5th annual Where Bloggers Create party ~ Boxwood Cottage Studio 2013

Prolog: This is a long post with over 30 photos so you better grab a cup of tea or or a mug of coffee and make yourself comfy now ;-)

Welcome back to Boxwood Cottage Studio dear blogging friends and readers - new and old - and to the 5th annual Where bloggers create party hosted by Karen Valentine of My Desert Cottage blog - see her event button in my right side bar. It's also my 5th time to participate and every year when Karen announces the party date being in the middle of July I think oh no I won't make it this time, there is so much to do in the garden right now and it's too warm up there in my attic studio under the roof top. But alas I did it again since the weather wasn't really hot this summer until now and I started by making space to create a new corner and studio vignettes, as always vintage inspired which means I mix up vintage flea- and antique market finds with new modern furniture mostly from Ikea. I brought my willow day bed from my studio down in the garden where I also created a new garden corner with it. In Germany there is saying "2 Fliegen mit einer Klappe schlagen", means with just one change I made two spaces better which I just love! So now you want to see it and I'm going to start by showing you my new favorite studio corner and then all the cleaned up and rearragend rest of my studio. The garden will have to wait until my next post though.

In that corner under the pitch of the roof I had my daybed before which I didn't really use there apart from putting stuff on it when I created. Now I got my white Alex drawers from Ikea out of a hidden dark studio corner where it was before and put it there under the pitch of the roof and I instantly loved it there, where it is reachable so much better when I sit on that vintage chair at my studio table and create. The drawers are all filled with papers like vintage wall paper and sheet music paper which I often need in my creations.

 See the blue evening sky in the picture above? That is the best thing about my my studio that I have 3 huge double attic windows up there giving me lot's of natural light.

 I also put my vintage suitcase collection there under one of the windows and I really like them there better as in the corner I hade them before. They are mostly filled with Christmas decorations.

 Above is a close up of my Alex with a vintage typrewriter (old time writing) vignette on top and my black chalkboard (ex kitchen cupboard door) behind it.

 The clipboard is one of the London finds from my vacation there last month and I typed and printed out a reading chart to clip on it.

Following is a close up of the vignette on the small Lack table beside of Alex. There is my stamp caroussel for example and a vintage shoe last ( my paternal grand father was a shoemaker) and you can also spot the paper maché pumpkins lying in the white drawer which are waiting to get painted for some autumnal vignettes soon.

 Here is a close up of my vintage flea market find suitcases, some are old leather others are coated cardboard. Of course I had to put one of my vintage black top hats on top of the stack:

 Not to forget a close up of my favorite suitcase I got a few years ago in a friendship swap with Ann Perry of the Tin Rabbit in Texas. I simply love how Ann decorated the inside of the suitcase:

And in case you'd like to see it I also took a close up of the vintage black typewriter vignette (this is one of 3 vintage travel typewriters that I own).

 After the close up above here is a wider view of that corner with the table I use to create at:

And another close up of some of my old scissors which I'm especially fond of, sitting in a vintage glass flower frog. The soldered domed glass pendant you might also spot there I made for my oncle recently and it's filled with pictures of my auntie which passed away not too long ago and her wedding ring also fitted between the two domed glasses:

From here we move a bit farther to the right under the next rooftop window where I have one of my Expedit shelves for studio storage and an old black train light as well as an old black telephone ( yes I adore old/vintage black things!) :

Let's have a closer look at the shelf now. In the left wire basket I store my collection of vintage postcards and cabinet cards:

Here comes a wider view of this area where you'll also see part of my comfy old studio sofa and my laptop on which I type this right now:

 followed by an even wider view of one half of my studio:

In this area I have another Expedit shelf which my faithful blogging friends and readers will sure remember from older blog posts:

This area also is a bit more colorful and contains part of my collection of vintage sewing machines

as well as my aqua colored Räskog supply cart who quickly became my most important studio helper who is always handy and in reach:

On the opposite side of this studio shelf are two of my studio desks and another one in the left hand corner under the window which is my soldering table. As you might have guessed I also love to hang pretty things from the wooden beams at my studio ceiling like the vintage inspired umbrella, the honeycomp paper ball or the huge wooden scissors:

 You might have also observed by now that I'm no minimalist, by no means really ha ha. I love eye candy and I need most of my pretty things displayed around me for my viewing pleasure and inspiration:

The white painted printers tray I moved from the corner unter the pitch of my roof top over to this wooden Ikea desk and I like it much better here right now. This time I also cleaned up the space under my desk especially for Alexandra ;-) In the wooden tray on top of the vintage travel suitcase under the desk I store my jewelry making stuff and the suitcase is filled with paper maché boxes:

