Vintage Table Linens...or...send me to Betty Ford - I admit, I'm addicted.

My Mom came to visit me this past week and oh my goodness, did we get ourselves into Trouble. And yes, it deserves a capital T. For starters, I found a new addiction: handmade, gloriously whimsical, and completely unnecessary vintage table linens. But, I'm ahead of myself.


My Mom (my best friend) has thrown off the anchors, and is starting out on a new endeavor - which you'll hear about directly from her in her new blog, soon to be created. This new endeavor has brought her into the world of vintage textiles and fabrics...so when she found out that one of the best East Coast vintage textile shows was to occur in Sturbridge, MA, we schemed a week together.

The vintage textile show was this past Monday, the day before the start of the infamous summer Brimfield "Antique" Shows (more soon on that!). Sturbridge is about an hour east of the Pioneer Valley, so we planned an early departure so that we could arrive at the start of the show. After a drive through the small towns that make up most of Western and Central Massachusetts, we arrived at the Host Hotel in Sturbridge where on the front door was a prominent "No photographing or sketching permitted" sign. Apparently, devious types had been visiting, sketching and photographing, and then creating reproductions to be sold to unsuspecting consumers at top dollar. Too bad for the bloggers of the world.

We paid our $10 dollars and passed through the door, sans cameras. In the first booth we wandered into, we found the most amazing placemat and napkin sets, likely from the 1940s and 50s. I found a set that I immediately fell in love with, but thought - "No, we shouldn't buy the first things we see." So we proceeded to meander through the booths. Vintage clothing racks lined each booth, Bakelite jewelry abounded, vintage buttons, lace, fabric and hats took over any available space. Honestly, it was a bit overwhelming. The vintage clothing was difficult to see because so many pieces were crammed on each rack. The '50s cocktail dresses looked a little sad with their crinoline squished up against cotton day dresses from the '30s- '40s. (Hint to vendors - organize your merchandise by era.)

Despite the sheer volume of stuff (some great, some okay, and some JUNK), it was so much fun to look and admire. We spent hours going through the booths, but at lunch we both decided that we should focus on the things we really wanted. I kept coming back to the fact that I had NEVER forgotten some pink elephant cocktail napkins that had been used during the wedding shower weekend for a dear friend of mine. I thought, "Well...hell. Here I am at a vintage textile show. Maybe I can find some neat cocktail napkins." I also kept coming back to the amazing placemat and napkin set that we had seen at 8:00 AM in the first booth. Over sandwiches, we decided on a plan: 1) Go to that first booth and see what hasn't sold. 2) Go back to the one place we saw an assortment of cocktail napkins.

Upon return, we found that the two sets we had fallen in love with were still there. Hooray! And so, we made some purchases. Perhaps my Mom will blog about her purchase, so I'll give you a peak at the one she so generously made for me (thanks, Mom!):

Love the sailboats! Can you see the cloud detail in the upper left corner? The edges are amazing too. 

Here's some detail of the sailboats - complete with little people to man the sails! Apparently the pink color of the sails is desirable in vintage linens.

Here you can see the fish detail and the gorgeous edge stitching.

Can't you just see these used for a summer lunch? Why aren't things made like this anymore!? The extra special part of this story is that the seller of these linens bought them at an estate sale in Pennsylvania and she discovered that the previous owner lived in the same area I grew up in! She was a baroness. With exquisite taste.

After we made these fun purchases, we made a beeline for the vintage cocktail napkin ladies and spent about 30 minutes devouring their collection (and book on the subject!) My Mom and I couldn't resist buying 3 sets - one of which we will share by sending back and forth whenever either of us needs to host a baby shower (each cocktail napkin was appliqued with a pink elephant balancing a pink/blue/white ball!). The other 2 sets have started my collection. And yes, I have a marine problem:

The shape of each napkin is perfect for folding and handing to a guest with their custom cocktail - mojito anyone?

The detail of these fish is so impressive - check out that tiny delicate stitching.

And because I love navy. And I wanted to keep with my marine problem: fish. Each was handmade in Portugal.

The result of this vintage shopping spree? Parties at my house are going to go swimmingly. Hah.

Baby Shower!

This post is incredibly overdue, but better late than never - eh? At least it will be finished before my friend's baby arrives!

For Ruth's baby shower, my friend Beth and I got to work on some cute theme-focused favors for the guests to take home. Everyone loves a party when they receive gifts too! You'll remember that we had a "sweet pea" theme for the invites...so what better than a little homemade sweet pea to take home?

I found this adorable blog post with plans for DIY felt sweet pea ornaments. Due to lack of time, the realization that the only felt balls I could find were in Australia, and a few other factors...my friend Beth and I had to make a few changes to the design. I think ours came out pretty cute anyway! Instead of felt balls, we used wooden beads.

The shower was so fun...and I believe it achieved its purpose: our dear friend Ruth was showered with love and support. We are so fortunate to be surrounded with a sisterhood of such strong and wise women. We are also lucky to have our friend Cathy's "barn"...which has become the go-to party space!

