Pottery and Poppies

I know most of you are still basking in the summer sun and loving it!

This Georgia girl has just about had enough of the smoldering heat, hot flashes and the sweat that goes with both!

Yes, in the south, we SWEAT, not perspire!

Looking forward to Fall and the burst of color that accompanies it. 

So, I'm creating an atmosphere of Autumn by bringing in a few earth tones into my otherwise pastel kitchen. 

I have a fetish for pitchers.  Decided to pull out the old clay. 

Pottery is very popular in the South-especially USA pottery.  It is so popular in fact that it is very hard to find the real McCoy!

I used one of my boxes to give a little height to the pitcher.  The crock is a favorite of mine.  I've seen a few of these without the lid.  I think it was a cheese or butter crock.

I'm not sure that I like the complete vignette.  Couldn't get the balance that I was looking for. 

I've had the framed print at my shop.  It was an estate find and from the frame and backing, it is old. 

I like the blue and orange together.  It give this room the pop of color that it needs.

Praying for coolor days!

Bonnie:)

Fall ART

 

Everyone always teased Mama about "talking with your hands."

Daddy used to say, "If I tied your hands behind your back you couldn't say a word."

She used her hands for everything.

She loved digging in the yard, sewing, cooking, quilting, and painting.

I've recently been dabbling around with this art stuff. 

As I said before, I like to "dabble."  That's about what my art is.

My daughter-in-love gets ready for Fall early, so I decided to start practicing early so I could it get right in time for her decorating.

I combined some of the art from my classes to make a tiled chalk/art board to hang in my kitchen. 

I decapauged my favorite photo in the middle.

Don't you love the abstract tile???

It was supposed to be flowers. I couldn't get them right so I just took the brush and went at it!

In case you don't know, the top, middle tile is a pear.

This was fun, but not perfect enough for my DIL's new house.

I'll keep trying.

Looks easy, huh?  NOT! 

I finally quit after two hours.  Will add some more later.



Decorating for a Wedding Shower

Wedding Colors-Purple and Green

Here are some ideas from pinterest that I used for the shower.

A handmade wreath around a bowl of grape salad was another pretty idea.

Key Lime Cake-YUUUUUUMY!

I don't sew.  Paper and scissors, I'm good at!

Loved the gumball soda idea.

I put shredded paper and ribbon around the candle...

And this happened. 

Well, it looked pretty-BEFORE!

Sentimental Living and Soooo Ready for Fall

"Stepping out onto the porch and smelling the first fire of the season makes me smile.  When I see wood smoke curling from a campfire or a nearby chimney, to me it annonces in a most elegant way that autum is in the air.  The crunch of leaves underfoot, the ringing of school bells, the sweetness of homemade pumpkin pie...the things we smell, touch, see, hear, and taste are those that we recall with a warm heart."--Alda Ellis

Ok. Ok. Ok.  I know I'm dreaming.  Well, temperatures in Middle Georgia did fall from 104 to 84 today. 

So I got out my Sentimenta Living from the Porch and started planning ahead.

This is my kind of crafting-stick some flowers in a hanging planter and voila!

This, I think I can do too.  I think an old galvanized tub would be great with a pot of mums and some pumpkins and pop the old scarecrow right in there.

Alda Ellis says it better than I do, "Arrange little 'still lifes' everywhere of fall produce and yellow mums.  These artful autumn touches are invitations to simply linger."

I love the handpainted table-easy to just paint over with the black when the season is over.

Our grandbaby has his 1st birthday this fall and we are going to PARRRRTY IN NASHVILLE-a Halloween Party by the Pool!

That means taking photos and finishing his ONE year scrapbook.

Anybody else out there ready for Fall???



Pink Enamelware

I have always been an avid fan and collector of enamelware. 

My mama made her biscuits every day for 50 years in a white enamel pan with red trim, thus creating my love for the red enamelware.  When I got rid of my country kitchen and red, I sold all of it.  My sister got my mama's biscuit pan and I moved on to ironstone and porcelain.

