~as promised, my simple beachy party post~

Hello friends,

Well here we are with fall nipping at our heels and I still want to show you a couple photos from that little beachy party we had in the summer, as promised!

 As we are having the most gorgeous dry and sunny fall up north I am going to go right ahead, and perhaps my southern hemisphere friends will appreciate it too as you head into summer!

So here goes, kept it super simple and mostly used what I had on hand:  wicker vases, white pitchers, mason jars, white sand and tealights.

Oh, and a bunch of baby's breath, one of my favourite flowers to decorate with, a bunch goes a long way.

Simple, that is, except for these jolly tissue pom-poms. Word of advice : don’t leave them until the night before. Like I did. I don’t generally consider myself a craft-challenged gal but these pom-poms got the better of me! Especially the big ones, which ended up piled in the corner of my farmhouse table and no one was any the wiser that they had big holes underneath!

Here’s a close up, aren’t the ruffley layers pretty!

Another word of advice : you can order them online and just fluff them out!

I also hung some up high from the gazebo outside with a couple paper lanterns, with a bit of fluffing they are quite forgiving:-)

The smaller ones turned out much better and I tossed a couple on the tables here and there.

So I used a white cotton tablecloth with a wide burlap runner down the middle, and an assortment of candles, starfish, blue mason jars, and accents. 

~Simple~

I laid a similar table outside with a few different accessories, and strung up twinkling fairy lights. So sorry I didn't get any photos of the other table!

Scattered starfish along the tables.

The white shells looked so pretty piled in a blue mason jar.

I am so in love with vintage paper straws, they not only look cute they are sturdy and so versatile in decorating and they photograph so well.

I ordered them in a couple different colours, but just used the blue ones here.

So there you have it! It was simple to put together but looked so fresh and beachy! 

As beachy coastal was loosely the theme I went with this summer in my living room it was fun to extend that through the house for the party! 

You can read more about my beachy coastal living room here and here.

Hope you enjoyed a peek into the party!

Tracey

~flowers in a cup~

Just popping in today to show you a little pretty. May is birthday month for me, and one of the gifts I received was this sweet oversized rustic cup, with an osteo inside. 

I had the perfect spot for it on my mantel and it works so well there, especially as I do have a few red accents in my living room. Currently. 

You know how it is, next week it could be different! But for now it’s red accents. 

The golden osteo flowers pick out the gold in the mirror frame, and I love the pop of color this brings to my very neutral mantel!

Simple and pretty….

Have a lovely weekend!

linking up to Feathered Nest Friday 
and
Five Days Five Ways Feature Friday

Tracey

~french farmhouse stylin'~ vintage milk carrier~

Hiya, I wanted to start talking about a few ways you can introduce a french farmhouse feel into your home and decor, and we’re starting with a ~vintage milk carrier~

I shelled out a pretty penny for this one, but I had passed up one too many and knew it would be one of those “I wish I woulda” deals.

Sometimes this vintage carrier sits on top my kitchen cabinets with a couple old milk bottles inside, but quite often I pull it down and fill it with flowers.

Currently my runner is just an old floursack on my family farmtable. We use this table all the time, so I like to have something that is quick and easy to move on and off. Even everyday spaces should have something to pretty them up and make you feel ~happy~

I popped in a few of my favorite blue mason jars and white tulips, and instantly have a pretty focal point in front of the window that shouts to me “french farmhouse stylin’”!! 

I closed the blinds to shoot these photos but typically the light floods in the back of the house in the afternoon.

Heart the old wooden handle and worn metal.

It’s a quick and easy decor item that you can change up in so many ways, with BIG impact, so next time you see a vintage milk carrier, don’t pass it up!

linking up to Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage
Home and Family Friday at Home is Where My Story Begins
Show and Tell Friday at My Romantic Home
Vintage Inspiration Friday at Common Ground
Saturday Nite Special at Funky Junk Interiors
Nifty Thrifty Tuesday over at Coastal Charm
Take-a-look Tuesday at Sugar Bee Crafts
Cowgirl Up at The Farmhouse Porch

~Tracey~

~autumn in my home~

Growing up in Africa we had two seasons : summer and winter, with maybe a rainy season thrown in! So one of the things I really appreciate about living in North America are the colors and fragrances of fall, or autumn as I prefer to call it {it just sounds so much more descriptive, don't you think?}

Decorating with pumpkins was definitely a novel idea our first autumn in Canada! We might occasionally have eaten roasted pumpkin in Africa, but we certainly never got to display them in our homes!

Canadian Thanksgiving kinda snuck up fast this year {it was this past weekend} and so my autumn decorating is fairly minimal. I had my eye on white pumpkins this year, but they're not that easy to find around here...

This one is actually fake {shhhh}, but it's a great size, I got it to use in my booth at Fieldstone Market, now it has a home on my little chippy vintage chair in the front hallway.

I kept my mantel pretty simple, I love these white pumpkins with orange stripes, they're just the right size for a mantel, I'm thinking a mini garland strung on the mirror perhaps?

I did find a couple tiny whiteish pumpkins which I've tucked in here and there...

Outside on the porch I put up my {rather sad} fall wreath,

definitely due for a wreath makeover, the challenge is when it rains {often} this door gets very, very wet

a couple of gourds and a sugar pie pumpkin, which was promptly given some or other name by the kids. Why do they insist on naming their pumpkins, it makes it so much harder to actually carve them up!

