Vintage Botanicals and a Garden Table

This little metal outdoor table

at one time was in my booth space at the antique mall,

funny thing...

it never sold.

And you know what happens when things sit too long,

yeah...

they come to live at my house.

So now it sets right under

my kitchen window on the deck.

You can see it from the sunroom,

 so I really enjoy decorating it with my vintage

garden thingys.

A black birdcage covering some hearty ivy and my "Collegian" botanical notebook that I found several weeks ago at Spring Creek, are sharing the table with some silver of the galvanized zinc kind. I have several old watering cans, but this was a Birthday present a few years ago from my older daughter from Restoration Hardware, one of my favorite stores.

 Marion Bradway (lady or gentleman?)

must have had a Botanical assignment

to catalog wildflowers back in their college days.

My best guess is from the 1940's.

I thought about dismantling the pages and framing them out.

And I still may do that, but for now,

they are all together.

My kitties were very interested in the old pressed flowers,

but every time they went near them they started sneezing!

Funny how after so many years there is still pollen of some sort.

...choo!

I love the typewritten pages and the aged tape.

You can see my white garden gate behind the table.

 I have two of them.

Can someone say ...selfish...?

And my old hose hanger.

Just gotta love that color of blue!

I'm linking up with these wonderful parties.

If you have time go visit and say Hello.

The French Cupboard

My Romantic Home

A Few of  My Favorite Things

Bargain Hunting and Chatting with Laurie

Gypsy Fish Journal

Have a Wonderful Weekend everyone!

This Mommie has some fun time planned,

with her big kids.

And if you have a few mintues and you'd like to know me better,

click on my Bible Study Blog here

and you can read what I've learned by being a mother.

love you all,

Debra

Hello to Summer at All About Home # 94

Hi Friends, Welcome to the All About Home Link Party. Thankyou for taking the time to come by and share what you're up to this week. I'll be taking a week or so off from the party because of back surgery this week. Last year I had cervical spine fusion... this year it's my lower back. Next week Amber will be on her lonesome, so be sure and link up with her at Follow the Yellow Brick Home. Thanks so much for your good thoughts and prayers. One more thing... Feedburner will be shutting down soon, so please sign up for email alerts on new posts if you haven't already. Sign up box is on the right sidebar. Thanks friends! Hope you all had a great Memorial Day weekend!

Wagons and Wheelbarrows for Fall

Hi Friends and Happy Weekend!

I've been working on my front porch today getting it ready for Fall, and I really really wanted to bring out one of the goat carts for display, but I have hesitations because we live on a street with lots of school traffic. I've had things disappear from front porches before, so I thought I'd share a couple of peeks of what I'm doing on the porch, then share some pics from some of my previous cart and wagon fall

 displays.

Early Fall Changes on the Sunporch

Happy Fall...for reals!

OK, it just hit me that we are coming in to the last full week of September, I can hardly believe it. And if I want to show you any changes that I made for an "Early Fall" sunporch vs. the "Late Summer" Sunporch of August, it had better be now.

Because things will change again in October and I'll bring out a few of my vintage Halloween things. I don't "do" Halloween up big like I did when my kids were little. Now, I just like to have a few little things that remind me of all the fun Halloween was when I was a kid. 

One of the changes was this old straggly suitcase here on my glass nesting tables in place of the Linen Picnic Hamper for Summer. I brought out my big orange Butterscotch Wafers tin and snuggled an ivy inside. I also found the O'Cedar tin awhile back. It's pretty rough, but then I just love the color.

One of my little birdies found a spot to perch.

It's pretty bright out here, you may need to put on your sunglasses.

But that's what I love about my sunporch, I can go color crazy!

I made a few Fall changes out here on the Baker's Rack too. My black kitchen scales are back, I added an old open garden book, there's an orange pottery tea pot and tray, an orange plaid Thermos, and then my "Make Your Own Seedbox" that I made with Fall colors has shown up. I'd been saving it for this month.

Then, one of my little owl friends wanted to come out to play.

He's hanging out with another little friend in the birdcage.

and speaking of owls, did you catch my last post about "owls"?

The settee will get a change up for October too, 

I'm planning it right now...

hmmm...

