Sun, sweet tea and a good book.

ROSYRILLI.COM Window sill seedlings

The last two afternoons have been like a magic oasis of sunshine and warmth. Both days, I've rushed home and have headed straight for our backyard with some sweet tea and lemon, my puppster, and a library book in hand. It's been blissful. The sun rays are my daily dose of medicine and I've been yearning for as much vitamin D as possible, somehow just knowing that soaking it up will clear away all that built up winter malaise.

On the other more dreary days, I've kept myself satisfied stocking up on self tanner, a new purse (I think my last purchase was over two years ago. I kid you not) and trying to find affordable sundresses. I've decided this will be my summer of the dress. I've vowed to wear one each and every weekend. Forgotten will be the shorts and my discomfort at wondering whether they're too short or if my legs look firm enough to pull them off. Bring forth the flowy, the preppy and the pretty frocks that I will don instead!

Oh, and I've of course been trying to scrub off the winter grime and expose the green tint to my thumb again. Seeds have sprouted and daily nurturing has commenced. I've planted my usual - organic parsley (mainly because I found an adorable, rustic pot from TJ Maxx a few years back with the words parsley carved into it). But this year I've also been trying my hand at container tomatoes (organic as well, naturally) and some dancing cosmos. I also tossed in some English Daisies for good measure. I've stayed simple in my planting. No heat mats or special lamps required. The real excitement comes, however, when all of our local nurseries start overflowing with beautiful flowers and plants ripe for the picking.

Isn't this time of the year just the best?!


A pocket full of pansies.

ROSYRILLI.COM A pocket full of pansies

My husband knows me all too well. He did the most charming thing and surprised me with pansies this evening! Who is this amazing man!?

Melty mints.. or whatever they're called.


When I was younger, one of the greatest treats to visiting my Grandmother were the plentiful jars of gingersnaps, jelly beans and mint chocolates she kept lined up in her kitchen and living room. My Grandmother and I, you see, share an equal love of all things sweet.
 
So when my sweetest canine started craving some of these chocolate mints from days gone by, I knew, just knew,  I had to have them. You can imagine my utter dismay to find that our local grocery chain doesn't carry them. And so my search continued over the span of ever more desperate days.
 
First, I realized very quickly that these mints don't seem to have a definitive name. I was getting misdirected to dutch mints and the like as I tried to call all of our local candy shoppes in my quest to find these lovely ladies.
 
After many failed attempts at different grocery and candy stores alike, I took my search online. Apparently they're most notoriously known as Smooth and Melty mints. Well, now I know! I ended up finding a small bag at none other than the giant known as Walmart. Oh, and don't bother looking in the candy aisle. You won't find them there. Check up front near their wine & cheese displays. I kid you not. I had to actually request assistance from customer service to help me locate these candies, which led to a search by the store manager, which led us to cheese. Oh, and they're not called Smooth and Melty mints at Walmart. They're called Mini Melt Away Mints. Ha!
 
So there you have it: How I ended my Wednesday victorious with a stomach full of minty pastels and an absolute gluttonous smile spread across my face.
 

Springing forward.


I've been busy as a bee lately preparing for Spring. I'm sure it's a season we can all attest to appreciating. By that same token, I assume we can also all agree that the snowflakes falling outside my window right now are of a most unfortunate nature.

Luckily the early morning song of birds will confirm that we're not too far from days of green.

And so with that inspiration in mind, I decided to try my hand at wreath making. I've been recently eyeing up the beauties popping up everywhere but couldn't digest spending $60+ on an ornamental fixture for my front door. While perusing the options online, I came to the abrupt conclusion that it would be far more superior to my wallet if I tried to decorate one myself instead. I am by no means stating that my final product is worth the pretty penny of other far more beautiful specimens, but it did create an easy fix and only cost around $15.

Necessary ingredients: A grapevine wreath, some pretty burlap ribbon, twill, a wooden letter, paint (if you prefer), some fake greenery and a hot glue gun. All available at your local Hobby Lobby or Joann Fabrics.

After some adjusting, tying, hot glue gunning and painting (the R), I'm pretty satisfied with my final product. My hand made creation has made a home hanging in the interior of our house, on our laundry room door, while I await Spring's arrival. I've really grown to love the rustic element it brings to the room and am finding the prospect of hanging it outside a bit alarming, although I did a test run today (photo below).


Front Door


or Laundry Room?
Perhaps an additional wreath is in my future. And hey, why not?! I already have the majority of materials.

At this rate, I'm going to become a wreath making master in no time!

Loving now.


$3.00 flowers from the grocery store = instant room makeover. These lovely smelling petals were so inspiring that I placed an order online for seeds today. And let me tell you, those little packets of love can't come soon enough! You know I love me some seed starting indoors and March is lingering very close in proximity :) Who's ready for Spring and sunshine!?


