Monday, August 26, 2019

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.

Tuesday, August 6, 2019

A Colorful Summer Cottage


Welcome to the Summer Celebration Blog Hop 


hosted by Amber of Follow the Yellow Brick Home.


If you are following the blog hop in order, then you were just visiting Katie of Let's Add Sprinkles whose home is full of color and creativity.


I made a vow at the beginning of summer to spend less time decorating and more time playing.


Reading in my garden 


and walking on the beach would take precedence over projects.


 I wanted to say "yes" when our daughter-in-law's dad called to say, "let's go sailing!"


I made my life simpler by using dried flowers and paper blooms in the entry - there is one little arrangement of fresh blooms that gets replaced weekly.


A bucket of dried flowers has been sitting on the dining room table for weeks - less time arranging flowers allows for longer beach walks.


I actually did take time to make a few changes in the living room - the first was to slap a fresh coat of white paint on the fireplace.


Steve painted the sign hiding the TV at the beginning of summer - favorite beaches where we have lived or visited.


The milk can was recent gift from a friend and I bought faux blooms at a favorite shop - as the owner assisted me, I told her I wanted the flowers to look like they had come from my garden.


I looked for weeks for matching chairs on either side of the living room windows, but had no luck so Steve gets to keep his well worn leather chair for a little while longer.


Instead I "shopped the house" and moved things all around - the cabinet was pushed down and I moved the white chair into its place.


The smaller table had been beneath the window for awhile and the green chairs were where the cabinet now stands.


Croquet balls from my childhood set, an oversized die, pool balls gathered over many years and tiny bowling pins found at a flea market


 add just the right amount of color around the room.


I kept the game theme going in the old cabinet as well.


As I edited my pics and wrote the post, I decided that I needed to tweak just one thing in the room.


Can you spot it?


Of course, that triggered a few more tweaks, but they can wait because I'm sticking to my plan of playing all summer and heading out to the beach.


And I'm sending you off now to visit Cecilia of My Thrift Store Addiction.


You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!