I've moved!

I've moved!  I tried my darnedest to figure out how to combine my two blogs, but just could not.  So please follow this link to my new blog,  The Weathered Pane!  It's still about me and my life, with a little garden thrown in, some food, lots of grandkids, an occasional funny and all that.  See you!  Nancy

todays favorite blog

Have you visited Aina's blog yet? I've had it under my radar for a year now and find it to be the dreamiest of all things dreamy and wonderful!

Foto: Per Gunnarsson - Sköna HemModern Country.... don't have a clue what she's saying, but it doesn't matter. The pictures speak a million words. Google says this site is in Norwegian, and they offer to translate it to English. No! I love it just the way it is. It adds a certain charm to it. I love all the white.

But she offers a little for everyone from decorating, gardening, crafting, relaxing.
This is a site you just want to sit and drool over for a very long time.
And just enough English to give you a feel for who Aina is. I love this blog!

Nancy .....

should I....?

Here it is, almost the end of May. Almost three months since I last wrote... Where has time gone? I'm still here, although I've not been blogging much lately. Obviously! I've not kept in touch with any of my blogging friends. I've been bad, very bad. Yet, here I am, once again thinking of reaching out to the blogging world and asking for your friendship. Bloggers are such a special group of people. So understanding and supportive. We share our deepest secrets, loves and fears, our failings, our successes, and other most precious details about our lives. To total strangers! Yet, these strangers become our most precious friends. We depend on them for kind words and support. To make our lives right. So if blogging is so great, why do I keep stopping?

I went back to older posts today, looking for something specific, and have to say, I laughed at more than one! In the earlier days, I always seemed to have something to say. Yet, today, my mind is blank and that causes a problem in the blogging world. Blogging should be fun, not a source of frustration, trying to come up with something to say. Yet, here I am, once again, trying to get back into the blogging world, trying to think of something to say that would entice you to return.... Wish me luck!

For now.... Nancy

of lately

Okay, so we'll try this blogging thing again and see if I can stay within the boundaries of who I am.

I love the cottage look but I also love the Alaska look and feel. For awhile there I became discontent with all my dark oak furniture, my mission style chairs, and all the Alaskan artwork. I yearned for color--more white, more cherries, more flower prints, more pretty fluff, more oversized chairs. I became engulfed in thumbing through cottage style decorating magazines and books, yearning for that life. But it's not my life, right now. It's not my life.... As I sit and type this, I'm looking around. My home is peaceful. It's calm. It's relaxing. It fits in with all the rain we get and the dark and dreary days. This is a perfect look for Juneau and a perfect look and feel for me!

I love thrifting. Ditch hunting. Antiquing. I had become so envious of all your great thrift finds. Lovely pieces you find at the local thrift store or antique shop. Sadly, we don't have that here. We have a couple thrift stores but, honestly, most of the stuff should just be taken to the dump. Residents are huge contributors to these places, so where does it go....? I know I've contributed so many wonderful things but I don't think they ever make it to the shelves but are probably taken by the volunteers. We have one very teeny tiny antique store downtown, that's only open during the summer, during tourist hours and for tourist convenience.... it's not somewhere I shop because it's never open when I'm in the area. So I got caught up shopping on-line. Buying buying buying from all of your Etsy shops and your on-line sales. I had to stop visiting because I couldn't stop shopping. Everyone had something I needed, or wanted, or something I knew my daughter would love. I had to stop shopping because, simply, I don't need any more stuff. Too, envy is not a good thing. It makes us discontent; it makes us anxious; it makes us feel our life isn't good enough. I will no longer envy your homes.

Gardening has always been a love of mine and one I've been fairly proud of. People comment on my "Martha Stewart garden." Yet, every day I would visit my garden blog friends and admire your yards. Yearn for something similar. I think mostly it was the sunshine that was evident in all the photos. Sunshine is not something we have much of here so naturally it would attract me and naturally it makes everything look so much nicer. My gardens my not be picture perfect, but considering where we live and our weather conditions, it's pretty amazing. I will take what I can from your ideas but accept that we live in a different climate and one that may not be conducive to down south gardening ideas.

I love crafting but don't do much on my own anymore. I had become so in awe of all the creative people "out there." Your talents are incredible and the fact that you have time to do them amazed me. Yet, I know that your lives probably aren't any more incredible than mine. I have a good life and I need to be content with who I am and what I do.

Blogging is a whole nother thing. It has arms and legs and little fingers that sucked me in. My days were consumed reading every one's posts, commenting on your posts, and writing my own. That was no easy task as it took a lot of thought as to what I wanted to write and then I had to coordinate pictures to go with it. Way too time consuming! Nothing else was getting done so I had to shut down that aspect of my life for a short while, to get myself back on track.

