Rectory Tables and Giant Apples oh my!....

We are heading home to the states for visit next week (so excited!!!) and in all the preparations that go along with that, things have been pretty crazy. However, yesterday I had the chance to sneak away for a couple of hours and hit up a riverside antique's show under the guise of helping our friend Mr. S pick out a birthday gift for Ms. S. As soon as we arrived I dropped Mr. S like a hot potato and made a b-line for this table...its a very old pine rectory table...which incidentally...I heart super big time! The table is put together with pegs and the base is painted a lovely aged french grey while the top is a gorgeous pine with the greatest patina. In short...I want this table...I feel like I am cheating on the bookcase I have been saving up for and that makes me feel a little guilty..but only a little. The show runs until Sunday and poor hubs has no idea that I am going to drag him there and ambush him.

When I got home yesterday afternoon I needed to pick some apples from the cooker tree for apple pies for a little bash we are having this afternoon. I am happy to announce that I almost certainly pretty sure just maybe might have grown the biggest apple in the UK this fall. This thing is ridiculous! I popped it on my pink kitchen scale and it weighs 2lbs! So I'm off to make my apple pie using 1 apple......1 big ass apple :)

Autumnal Equinox...

In honor of the Autumnal Equinox today I thought I post a little something fallish. I both love and hate this time of year. I love it for the snap in the air, the leaves changing color, hauling out the sweaters and boots, the one pot comfort food and the excuse to have a fire and a hotty toddy at night. I hate it for one reason....the shorter days, its not so bad right now but I know that here in the UK I am about 4 weeks away from it being dark at 4:30pm....4:00 on a bad day. So for the last few weeks its been as though I am preparing for whats to come, stocking up on essentials you know bottles of red wine and crockpot recipes. But no, I have found myself getting together supplies for lots of projects. Projects with no set date for completion, projects to be done on chilly fall nights next to the fire.

Last week I ran across a bag of 100 wooden discs and bought them with no idea of what they might become. Well over the weekend I made these little guys. Count down to Halloween Advent Magnets. I think they turned out pretty well. I painted the disks and number tags popped in a few nails to hang them from and threw some magnents on the back.

It's also cool enough here now to get pumpkins without the risk of them rotting and I decided to paint a couple of the ones I grew with some sassy green polka dots. Who else is has caught the fall bug and started filling the house with pumpkins?

side eyes....

{Poor "mistreated" Jack after a swim at Culzean Castle Scotland on his trip to the British Open 09'}

As my dog Jack stalks my every move in the house through the windows giving me some serious side eyes and the occasional disgruntled bark... (I mean really Jack you are a dog...it is actually nice outside...5 minutes alone is not torture), I thought I would pop on quickly to say...my computer is working! For the moment...after being rebuilt by both me and the hubs 5 times in the last week! I see a new computer in my future but I will live with this old thing for as long as I can because I also and perhaps more importantly see a kick-a$$ new pair of jeans for fall in my future...priorities people priorities....Back this afternoon with some actually relevant content :)

Murphy's Law...

....states roughly "anything that can go wrong will go wrong" and you see I had plans people, big plans for the blog this past week. I had already drafted into word 3 great posts, planned to get the Etsy shop up, running and linked up, had tons of great new pictures, had compiled a list of my favorite blogs and was even going to post a quiz...but guess what...MY COMPUTER HATES ME...and now sits doing nothing on the kitchen table until hubs takes another crack at getting that old piece working today. I am also apparently a terrible user because I don't have my stuff backed up...commence flogging.

So while hubs cuts a few more zzz's this morning I stole away with a big cup of coffee to his computer to post.

I love love love vintage/flea market style and I love love love magazines relating to such. I was so excited when I was reading one of my daily read blogs and ran across this http://fleamarketstylemag.blogspot.com/ On this blog you can follow the 'makings of magazine' and just a quick glance on the team flea market section reveals that these really are some great makings. The men and women behind this new magazine are big names with really creative ideas. The blog is well written the posts are interesting the info helpful the pictures gorgeous and it is the perfect teaser, I can't wait for the real thing! Also if you have your own blog which covers a similar subject content check out the blogroll where you can become a marketeer (reminds me of a mouseketeer...loved that show!) and get your blog listed on the site....see my cute button on the side :) I've clicked on a number of the blogs listed and wow! there are some really talented people out their doing amazing things with all their cool vintage finds!

Well I hope everyone is enjoying this Sunday...and I hope the hubs can do magic and get the the old beast up and running.....because I've got lots to say and do! Until then perhaps I will sing this in his ear as he works....I'm sure that won't be annoying at all :)

Vintage eye candy....

