The Boudoir

This is our bedroom...still a work in progress but aren't all of us "decorating fanatics" always shopping, rearranging or otherwise "working" on rooms in our homes? We are always on the lookout for little trinkets to freshen up our spaces... much to our husband's annoyance. To a decorating fanatic ...a room is never DONE.




Oh there are a few things of this room that I am not fond of but I have to "make do" until the right item with the right price comes along! A few things in this room are castoffs from other rooms that my husband just doesn't see the logic in "it doesn't go".





To him a chair is a chair, a bed is a bed but a TV on the other hand is entirely different story. Thankfully we don't have a monster one in our "boudoir" . He does have his own space downstairs that I call the "Man Cave" with his lazyboy recliner that he ends up snoring in on Sunday afternoons.



The needlepoint chair & pictures above were a recent antiques faire find. I was THRILLED!

My darling Mother in-law ended up sewing the remaining four panels of draperies needed. I had only been able to accomplish two on my own (which took me days!) while she zipped out the remaining four panels in one day. (I got the job of hand sewing on the curtain rings which took me twice as long!) The headboard was a DIY project between my husband and I last winter in the garage. I am still begging the husband for crown molding but he won't settle for the fiberglass kind from the homecenter. No siree, he wants to put up real wood molding, problem is that we don't have the budget (oops! blame that on me!) nor the time to do that in the house. So nearly two years later of us building this home, I am still staring up at my "naked" ceilings!





But why is it that our "Boudoir's" are the last room to get attention? I stared at paper shades for a very long time before doing anything about it. Now when I wake up in the morning, I feel surrounded like I am in a cocoon and it's a very calming feeling provided that the kids aren't up first jumping up and down on the bed trying to wake us, which happens more often than not!

Just a few details....


Doesn't her expression just ooze patience with her 3 children climbing all over her? Either patience or defeat! :)

The cabinet was bought many years ago unfinished - I recently painted it this red color and penciled in a stencil before hand painting in the details with a few different colors. I didn't like the look of the stencil just dabbed on, when you do it by hand..well it just looks handpainted!

Next up...the bathroom!

Happy Dance...?

Would it be shameful of me to do the Happy Dance now that my in-laws are gone...? Even though there was a tearful goodbye at 5:45 this morning, I am relieved to be sitting here in my jammies typing this and not worried that we have to cook, clean or entertain a small army of extended family. Am I bad or evil for feeling this way...? Maybe I need to further explain how the past 8 weeks have been so you might just get a better understanding of why, though sad to see my darling mother in-law go (and father in-law, though I don't think I really know him any better than I did 12 years ago when I first met him)..of why I feel I can breathe a huge sigh of relief...



My mother in-law likes to cook...alot...and by alot I mean ALOT of food. To feed an army. She obviously knew there would be a small one coming on a regular basis to eat at our Farmhouse Diner. While I watched as my Mother in-law worked her magic in my kitchen, I (mistakenly) insisted that since she cooked, I would do clean up. Well, the first few weeks wasn't so bad...so what if I was still up at 11p.m. scrubbing pots and pans and vacuuming and mopping up the floor? Who cares that we would start all over again in about 8 hours? I diligently cleaned and stacked my pots and pans every night back in their neat little places so my kitchen looked picture perfect each morning.



After about the 3rd or 4th week of this it dawned on me to let my normal, neat freak fanatic slide a bit. Why was I torturing myself..? So I conceded and would only stack the clean pots and pans on top of the stove. Okay, I could give in and just ignore the mound-o-pots and pretend they weren't there. Now to do something about the floor...hmm...okay, well I won't mop every night...just lightly vacuum & spot mop. What about those counters?...so what if I could barely see them underneath the stacks of foreign ingredients and special herbs she used on a regular basis. She was cooking wonderful meals, right?



When she wasn't cooking, she was sewing at the kitchen table. She sewed alot. While I was also the receiver of most of these sewing projects my fingers were itching to toss the darn machine out the window! My kitchen table looked like an upholstery warehouse. Bits and pieces of fabric & thread that floated and traveled through the rest of the house as you walked by. But most of my anguish over my normally, quite orderly home, would be forgotten as she cranked out yet another wonderful pillow or finished my drapes for me.



My mother in-law is a wonderful, caring, generous person but she only has one pace....S L O W. There is no fast forward with her, there is only slow motion. Times & schedules don't really exist with her. Doesn't sound so bad, right? well, the only teeny problem with that, while her blood pressure maybe on an even keel, everyone around her is on overdrive trying to overcompensate. And I never thought I would say this but I HATED shopping... with her... and 3 kids. To her, the stores we take for granted and visit on a regular basis (Target, Walmart, Homegoods) were like treasure hunts for her. She would finger all the towels, read the backs of all the packages & stare for a good 10 minutes at one item while my 3 bored kids would be screaming & fighting, and with me about to cry and tear my hair out, would wait for her to make up her mind or catch up to us (yes, I would get so frustrated that I would walk away, do my shopping and come back while she was still fingering the towels.) I smartened up and would send my husband out with his Mama to do any shopping and then chuckle when he would return home, red faced & fully frustrated.



