Happy Birthday Miss Phoebe...one year of posting!

I can't believe it!

One year ago today I created this blog.

Thanks for keeping up with me.

Miss Phoebe wants to share some special favorites from her collection.

Right click and save to use as you wish!

A beautiful print of a mother and daughter.

I love these old lithographs.

The color and detail are just not something

that you find today...

I just love old typography.

So here is the cover from

Metcalf's Language Series:

Spelling and Language Book

Published in NY and Chicago

1887...

...and a page from within...

...along with the cover from

Hill's Manual of Social and Business Forms.

Published in Chicago in 1881.

From the days when penmanship

was not a dying art.

If you want 400 pages of typographical bliss,

find a copy on eBay.

You won't regret it!...

...and some pages from within...

I love vintage flapper photos.

They are easy to find now because dealers are currently finding them in

estate sales of folks that have recently passed away,

since this was the era in which many of them lived.

How about this little photo booth flapper child?...

...and of course, my current favorite,

little ballerinas...

Of course, I will always love old cabinet cards.

Especially, sisters such as these...

I hope you enjoy these! Have a wonderful day.

We went back and got the old mirror!

Good morning. Just a quick post for today!

I forgot to tell you before we left that Mr. Perch wanted to see the other dressers that I had seen at the antique store last week, so while we were running errands this past weekend we went by.

Remember these?

I don't think that he really liked this one.

It is a little fancy I think...



I liked this one better.

I think he liked it too.

But he didn't like the drawers.

If you pulled them out too far, they just fell out.

They were also very sticky.

At least we know we want to search for something

that looks like this...

But the trip was not for naught.

Remember this mirror?

We did buy it.

It will soon (hopefully!) go over the dresser

we do not yet have...

Happy shopping! I hope to see you soon.

Fabric and Paper Collage: "Intermezzo" and "Dance of the Daisies"...

Good morning. I hope that you're having a great day! Well, we are headed up the Birdsong, so I probably won't get a chance to post for the next several days.

Believe it or not, I did manage to get in some creative time on Sunday and Monday. I played around with a product that I had never used before. It did not amount to any "creations", but it was fun getting my hands dirty! When I get home I will see where it takes me. More on that in another post.

Lately, I do not seem to have much time for artful creations, so I decided to do some fabric and paper collage using a minimal amount of elements. I thought it would be fun to see see what I could come up with in a short space of time. 

I have had this old photo for quite awhile.

I printed it out onto computer printer fabric,

and collaged it with scraps of

vintage sheet music and fabrics.

I added some pieces of old lace,

along with foreign postage stamps that were on one

of my eBay packages.

I used my sewing machine to sew it onto a backing

of cotton duck cloth...

 

I placed it in this old frame, using it as a prop.

I kind of like the way it looks,

but am not yet sure what I will do with this piece.

Actually, the frame doesn't look half bad...

I have had this old daisy plate for a long time.

I actually used it as a drip plate under flower pots.

Then I recently purchased this old sheet music,

and then the old photo of the little girl with the daisies

in her hair.

I couldn't resist making this simple little piece!

Sometimes it's so much fun to just make something without a lot of planning, isn't it? Thanks for spending this time with me!

Some art materials for the art I never have time to do, and Halloween is coming!

Good morning! We're getting ready to go back up to Birdsong this week, but for a quick post, here are some things to share. I am thinking of taking a few art materials up there so I have something to work on, if indeed I have any energy left at the end of each day!

At our local scrapbook store I bought these Halloween papers.

Most are from my favorite line,

which you may recall I used in my dad's legacy book, 

Lost and Found, from My Mind's Eye...

...and here are the reverse sides of those papers...

I couldn't resist these brads and chipboard elements,

also from My Mind's Eye...

And now, what are these?

Well, they are small pieces left over from the painted baseboards

that we put in up at Birdsong.

Don't you think they would be great to use as substrates

for some mixed media art pieces?

Some people even pay real money for this kind of junk

(certainly not me...HA!)

My husband thought I had lost a few screws when I told him

I was taking them home...

On the top of the pile below I have shown the reverse sides,

which have some grooves and are more raw,

since we didn't paint the backs.

What would you do with these?...

Make some creative time for yourself, even if I can't!



Birdsong Cottage living room: More single wide mobile home decor...

Good morning and happy Tuesday! I hope that your day is getting off to a good start.

OK! So...the reason that I am going with the Paris Grey tones on the furniture at Birdsong is because last week we purchased a couch. It will be delivered later this week when we are up there. Couches had all been on sale at Rooms to Go, and the reason we went with them (aside from their reasonably-priced furniture) is that we could order and pay for it here, but they will deliver it to our location in Hendersonville with no additional delivery charge, as they have stores all over. I would have been happy getting some beige slipcovers for the couch and chairs that came with the place, but Mr. Perch thought they smelled musty so wanted to get rid of them. I have to agree with him on that, after all, we ripped out all of the old flooring to get rid of mustiness, so why live with it on the furniture.

