Summer simplicity

How is everyone's summer going? We have been baking here in the Pacific NW. We have had an unusually hot weather pattern that will finally be giving us a bit of relief in the next few days. Definitely tired of the 90's and all these dry days with no precip, so when I need a pick me up, decor wise that is, I like to create a little bit of prettiness at home. Since I like to keep my decor simple, I've added some blue plates to my dish rack and some lavender that I collected a couple of years ago. I never get tired of dried  lavender because it holds up so well year after year. 

The plates are actually reproductions of Johnson Bros. dishes that were made in China. It was a last minute type of purchase, so happy I found them, even though I would have preferred finding something vintage at the thrift store. I found them at Ross's for a really good price and added them to my lavender. 

The detail is so pretty in these dishes and I found a nice mug to add to my kitchen counter. I also added my little bird since it has some dark blue on it's throat, hard to tell from this pic though. 

The sun was shining so brightly that I muted the colors a bit for this photo.  It only takes a few dishes and a dishrack to create some farmhouse simplicity. 



I wanted to share a photo of my living room, but my camera only takes decent closeups, so this pic is rather grainy. Our living area is rather small, so I like to use minimal decor or it looks too cluttered in person. Also our fireplace doesn't appeal to hubby or I, so we are debating what to do about it. I really dislike the slate and artificial logs, so we will almost have to start from scratch if we decide to redo it. 

The table is decorated with a rather unusual mix of things that I already had on hand. I initially wanted an Asian  look to it with the tall blossoms and the blue bird, but I didn't have any other Asian decor, so I added some shells for a beachy look.

I also added some turquoise glass beads to the shells and placed them on the silver tray, which has a shell motif as well. The floral bouquet was a clearance item at Joann's.

After I added my turquoise glass float I ended up with a rather eclectic mix of Asian, beachy and floral decor.

My mantel is made up of some of the same eclectic things I already had and have shared before. I plan on adding some shutters for a backdrop as soon as I find some that will work. 

I'll be creating some larger book cover boxes, since they are so easy to make and I still enjoy displaying them.


My dark purple lavender is holding up well and it helps add a bit of a romantic look to the mantel.  

I made a simple little change to my spool rack as well.  I love green this time of year, so I added some green and striped  tea towels to help create a summer look along with my favorite garden cottage picture. Thanks for visiting!

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Late Spring Repurposing

Time can really slip away from us can't it. A few weeks of not blogging can turn into months very easily. I haven't had much to share lately, but here are a couple of simple projects I've been working on recently. 

I lightened up my  dining area for late spring. Now I know many of you have changed over to spring decor months ago, but I didn't do my changes till late April, so here is my little corner of farmhouse simplicity. Spring and summer decor is really interchangeable anyway, so for those like me who make changes later in the season it works out well. 

I painted my little black wall rack white and added my  aprons. I also added a spring plaque that I have shared before. I don't need more decor items. I need a new hutch and some other furniture, but this is a narrow space next to the window so I'm rethinking what to put here. 

I last posted in February and shared my valentine themed wall rack and tea towels. I keep things very basic around here. I have mentioned before I'm not a big DIY type person, so these small changes are enough for me. 










Painting a wall rack white can give a totally different look, so I'm enjoying this simple little change back to farmhouse style. 

I make my pics very soft and subdued, mostly because I'm still using my old camera that makes it difficult to get good interior photos. I can photo edit the day away but the pics still don't achieve the look that I want, so I need a better camera to get those clear crisp shots that so many bloggers have. I might as well face reality here when it comes to my photos.  

I added a little garland of paper flowers that I made. I have so many craft items from my earlier days of paper craft making. 

I have a large selection of card stock so I punched out some flowers and added some floral centers for my garland. 

Since I'm repurposing, I also replaced the snowflakes on my winter wreath with the flowers to make a spring/summer wreath.  












Our front door isn't really this orange looking, but I wanted the wreath to stand out a bit more. Even though it has a rather wild, spiral shape it adds that touch of late spring that I wanted without investing in a new wreath. 

I've made a few changes to my mantel, not quite through yet, but here is my little roseville candle holder and a project that I made when I first started blogging. These decorated book boxes were so easy to make with decorative papers and embellishments.  

I've often wondered about bloggers that make a lot of craft projects. They must have a lot of storage space to keep them or maybe they continually repurpose things to make new projects. I love looking at all the things they create though. Since my storage space is very limited I tend not to make many things unless I have someplace to display them. Anyway, I'm glad I kept these book boxes because I knew I would use them again someday.The emily dickinson one is my favorite. I'll share the rest of my mantel later. 

A simple little bird plaque to add a touch of late spring. I hope everyone had a peaceful and safe Memorial day weekend and thanks for stopping by. 

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Valentine's day, tea towels and the ladies of Downton Abbey

I put together a little Valentine's post today since I haven't done any blogging in awhile. We all know how time consuming it can be and other priorities take over our time, but I received some new tea towels and I wanted to put together a blogging post about them and share some fun quotes from my Downton Abbey ladies. 

