Sundays are for catching up ...

... at least at our house!

We catch up on sleep (love our yummy sleep), catch up on housework (love our clean house to start the week), catch up on shopping (love having a full fridge for the week) & catch up on emails that sometimes get read but sit until we have extra time.

Today we slept until after 10:30. A delicious, lazy wake up to the day. I didn't sleep well all week with my family away, so the chance to sleep a full night was amazing. Grabbed the newspaper & my laptop & crawled back in to bed until 2:30, at which point it was time to finally emerge from our warm & cozy cocoon. We've had terrible windstorms all week & there was no gardening this weekend. Thankfully, we had already done our yard clean up once the snow melted, so there was no guilt for not putzing in the dirt. I had a nice long hot bath & got ready to go shopping. I had cleaned house the day before, so that was one thing off our list we didn't have to accomplish.

Once Bear was ready, we ventured out into the wind to the mall to find some new jeans for me. Tried on a few pairs & still need to decide what look I like. The bonus to this trip was discovering that all our working out at the gym is paying off. I used to wear size 3 to 5 in jeans but had creeped up to a size 9 over the last few years. Yikes! I've now lost 6 pounds but really losing weight wasn't what I needed to do. I just needed to get back into the great shape I had been. And today I discovered that I am back down to a 3 to 5 in jeans. So happy!! I didn't buy any jeans but found an awesome pair of olive green skinny cargo pants (size 3) along with a floral, long, flowing sleeveless shirt & a cream buttonless summer sweater that also "flows". Love the lightness of the clothes at this time of year. Helps now to be back in to shape. Worth all the sweat & achiness.

Almost mindful of our budget, I am happy to report this clothing spree trip only cost $42.00. The pants were $88 to begin with but had been marked down to $19. Awesome bargain for the right size, right color & the best part: right comfort level of softness for my little bod!

Stopped for groceries then headed to Home Depot to exchange our new closet rod for the right size. Yup. The "measure 20 times 'cause we can renovate anything couple" didn't measure properly & ended up buying a too big sized rod. All is well now with a shiny smaller, fits right rod & 30 new hangers to hold the overflow of clothes that can now hang in our mini walk~in closet that used to be our shower.

Dinner, trip to the gym, home to do laundry, time out to watch "Game of Thrones" & then adding up an expense report to submit to work this week. I love getting paid back for all the little things I need to buy for my programs. This one adds up to over $1,350. Lovely!

New Teapot ...

One of my favorite childhood memories is going to my gramma & grampa's house after piano lessons each week. The music teacher lived down the street from their house, which was across the street from my school.

It was one day a week that I didn't have to go to childcare.

It was one day a week that I walked into a warm house, with an unlocked door, cookies cooling on a plate & a warm cup of tea poured just as I came up the walk.

Tea at gramma & grampa's house was really just warm milk with drops of tea in it but I felt grown up with my own china tea cup. And anytime all the family was together, out came all the tea cups, all different, for all the grandkids.

After gramma died, grampa invited us to the house to take home our tea cups. I had mine until the year we had a house fire. It was one of the only precious things that was lost that I was upset about, partly because I had never thought to take a picture of it. I have a picture in my head of the pattern but have never come across one. In the fall, my aunt gave me a tea cup from her own collection, with a promise that each time I use it, I'll think of both her & gramma. It's not the same pattern but it comes with the same sentiment granted to me when I was 8 years old.

Collecting tea pots started a few years ago. I love looking for different colors & styles but always floral, vintage & fine china. Here's the latest find:

With the cream & sugar bowls:

I almost didn't buy this new treasure because I thought the small green leaves would not look well with our sage green walls. But I was wrong & it turns out, they are the perfect shade of green. Not bad for $12!