KEEPING YOUR FEET DRY IN THE SNOW
So this morning, out of the clear blue, Joe asks me about a tiny house. I am sitting there looking at him thinking what in the world is he talking about. He then throws the bombshell that he wants to build a tiny house for us and he wants it to be between 400 and 800 square feet. ? Does the man not know who he is married too??? I could use a closet that size just by myself. Lol!!! He then starts talking about being minimalistic and downsizing. My idea of downsizing is to get rid of anything that I haven’t worn in three years not limiting myself to three of everything.
He wants me to start looking for plans and then he came up with a brilliant idea. He wants me to ask YOU gurls. He said there is power in numbers and that surely one of you have a cute tiny house (cabin, over the garage, MIL suite) that you might have a plan for. Finally, I asked him WHERE he intended to build this tiny house. I was trying to figure out if he was wanting to sell everything we own and live in a 20×20 house. I like togetherness but that might be a little excessive. So, I am humoring him for the moment and hoping he gets over this phase, but if you have a good plan or website for one please let me know. I can always use it as another closet. LOL!!!
If I was going to describe my outfit in one word I would say, colorful. I bought this dark teal cardigan earlier in the fall but I have never worn it. I had it laid out but nothing ever seemed to be what I was looking for. However, I was moving some things around in my closet and I happened upon this wonderfully thick sweater by Louis Dell’Olio. It is a gorgeous color called, Port, but it comes in several other colors. I like the fact that it is a longer version than what I have gotten in the past. I loved the two colors together so I decided to see if I could come up with an outfit. Here is where I wore this sweater the last time and it was one of my favorite looks.
I started looking through my jewelry first to see if I had some things that would tie the two colors together. The Aspen earrings caught my eye first. These light blue babies are a 2″ drop and they have an antiqued look to them that I really like. I put the Idina bracelet on and took these pictures. But, when I checked out the pictures in the house I went and changed to the Wanda bracelet instead. I didn’t like the Idina colors with this look and the Wanda was just plain silver which went with my collection of Alex and Ani bracelets. 
Did you notice in some of the pictures it looked like I had small bleach stains on my outfit? That was snow flurries that were flying around. It snowed about 3 or 4 inches and I wanted to keep my feet dry. I put on some thick wool socks and then pulled on my gorgeous tiffany blue Hunter Boots. These babies were a Christmas present from Joe one year and he had to look high and low to find them. I, of course, picked out a color that was as rare as hen’s teeth. These boots will probably get a lot of wear once the spring rains start up.
Back to my cardigan or duster, it was from Cato Fashions but they never keep there clothing up very long. I looked and it is no longer available. I have actually quit going there because I can’t get it on the blog fast enough for you to be able to purchase the item. I did find some (similar) ones that I will link to below.
In case you are wondering about the scarf, it was a present many many years ago from a young lady who was working at the lumber company. She went on a trip to London and she brought me back this scarf. I love it and I try to wear it at least once or twice a year.
It is time for me to start trying to get my “tan” on. We are supposed to go to Orlando the last of this month for a trade show and I hope to get to take Emersyn and Beckham to Disney at least one day. I am so pasty white from the winter that I wouldn’t put on a pair of shorts if you paid me right now. I have been trying to use my body moisturizer with a few drops of the Active Hydration Serum in it on all of my body. The winter has really made my skin even drier than it normally is, which is terrible. As a Valentine gift from me, from now until midnight on February 14th I will be gifting a body moisturizing lotion or a sunless tanner to EVERY order placed as a Preferred Customer. So, if you would like R+F as YOUR valentine present then you need to tell your hubby to get in touch with me. Or, do what I do and order it for yourself and tell the hubby not to worry. Believe it or not, he will be relieved!!! Go to www.tstephens5.myrandf.com and hit the shop button. Once you go to checkout it will prompt you to login or sign up as a Preferred Customer or a Retail Customer. Remember, become a PC and get the free gift mailed to you from me.
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Love the color combination on today’s outfit, don’t let Joe talk you into a tiny house, wouldn’t work for you! Lol. Linda
That is what I said, too, Linda. Lol!
I think Joe just likes teasing you! He knew we’d all say no way, lol! Loving your outfit!
Lol! That might be what he was doing. Hahaha
Tell Joe that the Unabomber lived in a tiny house! No way could I live in one!