This may happen this afternoon.

an antique sign I found a few years ago

 gets the "Bittersweet" treatment

on the chippy picket fence gate.

The black tole tray is still here holding some brown transferware, and I had to add a yummy candle to the mix. I have a candle burning most days from here on out. This one is Leaves, but good grief, the one in the kitchen is Pumpkin Pecan Waffle. That smell can make you go nuts...pun intended.

sitting in a cute wire pumpkin

I found a few sunflowers last weekend while I was out , but their little heads are now hanging, and they are dropping their petals. I'll be saving the heads to dry for next year.

Hope you're having a wonderful 1st day of Autumn!

I just put together a link on the sidebar and a new "page" on the header of my past "Autumn Projects and Inspiration". Hope you enjoy a look at some of the fun from the last 4 years.

If you have an Etsy Shop or Online Boutique,

 hope you'll join in tomorrow for 

I also have a new post out on my Spiritual Journey blog about "Being Available". My posts have been few and far between this last year, but I'm hoping to do better. Sometimes "life" gets a little overwhelming...

Joining in on these great parties:

Amaze Me Monday at Dwellings
Tweak it Tuesday at Cozy Little House
The Scoop at Cedar Hill Ranch

Have a wonderful Sunday!

xoxo,

Thanksgiving Welcome Home Tour

So glad you're here, Friends. I'm grateful and thankful for each of you. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving Day and weekend!

Hello Everyone, holidays have a tendency to creep up on my decorating schedule. Thanksgiving to Christmas is especially tricky for me because I really enjoy late Fall, Thanksgiving and November and don't like to get in a hurry to jump into Christmas with both feet.

Vintage Inspiration #92 Painted Upholstery

Anne arrived late Tuesday evening and Wednesday we hit a few places around Springfield. Yesterday  we headed to Ozark to visit Leola's and Riverview, and then had lunch at Spring Creek. Today we're off to St. Louis. I wrote this post earlier this week, hope you're having a great one as well. How do you make up for 3 years in a week? we're trying!

How many of us have seen a fabulous bargain of an old sofa, chair or settee at a garage sale or flea market and marveled at the bones of the piece but just couldn't "get there" in making a purchase because of the amount of money/and or time it would take to see it come out as we've envisioned?

 Well, we're starting to see a trend in technique for actually painting the fabric, as in this wonderful tufted sofa from Gua at Hviter Lakkris. The tufting alone would have scared me away!!

This is how it started out...

Or take a look at this pristine beauty from Glory B's Cottage

Can someone say 1980's?

That brings me back to a post I did a couple of weeks ago 

where I shared this amazing sofa in Traditional Home Magazine.

I love trends, 

but don't want to invest a lot of money into them

 or to changing out upholstery because you're tired of it.

My rule is "don't buy pattern...buy neutrals" for the big things.

That way you can change out pillows and accessories for a fresh new look.

I broke that rule on a sofa purchase a while back,

and now it's covered in a white slipcover.

So instead of investing in upholstery for this kind of trend,

 why not just paint it?

And along the lines of the Union Jack,

 I think I'd opt for a more toned down version,

say this...

or in grays...

which brings me to this wonderful French gilt set

 that I recently saw at Relics.

Still pricey, but totally gorgeous.

The sofa is worn, but the chairs are in pretty good shape...

Personally, I think it's fabulous just like this.

Just thinking of the "idea" of painting a piece.

Right now I'm just "dreaming", but you just never know what I might do!

 So the next time you see an iffy sofa, try to imagine it painted!

So that brings me to a few of last week's features:

Lisa from Budget Design Girl shared a post about the Union Jack in design that is coinciding with the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth. THIS I could go for!

Amanda Marie from Little City Homestead, a new blogger,  posted about an adorable little watering can with the perfect "chippy" quotient!

Melissa from Daisy Mae Belle, (also a new blogger)has two things that I love (and have), a rusty fence gate and a birdhouse! Isn't this a great entry statement?

And in honor of Father's Day, I want to share this wonderful Model A Ford from Faye at Wild Rose Vintage. My daddy collected antique cars,  and I grew up having a real love for them.

brings back wonderful memories!

So let's see what kind of inspiration you've been kicking around this week. Please have a link within your post to be featured!

and please go visit these other great Friday party gals:

xoxo,