Happy Spring 2017

Happy Spring!

I thought that you would enjoy this pretty

little French Victorian trade card.

Front...

...and back!...

Save it and use in your art.

I have had the original in my collection for a while.

Happy Spring my friends!

St. Patrick's Day: A Vintage Postcard and a Recipe

Happy St. Patrick's Day.

Today everyone is Irish!

Above is a vintage postcard that I recently purchased

and I would like to share it with you to

save and use as you wish.

I think its a really pretty one.

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Years ago (I won't say how many!) when I was growing up my mom would make Corned Beef and Cabbage on St. Patrick's Day, even though we are not Irish. Kind of the way she always made fish on Friday even though we were not Catholic. Who can figure?

I never liked Corned Beef and could barely stomach eating it, but unlike most of the kids today, we were required to eat what was put on the table whether we liked it or not. (The only exception was liver, which my brother and I hated, and I still do.) No creating of special dishes for the picky in my mom's household! She would always say "You will acquire a taste for it if you eat it enough", and it seemed to work, because I grew up from a picky eater who lived on milk until I was in second grade and forced to eat school lunches into a foodie who can eat almost anything (except liver of course). Mom also said "If you like to eat, you'll like to cook", and a lover of cooking I am. Thanks Mom! Do you ever wonder why I don't always create too much art?

In any case, I never liked boiled food and to this day I think that it is boring and tasteless. So, in my determination to find a Corned Beef and Cabbage recipe that wasn't boring, I tried several different recipes over the years, and a few years ago I found this one. It is now the only one I make, requiring a little more work, but loaded with flavor. So if you would like to try it, here is the recipe for you to save and print as you wish. All credits are on the page, but also my few notes. A little freshly chopped parsley added to the platter when served is also a fine thing!  Also, as I mentioned in an earlier post, I am not a beer drinker, but a bottle of the Guinness was good along with the meal, and the rest I will use this weekend in a stew recipe, which I will share later. (My husband does not drink at all.)

Though the recipe may not look too clear here,

I did print this out as a test and it printed

quite well...

I hope you enjoy it if you try it.

Let me know if you do, and how it turns out.

Corned beef will probably even be on sale this coming week!

Have a "lucky" day today

and a great weekend!

Advertising and Blogs

 

Hello friends. I try to keep this blog on a positive note and leave the ranting for others, so I have put off writing this post for quite some time now. But yesterday, as I was reading some of the blogs that I follow, there was a link to another blog that looked like it would make for nice reading. So I clicked on the link and found a fairly nice home decor blog. Simple enough.

Have you noticed how advertising has found its way to so many blogs (especially the home decor ones), that it isn't even pleasant to read them anymore? I do most of my blog reading on my iPad when I am having my coffee in the morning, and have approached the point where it takes so much time to get past the ads (some of which I can't even "x" out of, or lock up my screen altogether), that I am no longer going to read any that cause so much aggravation. I may as well just go out and buy a magazine and put up with those advertisements.

Don't get me wrong. I don't mind some advertising. As a matter of fact, I tried AdSense for a very short period of time. At least that vehicle had the good sense to place advertisements where I wanted them placed, and with content that was relative to my post. But I choose not to read blogs anymore that have a pop-up ad every time I scoll down to the next paragraph, at the same time as having others pop up from either side of the screen, and in a much bigger format that the blog post I am trying to read in the first place. I guess these are the bloggers that we see on Pinterest claiming to earn 100 grand a year on their blogs. Oh, and let's not forget the blog setups that give you a short paragraph and then make you click to "read more", where, of course, you are switched to another screen and start all over with yet more ads.

 

But back to the blog that I linked to through one of the blogs that I read...This gal with the lovely home and family, who indicated that her faith was the focus of her life, had a unique form of advertising that I had not seen before. You know how when you get to the bottom of someone's post and it has little glimpses indicating "other posts that you might be interested in"? Ones that are usually relative to the post that you just read? Well, at the bottom of this post were  four such glimpses. One was to a post from her own blog. One was for a new testosterone booster. One was about what happens when you take a testosterone supplement, and the last, accompanied by a very suggestive photo, was about the most embarrassing dirty photos on the web. In fine print at the bottom of each thumbnail the sponsor was stated.  I checked this same blog today, and at the bottom of its very lovely post, was an ad for the "skinny pill sweeping the nation", and it was illustrated by an awful looking person, with what were very exaggerated facial features. Would you want to end your own posts this way? I wonder if some people read their own blogs as a viewer would see them.

I personally believe that our blogs should be extensions of ourselves, and not gimmicks for advertising at our readers' expense. Especially when the ads are not at all relative to the type of  reader who is taking the time to follow that blog in the first place. But that's just my humble and worthless opinion.

