The view from my window

I flew into Montana just as the weather took a dive. They were in the 90's before I came. Now we are very crisp and cool...dare I say cold!....but guess what...I am OK. I love it.

I am lucky to know so many beautiful people and one wonderful couple is letting me stay at there Ranch House...

This was my view, through the window, yesterday morning. Can you see the snow covered peaks in the back ground?

As I flew in, I put my book down and looked out the window and for reason's unknown tears came. when I see mountains, they make me look up, they make me dream and aim higher and aspire for everything that is good. I have missed them. However the tears also came...because this time is the first time. My mom is no longer here. And I thought back to April...yes just this past April and she was standing there, waiting for me..at this very same airport. I never know when the emotions will hit me. when they do, it seems to come out of the blue....sigh

The Ranch house I am in, was build in the late 1800's early 1900's. It was the original home to the property. and is a beautiful 4,000 sq foot dream. I also stayed here this summer and I took these next pictures then...

They painted and upgraded a bit. Keeping everything in a decor that just works for this lovely home. 

A sunset close up, of the front porch. The lady of this home loves more a french country flair.

The beautiful back of this home. I tell ya, you could have a small wedding and reception here!!!

There are wonderful touches everywhere. Its cozy, so homey and the land is out of this world.

Two of the baby horses this summer...and one of the momma's. Things like this make me smile.

The pump house is even to cute!

And a swing...this use to be my mom's. She gave it to the lady of this home, because they were dear friends... can you tell why I like being here???! the swing was here when I needed it most...

I am here for a new grand baby. But also settling more estate things regarding our mom. and then her Headstone is due to arrive while I am here..... and as I type from my lap top, I am sitting in my mom's empty home...a log home, on acreage, with the horse corals...but its empty...her garden though is still flourishing..I walk around feeling her in all the beauty she created with her gardening...and I sigh again...because I miss her...

Just got a call...daughter is 2 cm dilated...It looks like this lil miss wants to come early...perhaps she knows, she will bring us much Joy!

Flying home to my Montana Playground

I am going home....

To my Big Montana skies...

were the water's are crisp and clear and the moutain sunset's stir my soul...

were driving down a country road, in a old pick-up Truck with country music playing, makes my spirit's soar........

The Place my knight in shinning armor, and I first met...married and raised our family...

I am flying home...because our 5th grand baby is due in October! and I am excited to meet her... in some ways, more then any baby before. Not because I love the others less...simply because...

I believe she and my mom/ her Great Grandma met. So holding this preciouse gift from above, is going to have double meaning...and yes, the tears will fall. 

I am going home and there is much to do, and I hope I have time to go into my Montana playground and let my soul fly free...........

Fall is in the air...and leaves are just starting to turn...its that snuggle season, flannel shirts, boots and hot coco!!! 

The season, were this little granddaughter becomes a big sister...

and life has that way, of always continuing on...seasons change, days get shorter, and the nights colder. babies are born... like lil miracles telling us, all is well, all is well....

I fell in love with a Historic Hotel!

Some of you know, that I am searching for a home. And each and every one that I love...is either in escrow or withdrawn from the market...As I was searching the other day, I came across a Historic Hotel for sale, in a small town...I kept going back to the listing, looking at the one picture...and sighing... Something just drew me to it.

So as silly as this sounds, without telling the Hubby. I decided, I need to go see it... Besides, all this moving and painting and scrubbing and living with my daughter and grandson right now...had me wanting to take a small, lil adventure all by myself.

I am still very New to the Midwest, The beautiful heartland area of our Grand United States we live in... My roots tend to be Montana/ Mountain girl.

I don't have a fancy GPS in my ride or a Tom tom...I don't even own a smart phone... because I am afraid the smart phone will be far to smart and just answering it will take all the electronic savvy I do not have.

So I hurled myself into the void. crusin down narrow winding two lane roads. of course I missed a road. some just arn't marked out there. But I saw a sign that there was a town 3 miles ahead and decided I could stop there for directions. And as you well know with little towns, you know were to go...for help because there is only one place that has traffic and there are like 5 cars there, and the locals are drinking coffee. So I ask how do I get from here to there? and there reply, "well you just take yourself back out there, and you keep going down T hwy, till you get to 2 hwy, then you want to take a left at Z hwy but be careful because before Z hwy comes ZZ hwy and you dont want to take that one, because it's a totally different road. (did you catch all that?) So I "took myself back out there" and decided maybe if I get lost I would find that home!!! besides I was enjoying the journey.

But even if I am not savvy with electronics. I am savvy in finding my way...and I Finally get to this lil town and see.....

The cutest, quaint...lil hotel...and without even stepping out of my ride...I start to grin...

I loved the tree's that surround it....

I love, love, love the porches!

