Unearthing beauty

Thank you, everyone, for your kind words about Kyra.  Someday soon I think things will feel back to normal -- but never the same.

After much hard work, the front of our house is put together again.  I got rid of a ton of stuff so now it feels less cluttered.  (I don't think I'll ever be able to describe anywhere I live as uncluttered!)

I love the look of the floors.  I also like the openness of having the desk instead of the computer armoire.  This is the living room.  Since we're always in the family room, and have no need for a formal living room, we use the space more like a second family room.

I still haven't decided on artwork, so for the time being I've installed my husband's favorite print, Raphael's The School of Athens, over the desk.

None of this, nor the great weather, has left much time for blogging or writing of any kind.  I guess that's just the way of summer!

I have managed to do some estate sale-ing lately with my neighbor, who has become a new friend.  Connie blogs here, about her creative crazy quilting.  We met almost two years ago when I placed an ad on the bulletin board at my gym, asking if anyone could use the broken china pieces I had leftover from my mosaic-ing craze.

Connie answered the ad, and we had a good laugh when we discovered that she lived just down the street from me.  (We've since learned we have mutual friends, too.)  The first thing she noticed when she came by to pick up the mosaic pieces was the crazy quilt I have hanging over our staircase.

She was actually on her way that morning to crazy quilt with some friends of hers, and she showed me her work-in-progress -- which was gorgeous!  Connie's what I call a "real" quilter.  And you should see her stash -- wow!  Crazy quilters always seem to have the best stuff!

Anyway, we've gone to a couple of estate sales together and have unearthed some really fun finds:

I adore that tiny banded bowl on the left; I bought it to sell but now I have to keep it!  I will end up selling the chintz teapot, though.  Aren't the green accents on it sweet?

It's English and old.

I couldn't pass up this red transferware piece.  You hardly ever seem to find them undamaged anymore...

It's also English, of course!

Something else that was recently unearthed -- but I had nothing to do with it:

This little cactus popped out of our landscape rock last year, and my husband's been babying it.  A couple of days ago, it bloomed!