Welcome to Boxwood Cottage

Happy New Year 2018!

2017-12-31T05:06:00.004-08:00

In 2017 I discovered a new favorite thing which I love doing and this is chalk lettering!

Here is to a happy and healthy new year 2018!

Cheers!

xoxo Carola

Finally back with an Easter inspired post!

2016-03-23T04:33:00.001-07:00

Hello, somebody out there?

Just trying today if I still know how to blog after almost a year long break *phew*

It's not so easy to come back after such a long time, but I figured I best just start with pictures, right?

And since once again Easter is on it's way, well......

of course I'd like to share with you some pics of this years Easter crafts and decorations. I still love nests and eggs, German paper maché eggs especially and I still love silver German glass glitter and German Dresden foils, it's just so fun to use these for my creations and authentic too, cause I can't deny being German.

I cut some pussy willow branches from the tree in the very back of my garden for the vignette above.

The 3 eggs in the picture above that are not paper maché are goose eggs from my sisters 4 geese, the lucky once that have a long free life and no fear of being eaten, by other then maybe a fox. They are rooming around in my sisters garden and in her neighbors gardens and on their fields too, but in the evening they always come back to their stable in my sisters garden.

I glittered lots of plastic eggs lately and some bunnies and a paper maché basket and small fimo eggs that I made.

I often change my Easter vignettes, put things first here, than the next day there, until I finally really like what I see.

These are too of the nests I created recently. The Easter basket nests above contains all the things I like from paper maché to fine silver glass glitter, to Dresden foil borders and silver bunny and that grey moss, which is called Dschungelgras around here, but doesn't grow in our climate.

Above is a mini nest in vintage tea cup with glittered fimo eggs and a glittered wooden bunny. Below a large nest with glittered plastic eggs in a terrarium which I soldered some years ago

I found the left, yellow(ish) paper maché egg with the German Dresden foil saying "Fröhliche Ostern" at the antique market last month and it is really old whereas the white paper maché egg I painted myself and put the Dresdens on last year. I think they look as if the belong together :)

Just some more vignettes. Below I used wax candle eggs and a wire egg to put in unsual egg holders, like the beautiful bed springs, that my dear friend Julia of Vintage with laces sent me in a friendship swap some time ago and the old tin funnel, another antique market find from last month:

And here comes a Dresden bunny Easter egg boat :)

Spring has not really sprung around here with temps still only around 7-11 degrees celsius, but I can feel it lurking just around the corner and since frosty nights have come to a minimum already I dared to start planting spring flowers into the pots on top of my patio tables and they are such a welcome sight after 4 months without flowers :)

And yesterday I got a new garden/planting table for my patio since the old one I had there was breaking already after many winters in the wet and cold and of course I had to put some Spring bulbs and Easter decorations on top.

I'm officially prepared now for Easter and Spring to come :)

It's my first, no I'm lying it's my second vacation/time off work since I started my knew job in my old company last September, but somehow the Christmas vacation doesn't count, because I spent it inside houses, but it's the first time off work where I can go outside and putter in my garden again and that just feels wonderful!

So how have y'all been doing lately?

xoxo~

Carola

Happy Easter 2015

2015-04-05T00:41:00.001-07:00

I have no time for a long text right now, so I let the pictures speak for themselves today. As you can see it's Easter inside the house and Spring outside in the garden around here :)

Happy Easter everyone!

Carola

Pretty neutral Valentine's day swap creations and an apology!

2015-02-06T21:00:00.000-08:00

Welcome back to Boxwood Cottage in the snowy month of February dear blogging friends and readers, which also happens to be the month of hearts!

Since Valentine's day isn't far away anymore, today I'd like to share with you some Valentines I made last year for a friendship swap with my dear friend Julia of the blog"Vintage with laces" which I'm sure most of you know. She received my parcel too late in order to share it before Valentines day (if I remember correctly it arrived on Valentines day exactly, but she had to pick it up somewhere and had no time to go there and get it on that day) last year, without spoiling her surprise, so I figured I better keep the pictures for this years Valentine's blog post and it looks as if this was a good decision, because things are not really working as planned around here.

