~FARMHOUSE STYLE SOAP MAKEOVER and LOVELY VINTAGE FINDS~

Beautiful aging laces, old ribbons, trims and delicate millinery florals have always been my weakness!  Many years ago when my Mr. AGP Man and I married we began tag sale shopping and even now we favor both the planned and unexpected road trips in order to hunt down the best aging finds. I do buy some things online~  But, I'm one of those people who love to see things in person I'm afraid!

While my studio is filled with lots of lovely old treasures I'm always on the hunt for more.  Especially hard to find velvet millinery roses and flowers in soft creams, whites and the lightest of blush pink...

Seems like everyone is using them to create their own specialties these days or they purchase them for their own private collection.

 

So, when I do stumble upon a sale where there are piles of laces, embroidered cottons, linens or even the best vintage sewing materials, it's almost impossible to drag me away.  When my Miss K was still living in Oklahoma she would often go with me just to "guard" my stash while I continued to shop around...  Now that she lives far away (more about this later!) my guy and I are on our own.

Over the Memorial Day weekend we traveled to Dallas and returned home with some wonderful finds.  Mostly architectural elements and reclaimed wood pieces that will be used for sign making in my business.

  But, I did snag some old laces and the millinery flowers you see at the top.  Now that I'm officially back working from home (and loving it!) I'll be putting it all to good use.

 

 Wrapping these Italian Soaps in soft linen was so easy to do!  You should try making some for your own home...they make great gifts, too.  All I did was wrap a purchased bar of Italian Soap in fabric, secure and tie up with tattered linen before adding a stamped label to the front.  I offer the Soaps in my booth at Serendipity Market in Edmond, Oklahoma!

Perfect for the Farmhouse Style Bath and they make my booth smell sooo good!

Yesterday was the first Tuesday I haven't worked outside my home in almost four years.  It felt so strange to get up, brew a pot of tea and make a slew of different choices for my day! 

All is well.

Blessings~

Rebecca

~ANTIQUE BOOK OF KNOWLEDGE...Un-box and Be Kind~

Recently my big sister headed out from her Tennessee home bound for Oklahoma to help my Mother and I go through some of my late Father's belongings.  A grueling task for any child, grown or not, and neither one of us were looking forward to the experience.

Honestly, I was dreading it.

  

What on earth could be so important that my Father would carefully pack and label each box with it's exact contents?

Things very dear to him, I suppose.

 The storage clear-out was at least a decade in the making and none of us knew just what we'd find.  My Dad had been incarcerated inside a nursing home for almost eleven years when he passed away in February 2014 and the unit hadn't been touched since the day he first stepped through it's front door.

We found the typical things often found after a loved one has passed~old greeting cards, letters and photos, long forgotten gifts and many personal items.

As a Clergyman, my Dad was always reading and studying and could never pass up a book sale or tag sale.  He had an endless hope of discovering something interesting to add to his ever growing assemblage of writings.

 He loved the hunt of that rare old find and over the years amassed quite an impressive library for someone of meager fare.  So, it was of no surprise to the three of us to find boxes and boxes full of books.

Tons of books.

Hundreds of books.

Thousands of books.

Some were old.

Most were vintage.

And many were true antiques dating back to the 1700's.

One twelve volume set really caught my eye.  The Book of Knowledge, The Children's Encyclopedia, was a beautiful leather bound set of books that I took the time to thumb through...

My Father must have really loved these books as they were wrapped in a soft cloth and tied up with string.

 First published by The Grolier Society back in 1868 with this edition being dated 1919.  Almost 100 years ago now.

 Each volume is filled with the most amazing things!  Lots and lots of early photographs, small black etchings and the instructions on how to do so many wonderful projects.

Plus...many stories and poems to make you both laugh and smile.  I was especially taken with the tale of

The Beauty and the Beast.

I'm afraid I'm used to the Disney version...

 I loved reading about the "women" writers of England...like

Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters.

It's incredible how far we've come in a century.  My grandmother was born in 1916~two years before the books were published.  I can just see her flipping though these pages years ago much like I peruse the internet today.

Still...there is something about holding an old book in my hands.  I love the way they smell and feeling it's weight and turning each tattered page.  I love finding my way to the end and feeling like I've completed something...

I can't help but wonder what my children are going to say when they find the things I've held dear and meet up one day to un-box them.

I certainly hope they will be kind.

~*~

Thanks Daddy, for holding onto your treasures.

You knew one day I'd find them in the very place you left them.

Gosh...I miss you.

Blessings~

Rebecca

~MEMORIAL DAY REMEMBRANCE~

 A heartfelt thank you to my precious family members who have served our country over the years...

My grandfather (greats and beyond!), dad, father-in-love, brother, son, son-in-love, nephews, cousins, uncles and aunts and so many more.

