Fall is finally here...

Fall is here, but it sure doesn't feel like it.  Okay maybe a little, it's been in the 90's instead of the 100's.  I have been pulling out old plants from summer and starting some new things for fall, like pumpkins.

...this guy will not be ready for Halloween, maybe thanksgiving?

...the plants have taken over my yard...

...this big guy is fully grown and just starting to turn colors..fingers crossed he's ready soon...

...in this bed I'm starting carrots, beats, cilantro, and acorn squash..

something keeps eating the leaves on my seedlings, hense the jars...

...in this bed I'm experimenting with potatoes...

 ...I finally have peppers! I have poblanos, pasillas, and jalapenos ....

...I am also trying to grow mini white pumpkins, but something keeps eating them...

that something is white and fluffy and named Leo...

Besides gardening I have done a tiny bit of fall decorating.  I have very limited storage space and most of it is taken up by Christmas decor so Halloween and other holidays sorta get the short end of the stick.

...I reused some old flowers and this container I saved from an edible arrangement..

I knew I would use it someday...

...have you tried the pumpkin spice latte M&M's yet? so good...

...the only little pumpkins that survived Leo...

I have also brought home a few vintage treasures...

...I think Morty has his eye on that Coca-Cola tray...

...I found the sweetest little ironstone dishes...

...Rose bouquet Made in England by Johnson Bros...

...so pretty they had to come home...

...silk prints with gilded wood frame handmade in Florence, Italy...

I should have some of the dishes and the pictures up on etsy in the next week...if I can part with them...

My summer so far...

Blogs are a tricky thing and I have no idea how the great bloggers manage to churn out posts weekly if not daily.  I have been keeping busy this summer, which means I should have things to blog about, but I seem to get caught up in the doing and forget to do the writing.

One thing that needs my attention every day is my garden.  Things grow surprisingly fast out here in the desert, I imagine its from all the sunshine.  I can barely keep up, but I really enjoy spending hours out there, except for the days when it's 115 degrees out.  Those days I curse the garden and say desert gardening is the dumbest thing ever.  This year was sorta a giant experiment and I have learned ALOT.  I cannot wait until next year to try some new plants and new ideas.  My cute little garden turned into a jungle in a hurry and I have been researching tons of ways to keep it under control next year.  I have also been planning out what I will plant this fall and winter.   

...see it's a complete mess, but it gives me veggies so it can stay for now.  My cucumbers over grew the trellis I gave them and have now started climbing up and pulling down my sunflowers....

...for awhile I had more summer squash than I could eat, but they have slowed down and now I finally have acorn squash and cucumbers.  I grew two kinds of cucumbers this year, armenian and pickling.  I was able to make a small jar of refrigerator pickles but other than that the armenian ones have way out produced the pickling.  I'm hoping for at least another little batch of pickling cucumbers so I can attempt to ferment them.  

I took a small break from the garden to travel back to Ohio for my brother's wedding and to visit family.  The wedding and the bride were absolutely gorgeous and it was in such a beautiful church. 

It was such a fun time getting to see everyone.  

While in Ohio I spent some time with my grandma and the older I get the more jealous I get of her little farm.  As a kid I grew up thinking living surrounded by farms was nothing special and that most people experienced this.  How wrong I was.  I am very grateful for the childhood I had in her garden eating more of every thing than I picked and being surrounded by her animals.  I now dream of having my own little piece of land someday.  

...Malaysian Ayam Serama Chicken...smallest chicken breed in the world..

...even poultry deserve to have a pretty house..

My other hobby this summer has been dyeing.  

If you have ever eaten at my house you know I am a huge fan of cloth napkins.  Paper napkins rarely make sense to me.  You buy them over and over just to throw them out.  It's a waste of money, bad for the environment, and not as pretty.  I have a large collection of napkins that we use on a daily basis.  Most people's response is.."but isn't that just more laundry?"  No, it's not.  I keep a basket in my laundry room that holds dirty kitchen towels, napkins, etc.  Whenever I do a load of bath towels, which we all have, I throw them in.  No extra loads.  What about kids? "You can't use cloth napkins with kids" you say.  Well I am super messy and I promise you that a cloth napkin cleans up and absorbs so much more than a little paper napkin. 

Oh yeah, before my little tangent about napkins I was talking about dying.  Well to go one extra step and make my cloth napkins extra green and good for the environment, I buy vintage napkins.  Yep, old used napkins.  Most come with stains or look a little sad so I decided to start dyeing them pretty colors. 

I may have gone a little over board and now have too many napkins....

Please visit my etsy shop if you would like your own pretty napkins.

My "Shop" is Open!

I did it! I finally opened a shop on Etsy!  I have been buying things on Etsy for years, but have never jumped in myself.

