Bead board and art...

Happy Friday evening! I hope that you are all on your way to a great weekend. Today I actually felt like some things were accomplished around this house.

While Mr. Perch worked on the bead board 

in the bathroom...

I decided to do some work up in the studio,

since there was nothing that I could do today

to help with the bathroom update.

So I made some greeting cards using 

scraps left over from other projects 

along with the photo downloads that

 I recently purchased from Etsy sellers.

A birthday card for a friend...

A Valentine's Day card for

guess who?...

A thank you card for our friends in

Florida who we stayed with earlier

this month

(she loves blue)...

And another page in the art journal that I 

am working on...

Did you have fun getting something accomplished today?

A face lift for our master bathroom!

Good morning friends! My posts may be a little bit scarce in the near future, as we have dived into a bathroom project. 

I have yearned for an all-white master bathroom for quite some time now, and that was just not possible with the maple cabinetry in this house put in by the builder when the house was built in 2007. My husband had some choices at the time that he had this house built, but I was not yet in the picture, so of course, had no say about it. After we tackled the bathroom up at Birdsong, he realized how much he liked white vanities and cabinets, so after taking more than a year to decide whether or not I wanted to get a new vanity or take a chance painting the one we had, I finally decided to take the latter course. We hope to complete the job on a budget, so decided that we would put our money into some other things that will hopefully give it the farmhouse look that we want.

Here are a some "before" photos, and some glimpses of what we've done since the weekend (nothing done yesterday as we needed to get to Lowe's for some additional materials, but didn't think it was worth venturing out on the roads that were not yet plowed).

The vanity in its original state.

The maple wood was too red and it

was virtually impossible to get any wall color

or shower curtain to look good with it.

It is also way to grainy...

This was the toilet alcove before...

...now showing where Mr. Perch removed the

 baseboards and the builder's vinyl flooring...

Here is the lovely builder-grade lighting 

and the large mirror that wasn't even

centered over the vanity. 

Both drive me nuts...

Here you see the vanity with just the coat 

of primer...

As you can see, I painted the vanity doors in the bathroom,

as the garage was much too cold...

Our beautiful new tiles,

which are sitting on the living room floor

right now...

I have put the first coat of paint on the vanity, with a second to be completed shortly, and Hubby is working on something else which I will share with you in another post. 

Hooray for pretty bathrooms!

Another snowfall...

Our garden shed covered by yet 

another snowfall in North Carolina!!

The pink flamingos seem to be enjoying it. 

Sorry I haven't had much time for posting. Since we are cooped up inside due to very cold weather, we decided to take on another home decor project, this time in our "real" house instead of at Birdsong Cottage. More to follow on this adventure in my next post. In the meantime, I did manage to make one greeting card, this one for my daughter-in-law's baby shower, which I will, sadly, not be able to make the trip to Florida for.

Had to keep it simple, since it was

going through the mail...

I hope you're staying warm in your part of the world. Have a great evening!

XO

Sue

Daphne's Diary...

Greetings from the frozen Perch! It's still really cold here, and my "girl cave" is on a separate heating system, so I haven't spent too much time up here these past few days.

But the other day I went to Barnes and Noble at the mall and poked around a little, finding a magazine that I had never seen before (I think that this one was only the second issue). It is called Daphnes's Diary and it's published in the UK. What a load of inspiration in this magazine! This one happens to be the Christmas issue, as I guess it takes a little time to arrive stateside, but well worth the wait, and I am looking forward to seeing the next one. Here are a few photos. Click to enlarge so you can take in all the beauty!!

The cover...

Poems, and vintage postcards that you can remove and use...

Another poem...

Baking...

The history of chocolate...

Jewelry-making...

Things to make...

Home decor...

More pretty things to make...

...and some materials to use in paper art...

Are you on the way to your bookstore yet? Have a great evening!!

Etsy sources for vintage photo downloads...

Good morning friends! I am still thinking about spring and bright colors, so I thought that I would share three sources of lovely vintage images that you can purchase on Etsy to download and save.

If you follow this blog, you know that I have a huge collection of original vintage photos. They are mostly from the 1880's to the 1920's and generally of  a sepia color. Most of my home decor is very neutral and traditional, as is my recent artwork. I guess that I follow the trends like everyone else, which seems to feature sepia photos and lots of vintage lace.

Lately I find myself yearning to veer off in a different direction and work with some different images in pretty colors (not that I won't always love my sepia beauties!). So, I discovered some great sellers on Etsy. Who doesn't love Etsy??

Below are some photos from the sellers that I just bought from. Please note that these were all purchased as individual images, and are not purchased in sheets. I like this idea as it gives you the opportunity to buy only the images that you want. (My printer printed them out as it is programmed to do so that a certain number fit on each page.)

The images below are from Thrifty Images,

and at $1.00 per image, a great buy!

This gal is a new seller, and I think she will get 

popular very fast...

...these were from French Kissed. 

Also some beautiful images...

...and these were from MDR Graphix Postcards.

This seller spends hours perfecting old photos, 

so she charges a little more, but well worth the price!

(Her images remind me of those that you get from

Paper Whimsy)...

