Snow Queen

With a certain degree of humility, I admit that I am a scaredy cat when it comes to spiders, creepy-crawlies and other forms of life with multitudinous legs, eyes and antennae.  What does this have to do home decor?  Well, there is a secondhand shop that I was curious to pay a visit.  The shop is a hoarder's dream or a hoarding nightmare, depending on which side of the fence one happens to be standing.  It was a home that had been turned into a junkshop.  There was scant lighting and, when I reached out to turn on some lights, I found that the switches were broken.  Items were perched precariously on top of each other right to the ceiling.  I could make out the vague forms of couches, coffee table and dining table under the mountainous mounds of clutter.  I attempted to pull out a vase piled several feet high on the couch and started an avalanche of junk towards me.  Horrified at the thought of my early demise buried under a landslide of dusty junk, I shoved the vase back with one hand and stopped the avalanche with the other hand.  Defeated and not a little unnerved by the cobwebs festooning the ceiling, I backed away.  Luckily, this tale ends happily as I spied a milk glass vase under the dining table.  I hugged it to me for dear life and ran for the door as if Cerberus was nipping at my feet.

I must say that this vase is quickly becoming a favourite of mine.  A half hour spent scraping off 60 years worth of dirt and the vase now glows in all of its snowy, queenly glory.  The opaque milkiness goes with any colour scheme and the clean Art Deco lines still look modern and fresh.

Best of all, the milky whiteness segues neatly into the frosty, silvery tones that I tend towards as the days grow colder and Christmas draws ever closer.

There is nothing like being surprised with a bunch of flowers from a certain someone, "just because", and the tall purple blooms with their white centers are the perfect counterfoil to the vase and to other twinkly delights.

There is nothing like thoughtful, kind deeds done "just because" and for which I am very grateful.  Happy Thanksgiving to all of my American friends.

I'm linking up to My Romantic Home, At the Picket Fence, The Charm of Home, Common Ground, French Country Cottage, Thrifty Groove, A Stroll Thru Life, In the Knick of Time, Ivy and Elephants. 

Vintage in the Kitchen

I do love the idea of being a master chef and domestic goddess in the kitchen.  Sadly, the execution rarely lives up to the dream.  Many's the time I stared in shock and horror at burnt pots, reeled backwards blinded by spiraling columns of smoke, poked in dismay at cakes that were inadvertently molten within, crispy without.  Thus, I turn to vintage kitchen ware for inspiration.  I think of all the wonderful cooks who prepared meals for their families over the years using the same tools and hope that a little of that knowledge will somehow wend it's way to me.

A kitchen isn't complete without a vintage Mr. Rooster and his wife to oversee meal production.

And of course a vintage recipe card box filled with carefully composed, tried, true and tested family recipes is a necessity.  I am a little embarrassed to admit I'm a bit old fashioned in certain areas and still like to handwrite recipes on index cards.  It took many, many years for me to wrest my mother's pancake recipe from her and now it is faithfully recorded and stored in the recipe box.  Do you have any family recipes that have been handed down through the generations?

In fact, a flock of roosters serving up an apple a day (to keep the doctor away) is just the thing.

I still dream of swanning about the kitchen, serving up delicious meals in a state of graceful composure.  Until then, I will sip my tea from a vintage mug and be inspired by meals long since eaten and welcoming family gatherings of yesteryear.

 

I was featured on Knick of Time. Thanks so much!  Click here to read my featured post, Orange Days.  Angie is hosting a fabulous giveaway...be sure to check out her blog!

I'm linking up to Knick of Time, House of Hepworths, My Romantic Home, At the Picket Fence, Serenity Now, The Charm of Home, Common Ground, French Country Cottage, A Stroll Thru Life.



Orange Days

Autumn is a time of grateful harvest.  And at this time of year, the colour orange makes its sudden appearance everywhere, most notably in the form of pumpkins.  I have always had an uneasy relationship with this colour but I am slowly warming up to it's irresistible cheerfulness.  When it comes in the form of clementines and not just any kind of clementine but the most darling of clementines, then I can do nothing but succumb.

Of course, a pie pumpkin, radiating cheerfulness in its squat roundness, is perfect as a paperweight.

One's imagination can't help but take flight when darling clementines and winsomely chubby pumpkins are paired with aqua vintage typewriters.

Autumn is a time to down tools and take a well deserved rest, as well.  What could be more inspirational during the long winter months than to contemplate aged tools with a hard won patina derived from years of honest labour?

Orange makes its appearance again in the russet orange and burnt sienna of corn kernels.

So bring on these slowly lengthening days of coolness and bountiful harvest and let me punctuate them with bursts of gladsome orange.

I am linking up to House of Hepworth, My Romantic Home, At the Picket Fence, Serenity Now, The Charm of Home, Common Ground, French Country Cottage, A Stroll Thru Life, Knick of Time.