Remembering a grand old home...

If you regularly read this blog, you know how much I love old homes. In the back of my mind I still envision myself living in a nice vintage home with a big front porch, set in a small historical town in NC. Of course, that may never happen, but if not for our hopes and dreams, where would we be?

A few years ago The Mister and I hooked up with a realtor in such a town a few hours from here, and closer to Hendersonville where we have our getaway place. One of the houses that we looked at that day was the one seen in this post. At the time I didn't mention where it was because I didn't want anyone to rush over there and buy it out from under us (ha ha!). That one, and the one below, were my two favorites, both in one of the historical districts. And the two of them were the only ones that were actually "move-in ready". At the time there were other considerations that we had to make, one being that neither would accommodate our motor home very well, and alas, a historical home for us was not meant to be at that time. Another issue was that we wanted one with the master bedroom and bath on the first floor, and neither of these had that.

This home had special significance to me,

as it was "born" in 1923,

the same year as my dad.

Here is hubby standing on the front porch.

The houses in this district sit up high off the main road,

with parking in the back that you access from

a rear alley.

I like that concept, as I don't think garages and

parked vehicles look very pretty...

Shortly after we saw this home,

the listing was removed,

but I don't think it was sold.

If it had been my home I don't think that

I could have parted with it either.

We didn't really know who owned the home,

but it was decorated beautifully...

We saw several houses that day,

and I took many photos.

I'm not sure why I never took a photo of

the kitchen,

but I remember liking it.

Here are some of the rooms that I did take photos of...

I am still on the realtor's email list so that I can continue

to get updates from him.

He recently had a post on his blog about the

community coming together to help the victims

of a house fire that occurred on Dec. 30th.

The photos below appeared on a local news website.

I thought the house looked familiar.

My own photos state that they were taken at the same

address where the fire occurred...

To think that my husband stood on that porch

is bad enough.

But when I think of the loss suffered by this family

I am immeasurably sad

and cannot stop thinking about it.

I have not seen any news on what caused the fire,

but I so hope that it wasn't arson.

Fortunately, the family was not in the house

when the fire started.

They were on their way

to an annual camping trip in the mountains.

I feel a special kinship to the family that lives here.

According to what I saw on the news,

the owner is apparently a hardworking single mom with

three children.

This hit home with me because I also raised my two

children as a single mother,

and I cannot even imagine how I would have felt

if this had happened to me.

Kind members of the community rallied together,

boarded the windows,

boxed up what they could of the family's belongings,

and started a fund to help.

The irony is that the mom is a social worker who

spends her life helping others.

Though I'm sure that this family is grateful that their lives were spared, I know that starting this new year cannot be very happy for them. I pray that their love for each other can overcome their sadness and that their beautiful home can soon rise from the ashes.

"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!

"Phonto" Photo Editing App: Memories of Home

"The thrill of coming home

has never changed."

--GUY PEARCE

I played a little more with photos this week (fancy that!) after discovering a very nice app for inserting typography on your photos. It is free (hooray) and trust me when I say that it would have been worth paying some money for. It has a large number of fonts to choose from, is easy to use, and you can save your fonts and words, which makes it really easy to watermark you photos if you so desire. The added bonus of this app is that after you upload one photo, you can upload a second and superimpose it over the first, as I did with the little girl above (you will recognize her from a previous post). I was then able to manipulate the degree of transparency of the little girl.

So here are the photos that I used for the above edits.

You may recall this photo,

which I took last summer along the coast of NH...

Below is what it looked like after I ran it through 

the "Vintage Photo Frame" app

that I talked about the other day.

I love the primitive look that it now has...

Here is the original photo of the 

little girl.

Only a portion of this photo was 

superimposed over the house...

All photos above are yours

if you want them.

In my next post I will show you another feature of "Phonto". I hope that you have a great day!

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...

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

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.

In my dreams...

When I dream,

this is where I live.

In a Folk Victorian with a white picket fence...

...and beautiful pink crepe myrtles 

in front...

It has a porch that surrounds much of the house...

...with brick chimneys 

and four fireplaces...

 It has a beautiful yard,

not too large,

and not too small...

...and original stained glass throughout...

When you close your eyes,

where do you live?

Have a wonderful evening.

And if you dream tonight,

dream big!

Driving along the New England coast: Stonewall Kitchen in York, Maine...

Good morning friends!

