I’m weary of swords and courts and kings. Let us go into the garden. 🌸 Mary Johnston🌸 Chair dance anyone? Oui! ☺️ MUSICA
I ask myself the same question every day when I get up, “How do I move myself forward today?” It’s a great question, it gets me moving . . . because, I have places to go and people to see, and I need to work diligently in the direction of my dreams. Or I’m not happy. Even my tiniest steps forward add up!
For several years now, I’ve been on a mission, to learn more about the writing process, to see if I could figure out how to write my memoir books, to figure out how to get them 
published, and then to get it done. And while I did it, many other things in my life went onto the back burner. I was busy! And, one thing I wasn’t doing was deep cleaning, no good old-fashioned organization, or home care for my darling dear house that deserves better. But it got me for a mom, and 
therein lies the problem. As you are about to see. I can’t believe I am going to show such terrible photos. Normally I clean up before I take the pictures. It’s probably the worst I’ve ever seen it, mainly because we were hardly home last year, and when we got back, I began to “drop off” stuff in my studio, move it out of my view “until I had time to clean it.” I’m thinking someone else out there may experience this problem, so I thought I would do some before and after photos and talk about Spring Cleaning and how to de-clutter, lighten up, and simplify your life.💞 Shield your eyes, here we go . . .
The question is: Who’s in charge here? It was a daunting project to begin. I almost didn’t know where to start, every cupboard and drawer in our house is stuffed to the gills. But as 
time goes on, I’m becoming quite cutthroat about it. I choose emptiness. I took pictures of some of the harder things to get rid of. Now I own the memories associated with them forever! The bookshelves are full of books, some of which have been there since we moved into the house in 1989, any new books since then have had to find another place to go ~ I keep inserting tiny bookshelves in corners of the house, packing it all in even further, and now the only place left is the floor. But the floor is already almost totally covered with projects and boxes of who knows what, it’s layered. You could do a dig here, like James Michener’s The Source.
I began to empty the shelves and take most of the books to the living room, where I’m packing them to give to the second-hand bookstore on the Island. Not all of them of course. I kept the good ones! But not too many. I want empty shelves. I want empty shelves so bad. Room for new thoughts, new ideas! Room to breathe.
Because I can no longer live like this. I think it’s stealing my energy just having to look at it. There are three stacks of original art in plastic pages on the floor under the shelves! I don’t recognize the rest of it, it’s too much of a jumble. Stacks of books, stacks of papers, crowded Beatrix Potter people. I had to design cups on top of the mess in order to get them done in time. Doing a Willard in this mess would be impossible!
All so wrong. That door to the front hall has been blocked closed for maybe three years (It was way worse than this, I’d already moved most of the stuff!). And as I begin to move through it, I ask myself, do I need this, is it adding value to my life, and if the answer is no, then I say bye-bye! I want smooth surfaces, table tops especially. I’ve been getting happier and happier every day, and lighter and lighter, and basically, I’m downright giddy now! Waking up singing! The unbearable lightness of being!
It doesn’t look like this anymore. And as I’ve done it, shelf by shelf, going through everything piece by piece, file by file, box by box, I found interesting things I’d forgotten all about . . . and realized I was engaged in a form of treasure hunt.
I washed each shelf which had not seen the light of day since 1989. Basically the answer to how to do this, is one shelf at a time.
Yard by yard, it’s very hard, but inch by inch, it’s a cinch.
See the cupboards underneath? Same thing, one at a time. And that mess on the 
worktable? That BIG pile on the left is recipes, ideas, and quotes for my Tea Book which I’ve been adding to and saving for years, with no place to put it. It’s not there anymore. Now it’s organized, and my Tea Book project has one of those clean empty shelves all for itself!
And, I think, in my most maniacal of moments, now I have room ~ I can go antiquing again! 😜
Here’s one of the treasures I found, this card was in a recipe box I did for my mom around 1979. I forgot all about it, I don’t think I’ve seen it since then.
I’d brought home my mom’s recipe file from California, and inside were handwritten recipes and letters, from my mom, my grandma, and my great grandma. I also had recipes from my dad and my sisters . . .
And this detailed letter to my mom from my grandfather Willard’s mother, my mom’s “Gram,” and my great grandmother . . . her typing strokes are indented in the soft blue paper ~ Sioux City, Iowa is written at the top ~ and she is writing my mom in California about the only news that ever really matters to our lives. Turn off the TV, and this is what there is, the real stuff of life. 💌
This is the rest of the box I did for my mom . . . so I put all the recipes from everyone else in it . . . and a card explaining who is who, for the future people who will someday find it, maybe my brother’s and sister’s children, or who knows. Maybe some rescuing type of person in a second-hand store. But I have a picture of it now, so it’s mine forever, and the box will be saved in a special family file box.
Then I began on the file cabinet, pulled out each file, went through it, threw out tons of useless paperwork, then rearranged and put back what mattered. This de-cluttering adventure is a long-term project, but I would rather do it now when I choose to, than later, when I have to! Right now I just want to! Not all of it is memories, some of it is just stuff I don’t need. I’m recycling, donating, and throwing out. I already cleaned the kitchen and emptied the sideboard in the dining room, and got rid of 
half of it, and after I get this room done, I go upstairs! That’s also when I will get to start seriously painting four hours a day. As soon as the studio is clean and I feel the spaciousness of it, I’ll dip my brush in water, and hear the ringing sound as it hits the side of the dish and put my first color on the paper, early one morning, in the quiet, with my tea and my cat. I don’t think I’ll get the whole house done until sometime around August. I go as slow as I want. I go to the garden, I stare at the dogwood tree in bloom. Joe and I go to the nursery. I’m planning a tea party. I shoot hair bands for my kitty. I talk on the phone to Siobhan and Rachel in England. I design cups. I brake for John’s Fish Market chocolate shakes! But all while I’m lightening my life, and indulging in the treasure hunt and the joy of memory.
Luv-lee letters like this get photographed, and put into a “children’s letters” file. I’ve looked up names on some of the old letters ~ and amazingly found and followed them on Instagram (@susanbranchauthor)! Sometimes I don’t like the Internet, and sometimes, I love it!
And now, I have all my ideas for books in one place, in files, and NOT, as was before, in piles on the floor. Every day I feel better, I feel more and more inspired about what will come next . . . and think of the words I heard on some TV show, ” I tremble on the brink of life’s next great adventure.” But I can’t get there until I am out from under the weight of this stuffed house!
I’ve consolidated, whittled down, and distilled . . . honestly, so much of it just didn’t belong here anymore. I saved a few old things, like products I’ve made . . . put them into boxes, labeled them, and up the attic they go, saved for posterity. A very little bit of it. Stuff I hope that someday someone else will want. But if they don’t, at least it’s consolidated. I’m doing this thing just like I redecorate. Taking everything off the shelves out of the cupboards, washing and cleaning them, and putting back only what I can’t live without, and getting rid of the rest.
I had to keep a little bit of this! Just in cases.
And this too!
And of course the piles of original artwork . . .
All organized and stacked on those empty shelves where I can access them. Most of my original art is in an old bank safe in California. Each book I’ve written is totally intact, all the original pages are there, and each book is in its own acid-free box. 
Look at that. I’m making white space . . . ahhh, emptiness . . .
