Showing posts with label china. Show all posts
Showing posts with label china. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 16, 2023

5 Quick and Easy Ideas to Get in the Mood for Fall... even if you're not quite ready.




I know so many of us want to ease into the Fall season, but it's too hot in August and early September to get much in the mood. As much as I love fall, digging into tubs and boxes in hot storage areas, dragging out a bunch of faux pumpkins, and slathering on the fake leaf garlands just isn't appealing when you're breaking out in a sweat. I'd much rather take an approach that's gradual and less stressful. 

Thursday, March 31, 2022

Mini Easter Brunch Tablescape and Vintage Decoupaged Bottles

Every once in a while the crafty bug bites me and I get the urge to create a little something fun, especially if it's for a  "holiday".  I really enjoy using decoupage with Mod Podge because it's such an easy method. Well, I say "easy" as a relative term, since it is a bit messy and imprecise. But since I love vintage goods, I've found using old bottles for decoupage to be a wonderful way create small gifts and holiday mementos.







Thursday, February 10, 2022

Romantic French Couples in the Holiday Cupboard

Love is in the air in the Holiday Cupboard!

In my meager quest for a bit of organization after Christmas, I went through a few more unopened  boxes in my storage room in the basement. One of them has been in plain view but haunting me for the last 3 years because I just didn't have a place for the contents. Two houses ago I had a curio cabinet in the dining room where I kept a few of my more delicate pieces of porcelain and china. During my "shabby" French-y phase I collected a few porcelain couple figurines... but they've been packed away for the last 9 years. It was time to open the box and enjoy them again. 







Friday, August 20, 2021

"Before it's Fall" Holiday Cupboard with Majolica

As August heads into the last weeks, so Summer is also winding down. We may still be having temps in the 80's and 90's but I'm starting to make a change over to more Fall colors, themes and textures throughout the house. I won't be full-on Fall for a few weeks, but this is a fun time to start slowly switching a few things up with a Harvest palette and a few nature sensitive florals and that could mean a small discreet pumpkin hiding here or there. 





Sunday, March 14, 2021

Using Vintage Dishes in Seasonal Decorating Hop

Hello friends, I'm so happy you've come by today and I hope you'll be checking out the fun that we're having at this bi-monthly Hop, Lifestyle of Love. Cindy from County Road 407 is our hostess with these wonderful vintage themed Hops. If you hopped over from Amber's blog, Follow the Yellow Brick Home, I know you loved her wonderful collection of vintage ironstone, pottery and dishes.

This month our Hop theme is "dishes" if you haven't guessed already, and I can guarantee that you'll find tons of inspiration on using dishes in seasonal decor. Whether you're a die-hard tablescaper and dish collector, or someone like me who just loves using them in vignettes and vintage decor, I know you'll love all the ideas from our group. 



Friday, May 8, 2020

French Faience in the Holiday Cupboard

A few weeks ago I decided to try something a little different here in the Holiday Cupboard, by bringing out my French Pottery aka my "wedding china". When I was choosing my china pattern for my Bridal Registry back in the 70's, I fell in love with this beautiful handpainted romantic look.



Tuesday, May 21, 2019

A few more touches in the Dining Room


Over this last weekend we finally got a few things up on the walls. We've had so much to do, and my hubby only has the weekends to help me do things, so this decor fun was moved on down the list. I explained to him that I needed to share some things that were not Garden Room or Hearth Room related here on the blog, haha. Time to get to share some other rooms.



Tuesday, May 7, 2019

Vintage Tea Party Vignette

I have sweet memories of the times when my two girlies were young, that our church would host a Spring Tea Party or luncheon in honor of Mother's Day. Moms and daughters would dress up in their best Springtime dresses to come and celebrate with teas, cookies, cakes and tiny tea sandwiches. Surrounded with flowers, ferns and fun pastel accessories, antique tea sets and china were part of the festive decor.




Thursday, November 22, 2018

Favorite Vintage Thanksgiving Tablescape


Sharing some pics from my favorite Thanksgiving Tablescape from 2013. Just for fun. Have a wonderful day with friends and family.





Thursday, April 19, 2018

Spring Market and Vintage Ivy Dishes


Spring Open Houses seem to be a little late this year, but since our weather has been on the cold side, I think we're all running a little behind schedule. We (my sis and I) only made it a couple of places, but we got our fix for all things Spring.






