As you know, I have been on a cleaning, sorting and organizing whirlwind.  Starting at one end of the house, my goal is to go through every drawer, closet, dresser and attack it with the mindset as if I am moving in 2 weeks. Expired makeup, business suits with shoulder pads, miscellaneous paperwork – GONE!

The master closet and bathroom are behind me and I just finished the master bedroom. I haven’t cleaned out my nightstand in many years.

It’s such a luxury to have fresh cut flowers in any room, but having them by the bed, seems extra special….bringing a bit of the nature indoors.

But I am also fine with a good quality artificial flower, like these peonies from The Enchanted Home. To see a previous post about these artificial flowers, click here.

The decadent picture frame was a wedding gift from a friend~~it’s a collage of old pearls, jewelry, and a cupid and is truly one of a kind. Not sure my husband is very fond of it, but I think it’s fun.  Wouldn’t this be a great DIY project with an abundance of costume jewelry?

Within reach, I keep a candle, books I may be reading, a water bottle, and a small Limoges box that holds a set of rosary beads.  There’s a great story behind the Limoges box.  My husband and I won a trip (charity raffle) in 2001 to fly to London, England, take the Venice-Simplon-Orient Express train to Southhampton, England and then board Cunard’s Queen Elisabeth ship for a 10-day transAtlantic cruise.  Up to this point, I had never won anything…lucky, lucky me!!!  This beautiful keepsake box is from our exquisite train ride on the Orient Express.

The jeweled frog is just something fun.  It’s a small box and I don’t really use it for anything, but I’m rather fond of it.

In the top drawer closest to my side of the bed, you will find Kiehl’s hand cream, Essie apricot cuticle oil, Smith’s Rosebud salve, a nail file, my glasses, a few flashlights (as we are always losing power), and multiple power cords for my iPhone and Kindle, and my headphones. The ceramic prayer book holds a few more of my rosary collection. The pottery plate I received as a gift on a business trip with my husband to Chile, South America.

Smith’s Rosebud salve is so good for chapped lips, extra dry skin or to help minor burns.  It smells good and the tin looks so retro to me. My cuticles tend to get dry in the climate here and the apricot oil does the trick.

Lastly, I just discovered this amazing app called “Calm“.  If you have difficulty either falling asleep or staying asleep, you may want to try this. Each night before I go to sleep, I listen to a Sleep Story.  There is a large selection of stories that are read aloud for adults.  I cannot tell you how much fun it is to settle in and listen to a story.  I have not, to date, stayed awake long enough to hear the entire thing.  Their narrators have such smooth, reassuring voices that lull you to sleep.  They also have selections for meditations to reduce anxiety, sleep better and feel happier for all ages (even a College Collection).  I can’t say enough about this app.  It truly is something that I look forward to each day. It’s my new latest toy!!!

So, what is on your nightstand or bedside table?

Okay. I admit that I am one of those people who loves (loved) those huge armoires that housed the television and associated paraphernalia.  When my husband and I got married, I realized that he was the type of person who wanted a television in every room.  I, on the other hand, rarely watched television.  So we agreed that he could have as many sets as he wanted as long as I didn’t see them.

Well, over time, the screens got larger and larger and suddenly, t.v. armoires became dinosaurs and out of style (as evidence by the one still sitting in my basement).  So as we graduated to a larger viewing screen, my expensive armoire that fit beautifully in my family room, was now obsolete.

Have you ever owned something that you may have spent too much money on and then, in good conscience, you cannot discard, donate or get rid of it?  So what to do with the enormous (truly it is) piece of furniture that, even though I got it on sale, was a costly piece for this Connecticut Yankee?

I convinced my husband that I could repurpose it and to this day, I am not sure how two strong guys managed to carry it up our 100- year old staircase to our upstairs hall.

As with most t.v. armoires, there was a large hole cut in the back to accommodate the back of the set (remember the bulky, thick sets?)

After covering the back with a black/white checked fabric and adding a few plywood shelves, the armoire was transformed to a linen closet.  Over time, I had managed to cram every blanket, sheet, pillow and miscellaneous holiday things in it.  How does one collect so much stuff?

