Last week, I lost a friend unexpectedly, and far too soon. I had blogged about her home last August,
here, and I also wrote about visiting her, and coming home with a couple of gifts for
That Old House. I'm sharing that post, today, from June '09, about a minor metamorphosis, courtesy of my friend Barbara. Links to blog parties are below.
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(June 29, 2009) -- Have you ever visited a house that just seemed perfect? I don't mean that it was grand or spectacular, but that it was perfect for what it was -- someone's very special home -- and a true reflection of its owner.I was lucky enough to visit such a home on Saturday.
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Today I'm double-dipping in Blog Party Land ...
Metamorphosis Monday (click here!) and
Today's Thrifty Treasures (
click here!).
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I have a new friend -- Barbara -- whom I met last month at the home of an old friend.
Barbara invited our family (including Dion) for a barbecue on Saturday. If I had been bolder, I would have begged to take pictures of her house (and
her pups, too!), to share with you.
Barbara's house is a 1930's era Sears kit house, and it is perfection. It nestles cozily into a beautiful established garden, crazy with bloom, with a tall hedge that I've already forgotten the name of, but that I
need here at
That Old House to screen out a new house next door. I would love to
hire Barbara to give me garden design advice!
Inside, the house has been beautifully and carefully updated, and a wonderful room added across the rear, with built ins and big chunky rows of windows. . . but what makes this house so special is that it could only belong to
Barbara; it is that personal.
I just loved it. Maybe I'll be invited back, and this time,
work up the courage to say, "May I invade your privacy, please?"
As we were leaving, Barbara told us she had something
she thought That Old House could use; she was right.
She gave us two of these:
I asked my daughter Anne if they could qualify as Thrifty Treasures,
and she said, "What is more thrifty than free?" She has a point.
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So . . . on to the Metamorphosis, using our Thrifty Treasures. . . .
Here, $8 worth of supermarket flowers, beginning to lose their oomph!
Time to bring in a shorter vessel:
A pair of clippers, a steely resolve to toss the past-their-pull-date blooms,
and voila! A new look.
The dining room, meanwhile, looks a bit austere -- a big dark leafy philodendron
on the table, and two side windows looking rather bare, square and plain:
So. . . let's put a little color on the table:
And take the philodendron and put it in one of the plant stands from Barbara:
Take a pothos, swiped from the parlor, and pop into the other
plant stand, and in front of the other window:
And we have our metamorphosis --- a softened look,
with colorful flowers, healthy plants, and two lovely old iron stands!
From another perspective:
So it's a simple change today, or, as Anne put it, "Not much of a Metamorphosis, Mom."
But it's a change for the better -- albeit a small one -- and that's what counts. Right?
I am looking for a place for these plant stands in the sunroom, too, for the colder weather. Stay tuned; I have a feeling they will turn up again, and again.
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A week ago, I took pictures of problem spots in our yard, to email to Barbara for her advice. I never got the chance to do so. Life is so unpredictable. I am grateful to have known this funny, smart, quirky, generous, talented woman even for so short a time.
Tell your friends and family how you feel. -- Cass
If you look really closely, you can see two neighboring houses reflected in the drop -- one next to us, one across the street.
