July 2016 Color of the Month!

July, bam, here it is. Let’s celebrate sunshine and warmth with yellow! I find this time of year super dreamy with all the plants and flowers and gardening that’s abound. The cottage garden is looking great and producing delicious pea pods, onions, radishes, lettuce, and herbs. Here at home we’ve been doing a major overhaul on the yard. It hasn’t looked like this since I put the gardens in about 10 years ago! Turns out my fiance is an amazing yard machine digging up the bamboo grass that wandered all over the zen side. Let me just say I could barely even get the shovel in the ground and he was digging trenches. The man is utterly amazing in all ways. Friends who have so far seen the yard in progress are speechless. I’ll post some pics when it gets all mulched up. So back to cheery color of the month! Three cheers for being able to enjoy the outdoors, nature, cottage time, picking fresh food and flowers from the garden, and being with people you love.
july 2016 vignette blog

July 2016 Color of the Month VIgnette! all available in the vintage shop! Fave items: awesome glass striped salt and p’s, plastic toy car, spice shaker set, recipe box, and glass mugs, anchored by a napkin.

july 2016 table setting blog

July 2016 Color of the Month Table setting! Fave vintage items: tablecloth, plaid napkins, melmac plates n bowls, love the striped glasses, little doily, and fresh flowers from the garden.

 
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Color of the Month June 2016

June, full garden revamp is in effect! Plants, plants, and more plants, digging, moving, removing. The cottage garden is in, my veggie gardens are in and my backyard is in the midst of a mini makeover so color of the month is GREEN all the way! On a more serious note, I’m dedicating this color of the month post to our family friend Jim. He passed away Memorial Day and will be greatly missed by my family. His inquisitive mind, quarky sense of humor, and kindness will not be forgotten. I could never thank him enough for how much he believed in me and my business. Always following what I was doing, buying pieces, even though I would be just as happy to give him whatever he wanted. Jim, maybe you’re still reading these from a new place of comfort, peace, and rest-we love you and will miss you, and thank you.
colof of the month june 2016 vignette

Fave vintage: melmac cups n saucers, striped glasses (I have a bunch in shop!) Tiki mug, mom n pop mugs, a striped vintage runner.

blog color of the month June 2016

Fave vintage: tablecloth, napkins, melmac, and flowers from my garden. Melmac available now in my vintage shop! I’m using 2 different vintage napkins here, one as a place mat and one to use.

 
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APRIL color of the month!

Yes! April! Spring is now official! The cottage is back open, I haven’t been yet but soon, soon! I can’t wait for some quiet island time, bird watching, and starting the garden there, and the garden here at home for that matter. Plenty to do in the meantime. April is a busy month traditionally with family activity, work, and the commencement of rummage sale season. Spring is a great time to dig deep as we renew and refresh from the winter. With my upcoming birthday, giving me my last year before I hit the next decade, and going into my 10th year in business I’m digging extra deep these days. SO, I give you red this month, an emotionally intense charged color.
BLOG APRIL COLOR OF MONTH 2016

Fave Vintage: the kitschy wood salt and pepper bird saying salt and p’s, add-a-matic, tiny play cups, red honey jar, Hazel Atlas shot glasses, juice glasses, Welsh candy tin, plaid thermos, wind up ducky-too cute when he spins his cane! cast iron initials- bought them at a flea last summer, looked down there were my initials, it was a sign from the flea gods. All anchored by a sweet vintage tea towel. Head over to the vintage shop as usual to find most of these treasures!

BLOG APRIL COLOR TABLE SETTING 2016

Fave Vintage: Let’s start with linens! This new to me vintage tablecloth is going into my personal collection for now with its cool plant motif, the red star napkins MINE, and the napkin in the middle, yep keepin it! Now for you: vintage glasses, I love this shape for wine, and these Fire King primrose pieces are in shop ready for your collection or own setting! Proving once again a few colorful pieces make a great table setting! BOOM!

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Color of the Month March 2016!

March! Yes! Getting close to Spring and green and gardens and plants, my fave! I got a nice dose of Spring while I was out in Seattle. I also got a nice dose of seasonal allergies there at the end of my trip which I was mindful to just embrace while I enjoying the daffodils, crocuses, gorgeous blooming camellias, and other amazing flowering plants and bushes that really popped. Plus, I find that having a dose of pollen from a trip pre at home allergy season helps in an immense way, so I should be all set this year! Anyway, ode to all things green with this color of the month. A bit of a dingier green mix, the kind that starts to surface from the grungy muck of post winter.
blog march vignette

Fave vintage: melmac cups, kitschy snake mug, toy cups, lamp salt and p’s, McCoy pot, Fire King bowls, Hollywood Extra cold cream jar, and MI Mackinac Bridge glasses, anchored on a pretty springy floral napkin.

