This week I’ve been repainting my house. I’ve been sanding walls and banisters. I’ve packed a ton of knick-knaks away in boxes, and even signed on a realtor to sell our house. I am excited, stressed, trusting God, and freaking out. So many parts of this adventure are falling into place and I think the only thing that is off is inside me. I start feeling overwhelmed and then I remind myself to calm down because everything is good. I tend to put a lot of pressure on myself to do things and do them perfectly. It’s like I need Cher to come up and slap me and yell “Snap out of it!” Everything is going to be ok…

Since I’ve been so busy, I haven’t been sitting around reading magazines but they still show up and seriously, they’ve made me happy inside just seeing them. We are approaching my favorite time of year and I’ve been fantasizing what Fall would look like on a mini ranch in the high desert! Emma and I have been talking a lot about how different it will be during the holidays and seasons if we end up living on a ranch where it snows and actually has different seasons. We are very excited and hopeful!

So, here is what came to my house this week that inspired us at my house. Enjoy, and get in the fall mood!

Hello! Who doesn’t get excited when this shows up? I love Martha and I don’t care who knows! I look forward to this issue every year and the back side of it is all Halloween costumey goodness. I need to sit down and get through this but for now I’ve just been carrying it around, hugging it and laying my face on it just long enough to smell the paper it’s printed on.

I keep peeking into this catalog hoping the inside is as great as the outside. Pottery Barn is one of my tops for home design inspiration. Look at those PUMPKINS! I loves me some “punkins.”

This totally made me want to make Halloween goodies!! PS I have an obsession with candy corns! (Uhm, when I say tear sheet, I mean it. See the tear?)

I think this needs to be my new backyard. Or the spot right in front of my ranch-style, front, wrap-around porch. Yes, that’s it. I need to have coffee here and plan what a fabulous day I’ll have.

This is a pretty bad photo of a lot of photos. I just snap these in order to get them into the blog. I guess I could just screen shoot ’em from the internet but then they wouldn’t be MY tear sheets or searches, right? Anyway, I found these sheets in an old folder from when we moved into our present house. They had been pulled out and saved from my first marriage. I gathered them in 1989. I’ve been tearing sheets for about 100 years now. My first husband and I bought a 3 acre piece of land in Northern California. We had big plans but due to some very unfortunate event I couldn’t control, we lost it along with our dreams to have our little home. When Steve and I moved here to our house we also had plans but due to some unfortunate events I medically retired and we’ve been making ends meet ever since. We never had the financial means to finish the things we wanted to do here. So now I embark on yet another try at building a little country house that is inspired by these tear sheets. Wondering all the while if some unfortunate events will change it all. Honestly, I’m surprised we are even at this point. I’ve been planning all along that my dream home and lifestyle will be after I die and am living in heaven. Maybe that sounds silly, but I’ve found a place of contentment in that hope. I’m totally fine with that. Everything that happens here is just icing on the cake for me. So, we shall see what comes of all this house selling and buying of property to build our dream house. We shall see.

Have a fantastic weekend!