Show Off Your Cottage Monday

Welcome to "SHOW OFF YOUR COTTAGE MONDAY", a blog party I host at the beginning of each week to celebrate the things we love about our homes and how we live.

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Today I'm celebrating the last roses of the season... I’m always amazed by the way these roses seem to defy nature. As if refusing to comply with death they thrive and bloom, yet they chose to surrender, humbly, to the new season's approach; mingling in meek harmony with their surrounding. I love the way these last roses of October join autumn in a mélange of colors and shapes that to me can only speak of a rare beauty that could never be alienated from melancholy.

Here are some photographs of my last bouquets… a cold rain have permeated our valley swooshing naughty winds around, and the garden has now turned crimsoned orange and tangerine reds. These are probably the last roses you will see here, until the return of another spring…

Tis the last rose of summer

(By Thomas Moore)

Left blooming alone;
All her lovely companions
Are faded and gone;
No flower of her kindred,
No rosebud is nigh,
To reflect back her blushes,
To give sigh for sigh.

I'll not leave thee, thou lone one!
To pine on the stem;
Since the lovely are sleeping,
Go, sleep thou with them.
Thus kindly I scatter,
Thy leaves o'er the bed,
Where thy mates of the garden
Lie scentless and dead.

So soon may I follow,
When friendships decay,
From Love's shining circle
The gems drop away.
When true hearts lie withered
And fond ones are flown,
Oh! who would inhabit,
This bleak world alone?

What are you celebrating? Take me to your cottage, show me how you live, tell me what's making you happy, or what's got you smiling, what new treasure have you find, your new creation!! Link, and take us there!

Hunter's Moon - All Hallows' Eve...

Were you out last night to see the full moon? Ah yes, I had to welcome this beautiful yellow moon of October! So I quickly wrapped a scarf over my head, and went out to the garden...

The “Hunter’s Moon”—they call it, and it is big and round and ever so enchanting... it hanged low and lovely in the night sky, and as I stood there with the wind and chill of the night dancing in the canopy of trees, I could feel her silvery glow infusing the garden with magic... it was truly marvelous!

The Hunter’s Moon is no ordinary moon; it behaves in a special way. Here in our valley it’s mirrored in a cool, dark sapphire sky... and sometimes you can even see the rings around it too! Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that ice crystals shining in the glow of the moon? And what do you call the moon, “Mr. Moon”, or “Ms. Moon”? I don’t know about you, but I see vermillion lips! I like to think that the moon dresses in pearls. I see a lovely pearl sateen dress, and I see earrings in stiletto style and a freshwater pearl strand tied with ribbon on her neck... but I can never ever picture a moon with hair in my dreams... do you imagine a moon with hair, or a hairless moon?

Oh and do you see what I see? I see witches flying the Cosmos too!! But that’s normal I suppose! After all, it’s All Hallow's Eve and anything and everything can happen... I tell ya, it was just marvelous being out there in the lonely garden under the full moon last night!

And can I tell you something else? I had the loveliest of dream the other night... and you were there!! In my dreams!! Yes, yes it was you I’m sure! It was around Christmas time, and I went to visit you in your enchanted wood! Winter never came there and we wandered off into this magical land skipping and singing and holding hands like little sisters do!

It was so special, and magical! All sort of mysterious and delightful things happened while we were there, and we shared so much in common we could have passed by real sisters too! It was warm and sunny and all in all a delightful and enchanting place to be! I remember us talking about how we were going to take oodles of pictures of us so that later we would showcase them on both of our blogs! ;) Isn’t this curious... and odd? Do you ever dream with people you don’t know? Or dream about your blog? I woke up smiling...

By the way, I believe that each of us should have our own special enchanted wood—a mysterious and magical land where the fantasist in us would find heaps of opportunities for glorious adventures. I have my own enchanted wood, and I am sure I have seen you there once or twice ;) You can always leave me a breadcrumb trail in the form of a comment or two when you visit, so I can go meet you there and play! ;)

Well, I better be off now! Nightfall will be upon us before you know it, and you know how it goes... comes night, and with the first kiss of the full moon there they will be—witches and goblins... all sort of creatures would pervade your garden, and what it was a lovely place to be a minute before will turn into a scary place... an unfamiliar and mysterious place if you would!