In the ongoing effort to sort, clean and organize, I finally tackled the t.v. cabinet turned linen closet. What a mess!

The doors fold back allowing the entire unit to open up.  In the bottom portion, is an over abundance of sheets and pillow cases.

I pulled everything out and sorted all the contents into 3 piles~~donate, discard and keep.

I thought I would paint the shelves black to match the rest, but you know how that goes….Maybe someday I can add a black painted trim piece on the front of the shelf . I didn’t realize how sad the shelves looked until I took these photos!

I finally discarded frayed and stained sheets and donated baby blankets and linens from old interior design projects.

I even sorted and labeled the sheets by size….and put the winter/holiday items together-flannel sheets and decorative blankets and pillows.

Ta-Da! The end result….a far less cluttered, more organized, linen armoire. The plywood shelves still need a facelift, but oh well.

Another organizational project completed….it feels so good.

The well tower is a unique fixture on our property. Originally designed to pump and house the equipment for the well, it was in a deteriorated state when we purchased our property back in 1999. But over time we did restore it and it serves multiple purposes now in 2021. It becomes a topic of conversation because the first floor is the potting shed, which is pertinent to my fall gardening.

I found some original pictures of our well tower during a recent cleaning and organizing spree.  The well tower was built to do just that~~using a pulley system to draw water up from the well back in 1912, long before there was city-wide water availability.

When we bought our home in 1999, the well tower was dilapidated and quite the eyesore. When I look back on these early photos, I am always astounded about its poor and decayed condition.

The building has been restored and with the permission of the City of Phoenix’s Historical department, we were able to put in 2 additional floors and adjust the architecture to allow for a viewing area at the top. These are connected by way of two circular staircases. I added the fireman pole at the back of the 2nd floor as an alternative escape method.  A new well was added and provides all the water for our 2+acres.

The first floor functions as my potting shed, where I store my garden tools, seeds, soil, and pots. 

This great old double porcelain sink is actually from the original house kitchen and is being repurposed in the well tower.

A large tub is installed at counter height as a convenient way to wash the dogs.  We used leftover Waterworks tile for the countertop.

My favorite go-to place is Whitfill Nursery for my flowers, vegetables and herbs.  I plan to return for more flowers as they were getting a larger selection in a week. 

But I have good start on kale, lettuces, broccoli, cauliflower, a variety of tomatoes, and many herbs. Happily, these new plants are sitting in our own homemade composted soil. For more information on Whitfill Nursery, click here.

I’ve neglected my flower garden last year, but am hoping to abundantly plant so I have cutting flowers available. The flower garden is located next to the vegetable garden.  Here’s a picture of it 2 years ago when it was full of flowers and colors.  I’m hoping to achieve that again.

Here’s a glimpse of my first group of flowers purchased from my favorite nursery!

As soon as the flower garden is fully planted, I will snap some photos for you.

Happy Fall and happy planting!

Even though I try to eat well most of the time, every now and again I long for something homemade with the ingredients of the season.  With my husband being a cherry fan, I decided to make this cherry cobbler (and realized I have never made one before).

Canned cherry filling doesn’t do it for me~~way too sweet with an unnatural thick, gelatinous consistency.  However, true fresh fresh sour cherries are never available here.  After doing some research, this recipe from Cooks Illustrated  (obtained from GroupRecipes.com) has apparently been rated the best cherry cobbler recipe.  Using Trader Joe’s Morello cherries in a jar, this cobbler is full of flavor and not too sweet. However, you can adjust the sugar if you like your dessert on the sweeter side.

You make the biscuits first in a food processor combining the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and then the butter. Add buttermilk. The recipe says to use a spring loaded ice cream scoop to measure out the biscuit dough, which I do not have.  A regular ice cream scoop or large spoon will do.

While the biscuits bake, you then make the cherry syrup using the cherry juice, wine, cinnamon stick, sugar, cornstarch and salt.  If you want to minimize the red wine flavor, I imagine you could just boil it down longer.  My version had a distinct red wine essence, which I really liked.  However, my 16 year old daughter wrinkled her nose a bit at it at first…as she does not like the smell of wine (yay!)