blog march table setting

Fave Vintage: Bold tablecloth, daffodil tray, melmac, and pale stripe napkins.Thinking Spring over here! Just a few pieces this month make a stellar statement! And the tablecloth is a round one I tucked, the magic of styling and cropping 🙂

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Color of the Month February 2016

Jumping right into February! Slowly creeping closer to Spring, my favorite. Here’s some perky pink to help guide you through this drab month by adding a little extra bit of color. Wherever you are, I hope you’re getting more sunshine than we are here in MI, blah. I’m feeling a bit under the weather as I write this so…extra blah. Cabin fever is setting in and it’s waivering between 99.1 and 101.6 degrees. I think I’m on the mend, but seriously, I could use some real vitamin D from that thing we call THE SUN.
blog feb 2016 vignette

Fave vintage: salmony pink laundry sprinkler lady, fire king custard cups, raffiaware mugs (already sold), McCoy bowl-part of a set, Pyrex loaf pan, Miami salt and p’s, anchored by a pink crochet edged runner. Most of this and more, as usual, in the vintage shop, except my pink sprinkler lady, that weird collection is mine all mine 🙂

blog feb 2016 table setting

Fave vintage: gorgeous vintage tablecloth, I love tablecloths with either gray or this yellowy limey color that looks fresh with my walls. Pink melmac platter under another McCoy bowl from the mixing set, raffiaware tumblers, matching Fire King saucers (to the custard cups), gorgeous pink rose bowls, and oh so lovely pink squiggle napkins. I should have thrown in a pink artgoodies cupcake tea towel! Also, I want to mention, check the vintage shop if you see something you like, many times I’m setting a table for 2 but have pieces for 4 or six or more!

 
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Color of the Month January 2016!

Hello New Year! I was working on another project which slightly delayed my color of the month post but here it is in its sunshiney glory. I think warm sunny yellow seems like a bright way to start off the New Year! As usual I have an optimistic list of ideas, dreams, and things to do in 2016.
JAN 2016 VIGNETTE - BLOG

Keeping it simple in the vignette this month. Fave vintage: 2 little planters, cute little horse one huh? melmac cups, straw raffia mugs, plastic pig bank, and flower linen. As a little reminder you can purchase most of the items in my color of the month posts in my vintage shop right here!

JAN 2016 TABLE SETTING - BLOG

Fave vintage: melmac as usual 3 different styles this time, Pyrex carafe, tray, McCoy bowl, straw weave tumblers, gorgeous metal tray with gold edge, cute plaid napkins, all grounded by a new to me vintage tablecloth I just thrifted. Yay for yellow!

JAN 2016 ROOM - BLOG

Sometimes when you take down your holiday decor, especially when it’s an entire wall display, your house feels bare. The poinsettias really help fill the void and I get to enjoy them a little longer. I just love how they blend in and complete the look in vintage bamboo style ceramic planters I already have. I adore how this room came together.  

   
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Home for the Holidays Part 2

I’m a little delinquent on my post here. Because well, I wasn’t home for the holidays for a week, I was off doing my Magical Pop Up Shop! I’ll do another lengthier post soon on the tree shop. I came home from that and literally got out of the car and ran down the steps into the studio and starting shipping like crazy! Bing bang bam packages and product flying everywhere and out the door to all my awesome customers!  I was shipping through the 23rd, with a half a day escape to put my tree shop display in storage so I could park in my garage, and a lunch visit with a dear family friend on the 22nd. Then with a half a day to prep for family coming on the 24th and 25th and a project in between, well, my legs felt like noodles from exhaustion and there’s not much rest here still.  And here in the exhaustion, the rest of the holiday decor happened, so last minute, there was almost no real tree this year, and then there were 2 because I was so late they were half off, so why not. Enjoy the decor, and Happy New Year to you and yours! Stay safe if the weather outside is frightful. The Christmas eve and day walks were welcome and the dandelion sighting was odd, we knew it couldn’t last.We’re now in the middle of an ice storm here in MI, yep, winter has finally found us again.
plaid christmas day table setting 2015

Christmas Day table setting, well, almost, I had to add another row of tables and seating for the rest of the gang but I was almost there. Lucky for me my vintage closet provides a nice array of props when I do my color of the month settings, and at holiday and for special occcasions 🙂

dining room full view, tree table, wall

You may have noticed I moved the small aluminum tree and replaced it with a real tree in it’s usual place of honor, smells so good! A view from the kitchen into the dining and living room.

   
kitchen nook silver aqua

The kitchen nook. All is calm all is bright. Custom aqua artgoodies doily stockings, a vintage bottlebrush tree on the table with my Marcrest Stetson Swiss Chalet plates, pinecone shaped lights, and tinsel wreath with blue vintage bells and ball accents. I love the icy holiday magic here.

