Pretty Things

Hi! So tell me, how do you feel about elephant gray? Monkey brown? A few years ago I was reading a ''mommy blog'' [I have NO clue why!] and the young woman blogger described her future baby's ''perfect layette'': cashmere hand knits! The colors she loved were Elephant grey and monkey brown! LOL?

Tres chic? So cool? But kinda takes the fun out of it all.
However I do keep an eye on trends, a leftover habit from my designing days. I noted that my friends are redoing their cottage here---all in shades of gray. My kids wear almost only grey [''or black, or dark wash denim, mom!", my last four cars have been grey...you get the picture. Gray / grey is the new black.

gray boardwalk, blue stucco wall

For my etsy shop for spring and summer, I have made quite a few ocean / coastal/ sea shore grey items.

 I do love gray and white polka dots! And these new paper roses.

Starfish and dandelion puffs! Very cute!

 

 

 I am also doing square and rectangular sachets, in lemon verbena/ lemon balm, as well as lavender. For people who find my hearts too frilly. And/ or do not care for the scent of lavender.

"chic gifts for the modern woman" I laugh but these do make wonderful hostess gifts, teacher gifts, party favors...and so on.

Squares are modern, chic.

I also made neutral muslin sachets, very natural and organic. Handstamped.

 

If you love my white hearts, no worries! I'll be doing a group of them before I skeeve off to the beach  for the summer.

 

 

I also am adding some beachy items, including my special beach gatherings and treasures, below.

What's your favorite summer color? (mine is maybe white....)

 Gray, white, blue (lemon yellow, tangerine!) but ...no monkey brown. Ever.

love

lizzy

gone to the beach




\wet sand = gray



 

mother of pearl grey sunset, from M

all photos are by me except the beautiful sunset, which is from my friend M, thanks, M!

 

PS I looked it up! Grey is UK English, Gray is US English, though either is correct. Grey with an e looks right to me, I must be reading too many English mysteries....

Flea Market Blues---But in a Good Way

Hi! The shopping theme this week has serendipitously been Summer Blues.
Sometimes, sigh, I just get lucky. [in a flea market-y sort of way, no snickers, please.]

Recent finds: lots of beautifully aged blue transferware.

This style is called Aesthetic Movement [1890-1910-ish?], and the designs mimic the patterns seen in late 1800s Japanese prints and also are reminiscent of crazy quilts.

This is a really nice ''chop plate''.

These crescent plates were set at the edge of one's dinner plate to hold one's gnawed-on bones! Ick! I love its crackle and brown spots. The small plates are great for holding scissors and thimbles or beads and buttons, so they tend to just accumulate on my work table.

The plate, below,  is such a sweet pale blue color. The sun was so bright I wasn't sure it it was faded blue-green or just green. Again, cracks and stains, only I love these babies, I guess. 
[I wonder if they're happy---rescued from a dark attic, dusted off, and treasured again with a new purpose? I hope so They bring me such simple joy.]

The dealer was packing up in a huff, I am not sure why because the market was busy. I'd have chosen more things if he wasn't packing faster than I could look.
A tiny ''pretty'' from the thrift shop---Maybe 1940?---love the flowers even if they are just mass produced and printed. Again, sweet holding a spool of thread, or tucked beneath a pitcher of pansies? On a bathroom vanity holding a pretty gust soap or two?

More glass baubles, including [not shown] a new to me glass thimble.

A stop at the thrift shop on the way home was also very fruitful.

Look at this graniteware bucket! The most gorgeous blueberry blue. I will fill it with a pot of tiny daisies for my back door stoop.

 

Or more lavender?

 

 

Nice vintage souvenir seashells for my etsy shop.

These big conchs make great beach house doorstops. Throw open the screen doors and let those summer sea breezes in...

And a seashell box, either for my collection or repurposed as a small sewing box. (Is the purple interior just too awful? It's growing on me...because new ones are red, so this is older.]

 

A primitive antique tiger maple rolling pin with a lovely patina. If it doesn't sell in my eBay shop I will keep it and happily use it. New modern pins just don't compare.

This was a tough decision: An old cheese box, maybe?

Already recycled once with a Christmas painting.

I am not a purist about my box collection: I have pantry boxes that are antique big bucks Shaker, others are authentic old PA primitive boxes, and some [the most treasured] my dad made for me---but is this just too junky? And too huge? Nope! [grin]. It IS huge but it came home happily with me.

 

I plant to paint it with these new chalk paints I've been reading about and am excited to try....

Here's hoping the rains stop for the flea market on Sunday. This may be the last spring / sumer flea market for me because I rarely venture out on summer beach weekends and hard as it is to imagine, next week is Memorial Day! The official first weekend of summer. Have a great weekend!

love

lizzy

gone to the beach!

 

 

Lavender - Farmer's Market

Hi! May is fickle here at the beach---and probably by you too, though I remember many long hot sunny Mays in southern Ohio while we waited for school to finally end. Sunday at the flea market the temps were in the 80s! Delightfully soft spring breeze but hot.
Today the sky just heaved a big sigh and whimpered "November, right? It IS November?"  Beyond ''mackeral sky", instead pewter grey doldrum overcast, looked like it was gonna pour all day. And cold. brrrr.

My farmers market however was fun! Spring flowers and produce actually prefer a cool wet day.
The herb vendor was back...

How could I resist! I got one  of each in honor of today's Flower Full Moon.*

Spanish lavender in two shades, like fat purple bumble bees. I'll try them in my deck planters, though I don't think they will re-bloom this year.

 

 

My friend got one of these darling topiaries. Greek basil. It might not survive on my deck, but her house is more sheltered.

This week I focused on the cheese vendors.

I chose multi-seed little breads from Bread Alone. I slice them for my cheese platters; rolls like these are more economical than a big loaf of bread.
The cheeses: an alpine cows' milk cheese, on the left. Aged mozzarella, sciamorza, on the right. I can't wait to try the new cheese seller's other cheeses! He was very friendly and proud of his selection, which included both sheeps' milk cheese and cows' milk cheese. The aged mozzarella is from my Brooklyn guy who brings delicacies from my old neighborhood in Brooklyn.

I love cheese, especially handmade artisan cheeses, though I admit I shopped with this deluded fantasy of sitting out with a glass of wine and today's finds, with friends, watching the spring full moon, the Flower Moon!--- rise over the water. [only if we wore our winter parkas,lol.]

I also love the Brooklyn pasta-n-cheese guy's handmade noodles. I chose perciatelli this week. They are like fat spaghetti with a hole in the middle, or long slender tubes. I plan to use them  for a pasta primavera later in the week: pancetta, spring peas, asparagus, shaved asiago and parm. A little lemon or white wine, a splash of cream... Mmmm!

*Flower Full Moon: May full moon. Also indicates last late frost date in most of the US. I always thought this was the Herring Moon, as it is when the herring return to spawn in the creeks of Cape Cod. Maybe it's a local tradition.....Paine's Creek Brewster MA herring run



love
 
lizzy
 
...............................................gone to the beach