Sewing beautiful fabrics

Cranked up the trusty old Singer last week and stitched the deep ruffled toile de Jouy European sham.................... at long last.

I special ordered the fabric in this colorway over two year's ago when I decided on the bedroom makeover colors. My paint is a perfect blue gray which changes in the different light during the day, and then deepens at night to a really relaxing, sleep inducing, chalky shade of warm blue.

The chocolate brown accent color is great with this blue and gold. The damask cloth on the round table (temporary nightstand until I paint an old sewing machine table I inherited) was aqua! Dyed in RIT dark brown it came out a really stunning shade which you'd never find on a bolt of fabric in a store. I've fallen in love with burnout velvet at the windows - so romantic and Bohemian - and when the light shines through the shadows cast on the walls are lovely. Loveseat is slipcovered in cream quilted cotton with seat cushion in cream matelasse.
At my favorite funky SuzAnna's Antiques, this already painted blue tin piece called out to me. Thought it perfect balanced on this little shelf where I display a favorite photo of me with Mother, and chocolate iron letters in those always wonderful "L" words.
I love this room - warm, romantic and feminine for me, with the chocolate accents making it comfortable for masculine hubby.

I guess this look could be called "Bohemian Cottage" for want of a better description.

Pretty Faces

Today, my always smiling granddaughter, brought home her latest school photo - another lovely shot to frame and make a new scrapbook page.

Meanwhile, out in the garden the Spring blooms are really bursting forth - this Pink Impression tulip is one of my favorites.These purple and white pansies are in my kitchen window box and I love looking at them when working at the sink!
More tulips and violas in pots in the back garden - such gorgeous colors.

Hope those of you still snowbound will soon be out enjoying your gardens too.

Shall we dine in tonight dear?

A few dining room pictures to share. I love having a true dining room even though it's small. We use it mainly for intimate dinners - max. of six, other times it becomes my cutting out table and scrapbooking desk! Cottage living means using every space available, when available!!

A Pink Bee found corbels this week and she mentions using them for a window treatment. I did this in my dining room - they hold a pole which in turn has held, at different times, curtain panels, formal top treatments, and my favorite - silk organza placements embroidered with gold dragonflies! At present I have a lovely grapevine garland with those tiny glass "raindrops" from Smith & Hawken dangling here and there - quite pretty at night when the lights are on.



Thank goodness for my Welsh Dresser with plenty of shelves in the dining room - I bought it unfinished, painted and distressed it for a shabby cottage look! I do love china - doesn't have to be expensive bone china in formal place settings, just anything pretty with Nature themes, writing of course, or pretty colors. The pink teacups are for afternoon tea with a girlfriend who may stop by - the cake plates don't match exactly but that's OK, they are pretty. The green china with shells and seaweeds is an old English pattern reproduced here in the USA. It's named TORQUAY which is my hometown in Devon, UK so of course I had to have at least a few pieces - it's terribly expensive. I often use it for tea when I'm on my own.

This sugar bowl and creamer, with another pitcher in back, are part of my large collection of Noritake's "The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady". I love the illustrations of flowers, birds, insects etc., all named in English and Latin, and different on each piece. The plates, saucers etc. have lovely sayings and lines of poetry around the edges. I started collecting this set in the 1980's when I received an unexpected pay raise - a present to myself!

Hope you can visit me for tea some afternoon.

Unexpected Garden Visitors

OK Pink Bee - this one's for you.

Can you see her?

Sitting there so quietly right in front of my nose while I tied up the tomato plants one morning in May last year. Mama gray fox, glowing golden in the sunshine, had come to nurse her four adorable offspring. The kits appeared from under my neighbor's shed where she had apparently hidden them for safety. For several weeks we watched them feed, play, grow. Dad fox would stop by now and then, he was camping out in my rear neighbor's garden which is heavily overgrown, and would climb over the fence and come through my garden to check on his family. The kits often came around the fence and into my garden, playing like puppies until Mom chased them back. These were the two who seemed to enjoy posing - when I called to them they would pop out from under the shed and sit still for the camera. This shot was published in the local newspaper in the House & Garden "Backyard Sightings" section.

Here the four of them are playing after lunch - they were probably about 8 weeks old. (Click on photos to enlarge)
By the second week of June my neighbor - an elderly lady alone - decided six foxes in our quarter acre gardens were just too much. We called the city animal control officer and they brought a large humane cage to trap the animals. Can you believe not one of those wily foxes were stupid enough to try out the cat food left inside, hooray!!! Then, one day in June, they all disappeared, probably into the small wooded area across the cul-de-sac.

