Give Me the Simple Life Part III - A Few of My Favorite Things + Fabulous Nest Friday!

A cottage small is all I'm after,

Not one that's spacious and wide.

A house that rings with joy and laughter,

And the ones you love inside.

                                         (Harry Ruby/Rube Bloom, Give Me the Simple Life)

Ah, it's Friday!  This is one of the rare weekends when my husband's days off actually coincide with those of the rest of the world.  However, even when it's not actually the start of your days off, there's something about a Friday that gets you excited and filled with anticipation.  Anything can happen on a Friday!

I like to try and have my nest all fixed up for the weekend.  You never know when you might have drop in guests, so it's always a good idea to to freshen up the house and stock the fridge and cupboards!  

The weekend is also a great time to go shopping.  Back home, I would always go for breakfast with my mom and my sisters on Saturday mornings, and more often than not we ended up hitting the shops!  We also enjoyed visiting thrift and second hand stores to search for treasures.  And if there was a basement to attic or rummage sale on the go, that was on the agenda too!

Over the years I've accumulated a lovely cache of treasures both new and previously loved.  My mother and my husband in particular are wonderful gift givers with the knack of finding the perfect item you didn't realize you wanted and/or needed!  Add family treasures and personal shopping finds to my stash and I have a nice collection of things that make my nest my own.  While preparing this week's series of posts on "The Simple Life" I decided to do a post on things that I'm loving right now, and I've decided to make it a recurring post.  Over time I'll share old treasures, new finds, investments, and just plain stuff!

Anyone who read Wednesday's post on my Cloud of Inspiration may see some of the items mentioned appear in these new posts.  And so, I'll start with one of these items.

My beautiful luster-ware tea set!

Several years ago my mother-in-law, who has a fine cache of treasures of her own, gifted me with a beautiful luster-ware tea set.  Depending on where we lived, this elegant set sometimes had to live in seclusion so as to protect it from our cats, who have a habit of breaking fine things.  The decision to put it away was finalized a few years ago, when our cat Junior Mint got herself tangled up in a Christmas display I had made that included the tea set.  As she panicked, the components of the display, tea set included, went flying across the room.  There was a horrible moment as we raced about gathering up pieces, and although several items did suffer damage, the tea set emerged unscathed.  We tried displaying it again at our first Kitimat home, but we were too nervous that the dogs would knock over the wine rack on which it was displayed  as they rough-housed.  However, when we moved into our current house, the kitchen cabinet tops provided safe shelf space, and my tea set found it's home!   

Another item I'm really loving right now is my Bodum French Press Coffee Maker.  My version is the one that Bodum designed for Starbucks; I adore it's simple, elegant design.  We love our french press coffee, so much so that when our old coffee maker gave out during the winter we decided not to replace it.  This means better coffee all the time, and more counter space for me!!

Pretty Note Books (and a long lost fountain pen!)

I'm sure some of you probably remember my recent post on to-do lists and pens?  In it I mentioned that I had found the perfect notebook, so, here it is!  I purchased two, so I use one for my daily to-do lists, blog brainstorms, and household notes, and another for Bible study.  In addition to being cute, they also have a folder AND an envelope inside!  Brilliant!!!!  And did you notice the pen in the picture?  A few days after my rant about how my favorite fountain pens were all gone, I was searching through a desk that used to live in my old craft room and I found FOUR fountain pens still in their box!  Turns out, I had doled out the pens to my husband and I in the first place and then put the box in a "safe place."  We were both very pleased to get a new supply of fountain pens!

You may also remember my salt and pepper shakers.  My husband brought them back from Nova Scotia for me.  He purchased them at one of our favorite Halifax shops, The Black Market.  Here are a few shots I took of them (and yes, it's sad that I enjoy taking pictures of shakers!)  I caught myself having a bit too much fun setting them up in different poses and then imagining the dialogue between them.  To demonstrate, (with apologies for the quality of the images):

Salt - Ridiculous! I don't believe a word of it!

Pepper - Please listen to me!  I can't let you go on thinking he's someone he's not!!

Salt -No!  I can't believe Basil would betray me like this!  And for that horrid Paprika!!

Pepper - "Don't go!  It will be fine!  You still have Oregano and I!!!!

Salt - "Hold me!"

(The phrase you're searching for is "charmingly eccentric!") 


So there you have it, the first installment of "A Few of My Favorite Things!"  I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for new, and old, wonderful treasures to share with you!

I'm linking to Housewife Bliss' Fabulous Nest Friday blog hop, and you should hop on over and check it out, too!  I've discovered so many great blogs (and the wonderful folks who write them!) through this hop, so go check it out!


Have a wonderful weekend and I'll see you on Monday!