 And of course I love the roses....

This section has been used as the flower shop in town for 30 years...and I fell in love with the wonderful beautiful wood work....(and you have to understand that I generally speaking have run into old dark wood that I don't like)..but this wood is soft and like real antiques...gorgeouse...

So soft...so pretty...and the whole time...a smile was on my face..like a huge permi-grin!!!

The tea room....aaah sigh

The buildt in's...double sigh....

So rich with history and a time were life was so different. This Hotel was buildt in the late 1800's. At that time there was a train depot across the street. Aaah I can see the men and women, the clothing....

I wanted this hotel!!! I thought what could I do with it? the upstairs has 3 apartments. they just need TLC in carpet and upgraded kitchen's and oh to decorate...but I was thinking more  hotel again..or lil B&B...but I am not suppose to be buying a Hotel...I am suppose to be buying a home...and then the thought came..."oh if only this was on 20 acres...aaah sigh" and then the thought came..could I move it to 20 acres??? but then I realized this lil town loves there lil hotel.. How could I steal it from them???
so.......for now..I am dreamin again...thinking and...waiting.....

   
Wouldn't it make a lovely home?

Can you blame me...for falling in love with it??? aaah double sigh. Have you every fallen in love with a building that you could call home???

A Special Memory Pillow for My Brother...

When July came this year... and our mom was in Hospice... Life for me had become like a fog...nothing seemed real. It was summer and yet the sunshine didn't touch me like it usually did. Someone I loved so much was dying and I could do nothing at all to stop it... Yet, July came and it is a Birthday month in our family. I was aware it was my birthday month. But I had lost track of days...what day it was, what the date was, everything blended...

On July 17th our second oldest daughter had her 25th Birthday. That morning my mom was more awake. I said to her, "Would you like to leave a message for your granddaughter?" "Oh yes", she said. I quickly tex'd my daughter to NOT pick up the phone. My mom was going out again...and I quietly said, "Mom, here is the phone you can leave a message." she woke up and then said on the phone, "Happy Birthday Schatje, I hope you come see me again soon, you hang in there, I love you"....

      
'Schajte' is the dutch word for sweetheart! and my mom only uses Schajte with family members. This is My mom with our Daughter in Seattle. She was down there getting embolization for her liver in 2011. These two were always close. And I was thankful that she got to hear her Grandma's voice on her birthday. She cried when she got the message...Mom's voice so very weak...

It was only 4 days later On July 21st 2013 That my nephew had  his 21st Birthday....

The handsome young man up front...and later that afternoon, My mom took her last breath. We new, we all new...that somehow things would happen during this birthday month...

We choose to have My mom's service a week later, so people from out of state would have time to come...we picked a Saturday...and that was when all of a sudden one of my siblings said, "Oh Peggy, it's your 49th Birthday".  It  didn't seem to matter. In some ways, honoring the woman/ my mother who gave me life and love...and saying goodbye on my 49th Birthday was always in the plan...it was just the way it was....

This is me and my man, on the day of my mom's service and my 49th Birthday July 27th 2013. I don't know what I would have done without my husbands utter support the past months through all this...He gave me a ring...black hills gold with 2 hearts inner twined...it was perfect...my mom and me...and No, just like Christmas songs will never be the same for me (see the silent night post) My Birthday,July will never be the same for me...It will be a day I honor the woman who gave me life and love and laughter....

Later, at the reception...

The second oldest daughter (far right in this pic along with 3rd and 4th daughter) handed me her phone...and I hear, ""Happy Birthday Schatje, I hope you come see me again soon, you hang in there, I love you"....

And the tears came.......many tears...and somehow those same words now held so much more meaning....

And that brings us to the First memory pillow. The next one of my siblings to have a Birthday was my second to the youngest Brother...his was one month later on August 27,  the one month anniversary of our mom being gone...sigh..

My mom has 6 children

Here we are in 2009. getting us all together is very rare we all live in different states! From the back L-R there is me (I am 2nd oldest) then My sister (she is the oldest) then a brother (he is the 3rd oldest) in the front row L-R is the youngest :) and then the second youngest...and then the 4th oldest or 3rd youngest....hummm  (did you follow all that???)

so this Pillow was made for the man in the middle, in the front row :)

 In some ways, this brothers Pillow is going to be the easiest. I new just what fabric I wanted to use...the beautiful eggplant color purple was the dress my mom wore at his and his wife's beautiful, fun, big, gorgeous wedding on a July day in 2010.  I new it also would match my sister in-laws decor. the print fabric is from a skirt my mom wore. My mom wore skirts and dress's all the time. I embellished it with a button and vintage lace and a tie back that was on the shoulder of her dress with the lil crystal prism's...and then i added one more thing.....

