BOUNTIFUL GARDEN ON WHITE WEDNESDAY...

Hello everyone!  I hope your week is going well so far.  We're having some beautiful weather here in central California... a nice 87 degrees today.  I'm taking it all in it before it's supposed to heat back up later this week.

I went out into the garden this morning to pluck some of the apples from our Fuji apple tree.  I know you're supposed to wait until September, but they're starting to fall off the tree.  This is the first year the tree is filled with apples.  In fact, this year has been the most bountiful year for the garden yet.

We're going to be very busy over the next couple of weeks.  My mom and her husband, Paul, will be moving down here in two weeks and will be staying with us for the next 4-6 months while their new house is being built.  We're super excited about them moving here and having them in our lives on a day-to-day basis, but there is lots to do to prepare for their stay.  So, this morning I took probably one of the last free mornings I'm going to have for a while to enjoy some me time, before I had to frantically start cleaning to prepare for company tomorrow (Paul's coming to make preparations for the move).

Some roses from the garden...

...Jeanne d'Arc Living magazine....

...Maxwell House's French Vanilla Cafe', and the kids were at school (sigh)... what more can a girl ask for?

Well, as I said, I'll be pretty busy for a while, so I'm not sure when I'll have time to blog again.  Hopefully I will be able to pick it back up once things settle down again.

I'm linking this post up to White Wednesday over at Faded Charm.  Thanks so much, Kathleen, for hosting this fabulous party every week!  If you haven't checked out this fun link party yet, head on over to Kathleen's blog to see tons of fabulous inspiration in white.

Thanks so much to all of you who visit and take the time to leave your lovely comments.  You put a smile on my face with each and every one. :)

'Til next time...

Jo ~ :o)

I GOT MAIL...

Happy Friday everyone!  I'm SO glad the weekend is here!  The first couple of weeks of school have been tough getting used to, with all of the added homework that comes with the 4th and 7th grades.  The kids are just getting back in the groove of things and need lots of help with their homework.  There are afternoons where we spend three hours doing homework after they get home from school!  Needless to say... TGIF!!

Now that I got that off my chest... let's move on to more pleasant things, like MAIL.   Don't you just love to get something in the mail from a friend, or maybe something you've ordered and have been anxiously awaiting it's arrival?  Well, this week I received not one, but two wonderful packages in the mail.

THE FIRST PACKAGE

A few weeks ago, I visited a lovely blog called Love of the Sea and left a comment on Debbie's post about her trip to Sanibel Island.  I couldn't have been more surprised when Debbie left me an e-mail thanking me for my visit and comment and offering to send me some of the seashells she collected from her trip.  Is that the sweetest thing, or what?!

We communicated a few times via e-mail before the package got here, and she warned me that I may need to clean them when I got them, as they came straight from the beach.  No store bought seashells here!

Look at this beautiful sand dollar she sent me.  It made it here all the way from Florida to California in PERFECT condition.    

Here is the pretty beach-themed card she sent with her package... too cute...

...and her sweet message.

I could actually smell the salty ocean as I cleaned the sand out of the seashells.

I can't believe she found these beauties right on the beach!

I hope you guys aren't totally sick and tired of seeing my dining room hutch, because that's where I decided to display them. 

Quick note... I only have four rooms in my house that aren't either bedrooms or bathrooms:  My LR, DR/kitchen, laundry room, and mud room.  The kid's rooms are too messy and cluttered with "their things", and the MBR needs a little fluffing before I share it with you gals.  Until our playroom/family room (garage redo) gets done, that's all we've got.  I  hope I don't completely bore you guys with the same old rooms. :)

When I saw the shape of these shells, I instantly thought they would look cute resting on the top of my vintage milk bottles... a seashell bouquet... makes me smile. :-)

Thank you so much for your generosity and friendship, Debbie, and for bringing a little bit of Sanibel Island into my home.  I absolutely adore the seashells!

 THE SECOND PACKAGE

As soon as I found out that Lori of the lovely blog and antiques shop Round Barn Potting Co. was selling Jeanne d'Arc Living magazines, I e-mailed her to let her know I WANT one.... I hope I'm not too late... please save me one.  Do you think I sounded a little desperate?

She sent it to me beautifully wrapped.

Thanks for the special little touches, Lori!

Don't you just love her business card?  Very cool!

And here she is... the coveted Jeanne d'Arc Living magazine (sigh).  I've been drooling all over Blogland as everyone else bought their copies.  I'm so excited that I finally have one to hold in my own two hands and drool all over the pages of.

It truly is a BEAUTIFUL bookazine.  It's more like a soft-covered book.  The pictures are spectacular and inspire every bit of creativity in me.  There are way too many beautiful pictures to share all of them with you... these are just a few of my favorites.

This is the August issue... I'm not sure if Lori has any of these left, but she did tell me she will have the October & November issues for sell as well.  I don't want to miss out on that... sign me up, Lori!

How about you?  Have you received anything fun in the mail lately?  I would love to hear about it.

I'm linking this post up to:

Donna's SNS party at Funky Junk Interior

Cindy's Show & Tell Friday at My Romantic Home

Thanks for hosting every week ladies!

