My Quotidian Pursuits At The Cottage

Hello lovely friends,

These past few weeks have been full of all sorts of particulars. Let us have tea, shall we? I'm sipping some green tea {I am forever in need of an eensy bit of natural caffeine} with buttered biscuits {nothing fancy, the utmost simple Bisquick recipe} and the remaining bit of my strawberry preserves from last summer. 

I have managed to capture some delicate photographs as I've been really trying to create a much more lovely portfolio of imagery. I think I am well on my way to having never taken any professional photography classes. What do you think? 

I spent several days cleaning and deciding on a few lovely pieces of furniture for the cottage. I love the refinement of the Victorian Ornate era, but I also love the simplistic primitive humility of a little plain cottage.

I spent one whole day cleaning out the kitchen cupboards, drawers, pantry and guest room. I made 3 trips to the donation center. I must say I feel so refreshed and the energy is full and bustling through the cottage as if there's anticipation of wonderment to ensue. 

I rehung several of my iron skillets, revived a few that were rusted. I also found a new one that I picked up at the thrift store. It's the perfect size for a few scrambled eggs for breakfast mornings.

My BG and I spent time at the fresh market. I am always admiring their displays. It has such a quaint ambiance about it. I believe its the dim lighting that creates a moodiness effect.  

I found some yummy Walker butter shortbread cookies for my tea. I am sorely addicted to those cookie biscuits. I can't help myself from eating the package in its entirety. 

I have gardened and walked this little row of pebbled rocks so many times and yet I came upon these three hearts and I was so tickled to know that I was being blessed by the universe with my most favorite of signs.

More playing with my camera, lighting, and angles. I have not a clue what I'm doing but this is my place of creating and figuring it out as I go along. I hope you'll be patient with me as I find my way.

The gardener and I have been sleeping on a certain side of the bed. I have an injury in my right arm and my BG wanted to switch sides to see if he fared better too. Do you have a certain side of the bed you sleep on?

This week I stripped the bed and started fresh. I donated all the old comforters and sheet sets to the thrift store and picked up a new set at TJ Maxx with a high thread count. We now have one sheet set and I have always gone with white, for white is very versatile. I can bleach them and hang them on the clothesline. There is nothing more refreshing than the faint smell of fresh sun-dried linens.

Some brie cheese tossed in the oven with a touch of garlic and olive oil. I also toasted some sourdough bread in the oven with some freshly grated parmesan cheese. This to me is a meal in itself.

I spent some time on the internet looking for a china teapot to match some thrift store plates that I picked up for a few dollars. I am seeking a bone china teapot, and truly want it to match. I love the softness of the pink in this plate. Soft pink is also one of my brand colors, so I love using it for flat lays and styling.

courtesy of pinterest

I kept Jayne Eyre the movie playing in the background for almost a solid two weeks. When I am working I play the soundtrack at nausea. What type of music do you enjoy?

courtesy of pinterest

Blue is another of my brand colors so I like playing with teacups as they are one of my favorite things to collect. I think I shall eventually gather my bearings on a signature style that is all my own. I did some cookie baking this week. Lemon poppy seed cookies, they are not my favorite, but its variety I seek. I won't be making these again for quite a long time.

When organizing and purging, I take everything out and then sort through. I ask myself these three questions as I hold the items: Do I love it truly? Does it hold a negative memory or energy for me? Is it useful?

The Gardener and I went driving and he helped me seek places to scout out for photo shoots for my blog.

courtesy of getty

I wrote a quite eloquent author proposal for the Mercedes Benz dealership. I am shooting the photos for it this weekend, if the weather permits.

Florida weather has a peculiar way of teaching its residents a sense of adapting to the fickleness. Just when we are getting comfortable, the temperatures rise or we get rain showers with an inconsistency. The mugginess is definetly something to get used to.

I hung some photos of precarious gentleman folk in the hall, and painted up a few silhouettes of the gardener and i.

