At The Market

Went to my Smiths yesterday

and as I walked by the magazine section noticed

 Flea Market Decor, and so feeling silly, 

I stopped, opened to 

one of the pages of my house and snapped this. 

Couldn't tell you why?

I just did.

Shortly after I ran into a father and son

searching for hot dog sauce.

The son taunted the dad saying "you're making that up!"

Standing next to them I nodded to the kid and said

"I think he is pulling your leg."

An extended conversation ensued and 

a prolonged hunt for the sauce, since my Smiths 

recently remodeled and no one can find a damn thing.

Lo and behold

Wolf Hot Dog Sauce!

It's a no beans chili sauce.

Since he had been kind enough to introduce

me to hot dog sauce I showed him my favorite

Private Selection basil aioli sauce.

I use it on grilled sausage with grilled pepper

sandwiches. Heaven

So we each bought the others sauce and 

ended up leaning on our carts and talking the Steelers.

I love those kind of interactions.

Gives me hope that all is not lost.

Though you wouldn't know it by the nightmare 

in Washington

Going out to the market is the extent

of my social life most weeks.

This week I added

three full car runs to a donation center and 

dropped off over 50 books to the library for their 

fund raising. I use this library weekly,

 to the tune of about 12 novels so 

I want to give back.

When I go to the reserve shelves, often  

I am the entire shelf.

The shelvers know my name

"NORM!"

I had accumulated a massive tower of  stuffed bins

and boxes in the garage for a future sale in cooler weather

but I just could not stand it, and out nearly all of it went.

Sorry Annie, no garage sale likely.

Hibernation begets even more intense purging.

Although to walk through the house it appears the same,

it's the guts that have changed.

Empty closets, drawers, hallway shelves and cabinets.

Empty shelves in the garage.

Everything stored is either holiday or storage 

from childhood for kids and not much of that either.

I emailed my list of gal pals and 

they came and bought scads also. Thanks Ladies.

I may never get my wee house I covet or 

even get to move to CA but I can do what I can

to simplify and lessen my footprint.

Wish I had never made such a big footprint to

begin with. Ah but we learn...

I've learned I like 

Hot Dog Sauce

A lot

Z

Popping UP

My home has popped up in another magazine.

The shoot was a while back so those

 of you who follow regularly know

that there are many changes since then.

The stylist made some obvious changes that day,

and of course I've purged scads since then.

Regular visitors will think oldgreymare in a COLOR issue?

Sept/Oct2017

That's the way of publishing, but either way

it's fun to see your home as it was that day,

and have a permanent record.

A thank you to Flea Market Decor

and to Kathryn Drury Wagner for the story.

To any who have come over for

 the first time from the article,

the easiest way to view my home is by

searching the words, decorating, design or organizing in

the search box upper left. 

You can also just search a room, as in living room, 
and the word holiday or Christmas 
will give you a snowfall of photos.

The word Gatherings takes you to some classes.

Or click on the links in the right sidebar

but even those are somewhat out of date.

I am keeping my personal journal/journey on here,

so you're just as likely to see

a garden as a pretty room,
a political rant as some pooch stories

or any gobbeldy gook that pops into my head.

Thank you for coming by and please let 

me know you were here so I can visit you back.

To my kids I'm mama and mom, 

to strangers I'm Suzan

to close friends I'm just 

Z

GRRRRRRR and Yin Yang

SO for the past couple of weeks,

I have been battling these guys.

I've tried organic, homemade, and

could "decimate the world products",

but I still have these critters.

Oh they might toy with me and disappear 

for a few days only to return in greater numbers.

Here, there and *^%@$*& everywhere.

I've been out of sorts, I know

it's probably just the heat, but still.

It's SO bloomin' hot,

Something like 25 straight days over 105.

Many of those days are in the 114-117 range.

I've lost a few of my new plantings $$$,

and I have jury duty coming up.

I don't mind the jury duty, but I don't like the 

difficulty in getting to the courthouse

 and parking issues, and walking downtown

on scorching days.

I haven't been downtown in over a decade.

On purpose.

Dearest son and friends were here

over the weekend for the UFC.

Because of a canceled fight,

they were upgraded to a private box.

Not my cup of tea, but pretty cool for them.

Funny, after his 17 years of living here,

Ben seems to have forgotten how

 miserable summers can be.

He complained about the heat constantly.

He's CA spoiled. I get it though.

Oh, do I get it!

I splurged on a spiralizer and 

made squash noodles

over the weekend.

Quite good actually.

So, yin and yang

Go with the flow

 dry and hot,

but monsoons are a comin'.

"oh I wish it would rain"

get out of this funk.

Anybody know where I

can get one of these?

Z

  

Hard Work Rewards

The kiddo's apartment interior is adorable but I think my 

girl chose this place because of 

this outdoor space by her back kitchen door. 

No one else in the house walks or uses 

this area so they decided to take on the project 

and make an extended living area for themselves.

My girl had a vision, like her mama does.

The apple landed on her head not just close to the tree.

This is how it looked when I went down 

a couple weeks ago. They had moved in about a month prior.

My car was filled with vintage ladders, pots, rakes, 

soil, shovels and a blower. It was to be a working trip.

Those two dug and leveled and cleaned 

and worked their A's off. I washed walls, cleared ivy, planted

and reorganized all the cupboards inside.

I got permission first, I didn't just commando re-do.

I split the paver cost with them but the rest 

they did on a very modest budget.

My girl dragged the table home after

finding it on the street. The chairs Ben 

discovered for them at 13.00 each.

I provided an umbrella stand that I had extra 

from home, and Hannah just snagged the umbrella

on July 4th clearance.

They still have that small section to

 finish with turf in front of the fence. 

There are industrial edison bulb lights,

(extras from mom) and they plan to hang pots

 and more lights from the clothesline posts.

 (there are two, I cropped one out)

They sent me this yesterday as they 

completed the turf on the 

right side. Dirty knees and hands 

and so pleased with themselves.

Just out of site is an enormous tree,

providing all this pretty dappled light.

In early afternoon I would sit out there

and watch the many squirrels leaping through

the branches and pelting me with debris.

I loved it, but my son thought I was crazy to be so

happy to see squirrels. I grew up with squirrels

and found them frustrating as they ravaged my feeders in PA;

but after 30 plus years in the desert,

 I am enamored of their antics.

One last look.

Yay Tom and Hannah!