I can easily move the white tray away if I should need more space on top of the desk:

The washi tape holder stands on the desk shelf and under it is one of my recent creations a soldered bug in an old book under glass - inspired my idol Sally Jean Aleander:

 

 At the left side of this desk stands my vintage spinning wheel on top of another small Expedit shelf:

and farther left is this attic window of the north house side over my soldering desk. Since I love birds and everything about them I also have a bird/nest garland hanging in the studio window and a bird cage hanging from the ceiling. The glittered nest garland is one of my treasured garlands from my talented friend Madai of Butterfly cottage in Florida. The vintage postcard fabric banner is a creation of my friend Anita who sews the most beautiful things.

 Off for a little a break .... no just joking  can't leave you now ;-)

 I like how I can see the huge scissors in the studio mirror reflection seen above :)

This vignette stands on a tiny set of  drawers which sits on my glass desk and shows some of my soldered shadow boxes. You can right click and superzise all of my photos btw if you'd like to see even more details. I also have a collection of vintage rulers displayed here in an old milk jug:

 Sweet Charlotte - a creation of my long time blogging friends Jenny and Aaron from Everyday is a holiday blog - is peeking from behind the boxes :)

Phew this is a long post but don't fear you almost made it through it, because this is the last studio wall/corner that I want to share with you today

As the top hat addict that I am of course my studio dolls get little top hats too :)

In the last photo above is my framed collage of waxed nature finds which I created in my sisters atelier last fall.

Well I think that I should better stop here for today because there are so many more awesome studios out there in blogland waiting for you to get discovered at this great inspirational party. I'd like to thank Karen for hosting it again and everyone of you who made it until here and I would love to hear from you so that I can visit you back.

xoxo~ Carola

I'm sharing this with he following parties:

Knick of Time Tuesday - see button in my right side bar
Blissful Whites Wednesday at Timewashed blog - see button in my left side bar
What's it Wednesday at Ivy and the Elephants
Inspiration Friday at Common Ground blog

About a "Summer dinner party" and the cutest chickadee babies!

Welcome back to Boxwood Cottage dear blogging friends and readers! I'm so behind on blogging. The roses and peonies are in full bloom now for almost 3 weeks already and I still have pictures from the end of May to share with you today. Last year was the first time that I had my birthday party in May not in January when my b-day actually is and I loved it so much because the weather was wonderful then and we could go outside and enjoy the garden too. So I planned a Summer dinner party at the end of May this year too, but the weather didn't play along, oh well. It was a rather chilly and overcast day and so we stayed inside, but we still had a very nice party and I don't think anyone but me really cared for the weather that evening. In the picture above you can see our vegan and gluten free menu for the dinner party which I put in one of my vintage black typewriters. Since my daughter and I are vegans and a very god friend of mine is vegan and also can't eat gluten, it was quite a challenge to come up with a delicious meal that anyone, regardless of whether they are omnivores, gluten free or vegan would enjoy, but my clever daughter who did most of the food preparing did it very well.

Good for me so I had more time for the decorations, which I enjoy doing much more anyway. With all the white and some black accents in my home I wanted something more summery and went for pink and natural hues. I love these small milk bottles and bought them already several months ago along with the pink and white polka dotted paper napkins and striped pink paper straws which I also love so much (as a regular follower you might remember the black and white striped paper straws that I used for the Halloween party decor last year), so of course for my birthday party dinner I finally had to use them all. I had great fun adorning the bottles with some washi tape and the small friendship hearts that I soldered in February. My friends could take them home as friendship tokens after the party was over.

Now aren't these bottles just so cute?

And I finally had an excuse to use my beloved honeycomb paper balls in pink and white shades for the party decor:

And also the pretty fabric bunting which  my friend Anita sewed for me several years ago:

I filled the little milk bottles with a mixture of ice cold pomegranate juice, organic rhubarb lemonade/soda and a bit of vodka, which was very yummy.

The cucumbers I filled with a delicious vegan tuna/soy-yoghurt/dried tomatos/capers mixture, these were everyones instant favorites and I'm sure going to make them again for a family birthday next month.

Since my white bleeding hearts where still in full bloom I used them for the table deocr as well:

And also for the decor on top of the mantle, more  friendship hearts :)

Another shot of the honeycomb paper balls, aren't they just too pretty hanging from the chandelier?

