About Fall & Halloween party preparations for tonight

 

Welcome back to my spooky cottage and the Halloween party preparations for All Hallows Eve!

I found these cabinet cards at the flea market last year and immediately saw the witches potential of these old ladies also I had to alter them a bit he he he

Aren't they spooky?

We are enjoying a wonderful Fall over here in Germany so far with lot's of warm and sunny days and the garden is not looking spooky at all but still blooming beautifully in pretty shades of pink and purple:

I started with my fall decor back in September by picking flower bouquets from the garden to dry like the Annabelle hydrangea and hens & chicks as well as by buying the first pumpkins:

We went to a pumpkin farm festival in September and my pumpkin collection started to grow, I was lucky to find the beautiful cream white and green pumpkins this year:

Then on a very warm and sunny September weekend we had a family pumpkin carvin feast on my sisters porch and this is what came out of it:

My daughter did our house number in a huge orange pumpkin which came out really great I think and I did the owl  in a smaller white pumpkin, my niece, nephew and sister did the 3 smaller ones. You can see that my nephew loves NewYork.

 And this is what my owl pumpkin looked like when I brought it home:

 

Unfortunately our carved pumpkins didn't last any longer than 2 weeks because it was still to hot outside and the little fruit flies came to munch on all our carved pumpkins until they started to rot and decay :(

 

 So we had to come up with some other ways for this years Halloween party decor. I started to paint some pumpkins black. A real one and a faux one and even the real one in the picture above still looks good.

 I printed and cut out lot's of templates and pictures that I found through Pinterest and through Karen's Graphics Fairy blog and framed them in black oval frames which I bought in Sweden this Summer and I made black cardboard bats and crows and a garland.

 

I painted a plank with black chalkboard paint which I had cutted for my old window and then added some spiderwebs to it, chalk ones and wire ones. Of course a bowl of treats is very important for tonight and my daughter baked some yummy peanut butter cupcakes yesterday which I still have to take a picture of.

 In my room divider transome window I hung lot's of crows and bats, a moon face and the two cabinet card witches I showed you close up at the beginning of this post.

Bats are also flying from lamps and cupboards and so on around the house:

 Here is a close up of my table decor:

I found these old apothecary jars at the antique market yesterday morning and thought they'd add some magic to my Halloween decor:

Bat's flying from the stairs:

 I saw these google eyed pumpkins on Pinterest two days ago and since I had found the chocolate eyeballs in our super market last week (note: It's not so easy to find special Halloween sweets, treats and decorations over here since Halloween is not a German tradition) I just had to try them out on one of my last bigger pumpkins, doesn't he look cute?

And some of the eyeballs I put in my wooden hand for a hopefully more spooky effect lol

Well now we are all prepared for our little party tonight and I just hope that the kids ( my niece and nephews and neighborhood kids) are going to like it, what do you think?

Wishing a fun All Hallows Eve to all of you my friends!

I'm already all in the mood for Christmas decor now lol especially after we had the switch back to Winter time yesterday and it is getting dark at 5 pm now plus I found some gorgeous vintage Christmas treasures at the antique market yesterday morning and now I can't wait to start decorating.

I'd also like to thank all the lovely blogging friends and readers for the warm welcome back comments on my last post. It's fun to be back on blogging! :)

xoxo~ Carola

Back on blogging & rearranging & a winner!

Welcome back to Boxwood Cottage dear blogging friends and readers! I really didn't intend to stay away from my blog for over 2 months, but sometimes life just got it'sway, doesn't it? 

Well to explain my long absence, there was a beautiful family vacation to Sweden for example with my mum, sister and daughter, some big birthdays to prepare for, voyage to and celebrate (not my own though), a sad funeral of a dear aunt with a family gathering, a big move over several weeks with lot's of work - the company I work for moved in a new building which had to be furnished and set up - which was also fun btw and I got a brand new shiny office which I just about finished, then there were some sunny day's to spend in the garden, rather then sitting in front of the pc too and I started to going to the gym with my daughter 2 -3 times a week and we also changend our nutrition from vegetarian to vegan, which involves more grocery shopping and fresh cooking only every day etc.pp..

It's quite overwhelming to start blogging again after such a long absence and I don't really now where to start. I have lots of Sweden pictures to share, especially from my visit at sweet Gua's Mor Agusta's garage of the beautiful blog Hvítur Lakkrís, Garden pictures of course and Autumnal decorations, but I think today I start with some rearrangements I did in my living room after I came home from the inspiring Sweden vacation at the beginning of September. 

See the beautiful black botanical chart in the first picture, it's one of the gorgeous things I brought home from Sweden and it was the first thing I had to find a place for in my living room when we came back.

 It fitted quite well in the corner beside of my antique transome door and I think it also matches well with the black and white accents of the silhouettes and the old rusty military metal box below.

 

I also moved the white plant stand from under the window over here:

 

Below is a picture of all my lovely Sweden finds, we went to 2 crazy Sweden flea markets over there which was quite an experience and so different from ours and of course we visited some great shops too.