Now on to the extended family. My husband is the oldest of 12 kids. Some live here and some still live & attend school in Mexico (the youngest is 15). I was under the impression that my in-laws visit would be divided amongst the family so everyone would have their opportunity to visit. Wellll, that's not how it happened. My father inlaw is a farmer, raises cows & crops on his little ranch in Mexico. He doesn't like cities. Period. He refused to leave our ranch to visit with his other offspring. So guess what that meant..? Word of my in-laws visit spread like wildfire! Yep, everyone of the family came to our home with their families to visit and stay the weekends with us. There were people sleeping on the floor, on the couches, on blow up mattresses that some, I still don't know their names or how they were related but here they were!

...And don't think I didn't have private meltdowns in my room or hushed conversations with my husband that he better do something QUICK! Poor guy, he was more stressed out than I was. I got to fade into the background and secretly "cringe" at all the "darling" toddlers teetering toward my antique lamps/china/& other breakables, while I would try to redecorate my home with all my valuables up as high as I could place them.



Don't get the wrong idea...I love my Mother in-law. Absolutely. I had a lovely time with her. She cooked, she sewed, she prayed for us. I learned many things and got a new perspective on life & family and I think she did as well. My husband laughingly told me that his mother was voicing her opinion quite often with her husband to which the husband replied "I think you are hanging around Loraina (the spanish pronounciation of my name, Laurie)too much!" And I know she loves me too.



So while I am sad that they are gone, I am also relieved to get back to my normal, ordinary, neat freak fanatic self. The self that wants her house back to normal like Better Homes & Gardens might unexpectedly drop by begging for a photo shoot (one can dream, right?) or I might, by chance, win Publishers Clearinghouse Sweepstakes (though I never enter, but you never know -could be a computer malfunction and it randomly picks my name from online shoppers data bases) and how horrible would it be if my house was a mess on live television!? :) (I apologize if this sounds superficial, but having a disorderly house overwhelms, stresses and other wise makes me feel claustrophobic)

I did come away with a new understanding and gratefulness of how wonderful my life is/was before my summer of in-laws. There's no place like being home...in my jammies, typing away on my computer , hiding & locking the front door and perhaps ordering take out...for the next month!
Can I do the Happy Dance..? Nah, I'm too tired! :)

**Once I get said house in order, I will post pics of all the lovely sewing bits courtesy of my Mother -inlaw.**

I'm Still Here....

Hi! Remember me..? I apologize for my lack of new posts lately...sigh....Some of you might be aware that my inlaws are visiting - been 5 weeks now. Not that I am complaining, no siree, it's just that my "ME" time has been limited. With all the home cooking (imagine cooking Thanksgiving meal everyday) the sewing, the shopping, all the visits from extended family...I am totally wiped out.... depleted ....fresh out of ideas of what to write about, even if I had the time.


So anyway this little post was just to say hello to all of you who leave me lovely comments and stop by to visit with me, I appreciate it, I do!

With the help of my Mother - inlaw and her talent at the sewing machine, I've finally got all my bedroom curtains done! Now hanging them is another story (goodbye paper shades!) but I hope I can get them up with in the next day or so to show you.

So hang in there with me...

My Quiet Room

Even our 3 year old knows this as the "Quiet Room". There's something about my dining room that makes you want to speak in hushed tones.

This room is near the front of the house, just down a little hallway to the kitchen but for some reason whenever I am in this room (hiding out) my family can't find me! Ahhh! Bliss!... It could be that I stay perfectly still with my eyes closed - you know the "I can't see you, so you can't see me..." theory,....so far it works!

I've tried many times to capture the "essence" of this room with my outdated camera but to no avail. The pictures don't do it justice with it's harsh flash and untrue colors.

Oh, I know there are some things that need tweaking, adding, subtracting, etc. but for now I am going to focus on the positives of this space. Contrary to what you might be thinking with it's bold floral, it's a rather soothing room. It's filled with many collections that I have either hunted down (antique green transferware, tole trays) or was lucky enough to inherit (silver tea/coffee service). 90% of the furniture was refinished by me (including the antique piano!) except for the wingbacks and a few sidetables.

My husband and I built the window bench one weekend(that was one Looongg weekend!) and I painstakingly sewed up the curtains, cushions and most of the pillows. I even installed the dark blinds myself when my husband was on a trip (he still hasn't said anything about how they suddenly "appeared"). The black buffet (formerly a peeling,beat up brown finish) was a roadside find that I made him back up & load in the truck, hoping the neighbors weren't peeking out their windows at us! ha-ha! :)

Some might think a formal dining/living room that only gets used a few times a year is a wasted space...but not to me...I use this room daily, I just don't have a crowd of people with me. When the holidays arrive ,this room is anything but quiet with our family & friends gathered but during the other 360-some odd days of the year, it's become a sort of retreat where I can sit with my tea and look around at all my little bits & sparkly pieces and breathe deeply. You know the room that stays clean and things are exactly where you left them....

