Donuts and Flowers

The past few days have been full of donuts and flowers for me.



I went to a lovely event with Recollection Vintage the other evening, and it was full of gorgeous eye-candy and inspiration. Beautiful flowers and vintage furniture. What is it with our connection with flowers? Is it all the petals that we like? The graceful folds? Is it the scent? The softness? I don't know - but I am such a sucker for fresh flowers.




After all that prettiness, I was craving sweets - so I decided to make donuts for the first time. Lemon ones with a light vanilla glaze. I had baked 36 of them with the intention of them lasting the week, but within two hours they were all gone. I had eaten six, with Brian polishing off the other 30, hehehehe.

If you'd like the recipe - check out the City of Dionne facebook page.

Out to the Farm

I am so excited!
In a few weeks, Brian and I are going on a farm tour where we'll have dinner with produce directly from that farm! I can't wait!
I love the rustic, self-sustaining nature of farms. Everything is so simple and pure. From the way of life, to the food, to even farmhouse style in interior design. I love it all!

I recently came across an etsy store called Old School Farm that specializes in lovely vintage farmhouse wares.



Owned by the lovely Kristen, Old School Farm is inspired by the 1700s and early 1800s New England with what Kristen loves "the quintessential towns with the village green and white church, stone walls, red barns, and lots of big old maple trees." She loves that when people back then needed something, they hunkered down and made it themselves, or found a friend who could make it. The quality of items back then were made to stand the test of time.



Kristen appreciates that back then - one was enough. She is inspired by how they lived their life back then with "one wooden bowl for making dough, one dress for special days, one blanket for bed. Absolute elegance and beauty in simplicity." And along with her appreciation for simplicity, and making things yourself, she loves to bake. Her baking repertoire would rival any pastry chef with cookies, muffins, pies, breads, brownies, cakes, cobblers, scones... I think I need to make a trip to Kristen's place! She also has a wonderful garden, with 100 strawberry plants and over 40 tomato plants. With all that produce, she also enjoys preserving and canning - and at this very moment, she has 40 batches of pesto in her freezer!


Kristen is generously giving away a prize to one lucky reader. The winner will have their choice between some lovely vintage kitchen tools, a perfect vintage plate for entertaining, or a charming vintage pie plate. To enter, please leave a comment here telling me what you'd simplify in your life if you could, and which of the three you'd like for your prize. I will announce the winner next week.

Mad Men

So who watched the Emmy Awards this weekend? I haven't watched an award show in at least three years, so when I finally did this weekend, I was excited to see that my favorite show right now Mad Men won Best Drama.



Have you all seen it? It stars the awesome Jon Hamm (who I first had a tiny crush on from his days on What About Brian), and is set in the stylish 1960s in an advertising agency. I absolutely love everything about the show - from the characters, to the clothes, to the set design. It's really interesting to catch a glimpse of the writers' perspectives of 1960s America; where it was OK for kids to run around playing with plastic bags over their heads, or for people to drink endless supplies of alcohol during the morning meetings at the office. So much has changed since then.




It makes me think about things that have changed since I was a little girl. While I wasn't born yet in the 60s, it's interesting to see how much has even changed since the 1980s. I remember a milkman would always come to our door to bring bottles of fresh milk, and then when we were finished, we'd leave the empty glass bottles at the door. I remember using type writers in early high school (which turned to computers in my last three years of school).

What are some things that you remember from your childhood that are almost unheard of today?

(The last two awesome images are from the Mad Men DVD set and Annie Leibovitz).
(The winner of the Revived Vintage Chalk Board is Kristen. Congrats!)

Chalkboard Love

Blackboards, chalkboards, whatever you want to call them - I have a thing for them.

I have a world globe that has been repurposed and painted with chalkboard paint, so now I can draw the countries in wherever I want. I also have a gorgeous black scroll chalkboard from Revived Vintage.



Revived Vintage is a lovely store run by Amy Weaver. She revives old vintage frames and transforms them into amazing chalkboards. My black one is a statement piece in our home, everyone comments about it. She has also started carrying vintage replicas because of the high demand for her pieces, and I can see why everyone is so eager to get one of her chalkboards - they truly are beautiful.


Amy's favorite color is white. It's the most prominent color in her home, and she even painted her children white for fun one day, hehehe. Her style is definitely Shabby Chic, and has reupholstered a lot of her furniture to give it that lovely feminine feel. From her home, Amy has been able to successfully quit a job in the medical field to sell her frames online full time.



Amy is giving one lucky reader their color choice of a Hollywood Regency Chalkboard! To enter, leave a comment here telling me what you'd do with the chalkboard if you won and what color you'd like it in (see the color selection here). I will announce the winner next week.

(PS. The winner of the Eclu giveaway is Kari. Congrats!)