A finished person is a boring person. 💙Anna Quindlen
Don’t worry, I’m not the minimalist type, for me that would be going too far. And I’m not done. Only about half way right now . . . but I can see the trees in the forest! I thought you might like to see some of the treasures I found:
First off, this. The box of everything, all the photos, all the memorabilia, the diary pages, even some souvenirs, everything from the trip we took in 2001 with our nieces Heidi and Holly, to London, Paris, and Bath (where we first discovered the English Countryside) . . . our theme music from that trip was Dusty Springfield from the British Invasion cassette we had in the car . . . we sang as we traveled hill and dale . . . we still sing it. Joe sang it too . . .🎵 I don’t know WHAT to do with my self . . .🎵
Here we are boarding the ship in New York. In this photo, Heidi, on the left, is 11, my 
brother Brad’s daughter, who grew up in Colorado. On the right is Holly, she’s 12, she belongs to my sister Mary and grew up in California. The cousins had met only once before we took them away across the wide ocean for six wonderful weeks. We’d been planning it since they were six. It was the very best time I ever had. They were wonderful and funny and smart! The box with everything from this trip was on a high shelf here in my studio and hadn’t seen the light of day in years. I still have to go through it, and someday, when I get the photos scanned, I’ll do a post about that magical trip.
Something else, a note from my dad. Writing me about the correct way to drink tea.💞 Now it’s in my mom’s recipe box.
And this painting my dad did of his beloved dog, Chief.
And my mom’s jacks and balls. Which I labeled and saved.
And I found this photo of me and my brother Jim with my cute mom and dad, which I don’t remember seeing before, something else to put in her recipe box. Too bad about the over-exposure, but still . . . look how their arms lean into each other. They are in it together. And there’s a picket fence back there! I must have seen it and fell in love!
And this book was in the pile. I still remember the night I met Julia and how much it meant to me.
Deep in the files was this little notebook I used when writing my first book with all kinds of little reminders, quotes and notations, and even grocery lists. The address of Little Brown, and Random House. Lots of dreams tied up in this messy little book.
And I found the hollyhock seeds sent to me by Nicoline, one of our girlfriends from Holland, over a year ago! But I wasn’t here to plant them last spring, and we also went away in the fall, so they didn’t get planted then either ~ I decided to see if they would sprout, and look, they did!
Kind of a miracle . . .
You might remember Nicoline from our picnic in England! She and her husband came from Holland and she brought her own Petey doll to show me!
And now her hollyhocks are planted in my garden . . . I get so many plants from my girlfriends, I call my garden a friendship garden!
This was what it looked like outside this morning, the wisteria has begun to bloom, Lowely’s bluebells are blooming too, at the far corner of the picket fence!
I bring the blooming things in for the little shelf over my kitchen sink . . .
And took a photo of the inside of the little bells of Lily of the Valley . . .
And, you may ask, what has Joe been doing all this time! Oh, we are a team! He has been doing to the yard, what I have been doing to my studio. He’s been thatching, raking, mulching, top dressing, seeding and watering. Men ask, “What do women want?” But they should know . . . This is every woman’s aphrodisiac, someone to build a life with.💞 When we stand next together, our arms press together.
💛💛💛
You can hear Jack meowing! I love it when he talks in a video, not easy to get him to do it!
I heard the ferry boat whistle just now like a long musical note. 🎵 Sometimes I forget where I am, how close the sea is, until I hear the boat whistle!
And as so many of you know, the Studio has been busy too . . . sending out your new English bone china cups . . . 💞
And these are the people who’ve been making that happen. Alfredo, Sheri and Kellee at the Studio. Couldn’t do it without these wonderful people! Monday is Kellee’s birthday!
And I got mine!! Just as excited as everyone else!
I’m very proud of them. It’s hard finding really beautiful things, and then being able to afford to get them made, especially in foreign countries! Now we are importers! We talk palettes, air freight, and customs! TMI for sure!
It’s been a lot of fun on Twitter, so many Girlfriends have written and sent photos, saying, “Got mine!” Marcia (@msmrph) sent this darling photo of herself and her best friend Julie captioned “Tea for two Besties!” Makes my day! Our cup club is not very big, but it’s very wonderful!
We’re working to make your Christmas especially easy this year. I know it’s a long time until then, but in order to get things made in time, we have to start now… we love planning surprises. Especially for you. Like our dream charms. So many of you have asked us to bring them back, so we did. 💞 Here they are! I think they’ll be in our web store the first couple of weeks of June.
We reordered three of our most popular charms . . . Autumn (in that first photo), A Fine Romance (see the hedgerows?👍),
and the ever-popular “Be an Elf,” all with small gift cards . . .
And in the midst of cleaning the Studio, sort of on top of the layers, I did manage to finish designing the bottoms, the handles, and the backs of the new mugs, and sent them off to England where the process of manufacturing has already begun. They are supposed to be here by August! We’re taking no chances they would be late for Christmas, and we need that Autumn cup first! And, yes, they are in the web store for Presale right now! I know it’s hard to think Christmas, but please try, because, like with the last ones, when these are gone, they are gone. You’ll be glad when December comes and you don’t have to go Christmas shopping! ❤️ Here they are:
Santa Claus is coming to town! In 16 ounces of fine bone China from “the Potteries” in Staffordshire, England! And, yes, they are all dishwasher and microwave safe!
This is the back . . . (only a mockup, made from paper in these photos, will look a lot better in real life!)
I did a construction-paper chain for the handle. Oh by gosh by golly!
And we have a 16-ounce Bluebird of Happiness. Which is going to look really good in my new blue kitchen! 💙
Here’s the back. It’s trying to be whimsical!
And the handle. I think it’s adorable. But still, only paper!
And my Autumn cup is a little bit smaller, 11 ounces, because you asked! I’ll do one for every season, all this same size. The only difference between this design and the real life one to come, the handle is actually going to be on the other side . . . This quote will actually be on the “front” of the cup. . .
And this will be the back ~ the handle will be on the other side from what you see here, and the squirrel will be on the left facing the other way . . . I decided I liked it better like that. Decisions, decisions.
The handle. 🍂 Signifies abundance.🍁
And now, my Martha’s Vineyard, Isle of Dreams 16-ounce cup. You drink from it, and I hear, could be a rumor, but I think not, your dreams will come true. ⚡️
It’s a short trip to the Island, via cup. 🛳
And here’s the handle. 💙
Be sure to read the small print on the ordering page, it explains lots of things, like what we are doing, and why, when we retire each of the cups . . . too long for the blog, but extra reading while ordering and good clarification! Hope you like them!
Now, last but definitely not least, Jack. He has taught me a couple of new tricks. You know 
how cats jump up to rub on your leg? Well, he gets on the table and rubs (sort of butts) my forehead, and now I softly butt him back, and we have a meeting of the minds. He puts his head near mine and wants me to do it. We are blood cat brothers. He also LOVES the running water in the bathroom . . . we go there to play . . . he is rather calm in this video, because I have the camera and he knows it, but usually he makes me turn the water on and off really fast, he bites it and grabs it and sometimes he comes out of there wet! It’s his secret life. Joe doesn’t even know about this. How do I explain that I’m being trained by the cat?!
💙💙
And one more thing, I have a surprise for you . . . I thought we’d give away one of these new cups! If you already have yours, it’s okay, you’ll have a best-friend gift all ready to go!
