I don't know what to title this.

 After six months blankness at Dewena's Window, here's my attempt to turn the light back on.

 I've rewritten this post six times over the past months. Each time I was ready to hit publish there would be another major heartbreaking news story on television, making my post too trivial to bear. 

Or a family worry would crop up, the latest being when our son and daughter-in-law contracted Covid, evidently brought home from school by one child whose cold must not have been a cold since she later tested positive for antibodies. (And she was one of the few in her class who wore a mask, so there you go.)

 

 

Thankfully, our son and his wife had been double vaccinated and are young and healthy so only felt really miserable for a few days, with all the usual symptoms. But the fatigue does linger.

 

Speaking of fatigue, how would you like to be reading a four typewritten pages post here and have to scroll through 26 pictures of my bedroom art gallery? Because that's what my rough draft grew to.

 

 

 I didn't think so and decided to tear up my umpteenth rough draft and just say this--

•  Hi there! It's been rough, hasn't it?
•  There have been blessings anyway, haven't there?
•  Some things help, don't they? 

 

 

My home--my friend--has helped me, thus 6 pictures of my bedroom sanctuary, but not 26. 

Please share what's helped you if you care to.

How are you doing? 

 

 

My Bedroom in Autumn

 

In May I posted about turning my bedroom into my private art gallery. Before touches of Christmas begin to go up, I thought I would show other pieces of art that I've added, begging you, pretty please, to remember that "Art is in the eye of the beholder, and everyone will have their own interpretation." 

The vintage "Dutch" pictures above and below stole my heart this summer on my one trip out to our local antique mall.

They seemed to go so well with my old mirror and washstand that serves as my bed table.

I've delighted in bringing in warm cozy colors of our beautiful autumn.

 And burning another Milkhouse Candle is something I look forward to each evening. 

 Brown Butter Pumpkin smells good enough to eat as it lights the photograph of my dear Aunt Etta. No, this is not a sponsored post. I just love their candles that are pure beeswax and natural soy wax with no artificial dyes and no lead in the wicks. 

It was so difficult not to get a reflection in the glass of another "art" find, so I just gave up on trying.

 

 The Hermitage is the home of President Andrew Jackson and I drove carloads of children to visit it every year as room mother to my four children. It was a special place to me, especially Rachel's Garden where I would go alone and sit on a bench to take in the beauty. When I found this embroidered picture of it, it had to come home with me.

I didn't want to go to the expense to frame my other French pictures and decided to use bulldog clips to make an arrangement of them on one wall.

 I added a small photograph of Notre Dame that I bought years ago, simply for the beauty of it. On the back is written, "Choir, Notre Dame de Paris, October 1951." With it were other pictures from around Europe taken by an American military family.

Below is my favorite art wall of all, art by our granddaughter! Notice the dappled dachshund with the blue eye she drew just for me.

 

Art is many things to me. It is an obviously married wood knob on my old washstand...

It is the vintage blanket I found on Etsy that I tried (and failed) to drape stylishly across my bed...

It is even a shopping bag that is cute enough to hang on my old floor lamp. 

And of course the best art of all are these two darling dachshunds on my old Karastan rug in Rue de Provence's Summer Trellis pattern.

BreeBree...

And James Mason, himself...

 I behold them as living art!

 

 

Tea and Sympathy

My post title is misleading as there's no tea here--I don't drink it, wish I liked it. There may be some sympathy simply because you may understand that my mind is wandering and can't seem to focus lately. Maybe Miscellaneous would be a better title.

One of the highlights of my recent days was watching 1956's Tea and Sympathy starring Deborah Kerr and John Kerr (no relation) on Turner Classic Movies. 

Do you see that kitchen? 

The wall of copper? The wood dresser with white knobs? And there's a curtain under the sink and several other pieces of furniture in the room and pretty china in the cabinets and a darling white stove. 

Deborah Kerr was delightful as the wife of a house master at Chilton--get that? The prep school was named Chilton. I had to Google to see if it was real but no, it was made up just like Rory Gilmore's Chilton was. 

I won't go into much of the plot here but it was timely as to the prejudice there was in 1956 against people who were different as was John Kerr's 17 year old character who was hounded by the other teenage boys and called "sister boy." The house mistress's heart went out to him and she offered tea and sympathy on Sundays to the boy who was more interesting than all the other so called manly boys put together.

And talk about men back in the 1950s not being able to talk about their feelings, her husband is the poster child. But on to other things...