Oh goodness me, did you just hear that? Ah yes, a very estrange noise! Over there amidst the bushes! And is that what I think it is? Oh yes, the Halloween witches are already here; lurking the darkness! Can you see them too? Vines are growing hair and I see bushes growing arms and fingers with long nails... Oh I'm sure I heard a shallow breathing behind the butterfly bushes... Ahhhrrrrggg!!!

Ah yes, the witches are here and they're taking over the garden! Are you hearing enchanted incantation in your part of the world? Can you see witches in your garden too? No? Well, be careful... be very careful for when the wind is in the west witches all over the world would be brewing their magic brews. You can hear them singing their magic songs already, and some of their wildness might get inside you!! Oh I better hurry inside. I much rather be inside my cozy house anytime during the night! When I think of my home, my very soul fills with a sense of peace beyond words... a presence larger than life itself moves around me and encompasses my small world... I'm not afraid any more. For this I am thankful. My soul is overflowing with thanksgivings.

(Image Sources: Digital Art-Internet)


HAPPY HALLOWEEN, EVERYONE!!

At the office - ramblings...

What do you use at the office for your hot drinks? Most people have a favorite mug that they use for their coffee, or tea... my co-worker (almost ready for retirement now) has the scariest of mug I’ve ever seen... really! It’s black and it reads in huge white letters: “Beware, I’m armed and have premenstrual tension”... eekkk! Scary! Which brings me to my subject today, and what I use at the office for my hot drinks...

 

Being the kind of girly girl I am, you know I have to have a cup... and saucer too, of course! I have seen some real pretty mugs out there and had been tempted to get one for the office many a time, but I still prefer my pretty teacup! Coffee, tea, or a nice cup of hot chocolate on a cold wintery morning at the office certainly taste better in an attractive teacup... big and round like this one! What are your preferences? What do you use for your hot drinks at the office?

 

I found this sweet vintage plate (for free!) at one of the two thrift stores across from our office building... can you imagine that? Not one, but two thrift stores within walking distance! ;) That’s where I usually go (a lot) during my lunch breaks... St Michael’s Cathedral with its lovely ivy-covered stone façade and stained glass windows sits right across my office, and that’s where their tiny thrift store is, and that’s also the view (including the parking lot) I get to look at every hour of every day of my life... now, don't get me wrong, I do love that numinous old church, and I consider myself fortunate to have that as a view and not something else (I could be stuck in a cubicle), but I would do anything, I mean anything to be able to work from home and enjoy the view of my lonesome garden all day long instead.

 

Anyway, back to my new “free” vintage dinner plate... is just so pretty, and dainty too! I do use it thought, and I like to keep it around my desk along with my cup and saucer... And I love that the colors match perfectly! I think we should be able to surround ourselves with those things which make us happy either at home as well as at the office. As you can see here, I like my office plainly feminine and romantic!

As I was saying, this little thrift store gives away a lot of things they think not worth keeping, or selling, but which I usually find charming! Like my pink vintage earrings I showed you here... Quite a few of the books I have read lately had come from there too... books they toss, but gems to me! Like these here:

 

St. Michaels have the loveliest moss-covered secret paths where hydrangeas, bleeding-hearts and the English ivy grow together in perfect harmony... I love to go by there—by their little and mysterious mausoleum and sit on the stone bench beneath the Japanese maple just so I can surround my self in its peaceful silence... I cut a few hydrangeas yesterday (I hope they won’t mind) and now I’m drying them on top of one of my bookcases... fresh or dried, they look pretty either way... I wish I could grow hydrangeas in my garden, but I haven’t had any luck with them...

Oh, and did you notice that pretty painting with the three little wee fairies in it? Isn’t it lovely! It was sent to me awhile ago by an artist with amazing skills for beauty—“Elizabeth Barczynski. I am glad I finally found her name (had lost it—sorry!), so I can now thank her properly. You can visit her here!

It amazes me how drastically seasons seem to change from one day to the next... just a couple of days ago my garden was aglow; filled with new blooms and roses that looked better and healthier than ever... only Sunday I cut a few to adorn my table, the scent was intoxicating; each gorgeous in their frailty and beauty... then, a cold rain came swooshing naughty winds around, and all of a sudden the garden turned crimsoned orange, and tangerine red... now all the colors are falling off the trees. It is a beautiful sight, and yet... so sad. I’m sad to see my lovely garden go dormant for such long time.

 

And what are you up to these day? I'd love to hear it!

Do you Know Amaretto Vineyard?

Do you Know Amaretto Vineyard?

Jessica is a wife and mother to a beautiful girl.  She is a crafter, cook, bargain-hunter and loves anything thrifty!

