Black & White Fall~Halloween decor & Kitchen glimpses

Welcome back to Boxwood Cottage dear readers and blogging friends! I hope that you can still remember me, although I haven't got around to post on my blog for over 7 weeks again. To make up for it I brought lot's of photos to share with you today. Summer was quite busy around here. We did some major changes in the garden and in the kitchen, sold our old car, bought a newer one and so on. All things that took more time than I expected, but I also had to work all Summer long. My last vacation was in May, so for that I think that we accomplished quite a few things. My daughter was a great help with the kitchen renovating and she's always doing the cooking lately, but more about the kitchen things later in this post. Today I'd like to start with my black & white fall decorating which is already going over into Halloween decorating by now.

It's still hard to believe for me that a couple of years ago I didn't even like Halloween but at that time I still thought that it always has to have to do with lot's of the color Orange, which I'm not so kean on, but since ca. 4 years ago I discovered white pumpkins here in Germany too which I love and so I started to love decorating for Halloween too ;)

They are still not that easy to find though, at least here in the Bremen area and that's why I started by painting orange Hokaido pumpkins white, back in August already lol and I had an orange clay pumpkin which I painted black. But then at the beginning of September I found some white Lumina pumpkins at a pumpkin farm and around 3 weeks ago I was finally lucky enough to also find the little Baby boos which are my favorites and so very hard to come by here.

I also love crafting for Halloween. I embellished and collaged the black BOO box and the Halloween book in the picture above for example and painted the once very colorful mask, which I brought home from a vacation to Venetia a few years ago, black with the matt black chalkboard paint that I so like to use.

I had fun shooting the black feather crows and ravens, which were posing for me on several pumpkins. Mr. Crow is quite a dapper btw and loves to wear his top hat!

and from another angle:

Isn't Mr. Crow just too cute the way he's peeking over the pumpkins?

Do you love the baby boos as much as I do?

For the mantle I made a black and white felt pompon garland and a black wooden boo sign with silver glittered letters:

Let's have a closer look at the mantle:

The pumpkin in the middle is the Hokaido which I painted white and embellished it with velvet leaves, some wire spirals and a printed 31 sign.

I further made a black cardboard witch hat for the faux cream colered pumpkin that my daughter bought for me when she studied in Buffalo N.Y. almost two years ago:

And I also made the black cardboard mask with nose for the big pumpkin:

I think I never showed you my Adler sewing machine table since I painted it white:

Mrs. Raven loves to sit on top of the vintage black camera (a gift from a friend) and was happy to get her picture taken:

In the next photo you can see close up of the clay pumpkin which I painted black:

On the white and rusty garden urn sit's another lumina pumpkin which also got a round printed 31 paper tag with faux stitches and of course one of the ravens thinks that it is a fabulous spot to sit on and get photographed:

I love that it looks as if the pumpkin had taken over the rust of the urn, can you see what I mean in the shoot below?

Well now I think it's enough of my black & white Fall and Halloween decor for today and I can show you a glimpse of my freshly painted kitchen. It is not easy to photograph because it's just a small space and we are not really finished with it yet.

We did not only sanded and painted all the Ikea beech wood cabinet doors and drawers but also removed the fume exatractor hood and added 4 big wipeable melamine resin tiles instead wich gave us more space and we never used the fume extractor hood anyway and I didn't really like the look of so much alumium anymore.

Although I quite like the black & white look I still would love to get a new wooden counter top one day and of course I still dream of a white porcelain farmhouse sink but these kind of things I cannot do alone or with the help of my daughter so they still have to wait.

I know I mentioned already here on my blog that we eat only vegan food and since this involves a lot of fresh cooking our kitchen is quite important to us and in daily use and the new look of it also gave us the power for a new step or better said level in vegan cooking. Until some days ago we only had american vegan cook books, which are good, but also most of the recipes are quite complicated and require lot's of different pots and pans to cook. My daughter who is doing a lot of online research on this matter purchased the latest book of Attila Hildmann last week and this is a very good vegan cook book with easy and still very delicious and healthy recipes written in German language since he is a German cook and with brilliant photos:

