Lavender, Lemon Verbena and Bergamot

Hi guys! Another Monday, huh. Yesterday the flea market was a bit of flop. I got there EARLY! But I had no money, or just a little. There were many dealers, 200?---but their wares were junk. At the very first booth I found a little old box of treasures---thimbles, tiny tin boxes, a carved bone handle, a brass filigree cuff bracelet, cut-steel beaded purses with no frames, miscellaneous old buttons, tarnished tattered junk. But you know...first booth! I didn't want to carry it around all day. And can you imagine, someone bought it before I went back. Who but me wants an old grubby box of junk? How odd. I also missed out on a polychrome transferware tea bowl / slop bowl, unusual because it was French not English [same dealer] and a teeny tiny hand smocked silk infant dress, palest eggshell peach color. The dress was snatched out right from under my eyes. A woman just wanted it so bad and I really didn't need it, so, okay. Fine. (Old silk is so hard to wash, I thought, as she scurried away with my find.)

Mo had an all day playdate, so I used the quiet afternoon time to work on my spring selection of lavender hearts for my etsy shop.

The box of new lavender came last week. You may notice I use two types of lavender. One is floral, one is almost pine-y or crisp. Both are French lavender, from Cape Cod.

I use my giant white bread bowl. It's English ironstone, not American yellow ware.

I add essential oils. This time I used bergamot and lemon verbena as well was lavender oil.

Mix it good with my new big silver spoon,

then cover it for a day or so with its wooden cover [beachcombed find, isn't it great?]

I also ordered two kinds of sea salt, or rock salt, and made bath salts for myself. I mix the sea salt with epsom salts and again I add a drop or two of essential oils. I don't use lavender for bath salts, it's too floral for everyday use; I prefer the more citrus-y verbena and the bergamot.

Bergamot smells like Earl Grey tea, so you can imagine the scent.] Very calming and subtle.

Meanwhile I sort through my collection of tattered but beautiful linens and lace, some quilt fragments too, and the hearts and squares and tubes are sewed and turned.

I like to stuff the sachets and pillows outside so it doesn't make a mess or smell too strong.

 I love when the completed hearts are all gathered in a big bowl or tray

Something pretty for spring-cleaned closets or to tuck in stacks of line-dryed sheets and bath towels. Or---for Mothers Day? I am always so hopeful that they please..

love 

lizzy

gone to the beach

Shellseeker

Hello, hello! I hope you had a wonderful week?

It's grey and gloomy here but when I looked out at the beach the other morning I saw---The Invasion of the Giant Trucks had begun.

Yes the local road crews [somewhat prematurely, as we are expecting snow or sleet tomorrow] have removed their overused snowplows and replaced them with their shovel and/ or sand rake blades. All beach grooming must be finished by April 1st when the piping plovers arrive and begin nesting.

I watched the guy who does our beach as he energetically shovelled sand in and out of the dunes. These guys always look like they're having so much fun. They begin at dawn, lights blazing, diesel engines fuming. Shorebirds fluttering in distress.

I suddenly realised that, if I wanted large white clam shells for my shell strings, I better hustle out with my collection bag to stock up. The sand rakes remove all but the tiniest shells and beach treasure. Kinda sad.

I brought home a good haul though. The biggest clams are larger than my hand, maybe 7-8" across.

I didn't find any good lobster pot rope however. And I was appalled to find out at the local marine supply store that ''cordage'' whether nylon, cotton, hemp, or polyester, is very expensive! I'll have to work harder to save what I see on the beach. Often I just pick it up for the recycle bin.

I love making my shell strings! Whelk shells are rare and I only make one a year at the most, but large clamshells are there for the taking after a winter of storms and high tides.

 I am thinking of selling them in my etsy shop.

Yes I know my friends cringe when they're blessed with a shell string gift, but if people will buy those driftwood strings I've seen, who knows?  Usually they hang from the eaves of the house, on my deck, but I bring them indoors in the winter to protect my windows in a gale.

Mo of course found the clams quite interesting.

They come from the beach ocean-washed and scrubbed pristine white by the sand and wind, but they must retain an interesting smell that attracts Mo. He'll gnaw on them like bones if not scolded away.

ribbon reel I see, not a clam after all.
Poor Mo, gets blamed for everything.

Back home my pockets produced useful finds: The first ''cash find'' of the year, a nickel;  a heavy rusty weight for a shell string's end, a purple toy starfish. I also have a little blue boat to use, and lah di dah, an iridescent glass sanddollar.

Drilling and knot tying is a fun break from sewing!

love

lizzy 

gone to the beach

Looking for Spring

Another Monday, mid-January. Hi everyone! Time to plant the flower bulbs for indoor spring blooming!

It feels like we've had a whole years worth of weather in a couple of days! We went from very cold, to warm with torrential rain. Here is Mo in his new spring raincoat. LOL he looks like some alien being. Mo now has quite a PUPPIA wardrobe! He's a little fashion doll.

And here he is being carried home from a playdate. He couldn't slog through yesterday's flooded walkways. But we're oh so glad that precipitation was not snow!

Mr Mockingbird has resumed his winter perch in the ugly locust tree. I am so happy he is back! His feathers look so bright and handsome.

And today is lovely, it feels just like a blustery autumn day. 

I had to hike out to the dunes junk pile for wire to finish my beach wire Valentine/ summertime garden fence hearts....

They've been curing on my own fence for over a year! Nice and grungy rusty. I'll spray them with sealant before I sell them.

During the rain yesterday I worked on my etsy hearts.

Mo helped...

''Mom this is boring,'' he whined.

And today I finished cleaning out my deck flower pots---still lots of green!--- and then I planted my spring indoor bulbs.

This jello mold tin [inside the yelloware bowl] holds paper whites and a single stray yellow daff.

And this year I am trying hyacinths. They're a beautiful deep blue, at least on the label. They were very on sale in November. I've had them in a cold spot to tease them into indoor blooms. [it may not work]. Two are showing green sprouts so they went into glass jars on the windowsill.

This is supposedly a vintage hyacinth vase---Danish modern?, a find by my mom from the Cape Cod dump's Swap Shop.

Then I planted the rest of the bag of bulbs in this blue delft hyacinth bowl. A dumpster find! So far nothing I've ever put in this bowl has grown...maybe that's why it was by the dumpster? It's in a bucket, rehydrating the unused soil disk that came with the paperwhites.

I also redid my plate rack and sideboard's transferware collections. The shelf is mostly black and white, just a few special blue pieces for now.

The pine dresser I kept simple. White ironstone and two very pretty, spring-like chintz ware jugs, c.1890?

Back to work for me. I'm hoping for a sunny day tomorrow to photo my hearts for my shop.

Mo wouldn't wear his hood so he was still wet.

I hope you all had a lovely long weekend. Is all your Christmas stuff put away? Are you sneaking in bits of spring?

love  

lizzy 

gone to the beach

snow squalls

or not

PS If you didn't buy spring bulbs to force, you can buy very inexpensive forced spring plants now/ soon at the grocery store. You can then unpot them, rinse off the soil and set them in Mason jars or whatever container you like, with water and seaglass or pebbles or marbles. Looks great and requires less planning ahead. I am planning to fill my pastel McCoy flower pots soon, with primroses or grape hyacinths. Lily of the valley, tiny Tete a Tete daffs. Whatever is cute. Have fun!