Recently she purchased some Get Clean products from me and she wanted to share her experience with us and she included her before and after pictures!

I hate to clean. I do it every now and then because if I did not, well, my house would soon look like this:

DISCLAIMER: This is SO not my house!  Source

But cleaning is still probably my least favorite thing to do.  Well, second-least, falling shortly behind exercise.  Especially now, considering that we moved (whilst Mr. Amaretto was in the hospital nonetheless!) and my entire house looks like this:

Disclaimer: This IS my house; or my garage at least... sigh...

But I've seen the various bloggers out there touting the wonders of Shaklee Get Clean products lately, and it piqued my interest.  The first few posts I saw, I chalked up to the whole infomercial concept.  I actually started ignoring anything I saw related to Shaklee, figuring it was just another late-night gimmick trying to reel me in.
But one morning, I guess my 'scam resistor' was weak, and I stopped to read this post at House of Grace, showing photo-proof of the amazing Shaklee clean-up from Veronica of Life in the Thrifty Lane.
I couldn't resist.  I immediately ordered a bottle of Basic H2 and a tub of Scour Off paste.  While I waited for my purchase to arrive, I headed to the Dollar Tree to grab three spray bottles and some microfiber cloths, hoping that the magic unpacking fairies would have my new home in tip-top shape before the shipment arrived. 
Those blasted fairies must be on strike, because they haven't shown up yet.
So, I will post a full-on before and after cleaning story at some point in the future.  But for now I found two spots (that I could see behind all the unpacking clutter!) that could use a quick clean-up.
Spot 1:
Little Miss Amaretto's seat at our (glass-topped) kitchen table.  This spot is normally a pretty sticky one; does it make me a horrible mommy that I usually only deep-clean it when we have company coming???  Any-who, this before picture shows the aftermath of a few days' worth of Mac & Cheese dinners (which are surprisingly difficult to prepare when all 3 of your colanders are still lost in cardboard boxes somewhere.  Three!  Who has three colanders, and who can't find a single one of them!?!  I refuse to purchase another...)

A few spritzes of Glass Cleaning mix (which, by the way, only took 2 DROPS of the ultra-concentrated solution to make 16 oz of spray cleaner - VERY economical!) and here are the amazing results:

I KNOW!!!  Can you believe that's the same table?  I am not talking heavy elbow grease or special tools or techniques.  This was a few spritzes of spray and a few wipes with a paper towel.  I did go back a second time (with the added benefit of my fingernail behind the towel) to get a few of the stickier spots of Mac & Cheese up, but that's it!  In seconds my table (or the quarter of it that it currently unblemished by the never-ending unpacking process!) was transformed from dull and blah to sparkle and wow!  I want to make that "DING" sound that the Mr. Clean commercials always use every time I look at these results!
Spot 2:
My stainless-steel sink is uber-grimy looking, mainly because it has a never-ending drip that leaves splatters all over.  We intend to fix the drip this weekend, and in the meantime I wanted to see if I could shine it up a bit with my bottle of All-Purpose Cleaning mix (just 1/4 tsp of the ultra-concentrated solution for an entire spray bottle - still super-thrifty... I made up both spritz bottles and you can't even tell there's anything missing from my original bottle of concentrate).
Here is the before; note the grimy ring on the counter top next to the sink and the uglies left behind by my bottle of dish soap.  Dull and quite grimy:

Here I spritzed on the all-purpose cleaner and went to town with my paper towels.  It looked much better but there was still a bit of residue from the dish soap rings that I couldn't quite scrub off.  A quick swipe with my Magic Eraser and VOILA!
(DISCLAIMER: I am not responsible for temporary or permanent blindness caused by viewing the next photograph without sunglasses; you have been warned)

HOLY RUSTED METAL, BATMAN!!!  Have you ever seen something so shiny in your life?  I am in awe.  Two days later, the shine is still there (I haven't returned the dish soap bottle to its spot yet, I am too excited by my spot of shiny wonder).  Again, I just want to make that "DING" sound of sparkle whenever I walk by this beautiful spot on my sink (and by spot, I mean just that... this little section you see pictured is all that I could get to at the time I was cleaning; the rest of the sink is still messy and covered in drip-splats!).

Doesn’t her house look clean?

Thank you Jessica for writing this!

I am glad that you LOVE Get Clean products as much as I do.

Please visit her blog and tell her how great her table and sink looks!  She is new to blogging so please stop by and say, “Hi”.

