Summer Peonies

Our peony bushes only graced us with two blooms this year, but I'll take them!  I think it may be time to move these bushes into a sunnier area.  :(
Once these two bloomed, I made the best of showcasing them in various rooms.  Here they are mixing in with the dried lavender in the living room:

And on the side table in the dining room:

They looked so pretty sitting on the kitchen table, too:

These beauties have since passed on, but the good thing about having a blog is we get to revisit our faded flowers.

I also finally finished a miniature crochet banner I was working on.  It hangs against our living room radiator.  I love the texture.

Hope everyone's July is going great so far!

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Lavender Sachets

Well it's official.  Summer is here!  Our children had their last day of school Friday and now the summer fun commences.  I love these long, sunny days, and plan to carve out some time for creating as well as fun activities.
I wanted to let you know about some recent goods added to my Etsy shop.  I can't believe Etsy is celebrating its' 10th anniversary!  I've been enjoying selling there for almost 4 years now and I want to thank everyone who has visited my shop, even just to peek.  :)

I love the smell of lavender and these sachets are the latest to my collection:

The red floral fabric is just lovely, and I've added a patch of vintage French laundry tape to each.

I've listed two of these, but I do have two more that I just need to stuff with lavender.

They fit right in with my other sachets for sale:

The Flea Market Finds section of my shop has some great new treasures as well:

Hope you stop by for a visit.  Enjoy your summer - I'll be checking in here from time to time!

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Trunk Makeover with MMS Milk Paint, White Lilacs and First Communion

Happy June!  I can't believe how fast May flew by.  It's been busy here.  For starters, I've been having fun re-stocking my Etsy shop with vintage treasures and handmade pieces.  The creative muse is on overdrive!  Also, my family had a fun expedition to the local flea market and I found something I've long been searching for - a vintage wood trunk.  Actually, my husband spotted it when we were about to leave.  I wanted the trunk to be something we both liked, and this one fit all our criteria.  It is definitely old, well-made of solid wood, large, and has a flat top to double as a coffee table and storage.

I painted the trunk using Miss Mustard Seed's Milk Paint for the first time.  It came out just as I had envisioned with a nice chippy patina.  I ended up mixing equal parts Shutter Gray with Grain Sack to get a light grayish color.  Love it!

Here is a photo of the trunk prior to painting.  I may replace those dirty old rope handles with something new eventually:

Although the wood was definitely worn down, I discovered as I painted that I did need to sand some patchy areas that still had a bit of glossy sheen.  The milk paint had fallen right off of those areas once it dried.  But the second coat of milk paint stayed after I sanded.

Here are some more lilacs to share with you...bunches of the white variety in our dining room:

They smelled wonderful while they lasted!

Another fun outing our family had this May was to a book sale at the library.  I got some wonderful vintage books there and this one is my favorite - a vintage Charles Dickens' children's book!
I adore the sweet cover:

Inside are the most delightful illustrations as well:

Speaking of sweet....the best news to share is that our daughter received her First Communion in May!  Tears welled as I watched her receive Jesus for the first time in the Sacrament of Eucharist.   My heart just...swelled.  I love that girl.

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Furniture Friday Feature with Miss Mustard Seed

A visit to Minted

Hello friends!  Today is an absolutely gorgeous spring day and I've got all things floral on my mind.  A trip to the garden store has me inspired, as well as an online trip to Minted!
The folks at Minted recently contacted me and I was delighted to visit their amazing website.  I've been familiar with their products, but this latest visit has me blown away by all the new offerings.
Did you know they not only carry designs for business cards and holiday cards, but also gorgeous wedding themed cards, gifts and beautiful art prints from a diverse group of talented artists?

This lovely spring floral art print caught my eye.  It is called 'Meander' and designed by Betty Hatchet:

Image via Minted

Another surprise I discovered while perusing was that one of my favorite artists, Olivia Kanaley, is a designer for Minted.  I have always admired Olivia's work for many years, first discovering her via her contributions to Victoria magazine.  Now I can continue to admire her work on Minted and via her fabulous contributions on their Julep blog.  Her posts can be found here.

I am crushing on these fabric favor boxes she posted about (Minted offers fabrics, too):

Image via Minted

There are a plethora of designs to choose from for wedding invitations, cards, save-the-date postcards, etc. in the latest wedding collection.
I love that they offer numerous choices in their search criteria, and you know I clicked the 'Vintage' option straight away!  This design by Cadence Paige just stole my heart:

Image via Minted

My brother-in-law is getting married this year, and I was so excited to discover that his save-the-date postcard and shower invitation were designed on Minted!  I knew I recognized those from our fridge. This is the design he used for save-the-date:

Image via Minted

I adore how it looks like a chalkboard sign - there are many designs like that available.

Well, you know what I'll be doing this November...spending a lot of time on Minted choosing a holiday card for our family.  And there's always our next celebration to plan for. :)

Thanks for visiting.

********   Disclosure - I am being compensated for this post, and love their website!  ********

Lilac time!

The windows are open, the birds are chirping, and my house smells of heavenly lilacs!  Spring is here to stay.

I've had this bookshelf standing on our living room buffet since Christmas, and thought I'd take some photos of how it's styled today with a combination of my favorite things...

Vintage clocks and books are the best pairing, don't you think?

Ribbons, old keys and tarnished silver aren't so bad together, either...

This lovely lady hasn't minded sitting in this box for a while...

Happy spring, friends!

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Spring Giveaway Winner

Congratulations to Pam, the winner of my spring giveaway!
Pam, send me your address and let me know which grain sack sachet you'd like from my Etsy shop.  I'll mail that out to you with the magazine.

Thanks all for joining in the fun!

Thriftin' finds

This past weekend my little girl and I took a trip to my favorite antiques shopping town - Essex, MA.  We made a stop at the White Elephant Shop, which also sells candy you can scoop into bags (that was the selling point for my girl).
It was nice to go thrifting again after such a long winter, and I found some lovely little things.  But before I show them, I want to remind you today's the last chance to enter my giveaway here.  I'll pick a winner by early tomorrow morning!

I can't pass up a cute ironstone milk pitcher, and these two tiny ones were perfect for single servings.  There were a lot of them at the store, which makes me think they came from a hotel, diner or B&B?

This vintage German book was tattered to perfection and the forks were just too pretty to leave behind:

What have you been finding lately?  I'm so excited to return to our local flea market this spring!

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