My First Sympathy Card

Hello and happy Wednesday!

I have made cards for many occasions, but quite honestly, I have always refrained from making a sympathy card. I would just go out and buy one, because I always worried that anything that I made would be too romantic, meaningless, depressing or trite.

So in my endeavor to start making cards that would have a wide range of appeal for various life situations, I purchased a few vintage angel postcards, and this one with the doves. As life would have it, sadly, there was a death in my husband's family this week. I decided to try my hand at a sympathy card, so here goes.

I thought this image is beautiful.

The girl standing with her mom is Grete Reinwald,

who was the famous German child model

and whom I have written about before.

I loved the doves in this image...

I cut out the flower and leaves from a piece of beautiful scrapbook paper

by K and Company and mounted it on top of the lace and velvet trim

using pop dots.

I then added a button to the center of the flower...

Also from K and Company was this butterfly,

also added with pop dots...

...and the two inside which I just glued down along their centers,

after folding the wings up a little.

One of my favorite Bible quotes,

printed from my computer in an Edwardian script,

was added...

Thanks for coming by!

It's all about gardens...

Good morning!

Last week marked our first trip to the garden center. It really felt good and we got to tell some of our friends that work there why we had been "missing in action" for the better part of last year's gardening season.

Geraniums are among the earliest things that they start in

the hothouses...

 ...and they are just beginning to bud...

Strawberry plants are also in the works...

...and this one looks good enough to eat...

Chris, the owner, does a lot of custom patio and fountain work,

but this one sits in one of the hothouses,

so you can see it all year round.

This is a bad photo,

but in this area he keeps lots of beautiful

houseplants...

And below is our very own Plum Tree,

resplendent in all of her blooming glory.

Right behind her, and in front of the garden shed,

you can see the newly expanded iris and daylily garden.

Last year while Mr. Perch was recovering from his surgery,

I joined together what was once the herb garden

and the smaller iris and daylily garden,

moving the edging pavers to where they needed to be.

This past weekend I cleaned out all the winter leaves and pine needles

and trimmed the plants of dead foliage,

while The Mister completed actual installation of the pavers.

Stuff has already begun to pop out of the ground.

I think that the daylilies will bloom at the same time as the iris

this year, and usually they start much later...

As always, thank for visiting!

A Card Given and a Card Received

Happy Monday! I hope that your week has gotten off to a nice start.

I recently made a card for a friend of mine who is celebrating a birthday this week. Since I had a lot of supplies already out, I decided to fashion it off the piece that I created for my "500 posts" write-up the other day. I really love these beachy gals and thought that she would too.

Once again, I used some BasicGrey papers

and some corrugated cardboard,

along with ribbon and punch-out letters...

This will be on the inside.

I don't glue these down until I stamp on them or

 I write on them.

In case I make a mistake,

it affords me the luxury of making another one.

You know how that goes!...

But my biggest excitement was when I received

this beautiful card from my dear blog friend,

Nancy Maxwell James at Sugar Lump Studios.

She is such an awesome artist,

with a blog to match,

and you can find her here.

Thank you Nancy. I love it!!

Have a lovely rest of the week!

Kids on Potties and a Romantic Couple: More Greeting Cards

Good morning. I was about to start tidying up my studio and get ready to do some fabric collage, but decided to make a couple more cards for my shop instead, since the papers were scattered all over already!

I saw the little photo that I used in the card below on Etsy.

I can't help but wonder where these kids all were

when this photo was taken.

I thought it was so cute, and so very different from any

other photo in my collection.

I think the reason is obvious.

So it wanted me to think "outside the box" and come

up with the idea of using it for a general card that

might be used where teamwork is being celebrated.

I also thought it would add a light touch to a perhaps a

family working together during an otherwise sad time...

I love these papers from DaisyD's, which I bought quite a while

ago.

I also used red and turquoise as a color scheme that is also

outside of my comfort level,

but seemed so right for this little photo...

The little circles at the bottom are punch outs and were part

of the paper series.

I attached them with pop dots for a some dimension,

along with some coordinating ribbon and rick rack...

Also part of the paper design was a sheet of punch out tags,

so I used one on the inside tied with some narrow ribbons.

I liked that there was a spot on the bottom to add the date...

Getting back to my norm,

I created this card which could have been used as a

Valentine's Day card (I'm a little late. I know.),

but would be nice for an anniversary, engagement card,

or just to tell someone you love him...

This gorgeous image is another from Ireland Rose Studios

on Etsy.

It looks so pretty with sheet music, velvet trim and vintage lace...

...and a few paper flowers to match the paper and the belt on this

lady's dress...

