Hello my sweets. How is life under the sun for you? Are you having such glorious weather too? I hope so. It has been a weekend with tropical temperatures here in the low country. We are absolutely having the best Spring in years….. And I am loving it.
These past four days I had a little vacation from my relationship, and was a single lady again.
Because of this:
My Love was away for four days on his motorcycle with three of his motorbuddies. They were doing their ‘men thing’ in the German country side. So I had the house all to myself.
Of course with the man of the house away, I fully intended to make good use of my time and do some projects that might have him frowning if he’d be home….
I planned to do a lot of sanding, and painting and sawing and various other things involving a lot of power tools. I was gonna have me some serious DIY time.
Good plans….
That stayed good plans for the most part. Because see, every time I was about to go and get the wood, or the paint or the glue or whatever, I got sidetracked. Sidetracked by the dirt and grime in our house. Somehow I was struck with a belated attack of Spring cleaning. Yep the cleaning bug bit me harder than the DIY bug.
So I ended up cleaning my bedroom, and kitchen and terrace. I drove to Goodwill to dump stuff, I drove to the dump to dump stuff, and I already piled up a new load to dump on the next run.
It felt good though. With every room I attacked I could see my house come to life again. You see I had been feeling a bit restless, a bit discontent. I had started dreaming again of packing it all up and moving. These past few weeks me and my house didn’t get on so well, there was a definite chill in our relationship. It happens every so often and when it happens I start to hate everything about my house. I am bored with it and it feels as if it doesn’t ‘fit’ me anymore.
And then it became better again. Just like that, when I started to wash the windows it was as if I started to see my house in a new light again (well quite literally actually, because some windows hadn’t been washed for a longer time then I care to admit here). I restored order, things started to smell fresh, I added some new personal touches here and there and I fell in love with my house all over again.
Isn’t it crazy how much bigger a house feels when you have cleared the clutter away?
And isn’t it amazing how much better my most mundane kitchen china looks when it is all freshly washed and properly ‘styled’ on my kitchen shelves?
And it gives so much more joy to walk into a room where you can actually see a (clean) floor.
The very last thing I did before my Love arrived home again was change up the flowers on my palette wood mantel. It was the perfect finishing touch on a great weekend. I used some flowers from my New Dawn rose and some Alchemilla (which is called Women’s Mantel (as in coat) in Dutch, how appropriate don’t you think).
Yes my house and I are getting along splendid again…
And I am very happy my four days of being single are over again too….
This one was previously posted on my Instagram account. You can find me there as MSongbird too.
So how is your relationship with your house? Do you two always get along? And if you are having a quarrel how do you resolve it? Is anyone else still being attacked by Spring cleaning bugs too?
Yes, our home and I quarrel often. Wear and tear and dog hair mostly. Worn stair carpeting too. The bottom line is our home is too big for the time we have available to take care of it, so I try to learn to cope. A lovely post.
Ik ben altijd wel een poetser in huis en ken dat gevoel niet echt. Alleen soms als ik de sfeerhoekjes ineens niet meer zo leuk vind, maar dan ga ik net zolang aan de slag tot ik helemaal happy ben.
Ik ben helemaal weg van je bloemenwand, ook de Roos en Vrouwenmantel staan er prachtig in. Ik heb toevallig vrijdag ook toefjes Roos en Vrouwenmantel in kleine vaasjes gezet.
Geniet maar heerlijk van je opgeruimde en schone huis, wat kan je dat je dan een goed gevoel geven hè.
Fijne week en een lieve groet, Mea
Ik hou van een schoon en opgeruimd huis. Is niet altijd mogelijk want ik werk 27 uur verspreid over 4 dagen.
Maar vind het heerlijk om dan lekker een paar uur mijn huis weer 'mijn huis' te laten worden!
Maar kan het tegenwoordig ook wel vor me uitschuiven en andere leuke dingen doen:)
Je vaasjes zijn schattig! Lieve groetjes
Wat ziet het er leuk uit Marianne !! geweldig die wand met bloemen…..geniet van een heerlijke week…..liefs Ria…xxx..
I'm kind of in a quarrel with mine. I'm tired of dusting. Thinking about how I don't need this much room. How much is wasted, even if it doesn't look like it. I did feel a bit better after I did what you did just a while ago, cleaned it from top to bottom, though.
Brenda
Marianne,
Lovely post. I love how you are displaying your roses and vintage bottles. Yes The Fairfield House and I have an ongoing battle…she is old and I want to make her pretty; get to the cosmetics and primping and she demands life saving operations; structural fixes.
Your Friend,
Deborah
I was on the phone with my sister today for an hour talking about this very same thing!!! The clutter! Ugg! I can't get away from it. Guess I need to do a little clearing. Thanks for the inspiration!
Wat leuk die flesjes aan de wand, hier ook flesjes met de new dawn en schneewitchen roos, opgevuld met vrouwenmantel, maar die staan gewoon, vind dit een heel leuk idee
vandaag ga ik na een weekje vakantie van de kids en man, ook maar eens flink door het huis heen.
maar eerst een berg strijkgoed wegwerken en de kinderen naar school helpen
hoop dat je man het ook leuk heeft gehad op zijn motor trip!
Groetjes en een fijne week gewenst!
Yvonne
Lovely post. Sometimes, discontent can be banished by a little effort put into what we do have. I love the feeling of a freshly cleaned house. Your roses are beautiful.
I'm always fighting with my house. And the only thing that generally resolves the tiff is when I gut a room and start over.
I get restless with things looking the same. I desire change fairly constant but if I start, I end up diving into it for HOURS. Who's got the time?
I ditched some big furniture and gave it away this weekend, so I'm pretty happy for small steps forward. I can so relate!
Very cute post and gorgeous mantel!
Donna
I think a good spring-cleaning can be a good thing for all our relationships including one with a house! I love your mantel.
I also wanted to say that you write very well. I don't know if English is your home language or not – but you definitely have a way with words that is very clever! Have a lovely week. x Sharon
@Sharon (Roses and Rust)
Ow, that is sweet. Thank you for saying that. No English is not my home language, it is still a foreign language to me. But I must admit that sometimes I catch myself thinking in English these days
Very ingenious…..me like!!!
Very ingenious…..me like!!!
Very ingenious…..me like!!!
Very ingenious…..me like!!!
very clever
Love this! I'll be featuring this on my blog on thursday at Littlekatieontheprairie.blogspot.com as one on my favourite things! It's just beautiful!
geweldig Marianne, als ik jou huis deko altijd zie denk ik, 'die woont vast in een sprookjeshuis' ☺ Prachtig!!
Let's just say we don't see eye-to-eye at this moment… komt ook omdat ik een enorme verzamelaar ben en ik bijna niks weg kan gooien. Heel vervelend. Daarbij krijg ik spontaan de opruim-kriebels van je post, maar ik moet nog mijn presentatie van mijn scriptie in elkaar zetten voor vrijdag… ggrrrr… er komt een tijd dat ik echt aan de slag ga met alle 'crap' hier in huis…
Het ziet er heerlijk luchtig uit bij je, geniet ervan!
Groetjes,
Elizabeth
aka Crafty Mama
Recycling and making beauty. This is so cute!
Your blog is very nice!