And whoever our lucky winner is will get their choice of which one! In Love with Nature on the left, Little Things in the middle, or Love on the right. All you have to do is leave a comment! And in a week or so, we’ll get Vanna back from Bali (I think that’s where she is ~ she’s hard to keep up with!) to pull the winning name. And I hope it’s YOU! 🌸
Bye for now Girlfriends, have a wonderful day! Love and ❌’s, Me.
Oops! P.S. Almost forgot to say, in case anyone will be around, I’ll be signing books and visiting at Titcomb’s Book Shop on Wednesday, June 7, from 1 to 3pm … joining this wonderful, independent, family-owned bookstore in celebration of their 50th Anniversary! Please come by and say hello if you can! It’s on Cape Cod in East Sandwich, click above for details. There will be cupcakes, and you don’t need a ticket to come! 😘
Love this post about organizing and cleaning!!! Your home is so beautiful and I love how you and Joe make it a space you would not want to leave unless there is a beautiful place to venture out and see. You both have a gift for making a home a “Home Sweet Home”.
Love,
Angie from Arkansas
Never have found one thing more important than home, no matter what size, from the rooms I rented in other people’s houses, to my own little apartments, to my parent’s house in Smallville, to Holly Oak, and the one I’m in now, they have all been heaven to me.
So glad you shared about clutter and cleaning it up. I think it’s very honest and refreshing to show that life gets messy but we can conquer it eventually. Good for you!
This blog came to me at just the right time! I need to do what you have done. My husband passed away in 2015, and it took me over a year and a half to go through his clothes and some related personal effects. But the rest of the house! This so needs doing! You are inspiration, Susan; wish me good fortune in now continuing on!
I wish you the very best of good fortune. Be relentless, be ruthless, and take lots of naps!
I love your blogs and can’t get enough of them.
thank you for sharing with us.
Thank you Helen!
I had to chuckle when I saw your before pictures of your work space, I wished mine looked that good!! I’m enjoying following you on Instagram too, little pops of loveliness in my day.
There are too many Jody Fields … I went looking but wasn’t sure which was yours!
You are so kind, it’s jodyannfields, not much there yet, hoping to use it to track snippets of my day to day life. One runs into the other so quickly and before you know it the year is gone, moments are so easily forgotten.
SO true, anything you can do to keep it all alive for future enjoyment is a wonderful thing.
I feel calmness when I read your blog. It always takes me back to childhood, a simpler time for sure. When it pops up on my email I grab a cup of tea and have a quiet time filled with smiles and some laughter. I am not sure we can feel a connection with someone we have never met, but I do with you. See you next time!
And vice versa, even before we met, when I was alone in Holly Oak writing my first book, I felt the connection then. It was really more like a letter from home than a cookbook . . . just happened to have recipes in it. As lure, to find you all.💞
I loved todays post about decluttering. I have been “decluttering” for about a year now. It feels so good to drop boxes of things off at the donation stores for others to enjoy.
I love your mugs! It would be wonderful to have one. Maybe I should go declutter some more so I have a special space for it “just in case I win!”
Good idea!
Susan—
Great blog entry–you have made me feel so good! My office, guest bedroom and my bedroom all look like your shelves, cabinets and table tops. I have started trying to organize and I like that you have given yourself time to get it complete. I keep telling myself I am going too slow and it needs to be done now! HaHaHa! I am so enjoying my mugs. I know they are dishwasher safe and microwave safe but I hand wash them when I am finished and put them safely away. So excited that you are bringing back the charms. Love mine but would like the whole set. Have gotten so many questions about them. I love telling about them. You have a wonderful day and hope I get lucky on the mug give-away. Have so many friends who would love this as a gift.
Chris from St. Louis
A little a day will get you there! Nice to hear from you Chris!
Susan, I didn’t think it was possible, but you’ve done it! You’ve made yourself even MORE relatable to us everyday people. You inspire in so many ways, and now you’re inspiring me again…..to start this same process of releasing that which we don’t love to make room for peace in our homes and our minds. Thank you for your honesty. Recovering from surgery, I can start with one little area at a time and I know the end result will be wonderful. Have a blessed day, as you have blessed mine!
I’m an everyday person too, that’s why it’s so easy! Thank you Karen! Feel back to normal soon!
Wonderful inspiration!! Good job, Susan!! 🙂 I have to tell you, the letter you shared from your “Gram” brought tears to my eyes. My Grandmother & I wrote all the time and she would write me letters much like that one. I do wish for those types of letters now…. The picture of your parents is precious. That’s just how my husband & I are, even 25 years and 4 children later. I appreciate that so much.
Thanks for a chance to win one of your beautiful mugs. I don’t have it in the budget to buy one (yet), but am always hopeful when you have one for Vanna to give away. 🙂
You are very lucky Ann! 💞 Such a blessing and not all that easy to find! “Gram” was my mom’s Gram, but yes, with me moving so far away from home, my own grandmother and I wrote all the time too. I have lots of her letters, she always started them, “Sue Darling.” Treasures to me, and I have enough of them to share that precious handwriting with her great grandchildren and even great greats.
Yes, I am very blessed indeed! My Grandmother lived in Charleston, S.C. and I lived in Idaho (we moved there when I 6 years old). Grandmother would send me coupons, clippings from the local newspaper and recipes that she typed (with lots of typ-os) because her handwriting was so hard to read! 🙂 We used to laugh as we tried to “decipher” her handwriting, often having to guess what she was saying by the context of the letter! 🙂
Just loving your blog this time! so full of beauty and life! Hoping to have a chance to win a mug, Little Things would be my choice, I believe. Best wishes with the white space in your house–I have a big job ahead of me as well. Fortunately the treasures uncovered can be fun, and the feeling of accomplishment when finished is great. I have set myself a goal, now must get started!
Your de-cluttering inspires me to do the same and I am slowly getting that done. Thinking about the family bits and pieces, like you. I have children but they won’t want it all but lots of nieces and nephews too, plan to start watching who will cherish what. Off to order the new mugs!
Thanks for the inspiration! 🙂 I’ve already begun the kitchen cupboards, but feeling the ‘call’ to get busy on YEARS of photos, scraps of memories and even a few unfinished baby books…all gathered in boxes and needing to be scanned, sorted and prepped to find homes with my eight kids. My mood is greatly improved and I’ll be moving forward, treating it all like the treasure hunt it is! <3
My mom gifted me with all three of the mugs and I love them all but if I had to pick a favorite I think it would be the little things one. I love our posts, they inspire me and make me happy, and for that I thank you. My cat, whose name is Alley Cat drinks her water the same way. I can fill bowls with water and leave them all over the house but she will wait for me to turn on the faucet and let it drip and then she drinks, plays and bathes. Crazy cat! Thanks
Omg you are saving my life Susan. The Martha’s Vineyard is the greatest book yet. I’m in the middle of the same thing that started you on your move and it’s so inspiring to know that all turned out good. Would love to win a mug wouldn’t a good sign for me but just reading the book is the best thing ever. Thanks for writing such a painful story and showing all the good that can happen.
Oh it makes me so happy to hear that Noelle. I really never thought I was writing just my own story . . . I hardly know a person who hasn’t gone through it, but a more confusing thing I never faced! I hope it helps you!
