Happiness is

Happiness is planning and working on a sewing project, especially a quilt.  As soon as I start to plan a sewing project, especially a quilt something inside me says, "Ah...this is what I was meant to do!"  It's like my brain waves operate  on a different  frequency or something.  I just feel so content.

My project right now is this quilt for our youngest grandchild, Pierce. His first birthday is next month, so I am a little late with it because it was supposed to be his baby quilt.  Anyway, his mom said she would like some thing in blue, so this is what I'm working on.

My sewing room has a bed smack dab in the middle but it comes in handy for laying our projects.  This is just a simple nine patch, nothing very complicated, a beginner could do it. But I love the contrast of the light and dark blues.

In my last post I said I'd have a cup of tea waiting the next time you come, but I don't even have the kettle on yet.  I promise if you drop by I'll stop what I am doing and make us a pot of tea.  It's very cold here in Charlotte today so a pot of tea will hit the spot.

Happiness for me is making quilts.  I'd love it if you'd leave a comment filling in the blank:  Happiness is _________

Looking at life through rose colored glasses,

Rhondi

Dining Room Changes

One of my favorite things to do is to putter around my house.  Recently the “puttering” turned into refinishing the  dining room table top.  Years ago, I painted it white and over the years it has had several  hand painted borders.  It had gotten very worn looking so it was time for a change. I decided to strip the paint off the top and let the wood  be seen.

Here is the project part way through.  It’s a very big table when both leaves are in! I used a paint stripper and scrapped all the paint off until I got down to the bare wood.

 Then I used  a Minwax walnut  stain, let it dry completely then used Minwax Wipe On Ploy to finish it off… and  voila!  Here is the finished table top.

 I also spray painted the chairs white and got this fabric (blue and white of course) on sale at Hancock Fabrics and I recovered the seats.If you’ve never recovered a dining room chair, let me know and I’ll tell you how.  It’s easy shmeasy

 I also put a string of white Christmas lights inside the china cabinet.  Oops, just noticed the photo shows the white drawers which I’ve never got around to painting. To make it really sparkle, I took out all the china except 2 white tureens and I put all my cut glass and silver things  to catch the light.  This doesn’t show it too well.  I’ll try to remember to take a picture of  it at night and show you.

 And here is my dining room with a fresher look. The picture isn’t very good but I wasn’t patient enough to wait for the light to change.

I am happy with how it turned out.  The contrast of the wood top with the white legs is good.

Next project is to make some drapes, just have to find the right fabric at the right price.

With rose colored glasses,

Rhondi

**Finally figured out what was wrong and comments are working again!  Thanks for your patience.

An Angel Followed Me Home

On Saturday I was at The Depot at Gibson Mill. If you live anywhere near Charlotte NC it is a must- three huge warehouse areas filled with vendors.  I was just wandering around looking at everything, trying not to get lost, which I always do when I go, when suddenly this charming plaster angel flew into my arms and convinced me to take her  home.  Is this an angel or a cherub? She was very persuasive, and very inexpensive.

I wonder if you are like me?  I seldom buy something to put in a certain place in my home, except for beds and dining room suites.  So whenever I bring something new into our home I  "audition" it in various spots.

The first place I perched my angel was on the mantle in the TV room

 Then I tried her on my bedside table.

The mantle in our living room.

On top of the china cabinet in the dining room.

And finally back to the TV room on a side table.  I love the way the sunlight shines on it, so for today that's where  it will stay.     By the end of the day it may be somewhere else.

Do you buy something with a spot in mind that you want it to go?  Or are you like me, no idea where to put it but just have to bring it home?

With rose colored glasses,

Rhondi

Uncluttered Part 2

Good morning.  Very simple post today.  I told you yesterday I planned to unclutter the closets in my sunroom. Telling you made me accountable and I got it done!   Threw out a couple of bags of junk and have 2 bags to take to the thrift shop.

 Now everything I need to access is in plain view, nothing hidden in behind. Maybe not too interesting to you, but to me it’s a big deal. We never use this  TV so it’s the next thing to go.

Maybe this will encourage you to do organize and unclutter today.  Wish I had time to invite you in for tea, but I’ve got a busy day ahead. Whatever you do, I hope you enjoy your day.

Looking through Rose Colored Glasses,

Rhondi xo

Unclutter Life Inside and Outside

I am on a mission to unclutter life, inside and outside.  To organize,simplify  unclutter and get rid of stuff.  It’s that time of year when many of us feel the need to to that.  All the magazines have artickle about getting organized.  All the stores have storage bins ready for us to buy.

I think you can tell the state of mind of a person by how messy their house is.  The opposite is true also that  the mess or order in our houses affects the state of our minds.

