A Day on the Town

Yesterday, N took me on a sweet little "day-date" to one of my favorite towns, Cold Spring, NY. Cold Spring is a historic town on the banks of the Hudson River whose main street is lined with beautiful old homes and little antique shops. We walked around, in and out of the stores and warmed ourselves up with a hot lunch.  I also picked up a few vintage Christmas post cards for home...

A lovely day:) Hope yours was too!

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"A Book is a Gift that is Enjoyed Again and Again..."

I thought I'd take a short break from holiday posts for the day, and share one of my favorite gifts from last year (well I had a lot of favorites..but here's one).  My brother gave me this book, "Modern Vintage Style" by Emily Chalmers.  As you may have gathered early on, from my few mentions and from the title of my blog, I LOVE vintage and antiques (surprise! join the club, right? ;) I grew up in a family that has been passionate about antiques since before I was born. After I was born, I joined my dad on many trips to barn auctions and antique shops. He was choosing things to decorate our family home, furniture, light fixtures, etc. and I would usually be allowed to choose a small item or two for myself (tended to be a doll of some sort, or tiny perfume bottles).  And so began the collecting...

One of the hardest things I find as an adult, other than stopping myself from buying everything I love, is incorporating my love of vintage into my contemporary home. N and I own a small yellow bungalow style house that boasts freshly painted walls and clean new lines. Obviously my dream is to live in a huge old farmhouse, which would of course scream for the decorations of my particular taste. Since this is a faraway goal, I am confronted with the challenge of making my vintage style mesh with a modern home. My other challenge is that a lot of our larger pieces of furniture were hand me downs, or urgent low cost purchases, so mixing the new with the old successfully is an on going project for me. 

I will not lie, and say that our home even comes close to the fabulousness of the pages of this book, but I find the book to be a great source of inspiration and well, lovely eye-candy;)

 Aren't the photos just gorgeous? I think Ms Chalmers would approve of our "Podunk Ladies Quilt", don't you? I especially love the way this book is written, giving meaning and worth to each room, and presenting ideas along with encouraging advice...

 But mostly, I just enjoy the photos;)

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Cheerful Holiday Greetings

About three years ago, to cheer N up on a gloomy day I drew a mouse family for him..At the time we had a little white mouse as a pet, named Ralph, so I drew "A Family for Ralph" and left it for N to make him smile. And that's where the silliness started...after that it was "kitchen mouse" for my friend Nikki, and "Sombrero Mouse" for my fiesta-loving friend Jessica...

I started drawing mice in funny little costumes and situations because ..they made people smile! Pretty soon I had amassed a small stack of mouse drawings and (thanks to help from my Ma) decided to turn them into greeting cards, journals etc. to hopefully spread their smile factor a little farther. 

 Today I'm sharing the "holiday collection" (wink). These guys are available for purchase as greeting cards, ornaments, aprons, etc. at my Zazzle shop "SarahLocascioDesigns" or as prints, cards, and more at my Fine Art America Shop. 

 

Check me out! See if "Christmas Mouse" and "Hanukkah Mouse" don't make you smile;)

Have you started writing or sending holiday cards yet? I need to get started!

my Zazzle shop "SarahLocascioDesigns" 

Fine Art America Shop

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A Cozy Visit

The day after Thanksgiving, N and I took a much needed trip up to my mother's childhood home in upstate New York. I kid you not, the property is called "Podunk" (Yes there really IS such a place), which I find particularly amusing because its kind of in the middle of nowhere, as the saying goes... Anyhow, My grandmother lives close to the property, and our relatives were in from Oregon for the holiday, so we had a wonderful little reunion for the weekend. 

 Many years ago, when my grandfather passed away, my mother and father took over his property.  An old farm house on many acres of rural farm land, it's surrounded by hay fields, corn fields and miles of open blue sky. When my grandfather was alive, he ran a cross country ski shop on the property and my parents have turned the sweet red barn that was the shop into a cozy cottage/cabin.  Meanwhile the main house, which has been home to renters for the past several years, is up for some renovation.  N and I decided not to tow "Sunny" up with us due to the bitter cold that descended on New York last week, so we opted to stay in my mothers childhood bedroom in the empty farm house, about 20 yards from where the rest of the family slept, in the ski shop turned cottage...

We cozied up in the little blue room with blankets from cottage's blanket chest.  I wanted to share a few photos of the awesome quilt that kept us warm the past few nights...

The whole quilt is made up of hand stitched squares that the "Podunk Ladies" quilting group made in 1976.  They were a local sewing group made up of all the neighborhood ladies, and my grandmother won the final quilt in a raffle.It's especially fantastic because each of the squares (made up of many, many awesome little snippets of all different fabrics) is "signed". The signatures were hand stitched on by each of the ladies that worked on it. I distinctly remember this quilt from my childhood visits, reading all the beautiful and old fashioned names (Betty, Mabel, Charlotte...) and admiring the embroidery work.  No two pieces of fabric are the same and there are sooo many amazing prints!! I had just as much fun our first night this weekend looking at it once again, and running my fingers over all those sweet names and beautiful stitches...

 Here are a few more details of the quilt, as well as a few other little bits from the house that I love. The pink shell light fixture that hangs in the bedroom; bold navy, blue, and white wallpaper in the dining room; and a very cool reddish orange spice rack from the kitchen...

