Memorial Weekend in Maine | Fresh Linens, Farm Stands, and Porch Season

It’s the first weekend of summer on the Maine coast. The village is coming back to life, and I’m sharing cheery summer bedding, white slipcovers, the return of porch time, salads piled high with farm-fresh local veggies, rhubarb cake, and a new-to-me source for handcrafted homewares.

It’s Memorial Weekend!

The coffee shop is serving up lattes once more on the dock in the village. Tables at roadside farm stands are piled high with the season’s first bounty. And lights glow again at night in homes across the harbor. The Odd Fellows Hall is hosting their “Welcome Back Bean Dinner” on Saturday. Cars with out-of-state plates crowd the roads, and the occasional sailboat glides past my windows (a bold venture, as the ocean temperature is still in the mid-40s).

Summer’s here!

Well, at least for a few days. And then things will go quiet again.

True summer, in all its long-day, blue-sky, ocean-breeze glory, doesn’t really arrive here until July.

But that hasn’t stopped me from embracing it now.

So last Saturday I did some tidying in the yard and brought out the cushions for the porch furniture. This weekend I hope to get at least some of the pots planted with early annuals.

And during the week I made my first visit to two of my favorite farm stands. Ever since, dinner has been a big salad of locally grown veggies, followed by an easy rhubarb cake for dessert.

I continue to transition the inside of my home for the warmer months too. Memorial Weekend always means it’s time to bring out the white slipcover for the living room sofa and dress the beds with fresh summer linens. Just a few changes, and the house is already feeling lighter, brighter, and more relaxed.

I’m sharing it all on the blog today—along with a fabulous new-to-me online shop. I found myself wanting to overfill my cart, but I exercised restraint. For now…

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Inside

Fabrics are my design love language, so let’s start inside the home.

Summer Bedding

Call me crazy, but I think nothing marks the seasons more than a bedding change. Cozy flannel in the winter (and well into spring here…). Darker shades for fall and lighter for spring. Something festive to celebrate the holidays.

Then summer—ah, summer—arrives with a mix of exuberant pattern and happy colors.

I know solid white sheets, perhaps accented with a simple appliquéd or embroidered border, are considered the height of good taste these days. And I have tried them (as the multiple sets sitting in my linen closet will attest). But they just aren’t for me—too understated, too controlled. Too perfect.

So give me all the pattern.

That means, in the waterside guest room, a nostalgic floral that brings back memories of Vera Neumann bedding from my childhood, a cheery quilt in almost-match colors folded at the foot of the bed, and a sweet white ruffled coverlet to give the eye someplace to rest.

The Captain’s room bed is all blue and white. LL Bean sheets covered in coastal scenes pulled right from my local landscape, checked shams, and a simple coverlet with a small graphic floral print. A striped blanket at the foot of the bed is ready to offer extra warmth on still-chilly nights.

And in my room, a mix of bedding collected through the years—Garnet Hill sheets that remind me of the meadow in full bloom, a graphic retro quilt, green gingham shams, and throw pillows with a sweet mini floral.

Each bed has its own personality, but they all share the breezy ease of summer by the sea.

The Living Room

It feels a bit like I have been changing things in the living room every other week—late winter, false spring (a classic here in New England), early spring, mid spring, late spring. And now early summer.

But that’s how it works when I look to Mother Nature’s lead in decorating my home.

This week I swapped the neutral-colored slipcover on the sofa for the white one. It is too bad I can’t register the slipcover change as a workout on my Apple Watch, because I always work up a sweat. I might feel a bit bedraggled when I am done, but the sofa looks fresh and crisp.

Then I folded an old worn blue-and-white quilt across the back. It breaks up the expanse of white and adds soft texture. I mentioned in an earlier post that I had ordered fabric from Spoonflower to make new pillow covers. For now, though, I’ve decided I like the current mix of blues, beige, and white. With the way I have been “slow decorating” recently, that could change in a couple weeks.

The wool accent rug under the coffee table went into storage for the summer. And on the coffee table and mantel I replaced the spring flowers with seashells and coral—my coastal take on something “live.”

You can read my tips for decorating flat surfaces here.

And that’s it for the living room right now. The dining room will be next.

