~ Pinning the Blues ~

As with a lot of things, I was rather late to jump on the Pinterest bandwagon.  But ... trust me ... I have made up for lost time.  Most of my pins are rooms ... and most of those rooms have blue in them.  Just a portion of those rooms are living/family rooms.  Here is just a sampling of those:

The blue infused room above pinned from housebeautiful.com 

These rich royals came from coralandcoast.blogspot.com

A symphony in blue from housebeautiful.com 

This room with a blue view from  houseofturquiose.com



These baby blues came from  mollyfreydesign.com

These blue accents came from  completely-coastal.com

These blue bookcases came from  houseofturquoise.com

And last ... but certainly not last ...  these blue stripes came from houseofturquoise.com

If you like these ... visit all my boards over here!
If you repin any of these ... make sure to go to the original source.

What is your pinning obsession?

~ Random Joy ~

Some random things that made me happy today:

{1} A friend gave me daffodils.  Beautiful yellow daffodils.  She split the bouquet up between several friends and we each received a small handful.

When I came home I (pulled out a ladder) and got a trio of vases down from the cupboard.

Suddenly, my little bouquet looked huge!
Even bigger when those blossoms opened up and smiled.

My vases came from IKEA.  This is the moment I purchased them for.

  {2} Then ... the mailman brought me a double magazine surprise!

I may or may not have mentioned in the past that I am a "magazineaholic".
And proud of it. 

{3} Then ... I found this (rather large) box on my porch.  I was actually expecting it.

You see ... after almost 35 years of a daily walk (or run, in the early days) ... I have been forced to find an alternate method of exercise. Apparently my hips and knees had no problem with the totally flat walk I took for the last 30 years on the totally flat streets of Arizona, but are miffed at the steepness of my walk here.  I'll let you know how it's going.  Now if I can just get that box up the first half flight of stairs, I'll be good to go.

{4} To top it all off ... I was featured (along with my lemon creme pie) on Country Momma Cooks!  I do believe this is the first time that I have been singled out for my cooking.  Take that, Mrs. Smiley! (My less than encouraging 11th grade Home-Ec teacher.)

What brought YOU joy today?

Linking to:
Freckled Laundry
Inspiration Friday
Common Ground
Country Momma Cooks

~ Surveying the Landscape ~

When I first saw this picture online at Better Homes & Gardens, I believe my heart skipped a beat. The pale blues and greens had me at "hello", but then I found my eye kept coming back to the landscape painting over the bed. I have always loved landscape art, but I felt like I knew this painting more personally. Oh yeah ... I do.

This painting which hangs over the dresser in my guest room has a very similar structure and I cherish it.

I bought it for a whopping $15 at a thrift shop years ago. Later I had it reframed for much more than that. The tole-painted bucket was also a steal on the bargain table at Anthropologie. Also years ago. It's place in the guest room is somewhat temporary while holiday decor takes over my pseudo-mantle.

I can't talk about landscape without a picture of the actual landscape just a hop, skip and a jump from my home. I walk this way every morning. I actually do not hop, skip or jump. I just walk.

I do love the landscape around here.