So that's just a little of what's been going on in my life, why I've not blogged.

food for thought

It's been almost a month since I posted.... A lot has happened since then; a lot has passed through my mind. Mostly I've had deep conversations with myself on whether I wanted to continue blogging. I may. I haven't quite decided yet. But if I do, I need to set new guidelines for myself. Here lies the problem....

I was getting so caught up in the lives of all my blogging friends, that I was becoming discontent with my own life. The grass became greener on the other side of blog land. Your lives had so much more value than mine. I was envious of all the thrift store finds and your creativeness. I fell in love with your quaint cottage homes and forgot how much I love my own home. You had the perfect gardens while I became more discontent with mine. Your sunny weather had me yearning for less rain and more sunshine. I was losing myself. And that became a problem. For you see, I love my life. I love my home. And I love my yard. So I had to remove myself. Take time to reflect. Time to appreciate my own life once again. Time to acknowledge that this is where I live and for that reason alone, some things won't ever change.

So here I am.... at peace with myself once again. Loving my home and my mission style furniture and non-cottage life. Maybe one day I will have that cottage home of my dreams but until then, I will be content where I am with what I have. I will limit myself to great thrift finds when I'm on vacation and have the opportunity. I will continue reading your blogs but will keep things in perspective that this is my life and that is your life. Nancy

speechless....

Okay, I know in my first blog entry I wrote that blogging would be a piece of cake for me because I always have something to write about. But I was wrong. Today I'm speechless; don't know what to say. If you look hard enough, you might just see me blushing.... I'm not so comfortable having special attention bestowed upon me.... But Jerusalem, at My Little Life, nominated me for the Nice Matters Award. My first award! That was so nice and I feel so honored. Thank you, Jerusalem!

But why....? The only reason I can think of is because I plugged my daughter's new Etsy site with her cute, homemade journals. Oops, there I go again! Tracy said it was a shameless plug, but what's a mother for if not to help and encourage her children through all stages of life?!

When I started my blog, I wasn't certain where I was headed with it. I had been a faithful reader of Jerusalem's blog and loved it. Hardly a day went by that I didn't "check in" with her life and her family. It was like I was eavesdropping; spying on them. Eventually I left a comment. That opened up a whole new beginning of blogging for me. I was no longer a closet blogger! And now I have my own. It's been a wonderful experience; I don't know that I'll blog for ever, but for now it's filling a void in my life.

Blogging brings like people together and friendships are formed. Creative people blog together; share inspiration and creative ideas. Gardeners tend to attract other gardeners and share their garden ideas. People who love to cook, tend to cook together. Then there's people like me who don't seem to have a theme. I get the best of all blogging worlds. I so appreciate the friendships that are forming; my readers; those people who have decided that Pieces of the Puzzle are worthy of their time. We may never meet in person, but know I'm sincere when I say I appreciate the time you spend visiting me and my family on-line and for giving me the opportunity to visit you.

On that note, I would like to nominate the following for the Nice Matters Award:

My daughter, Tracy at Simply Blissful, of course. Tracy for her sweetness, her creativity, her integrity, her love for her family, and just for being Tracy.

Connie at Notes From a Cottage Garden. Connie has THE most incredible photos of vegies and flowers and butterflies and hummingbirds that she shares with us. It's truly a treat to visit her site.

Julie, from Equus Villa. When you go to Julie's blog, the first thing you see is this beautiful barn/home that she lives in. From there, stories of her life.

A Pink Bee from fairiebees. She's a busy lady; very creative; and so very nice.

Manuela from The Feathered Nest. Just because she always has such nice comments.

I know some of you have already been nominated, probably many times over, but I just wanted to acknowledge that I appreciate your friendships and your regular visits to my life. Nancy

status from a featherweight

As I visit every one's blogs, I wondered about all the Inspiration Friday photos that were posted. They had to come from somewhere, but did they have permission....? In visiting My Romantic Home tonight, she addressed this issue. Better check it out; I'd hate for anyone to get into legal trouble. From My Romantic Home, you can go to Barbara Jacksier's July 8th post.


I found the sweetest new blog: fairiebees. I just love her blog name! She's a crafter, a sewer, a collector. You'll love her simple sewing projects, like the hankie valance. It looks so simple, even I could do it! Never mind that I don't have a sewing machine. Or didn't.


I was talking to a friend about sewing machines; she's an expert and collector of old Singers. I told her about one we had in the garage that was my husband's mom. It's been in storage for years and years, of no real interest to me since I didn't sew. As we talked, my friend got more and more excited about the possibility of it being an old Featherweight. Evidently they're in demand by collectors and sewers alike and worth several hundred dollars.

So we brought it inside, and sure enough! Here it is, right out of the case, pretty dirty, neglected, and unloved.

Evidently Featherweights are a status symbol to the person who owns one.... Finally, I have status!

Now I just have to learn how to sew!