I made the gardener his tea. I love to try all sorts of different kinds. loose leaf tea is my favorite. We have a darling Teavana tea room in the mall about ten miles away from the cottage. I love to go there, smell and taste the samples of the day.

Yard sales and estate sales will never elude the gardener and I, even if we never buy a thing it's still so much fun to window shop.

Our Brandywine tomatoes have finally stopped dropping, but I can say we had the best bounty we've ever had. They were so wonderful. I had sliced tomatoes and cucumbers every day with my black eyed peas and johnny cake cornbread. The most perfect southern meal to be had surely.

This was an image, as well as the one below I found on Pinterest and its a great inspirational piece for a painting I'd like to paint this week. Do you keep secret pinterest boards?

I ripped apart a bunch more fencing and I plan to patch the pieces together and create a makeshift desk so that I can have a surface to sew on.

I'm purely desperate to get my hands back to smocking, embroidery, and sewing some beautiful summer dresses. I found a wonderfully soft weaved Pima cotton, and I'll be making a shirt out of it with ruffled sleeves, pearl buttons, and a peter pan collar. 

Heres my pile of original victorian clothes that I've collected over the past few years that need to be mended. I have such a pile, I think I may be forced to find new uses for them, as they seem to find themselves in the mending pile more so than I am able to wear them. They are in constant need of being tended to. 

Heres another cabinet {below} that holds medicines, vitamins and essential oils. I aged labels from the office supply store and then used my quill pen to calligraphy on the bottles. 

Here's a TTT {Treasure Trove Tip} when I had to start all over from scratch and I no longer had a supply of old bottles, I made sure that whenever we bought new spices, I'd always buy glass. I then would age the lids with paint to make them appear like they were rusted, and soak the labels off. The metal file drawers were one of the few things that my ex-husband mailed down to me so I stamped some labels with rubber stamps for the bottles. The oils and gummy vitamins are always being used up so I keep them in the same bottles and just hide those in the metal drawers.

 I spent many hours working on my book author proposal so that I can afford to pay for my 13 city book tour. I think it's going to be so much fun, that I can hardly wait. 

How have you been spending your spring thus far? Ihope your'e having a lovely time. 

If you havent signed up for my newletter "The Current" I'd love it if you did. I'm working on a giveaway for signing up, but I havent thought of anything spectacular yet. Do you have any ideas? I'd love to hear from you. 

A Mermaid's Work Ethic

Hello Mermaid Junkies, 

I hope you're doing well. 

I have a little confession to make to you. Apparently, from another's viewpoint, I really used to struggle with a work ethic. Not in the sense of doing what I love, because that to me isn't considered work really. I had always hated the idea of having to go out into the workforce and do something that I couldn't stand. 

Right before I moved from Oklahoma, I was feeling the pressure of going out and getting a "real job" as someone told me. 

So I decided to comply{once again doing what someone else wanted me too} and get a "real job." I decided that if I HAD to get a freaking job, I'd go to Anthropologie because at least there I would get a discount and I have loved Anthro since forever. 

Here's where the situation gets dicey. I want to explain the backstory about this. So let me back up a bit. I get going midbrain thought and tend to get ahead of myself. You know me.

When the decision was made without me, we had to leave my greatest love, California to move to where the work was. Never mind the fact that I wanted to stay in California forever. 

So I was already deeply wounded and resentful towards my ex, at the time. 

He had been fired from his television job in San Diego, and the only job he could get was a tv job from an old boss that used to be in Salt Lake, that was now in Oklahoma. Let's just say, the pay was almost nonexistent in comparison to how we used to live.

So in order to be in a "decent home (quote by my ex) and the kids in a good school system," I was going to have to make at least 300 dollars a month to add to the household income and make the rent. 

I was like, that's totally fine. I know how to make money. I could sell stuff that I make, paint little pictures, do some design jobs on the side, or my all time favorite... have some cool yard sales. That was my thought.

Well, that wasn't good enough apparently. I made almost 500 dollars in one weekend on my first garage sale. 

