Cabbage cravings...

With autumn come my cabbage cravings!

Oh, perhaps I need to say...

... should you ever want to invite me for dinner...

... please, oh please, do NOT serve me cabbage in any shape or form...

... not that I want to appear ungrateful...

... but the only way I can consume this particular produce...

... is with my eyes!

(Click on the image to see the whole image.)

This morning I woke up as the sun reached a few tentative rays far into the bedroom, as if trying to inject some life into the sleepy Swede snoring the sunny Saturday away. The same heavenly light bulb was soon seen with a victorious smile across its sunny countenance as yours truly scraped herself off the comfortable mattress and out into the world. 'The world' more specifically referring to an overgrown garden, where the bramble branches looked like something out of an 'Alien' movie, its thick, long, hungry arms ready to gobble up a small child any minute...

Oh, I am getting carried away here... where were we? Yes, a little morning gardening in the sun does a soul good. Not to mention mentioned garden. The more meticulous among you will however notice the moss framing every patio slab like a green, gooey metro map, but for now, let's just call it... rustic?

A warm welcome to all my new readers and followers and thank you, THANK YOU to those of you leaving such kind comments. I read every word and feel very humbled by your kindness. Again, I can only apologize that I am not able to visit all your lovely blogs at the moment...

Wishing you a sunny and wonderful week, with or without cabbage!

Helena

Autumn Table Decor and a Vintage Industrial Table

Hello!  We've been so busy lately so I'm a little late to the table decor party but I finally had a chance to put everything together yesterday and wanted to share it here on the blog today.  I also built a new table that we are planning to give away at our shop grand opening during a drawing which I'll show you below.  First up, our fall table.....

I really like to keep things simple and natural, whenever possible.  I also tried to use everything I already had.  The only thing I bought for this table were the pumpkin colored napkins for a steal on ebay ($11 for a set of 8) and the faux wheat and candles.

To keep things natural I used wooden salad bowls and my bread boards as well as the little rosewood dipping bowls.  I love the small pop of color the pumpkin colored napkins provide. 

To add a metal element to the table, I used vintage silver flatware, candle holders and salt and pepper shakers.

To continue with a farmhouse feel, I picked up some faux wheat at the craft store and placed it in one of my ironstone white pitchers.  Then I simply wrapped a piece of scrap burlap around it.

For the hutch, I added more faux wheat in a smaller milk pitcher and picked up some apples in the grocery store to put in my vintage dough trencher.  And of course, a couple of extra bread boards.  :)

My absolute favorite thing is the new rug my hubby bought for us for under the dining table.  I've had my eye on this rug at West Elm now forever and they finally went on sale for only $129.99.  That is our kind of bargain.  :)

The vintage industrial table under the subway art is the table I put together yesterday.  I was thrilled when my hubby told me he found a couple more scrap pieces of bowling alley floor remnants in our storage building so I went to Lowes and bought a bunch of iron piping and got to work.

I wanted to create something to give away during a drawing that we are having during the grand opening of our shop so this is what I came up with.  I happen to love it and I'm really looking forward to giving it away.

I can't wait to sit around that table at Thanksgiving with my family.  I love the holidays!  What are you thinking of serving this year?  Any traditions?

Recycled autumn...

Dearest blog readers,

Most of you know by now that I am a big fan of recycling material when decorating...

I therefore hope you will allow me to also 'recycle' some old photos from two years ago...

...as time is not on my side at the moment, but I still wanted to 

offer a little autumnal ambiance here on the blog...

Two years ago, there was a lot growing in the Swenglish garden and green house...

(Borlotti beans)

... some of which  (↑) I was more keen to devour with my lens than my palate...

Autumn walks in 'Conquers Land' made one Swenglish 'gatherer' very happy...

... and there was no stopping my desire to create little seasonal corners...

For now, I 'gather' ideas and try to be patient (not my strongest virtue...) 

until life offers the time and head space to create more corners and 

harvest the fruits of my create-hungry mind...

Thank you so much for visiting and a special thank you to Judita 

with the lovely blog Välkommen Hem! (=Welcome Home!), 

who gave me an award recently!

All the best,

Helena

New Series - Reader Redos

I think one of the things I find the most rewarding about designing and decorating is visiting the thrift store and finding a sad, inexpensive piece of furniture with good bones that just needs a little love.  I've always been able to instantly look at a piece and envision what it could be.  I truly enjoy that.  I also enjoy gaining inspiration from others and their finds and redos so I thought it would be a lot of fun to start a monthly series featuring thrift store before and afters from our readers.

