Good morning! It is absolutely pouring here today.
Above are White Tea and Sage [I thought this was Sea Salt and Sage! But the tea has a nice gengle aroma too]; and Trader Joe's Peony tin candle in a recycled lemon design holder.
This was a birthday gift. Big multi wicker in Sea Salt for dining room table.
I love how the colander becomes a lantern with dotty holes when lit.
This is on deck for August, ordered online. Weird but I love it, very authentic and evocative of summer gardening. ''Tomato Leaf/ Vine.'' The big jar now holds sea pottery shards, I found the small tin online. 1801 Candle Company. here
And this is my last of my stock of the beautiful and exotic "Havana " scent candles, BB&BW. It's perfume-y and rich, maybe amber? I only light it when I have [the now very rare] guests or if the house really needs a scent boost.
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Summer reading.
I treated myself to a printed on paper copy of Country Living this week at the grocery store. It's a very old favorite, now just a shadow of the dynamic Americana it once purveyed.
My mother loved magazines! Vogue was her fave, and The New Yorker, but we also got [besides every fashion mag imaginable, including foreign editions], every home decor magazine. I didn't care much about the fashion reports ut I loved the home styling mags.
Country Living inspired my love of quilts and flea marketing, antiques, and country cooking, and my country cottage style. This issue is fun, not Nashville-y as the last time I bought it. I'm not a country music fan, mullets and pick ups and she left me and my beer soaked brain by the lonesome road? No.. This issue featured summer camp style--hahaha. Not lakehouse or Adirondack, but like kids' sleepaway camp. Huh. Surely memories of Camp Trippewah or even Cape Cod Sailing Camp cannot actually be a home decorating style? Not gonna happen in my house.
Then I've had this 99 cent thrift shop find out to enjoy with my afternoon ice tea or rose'. You may recall I love books that talk about the seasons, the circle of the year. And that is what this frivolous fluffy dollar book is all about. I enjoy leafing through each season.
For Summer It has Kel's pasta with tomatoes and Brie recipe!
And watermelon sugar cookies. Someday? For mythical grandkids' visits? I have a big collection of sea life cooky cutters, whales and codfish, beach pails and sea stars. I used to make the cookies for BBQs, with icecream and berries. Any circle cut in half will work for the melons.
Oh and look, another farmers market idea, a lovely berry pie!
Root ber floats!
useful ideas for thrifting a perfect sundress.
Remember my red sundress find last winter? Who knew we'd never again need a dress like that. [so this book, written 2012 is a smidge nostalgie. But fun.]
Cupcakes and Cashmere on Amazon
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In the fiction category: this classic of summer reading, the new romance novel by Elin Hliderbrand, 28 Summers here. New so SPOILERS WARNING.
![28 Summers by [Elin Hilderbrand]](https://www.amazon.com/images/I/41LRxqlhKRL.jpg)
This farfetched slightly sleazy romance is based on the movie Same Time Next Year, which I pictured being Jack Nicholson and Dianne Keaton but no, it was Alan Alda [who made a great Army doc but a creepy lover/ leading man, and Ellyn Burstyn, again poor casting.] Anyway I ordered that free on Amazon Prime, haven't watched it yet. Same Time Next Year [Amazon streaming] Same Time Next Year [imdb info]
For the Hilderbrand book, I was most impressed by each chapter beginning with the header noting events of importance that year. Mostly caught my notice because I'd say 75% or more were things I never heard of, lol. And I was there! This motif, that I thought was so very unusual and creative of EH was however, I then discovered, actually taken from the film, which apparently shows newsreels of each decade.
The descriptions and setting are lovely, but I am not charmed by infidelity, heavy drinking, lovers with wives, mean girls, mean guys and disloyal friends. And the lifestyle in general is very fairy tale. I spent many a summer on Cape Cod, adjacent to Nantucket and so far as I ever knew, this was not the norm. [Though I suppose ''the norm'' makes for dull reading?]. I'd give it 3 stars, four if you love books about summer loves and good times. The female protagonist is appealing, the hero not, not at all.
Other book mentions: The new Ruth Galloway, by Elly Griffiths, more cheating spouses and unrequited love, not much archaeology. Good news is Ruth seems headed back to the Saltmarkh in Norfolk, creepy lover will be gone. The Lantern Men
New Baldacci: Memory Man- unreadable. Walk the Wire New Daniel Silva: I didn't even buy, all about the Vatican and popes?! Gabriel must be pushing 80? The Order
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My deck garden, struggling along.
I suppose the pots will love this rain! Hope they perk up a little.
Oh dear I just petted Mo and he is still very wet. Poor little man.
He has gone back to bed with his dolly and three throws.
If the rain keeps up I'll make chocolate chip banana bread. Recipe here
If not I'll marinate the prematurely defrosted rib eye steaks and make shish kebabs tomorrow.
Have a good weekend..See you next week!
love
lizzy
gone to the beach.......
beach photos, Same Day Last Year.
"Always swim between the green flags, where the lifeguards are stationed!"
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I love your Sun garden decoration...our skies have looked threatening for the past hour--hoping for rain and not just thunder and lightning like last night!
