Saturday, May 18, 2013

Farmhouse whites

There are times that I love the simple look of white, so I wanted to share my recent farmhouse finds. One of the nice things about having white in your home is that it is so easy to take pictures of. Just a little light a few quick touch ups with the photo editing and you're done. Well hopefully!

I have wanted a farmhouse pitcher for awhile now and I didn't want to spend a lot for a vintage enamel one right now, so I found these two porcelain ones at Ross's. I think I paid around 6 dollars for each of them and I thought that was a great price. They remind me of  vintage milk and cream pitchers and would look lovely on a farmhouse table. I also found this egg container. I saw one of these on another bloggers website and when I found it in white, I had to have it. I already had the chicken wire basket and I just added some white tea towels and set it on my kitchen counter. 


I also enjoy creating vignettes on the windowsill because of all the light and  interesting shadows. 


I love the shape of these little pitchers and  they create a sweet farmhouse display with the egg crate.


We went to an antique show earlier this year and I was looking for vintage kitchen accessories. I loved everything there, except the prices but I did manage to find a flour sifter that I really liked and some biscuit cutters. I love the green handles. 


I really liked the look of the nut meat chopper. I had never seen one before and thought it was a unique and inexpensive piece. I was told it still chops nuts perfectly fine, of course I'm not using it for that! I think it was made in the 1940's. I also found a white porcelain container, another biscuit cutter and tea bag leaves holder at the thrift store for a few dollars.      


I also love these wooden spindles. They were less than a dollar each at the antique show. They were plain when I bought them so I wrapped some cotton yarn around a few of them for interest. I also added some vintage white linens to this table to display my whites. 


I added the spindles to my larger pitcher. 



More thrift store finds and some fresh flowers for a romantic touch to the table. 

I also added a platter behind the pitcher for a different look. 


I love the warmth of wood with my white pieces. The table is a family heirloom that I always like to display. I also like my vignettes somewhat simple. I enjoy the overall feel of them more this way. 


Just a simple little vignette made more lovely with fresh cut flowers. I'm sharing with Country Farm Home & Old time Farmhouse for Country whites weekend. Thanks for stopping by!



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Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Touch of Blue

I love to decorate with blue this time of year so I wanted  to share a simple vignette I created with some of my recent finds. I found a small blue scalloped  bowl and plates to match at one of our local thrift stores. I have a small bookcase type stand that I'm using temporarily, so I added a  new kitchen towel with yellow and blue for a background. There are so many simple things that you can find around your home to add more interest to your pictures. 




I added yellow flowers to my simple silver pitcher and yellowish green apples to my bowl. I layered the plate with a silver tray and stand that I found while thrifting. I think blue and yellow is so pretty in the springtime.  




I still have a few of my wood Easter eggs left so I added them to the bowl. Who says you can't use Easter eggs after Easter? I liked them in the bowl but decided the apples gave more of a contrast. I love the delicate shades of the soft blues.

I'm still looking for something to hang on the wall in this corner of the room. I decided to add the basket that I tweaked a bit from a previous post.  I love all the sunshine flowing in the room, although the curtains cut off some of the light. There is a bit of a glare also, but I love the simplicity of it all. 


I thought the vignette had a vintage appeal so I added an old fashioned sepia tone to my pics. 



Another pic of my basket. I painted some  metal flowers yellow and purple to add to the graphic.



I think I might have had a little too much time on my hands today. I love the photo editing part of blogging and sometimes I spend too much time tweaking. I admit that along with the blue shades, I love the rustic and  romantic look of the sepia tones. It can make something simple look special.  Thanks for stopping by!     


I'm sharing with

 Tweak it Tuesday Cozy Little House
No Minimalist Here
Mrs. Olson Share your Cup
Ivy and Elephants What's it Wednesday
Charm of Home sweet Home
Common Ground Be Inspired
Delightsome Life Home and Garden
French Country Cottage Feathered Nest 
Rooted in Thyme Simple Sweet Fridays
Thrifty Groove Thrifty things Friday
Dedicated House Anything Blue
Showlicious Craft Showcase
Boogieboard cottage Masterpiece Monday
Stroll thru Life Inspire me Tuesday

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Thursday, May 2, 2013

Spring on the island

Spring is one of the most beautiful times of the year, so I wanted to show more flowers in bloom on our lake island here in SW Washington. This island is named after the Lions Club, who created it for one of their projects. I think it is an amazing place! There is a pathway along the entire length of the island and a pier for fishing.  Spring is the prettiest time on this island because the rhododendron bushes are in bloom showing all their lovely colors. They are a very common flower in our region. 




They come in  shades of pink, orange, yellow and white on the island. 
They are a lovely flower with a sweet fragrance.




It was a beautiful clear day when I took these photos. It's so pretty here the pictures kind of take themselves. I can even take nice pics with my little point and shoot camera.
 I love soft images. They remind me of a watercolor painting. 




This photo came out almost panoramic because of the surface of the water and the  trees. I love the old bridge in the background and the patch of coral rhodies. 


