photo: Square America.comI love evenings. I always have. I love the process of readying my home for the evening - closing blinds, turning down my children's beds (which, yes, I still do!), putting that last load of clothes in the dryer, and pouring myself a cup of tea...my version of a nightcap. I also enjoy turning on the "night lights" scattered throughout my home - the star light that hangs in my foyer and subtly illuminates through the window of my porch, the simple candle lights in my living room window, and Sophie's chandelier, that hangs above her window seat in her bedroom. I love the coziness of such lighting, and resent bright lights intruding upon the relaxation which I so covet by the end of each day.
The only thing I will miss about the winter and its shorter, colder evenings is the way it draws our family together by default. We gather in front of the fire - the boys stretched out before it like cats - watch a bit of television and wind down as a unit...coming together after a busy day spent juggling our collective pursuits and responsibilities.
The summer, in comparison, sees us scatter after dinner, and we have to drag the kids inside and ourselves away from outside jobs. The days are longer in every way, and you can always find me watering flowers, tidying up the yard, winding up hoses, basically all of the things that my kids should also be doing. It seems that they take the carefree days of summer literally and tidying the exterior is not high on their list of priorities. I am the family "crazy lady" who needs to relax and let sleeping bikes lie. Guilty as charged...
The summer, in comparison, sees us scatter after dinner, and we have to drag the kids inside and ourselves away from outside jobs. The days are longer in every way, and you can always find me watering flowers, tidying up the yard, winding up hoses, basically all of the things that my kids should also be doing. It seems that they take the carefree days of summer literally and tidying the exterior is not high on their list of priorities. I am the family "crazy lady" who needs to relax and let sleeping bikes lie. Guilty as charged...
Hectic evenings or not, I am so looking forward to flopping onto my porch swing, glass of wine in hand (to replace my cup of tea!), and watching my kids squeeze every last minute of daylight from a summer's day. Flickering lanterns and dancing flames from our copper fire bowl become my new nightlights, and gazing at the stars replaces our favourite television shows...because we all know there is no good t.v. in the summertime. 
And so I am ready...ready for a new kind of nightlife. Bring it on!
We'll be painting (haven't decided upon colors yet so I'm up for suggestions) and I'm thinking about pulling out a dark rich gray from the stones and going white with the trim. (Now, you KNOW how much I want a white house- but do you think that would be totally weird with the stone??) My husband is planning on adding a pergola along the front right side sort of as a porch but with a patio underfoot. Basically like what you see below (similar color too! :) but extending along the whole front right side of the house:
It was my office and also the room we cared about least. At the time I was working for my family business (a company that manufactures locomotive components) doing PR. I put the chaise lounge we already had in there and we purchased a little black desk with a hutch on top from Luckett's for around $270. The rest of the things were trash-picked, garage-sale items or thrift store finds that we just sort of would come accross. The mirror below, was given to me by a friend of my grandmother's, an award-winning teen author (