Have you recently discovered any new sources for photos? Many thanks for coming by today!

Weighing in on bargain art stuff!

Happy Wednesday from snow-on-the-ground North Carolina! Well about an inch or so on the lawn only, but in NC that pretty much constitutes a blizzard! It is pretty darn cold, though! 

The other day my sister-in-law and I had another "girls day out" and went, among other places, to Archiver's, which is a scrapbook shop that is closing all of its locations. Pity for me, as though I'm not a scrapper, I did love the papers and ribbons that they sold. In any case, they were up to 40% off on all items. Lucky for me that scrappers apparently don't use as much ribbons and trims as I do, since they had an amazing amount left, so need I say more! I actually went back the next day to buy more of the stock, since they had choices that you don't see in places like Michael's.

Ribbons and trims in a rainbow of colors...

Some other pretty trims in black, grey, turquoise and brown...

...and some gorgeous fabric flowers.

Though a little more in the grunge style,

I couldn't resist these Tim Holtz 

stencil clips. 

I think that they would be wonderful

in some kind of book art...

And so what inspired me to invest in so many colorful ribbons and flowers while living in my "neutral world"? Well, spring, of course. And the art journal that I am working on, which is from the tutorial that I purchased recently and encouraging me to "step outside my box"...

Here is a glimpse of the journal.

I can't claim it as my own art, 

but things have been standing in the way of my own

creativity lately, and I thought working on this might give 

me the jump start that I need.

More later after I obtain the materials that I need to complete

the job.

I will also share the source of this great tutorial!

Have you stepped outside your artistic comfort zone lately!

Some new art and a source for pretty photos...

Hello friends! I hope that you're having a great day.

As promised, here are a few of the vintage photos that were on the photo CDs that I recently bought from eBay. The seller is "cd-shack-media".

The one below is from the

"Vintage Ladies Images Collection"

that I told you about in my previous 

post.
Isn't she pretty and don't you
love that hat?...

...and this beautiful little girl is from the

"Vintage Children Images Collection"... 

I also purchased the

"Old Western Images Collection"...

and here are two of the photos from 

that one...

Disclaimer: These CDs are under the seller's copyright protection...you may use the photos in your own art, even if you use it in a creation that you sell. But you may not sell the images themselves, and frankly, I wouldn't even pin these. And I don't think that the quality will be very good if you try to print them out from this blog; my only purpose herewith is to share the source of the photos should you want to buy the CDs yourself. Thanks.  

I'm still working on my art "journal"...it probably will not be ready to share till sometime next week, as I still need to purchase some supplies to complete the job!

It's very cold here today, though sunny. How is the weather by you?

XO,
Sue

First snow in central North Carolina and some info to share...

Hi there! When I looked out the window for the first time this morning, what do you know? It was actually snowing! In true NC fashion, it flurried for a very short while and then stopped. Not that I am complaining or anything.It didn't stick and posed no threat to anyone!

Just a heads up...The above photo came from a wonderful CD that I ordered from eBay. It is called the "Vintage Ladies Images Collection", and the seller is "cd-shack-media". It has a huge variety of French postcard-type photos on it. I paid $6.38, and there were no shipping charges. You don't bid on them, as there is just a "buy now" price. I also purchased two others, which I will share with you in my next post. They have a HUGE selection of photos on each CD, and I mean HUGE! Money well spent. 

I also started an art journal yesterday. Well, I don't actually journal, as it were, but I purchased the tutorial from a blog that I have recently started following simply because I liked it. More on that later as well!

Have a wonderful evening.

A beautiful Victorian photo album...

Greetings from The Perch!

Shortly before the holidays got under full swing, I won the bid on something beautiful from eBay. If you follow this blog, you know that my favorite thing to collect is old photos, but that I also have a small collection of vintage photo albums.

I though you might like to see some glimpses of this beauty. I bought her mainly for the unusual color, shape, and photo pages, but there were also some lovely photos in it. I found myself wondering if they were original to the album, or if someone just stuck them in there somewhere along the line. Though the album is not in stellar shape, most of the pages have been preserved nicely, and I have some art projects in mind using copies of some of them. I can never, never, never conceive of tearing any pages out of one of these albums, and would only use the originals if the pages are already falling out of an otherwise wreck of an album. Not this one, though!

This photo doesn't do the album justice, 

but the cover is turquoise velvet,

with celluloid flowers...

A detail of the flowers...

I love the pages, which are of an aqua background,

with stars, moons, and clouds...

Included within was this lovely photo of

sisters...

...this beautiful little girl...

...and the bonus of two tintypes...

...not to mention this beautiful family...

The condition near the front cover is not great,

but I love it anyway...

...and the binding is poor...

...so I was able to lay it fairly flat on my scanner

and offer you some pages to enlarge,

save, and use as you wish.

You will need to cut out the odd-shaped pages,

but this was the best I can do...

Not to mention a couple of the photos

that you may like to use.

A beautiful little girl...

...and sweet sisters in their

plaid dresses...

What kind of friend would I be if I didn't share this beauty with you? What would you create with the album pages?

Have a creative and beautiful day!