Simple Pleasures Sunday

Tea and a Good Book are two of the simple pleasures of life. Go ahead.....curl up in your favorite chair with a hot cup of tea and a good book and while away and hour or so. Everything else can wait...

Photo from Tea Time Magazine

There is no better company than a cup of tea when you want to read of other times and lives. Here are a few good books that go well with tea.

Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
Courage and compassion on a modern Greek island

To The Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf
Mrs Ramsay's household, Woolf's Masterpiece

Tell Me A Story, Tillie Olsen
Three stories that unfold the depths in women's daily lives

Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
A second wife haunted by the mystery of the first

Lark Rise to Candleford, Flora Thompson
The postmistress's view of English village life

Tender Is The Night, F. Scott Fitzgerald
Cavorting on the French Riviera in the 1920's

Tea book list from "The Pleasures of Tea" by the Editors of Victoria Magazine

Front Porch Party!

A Front Porch Party!

Photo From BHG.com

Rhondi at Rose Colored Glasses is hosting a Front Porch Party! The party is to be held June 5th. All you need to go is go to Rhondi's blog and post a comment between now and then letting here know about your Porch Party Post. She will post links to your porch party on June 5th. Feel free to grab the picture below and post on your blog to let others know about it.

I am going to participate, I don't have a front "porch", so I will be posting my front deck.....I hope all of you join in on the fun!

Time....

Did you ever notice how time can drag oh.... so...... slowly.... when you are in a hurry for something special to happen? Like Christmas, as a child? Summer vacations, as hard working adults? Or waiting for a couple of Special Packages to arrive to finish Fluffing, Redecorating and Painting?



Time can SPEED by too, when you are trying to get projects finished and there are just not enough hours in the day.


I hope you all have a wonderful time today, what ever you are doing!

How Sweet The Sound

Recently a sweet blog friend, Beverly at How Sweet The Sound contacted me about making a mosaic sign for her sun room.

Beverly's sun room is just beautiful, with deep dark espresso wicker furniture and wine colored cushions, lovely tole trays, flowers and garden art. It looks out onto her beautiful rose gardens.

Here is the finished sign.







I used red transferware, Old Country Roses, Haviland Moss Rose and some beautiful old Homer Laughlin china.

If you have not been to Beverly's blog, you need to hurry over there. She has the most wonderful place to visit. Her blog is full of lovely gardens, vintage items, beautiful home decor, book recommendations and so much more.

Thanks Beverly, for letting make this special sign for your beautiful home. I am so honored. This song playing is for you...

Sweet Nothings Kitchen Open House

If you love kitchens - head over to Bj's blog, Sweet Nothings. She is hosting a Kitchen Open House. It started two days ago, so make sure you scroll back a couple of posts to see them all. These are pictures of kitchens from some of your favorite bloggers, or their dream kitchens. (The music playing, if you want to hear it, is Sweet Nothings in honor of BJ's blog name :-) )

This picture above is from BH&G. I love the red, white and green.

A Little Black and Red

A little more Fluffing, Painting and Redecorating.



Almost done! I am waiting on a couple of things to be delivered - two weeks tops, hopefully. I also have to patch, sand and paint a couple of areas and move a chandelier over about 4 inches (well, really Mr Lavender Hill Studio is doing that).

Garden Jubilee

Every Memorial Day weekend my little town has a Garden Jubilee. Main Street is lined with booths and tents that are filled with plants, waterfalls, garden art and food. We went to the Garden Jubilee on Saturday. Here are some of the things we saw...


There was a good crowd at the event!


Now, you wouldn't have to water these flowers!




Love all of the bright painted tubs and containers!


See, you thought I was teasing when I said waterfalls, didn't you? This was an actual working display set up on Main Street!


Loved the signs.


I fell in love with this iron, rusty birdhouse/feeder. But the $136 price tag prevented it from following me home. Look at the fun bumblebee art too. (Click on any picture to enlarge for detail)


Beautiful carved benches, bars, and chairs of teak.


Adorable hand painted tin birdhouse.


I met another local mosaic artist. He works in stone not china. Something I have been interested in for a while.


There were flowers planted on the ROOF of this birdhouse..


A unique way to hang a pot...


Pretty Rhododendrons...


Close up of a Japanese Maple tree...I love the lacy leaves.


Some stained glass wind chimes. So many pretty colors!


Gorgeous hanging basket.

I bought 3 Basil plants to replace the ones I have that didn't make it this spring. I hope you enjoyed our Garden Jubilee. I hope your week is filled with blooms.

