She Said Yes!

I got a very happy phone call later last night from my sister, Becki. She had just spent the weekend up North with her boyfriend, visiting family and enjoy a little holiday, at the end of which he popped the question. Of course, she was ecstatic (as we all were) and was calling to share the wonderful news with everyone. All of us girls had to be there when they got home to share our congratulations, hear the story and of course, see the ring! After asking each of us to be her bridemaids, including her sister-in-law-to-be, the wedding plans commenced. Oh, how I love wedding planning!

Congratulations Becki and Nathan!!!

xo

The ring... isn't it stunning?!

Of course, I couldn't help attaching a couple of wedding inspirations! The wedding will the early June (perfect!) and she seems to be leaning towards purple for her colours. These two weddings are so gorgeous!

Vintage Tag Sale ~ A Few Extras

Here are just a few extra shots that my mother-in-law took from the Vintage Tag Sale a few weeks ago.

Enjoy!

The gorgeous fall arrangements my mother made - they suited the old sap buckets and wooden crates perfectly! It made for a rustic flower stand that greeted each visitor as they walked in.

Due to the rain, we ended up converting my garage into a little shop. It turned out so cozy and added a lot of character.


Some of the people that stopped in ~ almost all of which walked out with something which was so appreciated and encouraging!

Prep Day ~ Thanksgiving Dinner

So, tomorrow my in laws are coming over for Thanksgiving. Since I have a great love for entertaining and cooking, I look forward to the holidays when I can plan a special dinner to share. I enjoy the planning the most; the shopping, the prepping, the arranging and ... okay, maybe not so much the cleaning. Yesterday I cleaned out my fridge to make room for all of the prepped food, established my menu (which wasn't hard, I mean it's Thanksgiving - turkey turkey turkey) and started making my lists of things I would be needing to do to get myself organized. As you can see by my message board, my "to do" list is quite full for today. It's only five adults though so it's not a huge crowd, but I like to have as much done ahead of time as possible so as to eliminate a lot of the stress hours before everyone arrives (not.).

One of the things I needed to do today was to arrange my centerpiece. I had gone to the market yesterday (it's in it's last weeks before closing for the winter) and picked up an armful of fresh flowers to arrange on my table. I like centerpieces. I think they make a dinner more fun. My mom, who hates complex entertaining, has probably never made a place setting and who doesn't have a set of linen napkins in her house, still always has a gorgeous bouquet of fresh flowers on her table when guests are over. I say that all in the most loving way because she's mastered the art of simple entertaining - that, and her food and baking speak for themselves.

This year, I wanted to do something different than the typical fall colours. I'm loving the white pumpkins (surprise) and ornamental cabbage, so I decided to work those into my tablescape. I picked out some white pumpkins and tiny mini white pumpkins from the stand down the road from us. I bought the cabbages at the market, along with some cream roses and purple freesias to go with the bouquet. I decided to use a carved out pumpkin as a vase to make it a little bit more whimsical and the tiny white pumpkins will be placed at each setting - that I'll get to later.

I decided, since I don't post as much as I would love to on floral bits, that I would post a simple tutorial on how I did this particular centerpiece. It's super easy and only takes about half and hour from start to finish!

This was the photo that I came across that inspired me to do the purples, greens and creams. Isn't this little area just gorgeous!

You will need: a pumpkin appropriate to the desired size of your centerpiece, co-ordinating flowers about 12 stems or so.

The ornamental cabbages - the center one was only cream and green. I grabbed 4 stems.

Next were cream roses - half a dozen.

And freesias, which have such a lovely scent to them. I picked one package of them and there were about 10 stems in the bunch, but freesias are so dainty and small that they don't take up much room at all in an arrangement.

Next, I hollowed out my pumpkin and composted all of it's seeds and insides. Try not to do too big of an opening in the top, maybe about 3 inches in diameter.

The next step is to strip the stems and cut them using sharp pruning clippers to your desired height. Just remember that it's always easier to make an arrangement a little shorter at the end. Piling your stems together by variety makes for quicker arranging. Always choose colours that compliment each other and remember, odd numbers always look best.

When making a hand tied bouquet, always start in the middle and work your way to the outside, twisting the bouquet and adding as you go. This ensures a nice even bouquet. Sometimes it takes a few tries to get the look right but you'll start to develop an eye for what looks best. In this case, I started with the one cream and green cabbage in the center, then I added three roses and three stems of freesias around that cabbage. Between each pair of freesia and rose I added a purple cabbage. Then I added a rose and two freesia stems between each of the cabbages. I tied the bouquet tightly in twine and trimmed the ends so they were all equal. Once the arrangement was in the pumpkin, I took a couple snippings from the sweet potato vines in my garden and placed them in the water and wrapped the vine around the bouquet. It just gave it a little bit more whimsy and added some contrast.

