Family Week

Here's Rory, our son who is visiting from Vancouver this week. The house sure is different with his friends coming and going at all hours. We only have a few more days to enjoy his company. I'll post again next week after he leaves. Enjoy your week!

Whew, I'm just learning how to work with digital scrapbooking - sure wish I knew what I was doing - please bear with me on this learning curve - the pics are less than perfect.

The Primitive Heart stole my heart

Yesterday, I spend a perfect day out with friends, antiquing and shopping. The highlight of our trip - besides our pub lunch :-) - was our visit to my favourite prim decorating store, in St George, Ontario. The owner describes the store as 'filled to the rafters with old 'n worn primitive good for your home and garden' and indeed it is full. And yesterday, the yard surrounding the store was stocked as well. What a feast for the eyes.

This garden angel was on duty at the door to the shop. Unfortunately for me, she had already been sold when we arrived and was waiting to be transported to her new home. I could have spent another hour just looking and sighing at the sights but we had to move on to fit in the other stores we wanted to see. I did find time to purchase a painted dough bowl which I plan to post in the future.

My Apron 'Fence'

This is the view from the deck at the back of our house. One side is bordered by a fence which runs all the way to the back of our property. The other side partly bordered by our garage but the first few feet in front of the garage is paved driveway. The garage is a double that we share with our neighbour and right now his garage door isn't working so he has the door propped open.

A less than inspiring view for sure - pavement and a gaping open garage door. I tried to talk dh into building a wood fence but my request fell on deaf ears :-) So, instead, I decided to string a rope across from the house to our garage and make a 'fence' of fabric, or at least, the illusion of a fence, a place for the eye to focus rather than the bleak reality.

And it works; I like seeing the aprons fluttering in the breeze. Not everybody 'gets it' of course; a friend wondered why we had so many aprons on our line and if I changed my apron every day *smile*.

Buttons and other Smalls

A button asks little more than to be held, admired and worn close to the heart ... I've always loved this quote that I read in Victoria Magazine a number of years ago.

And I've always loved buttons. As a young girl, I used to get out my mother's button box and put the two prongs of old fashioned bobby pins through the two holes of a button and Voila! instant tutus and lovely skirts on little 'dolls' - (okay, we were kinda poor and I didn't have a lot of toys - lol)

These are some of my pearlies that I move around in jars from room to room in my home. I have piles more and will get them photographed too. In the meantime, here are some other smalls that hang around my home. More favourite things - blue willow pottery and chintz dishes. I have lots more pictures to take and load up. I'm on a roll.

Our Very Curious Cat ...

Here is our very active and curious cat at about 8 months. He is the most entertaining and nosey cat I've ever had the privilege of knowing. No sound, movement, person or thing escapes his scrutiny. The sound of a door or cupboard drawer opening brings him running - he wants to see what's inside. A dripping tap, a rewinding cassette tape, a toaster popping - he's as close as he can get and wants to see what makes the noise. He loves to be where the action is.

A visitor gets an inspection from head to toe - each button on a coat or sleeve gets looked at and sniffed, and even facial features, if the visitor will allow it. Some, who are not cat people, are not happy being so closely perused but it's hard to tell a cat he's being rude. To make it worse, he wants to be petted, admired and chooses to sit or lie as close as possible to the visitor. Definitely not a cat shy cat.

Aside from that, is he not a pretty cat? We love his soft tawny mushroom colour. Okay, enough cat talk; I'll stop here but please indulge me by looking at one more picture.

Old Cookbooks and Kitchen Bowls

After Allison of BrocanteHome posted some photos of Holly Farrell's paintings, I've been wanting to see if I could capture a bit of the beauty and simplicity of everyday objects the way Holly does through her paintings. This morning I had some fun pulling out a few of my old cookbooks, photographing them, then playing around with my photo editor in an attempt to capture something of the feeling of Holly's work. In the end, I've decided it really doesn't matter if I did or not because I like the photos as they are. I just love the vintage wallpaper cover on the top cookbook.

Look at the neat oilcloth cover on this one - it's an early edition of the Fanny Merritt Farmer cookbook.

I like the vintage wallpaper cover on the top cookbook.

One of the things I like doing is making sepia tones in my photo editor.


I think this is my favourite composition, so far. That was a fun exercise. Next, I've got buttons and sewing things on my to-do list.

Evening in Paris

This morning I got around to shooting some photographs of some of my favourite things. My Evening in Paris talc tin that came to us from my in-laws home is perfectly at home in our bathroom cabinet. I thought it deserved a post of its own. My next post will feature old cookbooks. Hopefully, I'll get those up this afternoon.