My Quotidian Pursuits At The Cottage

Hello lovely friends,

These past few weeks have been full of all sorts of particulars. Let us have tea, shall we? I'm sipping some green tea {I am forever in need of an eensy bit of natural caffeine} with buttered biscuits {nothing fancy, the utmost simple Bisquick recipe} and the remaining bit of my strawberry preserves from last summer. 

I have managed to capture some delicate photographs as I've been really trying to create a much more lovely portfolio of imagery. I think I am well on my way to having never taken any professional photography classes. What do you think? 

I spent several days cleaning and deciding on a few lovely pieces of furniture for the cottage. I love the refinement of the Victorian Ornate era, but I also love the simplistic primitive humility of a little plain cottage.

I spent one whole day cleaning out the kitchen cupboards, drawers, pantry and guest room. I made 3 trips to the donation center. I must say I feel so refreshed and the energy is full and bustling through the cottage as if there's anticipation of wonderment to ensue. 

I rehung several of my iron skillets, revived a few that were rusted. I also found a new one that I picked up at the thrift store. It's the perfect size for a few scrambled eggs for breakfast mornings.

My BG and I spent time at the fresh market. I am always admiring their displays. It has such a quaint ambiance about it. I believe its the dim lighting that creates a moodiness effect.  

I found some yummy Walker butter shortbread cookies for my tea. I am sorely addicted to those cookie biscuits. I can't help myself from eating the package in its entirety. 

I have gardened and walked this little row of pebbled rocks so many times and yet I came upon these three hearts and I was so tickled to know that I was being blessed by the universe with my most favorite of signs.

More playing with my camera, lighting, and angles. I have not a clue what I'm doing but this is my place of creating and figuring it out as I go along. I hope you'll be patient with me as I find my way.

The gardener and I have been sleeping on a certain side of the bed. I have an injury in my right arm and my BG wanted to switch sides to see if he fared better too. Do you have a certain side of the bed you sleep on?

This week I stripped the bed and started fresh. I donated all the old comforters and sheet sets to the thrift store and picked up a new set at TJ Maxx with a high thread count. We now have one sheet set and I have always gone with white, for white is very versatile. I can bleach them and hang them on the clothesline. There is nothing more refreshing than the faint smell of fresh sun-dried linens.

Some brie cheese tossed in the oven with a touch of garlic and olive oil. I also toasted some sourdough bread in the oven with some freshly grated parmesan cheese. This to me is a meal in itself.

I spent some time on the internet looking for a china teapot to match some thrift store plates that I picked up for a few dollars. I am seeking a bone china teapot, and truly want it to match. I love the softness of the pink in this plate. Soft pink is also one of my brand colors, so I love using it for flat lays and styling.

courtesy of pinterest

I kept Jayne Eyre the movie playing in the background for almost a solid two weeks. When I am working I play the soundtrack at nausea. What type of music do you enjoy?

courtesy of pinterest

Blue is another of my brand colors so I like playing with teacups as they are one of my favorite things to collect. I think I shall eventually gather my bearings on a signature style that is all my own. I did some cookie baking this week. Lemon poppy seed cookies, they are not my favorite, but its variety I seek. I won't be making these again for quite a long time.

When organizing and purging, I take everything out and then sort through. I ask myself these three questions as I hold the items: Do I love it truly? Does it hold a negative memory or energy for me? Is it useful?

The Gardener and I went driving and he helped me seek places to scout out for photo shoots for my blog.

courtesy of getty

I wrote a quite eloquent author proposal for the Mercedes Benz dealership. I am shooting the photos for it this weekend, if the weather permits.

Florida weather has a peculiar way of teaching its residents a sense of adapting to the fickleness. Just when we are getting comfortable, the temperatures rise or we get rain showers with an inconsistency. The mugginess is definetly something to get used to.

I hung some photos of precarious gentleman folk in the hall, and painted up a few silhouettes of the gardener and i.

I made the gardener his tea. I love to try all sorts of different kinds. loose leaf tea is my favorite. We have a darling Teavana tea room in the mall about ten miles away from the cottage. I love to go there, smell and taste the samples of the day.