I think it will look divine in the middle of our table. It's natural looking a beautiful but still a little bit different!

Give one a try! For a super festive piece use a bright orange pumpkin and choose flowers like red, orange and yellow varieties of roses, with maybe some of the many fall coloured mums or bright yellow sunflowers and maybe even a little bit of curly willow in the center for some extra fall flair!

Anyway, I should be getting back to work, but, my sister-in-law just called informing me that our local book depot is having a box sale today - that means fill a cardboard box of books for $30! As if I don't already have enough books... but who could resist? I have the rest of the afternoon to make my pies and finish my prepping.

BROWSE LIST ~ Featuring Morgan Falk Photography

So... it's still a dreary, autumn morning, my candle is still flickering away and I have a few sips of coffee left before Willen (my son) wakes up from his nap and I have to get back to my day. Already planning on posting about the Balls Falls Craft Show I browsed this past weekend, I was excited to read a post by a friend of mine, Morgan (that's her up top - isn't she gorgeous!), who shot the event and had already posted her gorgeous photos on her own blog:

http://www.mfalkphotoblog.com/index.php?year=2010&month=October&post_get_id=7&page_type=recent

They were so gorgeous, as they always are, that told her I needed to share them with you all. So - here they are! Please check out her blog and pass along your compliments! And, keep her in mind if you find yourself looking for a photographer to capture your next big event, or how about that perfect family portrait for your Christmas card this year??

Also, be sure to check out the about me section. It's the perfect insight to the kind of person she is and her passion for what she does. It's what I admire most about her.

Anyway, the sale really was fantastic. It's a yearly tradition my cousin and I have - to spend the day filled with fall things, one of which is to take a walk through this show. I love that she captured my most favourite booth with the fabulous birdhouses!! It's the Saltbox Shoppe and you can check out the rest of the pieces on their website:

http://thesaltboxshoppe.com/

It's funny because I saw this same view myself walking through and thought, wow... that would make a gorgeous photo! I'm glad she actually took the time to capture it, I was too distracted by the shopping!

I just cannot get enough of these bird houses! I want them all for in my garden! They just look like something from the pages of British Country Living.

This year, she brought a lot of these great new hooks! I had a few ideas for them. They would a pretty hat rack in my back entrance... or up in my nursery with a few cute little vintage things hanging off it for display...

The coziest looking linen pajamas and clothing.

Balls Falls - looking so pretty this time of year!

RECLAIMED RUSTICS ~ Vintage Typewriters

Okay, I know my Reclaimed Rustics section has been lacking these past weeks, so I decided to post one this morning quickly for some inspiration.

My sister-in-law's piano (which is gorgeous and dark and full of lovely carvings) arrived with the movers yesterday afternoon. Along with it came a beautiful old typewriter she had picked up from a garage sale with the intention of putting it on display. Now downsizing, she was donating it to the Goodwill, but decided to check if I could find a home for it first.

Now, let's be clear about something here. I do not need another typewriter. Nobody needs a typewriter today. But wanting another typewriter is an entirely different story! I don't know why I love them so much. I think it's the delicate keys and the slight smell of old ink. Or maybe it's because I love writing so much and would so much rather blog on a pretty, vintage typewriter that makes the loveliest little clicks and dings. If anything though, I think my love of old typewriters came from one of my favourite Audrey Hepburn films; Paris When It Sizzles. It's a classic story -Boy, a typical Caesar drinking bachelor in Paris, hires girl to type script for next big movie, which is being imagined as it's being typed. Boys ends up in love with typist, who has moved into his guest suite for the duration of the project. Typist carries around a canary in a pretty little cage and wears elaborate, frilly night gowns to bed. That's pretty much the long and short of it. Watch it, it's fantastic.

So, new uses for typewriters? There aren't many. I mean it's not a super versatile piece. But look at the top photo... how gorgeous does it look sitting out? They really are stunning. At first, my perfect little place was on my little writing desk (how great it that, an old typewriter displayed on a writing desk). But, that idea didn't last long when I realized that the writing desk would have to be stored to make room for the piano. So, to be quite honest, I'm still working on a home for it. I think it may end up on my guest room, or possibly on my little console table by my front entrance.

Now, aside from that, I have seen some jewelery created from the old keys - but that's about it. And to be honest (again), I'm not sure I want to wear a ring that says shift release or backspace on it, but, to each his own.

Mid-script in Paris When It Sizzles.... I love Audrey, and also, note the colour of the room in the background! Gorgeous!! The room could be featured in next months issue of Romantic Homes and no one would know it's from like 50 years ago!

A Trip to the Country ~ Lakeview Farms

I recently took a drive North-East of Toronto to the small town of Little Britain. I've mentioned it in previous posts - it has an infamous little "antique shop" at the main intersection that I climb (literally) through every time I'm in the area. It's the perfect little day trip away. It's only about 2 1/2 hours away, just beyond the big city of Toronto (which is still visible from the rolling hills of the area), but far enough into the country to feel like you're escaping.