Since this book is called "Vegan for fit" (his other great cook book is called "Vegan for fun") it means that you will lose weight and feel fitter and healthier when you cook by following his tips and recipes by still having 3 delicous meals a day and that is what we ultimately wish for. This also means no more pasta for us for at least 30 days. We love eating pasta dishes but the recipes in this book are making it easy for us to quit because they are so delicious, healthy and nourishing. We are doing it for 5 days now and I would already recommend it. One advantage we have is that we already own a Vitamix blender which is needed for many of the recipes in this book and a Vitamix is not a cheap kitchen aid to buy. It costs around 600 Euro. We bought ours last Spring and never regretted it ever since. It is such a fabulous tool and you can make your own almond milk or almond butter or cashew ice cream and lot's of other fabulous yummy and healthy food with it.

Well to close this post I have another pumpkin picture for you but this time it is of my garden table with the greyish green Australian pumpkins that I purchased at the pumpkin fair we visited last Sunday:

I'll show you more photos of the autumnal garden and decor in my next post.
Until then I wish you all a 

Fabulous Fall!

xoxo~ Carola

Linking up with:
Knick of Time Tuesday
Vintage Inspiration  Friday 108 at Common Ground

About painting black & white, repurposing & crafting

Back in my May vacation I decided that it was finally time to paint a wall in my house black. You may have noticed (apart from the obviously white love) my love for black as in black chalkboards, black silhouettes, black birds and vintage black things like top hats, typewriters, telephones etc., that all makes such a beautiful contrast to the white walls and furnitures, so why not try a black wall? Well up to then apart from my very light blue bedroom all the walls in my house were white so black makes quite a difference and of course it can make a room very dark, so for the time beeing I just tried it on the small potruding chimney wall in my parlor.

It was quite a quick paint job that still brought a great change to te room which I like.

Actually it's not really black, it's called dark grey/gray, but against the white wooden mantle and in the evening light it looks very black and I find it quite dramatic looking, don't you think?

I'm probably going to ad some kind of a closure edging to it soon. 

The fun part of course was decorating the mantle and surrounding so that it's all matching to the new black wall.

I found this small chalkboard in Sweden last August in a great shop called Granit and think it fits perfectly into the small corner between the mantle and the old armoire. The small old black travel typrewriter was another flea market find and fits on the white painted plant stand which once was orange lol

My bargain crystal chandelier ( a flea find for 5 bucks) also looks great against the black backdrop and adds to the dramatic feel.

Isn't it beautiful? I thought of painting the golden brass over in white quite often ever since I bought it but somehow couldn't get myself around to do it, would you do it?

 I'm still so glad that I bought the pair of huge wooden pine cones, many years ago when I still lived in my old cottage. They always fit so well on the mantle edges which ever style I decide to decorate it and in this case I think along with the black wall and the chandelier they give a eal classical feel to the whole vignette.

And I'm still fond of my 3 compartments mirror another bargain flea find (20 bucks) and the reflections in it, in the above photo it's the old transom door on the other side of the room with my antique black silhouette collection inside of the single windows.

I added the letter C to the mantle since it's my initial and the numbers 6 and 3 together are giving away my birth year ~ oh well.

And even my old black petrol stove with the silver accents matches very well with the black wall and white mantle.

When you stand in front of the mantle and look to the left side there is my dining corner and behind the dining table hangs a glass cabinet which I painted white from the outside many moons ago but never found the time to paint it from the inside too. Well that I finally changed in my May vacation too and painted it from the inside which looks so much better now. Meanwhile I have also painted the wood of the old Adler sewing machine table below the glass cabinet in white. Now in the dining room corner there are only the old chairs left to paint white one time.

I also put out my collection of antique rose coffee and tea service for a change and brought it in a cupboard down in my basement. The pink roses didn't suit the new feel of the room. Instead I added some of my old and new jugs as well as old and new backing moulds and also the old soup toureens and pudding moulds.

Next thing to paint are my Ikea cabinets and drawers like the ones of my kitchen island that you can see in the photo below. Actually we already started doing it last weekend and I'm quite excited of the change it will bring to my cottage :)

While grocery shopping two weeks or so ago I came across the fabulous clothes hanger for skirts that you see below and instantly knew that it would make an awesome inspiration board:

I pinned all kind of things that I found in my studio on it with the existing brackets and added some more things with small wooden clothes pegs and black office clips. Then I hung it on the handle of one of my attic windows for now. 

