The Entry is for the Birds

May is Bird Month around here, literally! We have a full nest box on the front porch and wherever I go I can here chirping and cheeping. It's been hard to water the fern and containers on the porch because you may get bird bombed by mom and dad.

Vintage Market Cottage Finds

This week we made a quick trip to my favorite vintage market in town. Vintage Peddler, and did a run through to see what was new this month. Things change so fast here that merchandise is constantly coming in and going out. I can always find a few things I love. I don't need anything big, but sure enjoy the inspiration and nabbing a few cute smaller items. 

Birds in the Late Spring Holiday Cupboard

May has always been Bird Month for me. Around here we have nest building, new babies, and new faces at the feeders. I've collected a bit of bird themed vintage items during my time as a vintage market dealer, picking up figurines, tins, illustrations and ephemera during the years. It's a perfect themed match for my other favorite vintage theme which is old garden goods.

Cottage Review: Vintage Birds

Hi Friends, welcome to the Weekend Cottage Review, where I share a bit of what I'm up to this week, some ideas and inspiration, and a few bits of past posts that are seasonal...

May is Bird Month around here. I've really enjoyed watching and feeding the birds at this house since we moved here 4 years ago. This house has been unique in that we have a back porch that is so fun and perfect for hanging feeders and the ability to have stealth viewing...

Weekend Cottage Review #1

Hey there friends, I thought I'd try having a weekly post where I share some fun things from around the Internet and also share some thoughts and ideas that are more personal. I've done this before, but when things in life became crazy or I was too busy with blogging commitments I'd slack off and lose momentum. But I've realized there are so many times when I'd like to share just a small idea or image or some random thought, but I had no place to really do that. My brain fills up with bits and pieces and I'd like to have a dedicated space to share them. 

Vintage Cottage Weekend: Spring to Summer Birds in the Garden Room

Hello, my friends. Here we are with Memorial Day this weekend. (so hard to believe) At Vintage Cottage Weekend we share how we use vintage cottage elements in our decorating. Starting in June I'll be decorating with a patriotic summer theme, but for this last week of May I wanted to share a few pics from the Garden Room with one of my favorite late Spring themes. Birds!

Spring Themed Prints in the Hearth Room

I gave my hearth room a mini refresh for spring this last week with a couple of spring themed prints, and moved a few pieces around on the mantel. I usually keep one of my lamb canvas prints on the mantel but thought I'd try out this framed bird poster as something a bit different.

The Holiday Cupboard is for the Birds

Hello there, Friends! I hope you're having a wonderful week and that you're enjoying warm pleasant late spring weather. We all seem to have some outdoor projects we're trying to get to, but golly, it's been chilly and rainy around here... again. I'm not sure why this surprises me because it's often cool and rainy in early to mid May, but I'm sorta over it.  You can remind me of this when I'm complaining in September that it's too hot and dry. I've been wanting to get my outside containers put together and it's been too cool to get out and do much. I did finally get to the nursery over Mother's Day weekend to pick out some flowers so maybe I can get those finished up by this weekend.

Farmtable Vintage Bucket with Tulips

Do you have a spot that causes you to be continually thinking about the next fun change-up? The farm table in the Garden Room is one of those spots for me. After all the Easter bunnies and forsythia were put away, I wanted to use this big bundle of white faux tulips before (real tulips) were a thing of the past. Spring flowers and shrubs just don't last long enough!

Birds and Branches

This has been such a cold Spring... very few warm days with a lot of cold and dreary ones. The flowering trees and growing things got a late start. Then just when they thought it was safe, we had nights of temps in the 20's. So the peach tree, plum tree, and cherry tree have had their bloom time disturbed and cut short. 

