TREES IN THE LATE AFTERNOON

Late Friday afternoon, I ventured outside with my camera. The sky was moody and lit by the setting sun - I had to take some photos of our trees, the mountains and the beautiful sky.

You can see the bean pods hanging from the Catalpa tree.

The Sugar Maple casts a shadow on the cottage.

I hope you enjoyed this view of a late autumn afternoon at the cottage.

PINK SATURDAY

Happy Pink Saturday! As always, our hostess is Beverly - please stop by and see a list of everyone participating.


This is a piece of my Great-Grandmother's Haviland China. It is the only piece I have at present because the rest of the set is in storage at my friend's house in Detroit. Yes, Detroit. When I moved away from Michigan to go to Graduate School, I couldn't take the china with me. My sweet friend Jan has been holding onto it for years. I've only flown in and out of Michigan, but never have been able to transport all those dishes home. The set is in a big wooden box.


Next year, I will be back there for my...(unspecified year)... high school reunion. I plan on driving there and packing up my china, along with a few other things that Jan has been keeping for me. When I was younger, I appreciated that the Haviland was my Great-Grandmother's and was being passed down to me, but I really didn't care a whole lot for the pattern. Now, older and wiser, I really love it.


Have a great weekend!

THE UNVEILING

To review: I had this piece left over from my sideboard turned kitchen island.

I ended up (today) with this:

I am very excited about this project! I will post a tutorial in the next few days explaining what I did and what I learned not to do.

I've been craving a chalkboard in my kitchen for a long time. I was going to buy one, but one day I was staring at that leftover trim and a lightbulb went on in my brain. I could make a chalkboard. And so I got to work and over the next 3 or 4 days, I put it together, painted the frame, painted the chalkboard, aged the frame and ta-dah! Here it is!

Since the chalkboard is between a window and our side door, which also has a big window, it has been hard to get a photo. Wouldn't you know it - the one day I want it to be cloudy in order to take a picture, the sun is shining away. The color of the frame is a bit more turquoise than indicated, but it is pretty accurate. The turquoise was so intense that I "antiqued" it this morning and I like it much better. The chalkboard has to be seasoned yet but I haven't any chalk! My dog, Riley, hasn't been feeling well at all, so I am staying home today. We've had a worrisome two days, but he seems to be getting better as the day goes on. I am very relieved!

Hope you like it. I promise more photos (with chalk) and the tutorial in the next day or two.

I am also posting this on:
Stop by Gina's blog The Shabby Chic Cottage!

And I am posting on:



Please visit Cindy's blog, My Romantic Home to join in.

UPDATE ON THE DESK

I was sitting in the living room talking to my husband when I noticed our favorite little lamp on top of our hutch in the den. We have never found the perfect place for it...until now. I was on my feet in flash. Would it work? Yes, I think we have found the perfect place for it on the desk.



The other lamp is moving back up to the guest room - I think it was too tall for the desk. And the light from under the red lampshade will be perfect in the evening.

PLAYING WITH A SPINET

You remember that we live in a wee cottage, right? Just keep that in mind as I tell you another story.

My husband asks for very little. I am the collector, the luster-after-vintage, the-ebay-etsy-antique shopper. Don? He wants a new guitar every once in a long while...and that is about it. He is very undemanding. When I first met him, he had very few items in his possession. He was acting in plays that kept him on the road, so he didn't accumulate much. Now that we have this life together, he loves all of the things we have chosen to make our cottage our home.

We took a Sunday drive a few weekends ago and we stopped at a charming antique shop. Almost immediately upon entering, Don spied a spinet desk and he couldn't take his eyes off it. It reminded him of a desk he'd had as a child. He wanted it...very clearly wanted it. (Now I like spinet desks as well, and have always thought it would be neat to have one.)

It is rare when he really falls in love with something, so we stood there discussing it and trying to justify buying it. The obvious question came up: "Where would we put it?" My answer? "There are maybe 2 places we could put it, but it would involve much rearranging and I don't know if it will work." Our cottage is tiny and there is very, very little wiggle room for adding new things.

But we bought it. I mean, how could we not? It was a great deal and my husband loved it.


The one place I thought it might work was at the base of our staircase. We have a little built in cupboard under the stairs that reminds me of something out of a 40's movie, like "Christmas in Connecticut" or "White Christmas" - it is very cottagey. I keep lots of stuff in there including the vacuum, the swiffer; things that I use daily. In order to make this work, I had to clear all of that out of there as well as rearrange a closet in the den which had a lot of stuff in it that needed to be tossed. We figured we could put the vacuum, etc. in the den closet - I use them every day and I certainly wasn't going to be moving the desk every time I needed them. One thing led to another and it ended up being a several-hours-long job. But it is done. The desk is in place. It does add a lot to that little area - providing us with another nook in our home. I've only had to move it four times - because now that I am working on this new project, I needed the paint and tools that were stored in the cupboard. The tools are now joining the vacuum in the den closet.

The wood is so pretty - It looks like cherry but it might be some wood stained in cherry.