I thought my first choice would have been those white canvas slip covered pieces in the Cindy Crawford line, but they weren't actually very comfortable, and looked kind of sloppy. My husband hated them, and when we sat on them they were too deep and made us feel like our feet would not touch the floor when we sat back on them (we are not giant people!). So, after looking around, and seeing nothing that we really liked, we found the perfect solution. A traditional couch covered in a neutral beige tightly woven fabric (almost with a "greige" thread running through it), and beautiful throw pillows to match. Of course, I can always mix up pillows for different or seasonal looks (not to mention that I bought beautiful burlap ones in the WalMart up there for cheap!).

Grey has been in before, and it has gone out, so I don't want to cave in too much to this present trend.

Here is the couch...

And if you remember, here is the color we painted the

walls with...

And of all places to find the perfect

mercury glass lamp,

with a beautiful burlap shade

and 23.5 inches high to boot,

but in the gift area of Cracker Barrel

in Statesville, NC

on our way home last week...

Again, here are some photos of what we bought...

So do you think that all of the above will work together better than

THIS???...

I'm interested to hear your opinion, even if you politely disagree! Have a great day!



Birdsong Cottage furniture: Single wide mobile home decor

Monday greetings from The Perch! I hope that you had a great weekend.

As promised, here are a few photos of what I bought for Birdsong when my sister-in-law and I were out antiquing the other day.

This beautiful old dresser.

My heart started beating too fast.

It was the first thing we saw in the first shop we went into.

Price: $195

Would Mr. Perch like it?

We emailed him a photo.

He liked it.

Upside: I don't even have to paint it myself.

Downside: We need to haul it for five hours to Hendersonville,

and it can't go up next week because we need to bring all the

equipment that Mr. Perch needs to install the flooring.

Hmmm...I wonder how much it costs to rent a small U-Haul.

Ha!

The owner had only finished it the day before,

and it had been in the shop only 30 minutes when we saw it...



I plan on putting it in the living room to hold the TV.

Of course it might end up in the bedroom.

It's pretty large, and very heavy.

We'll see.

It was painted and waxed with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint products.

I will show you the Annie Sloan color chart at the bottom of this post.

The shop where I bought this dresser is where I purchase

the paint.

The top was done with Cream, and the bottom with Paris Grey...

I am not normally a swirly-do gal,

but there was something about this that spoke my language...

Here is a close-up of the top...

And then we went into another shop

so that I could eat my heart out if I saw something that

I liked even better.

That is where I saw the pieces that I shared in yesterday's post.

I loved them all, but am not sure if Mr. Perch shares my enthusiasm.

(He is more of a cabin-decor kind of guy.) 

In addition to those dressers and mirror,

 here sat my end table.

Purchased for $69,

(minus the rocker sitting on top)...

I think I will take off the brass drawer pull,

and do something different with it.

Do you think it should be a creamy white,

or perhaps sprayed with the oil rubbed bronze paint

that I showed you the other day?

Here is the Annie Sloan color chart...

You might want to click on this to enlarge it.

I see some future possibilities with some of these colors.

I love the French Linen and Old Ochre...

On my next post, I will show you why I am moving toward the French Grey color scheme! Thanks so much for stopping by.

Shopping for cottage furniture...

Hello! I hope you are doing well.

On Friday my sister-in-law and I went antiquing. We have had some nice cool weather this week, so it was a perfect day for shopping. I was on the hunt for some unpainted furniture pieces that I could paint myself and bring up to Birdsong.

Though I didn't see anything that hadn't already been painted, here are some pictures of the pieces that I saw and really liked. I am actually looking for a dresser for the master bedroom, something to put the TV on in the living room, and some additional pieces such as end tables, something to use as a coffee table, and maybe whatever else catches my eye. Because the house we live in is rather traditional, I am hoping to throw a little caution to the wind and do something that I wouldn't do here. There is something that will not let me paint beautiful cherry furniture just to meet current trends. But in the cottage? A totally different story!!

I love this dresser...

...and not a bad price, either...

How about this pretty bureau with the French

writing on it...

...and this one for a fair price also...

I love this mirror.

Pardon the reflections in it, but it was

hanging very high on the wall and this was

the best I could do...

...and at a very sweet price, too...

And as an aside, I couldn't resist taking a

photo of this new little baby booth...

Why all this attraction to the gray and pale blue colors? I guess because they're so different from anything we have here, and for another reason which I will reveal when I show you pictures of the two pieces I ended up buying. I will show you them in the very near future. Have a great day!