Nesting Birds and Slinky Cats

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter Weekend. Our kiddos were out of town, so we had a really quiet, low-key weekend. We did go out Saturday night to our fave Italian spot, but that was about the size of it. About the most exciting thing going on around here at the moment is out on the back upper deck. There are a couple of noisy house wren's and they've been busy putting together an intricate little nest inside one of my derelict birdhouses. A while back I was trying to shift some vintage garden things around and a couple of these handmade birdhouses wound up right outside the kitchen window on one of my vintage wrought iron Etergeres. (don't ask me why it's now a shelf for birdhouses and not in the house)

Nature Inspired Autumn Urn

I've had this Nature Inspired Autumn Urn in my head since last Spring, when I picked up a Victoria Magazine Special Edition, called Victoria Classic French Cottage . I'm hoping it will become a yearly publication, because it was filled with wonderful features of French and French Inspired Cottages. There was one particular image that completely captured my imagination, from an article called Living With The Past.

Kitchen China Cupboard for Fall

Before we moved to this house, my kitchen china cupboard, had always been just that... a china cupboard. It held china, and some colored crystal and a few antique floral teapots. It never changed, no matter what the Season or Holiday. I had lots of other places to "play" and decorate, so this one I left alone...

Snippets from the China Cabinet

I hope you're having a wonderful Fall Day.

The treetops are changing to various hues of red, orange, and yellows.

It's warm, but you can feel the Fall changes.

I've been adding Autumn to my Kitchen China Cabinet...

The mismatched plates, cups, saucers, and tureens each become a work of art

...when Bittersweet and Leaves nestle around them.

Both the bovine and the birds...

are celebrating the wild garden within the walls of glass.

xoxo,

Kitchen Sitting Area Dressed for Fall

When I shared the Blogger Fall Home Tour put together by Brenda last week, one room didn't make the cut... that was the Kitchen Sitting Area. I had a few things left to get done. So, I have a few of those things done, but it's still not finished. I'm sure I'll have that done by the time to decorate for Christmas.

Fall Birdies

Does that title sound like I've lost my marbles?

Like a crazy cat lady that spends all her time bird watching with her felines?

don't answer that...

Hope you all are having a great Labor Day Weekend. We stuck close to home except for a fun trip on Saturday to a new winery in the area. I'll show you a few pics and share a link with you soon. They also have a sheep farm, so that was the real draw for me. We've had a heat wave this last week, and it's supposed to break in the next few days. We had such a wonderful taste of cooler weather earlier. Hopefully, that will bring us back to the 70's. gosh, I'm more than ready. 

Fall's First Glimpse

I've been thinking about Fall...

no surprise, huh?

I know some of you enjoy Fall, 

but you want to squeeze every ounce out of Summer.

When our kiddos are young and at home,

summer is a special time of adventure and relaxation.

But, I've always been the type of person that comes alive 

in the crisp air of Autumn.

The blue of the sky is different,

the angle of the light has changed.

The trees get ready to put on a show, 

that thrills my soul to experience.

Autumn rejuvenates me;

it gives me back the energy that the heat of Summer drains away

I'm ready...

Entry with a Vintage Sunflower Print

I hadn't done much if anything, different with my Entry Area since I received the wonderful Sheep Print from Canvas Pop, earlier in the year. But now it's time for a little more "Late Summer" sprinkled around in here. 

Canvas Pop Print

In Harmony with Nature...

...or, what to do if you're easily bored while camping.

Just wanted to check in with you on our/my "camping" progress. We've had a couple of weekend trips; one to the river,(Southern Missouri trout fishing river) the other to a lake (NW Arkansas in the mountains). Both were good, relaxing, and I really enjoyed my time with Hubbs. We grilled steaks and pork chops and had smores (which I thought he'd complain about, but actually he was a trooper. And even though we forgot the long fork, we improvised with small kitchen forks, and it ended up being one of the more memorable moments of the trip)

(we didn't actually go to Lake of the Ozarks, but I love these vintage fold out postcards, 

so I thought I'd share that bit of vintage lake goodness)

Table top Conservatory

Little by little I'm making headway with some of my display pieces. This table top conservatory made of old windows and siding sat empty in the corner of the basement living area for months. I'm hoping, now that I have a few more decorative pieces unboxed, that I can keep it up to date with the seasons. So far I've only made one attempt, and that was in May, so it's still dressed for Spring... or late Spring... or early Summer.