Outside

We had a long stretch of beautiful weather this past week. It finally felt like spring—almost summer. I took advantage of it last Saturday by doing some outside cleanup (wrestling with invasive multiflora roses and their vicious thorns was not fun) and getting the back deck ready to enjoy.

Porch season is my favorite. It is where I start and end each day—breakfast in the morning, happy hour in the evening, and a step outside to look at the stars and listen to the ocean (it is always louder at night) before I go to bed. I have always felt that this house is its truest self during the warmer months, and that is largely due to this multi-use wraparound space.

Now that the furniture is arranged and the cushions are back in place, I need to plant the pots. I paid a visit to the nursery during the week and picked up some annuals. Not enough, I am sure (it never is on the first go), but I am determined to get them in the dirt this weekend.

From the Farmstand to the Kitchen

Speaking of plants, I visited two favorite farm stands for the first time this week.

If you remember last summer, you know that this is the start of a season-long produce party. This time of year I try to cook as much as I can using farm-fresh and locally made ingredients. Simple recipes that allow the flavor of each individual element to shine through.

Right now that means rhubarb, asparagus, radishes, green onions, bok choy, cucumbers, and tender greens. And for adventurous eaters, Maine’s earthy springtime delicacy: fiddleheads from the wild ostrich fern.

Dinner most evenings this week was a big salad—mixed greens, cucumber, green onions, radishes, asparagus, and cannellini beans with a robust sherry vinegar, shallot, and thyme dressing. All the salad fixings except the beans were locally grown.

And for dessert, the perfect mix of tart and sweet, a quick one-bowl French rhubarb cake. I have made this cake before, but this time I had to cook it for a good extra 20 minutes before it was set. It might have been my oven or maybe I got a little carried away with the rhubarb. Just a heads up.

A New-to-Me Online Homewares Shop

Recently I have been on the search for new crocks to hold my large collection of kitchen utensils on the counter on either side of the stove.

I’ve had a mixed set of containers for years, but for once I wanted match rather than mix. And at least two different sizes. I loved the look of the Farmhouse Pottery Beehive Crock, but they were well beyond my budget. Wanting to get something on my counter, I opted for three inexpensive holders from HomeGoods as placeholders. But the hunt continued.

And then the other day I must have made some small change to my search, because lo and behold, I was brought to Roan Iris and the perfect matching crocks—sized from pint to gallon (plus a smaller short one), handmade in the U.S., and priced at a fraction of the Farmhouse Pottery ones. Plus, they are a creamy white with a single soft blue iris imprint. The search was over.

Then I took a peek at the rest of their website and, oh my, there was so much to love.

Roan Iris is a small family-run business with a brick-and-mortar store in Bozeman, Montana. They offer a carefully curated collection of handcrafted homewares that “marry practicality with elegance.” Their mantra is “to possess only items that are truly loved, found beautiful, and considered useful.” They have certainly succeeded.

Their website is full of beautiful handwoven table, kitchen, and bath linens, wicker and wire baskets of all sizes, glasses, dinnerware, and things as basic as toilet paper holders and dish brushes that are somehow beautiful.

I am linking a few of the items I am loving below. But if you, like me, are drawn to handcrafted everyday items with a soul, you might want to take a leisurely look at their website. You just might find that one thing you were looking for. Or better yet, that thing you didn’t know you were looking for.

Shop my Roan Iris favorites:

This Week Into Next

And so another week of the everyday flew by.

Whether it was seasonal allergies or a slight cold, I spent the week sniffling, dragging, and fuzzy-headed.

All this while trying to check things off the to-do list for the house and get ready for a trip next week to Maryland to meet baby Maisie and entertain big-sister Poppy.

Additionally, my boy kitty, Tuck, spent a day at the vet. He is almost 18, takes medication for thyroid issues, and somehow ended up with horribly matted fur on his back and, to a lesser extent, on his stomach and chest. It was a situation…

As if that weren’t enough, today my car is at the shop for air conditioning repair.

So, as much as I enjoy this time I spend with all of you, I am going to wrap things up.

I won’t be posting next Saturday, but surprise! I’ll see you on Thursday when I join a group of blogging friends to share our outdoor spaces. (Hence the push to get my pots planted.)

Wishing you a fun-filled Memorial Weekend. Here’s to summer!