Thursday, February 15, 2018

A Little Cottage Romance

Hi Friends, I challenged my decorating "self" this month to do some Valentine's Day vignettes with pinks and soft pastels instead of a lot of red. No sooner do I put away the reds from Christmas than they're back again for February and Valentine's Day. I wanted to keep the Baker's Rack romantic and feminine, so I used my antique china teapots and some of my English Cottages to keep things sweet and homey.





Tuesday, February 6, 2018

A Very Vintage Valentine Blog Hop and Link Party

Hi Friends, so glad you're here today, as I'm joining in with a group of like minded, vintage-loving blogger friends to share our ideas for Valentine's Day. Whether you decorate your whole house, scatter a few hearts around, or just do a simple vignette, you're in for some fun and inspiration with our 
Very Vintage Valentine Blog Hop and Party




Sunday, February 4, 2018

Vintage Finds for Valentine's Decor

The last few days I've been hunting down my boxes of Valentine's Day things and I've located one tub, but the other is somewhere in the vast nether regions of the Arctic Storage; AKA, the garage. Since I'm not into freezing, I'm having to try to rethink some other vintage items that can become stand-ins for my usual Valentine goodies.





Thursday, December 21, 2017

A Mixed-Up Christmas Brunch

Last year I put together a fun little Christmas Brunch Tablescape here in the kitchen. Of course, it featured Plaid and my Red Transferware, but this year I thought I'd mix it up a bit. I have a few place settings of Green Transferware that I usually keep in the cupboard that only come out in Spring or at Easter.





Tuesday, August 1, 2017

ReUnited...

I have a meager collection of mix and match small vintage ironstone pitchers and creamers, that I started about 15 or so years ago. Like all my collections, they are congregations of "old things" that I value, not for their monetary value or rarity, but because they are sentimental and visually pleasing. The wonderful concept of "collections" is that a single element may not have much impact, but when you bring several pieces together, the "group" takes on new life.


 

Sunday, November 6, 2016

Thanksgiving Tablescapes with Transferware

There are photos of hundreds of lovely Thanksgiving Tablescapes, but today I wanted to share with you Fall and Harvest Tablescapes using Transferware. Brown is my favorite by far, I guess because it's so easily used with a Fall theme. If you have bits and pieces of it you're set, just stack them together; a mix is wonderful, or even used with white china or pottery. The key is keeping the color palette the same. Anything goes...




Friday, October 21, 2016

Kitchen China Cupboard for Fall


Earlier this Fall I found bags of these adorable glittered acorns
 at (I think) Hobby Lobby.
I knew I'd use them somewhere for a bowl filler or accent. 
They ended up here in the Kitchen China Cabinet. 
It would have been fun to make them myself, but since they were half price,
I did the lazy crafter's thing, and saved myself a lot of mess.
My kitties girls love them a roll in glitter, 
which in turn gets everywhere.
Glitter Kitties and more to clean up.



Saturday, December 5, 2015

Easy Festive Votives with Plaid and Boxwood


Hi Everyone, I hope you're having a wonderful weekend.
 Getting the Christmas decorating in hand, shopping,
making plans for this busy time of year...
 and enjoying your loved one's companionship.



Saturday, September 26, 2015

Snippets from the China Cabinet

I hope you're having a wonderful Fall Day.
The treetops are changing to various hues of red, orange, and yellows.
It's warm, but you can feel the Fall changes.




I've been adding Autumn to my Kitchen China Cabinet...




The mismatched plates, cups, saucers, and tureens each become a work of art




...when Bittersweet and Leaves nestle around them.



Both the bovine and the birds...



are celebrating the wild garden within the walls of glass.

xoxo,

Monday, September 29, 2014

Cabinet Paint Decisions

Hi Everyone, 
can you stand some not so pretty "progress" pics?

I'm sure some of you were wondering if and when this would happen... well, it has.

When we first looked at the new house, I knew the kitchen and adjacent kitchen/dining area would require some updating. We removed the line of cabinets and the study counter first thing, but I still was putting off the decision about what to do with the kitchen cabinets and large bar peninsula that dominated the space.