For example here is what my sewing room/guest room looked like yesterday morning.

 I had just thrown stuff in there over the Christmas holidays.  There is even an armchair on its side which got moved to make room for the tree.  Rather than clean it up I just closed the door, but every time I had to go in there I thought, “I should clean this up” . This room looks like what my mind was like during the holidays, disorganized, cluttered, too many things going on.

Yesterday I decided it was time to tackle the room.  As with most projects like this , once I started it really didn’t take very long!  Order restored.  I don’t need to shut the door to hide the mess.  I don’t even like the room.  The decor is dated and I have my mom’s watercolors on the wall which are beautiful but don’t go with anything, but that’s not the point.  Now when I walk into the room I feel calm.

 Sometimes the mess/turmoil inside  is obvious, but other times no one knows but us.  We hide it well. A perfect example of this are the closets in our sunroom.  On the outside everything looks under control.

 On the inside…well that ‘s a different story.

These rooms are how we are sometimes.  Both rooms a were in a state of disarray. The first one was visible.  The second one was hidden. If I never cleaned up that closet, no one would know except me.  With my sewing room all it took was deciding to do it and it didn’t take long at all.   With the second one, I’ve shown you a picture   I made myself accountable, which hopefully will give me the motivation to clean it up.

So which one are you today?  A bit of a mess which only needs some attention to get you back on track? Or looking good on the outside but a mess on the inside?  If you are the second one, do like I have just done.  Share it with someone else and ask them to make you accountable.  If I don’t show you a picture of this closet cleaned up, please get after me 

You probably have a friend who would be glad that you asked them to help you with this.  If you don’t have a friend like that, I would be honored to help you be accountable.

Let’s do this, unclutter your life inside and out.  You can do it!!

Looking at the world through Rose Colored Glasses,

Rhondi xo

Encouragement

Good morning dear friends

I wrote my first post on Rose Colored Glasses 5 years ago.  I have enjoyed sharing a cup of tea with you, chatting about my life and showing you the projects I was working on. I have gotten to know so many wonderful creative and caring people in this wonderful community called “blogland”.

I named my blog Rose Colored Glasses because that’s how I like to view the world – through rose colored glasses: looking for the positive, being optimistic and hopeful.  I happen to wear glasses that are a rose color also!

Then I decided to go back to real estate full time and didn’t have the time to write, so I put it aside for awhile, but I missed it.  I missed visiting you, receiving comments, getting inspired and talking to you each day.  So here I am back again.  As some of you know I have switched from Blogger to WordPress which has been a little challenging and I can’t figure out how to comment without it linking to my old blog. ( if anyone can help me with that I would appreciate it)

This year I want to be true to my Rose Colored Glasses outlook and have it be a place of encouragement.  It is so easy to become discouraged or dissatisfied especially when you read some of the beautiful blogs out there and think that they have a better life than you do.  I’m here to tell you that is not true.  Our pastor at church once said that we only see other people’s highlight reel but we tend to look at our “bloopers”.

So today I just want to tell you that whatever your life looks like, there is always something to enjoy about it.  You are reading this, so you must have a computer or smart phone or something.    You probably have a roof over your head, food to eat and too many clothes in your closet.

Count your blessings today.  There are many.  I am counting you as one of mine!

I have a goal of posting every day in January, so I hope you come back tomorrow to see me.

Your friend,

Rhondi

Happy New Year 2013

Happy New Year 2013 dear friends.  I hope that you got to spend some time with your family and friends over the holiday.

In the last 3 weeks we have only been home 4 days!  I love my home.  I love to be at home.  I love to putter around my home.  That's what I am doing today.

We arrived home  last night after a 17 hour drive from Texas but I was anxious to get my house back to normal, so I've already got all the Christmas decorations down and boxed up, ready to go up in the attic until next year.  Every year I try to weed out some of it and I managed to eleiminate one big plastic bin.

Whenever we are away, the first this I do the next morning is make a cup of tea, and stand outside on our deck just to look at the woods.  This morning I was greeted by 3 deer chomping away on the azalea bushes.  They looked up at me as if to say, "Oh you're home.  Can we still finish our meal before we leave?"

As I stood there enjoying my tea and the mild weather for a few minutes, I noticed that the hellebores ( Lenten Roses) were blooming in  a sheltered part of the garden, so I picked one sprig to bring inside.  This is one of the things I love about living in Charlotte: flowers blooming outside in the winter!

The camellia bush was in full bloom too so I picked two of them also.  They are such a lovely shade of dark pink.

I haven't had a chance to think about goals for this year yet.  I have a few ideas about things I'd like to get done around the house.  I'm not a New Years resolution  person but I do like to make a few goals each year.

How about you?  What plans do you have for the coming year?
Rhondi xo