One of my favorite places is...

Pickity Place, located near Mason, NH. Lunch there features delectable food make with fresh herbs from the herb garden. My daughter, Jen, and I have lunched there several times.

On the property is Grandmother's Cottage, a red Cape Cod cottage that was featured in the 1948 Golden Books edition of Little Red Riding Hood by Elizabeth Orton Jones. Grandmother's bedroom is full of Little Red Riding Hood memorabilia. The grounds of Pickity Place are a photographer's dream - full of building, nooks and crannies, and of course the herb garden itself.

Just thinking of the great food served there makes me hungry. On Amazon I found a cookbook Country Herb Cooking: Four Seasons of Recipes from Pickity Place by Judy Walter that I promptly ordered. Can't wait for it to get here. Here are samples of what's served.

If you're in the New England area, think about visiting this jewel of a place. I'm not connected to Pickity Place in any way, just wanted to share one of my favorite places.

See ya later...
Sondra

Breakfront Beauty

This old breakfront has been in my family for some time.  My mother loved to go to farm auctions - back then, auctions were usually held when a family died off as opposed to these days when foreclosure is usually the reason. (I digress, as usual)

Anyway, Mother bought this old piece and lugged it home, much to my Dad's dismay.  She and I applied a fake golden oak grain finish to the thing probably 50 years ago.  It was in her house until she died nearly 20 years ago when I moved it to Colorado. Its finish wasn't a bad match for oak, but over the years my house filled up with wood finishes and I wanted COLOR.  Just like those in some gorgeous material I found a few years ago and made into drapes.

Enter my passion for Annie Sloan Chalk Paint.  I figured painting the breakfront's inside with Cream and the outside with Versailles over Primer Red would be perfect.  Well, the inside looked great but the Versailles just wasn't quite right.  Next I put Chateau Grey over the front and finished with a mixture of clear and dark wax. Voila - just what I wanted.

Now some of my favorite things reside inside.  I love it!

  

Almost forgot...this label was on the breakfront's back.  Anyone have any information about the company?

Redoux Friday Link Up Party
Miss Mustard Seed Furniture Friday Favorites Linkup
Shades of Amber link party

Vintage

Nate Berkus has a design personality quiz on his website here.  There were no surprises for me...I'm Vintage!

"You like decor that's one of a kind. You're a garage and thrift sale shopper who likes things with some age and you know you’re a vintage personality, you can shop in places with items that have an aged look to create rooms that feel assembled over time. You don’t go to the new modern stores and waste your time buying items that you know you’re not going to love!"

Grandma's gate leg table

One of my most prized possessions is the gate leg table that came to me from my Grandma.  Called Bobo by everyone who knew her, she had this table in her living room for as far back as I can remember...where it originated, whether from a family member or not, I don't know.  This table was painted brown until it came to me about 20 years when I  painted it two tone green with a crackle finish.  Over the years it got scuffed and stained so this year, chalk paint came to the rescue.

Hubby and I sanded the top and used a cherry stain with many coats of varnish to get the look I wanted.  Not sure what the wood is, but it had a green tone which according to the internet could be sassafras.

Duck Egg Blue was painted on the legs with accents of Aubusson followed by light wax.  Here's how the final result.

 

Quite a difference from that old brown table.  Bobo would be proud.



Shades of Amber Annie Sloan Chalk Paint Linky Party



Domestically Speaking 106th-power of paint party

Bookaholic...

Bookworm, book lover, bibliophile, reader...what do these words mean to me.

They mean stacks and stacks of books waiting to be read, traded, given away or returned to the library.  When will I ever find the time to read them all?  Books make me happy, content, and relaxed so I'm not bothered by all the books laying around the house.  This stack of books on my night stand include the top three paperbacks that were just waiting for me at the local Goodwill store.  Yes, that's a Kindle you see. The convenience it offers is wonderful but...there's still something about holding a book.

It saddens me to hear children say they hate to read and books are a waste of time.  Oh the adventures they will miss!  Some of my favorite books are those I read as a child; I'm so happy that my children are sharing the same books with their own children and their niece and nephews that I shared with them so many years ago.

Chalk paint x2

Several months ago, I discovered Annie Sloan's Chalk Paint through several of the blogs that I follow.  Knowing that this paint was something I had to try, I found a stockist, Shades of Amber, located in Monument, Colorado which is about 50 miles from my home.  My daughter, 2 grandbabies and I were planning a visit to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs so I made arrangements to pick up some paint from Brad and Amber.  My first try was this mirror inherited from my mother;  it was originally my grandmother's mirror that was hung over a beautiful quarter sawn oak dresser.  Through the years some wear and tear had occurred.

Before

My first attempt to paint the mirror with Old White went fine until I applied the dark wax much too heavy.  The wax made the curliques and swirls on the mirror look dusty and dingy; the mirror was placed over the table in my entry hall until I decided what to do next.

version 1

Enter a new mini-stockist located close to my home...Little Black Chair.  Going to their storefront to pay for a beginning Chalk Paint class, I spied a beautiful night stand painted in Chateau Grey with accents done in Paris Grey...gorgeous, simply gorgeous.

That color combination was so lovely that my mirror called for a change.  Using Chateau Grey as a base with accents of Duck Egg Blue and a grey I mixed, I know my mom and grandma would be proud.

version 2

Lovely, don't you think?  I'm as proud as punch...


linked to:  Miss Mustard Seed,  Shades of Amber,  Remodelaholic

The Colors of October - My camera is always ready

I’m so glad I like in a world where there are Octobers.

~ L. M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables ~

“Autumn the year’s last and loveliest smile.”  ~William Cullen Bryant~ 

“Oh Autumn how I have missed you.  Cool nights, sunny days, school starts and summer fades.” ~Caroline Glen

"The chile, it seems to me, is one of the few foods that has its own goddess." - Diana Kennedy, cookbook author

I think that I shall never see a poem as lovely as a tree
by Joyce Kilmer


Thank you Miss Reed, my 8th grade teacher, for making your classes memorize this poem.





All photos by little ole me