Old movies have been a respite from the news lately and so have family and dear pets. I'll try to write soon about the gift of seeing family again but for today, here are two pictures of new family pets.

Can you believe that head?

Dear Bridger, named for the Bridger Mountains in Montana, has visited us often the last few weeks. He is our daughter and son-in-law's Giant Schnauzer and he's only one year old! He and I fell in love with each other and I could look into those beautiful eyes for hours. My photograph doesn't let you see them but they're under all that fur. 

And here's my new grandkittie that I haven't met in person yet but my little granddaughters are so in love with her. Isn't that a sweet face?

Jumping to my next disjointed thought, if you read my bedroom post a few weeks ago you might remember that I hoped to find pictures for the blank wall behind my bed. I found the first one!

The first week that one of our local antique malls reopened I was there and spotted this beauty. The label said it was a watercolor and I thought I was stealing it as I handed over a Benjamin Franklin that was a birthday gift from my firstborn and his wife. I felt almost guilty leaving with it but when I was cleaning it before hanging I saw that it was a numbered print of a watercolor--in the 900s even.

Still not sorry I got her though. I think she's lovely and she holds a pink rose, just like the pink rose lamp on the table by her. I'm hoping next to slowly add a group of smaller pictures on the other side of the clock to make up my art gallery for this side of the room.

Here's two other antique mall pre-pandemic finds that were such a pretty blue that I had to show you.

  
These blue and white napkins are a perfect blue for my wedding china, Spode's Blue Bird. 

And I couldn't resist this blue pitcher that's a planter with a drainage hole to the attached saucer. Now if I can only find the right houseplant for it.

Next thought...

Here's how I used some of the olives from the recipe on my previous post--in Jan's recipe for Balsamic Pork Chops with Olives, found here at The Low Carb Diabetic blog. They were delicious! 

Every morning I take my clippers outside to deadhead plants in the garden but I'm saving those pictures for a post to show what my new gardeners have accomplished. They are Bridger's mom and dad and RH and I are so thankful for all the gardening help they've given us lately. 

But late in the afternoon, after I've fed BreeBree and James Mason, I go back outside just to stroll around with them and one day I went over to the far side where a large hydrangea has given us a beautiful view from our bathroom window. 

First I had to take a picture of the bark on our one large locust tree.

And here's the pretty hydrangea. We planted two more in the main garden but this one is only seen mainly from the bathroom window. 

And look who accompanied me on my garden stroll, Mr. James Mason, himself!

And then it's back inside to get supper on the table. My meals these days seem to be getting simpler and simpler. Here's a soup from the cookbook I featured in my last post, Judith Huxley's Table for Eight. 

Her Consommé Belleview is so simple and refreshing!

You just combine some chicken broth (I used two jars of homemade broth I'd made from chicken bones and skin I had in the freezer) and 2 8oz. bottles of Clam Juice, a couple of minced garlic cloves and a pinch of cayenne in a saucepan, simmer and cook for about 10 minutes or so. Then you add 2 tablespoons of dry sherry if you have it--sherry is good added to lots of soups. Serve with minced parsley and lemon in bouillon cups. 

I had a whole set of thin Austrian bouillon cups but only kept two when we moved. For some reason clear soups do taste better out of a thin cup, although I have to admit that the mug of leftover soup I had for breakfast the next morning tasted mighty fine, too.

All I served to go with the consommé was open-faced tuna fish and pimento cheese sandwiches on luncheon plates of the French faience that I found one summer at a Goodwill store. Twelve plates taped together, marked Martres and France! 

Here's a picture of them from an old post. I use them constantly, just as I use all my vintage silver, even keeping it in kitchen drawers so I won't forget to grab it instead of the stainless. 

From what I read on Facebook, the younger generation is just going to get rid of all that stuff when we're gone so why not enjoy it myself, right?

And that's it, folks. No quotes this time, no inspiring message, no rough draft worked on for hours. Those days may never come again, or sometimes I feel that way. 

And no tea even though I'm so envious of the pleasure tea time gives many of you. 

Any sympathy out there? How does a regular day go for you now? Are you mingling in public much? I went to the grocery store with RH for the first time in almost three months last week. It was wonderful!

My Bedroom, My Sanctuary

It was only this winter here at Home Hill that I at last loved my bedroom. 

And it all started because I spotted this mid-century silk-embroidered panel in a gorgeous gold wood frame at our local antique shop. It became my early birthday gift and I spent the rest of February and early March pulling the room together...at last.

You see, at our 1920 farmhouse our bedroom had been as cozy English Garden as I could make it.

