Sometimes I surprise myself.
A long time ago….like, three or four years ago? And going back probably ten years before that…. I wanted white switches and outlets and plates. It was the in thing. Those yucky old cream-colored switches and outlets? Sooooo over. My poor ex-husband re-did every outlet and switch in our house in Texas. Then we moved to North Carolina and I made him re-do every cream-colored switch and outlet in that house to white. (Amazing that I divorced him rather than the other way around after that, LOL.)
Now? I built a new house and had cream-colored switches and plates put in! Why? Those white ones? Sooooo over. Man, I am fickle. But fashion is like that, isn’t it? What goes around, comes around. And the paint–neutral all the way. Used to, I had to have color, as in COLOR. Now, I want color (without caps)–but I want neutral color. Is it changes in style sense? Too much HGTV? Or just lessons learned in decorating over time if you tie yourself too strongly to a particular color scheme? I don’t know, but I love, love, love the paint I put in this house.
I love the finishes, too. We did everything in brushed nickel when we could, silver when we couldn’t find an item in brushed nickel. But if you’d asked me ten years ago? I wanted gold. Oh, how I wanted gold. Gold was the sign of upscale, modern, stylish. Silver was sooooo over. (I’m not sure I’d even heard of brushed nickel back then.)
But this view? It never goes out of style. I figure whatever else I get tired of later and want to change, I’ll never want to change this.
That one house we can see across the river? That is a new house that is built on the exact spot of my great-grandfather’s house. My great-grandfather owned about 800 acres directly across the river from our farm. In the summer when the trees are leafed out, we can’t see out that way because we are secluded by the trees from the river and the hills and my great-grandfather’s farm. That’s good. I like seclusion. But in the winter, we can see the hills and the river and my great-grandfather’s farm–and I like that, too.
And now, a totally gratuitous picture of Buttercup venturing outside the new farmhouse. Yes! The cats are settling in and starting to explore the farm.
And here they are, the girls. Okay, Dookie the farm shih-tsu is not a girl, but with that hair, I think I can get away with that remark.
Plus, with that hair, even if he wasn’t a dog, he couldn’t read since it’s always in his eyes.
Say hello to Maggie and Roxie, our two new attack dogs.
Okay, they aren’t attack dogs.
Unless you have some pig ears in your hand. In that case, good luck. 
