Vintage Clothespins

My old clothespins:

 

 

Even though we've temporarily left the Florida farm and I no longer have a clothesline...

 

 

...I'll be using them to display my aprons at my show this weekend.

 

 

They add another vintage touch to my booth.

 

 

In the meantime, I kinda like the way they look in the milk glass ~ may just leave these on the kitchen table as a centerpiece!

 

What a Year!

Today I'm in a bit of a reflective mood, thinking about these past 12 months.  What a year!  A few of the bigger highlights in my world...

 

*Captain Project got a nice promotion and we moved up from Florida to Northern Virginia

*Our son made it home safely from Afghanistan

*Retro Revival continues to do well

*I have the most amazing blog followers and customers

 

In between sewing over 600 aprons, shower caps, sleep bonnets, sleep masks, swim wraps, doily table runners, etc. I made some time for a few special projects.  My favorites:

 

Click on these links and you'll be redirected to my previous blog posts for the project details:

1. RX for a Rainy Day {Upcycled apron}
2. My Vintage Doily Christmas tree skirt was published in GreenCraft Magazine
3. Whip up an easy deep conditioning hair potion like a Kitchen beautician
4. I finally Organized my lace
5. Upcyled vintage Christmas planters
6. Easy pillow tutorial from a plastic bag
7. Create a gallery wall in 4 easy steps
8. Aprons made from mens' shirts
9. Retro Revival Swim Wraps {New product launch}
10. Decorate a chocolate box for Valentine's Day
11. Aprons from vintage bath towels
12. Make a tutu Christmas tree skirt
13. Upcycling vintage tablecloths into aprons
14. Easy lined drapes tutorial
15. We painted our barn!
16. Vitnage planters upcycled into pincushions

I'm so looking forward to the new year, reading your blog posts and following all of your creativity.  It's going to be a great year!

 

Wishing you all nothing but the best in 2014.  Always!

So Long Country Life

So long, Astatula!



We hope to return!

In the meantime, we're all packed.  Can you spot Twyla among the boxes?



The moving truck has departed, and everything is nice and clean for our renters.  We hit the road in a few short hours!

We've become so "countryfied," I'm a bit nervous about re-entering the city.  Think we'll fit in?



Wish us luck!

A Beagle's Perspective on Moving

The moving men arrived yesterday and Twyla was a bit irritated.  Who are these strange men and why are they taking our stuff?!

Within five minutes she was back to doing what she does best.



Poor thing has no idea that by next week, her bucolic days wandering the farm will be over and her Beagle nose will be busy sniffing the scents of the city!



Eyes open!  Does she understand the chatter?  The moving men are discussing moving the couch.



She'll be relegated to lounging on the floor.  The nerve!

Glamorous Vintage Laundry

What?!  Don't you wear heels and pearls to do laundry?

Surrounded by all of these gorgeous vintage tablecloths, I couldn't dirty up the pictures with just any old garb!

I'm working on upcycling most of these into Retro Revival aprons.

Did you notice my vintage laundry cart?

My grandmother Lela's clothespin bag is hanging from the cart.

Hope you have a glamorous day, even if you've got to do the laundry!

Red Barn

Remember our barn?

We've given it a major makeover!

Another opportunity to amuse ourselves!

We realized we'd left out Twyla and had to remedy that!

I love the bright contrast of the red next to our guest cottage, newly painted too (click here to see my previous post showing the inside of the cottage), and our farm house.

I sure am going to miss this place.  19 days till our move to the big city!

So Long Country Life/Hello City!

We're moving!  Captain Project got a big promotion (woo hoo!) that requires him to work from his company's headquarters in Washington, DC.  I'm so happy for him that all of his hard work and wins for the company are being recognized in such a magnificent way.

I grew up outside DC, in Northern Virginia, so it'll be like going home for me.  I have many friends and some family who still live there so it's going to be really great spending regular time with them again.  And instead of living in the 'burbs (our children are long grown now), we've made the decision to live the city life.

For now, we're going to rent our farm until we make a decision about whether or not we'll retire here.  With less than a month until the move, we're finishing up some unfinished projects here and soaking up as much of Florida as we can.

Country Roads & Muddy Paws

Spring has arrived, bringing rain with it, and our unpaved road turns to the consistency of mud pie.

Good thing I'm driving a pickup truck these days because the mud would surely swallow a lesser car (click here for my "goodbye" post to my little Thunderbird convertible).  This is country living!

The weather forecast is calling for another couple of rainy days.  It's not so much the driving on our road that worries me, it's Twyla.

I saw one of those funny Someecards that said:

Cleaning with dogs in your house is like brushing your teeth while eating Oreos.

Add wet fur and muddy paws and it's enough to send me over the edge.  Good thing she's so sweet and so cute, otherwise...



Oh, who am I kidding?!



I love her, muddy paws and all!

Winter Flower Garden

While so many gardens in the US are covered in mulch for a long winter's sleep, here in central Florida, our flower garden has come alive with amazing color.



Our Pericallis hybrid daises are so vivid they almost glow like neon in the evenings.



It's so hot here in the summer that flower gardening is a real challenge so I really enjoy these milder temperatures (high 70s/low 80s) during the winter months.

For our flowers, we've carved out a small plot in front of our guest cottage and enclosed it with decorative wrought iron fencing (to keep the wild boar and other critters from trampling the blooms).



We have several pieces of statuary in the garden, including this iron sign with words from Dorothy Frances Gurney's "God's Garden" poem:



...And this little guy:



And our bird bath that is normally dry because the water constantly evaporates.



Hoping you have a happy, sunny day!