Vintage black Friday and a garden update!

Welcome back to Boxwood Cottage dear readers and blogging friends! Today I participate in The French Cupboards Vintage black Friday and with the photo of the old window above also in Funky Junk's Saturday Nite Special Link Party - see sidebar buttons! So yesterday I shot pictures of the window and Vintage black around my living room.

I have a love for Vintage black silhouettes and got some beautiful ones in friendship swaps from Ann, Cerri and Tina this year and have them all decorated in my old rusty barn window. And although the black enamel sign isn't old I think it has a vintage feel as well.

My old black metal paraffin stove gives a great contrast to my white wooden faux mantle.

I bought thís cute pair of black vintage leather baby boots at an Antique market last January and have them decorated in a wire basket standing on an old black wood and glass tray with silver handles.

My old Adler sewing machine is another vintage black item in my living room. I'm always debating with me weather I shall paint it white or leave it like it is? I just can't decide *sigh* What do you think?

I like the reflection in my new white mirror, well yes I admit this is the contrary of Vintage black, but this is just what I like the contrast between Black and White.

The old metal box on which I have decorated the white bird cage and rusty items was once black but is now rather rusty.

I got a bunch of these gorgeous old enamel signs with black numbers recently from my friend Nicole over at Small Treasures and put some in my old white enamel candle stick holder. Thank you so much dear Nicky for sharing them so generously with me!

You can also find them in Nicoles Dawanda shop here: http://de.dawanda.com/product/10183810--Emaillezahlen-shabby-3-Stk-

Time always seems to slip away from me, maybe this is the reason why I have such a thing for old clocks, pocket watches and clock faces and watch faces in general? Did you spot my new old silver alarm clock in the first picture of this post?

My sister brought me the blackboard garden labels from a recent trip to England as a gift for watching over her country cottage and garden and tending her geese and cats this week ( I also got a goat milk soap a black wire soap holder and an English Country Living :)). They are the perfect item for a garden lover and I already used them to mark the plants in my zinc nursery.

So this is the best transition to go from the cottage outside into the garden, will you be so nice to follow me?

It's all very late this year because of the unsual long and strong Winter we experienced but finally it's coming along. I planted summer flowers and herbs in pots on one of my french iron garden tables on my deck:

I always move plants and pots and decorations around in my garden as well as in my cottage so nothing stays excactly the same for very long.

Riley always steels my comfy reading places weather it's on the bank or in the deck chair lol

I have a real passion for zinc items old or new in my garden.

And think it makes a great impact to put a lot of zinc garden items in one space:

I sowed summer flowers on May 2nd and they are now ready to get planted in bigger pots, especially the cosmos has grown very quickly and is already overgrown the other seedlings.

I´t's all very green in the garden and I'm now impatiently waiting for my roses and peonies to bloom. Last year they started blooming mid May and this year 3 weeks later they are still in buds.

At least the Alliums and Lupines and blue Geraniums have started to bloom now around my new white rose arc, which we set up in marc this year because the old one was broken down by strong winds. This one will conquer the winds I'm sure because it is attached to the ground with concrete, as well as my other rusty rose arc vice versa, which we set up last autumn. I so can't wait to see them both covered in roses!

Allium Globemaster and Gladiator are the bigger Allium varieties which still bloom after the early Purple sensations Alliums have already faded. Their purple heads are getting bigger every day now while all there hundreds of star like little blooms are enfolding.

Most of my clematis have not survived last Winter so I planted some new varieties which are more hardy like this one called "General Sikorski":

My pink Clematis "Josephine" is one of the strong survivers :)

The white snow ball " Virburnum opolus roseum" is blooming beautifully now and is lightening up a rather dark corner of my garden.

I already planted summer blooms in all my hanging baskets:

The picture of the view over my willow fence I took 10 days ago before I went to my sisters cottage and the Lilacs and Clematis montana in this picture have already faded by now because we have enjoyed a very sunny and warm week so far.

Well that should be enough for now from my garden, I'll show you more garden pictures when my roses are in bloom, but I like to share with you a sweet little price I won for participating in the French cupbards 'Mad about Alice Party' last month: It's a beautiful candy cone made by a paper artist as well as a packet of cosmos seeds and a gorgeous hair band with a cameo.

Also included were these beautiful magnetic postcards that I put on my fridge door:

A big thank you to the lovely ladies from Counting your blessings and The French cupboard!

Next time I'll also like to show you some pictures of the rearranging I did last week in my living room which now has a very summery feel to it, but for today I think this post was already long enough.

Enjoy the beautiful month of June everyone!

xoxo~ Carola