its Monday and...

I am so happy...(okay, I am happy & excited,& running around a bit like a crazy busy person)...this Saturday, October 2nd!  is the Remnants of the Past Vintage show.  I know many of you, if you are fortunate enough to live within a few hour! drive, mark your calendars twice a year and make the drive to Nipomo, and the beautiful, rustic Dana Powers property...


For those of you looking to come up and join us, I am including  a link to Judy Watkins' (hostess, visionary, creator, dream maker, all around very talented lady, and my good friend) website here...Remnants of the Past
You can wander around her site, check out all the wonderful dealers coming to the show...and they are really, really wonderful!....get directions...and follow Judy's blog...(by the way, Judy is the talented woman who first got me interested in this whole blogging thing...

I am including a few photos from Judy's blog of some of the dealers coming to the show...so many tempting, beautiful lovelies!!!

here is a view inside the barn....so many things...never enough time!

3 fine grains....I adore this chair!

Indulge...need I say more?

I love this little collection...everywhere you look...something yet more wonderful

I love these shaving brushes from the Junk Girls

see that sweet little settee?  that one came home with me!

 I will try to post a few photos of some of the goodies I am bringing later this week...In the meantime...I am heading outside to finish a fabric screen (or will it be a headboard? or a memories board....)
thanks as always for following along!
kate

a white Wednesday...

Isn't the wandering world of blogging amazing!  I just discovered  Faded Charm 

from reading a site I discovered a bit ago...A secret garden cottage
...and  I discovered white Wednesdays...!
...and through White Wednesdays, even more amazing sites...I am feeling a little bit like Alice in Wonderland!

I am SO new at this...and I am having such fun navigating through everyone's amazing sites...thank you all for being so creative, so talented and truly inspiring...

There is something in the air...

Can you feel it?  There is just "something" about the changing of the seasons...even here in Coastal Santa Barbara...the light in the garden starts to change subtly...getting somehow softer around the edges...and there is just a touch of crispness to the air...I can smell the sea salt coming off the ocean...it is as if all my senses attune to the differences...I want to be outside "in it" somehow...just to walk along the beach,  water my fading roses, or watch the robins and rabbits going about their daily chores...I have a list of errands I "MUST" run today, but then I am heading to the farmers market, and after that, outside to work on a few projects...I can not wait!

Taking a deep breath and off I go!

I know it is a cliche but TGIF!

Thank goodness, it is Friday! Once summer is done, and the fall is here, I start a whirlwind of preparations for upcoming shows and events...that means the casual days of summer flea market and estate sales are indeed past, and the scurrying to fill in the gaps between my imagined look for the upcoming shows & REALITY is ON!!!!
First comes Remnants of the Past...for those of you who do not know this show, it is such a beautiful venue, an old barn in the middle of orchards and a picture perfect backdrop of California foothills...

50 dealers from California and Washington and distant parts gather together for an amazing vintage show that is a little bit "Round Top", a little bit Country Living, and SO MUCH MORE! I really feel that I must bring my "A" game to this show...everyone is so creative! WOW!

Anyway...my vision for this show is slowly coming together, but I always try to add something new, to push the envelope a bit, to find that special something that someone out there will think is special too! ...something that takes an everyday item and reshapes it to something fresh and new...I have a few pieces that I am working on right now...and they are a bit challenging...we will see!

Then on top of the work...(well it is fun work!) I have been reinventing my website and blog...hope you are still with me...

and then, finally, today I was hit by a hacker in my Paypal account...YIKES!!! I am usually a calm person, but I think my blood pressure spiked! After hyperventilating, changing passwords, and venting (just a bit and only to my older son (a very sympathetic listener by the way), so that no one's feelings would get hurt!) I think things have settled down, but TGIF!!!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!
Kate

Summer is gone and....

Have you ever had days that felt frantic, frenetic and overdone? I feel like the summer was a series of days just like that...I had all the hope in the world that I would be reveling in blissful days of sunshine; evenings on our back patio, grilling something delectable; bright, beachy days surfing with my husband and sons, and fruitful days of work and accomplishments...

Well...some of those wishes did, in fact, come true...but first of all, where WERE those warm sunny days of summer? My vegetable gardens moped and struggled along in our cloudy days...and sitting outside for an evening under the stars? too cool to try it very often I am afraid...(though it was fun to bundle up, get a fire going outside and talk into the night with a good glass of wine, and s'mores for dessert!) And surfing...hmmm...my husband got all of us out surfing all last year, learning how to stand up, catch the rollers, and hang on...and we were truly looking forward to a summer of "hangin ten", only to find that the waves were pretty much non existent here in Santa Barbara...our Pacific Ocean looked much more like a lake this year...
So, we worked on projects all summer long... a new roof here, new stairs there...trimming here, there, and everywhere...and though we accomplished SO MUCH, it started to feel like a marathon, (and one I had not trained for!) My husband is amazing...he stayed with it, ticking things off the list, day by day...and I did my best to keep running along...but, frantic, frenetic and overdone...that is how I felt by the end of August...
And now September is here! I am happily preparing for my upcoming shows...Remnants of the Past, October 2nd...and the CALM show in Mid October...here are a few finds I will be bringing along...I can not wait! Be sure to join me...check out the Remnants show (www.remnantsofthepast.com) It is a wonderful show...great dealers, and a purely magical day... I hope to see you all there!

in the garden...