I see...

Alrighty, so let's see....where did we leave off? Oh, yes. My cozy chat with the psychic! It happened as scheduled.  Amazingly, she repeated a lot of what she had previously said over a year ago which was somewhat miraculous, in and of itself, although not quite as exciting to hear everything said the second time around.

I asked her if she thinks we'll ever move back to the northeast and she said no. We'll move somewhere warmer. Not all that bad, I'd say!

She mentioned us buying a 3 bedroom house.

And to stay away from someone named Donna, when I meet her. She's very negative. (That one made me chuckle)

She didn't see much shifting with respect to my career. More of the same, but that there are some changes coming in the company. A little vague.

She also said that a very good year is in store for my husband and I.

Oh, and that my sister-in-law will get remarried around the age of 35 - 36.

We chatted about a great many other things too but of a more sensitive nature so unfortunately I'll just have to leave you guessing for now :) All in all, I got all of my questions answered and feel I got my fill of psychic intuition, which should last me a good amount of time!

A supernatural level of intuition.

I'm doing it. Tomorrow. Well, hopefully. An appointment has been made with Valerie. Remember I spoke of her in the past here? It's been quite a while since my initial one on one appointment. Some of the more personal revelations she revealed during our last session came true with surprising accuracy. Some of the others didn't... yet. Who knows? Either way, I haven't spoken to any psychics since 2012 but now I feel that it's time again. I'll provide another update after our phone session! Fingers crossed it doesn't get rescheduled.

On another random note, I had a very curious dream the other night. Not to worry, I won't put you to sleep with the details. Let's just say that it was very spiritual and keep it at that. While I was waking up, my mind still groggy with sleep, I had the thought, "Well that was a very interesting movie" and it was like the word movie kept echoing in my head, willing my mind to take notice. 

Movie?

Was I watching something? I've always believed the assumption that dreams are just my mind's random switches going on and off -bizarre combinations of thoughts, memories, people and feelings mixed together - something I ultimately thought up myself.

But then I got to thinking, what if all of these seemingly random, mumble jumbled images and thoughts were placed there? Maybe there are subtle messages that we're supposed to takeaway, almost unconsciously. Maybe someone's communicating with us. Is it loved ones who have passed? God? Who's playing the movie?

I know. You thought I'd fallen off my rocker when I told you about seeing a psychic and now I'm really losing it with all of this rambling non-sense about inserted messages into dreams. All I can say is that it was a VERY moving dream. And I have had some really powerful dreams in the past. Haven't we all? What do you think? Crazy or onto something???

By the way, I've been experiencing LOTS of intuition lately, like knowing who's calling my work phone (which doesn't have caller ID), before I pick up. Or knowing who's about to enter the room before they walk through the door. Hmm. What's that about?

My gossip worthiness.

Commence February 2014 post #1. Check!

Following a conversation (online) with a friend from faraway places regarding the evil perils of Facebook [aka Wastebook], we decided jointly to put a temporary hold on our accounts. Well, maybe. I've requested  further clarification on whether or not I maintain the ability to turn it back on, should I request to do so. Ally (get it.. kind of like "mostly" but for all. I kid. I kid.) for selfish reasons. The thought of all those precious photographs being lost in never never land seems sad to me.  I'd like to keep them around and Facebook has yet to develop an easy way for me to click on an entire album and request that the photos be printed using Snapfish, for example, which is something I've been desperately waiting for, for yeaaaars. BIG Sigh.

Sorry. I got a little off track with that long sentence.

This whole anti-Facebook regime is nothing new, therefore, I won't bore you with the obvious advantages of such a trend. It did get me thinking though about gossip. In cancelling my account (temporarily), I think I may end up inadvertently enriching my gossip-worthiness. Remember the days when ladies (I always picture them old...and smelling of powder) used to whisper in grocery stores about their neighbors or what scandalous so-and-so was up to these days? Now it seems no one bothers to ask because it's all out there for the world to see. All you have to do is look.

It's kind of like when I have good news to share but withhold the urge to immediately text it to my husband at work because some things, a lot of things if we're honest, are sooooo much better shared in person. So much juicier.

So let them wonder! Let them agonize over the minutia of my life that's in hiding. Let them talk. Oh mysterious one.

Well, except for this blog. That's pretty much, if  somewhat listlessly, still here.


End post, in honour of Wiley Wears :)

Less screen time, more me time.

I wrote exactly 18 blog posts in 2013. So, on average, that's 1.5 ramblings per month. Not too shabby, eh? Ok, well actually, that's pretty disasterous compared to all of the daily posters out there. Maybe in 2014, I'll aim for 2 per month. How does that sound? Sounds pretty good to me, except that it's already January 30th and this is my first post. Oops.

