“In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: It Goes On.”
Robert Frost

Saturday, December 23, 2017

Merry And Bright

Merry Christmas to you my friends! 
Wishing you all the best this season brings!






Thought I would share this digitally altered vintage photo (above) and a little peek into my office...







Christmas Fancies

    By 
    
When Christmas bells are swinging above the fields of snow,
    We hear sweet voices ringing from lands of long ago.
            And etched on vacant places,
            Are half forgotten faces
    Of friends we used to cherish, and loves we used to know -
    When Christmas bells are swinging above the fields of snow.

    Uprising from the ocean of the present surging near,
    We see, with strange emotion that is not free from fear,
            That continent Elysian
            Long vanished from our vision,
    Youth's lovely lost Atlantis, so mourned for and so dear,
    Uprising from the ocean of the present surging near.

    When gloomy gray Decembers are roused to Christmas mirth,
    The dullest life remembers there once was joy on earth,
            And draws from youth's recesses
            Some memory it possesses,
    And, gazing through the lens of time, exaggerates its worth,
    When gloomy gray December is roused to Christmas mirth.

    When hanging up the holly or mistletoe, I wish
    Each heart recalls some folly that lit the world with bliss.
            Not all the seers and sages
            With wisdom of the ages
    Can give the mind such pleasure as memories of that kiss
    When hanging up the holly or mistletoe, I wish.

    For life was made for loving, and love alone repays,
    As passing years are proving for all of Time's sad ways.
            There lies a sting in pleasure,
            And fame gives shallow measure,
    And wealth is but a phantom that mocks the restless days,
    For life was made for loving, and only loving pays.

    When Christmas bells are pelting the air with silver chimes,
    And silences are melting to soft, melodious rhymes,
            Let Love, the world's beginning,
            End fear and hate and sinning;
    Let Love, the God Eternal, be worshiped in all climes
    When Christmas bells are pelting the air with silver chimes.
 

See you in the New Year!
~ Diane ~

Tuesday, December 5, 2017

The Christmas Waltz

It's that time of year when the world falls in love, every song you hear seems to say Merry Christmas, may your New Years dreams come true.
                                    from The Christmas Waltz






Christmas is almost here again! Today we had a nice frosting of snow and the temperatures dropped about 30 degrees over night! It feels like winter and now it looks that way too! Add a bit of Christmas music and I'm getting in the mood! If you're viewing on a desktop pc, you may be listening to my Soundcloud Christmas playlist. The first song on the list is The Christmas Waltz, not too many current performers have recorded it but it is one of my all time favorites! Love the vintage image above of the animals waltzing around the tree!



Hope you all have your Christmas lists filled out and presents purchased. Better not be on that naughty list!






This old vintage Rudolph book will be added to my scrap pile of vintage "things to do". Some projects didn't get completed this year. Maybe I'll have them done by next Christmas! 





My post wouldn't be complete without a cat in it, so here you go. A lovely vintage postcard of an adorable little girl and her kitty!  

Merry Christmas to all my friends and customers. 
May the joy of the 
season be yours forever! 
~~Diane~~




Thursday, October 19, 2017

The Autumn Leaves

The autumn leaves drift by my window...

Today we had a stiff breeze so the leaves did more than drift, they were falling like rain!  I had the kitties out for a walk in the backyard and Guy was so funny jumping up to catch the leaves! 



 

These are photos from my trip last week to the University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum.  I try to get there for every season of the year if possible. We had a break in the weather from all our rain and I took that opportunity to check out the gardens.
 


 
Their expert landscapers always come up with new and interesting plant combinations. I loved this particular grass! It reminds me of little flags flying! Sorry, I didn't catch the name!


 
 
The dahlia sections are always fantastic, I love this soft peachy-pink color!

 

 
 Of course it's not Autumn without some fantastic pumpkins and gourds. They have some really unusual selections this time. Warty ones, smooth ones, speckled, striped and many different colors! 


 

The white and reddish flat looking pumpkins are the French variety.

 

 
The hydrangeas are huge over there and I love how they turn a 
blush pink as they age.


 

I absolutely love the rose garden! So many were still in bloom even though it's pretty late for them! This combination of the pink and yellow roses with the gold leaves behind is just stunning. 
 

 
At the very end of my trip I came across the wild turkeys that live in the arboretum, they have become pretty accustomed to people and traffic so I had a chance to get a few good photos of them.  The turkey troop didn't even seem to notice me and were busy having their lunch.

Hope you are all having a beautiful Autumn season. 
I'll catch up with you all soon! 
Happy Fall!
Diane
 



Friday, September 22, 2017

Autumn Breeze

Well I'm trying to turn over a new leaf by posting more than once in a blue moon! I thought that fall would be a good time to try and get back into a rhythm again. Leaves are on my mind of course, because I'm already starting to see them fall from our trees. The other day it was raining and windy and the leaves were falling like crazy. And then things change. 