While I was on vacation, my favorite vendor, Olive from Oliveout blog, brought in some pieces that almost made me pee my pants.

 I no longer collect, but these were just tooo pretty to let go!

According to WiseGeek, "Enamelware is the term used for items that have a porcelain enamel finish.  Enamel is a type of material that coats another material such as steel or aluminum."

I always have a corner at the shop where I display my enamelware.  I had a customer ask me a few weeks ago, "Can you cook in this?"

Actually, enamelware is known for its strength and is a great heat conductive.  It is very stain resistent, repels grease and oil and cleans easily.  However, because of its acidic qualities, it corrodes over time. 

One of my customer's told me that the truck salesman sold "plugs" for the erosions in the enamel pots.

This bowl is so much prettier than mama's biscuit pan.

American made pieces were the most widely used and included white enamel with a black, red, or blue rim.  Solid colors included gray, green, yellow, orange, and even red.

Finland was known for its decorative pieces which included fruit, flowers, and even hearts.  The french pieces were typically different shades of blue with black and white checkerboard.  Mexico made Western ware.  There was also less common pieces from Norway, Italy, and Sweden which are more costly. 

Mid-Century Modern is what's hot today.  I found a mid-century enamel turquoise teapot that I think I must have-NOT!  It is going for $79 and a PINK one I found for $135.

I think I'll stick with my Made in China (sorry) set that I paid Olive $12 for.  The sweet little bowls are pefect for one or two scoops of ice cream. 

YUMMY, don't you think? 

Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder

What goes around comes around!

In the 70's  mama was learning to paint with oils.  She was very talented.  I'm not.

She could picture what it should look like in her mind-I can't.

She would stay up late into the night until it was what she wanted-I don't. (I blog into the wee hours of the morning instead)

This was her easel.  She gave it to me a few years ago just because I liked the look of old painted wood.

I never dreamed I would ever use it.

I love knowing that the paint is from left over paintings that her hands touched.

Love all the specks of paint and dried brush strokes.

The easel, now 30+ years later, is used to hold my canvas.

Acrylics instead of oils.

Foam brushes instead of straight edges

Amateur

simple enough for a child to do

I even do a little finger painting:)



Mama's-

In the eyes of a professional this is amateur. 

In the eyes of this amateur, this is professional.

As the saying goes, "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder."



White Scrolled Metal

I found the neatest little scrolled black-painted-gold corner shelf at one of our stops on the way home from the beach. 

Try to envision the black scroll metal of the 50's.  Someone had painted half of it gold and forgot the under-half.

I spray painted it, of course, Ivory!

The detail is beeeeeaaauuuuutiful!

Is this not the sweetest white and pink doilie you have ever seen?

Add a silver plated/glass trinket box...

...and a pretty milk glass pot and you have  TREEEEEAsures!

This metal wall planter screams character!

Rusty, crusty, and chippy-don't you love it???

LOOOOve it!

Loading up me a basket of goodies right now to take to the shop.

Been away for a couple of weeks.  Heard they unloaded a GRAND piano-an OLD one.  Some man said he's never seen one this old.

Pictures to follow...

See ya real soon,

Bonnie:)

  

Summer Weddings

My first summer love is beachin' it.

Weddings would run a close second.

Two of my girls are gettng married in the next couple of months.

Both of these girls are 2nd generation youth girls meaning that I taught their parents as teenagers, taught them as teenagers, and now I'm teaching their parents again.

I introduced them to make-up and boys, camping and lock-ins, True Love Waits and I'll kill you if you don't!

I'm glad that I can just sit back and enjoy these moments for them while their moms franctically tie up all the loose ends before the big day.

Both of our children got married in the summer-our daughter married in the late Summer-August.

Next month she and her husband will have been married 8 years.

They both had graduated in May and we were planning a long-distance wedding in Georgia while she was working and living in Tennessee. 