On Friday we returned from a week in New England, as we go to Massachusetts every July to visit Mr. Perch's son. It was our plan to go in the motor home, spending a week there, and a week up at Lake George in NY, but those plans went awry when, after spending a week doing a thorough cleaning of the motor home, and stocking it with two week's worth of food and clothes, we couldn't get the living room slide back in. Hubby worked on it for two days, to no avail. Not to mention we discovered that our windshield had somehow cracked. Do you believe in omens? I think that I do now.

We ended up canceling all of our campground reservations, making new ones at hotels, and only went for a week. Bummer. Aside from the fact that I came down with a cold a few days after we got there, we still managed to have a pretty good week.

Last Sunday we took a drive up the coast on Route 1A. It is such a beautiful drive. I always marvel at the ragged coastline with its rocks and beautiful views of the ocean. Having lived a large part of my life in Florida where I spent many hours on Siesta Key Beach (I still think one of the most beautiful beaches with its white sand and tame Gulf waters), the New England coastline is so beautiful in a very different way. First we headed up to York, Maine, to make our annual visit to Stonewall Kitchen. You can read about it in my post of a couple of years ago, found here. 

Every year their gardens are spectacular.

This year I loved the border garden just outside

the outside dining area...

The beauty was in its simplicity.

Basically four types of plants,

repeated throughout.

pink dahlias,

what I think were

ornamental kale, New Guinea Impatiens,

and some wispy things with pink blossoms 

that I couldn't identify...

These photos don't do the garden justice, 

but I tried to capture the fact that the veins

in the Ornamental Kale were pink 

and matched the Dahlias...

Since I don't have much luck growing dahlias

here, I always marvel at their beauty...

We came back with a few things,

but not the garden I'm afraid!

My favorite, Balsamic Fig Dressing.

Delicious with mixed greens, Gorgonzola cheese,

pears, red onions, and glazed pecans.

And some "new releases",

along with a small bottle of Barbecue Ketchup,

which was their giveaway. 

I couldn't resist the towels and the teak spreader...

We didn't stop at York beach, since we have already been a few times, and it is always very crowded. 

In my next post I'll continue with the rest of our drive, where you will actually see some of the coastline!

Have a wonderful Sunday!

Tour of historic homes, continued...

Good morning friends! I hope that you're having a great week so far.

As promised, here are photos of some of the homes that were on the historic home tour that we completed on Sunday. They made my heart sing!

The house in the following two pictures has been in the same

family for many years. The gentleman that owns it is restoring it

beautifully. He's added on a gorgeous garage behind the portico.

His younger brother was born in this house, and they were both

at the house with many stories to tell.

But the best part is that they still have much of the furniture

owned by previous generations of their family,

along with a cherry baby carriage with a parasol on it that was used

 by family over 100 years ago! 

The following home has many of the original lighting fixtures (now electrified)

from the days when they used gas. Part of it t has beautiful copper roofing

which you can see on the dormer in the photo. It is now owned by a younger couple,

but the man who grew up in this house (now 92) was sitting on the porch.

His mom lived in this house for 70 years until she passed away in the

1980's. The current owners were able to get a lot of information about

the house from him, and they have displayed several old photos, including one

of the elderly man sitting on the porch steps when he was a boy!

The second picture below is part of the garden that surrounds the

whole front yard within the perimeters of the fence. (The house that

you see behind the garden is the neighbor's.)

The home below was huge, as it originally belonged to one of

the wealthy families in town. It had a huge curved panelled staircase

to end all staircases. The current owners are also restoring this, and doing

a beautiful job.

The home below is owned by the gal sitting on the front porch.

She is restoring it all mostly by herself and doing it with a

Victorian look, using dark wallpapers and retaining the dark moldings.

The second photo shows her beautiful garden. The guide told us

that the old boxwood bushes were there, but she trimmed them into 

the formations that they are now.  

Below is the old train depot, no longer used for its original purpose.

It was slated for demolition some years ago, so the Women's Club

bought it for $1.00 from the railroad company, under the condition

that they move it off the property. They paid $10,000.00 to move it

a short distance away, restored it, and use it for meetings and other

functions. Adorable!

 

The house below was not on the tour, but beautiful.

It's always been my dream to live in an old house like this, and I think that even Mr. Perch's wheels were turning when we finished this tour, especially when we found out how inexpensive some of these houses are to buy, and not too expensive to restore if you're willing to do the work yourself. We keep saying we're too old to do it, but we both also say that we would just do a little at a time, making it more of a hobby. H-m-m-m-m....