Happy Halloween!!

The pets we love...

Hello there! When we were at Birdsong I was sitting on the couch and our cat Ollie was "relaxing" behind me. I guess he likes it up there and was enjoying his vacation, too. I couldn't resist shooting this picture!

This cat is certainly a lot more photogenic than I am!!

I hope you are having a wonderful day.

XO

Sue

You can't judge a book by its cover. It's what's inside that counts...

Hello there!

If you follow this blog you know that I love not only old photos, but vintage photo albums as well, especially those of the Victorian era. My favorites are the ones that have beautiful photo pages.

These are becoming scarce, and when you do see them in antique stores they are so expensive that most of us cannot afford them. And, quite honestly, many are in terrible condition. Worse yet, there are dealers that try to capitalize further on them by ripping them apart and selling the pages individually, similar to those people (and I use this word in place of a less polite one!) that demolish antique botanical books so that they can sell each page by itself. Eek!

But once in a great while you see one for sale that has been beautifully preserved. Your heart skips a beat and you know that it must be yours. Do you ever have this feeling? I stumbled across one just like this and knew it had to be mine. In this case I found it on eBay, one of my closest friends :~) I placed my bid on it and held my breath, watching the minutes tick down. Hoping. Closing my eyes as I clicked my final bid minutes before the auction ending time. Trying not to peek. And then opening my eyes at the final moment. Finally seeing mine as the last bid. Mine. All mine. After spending a little more than I should have. What the heck, you only live once. After all, I don't buy designer purses and shoes. Or designer anything, for that matter, I tell myself.

Pictures speak louder than words.

The cover is timeworn, but loved.

The clasp still works...



But the real treasure lies within.

The birds on the pages almost look

three dimensional...

Each illustration is different...

Some of the original protective tissue paper

peeks through...

...and some of it is missing,

showing a glimpse of what is behind...

Names of loved ones, pictures removed

long ago, show on some pages... 

And behind and between each illustrated page...

...are some plain ones...

A close-up of one of the illustrations.

How beautiful is the detail...

My heartfelt thanks to those who have gone before me in treasuring this album as much as I will. If you loved old photo albums, would you have been able to resist this beauty?

Have a great day!

Birdsong Cottage: Living room and bedroom decor...

Hello friends! We are home now, but I wanted to show you a few more photos of our little getaway. Though this little single wide mobile home is not yet "decorated", we have gotten most of the basic furniture pieces in. Then, I promise you, this will be it for awhile since we will make one more trip up next month, then have it winterized and closed up until spring.

We had a first frost the other night, so I'm glad I took the time to get some tulip and daffodil bulbs in the ground before we left! 

Though we still need to introduce some decorating accents, we are trying to keep a clean and fresh cottage look in this place. Since it is so small, light, bright, and uncluttered is the name of the game. We are trying to have some fun with it, and it is nothing like our "real" home, which is more of a traditional and farmhouse look.

In the living room, this is the table that I showed you recently when it was apple green, now painted in Annie Sloan French Linen on top and Old White on bottom. I also used the same paints on the lamp and shade, distressing the lamp with Annie' dark wax. The fabric shade and lamp were previously a metallic bronze color...

This past week I painted the frames to those old leaded glass windows purchased this summer, and Hubby hung them by screwing the frames into the wall studs. And the TV sits on the pretty dresser purchased previously. It provides a large amount of extra storage!

The new fan that matches the kitchen lighting...

Here is our bedroom dresser painted in Annie Sloan's French Linen. I sprayed the drawer pulls with Oil-Rubbed bronze by Rustoleum. I previously showed you a photo of this dresser, purchased on Craigslist, sitting in our garage in its original faux mahogany state. I am not much in favor of TVs on dressers, but given the small bedroom that this is, we had no choice...

I also painted this little old table, again with French Linen on top and Old White on the bottom. We use it as a charging station for phones and iPad...

This is the Cracker Barrel lamp that I showed you previously, sitting on a little already-finished night table that I recently bought in SuzAnna's in Raleigh...

When we go up later this month I will try to remember to shoot a photo of the living room couch, and hopefully a few shots of the guest bedroom, which we currently call "the garage" for obvious reasons. We are still working on the iron bed frames, bedding, and curtains, and these might not be completed until next season.

