Welcome friends! With August coming to a close I have been tidying up the garden, harvesting herbs, and planting seeds for cool weather crops. This week I harvested some of the beautiful eucalyptus that my son bought me for Mother’s Day. Once I brought it inside and put it in a simple glass hobnail vase, I thought it looked so pretty and I was inspired to create a little vignette in the dining room.*This post contains affiliate links.

 

I can’t believe all of this pretty eucalyptus came from one small plant! I have a green thumb, but for some reason I never considered growing eucalyptus. I was really surprised at how easy it was!

 

Here in the bottom left corner you can see how the eucalyptus looked when I first planted it back in May. I really didn’t expect it to be such a fast grower, so at the time I just planted it in a small pot to nestle in the corner of my cool-toned herb garden.

 

 

I chalk painted a terra cotta pot with various shades of teal to bring out the blue-green in the leaves of the plant. I love how the eucalyptus has a pink tinge to the stems when it is young.

 

 

More French vintage inspiration came this past week when I lucked into a copy of Carolyn Westbrook’s “The French Inspired Home” while out junkin’. The book had been on my wish list for quite some time. It is absolutely dreamy and a must-have for any decorating book collector. Sometime in the near future I plan to share more about this book and a few more of my favorites.

 

 

I have been reconnecting more and more with my passion for French vintage and brocante style, so I was definitely feeling inspired to create a Frenchy vignette after browsing dreamily through the pages of the book.

 

 

I have had this vintage French seltzer/siphon bottle for quite some time, but until moving the vintage chest of drawers into the dining room I never really had a place to style it. I love it here alongside an old demi-john and a couple of small vintage teal glass bottles.

 

 

 

 

This antique mirror is probably one of my all-time favorite finds. I love the color green, old paintings, old mirrors, and chippy-shabby white wood with architectural elements—  this beauty has it all!

 

 

I tucked an antique hand written post card with a pretty teal-green stamp into the corner of the mirror for extra vintage charm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I try to simplify my vignettes sometimes, I really, really do…but I just can’t help myself! I love cramming as much vintage goodness into a small space as possible, as long as it all works together by a unified color or style theme, or if it tells some kind of story (even if it’s only influenced by my vintage dreaming). I simply had to work in my “new” French Farmhouse basket filled with faux herbs, an old chippy spindle, and a chippy olive bucket with faux rosemary. I also added another little bottle filled with dried lavender from my garden.

 

Isn’t this such a beautiful, soft color? It really works for every season and it looks so pretty in all different kinds of flower arrangements. I grew the “true blue” variety, but there are several others to choose from.

 

 

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If you don’t want to grow your own eucalyptus or if you can’t find it at your local flower market, there are all kinds of faux eucalyptus plants, stems, and garlands these days that look convincingly real.

 

 

I have enjoyed the fresh eucalyptus for several days, so now I will hang it upside down to dry. I will keep this particular dried eucalyptus on display year round since it came from the plant that was a mother’s day gift. New shoots of growth are already appearing on my plant, since it has a rapid growth rate. I am hoping to have more to use in my fall decorating by October.

 

 

I may try to preserve a small piece and if it it turns out okay I will preserve all of it. I found a great post on how to preserve eucalyptus over at The Merry Thought. I might also try to make my own essential oil with the leaves.

 

 

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 Over the past few years eucalyptus has grown in popularity for fall.  When I first started seeing it a pop up in fall decor I wasn’t sure how I felt about it, since it didn’t really have a traditional fall look to me. It has definitely grown on me though, and I believe it will be a fall staple for many years to come. Now I think of eucalyptus as the perfect year round greenery and I love it! I think it is especially beautiful when use alongside cool-toned pumpkins.

 

Dear Lillie

 

 

*New Treasure Sneak Peek!!!!*

 

Check out my latest vintage treasure that literally came rolling right to me—a tall French Market basket on wheels!  One day I ran into one of my dear junkin’ friends at Hobby Lobby and she said she had found a basket  that she thought I would want, and offered it to me for a steal! How’s that for junkin’ luck? She brought it to my house and I rolled it right on into the dining room! I have so many ideas for decorating with this basket for fall.

 

 

The French sign (“To Love and to be Loved”) is another new junkin’ find from my trip to Vintage Marketplace on our beach trip this summer. You will definitely see more of it in future posts.

 

 

I already got a head start using the basket in my fall decor. You can see a few more photos of the basket in my post for the Transitioning to Summer to Fall Blog Hop on Tuesday. I really hope you will stop back by for the hop. It is going to be a great one!

 

 

I hope you have enjoyed this post today and that it has inspired you to grow your own eucalyptus if you haven’t already. It isn’t winter hardy here in zone 6, but it can be grown indoors as a house plant. I am going to try to harvest all of it in late fall and maybe try to keep it growing in the garage throughout winter since I don’t really have a place indoors.

 

What are your thoughts on Eucalyptus? I love hearing from you, dear readers!

Thanks for visiting today!

Amber

 

 

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