My Blue Heaven

Are there many enjoyments in life as fine as a porch?

I wonder what the history of the porch is?  Surely a place to hide from the sun and relax for a few moments during a time in history when people worked from dusk 'til dawn just to survive.

I wonder what the nomenclature of the word "porch" is?*

When I feel like I am just surviving my porch is a wonderful place to retreat.  The view of the farm and potager is perfect from its many windows and the breeze is fantastic.

My porch is... shall we say, rustic.  Four seasons it is not, though the spiders tend to disagree.  Darling vacuumed up all the tarantulas for me today and now I can relax without fear.

My porch is peaceful.  I don't get to enjoy it near enough.  To many mouths to feed and not enough minutes in my day.

My porch reaches up into the 80's on some of the coldest winter days.  Taking a nap in the sun and pretending it's summer is a fine way to spend a dull, winter hour.  I can also over winter my rosemary there with ease.

My porch is... of course, blue and white and today, being unpacked from our vacation I decided to grab my camera and capture it for you.

Would you like a little tour?
Put your feet up and enjoy a bit of my blue heaven.

(Before we get started let's take a quick look at my porch when it was a furniture "catch-all"... before blue.

It had it's good days and bad days but finally just became the place to keep all the furniture from the old Parisienne Farmhouse that wasn't working for me here in the new Parisienne Farmhouse on Half-Way Farm.

It was depressing.)

 I love old books.  The colors are moving.  The smell is historic.  I can't get enough of them.

 Found this sweet little English biscuit tin at an antique shop on vacation.  $4.50 of delight!

 This galvanized chimney thing was my mothers day present.  The wonderful french farmhouse looking chairs I found at a garage sale for $2 a piece and the matching metals stools for $5 at my favorite resale shop a few weeks ago.  The table is from my Gramma.  The chandie - my first from many, many years ago.  1930's silver plated.

 I made these pillows with down inserts from the Goodwill, a used drop cloth (seriously, I was desperate to create and that's all I had) and my Mom came over with her fabulous stencils.  I love that stencil too much, it's all over my house.  I may get a tattoo of it.
Kidding.
Am I?

 I I find myself addicted to European looking baskets these days - but you know how frugal I am.  This whole pile has been found this summer here and there for less than $12.  See how the floor slopes (like the Joker's house!) -- so the rain could run off before it was enclosed.   MUST get some shims for that cabinet!

 Hey!  Who's that munchkin!???  Went all out and did french blue floors.  Sigh.

  I fauxed this door to match my kitchen cabinets.  It was white and I have yet to do the other side.  I love it.  If you like this technique it's super easy.  Use a semi-dry brush and the product at the end of this post and go nuts.  I'll put the product down below for you but you'll have to get it tinted.  I believe I used "Deep Ocean".

So don't laugh but I made the slip cover.  I just love ticking and had to try it while saving up for a pro-job.  It's a bit shabby but hey... overall I really impressed myself, I have never done anything like that before though I break into my Cirque de Soliel routine to get the old cushion stuffed into that pillowcase.  Contortionist.

 A favorite vintage apron.  A french thermometer found at that awesome garage sale I blogged about a few years ago and a French barometer that I found at this horrid, funky little market in Paris in a not-so-great neighborhood.  SCORE!... or should I say, "GOAL!"

 Oh, those chairs. 

I am not showing you the top part of this cab.  It's full of homeschool stuff that needs to be straightened.  Long time readers have seen in before.  After all these years I still just LOVE the paint job.

If Ironstone is out of fashion I don't care.  I want a huge wall of it someday.  In the meantime these fabulous prints will have to do.  They are so unique.

Another junkie piece of furniture that takes a beating.  This is where I toss all Darling's stuff that he leaves around the house (drills, duct tape, random screws...) 

 A room with a view.

 Crusty ceiling. 

And last but not least my birthday present from Joel.  On vacation in Door Country last week we found these BITCHIN olive buckets from Turkey.  I think I peed my pants.  We could only get two - would that I could I would have bought all 30 of them.  They are dreamy and I had to toss my rosemary topiary in them for maximum effect.

I hope you enjoyed and had a chance to relax.
-Angela,
Parisienne Farmgirl

*Post Script:
"Porch" comes from the the latin word porticus and the greek word portico referring to the columned entry of a temple.  

For all you creative types...

 

La Cuisine... A la Ferme a Mi-Chemin

 STILL PREGNANT.

Last one was 11 days early - so a girl can hope, can't she???

 BEFORE... Lest we forget.

  

The entrance from the kitchen into the living room.  After we removed the Rainbow Brite carpeting.

Yes, we are renting, but our landlord gave us carte blanche to fix up the house the way we saw fit.  He gives us a tiny discount each month as a "thank you".  Not enough for the thousands of dollars worth of labor we did for six weeks before we moved in but we are so blessed to have found a rental that didn't look like a Home Depot Special (read: Berber carpet and oak bathroom vanities)... something that we could really make feel like home.  I would rather move into a DIVE than something tricked out with shiny brass light fixtures - you know what I mean???