The first Sunday after our return from Sweden there was already the last good outdoor fleamarket of the season in front of our city hall, so of course we had to go and just look at all the treasures that I brought home :)

Double click on the pictures to enlarge in full size for more details. (Update: Looks as if I was gone for too long, the double click brings me too a site with all my pics from this post. Is that a new blogger feature?)

The vintage travel typewriter was one of my finds from that day and I decorated it for the Fall & Halloween season with a pumpkin that I painted black and a black crow of course!

If you should be in need of some more inspiration for Fall & Halloween crafts and decorations, then visit my Pinterest board over here: http://pinterest.com/boxwoodcottage/fall-halloween/ You are sure to find inspiration overload!!!

 

Another fab find a family friend who cale along to the flea market with us got me was this sweet vintage box camera:

I also moved my old french iron children bed from under the 3 parts shelf to under the window:

 I put my white foldable table under the shelf instead.

 

 And did you notice the glass box on the table under the shelf? I found it in a gorgeous shop in the artist village of Fischerhude which is close to my home town this Summer and decorated it with lot's of vintage tresures and some of my soldered jewelry inside and on top I put my three favorite vintage alarm clocks.

 

What do you think, like it? 

Well some of you may probably think "Her home looks more like a shop to me" 

Oh well I hear that a lot and think I will just have to live with it ;-) 

I like the day bed much better now, standing in front of the garden window.

 Oh and I don't want to forget to thank all of you kind souls and friends who have commented on my last post and shared the joy over my publication in the Italian and French Brocancte magazine with me, it was so much pleasure to read you all! *smiles* I'm a bit sad, that I never got a copy of the french issue though, so I only have the italian issue to give away but I'll add a copy of the beautiful Scandinavian magazine Vackre Hjem to the give away. And lastly I finally have to announce the winner of my magazine give away:

tadaaaaaa ~ and without further ado the lucky winner is:

~June~ of the blogs Laughing with Angels and Grace gardens.

Thank you for your lovely comments dear June and please e-mail me your home addy!

See you again soon dear readers until then I hope you can enjoy the beauty of fall!

xoxo~ Carola

Published in Italy, inspired by black and white and a give away!

 

Welcome back dear readers and blogging friends in the rainy month of August in Germany. 

If I thought that our Summer weather in July was already too cold than I was totally wrong, because August the so called High Summer month started even colder, it's windy, cloudy, rainy and even stormy and my flowers aren't happy about it just like us people aren't. 

But luckily to warm my heart at least, dear Annarita Triarico from Lotus Publishing in Rome has sent me a few copies of the Brocantage issue of her beautiful magazine Gli Speciali di Casa chic which is dedicated to Brocante and Flea market style. I feel very honored to be included in this beautiful and special issue with a 12 pages spread about my home Boxwood Cottage on page 52 to 63:

Wow what a special feeling it is to see my pictures printed in a pretty high gloss magazine, it's very exciting! :)

Just click on the pictures to enlarge them if you want to see more details.

 

Annarita contacted me through my Flickr photo account some time in May/June sending me a flickr mail to aske if I would like to participate in the Brocantage issue of her magazine Gli Speciali die Casa Chic and if so, if I would send her as fast as possible some high res pictures. (I send her around 100 pics lol cause I wasn't sure what she wanted especially) and answer to her interview questions and after some consideration so I did. I was a bit reluctant at first thinking my pictures and story might not be good enough, but sweet Annarita and her collegue Lucrezia Vozza did a beautiful job in translating my interview from English in Italian and pulled together an article that makes me really happy. 

~Thank you so much dear Annarita and Lucrezia!~

 

This issue is for the months of July and August and is still available on the shelves of the Italian magazine vendors and even better it will be published in France too with a Special Maison chic issue for September/October!

This is so exciting for me and to share it with you I will give away a copy of each issue to you my dear readers and all you have to do is leave me a comment on this post and I'll draw a winner as soon as I have the french copies in my hands too. You'll sure love the magazine for the eye candy alone although you might not understand Italian or French.

 

There are even extra pages at the end of the magazine with tips for the readers who want to recreate some ideas of the articles and I'm included there too:

 

Other than that I was very inspired by black and white lately as you can although see in my Pinterest Inspiration Board called Beautiful Black & White. I love to use white with black accents in my home and decorations but didn't use it so much in crafts so far.

I played with glue and art gel and this is what came out of it. Above is a little black and white 3D collage with art gel in a cake tin with which I then altered a wooden file box that I painted white. 

Below is an altered mirror hanging from a window in my studio:

 

 The mirror frame was just a boring wooden mirror frame before I altered it with vintage and new tape measure, game pieces with my initials, age and birth year etc.pp to make it personal and individual. Lastly I added the small black bottle brush tree on top as well as two tiny top hats and the sweet flash card garland I once ordered from the talented Cari Kraft and find it even quite festive now for Halloween as well as for the Christmas holidays, don't you think?