By the way, the advertising you see at the top of my post is scanned from a 1923 Woman's World magazine that I have in my ephemera collection. And it is the only type of advertising that you will see on this old woman's blog.  Feel free to save it to your computer and use it as you wish. 

 

I wonder if the women of 1923 got tired of seeing advertisements everywhere they went!

Thanks for putting up with me today!

Valentine's Day and a German Pancake

Happy Valentine's Day! 

In honor of this special day of love,

I thought I would share a scan 

of this vintage sheet music that I have.

Use as you wish in your artwork!

The other day I took a trip over to World Market.

I love puttering about in their food (and wine!) section

because you see so many things that you don't 

see elsewhere.

I am not a big pancake person

(as in the big thick things that you get

in most restaurants).

I would much rather eat French crepes 

or nice puffy German pancakes

(perhaps because I am of 

French and German descent),

so imagine my excitement when

I saw THIS...

Once box makes two batches,

with one batch being one large pancake

baked in the oven in a cast iron pan

at 450 degrees,

and coming out looking like this...

Served with fresh blueberries

and powdered sugar...

...and a side of breakfast sausages,

it made for a delicious Valentine's

breakfast today.

And the best part?

Mr. Perch did the dishes!

We will go out to dinner tonight with family members.

This day is special for us,

because we got engaged seven

years ago today.

Do you have any special plans for today?

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Keep love in your heart! 

Christmas 2015

May your Christmas

be filled with JOY,

and your New Year be

filled with HOPE.

Beautiful Vintage Photos

Hello dearest friends. I hope that you are having a great week!

Last week I received the most beautiful vintage photos that I had ordered from Etsy, and thought that you might like to see them. Of course, they deserve to be displayed in a lovely setting, at least for a little while..

Who can resist these beautiful little girls...

...or these lovely dancers?...

This little lady is one of many that I have

depicting little girls wearing big bows...

...and likewise, one to add to my collection

of little girls holding dolls...

That I now own this photo of these pretty

little blonde sisters makes my heart sing.

Don't you just love that they are holding

twin dolls?...

Of course, this charming group

 was added to my collection

of photos of dancers...

...but this little fairy girl dancer 

is just stunning...

And, as friends often do,

we share things,

so here is one for you...

Right click and save, and use as you wish.

This photo is so old I can't imagine that

there is any copyright protection afforded

to it.

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Today I am joining Wen's Simply Neutrals Tuesday Party.

Why don't you pop over there and join the fun!

You can find Wen's blog here.

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Dance through the week,
and find some creative time!

We are headed up to The Wren's Nest
to add some finishing touches
and to start getting her ready to be closed down
for the winter.

Thanks so much for coming by!

Going on a camping trip!

Heading to Florida to do some camping

with my family over the long weekend,

and then some!

Hope you like this old photo. 

(That's me on the right

showin' them how to toast 

marshmallows.)

Have a great holiday weekend,

and by all means use this photo in your art if you would like.

I have the original!

A Little Girl and Her Kitten

I was thinking of you today,

and hope that you are having a great weekend.

The coming week promises us warmer days,

so I thought I would share this "springish" image with you.

I have scanned this from my original,

so feel free to use as you like.

A Valentine's Wish

Hello dearest friends. I hope that you are having a wonderful holiday. Do you have any special plans? Hubby and are going to our favorite local Italian restaurant tonight. We got engaged there six years ago today!

In honor of this day I couldn't resist sharing with you one of my vintage Valentine's Day wedding photos. I got it for a good price due to the stain on the bottom, but we can certainly work around that! Scan and use as you wish.

Isn't this a lovely couple.

I wonder what became of them.

I hope that they had a fine family 

and lived happy and healthy lives...

A few days ago, while I was making lunch, UPS delivered a package (or was it FedEx...can't remember now),and much to my pleasant surprise, it was an early Valentine's gift from Mr. Perch. He said it was supposed to come yesterday, but trust me when I say, getting it early was not a problem.

He saw this company advertised on TV,

and I'm happy that he decided to give them a try...

Beautiful huge, and I mean HUGE,

chocolate covered strawberries.

One of them is a meal in itself...

The instructions suggested that they be consumed within

48 hours.

Really?

No problem for moi!

Absolutely delicious!

Mine is just the sweetest guy!

"Phonto" Photo Editing App: Cowgirls of the Old West

Good morning!

As promised, here is the additional information on "Phonto", the last of the photo editing apps that I played with this past week.

The additional feature of this app is that you can curve the letters and words that you use, so on the above edit, I curved the words around the circle. The photo below is the original, and I ran it through "Tangent" first to encircle the cowgirls, then through "Vintage Photo Frame", and lastly through "Phonto" to add the curved lettering.

I love this old cowgirl photo that is

part of my collection.

Feel free to use it as you wish!

The "Tangent" and "Vintage Photo Frame" apps, a little girl and an old house...

