Old Glory

Hello, all,

Are you ready for the 4th of July? It seemed high time to show our spirit in the front, so we have:

a wreath with two kinds of curly wire, bells and stars.

A flag in a flowerpot.

Lots of little flags in a patriotic painted wagon. I used to have some pinwheels, but think the sun took them out in the summer of  2011.

I hope your holiday is fun and festive from start to finish!

Till next time,
Michele

Small is Beautiful

Hello, friends. I hope your Tuesday is terrific so far.

Today I actually managed to get out of the house with everything working and take some pictures, which  will be shared shortly. First, though, there is a question: do you know what a little free library is? If your response is "Huh?", here is some information:

http://www.littlefreelibrary.org/  It is a fascinating premise, especially since there are examples near us.

Here is the first one. A friend's daughter told me about it.

It's The Little Red Library. Closer to home, this is one discovered while out walking for exercise:

This one is The Empty Nest Library. I left the field guide to trees as a donation.

Have you seen this phenomenon where you live? Would you be interested in putting one up? We have issues because of being on such a busy street now, or else that would be a high priority project to task Mr. B with. Maybe it will be possible at a later day.

Looking up

Hi, friends,

Happy first day of July. Can you believe half of 2013 has gone by so quickly? Me either.

Today it occurred to me there is a more or less permanent vignette  set up in this front room that has never been shown on the blog. It doesn't get changed because it's too high and there really are no good places to move the things on it to switch things out.

The top is about eight feet so requires a ladder for short me to reach at all.  This is why the net with the bamboo handle isn't arranged more artistically, since I didn't want to find the ladder, drag it inside and climb it before taking the picture. Lazy, I know, but it's a lot more trouble than asking Mr. B to fix  it when he gets home, which is the plan. Right now it has on it a big picnic basket, a couple of globes, two old cameras, a pair of old binoculars, duck decoy, bug-catching net and a framed postcard of an old steamship. It's a bow to vintage travel and adventures.It all was chucked up there soon after we moved in and has more or less stayed put, with minimal tweaking. But I like the way it looks, so why not? 

Do you have some areas you adjust for seasons and holidays, while others just stay put?

Stay cool!

Michele

Mini Project

Hello, all,

Over the years I've accumulated a fair amount of sewing notions and bits and pieces, often in bag of assorted oddments. Today seemed like as good as any to finally do something with one of the many cards of buttons stashed away. This is the result:

I chose this one because it fit in the frame  and for the brand, la  petite, so in sync with the current love of everything French.

My poor photography skills don't show the small print at the bottom of the card that says "washable" in a  font that looks like old typewriter printing. It looks pretty cute to me; I'm thinking about a friend who sews and has a birthday coming up soon and adapting this idea to make her a gift, or perhaps a card.

It's always a good feeling to do something with the stuff that's found its way to your house, isn't it? Do you try to remember to upcycle/use it up whenever possible? 

Have a great weekend!

Michele

A new collection

Hello, friends, how's your week chugging along? Mine was perked up by a long lunch with an old friend. It's always fun to touch base with someone you've known for decades and find out the latest in their life.

Yesterday I did a little  browsing at the Manna shop. Rounding the corner from the books it was easy to see what the increasingly annoyed volunteer was calling for help about. A low shelf on a stand of dishes and glassware had given way, with some breakage in the aisle. I picked up three pieces from the floor, mercifully undamaged. Upon seeing the price of $1.00 each, they jumped in my basket to come home with me.

Old glass flower frogs, two clear and one green. My grandmother had similar ones, but these are the first I've seen in a thrift. Freddy of the black feet we already had, of course. Next to do is check out blogland to see how other people use these to decorate, or maybe they don't. Perhaps they just line them up for pure display, I'll have to see. They are old and very heavy and somehow pleasing, whether used for their original  purpose or not. I will certainly BOLO for more, after Wednesday's lucky score. 

Have you ever found three of something unexpectedly at the same time and realized you just started a collection?

Michele

Hey, there

Hi,folks,

Sorry for the missed days. The heat seems to be rapidly melting my brain.

A while back I copied a magazine suggestion for making cloches out of other items in the post called "Cloche Encounters". Here are a couple of them when first assembled:

I happened to have a glass cake plate that is the same size, so here is one in use:

None of my flower pots are the right size to fit under it, but one of the funny candlesticks works fine, with an embellished styrofoam ball on top, instead of a candle. 

Plans were to get some plants to use with the three I've made, but so far have not managed to get to the nursery  early enough to even stand the thought of walking around in the heat this week. I really like the homemade versions, since you can let your imagination go wild with size, shape, knobs and have fun with the project.

That's my puny effort for the week. Have you been dragging in the heat, or does it not bother you? I just checked and it is allegedly 100 now! No wonder I'm wilting!

Stay cool!

Michele

Pleased to meet you

Hello, all,

Sorry for the gaps last week. The heat just about did me in, not a good sign since there are months of much worse still ahead. 

The beach/sea shell theme is fun and cooling to some extent. Here is how the front door looks:

I used a string of starfish from Big Lots on a grapevine wreath we already had. I hope the mail carriers and UPS drivers enjoy it. They're about the only people who ever come to the front of the house. We are on such a busy street it's really impossible to park there: the drive is behind the house, which is on a corner.

Mail delivery is iffy anyway. Don't get me wrong, our neighborhood post office is great. Sadly, though, our designated postman died over a year ago, walking on his route. He had a heart attack, which was terrible. Since then no single person has been assigned to this area permanently. It's a different person every day, which can be confusing. The counter service is always friendly and competent, though, so this isn't a complaint. I wish we had a larger porch to decorate that wasn't right on a freeway, but for now this is what we have to work with and a wreath is still fun. 

In front of Target today a woman told her small child "No, Christmas won't come for a long, long time!" which is probably true for the little girl. Since we somehow seem to be already in the last week of June, time  is flying by so fast that may not be the case for some of us geezers, though! 

I hope you're enjoying June and looking forward to July.

Michele