Our Farmhouse Nest

 

nest (nst)

n.

1.

a. A container or shelter made by a bird out of twigs, grass, or other material to hold its eggs and young.

b. A place in which young are reared; a lair.

2.

A place affording snug refuge or lodging; a home.

 

This nest wasdangling from wild grape vines hanging from my giant red oak tree at the farm.  Having a weakness for birds and nests, I gently clipped the vines and nest from the tree and gathered them together with a bit of jute twine and it now hangs from a white cast iron bird hook in my dining room.

I have abandoned bird's nests scattered throughout the farmhouse sometimes nestled into a ironstone bowl, under a glass dome or in a vintage jar.  They are in every room of the house with the exception of the kitchen.

I think the nest and grapevines look great hanging from the bird hook against the white door.  The grapevine has dried blue grapes in clusters on the vines.

 

Ah yes, Life Is Beautiful, don't you think?  A new bracelet in French fresh from my studio that sums up those little nests...

 

Blessings My Friends,

 

Julie

Romance Is the Joy of Life

Lovely romantic photos for you to enjoy this evening.  Let's all hang our hammocks this Summer and surround them with lovely romantic lanterns with our best stemware filled with fresh strawberries and chocolate and champagne to set the mood.  Let's bring back a bit of decadence to those lazy days of Summer.

Let's wear lots of lace in the colors of sherbert....peach, blueberry, vanilla, lavender...

Let's take an afternoon nap...

                                       Let us be a princess in our own personal fairy tale...

Let's create a romantic setting with a daybed, and tea for just two...

Blessings - Julie

Spring Is In Bloom On the Prairie

A few years ago I purchased a white lilac bush and the second year I had lovely white lilac blossoms.  The third year my white lilac blossoms were lavender and pale pink.  At first I was disappointed, but then the fragrance and pale hues of pink and lavender won me over.  Lilacs are just my favorite heirloom flowering shrubs.  I have a bouquet next to my chair as I write this blog to you tonite.  The fragrance is heavenly.

Lilac are super easy to grow, will tolerate less than perfect soil and require full sun for maximum bloom.  Plant them under a bedroom window for fragrance at night.  The blooms are short lived, but spectacular and worth making room for them in the garden.

Being a farmgirl I adore vintage chick feeders and the one in this photo is my favorite.  It is a small feeder only 8 inches in length, but isn't it sweet?  I keep it on a shelf in my kitchen and tuck special cards, candy, and photos in it throughout the year.  Today, the little feeder is holding a French enamel house sign.

The chicks in the photo are made of concrete that I picked up on one of my junking jaunts and they sit on the shelf with the chick feeder in the kitchen.

The feeder and the chicks remain on the shelf year around but everything else changes around them as the seasons pass.

A chair at the farm with the sweetest embroidered garden pillow featuring a wheelbarrow filled with flowers.  I think the umbrella is a sweet touch.  I was amazed when I walked into the shop picked up the pillow and the owner told me that the pillow was $5.00 if I wanted it.  Sold.  I guess it was just my lucky day.

The blue tones in the pillow match perfectly with my chair that I sit in to enjoy my morning coffee when I am at the farm.  Simple pleasures...

My apple tree is in bloom and the fragrance, well smells like apples.  Dan pruned a few of the taller branches for me that I couldn't reach when I was pruning the trees earlier this year and I brought them into the house for a bouquet for the coffee table.  They look so perfect in a vintage white enamelware bucket.

Who can resist vintage calico aprons hanging on a rooster hook in the kitchen?  I think they brighten the kitchen and add alot of charm.  The best part is that they are so fun to wear when baking cookies with the kids.

I have planted my Zinnia beds again, weeded my flower beds...again, pruned my fruit trees, purchased my seeds for the vegetable garden, added three truck loads of compost to the veggie garden, and have already started dreaming about all the lovely blossoms to come in the months ahead.  Dan is dreaming of juicy red tomatoes.

How does your garden grow?  Are you a flower gardener, veggie gardener, tree and shrub enthusiast or do you just enjoy your neighbors blossoms and produce?

Blessings my Friends - Julie

Lady Liberty and Chippy Mary

In honor of the upcoming Fourth of July, Lady Liberty is gracing my kitchen window sill.  I fell in love with her as soon as I found her mellowed vintage glass form in one of my favorite junking shops.  I love the color of the vintage glass as the sunlight streams through my window in the afternoon on a sunny afternoon.

 I like to put vintage bottles, especially cobalt blue glass bottles with a tiny pink blossom from the garden tucked inside the neck of the bottle.  I also put vintage ink wells and apothecary bottles usually in sets of three - the number of instant collections.  Three of anything...makes a nice statement.

The hydrangeas are lovely this year at the farm and I enjoy a huge bouquet each time we visit.  Just before we pack up to leave I hang them to dry in a closet for dried floral arrangements this Fall.  My favorite color of dried hydrangeas are the pale green of the blossoms just before they are in full bloom.

Yes, that's Angus snoozing in one of his favorite places - this time on an ottoman in the sun.

