Books and Blooms

.....This is a favorite Spring picture.....

It's currently on my refrigerator where I like to display something seasonal and lovely. These old books and jonquils speak quietly to me. I am in the process of aging some used books I brought home ~ and will display them on my shelves.........but only if I can get them to look this beautiful.

'Daffodils that come before the swallow dares,

And take the winds of March with beauty.'

...........William Shakespeare..........

Hang it up!

Today we're headed West................to Asheboro, home of the North Carolina Zoo. Meeting friends there and hoping for a fun day out, lunch with the animals, and dinner in Tuscany, well that's the name of the restaurant we plan to try this evening!

My friend, who always picks out the sweetest gifts for me ~ such as fabulous bunny slippers and that gorgeous iron card holder for the wall I showed at Christmas ~ will hopefully enjoy this Spring gift I made to take to her today.

I found these large wooden French Provincial style hangers in a vintage shop last Fall and have started playing around with them. I added French words by rubber stamping, a small lavender bag, assorted ribbons, a silk rose, and my latest fun thing ~ tea dyed cheesecloth, torn and shirred, twisted!

Wearing o' the Green

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY

~Palest pink camellias in my neighbor's garden ~

~Tulip pics from a magazine ~

Remember in my "green" post I mentioned vintage garden furniture ~ how about this 'Springy' yellow and green set just waiting to grace a garden..................and those amazing corbels....more treasures spotted at SuzAnna's last week.

Enjoying all shades of green today but I'll pass on the green beer ~ make mine a glass of red wine please!

The Green Path

Before we turn green..............not with envy...........more with 'wearing o' the green' for St. Patrick, hanging out the shamrock flag, sighing at Spring buds bursting and new grass growing, how about a quick word on truly GOING GREEN.

Many of you are already making changes in daily living with your cleaning products, your choice of vehicles, your food purchases, composting your scraps, buying natural fiber clothing, carrying reusable shopping bags, recycling your plastic ones, etc.

According to this edited article from Country Living (US edition) magazine ~ "these days it's easier to shop for environmentally smart items, thanks to an increased effort from both well-known and niche brands. The trend is conscious consumerism, and manufacturers and retailers are catching on. Try using kinder comforts in your home."

According to Graham Hill, Founder, Treehugger.com & VP Interactive, PlanetGreen.com

"Everything you already do in your day-to-day life - home decorating, your clothing, the food you eat - can be done with a modern green twist. Green is more than just 'stuff'; it's a real lifestyle."

Notice 'home decorating' mentioned here. As many of us are really interested in this happy pursuit, how nice to seek out lovely things for one's home without even having to buy new. Do you know that a huge percentage of all new furniture is now imported from China. Living in North Carolina, once the center of the US furniture industry, we have seen thousands lose jobs as their lifetime manufacturing careers have been pulled from under their feet. Using cheap materials and labor in other countries also has an impact on the planet, and when those items quickly fall apart here on our shores, they end up in our landfills, destroying our air and surroundings.

OK, I'm off my soapbox now ~ just wanted you to do your part to make and keep our country environmentally safe.

I am reusing and thoroughly enjoying my old stuff, especially when it comes to decorating around the house. I love my cotton doilies made by my English cousin ~ they line the shelves in my linen closet instead of plastic shelf paper, and look so pretty. I'm using old twine and string to wrap packages, found at the vintage/thrift shops in place of costly ribbons made overseas by child labor, they can be attractive when faded to sepia tones.


I'm decorating the cottage with vintage finds ~ it can be so much fun and extremely satisfying.

Remember, you don't have to shop for new garden furniture for the Summertime ~ vintage places in your town will have plenty just waiting to be given a new home. Anyone can point and shoot a spray can of touch up paint ~ or better still use a brush and one of the new 'green' environmentally safe paints.......which of course come in other colors too!

Old wrought iron garden furniture spotted at my favorite place to shop ~ SuzAnna's Antiques

Are you with me? Let's all do our part and take the green path to save our planet for our precious grandchildren ~ and all future generations.

Mary, Mary, quite contrary..........

...................how does your garden grow?

Yesterday afternoon I walked out on to the deck where daffodils are now popping up in containers..........................

...................over to the potting shed where the five leafed Akebia is sprouting and even has a few tiny purple bell flowers in bloom. I love this climber.

More daffodils pushing up through the mulch of oak leaves, golden buds bursting open.

These are King Alfred - huge blooms on strong stems.

This is a favorite ~ Ice Follies, pale and frothy like an ice skater's dress! A butterfly bush growing rapidly by the back fence.


