Cheery Farmhouse Friday!

Hello Friends! It's Friday! (Whatever that means these days.) I'm feeling "farmhouse" and needing a dose of  a few cheery things like dishes (ironstone especially), linens, chippy white paint, and pitchers. 

This is one of my favorites. I love it for spring and summer with its spray of flowers.

And yes, there are two! (And a matching basin tucked away somewhere.) I need to do another post featuring them again sometime when my creative valve is switched back on. 

A little white dress might stand in for flowers until I can turn some up somewhere. But what I really need is a few fresh herb pots.

My main nursery is closed and every place else is swamped. (So of course now that's all I can think about. . . .) Yeah, I know you can order online. Not the same. I would love to get back to Guy Wolff's pottery this year too! But that is a bit far afield from Albuquerque for now.

Maybe ironing a few linens will help! But I'd rather be in the yard. (But now I'm starting to sound like a whiny little kid.) Sheeesh!

My snowball bushes have finished blooming and I missed getting a picture of them in the pitcher before they were gone. But here is a pic from last year. The blooms were all smaller this year. What to do about that?? Anything?

Sorting through my linen piles always cheers me up, and finding a new cloth for the table that I haven't used for a while does too. Maybe I'll show that next time.

In the meantime I hope you're finding a few cheery things for your weekend too!

All the best, from me to you!

Jacqueline

Celebrating September

Well, hello to September! It's arrival always seems so sudden to me, and then everything changes. The hardest part so far seems to be trying to keep from buying too many fall magazines! Haha! But I have been really selective so far. This one has great pictures and some recipes I'm going to try. And the cover has the soft colors that I like.

I always highlight the new season with more texture than bright color. There is always plenty of that outside. But I do love the woodsy and cozy elements that this time of year brings.

We have already started off with a few hearty soups and stews. It is green chili time in our town, and the smell of roasting hot peppers dots the atmosphere here and there, especially at the weekend farmer's markets. I'll have to try to get a few pictures of chili season to share. There was a time when I went no where without a camera at hand, but those days seem to be past.

But I do start to think of having more folks gathered around this table at the center of our little house. Simple late breakfasts and suppers are my favorite sort of thing. Especially on a Sunday. 

It's also a relaxing time to gather my favorite things together in the new early autumn light.

I'm ready for some woodsy walks to gather up more twigs and brambles and branchy things to decorate a little with, or just to tuck in here and there. I never end up doing any more than that.

Our days have turned mild and a bit cooler. Just perfect actually! Nature is so kind to move us gradually in any new direction.

I will do the same with slow changes around the place. Just a tweak here and there to signal that September is here. Early fall is such a cheery time of year!

Thanks so much for all your comments and visits! Some of you pop in sort of incognito with a nice message for me, and I have no way to answer back. But I appreciate so much the lovely comments that you leave for me too! Really brightens up my days.

I hope this September is a lovely one for you!

Jacqueline

Join me at

Little Farmstead~Sundays at Home

Between Naps on the Porch~Metamorphosis Monday

Confessions of a Plate Addict~The Scoop

Cheery Finds From Summer

Hello Friends! I thought I would share a little of golden August before it's all gone! I think this is the only month that I can appreciate a little stronger color inside for awhile. In fact I think the month of August demands it. Maybe I just need cheering up at the thought of summer's passing, but sunflowers on the table seem to do the trick!

We have been getting to the local grower's market lately too where I got this bundle of garlic. We use it of course, but I love the way it looks as well.

I bring out one of my favorite tablecloths this time of year. It's an older season cloth from Williams Sonoma that I found irresistible when it went on super sale ages ago. I like the graphics and the lettering, but the design never shows enough for me, so I have it folded like a runner for better effect.

Makes me feel like I am in an old French country house. (But then I have an enormous imagination...)

You may know that I like to gather up other old things to give me that feeling too.

One of my recent thrills was to come across this old set of "french ivory" flatware. I have wanted some for ages! I am showing it off here on top of a couple of old dishtowels that my late MIL gave me right out of her kitchen drawer on one of the last times that I visited her. She told me they were her grandmother's and that she didn't know why she had saved them, because she felt they were nothing special. They really are quite ordinary with a few spots and stains that one might expect from many years of even careful use. A great many years, as my MIL was in her nineties when she herself passed. Yellow was one of her colors. And the towels are now so soft, and of course now remind me of her.

Another old sugar bowl from the flea market. I wonder if I will ever stop collecting these? Not that I have that many yet!

Another of my cheap thrills was finding this little English mustard pot. Just adds a little something to the scene.

And maybe you spied the little set of Staffordshire dogs that came my way a couple of weeks ago. These don't turn up much here, especially the little ones, and so I was ridiculously excited to find them at a good price.

I am over stocked at home since moving from a big shop to a little one, but that doesn't upset me so very much! Haha!

I keep finding great deals like these Mason Cash bowls that you can never have too many of. The old ones are of so much better quality!

So this is me at home at the end of summer, trying to keep my spirits up with things that I love, and a splash of cheery color! And it's working!

I hope for you the many bounties of the season too!

Best wishes,

Jacqueline

Join me at

Between Naps on the Porch~Metamorphosis Monday