Mad Tea Party

~ Tonight we're going to party like it's 1865 ~

This is the story book tale of a very fanciful tea party, where the guest could be the sweet bird that sings to me every morning or the caterpillar that lives under the cucumber leaves. Every day you live is a special occasion and a reason to celebrate. So this day, a very special Vanessa day, we are celebrating with a tea party....a MAD tea party if you will. My guest are a just a wee bit colorful and eccentric but always fun. There's Ben, our resident pussycat guard dog, squirrel chaser, office assistant and all round sweet lovable boy.......but he does love to wear his crown......strange for a dog....don't you think? Then there is Patriotic Man, a fitting guest since our nation's independence day is soon to be celebrated. He's a wonderful ol' guy, although a bit dotty but that's okay. The birds think he is the best, so much so, there is always one perched on his head. The stone rabbit will definitely not let this party last forever and a day. He always wears his clock and will let us know when the bewitching hour of 8 p.m. arrives so we can all rush in to watch "Dancing Under the Stars". So come along, follow me........ down the cobblestone path, to the old wood steps that lead to our tea party set under the pink lanterns in the old dogwood tree. We must hurry before the caterpillar eats all the red cake with white icing. He's quite partial to white icing you see. We shall drink endless amounts of invisible sweet tea (it's a Southern thang), sweetened with blue sugar, and tell stories of the day we painted the Queen's roses red.

P.S. Kudos to Bobby G. (my very own Mad Hatter) who spent so much time (in the heat) taking and retaking photos of me and my menagerie of friends for the party. Kisses :)


Thank you Vanessa of A Fanciful Twist blog for allowing me to be a part of your imagination and this incredibly fun and magical day. For a list of all the participants in the Mad Party just click here and look on her sidebar. It will make you smile, it will make you laugh and it will make your day.

It's almost here.....!!!

Don't be late for the caterpillar cake!

It's a MAD party! Saturday June 27th, hosted by the delightful Vanessa at A Fanciful Twist. On the big day, after attending mine of course, won't you click on her blog name for a whole list of MAD TEA PARTIERS. It promises to be a magical time with the most wonderful party birds. Oh!, I forgot....if you could bring some pink sugar that would be fabulous. See you there!

A Cloche Party ~ What's Under Yours?

An unlikely duo but it works.......why? .....because I like it...therefore it has to work . :) You all know with my boutique, I spend a great deal of my time "treasure hunting." And on those hunts, for the last couple of years, I have been looking for myself (and one for you, if I found two) a real antique cloche or bell jar. I have yet to find it and this winter while visiting one of my favorite decorating stores, they featured new garden cloches. I bought one. It's large and heavy and I love it. For now, it is front and center on the foyer table. Underneath I have displayed.......guess what? Awww go on and guess....(grin). It's a real bird nest...one of the many that we find out here on the farmette, gifted from nature. A little mushroom bird sits on the nest and beside her, rest a vintage pearl bridal tiara. Maybe this Christmas I will add some silver mercury balls as her eggs and a small bottle brush Christmas tree.



Ms. Marty over at A Stroll Thru Life is the hostess of this wonderful "cloche party". Just click here and you will be magically transported to her blog where you will find a "Linky" list of all the participants. I bet you will see some wonderful ideas. Have a super sunny and fun weekend.

Pink Saturday ~ Celebrations

Happy Birthday to my Mom. She just had her 85th!! Aren't the pink roses on her birthday cake gorgeous? I ate one :) Okay.............two. :)

I think birthdays are the most special of days to celebrate. I mean, after all, It's YOUR day and no one is more special than you are. :) I have been making the prettiest birthday hats to celebrate that special day.......and most all incorporate something vintage in them. Fit for a Queen or a Princess! Wear on your pretty head, use as a unique and very special topper on the birthday gift or even use on the birthday cake itself. You can find them here and here.


Many thanks to our hostess, Beverly, who started this very special day called Pink Saturday. No where else on earth will you find more pink than right here. Happy Pink Saturday and have a great weekend.

Sugar Sands & The Mustang Store

Get your cookies and milk 'cause it's a long post folks. :) Our beach trip was FABULOUS...perfect weather, food and company. This time we stayed at the northern most section of the Outer Banks. It is absolutely beautiful...so pristine with a polished landscape, large gorgeous rental homes that range from more than enough to the extraordinary, long stretches of undisturbed white sand beaches, wild horses running free and night skies blanketed with zillions of visible stars . With only two hotels in the area, most of Corolla's visitors (up to 50,000 people a week in the summertime) stay in rental homes. Our temporary home (a friend's beach house) was just perfect in every way. Here is a photo of our view. From these windows everyday we saw the dolphins playing and swimming just beyond the breakers.