Podunk is one of my favorite places, I will be sharing many more snapshots and stories as time goes on...but how fabulous is that quilt!? :)

Hope you all had as wonderful of a holiday as we did.

Sweet Little Package

Just before Thanksgiving, I found a wonderful surprise in our mailbox...

My sweet friend Jessica sent us this beautiful handmade needlepoint of our last name!  I just love receiving special things in the mail, especially wonderful handmade ones;) (Check out her awesome ombre technique with the tan to brown lettering!)

Thank you to Jess for making my day ...Xo

A Table Set

I know I'm crazy, setting the table the day before...But I wanted to get everything just right, and didn't want to be rushing around tomorrow laying the place settings. 

There's my nifty new owl pitcher, and the birdie salt n pepper shakers are from the tables at our wedding.  

I also decided to do the strips of brown paper (instead of covering the whole table) because we will be 8 people at a 6 person table, and I thought sectioning off each persons plate would make it feel a little more organized, personal-space wise...(I'm missing 4 chairs in the photos, I know, waiting on N to come home to help me get the spares from the attic...)

I'm pretty pleased with my low budget table-scape;) what do you think?

To see how I made my napkin rings, click here

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Gathering the staples...and feeling thankful

Readying the house and kitchen for the holiday...making ahead, what I can...thinking of the many things I'm truly thankful for..the list is long...

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A Happy Little Purchase

I know, I know..more owls..but isn't it cute!? 

I mean could you have walked by this, seen the $3.00 price tag, and NOT gotten it? ...Ok, so maybe I didn't need it, but I wanted it, and now I have a little pitcher to hold cream for coffee and tea this Thursday at our Thanksgiving gathering!

 See!? It has many uses..very multifunctional, which makes it a completely justifiable buy;)

I hope you all had as lovely of a weekend as N and I did here...

(This "happy little purchase" was made at our local Christmas Tree Shop, just in case you're interested... )

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George and Dolly

Meet George and Dolly...Our two very sweet cockatiels:)

If you aren't familiar with cockatiels, let me tell you, they are very smart...They can't exactly talk the way parrots and larger birds can, but they can mimic sounds very well and sometimes even a manage few words.  

George is our old man:) He was N's bird when we met, and he has had him for 18 years...George can brush his teeth (makes a very convincing swishing noise), He loves the song "happy birthday", especially when you whistle it to him;) He can make the sound of car alarms, the Nextel "bleep" and loves to ask "what are you doing?". He has a real thing for toothpicks, loves to play with them, and is an excellent kiss giver..making the little peck noise when he kisses:) George loves orange juice A LOT , and will tap on the edge of your glass for a sip...He also loves spaghetti..earning him the nickname "Spaghetti George". He cant be left alone in my craft room because he loves all things tiny and shiny, and makes a huge mess of sewing pins, beads, jewelry findings etc. (Its happened too often)...but seriously, how can I be mad at a face like that??

Miss Dolly...We got Dolly 4 years ago. We thought George would like having another bird in the house, so N took me to the pet store and we chose Dolly for my birthday...Dolly immediately fell in love with George..she constantly tries to woo him with kissy noises and little songs (he's not having it) Only occasionally, when no ones looking, will we catch George in Dolly's cage;) (sneaky guy, not fooling anyone) Dolly is a bit of a spaz, and by that I mean charmingly dopey..she hops when she walks and cant really fly, but she's sweet and loves having her head massaged. If I ignore her on my shoulder, she'll steal my earrings right out of my ear (Verry annoying), But she's beautiful and sweet, and I love her...

Our guys are a huge part of our little family, they watch TV with us, hang on the couch and follow us around from room to room like a dog would, I'm not kidding.  Birds aren't for everyone, but to us they are amazing, loving, and loyal pets...and I cant imagine our lives without them;)

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Athena's Snow

And so..the next storm has arrived, though Winter Storm Athena entered much more gracefully, with a white sparkly beauty about her...

The first snow of the season is such an exciting moment...after a short walk outside to investigate the cold fluff, I settled in with my book ( I'm currently reading "La Cucina" by Lily Prior), a hot mug of tea and some chocolate..."chocolate?" you say? Yes chocolate...maybe it's strange, but something about tea and chocolate is wonderful to me. It might be the way the heat of the tea melts the sweet chocolate in the most delicious way...is that weird? ;) 

This sweet little Mama Hen mug was a gift from N a few years back, and I just love her...I have always loved choosing the right "mug for the moment", and today seemed like a good day to have Mama Hen as company...

Happy Snow!

:)

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A Chilly Walk With A Little Peanut

Meet Peanut..Our sweet little 3 1/2 yr old Yorkshire Terrier. We got Peanut when she was about 8 weeks old, and she quickly became the center of our little family.  At the risk of sound like "one of those people"...I will say, that she is my baby.  Peanut can make any gloomy day better with a little snuggle, and has brought us a lot of joy.  She joins us on many adventures, from car trips (her least favorite..) to camping trips.

Peanut is snuggling up in her favorite place (our bed of course), warming up after our chilly walk today. It has gotten much colder out in the past few days, but the sun was shining this afternoon so we went for a romp around the neighborhood, gathering some little bits of pretty seeds and berries to bring back home for a small vase...

Meager findings...but rather pretty in their simpleness, don't you think?

 Peanut did;)

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