We've been fully enjoying living in our NEW HOME and being in Minnesota for the beautiful winter - and now SPRING! I loved it here in the autumn, I loved it here all winter, and I have loved spring so far! We know it's spring because the ducks, geese, robins, and sandhills cranes are back and are NOISY. We love them! The snow is almost gone, and the ice on the pond is melting. Today is a rainy day (hooray!), and it's expected to snow a bunch tomorrow, though it won't be very cold, so it might just melt right away.
Looking back at my photos, I realize how much we've accomplished in the past 6 months! Five months ago, I arrived in Minnesota with the cats. It's gone quickly, but a LOT has happened! My business is now set up here in Minnesota, we have driver's licenses, we have A BEAUTIFUL HOME, and we are now able to settle.
"Settle" is my meditation and focus word for 2022.
I'm envisioning pond water settling so that the silt can fall to the bottom, making the water clear.
I picture it as nesting, cozying up, being calm, making a home.
I also think of settling as being content and grateful.
These are things I will be focusing on this year.
It's not hard to be content in this gorgeous house!
I have had lots of fun organizing closets and this fantastic pantry!
I LOVE my pantry! What a huge blessing to have one. I store all my small appliances (air fryer, food processor, blender, SodaStream, coffee maker that I almost never use, a small citrus juicer, etc) in the pantry. The baskets hold extra canned and dry goods. The bowl holds potatoes.
I had some of the baskets already, some I got from Goodwill, and some I bought from Amazon
I also store my travel coolers (soft- and hard-sided) in there so they're easy to access. Plus, right now, the garage is still full of packing paper and empty boxes from our move, so we don't want to organize or store things out there right now. The white bin on the bottom and the blender in the box to the left of it are temporarily in the pantry - they won't be there long-term.
I LOVE the new rug by the front door, even though it's not the one I originally intended to put there. That one didn't come in a 6-foot size, which is the size we needed in this entryway.
I love our entryway, and I love this rug! The colors are great and I like that it's abstract.
It is a little odd that our entryway is off center. The door is centered based on the library wall and the wall inside the niche (to the right behind the closet in the photo below). But because the floor isn't as wide as that wall and ceiling width, the rug needs to be centered on the floor width instead of the wall/ceiling width. Looking at the photo, it looks like the rug is off to the side if you look at the door, but right smack-dab in the middle if you look at the floor! That sort of thing gives a house some nice personality.
Isn't it pretty?!
We are enjoying the fire for sure!
And I made the mantel pretty!
I like tree shapes, so I use them a lot in decorating (not just at Christmas). When we lived in the desert, I used them as a reminder of my Minnesota heritage, and now that we live in Minnesota again, I use them to reflect our beautiful surroundings!
I got a surprise delivery from my dear friend Cindy!
It was a Wyoming mug and this PERFECT STAR TREK COOKIE JAR!
It is a vintage Pfalzgraff collaboration with Star Trek from the 1990s. I LOVE IT and expect to keep it forever.
It is a vintage Pfalzgraff collaboration with Star Trek from the 1990s. I LOVE IT and expect to keep it forever.
Wyoming because that's where Cindy lives now. She moved away from Arizona last June, and we moved away from Arizona less than 4 months later.
Cindy said she was THRILLED when she found this at a vintage shop because not only does she know that Greg and I met over Star Trek and we both love it, but the colors are blue with gold - that's the color scheme of our whole house!
Cindy and I have arranged a Saturday morning Walk And Talk. We can walk and chat and it almost feels as if we're walking together in person.
I see interesting things when I'm walking.
Frozen water coming from our gutter spout:
One Saturday morning, I looked out the window and saw that everything was decorated with beautiful ICE! I couldn't contain my excitement, so I got dressed and went outside right away.
I took lots of photos of the beautiful frozen jewelry.
The ground had 1/
4" of solid ice on it, too, of course,. I almost fell down five times, but I made it out and back again without falling!
The sky was misty with raindrops but it wasn't raining.
Our front tree was especially pretty with the frozen raindrops on it.
The backyard was full of interesting specimins!
Allistair watched me from inside.
I went out again for another walk while I chatted with Cindy.
Uh-oh. A birdie foot.
I was enthralled by everything!
We got a welcome mat from a friend of Greg's - oops!
"Wel-o-cme"
"Wel-o-cme"
We'll see how many people even notice!
Yes, I enjoy walking to get the mail with bare feet even though it's still been freezing and snowing!
I think it builds character - ha!
I think it builds character - ha!
Most of the time I have on boots when there's snow rather than being barefooted.
