...a caretaker of the right-for-me details...

“Life is too short for you

to be the caretaker

of the wrong details.”
   ~Alexandra Stoddard

When I graduated from undergraduate 25 years ago, my high school English teacher with whom I am still in touch gifted me a copy of Alexandra Stoddard’s Living a Beautiful Life: 500 Ways to Add Elegance, Order, Beauty, and Joy to Every Day of Your Life (1986). Stoddard cites the great authors to show how attention to detail is key in living a beautiful life. Stoddard who is an interior designer has a much different aesthetic than I have; however, her emphasis on rituals and even her “grace notes” such as “lift your mood with a new fragrance” and “have a special basket for the mail. It looks pretty, and it’s fun to bring into the living room or library, to open at leisure” have stayed with me over the years. Her writing focuses on transforming space to make it something that one can live within. It doesn’t require money or status. It’s simply living what one considers a beautiful life. I've been thinking about that a great deal lately.

And, I’ve been making many changes—some small such as changing out my old closet doorknob that has never been to my taste with a new black crystal one. I’ve also been doing some bigger changes in the yard by digging up, dividing and replanting iris bulbs and daylilies. I even moved the canna that was trapped under the hibiscus to brighter spaces where they have room to grow. I’ve had a good amount of nervous energy lately and limited time since the clock is ticking down the days until I return to my in-person work-life.

For the next two weeks, my bathroom is being renovated. I’ve saved for it for quite some time and even had the tiles in our garage since last October. Our contractor scheduled us beginning tomorrow and concluding on Friday the 13^th!

I don’t want to say that I’ve hated this bathroom for three years because it was someone’s dream and choice; and likely the woman who picked this magnolia tile planted a garden here and had a say in the red brick path we unearthed and love. It isn’t to my taste and I look forward to big changes but I’m blessing the old choices as they leave this home. Maybe I’ll even keep a magnolia tile and plant it in the garden.

My designer glitter grout won’t arrive in time even though I ordered it weeks in advance of its estimated delivery date so we’re going with my pre-awareness-of-black-glitter-grout-plan. And per my fabulous contractor, the quality of glitter grout is somewhat questionable. He broke it to me gently and he is the one who had the idea to make the capstone of my shed into a coffin shape so I do trust him.

This weekend I had to go to two paint locations to find the paint I needed. Each store had only one and their response was that I was lucky. Everything is delayed and out of stock, and has been for a while. But for me, it’s finally coming together! This little toiletries-bag, the pumpkin, will be my best buddy for two weeks as I am sharing my fella’s bathroom, which I acknowledge we are fortunate enough to have two baths so this renovation is all very doable with little interruption.  

...a craft, witch brooms, and Bela Lugosi...

A few weeks ago, my father turned 83. Since the pandemic, he’s called me almost every night to check in. It first started when my mother became sick. But Dad and I get along well and always have a great deal to discuss so we’ve kept calling each other.

He’s of the Silent Generation, between the Greatest Generation and preceding the Baby Boomers and like Generation X, it seems they’re often left out of the discussion. As children of the Great Depression, my dad grew up with the mentality of “use of up, wear it out, make do” and that was something that I heard as far back as I can remember. It’s still a mentality that I try to live by and I admit that I have a hard time throwing out anything that is still sort of working. If we’re friends on social media, I admitted this morning that both my iPhone is a bit too old and hangs frequently, and my laptop doesn’t have a working camera, or sound, and also

the graphics driver is corrupted so part of the screen becomes black at various times. It isn't so bad. I just click on another tab and that usually fixes the issue temporarily. Neither of my parents had much money growing up but my dad’s father also died when my dad was just a boy. My grandfather was a coal miner and he died from black lung. Even today I have a hard time letting go of things that still sort of function even it they don’t function at their highest level. I know I’ve done this with people too but that’s a topic more for therapy.

With what seems like an endless supply of pine needles in our yard, I have wanted to make something with them. This week, I started making tiny broom art. The first one that I made is the smallest and I used the mountain mint along with the pine needles. It smells quite nice.

Today, I made one small broom with crape myrtle blooms that smells so sweet. We’ll see how well they fade and dry. The other includes Juniperus virginiana or Eastern Red Cedar. The mountain mint blooms were being enjoyed by a bunch of bumble bees so I didn’t want to disturb them. I think that I read that the *berries* of the Eastern Red Cedar are poisonous but probably only if they’re eaten and I don’t recommend that anyone eat these small brooms.  

I think they have a nice forest witch aesthetic and could certainly be nice to have on an altar.

Today's Bela Lugosi daylily...just because

...aromatic herbs, wreaths, and cocktails...

 

Mountain Mint

At the start of the pandemic, I could only get mountain mint which didn’t work for their intended purpose- my fella’s mint juleps. At the end of the season, after they looked dead in their pots I dumped the pots into the garden. Oops, I’ve heard mint can spread. They’ve mostly stayed in their places and yesterday, thanks to a post on aromatic bundling, I decided to make an aromatic herb wreath with mostly mountain mint, some sage, lavender, and spearmint. It’s all set to dry now.

I’ve also been having fun with cocktails. During the Association for Gravestone Studies conference cocktail, I created a variety of cemetery-themed cocktails. This one is called Country Cemetery, a traditional chocolate martini with spearmint from the garden.

Sweet mint from the garden

A Country Cemetery cocktail with spearmint from the garden

I’m trying to make the most of summer and I’m trying not to look at my countdown of days before I have to return to my university campus. I wish I had known that I would have had 400+ glorious days at home. It’s been a reflective time for me and I’m hoping that some of the boundaries I’ve been working on will stick. For now, I’m officially on vacation until August 16^th when my academic contract resumes.  

...spiders, flowers, and crafting...

I did not plan to take a blog-sabbatical for the last two months nor did I plan to return to blogging today. I suppose I am following my muse; and, today, my muse is Bane over at GIY: Goth It Yourself. I am terribly behind but her December theme is Anything Goes; and, well, I have been crafting. 

If you have followed my blog, you will know that I LOVE Christmas! I also have a tradition of making Christmas spiders since my last name derives from the Polish word “spider.” Plus, it just seems to goth up Christmas a bit. 

Here are some older posts if you’re interested in reading about the legend, a how-to guide, and my beaded-spider-making habits: 

... the legend of the Christmas spider and why I embrace it...

EEEK! gothidays!!! ...Once upon a Christmas spider...

It was an awful semester following a complicated and challenging year. I needed to craft this December and wow did I craft. I have made nearly 40 Christmas spiders, and I do not plan to stop anytime soon. Also, I continue celebrate Christmas until Candlemas so while the rest of the world has moved on and taken down their decorations, I do not until February 2^nd. Without further ado, here are my spiders!

During my Christmas spider crafting, I made some beaded flowers.

I also made a Christmas top hat with Christmas spider in an Instagram friend Christmas exchange.

And, today, I swapped out a plan light switch cover for a more interesting one. It only required a picture and some sticky tape.

While this was a quick post, it’s still nice to be back.