~beachy summer mantle raggygirlvintage style~

Hello friends,

Well I have been having fun putting our living spaces back together after the white wall transformation…..

 

For those who are interested, the final colour choice was Benjamin Moore “snowfall white”. I tried several whites before settling on this one, as all the other whites I tried were reading very cream in this space. I am very happy with this white, it is neutral and does not read overly warm or cool. 

HOWEVER, I can not recommend it as a colour choice as what should have covered in 2 coats (we were using their top end Aura paint) ended up taking us 5 coats and cut-ins. Good thing I actually like it, right!

So, if you read my chippy door post here, you will know that I am going with a beachy coastal look in my living room for the summer. So I thought you might like to see my summer mantle, I wanted to keep it super simple and fresh.

This shabby little mirror is the focal point, I really love this mirror! It has been very versatile as it has moved around this raggygirlvintage home!

 I added a blue mason jar for that touch of coastal colour in an otherwise neutral mantlescape, with a white gerbera daisy. And yes, that is a real flower, it’s just this thing I have, I like fresh cut flowers! Even if they have wiggly stems!

I picked out three of my smaller white pitchers, you can never go wrong with a white pitcher. Let’s hear a cheer for the humble white pitcher!! 

Some of my pitchers are vintage, some are brand spanking new, I buy them if I love them, I’m not really concerned about their value.

I have silver candlesticks at either end of the mantle, and of course a couple white starfish to complete the beachy theme. Starfish are also very versatile in decorating and these have shown up in vignettes all over raggygirlvintage home. They are not always easy to find, so I recommend if you see them snap a couple up. 

I am doing a beach themed party next weekend and the starfish will be making an appearance there too.

Finally I have a couple vintage wooden and metal stamps, I love them for their patina and interest factor. The numbers are kinda random, the “E” is for our last name.

I have had several requests to show more of my living room and home, not just peeks of the door or mantle, and while I’m a little shy to do that {how silly am I??}, I have taken a few shots and will be putting a post together soon, so you can see the full beachy picture!

So, whatcha think? I love being greeted by the simplicity of it all when I walk down the stairs in the morning, fresh white walls, chippy aqua door, calm coastal mantel. Feels like summer:-)

Here’s a picture of my fabulous chippy door, in case you missed it. You can see more photos here.

linking up to Transformation Tuesday
 Take-a-look Tuesday 
 Ta-da Tuesday 
Anti-Procrastination Tuesday 
Inspiration Board
White Wednesday
Primp your stuff Wednesday
Feather your nest Friday 
Vintage Inspiration Friday 
Potpourri Friday

Tracey

PS. You can follow raggygirlvintage fb here

raggygirl pinterest here

and instagram @ raggygirlvintage

~chippy old door love~

Hi peeps, if you follow me on fb you will know that I am totally in love with my new chippy door, well the sneak peek I gave anyways!

This past weekend I was a vendor at The Olde Farmhouse Vintage Market, it was a collection of a great group of vendors, and I was determined this time not to miss out on a little shopping before market opened!

So when I spied this beauty in my friend Janis’ booth {Rust}, I just knew it was coming home with me. The catch about markets is you go there to sell stuff, as Mr rgv reminds me, not to accumulate more. I sold a door, I bought a door. Sometimes it is just too good to pass up!

Janis attached this cute white shelf and frame. I couldn’t wait to bring it home and into my newly painted white living room. See the walls in the background there. 

I am playing around with a beachy feel for the summer, so this door is just the perfect feature. 

Isn’t the chippy green paint amazing?

And look at the doorknob. Swoon!

I know, I KNOW! It is my most favourite thing in the house right now!

Hmmmm, I think it just needs a little starfish touch...

I’ll be back soon to show you more of my beachy summer living room. Do you change things up for the summer?

linking up with these great parties:
 Show and Tell Friday

 Feathered Nest Friday
Furniture Feature Friday
 and Take-a-look Tuesday 
and Transformation Tuesday 
and Ta-da Tuesday
Inspiration Board 
Primp your stuff Wednesday
Potpourri Friday
Feathered Nest Friday 
Vintage Inspiration Friday 

Tracey

PS. There's already talk about the next Olde Farmhouse Vintage Market, if you're local be sure you don't miss it, I'll keep you updated here and on fb.