Can you see Claude peeking out the window at me?
Cats think chilly weather (or any weather) is a good excuse for napping.
On another house-related note, I bought some new office furniture!
My office will be painted on Friday, and then over the weekend, Greg and I (mostly Greg) can assemble and install my new desk and console!
Here's the desk. She's simple and pretty, with plenty of surface area for keyboard and monitor and maybe papers.
The console is equally pretty, maybe even prettier! She's 6 feet long and comes up to windowsill height, which will look nice on the wall I have planned for her. I LOVE the wood tone drawer and feet with the white. It feels happy and creative to me. I don't have much storage in my office, so I use the closet in the exercise room for most of my toys and professional equipment, but I have office supplies that will need a home where I work. I may add more storage in addition to this unit, but this is what I'm starting with for now and I'm excited to get it up and organized!
By the way, this blue, Sherwin Williams' Danube Blue, is the color our front door will be soon!
Calm, but happy and welcoming.
And we picked "Steamed Milk" as our indoor wall color. The ceilings and closets inside are white-white (which is my true favorite), but Greg liked the idea of a creamy hue, so we compromised on this pretty color. It looks great!
Here's a sneak peek at what's happened so far:
This is the guest room that used to be purple with one coat of Steamed Milk. Already fresher and lighter!
Steamed Milk on the left, old browner color on the right.
One coat of white over fairly dark sage/herb green in the main bedroom closet:
All our clothing is downstairs, draped over things and making everything look messy, but it won't be for long! We should be able to move back into the bedroom closet tonight or tomorrow - hooray!
Everything is looking beautiful.
I've been enjoying walking in our new neighborhood. It's GORGEOUS here!
Here's a weird ice sculpture I found sticking up from the ground:
It reminds me of a winged Mercury helmet or a dove in flight.
I spent a few hours at the rental house, cleaning and removing the rest of our things, and I'm happy to say that our landlord found a new renter who wants to start living there in April, so we don't need to pay that last month of rent!
We found a perfect place for the TV and it IS in the bookshelf, after all! Greg put feet on the TV and it happens to fit perfectly in one of the larger openings. There are holes for the wires and all the equipment goes in the cabinet underneath so it's tidy.
My library was looking nearly done before the painting started! Now it's completely full of clothes and things from upstairs! And of course, it's on the agenda to be painted soon, so it will be awhile before it's ready for its close-up.
What a huge fun blessing to have a LIBRARY in my own house!
Our neighbors brought us a welcome card and flowers! We really live in a great neighborhood and I'm thankful.
The cats enjoy looking out the window. This morning, Allistair was looking at the huge fluffy snowflakes and trying to figure out what they were. Stephen and Claude are nervous because the painter is still here.
Allistair's cute feet:
On sunny days, our living room gets a huge amount of nice light.
Last week, before the rain and snow this week, I went out to run errands in this cute springy outfit. I haven't worn the jeans for ages, and they made me happy. The pink faux-leather moto jacket always makes me happy, too!
moto jacket: Levi's (Amazon)
bag: Scarleton (Amazon)
top: Charter Club (Macy's)
jeans: INC International Concepts (Macy's)
socks: Target
boots: Madden Girl (Macy's)
One of my errands was to pick up an online order I made at Nordstrom Rack - these beautiful earrings! I have been thinking about some earrings that were a little bolder without being crazy weird, and these hit the exact note I wanted! They are a bit bigger and more noticeable that most of my dainty earrings, and I like that. They don't get lost in my masses of hair, but they're still feminine and delicate.
While I was picking up my earrings, I had a browse around the store (it's somewhere I almost never shop) and found this PERFECT bucket hat! I love hats and have a little collection of them, which I use regularly during different outings and adventures. I LOVE mustard yellow in my apparel, and I love this happy face! It also happens to be a hat for small heads (maybe a children's hat, in fact), so it fits my tiny head well without being too loose or floppy.
And one day last week was our anniversary! You can't see well in this photo, but I wore a heart-print shirt to honor the occassion.
We tried a local pizza place we'd never tried before as a celebration. We didn't love it, but we didn't hate it, either, and it's very close to our house! Davanni's is better, though.
Happy anniversary to my favorite person! I'm grateful for another year of fun and hijinks with YOU!
The ducks and geese have returned to beautiful Minnesota because it's spring even though we're still expecting more snow and even though the pond is still mostly frozen over.
We have seen a pileated woodpecker a few times, too! He doesn't seem to like the vegetarian suet as much as the regular kind. I'll try a different veg brand!
Hope you are as cozy and happy as we are!
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