Plus our friends and their loved ones and all the other men and women who have faithfully represented our nation during both war and peace times.

Your sacrifices are noted and we are grateful and thankful for all you have done for us.

~*~

The longer I live the more I understand 

FREEDOM IS NOT FREE.

SOMEBODY,

SOMEWHERE,

PAID THE PRICE

FOR MY FREEDOM.

 

~*~

May God continue to bless our country.

I hope you have a wonderful day remembering the sacrifices made by your fellow Americans, family members and friends.

Blessings~

Rebecca

~GONE JUNKIN'~

My nearly four year long job at Serendipity ended on Friday and this morning my Mr. AGP Man make our way to the Big D to do some shopping for the Memorial Day weekend...

It's been a really long, long time since we went anywhere just for fun...and for no reason.  I'm excited about our trip, even though it's only for a couple of days.  We plan on doing some serious JUNKIN' along the way and I hope to return with some wonderful finds.

Really though...I'm just happy to be able to enjoy some scenery outside of Oklahoma and have some long overdue conversation with my long-time hubby and best friend. 

What I know for sure is that next week I will begin my life again as a completely self-employed person...

My first thought this morning was that I was so glad my guy has a stable job with insurance!  HA! :)

Pics to follow...

Blessings~

Rebecca

FRENCH LINEN PILLOWS with a BRONCANTE FEEL

 Everywhere you go these days it seems shops are filled with anything and everything inspired by the European markets and vintage flea market finds.  My own little corner of the retail word is no different.

 I'm constantly working on new things to offer my customers (online and in my local booth) and coming up with fresh ideas is sometimes challenging.  This spring and summer season I'm showcasing linen pillows with a French Brocante flair (Brocante means second-hand in French in case you don't know!).  They are soft and feather-filled and have that gently worn, squishy feel to them.

Even the one with the Louis Vuitton image is a vintage graphic and as of today I'm not 100% sure I can sell that one so I'm holding back on it until I know for sure.  It is certainly NOT a VT pillow...let me make that clear.  But the graphic was taken from one of their antique/vintage ads that is over 100 years old...I just removed the horse/buggy from the center.

Today is my next to last day working at Serendipity, the job I've had for almost 4 years.  

I'm excited about the next chapter of my life to begin.

Don't you love that butterfly feeling you get inside when your world and everything you know around you is changing and you know it is for the good?  

I do!

Blessings~

Rebecca

~THOUGHTS ON A SUNDAY MORNING...CONTENTMENT~

I love this beautiful, yet simple writing from David Swing...

"Let us learn to be content with what we have.

Let us get rid of our false estimates, set up all the higher ideals...
A quiet home,
Vines of our own planting,
A few books full of the inspiration of genius,
A few friends worthy of being loved and able to love in return,
A hundred innocent pleasures that bring no pain or remorse,
A devotion to the right that will never swerve,
A simple religion empty of all bigotry, full of trust and hope and love~
and to such a philosophy that this world will give up all the joy it has."

~*~

And this one from Henry David Thoreau...

Our life is frittered away by detail.

Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity!

~*~

Have an awesome Sunday. 

Blessings.

Rebecca

MAKE A BIG DEAL OUT OF YOUR LIFE

 

If you have something you are called to you do with your life, something that you haven't yet done, please hear me today!

Get up and go do it!

You have one life and one day you will long for the chance to do the very thing you were meant to do.  Today is the day to say yes!

Don't let this moment pass you by.  You have one life...

Make a big deal out of it!

~*~

A year ago today my Mr. AGP Man and I, along with our adult daughter, Adrienne, were in a terrible car accident that stole away a good portion of our lives.  I didn't know it then, but it would take the better part of a full year to recover and it changed me forever.

After months of painful physical therapy and spinal surgery last March, the pieces of my broken body and life have begun the reassembling process.

It's been hard.

But I'm determined to regain my strength and find new purpose and a fresh calling.

I've discovered that peace doesn't dwell in outward things.

It never did.

It lives within my soul.

~*~

To celebrate surviving one of the most challenging of all my years I'm eating

ice cream

today.

Two scoops.

And...most importantly, I'm thanking God for giving me another chance to complete
the things still left undone.

Blessings.

Rebecca

French Farmhouse Signs...Amazing Grace

A Gathering Place - Vintage Window
Amazing Grace

Hans Hofmann said
"The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak." 

Today I am all about keeping my life calm and seeking peace, grace and comfort in all things. 

 A Gathering Place - Farmhouse Style Signs

Miss Mollie - A Few Years Ago

This morning I sat outside for longer than usual while enjoying the presence of my fourteen year old Yorkie, Mollie.  My mind wandered for a bit, remembering the sweet days when she would chase the squirrels that lived amongst our many trees here at my La Chaumière de Briarwood.  Years ago, after exhausting herself, Mollie would gently inch her way back to me, her topaz colored fur covered lightly in a dusting of our famed Oklahoma red dirt.