I wish I could report to you that I took advantage of the homeowner's exercise room and kept up my routine of running, exercising and swimming.....NOT....here's what I did most of the time! :)



My friend and I roamed up and down the beach everyday at low tide searching for pretty shells......Us shell seeking ladies found lots of gorgeous black shells and purple shells. I sent the purple ones to Ms. Boo, 'cause purple is her favorite color. I think a purple mermaid with green hair left those shells for me to find, at least that is what I told my grand-daughter. :) CS is going to use hers in some stepping stones and wind chimes. (Hope she makes me one for Christmas...hint, hint.) A lonnnnnnnng time ago my Daddy taught me to surf cast. And I remember many wonderful times sitting in a low beach chair, surf side, with our poles stuck in a rod holder, as we chatted the night away. My casting skills were a little rusty but eventually I came around; unfortunately the fish weren't biting.







The new homes in the area we stayed in are required to have sand dunes between them and the ocean to try and prevent erosion because of the nature of the bad storms that frequent the Outer Banks. The photos below show the long wooden walkways leading to the beach. Our walkway led to nowhere. Because recent storms had shifted the sand and totally covered up the end of the walkway and the little sitting area.

As recently as the 1970’s, there were no paved roads leading into Corolla, also known as North Beach, and it was little more than an isolated natural haven. Our beach house was located at the very tip of the paved road. Just a block or so away, you headed off the road to travel on the beach. There are some houses on this stretch of beach and I was amazed to see them so close to the ocean. No way would I want to be there when a hurricane or even a bad storm blew in. But most of the beach houses were way behind the dune line. Even with a 4 wheel drive people get stuck in the sand and a tow truck always sits at the entrance to the beach drive to pull vehicles out (and to make lots of money). It looks so funny to see a caravan of cars driving down the beach. At 4 o'clock in the afternoon, which is house rental check-in time, that is exactly what you see. Driving on the beach is a unique experience and a ton of fun. In fact, that was the main reason we bought our first 4-wheel drive years ago, so we could drive on the beach and have cool rod holders on the front of the car. (grin)

Beyond the paved road and into the wilder realms, you'll likely encounter some of the free-roaming wild horses. There are about 90 horses freely roaming the 12,000 acres between the end of the paved road and the Virginia state line. Their roaming area used to be larger but because people tried to feed them, a few were mean to them or unfortunately, had accidents with careless drivers, sound to sea barriers have been put up (thank goodness). The horses are a beautiful sight to see as they travel down the beach and in the surf. They are quite healthy as they feed on saltmeadow hay, witch grasses, threesquare, needlerush and common reed grasses. They also have a naturally occurring water supply. They are descendants of Spanish mustangs brought to the North Carolina coastline in the 1600's. These gorgeous creatures are now protected by the Corolla Wild Horse Fund. The wild horses of the Currituck Outer Banks have survived nearly 500 years of fierce Nor’easters and hurricanes. They are truly representative of the Outer Banks spirit – untamed and rugged – and are an integral part of what draws hundreds of thousands of visitors to the northern beaches every year. Nowhere else can you see wild Mustangs walking along the beach and grazing among beach homes. I hope, if you have time, you will look at this short compelling You-tube piece on these gorgeous animals called Voice of the Horses.








We visited the wild horse museum, which in itself is a very sweet historical building. It is the tiny old fishing village of Corolla, in the old one room school house. The visiting museum children have made all these sweet wooden horses and horse statues have been erected by various people in the shopping areas.






After visiting the mustang store and some shopping on the way home, you know I just had to do a little antique and vintage treasure hunting. How could I resist this charming vintage oil painting beach scene? If I had a beach house it would be painted in cool aquas, white, and blues and old paintings like this one would be hanging everywhere. But, since I don't (boohoo...maybe some day) the painting goes in The Vintage Nest. I will leave you now with my new hair style (beach hair....haha....ugh!) and dreams of returning soon to my fave place in the whole wide world.