A lovely cherry blossom tree. 


I love the contrast of the smaller flowering tree with the twisting, bare branches of  the taller one. It creates such a mystical image. 

I wanted to include this totem pole. I'm not sure when it was placed on the island, but it was created by local artisans and has become somewhat faded over time.


Here's a closer view and the jet trail behind it only enhances this image.
I love the wings and all the beautiful detail.


A few closeups of the yellow rhodies. These were my favorite because they look somewhat like honeysuckle and smell just as sweet!


These pictures were taken this past weekend and we finally have some much needed sunshine. I hope you are having some lovely spring weather in your area and thanks for stopping by for the tour!     

I'm sharing with

 Delightsome Life Home & Garden Thursday
A Southern Daydreamer Outdoor Wednesday
No Minimalist Here Open House party
Little red house Thursday's inspiration
Chic on a  Shoestring Flaunt it Friday
Homemaker on a dime
Dedicated House Make it pretty Monday
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Monday, April 29, 2013

Earth movers & Sunsets

 I wasn't sure if I wanted to write a post about this, but I thought why not, because this is our new reality for the time being. We moved to our current home about two years ago and one of the reasons we chose this home was the open view behind our house. I blogged about our pretty view last year. We loved the big open field without houses or fences to spoil our view. 




Our view has now been taken over by new home construction.


 These homes have all went up in the last six months. In the last month they have plowed up most of the field behind us. 


Of course we knew this was going to happen eventually and we have been preparing ourselves for the invasion. I think my hubby is a little better prepared than I am.




We once considered living here with this view our field of dreams.



Now it's become our field of screams! We have lovely plastic sheeting and spikes for  a fence. We decided on holding off on building a fence, but the time has definitely come.  And after all the lovely rain, we officially have a mud pit behind our home! 


At least we still have the trees as part of our view. 

We also discovered that our lot is a little smaller than we thought, but it is  such a small yard anyway it doesn't really matter. We'll still have room for a small garden and an area for the pets to run in. 


They've already added the sewers and water main. I have to say my hubby is enjoying watching them do the excavation work much more than me! By the way, there is the lovely fire hydrant!

This is my least favorite piece of construction equipment. They don't call them earth movers for nothing! He drives his bulldozer over and over the ground to move the dirt and level it out. It is quite annoying to us. We should challenge him to mud wrestle!  It's not his fault that they have to do all this work behind us, but it just feels like bad karma to us! Of course we have been assured that our home is solid and will not be affected by all this construction. I certainly hope this is true. I have promised myself I am not going to dwell on it, unless I get further annoyed that is! Thankfully he is almost done with his job and it appears they will be moving on to the utilities and installing the road.  

We used to have such a pretty view of the wetlands in the west. 



We've had so much rain that it has flooded this area that they plowed and turned it into a mini wetland too. 

This time of year the sun moves further northwest and we can actually enjoy the setting sun.



When night falls we can still enjoy our pretty sunsets and of course we know that in the grand scheme of things this is just a mere speck. I'm trying to keep things in perspective.


Since it's close to summer we're hoping that the construction will go smoothly and quickly. Well we can always dream can't we. 

  It is a big adjustment for us, but I know it will end eventually and in the meantime we have the beautiful sunsets to enjoy. If you have an annoying or amusing home story please share. I could use a good laugh. I'm just trying to keep it real in my little corner of the world. 

Thanks for stopping by!

 Diane
I'm sharing with 

 A Southern Daydreamer Outdoor Wednesday


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Sunday, April 21, 2013

Burlap door basket & thrifty finds

Sometimes its the little things that make you smile. I was trying to come up with a way to decorate my metal basket with burlap and add my metal flowers, but I couldn't find a graphic that would work. 




Then I found this sweet frog in a garden graphic at the Graphics Fairy and decided to use it. I thought the frog graphic looked almost magical so I thought I'd combine it with my burlap for a different look. This is the same basket I used for St. Paddy's day. I always like to reuse things I make as much as I can because as I've mentioned before my storage space is limited. Along with my creative abilities at times! Although it's hard to read, the words on the graphic say Sweet Home. 


I love  yellow and purple flowers together this time of year so I added those to some greenery. I added a piece of burlap for the front and some burlap ribbon for a bow. I wanted to use my metal flowers so I added some pearl dots to the centers. 


I'll change this graphic when I find something that goes better with the flowers and burlap, but for now I'm enjoying the frog  in the garden. 






I also wanted to share  a few of my thrifty finds.  I love the little blue  bowl with the scalloped edges and found these plates nearby at one of my favorite thrift stores. 

The rooster plate has such pretty colors and it definitely has that frenchy farmhouse look. It goes well with my little bowl and plates. 

I like the little farmhouse style ceramic container and the metal tray too. I'm looking forward to creating a vignette with some of these spring finds that brighten my day. I've also added a  tab at the top with scenery of the Pacific NW or you can check here.
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