One year I got minature pumpkins for all the cousins and we decorated them with googly eyes and hair and so on, it was a lot of fun. We definitely didn't carve them up, it's like they became part of the family!

Anyway, I digress, the porch : the boys asked when we were getting pumpkins for the stairs, like we always do etc.etc. So off we went and picked out more fat orange pumpkins.

I chose this guy, I like things that are a little different from the norm:-) Isn't he/she (nameless) a wonderful shape? I don't name my pumpkin.

The boys each picked out a big fat round pumpkin, my only criteria being they had to have a stalk and actually sit on the ground. It took a while, we inspected oh, maybe three hundred pumpkins before making our final choices!

We'd barely got them home when my youngest came rushing out the door clutching a sharpie and various knives all set to carve his pumpkin...

WHOA!!! slow down, let's just enjoy the pumpkins for a while (we're not into the halloween thing but they do like to carve their pumpkins)

I was given a bag of apples that weren't good to eat, so they made it to the front porch too. What is more "autumnish" than an enamelware bowl full of apples, especially when they have a leaf or two still attached.

So that's it for my autumn decorating so far, I like to think it's minimal but meaningful! Hope you're having fun with your decorating too! For a summer gal I find I'm quite enjoying the fall this year ~ all the gorgeous colors of the leaves and yummy fall goodies that get cooked up in my kitchen. But that's another post all by itself!

Happy autumn!

Tracey

~christmas decorating on the porch 101 - white wednesday~

i love how this urn looks filled with pine clippings

this tree was a great find, almost every branch had bunches of pinecones

so i piled them all in this white urn which lives on my porch

see all the pinecones!

this urn was a garage sale find, is is SO heavy the seller said i could have it for free if i would just take it away

which i gladly did of course!

it sits alongside this white chair, outside the front door

see my previous posts for the full series of ~christmas decorating on the porch 101~

linking up with Kathleen for White Wednesday

Tracey

~christmas decorating on the porch 101 - christmas wreath~

next exciting installment on my porch christmas decor!!

~keeping it super simple and natural this year~

here's my wreath ~ okay i admit i cheated

i bought the fresh wreath at costco

 and cut off the awful fake berries (sorry if you liked them!)

then I added my own fresh fir clippings to fill it out

tucked in some holly here and there

and voila!

~a christmasy welcome~

Tracey

PS. see my previous posts for the full series of ~christmas decorating on the porch 101~

~christmas decorating on the porch 101 - using what you have~

here are a few more random photos of decorating my front porch, i like to keep it simple and fresh

this is the chair outside my front door - i'm a little bit lazy pressed for time, so it's the same chair (garage sale)

 and coffee sack (gift) 

and basket (thrift store) 

and gorgeous white pitcher (gift) i had out in the summer

but dressed up with white bells and pine clippings it looks quite festive

 you can't see too well here but these clippings have wonderful pine cones on them and i like the variation in color

 here i tucked a vintage red plaid thermos on the bench next to a sap bucket of cuttings (i see it got a little faded by the summer sun)

you might remember my vintage summer picnic here

and further down the bench these skates (thrift store) and snow shoes (gift from my dad)

see the theme ~ snow shoes ~ skates ~ thermos of hot chocolate~

yes, i know you got it right away!!

should i fill the skates with holly do you think, they're a little plain?

Tracey

PS. see my previous posts for the full series of ~christmas decorating on the porch 101~

~christmas decorating on the porch 101 - decorating with greenery~

i have this old mailbox that lives on my porch year round, i simply adore it

you might think i'm strange but we don't have these mailboxes where i live

so this year i opened it up and have greenery and holly spilling out

see the cute red flag

and my vintage tin picnic hamper peeking in the background

it has black numbers on the other side

now this wasn't my own idea, saw it somewhere else (can't remember where...)

anyway, decorating with greenery 101:

~ i always carry garden clippers in my car, i carry them year round, you never know when or where inspiration will strike

~bring garden gloves - for the cold and it can be prickly

~ cut more than you think you will need, i always think i have tons and use it all!

~ ask permisson if you plan to cut from someone else's property - i'm usually too chicken to do this so i just find random trees on open land, which is getting harder each year as the area i live in is being rapidly developed

~ take a moment to smell the crisp air, notice the birds and squirrels and yes, even the sticky sap on your hands! this year a little robin sat watching me the whole time i cut holly, so cute

~ a small stepladder is handy, sometimes I see a great tree but by the time i've navigated ditches etc. i just can't reach the good stuff. i usually drag someone along for the ladder part, like i said, i'm chicken!

~don't cut from the lower branches, you know, like at dog's level....

~ my outside greenery lasts the whole season, inside i have to refresh a couple of times

~finally, smile sweetly when your family roll their eyes at you!!

Tracey

PS. see my previous posts for the full series of ~christmas decorating on the porch 101~

~christmas decorating on the porch 101 - the simple touch~

what do you love about christmas decorating?

trimming the tree and mantle...

the lights and sparkle...

i love all that, but my favorite of all is dressing my home with natural greenery

i love heading out with my boots and clippers, the air crisp with the promise of snow

and cutting all kinds of delicious smelling greenery

then i get to play around, filling planters

and old sap-style buckets (see my old thermos peeking there)

here's one of my porch projects this christmas

i have an old sleigh which i filled with a huge bouquet of greenery and holly

tied it up with a big burlap bow

love it's simplicity

i'll show you more in the next day or two...

Tracey