Use It or Lose It

When I was first married, I raided my mother's linen closet.

I took some lovely vintage linens and used them regularly, but as they began to wear, I put them away to save.

I only have three left of the original pieces.

I'm not getting any younger and I decided that I should be enjoying my possessions rather than hiding them in a closet.

Tonight, as Steve prepared dinner, I got out one of my vintage table cloths to set the table.

This is a favorite because of the red, yellow and blue color scheme.

I remember my mother using this when we would have family gatherings.

It is just a little short for the table, but I don't care.

The other day on a blog post, someone used the term "shopping" in their own home, so I went "shopping" and stole the blue bottle from the bathroom.

We had sunny weather the last few days and my roses were blooming.

I am the world's worst cook married to one of the world's best cooks and I was treated to a fantastic beef stroganoff tonight.

I did warn him that he better not spill wine on the tablecloth!

This teapot tablecloth is another of my vintage family pieces.

It's a fun pattern, but it is in bad shape.

The side that is on the window seat is totally frayed.

I used this little cloth on a little side table in our former home.

I had to stop using it because the stitches in the beautiful handwork were coming out.

The pitcher is another piece from my mother.

When I was a child, my mother joined a mail order club in which she received a gift from around the world each month.

I must have been about ten and I remember watching her open the box each month and thinking everything was so exotic.

I distinctly remember when this pitcher arrived.

I loved it, and as an adult, I asked if I could have it even though it was chipped a bit.

At my age, just like the pitcher and the linens, I am a bit chipped and frayed, but still useful!
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I am linked up at

Anything Blue Friday

My Romantic Home

Knick of Time

Same House, New Address

I have mentioned in different posts that our front yard is actually our back yard and the back is the front.

This photo shows our house in 1936.

They had an ocean view!

We're the house in the red circle 

Our house was built in 1928 when there were sidewalks called courts running in front of the houses out to the sea.

The blue line shows the sidewalk/court

The wider strips on either side of the blue line are the lanes.

In the 60's the city closed off all of the courts and deeded half of the land to one side of the court and half to the other side.

If you saw an enlargement of the photo, you could actually see where the sidewalk ended in our yard.

Until we added on Steve's studio, the old sidewalk was still in our back (front) yard.

The street names changed from the courts to the lanes that run behind the houses.

Our street address changed from Southampton Court to Brunswick Lane.

In the photo, there are 4 houses that share our lane.

Only 3 of the original houses remain standing.

The house closest to us in the photo is still there.

Now, you enter that house right into the kitchen.

In the back, there is a beautiful bay window and an entryway that no one sees.

This is the only other house that is standing.

This house was built by the same builder as our house and just like ours, this is the original back, but now the front.

This is a photo of the original front of our house when we purchased.

It is now white with blue and we have added a studio where the deck is.

I know the big shadow in the center of the picture looks bad, but if I cropped it our, the torch looked really odd.

With the addition of the studio, I would have to go up on our neighbor's deck to get a photo of the full yard today.

This is the true back, but now the front of the house.

The red door opens into what is now an entryway, but originally it was the laundry room.

Don't judge me on the appearance of the room in this photo.

I snapped the photo because Dorje had trapped the cat in the dryer.

 If I bothered to arrange the room for a photo shoot, the moment would have been lost.

Believe me, had I known that one day I would post it on the internet (we didn't have internet when this photo was taken ) then I would have taken better pictures.

It was extremely unattractive to enter our house and immediately see the washer/dryer unit and the water heater so we moved them to the garage and knocked out the wall so that the entryway leads right into the dining room.

This is taken from the same angle as the photo above - a big difference without the water heater or washer/dryer.

I loved the blue and white checked floor, but it was much more difficult to maintain than I had expected.

The white pie safe is now painted yellow and is on the porch holding gardening tools.

This is the entry today with an easier floor to maintain.

I am thinking of moving some furniture around this summer and placing a different piece there.

Our contractor could not find the same molding (no surprise after 75 years! ) so he built the molding himself and you honestly cannot tell that it is different in the new archway.

It made a huge difference in the floor plan and opened up the entire house.

The dining room is still tiny, but with the entryway open, it feels much bigger.