Beginning in October, I will choose a reader redo to feature a couple of times a month, maybe more, depending on time.  I want you to send me your before and after photos of thrift store or garage sale finds that you've reinvented or repurposed and I will choose a couple (or more) to feature here on the blog a month.  You don't have to have a blog to do this, anyone can send them in.  Just provide me with a couple of photos of your piece and a detailed description of what you did to redo it, including whatever products (paint, sandpaper, etc) you used, as well as, your name.

Photos and info can be sent to ourvintagehomelove@gmail.com. 
Please put Reader Redo in the subject line. 

You can check out my thrift store redos by clicking here.

I think this will be a lot of fun!  It's my version of a linky party (which I have no idea how to do) but a little more personal.  I'm looking forward to featuring your project! 
Hope to see lots of redos in our inbox!

Did anyone work on a redo this past weekend?  I'd love to hear about it in the comments section!

Enjoy your day,
Diana

Wet windows in Lacock...

The summer of 2012 was a funny one here in south west UK. More rain than we ever thought possible became a lingering, daily visitor, overstaying its welcome by far and resulting in a summer that perhaps was not to everyone's taste - unless you are a mermaid... 

On the other hand (yes, I am humming ' Always look on the bright side of life' here - will you join in with the whistling?) this meant everything grew like crazy at the beginning of the summer, and windows like the one above, drowning in a lush, green veil, offered wonderful hope of nature's growing power...

All the photos today are from our neighbour village Lacock earlier this summer...

(Click on the image to see the whole image.)

...with the last one below showing the view of (-the back of-) Lacock Abbey 

coming back from a walk across the fields behind the village.

I am, again, very invisible in the blog world at the moment, and I long to find the time to spend more time here. Last week was spent in Sweden on a work trip and this week one of the things on the agenda is to organise a birthday party for one of my sons. I do love organising parties, I have to confess, and the challenge for me is rather to not go completely wild and crazy with too many creative ideas... Just don't be alarmed if you happen to stumble across a new and rather frightening professor from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry this weekend. It may very well be yours truly...

***

A huge thank you for your kind comments about my post from Paris. 

I see we are many who share the love of this wonderful city!

Wishing you a week full of light and happy moments!

Helena

Fall Porch Preview

I happen to love Autumn and Halloween.  Some of my most favorite memories with my dad are during Halloween when my children were younger.  He truly enjoyed that day, just like a kid himself.  Hubby and I always spent Halloween at my parents house along with my sister and it was so much fun.  We would take our kiddos trick or treating around the neighborhood with Mom while Dad cooked up a big pot of chili for all of us to enjoy.  Then when the kids were worn out, or maybe we were, we'd walk back to their house to enjoy a warm bowl of chili and it always smelled so good inside.  Warm, welcoming and home, you know?

While my youngest never got to meet his Papa, I'm glad his older siblings have those memories and share them with him often.  It's important to me that he know what a kind and fun man his grandpa was.  These days, I make my dad's chili for my family and we create new memories.

And while most of our kids are now too old for trick or treating, hubby and I still take our youngest and love to visit my parents' old neighborhood just so we can remember all the fun we used to have.  It's one of those special memories I will always cherish.  And I'm so thankful I can still go back there and remember....

Because of those memories, decorating for that season is always special for me and special for my family so that's what I spent this past weekend doing.   I want to make it fun for them because it's our tradition. It's not quite ready yet but I wanted to give you a little preview just to peak your interest a little.....

This year, I'm going all out on the decor.  :)  And I'm looking forward to finishing it up and blogging about the rest of the porch soon!

Enjoy your day!

Diana

Paris...mon amour...

(Click on the image to see the whole image.)

I think I always knew that I loved Paris, long before that summer, twenty-five years ago, when I first set foot in this magical, majestic, simply magnificent city of love. And that summer, I fell, head over heals, gasping and dizzy, in love with Paris and made a promise to myself to live there one day...

Two years later I made Paris my home for four months, whilst trying to make friends with the French grammar (yes, and some lovely people too), devouring most of the city's nutella-drenched crêpes and realising slowly but surely that Paris and I, yes, we had definitely started a love affair...

