True Blue Friends

" A true friend reaches for your hand
 and touches your heart. "~
Attributed to Heather Pryor

I got an email the other night, from my best friend L.
It said, Open your front door I left something for you.
love, l

I ran to the door and at the top of the steps in my blue beach towel hamper, was an LL Bean tote filled with ...tah dah! an enormous bouquet of fresh blue , glorious blue! hydrangeas.
 

Maybe my most-all-time-best-favorite cut flower in the world! (I love the bushes too but they made me sad, missing Cape Cod and family...sigh.)

Plus she tucked in a huge batch of hand sewing, completed to help me due to my injured hand...and also just because she's the best. (If you get a heart sewed up by her, you're lucky!) And a jar of homemade snap pea pickles! Yum!

Am I blessed or what?

 

These flowers make me smile. They brought me joy all through a somewhat tedious and fraught holiday weekend....

The hydrangeas make me happy...

The shades of blue simply move my heart, touch my artist's soul?

I feast my eyes. And I treasure the dear friend who shared them with me....

 

Another friend, an internet friend, also sent a lovely gift. She and I share a love of and reverence for antique/ vintage Native American turquoise and silver jewelry. Especially bracelets, in my case.


Navaho Sunflower bracelet

 She has photographed her family's collection and was kind enough to send me pictures to pore over, drool over...yearn after, and learn from.



Santo Domingo Pueblo cuff



Treasures indeed!

Hopi picked silver cuf with turquoise flower

And I cherish all my blog friends and readers! Thank you for every visit, every comment....

love

        lizzy

gone to the beach.....

 

photos of silver bracelets courtesy of my friend L [another L]. Thank you!

Flea Market Finds

Hi! I hope you all had a lovely holiday?

Here at the beach  despite the weatherman's exuberantly positive forecast, Sunday the third dawned grey and drizzly! Not so fun for the beach, so after waffling around for a bit I decided to go to the summer flea market.

This market is held in a train station parking lot (yeah, lots of rural charm there! not...) and sometimes if it's rainy the dealers set up under the raised railroad tracks. It was actually a fun market and quite busy. Maybe it's good when there are less dealers, more time to browse?

I picked through some guy's table full of random jewelry.

Found my usual supplies stuff, you'll be seeing these pieces on my next batch of hearts probably!

...though some are intended for winter holiday hearts. I loved this batch of vintage paste and rhinestone bits.....

Then a few pieces of china: Isn't this adorable!?

Maybe for  my beachy table? It could hold butter or a Camembert or pickles and radishes----
And yes! It's Tiffany! New of course.

This is a funky shaped "slop" bowl (for tea dregs)...19th century  Staffordshire mulitichrome transferware. Copeland Spode.

I love when the interiors are decorated. Usually that indicates an older date of manufacture too. And---violets, how sweet is that!

This little bowl will be so cute in the fall with shells or brown seaglass or handfuls of acorns and dried rose petals...or maybe it will hold a small bottle brush Christmas tree.

And! One of the most fun things about this market---and being chronically late to visit--- is the leftovers/ junk pile, aka Trash...All Free! Someone left this gorgeous handmade butt basket!

Wonderfully prim!

And huge.
Handmade, with natural textured branches and weavings....Not very old, but I believe it is American artistsan work, just so beautiful. How could anyone throw this treasure away!? Lizzy to the rescue!

It looks even better now that I've given it a bath. What a beauty, free, free, free!

Any fun flea markets or outdoor antiques shows by you this summer? Any treasures?
Have a great evening, I am headed off for my evening swim....

love

              lizzy



all the big ships lined up, waiting for work to resume after the holiday!

........gone to the beach

Happy Fourth of July!



folkart from my web files---I'll do my best to find the info, isn't this wonderful!?

 Happy Fourth of July!


Be sure to get out your flags and fly them with joy---and pride!

vintage postcard

Some flag trivia....On June 14, 1777, the Second Continental Congress passed the Flag Resolution: "Resolved, that the flag of the United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field..."



large wooden folkart Betsy Ross flag
handmade by my dad c.1986

  The flag with the circle of stars is the historic and iconic Betsy Ross flag.


close up of flag.
It hung on Cape Cod house til 2008



Although the Betsy Ross legend is controversial, the design is among the oldest of any U.S. flags. Popular designs at the time were varied and most were individually crafted rather than mass-produced.

Imagine sewing a flag! By hand!



wooden folk art flag my dad made for my deck



I believe my dad began making flags during the 1976 Bicentennial...he painted the garage door as a flag and had his Corvette pinstriped red-white-and blue, or so the story goes.



my deck flag, close up

 The large flag hung on the grey shingled side of my parent's home in Cape Cod. I plan to hang it in my living room, at least for the summer! [It's bigger than it looks, the swan decoy is very large!]

Have a great holiday!

love

            lizzy

               gone to the beach