If you love Shaklee and want to be featured please let me know.

(I did not ask Jessica to write this or compensate her in anyway.  She is a satisfied customer!)

If you also want to get clean with safe, natural products that actually work and save you money,

then please visit my online Shaklee site today.

Email me for more ways to save at DonahueWellness@hotmail.com.

Have a great Sunday!

Bonnie :)

The haunted garden - Halloween Party

Mystery surely flutters around delicious October! October is a bird carrying on its mellow wings secrecy and all sorts of mysteries, it sings and breaths little things in my ear as he rustles through the grass... Ah yes, October is the most mysterious of month ever! And I can attest to that because I was born in October! But of course, silly me, that’s not exactly the type of mystery I’m referring to! It’s the garden... some people think it’s haunted!

It was especially creepy this evening during my daily walk at dusk.

There was something lurking in the underbrush I’m sure, and dangling from the branches of the crabapple tree I saw the most disturbing of things ever... a hanged man! Of course, it was just a Halloween dummy made of old clothes stuffed with straw that perhaps some weird kid from the neighborhood had left there the day before, but either way you can imagine how startled I was by it!

More disturbing things kept happening that evening. The strangest of mist started to creep in, and an unsettling flutter of wings was heard in the otherwise quieted garden. When I turned around I thought I saw the creepiest of image across the water in the birdbath.

A face... I’m sure it was a face!—a mystifying face like those faces you see in ghost stories and books and movies of the sort! Oh the eeriness! Oh the creepiness of the moment and disturbing atmosphere! As you can imagine, I quickly collected my skirts and run back home as fast as I could...

Running... running.... tumbling over the flowers, down the empty ivy path I went... through the bushes, through the maple trees, through the gates... Until I was finally safe in the comfort of my home.

As you would expect, sleep would not come to me easily that night. The moon shone in my window and slanted across my bed, and a night breeze brought the smell of roses and honeysuckle into the room. Outside, leaves rustled, but I didn’t hear anything else. No goblins’ voices, no ghostly sobbing, no strange cat meowing... just the sound of the night breezes in the garden.

Slowly I finally drifted off to sleep, but much later I woke up again. The house was silent, and my cat Morning was crouched on the windowsill at the foot of his bed. His body was tense, his ears cocked forward, and his tail lashed back and forth furiously. As I sat up, I heard him growl softly, not at me but at something outside.

Cautiously, I peeked out the window. At first I saw nothing but the moonlight whitening the grass and blackening the shadows...

Then something moved near the garden, and Morning growled again... It was a white cat! He was creeping along the edge of a shadow, but while I watched, he paused and looked up at my window. The moonlight reflected in his eyes, making them two silver disks. When he meowed softly, Morning lunged against the screen, tearing at the wire with his claws and growling.

Grabbing my cat, I pulled him away from the window, but he writhed free and disappeared under the bed, still growling... as Morning vanished, I looked fearfully outside. The white cat was gone, but the scraggly bushes moved with the breeze and the shadows they cast swayed on the grass... the sweet smell of roses filled my room, and I shivered as a gust of wind blew over me. Then, as if it wasn’t creepy enough, things got even creepier! I heard something in the darkness outside. It wasn’t the breeze in the leaves or a cat meowing or a night bird calling; it was unmistakably the sound of a child crying... Truly afraid, I fought against a strong urge to scream, or run away. As if he sensed my feelings, Morning came out from his hiding place. Purring in my ear, he curled up on my pillow until finally the two of us fell asleep together...

The whole thing was creepy, so very creepy, indeed! But that was last night! Now the warmest of sun has return to the land vanishing all shadows of fear! Bathed in wonderful morning sunlight, the garden has lost its sinister quality, and I find myself delighting again in the shady center of my little hide out.

I wouldn’t be scared away by a white cat anyway… would you? Of course not! Especially on a day like today, when I’m having the most delightful time celebrating the enchantment of October with tea and friends and visitors from all over the world.

If you haven't heard of it yet, there is a party soon to start at Frosted Petunias. Oh, it promises to be pure magic underneath the full Halloween moon! And I surely would not want to miss it! So with that said, I am going to change into my little witchy self and head over there right now! You're welcome to fly with me in my broom if you like, but don’t delay, dark is almost upon us, the night garden boast a magic all of its own, a magic that must be shared only at our party, so hurry!

"Double, double, toil and trouble,

Fire burn and cauldron bubble."