A few more details for your viewing pleasure:

Our friend Beth brought line and clothes pins to hang up some of the gifts. Easy and quick decoration!

Kate brought these amazing deserts.

Adorable...and all gone by the end of the party!

Instead of silly games, we asked that every guest write a favorite piece of advice for the new mom on a card. We put the advice cards in a basket...and as Ruth picked out the advice cards...she would read the advice out loud for everyone to hear before opening that guest's gift. It made the gift opening really interactive...and we all learned a lot!

Some of the food and drink that we made for the party. My contribution: non alcoholic punch and alcoholic white sangria (thanks Martha Stewart!).

DIY Baby Shower Invitations

Paper turns me on. I think it all started when I was about 10 years old and my parents sent my brother and me to Colonial Camp at the Peter Wentz Farmstead. The farmstead was built and established in the mid- to late- eighteenth century outside of Philadelphia. It served as headquarters to George Washington in the fall of 1777 and now the site (farmstead and 90 surrounding acres) has been restored and furnished to reflect its appearance at the time of the Revolutionary War. Every summer they have a camp where campers learn trades and activities of the Colonial Period. During camp my brother and I made 3 legged milking stools, dipped candle sticks, pressed flowers, weaved ticking tape, painted theorems (that are now framed and hanging in my kitchen!) AND made paper from cotton pulp among other activities.

In my childhood diary I still have pieces of the paper that I made at camp. It's highly texturized and blended with lavender from the Peter Wentz kitchen garden. I'm pretty sure I was hooked right away.

I spend stupid amounts of money on paper, unique letterpress cards (especially anything from Saturn Press in Swan's Island, Maine), and nice pens. My own stationary is navy blue with a white monogram and the envelopes are lined in kelly green. It makes me happy to think of people receiving my thank you notes...navy blue envelopes must be eye catching amongst the bills and catalogs, right?

So when it came time to create baby shower invitations for my dear friend Ruth...I couldn't just go out and buy pre-made or printable invitations. Here's the catch...I'm temporarily unemployed...and not exactly flush with cash at the moment. So, I needed a DIY invitation on the cheap.

First, the theme: We don't know if Ruth is having a boy or a girl so I needed a color/theme that was gender neutral. Ruth's favorite color is green and before she was even pregnant, had a fascination with peapods. Perfect...that was easy!

Second, card stock: I went down to my favorite store in Northampton, essentials, and found bundles of 4" x 6" white card stock. The paper is texturized, which makes it feel more expensive than it was. I got 4 bundles of 10 cards for $12.00, because I needed to make 36 invitations. I figured I would need at least one test invitation and a few mess-ups in my printer.

Third, design: Recently, I watched "The September Issue," in which Vogue-chief Anna Wintour says, "Less is more." I agree! I wanted a simple, straight-forward design that wasn't too cutesy. Ruth has fabulous taste...and doesn't buy into consumerism one bit, so I figured she would appreciate a simple design as well. Here's what I came up with (personal info has been deleted/altered). All 36 invitations were printed on my cheapo HP printer that came free with my MacBook 4 years ago:

Fourth, envelopes: I like to make my own envelopes. I figure it's eco-friendly and unique. Several years ago Santa brought me these awesome envelope templates from Paper Source and ever since I've been making envelopes out of old maps, old Patagonia catalogs, used wrapping paper, old New Yorkers, and anything else flat that I can find. I wanted an envelope that would grab attention, reflect Ruth's eco-friendly interests, and be beautiful. I stopped in at an art supply store and found some gorgeous paper (you'll notice it from my header) that matched the green I used on her invitations. I also used the same peapod design for my address labels. Here's the end result (with personal info altered):

And that, my friends, is one of the ways I have kept busy during funemployment. I love projects.

5.25.1950 to 5.25.2010

My Mom had a big birthday last week and to celebrate she threw a luncheon for all of her friends. I flew home to Pennsylvania on a surprise visit to help with the preparations...and to take part in the festivities.

Happy Birthday Mom! It's going to be a great year. You certainly know how to throw a party!

I took a few photos of the pre-party set-ups:

Here's the bar table for mimosas, iced tea, and Pelligrino

A

And here's the sideboard with plates, linen napkins, and silverware

M

My Mom has a beautiful collection of vintage linens - these are from my grandmother, Mimi.

On the invitations, my Mom requested NO GIFTS. But...I thought this was such a kind gesture: one of her guests sent flowers the day before her party so they could be on display and enjoyed by many at the party.

Here's the dining room table before the food was put out. My Mom arranged the flowers...she is one talented lady.

Detail of the table cloth - again, this is a vintage heirloom from Mimi.

She ordered Petite Fours from our local bakery. Delicious and cute!

Here is a close-up shot of the party favors. My Mom made 31 of these chicken potholders for her guests. Aren't they adorable? Each one was a different combination of fabrics.

She displayed her party favors on the center hall staircase. Martha Stewart would be proud.

Don't look in the attic!