Simple Pleasures Sunday

An Aromatic Bath

Bath Photo by Penny Carlson, May 2008

Aromatherapy is wonderfully relaxing. When used in the bath, the oils are absorbed into the skin, as well as inhaled through breathing. Follow these simple steps;

Add five drops of essential oil to a tablespoon of sunflower oil. Draw a bath so it is comfortable warm (hot water dries the skin). After you have filled the bath, add the aromatic oil mix into the bathwater.

Close the bathroom door to keep in the vapors, get into the bath, lie back and close your eyes. Allow the scent to fill your entire body.

Soak for 15-30 minutes, preferably by candlelight. Listen to relaxing music. When you feel really relaxed, slowly get out of the bath. Pat dry with a thick fluffy soft towel. Apply aromatic lotion, put on your favorite PJ's and climb into bed.

Simple. Pleasurable.

What's A Girl To Do?

This morning I planned on running to the bank to make a deposit and then to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription. That was it. Really.

Well, the nurse at the doctors office called in the wrong prescription. This is a special compound medicine that has to be made up each time. So, the pharmacist, called the nurse. The nurse was busy with patients. There was going to be a two hour wait.

What's a girl to do for two hours on a Friday morning? ANTIQUING!!!

First, I want to apologize for the pictures. They are a little blurry. I had to use my old camera I keep in the car for blogging emergencies. And second, the song playing with this post is Soul Man, by the Blues Brothers. I know it doesn't seem like it really goes with the post, but as you scroll down you will see why :-).

This is Needful Things Antiques. It is on the out skirts of my little town. It has two stories filled with individual booths. The range of items is astounding. (Click on any picture to enlarge for detail).


I love the aqua paint peaking thru the shabby white on this old hutch.


I have been on a rooster kick for a while, and thought this table was cute.


I was a little bit tempted to buy some of these dishes for mosaics, but they were too expensive to break!


Some pretty vintage tablecloths.


Pretty crystal chandeliers...


Vintage spools - these look great in groups of different sizes and heights with candles on them.


Now, the reason for the song.....life size replicas of the Blues Brothers......


If lived in a beach or lakeside cottage this table below would be coming home with me!


Outside some vintage garden items...click the picture to enlarge to see the cute garden bed.


And who doesn't need an old aqua claw foot tub for their garden?

Hope you enjoyed your trip through Needful Things...I bought two vintage garden books. I will post them later.

Have a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend. Don't forget to stop back Sunday for Simple Pleasures....

Fresh..........

Is there anything better than fresh, ripe, local farm stand strawberries?

Yes, how about fresh, ripe, local farm stand strawberries with shortcake and whipped cream!

I Feel So Blessed...

I feel so blessed. I have been fortunate to have one of my mosaic pieces featured in the current issue of Cottages and Bungalows magazine. Cottages and Bungalows is part of the Romantic Homes magazine family. Hillary Black is the editor of Cottages and Bungalows and is a wonderfully sweet woman. The current issue features some great toile decorating, a gorgeous vintage beach cottage and so much more. I highly recommend Cottages and Bungalows to anyone who loves cottage style decorating.

Below is the piece that was featured. One of my favorite pieces, a beach cottage mosaic buffet.

This piece has been sold, but I have another vintage buffet just waiting for me to add some china bling to it....

The Living Is Easy

I know I have mentioned I live in the middle of a forest. I really do. We do not have one inch of lawn. (As always, you can click on the picture to enlarge.) The forest comes right to the edge of the driveway. Time and money saved not having to mow the lawn?

Priceless......

It's a Dog's Life

This is Cricket, sitting on our front deck. Cricket is a Long Haired Chihuahua. She is our neighbors dog. But she thinks she lives here half of the time. She is a great pet to have, because I don't have to walk her or feed her. She comes to visit just to get some petting and a snack. I would love to have a dog, but the time is not right for us. Until then I enjoy Cricket.

She doesn't like cameras....won't look at one unless forced too. Here are a couple of videos of Cricket - There is sound to this video, so you need to turn your speakers on if you want to hear it but, please excuse my voice - lol.






On my music poll, I stopped counting after 57 posts. 36 voted for the music with lyrics, 5 voted for instrumentals and 16 voted for silence. The majority that voted for silence also said that they either were happy to turn the music off at the blog, or they did not have their speakers on anyway. So I will continue to play music, but I have moved my music icon on the right side of my blog closer to the top, so you can stop the music when you visit, if you want. Thank you all for your input. You will need to turn off the music on my sidebar to listen to the videos...

Have a wonderful week!