We are so blessed to have a Susan Branch in this world. You make everyone as happy and loving as you. Thanks for your posts…you make the day a wonderful one…keep writing…we need it. Love to all ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Your blog posts brighten my day. I usually wait a day to completely read them so as to savor the post longer. Take care and enjoy a Vineyard spring.
Donna in Michigan
So inspired by your post! Would be so happy to get one of your precious mugs!
Oh Susan! Thanks for the post…I’ve torn myself away from it so I can look forward to more reading tonight. I actually decided last night to clean my art room table and hutch today and then woke up to your post! This means I may actually get it done because Of YOUR finished pictures…it seems possible. I’m impressed by the files…inspired to add new fun art-relevant labels. Wonderful post! . ❤️ the wisteria, etc. Just got the okay to start building my home in the country (near the ranch we still have where I grew up) …excited and sometimes scared almost to pieces over the work to come…but, oh, the peace. Hugs to you!
It will be so wonderful when it’s done! A dream! Congratulations Janette!
The letter from your great-grandmother seems so familiar. My grandmother used to write letters home (to Iowa, from California), and received many in return. Little snippets of life….a time and place long gone. I love all three of the new cups, but my favorite is the Isle of Dreams. All my finger and toes are crossed. Thank you for your artwork and blog and books and dishes and everything!!
Perfect timing on this post. I’m a high school teacher and I’ve been thinking about what I’d like to accomplish over my summer vacation this year. Decluttering it is! OH, and I’d like to win the cups, please. 🙂
Happy summer Lisa! Thank you for what you do, you deserve the summer off!!! xoxo
Hi Susan, Love the clutter-mess 📚🗂 to uncluttered-shine✨! I think we all have a room or two that needs a little decluttering! Thx for being so brave to ‘show-&-tell’! (Haha!) Love the mugs, current and future! Love your fun Vanna drawings 🎟 and the hope of always waiting to hear MY name chosen!!! We know you’re a busy 🐝 bee, but love to hear your process and daily shanagins! I’m a lover of pretty teacups, nice linens, black & white kitties, nesting & homemaking too … Love my ‘job’ !!! Keep sharing all your ‘in-house’ 🏠 fun!!!
Kindred spirits Linda! xoxo
Heartfelt thanks, dear Susan! We truly appreciate all the time that you spend replying to our comments. It feels like a chat between friends over tea (in the cutest new cups!). After you send us a ‘love letter’ from your heart, I know how lovely it is to hear from everyone. It’s humbling… and the very best part of connecting with kindred spirits everywhere!
Sending rainy day hugs,
Dawn (in Illinois)
♡♡
P.S. Wouldn’t it be fun to design cups, plates, or a tea pot with a watercolor of your white picket fence garden???? So many of us have been inspired to create white picket fence gardens by your Summer book. Mine is an Herb & Tea Garden, the ‘heart’ of my garden, built with love! ♡
I receive so many photos of picket-fence gardens from our Girlfriends, makes me happy to see them! I love mine so so so much! I know you do too! Joy of life, that little thing. One of those amazing “little things” that give back year after year after year, every time you look out the window! xoxo
Dear Susan,
You are such a brave girl. Whether you are opening the door to your messy house or revealing your broken heart, you give us all the courage to admit our imperfections and with that knowledge to make creative changes to improve our lives.
My three beautiful mugs arrived and have a front row seat in my newly-cleaned cupboard. To make room for them, I donated like-new older mugs to my local no-kill animal shelter shop. A win-win situation!
Thank you, you are an inspiration!
We’re all in this together, it’s our job, as girlfriends, to lift each other up … and when we do, we teach our children, and in our own small ways, we lift the world. Look at you. Win-win for sure. xoxo
Aacckkk! I’m in cleaning mode, too! Must be a spring thing. You have re-inspired me to dig deeper. I don’t know whether to thank you or what!
Hey Susan, Did you ever receive my comment?
Nina Edwards
Do you mean this one Nina . . .?
Nina says:
May 21, 2017 at 10:11 pm
Dear Susan, I wanted to tell you about my little brother. We have been living together in my mother’s house since she passed away in 2014. He is the sweetest, smartest and kindest person that I know. He was medicated but had schizophrenia. When I talked about your mugs and how we couldn’t afford such a luxury , his response was..”Get them Nin If they’ll bring you joy get them.” My brother suddenly died on the 6th of May from a blood clot. He died in my arms in the foyer of the hospital. Your mugs showed up on the day of his funeral. I am still grieving for him …but I wanted you to know how special those mugs will always be to me. Love, Nina
Reply
sbranch says:
May 22, 2017 at 5:15 am
I love your brother. What a sweet spirit he had. Very sad. Tears. 😘 Sending love. xoxoxo
Now how do you always know just what we need to hear?! I have taken to just closing my craft room door because it is where all piles go to die. I can’t even walk in there without it stressing me out (thus the closed door) and I have been saying for over a year that I was going to get to that…today is clean-the-room day…and then I find myself in the kitchen trying a new recipe, or doing the laundry, or finishing a chapter in my latest book. I just didn’t know where to begin, but as soon as I’m done typing this, I’m going to open that door and attack the first pile I see!! Slow and steady wins the race! Maybe once the room is a real room again with a semblance of order, my creative juices will get going again! By the way, I’m loving my mugs and so excited that we can pre-order some new ones, too! Yay! XXO
For Lola Marie (2yrs. 4 months old) and Vivian DeNae (9 months old) and BayLa Marie (16 yrs. of age) three beautiful granddaughters will each open on Christmas morning the Santa Mug and will always remember in their lives how much their grandmother loves Susan Branch.
Oh you sweetheart, that is so nice. Making memories already. Now you know why every house needs a grandmother in it. xoxo
Thanks for sharing your messy photos with us, Susan. It makes me feel better to see that I’m not the only one with ‘stacks’ sometimes.
You had me *laughing out loud* when you said you can go antique shopping now that you’ve cleaned.
Oh Susan!
Your posts never fail to encourage and cheer me!
What a miracle you have worked on your studio! I love the before, during and after pictures.. they encourage me to continue with my own decluttering, downsizing and Spring cleaning! We have a deadline coming up for getting this house on the market and I feel that it is the final push to get it allll done! It was a welcome break to grab cup of tea and sit and read your lovely post. Always a feast for the eyes and the soul.
Love, Karina
in Oregon where it was 90 yesterday
and to warm for this rain lovin Oregonian!
Deadlines are a huge help!! Good luck Karina!
Oh how I love all your mugs! I am retired now and can’t afford to splurge anymore, so I am hoping like crazy that Vanna will draw my name!! Thank you for helping us be happy!!! Patricia
My fingers are crossed for you Patricia!
These mugs are quite literally taking my breath away! BTW, I’m in purge mode as well, searching for some WHITE SPACE! That question “does this bring me joy?” disqualifies a lot of the stuff … out the door it goes, and oh, what a feeling! Feels like a deep breath of fresh air!! Looking forward to the fruit of your ‘mug labors’ – Love Love Love!!!
Perfect thing to ask yourself! Thank you Becky!!