However.................................just two weeks ago, at dusk, Mom fox trotted across my front lawn, made sure no traffic was coming, and headed across the road into the woods. As you you can imagine, I will be watching this Spring - will they return with another litter? Will keep you posted.

The sad part is that these beautiful animals are losing their natural habitat as more and more parcels of suburban land are being bulldozed bare to build "McMansions", office parks, and shopping centers. I like to think they can still find a tranquil spot to raise their young - perhaps their choosing a little cottage garden is a sign that Nature is still, and always will be, kindly and caring, despite the atrocities of mankind.

Special day on my calendar

Today is a sad one for me - the anniversary of my dear Mother's death. Despite the fact we had been separated by "the pond" for 40 years, we had managed to see each other almost every one of those years, either by me crossing over in boats and planes, or by her flying here and having the time of her life. In the easier days of transAtlantic travel, we both enjoyed those flights, chatting with the "stewardesses" through long nights, moving around the cabin freely, and Mother was even celebrated with a bottle of champagne the time she was flying here on her 80th Birthday! Four years ago today, I visited with Mother in a small "cottage hospital" to say goodbye. I arrived the day before, having hurried to get a flight and get home in time. She was a proud lady who loved her country fiercely - she said she would never have let me come to America if she had known I would never return to England to live. And so..................on an early Spring day, as the sun warmed the beautiful green Devonshire countryside, we said goodbye, and for me, those long flights home will never be the same.

Fill out a "happiness card". It makes one realize that life is full of many wonders that enrich our days no matter what.

Today is very warm and the garden is calling to me. It's a tranquil place where I can think of Mother and remember how she taught me to enjoy digging in the dirt! I plugged in this little fountain on the etagere shelf - almost immediately my pair of Carolina wrens flew in for a drink. This photo I treasure more than anything, it was taken in 1913 in London. My Grandmother is holding twin daughters with her eldest daughter standing on her right. The boy on her right and girl on her left are my Mother and her twin brother. Five children in four years, wow!
Wishing you all a wonderful day surrounded by the love of your family and circle of friends.

Enjoy Life - It's Delicious

Today was kitchen clean up day - such a good feeling to have everything bright and shiny - until the next greasy, splattering pots boil over!! The 'frig looks great too now that all those leftover veggies have gone to the compost bin.

Even kitchen walls can display the written word - my love of lettering is omnipresent in my home.

I love Emma Bridgewater's "Nursery Ware" crockery. The words remind me of my childhood in an English kitchen.................and TOAST & MARMALADE still is, and always will be my most favorite breakfast!!
Umm....................can you smell the most delicious Italian risotto cooking on the stove? Best ever was in the little cellar restaurant under my hotel in Cortona, Italy - so loaded with black truffles and Parmigiano Reggiano I thought I'd died and gone to heaven! Cortona, home of Frances Mayes of "Under the Tuscan Sun" fame, is a beautiful hill town - well worth a stop on the way from Rome to Florence.

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I recently made this container for my arborio rice - was really pleased with the result.

Kitchen is closed................back in the morning, perhaps for porridge with brown sugar and cream, next best thing to the toast & marmalade!!!

Sunday Teatime

At exactly four o'clock this afternoon dear hubby and I stopped our respective busy work inside the house - we're getting ready for family visiting from Arizona this week - made a lovely pot of tea, and took it with a plate of chocolate biscuits to the gazebo. Temperature had reached 75 and it was beautiful outside. Great to relax for half an hour, watch the robins and woodpeckers who seemed the busiest birds around today, the daffodils dancing in the light breeze, and just enjoy the total feeling of Spring in the garden.

Two of my favorite teapots. The pretty blossom painted one above I use often for afternoon tea parties. Below is the very special delicate pot for one with matching cup and saucer, tiny side plate and bowl, which belonged at first to my Grandmother, and was then acquired by me from my dear Mother's estate. This coming Thursday will be four years since her death................I will make myself a special cup of English tea in the little pot that afternoon before calling my brother in France to talk about "our Mum". How special she was................how much we miss her.

First tulips appeared this weekend - tiny ones tucked among the pansies in a pot!

Sending each of you a breath of Spring.