It used to feel like we had a secret garden, but now you can see all the way through to the back.

Breaking down the wall has made a huge difference in making our little cottage distinctly ours.

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I am linked up at

Creatively Living Tell It To Me Tuesday


Shabby Creek Cottage for Transformation Thursday.

It's A Jungle Out There

"God almighty first planted a garden. And indeed, it is the purest of human pleasures."
-- Francis Bacon

My back garden is finally happy with me.

With illness, travel, work and weather, I had not spent any time in my garden in over a month.

And, it showed.

I am too ashamed to show any photos of how bad it actually looked.

I spent three days in the jungle and have tamed it somewhat.

Actually, only about one half of the yard is done, but I am happy with what I accomplished.

I planted several shasta daisies, cosmos, pansies and gerbera daisies.

I moved this little wire edging from the side yard to the back.

I bought the cow jumping over the moon last spring in Laguna Beach.

A high school friend was visiting from France so five of us got together for a night of reminiscing.

We shopped the next day and I bought some garden art to make me think of my 
 friends when I garden.

Just before we left for skiing, our neighbor's gardener asked if we wanted him to trim our side of the ivy wall.

It took him minutes to trim the ivy which was touching the roof our our house.

I would still be clipping the ivy by hand.

I created this little bit of garden art with bits and pieces of things that I probably would have tossed a few years ago.

The old school chair is falling apart, but sitting in the garden it looks fine.

I ran out of flowers to plant right at the simplify sign.

Steve bought me the frog on a business trip to Mexico just after we moved in.

The weather is finally nice enough for us to start eating outside again.

In the summer we eat lunch and dinner at this table I bought at American Home & Garden.

The chairs were a gift from a friend who left the beach and moved to the mountains.

And now, it is time to sit in my garden and read while the birds and butterflies do their work.

And Now, To Work...

Spring break is usually my signal to get to work in my garden.

There was no food in the house this morning since we came home from skiing a day early.

Steve surprised me with lox and bagels from Noah's Bakery.

We took a leisurely walk on the beach.

We played tennis.

And now, it is time to work.

After tennis I headed to the nursery to buy flowers and went a little crazy filling my cart.

Some of the flowers are for the front yard, but most are for the back.

I planted everything in the front first.

One day I will do a post to explain why the back of our house is now the front and why the front is now the back - city ordinances!

The wall around the front had a trellis covered with ivy when we purchased the house.

It made the kitchen and the entryway very dark.

After we removed the trellis and painted the wall, I put an old wagon in front and filled it with flowers.

The wagon in full bloom posing in the back yard for a painting

 One day I was putting in some new flowers and my trowel went right through the bottom of the wagon.

We have tons (literally tons) of rocks in the back so I created a stone planter around the wall to plant flowers.  

I used our big fish ( bought it in Mexico years ago) as part of the planter.

The otter on a stick is a gift from a friend who was moving from the beach to the mountains.

My next post will be about my back garden and you will see the great chairs she gave me.

Right now the only flowers blooming are the nasturtiums, but the lavender is beginning to flower.

I have no idea what is planted there - I just buy what I like and don't always know the names.

Last summer we had the house painted and our porch looked horrible compared to the crisp white and blue of the house.

At one time it had been painted a rusty red, but it was chipped and looked disgusting.

A new house was being built on our street and they had the most incredible stonework being done.

We talked to the stone contractor about doing our little porch.

He asked if we could pay cash - yes!

He asked if we could do it the next week - yes!

He gave us an amazing quote and we said - yes!

We absolutely love the porch now.

I painted the bench yellow and added a wooden box (TJ Maxx) for flowers.

I replace the flowers every few weeks.

I plant the old flowers and buy new flowers for the box.

The flowers are ALWAYS red and yellow.

You might notice the buoy hanging on the wall.

Buoys are a favorite of ours.

You can read about our buoy love here.

I always read posts where bloggers talk about their great freebie or cheap finds.

I always envy them their good fortune.

While working in my yard today I looked at my bench and realized that I am one of those lucky people too.

Steve bought the bench for $1 from neighbors.

It is not safe for sitting and some of the slats are loose, but it functions fine as a bench for flowers in the front.