I have longed to show my sons this beautiful capital, and this summer I got the chance. As they are still quite young, eight and six, I was not sure if they were old enough to appreciate the attractions of a big city like Paris, but I need not have worried. They were just as smitten as I, and many were the moments when they grabbed my arm, squeezed hard and with big eyes exclaimed a long "Mamma, woooowww!"

We stayed in my favourite area, Montmartre, and one of the 'wow' moments was when, on our arrival at the hotel, we flung open the windows to find the view seen above in the first photo. Greeted by none less than the Eiffel Tower itself, across the roof tops of Paris, we sat down on the bed and just stared in awe. Yes, that was the first of many "WOWs"...

A new acquaintance of mine this visit, was the Parc Buttes Chaumont (19th arr), with - among other things - a splendid view across Paris, a lake and this (albeit man-made) 20-meter high waterfall and grotto!

The ancient city of Saint-Lizier, near Saint-Girons in the Midi-Pyrénées region

After a couple of days of grinning from ear to ear with Paris infatuation, we boarded the train to Toulouse, heading for the vintage wedding whose stunning decorations were featured here a little while ago.

Villages with an alpine feel and classic French shutters greeted us... 

oh, and Monsieur Le Chat too...

The pretty village of Aurignac (Click on the image to see the whole image.)

However, our French holiday seems like a life-time ago now, and having just returned from a work trip to Sweden, I am ready to take on autumn. Well, if what is on offer is a mild, sunny, summer-resembling one, that is!

Thank you so much for all your kind comments here and in e-mails. 

May your Sunday be a stunning one!

Helena

Kitchen Floors

I'm almost embarrassed to show you these photos.

White grout.  It's the bane of my existence.

I've spent many many hours on my knees scrubbing the grout between the tiles on our kitchen floor with a toothbrush.

Evidently, someone thought it was a great idea to put WHITE grout in a kitchen.  

That may or may not have been me.

And after 6 years of living here, and 6 years of scrubbing it with bleach, grout pens, sealer, you name it, this is how it looks.

Remember, it's supposed to be WHITE.

Pretty, huh?

No matter how much I cleaned our kitchen, it still felt dirty because of this nasty grout and I really thought our only hope was to rip it all up and put down something new.  But, we just don't have the time for that right now with the grand opening of our shop coming up.  So, what's a girl to do?

I've seen several blogs lately mention a product called grout refresher and while I was pretty skeptical, I decided to make a trip to Lowe's to try it out cause I just couldn't stand looking at our dirty stained grout any longer.  With holiday decorating right around the corner, I wanted our kitchen floor to be pretty again.

So, I grabbed a bottle of this stuff in white and settled in for another night of crawling around on my knees on the kitchen floor.

And boy, was it ever worth it.  This stuff is amazing.....take a look at the afters.

How's that for clean WHITE grout!  I was absolutely amazed!  

And I love our kitchen floor again!

 I did the kitchen, laundry and 1/2 bath off the laundry and even the counter tops and I feel like our floors are brand new again.

We still have the two cracked tiles in the doorway to the laundry and in a perfect world, of course I would love to have installed rustic wood floors in here but who am I kidding.  That's not something I want to dig into right now, nor have the time for.  And who cares!  With the floors looking new and CLEAN again, I'm totally happy.

If you decide to try this product out for yourself, here are a few things I learned while using it.

*A little goes a long way.  I applied small drops directly to an old toothbrush and applied that way instead of applying directly to grout.  Somehow less was used that way which is a lot easier when it's time to wipe off the excess. 

* Try to keep as much excess off the tile as possible because it is a bit difficult to remove once the wait period is over.

Other than those two things, I followed the directions on the bottle.

Have a great day!

P.S.  I'm NOT being compensated for this post by the Mapei company and they don't know me.  I just happen to have seen this used in blogland and wanted to try it out for myself and am totally happy with the results and wanted to share in case any one else suffers with grout issues.  :)

Biddestone beauties...

Just across the fields from our little town, lies the small village of Biddestone...

Like so many other villages around here, the CUTE factor is omnipresent...

Whether big house or small, the owners all seem to have green fingers...

... and even now in September, the petal power lingers and is sweet music for my eyes...

Peering into properties like these, I have to use all my willpower to restrain myself from skipping 

sideways over the little iron gate separating me from this tempting entrance... 

Anybody else feel an urge to tip-toe with me down this path and explore 

what lies beyond these fluffy balls of box?

Thank you all SO much for your kind, kind comments about our home in the last post!

Wishing you all a green and fluffy start to September!

Helena

(More photos from this village here, here and here.)