Well, I spent the morning writing and then planning and making some purchases for upcoming projects.  I am excited to get a few rooms that are underway finished (like the master bedroom and sewing room) and I’ll be starting some new projects that have been on my list for a while.  This is how it seems to go for me.  For a few months, I’ll work on small, quieter projects like painting and tweaking, making slipcovers, etc…stuff I can do myself that is relatively inexpensive.  And then, all at the same time, I’ll start some larger projects that we’ve been planning and budgeting for.  It’s exciting and nerve-wracking simultaneously! Of course, I’ll be sharing more along the way… But, today, I’m sharing about a lovely gift I received from a woman who has become a dear friend to me – Mary of Trout Lily Hill.  She is one of the sweetest

Saturday was my 42 birthday.  It started off with apologies from Jeff and the boys that they couldn’t go out and buy me gifts and couldn’t take me out to a restaurant.  It would be another day hunkering down at home.  The fact that I wasn’t disappointed was surprising to me.  I’ve always been a “big birthday person.”  I love presents and cake and surprises. To plan for the day, I bought the ingredients to make a copycat version of Olive Garden’s lemon cream cake, but there have been bigger things than online shopping for potential birthday presents to occupy my time and thoughts.  We would just unceremoniously move some cash from the gifts line item to my personal spending money in our budget and I could buy something later. It was actually the precautions we’ve been taking to keep our family, particularly our type 1 diabetic son, insulated from