October Blessings!

WOOHOO!!!!!!!!! It is here – October! My favorite month! Now more often than not, it will be cool and even if the day time temps rise, the nights cool off rather nicely. I don’t even mind the shorter days. It reminds me that it is time to once again start nesting for what is to follow. I love being at home and cozying up with a good book and a cup of my spicy chai tea. I love putting on my warm robe and slippers in the morning and soon I will need my electric heated mattress pad at night. That is fine with me. I think you know by now I’d rather have to find a way warm up than try to cool off. I like wearing socks with my clogs, and layers of clothing and feeling the nip of cold on my cheeks and seeing my breath in the morning air. I love pulling up the bedroom shades in the morning and seeing the brilliant play of colors in the trees, underbrush and every growing thing out back.

And all around me the colors are changing to warm autumn tones. There are even a few touches of color starting out back now…

I even love how different the light is coming into our home in the fall. The lower sun reflecting off the golden foliage just makes it feel warmer and softer and I think it flatters everything.

I have always loved the warm autumn colors. When we married, harvest gold and olive green were in vogue. Rusty colored carpeting was popular and I loved it all because it meant I had autumn in my home all year round. For a time I got away from some of those colors and used slate blue but never with pink ~ okay, maybe some pink in our daughter’s room ~ but never more than that. I paired it with barn red even back then. And I used mustard instead of harvest gold. Now once again, I am back to using warm colors in my home again even adding some touches of pumpkin here and there, and it just feels right to me. Autumn just feels right to me.

Of course autumn means I can add even more splashes of warm color to my world with my seasonal décor. I still haven’t finished taking pictures of the other rooms, so those will have to wait until another post. But I promise I have something MUCH better to take your mind off that ~ in a minute!

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Maybe because it is October and that makes me so happy, or maybe it is just because the older I get, the more I appreciate the life I have ~ I am not sure but whatever the reason, today I have this an overwhelming feeling of how blessed I am!

Aside from the most obvious blessings in my life ~ being married over 36 years to a wonderful man who loves me despite my faults and supports all areas of my life and who still sends me love notes and poems; wonderful adult kids and a darling grand daughter who lights up my life in ways I never ever imagined; parents that still tell me all the time how much they love me and how proud they are of me; many wonderful friends and just as many wonderful acquaintances ~ I am blessed in so many other ways!

Here is the really cool thing that really makes me smile today ~ even though my life is incredibly full and busy right now ~ for the most part ~ I am doing what I want in life. From the little things like waking up when I want, and having coffee just the way I want it in the morning. Or choosing to stay home to do chores or going out with friends or helping family. Choosing to be Lili’s part time caretaker and choosing the days I do that.

I choose whether or not I want to work and when I want to work and even the kind of work. I choose what to make for dinner or if I am even going to make dinner. I think you get the idea! I am in charge of my own life and isn’t that the most wonderful thing??!! I think so and I love the choices I have!

Here are some of my favorite quotes about choice, destiny and what we make of our own life ~

We either make ourselves happy or miserable. The amount of work is the same. ~Carlos Castaneda

This is your world. Shape it or someone else will. ~ Gary Lew

We cannot choose the things that will happen to us. But we can choose the attitude we will take toward anything that happens. Success or failure depends on your attitude. ~Alfred A. Montapert

It’s choice – not chance – that determines your destiny. ~Jean Nidetch

Life is a garden. It is an opportunity. You can grow weeds, you can grow roses; it all depends on you. ~ Osho

You rarely have time for everything you want in this life, so you have to make choices, and hopefully your choices can come from a deep sense of who you are. ~ Fred Rogers

We create our fate every day we live. ~ Henry Miller

It is in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped. ~ Anthony Robbins

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Yesterday, I made the choice to spend the day with my dear friend Audrey and we had a great time antiquing, shopping and taking an historic home tour. I brought home some wonderful goodies and I’ll share those at another time. As I said, I have something better to share. In anticipation of the home tour, I got my Nikon Coolpix all charged up and laid it out the night before, and promptly took off without. GRR!! So I had to use my iPhone for pics. It’s good but not THAT good! But I think you will still enjoy seeing this home. In fact I KNOW you will enjoy seeing this home.

The home we toured belongs to Jack and Paula Fisher, proprietors of the Rusty Roosta in West Brookfield, MA. I first met Jack and Paula and saw their gorgeous home in November 2009 and it still remains one of my favorite homes ever! The historical details are amazing to begin with and then add in Jack and Paula’s wonderful antiques, collections, reproductions and how they display them along with their choices of paint colors and it all adds up to an incredible home. And I do mean incredible! It was such a pleasure to see it again!!

The front of the house..

Every season, the front door décor is so interesting! And see the side lights (windows)? See the little curtain on the top inside? Inside the bottom 2 are covered with a shutter that hinges open to reveal more light when needed! How cool is that?

The back of the house..The shop…

Now inside was harder to get with my iPhone because of the lighting and also keep in mind that there were many other people taking the tour so sometimes I snapped pics rather quickly!

The kitchen…

LOVE this room!

I have a better picture of this table coming in a bit…

And I LOVE this room…

Oh and I love this room..

and this room too!

What’s not to love about this gorgeous home! Now some of you may recognize the Fisher home from a recent issue of Country Sampler. To find out how that all came about and what part I played in them being featured (LONG before APP) you can read about it ~here~!

Now because I feel bad about forgetting my good camera and the quality of those new photos, I’ll share with you the photos I took 2 years ago when I had my little old trusty point and shoot with me. It was a total surprise to get invited in that day so I was thrilled I had it with me! They were just starting to decorate for Christmas that day and they were not expecting to open their home to us so this was a real treat!

Okay, here is the table!! HUBBA HUBBA!

And guess who just finished making herself a reproduction of this one?? I’ll give you a few clues. She moved to SC and her name starts with J! She is going to kill me because she just quickly snapped this. She painted her top black and distressed it. I can’t wait to see it in person in November!

Back to Jack and Paula’s house…

Wasn’t that fun?? Thank you Jack and Paula for having the tour this year ~ it was wonderful!

To find our more about the shop and special events click ~here~!

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This week Behind My Red Door we are so excited because my in~laws will be arriving from SC. This is something we never expected to happen again because of my FIL’s progressive lung disease and other complication that make traveling difficult. But he feels well enough at the moment to make the drive and they have found oxygen tanks they can charge in the car as they drive making it possible for him to travel. We hope to get lots of time together and MIL cannot wait to hold Lili again. Please keep them in your prayers as they make the 2 day journey home to us all. Thank you!

And thank you all for your kind and heart warming comments after my last post. You made me smile and sometimes cry, but in a the best way possible! And thank you for stopping by here once again.

Until next time ~ warm hugs and prim blessings, Linda