Zig-Zag Goldenrod and Phlox

The first day of Autumn and our temperatures are scorching! Almost 90 degrees and humid to boot! We've had an unusually warm September and and unusually cool August! It's like the months are switched around, it seems it's been like that all year. Nothing is dependable anymore, just a sign of our times I guess.

There have been terrible storms and other natural disasters across the nations. What have we done to deserve this? Well nothing, it just happens. If you're reading this on a tablet or your phone, you may not see the little message at the top of my blog, it reads....

“In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life:
It goes on.” 


I've kept this quote up for several months as it seems to fit and it's a good reminder for me whenever I happen to show up on my own blog!



Wild plums


Other things of note:  plums, husbands and cats. 

The wild plums above were picked from our very own plum shrubs in our wild area of the yard next to the lake. Many had been harvested by the deer. They left us enough for a batch of wild plum jam. After it was cooked down, I ended up with about 2 pints of jam. It's pretty tart even with lots of sugar, but I thought of another way to use it that was delicious. Upside down Plum Cake. 

 Upside-down Plum Cake
It's basically the same recipe as you'd use for Pineapple Upside-down cake. What I did was spread about 1/2 cup of my wild plum jam onto the bottom of the pan. I then used about four store bought plums and arranged (dumped) them onto the top of the jam. I then sprinkled on about 1/2 cup of brown sugar and then dotted with a couple of tablespoons of butter. Then I spooned the batter over that. After it came out of the oven all you need is a bit of whipped cream or ice cream if you prefer!


Husband.... too much yard work and hauling trees branches and just doing too much gardening over the weekend brought on a bout of sciatica. He's already better but has a new understanding of what I've been through several times over the years. The pain can really be unbearable. I was there to help him through it and he's almost back to normal, well his normal, which is non-stop doing things!



Guy actually loves his cat carrier...

Cats... well poor Guy has not been feeling well. After 3 times to the vet, I finally think we have this under control. He has Feline Idiopathic Cystitis, also known as Pandora Syndrome. In short he is prone to urinary tract irritations. Not always bladder infection, but similar in feel and effect. So he has been an unhappy boy for awhile. Seems that diets high in dry food cause it to be worse. Mainly because cats don't drink enough water. I've always fed my cats both dry and wet cat food, so this was a shock to me.

Guy just happens to be more sensitive than our other cats were and therefore more prone to this condition. After a few tests, pain medication and new upgraded wet cat food he seems to be getting a bit better.

Guy trying to take a nap...


So it's been a busy couple of weeks. Let's hope the rest of Autumn is normal and easy breezy!

Thanks for taking a moment to read and comment on my blog. 
I'll try and visit yours soon. 
~~Diane~~

 

Friday, September 8, 2017

A Look Back at the MN State Fair

Hey Our Minnesota State Fair has a gopher for a mascot ......
With his striped jacket and his jaunty straw hat, Fairchild the gopher is a bouncy, furry representative of the Minnesota State Fair. He became the Fair's official mascot in 1966, which means he's celebrating his 51st birthday at this year's Great Minnesota Get-Together. I had no idea until this year that he had a name.


Fairchild back in the early years with red stripes. Sometime they changed the stripes to green...? No clue why.

Did you ever see the play or movie "State Fair", maybe the lyrics below will jog your memory....

State Fair
Our State Fair is a great state fair
Don't Miss it don't even be late
(our state fair is great)
It's dollars to doughnuts at our state fair
It's the best state fair in the state
-chants-
OUR STATE FAIR IS A GREAT STATE FAIR IS A GREAT IS A GREAT IS A GREAT STATE FAIR HEY!!
Source 







Seriously though, our state fair IS A GREAT STATE FAIR! We got there bright and early and visited the animal barns. It had been a few years since we'd done that. It was fun but always a bit smelly! I didn't take that many photos as we were in and out pretty quickly.







Had to get a picture of this adorable bunny though!






The  poultry were fabulous and very noisy! We also checked out the sheep and horse barns. Then we needed some refreshment, fresh squeezed lemonade!!




Next we checked out the Creative Arts building for all the prize winning entries. The food was gorgeous! Arranged by type and even color. Cakes and more cakes, and muffins, cookies, breads, pies, jam, and oils.. wow!

























I love how the preserves and oils and vinegars were back-lit so they shown like jewels!


After all this marching around I needed a pick-me-up.  The maple creme nitro coffee did the trick.  You notice it was half gone before I thought of taking a picture!!




Then we had lunch, Tipsy Pies! We ordered two and my husband and I split them. We loved the Boozy Blueberry Lemon and the Onion Gouda! No pictures, we tore into those and well it just wasn't pretty, but it was delicious!!

