Where I've been

Well, busy living life mostly.

Don't think for a minute that I didn't miss all of you (I did!), but I really needed to step away and just 'be'.

I'm sure you've all been there at some point.

Anyway, I didn't mean to be gone so long, but time got away from me and I neglected this poor blog and all of you, so for that I apologize.

I truly do.

So, what exactly has been going on here?

Well, we watched the leaves change....

then fall...

had our first snow...

and I lit the first fire of the season.

Annie and I celebrated our birthdays in November.

I can't believe she's 21!

For the occasion, my mom, my brother, his wife, Annie and I all went to Las Vegas.

We were so busy that all I managed to take were these awful pictures of the views from our rooms...

and the two outfits I wore to dinner.

Thank goodness for my sister-in-law that managed to take quite a few photos of our adventures while we were there:

We also carved pumpkins.

and I spent time with friends.

What about Bubba?

 Well, he did a lot of sleeping...

and begging ;)

And these days Mini mostly sleeps.

Poor old girl.

There were beautiful sunrises...

and lovely full moons.

We've trimmed the tree...

and now we're waiting for Santa.

And I'm ready to ring in the New Year with a new hairdo ;)

So that's what I've been up to :)

How about all of you?

I'll be checking in on you very soon.

xo

rue

A little lamp went out

MY FRIENDS ARE LITTLE LAMPS TO ME

My friends are little lamps to me,

Their radiance warms and cheers my ways.

And all my pathway dark and lone

Is brightened by their rays.

I try to keep them bright by faith,

And never let them dim with doubt,

For every time I lose a friend

A little lamp goes out.

Elizabeth Whittemore

~

Rest in Peace, my dear friend. I'm glad I had the privilege of knowing you for almost 10 years. 

You will be missed, Pat.

Very much.

Love,

rue

Where to begin....

Well, I guess I should start out with...

I'm sorry.

I truly am.

I know many of you were worried.

In fact, a little bird told me.

I kept meaning to sit down and start blogging again, but for some reason, I couldn't find the words.

I'm still struggling actually.

Anyway,

I honestly didn't mean to be gone so long.

It's odd how fast time passes while you're trying to get your life back in order.

And that's what I've been doing.

When something in my life doesn't go the way it should or the way I had hoped, I tend to shut down. Last time I erased my blog, because I couldn't stand to look at all the happiness that was no longer there.

I promise I won't do that this time.

It's one of the reasons I didn't share much of my private life on here.

I didn't want to have it out there, in case it didn't work out.

I suppose that was a sign that I knew it wouldn't, somewhere in the recesses of my mind.

And I was right.

I'm no longer with him.

I won't go into the details, but let's just say that you can't help someone that doesn't want to help themselves.

No matter how hard you try.

So once again, I'm starting over.

Liz has some great advice about that...

She's right, you know.

And you know what?

I'm happier now.

Much

Much

Happier :)

But, it's going to take me a bit to get back into the swing of things, so please have patience.

I have a lot to catch up on and many emails to get to.

Thank you for caring so much.

Also...

Please forgive me for disappearing.

I didn't mean to.

xo
rue

SaveSave

Restore

When I selected the word 'restore' for the New Year, I had no idea the changes it would bring.

I had to make some very hard decisions about my life recently and it's excluded someone I care about, but can no longer have in my life.

Then there is the election.

The terrorism.

The anger.

I'm trying hard to sort it all out at the moment, but it's been a struggle.

I just never would have guessed I would be where I am at this stage in my life.

But things happen, 

life goes on,

and 

so must we all.

I just need to take a deep breath.

So, I'm sorry I haven't been around, but I promise that I'll be back.

I hope you understand.

xo

rue

Another one

God Bless all those affected.

Be back soon.

Comments closed.

love to you all

rue

A window tale

Once upon a time, a lovely woman built a darling cottage.

For some reason, years later, she had to sell the cottage.

A family bought it.

Now, this family was probably a very nice family, but there were these evil people that would go door to door convincing neighbor after neighbor that old windows needed to be replaced. Even though some windows had been on their old homes for over a hundred years and had nary a problem, they agreed to change them out.

 Eventually, the evil window people came upon the little cottage where the family lived and convinced them that the little cottage's wooden framed windows weren't good enough.

Unknowingly, the family fell into the trap, like their neighbors, and agreed to replace the windows with some that wouldn't last more than ten or twenty years.

Some years later the family sold the house to a couple.

Now this couple wasn't very nice.

They had plans to destroy the cottage on the inside, but before doing that they decided to paint the entire outside, including the window trim, brown.

Not only that, but they used latex paint over oil based paint without sanding it.

About five years later, there fell upon the world a great recession and the couple had to sell the little cottage, so their evil plan was foiled.

Along came a woman that immediately fell in love with the little cottage and she bought it.

Soon she started undoing all the bad things that were done, but discovered that some things were going to have to be replaced professionally.

Boys and girls, do you know what that would be?

Why yes, Susie! It is the windows.

Well, all except the four original windows downstairs, that escaped the evil window replacers, that you guessed it... have nary a problem, except they too have to have the latex paint scraped off.