Pink Saturday ~ Barefootin'

Happy Pink Saturday.... I have missed a few Pink Saturdays and missed you all. :) We had a grand time at the beach last weekend. This is me "shelling" using my very cute little pink sand pail. :) Today is the 1st birthday of Pink Saturday. I hope you will click here to see all kinds of wonderful pink things over at Beverly's blog, our gracious hostess.

Today is also the day of the drawing for my give-away as well as all the fabulous bloggers who participated in Kim's Third Annual Cottage Charm give-away. My contribution was the sweet bird nest under the vintage glass dome with the pretty faux pearls. This was really an exciting event and there were over 60 participants. I declare, bloggers are just some of the best people in the world and I made some new friends. So without further adoo........the winner is.....................Diane Fay of Little Alma. Congratulations Diane....from my cottage to yours!

It's Break Time......

Run......Don't Walk to this Give-Away

It's May and that means it's time for the 3rd Annual Cottage Charm Giveaway event!

This is a month long event (all drawings will be held on the same day - May 30th) and is a great way to discover new cottage, romantic,and vintage oriented blogs, as well as vendors and talented artists. This is an unbelievable event, hosted by Kim of Twice Remembered. At this moment there are 38 cottagey give-aways with the goal being 100. WOW! And you wont believe some of the fabulous items just waiting with your name on it. There is sooooo much cottage charm there. I have to keep my give-away in the USA this time because it’s heavy. Lurkers :) are welcome to sign up too; just don’t forget to leave an email address for me. No excuses now…..you have almost a half month to visit everyone. Leave a comment here and then Run…don’t walk over to Kim’s blog for the entire list.

For my part in this most amazing of events, I am giving away a nest….what else would The Vintage Nest give away :) ? I love nature’s gifts to us, especially her bird’s nests. I am always delighted when I find one and use them in my home and at Christmas time in the tree. This charming piece came out of one of my bluebird houses. The bluebirds always leave a note for me when they are through for the season letting me know I can do the house cleaning of the boxes. Isn’t that sweet of them? Your cottage charming nest will arrive displayed under a vintage heavy glass dome. The nest rest in a vintage blue willow dish and the sweet little mushroom bird sits on a vintage softly tinted blue faux pearl necklace. Only rules for this game: Have fun!

~~~~~ Over the last couple of weeks I have had some sweet chickadees tell me that were unable to leave a comment or their computers would freeze up. I have changed the way the comment form is loaded and I hope this helps. I am so sorry and apologize. Blame it on blogger. :) xo

Pink Saturday Showers

I took this photo while on vacation this past winter. Don't you just love the ruffly pink umbrellas? Sure wish I had bought one. What was I thinking? Happy Pink Saturday everyone and Happy Mother's Day! I am off to my Mom's today to plant flowers for her. I'll see you later today and tomorrow. Visit Beverly's, our fabulous hostess, for a shower of pink blogs.

Blue Sugar Dots & Pink Roses

My sewing machine was 39 years old and I thought I was getting along just fine with it for the most part UNTIL I was at a friend's house and spotted her new machine. She had me try it and I was hooked. It was sewwwww quiet and sewed like a dream. One month later I had my self a new machine and I am thrilled with it. Not until recently have I had a chance to sit down and "play" with it. What a joy it is to sew on this machine. I need a whole day just to sit and try out all the different stitches....sigh....maybe soon. Any of you who visit me often know that I make the sweet little vintage pillowcase dresses for the boutique. Well....I had a brilliant idea not too long ago. (If anyone else is doing this I apologize. I haven't seen it anywhere yet.) I am upcycling little girls outgrown jeans and use the shabby vintage embroidered pillowcases as a ruffle. Some of the skirts get a fabric yoyo flower added to it and others a satin flower while others also have the vintage fat rick rack on them. They are so flouncy and flirty and downright cute as a button. Not to mention good for Mother Earth. Some of the skirts I am making with the pretty new fabrics out now. They are so colorful and fun but I always try to add something vintage to them even if it is just a sweet old button. I will be as busy as I can be for the next few weeks making more of these charming skirts. I am having so much fun making these and my mind just won't stop thinking of new embellisments for them. Right now I am showing them in my Etsy shop, One Little Candle. Guess who that sweetie heart is modeling. Ms. Boo herself!










Hope you all have a great week. Right now......it's time to scoot back over to the sewing machine. The one I am working on now.....butterflies....oh so cute vintage embroidered butterflies. :) TTFN