 
dining room window side

A rare look at the other side of the dining room. Switched the drapes out again with a pair that hung in my grandma’s dining room. A clock from my great grandmother, grandpa’s stereo, an array of gold holiday decor and globe atop a vintage George Nelson and Assoc tray, amazing vintage Peabody fibgerglass chair, vintage flokati rug accent, and handmade vintage deer trim pillow., oh and a mid century planter as well.

front porch closer look

Here’s a new space for my holiday decor. I got a skinny mini tree and some new blue, green, and white lights and thought, YES, a blue and green front porch vintage style holiday! The little tree has vintage blue and green ornaments with handmade bead snowflakes and a few new ones too. A vintage angel topper, and a little handmade vinyl vintage tree skirt complete the look. artgoodies recycled felt stockings in snowflake and elf hang above, snowflake pillows, and elf stuffies replace some of my usual pillows, and the awesome vintage hand painted reindeer sign fits perfectly on the wall! And you can see it from outside, so bonus, it greets guests with a happy holiday vibe!

living room tree window

Here’s where the little aluminum tree went, which worked out great since I could light up both little blow molds! The perfect size to be featured in the window, and I decided to keep that antique stand I had for sale, it worked perfectly for this tree!

vintage toolbox arrangement front door

And speaking of greeting guests. I just love this little vintage toolbox I thrifted a few years back. It’s really fun to change out seasonally. It’s amazing how much your little city yard can provide. Look at all the magic stuffed into this little box! 3 different style pine cedar branches, pine cones, berries, dried flower seed pods, some silvery sage. It’s so welcoming at the door and always fun to design! This year as I pulled my geraniums out I even had one with a bud, on Dec 23rd!

 
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Home for the Holidays Part 1

In lieu of color of the month, the annual home for the holidays December edition! I’m hustling and bustling as usual over here and getting ready to go to Chicagoland in a week for my magical pop up shop INSIDE the bottom of the giant Christmas tree! So I’m extra busy, no time to waste!
blog holiday 2015 side

It’s fun to mix up the holiday display a little every year! A change in the boxes including the addition of a little house shaped one, some new blow mold lights, a plastic Santa cookie jar, new bottle brush trees, a few new colored reindeer, and a few new small friends too! I have sold some pieces in case you’re wondering, and you might wanna head to the vintage shop to scope out the well stocked vintage holiday section there! After the feature in Vintage Holiday Magazine Fall 2015 issue I felt like I could let a few pieces go and begin to rotate a bit.

blog table dec 2015 - Copy

A nice shot of the dining room table and the credenza display!

blog table dec 2015 holiday

Table setting Dec 2015! I LOVE the icy winter look of this! The vintage moonstone glass dishes lend themselves so nicely with the blue! A few blue corsages add a nice touch, and a little Shiny Brite table top tree is always a favorite holiday accent of mine, plus you can’t go wrong with an artgoodies snowflake towel!

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Color of the Month November 2015

And suddenly, just like that, it’s November! I’m busy working on some new products and projects, more on those soon. Plus holiday prep continues! For now, let’s get right to the festive fall color of the month!
blog nov vignette

Fave vintage: 2 different recipe boxes, peach straw weave bowls, duck glasses, gurley turkey candle, juice glasses, and embroidered linen

blog color of the table setting

Fave vintage: bold striped vintage tablecloth, melmac plates, gold leaf Libbey glasses, orange juice glasses, gourd and feather centerpiece. I’ve been holding onto this huge striped tablecloth for awhile, what a great colorful statement piece. The gourds are from my tiny friend Tyler’s pumpkin patch and the feathers from my brother’s farm!

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Color of the Month October 2015!

October. My all time favorite seasons are coming to an end and the busy season is starting up and the chill is beginning to edge in a bit. Honestly, this time of year always makes me feel a little blue as gardens wane and leaves fall. There’s nothing like the growth,green, flowers, color, sunshine, and warm fresh air of spring and summer to feed my soul and make me feel whole. I’m still taking advantage of those beautiful days outside, even though I slipped into a pair of boots for the first time last week, NO! You know how much I hate socks and wish I could just run around barefoot in flip flops all year long! It’s a season of change, and this year I’m seeing some extra things happen around me with the people I love. Some wonderful things are happening that are exciting and then there are some things happening that are hard and are just breaking my heart as their season brings big change. Life, like the natural world, has so many seasons. And so, color of the month October 2015 seems ever so fitting as blue.
oct 2015 vignette

Color of the Month October 2015! Fave Vintage: blue speckled Ransburg canister set, assorted awesome glassware, super old chalk tin, owl home saying spoon rest, Pyrex in the horizon pattern from my own personal mixing bowl set.

Oct 2015 table setting

Color of the Month Oct 2015 table setting! Fave items: the awesome oak tablecloth, a great twist of color to the season! Melmac plates with saucers for a pop of color, ombre cocktail glasses, milk glass mugs, blue stripe napkins, and my usual twin star silverware by Oneida.

   
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