Hickory dickory dock

. . . the mouse ran up the clock.

It was time for an update in the guest room even though there have been no guests for months.

Mainly I was ready for a different quote on the typewriter.

 I have lots of clock faces and mice so I decided to use them together.

Rather than a quote, I printed out some images of vintage post cards for the typewriter and added dried flowers.

The mouse door stop was a gift from my daughter, the pocket watch was found at a Paris flea market  and sadly the clock face sits in back because I broke a favorite clock while gathering items for the vignette.

I do like decorating with quotes so I wrote one on a little clipboard.

I googled quotes about time and saw one where a clock face made the O and knew that had to be my choice.

I know all the clocks and mice are a bit silly, but I like silly.

With a goose and a horse thrown in for good measure, I really should call this the animal room.

The guest room is all decorated, but we will be having guests in a few weeks

and I will have to remove a lot of stuff around the house.

My tchotchkes and creatures will be too tempting for these little boys.

Barnhouse Chicks Market

My shopping habits for decor have changed over the last few years - I rarely shop new and instead visit thrift shops and order online from vendors who share on Instagram. 

But, my favorite place to find vintage decor is pop up shops.

Lorzel of Barnhouse Vintage Market, along with her well curated group of vendors, 

brings life to vacant mall stores for a few days by setting up pop up shops.

Last Saturday, with my list on my phone, I drove to Santa Barbara for the latest pop up - 3 different stores in La Cumbre Plaza Mall.

I came home with 4 items, but only 2 were on the list - 1 isn't pictured here.

The red chair is from the fall pop up last year and a friend found the green chairs at the winter pop up.

 I was really excited to find a blue chair at this pop up.

I had an old ice cream bucket on my list, but the colors and the worn patina on this wooden bucket won my heart.

I love the bucket and I have a feeling it will spend a lot of time on the table this fall.

This peek into the entry shows the third item I bought.

The well worn copper tea kettle has a hole in the bottom,

and my original plan was to use it to hold our wooden spoons, but it just looks so cute with flowers.

It wasn't on my list, but I love numbers and I fell in love with this piece.

It is metal and has a hole on the bottom where it might have screwed onto a pole - a bird bath, a sundial?

I'm happy with it sitting on our coffee table - made from an OLD crate from our family orange groves. 

I absolutely loved the texture of these pillows -

this was my favorite.

Rather than buy them, I came home and ordered 3 fabrics from French General and I'll make my own pillows - I have 4 fabrics here because I literally can't remember which 3 I ordered.

 I loved something on this table, but I was anxious to get to that sailboat piece and forgot to grab it.

It turns out that the vendor, European Frump, lives in town and I'll get them later this week.

I can't wait for the next Barnhouse Chicks Market.

Time To Refresh

Sometimes I look around the house and feel that things are looking stale.

I had some free time this morning because Lulu was at Day Care - to prepare her for the traumatic event of being left at the trainer's house for 5 days while we go on vacation.

I began with the front porch.

In the fall I painted little flags for a nautical banner, but they were too small so I painted new flags just a little bit larger.

Flowers from the garden were switched from a wooden tool caddy to a polka dot vase

and the table was set for a quick dinner because it is date night and we are going to the movies.

A basket full of odd bits of metal . . . unframed family photos . . .  a simple heart shaped rock found on the beach . . . 

provide a fresh look in the living room.

The best change in the living room is this sweet oil painting of Lulu done by artist Bruce Bingham as a special gift to Steve.

My clock collection ended up in the hallway with one of my favorite paintings - an old door we spotted on Bleecker Street on our last visit to New York City. 

Swapping out wilted flowers with a bit of greenery from the garden freshened up the bedroom.

I found this tumbleweed on the beach yesterday and Steve thought I was nuts to bring it home.

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" - I like the look of the tumbleweed in bucket on the patio work table.

Now that the house is looking fresh, I need to freshen up the garden and these  flowers should do the trick.

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books...books...books

Last night while Steve made dinner, I made a table runner.

Before I photographed it, I dug out the yellow box from my work space.

 I couldn't use it with 'cards' so first I had to alter it.

there is no meaning to the number 5, it was just sitting on my work table

A scrap of paper and a rub-on number changed the look.

First came the flowers - hard to find in the garden after 2 days of rain...

Then a book...

And another book...

Some hands...

A clock face plate...

And finally my little C tile.  

I set it on the table and added candles.

Looking around the room and into the living room, I was struck by the number of books I saw everywhere I looked...

under tables and on tables.

placed on shelves and stacked on furniture.

I was reminded of our move to this little cottage 15 years ago.

I loved this house from the beginning, but one thing I didn't like back then was the lack of places to put books.

Books are definitely a part of who we are, but it took us time to remove walls and replace furniture so that we had a place for books.

Now,

there are books to fit our life style,

books about decorating and making books.

There are books I made

including a book for people who are staying at our house to watch Dorje.

There are books for reading. but more and more

we are reading books and magazines on these.

Despite our electronic reading,

I know I will continue to decorate using books.

..................................

I started to tell you about my heart table runner

But, as in the saying, "the best laid plans of mice and men...",

my plans went astray.

.............................

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