Btw. that sweet open bird book with the waxed pages was a dear gift from my creative blogging friend Lisa!

I also started to punch out sturdy scalloped cardboard circles and then painted them with black chalkboard paint and wrote on it with white chalk like the "Happy Day's" "Boxwood Cottage" and "Summer" signs.

Another hanger that I repurposed (meanwhile replaced with a white one) is the belt hanger below. It's great use for hanging all kind of necklaces and soldered pendants from it too, but in this case I used it to hang the wire ribbon holder on it and the Atelier sign and slate heart that I once got from my dear friend Anita.

The last thing I wanted to share with you today is the little wire bird cage that I saw in a German magazine from "Land Idee called "Wohnen und Deko" lately and just had to try to make one:

For a first quick try I think it turned out quite pretty, non?

So now I'll go back nesting, but not inside the house yet, nope the garden is calling!

A big thank you btw to all the kindred souls that commented on my last XXL garden post, it was a pleasure to read you!

Wishing you happy late Summer days my friends

xoxo~ Carola

Linking up with my favorite blog parties:
White Wednesday
What's it Wednesday
Vintage Inspiration Friday
Feathered Nest Friday

A giant Cottage Garden post April to July 2012

High time for a garden post I'd say! It's my first one this year so I have lot's of pictures to share with you dear blogging friends and readers, so you better make yourself comfortable. The first photo is an up to date one taken a few days ago but I want to start back in April when the garden really awoke and then going forward until today.

 

April still had many overcast days and yet I like the photo above. You can see the early clematis montana rubens in full bloom and the high old lilacs of my neighbors blooming in the back as wll as the pretty broom beside of my white scrolly iron table.

I love it when the soft pink clematis montana rubens blooms especially on a sunny day against the blue sky.

And I bought another early Clematis this Spring, it's the gorgeous white one in the photo below . It has meanwhile found a new home at my new fence, but more on that later.

Another favorite Spring flower of mine whas this beautiful soft creamy pink ranunculus:

I also started potting summer flowers for my patio in April like the pink Diascia below:

and hanging baskets always are a must:

I further finally found an affordable french bottle drying rack from a Dutch blog and online shop called Fort Lapin. I use it as clay pot holder in my garden for now:

More garden accessories are in my vintage garden tool corner:

that I installed between the old ladder and the iron shelf on the patio wall next to my deck chair:

The deck chair is my favorite relax and reading spot after work. On the white painted flower shelf I potted 3 gorgeous thymes. The high blooming one is my fave:

Another plant that moved into my garden this Spring is the red broom seen below, which also meanwhile has moved in the new garden bed under the new fence:

And here you'll see my little garden helper Riley sitting on his favorite garden chair, photo taken through the parlor window:

A little bit closer:

Now comes the merry month of May in which I had 3 weeks off work and 24 free days in a row alltogether, so no wonder that is was my favorite month of the year so far. To celebrate my vacation and the beautiful weather I hung the fabric bunting which my dear friend Anita made for me a couple of years ago under my white garden umbrella/parasol. See how it is lit by the evening sun and kinda glowing?

It also looks very happy when you look from inside my parlor outside on the patio:

And notice the gorgeous clematis montana rubens still blooming beautifully in May:

Another May beauty and absolute favorite of mine is the elegant chinese snow ball shrub:

and of course and always the Alliums:

In the next photo the lovely May evening sun has lit my garden chandelier:

and then it also shone on my snowballs and gave them a gorgeous glow too:

It was a true magical evening and when it got darker during the so called blue hour of the everning my solar light lampions began to glow:

and everything was literally bathing in a pretty blue light.

I really love all these solar lights from Ikea attached to my grape vines, the little balls as well as the birdies:

Don't they look pretty?

Then came June and with June not only the beautiful roses but also the rain:

In June all my alliums and roses and foxgloves and bellflowers etc. were on it's best but exposed to the constant rain not for as long as they should have bloomed.

I had all colors of foxgloves this June and especially loved the white one. Hope it will selfseed well!

The pink peonie Sarah Bernhardt in the photo above did not like the rain either.

