Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Tour of historic homes, continued...

Good morning friends! I hope that you're having a great week so far.

As promised, here are photos of some of the homes that were on the historic home tour that we completed on Sunday. They made my heart sing!

The house in the following two pictures has been in the same
family for many years. The gentleman that owns it is restoring it
beautifully. He's added on a gorgeous garage behind the portico.
His younger brother was born in this house, and they were both
at the house with many stories to tell.
But the best part is that they still have much of the furniture
owned by previous generations of their family,
along with a cherry baby carriage with a parasol on it that was used
 by family over 100 years ago! 



The following home has many of the original lighting fixtures (now electrified)
from the days when they used gas. Part of it t has beautiful copper roofing
which you can see on the dormer in the photo. It is now owned by a younger couple,
but the man who grew up in this house (now 92) was sitting on the porch.
His mom lived in this house for 70 years until she passed away in the
1980's. The current owners were able to get a lot of information about
the house from him, and they have displayed several old photos, including one
of the elderly man sitting on the porch steps when he was a boy!
The second picture below is part of the garden that surrounds the
whole front yard within the perimeters of the fence. (The house that
you see behind the garden is the neighbor's.)



The home below was huge, as it originally belonged to one of
the wealthy families in town. It had a huge curved panelled staircase
to end all staircases. The current owners are also restoring this, and doing
a beautiful job.



The home below is owned by the gal sitting on the front porch.
She is restoring it all mostly by herself and doing it with a
Victorian look, using dark wallpapers and retaining the dark moldings.
The second photo shows her beautiful garden. The guide told us
that the old boxwood bushes were there, but she trimmed them into 
the formations that they are now.  




Below is the old train depot, no longer used for its original purpose.
It was slated for demolition some years ago, so the Women's Club
bought it for $1.00 from the railroad company, under the condition
that they move it off the property. They paid $10,000.00 to move it
a short distance away, restored it, and use it for meetings and other
functions. Adorable!

 


The house below was not on the tour, but beautiful.


It's always been my dream to live in an old house like this, and I think that even Mr. Perch's wheels were turning when we finished this tour, especially when we found out how inexpensive some of these houses are to buy, and not too expensive to restore if you're willing to do the work yourself. We keep saying we're too old to do it, but we both also say that we would just do a little at a time, making it more of a hobby. H-m-m-m-m....

Monday, April 29, 2013

Summer Afternoon fabric collage...

Happy Monday!

As we wrapped up the tour of historical homes yesterday (photos of those houses to follow on my next post), I was inspired to complete one of the fabric collage pieces that I had pieced together awhile ago. I guess that seeing all of those old porches this weekend made me want to start with this one, as I love the group in the picture standing on an old porch.

If you remember, in one of my December posts I shared a bunch that I had pieced together but had never finished, though I did do some of the hand stitching on our trip to Florida. In any case, I am making an attempt to now add the final embellishments, bind, and back them all, while simultaneously working on another piece for my granddaughter.

It's a rainy week here, so the lighting was not the best when I took these photos. You might have to click on them to make them larger.

By the way, the photo is worn looking because I actually used a photo transfer using the transparency and matte gel process. I love the effect of these!





Once in a while I like to work outside of my safety zone and use brightly-colored fabrics, expecially if it suits the mood of the picture.

Thanks for stopping by!

Saturday, April 27, 2013

Tour of historic homes...

Happy Saturday! I hope you're having a great day.

This weekend the county that we live in is hosting a tour of historical homes, so we visited the houses in one of the towns today, and will see the others tomorrow. I think that the only thing more beautiful than a gorgeous garden is a beautifully restored home, so this was a really great day. I thought you might like to see some of the pictures that I took. Of course, I couldn't resist also shooting some photos of  houses that were not actually on the tour!

We were allowed to go through the insides of those on the tour and meet the people who owned them.

This home is a beauty that was in awful condition
when the current owners bought it 10 years ago.
It was once part of 1000 acres of land,
and was built in 1805.
It is a work in progress being lovingly restored...


Here is another shot. I love the little outbuilding
with the old yellow bathtub in front...


This one is currently still under restoration, so we couldn't
go in due to safety issues. It is part of the local college and
once restored will be housing for female honor students
of the college...


This one was not on the tour, but it is beautiful...


...as is the one shown in the following two photos.



Yet another beauty that was not on the tour...


The following one was on the tour and my favorite.
It was owned by a young couple raising their children there,
and they were all as nice as the house is beautiful.
I couldn't resist taking several pictures of it...