Maybe that is what drove him crazy. Lol!
Oh I love this outfit…do you have trouble getting a thick sweater on under another sweater? Seems I have to tug and straighten til I get the sleeves just right under the other sweater! I like when you style clothes from Cato as that’s a place that I can shop at close to me. Even if they are out of what you have on, it’s still ideas for us to go on. It’s kind of like when you style clothes from boutiques, we can’t get those but it gives us great ideas. I think downsizing for a “get away” place is a nice idea but it’s also another place you have to clean and do up-keep on as my hubby and I have talked about that. We also thought if we were going to invest in another place we would “have” to go there most weekends to utilize it and that would mean not traveling or doing other fun weekend things.
Thanks, Sandy. I’ll remember that. When I am putting a sweater over a sweater I just hold on to the first sweaters sleeve hem as I pull the other one on over it. Then I adjust the arms to the way I want it to be. After it is on it stays put.
I like to watch the tiny house show series. They are adorable! Cool storage! Less to clean….but live in it full time? Not sure. So we bought a camper! Fun to pretend!
We just sold an RV because we weren’t using it. He is wanting something to get away to but not have all the mess and expense.
It’s not April, right?
That was my first thought when I started to read your blog this morning, so that means he’s not fooling. Well…lets just say he’s only fooling himself because we all know that unless he’s planning to keep your existing home as your personal closet he’s going to need a miracle. Here’s my plan for you Joe…plan to let this dream go. ?
I should have asked him if it was April! Lol! He is planning on keeping the existing house. This was going to be a getaway house. We had an RV that we never used and finally sold. I don’t know what makes him think that we would use this.
My advice is rent something that size first and use it the way you’d use your own, like have family visit, friends over, etc. You’ll learn pretty quickly if it makes sense for you…
As a vacation or getaway is what we are looking at. Even then, I am not sure that I want something so small.
We have a large home, with a pool, and we throw around downsizing. Our grandkids are getting older and don’t live close to us so we just don’t utilize all this space like we once did?
Hard decisions ahead. Like your look today, colorful and fun.
We do need to downsize but this is more for like a getaway home.
I love the idea of a small get-away cabin ! We found one about 10 years ago – an A-frame on a quiet cove at a nearby lake, which we really do enjoy, and the bonus for us is when our ‘kids’ come up with their kids, they always have a place to stay. It is small – maybe 1000 sq. ft – 2 bedrooms, 2 small baths, a tiny kitchen but a comfortably sized tall ceiling living/dining area (remember, it’s an A-frame). But most of our time is outside, where we enjoy a screen porch, a covered gazebo/patio and a covered boat/fishing dock.
Susan, I think that is kind of what he has in mind. Could you send me a drawing of how it is laid out?
I’ll try to send a couple of photos in a private message via facebook. But in case that doesn’t work, see if you can get a mental image from this: You enter the house via a sliding glass door off the screen porch into the living/dining/kitchen area which is all open. The smallest bedroom (houses 2 twin beds & a trundle) is to the left, off a short hall behind the kitchen and the bath is directly behind the kitchen. An open staircase from back of the living room area leads to a sizeable loft which overlooks the living room where the second bathroom is directly above the ground floor bath. That loft area is quite spacious – there is ample room for a queen bed, several chairs and another twin bed in the window seat area. The entire house is quite cozy and comfortable. However, the only decent closet is in the downstairs bedroom, and it’s just a ‘reach-in’ closet, not a walk-in.
Ha-Ha!! I had only read the first sentence of your post when I immediately thought “that would be a closet for you”! For some reason, my husband is obsessed with these tiny homes too. He has shown me many of them on the internet. Then I remind him that we have already downsized twice in the past 12 years and each time is very expensive. I always completely redo the new homes to make them “mine”, meaning that I do expensive bathroom and kitchen remodeling and usually buy all new furniture too. But maybe that is why he wants a tiny home….I couldn’t do these major projects in a tiny home! Some of our friends have gotten RV’s as a tiny home and they are traveling around the country in them. Now, that appeals to me a little more but he HATES that idea. So, I’m really not sure what this obsession is about these tiny homes he keeps showing me.
Brenda, we are on the same page. Every time we start talking about buying a vacation home we start out small and then as we talk it gets bigger and bigger and bigger. I figure that is what would happen with this too.