This dainty blossom on a bush which is getting very large, fills an entire corner now ~ not sure of the name, it was a pass-along from a neighbor. Please can anyone tell me what it is ?

..................and this which is actually my current painting project! A perfect day to be outside armed with Heritage White spray paint. I'm almost ashamed to tell you how long I've taken to finish this piece. It is a sewing machine cabinet inherited from a dear friend five years ago! I've always intended to make it my bedside table. A yucky brown, I first painted it green about three years ago, but then.................well I decided to change my bedroom colors so it wasn't right. It's been stuck in the potting shed until yesterday when I carried it outside, washed it down, and took aim with the spray cans. It took three coats and looks quite good. I'll distress and wax it with BriWax once the paint has cured. Instead of replacing the metal decorative handle on the front I plan to add a resin applique such as a swag of roses, painted and distressed to make it look old and shabby. Maybe then, at long last, it will come inside and be put to good use.

Spring in my step

pring has come to

North Carolina!

I hope all snowbound friends will soon have scenery such as this in their neighborhoods.
~~~~~ Sending Spring your way ~~~~~

Thatched Cottages and China (Part II)

Have you noticed how old thatched cottages seem to wink at you? Their romantic roofs have curves and eyebrows that tease and draw you close, making you want so much to be invited inside. You know there will be low ceilings, broad window sills for your vase of Spring flowers and your cat, large hearths with wood piled around ready to feed the welcoming fire, doors where you must duck your head, a narrow staircase and uneven floors. The warmth of a special home will surround you ~ that's just the way a cottage is.

So, needless to say when the call came ~ "didn't you say you were interested in motto ware with cottages and words" ~ I was all ears! Susie, at SuzAnna's Antiques, said there was a man with lots of Torquay motto ware standing in front of her at the shop and would I talk to him. Long story short ~ Sunday morning I sat surrounded by motto ware trying to decide which pieces I wanted and could afford! I'm not planning to start a collection but am going to enjoy these few pieces I will use. The seller was most generous as he wanted me to have something reminding me of home.............his prices were below what I saw on the Internet, plus he gave me a 50% discount which was wonderful.

These are the six pieces I purchased, all in excellent condition, all with cottages. Because the mottos are in regular English, not the Devonian dialect, I imagine them to be pieces from the early 1900's, and all came from two of the Torquay potteries.

The large jug is my favorite, the motto being "Say Not Always What You Know But Always Know What You Say". The egg cups, "New Laid" and "Laid Today", for our soft boiled eggs, are so cute with attached heavy bottoms so will not tip over. The sugar bowl "Say Little But Think Much" and creamer "Fairest Gems Lie Deep" will be used at teatime, and the handled mug "Heaven Send Thee Many Happy Days" is already holding daffodils on my narrow kitchen window sill.

And so, from beautiful Devon, England via Canada, Minnesota, New York and then here to North Carolina (and sold by a gentleman from Honolulu), came these little treasures to remind me of home.

These two cottages were in an East Devon village - one of many I passed through last October. Now if only I could get my roof thatched..............................well we all have to have a dream, right?

Wink, wink!

(Please scroll back to my previous post to see Part I)

China is Home! (Part I)

Of course you know I'm not from China. I do however get excited when I see china and ironstone, those lovely dishes, jugs and tureens, made in the midlands of England - the area known for Wedgwood, Mason's, Royal Doulton, Royal Albert and many other famous companies of 'The Potteries' around Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire.

However, down in Devon, my home, there were also many potteries started around 1867 which lasted until the 1960's when, sadly, most closed for economic reasons. They were not famous for expensive bone china dinner services, or elegant decorative pieces, but they were kept busy using the area's red earth, terra cotta clay. They fashioned, by hand, everyday dishes used by farmers' wives in their thatched farmhouse cottages, and just ordinary country folk who needed inexpensive 'china' with a bit of primitive decoration. All artwork - illustrations of cottages, roosters, flowers etc., and the written quaint rhymes and proverbs, the 'mottos', were all done by hand, so nothing actually matches, each therefore becoming a piece of now collectible 'art pottery'. This pottery was named 'Devon Motto Ware' and several of the most famous potteries including Watcombe, Aller Vale and St. Marychurch, were just a few minutes drive from my home in Torquay.

