~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~
Every Thursday, here at Like Mother, Like Daughter!
A few weeks ago, my boyfriend was out of town on vacation with his family. I had been on the beach with them, but then I had to get back home for work and he stayed for another ten days (ah, one of the lovely perks of being a teacher! Free summers!).
Now, I am aware that some of you ladies have menfolk in the military (Rosie, for instance), and that you are extremely brave about saying goodbye to them for weeks and months and even sometimes years at a time. So I feel pretty lame complaining about it — But ten days was much too long. I was counting down to the return of my sweetheart anxiously!
My friend had recently emailed me, with a hilarious amount of detail (down to describing the design that was painted on the china that she used), about a romantic dinner she put on as a surprise for her boyfriend. That got the wheels in my head turning about putting together a proper “Welcome Home” for mine.
(We'll call him the Draftsman – I want to introduce him properly to you very soon, but for now, let's leave it like that).
So I arranged with the Draftsman that he should come straight to my house on his way back home from the beach, and I would have a surprise (read: candlelit dinner) ready for him.
I decided, at Suki's suggestion, to hold my dinner out on the patio. (Did you know that we are housemates now, with another lovely friend?)
Which caused me to take a critical look at said space:
{real}
Definitely needing some TLC.
That's ok. We can work with it. In fact, with this excellent motivation, I put in a solid hour or so of weeding and sweeping, and that place was looking like new!
|
{funny}
On the same weekend that I was excitedly preparing for the Draftsman's return, I happened to reflect with some amusement (and a twinge of guilt) on the fate of Gregor, our resident basil plant.
What's really hilarious to me is that, shortly after I took this photo (thinking that it would be my {real}), Rosie put up a picture of her suffering basil plant! Apparently it was not a good basil summer for these Daughters, East or West coast.
{happy}
That Saturday morning, as I was walking home from Mass (yes! there is a morning Mass in walking distance! It's lovely!), I came upon a little yard sale. I looked at a cool map of our neighborhood and figured it would be worth a couple of dollars. Then I stopped to admire this pitcher, examine it from various angles, think about how fun it would be to draw it; and then I ultimately put it back down because {valiant sigh} I really don't need it and the lady was probably going to ask for, like, $10-$15.
When I walked up to her with the map, not only did she say I could have it for just $1, but she also mentioned that she'd like for me to have the pitcher for free, if I was interested in it. “I love it so much; it was my Aunt's,” she told me, “I'd rather have someone take it who I know will appreciate it.” I promised her that I would appreciate it! And walked away with both items, feeling… well, it made me happy!
As it turns out, this pitcher pours terribly. So it wouldn't have been worth much as a pitcher anyway. But it will be a great prop for an occasional still life, and great to have around for flowers! |
{pretty}
This is a shot of the table once I had it set. I didn't have a good means of capturing it, but just envision this table sitting on a very tidy and well-tended patio. And hopefully the bouquet is a fitting tribute to my neighbor's Aunt.
I set up another table as a serving station and it was similarly blue/green and also featured candles.
And if only I could show you a picture of the Draftsman's face when he came around and saw all this (only it was a bit darker at that point and everything was lit up by candles, large and small, spread around the patio)…
Throwing this together with what I had and what I found in the kitchen… somehow even the glasses for the sangria matched the table setting! Success. |
Ladies, if you are able, I encourage you also to follow my sweet friend's example. The dinner turned out to be a fabulous evening for us – almost like a first date! It almost made it worth the ten days' wait… but not quite.
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