April Showers Bring May Flowers

Hello……anyone there?  And yes, I am still here…thank you to those asking if I am ok.  If a person could have a sound affect added to their body, mine would most likely resonate that of a bee hive in full blown action.  And if you could add an image along with that, it would either be The Roadrunner – you know, the cartoon character that was darting from point-to-point – or The Tasmanian Devil.  I prefer The Roadrunner – he seems to be less messy and a little less crazy looking – and just tone down the agility to a slower motion as if he has worn spine.

I thought I would share this post with y’all because I just LOVE all of the floral paintings that are here and there at The Antique Warehouse.   There are some pretty ones for sale right now and I think the one below is my fav.  This post is actually from The Antique Warehouse’s blog, which I am the author of.

On another note, I took off word verification and now am being flooded with anonymous comments from someone telling me how much they love my blog and if I would be willing to share their blog with my readers.  Being cautious minded, I don’t click on the links – and you should never do this – because who knows what the link REALLY is and my curiosity could potentially harm my computer.  Soooo, I may have to turn the WV back on..but we will see.  In the meantime, ANONYMOUS…whoever YOU are….why not leave your true identity and quit hiding?!!  Step up and be the real deal like us other bloggers take ownership of being. 

Ok…onwards now.  I made my peace.

April showers do bring on the May flowers!  Magical things happen in the springtime with the rebirthing of foliage and the bursting of color from plants offering their first display of flowers.  Birds are happy, bees are buzzing, butterflies prancing, and hummingbirds seeking out their food from their favorite plants.  A lot is going on around us outside and it is always joyful to sit back and pay attention to the beauty that nature offers us – right in our own backyards, too.

We can bring the outdoors in with fresh cuttings of our favorite flowers – either from the local grocer or from our own gardens.  Beautiful pictures and paintings of flowers is another way to add a cottage garden look inside our homes.  Amateur paintings of flowers, vintage floral prints, old books with lovely graphics on the cover and and even dishes with pretty floral patterns can liven up any decor. 

Our dealers are celebrating the season here at the store and are bringing in some beautiful springtime pieces and creating lovely vignettes with these treasures in their spaces.

Some of our favorite pieces are those that are done by amateur artists.  These paintings are often referred to as Sunday paintings or Sunday oils.  Back in time, women often learned how to paint and would master their skills on Sunday afternoons – hence the name Sunday paintings.  In the Victorian era (late 1800’s) it was a requirement of any woman who was “in good standing” to be able to paint and accomplish these skills quite well.

Old needlepoint, frolicking garden angels and English transferware are scattered about here and there.  Pretty vintage pottery pieces are lovely to tuck in a hand-picked bouquet.  These make nice gifts for the special someone, too.

Vintage toleware trays, bookends and door stops offer little touches of nature with sweet flower images.

Garden shelves, cement urns, old milk cans and picket fencing can add that garden feel to any corner.  A little sign of scrabble tiles simply spells out that this is your garden.

When you are done poking around in the garden, why not prepare a nice cup of tea, add a few scones to your floral plate and grab a book to read in your favorite chair that waits for you in your garden. 

Sounds pretty good, huh?  Enjoy your day and enjoy the springtime.

Like Peanut Butter And Jelly

There are some things in life that seem like they were just meant to be together.  Like Lucy and Ricky, Oreos and cold milk, peanut butter and jelly and beans and wieners.  And how about with decorating?  When choosing items to cozy up the home, many of us like to coordinate like objects in vignettes that are harmonious and look good together in a room or on a shelf.

Being in the business of scouting out vintage and antique collectibles is a lot of fun and, often times, I have to remember that in order to make a living at what I do, I cannot keep everything I buy.  Yes, this can be a bit daunting at times, especially when recent finds happen to meld nicely together, like biscuits and gravy.

The dough bowl, antique sampler and 1940’s French needlepoint pillow are recent finds and I seriously had great intentions on putting a price tag on them and taking them into one of the stores. 

HOWEVER…..

The colors of the sampler just so happen to be the colors in our dining room…

….and the little pillow looks cute on the green bench…

…and it matches the fresh flower cuttings from our garden.  See where I am going with this?  :)  

Uhhhh…huh and oh-oh.

A few weeks later, I came upon these old books at a thrift store.  The books are circa 1890’s through 1905.  Shades of green, cream and gold….beautiful covers and spines…

and…

all the shades of the sampler.