The double doors were wonderful...



...and if you're going to sit on a real southern porch,
it should be this one. And we did!



Another lovely not on the tour...


...and another. I just loved the corner garden
on the right!


These two were not on the tour, but beautiful homes across
the street from the beautiful church that was...


And here is the church.
The inside was as beautiful as the outside.
It had the original stained glass windows.



I did not ask to take pictures of the insides of any of these, as I did not want to intrude on anyone's privacy, but they were all beautiful.

Have a great evening!


Tuesday, April 23, 2013

White Bearded Iris love...

Greetings from The Perch. I hope that you're having a great day!

A little while ago I went outside to visit my husband for a few minutes while he was spraying some nasty weeds that have been taking over sections of our lawn, and noticed that a clump of Bearded Iris by our garden shed was in full bloom. Of course I couldn't resist snapping a couple of pictures. I'm not sure what they are, possibly "Immortality", but I am not really sure as I don't even remember where I received this start from a few years ago. All I know is that they are the first to bloom, and simply BEAUTIFUL!!



I think that the inside of the blooms are just exquisite,
and they have the prettiest scent to them...


It does my heart good to see so much beauty in nature, even when the weather is still not great! I'm trying to think of a way that I can incorporate photos of some of my flowers into collage pieces using vintage photos of children. What do you think?

Monday, April 22, 2013

A day in the house...

Hello friends! I hope you are well and liking this never-ending winter better than I am. I couldn't believe that it was 38 out this morning when my neighbor and I walked. It didn't warm up much, so I decided to stay inside, and among other things, play around in my studio.

I thought I would get more accomplished than I did, but at least I completed a birthday card for my grandson's first birthday.

It started with a pretty piece of sheet music...



...along with a charming vintage photo of little children
at what looks like a birthday party...


...and ended up this card...


Lately I have been drawn to old sheet music, but more about that on a future post.

Sorry for the quality of these photos, but the lighting in here is terrible on this cloudy day!  Just wanted to say hello. Have a great evening!


Sunday, April 21, 2013

Florence and her flowers...

Good morning and happy Sunday! I hope that you're having a great weekend.

Yesterday we went to the local garden club's sale where I bought some daylilies, then we later went to Lowe's and bought some other plants and garden-related things. I started planting when we got home and need to finish up today. It's still a little chilly outside, so I will do that this afternoon.

In the meantime, I just wanted to say hello with a quick post and share this lovely vintage photo with you. The inscription on the back states that this beautiful little girl was named Florence. I just love the pale dress and flowers contrasting with the black button-up boots and what looks like black stockings. Right-click and save as you wish!



Enjoy your day!

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Finding beauty...

Yesterday afternoon I was hot and tired
after mulching yet more of the garden beds.
I thought it was time to take a break.
I decided to challenge myself to seek beauty in the commonplace.


My neighbor had too many wild violets self-seeding and growing in her
 gardens, and was trying to get rid of them.
She brought me over a tubful of them, stuffed in an old litter box from her cat.
 It was my plan to transplant them into a section of  the woods on the side
of our house that we recently had cleared of the undergrowth.
Wouldn't it be better to have wild violets take over out there than weeds?
When she gave them to me I didn't have time to plant them right away.
So I placed the box on the side of the garage in the shade,
along the walkway to the back yard.
I watered them.
I watched them.
They thrived in the box, and this is how they looked yesterday.



But wait a minute! These are WEEDS!
At least according to the Google searches that I did on them.
I decided that even "weeds" deserve some care,
especially pretty ones like these.
So I took out the hose and rinsed off the ugly yellow pollen that
 has been covering everything.
And decided to see how much beauty I could find in these "weeds".

I found purple blossoms covered in droplets.


And pale lavender blossoms framed in a sea of lime green.


And even one that looked like a butterfly covered in dewdrops.


And the most delicate of tiny buds.


I put one in a pot to see how it would look with white Candytuft
and an old plate.


And then I brought the pot inside.
And took yet another picture with a beautiful piece
of vintage sheet music.
Don't you think that the Fairy Queen would love these violets?


The goings-on in Boston this week really hit home.
My husband spent most of his life living in that area,
and much of his family is still there.
His nephew ran in The Marathon that day, but was fortunately OK.
I remain resolved to the fact that we still don't have to go very far to find good.
And we don't have to go very far to find beauty.
Beauty is where we seek it.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Wishing you and yours a beautiful day!