A glass-topped vintage table on the back porch is styled for summer with a wooden plate rack, blue floral dishes, antique glassware, and potted ivy plants. 

The table has very few changes from one season to the next, but a good spring cleaning and a little rearranging makes every thing fresh again. 

Take a closer look at the vintage table on the back porch for ideas how to use a small table in your outdoor summer spaces. 

Vintage Valentines Display Tips

Tips to display vintage Valentines will give you ideas how to add a treasured Valentine to your home's decor without going all out in every room or on every surface with Valentine decorations. With a single treasured Valentine and a handful of complementary items, you can celebrate the day dedicated to love in your usual decorating style. 

It's a party! 

A Vintage Valentine's Day Blog Hop! 

Thanks to Amber at Follow the Yellow Brick Home for organizing over 20 blogs to share ideas using vintage Valentines with you for your home. You can find links to all of the posts at the end. 

If you are coming from Katie at Let's Add Sprinkles, you already have some good ideas for how to use vintage Valentines. If you haven't been to Katie's blog yet, you don't want to miss it! Katie and I live within 15 minutes of each other and are friends in real life, not just online friends. 

Whether you are having a party or merely want to add a touch of romance for the month of February, here are some tips to decorate for Valentine's day with an extra special vintage Valentine.  

Vintage Church Pew | French Country Dining Seating

A vintage church pew provides extra seating for family dinners around a French country style pine table. But extra seating for meals is not the only reason a long church pew is handy to have. 

A L-O-N-G simple wood church pew is not easy to fit into a furniture arrangement. A little creative thinking is needed to find a functional, but not in-the-way location. 

French Country Vintage Garden Bench

Long before I ever went to France and before I knew what French Country design was, I shopped for vintage furniture with character, furniture made to last, furniture with style. 

All within the budget of a young married couple starting out. 

Which meant shopping at garage sales, flea markets, model home sales, and antique sales. Which is where I came to buy what is now my French Country vintage garden bench. 

The red iron bench did not start out as a bench; it started out as an iron bed. Over thirty-five years ago someone reworked the bed frame, repurposed the bed into a bench, and gave it a new life. 

Bathroom Budget Wise Cultured Marble Countertop

Countertops Part 2 | Bathroom 

Cultured Marble 

The second in a series of three posts about budget wise countertops 

Finding antique and vintage pieces to use in a new house is a way to add character and to make a house your own. A vintage washstand in weathered pine with hand-carved doors makes a perfect bathroom vanity with patina that a new vanity does not have. 

And, if an old washstand has a white marble top, even more patina to love and to cherish. Unless ... the marble top is broken into two almost equal pieces. 

Inspiring Dear Heart Note

D E A R  H E A R T 

A true short story about love, marriage, family, commitment, service, and 

getting priorities right. 

Romantic Vintage Valentine Table in Blue and White

V A L E N T I N E ' S  D A Y 

table set in blue and white 

Three things a Valentine's table does NOT have to have to be romantic.

❤ 1  Red or Pink Colors 

White roses and blue ribbons create a romantic table for celebrating Valentine's Day with friends, family, or lovers. Romance does not require pink or red. Indeed, if blue is your true love's favorite color, then blue is more romantic than red. 

Christmas Sleigh Bell Tablesetting

Christmas is the time to use all your beautiful things. No other time calls for your best and finest more than Christmas. No better time to polish the silver, to wash the crystal, and to create a special tablesetting. 

French Design on Friday 12

~ Textiles ~

Aprons 

French-inspired gardens and homes include H O W we live, not just W H A T we live with. French Country is a lifestyle, not just garden and home decor recognized as French design. 

Look at the joy of living in the expression of a French grocer in Amiens, France as he arranges fruits and vegetables on the sidewalk outside his shop.