Gorgeous Greengate!

The Danish company Greengate has such a delicious array of items. Browse the PDF catalogue on their site.

Yes, a lot of this is reminiscent of Cath Kidston. But there is room for all the pretty things, right? If not, make room! That's my motto. Would it were that Greengate was available in the U.S. No such luck! Patently unfair. Another reason to live in Europe for half the year :).

crazy cool! : made with love by hannah

What a wonderfully free spirited, idiosyncratic artist!http://madewithlovebyhannah.com/WordPress/

Don't miss the too-short video tour of her house and yard, at her etsy page:

http://tinyurl.com/cc95tw

I like a gal who knows just wants she likes and goes after it, great guns, and must admit that I share her fascination with Alpine/Bavarian and Dutch themed stuff. Her collection of cuckoo clocks is knockout, and her studio with the raspberry pink walls is a house of fun. Oh, and the clothes she sews n' sells? Too cute for words:

I think that mushrooms are growing on me. Well, not literally ON my person ... I mean, I have just never been particularly attracted to toadstools. I associated them with mid-to-late 70's designs on dishes and kitchen linens, in colors I've never cottoned to (those golds, greens, browns). I am SO not a gold, green, brown person. Maybe these things are getting into my universe via the Polka Dot Addiction That Cannot Be Cured. Look at them! Red with polka dots. For this alone, Hannah gets my vote for immediate Goddess of Craftiness & Creativity induction in the pantheon. I know other people have done the mushroom+polka dot thing, but it seems most at home in her world than anywhere else.

"Merry", I think that's how I would describe the exuberant expressions of her talent. That and "juicy"!

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(Images are permission of their owner, madewithlovebyhannah.com. Please contact her for repro rights).

Blog blab.

http://aauumm.blogspot.com/

Colors to savor! Textures, light, children, dogs, friends, water ... this is the Ukraine as I'd never imagined it.

It's all good.

Pretty Pictures

I have started up and then abandoned so many blogs. It's reading other peoples' blogs that always makes me go back and want to start up again!

The other blog I currently "run" is The Picture of Pretty(http://thepictureofpretty.blogspot.com/). It's been over three months since I posted anything there, in fact I'd forgotten I even had it! But I obsessed over the masthead for so long with that one that I've decided to let it stand. And that Isaac Mizrahi bow sleeve on a tangerine dress is such lovely eye candy that it mustn't be put to waste.

Or (worse) forgotten.

I am trying to curtail my decades' long habit of reading the high fashion magazines (Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, etc.) Figure it wasn't helping my Everywoman body image issues. But ... I do miss the breathtaking dresses! The editorial layouts, particularly in Vogue, especially the Spring and Fall versions.

Sigh.

Like Popeye said, I am what I am what I am. And what I am is a very visual person. With a very harmless vice.

Bring on the glossies!

I'm "blog candy" on Dear Daisy Cottage!

The wonderful Kim McCole, proprietress (dare I hostess with the mostest) of Dear Daisy Cottage has now listed Buttercup Bungalow on her blog candy page!

Wow. Huuuuge honor.

Clearly I must step up my game ... which means, first off, blogging more frequently than in fits and starts every other month.

Daisy chain, daisy chain, daisy chain, I'm a part of the daisy chain! (Cue the not yet-self-satisfied smile of a neophyte blogger. Haven't eaten the canary yet!)

I'm off to unpack my new Johnson Brothers Old English Castles dishes. Two small transferware bowls (fingerbowls?) in red and white destined for use as catfood dishes. If you knew how much I love my cat and how picky I am about what she eats from, you'd understand that this is a good thing. English china for the cat ... of course!

Some rules are made to be broken.

New china!

I've been haunting the home goods section of Marshall's again! These are from Godinger, a pattern called "Antique Reflections". I already had a delicate mug from the same line, and now I'm looking forward to seeing what further treasures my favorite store will turn up next.

These were just $1.99 each! I am addicted to china. Won't pay full price, but that's half the fun.

Tea and books, books and tea.

For such a little word, "tea" holds all sorts of connotations. It's deceptively simple on the surface (leaves + hot water = tea) but when considered in the cup, on the tongue, in the history of humankind, it is anything but that.

Tea means many things to many different people, in different places. I was reminded of this recently when reading "The Book of Tea" by Kakuzo Okakura. It's a fascinating read. As he so elegantly points up, the culture of tea is complex.

My own relationship with tea and the trappings of tea has been deeply influenced by my Anglophilia, which I am absolutely convinced began the first time I escaped on my own into the world of Kenneth Grahame's Wind In The Willows. If you've never known the company of Mole, Ratty, Toad and Badger, it's time you do! These (mostly) gentle woodland fellows lead eventful lives in the English countryside, where their relationships, idylls and adventures are entertaining and full of wonder. It's a book I've returned to time and again, and everytime I do I find that seven year old girl inside of me is alive and well. It's good to be reminded of that, sometimes. I think it might actually be necessary. For the sake happiness, you know?

Other books which go well with a cuppa (though they are outstanding on their own): Anything by James Herriot, and Jane Austen, for a start. In more contemporary times, I've read and re-read Raffaella Barker's Hens Dancing and Summertime more times than I can remember, both for their daffy fun and their affectionate descriptions of the Norfolk countryside. Reading about the life of bumbling single mother Venetia Summers and her brood of three, I always come away refreshed by the knowledge that at least my life is not quite as crazy as all that. I do admire her pluck, though. Pluck is good!

Now that summer is here, the living may or may not be easy ... but so long as I can find a spot in leafy shade, a good read and a glass of peach iced peachd tea, it will be some fortification for the coming winter doldrums. (Egads, am I already thinking of winter when summer hasn't officially arrived yet?!)

I've been living too long in New England, maybe.