Oh my…..

And gosh, the books even match the oil painting of roses that hangs on the wall above the bench.

The books could be displayed in the dough bowl,

or just left stacked one on top of the other on the little green bench.

So for now, I will enjoy this old collective of sorts and appreciate the blessing of finding them while out scouting.  Thank goodness my house isn’t very big!  I could always justify holding on to other things if it were!  I know some of my blog friends can identify with that.  Are you one of them?

Till next time…..

Spring Fluffing

Hello there!  Long time, no post, I know.  I thought I’d share this post on my blog that I wrote for one of the shops I sell at, The Antique Warehouse.  The AW is located in Salida, California – between Stockton and Modesto.  It is right off of the freeway, Highway 99 – and actually faces the freeway so it is easy to find.   I maintain and write the store’s blog and have given it more attention to my own blog, sadly to say.  But rather than go post-less, I thought I’d share some of the cute things that are for sale there.  I LOVE the cement urn below in my friend Cheryl’s space.  She has her niche decorated so cute for spring!

Happy Easter to everyone!  

With the beginning of a new season, many of us like to “freshen” up our homes (aka: Spring Clean) and bring in new treasures to help spruce up the old homestead.  There are many spring related items throughout the store, such as Easter decorations, festive vintage tablecloths for your dinner table, garden accessories and all sorts of vintage containers that would be lovely to hold a fresh flower arrangement, like the blue and white pottery pieces below.

To bring the outdoors in, add some cute vintage floral prints to the walls and place a little wicker table by the front door with a pot full of blooming flowers.

This chicken wire cabinet would not only be adorable inside the home, but would also be perfect on a covered patio to use as a staging area to pot your plants.  Add some clay pots on the shelves and put the potting soil hidden away in the cabinets below.  This cabinet is shown in the photo above, too, on the right side.

Milk bottles aren’t only for milk…they make great flower vases, too.

If it gets too warm for you, come inside and sit in front of your vintage fan. :)

The white ladder to the right would make a nice display piece for inside or out.  It could be hung horizontally from under a patio roof to be used to hang buckets filled with flowers from. 

Our feathered friends are making their appearance in our yards and are quite happy to be plucking the bugs off of the rose bushes!  How about bringing in a bird cage and fill it with potted flowers, a little vignette of bird figurines and nests or place it outside and use it to hold candles. 

Need a pillow for your garden bench?  We have handmade burlap pillows for sale, too.  There are also other pillows throughout the shop that would be a nice addition for that comfy reading chair or hammock that will soon be getting plenty of chair time.

Till next time…..enjoy our spring weather!

Lovely Treasures For The Nest

  

Hello everyone!

Goodness gracious, it is already March 11th and I’ve not posted at all this month.  So let me make it up with a rather lengthy post here, if you will, to share with you just a smidge of loveliness over at Magpie Antiques and All Things Inspiring.  I shared about Magpie HERE, so the information about the shop is somewhere in that post.

Several folks have asked how my friend, Janet (the owner of Magpie), came up with the name “Magpie” for her new store.  After jotting down hundreds of ideas on a page, she decided upon “Magpie” because, after all, Magpie's collect things (oddities) for their nest.  And not only are Magpies collectors of curious finds, they also like to chatter.  Does this sound a little like us girls?  Well, you bet it does! 

This weeks photos are snippets of items to “feather our nest” with.  From antique to primitive, from garden style to cottage style, there is a little of something for all.  Belinda D. has her own lovely niche with gorgeous furniture painted with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint.  Her adorable room is located off of the kitchen.

So let us mingle and chatter here for a moment at Magpie….

If you have a chance to stop by sometime, there are also some great places to shop along Main Street as well.  Just around the corner to Magpie is Divine Decor which offers beautiful items for your home.  And if all of the shopping musters up an appetite, there are great restaurants sprinkled along Main Street as well.  If your honey likes BBQ, leave him there and you go shopping!  *smile* There is a gun shop (on Main) with a shooting range..not that us girls would take a fancy to that (or would you?), but maybe the husband could while away some time there plinking at paper silhouette targets.  I know that most of our guys don’t like to walk around pretty stores so we have to find things they would like to do, too.

Sending hugs to my blogging friends!  Till next time, take time to get your nails dirty in some dirt!  The weather here in California is ggggorgeous!  Time to fill some empty flower pots!