Peach 23 Yard Sale: The Goods

The Peach 23 Yard Sale was something serious my peeps. Question is was it a yard sale or a marathon? It's a little of both and I did not make the finish line. Not even after six and a half hours and thirty miles. How about that? Read more about the sale here.

The French bust may have to stay with me for a time. The white chippy plant stand was $5.00. The cream hutch was $5.00 too.

An old crazed English bowl with a Cotswold cottage on it that could not be sweeter. It was $6.00.

Carolyn Westbrook's 2012 book for $2.00. I am really drinking in the pages of this book. It is staying home with me and the bust.

 Donna {who actually posted over the weekend}and I could have arm wrestled over this triptych. It's a Florentine religious piece and it is staying here for a spell too. I have built a collection of Florentine pieces recently. Repeat after me. Olive Is A Bad Seller.  We have acknowledged that and can move on.

This Italian mirror is my find for the day at $10.00. It is missing the corresponding left leg, shown here, but the seller is looking for it. I am going to see her later today. It may be seen in my dining room for a spell. I am horrid.

Was getting up at 5 A.M. worth it? Was having no coffee {screaming headache} worth it? Was coming home hyped up and exhausted worth it?

Yes To All Of The Above

Linking@Nifty Thrifty Tuesday

Happy Monday

Olive

Kitchen Island Styling

I have been moving cookbooks and pottery around the kitchen island. In addition the pink camellia bush in the flower garden finally bloomed and floating a bloom in a pretty dish is easy styling. I cannot grow peonies in our heat but camellias thrive here.

Is that not a lovely pink?

 Joe and I should be out in the early morning cold at garage sales by the time this posts providing I can manage to auto-post in the right month. Yesterday I found a vintage Easter basket at an estate sale and a couple of other items that have some vintage appeal. For a minute I could not think what I bought-I know a Turkey Platter (brown transferware from Japan). I am still trying to get myself together my friends.

What are you doing this weekend? Do tell. Whatever you do be a "good egg" as my book suggests.

joy and peace

Olive

Attention Morning People

Are you perky in the morning?

I'm not. CC, our daughter is certainly not. She does not form language well. She kind of growls at us. I bought this coffee cup for her at a thrift store.

I am having fun with the island to the degree Clovis, our cat, allows it. He eats on the island and I have tried to configure a cat friendly vignette on it. He is not a morning cat. He often gets up, eats and goes back to bed. 

Spoiled cat.

The large platter, ironstone platter, and cow creamer do not get in the cat's way. We would not want to upset him now would we? One day last week Shelley, our German Shepherd, was chasing him and Clovis nearly pulled this tray down on his head whilst executing a jump onto the island.  I have moved the tray to the center of the island for him since that incident.

Drama, we have it.

I also purchased this Organic Housekeeping  book yesterday and read half of it. That is why I did not post or pick up my laptop. Sometimes I get lost in books. Those are lovely days.

Today it will get to 74 degrees and I am going out to spread wood stove ashes around my hydrangea (trying to turn it pink). Then I am going to rake. Raking is an endless task here. There is absolutely no need to join a gym with all the garden tasks we have. I will be back tonight to visit with all of you. I am not picking up that book. 

Promise.

Linking@Tweak It Tuesday

The Budget Decorating Party

Wow Us Wednesday's

joy and peace

Olive

"The Wild Olive" and Cloches

Presenting The Wild Olive, a vintage book.

Isn't it darling?

It was a gift and I adore it.

 This is what I now think of as the pineapple table because of the lamp.
I am also drying hydrangeas {in water} in containers all over this room as you can see.

Those metal objects are flowers frogs standing on edge.

I think David needs a bow tie.

Milk glass is universally appealing and I see this urn all over the place but that does not lessen the beauty of it for me.

Thanks to all my readers expressing concern about me hurting my back. I did cut grass, with the push mower, today but I did not cut a lot and I am taking it easy still.
Olive needs to be less wild in her gardening.

I am joining Marty for her summer cloche party at A Stroll Thru Life.

grace surrounds us

Olive

Scary Reads

Two books I read last year are my favorite scary reads.

One disclaimer, I do not care for gore, blood and guts.

None of that is contained much in these two novels.

Been there done that at the hospital as a nurse in real life.

I have witnessed the aftermath of stabbings and it is not pretty.

~~♣~♣~♠~~

Joe Hill’s Heart Shaped Box ,his debut horror novel form 2007, is a gripping ghost story.

A  ghost for sale on the internet is the premise of this novel. It arrives contained in a suit in a box.

An aging rocker, Jude who is flawed but likeable, buys the ghost and mayhem and terror ensues with the revengeful ghost.

Joe Hill weaves a tale of redemption and horror that is fast paced and difficult to put down.

This spine-tingler is my favorite ghost story ever. You will not be disappointed in Heart Shaped Box.

~~♣~♣~♣~~

Then there is Vlad the Impaler in Elizabeth Kostova’s The Historion.

I read this while we were sleeping on an air mattress at the yellow house last year and I was convinced Vlad was alive and coming down the hall to get me!

 The Historian  is 720 pages and has three story lines in three different time frames that intersect.

Kostova spent ten years in the Eastern bloc doing research for this novel.

It has wonderful historical scope and is beautifully written.

Historians, who learn the truth about Dracula, began to vanish but I do not want to give away the complex plot.

It is enough to say that for a few nights in 2009 Vlad the Impaler was very much alive again to Olive.

Kostova achieved a perfect thriller in The Historian and I was glad I was not a historian!

Just thought I would share some not so quick reads to disturb your sleep.

What is your favorite scary book?

grace surrounds us

Olive

I Read Therefore I Am

When I worked as a RN in a large teaching hospital and wore those colorful scrubs I always wore a pin in addition to my name tag. I have a collection of pins that numbers somewhere close to one hundred. Some are nice vintage ones but most say cute phrases. One of my favorites said “I read therefore I am.” You see, I am passionate about reading and have been this way as far back  as I can recall.

~~♥♥♥~~

I can travel to countries and places I will never get to in real life in my books. I love to read about old England. No one in the world writes mysteries like British authors. P.D. James, Agatha Christie, and Ruth Rendell are three of my favorites. C.S. Lewis is one of the most articulate writers I know of. His clarity of thought and mind always inspires me. In Mere Christianity he argues the existence of God apart from scripture. It is an intriguing book. Then there is Jane Austen. I adore her Emma.

I read many American authors but one I am particularly drawn to is John Irving. His Cider House Rules spoke to me on many levels. His characters are richly drawn and who could ever forget The World According to Garp ? The Southern authors, Harper Lee, Flannery O’Conner, Rick Bragg, and Jan Karon are not to be missed. I know I am skimming the surface.

~~♥♥♥~~

Bookworms are more likely to be involved in the world around them than those who do not read for pleasure. This was found in a recent survey by the National Endowment for the Arts in Washington D. C.

Readers are more likely than nonreaders to visit museums, musical venues, and volunteer in the community. Maryanne Wolf is an investigative author of a book on the science of reading: Proust and the Squid.  She states that the brain is programmed to see, speak, and think but not to read. So the act of reading forces the brain to “rearrange its original parts” and learn something new. You see, reading keeps you sharp, engaged, and helps you think in new ways.

~~♥♥♥~~

A  government British study conducted on a huge scale in 2009 found that 86% of people in the study reported that reading improves mood and boosts happiness.

What book are you reading now?

 

 

grace surrounds us

Olive

 

some excerpts from this post taken from Weight Watchers magazine Sept/Oct 2010