Simple Pleasures Sunday

Today I am starting something new on my blog. Every Sunday, I am going to post a Simple Pleasure....Some soul enriching techinques that we all can apply to our life.

Photo by Penny Carlson, Mountain Laurel - May 2008

Spend Time Each Day In Nature

Make spending time in nature an important part of your life. Make a point of looking around and enjoying the trees, birds and flowers in your daily life. Step outside, take a deep invigorating breath of fresh air and relax.

The Sound of Silence

Peony photo by Penny @ Lavender Hill Studio taken in my garden.

I would like to take a poll. I play music on my blog. In fact, I try to find a song that matches the post I am doing. For example...today the music for this post is Sound of Silence. I am wondering. Do you like music while blogging? Or silence?

So, here are the questions:

1) Yes, Music with Lyrics

2) Yes, Music but Instrumentals Only Please

3) No, I like the Sound of Silence

Dreaming of Some Finished Rooms

Yes, I have been dreaming of getting my two rooms finished painted, fluffed and redecorated. Including painting the item in the picture below.




Life (work, travel, gardens, doctors etc) just keeps getting in the way. I have spent the last couple of months living in a torn up mess. Drop cloths on the floor, dishes stacked on dining tables, paint cans in the kitchen, paint brushes in the fridge - all having to be moved from one spot to another almost daily. Yes, I am ready for this to be done.


When we were in Italy, we purchased some paintings. This is one, an oil.


Remember when I took you on a tour of my town last weekend? I purchased this...it still needs some fluffing.


In Italy we also purchased three water colors of Tuscan countryside scenes.


Above is the item I purchased here. It is in the middle of being painted and fluffed.


The fabric above is part of the fluffing going on. Hopefully I will be finished with these two rooms in the next couple of weeks...

Are you doing any decorating?

Birds of a Feather

I've been shopping! Right here in my jammies. They say, "Birds of a Feather, Flock Together", so I decided to visit some of my blog friends for my purchases.

If you have not yet visited Kathy at Kathy's Cottage, you need to go visit her! She is a wonderful friend and so talented. She sews sweet hearts, adorable birds and so much more. Well, I fell in love with "Maggie" the magpie.



The package came wrapped in tissue and the sweetest butterfly seal.


Inside was Maggie - sitting in her nest upon some pretty green vines. Maggie, being a magpie has been gathering shiny items to feather her nest, like the vintage pin and black checked ribbon. Kathy showed her sitting in a vintage cup and saucer and I loved that idea, so I found one of my favorite transferware cups and saucers in the cupboard and I love the way it looks! It is going to be perfect as part of my redecorating, painting and fluffing!

It seems I spend more time buying things for my house or my studio and nothing special for me. Well I decided to buy myself a Mother's Day present. So, I went to visit Joy, at Cupids Charm. What's a mosaic artist, who loves china buy for herself as an indulgence?

My present to myself came wrapped in pretty tissue paper, with a darling cupid seal.

Inside was this beautiful china pin, made from vintage 1930's china. Is this not the cutest thing? I am thinking how great this will look on a jean jacket. Joy makes great necklaces, charms, bracelets and more from vintage china. Take some time to visit her, I know you will fall in love with her creations!

I am off to go visit all of you. I have fallen behind on my blog hopping. See you soon!

Blue.......

Remember my 200th post giveaway? Rhondi at Rose Colored Glasses was the winner. Rhondi has a beautiful home and I was a little nervous creating a mosaic frame to fit into her lovely blue and yellow color scheme. You need to go visit her blog and look back a few posts. Her living room is gorgeous!

Here is the before frame....

And here is the after.

The best part of this giveaway is that I got to talk to Rhondi on the phone today and get to know her even better. Thank you Rhondi. Your decorating inspired me to create this. I am so glad you entered my 200th post giveaway!

More of My Town

Happy Monday! Are you ready to continue our stroll through my town?


Another cute goat - this one is created using crushed soda cans. Remember you can click on any picture to enlarge it and get better detail.


The goat above is called "Kidd Rock" - :-)


The pink goat is wearing her clogging boots.


Now this store is my favorite store in town. It is small, but filled with beautiful accessories for the home.


Every time you walk by this bake shop, the most heavenly scents drift out.


The shop above is a Hands On Gallery. An art gallery where children can touch and try things. The beautiful colors above are a mosaic, that has been there for years. It is amazing up close.


Rabbit and Company is a wonderful store that carries great wines, gourmet cookware, artisan cheeses and fun accessories for your kitchen and home. I know most of you know Kari and Kijsa. Well Kijsa was the artist for the design on a cookbook cover, I featured here. When I featured the cookbook on my blog, I had not met Kari and Kijsa yet. How fun to discover one of my blog friends had created the cover of one of my favorite cookbooks! I bought the cookbook at Rabbit and Company.