I hope that you have a wonderful day!

XO

Sue

A baby sister for Jason...

Hi there! I hope you're having a great day.

I recently found out that I will be a grandmother again! This will be the fourth grandchild for me, and the second from my son. This time a baby girl! Hooray! I will have two grandsons and two granddaughters.

Thanks for stopping by!

XO

Sue

Going to breakfast...

Hello friends! When we are up here in the mountains, we eat breakfast sometimes at a charming place called Ward's Grill in Saluda, NC. I shared a little about this great little town in one of my posts this summer.

Here are a few photos...

I took the middle three photos the last time we were in when it was kind of empty, and the top one was taken when it was busier this past week. We actually were sitting next to the mayor. And the most refreshing thing? Though it was crowded, everyone in there had smiles on their faces and not one person took out a cell phone. No one. Not even the mayor. It's just that kind of place. It's just that kind of town.

XO

Sue

Birdsong Cottage: Bathroom decor...

Hello and greetings from the "Other Perch"! I wanted to show you some of our decor in making the most out of an old single wide mobile home bathroom.  I am still posting this week using a combination of iPad and iPhone, neither of which I feel a great deal of comfort with, as the Blogger apps on both could certainly use a facelift. So please bear with me!  

We started with old yellow-painted paneling on the walls and decided to make the most of it by simulating a bead board look. We added chair rail...

This is the painted hutch that I showed you in our garage in an earlier post. It now looks great in this bathroom...

A great way to hold towels, purchased in Pier One...

A sweet towel holder found in an antique store...

We are replacing all the mismatched door knobs with these oil-rubbed bronze ones...

Part of the shower curtain against the dark grey walls and faux bead board...

Another view showing the lighting and mirror that had recently been replaced by a previous owner...

I haven't fine-tuned the decorating yet as we have spent so much time doing all of the heavy work, but we're happy with it so far!

Thanks for visiting!

Sue

More about girls' day out in Asheville...

Hello friends! When my neighbor and I went shopping the other day, we also visited the shop right next to The Pink House (see my previous post).

It was called Common Ground...

I totally forgot to take photos in the store, but the owner was great. They had a wide array of different items with some lovely pieces of vintage furniture just waiting to be painted. Marti bought a beautiful old side table for $45.00. I had to go small since we wouldn't have had room in the car to take anything large back to real house. (We brought our two cats with us this time.)

My treasure was this lovely little bird dish, and on the bottom was etched "Billie-1990". Do you suppose that this was Billie's first attempt at ceramics? It found a temporary place inside the beautiful bell jar that I bought back home at Kohl's for 80% off, both shown here in the bathroom hutch...

Then onto lunch in the Well-Bred Bakery & Cafe in Weaverville. I enjoyed a turkey sandwich on a croissant with a most delicious side of Oriental slaw...

The pastries also looked great, but a gal has to draw the line somewhere!

Have you gone on any jaunts today?

XO

Sue

The Pink House: Shopping for Annie Sloan Chalk Paint...

Greetings from Birdsong Cottage! I mentioned in my last post that I bought some Annie Sloan paint the other day. I located a distributor up in Asheville, so my neighbor, Marti, and I made a day of it up there while Mr. Perch enjoyed a day of freedom! Ha!

The name of the shop is The Pink House, and we were so glad we made the trip. Aside from having a wonderful selection of Annie Sloan products, there were wonderful pieces of furniture and other vintage items that were for sale, telling you what Annie colors were used on the things that had already been painted. And the owner was so gracious in taking the time to give us a waxing tutorial when I told her that my attempts were not great. Following are some photos of this shop...

Of course, I couldn't resist spending some time looking at these gorgeous old photos...

...and knowing my weakness for flappers, couldn't resist buying this one. I think it was a repro, but at three bucks, money well spent for an 8x10...

I love the way there were painted "swatches" of the Annie colors right on the wall so that you could see what they looked like. And the owner was pretty much a walking encyclopedia on all things Annie...

And last but not least, our traveling companion for the day, Marti's little Shih Tzu, Gracie...

Where have you shopped lately?

XO, 

Sue