January 2020 Update

The hyacinth bulb I got at Aldi- it smells so good!

Hello, Dear Readers! Hello??....Anyone still there? I have been so remiss about posting in the last six months and I apologize. I love visiting with you all, and I think about making posts, take tons of pictures...Then I read a book, clean my house, plot flowerbeds on paper, basically do everything but write to you! I know that is not actually a bad thing. It's called real life, and I'm delighted to be living one ;). But I do miss catching up with you. So here is a very helter-skelter and random run-down.

Confession- ever since the backhoe finished ripping up my garden (see HERE), I have been pouring obsessively over the incoming plant and seed catalogs. I've made three seed orders and I am fixing to order plants. Y'all, I have not been this excited about my garden in a good number of years. My teeth are just gritted in the hope that my wisteria is actually beaten back and that I won't be back on here washing the screen with salty tears.

The "reading Material" in my bath tub

I have mainly been reading gardening books and magazines. But I have the most delicious pile of books that my family gave me for Christmas. I just haven't started them yet. I have to be in the exact mood and then I will devour them all at once. It's kind of all or nothing around here, folks. One book I have read is, A Paris Year. 

It is a sort of remake of a journal by lady who moved to Paris, fell in love- of course!- and stayed in that glorious city. Yes, it's a true story! (I also have her book, Paris Letters, which is the story of how it all came to be. I haven't read it yet. ) She included photos, sketches, and trivia. It was such a fun and quick read, and I learned things that made me smile. I do love good random tidbits of knowledge! This has just made me all the more excited about our upcoming Paris trip! (I promise, I am going to do a post about what is happening.)

Originally the playroom, then schoolroom, then bedroom...

But here is a little something else that has to do with France, I am turning one of the boys old bedrooms into a French inspired parlor! Lots of eyebrows probably raised right there. I know folks nowadays don't even seem to want a formal dining room, more or less a parlor. But I was raised with both. In fact, my Grandma Tommy had two parlors, both decorated in the most exquisite Victorian antiques. (Someday I must dig up pictures of her house for you.) My parents have a gorgeous one, and we "retire to the parlor" after family dinners to sit and talk. To me, they aren't strange. And that bedroom is the one that had the airconditioner leak, and so the room was already stripped and the carpet ripped out. We are supposed to have flooring put in sometime this week (after it sitting in disrepair for almost a year!). I am busy painting the walls and trim, and I will be excited to show you before and after photos! Packrat that I am, most every piece of furniture I am going to use has been sitting in either the barn or the shop for years. And I have been going through the house choosing pictures that will migrate in there. I am very excited for this winter project! And you know how cheap I am, so this is what I would call "shoestring French", he he!

a sneak peak at a piece to go in the parlor!

I had my January book club last week and decorated with the evergreen theme that I began under my French mirror. 

snowglobes from baby food jars :)

It's funny how my mind latches onto something and keeps going. But I am about ready to take that all down and decorate for Valentines! I think that will happen this week. 

A class from a few years back, so much fun!

My homeschool biology classes start back this week! I have a class of nine students who come to my house to learn about science. This is my favorite semester because it is filled with dissections- 11 as a matter of fact. I have the best kids ever, and we have a great time with it all.

Now there is more. Trash bags more...

I'm trying to decide what I have left out. Oh! So, I have always been rather terrified of Instagram. I had an account, because I was always seeing vintage dressing ladies on Pinterest with Instagram pages, and I thought I would follow them. But then I never went and actually looked at them. My Etsy shop has done fairly well this year, but, honestly, I am ready to be through with selling vintage and to have the guest room empty of clothing racks! Everyone says that Instagram is the way to sell. From what I am seeing, they may be right. So I took the leap and decided I would try Instagram in 2020! If you give a hoot about that type of thing, I am @samanthawearsdresses. Slap me now, because I think I may actually like it. Blogging takes me so very long, because I am so long-winded. Insta's purpose is to be brief. So the random photos I take that I would never make a whole post of could go there. And is it nefarious and back-handed of me to hope to have people follow me so that then I could sell all those piles of vintage clothes I have laying about, already??!! So, yes, I guess I also have a bit of a hidden agenda in there. 

Okay, I am going to stop my erratic babbling. Do you have projects for this new year? Are you savoring the glut of seed catalogs coming, or do you toss them without opening? Would you like to know if the books I have in my reading stacks are good/bad/otherwise? Let me know what you have been contemplating on this January!