Love this post-full of domesticity! Living with fibromyalgia I can do things only here and there-a few weeks ago I decluttered my bedroom which was a long time coming! It really does clear your mind when you declutter. Love your mugs-money is tight but I’m thinking of ordering either the Christmas mug or the Autumn one. Please finish your seasons cookbooks, btw! You need to do a spring and a winter-same size and format as the summer and autumn ones please! So they match! 🙂
LOL, they’re on the list. I need to live to be 130, and have perfect hands . . . but I will try!
As usual, I thoroughly enjoyed your blog post. I’m now inspired to do some de-cluttering! Thank you!
Just finished a clean up of my sewing room. A big job because I have so many ideas and so beautiful remnants from my little tea cozy business. My favorite mug is the one with all the little things on it. I hope whoever gets it will love it as much as I would! Thank you for thinking of us and sharing your treasures.
I love what you said about Joe – someone to build a life with, to press in on each others arm. Yes. True. My man and I have been building a life together for 27 years on the 26th of this month-so grateful. Thank you for your beautiful pics and sentiments. I would truly treasure having one of your teacups!
It’s a blessing. Not always easy to find. xoxo
Another comment of mine that appeared on the page when I clicked Post, but it wasn’t there when I opened the Blog later.
OH, Well. It isn’t life and death, just mildly disturbing. Do I have Bad Blog Breath? He,he, I just made that up?
Debbie
Bad Blog Breath! Made me laugh too . . .
OH how I love my new cup! And planning for additional ones…thanks SusN!
I see lots of posts about the cups! Congrats on creating more beauty for this world! I would treasure any of your lovely things! I love the cleaning and organizing. Way to go! :o)
Oh my declutterring what a job, but just being done with it is a good feeling. Just want to say your kitty jack is so precious.
I like to take photos too. I don’t have room to store every drawing my kids make or everything they write at school, but I can take lots and lots of pictures and just store the extra special ones.
Great idea! You’ll have way more of your children’s drawings and things than I have of my own, even though my mom did save some, like you, she couldn’t begin to save all from her eight children. No digital cameras or computers in her day!
Love your transparency. It has taken me over 10 years to get rid of a lot of stuff. I guess I needed a real kick in the butt. We left our house in Northern California in ’05 and for 10 years lived in LA, renting three different places. Every time I moved I thought why am I carrying all this stuff with me?! Now we are in the Midwest and the place is pretty organized, more sparse than ever. But my office looks a whole lot like yours did. You have given me inspiration and even some ideas on how to organize it. Also makes me not feel alone. In my life it was perfect timing for the message. Thank you
You are welcome, good luck with it! I’m still working on mine too!
I’d be proud to own ANY of these beautiful mugs!! Pick me! Pick me!
Have loved your art work for a very long time, and so happy we enjoy so many of the same things. I have that same garden bench in my garden, the one with Joe and the wheelbarrow…so just have to say it again, think we are kindred spirits.
I have your 3 latest books and would love one of your new cups. Thank you, Cindy
Yes, kindred spirits no doubt!
Since my beautiful mug arrived I’ve used it everyday. I just love the thing! Love the feel of the bone china. I’m looking forward to your tea book. I hope it’s near the top of your list of projects. I love the question you ask yourself, “How do I move myself forward today?” So often I feel unaccomplished at the end of the day. Maybe I’m too task oriented. I think I’ll ask myself your question. That probably weeds out some of the less important tasks that clutter my days.
And it means, generally speaking, you will ALWAYS move yourself at least some little amount that will allow you to go to sleep with love in your heart!
I broke my Emma Bridgewater cocoa mug (which is my happy-at-work-mug) today. I feel like this group would understand my angst.
I guess I will need a new mug. Hmmm, I wonder where I could get mugs…. 🙂
Happy cleaning!
I love this post to pieces!
Love the new mugs – they are lovely. Received two in mail and sent on to my Mother – she loves her hot tea and her new mug. Brings a smile to her face and
that makes me happy.
I hope this is not a repeat message – when I first typed a comment – it showed someone else’s name in the NAME BOX. When I hit send the blog disappeared.
I’m just sending again to let you know that I experienced the same problem a few others mentioned – just in case there’s something going on.
Again lovely mugs –
Something has been going on, but as of last night we’ve come to the conclusion that it is endemic to WordPress. They say no, but there is no other reason that we can find. Which means it won’t be just us, and with others reporting in, perhaps they will fix it. However you got your name in here correctly, try to do that again. And try refreshing. So sorry for the complication!
Having one of your mugs would be such a joy. I would use it first in my garden, in the morning, enjoying the wrens singing. Thank you for making it a possibility!
You’ve done an AMAZING job…way to go…white space everywhere…congrats on lightening the load.
Dear Susan, I hope that you will have time to watch “Anne with an E” on Netflix. The actress who plays Anne is fantastic…exactly how I think an extraordinary precocious child like Anne might be. Marilla is perfect as well, in fact the whole cast, and the visuals, are just wonderful. They have taken some license with the story, but nothing that breaks character or sense of time and place. I still have a few episodes to go… and I am savoring every delicious moment. Peace, Leslie
Thank you for the recommendation, sounds like the perfect thing to have on while a person is still cleaning her studio! xoxo
Susan…episode 7 is very dark, and not like the book at all! I have turned it off twice without finishing. As always, the book is best. Peace, Leslie
Thank you for the warning, I can’t even imagine Anne with an E having something like that in it!!!! I shall shield my eyes!
I moved to a smaller house last summer after living in my previous one for 35 years. Boy, did I have to de-clutter. I know what you are going through. You’ll love it when its all done. I think that you should make a cookbook of your Mom’s
I’ve kind of exhausted her recipes into my other books, spareribs and juice, scalloped potatoes with sausages, bean soup, potato chip cookies . . .
Just pre-ordered my mugs and hoping to win one for my sister. Anxiously awaiting news of your tea book! My sister and I have tea parties regularly and I have used ideas from your blog at parties past. Catching the tail of your happy gene and squirming till August!!
Those mugs……..love love love!
Off to hula practice!
Aloha from Maui –
Carol
How lovely it would be to sip some tea out of a beautiful cup from you to me :))) Preferably while watching The Great British Baking Show. Have you seen it?!?!
You bring so much joy to this (my) world. Thank you SB.
OH yes! 👏
i got your beautiful mug the day before mothers day for my friend maryann who of course ADORES it. beautiful, wish i could afford to buy one of each!!
happy organizing, you will feel light as a feather and full of possibilities and energy when you are done!
sharon
Love my mug- so pretty and the bone china is so nice – lovely cream color and thin, but strong (although I haven’t “tested” it against my table, and don’t intend to!) Loved your blog about Spring Cleaning – good to know I’m not the only one struggling with too much clutter! You are an inspiration! Thank you.
Wow! Good job!!! I know it’s so much work to clean through things when you’ve been in a home that long. We did it a few years ago. You find things you simply didn’t know were there. Again, good job! Enjoy!
Great blog post! Thank you for sharing both before and after pictures! There is inspiration to do the same here!
I’m loving the first set of cups and look forward to ordering the second set plus the Autumn one. It is also exciting to read that there will be a reissue of some of the charms! A chance to replace the one that is missing!
Jack is a talented kitty, and he reminds me of one of our cats with his fascination with water in the bathroom sink.
Thank you for continuing to enrich us with your creativity!
xo Nellie
Such an inspiration! I too, have started a big de-clutter project. Slow going, but I am taking no prisoners!!! Even the kitty toys forty a weeding!! A clean shelf, cupboard, closet, is a wonderful thing!