Yard sales and estate sales will never elude the gardener and I, even if we never buy a thing it's still so much fun to window shop.

Our Brandywine tomatoes have finally stopped dropping, but I can say we had the best bounty we've ever had. They were so wonderful. I had sliced tomatoes and cucumbers every day with my black eyed peas and johnny cake cornbread. The most perfect southern meal to be had surely.

This was an image, as well as the one below I found on Pinterest and its a great inspirational piece for a painting I'd like to paint this week. Do you keep secret pinterest boards?

I ripped apart a bunch more fencing and I plan to patch the pieces together and create a makeshift desk so that I can have a surface to sew on.

I'm purely desperate to get my hands back to smocking, embroidery, and sewing some beautiful summer dresses. I found a wonderfully soft weaved Pima cotton, and I'll be making a shirt out of it with ruffled sleeves, pearl buttons, and a peter pan collar. 

Heres my pile of original victorian clothes that I've collected over the past few years that need to be mended. I have such a pile, I think I may be forced to find new uses for them, as they seem to find themselves in the mending pile more so than I am able to wear them. They are in constant need of being tended to. 

Heres another cabinet {below} that holds medicines, vitamins and essential oils. I aged labels from the office supply store and then used my quill pen to calligraphy on the bottles. 

Here's a TTT {Treasure Trove Tip} when I had to start all over from scratch and I no longer had a supply of old bottles, I made sure that whenever we bought new spices, I'd always buy glass. I then would age the lids with paint to make them appear like they were rusted, and soak the labels off. The metal file drawers were one of the few things that my ex-husband mailed down to me so I stamped some labels with rubber stamps for the bottles. The oils and gummy vitamins are always being used up so I keep them in the same bottles and just hide those in the metal drawers.

 I spent many hours working on my book author proposal so that I can afford to pay for my 13 city book tour. I think it's going to be so much fun, that I can hardly wait. 

How have you been spending your spring thus far? Ihope your'e having a lovely time. 

If you havent signed up for my newletter "The Current" I'd love it if you did. I'm working on a giveaway for signing up, but I havent thought of anything spectacular yet. Do you have any ideas? I'd love to hear from you. 

The Quiet Days Of Autumn

“Hello, sun in my face. Hello you who made the morning and spread it over the fields...Watch, now, how I start the day in happiness, in kindness.” 

― Mary Oliver

Good Afternoon, my sweet friends, I was blessed with some lovely Victorian antiques by a dear friend of mine, so I began creating a lovely space in my art studio, which is now named "The Nursery." I named it that (a friend actually named it for me) because it's the place where all particulars are born and grown, from a darling child to my art and books, and my beloved's flowers. I thought it quite fitting. 

I noticed after taking this little photo, that I really love the purple, mauve pink like color. It's in my lamp, my little Magnolia Pearl Jacket, my linen pants, and several of my scarves. I think we are most certainly drawn to certain colors. 

 A beautiful wooden antique bread bowl from my dear friend. The cotton floral hankie is what I use as little placemats underneath our supper plates during mealtime. I find them much sweeter than placemats you'd buy in the store.

"Who Rescued Who"

" Mr. And Mrs. Betrothed"

 As many of you know I am very keen on wearing and preserving the old Victorian clothes that I don. If I have them, I most assuredly wear all of them. However, when doing this... there is bound to be particulars that are inadequate to mend or salvage. Hence, which is what occurred with this Victorian under slip from the early 1900's. I will always invigorate, so I decided to turn this one into an apron. I removed the sleeves and made them into pockets and used an old flat linen sheet for the ties. I am getting such good use out of it, not to mention... it's precious to me.

 I added some lace valances to the kitchen cottage window. Isn't lace exceptional!

 I conclusively hung my shelf from the thrift store in the kitchen, along with my old drying rack made from a gardening tree stake I found in a trash pile. It has the perfect amount of age.

I don't go a day without lighting candles of all kinds at the cottage. I find it soothing, romantic and a beautful elegance permeates the cottage when candles are all aglow.

