Where has the year gone? I cannot believe that as I woke up this morning, we entered into one of my most favorite times of the year; the season of Advent. The 24 day build-up to Christmas! It is time to get out my Christmas Pixie, Eglantine. Alas, we are going to be having some work done at the cottage and I won't be able to decorate as normal.
I have looked and looked at old-fashioned paper and chocolate Advent calendars, but non were beautifully decorated and were not anything I wanted in my house for the next 24 days. Since most things will have to be packed up for the moment, I wanted something small, maybe even transportable.
What a fabulous idea I think this is! This is the perfect Advent calendar for grown-ups, or to mail to a college student or a friend. What a cute idea!
Read the whole post here. Happy First day of Advent!
Ha Ha Ha, I want furniture that "laughs in the face of weather". My Grandparents had some lawn chairs like this and every year they were taken out of the garage, with the smell of salt & sea on them from the previous year and packed up in the back of the car as we headed to the beach.
We usually headed down in two cars to the beach house, a trip that seemed to take forever before you could smell the pluff mud in your nostrils, and start to see the water through the pine trees.
Our fishing gear was always tucked away in my Grandpa's car underneath the chairs that he would use to sit on and direct us with some fishing advice from the back porch.
There was a creek that was fed from the ocean behind the house and if we weren't swimming in it, we were fishing in it. My Grandpa would hold fishing competitions between us and inevitably, someone would catch a puffer-fish and he would come down and help up us take it off our line and toss it back.
Summers at the beach with my grandparents, held a magic to them, a place where time stopped, where even after a year in between visits to the house, we fell into the same routines of swimming, playing good old-fashioned board games, reading musty smelling books left on an old bookshelf, listening to beach music and just enjoying each other's company.
To be little again and enjoy the company of the ones you love away from all the hustle and bustle of the real world, to just get lost in the magic of the beach...
It’s hot here! This is the hottest weekend of the year so far. As a girl raised in the South, I am used to heat. Heat, mixed with humidity that seems to dew on your skin the moment you step outside. Heat, mixed with humidity that takes your breath away when you open the door. Heat, mixed with humidity that feels as if you are breathing through a wet cloth.
Summer, in the South, symbolizes the beginning of so many things. It means fresh fried chicken with sliced tomatoes straight off the vine, cucumber salad and cantaloupe dripping its melon nectar to mingle with the vinegar of the salad on your plate. All purchased that afternoon from the Farmer's Market. A large shed that held inside its walls the best of Summer: fresh vegetables, watermelons, boiled peanuts. Bushel baskets by the door to place your selected items in as you shopped. The smell of the sun and warmth, on the vegetables, that had not long come in from the fields.
Not all Sundays, but on some occasions after church we would head to the local family restaurant in town. A place that served Southern food at its finest! No calorie counting here! Turkey & Dressing is always served on Sundays with a choice of vegetables and fresh yeast rolls. That was usually my choice over ham or fried chicken. That lunch mixed with the Summertime heat would often make you sleepy and an afternoon nap on the hammock would ensue.
When my grandmother was a child in the South the big meal of the day was eaten at lunch, or as people called it then, "Dinner" and "Supper" was a lighter evening meal of cold lunchtime leftovers, sandwiches or biscuits, grits and frizzled ham. They lived at the top of a big hill and when my great-grandfather Red would come home for lunch, each child would have a turn during the week riding up the hill with him.
He would place his arm out of the window and help the “rider” onto the foot board, holding onto them with his big worn hands as they gripped the open window frame, they would ride up the hill with their daddy, squealing and laughing all the way as the wind blew through their hair.
For that is the South. Sweat rolling down your back; ice clinking in glasses as it slowly diffuses into sweet tea. The laughter of gossip carrying over the yard as children swing higher on their swing hung on the boughs of an oak to feel the breeze cool their faces.
Harper Lee described Summertime in the South best, in one of my favorite books, “To Kill A Mockingbird”:
Somehow, it was hotter then: a black dog suffered on a summer’s day; bony mules hitched to Hoover carts flicked flies in the sweltering shade of the live oaks on the square. Men’s stiff collars wilted by nine in the morning. Ladies bathed before noon, after their three-o’clock naps, and by nightfall were like soft teacakes with frostings of sweat and sweet talcum…A day was twenty-four hours long but seemed longer.
I love that line: A day was twenty-four hours long but seemed longer. The days did always seem so much longer when you were little, with one day slipping into the next an endless parade of Summer days. Now, time seems to fly, there are never enough hours in the day to accomplish everything. But, that I suppose is how it should be, there is a time to everything and so there should be a time to rest as the sun comes to its end and our pace slows to match the softness of the moon.