I think I won’t find all the hidden kitty toys until we actually move out of this house! I don’t know what he does with them!
Jack is such a cutie, playing with water! I’m impressed with your housecleaning – wish I had the energy to do the same. All those memories!
I was struck by your photo with your nieces leaving NYC with the twin towers in the background – gone only a few months later. Life can be uncertain, do the fun stuff while you can. Like enjoying that beautiful wisteria and yard of yours!
Love the new cup designs, I want them all! My favorites are Santa and the Bluebird. They will sell like hotcakes, for sure!
Enjoy the holiday weekend, despite the hoards of touristas. 😉
Yes, that photo is priceless to me, with the twin towers in the back. The age of innocence! xoxo
In this frenetic world clamoring with noise and negativity, your blog is sweet, refreshing and uplifting! Susan, you show us just how much richness and joy can be found in living a simple creative life. A fresh spring day, a fountain topped with pearly shells, a rascally kitty cat playing in the water, wisteria, promising hollyhock seeds, bluebells and delicate lily of the valley. These tender things restore our souls! There is beauty all around us, we just have to slow down to see it. Thank you for reminding us just how lovely life can be!
My pleasure Teagan, a life of blessing counting will always make us happy! We have so much. 💞 Thank you for being here and adding yourself to it. xoxo
I love when I see a long blog post from you. I wait until I have time to sit with a cup of tea and savor your post. I received my cups and loved them so much that I wanted to order one for my sister but they were already sold out. Will the orginal cups be available for sale at some point in the future? I would love to see matching plates for nibbles to go along with the cups. I was also confused when you said that you were doing a cup for each season. Will these be the same size as the Autumn one or the Santa one? You have inspired me to find my white space so off I go. Best to you, Kim
The season cups will be the same size as the Autumn one, 11 oz … They’ll make a good collection, because as each season comes, I’ll design a new one, and in a year, you’d have all four. Does that make sense?
Your posts are so wonderful & inspiring….you have given me the push I needed to start my own de-cluttering. Thanks. And love the mugs…hope I win.
Love the beautiful mugs….would love to sip tea from it in our dining room, currently undergoing a wall renovation! Looking forward to refurbished and newly painted walls, just in time for spring!
Hello Susan – I enjoy reading your blog and have several of your books. You inspire me with your warmth and kind quotes for life. I’m always in a state of trying to declutter, but I’ll always have space in my rooms for books and English period movies. Would love a Santa or Lamb mug. Enjoy the rest of your week!
You have inspired me to clean out the clutter in my own home–and hopefully the clutter from my mind, too, that holds me hostage from creating all that I’d like! Your cups are very beautiful! I hope to own one someday soon….
I need to do the cleaning,weeding out too. You are an inspiration. It looks so nice. I wonder if guilt will get me going!
Whatever it takes! 👏 But want is a good one too!
From one Aries to another!! I live my life on your coat tail, all the things that one hopes for. Thank you for sharing so much of your life with all of us, you will never know to the depths and heights of where some of us are in our journeys through our lives, but you do take us to wonderful heights. THANK YOU for new creations. it moves us.
I would look at your house photos and think she is so organised. But thanks to your latest blog I see you are like the rest of us who love collecting but unfortunately have too many of those darn floor piles. Thank you for sharing. Received my love cup. Love it. Ordered three of your new ones. Santa is my favorite. It will be interesting to see if I will like the 11 oz cup because I love the 16 oz. Perfect for my green tea! I have your Lenox cups and saucers from way back. Also tea pot that I look at every day. Like your blue kitchen but my heart is still with my red accessories in my white kitchen. Can’t help it have always been leaning toward red accessories. Maybe that’s why I like Santa so much. Thanks for writing this blog st just the right time when I was feeling a little overwhelmed and boxing up some things and thinking I was the only one out there who is trying to get a little more breathing space. I smiled while reading your blog. ❤
Hello Susan,
I would love Little Things mug, but am so happy to read and enjoy your posts. You are a day brightener!
Really, really enjoyed this post about decluttering, Susan. I feel inspired to do some myself.
I too am decluttering ! Overwhelming so thanks for the encouragement!
Love the cups! Soooo cute! I must order Santa as I am a Christmas fanatic!
Keep blogging Susan you make my day!
I’ve been inspired, I have so many things to go through and plenty of excuses not to! but now with susan’s “one shelf at a time” it seems much easier to do.
Thanks for being such a wonderful inspiration Susan!!!
I’m just wondering who’s left to buy all the stuff we all seem to be purging from our homes!!! Or maybe it’s just rotating between us as we seek to renew those ‘white spaces’ from thrift stores and op shops. 😀
I seem to recall that years ago one of the girlfriends gave some instructions for finding our own comments on the blog. Do you recollect that or has anyone still got the instructions?
Your wisteria is just gorgeous….just what I’d like to plant to grow across the front of my verandah
I forget too. Someone will remember. On this side I can put in a name and there’s a search button. But it’s a little time consuming to do … it culls through 258,779 comments as of today! If you plant wisteria, make a very strong support or arbor for it, they heaviest you can, because it can grow to be as heavy as any tree, but needs support.
Oh Susan,
It looks like my comments got lost in the clutter… LOL!
I had poured my heart out too 🙁
Thank you so much for this post. I had tears in my eyes as I read… I’m not alone is sorting through creativity! HOW did you do it? HOW did you know what things to donate? (I secretly wish I could go and retrieve a little something from wherever you dropped your things off 🙂
Surrounded my antiques from several generations back, it’s so difficult for me. I kind of feel like I am the guardian of STUFF! UGH! It’s just so hard. So many in today’s world seem to have little regard to the past. They throw everything out and buy new. I need to find a balance without suffocating.
Downsizing to Mom’s house is proving to be so difficult. Oh my! In the end it is all just stuff, but I want to still surround myself with some of the treasures I’m blessed with.
Thoughts and HUGS to you dear Susan! I’m looking forward to Christmas already… turning back the hands of time to be a child for a night!
XOXO
Georgie from NJ
I found it Georgie . . .still here! (Your other comment is below.) I agree, it’s not easy getting rid of stuff .. but guess I kind of think of how it was to clean my mom’s and dad’s, and what people really want, like handwriting, and actual connection through the things they used everyday, a wooden cooking spoon, or a watch. I know how overwhelmed someone gets with a huge box of loose photos, with people in them that hardly anyone knows. I’m afraid they might just throw the whole thing away … and so I’ve pulled out the most important, mostly family, and written who’s who on the back of them. Pare down to the very most important things. Keep as much as you like now, because you still have plenty of time to do this again. good luck sweetheart!
Georgie Bonsanto
**************
Oh Susan!
I am in tears! XOXO Thank you for this blog entry. Now I know I’m not the only one to have creative clutter (and just clutter). I must do what you’ve done. Especially when we’ve decided to sell our beloved home in order to buy Mom’s house and move in with her so she can have continued care.
Do you have any secret tips on how to sort things out. Of course secretly I wish I were on the island right now to bring home one of your donated treasures! LOL! How do you choose what to give away? How How How! I have books galore that I’d love to keep to refer to. Books I’ve never read but intend to. Family Antiques from 2 generations + back. Cut glass from my great grandfather’s cut glass factory which he lost in the great depression. Oh Susan, I have no idea WHERE to begin.