 Taken my first night on the farm.  Just me and JuJu and a great bottle of wine.  So... we painted over the wallpaper (normally my perfectionist painter husband would NEVER do such a thing!  He would removed it, sand the walls, seal them... ugh..)  We also removed that horrible 1970's scallop thingy over the RED sink... yet to be removed.  I am just waiting to find some old sink at a barn sale.  The windows that swing out to the porch are the coolest thing in the entire house!!!

 Also having had to go bye, bye - the Jenny Lind railing thing.  We replaced it with a nice deep shelf for my oil paintings, copper and roasters.  Half of it yet to be painted if you look closely in photos.

 Yikes.

Moving Day.

OK - Here we go.  You said you were "tired" of garden, goat and chicken photos (I'm not offended) but it just takes a lot of work to get a room ready for pictures.  I didn't do the best job I could, I just don't have the energy for a full blown photo shoot but they are OK and I gathered some from the last 8 months too.

 Landlord Lewis (as we call him) let us take out the black stove and put in my baby!  He obviously let us paint those horrible cabinets too.  The technique is blue/gray barnwood.  I took off the heavy 1970's hardware with the intention of just dealing with it and putting it back up but when I did it totally distracted from my cool paint job.  I will NOT be spending money on hardware.  For now, there are holes everywhere.  Maybe this winter when I have time I will run some twine thru or something.

 I really love my old lipped cutting board and I love using my stove for display - especially since this house has less than half the counter space I used to have.

 Working with what you have.  Broccoli flowers and rainbow chard.

 I am trying to be really laid back here - as we ATTEMPT to save for our big farm someday.  There are so many things that could be done to make the house and property fabulous.  But I am really just trying to get it livable and know that it's not going to be "my masterpiece" - I am thankful for everything we have... except that god-awful red sink, which to every one's chagrin I have inconveniently disguised with a HEAVY slab of marble and a cool old light blue bowl.  LOVE IT!!!

 Just playing around on PicMonkey.  A tin table top helps disguise the horrid shiny wood laminate countertops and displays some of my kitchen FAV'S including my Beurre dish from Clingencourt,  a to die for bottle of Moulin Saint George and my patisserie cake dome and platter from Susan and Romancing the Home.  

  Garage sales, resale shops and world market.  

I LOVE COPPER.

 This winter I will be making flower pepper for gifts but I wanted to enjoy my harvest for a couple days first before drying.  The salt and pepper shakers are milk glass and from my Gramma.  They warm my heart every time I see them.

So... these next few are really recent.  Like the other day.  Notice I moved the marble slab - that wouldn't be fair to whoever has to wash my dishes while I am upstairs with a hew baby... and my Pullman car towel is crooked, but hey, you wouldn't want me up on a stool in my "condition" would you???  And - too lazy remove the food encrusted toddler seat, move extension cords and to hop over to PicMonkey for the P.F. stamp.  
Sigh.

 

The stove area a few months back.  That fabulous tapastry next to the SEL canister was sent to me by the lovely Brenda Hodges - she bought a frame she liked at a tag sale and found it underneath and thought of me.  I just love it.  It's ratty, french and fablulous.

 Mom had this old workbench left after one of our Shop the Shed sales (and I say "our" loosely!  as she has the BEST STUFF ever!).  I wanted it so bad.  It didn't sell, didn't sell and didn't sell as the months went by.  She gave it to me for my birthday last year.  LOVE IT!  I use it as a buffet when entertaining as seen here at Christmas and for the kids' are supplies (underneath the curtains) and my dishes.

 We go thru olive oil and balsmaic in a freakish way around here.  They are always within easy reach and easy pour on my stovetop.

 

 Our dining room table from the old house fits PERFECTLY in our kitchen and let me tell you, I don't miss running back and forth.  I've never had an eat in kitchen until this house.

 Homebread. 

 (Someone asked me about this recently - my nav bar is hidden on this blog but if you scroll your mouse up at the top you can search for anything from the last 8 years... including this recipe).

 Coming out my nose.  Rev up the juicer!

If there is one thing I would like to have more of, it's little old oil paintings.  I scored this one last year for $45!!!!!!!  It felt like highway robbery... finally, in my favor!

 

Another view of the cabs.  What I removed before I took "before" photos was that those upper cabs had YELLOW wavy glass behind the wire.  Freaky.

And of course, the copper pots.  Found in Paris, garage sales and resale shops.  

Never have enough.

I know it's not the most "pin-tastique" post - but you understand right?  

Which room would you like to see next?

The bedroom is all ready for the homebirth - thinking about making a quick video tour for those who can't fathom how you can have a home birth.   Hmmmm.....