Our red adirondack was purchased by a friend to replace one she broke.

I assured her that she did not need to replace it, but one day I came home and found a box on my porch.

She had ordered a chair and arranged for delivery.

It doesn't match the chairs in the back so it gets a special place in the front.

The front yard is ready for spring.

I should start on the back yard now, but I am still on vacation.

I am going to sit in the yard with my book and an iced tea and relax.

Enough work for one day!

My Favorite Room

We arrived back home late last night, tired and sore from skiing.

The sight that greets me when I enter our door is my favorite room in our house.

Our cottage is small.

I mean small!

When we bought our house, it was 832 sq. ft. and with the addition of Steve's studio I think we are now just over 1000 sq. ft.

This is the first thing I see when I open the door.

When we purchased our house, the archway was not here.

It was a wall and believe me, the room was really tiny.

By creating an opening in the wall the entryway became a part of the room and created an illusion that the space is greater.

During the same remodel, we added the window seat.

I fell in love with window seats as a child on visits to my grandmother's house in Oregon.

When I was about ten years old, I made a vow to myself to one day have a window seat.

When we first put in the window seat I made a denim cushion with yellow welting and yellow pillows.

When we bought the sofa for the living room I wanted to add more red so I chose this red, yellow and blue fabric.

Can you tell I love primary colors?

The fabric is wearing thin and I will have to select something new this summer when I make new slipcovers for the sofa and chair.

With such a small house, I have painted all the rooms the same color and used the same color palatte throughout.

I sit on the window seat for meals and Steve sits across from me.

We had the table custom made and Steve has always disliked it's smallness, but it is proportionate to the room.

He made a separate table top to put on when we have company.

We have actually seated 13 people at the table at holidays with that table top.

One of my favorite features of the room is the mullioned windows.

I found rusty brackets at Antropologie and had our contractor make the shelf running wall to wall.  

I keep part of my pitcher collection on the shelf.

This view looks out from the dining room, but I wanted to show off my prized New Brunswick Lane sign.

The city was putting in new street signs and the neighbor kids on the corner were on hand to get the signs.

The kids wanted the Pierpont sign and agreed to trade the New Brunswick Lane portion of the sign for one of Steve's paintings.

Both families were happy with the trade.

I don't know why the city removed the New from the street name, but now we are simply Brunswick Lane.

This metal shelf with my polka dots and checks and little green table are what I look at when I am sitting on my window seat.

This is what I see when I enter the house from the garden.

Seeing the red, yellow and blue chairs against the white table and yellow walls always brings a smile to my face.

This is my favorite room in our little cottage.

What is your favorite room in your home?

I would love to hear from you.

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I am linking up with

  Wow Us Wednesdays at Southern Savvy Style

and

The Charm of Home.

A Honeymoon Repeat

We repeated our honeymoon this week.

Forty-one years ago today, I married my best friend.

We were married during spring break because Steve was still in college.

  We went to San Francisco for 3 nights visiting all the touristy spots and exploring the city- our first time visiting as adults.

We returned to San Diego and 2 days later headed to the eastern Sierras (Mammoth Mountain) to ski with friends.

Last Friday, we took a quick road trip to visit KC and went right back home.

Two days later, we headed to the Sierras (June Lake) to ski.

Oh, the differences after all those years:

our skis are shorter and wider - and so am I!

we have ski clothes instead of jeans

Steve fortunately no longer owns that hat!

I wish I still had that sweater.

I have no idea why I got rid of it - it took me months to knit!

On that ski trip we stayed at The Tamarack Lodge with a group of friends.

Now, we prefer to ski at June Mountain to avoid the crowds of Mammoth.

We are used to seeing snow covered mountains, but this was a really weak snow season in the Sierras.

Can you believe the crowd on the slopes?

I think I actually skied 1 run with another person!

Steve and I don't ski together - that might be the secret to our long marriage!

When the kids are with us, they try to push me to keep up with all of them, but I prefer to go at my own pace - slow and steady like the tortoise.

We stopped early because the snow was getting slushy, but we agreed that it was a pretty good day.

Happy Anniversary to my best friend!