I've mentioned before about the limited space we have downstairs, especially in the dining and kitchen area, so I rely on simple little things to liven up my small space. I love anything that looks farmhouse and wall racks with tea towels really fit that look.

I meant to paint this wall rack white soon after I got it, but I haven't found the time  to do it yet so I decided to go with it as is and turn it into a little Valentine decor with my new tea towels. The towels I bought are part of the Downton Abbey line. I love the french linen  vintage tea towels, but not the prices so these gave me that look without the high price tag. 

I added a chalkboard heart from Michael's and painted a red heart to go in the center. I like the rustic look of it with my tea towel and keys. 

This is the only towel with a graphic and even though it is made with cotton it has the look of linen and I love the stripes, so I was impressed with the quality of these towels.

I knew I wanted some vintage looking tea towels, but I had my amazon gift card so I was limited in my choices, so these worked really well for me. I would have liked more choices in the cream, but they had most of them in sesame, so I had to buy those. I do like them as well, just not as much as the cream one. 

I just added a couple of little hearts I painted red. 

I don't change my decor as much as other bloggers, so I'll have this rack and towels up for quite some time and just change them a bit to get those little touches of the past. 

I told myself that I wouldn't watch Downton Abbey this season, since it has such a short season, but I started watching again and I'm really enjoying it.  Of course there are only two episodes left, so I knew I wanted to share a bit about my favorite ladies on the show. 

Of course I love Mrs. Patmore and I'm sure she could use some love this Valentine's day since she toils away in the kitchen all day. 

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She does know how to share a giggle with Mrs. Hughes on occasion. 

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And she enjoys sharing words of wisdom regarding matters of the heart with the young women, especially Daisy.  

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Lady Violet and Isobel are always bickering it seems, and Violet always has to have the last word. 

But in the end they manage to share a laugh and all is forgiven, at least for the time being. 

After all Valentine's day isn't just about love and romance with your partner, it also means being a good friend. 

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And sharing a little bit of Valentine love. Thanks for stopping by.

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Favorite places and projects of 2014

Sometimes I think I don't have enough to share for a year in review post, but then as I put it together I realize it is more than I thought. It's always fun to look back and relive those moments, so here are some of my favorites of 2014.

Our visit to the Hulda Klager lilac farm in Woodland, WA,  was easily my favorite place to visit early last May and also my most popular post. The grounds are beautiful with all the lilacs and other varieties of flowers.  

I wanted to share my favorite whimsical fairy again. Visit here for a tour of the gardens. 

Even though I loved the beautiful gardens of the farmhouse, my favorite was the victorian farmhouse decor inside. The bedroom was one of my favorites with its simple  yet ornate white headboard and lovely quilt draped at the bottom of the bed. So many pretty things here. 

As simple as they are, I have a thing for buttons in jars. So easy to create a farmhouse look with just a few  things. The mini antique sewers look so sweet on a shelf. Maybe I'll start a collection of them. 

The kitchen was quite small, but there was a lovely reproduction antique stove with vintage irons and other decor. Visit here to see the whole tour. 

I alway enjoy sharing coastal pics, so these are some from 2013, that I didn't share until last year. These are of the beautiful Oregon coast and Heceta Head lighthouse on a lovely sunny day.  

Last fall we visited one of my favorite antique stores, Camas Antiques here in Washington and I'm looking forward to a return visit. 

Large variety of beautiful  antiques here. I wanted to share these  cute and quirky signs again. 

I didn't do many projects last year, I tend to keep them simple anyway, but I thought I'd share this little wood spool rack I made.  Just a little plaque I painted green and distressed and added some spools for something a bit different. 

It fills up a small wall in our dining area and I currently have some vintage aprons hanging on it. 

I also put together this little farmhouse style vignette during the summer with  a little dish rack and also added some floral summer dishes. Jars of buttons are an affordable way to add a little farmhouse charm to your vignettes. 

Love the pretty purple that lavender adds. 

I put together another vignette in late fall, and I used this Burpee's tray as a focal point. I was able to pull all the colors of fall that I love from this tin tray and create a vignette using items I already had. 

I wanted to create a rural farmstead type look with this vignette. Buttons are here to stay for my style of decorating. Visit here to see my fall mantel as well. 

Continuing my love for tin trays and containers, I found two that I decided to use for my kitchen counter display for Christmas. This little corner of my kitchen counter has the best light, most of the time anyway, so my vignettes usually end up here.  You don't have to spend that much to create a sweet little Christmas scene.       

My last project of the year was my Christmas wreath made out of a twig wreath and paper snowflakes. It was time consuming and I almost gave up on it, but I was determined to complete it and hang it on the door, no matter what. It didn't come out exactly how I pictured it, but I decided it was good enough. If I've learned anything this year in regards to blogging it would be to decide it's good enough and move on.  

The new year gives everyone the opportunity of a fresh start. 
Sending wishes your way for a healthy and happy New Year!

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