The rabbit conservatory is just one of the many cute rabbit items they sell (Susie Q, I bet you want to come visit me now ;-) ).


The Silver Fox gallery is one of many galleries in our town.


Portobello. A fun shop that carries Vera Bradley purses, wine, garden accessories and more.


This coffee and sandwich shop is new. We have to try it, since they seem to have the best sandwiches in town! A peak in the door showed me a cute little restaurant.


You have to visit Mast General store when you are in town. They have wonderful old fashioned penny candy (costs more than a penny now) in barrels. All of the ones you remember from childhood. They have hiking gear, casual clothing, kitchen gadgets, souvenirs and so much more.


A goat in it's overalls...


Our one little bookstore. The nearest Barnes and Noble is about 35 minutes away.


Another wine and gourmet kitchen store. I have been to cooking and wine demonstrations at both of them. What fun that was!


Another one of our fun antique stores.


A wonderful ice cream and candy store.


One of our Bears from previous years and his new friend the goat. Both are in front of the ice cream store.

I hope you enjoyed the tour of my home town. I would love to go on a tour of yours too.

Saturday Stroll In My Town

Want to come on a stroll with me in my home town? It's a beautiful spring day. I was hoping to be able to show you all of the beautiful flowers planted in brick planter boxes and hanging from baskets all over town, but they were just starting the planting and hanging this weekend, so we will have to come back another nice day this summer and look at the flowers.

Instead I will show you some of the wonderful little shops, galleries and restaurants in my town.


Isn't that the cutest name for a lingerie store?


Here is one planter of flowers....Don't you love the color of the planter?


Inside on of the shops in town. It's called The Marketplace and has several little shops inside one big one.


One of the lovely antique shops in town...


Every year for the past several years, we have had wonderful artistic bears lining the downtown main street. It was called "Bear Foot'n it In Hendersonville". This year they changed to goats and now it is called "Kidding Around Downtown". At the end of the summer they auction off the goats and the proceeds go to charities. You will see a lot of these cute goats on our stroll.


A lovely linen store, filled with tablecloths bedding, china, soaps and more.


Hendersonville is a WI-FI city. You can sit anywhere downtown, inside or out and have free internet access.


Outside a little garden shop.


Here's another goat!


This is a great tea room and a fun store too.


We had lunch today at a new restaurant called Never Blue. I had a wonderful sandwich with turkey, avocado, apple smoked bacon, ripe tomato, Gorgonzola cheese and garlic mayo. I forgot to take a picture of it, but it was yummy!


Inside Never Blue, there was a HUGE bird cage, with a table inside it for dining. How cute!


Another goat on Main Street, with cute flower baskets on each side.

Well, these are just some of the pictures I took today. Let's continue the tour tomorrow, OK?

Happy Mothers Day Everyone!

Color My World With Blooms....

I took a walk around my courtyard this morning and took some close up shots of plants that are blooming. You can click to enlarge any picture.

A beautiful lily.

The plant above is a Weigela...

If you click to enlarge the picture of the rosebud above you will see a green aphid just below the bud. I didn't see it when I was taking the picture. I am going out to spray when I finish this post. Does anyone have any great methods to keeping aphids off roses? They eat all of my leaves and buds if I don't catch them in time!

A close up of my Clematis

More Clematis, they are climbing up the iron arch that you walk through at the entrance to my courtyard. This is their second year.

I love the red and yellow colors of this Dahlia!

A beautiful Iris - purple and yellow.

My Lilac. I planted it a few weeks ago. It will grown to be 3 foot wide and 5 foot tall. It is a dwarf variety called Miss Kim. Right now it is only about a foot tall.

If you have been reading the last few posts, you will see that my color scheme outside is Red, Yellow and Purple... I have some lavender and some purple and yellow daisies that are not blooming yet, as well as a yellow climbing rose - not in bloom yet. I also planted some dwarf sunflower seeds. I hope they grow!

What colors are in your garden?

Come on Baby Light My Fire

Hmmmm...what do you think all of those pieces in the picture below are?


Believe it or not...it is a outdoor fireplace! We ordered it from a company online based in Arizona. It arrive on a crate, in many, many pieces. But it was so simple to put together! Each piece was numbered and even said LF (left front) or LR (left rear).

So here it is, all put together. Now, I have not added plants - or decorated the area in any way, but I was so excited, I wanted you all to see it! This is all part of our Country French/Old World/Tuscan feel we are hoping to achieve in our front courtyard.