I think I told you last month about the reasons for my long blog absence and the new job that I started last year. Well the bad news for me is that the Greek manager of that company decided to just vanish (elope, bolt or however it's called), when things got a bit stressful, a couple of weeks ago and he didn't leave any money on the company bank account when he did so, which left the company bankrupt and me from February on without my new job *sigh* :(

So I really want to apologize for not getting back to all of you and visiting all of your blogs, also you all welcomed me back so very kindly, but I hope that you'll accept my apology and that you can imagine and understand just how stressfull these last couple of weeks were (well I better say still are) for me, because since I'm the only native German speaking person in that company I had to handle all the complaints and pretty much anything else, which left me kind of numb in the evenings and on the weekends with no energy for much else, than a bit of pinning or facebook.

But now I don't want to bother y'all with these unhappy things anymore.

Let's go back to more delightful things like creating hearts for example.

Julia wished for mainly neutral Valentines which was quite a challenge, but I tried my best to fulfill her wish. The pictureses above and below are showing a chocolate cardboard heart box which I embellished for Julia and then filled it with all kind of small things for her to create Valentines with. I also made these lumpy little silver solder hearts that you can see in the box and which are really fun to make. You just let solder drip on a heat resistent surface and then dunk the soldering iron into the drop while the solder is still hot to form the little heart.

I was very inspired to create such a Valentine's day box by a pinterest photo of an etsy offering, that you can see here: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/283515739015978628/ and I think it shows ;-)

The next photo shows a couple of Valentines that I soldered last year and the big silver soldered heart in the upper left corner also went in Julia's parcel:

Below is another white cardboard heart that I cut out and embellished a bit from both sides and a card holder in heart shape that I formed (forged?) for her from smooth silver wire.

The sweet Valentine's flashcards are from my friend from Cari Craft's etsy shop btw! In case you want some too, here is the link to it: https://www.etsy.com/shop/CariKraft

Then I made her a tiny Valentine's day basket:

that I filled with a birdie that I glittered and some old millinery flowers:

I also embellished and old cabinet card for here, the one that you can see sitting on the old black typewriter in the picture below:

Following is an even better/closer shot of it. I also cut out a cupid and painted it with black chalkboard paint as well as a formerly vintage green plastic flower frog in which I placed the cupid along with the cardboard heart that I embellished and that you can see below from the other side with a lace paper heart glued on. I also soldered the scrabble letter LOVE pendant and that small filled glass vial for her and embellished a heavier glass heart as a paper weight:

The next photo shows the whole swap batch I think. I found that two turtle doves paper garland and had to buy it and include it in the parcel. Inspired from them I cut out a turtle dove heart from some old sheat music paper and glued it on the lid of the filled cardboard chocolate heart box the

As you may have noticed I also created some love arrows, one silver glittered and one silver soldered and a bow and I also formed Julia's name with the smooth silver wire:

Lastly I painted some paper maché hearts with black chalkboard paint and wrote and drew on them with white chalk. Not sure if the one I put in the parcel that says "JULIA xooxox 14" has made it to her without the white chalk wiping off. I also included a cardboard heart that I glittered with silver glass glitter and another small cardboard heart that I embellished from all sides and glued some millinery flowers on top.

Well I think this that was it and I'd be glad if this would inspire you to create some Valentines for someone special or just for yourself :)

So in case that we don't speak or see eachother around again before Valentine's day, I'm wishing y'all a day filled with hearts, love and laughter!

xoxo~ Carola

White Winter & Happy New Year!

2015-01-02T14:35:00.000-08:00

I will probably win the price for the fewest blog posts ever in 2014, but one of my new years resolutions is to do more posts in 2015 so I think I better start early in the year :)

I'm so sorry for my long absence dear blogging friends and readers.

Oh well hopefully there are still a few of you out there?

I had a terribly busy second half of 2014 which included a big vegan event that I organised in my city last summer as well as a new job that I started in September and the move of my daughter as well as the opening of her vegan coffeshop also in September and then work, work, work and work until I finally got a few days off last week and this one.