The winding roads are lined with big old trees that are just breathtaking this time of year as their leaves are changing colours. Every now and then, the highway takes you through a small little town, cozy and quaint with their century homes and small town charm. Every few minutes a little farm stand pops up, especially bright and orange with all the harvested pumpkins.

The trip up always feels homey since it's where my sisters and I grew up, so it was nice to spend the trip with just us girls. We were headed up for a ladies conference - my sisters as the entertainment and myself as one of the guest speakers. We spent the night at my aunts, a sort of second home to us when we were younger. My mom and her sister (my Aunt Lori) lived a couple hours from the rest of their family, but only minutes from each other. My aunt had four boys to my mom's four girls, meaning my cousins, the Batty boys, as they're so appropriately named, might as well have been brothers. The next morning, before heading home, we sat in our usual Saturday morning booth, at our usual breakfast spot in town. Once we were back on the road, we made one quick stop at my aunt work to say goodbye. She runs the kitchen at an educational forest centre for grade 6 kids who get to spend the night camping for a class trip. They had just finished breakfast when we got there so she popped out with us to show us one of the best farm stands down the road.

It was called Hy Hope Farm and it wasn't exactly just down the road, but it was worth the quick jaunt in the wrong direction. The minute you pull in the driveway, surrounded by orchards, you're welcomed with the sweet smells of freshly baked pies. The little shop is surrounded by huge crates overflowing with apples of every variety and bins of pumpkins, gourds and squash. Inside, which is really more of a store, the stand is divided into a produce section and a bakery. You can find just about any produce your heart desires including some interesting varieties I hadn't seen. The bakery walls are lined with canning and preserves and the old showcases are filled with all kinds of pies and tarts. I picked out a pretty, rusty orange Cinderella-style pumpkin for my front step. My aunt, who was making the most of her impromptu break, had filled our trunk with cider, apples, squash, honey and of course, lots of baking. We dropped her off and continued on our trip, which was rather peaceful as the entire car (aside from me, the driver) napped the rest of the way home.

Although we didn't make a stop here on this quick trip up, when we do journey out there, this is normally where we stay. It's a farm in the area that belongs to my dad's brother. It's called Lake View Farms and it's the quintessential Ontario farm. I love it - as does my father and I've wanted to show it off for a while now! These were from our trip back in September.

Enjoy the little photo tour!

As you can see from the sign, the farm is 135 years old!


I just love this little side outdoor dining area off of their kitchen. I would host many dinner parties here!


The old farmhouse - classic Ontario style.

The hand carved plaque to the side of the entrance to the barn - written by the owner and his sons, it adds a lot of charm to the already gorgeous barn.

A newcomer on the farm, little chicks arrived just before we got their. By the time went back the next month, they were full size chickens in every variety!

Their laying hens that supply them with fresh eggs each day, perfect for big country breakfasts!

How much do you love these rabbits?? They all just sit up on their hind legs, ears pointed, patiently waiting for you to feed them. My favourite was the one little tan coloured one.

The barn and resident goats. They have about 25 of them. The kids can name each one, their siblings, who their mother is and tell you one funny thing about each one. I thought that was pretty impressive, especially since they all kind of look similar!

The tour of the farm isn't complete without the tour of their huge back garden. It also comes with a rather funny story about some naughty little goats who broke into it and ate all the berry plants and grape leaves - I don't think it was as funny just after it had happened!

One of the many HUGE watermelons growing... we just ate this one this past weekend for Thanksgiving - it was 50.5 pounds!! (For those of you in the US, that's about 30 kgs.)

He had three different varieties of pumpkins growing in his pumpkin patch, including giant ones that you can barely put your arms around!

Some squash escaping the garden along the fence.

And of course, their gorgeous, long farm driveway, lined with mature old maple trees - something every farm should have!

Seasonal Decor ~ Hints of Hallowe'en

So, although I don't normally pull out all the stops for Halloween decorating, this month, I have a few dinner parties that would be a little more festive with some seasonal decor. Not too spooky and I don't do creepy. But, I do do rustic! Tattered books, chippy white paints, vintage ephemera - I have it all. So, why not give it a little fall flair? Here are a few things I've been working on before I pull it all together for the dinner parties... Halloween Hints if you will.

Enjoy!

Ripped old books and rusty iron.

The coverless books add a little bit of extra ratty to the whole look.

Lots of old gourds are festive, but they looks even more whimsical on tarnished silver trays with lots of Spanish moss.

Some dried lavender I picked up for bouquets around the house.

A new message board I picked up this weekend filled with old ephemera adds lots of character!

There's always something so interesting about old apothecary bottles.

Full tablescapes to come after the parties!