This is a vintage cigarette box that I bought in Edinburgh many years ago. I think it looks perfect on the desk - I can't add too much since it is basically Don's area and he doesn't want a lot of 'stuff' there. He really loves the desk in this little niche and I must admit I do, too. The table lamp gets turned on in the evening, adding a lovely glow to what was previously a dark corner.

We're using a Windsor chair for the desk at present, but it is not the right scale and eventually we will replace it. I was moving the chair out of the way to take a photo and who did I spy peeking through the spindles?


Yes, Mr. Riley...checking up on me.

I'm still working on my project - I didn't get around to it today. Some of you mentioned the kitchen island. If you want to know more about it you can read this post and this post. I eventually want to add a butcher block or marble top to it.

AN IDEA

Happy November! I have a soft spot for November - Thanksgiving is in November and so is my birthday. I hope everyone had a safe and fun Halloween.

I'm in the middle of a project. It involves this:


which used to be part of the buffet that I turned into a kitchen island:

It was on the back of the buffet - but since it was going to be an island, I wanted the top to be flat. This piece has been propped up in a corner of the kitchen awaiting some sort of inspiration.

Now I have an idea. We'll see if it turns out!

PINK SATURDAY

Happy Pink Saturday, everyone. Beverly hosts this weekly event - please stop by and visit everyone participating.

In fact, a post by Beverly inspired me to start a new collection. She posted a photo of one of her hatpin holders and I loved it. I'd seen them before, but suddenly I saw them differently - does that ever happen to you?

I found this one on ebay and it arrived yesterday. Isn't it lovely?

It is from Germany. I love the pink flowers!

I'm sure I need a new collection like a hole in the head...but I can't help it! It's only about 5 inches tall, it won't take up too much space!

Have a wonderful weekend! Happy Halloween and Happy Birthday today to my nephew, David (he's 16) and my wonderful brother-in-law, Ron (who is...we'll just say 6 years younger than my husband!)

VINTAGE BLACK FRIDAY

Happy Vintage Black Friday! I'm a tad late getting this post up, but better late than never. I was trying to think of something black and remembered this:


This was my grandmother's trunk. For years it sat in a storage room in her basement and eventually I asked her if I could have it. I've had it since I was in my early 20's and it has gone everywhere with me. For many years, it served as a coffee table in my various apartments. Now it serves as storage and is situated under our old green farmhouse table.

Now, I don't know if you can make any of this out, but here is what is written on the top:


It says, in Grandma's distinctive writing, "Carrie Locke, Royal Victoria Hospital, Barrie, Ontario." This is the trunk Grandma took to Nursing School in the early 1900's. The writing is fading, which makes me sad...but I know what it says.

The handles are broken and it is very worn, but I love it. What a story it has!

Thanks for all the stories about your own favorite things (in the previous post.) I loved hearing them. Some of you mentioned the pillow. I bought two of them in San Diego last summer. I'm crazy about them. They were on a bench on the porch, but now I've brought them inside for the winter.

Please visit Jill at Gypsy Brocante to see everyone participating in VBF.

FAVORITE THINGS

Today is our second rainy day in a row. I am missing the sun and there is just not enough light to take a good photo. So I thought I'd share something I already have a photo of - one of my favorite things. As always, there is a story behind it.

Back in my days as an underpaid college professor in Cambridge, I needed some furniture. I had recently moved to a rent-controlled apartment on Harvard Street, just down the street from Harvard University. All during graduate school and into my first year in Boston, I had lived in studio apartments. Tiny studio apartments. When my dear friend and colleague, Judith, called me and said there was a rent-controlled apartment opening up in her building (which I already loved), I jumped at the chance to have a bay window, a separate kitchen, a non-working fireplace and a big bedroom! I felt like I had died and gone to heaven! But I didn't have much furniture and I certainly didn't have much money.

But there was this funky shop in Cambridge with all sorts of used furniture and one day Judith and I and our friend Annette were there and I came across these chairs. They were library chairs from the Massachusetts Mutual Insurance Company. They had a beautiful, glossy finish with a metal tag on the back identifying them as belonging at one time to Mass Mutual. I bought 2 of them for what must have been next-to-nothing. I used them in my kitchen with a black ash kitchen table I had - I loved the contrast of the black with the mahogany of the chairs.

They have stayed with me all these years. A few years ago, they were moved to the storage shed because they no longer worked with our current kitchen table. (I've also used them as desk chairs.) Recently, I was doing some rearranging in our bedroom and the next thing I knew I was out in the shed rescuing one of them. Oh, I had missed them!

They've lived in Cambridge, 2 different locations in San Diego, Westchester County and now in our little cottage in the Hudson Valley. Do you have favorite things that have traveled with you from one house to another?

A SUNDAY DRIVE

Sunday was such a beautiful Autumn day. My husband and I took a drive to a neighboring town and were treated to gorgeous colors at every turn. There is something about the golden light of Autumn and the changing leaves that is so glorious. I never get tired of it.





We had such a nice day 'away.' A nice lunch at a great restaurant, a visit to an antique store, and a walk down a country road - you can't beat it.

The main road through our town is being re-paved and all the trucks seemed to be parked at the end of our road. So we are now being treated to the 'beep beep beep' of trucks backing up all day long. That sound doesn't quite fit in with my idyllic Autumn picture. Oh well.

Have a great day.