 Our wedding planner decorated the church while family and friends decorated a sweet little house on a pond in the country for the reception.  Buckets of daisies lined each side of the front steps, milk bottes and canning jars were sporadically placed on tables and porch railing.  My collection of birdhouses filled the hearth while candles and photos lined the mantle.  Several wicker settees sat under trees for our guests to enjoy fresh lemonade.  It was a simple yet beautiful wedding with over 300 in attendance.  My baby girl was absolutely georgeous and I'm not one bit partial.

This is my favorite picture. The heat was smoldering, the curls in her hair had relaxed, but at this point so had she.  A perfect pose at the end of a perfect day.

Our son was married in early Summer or late Spring, May 2008.  Our daughter in law was stunning in a strapless, mermaid-like dress.  The wedding of course was in Nashville. He was absolutely captivated by her beauty.

 She, too, chose yellow daisies and we decorated the tables for the rehearsal dinner with birds' nests, canning jars, milk bottles, and my favorite ironstone pitchers.  Place cards were placed in tiny pots with burlap filled with seeds for each guest to take home and plant so as to remember this day.

You can't have a wedding without children. I love the floral headpieces on the little girls that our daughter-in-love chose. 

The little one on the right is my niece.  As you can tell, she was a little anxious about her part it in all.  At the end of the day, however, she was dancing, had chocolate from the fondue fountain all over her pretty dress and was havig a ball with her new friend.

  Four years earlier, she was a toddler on her Nanny's lap and her brother was my daughter's ring bearer.

He's now 12 and she's 9.  Time moves so swiftly.  It just a few short years, we'll be planning their weddings.

  Our daughter kisses her brother to send him off to the love of his life. 

When our children married, we gained two more and we equally adore them both.

Thanks for letting me share our hearts:)

Bonnie

Sea Shells and Cloche and HELP with Linking UP

Call me slow, but I still haven't figured out how to do these parties. 

When I try to upload my photos, I get this message that says my image is too large.

What's a girl to do?

It's your party, but I'll cry if I wanta....

you may cry too if it happened to you.

Decided to post my cloche filled with sea shells from my recent vacation spot.

I'm always "a day late and a dollar short."

I like the shells against the blue cabinet.  Makes the blue in the shells stand out.

I just can't get enough of the ironstone.  I guess I'm more facinated with my pitchers than I am the cloche.  They are my first love.

I like, I like, I like.

I muss confess, the starfish is not one I picked up on the beach.  Can you tell?  It was a packaged deal.  Didn't mean to fib!  Just remembered.

It's after midnight so that makes it the next day.

I'm off to bed.

Happy Wednesday!

Bonnie:)

The Ocean and Sandcastles in the Sand

Looking back over my recent posts, I realized that I haven't posted my beach pictures.  I posted on my facebook page so I'll not share this time with my facebook friends.  They'll have to search for me this time.

Oh, my.  I must show you my ocean- the place of sweet release. 

Ahhhhhh, selah!

I honestly took this one evening.  I think it looks like a postcard or print.  It's my next painting project.

Does it get any better than this?!

The weather was perfect-overcast at times with just enough of a breeze to keep you comfortable.

It usually rained in the afternoon.  On Monday, I swam in the ocean while it rained.

Why not?

I didn't make a sand castle at all.  My baby didn't like the sand.  The little girl who made this castle was upset and crying because the tide was coming in.  She said, "Do you think it's gonna get my castle? Do you think it will be here tomorrow?" 

The sad thing is we sometimes build our own sandcastles in the sand only to find them gone with the tide.

I remember a song I sang as a little girl in Sunday School...

The foolish man built his house upon the sand

The foolish man built his house upon the sand

The foolish man built his house upon the sand

And the house on the sand went SPLASH!

The rains came down and the floods came up

But the house on the rock stood FAST!

What am I building on?

On Christ the Solid Rock I stand all other ground is sinking sand, all other ground is sinking sand.

My baby boy will now teach his baby boy, what to build on. 

I hope I got it right.