Fit For A Princess

My daughter and I spent the afternoon together having lunch and going to pick up her wedding gown. We ordered it months ago and now to see it in real life is quite a reality check for dear old mom! She looks amazingly beautiful in it ~ the champagne color is exquisite on her. But wow ~ I couldn't believe how heavy it is! I debated about posting a picture of the dress here and ultimately decided against it. I am old-fashioned and a bit superstitious and I would hate for the groom to happen upon it and ruin the surprise for the Big Day. So instead I will show you the veil and tiara she selected. I can't believe my little princess is going to wear a tiara. She was a bit hesitant about it at first, but when she put it on with the dress, we both knew she had to have it. Now we just have to find a place to store the dress for the next 3 months ~ and in a house with not much closet space, that is going to be a real challenge!

A Little Shopping

One of my all-time favorite shops is called Viva La Cottage. It's a darling little place and the owner, Angie has such a talent for setting up cozy and wonderful displays.

I mean, who wouldn't want to spend a restful afternoon napping on this hanging bed?

There are new items inter-mixed with antiques and flea market finds, cleverly used in the displays. Something as simple as a few mother of pearl buttons scattered across a vintage doily or as unique as an antique iron crib attached to the wall and used for shelves ~ I always go away with ideas on how to use my own pieces at home. And the linens she has are to die for! Crisply starched white pyjamas or blouses or hankies or table linens all hanging or laying out as they would in your very own home.

This is what I purchase on this trip ~ a lovely salt & pepper shaker set which I plan to fill with German glass glitter and a vintage French Language course book.

Surrounding the shop are beautiful gardens that include everything AND the kitchen sink (well, I guess it's actually a bathroom sink!)

Low tea* is served outside under this natural arbor.

*Did you ever wonder what the difference is between High Tea and Low tea? Brenda Hyde From Old Fashioned Living explains it this way:

High tea sounds elegant and brings to mind lavish tea desserts, scones and dainty sandwiches. Often high tea is described as a more lavish version of afternoon tea. However, this has never been true, and is a misuse of the term. High tea was actually a working man's hearty tea and supper after a long, hard day of manual labor. It is actually the combination of afternoon tea and the evening meal. The working person, whether male or female, would work until late afternoon, often missing lunch and certainly afternoon tea. They would return home in the early evening and high tea would be served at the main table or "high table" rather than in the parlor or sitting room. High tea would include tea, bread and cheese.

Afternoon tea on the other hand, would often be served at smaller, lower tables with dainty desserts and fine china. This was often referred to as low tea. While this does not sound elegant, it was the tea preferred by the upper class. In the 1800's the practice of inviting friends to tea became popular, especially among the rich. This will vary too depending on if it's formal or informal, but almost always includes:sandwiches and/or savories, scones, toast, crumpets or muffins, cookies, plain cakes, quick breads and sometimes an elegant cake to finish the tea. Afternoon tea is generally served between lunch and a later dinner; anywhere from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Swap Sharing

I had a wonderful surprise in my mailbox yesterday. Heather of Speckled Egg organized a swap called Jewels of the Sea where each participant had to make 6 pendants and receive 6 others in exchange. Well they all arrived yesterday and here they are: This first one is from Tammy of Little Junk Shop. It is so sweet and very tiny ~ maybe only 1"x 1/2" in size. And I adore her presentation tag, colors and all!

This beautiful pendant is from Michele of Life On This Good Day. She took a tiny scalloped seashell and filled it with pearls and jewels. She positioned it on the card so that it looks like the girl is holding it in her hand. Oh and she also put some of those teensy-weensy glass micro-beads in the bag to simulate water. Great touch Michele!

Jenny of Fated Follies Studio made this darling little pendant of glass beads in seashore colors. But the box is just as beautiful as the pendant. Jenny's attention to detail really blew me away.

Heidi of Everyday Cookies made this soldered pendant using a vintage bathing beauty image. We must have been on the same page when we were dreaming up our designs because ours are very similar. (You can see my pendant here.) Heidi's packaging was so cute, I just had to share it with you. I am a detail person so I am always just as interested in how things are packaged as I am with the actual swap item!

This altered domino pendant was made by Julie of Cupcakedd. It's an image of a man fishing with a mermaid by his side and he's caught a jeweled heart on his fishing pole. How romantic!Inside the bag is grains of sand, shells and a fish charm.

