When Trapped at Home...

Well, when you're trapped at home pretty much 24-7, it's time to practice gratitude right where you're at and start working on some things you've put off.

I got a new-to-me camera last year and haven't really figured out how to use it.  So pulled it out to start working on it.  Why does technology always seem more difficult than it should be when you're first learning how to use it?  Needless to say, I have a long ways to go before I take a spectacular photo - on purpose. But as they say, practice makes perfect.

My gratitude is all the plants blooming.  I got several transplants last year and EVERYONE of them is coming up.  I am so excited!!  It's weird that the world is in lock-down, but nature is going on as if nothing has changed.  It's reassuring in some ways.

On another note, I've been working on the house for the past year.  Pretty much everything in the house needs to be upgraded, it was built in the mid-90's and you can definitely feel it.  But, I've been making progress.  Major things like windows and flooring still remain, but they'll come with time.

In the meantime, I'm down to 2 wall colors downstairs.  We started with 5 - magenta, periwinkle, brown, off-white and olive/lime green. I went with a light blue throughout the entire downstairs and an accent wall in a blue-teal.  It's glorious.  I could talk about colors for.ev.er.  I also am pulling in gold, magentas, pinks, corals, etc. as accent colors.  It's working together quite well if I do say so myself.  

The windows are very large, so finding curtains that worked took some doing.  They're 109" and still don't touch the floor so I need to let the hem out at some point.  Also, I'm moving all the silver out of the house and replacing with gold.  Every time I add a little gold (lamps, curtain rods, etc.) it makes me so happy.  It's such a warm touch.  

I love the fireplace color so much and the built-ins are fun.  :). The pictures on the wall are prints of Van Gough's with cheap frames/mats from Hobby Lobby.  They look so good there.  

Also, I'm upping my plant game.  I've bought all my planters from TJ Maxx and Home Goods - such good prices.  I can't get over how expensive they are at some places.  

Look at the blooms coming out of these - so weird!! 

This is a Fiddle Leaf Fig -  apparently a very popular plant right now.  It's been doing really well and just got a new leaf.  I was SOOOO excited.  It will be more like a tree as it gets bigger.

Got this one from Hy-Vee for $15 -- it's a tropical plant so it's a little risky given our climate, but for the price I figured I could afford to give it a try.  I have another tropical plan in the corner of the living room and it is not doing so well.  

AND HOW AMAZING IS THIS!?

My aunt and uncle split several peonies for me AND THEY'RE COMING UP!!  I have been so pumped about this!  I was so hopeful they'd make it.  Mom had them lining our driveway when we were growing up and they were so beautiful. Apparently mom grandma also had them, so they're a family favorite.  

And lilacs... how can you go wrong.  I bought one and a co-worker gave me some sprigs last fall.  EVERYONE OF THEM HAS BLOOMS!!  I'M SO EXCITED!!  

This is the one I bought.  I'd like to get a dark purple one too.  

Isn't it glorious?!

A Little Bit of Beauty Close to Home

Don't you just have days where you wish for more creativity, more beauty, more fun... less cubicles and grey coffee stained carpet.  :) Why is the carpet always coffee stained?

I got home from work tonight and the tree in our yard was lit up with glowy leaves and sun beaming through it and it was too beautiful to not take a few pictures of.  And also, I've been thinking about blogging a bit again.  Not for anyone really, just for myself.  There is something helpful about writing.  About putting your thoughts somewhere.  Short and sweet, long and complicated... whatever the case may be... but there seems to be something good for my soul about writing.  There is also something good for my soul in color.  In art.  In photography.  In reading.  In painting.  Basically... in beauty.

And a few others I took on the hiking trails in Coralville a few weeks back.

Getting Away to a New Country

We took the train from Paris to Amsterdam today.  It took a little over 3 hours, but I never mind the train rides.  The trains are always easier than the shenanigans that take place with flying.  Once we arrived here around 1:30pm local time, we took a tram from Central Amsterdam (Dam Square area) and proceeded to our house boat.  I have been wanting to stay on one since I read something about it.  Nick was able to pull it all together and it is awesome!

We're right on the water, and the host has said the ducks come to the window in the morning.  I'm hoping that is true, guess we'll find out tomorrow.

