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It’s that time of the year when I am desperately awaiting the arrival of spring, getting restless and hiding indoors, away from the biting cold. I finished Part I of Spring Cleaning earlier this week, the dumpster has been filled and rolled off, just before another snow storm hit Western Mass on Tuesday morning.  Now I’m torn between continuing with our backyard, or focusing my attention and energy (both limited these days) elsewhere. While I decide, I thought I’d tell you a bit about where we are with our living room renovation, and share with you some of my favorite finds this week. (You can read all about the construction phase of our cottage living room makeover HERE. ) I’ve primed all walls and have been looking at color options cohesive with a blue, green and soft yellow scheme we already have going. The white settled in quite nicely, but why keep it simple when you can make things more complex (i.e difficult)? I was re-reading Roger Banks-Pye’ s book, Interior Inspirations, the other day and he is quoted saying that there are few occasions where walls should be left bare white and those few occasions should be discouraged. I tend to agree with Mr. Banks-Pye, which means I’m going to agonize over paint colors for weeks to come.

Spring is in the air here in Western Mass and our neighborhood is buzzing with activity! Isn’t it funny how a little bit of sunshine and clear skies can spring us into action? After months of cold weather, winter storms and snow days, the weather has finally let up and we’re slowly coming out of hibernation. The last couple of weeks I’ve been “enjoying” myself doing a bit of spring cleaning in our front yard, whenever I can find a spare hour or two, gathering twigs and fallen branches, cutting down overgrown shrubs and a particularly invasive species of roses that is hurting some of our trees.