Our housewarming party was last Friday and I have to say I am proud of the way everything turned out. Jon and I were discussing that this party was the first party we've thrown as true 'adults.' Hmm. I don't know how we decided that we are now adults, but there it is. I've felt it coming for a while now...but china, wine glasses, baked brie. They are all pointing in a direction. And that direction begins with an A.

Other than the disturbing realization that now we're adults, we also realized that there's nothing like a housewarming party to make homeowners productive. In the two weeks before our party we stripped the rest of the wallpaper in our kitchen, re-plastered the walls in our dining room and kitchen, primed and painted the dining room, painted the trim in our new bedroom, unpacked all of our books, rearranged our 'study' and cleaned about 8 times. Plaster dust is my new number one enemy. Yes, it's even worse than Porter fur. But the combination is downright awful.

To be honest, we made the amazing discovery that our neighbor is a plaster and dry wall professional. He is fantastic. His work is perfect. And our walls are beautiful. Slum no more!

So after all of the work and cleaning, my parents came up to Maine and helped me prepare for the party. Who knew there was such a thing as colored leaf doilies to put on your serving plates under cheese and the like? That would be my Mom, aka as Karen "Martha Stewart" Helm. And we searched all over Central Maine for these puppies. No where to be found. So my Mom bought them on her return home to PA and sent them to me for the party. And yes, I used them. I placed them under my 'made from scratch' pumpkin cupcakes. Are you barfing yet? No? Just wait.

We also purchased a burnt orange hemstitch runner and a white linen hemstitch table cloth from Williams-Sonoma. Not only does the burnt orange match my Sacred Bird and Butterfly China from Mottahedah, but it goes perfectly with the harvest theme of our party. I know you're sick now. (As a side note, I think runners give one the option of making a seasonal table, without having to buy a completely different color tablecloth. If you have a good basic white table cloth, pretty much any color runner will go perfectly with it. Next on my list: navy for summer! Yes, I'm already planning our next party!)

The funny thing about all of this is that I truly had fun getting the house ready for our party. I loved it. And instead of describing it and making myself sick, maybe I should just put some photos up.

Here's the caveat about the photos...my camera was out of batteries, so we had to use an iPhone. Not the greatest, but they'll give you the idea:

We put luminaries on either side of our front walk to welcome guests to our house.

Here's one of our two pumpkins.

When guests came in, we brought them right to the bar- of course!

We also had a 1/4 keg of Gritty's Halloween Ale

We moved the furniture in our TV room to accommodate more people. There are my fab UO chairs!

This is an antique table that belonged to my Grandmother, Mimi. On top, I covered it with an Irish linen runner, a bowl with floating beeswax candles (thanks Mom and Dad), multicolored maize, gords, mini-pumpkins, and paper leaves. I also used this table for a bowl of roasted pumpkin seeds, almonds, and candy corn!

And here's the table. Jon took this picture before I put all the food out. It looked pretty spectacular with all the food. Ugh...I wish we had better photos.

Another shot...sort of.

Before our party, I mapped out an all day workplan (complete with time limits on each activity). I made sure to get everything done on time and in order and that made for a great party, with relatively little stress. It was A TON of work, but not stressful. And I think our guests enjoyed themselves too! Can't wait for the next one!

House Warming Party!

After working INSANE hours for weeks (evidenced by the time of this post) and never seeing Jon except in the photographs on my blog, we decided to add a fun element to our lives by hosting a house warming party.

Now...we may seem crazy. The house is currently half covered in plastic sheeting (I mean the inside) to protect everything from the dust of our renovations. And we are NOWHERE close to being finished. I mean...it will be years. But, we're going to keep it low key and fun. At least, I'm trying to despite the ugly perfectionist in me that's fighting to come out and take over.

So, first came the invitations:
Lately, I've been loving the mail. We had our 3 year anniversary last week and I got a bunch of cards (and all my magazines arrived too) and it reminded me how much I love the U.S. Postal Service. Receiving a letter feels like Christmas. I just love them. So...I decided to send real invitations using the actual postal service for our party. I couldn't afford anything fancy, but I wanted to get creative.

Several weeks ago, I stumbled on this cute antique shop in Hallowell (4 miles from my house) which had an amazing selection of old postcards. I bought up the whole stack of Maine themed postcards (20 for $1 to $2 a piece = total of $30.00) and sent them as invitations. I could have gotten much more creative with the envelope, but my insane job limits my time/creativity way more than I'd prefer. I tried to match the card to each recipient's interests or personality. Here is a sampling of the invitiations:

Upper left: "Greetings from Maine" Upper right: "Deer in Maine" Lower left: "A River Road in Maine" Lower right: "A Maine Potato Farm""Nut cracker in Maine""Surf Scene on Maine Coast""The Gardiner-Randolph Bridge" (I wish it still looked like this!)


"Lunch time in Maine" (sent to two of my favorite Maine parents)

(I forgot to add the time of our party to this invitation...luckily...I only did that once!)

So now that the invites are out, the RSVPs are rolling in. I think we'll have about 30 people. The next thing I need to worry about is food. Anyone have good hors d'ouevres ideas/recipes? Please comment and help me out!