As an added bonus, our sweet hostess Heather tucked in this special little goody bag filled with "sea-inspired" trinkets. This was a fabulous swap and I will cherish each of these handmade treasures. And here is the next swap I am participating in.....the deadline is coming up very soon, so I'd better get a move on.

Relax and Sit a Spell

Photo courtesy of April Cornell

Haven't done much of anything during the past couple of days. My sister-in-law was in town and we had fun visiting with her. She left for home this morning, but no time to start any big projects because our good friends are coming up from Florida on Wednesday. It seems as though this entire month will be spent traveling and visiting with friends and family. It seems odd to be taking so much time for rest and recuperation, especially since there are a million and one things I should be doing. But I guess that is what summer is all about. . .sitting back and taking it easy. Wouldn't you just love to do that in a pair of old rockers like these?

Home Again

We're home again, for a week anyway. We left behind beautiful sunsets like this to come home to thunderstorms and 90 degree weather. Ugh! But in a week we will return up north along with our best friends from Florida. They will be our first visitors up at the cottage. I am a bit nervous about it, as I hope they will love the area as much as we do. We've been thinking about what sights to take them to - there are many. Lately we haven't had time to enjoy any of them because there is always work to be done and so little time to finish it. That is the down-side to having a second home. As romantic and dreamy as it all seems, it is another place that needs attention, just like the one back at home. But the cottage is easier to maintain because when we had it built we selected as many maintenance-free features as possible. Also, there isn't as much accumulated "stuff" up there - and hopefully there never will be. And there is less square footage to keep clean. But it's the outside that is taking up most of our time right now. All the landscaping takes time to do, especially when my husband's busiest time of the year is the spring. We finally were able to plant the wildflower seeds in the front on this last trip, which took several prior visits to prepare for this so-called low-maintenance planting. We don't want a lawn to have to mow, so we are trying the wildflowers. It will be interesting to see what comes up and how it looks in the end.

Summertime Journal

I promised that I would show you my completed summer art journal I made for the Write Place Write Now E-Zine, so here it is. This was a perfect assignment for me because I love all the colors of summer, sand and water. Summertime makes me think of aqua blue water dotted with sail boats, green pistachio ice cream cones, ice cold glasses of yellow lemonade and pale pink sunset skies. Ahhhh....I can practically feel the sand between my toes from just writing those words. OK, I've got to go slip into my flip-flops and fix myself some chicken salad in a tomato cup right now! What makes you think of summertime?

Happy 4th of July

Hope you all have a wonderful holiday weekend!

Jewels of the Sea Swap

Heather over at Speckled Egg recently hosted a fun swap called "Jewels of the Sea." Each participant was to make 6 pendants in a vintage seaside theme and we get 6 different pendants in return. The darling images I used on both the pendant and the card above were purchased from Vintage Image Madness. To coordinate with the pastel shades of the images, I used copper tape, wire, beads and findings along with a tiny aqua crystal bead at the very top. I also made a discovery when I pulled out my squares of glass and realized that all I had was frosted glass. I remember hearing a long time ago if you want to change frosted glass into clear glass apply a coat of Diamond Glaze to the frosted surface. I was kind of doubtful, but figured I didn't have anything to lose and if it worked it would save me another trip to the craft store. So I gave it a try and sure enough, it worked! I just spread it around the glass with my finger, not worrying too much about getting it perfectly smooth, so it sort of has the appearance of wavy antique glass. Perfect! I can't wait to see what everyone else's pendants look like!

Back Home Again

We've been away for a few days. . .what a nice feeling it is to have a change of scenery and pace. I've noticed that it doesn't really seem to matter where you go, as long as you go somewhere that is away from your home. For us it is spending time at the cottage, and although there is still work to do up there, my husband refers to it as a "different kind of work." At first I scoffed at that comment, arguing that "work is still work" no matter what type of work it is. But now I have come to realize that a change of location can make even boring or routine chores seem less tasking. I can't explain it, but I think the change in location effects your mind in many positive ways.


During our time away, I had time to catch up on some reading and was able to finish this fun book everyone seems to be reading right now. Also I was able to complete several pages in my Write Place, Write Time Summer Journal, so I'll be sharing those pics with you soon.

I set up the little bistro set pictured above on the front porch of the cottage and this is where we ate our lunches, taking in the cool breezes and sunshine. I have had this little set packed away after purchasing it for a steal here many years ago. I had planned on painting it white to use here at home, but never got around to doing it. Now I'm glad I procratinated on painting it because the red looks rather nice against the grey siding on the cottage. It all folds up for easy storage so we can bring it inside when we head back home.