I also had a pink paper parasol hanging from the ceiling:

This next photo is one of those that I took shortly before the guests sat down to eat and it wasn't so easy to think to take pictures while my friends were already there, but luckily with my dear daughter helping me so much with the food and all I did it and found the time to take some more photos.

before and after dinner shots or better viceversa lol

The lilacs were just in full bloom at the time (May 24th) and looked so pretty on my old Adler sewing machine table:

Of couse we also had a very delicious vegan dessert with a yummy silken tofu vanilla creme and raspberries underneath, as well as self made almond powder cookies and Amaretto liqueur at the bottom and strawberries and freshly grounded vanilla sprinkled on top hmmm

Here's another befor the party shot, because I love the light in this photo:

And at the end of the day it was also a good thing that it was to chilly to go and sit outside because Mr. Chickadee and his whife were very busy feeding their babies right in front of my patio door at the side wall:

And so we did not disturb them with their exhausting task.

A few days earlier papa chickadee, a very busy man, who build the nest in the bird house all alone,

flew right into my living room. While I sat in my deckchair outside I heard a strange noise behind me so I turned around to see Mr. Chickadee behind the window pane inside my parlor. Of course I had to help him to get out again, but I had to have a photo of him sitting on the lamp at first:

Too cute these tiny birdies aren't they just? Of course he was afraid and very excited and wanted to find the way out to keep building the nest for his wife and babies, but it was so difficult with all the things I had standing on my window sill and hanging over it

So that I had to put it all away in order for this sweet little one to find his way out again and then finally he did it! So this is a very rare shot now of my parlor window and window sill without any decorations inside:

Of course I used the opportunity to thorougly clean the window and sill which was really necessary, so thank you Mr. Birdie for giving me a visit inside and help me finish my Spring cleaning lol :)

I really enjoyed the very good garden view I had through the clean and decorless window so I took another photo of it on a wonderful sunny May day, as seen above. And how very convenient that now I had the window already cleaned for my dinner party that I held just 2 weeks after this little accident with papa Chickadee :) It all went so fast then, momma chickadee haf moved in layed eggs and the little ones hatched and during all this time my daughter and I, and later also my neighbor Ulla did our best to supervise the bird house because it's in their nature that our cat Riley and his neighbor cat friend Tommy tried to climb up to the bird house on any given occasion and no wonder that they were on constant cat alert with all the noises of the hungry little ones coming out of the bird house.

And then, 10 days or so after my dinner party, at the beginning of June, the sweet chickadee babies were ready to leave the nest. At first we could only see them peeking through the hole of the bird house from time to time and then the next day it was really hot and the bird house was in full sun exposure for hours and that was the day that they decided to discover the world!

Now tell me please isn't this the sweetest chickadee child you have ever seen calling for his parents?

I so adore his feathery hair do!

Not long after this photo he decided to hop out and sit on the stick in front of the hole:

and then from their after a while he just leaped to the next branch over the bird house:

We were all so excited to see our little ones discovering the world and take off for their first ever flight. The first 3 babies did it that evening and the next 3 the next day.

Some of them like this grumpy little cutie pie needed a bit longer and a lot of cheering on from his momma (she came back and forth to him, still fed him, kissed him and then showed him several times how to just fly off, just to cute to see this all happening live in front of my parlor door) until he finally took all his little heart and flew off, but the better for me that he took so long because so I had more time to take some more pictures of him close up:

Yea I know he doesn't look very amused:

After they all flew off to the next lilac tree we were so relieved that the cats didn't get around to catch any of them and I just hope that they will all stay alive long enough to enjoy their little lifes and maybe also my garden:

I leave you now with two shots of my beautiful snowball which unfortunately has already faded by now:

Next time I'll share with you some pictures of my garden with the new seating corner in the back and all the beautiful roses and penonies etc. in full bloom and also of the pretty things I brought back from my trip to London two weeks ago along with some restaurant and shopping tips for London visitors and also some things that I have meanwhile created. Until then I hope that you enjoyed this post and will visit me again soon! Thank you all for still coming to see me here after so many years, cause I just realised that in only 3 months time I'm going to have my 8th year blog anniversary, wow how time flies!

Sending Happy Summer wishes to all of you out there!

xoxo~ Carola

P.S.: Thank you so much to those of you who where concerned and asked about the heavy high waters and the floods we had here in Germany during this month of June. I'm very thankful that it wasn't anywhere near here where we live in Bremen. We had more than our fair share of rain here too this month, but that was it. I live close to the river Weser and the floods usually happen along the river Elbe. I can't even start to imagine what the poor people in some of the cities and villages that were flooded for days have been and still are going through. It must be absolutely devasting for them I'm sure :( Hope they all have good insurances at least. I don't think that I could live there because to most of them it had already happened just 10 years ago and now again! So so horrible!