 

 Last but not least I'd like to let you know about a fabulous give away which is taking place at my my dear blogging friend Suzanne of the Old Grey Mare blog right now:

http://oldgreymareprimitives.blogspot.com/2011/08/giveaway-at-oldgreymare.html

So hurry up and head over to Suzanne's blog so that you won't to miss out on it!

I'm wishing you all a better High Summer weather than we have right now and if you have sunshine please send it our way!

xoxo~ Carola

~ The lushest July Mid-Summer garden I ever had ~

 

Seeing that I have not done a garden post since May I think it's high time to share with you my dear blogging friends and readers my "mid summer garden". 

All the pictures in this post are done during this month ~ July from the 6th until today. 

I left out June because I showed you my June flowers ever so often over the last 6 years and don't wanna bore you. June is always pretty in the garden with lot's of roses, foxgloves, bellflowers, alliums etc., but I was forever a bit sad once June was over, for in July I found my garden well let's say a bit less flowery and I worked on changing this ever since I bought the cottage in 2004 and moved in here in 2005. Back then the garden was a - by the past owners - so called "evergreen garden" with almost no flowers but, at least in my opinion, too much hedges, bushes and trees for such a small row cottage garden. You must know that my whole lot is only 120 sqm and that with the house (don't ask me what this is in square feet because I don't now, but believe me it is very small.) Well now after 7 years and lot's of changes and removing of some not flowering bushes and trees the garden is finally blooming through from early Spring until late Fall and I'm really enjoying it!

 

The hydrangeas like my sweet white Annabelle above and the pretty blueish one below are blooming so prettily right now!

 

And the phloxes are wonderful this year too. I think the garden likes our weather this summer, it's not hot ( we only had 2 or 3 hot summer days so far) and it is also not raining too much either.

 

Above the purple phlox in the new border, which I started last year after removing two large bushes, is blooming together with high purple Verbena bonariensis,  Lavatera olbia and white Echinacea and below the deep purples phlox is also blooming in this border but between the high Leonardo da Vinci rose and the also high butterfly plant.

Below you see another pretty hydrangea which is blooming  in my front garden:

You may easily recognise my love for purple and blueish flowers as you also see in the Thalictrum blooming behind the pretty apricot colored Rokkoko rose in the picture below:

The Lavatera olbia Barnsley a mallow plant which I planted last fall and it growed into a bigh flowering bush already:

 

My pink Echinacea also is a dream this year and the bees are loving it as much as I do:

 

Blueish Clematis are also still blooming, like Prince Charles on my rusty rose arc:

 

Another lovely true blue flower is my gorgoeus Agapanthus (African Lily), growing in a large pot on my deck right now:

 

Oh and the hollyhocks are blooming beautifully too on my deck:

 

I love the pink filled one above but also the not filled soft cream yellow one which is blooming under my living room window every year:

 

The bumblebee below is enyoing herself imensely in my Verbena bonariensis:

 

My old border on the right side of my little garden is still blooming with pretty campanula varieties:

 

and Alchemilla and Achillea

A close up of the gorgeous Prince Charles clematis below blooming together with the blue Buddleja (Butterfly plant):

 

Another sweet Clematis is Piilu blooming in my little crap apple treeL

  

One of the rare warm and sunny Sunday mornings on my deck with Cleome spinosa blooming in the mosaic pot on the small blue mosaic table in front:

My wonderful Eden rose started blooming quite late this season. Here I cut some flowers for a petit blue enamel jug on my deck:

 

More "Eden85" rose blossoms:

A view from my deckchair:

It feels a bit as if I would live in a flower nursery sometimes lol

but i so love it and apparently our black neighborhood cat Tommy is enjoying it too:

While our own Boxwood tomcat Riley usually prefers the front garden. 

Below is another close up of a pink Echinacea and the white Echincea just starting to flower in the background:

 

Comes sunset the ecofriendly solar lampion lanterns are starting to glow: 

which has something quite magically for me

Above is my favorite summer evening picture so far!

Below are the smaller solar lampions glowing in the grape vine which grows over my living room window:

 

Another view from the deck down in the new flower bed:

The shady seating area under the maple tree in my back garden I did not need so far this Summer, because it just wasn't hot enough. See how the wind blows in the table cloth? We had quite a lot of overcast and windy days and really hope for more warmer Summer days ahead!

This is the view from sitting on the blue backyard iron chair looking back to the cottage:

The garden is so lush and green and flowering abundantly if you look close enough like we did today

I better stop here and hope if you are still with me, that I did not bore you too much with all these garden and flower pictures and that hopefully you did enjoy it a bit with me? I'll promise to get back on crafting and decorating in my next post. Today is a beautiful sunny day and I'm looking forward to some deckchair summer reading in the late afternoon.

Sending very happy Summer wishes to all of you!

xoxo~ Carola