Changing Seasons

The first day of September arrived with the feel of fall in the air. Is anyone ever ready to say goodbye to summer? It's the end of so many things, but it's also the beginning of just as many or even more. With the start of the new school year, all of the traditions ramp up for another go round. There's all of the team sports, and band, and scouting, school projects, plus a myriad of things that are too numerous to mention. For those folks that don't have school children in their midst, it is still the beginning of football season, fall foliage coming on and of course the start of the holiday shopping for many.

The saying that everything happens for a reason, is one that gets tossed around pretty freely. But, when something profound happens that alters your entire life; you have to believe wholeheartedly in this particular ideology. In this changed season, we're completely altering everything in our life as we know it. Moving off of the pond, and up to the family compound near Augusta, is a really big transformation in so many ways. The changes will be all encompassing and surely will include things we haven't even thought of yet.

Hopefully, this will be a big growth spurt for both of us in our creative as well as our spiritual selves. We'll be wrestling with old habits and adding new routines. With that, we say goodbye to the cottage, and the pond; but know that "cottage living" is an attitude that we will keep in our hearts forever. We both feel extremely blessed to have been given the opportunity to experience such splendor. We have high hopes that Classic Cottage Living will continue to gain momentum and become all that it can be. With that, I sign off for the last time from this sweet cottage on Kennebunk Pond - and I'll pick back up once we're settled in.

Till next time, all is well and tomorrow brings new promises and new hope - be well my friend ~

Avon Calling . . .

Being an avid FaceBook user, from time to time someone will invite me to join their group. I usually look at what it is that I'm being asked to "join". I found the recent request from Karen in Houston to join her Avon page, very interesting in more ways than one, but mainly because of the memories that rushed in just thinking about the Avon Lady.

Even though I'm not old enough to have been an Avon Lady, when this particular ad was published in the 50's; I still remember when I was growing up, when our Avon Lady would come to our door every now and then. I don't have room here, but the stories my husband tells of when the Avon Lady came to his house will leave you ROTFL, (that's shorthand for Rolling-On-The-Floor-Laughing if you didn't know) but I promise to tell it soon. Anyway, it must have left a good impression on me, as I too became one of the brave women who decides to become the Avon Lady for their neighborhood or in many cases for the entire town.

The children were little and I was a stay-at-home-mother (which I just saw is now under the job title of SAHM) but needed a little extra cash AND some adults to speak to. You SAHM's know what I'm talking about! Back in those days, there wasn't a Gymboree to take our kids to, in fact I'll bet out in Windsor, Maine it is still just Hussy's General Store (pronounced: huzzes genraaal sto-ah) as the only place to go other than the Fair Grounds; which if memory serves correct is about to ramp up again for the annual big times! They even let the kids out of school to help their folks tend the livestock they've entered, or handle parking and such. So you see, the Windsor Fair really is a big deal, but it only comes once a year and once it's over, it's a long winter ahead for all the folks around there.

Back to the Avon Lady story. I only had two decent - go out of the house - outfits, 'cuz who needs more than that when the most dressed up you need to get, is to go to the pot-luck supper over to the primary school once a month. Please note: I don't talk like this anymore, but just telling the story makes all of those language habits come rushing back along with the memories. My first day being the Avon Lady, I got all "dressed-up", put on some of my new Avon perfume, a bit of the Avon eye shadow (probably blue) and of course a pair of Avon earrings just to round things out. I asked the neighbor to watch the kids for a couple of hours, and off I went.

Whew, I was scared! First of all, we were from AWAY! For those of you that aren't familiar with that saying; let me be clear; (as our President likes to say, and it seems to work most times) it means exactly what you think it does. In fact if one were to dig a little deeper, it means unless there are two generations before you; born and raised in Maine, you are STILL "from away". Get my drift? And the worst of if was that we came from that cereal state - California. You know, fruits, nuts and flakes! Geez 'em crow, that's baaaad. Honest, people really say that and I'll even admit to it myself, once or twice.