I tried a whitewash technique last week with semigloss latex that actually worked pretty well. The cabinets looked aged and somewhat more "pickled", but the finish on the cabinets was so scuffed and worn that it showed EVERY ding and dent instead of enhancing them. I was bummed, because I was hoping that the "white wash" would be a relatively easy fix. But no, it didn't work because of the poor condition of the cabinet finish.


Here's the bar area today, with 2 coats of the new paint. 
Sorry for the mess, this is some "real life" progress pics of the painting.



So as Hubbs and I sat contemplating the situation we agreed a paint finish was needed. If I would have had to make this decision a month ago I would have been overwhelmed, but now, with almost every thing else done, I could approach the project with some sense of calm and common sense. Painting the kitchen cabinets at the old house was a monumental task, and not an easy one. My paint choice was less that perfect so I had headaches with it from the get-go. Runs, drips, build up...I had to re-sand and go at it again. I didn't want to repeat that scenario.




So, I headed to my trusty Benjamin Moore peeps and they told me what and how to use their new cabinet paint, Advance. It's a thinner paint that requires no sanding or primer...I know, I know, but it's that good, and I've kept the doors up, and just sanded down the bad parts of the previous finish. I'm only painting the interior of the three cabinets with glass doors. I will put my everyday china, Studio Provence Noir by Royal Doulton and some ironstone in those, the other will hold some of my glassware and crystal.

* This is now 4 years later, and we are undertaking a renovation of a "new to us" home built in the 60's. We are researching paint again, so I've gone back to Benjamin Moore for advice and paint. The protocol now for painting cabinets is to use a coat of pre-tinted Primer before you use the Advance paint. I've had a few chips, but nothing much. I would have used Primer if the company had been advising that. Live and Learn. Just wanted to let you all know of the protocol change.


(love the black and white toile pattern)




Oh, and let me tell you about a new product I've found for clean-up...Krud Kutter. Some of you might be familiar with it, but I used this instead of TSP for prepping the cabinet surfaces. Took off all the junk that collects on wood cabinets and didn't leave any residue.





Advance is an Alkyd which is a cross between the durability of an oil based enamel and the soap/water cleanup of a latex. It dries harder, so a little more difficult to clean up brushes, but the difference between this and regular paint is night and day. I've put on thin coats with a brush and foam roller and I've had almost no drips or problems. You have to wait 16 hours before recoating, but for us it's not a problem, since we're not living at the house yet. It takes about 5 or 6 days to fully cure, but then they said it would have a super hard finish.

I had originally chosen China White by Ben Moore for the cabinet color, but even though it had gray and taupe undertones, it was still too light. I ended up with Pale Oak by Benjamin Moore, here is the sample.




It's hard to see on the cabinets, but it's just a nice neutral "griege" that still gives the effect of an off white. We had to consider the wall color and woodwork color when we made this decision, since you can also see it all from the Living Room.




Before, when we first got the keys...







You can tell from this photo that the oak color was too orange and the black granite made it really dark in the prep area. It's not a very large space, but now it's so much lighter and brighter.



Before... there was a little "pickling" on the cabinets,
 but not enough to make it work.



Here are some kitchen inspiration photos from my Pinterest Board, New House Kitchen Inspiration. I have focused on light gray or beige cabinets and some with the black granite. I'd love to have subway tile on my backsplash, but that probably can wait.














I still have more work to do. You could tell by the photos I still have another couple of thin rolled coats to do, but I'm really pleased with the progress. I'm taking my time, and being vigilant with the process, keeping an eagle eye out for anything that even slightly looks like a drip. Hubbs and Aly have been helping, so I don't feel like I'm doing it all by myself. You have to be psyched up for a job like this. I'll be looking for new cabinet and drawer pulls in a pewter finish, then I have to find a couple of bar stools, as my other chairs are "counter" height and take up too much space. 
Most of the new landscaping is in except for the new tree, and I even have some pumpkins and mums on the porch, Yay, it's starting to feel like home! (I'll share those pics later in the week)

*(I have not been compensated in any way by any companies or product manufacturers; all decisions for product usage and opinions, are my own)

Have a great week, everyone!

xoxo,

Joining in on these great weekly parties:

Amaze Me Monday at Dwellings
The Scoop at Cedar Hill Farmhouse
Tweak it Tuesday at Cozy Little House
Show and Share at Coastal Charm
Inspire Me at A Stroll Thru Life
Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style



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