The Color Green

Don't you just love this time of year?  The drab of winter falls away as leaf buds open and the forests explode with shades of green!  Here in northern Michigan, we are blessed to be surrounded by acres of forest.  Where the forest ends, farmland and fields take over.  I love to look out over my porch at all the rolling farmlands with the newly planted corn heads peeking up in perfectly dotted rows.  This seasonal transformation is true in my own yard and garden as well.  Our grass has rejuvenated from yellow clumps to a beautiful bright carpet.  We have had the pleasure of mowing several times already with all the thunderstorms and humidity encouraging new growth.  Oh, how I love the smell of freshly cut grass!  It is summer to me!  I will be putting in my vegetable garden today.  I am a bit late in doing so as the general rule is to plant on Memorial Day weekend, which is the first safe frost free weekend here (although we did have frost threats on June 1 and I tucked all of my hanging baskets and window boxes safely into the garage for the night!  Ah, the joys of Michigan!)

I love to walk through my garden so see what is growing, what has budded, what has sprouted!  Just yesterday, I noticed several Morning Glories coming up from the ground where I planted them from seed at my garden arch.  Soon they will completely cover it and the early morning blooms will beckon me from their green vines to come take a seat under the arch with coffee and a good book!  Isn't summer wonderful?

Let's take a stroll through the garden to see what is blooming now!  I would love to show you!  

Late flowering Maureen tulips open after other Spring bulbs fade.  I love their creamy white color on tall strong stems.

Pale purple Creeping Phlox spills over the rock borders.

The chives are just beginning to open!  I love them in the garden as well as the kitchen!

Clematis climbs up my old bicycle in the garden.  I have yet to plant annuals in the front metal basket, another fun project scheduled for today!

Like I said, isn't summer grand?  But it does tend to pass by much too quickly in a busy flurry of packed calendar dates, so make sure you take a moment to rest and enjoy it.  Let yourself be lazy for a long minute.  Doesn't a late afternoon nap on the hammock sound wonderful?

Thanks so much for stopping by!  




Have a beautiful week,



Maria ~Rusty Hinge

Kerchief Panels and a Winner!

Hello everyone!  How are you?  I hope you are well!  I am terribly sorry I have kept you all waiting for so long since my last post.  Life has been busy and my calendar has just been booked, but with all good things.  For instance, this past weekend we celebrated my cousin's wedding.  Oh I wish I had remembered to take my camera to show you.  Everything was absolutely beautiful, from the bride to the old Victorian with the white wrap-around porch that was the setting.  She did a phenomenal job decorating and planning.  You should have seen all of her tiny details.  She made triangle banners cut from scraps of material and hung them with twine through out the reception tent and trees.  The long tables were lined with burlap and old wooden folding chairs were used for seats.  At each table setting she made napkins from the same material and collected hundreds of canning jars tied with twine for drinking glasses.  The bouquets were beautiful wild flowers and the couple exchanged their vows under a pergola made from tree limbs.  A vintage typewriter stood guard over the wedding programs and vintage suitcases collected cards on the gift table.  Can you picture it in your mind?  Oh, I hope so!  It was a wedding fit to be in a magazine.  

In my last post, I showed ways that I use and display old marmalade pots.  I also mentioned that it's not only fun to display collections, but use throughout the home as well.  Today, I would love to show you what I did with a collection of vintage handkerchiefs that found their way home from garage sales and thrift shops. 

I sewed them together in three points with a little hand stitch and attached the kerchief panels to vintage swing rods in my bathroom.

One of the handkerchiefs has a hand-written message.  It reads, "May 11, 1956 To Ellie, Friendship means a lot 'tis true  But more so when the friend is you, Naomi."

The rods swing open and close over the window and they can extend outward as well.

Vintage handkerchiefs are easy to find.  You can find them at garage sales, flea markets, antique and thrift shops.  