And neither did the pink bellflower Campanula medium.

I left the parasols open to protect at least some of my patio plants like the pelargoniums on the table from the rain.

More pretties in pink above and below:

The rain is dripping from my lovely Constance Spry rose on the scrolly white rose arc, forcing the flowers to hang their heads down:

There were not many dry days in June, especially not at the weekends, but on one of these rare days I took the next picture of my beautiful Constance Spry:

This wet beauty is called the Queen of Denmark:

and the next one is another long time favorite of mine the Eden rose:

Here is a picture from the right side of my garden in a wide angle, so that you cannot only see Constance Spry heavy of rainwater more hanging then climbing in my white rose arc, but also my my new fence on the right. Unfortunately the willow fence I had there before did not hold together anymore so I had to look for a more sturdy compensatory:

Also in June I purchased the pretty wooden seed trays and a new wooden round clay pot cleaning brush which were nice additions to my garden tool corner:

And now we are finally here, welcome to July!

I do not only have a new garden fence, but also a new garden border below it and both, the new and the old border got a new edge for easier mowing and I think the red edging stones do look very good and they also match with the red brick stones on my patio/deck/terrace however you call it lol.Wait, I'll give you a better look from above:

See my new mow edge border around the border under the right side rose arc and now also around the new garden bed under the new wooden fence? On the left side of my small garden the bordes have a natural edge from boxwood hedges. I really think that both edges are giving my garden a better structure.

The birds eye view above taken out of my attic studio window shows very good how well the new red border edge stones do match with my patio bricks. 

If you have followed my blog for some years and are an observant reader you may also notice the new parasol over my patio table. The old one got so dirty over the years that I had to have a surrogate. But I didn't just throw the old one in the trash, no I gave it a new job to protect my black french iron table under the maple tree from bird's dirt and droppings:

This is the shady space right at the very end of my yard where I sit on hot summer days when the air is just getting to stuffy on my patio. I still love the white gravel here but it is also a curse because you can't just clean it with a broom stick, nope i have to bend down and pick up every single leaf falling from the tree by hand.

And for those of you who a fairly new to my blog and still didn't get while it's called Boxwood Cottage I took these pictures of my freshly cut boxwood hedges above and below:

I also took gravel on the ground here a few years ago when we installed my rusty rose arc and I'm still trying to grow another, smaller ball on top of the the big boxwood ball on the left in the back.

Next you'll see a close up of my left hand border behind the boxwood hedges and see the rusty rose arc from the side. I still had no luck with roses climbing high enough to cover it yet but at least the blue clematis is doing it's job now.

Phloxes and pink cone flowers Echinacea and Agapanthus have started to bloom now in this border and below is a picture of my sweet scenting sweet peas which are growing in a pot on my patio right now:

We just enjoyed a full week of really sunny summer weather over here (it's back to rainy days today though sobs) so all the flowers are doing well now:

Abraham Darby an English David Austin rose blooming in the foreground and my garden window in the back and here more close and personal with my sweet terracotta girl peeking through it:

Another star on my July patio so far is the true white Dahlia that I planted in a white enamel bucket. It kinda glows in the dark:

Oh and takling about stars on my patio I'm now finally coming to the very best to me and that is my new pair of old blue shutters salvaged for me by my darling sister while I was at home and couldn't make it there quick enough when my parents called me to come over to save me a pair of shutters because my daughter was away with my car. They are from an old cottage across my parents home which unfortunaly got teared down a few weeks ago.

I just love their color and they match so beautifully with all my patio pot flowers don't ya think?

On the right side of my patio are more blue flowers in bloom like bellflowers, Verbena bonariensis, Allium Christophii, blue hydrangea, Delphinium and more:

And now I'll finish this long post with one last shot of my favorite Summer flowers (annuals) and my old blue shutters in the back, then I'll let you go ;-)

Thank you my dear readers, who made it all to the end of this very long post, for staying with me through 54 photos which was my longest post up-to-date, but I really had to make up for not posting any garden pictures earlier this season. I hope you enjoyed this post and liked what you saw and will perhaps even gain some inspiration from it. 

So now you please tell me what's new in your gardens?

Here is wishing you all a fabulous high Summer time!

xoxo~ Carola