Not only are the metal window replacements failing, because of moisture between the glass, the wood window trim is rotting, because of the latex paint pulling off from the oil based paint and the leaks that come from improper window replacement.

And this kids, is what happens when you do that...

So, the woman that loves the little cottage knows that she'll have to replace not only this window, but eventually ALL of the ones that were replaced by the evil window people.

For now though, she has scraped all the latex paint off and has done some patching with wood putty until she can get someone that knows what they're doing to replace them.

There's also another sad window tale, involving some not too bright person building a staircase in front of a window.

But the woman will deal with that eventually too.

Just like she has when changing the outside from this...

To this...

It's a slow process and the woman has much more to do, but the little cottage knows she's trying and is very very happy that someone finally cares again.

To be continued...

Eventually.

;)

xo

rue

P.S.

For information on old windows go 'here'.

Please read it before you get angry about replacement windows.

A Happy Ending

Remember the post I did on the huge family Bible, that was in my office?

Well, in January, I received this email:

Hello

I'm the granddaughter of Louis Hirschbek and my father was their first born in 1930. I would be honored to be the keeper of it. I have one of the violins he handmade for my dad and the bible he gave my dad when he was a child.

Thank you for posting it on your blog for one of us to find.
Jan

I couldn't believe it!

I wrote Jan for her address and sent it along to her.

She then honored me by sending along some pictures of her with her grandfather, Louis.

You can just see how proud he was of his grand baby.

Doesn't he look like the kindest man?

He was also extremely talented.

Just look at the violin he handmade and carved in 1931:

Gorgeous, isn't it?

Sadly, Jan lost him when she was only 8 years old, but thankfully while doing research on him, she came across my blog and now has another piece of their family history that she can treasure.

And I couldn't be happier for her.

In case you want to learn more about Louis, there's an article about him that you can read 'here'.

And here he is with his beautiful wife, Agneta:

Now the Hirschbek Family Bible is back in Jan's hands and I made a new friend ;)

Thank you so much Jan for sharing your story with me and for sending all these pictures for me to share with my readers.

I know you'll treasure that Bible forever :)

I never thought in a million years that it would find it's way home.

Blogland is an amazing place sometimes.

Don't you just love a happy ending? 

I sure do :)

xo

rue

Spring came early

So, it turns out Punxsutawney Phil was right and I was wrong.

It wouldn't be the first time ;)

Only a couple of months ago, my home looked like this....

And now the grass is turning green and the trees have buds...

That means it's time to get to work cleaning things up outside, before planting in May.

The only thing I've done so far is plant pansies in the front pots.

But it's a start ;)

xo

rue

The other bathroom

You've seen the upstairs bathroom, which is across from the living room, on the main level, between the den/guestroom and my daughter's room (which you may never see lol).

And I've shown you the lovely paint job the old owners did to the tile downstairs...

Well, after months and months of avoiding it doing other things, I finally finished it.

As you can see, they changed the tile at some point under the window and tried to match the pink. I'm guessing the window wasn't original and that's why, but who knows.

I still think it looks better than that awful green.

I have more to do in there, but I thought I'd share the whole tiny room anyway.

And when I say tiny, I seriously mean that you can almost use every facility without moving ;)

It's off of my bedroom, which I think was the maid's quarters, and it's through my extra closet. Honestly though, I have no idea what it was used for originally, because it also leads to what I think is the root cellar. 

I know that sounds confusing, but trying to figure out what the downstairs rooms were for is even more confusing to me ;)

Anyway, let's go in...

See how little it is?

The shower has the original tile and shower curtain bar from 1930, but the knobs were changed in the 1950s.

Yes, I know that pink tile was popular in the 50s, but it wasn't uncommon in the 30s either and the plumber confirmed it, when he was working on the shower head that wouldn't work, when I moved in.

There's three knobs, but I forget what the top one does, since I share the upstairs bathroom with Annie for the most part and don't use this shower.

Anyway, the plumber explained it, but I've since forgotten.

It just turns on when I clean, so I don't worry about it ;)

I have no earthly idea what the white marble covers and I'm not about to tear the thing apart to find out, but if anyone knows, please let me know.

The toilet has been replaced, but I know the inlayed wood toilet seat is old.

The flooring is original too :)

Next to the shower:

On the other side, you have this weirdness:

A 1930s sink that has been fitted into the wall.

Very odd.

It's also really short, so I'm wondering how tall the maid was.

Original 1930s medicine cabinet and 1950s? light.

And the little shelf behind the door:

This has to be one of the oddest bathrooms I've ever come across.

Anywho, I haven't decided to keep the yellow and white paint scheme for sure, because it was a quick clean up and I'm thinking about some 1930s looking wallpaper instead.

All in good time though.

I have many more pressing things to do.

Like say....

Finishing the backyard.

Painting the window trim on the outside of the house.

Painting the whole outside of the house and outbuildings.

Painting the den.

Painting the upstairs hallway.

etc.

My life is mostly painting.

I sometimes doubt that I'll ever have a nice manicure again.

Sigh.

Oh well, the finished product always makes me happy and it's good for this home that I love very, very much :)

xo

rue