Pleasant View Schoolhouse

Thank you all for serving me up such a big slice of it! Coincidentally, I made the real thing this week, using a recipe from the current Cou...

It's hard to see the end from the beginning, yes? That's why my shrubs crowd each other, why the peonies are entirely shaded by the ...

Outside Time: sometimes hard to squeeze in (there's so much to do in the house and it's so fun!) but always a priority. It keeps us ...

For some reason I always forget that I have purchased rhubarb and I let it go bad in the fridge. I did remember in time this week, though, a...

I came home to find she had floated two Sally Holmes roses in a pressed glass bowl, for her dresser.

Just the two of us today! After the storms passed we went for our runs--3 miles for her on hills, 5 for me on the flat. She read her book. ...

Also out of our bright orange 70s cookbook (Better Homes and Gardens Bread ), this complicated project. First the girl made a big batch of p...

(not literally, that's his camera) But I do know this: he's got an internship in New York City this summer. Yeah, my little hayseed ...

An amazing find at the thrift store. Unprepossessing covers, but these are blank books for recording the day's business! A few of the pa...

Until I looked into Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Sewing and Fabric Crafts , I would have said there was no right or wrong way to con...

Bella was inspired today by a thrift store cookbook from the early 70's, in which all the baked goods looked like they had been sprayed ...

Lately I have taken to keeping baskets of patchwork square on the go. That is, every so often I'll dig through the scraps and do a cutti...

This is the first year the tree peony has offered more than one flower. Such a powerfully botanical, medicinal scent. I can't decide if ...

I have, slightly obsessively, made pillows to match the (cough) orchids in the sitting room. My only defense is that they didn't take lo...

The Lady Banks rose is immense this year: a solid arc of flowers at least fourteen feet in length. Plenty for Clara to cut and arrange in a ...

One look at the beautifully styled website and you too will want to try a Colette pattern. Well-designed, lovely instruction books that are...

Giles' one painted wall was apple green, which I've come to think is too harsh. I've re-done it in Benjamin Moore's Hibiscus...

I'm not *actually* sewing right now, I'm doing painting in the house. Not to say I won't work on a little sewing here and there,...

"You must have the courage to try new fashions and the discretion to reject those that are unsuitable or adapt them to suit your image....

Made up in a lightweight charcoal wool with a beautiful hand, this one will be useful for years. It drapes perfectly on her and is just the ...