A Life Well Lived

Last week, I lost a friend unexpectedly, and far too soon. I had blogged about her home last August, here, and I also wrote about visiting her, and coming home with a couple of gifts for That Old House. I'm sharing that post, today, from June '09, about a minor metamorphosis, courtesy of my friend Barbara. Links to blog parties are below.

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(June 29, 2009) -- Have you ever visited a house that just seemed perfect? I don't mean that it was grand or spectacular, but that it was perfect for what it was -- someone's very special home -- and a true reflection of its owner.

I was lucky enough to visit such a home on Saturday.

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Today I'm double-dipping in Blog Party Land ...
Metamorphosis Monday (click here!) and Today's Thrifty Treasures (click here!).

Thanks to Susan of Between Naps on the Porch and Rhoda of Southern Hospitality for hosting.

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I have a new friend -- Barbara -- whom I met last month at the home of an old friend.

Barbara invited our family (including Dion) for a barbecue on Saturday. If I had been bolder, I would have begged to take pictures of her house (and her pups, too!), to share with you.

Barbara's house is a 1930's era Sears kit house, and it is perfection. It nestles cozily into a beautiful established garden, crazy with bloom, with a tall hedge that I've already forgotten the name of, but that I need here at That Old House to screen out a new house next door. I would love to hire Barbara to give me garden design advice!

Inside, the house has been beautifully and carefully updated, and a wonderful room added across the rear, with built ins and big chunky rows of windows. . . but what makes this house so special is that it could only belong to Barbara; it is that personal.

I just loved it. Maybe I'll be invited back, and this time,
work up the courage to say, "May I invade your privacy, please?"

As we were leaving, Barbara told us she had something
she thought That Old House could use; she was right.
She gave us two of these:

I asked my daughter Anne if they could qualify as Thrifty Treasures,
and she said, "What is more thrifty than free?" She has a point.

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So . . . on to the Metamorphosis, using our Thrifty Treasures. . . .

Here, $8 worth of supermarket flowers, beginning to lose their oomph!

Time to bring in a shorter vessel:

A pair of clippers, a steely resolve to toss the past-their-pull-date blooms,
and voila! A new look.

The dining room, meanwhile, looks a bit austere -- a big dark leafy philodendron
on the table, and two side windows looking rather bare, square and plain:

So. . . let's put a little color on the table:

And take the philodendron and put it in one of the plant stands from Barbara:

Take a pothos, swiped from the parlor, and pop into the other
plant stand, and in front of the other window:

And we have our metamorphosis --- a softened look,

with colorful flowers, healthy plants, and two lovely old iron stands!

From another perspective:

So it's a simple change today, or, as Anne put it, "Not much of a Metamorphosis, Mom."

But it's a change for the better -- albeit a small one -- and that's what counts. Right?

I am looking for a place for these plant stands in the sunroom, too, for the colder weather. Stay tuned; I have a feeling they will turn up again, and again.

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A week ago, I took pictures of problem spots in our yard, to email to Barbara for her advice. I never got the chance to do so. Life is so unpredictable. I am grateful to have known this funny, smart, quirky, generous, talented woman even for so short a time.

Tell your friends and family how you feel. -- Cass