I stamped the inside with some beautiful words.

I've had this stamp for a while and don't remember ever using it...

I hope you enjoyed seeing these.

They will be in my Etsy shop shortly.

Thanks for coming by today!

Miss Phoebe's Perch: Five Hundred Posts

Hello dear friends.

Today marks my 500th post on this blog!

It has been almost five years since I started Miss Phoebe's Perch.

I can't tell you how much I appreciate that you have followed me

on this journey,

and have so often taken the time to comment.

Here's to the next 500 posts!

************************************************

I created this piece using some BasicGrey papers that I have had for a while,

along with corrugated cardboard, ribbon, brads,

 and lots of pop dots.

And you might have recognized that this is another photo

of the same beach gals that appear in the photo used on my Etsy banner.

I decided to do this piece in colors that coordinate with my studio,

and will display it for a time.

Thanks for coming by!

Hearts: Gifts from the Sea

Happy Valentines Day!

My gift of hearts for you.

************************************

Driftwood...

Sea Glass...

Stones...

Love and beauty are found everywhere!

Have a wonderful day!

A birthday card for a dear friend...

Hello. Early this month I found out that one of my sweet blog friends was about to celebrate a birthday. I happened to have her address because I bought a piece of her art not too long ago, so I made her a card and hoped that it would get there on time. She let me know that she got it and liked it, and I was thrilled because she is a much better artist than I!

I make it a policy to protect the identities of the innocents, but here are a couple of photos of the card that I made.

I love the little girl in this photo postcard,

which still had the original postage stamp

on the front...

Is that little face too precious or what?!...

Creating things for special people

makes my heart sing.

Signs of Spring at Plum Tree Cottage

Good morning my friends!

Yesterday we had some really pretty weather, being in the high 60s, with today expected to be more of the same. So, while walking around the yard I snapped a few photos of the promise of spring.

The first pretty white blossoms on the Plum Tree.

Yes, this house is named after her!...

One of the Hellebores (Lenten Rose) blooming in our fountain

garden in front of the deck.

She actually has been in bloom for almost a month now,

and will continue to do so until the really hot weather begins

in the summer...

Seen against the Carolina sky is the beginning of

the buds leafing out on one of our Crabapple trees...

And of course, always early are the daffodils

poking through the debris still in the garden

from its winter rest...

I don't imagine that I am looking forward to spring

and time spent in the garden!

Are you seeing any signs of spring where you live?

Goat Cart Summers

Happy Saturday! I hope that your weekend has gotten off to a great start.

You have all seen vintage photos of little kids in coat carts, taken during the early part of the 20th century. The roving photographers of the time used their goats and carts as a gimmick to have parents pay for photos to be taken of their children, similar to the same way that the photographers brought along ponies. For a while I have collected these little goat cart photos.

Some time ago I did a post about a project that I was getting ready to start. The original post is here if you missed it. I didn't say too much about what I was making because I actually submitted it to Somerset Studio for publication in their January, 2017 issue, "All About Olive". (I did not use the old quilt piece that I showed in that post.) I got it back the other day as it was not published. You win some! You lose some! Though, I must say that the artwork that was published in that issue was so superior to mine. So I thought I'd share a few photos here.

I created this piece in a shabby kind of manner, along the same lines as a Halloween piece that I shared with you a couple of years ago. It is basically a long fabric roll done on a 5-inch wide length of burlap. I thought the olive and pink colors were suitable for a summer theme.

It is about four feet long, including the hanger.

These photos are pretty bad as I didn't have a suitable place

in the house to take them due to the length of the project

and lighting issues in the house.

Here it is displayed on Miss Grace...

 The hanger is created from sari ribbon,

and the metal piece is an old drawer pull...

...which sits on top of an old doily that has been

folded in half...

Lots of fabrics.

Silk, velvet, and cotton prints,

along with buttons, laces and ribbon.

And a mother-of-pearl buckle and

grosgrain ribbon and a little rick rack...

The photos had been printed onto fabric,

and I hand-sewed them on...

A pink glass button from my stash,

and more hand stitching to hold the scraps of fabric

together.

On this photo and above I used buttons to replicate

wheels on the goat carts...

I used colored scrim in sections,

and at the bottom is a vintage

crocheted hankie...

This piece has special meaning for me,

because while my husband was in the hospital before and after

his surgery in August, I did the hand sewing portion

whenever he rested.

And the best part,

it matches my studio colors of pink and green.

My studio is the only girly room in our home,

and is a hangover from my single days in my townhouse in Florida,

where shabby chic ruled!!!