Gather. Create. Connect.

After all the Christmas decorations came down, I have left most of the home un-decorated and simple.

But, slowly, I have been pulling together a corner at a time – and this week, I worked on a corner in our dining room by creating a vintage door plate wall.

I used French cleats to hang the door and an assortment of methods for hanging the plates.  But honestly, the hardest part was picking the plates.  I originally thought I was going to do a more formal display with transferware.  As I started to pull it together, I found myself gravitating towards the more quirky options.

Hence, the odd little fish glue to the white plate…

It reminds me of a good friend, and makes me giggle – and isn’t that what we should do in our homes?

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The reality is, this year, our garden challenged us greatly.

We battled too much rain and an attack of squash bugs.

When I started to think about our fall decorating, I knew I wanted to take the few pumpkins and gourds that made it and display them proudly.

Our kitchen garden is right outside of our kitchen and visible from all parts of the kitchen and the family room, so I decided it would be the perfect place for us to enjoy the fruits of my husband’s labor (he really took the lead on the garden this year).

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Hello fine friends.

I love nothing better than to create something new that would have otherwise ended up in the trash.  And that is truly the case with my reclaimed wood pumpkins.

Do you happen to know what a squash bug is?

I do.

They are nasty little creatures that we have battled for years and they destroy all of our vine plants in our garden.  And if a pumpkin or two manages to survive the onslaught of these buggers, then the rabbits eat them up.

So this year, I decided to be ready.  If no pumpkins make it, no worries, I am making my own.

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Today, I am sharing an upcycled vintage door beverage bar.

So the summer weather is winding down in our area here.  The windows are open and the air is letting us know it is coming to an end.

But that doesn't mean I am ready to go inside yet.  I am hoping to still use our porch into the fall, just start to wrap ourselves in quilts and blankets.  For the past two years since we have had our porch, we were hit with a hurricane at the end of the summer season.  We had to quickly "batten down the hatches" and get ready for the storm.  We closed up early and didn't open again till spring.

This year, I am really hoping to be able to use the space well into the fall, have friends over, share meals.  And what better way to to do that then with a fun beverage station.

Technically, this could also be considered a potting station, but I am just being honest here, for us, it is a beverage bar.  It is perfect for our screened porch.  Every time we had people over, I was bringing a folding card table out here for drinks.  Not only did it not look cute, but it was always an awkward height to serve from.

Now, we have the perfect space to serve drinks for the whole crowd.

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Some men bring home jewelry for their wives.

My husband, brings home old doors – and I am so glad.

Many years ago, Dana was driving past Drewsville General Store in NH, just an ordinary day.  And then he saw them – four perfectly old and chippy doors – each for $1 – and he scooped them up.

But the problem was - they were in NH.  But one day (we are debating if my father-in-law brought them down in his pick-up or his brother brought them down when he drove down Dana’s John Deere Tractor), they made it to NY.

And they sat.  For a very long time.

And one day, I had a great idea for a project and I quickly ran to get them from the side of the garage, from under the tarps.

And then I realized that was also where the snakes were cooling themselves for their summer.

So, I decided my idea really wasn’t that good.

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Every year I have grand gardening plans.  But then as the weather gets hot and sticky and buggy – I start to loose interest somewhat.  But this year, with Hubby around, he has taken the lead on the garden and it is doing really well.   Our garden is a good size, but kind of far away from the house.

I have a tendency to start cooking and then realized I want to add some herbs from the garden.  So, this year, I decided to put some herbs right on the back deck where they can easily be grabbed.  And since, it is an herb garden, I decided to go ahead and “decorate” it with a kitchen them.  I found some inexpensive bowls, plates, cups and spoon rests at a local discount store.

Putting the garden together is rather easy and be customized many different ways.  We chose to use galvanized containers because I have a lot of them – so many, in fact, I made a Christmas tree out of them.  However, any selection of planters would work.  We also used a small vintage door but that could easily be replaced with painted plywood or stained hardwood.  Or, you could create something similar to this project.

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