Arrange the biscuits in 3 rows of 4 over the filling.  Bake the cobbler until it is bubbling and the biscuits are golden brown.

I served it with freshly made whipped cream (another indulgence!).  This was absolutely delicious.  For an extra kick, you could drizzle it with Chambord, which up until this post I thought was a cherry based liqueur~~it is actually a black raspberry liqueur, but works too!!

I know my friend, Sam, will be sending me the calorie count on this shortly!!!! Not only is this a beautiful dessert but delicious too!

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I don’t know if I have confessed that I do not like to shop.  I really dread going to the store, especially if I need new clothes or shoes, or heavens forbid, a bathing suit or underwear.

But I do have one or two favorite stores because they don’t feel like a chore, but rather a pleasant experience.  I have written about Camps and Cottages in a previous post, but recently I have been following Molly English on Instagram and spotted these new candles that arrived in her shop.

She graciously mailed one to me and it is HEAVENLY!  The minute I opened the box, the entire room filled with a smell of apple cider, October, Thanksgiving and Christmas all rolled up into one intoxicating scent.

Even my daughter, Elisabeth, came into the kitchen after school and said, “What is that amazing smell? It reminds me of the fall and October and everything I love about this time of year.”

Not only is the candle an olfactory celebration, but it is truly beautiful.  This is apparently the smaller size, at approximately 6.5″ tall x 5″ diameter.  The name is Rosy Rings Spicy Apple and will burn for 200 hours. The price is $60.00 but seemed worth it with such a long burning time.

Embedded in the candle are slices of apple, cinnamon sticks, bay leaves, small dark red berries (?)~~making this candle beautiful to look at as well as smell.

This is the PERFECT candle for the autumn and would make an excellent hostess gift.

Here are some pictures of Camps and Cottages in Laguna Beach, California that I captured during my beach vacation.

Unfortunately I only get to visit in person once a year, but Molly has made ordering directly from her SO easy.  She posts new items that come into the store on Instagram and on her website.

Today was the coolest day since the summer and now with my Spicy Apple candle it, I am getting excited about the fall!!!

A year ago today, I sent my first blog post of Life at Bella Terra.  It was an intimidating moment, because I thought “who would ever want to read this?”  I don’t consider myself a very good writer and I’m really trying to improve upon that.  But your words of encouragement have brought me back to the computer to post again and again.  If it wasn’t for your kindness and support, it would have been easy to just quit.  Thank you for your loyalty and feedback and comments. Truly. From the bottom of my heart.

Each time I send out an email letting you know I’ve created a new post, I am praying you find it interesting, enlightening or even motivating.  I try to share a small piece of loveliness in hopes that I can brighten your day. As I look out into the world, I believe we each need to find sources of joy and create our own beauty.  Whether it be feeling the warmth from a freshly picked tomato, or the scent of a homegrown flower, these moments of perfection can only help feed the soul.

Blogging for me, is a chance to stop and capture a sliver of time, an exquisite photo or a recipe that bursts with flavor. Plus it is forcing me to attack those cluttered corners of the house or undone projects while showing you my progress. But I can honestly say, I am still a long way from feeling confident about creatively illustrating that to you. But I will keep trying.

So here is a look back at the year and some of my favorite photos and posts.

My very first blog post was about the New York Times Bestselling author, Rhys Bowen and the fundraising English tea we had here at Bella Terra.

And other events we happily hosted here…..

Recipes shared…..

My Renovations and Restorations….

Travel and leisure…..

Decorating and Design…

The holidays….

Cleaning, Organizing, and Updating…

Sharing our home and yard….

My attempt at art….

Flower arranging..

Our pets…

And a few DIYs….

My online store….

There is still so much to learn, especially better photography, writing and getting my watermarks the same size on every photo.  So thank you again for following me and sharing my blog with others.

PLEASE send in your comments~~What area of interest would you like for me to expand? What are your favorite topics? How often should I post (trying to do a maximum of twice per week)? What can I do to be better for you?  My goals for the next year are to do a contest or giveaway and conduct a real survey into your likes and interests.

Here’s to one year and onto the next!! I couldn’t have done it without you.

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