Can you believe that I started to decorate for Christmas on the very last Advent Sunday only? Readers and friends that have known my blog for the last 10 years (yes you read that correctly since I also missed my 10 years blogiversary in September 2014) also know my love for decorating and especially at Christmas time and I usually start with it mid November already, so this season I was really late and decided to do more of a Winter theme than a Christmas theme, so that I can leave it all out for a little longer without getting sick of it already a week after Christmas. I didn't even get around to buy a Christmas fir tree this season, which wasn't too bad, because we celebrated in my sisters and parents houses and in my daughters Café this time and the other good thing of it is that the putting it all away is going to be so much faster without having to put all my antique glass ornaments off of the tree and back in their boxes.

The Winter theme of course includes lots of whites and silver glass glitter and tinsel as well as snowflakes and snowballs. I decorated my little feather tree again with the white cotton batting ornaments that I made and collected over the last few years and my favorite antique tinsel star tree topper (right click to enlarge the photos):

Apart from my mantle I always love to decorate my old transom window/room divider with snowflakes and I also used the dripping snow border that I created last season (with a tutorial for you) on the bottom of the window and really love the look of it so much better than when I put it on the mantle last year.

And as you can see I also had a little fun with the chalk writer on the window panes:

Here is the whole window in all it's Winter glory (right click on the photos then click on show graphic and on the pic again to enlarge them, if you want to see more details):

The basement door got a few adorments too:

One of favorits is this simple french Christmas cone:

The last days were quite dark here, around Winter solstice, but I quite like the natural light in the next shot:

Following I share a few more shots of my Winter mantle with the old Dresden cardboard sign (saying "Schenke und Erfreue" which simply means Give Joy) which I found last year and the crocheted snowflakes garland from last season which I still both love:

The white star pillow was a self made Christmas present from my sweet niece who`s 18th birthday we celebrated just 3 days before Christmas and the wooden Antiques sign is a Christmas gift from my dear daugter. I like the look of the wooden logs in the old wooden crate with the twinkle lights on it that gives the impression of fire in the mantle.

On top of the mantle as always I like to decorate symmetrical and used pais right and left of white feather trees, white bottle brush trees, mercury glass trees, white snowball candles, white deer and so on and on:

It's shining and twinkling and glittering all around here and since outside we had no snow at all so far this season at least inside the cottage I get a feeling of a snowy and frosty and still cosy Winter :)

The Merry Christmas glitter sign that I bought from Andrea Singarella in the US when she still had her fab online shop is still one of my favorite festive & glittering things :)

And I also still love all the bottle brush trees that I collected over the last 10 years and my little Putz village:

and a bit closer:

For new years eve which I spent at home with my daughter and out frightened cat Riley ( he hates the fireworks and is kinda panicking, especially around midnight when it gets really loud) I made this Happy New Year garland:

And for the new year 2015 I'm wishing all of you very GOOD LUCK with the last photo :)

Btw did anyone out there missed me at least a bit while I was away from my little blogging space for 6 whole months and wants me to keep blogging or am I all on my own out here by now??

Would love to catch up with you during the next few days though!

xoxo~ Carola

Creative spaces bloghop winner and "Where bloggers create"

2014-07-10T01:54:00.000-07:00

Hello dear blogging friends and readers,

welcome back to Boxwood Cottage and just a short post today to announce the lucky winner for the Creative Spaces Vol 3 2014 blog hop and my participation in the 6th annual Where Bloggers Create blog party, which is this Saturday already! See Karen Valentine's pretty announcement button above and in my side bar. I'm frantically rearranging my studio right now so that I will be able to share something new with you on Saturday and I hope that I'll get it finished until then. July is always the hottest and most humid month around here and you can imagine it's not really a pleasure to work here upstairs in my rooftop studio because I have no air condition other than opening the big rooftop windows on both sides of the room. So I hope to see you here again on Saturday! :)

A big thank you to all the bloghop visitors and participants who left my such kind comments about my studio under my last blog post and now without further ado the winner of the Creative Spaces Vol. 3 magazine chosen by random number generator is comment number 31!

Karrie Ortiz - Sweet Paper Treats - California

Congratulations Karrie! :)

Please e-mail me your address, so that I can get the magazine that you can see in the picture above send off to you!

Have a great summer week everyone and hopefully until Saturday!

Carola~xoxo

P.S.:
Happy birthday wishes to my dad whose 81st birthday is today! :)
Alles Liebe und Gute zum Geburtstag Papa! :)

Creative Spaces Vol. 3 blog hop & magazine give away!