Following WWII, when tourists started returning to Torquay, always known as 'Queen of the English Riviera', and the other South Devon seaside resorts, the potteries focused on providing motto ware as souvenirs to take home to London and the Northern counties. The mottos themselves began showing up written in the Devonshire dialect, and as holidaymakers wanted cheap, but pleasing small items to remind them of beautiful Devon, they found them perfect. As a child we would never have considered buying this type of china - it was considered cheap and a bit tacky, and just for 'the visitors' to our lovely town! Now however the pieces remaining are collectibles and reaching unbelievable prices. A lot seemed to go to Canada and has gradually made it's way south into the USA.

................and you say, why is she telling us about more 'china' when we're already collecting transferware, Old Country Roses, original dark blue Wedgwood, and Green Torquay etc. Well this weekend, when I didn't go looking for any china, I received a phone call and got all excited and homesick! If I've piqued your interest and you come back here tomorrow, I'll show you why.........................................

..............meanwhile, enjoy Spring viewing these Devon thatched cottages located in a little village called Cockington, just a 15 minute picturesque country walk from my childhood home.

Writing a Six Word Memoir

My sweet friend Pat at Back Porch Musings has tagged me to write a 'six word memoir' after she was tagged by kj .

I'm sharing a little bit of France through the ages ~ well not quite ancient history, but in my personal life it's history and I call it old! You know how your kids love to question you about "the olden days" and what you did back then...................well kids, here we were having fun in Paris, when I was a back-combed blonde and your dad had a bit more hair! Note, tourists 'dressed up' in those days. I made my two-piece knit suit, and know I was wearing heels, very high heels.............and carrying a stylish patent leather handbag with chain handles. And my goodness, dh is actually wearing a suit and what must have been the skinny tie style of the sixties! No sloppy jeans and tennis shoes for us.................or anyone else in Paris in those days!

Hope you laugh over this photo. You'd better because you don't know how long it took me to find it in the attic this morning, and get it unstuck from the old album with black paper pages!

I've returned to Paris between these two photos, it is the most beautiful city and one I could visit over and over again. I like this photo of us taken by our granddaughter on the top of the Arc de Triomphe - she managed to catch a glimpse of the Eiffel Tower in the background (the metal posts are part of the safety barrier now around the top of the arch). It was hotter than Hades that June day and I was wearing tourist clothes - crop pants, flip flops, a tee shirt and a backpack ~ and thank goodness Bob didn't bother to pack a suit.

Yes, life throws a lot of curves at us......and here's my six word memoir

What goes around ~ comes around, again.

I am supposed to tag 5 blog friends. The rules are:

1. Write your own six (6) word memoir.

2. Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration, if you like.

3. Link to the person that tagged you in your post and to the original post if possible, so we can track it as it travels through the blogosphere.

4. Tag five more blogs with links.

5. Remember to leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play.

I tag - Heidi Julie Mandy Deb and anyone else who wants to join in!

Tops and Bottoms!

I found this little chest at SuzAnna's, with Linda's help of course. Those great gals allowed me to cart it home to see if it worked ~ it certainly did! With an interior shelf and divided into four cubbies for storage, it's the final piece I'm adding to the guest room. This useful chest stands beneath the mirror, a perfect fit..........tailor made for the space.

The paint finish requires no additional work which is great. Managed to find a key which fits the lock ~ must have something from which to dangle a tassel.

I brought this really old ~ weighs a ton ~ iron urn from the front porch, added the woven sea grass balls which had been in another urn on the dining room table, and placed all upon this frothy lace doily made by my cousin Sue in England. Love how these hard and soft textures all work together.

You know how plans change - well this is one of them. This very dark chocolate velvet fabric (which I really thought was black when I purchased it ~ shop lighting can be deceiving ~ but chocolate works better here, and of course we know how good it is for our health!!!), with great French style, was for the other chair. However, I decided to stay with the original choice for the white painted chair (show you that later). Instead I used this lovely fabric to make a squishy little cushion for the antique chair. Couldn't find a round pillow form so had a round of foam cut and covered it with poly batting to make it softer. To keep it looking informal I made the ties from old cotton tape which I aged by dipping in strong coffee.

Sitting comfortably at the desk now.