We also got fries and mayo which they sell everywhere here.  They're AWESOME!  And I've been wanting them since I last had them here.  A cone of crispy fries with mayo on them - I'm sorry - what could be wrong w/ that.

We hit the cat museum.  I've been some weird places in my life, but this was top notch weird. lol.  The owner still lives there, but he's dedicated the bottom two floors to his cats.  There was cat art, sculptures, and real cats!  We only saw one of them, but she was friendly so we got to pet her a couple times.  It's Amsterdam - what can I say - things are a little unique here.

Not much more to report for today!  I'm going to call this one a little early and read.

On the train to Amsterdam.

Me in the window of the houseboat.

Weird cat poster in the museum.

One of the cats.

The cat story.  It made us laugh - it's a crazy place.  Not sure if it was supposed to make us laugh or not.

Au Revoir Paris

We leave for Amsterdam tomorrow. The last couple days have been pretty lazy.  They've mostly involved reading and casual strolls here and there.  Nothing to major.  Lots of getting up late and napping throughout this trip also.  With as fast as life tends to go, it's been a nice slow down.  That being said, we seem to be turning into party poopers - we're really pretty much ready to go home. lol.

We've been staying at a quite palatial AirBnB in the heart of Paris.  Our AirBnB hostess has been on travel herself for almost all of it, so we've really had the place to ourselves with the exception of a day and a half.  It's made taking it easy, a little easier.

Yesterday I can't even remember what we did other then go to a restaurant and eat with the Parisians. We've been apprehensive about doing this as we've been unsure about how to go about it all.  They eat outside rain, shine or snow I think.  We finally decided to go for it and bumble our way through.  We had a few missteps, but all and all it went well and the lunch was great.  I'm sick to death of bread and sandwiches, which is what we've been mostly eating as they're easy to order and in abundance.

About 6 months ago I started following a newsletter called My Modern Met.  They advertised that there was a Van Gogh immersive art experience taking place in Paris and it happened to be today, so we were able to book tickets.  It was at the Atelier des Lumieres and turned out to be pretty good.  They had beautiful music playing with van Gogh's art in motion throughout being projected onto the walls and put into motion.  The room was huge and everywhere you looked the art was being displayed or moving.  I'll attach a couple videos, hopefully you can see what I mean.

After that we headed off to Pere Lachaise Cemetery where the likes of Oscar Wild, Georges Seurat, Fredrick Chopin and of course Jim Morrison are buried (among others).  It has been cold and rainy the past couple days, but we're finding the rain comes and goes and is never heavy.  So, it rained off and on, but we were prepared as we walked through the cemetery so it worked out ok.

Then we hoofed it back to the AirBnB and watched movies and read!

Reading on our balcony.

Nick sipping espresso on our balcony.

The view from our bedroom window.

Two kids goofing around.

Before the Van Gogh experience started, this was another artists work that was playing.

A still of the art on the walls - you can see the people on the floor watching.

Another shot.

Jim Morrison's tomb.  It's gated off (not overly well), but you can see people still manage to put things on the tomb.

Beautiful row in the cemetery.

Many of the tombs / caskets had these beautiful porcelain flowers on the top of them.  

Getting Away to the Country

We headed to Giverny today - the village / town that Claude Monet lived in.  It was a welcome change of pace from the city and the crowds at all the sites.  The pace was much slower and thus easier.  The crushes of people have been taxing.  The kids are off school for 2 weeks starting on around Easter, so there seem to be a number of European tourists out and about because of the kiddos.

I read Viktor E. Frankl's, Man's Search for Meaning, again as we traveled today as we had more time in the train.  It's a hearting story of humans behavior under pressure during the Holocaust and what we are capable of doing to one another.  It was a strange dichotomy against the beauty of Monet's gardens.

I don't have much to report today - I'll leave it to the pictures.  The long and short of it, Giverny was most definitely worth the effort to get there.

Most of these are from Giverny unless otherwise noted.

Beautiful chickens / roosters wandering around an area of the garden.

Waterlily pond that you see so many of Monet's paintings of

There was a bamboo garden that was part of the gardens.  I didn't even know you could grow bamboo in these areas. 

Tour boat of people going through Paris.  The crowds on the banks usually start screaming and so do the people on the boat.  It turns into quite a party.

View from Sacre-Coeur

View from Sacre-Coeur

View from Sacre-Coeur

View of Sacre-Coeur