sisters – Zuzu and Papa

I took a little “Mama Break” a couple of weeks ago and spent two days with my sister. Just reading, relaxing, reviving… I highly recommend “Mama Breaks”! I haven’t taken one in years and desperately needed to just get away from laundry, cooking, etc. My family did survive. They were certainly glad when I came home, though, especially Victor. It really does take the two of us to keep a happy home, one that runs somewhat smoothly, with everyone fed, clothed and in their right mind. I am going to start taking a couple of days away throughout the year, though. I don’t need to let myself get into that overwhelmed state of mind again.

My sister was so gracious (Brad and Millie, too!). Her home was welcoming and so relaxing. I am always a little surprised by how much our tastes are alike. We have the same love for shabby and comfy homes. We both love old photos, vintage anything, and splashes of color. The side door to my home is apple green. She has painted the swing on her front porch a bright blue. I loved seeing the similarities in the way we think. A couple of years ago, we both showed up at Christmas with the same exact wrapping paper.

Here are some of the neat things that I loved in her home:

Pretty touches everywhere

Rusty things

Shane, my bud while I read my book, drank my coffee and snapped his picture

Urns and milk glass..love, love.

Old floral pictures and yummy wallpaper. Triple love.

Really, perfect. I’m needing one of these…

A kitchen table and chairs fromt the 50’s…or 40’s, not sure, but love it.

This is her butcher block island in the kitchen. I need this, too…

Old tables rock

We both love chenille

My sister and I cultivated our housekeeping skills at an early age by always keeping a ‘playhouse’ somewhere in the house and outside. We would set up play areas here and there, usually with Barbie dolls and baby dolls in the house. One special place I remember in the basement was at the bottom of the stairs, underneath the stairwell, in between the stairs and the hot water heater. There was a piece of furniture that made the third wall of our playhouse and a ledge under the steps. This was a fantastic playhouse, especially since we could really hide and hear the goings on of the grown ups while we were carrying on our own little life.

In the summers, things got a lot more elaborate. There was a trail from our house into the woods and we found a relatively flat spot to be our playhouse. There were lots of large grape vines and these were used as couches, beds and shelves. They were also good room partitions for our kitchen and bathroom. We saved Mother’s empty Merle Norman jars and bottles for our playhouse bathroom and carried armloads of empty Campbell’s soup cans and spice jars for our kitchen. Probably these relics are still down there underneath years of leaves.

Imaginative play is so very important for children. I always tried to foster a love of pretend in my little ones. They loved boxes – the bigger the better – and they would have so many adventures in their little hiding places.

Of course, couch cushions were the perfect building materials for their walls and tunnels. I never minded my den being destroyed because I knew the children were using their wonderful imaginations and more importantly, were not watching t.v.! Of course, all the extra blankets were pulled out to make the roofs for the houses and tunnels.

So, here’s to playhouses, clubhouses, forts, tunnels and tree houses! Hours and days spent in wonderful worlds far away.

Mindy Hill said…

I loved the day mom washed the sheets and let us play with the ones she took off the beds. We would make tents like crazy with them. Also, mom would make me Barbie cars, table, etc from the cardboard Tide boxes. I loved those cars so much because she would do a backseat also and four of my Barbies could fix in it.