Thanks so much for your lovely comments, my friends.  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Hugs ~ Jo

:o)

CALLING ALL FRAPPUCCINO AND VINTAGE BOTTLE LOVERS...

Hello Everyone!

Do these bottles look vintage to you?  Note the wavy glass and vintage milk bottle shape.

Do any of you drink Starbucks Frappuccino sold at your local grocery store?  You know... the ones that come in the glass bottles.  Did a light bulb just go on?

Yep... these are them.  I just peeled off the labels, washed them in the dishwasher, and used some Goof Off (found at your local hardware store) to get the gooey stickiness off the bottles... and viola!

It's a great way to recycle. ;o)

David Austin's Scepter'd Isle roses.

Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to leave your lovely comments!

Also, thanks to everyone who informed me that the metal motorcycle basket from my last post is actually a vintage milk bottle crate.  I love to know the history of my vintage pieces... so THANK YOU! :)

I hope you all have a wonderful week!

'Til next time...

Jo ~ :o)

THE MOTORCYCLE BASKET...

Hello everyone! 

Remember how I warned you in my last post that you may visit in the near future and see a picture of and old 1968 (OK, so it's not THAT old) motorcycle in much need of a little TLC?  Well... this is that post. 

Your motorcycle is finally on my blog Babe, so please don't take my pretty metal basket away.

Today I decided to clip some of my lavender crape myrtle blooms and bring them inside to put in my mason jars, so I thought what better time than now to do ... THE MOTORCYCLE POST. 

When I'm not using my mason jars for flowers, I store them in the infamous motorcycle basket, which I keep in my living room.  I got this lovely basket from (brace yourself ladies)...

THIS motorcycle!  My husband, being the non-blogger that he is, took this fabulous picture before he brought the motorcycle home.  This is the only picture he took that showed my lovely basket (do you think he thought it was ugly and was trying to keep it out of the picture?).  You can just barely see a corner of the basket on the back of the motorcycle.

I asked him to clean a little bit of the rust off (not all... got to have some of that rusty goodness still left) before I brought it inside, so he sandblasted it a bit for me.  If you were to do this yourself, you may want to put a clear coat sealer on it before bringing it inside to prevent the rust from getting on any carpets or other materials you may have it in contact with.  Since I have it on the wood floor, I didn't worry about doing that.

I love the way the lavender color of the flowers and the aqua color of the jars look together.

Thank you Babe!  I love my rusty metal motorcycle basket! ;o)

You just never know where you're going to find something for your home.  Maybe next time I go shopping, I'll head to the junk yard. ;o)

I'm linking this post up to:

 Saturday Night Special at Funky Junk Interiors

Show and Tell Friday at My Romantic Home

Friday Pretties at I Love Pretty Little Things

Show Off Your Cottage Monday at The House in the Roses

Head on over to these fun parties to check out lots of fabulous inspiration.  Thanks for hosting every week ladies!

I also wanted to give you all a little heads up about this wonderful new blog I've recently come across called re:Inspire.  Lisa takes beautiful photos filled with fabulous decorating inspiration from her 1880s home.  Head on over there to check it out... you won't be disappointed.

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

'Til next time...

Jo ~ :o)

WHITE WEDNESDAY IN MY LIVING ROOM...

Hello everyone!  I hope you're all having a great week so far.  It's that time of the week again, where we all get to share our lovely whites.  I thought I would share with you some pictures of whites in my living room this week.  There was a glare coming in through the windows, so it was hard to get good pictures for this amateur photographer.  I hope you enjoy them anyway. :)

These Ball jars were something I found while antiquing on my birthday a couple of weeks ago.  I love that they're the clear glass instead of the aqua color.  They were the perfect compliment to the vintage chicken feeder and other glass pieces on my fireplace mantel.

The hydrangeas are a beautiful apple green color this time of the year, which I love, so I clipped a few to put in some of the pitchers in my living room.

You'll never believe where I found the metal basket... off of the back of a 1968 motorcycle my husband recently bought to refurbish.  When he showed it to me the day he brought it home, I thought... it's pretty cool, but man oh man it needs a lot of work.  I pointed out that the basket on the back rack is pretty cool, and he told me, "Oh, I'm getting rid of that"... like it's junk or something (is he blind?).  Of course, I immediately told him I would take it.  We struck a deal... I do a post including a picture of his motorcycle, and I can have the basket.  I still haven't done the post, and he keeps threatening to take it away.  Okay, okay already... I'll get to it.

Don't be surprised ladies if you come to visit in the near future, and there's a picture of an old motorcycle in much need of some TLC.  ;o)

Oops... these aren't white! These are the Ball jars that I bought about a month ago from Kristin's
Faded Prairie Etsy shop.

This is our little Yorkshire Terrier, Ellie, and that's her favorite blanket... nap time.

Some rosemary and white lantana from the garden.

I am linking this post up to White Wednesday over at Faded Charm.  Thanks for hosting every week, Kathleen! 

Thanks so much for stopping by everyone and taking the time to leave such nice comments.  They always put a smile on my face. :)

Happy White Wednesday!!

'Til next time...

~ Jo

:o)