I added Schatje..... because that is what she called us all......

The back of the pillow...and....

Our mom in this dress, In july 2010 at my brother's wedding, having the time of her life..and dancing with her oldest daughter, my sister...(this is a favorite picture of them both)

Our last Picture with our mom. I am so glad I asked my husband to take this. it was in June, after I had gone to the emergency room with her...when Hospice was called in..and when I called my siblings..and less then 24 hours later...we all were there..together...because having us together is something that gave my mom the greatest joy.... The memory pillow I made my brother, reminded me of this journey...how alive and happy and healthy she always was...and months after the wedding, she had shingles..and then her cat scratched her and it became an infection to her with a fever...Our mom was never sick...of course we know why now...because 11 months after that picture of her dancing with my sister. she was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer....and as I make these pillows I get to remember those good times...the life she lived...it's not just a gift to my siblings..it's a gift to remember the happier times after the events of these past months...

You can read my mom's obituary who she was, and how much she was loved with the link below...

http://www.ravallirepublic.com/news/local/obituaries/article_04560740-f403-11e2-a055-001a4bcf887a.html   

This is our first picture together and so far our last...with our mom gone. Taken the day before her service.... One of the siblings said, "why? the person who loved the pic's of us together is gone"...my reply..."that's why...because she wants us to all stick together." yes, you see smile's in these pictures..but trust me..there were many tears....

This was a song I sent my mom..and one I sang to her in April..because simply stated it's what I wanted and felt....   

http://youtu.be/2UWx-shGM0g

Live each day with joy, make memories and choose love, not chaos!...for time sometimes slips away, faster then we could ever know....
  

Update on 1920's Bungalow Living room and Branch hanging lamp

I could in some ways call these pics before and after, But I think its more the Progress of the 1920's Bungalow at this point. I don't yet know how to put links into my post. But you can scroll down and see Pic's of this 1920's Bungalow we purchased and are going to turn it into the cutest lil rental home. Our daughter and Grandson are our first renters.

Due to space we came up with the cutest idea...a hanging lamp from the branches of a dead tree that we took down in the back yard.

The lamp serves two purposes. One to give light to that corner of the room. And two the corners need trim! the people who dry walled the corner's did a very poor job. As we are fixing the roof and porch we improvise on the inside until my husband can get to it. This room is done on a budget. The lamp came from the dollar store for only $6 and the hanging kit cost $12.00 we held it in place with twine and then twined down the cord so it would blend.

It lights up this corner and add's light to the pictures. My daughters taste run's a bit different then mine. But she does love some of the older things. I told her she could hang crystals from the branches by the light to add some bling and sparkle!

Here is the livingroom 'BEFORE' we did anything...you can see the left corner by the T.V needs help. Painting this room with its 10 ft ceilings was quiet the chore. there was also different colored paint on all the trim! so all that needed to be painted as well. See how dark the right corner of the room was. There is a wonderful big tree that shades this side of the house most of the day!

And this is after! we picked a neutral beige color that would go with many decors. with this room being small, it made the room bigger and yes, brighter.

Before....

And after, sigh this pic came out blurry and I was unaware.

So much brighter and lighter. 

We switched out the glass coffee table. it was under the window in one of the before pics. it was NOT 'lil man friendly'. My grandson is all boy and when he leaned the glass went off!!! and well it was like a huge danger zone. because this is a small cottage livingroom I found a bench I thought was perfect...for this space. Then we added a vase filled with seashells and clear stones.

My grandson thought it was perfect for this space... Yeah!

We decided to go with a subtle beach cottage feel. this in part was due to the curtains we found. they are called 'Tropical beach' and come from Walmart. In hunting for curtains in a budget friendly price range I was dissapointed in the selection available...these spoke to us...and so the decor changed to fit. 

We added Branches behind the T.V as well. I had a wonderful idea to hang snapshots on these branches. By simply punching a hole in the corner and then using twine to hang them from the branches. (this is my daughters space..so I can only suggest :) I also told her that it could be alot of fun to choose seasonal snapshots. Like fall, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Spring, etc etc  Branches are a fun way to decorate...and there free!

This was a wonderful 'find' it is the actual wooden round a big Brick of cheese comes in. Made into a lil end table. I added a lil fall decor below.

Just a lil added Holiday theme. My daughter tends to lean towards, white's and red's, blacks and browns.

I fell in love with these hearts made from a old quilt. They were only $1 each :)

So much contrasting color...this is before...

Now more neutrals....I like this so much better!

I think this was a major improvement! A close up at the tropical beach curtains and the basket for magazines...and did you notice My grandson's frog...he seems happier as well in this space.

Thanks for stopping by. Now we need to get to work on the master bedroom. It is a lavender room at this moment :)

Have a wonderful Saturday!