Spring Cleaning

Hi everyone! May is spring cleaning month. Not a fun project but the results are oh so pleasing and calming.
For about 15 minutes, til the wind blows in more sand and pollen. We don't have lots of trees here, but what is here blooms in May, especially the pine trees.

First on the list is to strip off and wash all the white slipcovers. This must be done by May 1st before the town starts ''flushing'' our water mains and the water turns brown, sometimes very brown. Like old coffee colored. Hard on white cotton.  I also changed the throw pillows to the blue and white summery covers.

This year I did something I swore I never would---I covered the clean slipcovers with sheets and throws that will be easier to remove and wash over the summer. I've always had white sofas. I stood strong through toddlers and red wine stains and guests with poorly trained children, tea spills and tomato sauce splatters. But I am defeated by little dirty dirty paws and gooey rawhide chews.

Then I washed all the rugs by hand. [Tide, Clorox 2, and a scrub brush. Much blotting. Looks , uh, better. I guess]The blue china went back in its display rack, pitchers on the dresser.

All the yelloware is washed and replaced in the corner cupboard [plus sneak peek of my gorgeous doll quilt from Barbara!]

My dining table has reclaimed its original function, now that I am making my craft space elsewhere.

I love how open and tidy it looks, with just a homespun linen cloth, some striped place mats, and a pail of sunflowers.

And I finally redid this corner which for years has been an eyesore and clutter magnet full of golf clubs and beach chairs and random crap.

I put my  Swedish bride's bench here,
See the rolling pin?

To deter the return of the junk I added the blue door bolster and the beaches sign. Fresh and clean! I may put my collection of blue Shaker boxes here in the fall, or baskets of berries. It can be a fun spot to decorate now.

I repainted this large fish sign to give to a friend. [it was part of the junk in that corner]

Even the little metal terrarium got a coat of white paint.

I scrubbed and refinished the entry stairs. I bought one of those stupid Mr Clean Eraser sponges and washed all the wall smudges. [as it disintegrated in my hand].I aired the beds and put blue quilts but I didn't yet remove the flannel sheets. Outside it is again cold and grey. And I haven't cleaned up my deck and I have some touch up painting to do but overall, I am pleased.

My mother didn't believe in seasonal cleaning. She said that if you kept your house in proper order daily there was no need. [You should have seen that lady's linen closet!] But my dad had his differing plans--he'd clean drawers and closets on New Years Day [how ghastly] and paint the house in and out each June, as needed. And he'd patiently wait til the pines finished blooming to wash all the windows on the Cape Cod house. Inside and out. Much bickering would ensue, as my mom was the self-designated spot spotter. "You missed a spot, honey! There! No no, over there, no there." Then it would rain. LOL.

So how about you? Do you spring clean? Do you do it alone or have a helper or two? Is it worth the effort, since it all gets pretty grungy right away again? tell me!

love

lizzy

gone to  the beach...............

The Gift of Beautiful Day

Hi!
The only treasure on the beach this day was ephemeral---no shells, no sand dollars, no seaglass. Only the gift of a perfectly beautiful early summer day. These photos were taken last week, on the first day I was out without a coat since November. Six months or more and now: freedom.

Yes we've gone from puffer parkas to flip flops in just a couple of days. I suddenly recalled that I need a new beach chair. I saw one in the village sundries shop in April, nice and cheap and lightweight, but I couldn't bring myself to buy a beach chair while wearing a down coat and snow pants. Silly girl, I need it right now.
This was a very low tide afternoon. The beach is still pleasantly empty of people.

The oystercatchers finally chose a nesting spot safely high above the normal tide line. This couple builds here every year. The eggs are always laid during the first week of May. click to enlarge

Here are her two speckled eggs the size of small hens eggs. The OCs don't continuously sit on the nest so I was able to get a photo from far away. (The sand is hot enough, on a sunny day, that the birds can leave their eggs and they'll stay warm and cozy in the sunshine.)

So far there is only one plover nest, marked by the large cage they are given.

