Welcome to the World, Avery Grace!

Hello friends! Meet my newest grandchild, Avery Grace, born on Thursday, March 27th, down in Florida! All is well with mother and baby. (But not with grandma, who is 700 miles away up in NC. Boo-hoo!)

A little name recognition on the outfit...

Every gal needs a flower in her hair...

And big brother, Jason,

approves of it all!...

I now have four grandchildren.

A boy and a girl from my daughter,

and a boy and a girl (those pictured above) from my son.

Life is sweet!

A Table for the Porch at Birdsong Cottage...

Good morning! 

This is going to be the year of sprucing up the porch out at Birdsong Cottage. We have most of the furniture that we will need, all of it needing a LOT of sprucing up, but the only thing that we were missing was a table.

On a trip to SuzAnna's with my sister-in-law while Mr. Perch was away, I did manage to find the perfect glass-topped table that met the requirements of what we were looking for, namely, something made of a durable material so that it could stay outside during the winter, look "cottage-ish" and seat four. So imagine my excitement when the seller said I could have it for $150 instead of the listed price of $249 because I shop there a lot, and that she would hold it till I could send hubby some photos of it. He liked it, so I went back last week and paid for it, and we picked it up the other day. I will paint it up and do something with the vinyl cushions, but am not sure yet exactly what we are going to do with the porch color-wise, so in the meantime, here it sits in our garage. Such a deal!!

I can't wait to get started!!!

Have a wonderful day.

Inspiration From a New Magazine: "Flea Market Outdoors"

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

It's pretty nasty today, cold and grey, with a slight mist coming down that never quite passed for the snow they predicted. Too bad for the snow. Ha!

We did have a beautiful day on Saturday, though. Earlier that day I did some grocery shopping and picked up the premier issue of a new magazine called "Flea Market Outdoors". I couldn't wait to read it while I sat down to lunch on the front porch, and of course, I tabbed the pages that I thought the most inspirational. I wanted to share a few photos of some of those pages with you, but didn't really want to be inside taking the photos on such a lovely day, so I decided to prop up the mag on the wicker settee on the porch and fire away.

Sorry I didn't post these earlier, but Mr. Perch had been up north for a few weeks taking care of some business, and he just came home Saturday night so I haven't had much blog time. If you love gardening and the outdoors as much as I do, this one is a definite must have!

After a long winter of looking at white and grey

art and decor, it feels good to look at some

pretty color combinations for a change.

This is actually a play house, but I see it as a 

garden house...

Some crafting inspiration below.

I love these garden totems. 

I have one that I purchased, but keep saying

that I am going to make one myself.

I dream more than I do!...

Some treasures for the garden shed...

Old quilts used on the porch.

Remind me to share on a future post

my new love of vintage quilt pieces!...

What's a garden without some salvage?...

Porch beauty...

...and more of it!...

Garden shed glory...

...not to mention gazebo love.

Hmmm, we do need to spruce up

ours this summer!...

And more lovely color combinations.

This one on a porch...

And this one on a deck.

Speaking of decks!...

In my next post I'll share the little treasure we just bought! 

Many thanks for coming by today!

Wishing you a Happy Spring!

Good morning and :Happy Spring! 

I've been busy doing a major spring cleanup of my kitchen this week, but wanted to take a minute to share these wonderful springtime images with you to use in your art. I just love these old trade cards. Click and save to use as you wish!

Have you seen much that is cuter than

this?

Or this?

I love this mama bird with her baby 

on her back!

Enjoy the trade cards, and enjoy your day.

I hope that nice weather is coming your way!

Not yet Spring!

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

I can't believe that tomorrow is the first day of spring. It's not really very nice outside today...in the 50's and gray and drizzly. But it was worse yesterday. Here is what I woke up to...

Ice on the plum tree. 

Very upsetting, since this is the first year that this

young tree has had blossoms...

...and ice on the cherry tree...

You can see the little daylilies beginning to

pop under the cherry tree. 

It's very odd that we get ice like this

in these parts, especially at this time

of the year.

We are supposed to get some nice weather beginning tomorrow, but it is only to last a few days. I hope that you don't hate winter as much as I do!

Have a wonderful evening.

Spring is in the air...

Spring is coming.

The weather is getting so nice. 

Ride on a swing...

Play on the beach...

But remember it still gets cool when the 

sun goes down!

I hope you love these trade cards as much as I do. The outfits that these children are wearing speak so well to this time of the year. Feel free to right click on them and use them as you wish.

Have a lovely day!

A wonderful shop for crinkled seam binding...

Good morning friends!

If you follow his blog you know by now that I am a huge fan of eBay and Etsy. I recently discovered, quite by accident, a wonderful source for crinkled seam binding on Etsy. What I like about this shop is that you can order the seam binding in small quantities of each color, which are beautifully packaged in three coordinating colors to a bag, and you don't need to buy a hundred-yard roll of any one color. There are six yards of each color in the bag.

A picture is worth a thousand words, so here you go!

These arrived with the most beautiful label...

...and gorgeous packaging.

I bought a stash of lovely neutrals...

...and some beautiful "not-so-neutrals"...

The wrappers are so sweet, 

with a beautiful glittered bird on each,

and placed within a cellophane bag...

She included some lovely gift tags...

...and took the time to sign one...

Also included were two samples of other offerings. 

She has a sweet name for each of her coordinated

bindings...

Here is the link to Bluebird Lane if you would 

like to do some shopping!

She also sells the most beautiful gift tags and cards, 

and is really fast at sending out the shipments.

Thanks, Donna!

Have you found any good sources for art materials lately?

I hope that you have a wonderful day!

Just a little "hello"!

Hello everyone! 

I'm sorry that I've been away from this blog for almost a month,

but "busy" seems to be the story of my life lately.

Busy doing chores...

...and busy with a new art project.

I started gathering materials for this

prior to the holidays, if you recall, 

but put it aside for awhile. 

I recently resumed working on it.

It's requiring a lot of work and time,

but here is a glimpse of just a small part of it...

...and not to mention VERY  busy with the remodeling of our master bathroom,

 which is finally completed. Hooray.

I'm not ready to share photos yet, as it still needs a few touches,

but here is a glimpse of one of my

favorite parts of it...

What have you been doing to keep busy lately?

Have a great evening!