She was full of life...and attitude.

Today she was happy to lay by my side as the great-grandsquirrels (no doubt the offspring of those she once tormented) played around her.  I can't help but wonder if she misses the days of her youth like I do or if she is content to rest and just remember...

I'm glad I've had her to love for so long.

~*~

"I do not ask that life shall be
Forever care and sorrow free,
Nor that some distant morning I
Shall not awake to grieve and sigh.
I ask but faith to stand before
Whate'er the future has in store.

Let me be one whose courage springs
From all the countless little things
Of joy and beauty which abound
Wherever man may look around.
Let me exult in peace or strife
That I have had the gift of life."
(Edgar A. Guest) 

Blessings...

Rebecca

~WHAT TO DO WITH THOSE MOTHER'S DAY FLOWERS~

Whether it takes the form of a beautiful bouquet or a hastily picked florals from an obliging field, flowers never ever fail to delight us, do they?  My Mr. AGP Man gifts me with roses every year for Mother's Day...he's thoughtful and kind like that.  And now that my children are grown I always have an abundance of flowers this time of year!

I'm always happy to place them into pretty, unconventional containers and I've used this old glass and silver plated pitcher for many years now.  Eighteen roses fit perfectly inside and they last for several days if the water is routinely changed out.

I don't really remember when I started to air-dry my roses, but it was many years ago.  I guess I lose a couple days of fresh-flower-beauty when opting to dry my florals early, but this way I'm able to enjoy them for several years if I care for them properly.  They also can be used in making the most amazing potpourri for my home.

This sweet little bouquet started out as a bouquet of petite pink roses and they were dried over two years ago.

Easily preserved in bunches, I just secure the stems with rubber bands and hang upside down on S-shaped hooks.  In the right conditions (out of direct sun) they will dry in about 4 days depending on the the size and denseness of my blooms.

Did you know that potpourris were originally stored in ceramic jars and were only opened when someone used the room in which they had been placed?  They were positioned near a heat source (like a fireplace) and as they warmed up the lid was removed to release the fragrance.

We've come a long way today with scented products, haven't we?  Although I love candles (I only burn soy with led-free wicks!), I still love homemade potpourri. Every year I make at least one to three batches inside my kitchen, depending on the flowers I have available.  

Here's the recipe I use:

1 cup in rose petals & buds

1 cup mixed petals like pink, white (they turn creamy yellow) or red roses, larkspur or peony 

3/4 cup chopped bay or sweet gale leaves

4 teaspoons powdered orris root

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

2 drops essential oil (I use rose or lavender)**

2 drops rose or geranium oil**

A few whole roses for decoration

To the flowers add the fixatives and spices and other dry ingredients.  Gently mix with your hands or a wooden spoon.  Add oils and mix again with your hands.  Place your mixture into paper bags and loosely seal with twine.  Place in a cool, dry place and cure for 4-6 weeks, shaking occasionally.  ENJOY in pretty bowls and beautiful for gift giving for almost any celebration!

If you plan ahead you'll have several batches ready for the Christmas and Holiday season.

(Did I just say that?)

When my daughter was little we made potpourri together and it was a great bonding time for us and it didn't include eating a bunch of sugar!

(**Today I use Living Oils Essential Oils because I believe they are some of the best and purest oils available.)   

Have fun and experiment.  There are tons of recipes online so check it!

Thanks for stopping in today.

Love to you...

Rebecca

 

~THOUGHTS ON A SUNDAY MORNING...My Mother~

 My Mom is now the matriarch of our entire family.  Today she is far older than her own grandmother was in the picture above.  This photo was taken when I was a baby...a long, long time ago now.  My beautiful Grandmother and Great-Grandmother passed on many years ago.

Only my Mom remains.

I've watched my Mother grow truly elderly over the past several years, her body weakened from age, her voice crackled by time.  But, her mind is still sharp and I'm grateful we can talk, laugh and reminisce together because it wasn't always like that.

I can't help but wince a bit when I think back upon my teenage years and even those of my early 20's.  I did NOT like my Mom back then.  I didn't think she understood me or knew anything about life...or me.

How silly.

Life has been challenging for my Mom since my Father's slipped behind the heathered hill.  She quietly longs for the physical strength he gave her and the spiritual wisdom he always tried to impart.  Still, I sense a deep settled peace within her and seeing her yesterday brought me great joy. 

I continue to feel extremely grateful I'm able to spend physical time with the most talented woman I've ever known.

(Her prayers kept me going last year.)

Thankful today I can call her both Momma and friend.

Hope your day was a special.

Love to you...

Rebecca

~DECISIONS...DECISIONS...DECISIONS~

I shared with you a few days ago that I had made a couple of decisions about some things in my life and I'm now free to share with you what I have planned.

