Vintage Cottage Charm!

Just added to the etsy shop~

These lovely all cotton waffle weave handmade towels are so pretty for your cottage, retro or vintage decor. They work for the kitchen as well as the bath.

Click HERE to SHOP NOW

Shared on PINK SATURDAY!

Return to blogging!

After a lengthy absence from this blog, I am returning! So many of us left to use facebook and I have to admit is sure was easy to "short blog" over there. But things have changed. Facebook became so full of politics and hatred, I completely stopped posting, almost hating to even scroll through the feed. It literally sucked the energy out of me. I tried a couple other social media platforms, but I just can't get back into it. I will still share the links to my posts here on FB and MeWe, but I do hope you will follow me by adding your email on the right side of this page.

So much has changed with me, but in saying that, a lot is still the same. My goal is to post at least once a week on many different subjects I hope you will find interesting. You may also notice I have changed the name of the blog from All in my Cottage to Arbor Oak Cottage. When we built this home in 2005 we aptly named it because we live on the corner of Arbor St and Oak Grove Ave. A lot has changed since we built this house...we used to be next to a big farm, now we have houses built all around us. Our house is no longer red, its blue!

I plan is to share personal experiences, recipes, travel, art, DIY, photography. Also I will feature new items that I sell on my website and 3 etsy shops. Talk to you soon!

Goodness

Seriously, I am shocked I have not posted here since August. No real excuses, other than blogging has seemed to have taken a back seat to facebook for me. Although I mainly use facebook for promoting my textile and graphics business, my personal creative outlet has always been here on my blog.
As life marches along, so grows my family. We welcomed a grandson last summer-Joesph Randall--aka Joey, Joe and the kids call him Joe-Joe. My granddaughters and step grandson are now in school, seems like yesterday we were babysitting a 2 yr old and a new baby! They still give nana lots of hugs which I relish because they are growing up so fast!

Lilian 5, Lynsie 8

Kyler 5, Joey 9mo

In less than a week we are headed to Kona, Hawaii, on our annual tropical vacation. As many of you know, this is our favorite spot and we go often. This year we are staying the entire month of April!!

Our kids and grandkids are staggering visiting too, so this truly will be a family vacation. Watch the blog here for lots of pictures!

And also I will (and I promise) to share my garden and creative endeavors more often this year!

Late August porch sitting

It has been a long hot summer here in Oregon and you probably are thinking I am going to say I am ready for the cooler fall weather. NOT...I am quite spoiled wearing shorts and flip flops and picking roses from my cottage garden. The winters here tend to be long, grey and wet. Usually we do not have such dry summers and there have been many downsides to it this year.
Mid July always brings 2 weeks of leaf hopper bugs. Almost impossible to sit out on the porch in the evenings. This year right  on the heels of the leaf hoppers we had an invasion of millions (and I am not kidding) of tiny black ant like bugs. Every house that bordered the farmland here in our little town was affected. It was useless to spray as the numbers were too great and too widespread. So we had to wait them out for another couple weeks. This meant I had to strip the coverings off my bench too.

But now I back in business, enjoying my "porch sittin". I came across this fun transfer at a craft store and added it to an old shutter. It gets a lot of attention from passers by stopping to read what it says.

I covered the bench with an old quilt and topped with a quaker lace tablecloth that has seen better days--always a reuse for everything!

 

  

Easy no sew pillows! An old denim skirt I simply pinned to a pillow form and added some crochet scraps to the the pockets.

My watering can collection is so fun to decorate with. 

Below is a very old can that came from my husbands family in Nebraska

 

Garden flowers in anything that will hold water!

 

As you can see, late summer here brings some really dry farmland. This view is from the front walkway of my porch looking south.

 

So for at least a couple more weeks I will enjoy the last colors, sites and smells of summer. The corn stalks are drying in the back garden and I am already planning the fall porch decor.