We don’t have the time or the energy to try eBay. I thought about opening up a little shop but that takes time too. I know I could nicely furnish another house… I think I must sort through our goals first. Prioritize them and then get to it.
OK, enough about me. Thank you for your wonderful words, and your happy creations. We do need such JOY in our world today. I’m missing the time I used to have to just read everything on Twitter and follow up on each of your posts. I’m happy to see others have stepped up to the plate to encourage and cheer you on.
Sending much love to you and Joe. Hoping our paths will cross again soon to share hugs.
Longing for the sea…
XOXO
Georgie
Oh Dear Susan- YOU are so Inspiring! Our Midwest Farmhouse is in NEED of de-cluttering…Thank-you once again for motivation, inspiration and reminders to “Stop and Smell the Roses”! To Life’s Simple Pleasures!!!
(I shall try to send this again. I attempted 2 days ago and I just saw it was “still” pending. I may be on “that list” of computer issues- UGH!)
I am so impressed with your freshly organized studio. I love, love, love it. Wishing I could do the same in my sewing room. What I would also love is one of your mugs. Thank you for blessing all our lives.
I think my comment got lost in cyber space! Putting it in again – thanks!
Oh, Susan – how do your post always reflect what is going on here in my cozy home ? As we get ready to move and “shake it up” in a new apartment home with big windows looking out on nature we are going through everything and being ruthless. Like you, once you get started it becomes addictive and you can breathe better in clear space. Also, like you – I will never be a minimalist, but cleaning out 40 years of photo albums and keeping only the keepers is fun. Right now my beloved dining room is filled to the gills – wish I could share a photo on here – with things for upcoming yard sale. There simply will NOT be room for everything in the new space. I shudder every time I walk past and think “oh, no – the Hoarders film crew will ring the bell and want to film this chaos”!!! – but there is joy in the sorting. Dishes to a great niece who needs them for her new cozy farm house, books to her little daughter, my mother’s – her “GG’s” – cedar chest to her home along with a book about grandmothers and memories made by Lane…who made the cedar chests. Are you familiar with it – called Something to Remember Me By. I got 10 copies for all my nieces when my mom passed away – if you can’t find a copy, I still have one and would be happy to send it to you. And, our beloved Yogi bear rug, shot by an uncle in the 1920’s and always on the wall in our garage went to my godson and his son yesterday at his First Communion party. Oh, my – once again – the JOY little Jake had knowing the bear will be on his wall in his room, and tears in my godson’s eyes when I told him that Uncle Joe – long gone – would LOVE that Jake is getting his bear….priceless. OK, more stuff to go through….but regarding your posts after the election I just want to say – read this book I just read called On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder. My dear husband and I read it in one day. Hope for the future…it inspired me.
THANK YOU for all your posts, for them coming at the right time….just last week I went through THREE binders of recipes and culled the best and now they reside in a SUSAN BRANCH Homemade Recipes binder….Bliss.
Your other post went up a couple of days ago (I copied and pasted it below) . . . at least that’s what it shows from this side of this crazy mixed up blog spot!!! Joe is reading On Tyranny right now! Tiny little wonderful book! Always lovely to hear from you . . . 💞 Good job on saving those recipes, there’s a book to treasure!
Ann Y.
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5/22/2017 11:36 AM
Oh, Susan – how do your post always reflect what is going on here in my cozy home ? As we get ready to move and “shake it up” in a new apartment home with big windows looking out on nature we are going through everything and being ruthless. Like you, once you get started it becomes addictive and you can breathe better in clear space. Also, like you – I will never be a minimalist, but cleaning out 40 years of photo albums and keeping only the keepers is fun. Right now my beloved dining room is filled to the gills – wish I could share a photo on here – with things for upcoming yard sale. There simply will NOT be room for everything in the new space. I shudder every time I walk past and think “oh, no – the Hoarders film crew will ring the bell and want to film this chaos”!!! – but there is joy in the sorting. Dishes to a great niece who needs them for her new cozy farm house, books to her little daughter, my mother’s – her “GG’s” – cedar chest to her home along with a book about grandmothers and memories made by Lane…who made the cedar chests. Are you familiar with it – called Something to Remember Me By. I got 10 copies for all my nieces when my mom passed away – if you can’t find a copy, I still have one and would be happy to send it to you. And, our beloved Yogi bear rug, shot by an uncle in the 1920’s and always on the wall in our garage went to my godson and his son yesterday at his First Communion party. Oh, my – once again – the JOY little Jake had knowing the bear will be on his wall in his room, and tears in my godson’s eyes when I told him that Uncle Joe – long gone – would LOVE that Jake is getting his bear….priceless. OK, more stuff to go through….but regarding your posts after the election I just want to say – read this book I just read called On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder. My dear husband and I read it in one day. Hope for the future…it inspired me.
THANK YOU for all your posts, for them coming at the right time….just last week I went through THREE binders of recipes and culled the best and now they reside in a SUSAN BRANCH Homemade Recipes binder….Bliss.
Thanks, Susan….I thought it was my computer! It is making a beep sound everytime I turn it on….I think it is time for an upgrade. Sorry to be a bother….take care !
Your post about cleaning your kitchen kick started my spring cleaning frenzy and now this has got me thinking about all my clutter. Do I really need that pile garden magazines from 10 years ago, etc. I ordered the blue bird cup. I cannot wait to see it, I will place it on my shelf next to my Emma Bridgewater rooster cup!! You are an inspiration on so many levels, thank you!
Hi Susan,
Your studio looks great…I am inspired to do some decluttering when I get home! I read the Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo, which got me to the starting line. I think you can get me to the finish line 😉 I love all your designs on the fine china mugs…droolworthy! Back out to enjoy the beautiful Irish weather. Wishing you happy, sunny days
We need to get ourselves some of that beautiful Irish weather someday! xoxo Have a wonderful day ~ Hello to Fiona!
I am so happy to discover your blogs because I feel at a loss having finished the 3 books….Fairy Tale Girl, etc…..even your instagrams make me happy…I feel that I’ve been on that road, with the gate….
I went into Bunch of Grapes to get Isle of Dreams for a friend’s birthday, and was so frustrated to find that they had none of your 3 autobiographical books! Of all places!!
So I am so happy just READING this latest blog. Helps me with spring cleaning mode….
Love your mugs…while I don’t have one yet (or more!) I AM drinking out of my Emma Bridgewater Cardinal mug, which reminds me of you (and my mom❤️).
Bunch of Grapes just called for more books! Probably the move set them back. Happy day Girlfriend!
Maybe this will be my lucky day! I’d love to sip my tea from such a beautiful cup! <3
I love your blog and wait for each new one. it is a breath of fresh air in my day. I own a cat and love to read about Jack and his adventures! I would be
thrilled to win a cup to drink my daily tea.
When I count my blessings, the sharing of your wonderful life with Joe and Jack are right there, keeping me focused, helping me to see something wonderful every day, making me thankful. Hoping someday you’ll design a lovely mug featuring Jack and the memory of Girl Kitty. Thank you, Susan, for so much.
I love decluttering and organizing too! It truly does make one feel lighter and able to breathe better. 🙂
ps – Love your cups! Thank you for the chance to win one.