After months of searching I finally found a vintage light fixture that I love for the sitting area just outside the kitchen.  I fell for the glass flowers and large globe that is 18" in diameter.  It took four hands to install this heavy fixture.  Tall husband flexed his handyman muscles putting this vintage fixture together.  The search continues for wall scones that will match the fixture.  I would like white metal and clear glass scones for the space.

This is my Chippy Mary, she watches over my kitchen.  Doesn't she have a lovely patina from years of wear outside in the weather.  She is 28 inches tall and stands atop a matching concrete base with the same patina as the statue.

I don't know what plant this dried specimen is, but I pulled it from my garden last fall and saved it because it has the sweetest bell shaped dried flowers all over it's stems.  I thought the bells would be perfect to cover in PMC (Precious Metal Clay) paste for earrings.  In the meantime, I wound wire around the base of the stem and it adorns my wall above Chippy Mary.

This is the fireplace at the farm that I am trying to learn to love, and it's a struggle for me.  It's just too big, dark and heavy for my personal style, but I am trying... I filled a flat basket with seashells for the Summer.  Finger starfish, barnicles, clams, sand dollars, conchs and various other shells from my collection.

So much better than an empty hearth.

We harvested new red potatoes, a few onions and sugar snap peas from the garden and enjoyed them for our dinner.  Delicious.  The sweet peas were so crisp and sweet in our salad. Yum.

I have been busy preparing for another show this Thursday at a lovely farm of a friend of mine.  I'll share some of my finished pieces and some of the antiques I'll be taking along with you soon.  It's always a mad rush the week before the show.  There are so many new things I want to put together for my shows, I never get them all finished.  But, I keep trying.

What delicious produce have you found in your garden and local Farmer's Market?

Blessings - Julie

Fabulous Finds From the Weekend

Do you ever think to yourself - Where did the week go?  Last week I spent a two days working in the shop in preparation for a Mother's Day weekend show with two other remarkable ladies, Karen and Laurie.  Karen's specialty is primitives, wicker and Swedish design - her offerings are amazing.  Laurie creates the most unique potted containers using primitive and antique vessels - gorgeous.

I also spent time designing our post card for the mailing that will go out later this week and tags for the finds for the show, it's a fun process.

French Vintage Readers - Purchase Here

Yes, these are vintage readers from France in creamy white with just the right amount of rhinestones at the corners with two different magnifiers and the best part -  they are from France.  Fun, romantic and useful - it doesn't get any better than that!  Don't need readers.  Look how fabulous they look just tucked into a display...sitting on top of a vintage guide book of Paris....ooh la la.

I also spent time packaging jewelry and vintage goodies to be shipped within the US, but also to Australia and Finland.  I love to package my offerings in a special way using lovely tissue papers, ribbon, and then tucking in a truffle, a saint charm, holy card or other vintage goodie to surprise the recipient.

Jeanne de Arc Living

Vintage Rosary from Italy - Purchase Here

Of course, I have to squeeze in a photo shoot for the week's fabulous finds and get them up online for you to browse each week.  It's alot of fun setting up the shot and then working to get a good pic for the blog.

I also squeeze in a bit of time searching for the goods...it's something I enjoy and it gets me out and about in this beautiful Spring weather we are having.  Special requests are always welcome from those that collect things that aren't readily available in their city.  Let me know what you collect and I will add it to my list of items that I look for.

Vintage Silver Creamer and Sugar - Purchase Here

The weekend was spent at the farm in the country...it was sublime...the birds were singing and the honeybees were buzzing around the blossoms on the fruit trees.  I cleaned out a flower bed, planted three white peonies and prepared the bed for annuals to be planted in the upcoming weekend.

Potatoes, red and white onion sets and sweet peas were planted in the vegetable garden.  A strawberry patch was planted at my Dad's house in his garden.  We tucked 125 strawberry plants into the bed on Saturday morning with my Dad, crawling around the patch on hands and knees while shooing Lucy, the black lab away whenever she tried to get into the patch with us.  She's the sweetest dog, but has no true appreciation for little green strawberry plants - plopping down on them wagging her tail in the process.

Hand Forged Square Nails - Purchase Here

I love vintage hand forged square head nails which are harder and harder to find these days.  They are perfect for altered art projects and fun to tuck into altered art books, collages, and assemblage art pieces.  Use them for the legs of an assemblage doll, use them horizontally as a hinge or a book, or allow them to be part of a dangle.  They are charming and nostalgic and represent a simplier time.  These nails are three inches in length.

Lila Blanka

Make a garland from vintage tiny bottles and vintage clips for a mirror - tuck in a few blossoms from the Spring garden and you have the perfect welcome in your foyer or guest bath.  Or hang in your child's bedroom window...so sweet.

Vintage Receipt Spike - Purchase Here

Old receipt nail in vintage metal in just the right shade of blue/green that would be perfect on your desk, in a window or on a shelf...use them to hold a to do list, write 25 things you are grateful for on small squares of paper and place on the spike - then pull on off each day to remind yourself of what's really important in your life...  or 25 things you love about your spouse, kids, etc.