2014-06-24T04:48:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the Creative Spaces Vol. 3 blog hop dear blogging friends, readers and new readers!

I'm very happy to reveal and share today that my studio has got published in this beautiful magazine:

About the picture above I must point out that I haven't collaged the inside lid of the suitcase myself as Jennifer has stated in the article. Jennifer couldn't know that this old suitcase was a gift from a dear blogging friend Ann Perry of The Tin Rabbit. Sweet and talented Ann (who owns a wonderful creative space herself btw) sent me this old suitcase, filled with vintage gifts (they are not in it anymore), for a friendship swap we did a couple of years ago and I treasure it ever since!

If you want to see more pictures of my creative space and the descriptions please click here the link from my Where bloggers create post 2013 contains about 30 photos and many detailed shots.

I'd like to thank Jennifer the Editor of Creative Spaces for asking me if I wanted to be published and for this great oppurtunity to share my studio and blog with an even wider US audience and of course for the beautiful article she created from the photos I sent to her and also for making this a very pleasant experience for me :)

Jennifer has sent me two magazines of which I gladly share one with one of my lucky readers. To win it just leave me a comment and a way to reach you and tell me what you like or don't like about my roof top space and I'll use the random number generator to find the winner. Good luck!

And now I wish you all a very pleasant blog hopping! http://www.papercraftsconnection.com/?p=24021

See you again soon with another magazine article reveal (yes how lucky am I to get published in two different beautiful US magazines in the same month) this time it's all about my garden and I'm also going to share a bunch of new Summer garden photos with you :)

xoxo~ Carola

Wonderful April review & Happy first of May!

2014-05-01T01:10:00.003-07:00

We had the 4th warmest April since the beginning of statistical weather records in 1881 and that really shows because nature is 4 weeks ahead of her time and everything is green and lush :)

We had so many warm and sunny days with temps over 20°C/68°F

I just love my purple tulips :)

The lilcas are in bloom

and the spanish Lavender in a pot:

Don't you also think the clematis montana rubens looks quite similar to the flowers my sister had once painted onto the pottery ball below?

The Spring flowers in the wire basket in the next photo that I planted in February are beginning to look a bit sad by now, but I do still love them:

And here comes the April view through my two rose arcs with the boxwood roundabout

It's so good to see the blue sky and the Clematis montana rubens in full bloom with the lilac tree in the background. It's one of my favorite Spring sights in the garden:

The whole garden looks very lush and green and all trees got their foliage early and many are still in bloom. It's an especially wonderful April this year! Feels a bit like Summer in April sometimes :)

Forget me nots are blooming in abundance in every border this April :)

The daffodils in the big border above, planted last fall came out so pretty!

Of course since this year Easter was very late on April 20th there had to be a bit of Easter decor here and there in the garden too:

We spent Easter Sunday at my sisters home in the countryside where the geese are running free in her orchard:

As you can see in the photo above Easter Sunday was the most wonderful warm and sunny day and we had the Easter "egg"(free) hunt as well as our vegan lunch and coffee and cake in the afternoon outside in the garden, which was such a treat especially compared to last year, were we still had frost at snow at Easter, although it was early in March.

Some beautiful April garden blooms close up. The purplish auricula above and the pure white bleeding heart below:

Following are the buds of my Eden rose, I can't remember of ever before having had such big rose buds in April, so they will start blooming this week already :)

Happy first of May dear blogging friends & readers - I hope a few of you are still outside there, also my blog is still not updating in the side bars of blogs were I'm linked up with :( - and I wish you all a wonderful & happy garden month of May! :)

xoxo~ Carola

I'm sharing this post with:

Garden Party No. 1/2014 at Tracies Fishtail Cottage blog

Spring is here - inside and out!

2014-03-20T00:44:00.002-07:00

Welcome Spring and welcome back to Boxwood Cottage dear blogging friends and readers! I woke up to a wonderful blue sky again today and the weather forecast has promised us sun all day and temps around 20°C which is around 70°F in the shadow. On my southward sunny and sheltered deck this is going to feel more than 80 as you can see on my thermometer here in a shot from a couple of days ago:

We have been very lucky here in Northern Germany this last Winter season with unusal mild weather and apart from a few days in January almost no snow. It feels as if parts of the US have kept the cold temps and winter storms and snows at bay, so that it couldn't come over here and I'm very thankful for this mild Winter. Many plants that otherwise would haven been frozen to death in Winter are still alive this Spring and nature is at least two to three weeks ahead of the season.