I steal a few minutes of peace & tranquility and then I am ready to face daily life again with my family, because you all know that once in a while you wish you could ship the little buggers off to boarding school (or camp, which we did for a week!)

So now I am going to stop talking and let you sit and relax...because that's what this room is all about. The Quiet.~ Enjoy! ~

My In-laws.....

Some of you may remember that my inlaws are visiting... I didn't fully explain how their visits work...You see, my inlaws are from Mexico. My husband is a US Citizen but has been here working off and on since he was 14 to help support his 11 siblings and parents. Yes, he is the oldest of 12! Some of his siblings are almost like children to him, he has had a big hand in raising them here in California. Now getting back to my inlaws. Their visa had expired and it took nearly 2 years of paperwork & travels to the Texas/Mexico border to get their visas renewed. They live on a ranch about 3 hours from Guadalajara which is no where near the Texas border. Their ranch is like a tiny village with a few markets, a small school & a church. One member of the community goes weekly to the next town to collect any mail that might have arrived for this small ranch.

Up until about a year ago, the only way for my husband to contact his parents was to call the only phone in the village (inside one of these little markets) to send a message to his family (which of course is hand delivered) that he will be calling back in one hour, meaning for them to go to the only phone in the whole town. On his last visit, he updated them with a type of cell phone but the reception varies.

My mother in-law is a wonderful person, full of home remedies to cure your ailments and the ability to throw together a meal with minimal ingredients. Even with a language barrier (we do alot of "miming" and drawing!) we get along well. She has learned more English than I have Spanish. My father-inlaw is a shy, quiet farmer who either runs in the opposite direction to avoid having an awkward conversation with his American daughter-inlaw or "yells" at me in Spanish, thinking that I must be deaf and if he yells it at me, I will understand him much better! :)

When his parents come to visit, the rest of the family comes in droves to see them where ever they are. That means sometimes we will have 8 people sleeping in one room, scattered about, but happy to be near their family. It's very humbling.

My husband typically visits his parents once a year when his construction work slows down,usually bringing along our now 9 year old son. His mother would send back these sweet pancakes called "Gorditas" These were unlike anything I have ever tasted! I would "horde" them all to myself.

So the other night, I brought up the subject of Gorditas while we were having dinner. My husband said we needed a brick oven and you sort of "smoke" them. I figured, oh well, that was that...end of story.

I woke up the next day to my Mother-inlaw outside gathering left over bricks from our front porch and other projects... since my husband is in construction, we ALWAYS have leftover materials, mortar, etc. laying around.

There's my Mother in-law in a skirt and little pumps making this oven in 100 degree weather. She's shy and wouldn't pose for me.

We, "WOMEN",with some help from the kids, made this in a day while the "MEN" were gone. Later after returning home from work, my husband's contribution was to clear away any weeds with the tractor and spread gravel for safety. My husband thoroughly enjoyed seeing his wife covered in mortar and lugging a wheel barrow around. I think I saw a new respect in his eyes, his wife isn't such a prima donna after all ! :)

Now on to the recipe...

First we had to find some milking cows - seriously! We needed unpasturized milk. We live in an agricultural area so not too hard. We had to heat the milk on the stove and add an enzyme (I won't tell you where or what it's from, I had a hard time with this part myself!) to make our own cheese. I believe my mother-inlaw called this "Cuajada" and I did a little online research and it's similar to a "ricotta" cheese.

Told you she is shy - she wouldn't turn around for the picture.

Then we used "Maseca"corn meal, some flour, baking soda & powder, a different type of brown cane sugar called "Piloncillo" that we melted on the stove, cinnamon, melted butter, raisins & peanuts and of course this drained cheese mixture. You know how these old family recipes are, a little of this, alot of that...

Melted "Piloncillo"

After stoking up the little oven, we were ready ....

My mother -inlaw was outside until 10 pm baking these.

Being with my in-laws is like stepping back in time. Making do with only the bare necessities. On my only visit to their home, I was in awe of their lifestyle. Milk is delivered in buckets and a woman comes peddling a basket of eggs to sell. We washed the dishes outside on a rock with a bucket of water. That was something I won't forget! Laundry is washed in an old fashioned crank machine and air dried til it's so stiff it can stand up on it's own. Women iron daily to make the clothes more pliable and it's something they ENJOY. I am amazed at what my Mother in-law can do with a sewing machine (she will make young brides in their little village their wedding gowns!) and am in awe of her needlepoint, embroidery and crocheting. Lost forms of art.

Being around my Mother-inlaw has definitely humbled me and yet I think her crazy American daughter in-law has rubbed off on her as well. The first time she ever left Mexico was 12 years ago to attend our wedding.

In the years since, she traveled alone to visit us many times and the independence suits her. I try to pamper her and do all the girly things I sometimes take for granted. But my experience with her "building" our own little oven with found materials is something I won't easily forget, I felt like a true Pioneer Woman that day, breaking bricks and spreading mortar...And I know she was doing this all for ME. See? feelings & emotions can be expressed even without speaking the same language! :)

My Mother in-law and my husband dancing at our wedding.

Living Happily Ever After. The End!