Good morning. I hope that I am not boring you with my new found love for photo editing. If so, please exit now and return later! (Just joking.)

Here is some information about two other apps that I have really been enjoying, along with some of my results.

This is the base photo of the little girl that

you saw in my previous post...

I ran it through an app called "Tangent".

For $1.99, this is another great one.

At first I thought it would be too modern for 

my taste, since it uses vectors, colors, and 

shapes, along with textures and overlays. 

Below is one of the choices.

You can move the shapes around,

and size them as you wish,

so I encircled this girl's face.

This is the first edit...

I saved the above edit, then ran it through 

"Tangent" again, this time using an 

overlay of blue stars.

This also changed the shades of the red and

the circle. 

I was also able to size the blue stars.

A little bright for this old gal...

...so, I again saved the above edit,

and moved it to another great app called

"Vintage Photo Frame".

For 99 cents, this is a great one for 

 us lovers of all-things-vintage!

This app lets you choose overlays, textures, 

such as the crackled finish below,

and frames that really look old

in a subtle way.

It also lets you choose the percent of

intensity on each of your choices.

For this one, I wanted to see if I could create

a vintage, patriotic effect on an ordinary

photo...

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This past weekend we went to a family function

in Salisbury, NC. 

While there, we drove around in our favorite historic

district.

 (We are always looking at houses for sale! 

I guess we all dream.)

I shot the below photo of one of the houses.

It was less than a great photo,

but a wonderful house...

I couldn't resist putting it in a frame from 

the "Vintaframe Pro" app ...

(see more done with this app here)...

...and I also ran it through "Old Style Camera"...

...and through "Snapseed"...

...and also "Tangent"...

...and "Vintage Photo Frame"...

One house.

Seen six different ways.

Consider the possibilities.

The "Old Style Camera" photo app, crazy quilt pieces, a little girl, and a Hosta...

Happy Tuesday friends! The weather here has been less than desirable, and so of course this is an excuse to stay in the house and entertain myself. 

This morning while drinking my coffee I decided to play again with photo apps, and thought that I would share some photos of my results with you. What I like the best about using these is that they are easy to use and they enhance my otherwise not-so-great-photos!

All of the photos below were edited with 

"Old Style Camera".

This works on both iPhone and iPad.

At 99 cents, it is worth every penny.

When you upload your photo, you can choose what portion

of the photo you want to use in your creation.

It has different filters that you can use to put different 

effects on your photo, such as sepia, black and white,

vignetting, and so on, 

though I did not use any of those here.

You can choose your frame and use the blurring tool

to blur the edges of your photo.

It also allows you to move "the blur" around

on the picture, and make it as large as you like.

There are several frames to choose from,

all wonderful.

Below is a photo of a piece of a crazy quilt 

from my collection of cutter quilts.

(You know how I love these!)

I find it better to choose your frame first,

since some are patterned overlays that may clash with

your photo,

and then apply the blurring tool to fade the portions

that you want to.

For the two photos below I used the same frame, 

since I thought that the black filigree really

enhanced this beautiful piece.

I did not alter the colors at all.

The three photos below are of different sections

of another old cutter that I have.

For these I used three different frames,

again, blurring the outsides.

On this third one, I used a busier frame. 

You can see the checkerboard design in it, but

I thought the colors enhanced the quilt piece.

I only blurred parts of the outer section.

Because I felt that many of the frames in this app

mimicked Victorian photo holders,

I decided to try one on one of my vintage photos.

All I did was snap a picture of the old photo,

I didn't even scan it in.

I like that it is not so clear. 

I chose only a portion of my photo,

and then used the frame below,

and blurred even a portion of the frame.

The photo below is of a Hosta that was blooming this 

past summer up at Birdsong Cottage.

I used the same frame that I used on the first two

photos above.

In this one you can see where the fading,

or blurring, changed the colors slightly.

Playing with different frames 

and points of blurring is the best way to discover

which choices will look the best.

I then used another app (Snapseed, which I talked about

in this post) for the framing.

(This will show you how you can apply effects from one app,

save them, and then move your edited photo to another app for

additional editing.)

The only thing to know about this program

is that you can't stretch the frames

to fit your photo,

so you will have to choose one that 

"fits" around the subject that you want framed.

For instance, there is a pretty oval frame,

but had I used it on the little girl, a lot of her head

would have been cut off. 

(Unless I just haven't figured out how to do it yet!)

But with everything else that I love about this app,

I am fine with that.

I can't tell you how much I enjoy working with these apps. 

Think of the possibilities while away from home.

You can edit your iPhone and iPad photos,

then put them on your PC later

and post them to your blog,

or print them out for future art projects.

And as usual, any of the above edits are up for grabs

if you want to use them!

Many thanks for stopping by!