real time, with live pictures, via Skype. It was amazing.

A bond that began 40-something years ago is now forever sealed. When we said our tearful goodbyes yesterday at the Fort Lauderdale airport, I told her, “I will see you again.” Her adventure continues with a trip to Toronto, then Quebec. I imagine she will be anxious to go back to her place below the equator very soon. Her family awaits. She will have so many stories to share.

Meanwhile, the next phase begins. The planning of a trip to her land. Maybe in a year or two, but it will now move up on our list of travel priorities. The obtaining of passports, the gearing up for the long flight. I know it will happen. So to Glenda…..until we meet again.

Ain’t it good to know you’ve got a friend? ~James Taylor