So anyway, as I was trying to re-assess whether it was worth keeping this old barely-worn blog around, I read back through a few of my older posts and two things dawned on me. 1) My motivation for writing posts is purely selfish in nature. I kind of, sort of, love going back through and re-reading my past thoughts. Kind of like a long forgotten diary of sorts.  2) I'm absolutely worthless at providing updates to my past ponderings. Allow me to clarify. I realized while reading backwards that I failed to ever fully explain, for example, my leap from playing 50's housewife to being gainfully employed. Not so much as a small, measly explanation was provided. Oh, I know! Or how about that time we moved to our new neighborhood but I failed to procure any semblance of a photo of our new home?

So, along with my 1.5+ monthly blog posts, I will also attempt to create a more seamless and complete picture of our lives.

And that brings me to the future. There are a great many blog posts hiding from sight right now. Over a month worth of writings that I could share but am choosing not to. On purpose. It's all part of my grand plan.  I promise that one day, hopefully in the not so distant future, I will get the courage to share them. And when I do, I reassure you it'll be well worth the wait :) If you're into that kind of thing.

For now, however, I'd like to provide some updates on the not so distant past. First thing's first, we did actually celebrate Christmas. You wouldn't know it considering the screeching halt my blog took after Thanksgiving but, yes, we did in fact manage to visit family in both PA and NJ. And as much as I love the Midwest, it made my heart hurt to come back "home" to Ohioland. It's truly such a blessing to have friends and family in close proximity. The visit kind of forced the hubs and I to re-assess whether one day we'd like to move back closer, even if it means re-entering the dreadful Northeast.

Going back home also made me realize something spectacular has happened over the course of this last year. I've somehow become more me recently. The first baby step (if you want to call it that) was moving to Ohio in the first place. The really daring part then came when I decided to avoid getting a job right away. But after a few months (six, to be exact), I started to get a little antsy. Taking care of the cleaning (in a very small apartment) and the cooking, wasn't filling enough of my time...or fulfilling enough. Neither did working out or the small bit of shopping I allowed myself. So I decided to go back to work. I didn't search for full-time opportunities though and instead focused on part-time. And it just kind of works for my husband and I. I still do all of the laundry, cleaning, cooking, errand-running and shopping. I wake up every morning and make him breakfast. He works full-time, takes out the trash, and mows the lawn in the summer. Our balancing act seems to have found a nice equilibrium. For us. And it's against the grain. It's certainly not viewed as typical for our age but we make our sacrifices. Sacrifices, like less new clothing, fewer hair appointments, not as much money spent on home decor, which are much easier to make being that we're a bit isolated. How quickly I find myself longing for designer purses and highlights when that's what I'm surrounded by. But somehow it's easy being out here in Ohio where we know so few people. And basically, we're happy. So that was, and still is, I think a big part of the puzzle.

And this year we decided to try out another part of that puzzle by cancelling our cable. No HBO or Showtime. Not even any Netflix of Apple TV. We're completely tv free except for the shows and movies we check out occasionally from the library. We did this for multiple reasons. One of the most obvious being cost. We took the savings from cancelling the cable and put the money towards a gym membership. Couch potato or healthy exerciser? Seems to be a bit of an obvious answer, don't you think? There were a few other key factors that went into our decision as well. Like the fact that I often found myself using TV as an excuse to avoid doing anything productive. If I weren't feeling particularly motivated, I'd plop my butt on the sofa and zone out for a few hours. In and of itself, not an entirely bad thing except for the frequency at which it was occurring. And then there was the fact that I stare at screens ALL day. From the time my alarm goes off in the morning (cell phone screen), to my work (computer screen), to TV at home (tv screen), all I was doing is staring at screens ALL DAY LONG. Add in apps on your phone and an e-reader and, look out, you're really in trouble. Now, I realize that not all individuals have desk jobs as I do, so the computer screen staring for 8 hours straight may not be what everyone else is experiencing. Regardless, I think you get the picture. Too many screens. Not enough doing.

There's one more change we've adopted this year as well which I think may be making the biggest impact of them all. Church. And not just the check-off-the-box church attendance either. We've found a local fellowship that I can honestly say has us looking forward to service each Sunday. I've always considered myself somewhat spiritual but this is a completely new and foreign experience. Sure, there's lots of singing just like in the church I grew up attending, but this pastor might as well be a motivational speaker. The way he works the entire stage (yes! You heard that right...there's a stage!) is incredible. And his messages are moving. It's the type of stuff you want to take away with you and digest for the week until it's time to fill up on another dose. It's all so very positive and it's slowly changing the way I view each day, if you can believe that. To stop and be grateful. To not just rush through life waiting for the next big thing.

So, that's it folks. An update to this small chapter in our lives called 2014. Another post coming, maybe, possibly? soon. Guess you'll just have to wait and see with bated breath. Ha.