Fall is Around the Corner: A Season Adorned

As we poured through the recent edition of our favorite magazine, Victoria, we discovered this beautiful wreath! It somehow makes the idea of a waning summer seem almost bearable, as we look to embrace the next season...fall. For directions to make this wreath, visit: http://www.victoriamag.com/features/a_season_adorned.php

We're off this afternoon to the Red Apple Farm to pick early apples, buy some wonderful homemade jam, and take in the ambience of a late summer day!

Silk: A Class Act on Main Street - Democracy & Dress in America

We were delighted to be able to view a wonderful exhibit on fashion at Historic Northampton, in Northampton, MA. The exhibit, of 18th and 19th century fashions was curated by costume historian, and author, Nancy Rexford. Rexford is author of detailed books on antique shoes and antique clothing, and wrote the forward to one of our favorite books, "Dressed for the Photographer: Ordinary Americans and Fashion, 1840-1900," by Joan Severa. The book contains many of the rare and unusual daggeurotypes from the H-N collection.



Back to the exhibit...our hearts skipped a beat as we saw a pink 1840's two piece ballgown with gold and pink fringe and an exquisite 19th century silk wedding gown replete with wax orange blossoms. The exhibit explored "democracy and dress in America", focusing on class differences as seen in early silk textiles. The exhibit was was artfully arranged and the gallery notes were wonderfully written, with many facts and details.

If you have a chance, you must visit! We guarantee you'll fall in love with the pink gown too!

“O, this life

Is nobler than attending for a check,

Richer than doing nothing for a bribe,

Prouder than rustling in unpaid-for silk.”

William Shakespeare

Our Favorite Things...Faded Fancies

The summer has brought with it many thunderstorms, and we couldn't help but be reminded us of one of our favorite movies, The Sound of Music. In the classic scene, during a thunderstorm, the frightened children join governess Maria in her bedroom. She sings "My Favorite Things" a song that helps her when she feels sad... Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens;
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens;
Brown paper packages tied up with strings...
Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes...

So, these are a few of our favorite summery things...all things old and sepia toned...faded fancies...whites and creams.
White lilies glowing in the moonlight;
A string of Japanese lanterns illuminating a nighttime garden;
A scarlet taninger perched on the back on an antique wicker garden chair;
The splash ring on the tile terrace under the bird bath.
The chickadee wearing its black mob cap as it tucks into our side porch roof each night before twilight.


Little girls with their best loved dolls

Ruffled white dresses (our Great Aunt in 1919)


Brides from long ago




Antique toile


All things French




Old lace


Seashells, white flowers, carousels, tea in the garden, old garden statues...