Above is a close up of the cute birds (quail) on the iron fireplace doors....

Even in the middle of the summer here in the North Carolina mountains it might be 85 degrees in the day, but it cools down in the evening. A warm fire is always welcome.

High Hopes....

I have high hopes that all of the planting and potting will all grow. I know it doesn't look like much now, but in another month, it should be pretty...(You can click the picture to enlarge them)

Don't you just love the rabbit planter? I found it at Home Goods 2 years ago while visiting my sister in Naples, Fl. My sister helped me haul it to my car. It is cement and weighs a ton!

There are two of these lion urns. One on either side of my door. When the rest of the front deck gets decorated, I will show a full picture.

Above are some Spanish Lavender, something new I am trying. I already have English and French Lavender growing.

One of my three tomato plants. I still have to go out a get a cherry tomato plant.

The entrance to my front courtyard. I am planning on staining the cement pavers. Someone asked what I use - I don't know the answer yet - I am going to Sherwin Williams to see if they can help. I asked at Lowe's and was told they only carry cement paint not stain. Paint peels up. So I am on a quest for cement stain. I want it to end up looking like it has been in a French or English cottage courtyard for years...

More later....

Lucky Me ~~~~Times 3!!

I have been so lucky lately! In the last couple of weeks, I have won 3 different giveaways! I am truly appreciative of every one of them too! Can I share them with you?

Suzanne was having her first year anniversary of her blog, Painter of the Past. Suzanne is a very talented painter of primitives and vintage style. Here giveaway was for this sweet nest painting, some vintage bird cards and an adorable stitched bird. I love them Suzanne!

Jill from Bella Rosa Antiques was having her grand opening of her website! She had a giveaway too - it was a $15.00 Gift Certificate to her Web Store. My gifts arrived
wrapped in pretty teal tissue paper and pretty raspberry ribbons.

The gifts I chose, were a pretty Lavender transferware plate and this wonderful book, "Love and the French", with the cherub on the cover...Thanks Jill!

And last, but certainly not least, Diana Lyn of Heaven Scent Candles had a giveaway and I won some of her wonderful goodies...Boy oh Boy, does my house smell good now!! Thanks Diana Lyn!!

I don't know what I am doing right to be so blessed....

Here's the Dirt!!!

Yep, here's the DIRT! I live in NC in the mountains...in the middle of a forest. I have very little sunny area to plant in. And the little bit of area that is sunny has CLAY. HARD, RED, CLAY...

So in order to plant anything, the soil has to be amended. With garden soil, clay breaker stuff and more. (Click picture to enlarge.)

So above are bags and bags of DIRT.... and some new plants to help fill in my front courtyard garden.

Some of the plants are going into containers for the front deck and the lion urns by the front door....

And then, there are the tomatoes, parsley and basil below, that go in the Potager (kitchen garden) that I mentioned a couple of posts ago.

We have lived here three years. Most of our work has gone into the inside of the house. New kitchen, new master bath, hardwood floors, all of the walls painted (and sometime painted again :-) ). So the outside is just beginning to get some TLC. Last year, we reshaped the deck and added the cement paver path and courtyard - I still want to stain the cement to make it look aged - I hope to do that sometime this summer. Now we are slowing adding landscaping. I will show finished pictures hopefully in the next post - of course it will not be filled in or blooming yet...

Happy Days....

Oh Happy Days! I worked outside in the yard all day today. Decided I burned a lot of calories and deserved a treat...

Vanilla Ice Cream....check! Tall Glass.....check! A&W Root beer....Check!

These Happy Days were made for you and me....

Rainy Days and Antiques

What do you do on a rainy spring day? Well, a few days ago, I went to the Tobacco Barn. It is a large 77,000 square foot antique mall in Asheville. It is in a old metal building that used to be the place all of the tobacco farmers used to bring in the crop for auction.

Unfortunately, I couldn't get any good pictures inside, because I forgot my good camera and was using my "emergency blog" camera that I keep in my car and I forgot how to use it!! So anyway, all of the pictures below are borrowed from Tobacco Barns website.

The have everything from antique wood furniture...

Vintage and Antique Art...

Architectural and Garden pieces....

Old Books and Linens....

Almost anything you can imagine....

Now, this is NOT one of those clean, organized antique malls. This is a place where you wear old clothes and expect to get your hands dirty. But if you are willing to dig, you can always find some fun treasures.

I did....a wonderful something that is going into my painted, fluffed, redecorated breakfast nook... Of course, it does have to be PAINTED and FLUFFED yet, so I can't post a picture...