"Quiet" Days at Muse Cottage

*art by Mary Engelbreit 

I do not have a project to share with you, I have not been venturing out too much as of late; A trip to the grocery store, a trip to the hardware store (an often occurrence now) and today to get a hair cut and have a bit of brunch with two of my daughters. I am a homebody. As much as I like a good daycation , during times when I am in need of real comfort, I hibernate.  I find the comfort I need in familar surroundings and though I have not been in this little cottage, that we have named "Muse Cottage" , for lack of being more creative in picking a name, I am becoming more "at home" and familiar with the day to day noises.... I know, I know, many of you said that would happen...did not say I liked them, just that I am familiar with them. So what is a typical day? Nothing to exciting. I assure you.  

I awake to the sounds of our dear Queen Bitty Kitty, she starts her howling most days at 5 in the morning, at times a bit earlier, and if we are lucky, some days as late as 7. I try to ignore her and cover my head, seems there are no ear plugs that keep out the sound of the traffic or Bitty's howls. When I finally decide I can get my body moving, anywhere from 7:30 to nearly 9:30 depending on the day, I shuffle to the bathroom, wet my hair and wash my face and then to the thermostat to turn the heat up... not high mind you, just enough to remove the chill. I open the blinds on the window over the couch so I can see if my birds are feeding, and then on to the kitchen where the kettle is put on and the bread is popped into the toaster. Once my breakfast is in place in front of me, it is time to check my fan page, and share what I find on my facebook wall and share those items I find worthy on my fan page. Once I glance over pinterest it is time for another cuppa and trying to decide what to do with my day. As mentioned, recently that has not been much. If hubby is home, I go out with him on the errands, past that I am quite content to sitting here on my couch watching tv, reading a magazine, or figuring out what to do on the continuation of the fireplace project.  Of course I do my daily chores, not easy to keep up with the wet foot prints from Bitty dipping her paw into her water dish, over and over and then walking on my freshly steam mopped floors.... or the black fur on the white couches that she leaves for me. There is always laundry and a few dishes to catch up on, nothing major or too stressing. 

The day goes on without much occurring... well now that things are beginning to settle after the loss of our son in law three weeks ago and all that goes along with it. I pop on and off the computer, watch the traffic drive by, consider braving the traffic to take a stroll and before I know it over half the day is gone. Time for a snack or a cat nap... Bitty makes that sunny patch seem mighty tempting. Then of course as the day will do, it rolls on till hubby calls and says he is on his way and about five minutes later he is indeed home and we have our supper for two, our tv time, and our glass of wine, with our serving of dark chocolate kisses. 

It is a quiet life... well if you ignore the traffic, the sirens, the crazy homeless man shouting on the corner ...and after the many years of non stop stress we have had, the most recent events far over shadowing even those, and then the fact that my fibro rather dictates my day without any input from what I would want it to be like ( I do miss working, having friends and doing things with them, and long walks to go do window shopping and run errands... all things that the fibro and location and many moves have taken from me) , truly a "quiet" day at home is very welcomed and brings great comfort. So why share any of this, it is not exciting, and it is not inspiring to say the least, but I guess in a way it is an insight to my world past all the vintage photos, and now as of recent, pictures of projects.  It is the truth behind the lady who resides at Muse Cottage.  But just in case you thought I was not going to use any photos, and just bore you with my daily goings ons, I manged to snap off a few shots of daily life here..... hope you enjoy. 

The morning light hits this little grouping each day,and I
must say I just love it, and how it looks.  I can
just gaze at it while I sip my tea and let my mind wonder. 

I try to keep fresh flowers sitting on my kitchen counter
as much as I can afford to do. I added to the arrangement
this cute little bunny I found at Michaels on sale, it was
already fixed up like this, and for under 5.00!

This vase is kept near the front door,  and I can see it
from where I sit. It is so bright and cheerful, and till we get
some paint on the walls, a welcome burst of color. 

Last week I bought these pretty pink geraniums to sit on the front
steps.... remembering I had a cute floral cone from last Spring,
it hung on our door at the the apartment, I used some twisty ties
(just till I buy twine) to put it on the basket that our
mail man drops magazines into when they arrive.  I think
they match perfectly! 

At a rare , nearly quite moment yesterday morning
(A Sunday) here on our busy corner..Hubby
was out measuring for our fence, that soon will
block the bottom half of this tree and the visuals
of the street. 

Very soon, a tall 6 foot fence will block the
corner, and to the front of the house a bit of
picket fencing, and one day roses and lavender bushes
will be the view. 

Hubby's very scientific way of measuring for the
fence.... screw drivers and measuring tapes.
Oh sure I could have held it for him, but I had
just made another cuppa tea *wink*

Time for my afternoon snack... lemon short bread, clementines,
and a cuppa Hibiscus tea.. and of course a good book. 

Research.... as we do have the ongoing project below....

As you see, still a  work in progress, in between other projects while I decide what to do
with it.  I even switch the accessories around the room and add to and subtract.
We added the wooden daisies, the center panel, also with tiny wooden daisies
and even a decorative "plaque" on the large panel.... but it needed something more....

This sits in the middle of the large panel we added, and it has daisies etc, and we was so pretty in the
store, but once primed the detail disappeared. I may have to hand paint it , or age it once the final paint
coat is on.... cause right now, I am not loving it, but it is on with liquid nails so.... guess I need to
"Make It Work" ( yes I watch Project Runway)

As you can see, I had hubby make and add two more smaller panels
to the front. I think we will leave those blank.  A place for the
eyes to rest... especially if I add color to the middle plate....
what do you think?? 

I guess in some ways it does not matter, how well the detail shows 
up as we decided to put the TV there, was just the most logical place.
We closed it up and were not going to burn in it anyway.  
Now trying to decide if we want to build up the upper half of the fireplace
since the lower half does not show. 


Ok so I kind of lied, I did have a bit of a project to share. Hope you will forgive me, as I gave no hint early on. I sit here each day and stare at the fireplace and I can not stop "playing" with it or stop seeing ideas that I could add to it (as mentioned above) . I think it will be a project we keep coming back to, especially with the weather getting warmer and our minds turning to projects outside like the garden and the fence.  OH! How do you like my tv stand?? Ok yes, it is IKEA and yes it is matchy, matchy to our coffee table, and being so matching is bad cottage decor etiquette I suppose, but, it is, in my defense solid wood and as it was a floor display I got it at a great price and already assembled. I switched out the knobs ( they are brass with a blue paisley print in the center) with ones bought at Hobby Lobby ( have my eyes on some from Anthro that are garden themed) and I think it looks good. The color, like the coffee table even goes very well with the grays and browns in the tile and the shade of the carpet. I have considered painting the tables, something cheerful and very cottage like, but my daughter keeps saying not to do it as it gives the eyes a place to rest, and almost disappears so visually it does not take up space, and well like I said it ties into the tile. But who knows, you know us cottage decor lovers, we love our white painted furniture LOL .... what do you think??