You can follow me on fb here and raggygirlvintage here

~picking white paint, my chippy farmhouse table and instagram-ing~

Hello friends, 

Well I just wanted to pop in and say hi, there’s been lots going on around the raggygirlvintage home and we’re counting down the days till the summer starts! 

Tomorrow is last day, then we’re on vacation, yay!! We have family arriving for the first half of July, so we’re sure hoping summer arrives up north soon, we are having our coldest June on record and it is NOT FUN!!!

This past week I had painters come in to paint the downstairs living space, I was so excited, but had a really hard time picking a white.

 The first couple Benjamin Moore whites I tried were just reading too cream in my space. 

Finally I found the one I wanted : Snowfall White. 

The only problem was it didn’t cover well at all and they ended up cutting in and painting five coats, which pushed us way over budget. Especially as I was using their top of the range Aura paint!

All that being said, I love walking down the stairs in the morning to my light, white, bright space! 

In this photo you can see the previous background wall colour on most of the walls. It went pretty well with the house and furnishings, but it was tired and scuffed and I really wanted to lighten and brighten things up.

Here’s a photo of my white drapes against the white walls to give you an idea of how true a white it is now, love, love, love it! 

As we were doing all the downstairs walls and the upstairs hallway that was a lot of stuff to move and pack away, wow! Mr rgv very kindly filled and sanded all the holes for me. Things were a bit chaotic and I am still putting the house back together again!

In the midst of all the paint prep I brought a new table into the house which I wanted to give you a peek at. I bought it intending to use it in my new booth space (more on that later), but now it’s in the house, I think it just might be staying! 

That’s my problem really, too much stuff comes in and I have a hard time parting with it right away! It will make a great little “studio” for my photo shoots for my blog and etsy store.

Isn’t it a perfect farmhouse style table? I love the size, not too big, not too small, sturdy and perfectly chippy. Just a hint of green under the white paint.

I haven’t even staged it yet, just plonked my empty vintage milk carrier on it along with a pitcher of peonies and it is wonderful! I have a spot in mind for it once the painting is all done…

I also wanted to let you know that I have finally climbed on the instagram bandwagon. What took me so long?? It is fun, fun, fun.

 I haven’t had a chance to figure out linking it up to my blog, but you can find me on instagram by searching for well, raggygirlvintage of course!! One day I will have to share how I ended up with that name! 

So if you’re interested in following a bit more of my day to day life you can find me over there instagram-ing away. You will see peonies {of course}, chippy tables, ladybug cookies……

and who knows what else, that's the charm of instagram, snippets of day-to-day life!

Well that was a lot to cover in one post, I hope you are still with me Have a lovely week, and I’ll be back soon to show you my wonderful market treasures!

linking up with Courtney at Feathered Nest Friday

Tracey

~25 random things from a gal from Africa~

Hello friends, 

So what do you think about these 25 things posts that pop up in blogland? Self-indulgent? Possibly. Time waster? Maybe. I thought some of those things too, BUT I always read them!! Why? Because I am naturally a very curious creature and I like to get to know the person behind the blog. My favourite activity is to people-watch, so I guess this is the virtual version.

So if you’re up for a little randomness and some background on moi, read on. I’ll even throw in some “random” photos to make it more interesting!

Here we go then~

1. I was born in Africa. I lived there for 32 years. First in Zimbabwe, land of the wild bush, then in South Africa, near the ocean.

2. My parents love the outdoors, we spent almost every weekend growing up in the African bush. I could write a book about our adventures. I don’t know how I survived to adulthood. I should be in therapy. They deny everything!

3. Cape Town is one of the most beautiful places in the world, especially the beaches and coastline.

4. They have really cute penguins in Cape Town in the penguin reserves.

5. Table Mountain presides over the city of Cape Town, it is flattish on top and you overlook the ocean on one side, and the city on the other.

6. We chose to move to Canada when our children were young. I don’t regret it at all, but I do miss Africa.

7. Which is why I am always commenting on the weather and the rain up north in Vancouver!

8. We have three children, my daughter is 18, my sons are 16 and 12.

9. I have been married to Mr rgv for 21 years. He puts up with a lot.

10. Because I am very expressive and wear my heart on my sleeve. Most of the time anyways.

11. But actually I am very shy, especially in a group. My family don’t really believe this!

12. I love the ocean, love, love, love. Especially the waves.

13. I love to travel to new places but I hate to fly. I am not afraid of flying, but I get claustrophobic and I like to be in control. Last time I flew my Dr gave me a tiny little pill. It did nothing to abate my anxiety but I apparantly zonked out on the plane. My kids were mortified.