I have a small obsession with all things vintage and antique, these pieces really make a house feel like home to me.  I believe I inherited this love from my grandma whose home is decorated so wonderfully and could easily double as a museum.  She has an amazing talent for decorating and collecting and I can only wish to have a home as beautiful as her's someday.  As a kid I never truly appreciated how amazing her home was, but I did know that I always felt so comfortable, loved, and at home there.  I still remember when I was a teenager telling her all about a new bedroom set I just got that I thought was amazing and probably the coolest thing ever.  It was very 90's modern and shiny black with silver trim.  She listened to me and told me how when she was younger she loved modern furniture too, and then her taste slowly turned to traditional/country and then to antiques.  She said someday I too would probably like antiques.  I thought to myself, and probably out loud too knowing me, that I would never like the same decor as my grandma.  Well she obviously knew better than I did and today I would love to live in her home.  

So over the years I have slowly decorated and collected just the right pieces for my home, it truly is a constant work in progress.  Some things I bring home and right away they have a spot or fill a need, others move around my house until they settle in, but some never find a place.  I also have found I just really really love going to sales and finding a great buy.  Sometimes it's all about the thrill of the hunt.  So I decided if I want to continue on this treasure hunt I am going to need a place to put my finds and a way to fund it.  I have dreamed about a little shop but right now that's just a dream, I have looked into renting a booth in an antique mall and I am just not quite ready for that.  So for the moment the place that seems most logical is etsy.com.

I have been reading and researching this on and off for months, but the only way I am going to learn and figure it out is to just jump right in.  Today I did just that.  I opened up a shop and listed my first item and I will just figure it out as I go and pray for the best.  This how I do most things, okay all things, in my life so here I go!

https://www.etsy.com/shop/SmellTheCosmos

My Dorothy Draper Nightstand and Treasure Hunting Fun

How did I end up with this really cool Dorothy Draper nightstand?  By waking up early and going treasure hunting! Early bird gets the worm! ...and just being really lucky.

(please ignore the mattress without a bed, my room is under construction)

I absolutely love a good find.  You know that feeling when you have scored something so wonderful for such an amazing price? Well that feeling gets even better when you have to hunt for that special item.  I really really enjoy going to garage sales, estate sales, flea markets, in some cases others peoples garbage on the curb... If there's old stuff or quirky stuff that other people want to get rid of, I am there digging through it.  You never know what you might find.  Half the items in my house I purchased at normal stores, but the other half are treasures that I had to work for and was lucky enough to find.

A while back I was at an estate sale with my mom and she was on the hunt for a piece of furniture to store her drawing supplies in.  Everything in the house was pretty cool but very pricey so I was on my way back to the car in a hurry, but on the way out I walked past the casita which had a few items in it and no people.  I decided to take a little peek and noticed nothing was priced and that most people saw nothing was priced and turned right around and headed into the house.  I lingered longer than most and waited for my mom to join me because there were two pieces that I liked and thought she could use.  One was an old shabby chic butler's desk that needed some work and the other was this interesting nightstand.  I say it was interesting because it was made very well and I loved the hardware and the slate top, but it was the ugliest color ever.  Then when you opened it the inside was a hideous bright orange, but this was nothing a little paint couldn't fix and the design was great.  My mom and I were both thinking they would want a lot for both pieces, considering what they were charging for the other items inside the house, but it was free to ask so we did.  We brought the lady running the sale out to the casita and showed her the items and asked for a quote.  She said the family wanted a decent amount for the butler's desk but agreed that it needed work and brought the price down for us and the night stand was so cheap she was practically giving it away.  So I told my mom to buy both and see which she liked best and I would buy the other piece from her.

So of course she chose the butler's desk.  It was gorgeous and perfect for all her drawing supplies.  I took the nightstand and it worked out wonderfully because I needed one for the other side of my bed.  I decided to paint it with Annie Sloan Versailles to match my chair in my bedroom.  

Now I am the kind of girl that jumps both feet first into a project, I grab a brush or hammer and go.  Sooo...I'm painting away getting rid of the ugly beige and orange and I come across a stamp on the inside of one of the doors...Heritage.  Interested in this stamp I took a break and googled it.  At first I found nothing, after about an hour of searching I found it!  My exact nightstand and it was by Dorothy Draper!  The more I read and researched the more I realized I had the real deal and I was painting it...When I showed my husband a couple for sale online he almost died.  Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know.... Oh well, I had no intentions of selling it and it looks great in my bedroom and that's all that matters.

This past weekend it was gorgeous out and I hit a few estate sales with my friend and here is what I scored:

I love old books! and the suit cases came from a garage sale a couple years back...

Sewing machine drawers, there are so many possibilities for these..

Soon I am going to be selling some of my treasures...where?  No idea yet I am still working that out, but in order for me to keep up this treasure hunting habit and to keep my house from looking like I am a hoarder, I will have to be selling some of these items....I will keep you guys posted.