Heather is hosting a Summer Greeting Card Swap on her blog. We can all use an extra card or two, so why don't you stop by and check out the details.

In other news, while we were out of town my sweet friend Cerri opened up a new, cute as a button online boutique called Little Pink Studio. She has all sorts of wonderful goodies in her shop, so please stop by and take a peek for yourself.

Hope you all have a glorious weekend doing something you love!

Store Bought vs Handmade

Today was a busy day running here and there with my daughter on one of those rare occasions that we are both free at the same time. I worked hard at trying to transform some of the things on my "to-do" list (see previous post) into "ta-das." How did that go, you ask? Not as well as I hoped, but we did manage to cross off one major item ~ finally making a decision on the invitations for her wedding. N wanted them to be simple, yet still unique to her style. She also preferred that we make them ourselves. What? Oh dear! She told me that "people will expect us to make them." Oh really? But never shying away from a challenge, especially when it involves my child and the chance to play with paper, we drove out to this store......

Being a frequent customer of the store, I already knew that they would have the perfect color of paper we would need for the base of the invitations - pool and chocolate. Wendy, the nice lady at Paper Source, was ever so helpful and turned all the decisions as to the sizes and weights of all the papers and envelopes we needed into a total breeze. She even wrote down all the dimensions that we will have to trim the various layers of card stock down to. She was an absolute angel and you could tell that she truly enjoys her job!

I must admit after all these years of shopping at Paper Source and seeing young brides deliberating over which of the many beautiful papers to use for their wedding invitations, I became slightly "verklempt" while standing there today with my own darling daughter doing the same thing.

Speaking of handmade cards and things, I mentioned in an earlier post that I went to a bridal shower that was held for my daughter last Saturday. And as much fun as it was to shop for gifts to give her, I think I had the best time putting together the handmade cards for her. The one above I made using vintage bridal shower wrapping paper, along with a sweet little bride and greeting cut from a vintage greeting card. I glittered up the flowers on her skirt and added some bakers twine to the fold. Below is the sentiment I put inside the card.....
On another gift I attached this shipping tag instead of a traditional greeting card. Again, the image is from some vintage wedding wrapping paper I found at the antique mall. The white lace trims were sent to me all the way from Spain from my sweet blogging friend Mercedes....just because! The aqua lace is another vintage trim I had picked up along the way. I added some soft blue polka dot scrapbook paper I found at Michael's and some "pearl" dots I made with a product called Liquid Pearls.
Well, I guess I'd better get started cutting the huge stack of cardstock I have piled up on my diningroom table. I am determined not to be my usual procrastinating self on this project! I'll keep you posted on how that goes!

To-Dos and Ta-Das

How long is your to-do list? Mine always seems to be so long and I never seem to get as much done as I hope to on any given day. This was my morning yesterday - there wasn't enough room to fit the afternoon. A friend of mine calls her completed to-do list her "ta-da" list. Funny. But I will never have a "ta-da" list because I'm always adding onto mine.

And then there's the grocery list. Why is it as soon as I return from the grocery store, I always think of something I forgot? It never fails! So I write it on the list for the next time and as a result I never have a completed grocery list either. It seems to be a viscious circle. A couple years ago I heard about this website from Ali showing other people grocery lists. Seems there is a website for everything, isn't there?

Have a great day and I hope all your "to-dos" turn into "ta-das!"

Another Treasury

Parfumerie :: Romantic, Elegant Inspiration

Another cool Etsy Cottage Style Treasury by Sadie Lou! She's THE BEST at jumping in and creating these! And she even included my little shop! Thanks so much Sadie!

Boys of Summer

Here's a little collage I put together yesterday for the Write Place, Write Now journaling group. The boys in the photo are actually my DH and his brother. {My hubby is the one on the left.} Aren't they adorable? I found this snapshot while we were trying to scan all his family photos into the computer to make a CD for the family. {What a major ordeal that job is!} The funny thing is that I can still see those boyish faces on on the two of them today.

Vintage Wedding Mosaic

Our one and only daughter is getting married later this year. It's hard for me to believe she is old enough to be doing such a thing. But alas, she is. She will be 25 by the time the wedding takes place. We have been busy planning and making lots of decisions ~ her more than me. Today her future sister-in-law is throwing a bridal shower for her and she is so excited! I wonder if all of this will finally sink in for me as I see her opening gifts for her first home. Remember how back in our day we gingerly removed the ribbons from the packages, being careful not to break any of them because that would be the number of children you would have? Do they still play that silly game at showers or am I dating myself? And surely I must have broken more than one ribbon at my bridal showers. And wasn't that only yesterday? Where does the time go? All of you with little ones sill running around, don't blink because they grow up faster than you think!