But before I share more deck and garden pictures with you I'd like to show you some photos of my early Spring decor around the mantle in the dining- and living room. I haven't brought the bunnies and eggs out yet, just wasn't in the mood this year with Easter being so late in April, but I'm finally going to start doing it today. In the photo below you can also see a new aqcuisition of mine, I finally did it and bought two white Tolix metal chairs. I wanted to have these for at least two years now, but always thought the originals too expensive for my budget, so I was very happy when I saw that Butlers a German furniture and decor store chain sold a remake of the original Tolix chairs and called them Streetlife. Still I was hesitating to buy them but when a month ago they sold them out for half of the original price I just had to hurry and get me at least two. They sold them all out in just a few days. Now aren't they pretty and go well with the rest of my dining area?

I think the pleaded white metal barrel, that I used upsidedown as a table in front of my mantle goes especially well with them and the huge white metal lantern I hung inside of the mantle too!

I'm really happy with the fresh springlike look right now :)

On top of the mantle I decorated some white snowdrops, white wooden birds and old apothecary bottles and white ceramic apothecary pots (a recent antique shop find) along with some gifts my dear friend Julia of the Vintage with laces blog had sent me in a friendship swap last month, like the sweet lace-heart sticks that I stuck in a sugar dredger which you can see better/closer in the first picture of this post and the gorgeous white heart bunting and lace heart I pinned at the mantle.

The pussy willow wreath along with the snowdrops are belonging to my early Spring decor which I will change again very soon.

I'm quite in love with my new old apothecary ceramic pots. You might not know that my first profession was a pharmacy assistent and I even learned at the vocational school how to write on these labels with stenciled lettering and I also learned there all the latin names of the plants used to make the medicines. So these bottles and vessels really do have a deeper meaning to me, reminding me at the old times in my life.

In the close up photo above you can see another of Julia's sweet lace heart sticks between the faux snowdrops in the silver cup, this one with a bling button in its center, aren't these just too cute? I love them all Julia!

Below is a photo of the constantly changing decor of my small side shelf between the mantle and the big cupboard:

But now let's go out into the garden again. The crocusses bloomed beautifully and very early this Spring and are almost done by now. I especially like this white variety with the soft purple stripes:

I already cut back the roses at the rusty rose arc below hoping that they'll soon grow back again with fresh sprouts of leaves:

As in every Spring I so love my blues! For others yellow like the sun might be the preferable color of Spring but for me it is blue like the sky :)

And violas ( mini pansies, "Johnny jump ups" or viola cornuta) are a must of course in all shades of purple and blue as you can see in the photos above and below.

And believe it or not but with the first warm Spring days the butterflies were already back in the garden and it is such a joy to see them fluttering around. The one below that is sittung on the blue primrose is called "Kleiner Fuchs" and if you rightclick onto the photo to see the big version of it, you can see that he has a whole in it's right wing and a very battered edge of the wing too so it must have one that has hibernated somewhere.

Of course I had to put Spring flowers like Paperwhites, Ranunculus, Primroses, Daisies and Grapehyacinths etc. in all the spare pots I could find and distribute them at the tables, shelves and pot holders around my deck and garden:

Even some pink tulips are already opening their pretty buds in the warm sun at the garden shelf:

The brimstone butterfly in the photo below that is just drinking from the pink primrose is a favorite guest in my spring garden:

It is such a good feeling to put out the cushions again in my deckchair and then sit there and just take it all in, the warm sun rays, the butterflies fluttering around, the scent of the flowers, the blue sky and the singing birds, ah yes my friends life can be so beautiful! :)

I'll leave you today with a closer shot of my new antique garden barrel (a Christmas gift from my parents last Christmas) that I finally brought out on the porch. It's called a Victorian dolly tub, used to do the laundry washing in victorian England and still before WW II. For now it serves me as a table for my french bottle holder drying rack which I use as a garden tool holder right now. As always I love the look of all the galvanized zinc items together, weather they are vintage or new:

So that is it from my Spring home and garden for today. I wish you all very happy Spring days my dear blogging friends and readers and I hope that you can enjoy it the way I do right now and especially for my US friends which for a big part had to suffer (and some even still have) under a long strong Winter this season. Spring will come to you soon as well just hang on and look forward to it!