There are a number of piping plovers running about, however, so maybe more will nest soon. Piping plovers are so tiny and so well camouflaged that you can't really spot them. I locate them by their fast scurrying across the shoreline..There's a piper in this photo, do you see him?

Me either! But here he is a bit above center, at the right edge of the small horizontal line. The little guys are very fast so it's blurry.

There were more pipers along the the edge of the gentle waves. They are about the size of sparrows but chubby, with tiny black beaks and toothpick legs and black neck ring. The rest of them is the colors of sand---tan, white, grey, nothing.

A beautiful day. And more to come.

love

lizzy

gone to the beach

Oh but wait! Look who else is here. 

Mary Lee

I can't believe they gave it a name. And here is her map---I remember when she was in [off?] Cape Cod last year:

                              map                                    and   Twitter

The Sunday Flea

Hi everyone! Here with an update---Lizzy reporting from the flea. Kind of.. Despite the holiday, when everyone should have been home wine-ing and dining and brunching their Mamas, the flea was mobbed. And very very hot. Maybe 80's on the asphalt parking lot surface. It was a shock, because I left a chilly and densely fogged beach...maybe 55 here. As I left the house a friend saw me in cargo pants and a black tee shirt. He warned me, You're gonna be too hot. Next week I'll listen

my mother's day present! Cookies.
Too cute to eat.

Still, I'm glad I went because it was fun and also this week and next week are probably my last markets til Fall. The following May weeks are Memorial Day with the dreaded Air Show traffic, then there's the Strawberry Festival---and then it's summer. Beach time, not flea time. (Last February we thought this day would never come, right?)
I passed up this XXXL white with blue stripes mixing bowl. It was enormous, bigger than my giant bowl I use for my lavender mixing. I swear it weighed ten pounds. Mo could sleep in it.

It was new-ish looking though. Marked RRP [Rainsbottom?] , Roseville Ohio. here

And I decided against some new crappy thimbles because I couldn't get waited on.
A few fun finds...

This is a small platter in a pattern I call Bluebirds.

 Of course I love the discoloration and agey-ness.

The pattern is, I think, c. 1940-1950s. And it was made by Homer Laughlin, of Fiestaware fame. I guess its real name is Empress? edit: the pattern is Bluebird, the china shapes or blanks are Empress. This plate is selling for a whopping $145.oo on ebay. here

I don't collect Bluebird but I'll pick up a piece now and then when the price is right. $1.oo. The bluebirds remind me of the birds that dress Snow White [Cinderella?] in the original Disney film. (You can imagine how much I loved this old classic, as a little girl who loved to sew and loved animals.)

The same mother-son team had this interesting sewing stand. 

It must have been in someone's basement for years, look at this grunge!

I cleaned it only a little, I like the patina but not the dirt.

We can see that the awful green pincushion is a replacement---see the thumb tack holes? It's uglier than it looks in the photos with the green shutter. And it has gold Christmas cord to tie the melon wedges. Gotta go. Should it be replaced with a tuffet in velvet, or made with quilt craps? Should it have a calico hen instead. I'll have to think about this.

Legend has it that these wooden gadgets were made by boys in shop class at school, in the mid-20th century. Do you think it was a Mother's Day gift long ago, a boy made it for his mom? Maybe?

And with diligent rummaging I found a silver plate brush handle.

It's a bit plain but has potential. No marks, worn plating. It will probably get a strawberry somehow.

Back home, Mo and I escaped some possibly catastrophic Mother's Day DIY goings-on and we went for a long walk. Last week the plastic geese suddenly were, well, naked. And then a few days later they disappeared entirely. I was worried. Mo was puzzled.  On Sunday they were BACK! omg! lol! The geese are dressed up in brand new clothes. One has a butterfly costume. the other is a ladybug. But still, you know, geese.

Look at their little outfits.

Their hats are velveteen antennas or feelers.

They are so amusing, we've come to love them. Did their mum dress them up for Mother's Day?
The koi have new lily pads. Which I understand they'll eat but not my problem. We scurried by fast, so no photos.
Have a good week!

love

lizzy

gone to the beach