 The Autumn and Fall months are a delight. The weather is lovely, but there is a small disparity of sorts with mosquitos. I have never enjoyed the smell of citronella even though they do eliminate the issue. I decided to make a few illuminaries for myself with essentail oils and use what I had. They turned out charming.

 Mr. Oliver Twistytop sniffing my Autumn arrangement of flowers.

 I planted my hyacinth bulbs from spring, and I am so excited to see what comes up.

My BG (Beloved Gardener) brought me home some hand me downs and none of the clothes were much to my liking, except for a darling little dress. It was a tiny size so I turned it into an apron. I am wildly obsessed with aprons! Can you tell? If any kind of fabric stays still long enough I'll surely turn it into an apron. (Heh...)

 I made an Autumn wreath from the fallen Confederate Jasmine from hurricane Irma.

 " But do life's plain, common work as it comes, certain that daily duties and daily bread are the sweetest things in life." ~R.L. Stevenson

I was determined to be successful with my sourdough starter this go around. I was very strategic. I watched it like a momma bird and it did not disappoint. I found the recipe in a Farmer's Almanac from before the Civil War. They would use potatoes as a sourdough starter becasue it was more common for them to have potatoes than it was milk on the prairies.

 I boiled them until they were able to be strained through a seive.

I'm so happy that it turned out and it tastes yummy. I froze a loaf for my parents to take to them on my next visit. 

 What I love about gardening is the variety of fresh vegetables that are in season. We had a nice tiny crop of cucumbers, squash, and heirloom tomatoes. My brother in law had a nice crop of onions, tomatoes and I think a few of his fruit trees gave him some sweet fruit. He lives where the ground is all clay so he can harvest more things than my BG and I can. It's lovely to share one's bounty with family.

 A little floral saucer that I picked up at the thrift store. It says "You Are Loved" and I love that daily reminder from God.

 I wanted some decor in "The Nursery" so I hung some dried roses with gold Washi tape. Have you ever used Washi tape? It's the lovliest thing around.

"Seaweed Bouquets"

 I was commencing on social media that I had attempted to make some peanut butter cookies for my BG and I and that I was discovering new recipes. I am creating a new little recipe box of receipts that I love. A sweet dear friend sent me a recipe she hand wrote with her peanut butter recipe and it was a big success. It was also the sweetest kindest gesture for her to send me a book of poetry, a teacup, vintage hankie, and her recipe. I had tears well up from the love I felt in that little gift package.

The cottage has been under renovation since I moved in, and I don't see it letting up anytime soon. (heh...)

 All the shelves and hooks in the cottage reveal something fresh always. I am forever changing the vignettes from flowers to candles, to vintage decor.

 I was feeling very Jayne Eyre this day and made myself a black lace apron for a more dressy look. It's not practical at all, but it's stunning to look at while wrapped about my waist. I may wear it with my Hallow's Eve costume and play dress up.

 Oliver and I having lunch outside and snatching up cuddles.

 Bonnets are the dandiest, they are the absolute most practical adornment for keeping the sun out of one's eyes. This one is my most favorite. I feel like a youngster when I'm wearing it, because I like to put my hair in ribboned pigtails. I feel a nostalgic child-like essence and it nourishes my inner spirit to the eenth degree.

 I'm not one to drink soda very often, however when I stop by the little retro candy store, I can't help but get a creme soda. I couldn't bear to toss it and so the spontaneous thought one day was to use it as a vase for the garden. I went on a jaunt one day after hurricane Irma hit because I was desperately needing flowers for the cottage. I couldn't hardly find anything, and then I saw these little daisy looking wildflowers and they straightaway made me go to the memories of my mother. Her most favorite flower is a daisy.

"How Well Did You Fair After The Storm?"

 Some of my art. I've begun painting oodles of fall images, which most assuredly will consist of crows, raccoons and graveyards. My Etsy shop is called RaquelMargaretCarter if you would like a commisioned piece.

"Adele At Thornfield"

I hope you are well and good my sweet darling soul spirited friends. Thank you for swimming by for a visit with me. I lovely love you!

Yours til my next swim, Raquel