(Peach Truck Image: Re-vamped Allman Bros. Album Cover, Pink Tag & Tape on "To Kill A Mockingbird" Image, The Pugly Pixel, Background on same image: The Graphics Fairy, Farmer's Market & Palm Tree Images, copyright J. Michie)
It is definitely hats & mittens weather. Yesterday, as I went traipsing through the woods on a morning walk, I could see my breath in front of me. The sky is silvery again, gone is the very blue sky of Autumn and it is bone chillingly cold here. I am going to have to get out my bag of hats and scarves and mittens.
It is one of my favorite rituals, going through all the wonderful colored scarves and mittens I have, some bought, some handmade, all bright and happy to mix and match with any outfit.
This little image from Belle & Boo reminded me of the crispy days of Autumn. When you don't quite need your winter coat but definitely a hat and possibly a scarf, to keep you warm on a long walk through the woods with your sweetie pie.
If you have not come across Belle & Boo, it is a real gem. The drawings, for me, harken back to a 60's-ish style of children's art work. The simplicity, sweetness and whimsical nature of Mandy Sutcliffe's creations are pieces that work for any age group. Not only are there prints of her artwork, but among other things she also has a stationery line. One of these adorable gift tags tied to your little parcel and it would take on a whole new life. They are just too cute!
It is that time of year again when I seem to listen to my "Little Women" soundtrack nonstop when I am at home. It is one of my favorite albums to take you from Fall into Winter. Not always do they make a movie out of a Classic and get it right; in my mind the version with Winona Ryder is superb, the music catches my heart strings, the cast was wonderfully chosen and for me, the March girls came to life.
I have always loved this story. I first read it when I was in the 5th grade. My teacher had bought everyone books for Christmas and that was the book I received. I was the only girl in the class to get this particular title and I felt so special. I took it home over the Holidays and read it and read it again, I was in love! From that point on I have slowly been collecting old copies of the book when I see them. I adore the old color prints in the books, set in their little oval on a page all to themselves.
In doing a little research yesterday, I discovered that Nicole Sayre will no longer be doing work with Seasons of Cannon Falls (she is still selling her originals on her website though). I saw some dolls she had created that I have never seen before. Her dolls have a real vintage appeal. They immediately made me think of "Little Women".
I can see Amy playing with these beautiful dolls in the garden of Orchard House and Beth gently resting them on the chest at the foot of her bed. I have always wanted to go to Concord and see Louisa May Alcott's home. I know it would look beautiful laced in snow. I can see her walking up her path, taping her shoes against the house to release the snow powder that has built up, rushing inside to a warm fire, pecking Marmee on the cheek and with a whirl of skirts, dashing to her room to write down the latest idea that has come into her head. One day I hope to get there and see the house that a woman who has inspired me with her writing, once lived.
(Doll image taken from Nicole Sayre's website, Orchard House in the snow from the Louisa May Alcott website)
Brrrr! Today the weather has changed. It is blustery, cloudy and very cold. We were out running errands and upon coming back in the cottage, we knew it was chilly, because the radiators had come on by themselves and were humming away making the house toasty!
Today it feels like we might be skipping Autumn and going right into Winter! It is definitely pumpkin weather now. The perfect weather to get a hot chocolate on-the-go and take a nice crispy walk through the woods. I will have to get out my wellies soon. I will finally have a chance to use my gorgeous Cath Kidston polka dot green wellies I got for my Birthday. I can't wait for my first puddle of the season to go stomping through!
This is lit candles, wrapping up in cozy quilts and drinking hot chocolate weather.
(Image from Good Housekeeping, Jessie Wilcox Smith)
I love this painting by Andrew Wyeth. What a talented man he was! His work is at times almost a photographic snapshot of time. It makes me think of Indian Summer, when the days are still warm but the nights are cool. I imagine his muse sitting on her stool with a slight chill from the breeze, but still a warm back from the sun pouring forth. The first taste of fall flits over the windowsill in the form of a crispy leaf.
My Nana, first used the term Indian Summer to me to describe this time of year. When I was little I associated it directly with Native Americans and dreamed of the seasons changing because the Indians living in their cozy teepees willed it to be so, what an imagination I had! Indian Summer is upon us here in England, the sunlight is just beginning to change, you notice a difference in the quality of light almost at times a purer light. There is also a difference in the sounds outside.
I love this time of year as it means that fall is coming and bringing with it, crispy fragrant apples and warm orangey pumpkins, witches hats and turkeys. But, this time of year also makes me sad to see the Summer end and another school year begin. I enjoy my time with my family too much and when school begins the schedules change, the relaxed atmosphere gets a little more hectic and the pace of life never seems to slow down and then I find myself longing for Summer once more...