14. I would love to explore more of the US states.

15. We plan to drive down to Oregon this summer, can’t wait! I’m hoping to sneak off to Portland and do a little antiquing…

16. I love white on white, white furniture, white walls, white flowers, white decor.

17.  I refer to myself as a hunter-gatherer, it sounds so much better than borderline hoarder.

18. I love, love, love to create ~ I am not happy if I don’t have a project on the go, even when life is crazy busy I squeeze it in.

19. I’m not sure how I feel about the selling part, I’m shy remember, but in order to continue being a hunter-gatherer I have to share my finds. 

20. I have been on diet the past two months, my first real diet ever. It has been tough, very tough. I had to eat fish every day. I.don’t.like.fish. 

21. But I have lost 28 pounds! I may blog about it sometime…

22. I broke my diet today. Real bad. 4 cookies and spoonfuls of nutella. That stuff should not be in the house! I will be sorry tomorrow. That’s just the way it goes sometimes.

23. I am a fair weather gardener. I only garden when it is warm. So there hasn’t been much gardening happening this year. I’ve worn these once!

24. My Mom and Dad live 3 minutes away. I am so thankful, they are awesome.

25. I am having my walls painted white this week, yay!!!!

Well there you have it, 25 bits of randomness for you

Tracey

P.S. Want more randomness? Follow me on Instagram at raggygirlvintage

~so what do you think about the wicker decor accessory trend?~

Hello friends, how do you like the wicker showing up in decor accessories recently? 

To be honest I wasn’t sure at first how it would fit with my overall decor, but then I came across this wicker vase. 

I had looked at them several times before I finally snapped this one up as it was the last one on the shelf, for the grand price of $7.99!!

 {Then I left it in my cart and someone unpacked my cart and said they hadn’t and then I found it again and all was well in my wicker world!}

I knew right away I wanted to fill it with beautiful roses, and it was a match made in heaven. Can’t believe I thought about it for so long!

I filled it with these stunning roses with green and pink petals and ruffley edges.

They were even more stunning and ruffley when they opened up.

So what do I think about the wicker trend? 

I really like the texture and color it introduces, it is a good fit in any cottagey, french country or even coastal decor. And as it is relatively inexpensive it’s a great way to add some new accessories that weren’t a huge investment when you want to change things up again Not that any of you do that of course!

I have a few more wicker pieces I’ll show you next post!

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

~May and market~

Well hello peeps,

Can you believe it is almost the end of May, wowee! May has been quite a month here at raggygirlvintage, a mixture of highs and lows. Lots of cheering my boys on at volleyball, celebrating a gold medal win at Nationals, my Mom recovering from back surgery, really bad flu which totally wiped me out the past two weeks, AND trying to squeeze in lots of painting and sewing and prepping for Scout Vintage Market! 

Source: Scout Handmade and Vintage Market

So this past weekend was the much anticipated Scout Handmade and Vintage Market, truly a highlight for both vendors and customers alike here in Vancouver. I got to snap a few quick shots of my booth, which was just a leeeetle on the small side this time round. I’ll include some links at the end to other market related posts and photos, if you’d like more eye candy. Here are some shots from my booth space, I squeezed a lot of stuff in there!!

One of the highlights of the markets for me, is having repeat customers who come back to see what treasures I have, or what new pillows I have created. It’s like meeting up with old friends, and the vendors are just such an awesome group of gals.

Fun as it was I am looking forward to catching up on a few things before school lets out for the summer, and hopefully finishing up some projects around here. Like planting up my summer planters, I am so late this year! And some serious cleaning and organising and fluffing around the house!

Here’s the link to my vendor feature Delish online magazine posted just before market, if you’re interested in learning a bit more about me Scroll down a tad to find moi.

http://www.delishmag.com/2012/05/23/scout-vendors-what-wood-you-sa-and-raggy-girl-vintage/

and you can read more accounts of the market 

here and 

here and 

here

~Have a lovely last week of May~

bye for now,

Tracey