I had a wonderful opportunity to visit a few gardens in the last several weeks...one, a masterful kitchen garden, had me dreaming of summer bounty & rushing home to create new raised beds(we have moles, gophers & sweet bunnies, all more than happy to enjoy the fruit of our labour) and fill them with the seeds of summer...lettuces, tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, basil, cilantro and many, many plants of peppers (my guys do love their serranos!)
And the second, Portland's famed rose gardens, had me snapping photos like a mad woman, and looking at my own feeble attempts at lush beautiful blooms with a bit of a jaundiced eye I must admit...
Both visits got me to thinking, quite a bit, about what makes us head out to potter around in the dirt...
I love being out in the garden...I have dreams (often frustrated, I admit) of a fine English garden, filled with bounteous roses, masses upon masses of every lovely perennial nestled comfortably side by side with one another, happily co existing and creating an harmonious whole...I love the challenge of trying to create colours and textures that suit a southern California climate and sensibility, while still echoing those amazingly abundant, overflowing riches of a Somerset garden...sigh! Then too, I have a son who will constantly remind me to be xeroscapically minded (that is, conscious of my use of resources and native plants, hence, new vegetable beds in the place of grass & drought friendly beds)...and a husband who will remind me of the value of form vs function...aesthetics vs practicalities...so now, I have quite a mix in my garden...roses, yes!, but also lavender, licorice plant, mexican sage, bush sweet peas, rosemary, and society garlic...they are not quite flowing merrily into one another's space, but they do blend, and they are happy to exist with minimum water...it works, most of the time, but does have times where it looks either wild and overgrown (the times when I do not give the time to be out in my garden) or tired and hot...(and I sympathize,because usually by that point I am feeling the same way)
I said I love being out in the garden, but I have found that I can too easily be pulled away by the urgent, the immediate, and it can be days, or even weeks (or more if I am brutally honest) until I can go out to water, trim, and tend...and my garden shows and suffers when that happens...isn't that, not to put too fine a point on it, much like everything in life? If I allow myself to be distracted, to be pulled away, by things "urgent", immediate, and "necessary", I can miss the important, the quietly beautiful, the best things in my day to day life...and they suffer, and it shows in my life...
I am taking time this summer to take more time...in the garden, (my vegetable beds are coming along beautifully, and my "english gardens" are thriving...as to my roses...I will get back to you on that topic!)
And I am also trying to see distractions for what they are, and to focus on the true, the rich, and the meaningful...For me, family, friends, and TIME...here's to all of that and more for all of you!

Mid May! Where did the time go? Oh! I know...

Whew! Just beginning to resurface after one very hectic, wonderful, challenging and incredible 4 (or so) weeks! Just after I started this little venture, I got busy getting ready for my FAVOURITE show...Remnants of the Past...what an amazing time! To say it was beautiful is an understatement...to say we all had an incredible time, really does not capture it...seeing all my favourite folk...the dealers who come to this show each time, and new favs, all the great ladies (and gentlemen (to be fair to those guys that brave this world)) that visit us here...what a true and rare blessing! The only problem is that it just goes by in a blur...I found myself just wanting more time...more time to talk with each person that stopped by my booth, more time to look around and take it all in, more time to shop, (never enough of that!) and more time to enjoy what brought us all together for that amazing day...
Once it was over and my husband, sons and my older son's sweet girlfriend (did you get a chance to talk with her at the show? She helped me out all day while the menfolk played a round of golf) got everything packed up ready to head for home, we stopped at Full of Life Flatbread in Los Alamos...remember I mentioned finding that special restaurant wherever we find ourselves??? This is definitely one of those...so good and so perfect to complete the day...gourmet flatbread pizzas, (grilled shallots, sun dried tomatoes, fresh basil...oh, just the memory makes me want to get in the car and head on up there!) and homemade toasted marshmallow s'mores...oh my oh my!
No time to rest after the show, because then it was time to get ready for our younger son's college graduation...sigh! Did not think I would be so emotional (oh really? this from the woman who sniffled uncontrollably when dropping him off at pre school) We were very blessed to share a family celebration where we laughed a lot and shared great memories of our son's growing up (a little embarrassing I must admit, but he took it all with a good heart)
Then on to the CALM antiques show in Santa Barbara...two days setting up and three days to meet, greet and chat...what a pretty show...I always feel like some of those dealers have got it SOOO together...and some of them are what I want to be when I grow up! If you got a chance to come by, did you see Kymberley's booth...3 Fine Grains...stunning! I kept going back over and over to ooh and ahhh... And then Dan Marty's Maison Au Naturel...all I can say is...I really NEED that industrial shelf and bin unit...(okay maybe not need...but oh how I loved it!)

Catching up now, my sweet husband and I are away from home, resting (sleeping!) and restoring...enjoying undivided attention...talking about all sorts of things that matter...planning, dreaming and preparing for a busy summer ahead...

Blessings to all of you...thank you for stopping by and chatting at the shows...thanks for your kind emails and comments...keep em coming! I enjoy spending time catching up with you guys...