First...and most importantly to me is...I gave my two week notice to the owner of the shoppe where I have my booth.  I have worked there two days a week (and one Saturday a month) and have for almost four years now.  I first took the job when my Mr. AGP Man was laid off from the big RED X (Xerox) in July of '13 and for one reason or another I just stayed on after he found another position.  

Even though there were aspects of working at the store that I loved...I did NOT love being away from my home every Tuesday and Friday and I began to dread the one Saturday I worked.  I LOVED the people that came in, especially my online customers who made their way to Oklahoma!  But, I longed to return to my handwork, website and my wee-little-blog.  I knew if I didn't leave the job I would never get back to doing what I've missed most in my life.

I promised myself after the accident we had last May 19th that if I ever regained my health then I would return to what I've always believed has been my calling.  And that is to create new offerings from discarded finds, vintage laces, trims, ribbons and long forgotten oddities.  I've missed my artwork and especially painting pink roses.

Today was my last Saturday at Serendipity.  I have four days left and then my life will be my own once again.  I'm looking forward to simpler days inside my La Chaumière de Briarwood, the thrill of the hunt that comes with junking and tag sale shopping and sharing my finds

and heart

with you.

Love to you...

Rebecca

~MOLLIE and the HAWK~

 

Mollie at One Year

This post is a little unsettling, so please read carefully...  Our little dog, Mollie, is FINE, but had we not been watching our surroundings things could have turned out much differently.

I shared with you all sometime back that our Miss Mollie Girl, our 14.4 year old Yorkie, is dealing with some major health issues.  My Mr. AGP Man and I have wrestled for quite a while about how to deal with the inevitable, but we love her and as long as she's not in pain we are doing everything we can to make her life as wonderful as possible.  We know MoMo is living her last days so each one is a treasure.

Three Year Old Mollie

Mollie has her good days and days when she does little more than sleep.  Yesterday was a GREAT DAY for her.  She was spunky and alert and more like her old [young] self.  I love days like this when we cuddle and play a bit and she's excited about going outside.

Mollie in 2008-Ready for Vacation

Yesterday evening my Mr. worked hard out in the front yard and had just finished mowing and edging the lawn when dusk was almost upon him.  Mollie and I joined him outdoors for a few minutes as she still loves investigating and hunting for bugs (ugh!).  I freely allowed her to roam about in the front yard because she has never been one to wander off or go near the street.

While I was chatting with my husband he stopped for a second and said "Did you see that?"  I said "What was THAT?"  he quickly replied "THAT HUGE HAWK!"  The large bird had been circling above us before flying into one of our many low-hanging trees. As we watched the hawk we both immediately realized the bird was eyeing every move our little dog was making.

Mollie in the Snow - 2010

Honestly...I was totally freaked out and couldn't run fast enough towards our beautiful dog.  I scooped her up and ran back towards the safety of our front porch just as hawk came out from the branches and flew by us.

Because Mollie isn't much more than 4 pounds or so (thinner than her normal 5.5 weight) I keep a little shirt or lightweight sweater on her at all times.  Last night she was wearing a soft gray, almost white, t-shirt and combined with her light colored hair (which today is quite silver), I'm sure she was easily seen.

Mollie was completely clueless as to what nearly happened to her.   After we came in (and calmed down) I googled "Hawks and Yorkies" and I was SHOCKED to see what came up.  I'm going to spare you the details of what I read...I'll let you look if you want to.

I just want to say PLEASE be careful with your animals.  Even those on leashes or living amongst citified homes are often visited by hawks searching for prey.

Today I have another reason to be thankful.

Love to you...

Rebecca

~HEADED TOWARDS BETTER THINGS...SO STRAIGHTEN THAT CROWN!~

Ever have one of those days when you finally make a decision about something and then after you make it you wonder, even if for a second or two, if it was the right one?

That is how I felt today.  For months and months I knew this day was coming.

I fretted over it.

Prayed about it.

Chatted with my Mr. AGP Man about it.
Whined about it.
Cried about it.
And then made peace with it.

 

In the end I came to this one conclusion.

Change is almost always hard.

Even good changes.

Although I can't speak of the specifics just yet, I can tell you this...

I'm headed in the right direction.

That means having more time to do what I love most while being completely faithful and focused on my calling.

We all have one.

(A CALLING!!!!)

You know that, right?

And we are most at peace when following the very thing that God knitted into our hearts.
At least I am!

(Daughter-in-Love & Me Last Sunday) 

I can't help but thank God today for the assurance of His presence.

When I stumble or fall-

Lose my way-

Or even forget His promises-

He gently reminds me that I am never alone and in all that life brings

He is there.

Love to you...

Rebecca

(Have I told you lately how GRATEFUL I am for my health?  XO)