These hankie panels are simple to throw together and you can sew them however you desire.  Try inducting a color scheme.  Or match all white hankies together for a light and airy panel.  You could even take it a step further and sew a bed coverlet or quilt out of them.  There are so many uses for these vintage handkerchiefs, so don't pass them up when you see them for a good price!  

And now for the part we have all been waiting for!  I would now love to announce the winner of my Post Road Vintage and Romantic Prairie Style giveaway.  Thank-you to everyone who entered.  It was so much fun to read what you are planting in your gardens this year!  You have all inspired me.  I just picked up some seeds this weekend for planting and I hope to get my garden in soon!  I will be planting potatoes, yellow and green beans, scarlet runner beans, yellow onions, many kinds of lettuce, herbs, tomatoes, several kinds of peppers, cucumbers, pumpkins, squash, cosmos, dahlias, zinnias, and sunflowers.  I will try to pack them all into my eight raised beds.  I hope to have lots of fresh veggies this summer!

Now let's take a moment to announce the winner...

Anonymous writes that once again, they have a huge garden going!  They have planted 4 rows of tomatoes, and rows of cukes, melons, squash, onions, lettuce, strawberries, and raspberries.  She also has her herb garden and five 20 ft. rows of cutting flowers, not to mention her house garden with mostly perennials (larkspur, roses, salvia, ornamental grasses, lantana, scented geraniums and more.)  And, she writes, "where did we spend our morning?  At the Farmer's Market!"

Sounds like a very beautiful garden!  Anonymous please shoot me an email at mgmarcusse@gmail.com with your contact info.  Congratulations!


Thank-you all for your continued visits.  I appreciate you very much!



Have a wonderful week,




Maria ~Rusty Hinge

Decorating with Collections

When I am out shopping at the flea markets, I tend to shop without an agenda.  I just buy what I love and before you know it I have small collections of lovelies here and there from stacks of old quilts to vintage glass jars of all kind.  Does this happen to you as well?  Do you find yourself gravitating toward what you love only to find yourself bringing home another vintage pot to add to your ever-growing stash?  The fun part is taking the "new" treasure home and incorporating it with all the others.  I love not only to display my collections but use them throughout the home as well.  For instance, vintage tea-towels hangs at my stove for hand drying and pictured here, I took down my old marmalade pots off the shelf to make a pretty centerpiece on my kitchen island.

I stuck them in an antique french water glass carrier from the 1900's.  Waiters would use these wire trays to carry drinks to the outdoor terrace.

I cut some blossoms for the pots from my mom's tree (oh you should see her trees, so, so pretty with their spring blooms!)

These blooms smell so wonderful!  Their scent fills my whole living room, it smells like spring in here!

Sometimes, it's just as pretty to see them displayed all together on the shelf of my chippy-white country hutch.        

 What do you like to collect?  What do you like to do with your collections?  Do you display them so beautifully on a shelf in your home or do you like to get them out to use, or both?  I would love to hear about it!

Remember there is still time to enter for your chance to win a $50 gift certificate to Post Road Vintage (thanks so much again, Heather!) and a one-year subscription to Romantic Prairie Style magazine.  Just *Click Here* to enter.
Thank-you to everyone who entered.  It is such a blast to read what you are putting in your gardens and hearing about your al fresco dinner plans!

 On a final note, I want to thank the girls over at French Charmed for this adorable ruffle umbrella that I won from their giveaway!  What perfect timing for a new umbrella, with all the nice spring rain showers we have been getting!  It sits in an old milk can placed by my front door in the entryway.  My sister, Carla, gave me this wonderful can for my birthday.  She sure knows my style!  Isn't it so pretty?

I want to wish all you mothers out there a wonderful day!  I hope your day is filled with love (and pampering!)  God has not yet opened that door for me, but I pray someday soon!  All in His perfect timing.


I will be back soon with more collections, some spring garden shots, and of course, a winner!




 Thanks so much for coming by,




Maria ~Rusty Hinge






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