Pewter & Fall Foliage

 

Happy (almost) November! I have been the laziest blogger on the planet recently... If you've stuck around over the last 3 months, thank you! You deserve a medal. (I do not.) Apparently, blogging comes in spurts for me.

 

Overall, we've had a pretty low-key fall so far, punctuated by a brief moment of craziness... A huge tree branch fell on the roof of our house last month, which wouldn't have caused us too must angst (especially since we are renters), except for the fact that the branch landed squarely on the vent pipe on the roof. I have never really given much thought to what that little pipe that sticks out of the roof above the bathroom does, but I now know that if a tree lands on that little pipe, it will make your toilet tank explode. And crack the cast iron pipe that extends down into the basement. The broken pipe, in turn, will bust through the wall between your closet and the bathroom. And, until you have the presence of mind to turn off the water main, the broken toilet tank will flood your bathroom, drain down the laundry chute, and rain into your basement.  

 

 

In retrospect, it was really not quite as bad as it sounds... especially in light of the recent devestation caused on the east coast by Hurricane Sandy. But, it did lead to a couple weeks of mess and disorder while things were being repaired, which led to the house not really being "blog worthy" for a while. Luckily, things have long since returned to normal!

 

 

This morning, I went outside and foraged for some pretty fall foliage to display in my antique pewter pitcher. We don't have a lot to choose from in our yard (and I refrained from snipping the beautiful red berries off of our neighbors' crab apple tree), but it doesn't take much to add some festive fall color.

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Fall, everyone!

And I promise, it won't be another two months before I touch base again... well, probably not.

New Living Room Layout

I don't know what you do when you're bored, but I rearrange furniture. A few weeks ago, on a lazy Sunday evening, I coerced my sweet husband into helping me rearrange the couches in the living room. (Which was better than this past weekend, when I coerced him into helping me unload the huge bookcases and move them across the room, only to decided I didn't like it, and have him move them back... Oops.) But this change worked out nicely.

 The couches used to face each other, but we moved the brown leather couch in front of the window instead, which really opened up the room. That couch also now faces the TV, which is an added bonus. I am not really in love with either of our couches... they are a mismatched pair, each one held over from our single days (mine was the white slipcovered, his was the brown leather). After almost 3 years of marriage, I'm looking forward to buying our first couch together someday soon. I've been gathering ideas here. 

With the new arrangement, my husband's computer table now "floats" in the room, rather than butting up to the back of the couch. I've since replaced his desk chair with the cane back french dining chair, instead of having it sit separately beside the desk - much more stylish and comfortable, and it leaves more room for walking.

The one piece that I didn't have room for with this new layout was my huge antique trencher bowl that sat underneath the big picture window. But no worries...

It found a new home in the bedroom. During the day, it holds a simple pair of red striped grain sack pillows (one antique, one from TJ Maxx).

 And at bedtime, it holds a whole lot more! All the pillows from the bed finally have a place to spend the night instead of on the floor :)

Living Room Shelf

After moving my ironstone cupboard across the room to the dining area, I had a blank wall underneath this shelf to decorate. The pegs gave me a place to hang up some of my linens, both new and vintage, and a small chippy white bench underneath is a perfect height for display. This shelf combines so many of my favorite things... white, rustic wood, natural linen, ironstone, simple stripes, and primitive antiques.

It's also a pretty nice mix of old and new. An old grey weathered wood bucket sits next to a not-so-old recipe box painted in a grey-blue color. An antique linen jacket and wood hanger share peg space with a new linen apron and tea towel, and one of my hand-stitched kitchen towels with my own initials in blue. A shelf full of antique white ironstone gets a touch of garden green from a pair of (faux) topiaries. Even the shelf itself was a thrift store find that I painted and glazed to look nice and worn.

Love this wood bucket... It has such a great patina, with traces of black paint on the outside and a touch of rusty red on the interior.

The wood hanger is from an old dry cleaners shop, Sam Wexlers in Hot Springs, Arkansas. I found it, along with the child sized linen jacket at an estate sale in Pennsylvania, and brought it with me to Nebraska. Quite a travel history for this little hanger.

I like the touch of black that this dark tin antique candle mold adds to the predominately white and light grey vignette.

A mismatched pair of rustic wood cobbler's shoe forms (his and hers) hangs from twine on one of the pegs.

Ironstone plates and platters with embossed patterns mix with simple pitchers, a footed bowl, and an old pudding mold.

A tarnished silver spoon plate stand from Anthropologie holds a large ironstone platter in the center of the shelf.

An antique pudding mold with a corn design adds lots of texture to the ironstone display.

Winter Living Room

For the last month or so, my blog has taken a serious backseat to the Christmas rush of online shopping. Not my own shopping, mind you, but I've been busy from morning to night wrapping soap, stitching towels, packing orders, and helping a host of my lovely customers get their Christmas shopping done early. 'Tis the season...

But in the midst of all the packing and shipping, there's still been a little time for decorating. With all the traveling my husband and I do over the holidays, I don't go all out with Christmas decorations at our little house. It just makes the beautiful trees and lights at our parents homes in Ohio that much more special next to our own undecked halls. But with a few wintery touches here and there and a couple of wonderful new finds from my last antiquing trip, our livingroom has a fresh winter look in blue, white, and grey that is perfect even long after the holidays are over.  

One of my favorite new-to-me antiques is this blue and white coverlet. I've always admired woven coverlets like this, but authentic early ones in good condition are few and far between, not to mention expensive. But on our Thanksgiving road trip a couple weeks ago, we took a minor detour to stop at one of my favorite antique malls in Shipshewana, Indiana, and I spotted this beautiful blanket almost the moment I walked in the door. It was in excellent condition, and I flipped over the price tag without much hope. But at $80 it was literally hundreds less than I was expecting, so I bought myself an early Christmas present. (There, see, I have done a little shopping after all).

The color and texture that it adds to the white slipcovered couch are wonderful, and the bold pattern works so nicely with all of my french striped pillows.

The wooden bowl on the coffee table got a touch of the holidays with a handful of natural pinecones and a stack of antique books with dark blue covers. My husband loves reading old books and buys them regardless of what they look like - I pick out my favorites from his collection and decorate with them...

My absolute favorite is the tiny leather-bound hymnal from 1854 (on top of the stack). Not only does it have perfectly aged pages and a handsome pattern pressed into the old leather cover, but the hymns inside are some of the most beautifully penned words I have ever read, proclaiming the truths of scripture with a poetry and depth that is seldom heard today.

As I've told you before, I am in love with these mosaic mirror candle sconces, and I found this one for only $15 at an antique shop in Ohio this fall. It adds a festive touch of sparkle to the simple rustic room, even without a candle (don't worry, I'm working on it).

My TJ Maxx french chair gets a little primitive white stool to rest my feet on (which I am actually doing right this minute as I write).

The chippy white table in the corner holds a pair of antique crocks with pale grey glaze and a crinkled wire antique basket the I picked up recently here in Nebraska. It's one of the things I bought to sell in my Etsy shop, but I don't see it happening anytime soon. Sorry...

Pillows... I love pillows.

A few sprigs of (fake) Christmas greenery nestle around another antique crock and my little gray duck.

Even the TV gets some holiday love, with a bowl of reproduction mercury glass ornaments and more greenery.

And the icing on the cake...?

We had our first snowfall on the day I took these pictures last week, and we've had a thick blanket of winter wonderland ever since. Merry Christmas from Nebraska!