Cleaning out has become a must at my house!!! In a year I’ll be putting my home up for sale and planning a move to place me closer to my loved ones. But the bigness of it all is so overwhelming. I’m going to take your advice and start with an inch. I know it will be freeing and possibly give me new life. I hope so!!!! I love your post and enjoy your art so much. Take care and enjoy the summertime.
Susan, I am always so excited when you have a new post up! Would be over the moon to win one of your mugs! Have a lovely day and thank you for brightening mine!
Susan,
Love your house and everything in it! The ‘old stuff’ brings me back to my childhood and my dear Mom. She would have loved your “things”. I have bone china cups that she collected throughout the years and some of my own as well. Your cups are just beautiful and I do so love your artwork. I look forward to reading your blog.
Nice to have you here Joanne!
Hi to Susan and Joe—enjoying another wonderful post and the GF comments indicate we are all in the same boat with too much excess. Remember Jo’s beautiful tea room gift shop with all the lovely choices taking up every inch of space? My sweet brother-in-law told me once that my house looked like that! He meant it as a compliment because he would never hurt my feelings, but it is definitely time to condense the clutter. In the white space category, did Vera Sackville indicate her purpose for an all white garden? I know she had garden “rooms”, but was it for serenity, or to glow in the moonlight, or to highlight white flower choices or maybe to give the eyes a rest from so much color elsewhere? A few months ago, a magazine did an article on her white garden and many of the photos were taken at dusk or evening—so pretty. Also, I enjoyed the twitter video of the darling courtyard with a gentle rain coming down. Am so drawn to courtyards and how they can embrace a small, almost “secret” garden—the one where you and Joe stayed on your trip was wonderful, too, with those magical mirrors! I could go on and on, but you have many comments, so I’ll just say I love everything else you ever write about and love you, too! Love from Bev
Probably to glow in the moonlight is my guess! I don’t remember reading about the “why” of it. But as I understand, she was the first to do it. I’ve discovered what I think is the “truth” of the cluttering! Remember how carefree we felt when we were 18 and had nothing? Over the years we fell in love with this or that, and put it in and then stuffed it in … and in all the confusion, we even kept things we loved when we were 25, but really wouldn’t buy now (like the pig cutting board I have in my kitchen, got it when I was 24, tail broke off years ago, which was the charm of it, and yesterday, with a whisk of the hand, it finally went into the “to go” pile, and I took a great breath of 18-year-old clutter-free lightheartedness). We just didn’t notice it as it happened, that our stuff doesn’t change but WE DO, and then one day, we feel closed in, and so we have to DO something about it. Yay! Love to you Bev, good luck finding new homes for your treasures!
Did you add on to “Holly Oak” or move to a new house? It kind of looks like your front door at “Holly Oak” from your book “Isle of Dreams” except for the Wisteria. I think Agnes would be so pleased to see that little house now, so completely different then when you found it, such a happy place.
We don’t live in Holly Oak anymore. We sold it maybe two years after Joe and I met… it was too small for him and me together, so he found the house we live in now, and I fell madly in love with it. I would love to have Holly Oak back, make a little Hill Top Farm out of it so everyone could come visit. If I win the lottery that’s what I’ll do with the money.
Sounds like a plan! Kinda like if I win the lottery, I’ll buy back our family farm in Nebraska. Holly Oak would be such a splendid place for your writing and your own treasure for people in the future to visit. Fingers, Toes, and eyes crossed that your wish (or lottery ticket) pan out.
This is completely off-topic, but it’s time I thanked you for all the printable bookmarks you have so generously given us. I print them and have them laminated, and I love each one of them. If I had to pick a favorite, it would be your Fairy Tale Girl bookmark. I keep a little stash of them. Love love your mugs, especially “Little Things” and would love to see more in the 11 oz size. 💕
Oh you are so dear Terry, that was very thoughtful of you. Fun to still be able to give things away despite no snail mail anymore! Used to always send gifts with the old Willards ~ being able to still do that makes me happy!
This might just be the push I needed to de-clutter a few overstuffed closets! Also, what a little treat…. a photo of the china (Bristol) I grew up with in my mother’s cozy kitchen. Made my heart happy 🙂
The tea cups are so extremely special and beautiful. I love all of them.
I have been doing my spring cleaning with heart and soul— a little here, and a little there—making progress at my own pace. Enjoying each step of discovery of treasures, and throwing away or donating is liberating!!!!
It is so fun to see how sleek, shiny, and fresh my worked-in areas are becoming. Open space is wonderful! I washed light covers yesterday. I was thrilled at how new and brillant my lights and ceiling fans looked when washed! Ha! Fresh linens, fresh spring/summer towels, blankets and summer lite quilts—the last of the violets from our woods are pressed in one of my heavy books. Picking lilacs and lily of the valley and spreading their fragrance throughout our home. Watching blue birds, robins, wrens, chickadees, orioles, humingbirds, etc.
Thank-you for sharing yourself and all of your talents with us. It is a remarkable thing to have such a profound influence, for good, on so many. Happy day! xoxo
It’s a gathering of like-minds, and truly a dream come true. I’ve always known there were lots and lots of us, all my girlfriends are heaven, my mom and my grandma and their girlfriends too . . . all the letters I’ve received over the years were from the nicest people in the world, we just needed to wait for the Internet to be invented so we could find each other! My mom taught me about the little things in life, it’s the most perfect message ~ also “Home, it’s where love grows,” “Home sweet home is homemade in more ways than one,” and of course, the ever helpful reminder, “We are the normal ones!” Thank you Sydney Ellen, your words are very sweet! Happy spring cleaning to you!
Loving my cup! I didn’t expect it to be so large!
Some day I’ll be on Cape or the Vineyard when you’re doing a signing…meeting you is on my bucket list! Love Titcomb’s by the way!
Dear Susan:
Thanks as always for the inspiration and reminder to appreciate the little things that make life special . . . the cups are beautiful! Here’s hoping!!
Comforting that you continue to be one of the “normal” ones! Soon, I will find my magic wand in my quilt studio/guest room/storage room and catch up with you in my decluttering frenzy! And, the door will stay open to admire my work!!! Your cups, and charms are beautiful, you continue to amaze me! And, as always, the prize will go to just the right one, I wonder if it is me??!!! xoxo
I hope so Joan! xoxo
♥ xoxo
So I asked myself the question—how do I move forward today. Decided I would tackle just one cabinet. One led to another and then another and before I new it, it was three o’clock and I was pooped! Thank you for the inspiration.
Wonderful Kathy!
Oh Susan, glad to know I’m not alone in the clutter. I too want to de-clutter and make some white spaces. Hope I can move forward like you did and make it come true. Inch by inch… you have inspired me. Would love to get one of the mugs!
Morning Miss Susan! I went to the Blog on Tom’s computer, his account, and there were all my comments! Cue the Twilight Zone theme music. The latest one with your response is on my computer. I’m sure it’s my puter, or AoL.
I love all the comments from all the girlfriends re their “clutter”. It’s genetic I believe. But you have shown us ways to decrapify (Love It!!!) in a way that we aren’t feeling like we’ve done murder most foul. Great ideas from you and others here. Our place!
Much love,
Debbie in Maine
Oh my goodness, perhaps it’s just some computers! What a crazy thing it is! Thanks for letting me know!