Happy New Year!

We're staying home tonight...it's all been lovely...but I'm tuckered out.
Last night was the last hurrah of the holidays, and a big hurrah it was!
Fab friends, fab food...oh my.
I stole this photo of hubby and I off of my pal Tami's blog.
Pop on over to her place to get all the lovely details...bliss!

Tomorrow?
Back on track with the wrecking bars and drywall.
Wishing you all a Happy and safe New Year...
Cheers to a New Year full of never ending projects!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from this old farm.
In this holiday season may we celebrate our blessings
and share our joy.

Somebody's Gotta Do It!

So it might as well be me.
Tough duty, I know...testing the holiday cocktails.
My new favorite?
Champagne with a healthy splash of St. Germain...oh goodness gracious, I like it.
I've always had a fondness for champagne and a new version of a champagne cocktail was offered to me by my pal Lynne, thank you my dear friend...this is definitely a keeper...as are you.

Lynne added some of her hand foraged huckleberries, they literally danced in the glass! I don't know how she got them to do that but I intend to find out.

Just so you know, this champagne cocktail goes well with everything...
especially a selection of fabulous desserts.
Yes indeed...it was a very good week.

A Garden of De-Lights!

If you love Christmas lights as much as I do and you live in the Seattle area, the Bellevue Botanical Gardens has a display that just gets better every year.
Last night it was brrrrr cold but we bundled up and walked through the gardens...it was so much fun.

This is a shot of the mixed border, every year they add something new...I can spot sunflowers, daylillies, hyacinth, tulips...the details are amazing - can you imagine the effort that goes into this?


This spider and the fly cracked me up.


This arbor was yellow wisteria, there was another one done in purple...so pretty.


This walkway leads down to a tropical garden, my photos of that area are a little sad...chilly girl = shaky camera.


Maybe someday I can have a little display in my own garden like this one...
I'll add it to the list of "stuff I wanna do".
Oh dear me...that list is getting long.

Peeling Back the Layers

While everyone else I know is decorating for Christmas...I'm demo-ing for the holidays.
The whole house is covered in a layer of plaster dust...I'm pretending it's snow, remodeling is like that...if you pretend it's really fun - then it is ;)
Oh yeah..and I haven't even started on the kitchen yet.
I'm in the office - doing demo.
Because the new kitchen plan doesn't include the washer and dryer in full view,
they have to move to the office.
The office has to move to the living room.
The office is also our dressing room - because old houses have teensy closets.
So my dresser is in the dining room, hubby's is in the living room.
Chaos...but fun chaos. I keep telling myself that.

Buckets and buckets of chaos.


Unexpected water feature...like a lake under the house - set up the pump and spray down the driveway. Funny how nobody wants to crawl under the house to move wires and pipes, a little bit of standing freezing water never hurt anybody!


Of course I have lots of helpers.
Official "plaster catcher"


Wallpaper I've never seen.
Pretty...buh bye.

Last week I was at the grocery store and I saw Caroline, she lived on this old farm before my in-laws. She told me that her kids were playing in her jewelry box one day and her wedding ring got lost. So...now, while I'm smashing and peeling and scooping up buckets of cracked plaster - I'm looking for Carolines ring.
Oh, how I want to find that ring.
I want to drive down to Caroline's house (she lives at the end of the road now), and give her back her ring, on Christmas morning.
That's the kind of stuff I dream about while I'm smashing old plaster.