I loved it back then but here, in my bedroom that was the only room here I did not love, it didn't work. I got rid of the Ralph Lauren cabbage rose bedskirt and sheets and the heavy matelasse spread and rabbits-in-the-garden pictures and began to search vainly for inspiration of what would work.

RH has his own bedroom in a pine paneled room that suits his vintage western art beautifully. We sleep very lightly now. When he moves into my bedroom when we have family staying with us we disturb each other with our frequent trips to the bathroom and are so grateful for our adjoining bedrooms.

 So the choices for decorating my bedroom were all mine but I couldn't hit on anything that made me happy so I kept going more and more minimalist, not a style that suits me at all. 

The first spring here RH tore down the horrible acoustic tile ceiling in my bedroom, the only ceiling like it in the house. He put up bead board and that helped so much. And last year I fell in love with a marvelous dark brown bronze and crystal ceiling light fixture at a high end lighting store and begged for it for my birthday and Mother's Day gift. It was different from anything I'd found and I love it.

A little before that we found a beautiful heavy triple mirror at Goodwill. It said Made in USA and was only $14.99. We grabbed it and RH separated the mirrors for me.

It has a Georgian shell motif in the center and beveled edges.

When I found the silk bird picture in February I knew it would be perfect over the tall birds I've had for ages, marked Japan.

And then I found this really cool bird picture at another antique mall that is made of real bird feathers.

I hung it up and thought I'd have to search the antique shops again for a third bird picture when I remembered I had an old Japanese bird picture in my office. At last I had my complete bird section of my new bedroom art gallery. 

And just in case any family happens to read this, please don't think, "Since Mom likes birds, let's buy her more bird pictures." No, please don't! Three are enough!

I turned my attention next to my reading corner. I found three gold wood frames, two at Goodwill and one at the antique shop, and finally had frames for my three old French pictures. They were just the right contrast hung with two old pictures I already had.

My reading corner is all about comfort for myself and two dachshunds. BreeBree loves to snuggle on an old wool blanket on the hassock.

James Mason just would not hold still in his nest for a good picture but here is one I took on his recent 10th birthday. I love that Google sent me a "Color Pop! treatment of it!

Here's a closeup of the three French pictures and the old piece of embroidery I bought at my neighbor's yard sale almost 50 years ago and had framed.

And a closeup of an old garden picture behind my darling vintage floor lamp that I ripped off all the old fabric.

And there you see my next purchase that made my heart sing, new curtains! After looking online for weeks for vintage curtains, I found these vintage Kaufman hydrangea print cotton jacquard ones on Etsy.

I had meant to take down the valances and use the curtains only but there would have been a gap with several inches of glass showing. I was determined to keep these lovely curtains so the valences stayed. 

For any of you who have read Rosamunde Pilcher's The Shell Seekers, remember how Penelope made her skirts out of old brocade curtains? I think she would have loved these!

Here is a treasured piece in my bedroom that I got at my sister's unique consignment shop in Orlando years ago. Her shop is called Top Drawer if you're ever there, link here! 

It's a 1980s Chapman rose lamp. and I am nuts about it!

Vintage Chapman lamps are much sought after and I found a picture of the original shade online.

Is that not fabulous?

Here's another favorite piece, a vintage sunburst clock I bought on eBay years ago all the way from England. Well worth waiting for.

It hangs over my bed with plenty of blank space around it for me to continue my art gallery someday when I feel safe to be out shopping again, hopefully.

That sweet vintage hanky on my bed was a gift from my two little granddaughters, reminding me of my dear Otis and Milo.

Their pictures hang behind my bedroom door above thrifted books waiting to be read. It still hurts to look at them. I'll miss them always.

On a mirror over my bed table are two notes my father wrote on the back of his business cards as he battled cancer. I've posted about one of them before. The Dewena he writes of is my mother, the first Dewena. 

There is always a stack of current books on my bed table for bedtime reading.

I hope you've enjoyed a tour of my bedroom, even if it might not be anything like what you would choose for your own. This bedroom makes me so happy now, when I wake up in the morning and see it and before I turn out my light at night. To tell you the truth, I almost purr with pleasure. All I need is a saucer of cream to lap up and you'd probably hear me!

Home is like another skin, and if your house reflects you and things that delight you, then it can truly enhance your everyday life.

 Daphne Dunn

The important thing is that it is my sanctuary. We need them in times like these, don't we?

The bedroom follows the cadence of sunset and sunrise, becoming a place of nightly hibernation and rebirth.

 Anthony Lawler, architect and author