What's Happening Now

Well, Dandylion, our youngest graduated from high school in May, turned 18 in June and left for college in August. He's in a pre-nursing program as well as the Marching Band. So far he is enjoying himself. But he'd better get a job quick, and apply for some more scholarships or he'll be able to enjoy only one semester of this adventure.

I recently had a delicious vegetarian meal: fresh beets and beet greens, brown rice and Ratatouille, or as we called it Eggplant Stew. We never knew we were eating a French dish, but come to find out that's (about) what it is. I don't use any zucchini in it because I don't like the bitter taste of zucchini. This batch has eggplant (or aubergine), fresh and canned tomatoes, celery, onion, and bell peppers, I think I used red, orange and yellow. It tasted so, so good to me.

Next up for redecorating is the bedroom that Dandylion vacated.

View from hallway door into the room

Windows to the southeast

Double closets (notice the not matching doorknobs)

Inside wall - with leftover desk, the one I got at Salvation Army for $1.95

Detail of old, ugly heater vent cover and dirt, also the weird electrical outlet with (missing) night light

Gorgeous hardwood floors

And the only plain wall in the room.

The color, a pale robin's egg blue, isn't bad, just faded and very dirty. I've chosen a lovely warm tan for the wall as a neutral so I can put up all of TopDad's plaques and artwork from his time in the Marines. So this is my next big project, beginning in September.

Clock Cozy

You've heard of a tea cozy, yes? Today I made a clock cozy.

Last year Noble helped me find a new alarm clock that has lovely sounds to wake up to. My favorite is bird song. The downside has been that the light is so bright it interfered with falling and staying asleep. I covered it with a hand towel for a long time. Today I made a lovely little cozy for my clock and it looks pretty nice, if I do say so myself.

I made it out of a shirt I picked up at a thrift store, simply because I liked the roses print, and a piece of black double knit fabric that came in a bag of assorted scraps I bought because there was one piece that I liked. My stash waxes and wanes as I add to it and use it up.

Making a Home and Housekeeping

From Home Comforts, The Art & Science of Keeping House by Cheryl Mendelson:

What really does work to increase the feeling of having a home and its comforts is housekeeping. Housekeeping creates cleanliness, order, regularity, beauty, the conditions for health and safety, and a good place to do and feel all the things you wish and need to do and feel in your home. Whether you live alone or with a spouse, parents, and ten children, it is your housekeeping that makes your home alive, that turns it into a small society in its own right, a vital place with its own ways and rhythms, the place where you can be more yourself than you can be anywhere else.

It is not in goods that the contemporary household is poor, but in comfort and care.