After we listened to free music in one of the many park/stage venues we were ready to venture back into the Creative Arts building for more cool stuff!!





The button dress amazed me.  I can't imagine sewing all those on, and oh my I bet that it's heavy!



This is adorable, a hand crocheted tea set! It folds up into a tote bag! Maybe for your picnic tea party!



There were many beautiful quilts and of course lots of cute stuff like the crocheted animals below!




Well that's it folks! Thanks for joining me at our state fair!



The pretty dahlia above is in my garden right now. We still have a beautiful month of flowers ahead before the leaves all fall. Hope you have had a wonderful summer.

I'll be around to visit soon! ~~ Diane

Friday, July 7, 2017

Lazy Days of Summer

Summer Days are made for Flea Markets and Tag Sales! Early summer is a great time to get out and enjoy the warm weather and pick up a few treasures whilst getting a bit of exercise too! Here are a few gems I've picked up over the last month.



Wouldn't you feel like a Queen sipping out of this gorgeous Yellow Tea Cup and Saucer? It's a 1950's set by Royal Sealy China. Japanese tea cup set in iridescent luster-ware finish. The tea cup is footed with a yellow and white iridescent finish trimmed in gold. Both the tea cup and the saucer are faceted. The tea cup has 3 geometric gold feet. Wonderful Art Deco style!





Are you old enough to remember these? Found this lovely vintage Set of 4 Metal Snack/Lap Trays. They are Green & Yellow with lithographed roses and leaves. Beautiful bright colors with red and cream colored roses. They're chippy and shabby and perfect for your French cottage, farmhouse, or cabin decor.

They remind me of those days long ago when we kids could grab a sandwich and chips and park ourselves on the floor in front of the TV on Sunday night and watch Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color.

I just found this vintage 1962 park map of Disneyland in a box of books that I picked up at an estate sale last year.  Someone from California snapped it up from my shop within a week!




Of course when I think about my time as a kid, I always think of my Mom.  I found this black and white photo of her taken when she was about 6 years old. I played around with the Pixlr photo editor to get the results below. She had the most beautiful captivating eyes.


Hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July and you're ready
 to take on those Lazy Days of Summer!

See you soon!
Diane

 

Friday, June 23, 2017

Summertime!

 




Our spring flew bye! We had unexpected guests! Relatives from Sweden stayed with us for a couple of weeks in May. We of course had to do non-stop spring cleaning to get ready and then with the touring and hosting, it seems that the garden got away from me. I feel like I'm just now catching up!

I was going through a bin of books I'd picked up last year at an estate sale and came across an old Mother Goose book, dated 1929. The image above was taken from the book. I haven't had time to list it in my shop yet, but I did post a few images to Instagram the other day. 

I think this is such a sweet little poem. If you are out at night on the 24th of June, maybe you too will see the fairies dance beneath the moon!

Welcome Summer!
~~Diane~~


Sunday, April 16, 2017

Eastertide



Happy Easter My Friends!

Hope you all had a wonderful day!



 
























 


Sending you my best wishes for a lovely week!

~~Diane~~


 

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

Spring Awakes

Our winter was almost non existent. The first snow was in December and we had but a mere 2 inches of snow in February. It seems like we're almost 3 weeks ahead of schedule as far as the weather goes, the grass has even greened up in spots. So even though we may still see some late snow storms, I'm already thinking about Spring!


What do I think of in Spring? Well Bunnies of course, and in this case they are a variety of Easter Bunnies depicted in these vintage cards. I never knew the Easter bunny was so talented!







And what goes with bunnies you may ask? Well flowers of courses!  In my garden the blood root are starting to bloom and I'm seeing the scillia pushing up shoots and soon they'll be showing their cheerful blue colors.



Speaking of flowers, I came across two gorgeous vintage books of wildflowers. They're in my shop now, here's a peek!

The first is
 
Wild Flowers - Matthias Hermann - First Edition 1973 - Botanical Illustrations - Vintage Collectible - Hardcover with Dust Jacket 
 Wild Flowers - Matthias Hermann - First Edition 1973 - Botanical Illustrations - Vintage Collectible - Hardcover with Dust Jacket






This next one is a large book and weighs about 5 pounds!

Wild Flowers of the World, A Thousand Beautiful Plants, Painted by Barbara Everard, Text by Brian Morley, First Edition 1970

Wild Flowers of the World,  A Thousand Beautiful Plants, Painted by Barbara Everard, Text by Brian Morley, First Edition 1970 


I hope you're all well and will try and visit your blogs as soon as possible. It' been a very difficult couple of months for me, but I'm trying to get back into the swing of things!

So tell me, what's blooming in your gardens now?

~~ Diane ~~