1. Wedding gift, 2. Vintage Wedding Postcard ~ So Romantic, 3. DCP_6267, 4. Doves ring bells for Bride & Groom, 5. Vintage Wedding Cards, 6. JoAnn's wedding dress photo, 7. Vintage Wedding Wrapping Paper, 8. Vintage Postcard ~ Bride, 9. vintage wedding display, 10. Bells and Doves Wedding Vintage Card, 11. Vintage Wedding, 12. CT Wedding Cakes, 13. Wedding Rings, 14. Vintage Wedding Wrapping Paper, 15. Great Aunt Helen's wedding., 16. Beautiful vintage veil, 17. wedding day, 18. Floral Wedding Bells, 19. bridal bouquet, 20. Grace Kelly, 21. Engraved Wedding Invitation, Calligraphy by Lusana Truxell, 22. wedding motor, 23. Red Leaf Studios, 24. 1950s vintage cake topper, 25. vintage veils, 26. wedding bell detail, 27. sweet vintage white drawstring bag, 28. Vintage Postcard ~ Wedding, 29. Vintage Bridal Gown Pattern, 30. Vintage Wedding Gown, 31. Vintage Calla Lilly Bride, 32. very vintage, 33. Titian Wedding Party, 34. 1959 Wedding Card, 35. Flower Bride, 36. Vintage Wedding Postcard ~ Bride & Groom

Cozy Green Quilt

I remember the quilt, made with loving care,

Draped over the back of her favorite chair,

In my Grandmother's parlor.

~ Priscilla Schrock ~

This is not my grandmother's quilt, although I do have a wedding ring quilt which she made and used to grace the bed in her spare bedroom, where I would spend the nights on occasional weekends. This quilt is one that I bought on a recent trip up to the cottage. I liked the colors and the price was right. It usually is draped over the back of one of the loveseats in my living room. But today it just seemed like it needed to be outside draped over this bench on my patio. It looks like it's inviting me to take a break and relax with some pink lemonade and a cherry scone...won't you come join me?

A Place to Hang Your Hat

Home is a place to hang your hat...and your heart.

This vintage pink architectural piece is where I like to hang my hat.

Every house where love abides

And friendship is a guest,

Is surely home, and home sweet home

For there the heart can rest.

~Henry Van Dyke

Secret Garden

This is day three's contribution to Sara's Shade of Inspiration Challenge. I love the soft pink color of the tiny roses on this sign. I have a lot of this shade of green around my home. Green makes me think of nature and springtime, when all the little plant stems peek their heads out from the ground. I find it to be so wonderous how they push themselves up through the soil towards the sun each and ever year. That simple little miracle, which is often taken for granted, gives me such a renewed sense of hope and a feeling that anything is possible on this earth.

Shades of Inspiration

Sara at Sadie Olive has chosen GREEN as the color of the week for her Shades of Inspiration challenge. You can get more details here and here.

The Beauty of Peonies

I've noticed while perusing through flickr that many people have peonies and have been posting photos of them. Some of my favorite pics are here, here and here. ..and also this one here. Our peony season here in the midwest is going on right now, so I figured it's my turn now to show you my pretties. This bed of Coral Charm peonies is about 27 years old. Yes, peonies plants live a long time. You cut them down at the end of the season and without fail they spring back up the next year.
This is the first sign of the flower buds, all tightly wrapped.
You always see ants hanging around peony plants. They say the ants help to open the flower buds. Just be careful to shake them off when you cut the flowers to bring inside your home, otherwise you'll have a bunch of those guys crawling on your diningroom table...yes, that happened to me but only once!
She's slowing waking up to Mr. Sunshine.
Come on, I see you peeking out from in there.

Ah, there is that sunny yellow center. Did you notice how the color of the flower changed? That is where she gets her name, Coral Charm.
I wanted to show you a picture of the whole bed in bloom, but we had a torrential rainstorm here last night, so things aren't looking too pretty in the peony bed anymore. But you can see how the color of the petals is fading now.

And soon they will begin to drop their petals and turn a creamy white color.

There are lots of places to get your own peonies. My husband used to work for a peony grower when we first got married. That's where my plants of Coral Charm came from. You can get more information about purchasing peony plants here.