ReplyDeleteChoc chip banana bread--yum...
Have a wonderful weekend...
hugs julierose
My Mom got *all* the magazines too and I too was so inspired by those first gen Country Living magazines. Country Home, etc. too.
ReplyDeleteI think many of us are of the early Country Living, etc. magazine generation! I used to subscribe to several of that genre but then quilting magazines took over, now none at all. I gather Mo is not fond of being wet, unlike the shaggy thing that is constantly wet around here, lol. I hope the flooding subsides so you and your friend can get out and about tomorrow. Though chocolate chip banana bread sounds wonderful too. Hot here this weekend with no rain in sight until possibly Monday.
ReplyDeleteWhat a lot of rain! Wish you could send some our way. Our violets are wilted.
ReplyDeleteI remember when I first discovered Country Living magazine in the early 1980s. I fell in love with it and the style of decorating. We lived in a house built in the 1880s or 1890s (that used to be a farmhouse) and the CL style was perfect for that house. The style has changed over time, so different now.
Watermelon cookies, berry pie, root beer floats ... my mouth is watering!
ReplyDeleteFantasy food! But actually not difficult to make {except the cookies] and good ways to use market finds. A store-bought crust can be delicious. Sub skim milk mozzarella for the Brie if Brie is too rich.
Deletelizzy
What wonderful photographs. Here in the UK we have Country Living magazine (with wonderful British cottages and houses, recipes, gardening ideas etc. I get it only occasionally now as too many adverts in it these days!
ReplyDeleteWhat lovely scented candles. I have a few here but the best scented ones are rather expensive.
Like you I love all the Elly Griffiths books and glad there is a new Ruth one coming out. I shall look out for it.
'm glad you enjoyed the pics! My mom and loved British Country Living and I'd buy it now and then but it's very expensive here. Different style form the American version.
DeleteI watch for sales on candles and also am often given them as gifts. I excuse the hoarding of many jar candles as they are a real lifesaver for days or even weeks with no electricity after storms.
Be sure to tell me what you think of the new Ruth Galloway, my email is on the top right here. I think I need to reread it, was very foggy after my clinic day.
lizzy
I never tire of your beach with bird photos. The birds look quite comfortable sharing the shore with their human neighbours.
ReplyDeleteI'm embarassed to admit to having a 'few' piles of early British Country Living magazines where I always see the odd inspiring detail, rustic container or rural pic I missed when paging through the previous 90th time. Later editions seem less original and more 'stage managed and arranged', unlike your creative seaside home.
It's taken me a while to discovered candles which, as you say give such a warm, cosy atmosphere to a room when our electricity is cut during load-shedding or storm faults. Penny
I never tire of your beach with bird photos. The birds look quite comfortable sharing the shore with their human neighbours.
ReplyDeleteI'm embarassed to admit to having a 'few' piles of early British Country Living magazines where I always see the odd inspiring detail, rustic container or rural pic I missed when paging through the previous 90th time. Later editions seem less original and more 'stage managed and arranged', unlike your creative seaside home.
It's taken me a while to discovered candles which, as you say give such a warm, cosy atmosphere to a room when our electricity is cut during load-shedding or storm faults. Penny
Too bad you couldn't have your outing with L. It would have been fun to see what you two got into :) I would love a rainy day.
ReplyDeleteI haven't made the tomato and brie pasta in forever, thanks for the reminder ;) What a very cute book and what a bargain! Love how you have it displayed on your pineapple tablecloth with the shells...perfect!
The candles sound delightful, and what pretty jars they come in. I just popped outside to toss the trash in the bin, and couldn't resist running my hand over the tomato plants.
The beach and ocean look beautiful and inviting. Put that sundress on girl, and make some fun memories this summer!
Kel
I remember devouring Country Living magazines so many years ago. Then they got smaller and smaller and filled with a lot more ads than good stuff! Love having candles burning in the house, but my husband not so much. Have to wait until the power goes out usually!:)
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ReplyDeleteSorry your day out with L got rained out! I hope you got to go a different day to make up for it.
ReplyDeleteIt has been hot and muggy here, with spotty rain showers for the last couple days. Why does it always rain when family is trying to pack up or move?! I don't get out much except for going to daughter's house and back, but the gnats in the late afternoon are annoying!
One year my sister and niece made mulberry pies and too them to a farmer's market (when niece was doing market gardening). They sold out REALLY fast! Most people don't think of mulberries as useful for anything, but my sister said the pies were great! Unfortunately I didn't get any...
Sounds like Mo could use a towel and a blowdryer on rainy days! Or maybe he wouldn't like the noise. My cats freak out when someone turns on a hairdryer.
I loved magazines as a kid but don't really look at them much anymore - HATE all the ads in them! Except Birds & Blooms, I still like to look at it sometimes.
Things with daughter will probably be hectic this month, and I'm not going to be very happy when they go, but I do hope things settle down a little. I'm kind of tired! And I need to figure out what to do about my hip, etc. Ugh.
Hope your week has gone better than the weekend! Not sure why I don't get notices from Blogger anymore, maybe I'll try resubscribing and see if that helps.
Take care!