Vintage Skeleton Key - Purchase Here

Vintage skeleton keys are always a favorite and look great wired to a vintage bottle, suspended in a sunny window, or use them in your altered art, assemblage and jewelry making endeavors.  You can't go wrong with an interesting skeleton key.  I have a friend that uses hers for a key ring...

Lilla Blanka

Vintage Brass Hose Nozzle - Purchase Here

Vintage brass hose nozzles are another of my favorite things that make me happy.  I tuck them onto shelves in groups, insert a copper wire with a hook at the end into the top for a charming stand for rings in the kitchen, or put them in an ironstone bowl as a fun garden inspired bowl filler.

I hope you enjoy this week's offerings and that you have a week filled with fun Spring projects.  I am off to buy trees this week to plant at the farm.  I am looking for white pines, a honey crisp apple tree, an anjou pear, a dogwood tree, a few ornamental pines, pin oaks, a tulip tree and a dark burgundy maple.  We are having a tree planting party at the farm over the upcoming weekend and hope to plant 21 trees!

Then we will work on filling the vegetable garden with seeds...

What Spring plantings are going on at your house?

Easter Greetings

Martha Stewart

In celebration of Easter I thought I would share with you some of my favorite egg photos I have collected over the past year...

I spent the day working in my shoppe organizing, cleaning, sorting, displaying, and then rethinking the design and moving things around and around the store.  It's a complete redesign which means I am touching everything...

After a full day the space began to "feel" like Spring and it is beginning to look incredible...

anitasljarvarum 

I have had a busy week, finishing an order for nine bracelets (THANK YOU!), shipping online orders,  picking my son up from Union Station in Chicago, and working in the shoppe.  I love it!

Laurie, my sister in law will be returning to the shoppe for an upcoming show in May with her lovely potted containers filled with herbs, perennials, and flowering annuals in pretty vintage colanders, sifters, zinc, and galvanized containers. 

lantliv i norregard 

Karen will also be joining us this year contributing antiques, primitives and children's nostalgia items.

lovisalapandet

Our palette for the show is classic shades of white, green and silver.  I'll share some photos with you in the upcoming weeks as we get ready for the show.

lovisalapandet

Wishing you a wonderful weekend filled with family and friends.

Blessings - Julie

Fabulous Finds From the Weekend

Bringing things you love into your home is easier than you might think, if you take a few chances.  What caught my eye about this room is the vintage mirror leaning against a wall that seems to provide a graceful back drop for the marble statue of a woman in a reclined lounging position.  Isn't she magnificient?  The potted bonsai provides a feel of a lovely garden - inside.

On vacation last year we toured Paradise Island which is a part of the island of Nassau in the Bahamas.  On this small island we found a garden filled with marble statues that were so beautiful that I remember thinking that they should be in a museum to preserve them instead of outside in the elements that were beginning to create soft edges on the statues.  The garden was an attempt to duplicate the Gardens of Versailles and it was lovely, and the statues were magnificent. 

Adding them to the inside of your house would be magical...

Another great mirror that architecturally remains interesting no matter the condition, especially when paired with carved horses that were probably children's toys at one point in their lives.  Does this make anyone else want to grab some soft pine and whittle away until a horse emerges?

Jeanne de Arc Living

It's during the last days of Winter that bringing flowers into your home can be so soothing and help drive away the Winter blues.  It's my habit at this time of year to have a bouquet of flowers about while I await the the tulips, narcissis and daffodils in my garden to burst into bloom.  If you have the Winter blues, try it adding some fresh blossoms - I promise it will lift your spirits.

I love this pottery vase and antler inspired candlestick.  I wish I knew who the artist was as I would be purchasing this vase for my home.  It's such a fun organic shape and the prose reminds me of Spring Faeries dancing in the night.

Czech Glass Crystal Necklace - Purchase Here

Don't you love the way this necklace looks draped across these creamy pages?  Maybe it's just me and the bibliophile that lives within my soul....I adore books and must have them around me in my kitchen, living areas, studio and bedroom.  They are my talismans that comfort me and my books continue to give me hours of pleasure each time I hold them in my hands.

Vintage Metal Purse - Purchase Here

This is the largest version of this type of bag that I have found and would make a great evening purse or look great tucked into a table arrangement or used as a prop.  It has the most gorgeous faded silk lining.  I can imagine a vintage photo peeking out from within the purse as it hangs from a peg in a bedroom.

Blue Rhinestone Necklace - Purchase Here

Gorgeous deep blue rhinestone necklace from the late 40's is gorgeous in design and color - this one is hard for me to let go...

Just lovely, don't you think?

Vintage Baby Silver Set - Purchase Here

Beautiful silver plated baby fork and spoon that is so precious.  I love the patina of vintage silver...it has such a soothing warm glow.  This set would be perfect for the new arrival in your family.

Large Silver Salad Server - Purchase Here

Love the simplicity of the silver plated salad server in a great design that allows one handed salad service.

I have added these things to my online store for you along with a few other things I found over the weekend.  I hope you have a lovely week filled with warmer temperatures and sunshine.  This could be the week for blossoms!  What's blooming in your garden?

Blessings - Julie