~~~~~~~~~~

Golden Surprise!

Last evening I went to Trader Joe's for a fresh baguette, goat milk brie, Greek yogurt and a few other food items I crave from that particular store. Inside the door, among the flower display, was a bucket of golden daffodils, mostly still in bud, and just $1.39 a bunch. I grabbed two bunches knowing I could add them to the ones picked from my own garden and fill a creamware jug. On reading the tag in the car - dh was driving - I screeched loudly proclaiming the origin of these lovely fresh flowers................they came from 'across the pond', from England, from HOME!!!! How amazing. I am now enjoying a breathe of English Spring right here in my North Carolina kitchen.

Life is good!

My Friend ~ The Decorating Diva

on't you just love gals who aren't shy when they come to your home? I've never used the services of a professional decorator/designer. However, I was a winner in the Valentine contest at SuzAnna's Antiques ~ my prize, one very special hour with Linda, their assistant at the shop and a decorator/organizer extraordinaire!! After showing this bundle of energy around the cottage last Friday, enjoying a cup of Earl Grey and a slice of French apple cake with a dollop of creme fraiche, we started playing house!

Linda removed her fabulous black suede MOD wedgie Maryjanes and proceeded to hop up on my bed. She removed the little carving I'd temporarily hung above this mirror, and placed this already painted and shabbied iron piece ~ the roses being the perfect grey blue of my wall paint and shabby shutters!

Voila, love at first sight ~ different, unique, brings the garden in!

Before reaching the French inspired guest room still languishing in makeover mode, Linda hauled this amazing old, heavy, slightly shabbied frame up the stairs. No place in the guest room but how about here, bringing a little life to another blank and boring attic storage space door at the top of the stairwell. It really looks wonderful as one glances up the stairs from the cottage entry and works well with the damask covered chair.

This European mirror with slightly marred glass, pretty etching and a graceful shape is another piece Linda brought along. The color and design is perfect with the hand painted chest I've had many years.
Moving into the guest room, Linda was excited to see many of the pieces she'd help me choose earlier from SuzAnna's ~ the secretary of course, along with picture frames, the bedside table and other small decorative pieces. We discussed the chair seats and she agreed with my decisions on these which I'll show later after the sewing part is completed. I did splurge on this beautiful trim for the little toile pillow on the chair next to the window - perfect color with the shutters and quite French looking with the generous ribbon loops.

Linda's decorating hour passed far too quickly ~ we had a lot of fun and she helped me no end when it came to taking things just a little over the top. Her eye sees quirky beauty in everything old and previously loved. She is never at a loss as to what something unusual, scuffed or chipped can be used for around the house or garden.............and she will paint anything that will stay still long enough to give it a new life!

Thanks so much Linda, it was great fun................and thanks again Susie and Anna for this wonderful prize.

I'm off to sew now ~ darkening storm clouds are gathering outside our windows and hopefully we'll get much needed rain this afternoon and evening.

Will you be my guest?

This little guest room makeover became more involved as time moved on! What was just going to be fresh paint and a few French inspired decorative items kept growing until I almost felt like it would never be completed.....................and it isn't, yet.

However, as I promised some photos I've decided to give you a glimpse as to what's been done so far.

My painter scraped off the ceiling texture, then painted it along with the walls giving me a blank canvas. I painted and distressed the pine bed, head and foot boards, also painted and hung the old wood shutters.

I added this small table with a drop down front, already painted and bit chipped - perfect in place of the cumbersome nightstand which was moved into the closet to be used for extra storage as it has two good sized drawers. I added the antique metal French styled bow.

For years I held on to this magazine page because I love the old French rope samples. I mounted it on a red and aqua scrapbook paper and stamped the mat with French words.

Some of the old books I purchased recently ~ the crystal, silver lidded powder bowl on the left was a 21st Birthday gift to my Mother (c. 1932), the other one a gift to me from a dear friend on a visit home to England.

The closet doors got their new painted finish ~ and yesterday I installed the wall writing.

Aimez, riez, revez ~~~ et allez dormir

(Love, laugh, dream ~~~ and go to sleep)

The pine armoire has not been revamped yet ~ a project for another time. This mirror is now crowned with a painted carving.

The French wire basket holds old books and rolled sheet music.
Another shot of the recently purchased secretary which took the place of the pine chest of drawers. This piece is certainly the biggest change in this room. The antique chair will soon have a new seat cushion.

The newly painted attic storage door on which I hung an old oval picture frame which I painted and glazed ~ it looks like molding and adds some decoration to an otherwise utilitarian door.



Above and below, my precious photos of my Mother and her siblings, and my Grandmother.

I'm now working on the items requiring fabric, trim, thread and the sewing machine........will show you these later. Last but by no means least, awaiting the chandelier...................that, I believe, will be the finishing touch for this room.

~ Shopping List ~

SuzAnna's Antiques, Raleigh, North Carolina
Shutters
Ballet slipper used as blind pull
Bedside table
French style metal bow
Vintage books
Oval wall mirror
French wire basket
Antique Secretary
Picture frames

Fetch Treasures for the Home, Hillsborough, North Carolina
Antique chair

Michael's
Small lamp on desk
French style glass bottles

Homegoods
Waste basket
Toile storage boxes on armoire

Home Depot
'Shabby Chic' style switchplate

Lowe's
All paints by Valspar
Wall color ~ Cincinnatian Hotel Hannaford
Doors and Bed - Lyndhurst Stone

Wisedecor Wall Lettering
Typeface 'Handwriting' ~ Color Tan