Happy Labor Day! College football has started (thank you ESPN America!) and summer is officially over. I even picked some pumpkins from my garden yesterday. So while you are probably grilling it up and maybe enjoying a frosty beverage take a break and enjoy some vintage eye candy that I've snagged recently...oh and that fab blue shelved cabinet I am still lusting over.

{click to enlarge. photos from top left: 1930's tin mirror; 1950's glass and silver sugar sifter; 1950's shabby chic shelf brackets; 1890's glass front book shelf/cabinet; 1950's glass cakestand; 1970's china tea set; 1960's wood and thatch stool; 1930's concave mirror; 1920's bar cart}

Girlfriends

I woke up thinking about my best friend R today...and while waiting until its a reasonable hour to give her a ring...not sure she would appreciate a 7 am EST wakeup call with a baby in the house...I ran across this...

"What I expect from my male friends is that they are polite and clean. What I expect from my female friends is unconditional love, the ability to finish my sentences for me when I am sobbing, a complete and total willingness to pour their hearts out to me, and the ability to tell me why the meat thermometer isn't supposed to touch the bone"

Anna Quindlen, Livin Out Loud

I bet that quote rings true with most of you out there. One thing that is hard about living so far away is that time passes, events happen and the visits are too fast and too far apart. Last year R and I and our husbands got to meet up for a weekend in Rome. It was really neat to go on such a grownup trip with someone who has known you inside and out since you were 10 and we had a blast! We acted like we were 16 again and I loved every minute of it!

I hope everyone gets to do something fun and fabulous with their best girlfriend this long weekend. I am missing mine and for today a phone call will have to do.

Putting Up

I've spent a good bit of time the last week "putting up" apple butter and veggies from my garden. Putting up is southern grandma slang for canning or freezing fruit and veggies from your garden. I am lucky enough to have two apple trees, a cherry tree, a pear tree whose seedling was brought back from France after World War I and four raised gardens at our home here in the UK. We are so fortunate to live in this great home it dates back to the 1600's and used to be the gamekeeper's cottage of the Lilford Estate. The old meat hook still hangs over the front door. Sometimes when I am missing friends, family and things uniquely American I need to remind myself how fortunate Hubs and I are to have this experience. Here are a few pics I snapped recently of our life and surroundings here.

{Pictures clockwise from top left: Amps Fine Wines in town; Our pond waterfall; Lillies on the pond; Our home Keeper's Cottage; Reflection; J the Dog; Daisies and Roses in Front of the House; Apple butter and some putting up veg; Pumpkin in the Garden}

I heart oyster plates...

Last week I hopped in the Dolorean and gunned it to 88'.....well no actually it was the Volvo and the only place we gunned it was to Stamford but you gotta love a good Back to the Future reference...Any who, it had been two weeks since I had gone treasure hunting and I was getting restless. I had been wanting to visit this one particular shop St. Martins Antique Centre http://www.st-martins-antiques.co.uk/ and I was not disappointed. I was under a time crunch so I had to make quick work and I definitely left some great finds behind...tear. I especially have my eye on a great 19th century cabinet. It's a nice walnut and still has the original leaded glass doors and the inside had been painted a really lovely and very hip robin egg/almost turquoisey blue. It would be sooo happy in my house filled with all white dishes. Don't worry cabinet I felt what you felt...I'll make it happen.

Two of my favorite finds from that day were a pair of great 19th century English oyster plates and a pitcher that dates sometime around 1920's. I am still trying to dig up some information on the pitcher because it is very heavy, beautiful and in perfect condition but I just can make out the mark on the bottom. The oyster plates are one of my favorite finds ever. They bear an early mark of Mintons which from my research date these back to around the 1820's when this English company first started producing bone china.

I loved them even more because I had just run across this photo from Country Living of a dining room with walls covered in them.

{Bright Dining Room - The owners have spent 14 years amassing the oyster plates that line the walls of their Pennsylvania dining room. The table was built from old barn floorboards to fit the room's narrow proportions. The sofa cushions flaunt a funky, flea market fabric. Photo and Text Credit: Owners Gridley + Graves, Country Living}

14 years collecting oyster plates! Will I end up being that crazy? Who knows but I do love the finished look. I also like the flea market fabric on the sofa pillows and I myself have been picking up some great vintage fabric to do something with. I'm learning that collecting vintage is a very subjective hobby, so what catches your eye? What sort of collections are you always looking for pieces to add?