So I drove down the road a bit, pulled onto a road I'd never been on; because I'm pretty adventuresome, and pulled into the driveway of the first house I came to that didn't look too scary. Thank heavens no one was home, and I just stuck a book in the door! Okay, one down and nine to go. That was my goal, to go to ten houses that day. Next house I saw looked pretty decent, so I took a deep breath and pulled into their drive or as it is referred to here; door-yard, and parked the car. I could see someone peeking out at me, so I got my Avon case out of the back seat and proceeded to march up to their door, with my knees 'a knocking.

I can't remember that woman's name, but she was just the sweetest person you could ask to meet. She seemed to be looking for someone to talk to, only on a different level than I, as she was older than me, and just seemed kind of lonely, sitting there. She wound up being a real regular customer and I suspect that the motive behind it was that in two weeks time, I would be back to sit and chat for another 15 minutes or so. That's not a bad thing in my book. Bringing a little socializing along with something sweet smelling or the latest lipstick sample worked out to be okay. Speaking of lipstick, I know I had some of that on too! All those little samples were my favorite part.

Turned out that I got to know a lot of really nice people in that little town of Windsor, and when I get a chance to go back for the Fair; all of those old memories come flooding back. When my babies were babies and I was a young mother just trying to make life a little easier by doing a little extra. Much has changed but then little has changed. We all need a little company to take our mind off of the daily pressures. Now days we can turn to the internet anytime, day or night and "chat" with folks from all over the world. But I must say, it's still nice to sit with a friend, even if only for a little while, and just socialize. Who do you know that needs a visit? Get goin . . .

Till next time, all is well on the pond and tomorrow brings new promises and new hope - be well my friend ~

When You're Hot, You're Hot

Do you remember aluminum cups or tumblers as they were sometimes called? I do, with the most delicious memory one could have. When it was really hot outside, Mom would give us a glass of lemonade or Kool-aid in an aluminum cup, and nothing could beat how good that cup made our drinks taste.

In fact I loved it so much, when I recently saw a place that carried these wonderful marvels of modern day manufacturing, and I had (that should be in capitol letters) to get a set of them to share with my children and grandchildren.

Now that we're adding products to our web-store, you can bet that I'm going to find a distributor for these precious gems, and have them for next summer's round-up! Don't be fooled by the ones that are silver inside, 'cuz they are just impostors! The ones I remember had color outside and inside, and man 'o man, they did the best job one could ask to refresh you after playing long and hard in the hot days of summer.

Enjoy the memory (if you have one) and if not, stay tuned as I WILL find them to add to our website! On that note, go get a tall glass of something cold, and enjoy ~ Cheers, Ahhhhh!

My Big Green Tractor

I have a passion for tractors. Now not everyone knows of this; but my heart skips a beat when I see one - especially an old one. Recently there have been several really good Country songs that are all about tractors. I may as well confess, I love Country Music almost as much as tractors. The most recent one is "My Big Green Tractor" by Jason Aldean, and I always get so excited when it plays on the radio that I just have to turn it up and usually wind up dancing around the house.

One day a few weeks ago, my hubby called from his shop saying he had a surprise for me, and that he couldn't wait to get home. Since he's been making all sorts of cool things for our new venture Classic Cottage Living, I assumed it was something new he had made. When he pulled in the driveway, I went out to see what it was that had him all jazzed. He opened the back hatch, and pulled out his old childhood (and now put together) John Deer riding tractor and said it was for me. He told me he knew how much I loved tractors and now I had one of my very own. I was speechless - and that takes a lot, some might say.

I still love to go out and just look at it. First of all because it's a TRACTOR, but even more importantly; to know my husband used to tool around on this great piece of Americana when he was a little boy. He told me the story of his older brother riding it down a hill with one of his friends and breaking it up very badly, probably on purpose. You know how big brothers are sometimes. Funny thing was that his mother kept it all those years, albeit in pieces; and gave it to him about 10 years ago. We've hauled it around some, and nothing was ever done to put it back together, but yet it still remained part of the "stuff' we felt important enough to keep.

Let me tell you, I doubt that I was any less excited than that little boy was when Santa brought him that wonderful bright green tractor on Christmas morning 40+ years ago. Time has passed, but obviously not the thrill of having your very own John Deer Tractor, no matter what the size. What a wonderful man he is to know all the joy such a thing would bring me, I guess I'll keep him (and my little green tractor).