Happy Spring days to y'all!

xoxo~ Carola

I'm going to share this post with the following parties:

Inpired Friday at Debra's Common Ground blog
Sundays at home at Alice's Thoughts from Alice blog
Blisfull Whites Wednesday at Becky's Timewashed blog
What's it Wednesday at Paula's and Pattie's Ivy and the Elephants blog
Funky Junk Party at Donna's Funky Junk Interiors blog

Tea party ~ Happy St. Valentine's ~ & Early Spring garden

2014-02-14T03:41:00.000-08:00

Welcome back to Boxwood Cottage dear blogging friends & readers! Today I'd like to invite you to a British High Tea party. Now isn't that fitting for St. Valentine's Day? Well actually this was my birthday party a bit over 2 weeks ago. My daughter made all these delicious little treats for us.

Since they're not only extremely yummy but also look very pretty I thought I share some photos of our tea party treats with you today

Don't they look mouthwatering? And everything is/was vegan of course! :)

We had scones with strawberry jam and clotted cream and I love those and thought they were my faves but to say the truth I had to try the berry tartelettes and the lemon bars and chocolate strawberries and lavender shortbreads and of course the sandwiches too and I loved every bite of every piece and can't tell anymore which my favorite was.

And I also like to share with you this pretty creatively wrapped gift parcel I got from my sister and my daughter. Are you curious what is in it? It's a really awesome gift, just click here to see it: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/283515739015468974/

But now I'd like to share some Valentine vignettes I snapped around my house and garden with you to celebrate this special day. Let's start with a black chalkboard heart in a soldered glass box:

and some spelling of Happy Valentine's day with flash cards from my friend Cari Kraft:

Then there is a rusty and scrolly iron heart hanging in the rusty chandelier a gift from my dear Auntie which unfortunately is not with us anymore:

and below hanging from another iron chandelier my for red beaded fabrics hearts that I purchased many years ago. The red color is not so mine anymore but to celebrate Valentines I find them really great:

Another black chalkboard heart and a soldered arrow (both made by me) in one of my old typewriters:

And in the following photo are some Valentine pendants which I created and soldered last month:

Below is another vignette with an old postcard in an old flower frog and a new soldered arrow:

After I finally put the snowflakes down out of my old room divider and put in some hearts instead:

Close up they look much better in photos like the glass bead heart below:

or this crystal heart:

and then there is the crocheted heart in the next photo, that my friend Julia sent me last year. Initially I had planned to share Julia's and my Valentines friendship swap with you today but since both of our parcels have not arrived yet (although we know that they are already in the respctives countries for days because we have sent them registered mail and can check where they are- slow postal service I can tell you!) this has to wait, probably even until next year, because I don't think people are interested in seeing Valentine's once the day is over, although for me February is the month of hearts and I will have mine up at least 2 more weeks :)

In the next photo is a silver glittered heart that I once got from my friend Madai:

And here comes another heart that I soldered a few years ago:

But now follow me outside because even in my garden I have some hearts like the galvanized one you can see in the next photo:

or the twine one which sits in my rosemary topiary:

We are very fortunate here weatherwise because since that short Winter intermezzo last month the weather is rather early Spring like as my garden thermometer shows you with 11°Celsius plus in the shadow:

So I was brave and bought a few spring flowers like daisies and primroses already and put them outside on my deck and I really like the springlike view. Winter doesn't have to come back now because I would be very happy with such an early Spring for a change!

I know some of you are still having Winter storms with icy rain and heavy frosts and snow at the moment and I hope these photos will give you hope, hang on my friends and Spring will be there soon!

Love the soft pink of the primrose below:

And here comes my wish for you today:

Happy St. Valentine's Day dear blogging friends and readers!

♥♥♥

xoxo~ Carola

I'll be sharing this post with the following blog parties:

Donna's Funky Junk Party 231 Spring decor repurposed
Debra's Inspired Friday at her Common Ground blog
Alice's Sundays at Home at her Thoughts from Alice blog