But here's the thing. When there is a communication gap in a marriage that is on its way to splitsville as it is, no one is hearing anyone.

Ya know what I mean. In order for me to technically support the household, I was expected to get a job like every other person because that's the way he did it. 

Too often, people put their mindset and rules onto another. 

That's what causes people to become disconnected. Because look, I was making up the difference, but because it wasn't me going to a place, clocking in and spending my time there, it wasn't good enough. 

P.S. Side note, when someone is miserable in their own life you can never bend over backwards enough. They will always find a way to make it about you and blame you. Just saying that you should know from my lips to your ears. You will never be enough. Oh and also I lasted at Anthropologie for a sum total of two weeks and my paycheck for all those hours was $109.00. I freaking HATED IT!!! So I quit!

I am a freedom seeker, and I was suffocating ya'll. In more ways than one, I might add. 

So now here we are in the present day, over three years later. I am still one to hate going to a 9~5 job, can't stand it and I will not do it. I'm working on this dream. I'm working hard. And I won't quit until I've achieved it. 

Come to find out, I've learned a few things about lil' ol' me, Raquel. Heres what I've learned and it has been a beautiful gift. 

I actually am a hard hard hard worker! I have a killer work ethic and I have been working my ass off day in and day out since before even Jeffrey and I met. Now, I don't clock into a job and work my day's wages, but I work hard none the less. I work at home, writing this blog, creating YouTube content, creating podcast content, work in my little cottage by doing projects, sell my little paintings on Etsy, sell things on Offer Up... and the list goes on. 

I am just like many women, probably just like you reading this. I am a mother that ran a whole household, kept a beautiful well working schedule, taught my children to work by instilling in them responsibility, self-awareness, and independence. Still managed to create a lovely little underwater world for them. Kept them shielded from the awfulness that was a fraudulent marriage. And yes, if I had to do it again, all over from scratch I sure the hell would. But do not ever say I don't have a good work ethic. I am the epitome of work ethic. Women nowadays... hell, even forever do not get the credit for raising great children. Being a stay at home mother is a thankless job. We are the dream makers. We are the ones that will change the world. So don't ever listen to someone spouting off at the mouth that you don't have a work ethic, or that you don't like to work. My ass...

It has made me stronger than ever. I am an all out BADASS Entrepreneur! I am actually proud of that ya'll. 

I can bet that you resonate with my story and that you are a badass too. Own that badassery ladies. You deserve it. I have faith and trust in you. I truly believe there is NOTHING, NOTTA, ZILCH that we as women can not do. 

I know in the midst of me creating a business, that its tough as shit. I'm not gonna lie. Any sane person would have given up by now. I work 14 plus hours, long into the night trying to understand dumb shit like Instagram stories, and how to get traffic to my blog, try to figure out why the hell my little paintings aren't selling on Etsy. No damn money coming in, and whats that telling me internally? I know it's my mindset, and I'm figuring that out. I still have some money beliefs that I must work on. But today I am happy that I have you to talk with. To go through this process together, and for you to see that I go through shit just like ya'll do. I want to go on this voyage/journey together. That we as a community can learn. 

Because if there's one thing that bites my ass in irritability, is when women don't share their life story. They always act like they have things figured out. That to me is clear as day BULLSHIT. Just be real people, is what I wanna say to their faces. ya feel me?

This is the stuff that keeps me up at 2 am in the morning ya'll.

So this post is a reminder to listen to your own heart, follow your own path and never listen to anyone except yourself. My motto for this year is a quote from Michael Phelps. 

"Stay in your own lane. keep swimming forward and don't worry about what everyone else is doing. Don't look over at other lanes." ~Michael Phelps

Meaning, don't look and compare yourself to other women! Period, don't do it. Because if you do, you'll soon be drowning in lack, feeling shitty and none of its true. So knock that crap out. muawhhhh...I'll see you beautiful Mersisters tomorrow.

Yours til my next swim, Raquel