Fabric Collage: "Forever in my Heart"

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

This past Saturday was a sad day for my neighbor and friend, Pam. Her sweet little cat, a grey tabby named "Monkey" did not recover from the cancer surgery that he had at the end of the year, and had to be put down. It was terribly hard for her, but us as well, since we used to feed Monkey when they were away, as they did for our cats when we were away.

We knew that he was not doing well, as he had stopped eating and drinking, but Saturday night, about 8:30 I noticed that Pam and her husband, Al, were out by their garage moving their car around with the headlights shining on the side of the driveway. Right after I noticed that, she sent me a text saying that Monkey had just crossed The Rainbow Bridge. So Mr. Perch and I put on our coats and went over there, where we stood and watched Al dig Monkey's grave, upon which Pam placed a little marker.

Mostly Monkey was an outdoor cat, so he would often pay us a visit while we were gardening or sitting on our front porch. He loved to hunt mice and voles and bring them to Pam as gifts. We choose to remember him that way. I was hard-hit by his death as we have two cats ourselves, and our little Ollie is a grey tabby just as Monkey was. Losing pets is so hard, but hopefully we will see them all again one day.

So I made Pam this little collage to honor Monkey, 

and to celebrate the joy he brought her.

Here it is hanging on Miss Grace,

my mannequin...

It's quite simple, actually.

The background fabric with the fringe

is from an old window valance 

that I came across while cleaning

out the attic.

It seemed to match the image so well...

Laces, brown velvet ribbon, 

a small tulle flower,

and some vintage buttons...

This most beautiful image, which is the nicest

I could find featuring a grey tabby cat,

is from Ireland Rose Nostalgia on Etsy, 

and you can find her here...

A little crystal heart dangles from

one of the buttons...

And some crinkled seam binding is tied in

a bow at the top...

I backed it with a pretty piece of

vintage ivory silk brocade.

I hope that Pam likes it as much as I liked 

Monkey.

Oh, and if there's anyone out there who is not

sure of what The Rainbow Bridge is,

click on this

for a beautiful version of it.

If you doubted that animals go to Heaven,

you won't anymore.

My daughter sent a similar version to me when

my Shih-Tzu passed,

and I sent this one to Pam.

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

Today think about your family, friends and pets,

and feel joy that they are with you.

Time spent at Birdsong Cottage, Part 2: The horses that live down the street...

Hello friends!

When we are up at Birdsong, we drive around and explore different areas near our town. I guess that in the back of our minds we would like to live up there full time, and are therefore hoping to someday find the perfect piece of propery with just the right house on it. In the meantime, we are sure having fun exploring the area.

We knew that the man who lived up the street from us had horses, but we hadn't driven up there before, so we decided to drive up the street. The horses were out in the pasture, and as soon as they saw our car driving by the gate, they all came running up to greet us, I guess because people are always going up there to feed them (which we were told the owner doesn't really like, and I can't say that I blame him). So we stopped to say "hello"! Would you believe that they all actually took turns meeting us?

These photos are not great,

but it sure was fun taking them...

I hope that you see some sweet animals today!

Thanks for visiting.

On leaving Birdsong Cottage...

Good morning to all! 

Well, as all good things must come to an end, so ended our nine-day stay at Birdsong. Here are a few last photos snapped before we left.

Rosie loved the new-old wicker settee,

and didn't seem to realize that there was no cushion on 

it yet....

Ollie loved seeing the world from the vantage 

point of the fridge.

This was the first time he jumped up there...

Sue loved the fact that we started decorating

the guest bedroom, so now only half of it

is being used as a storage facility for 

Mr. Perch's tools. 

This is not saying much as the room is only

about 8 by 10...

And Mr. Perch looked forward to the five-hour

trip home, time in which he had nothing to

build, fix, replace, or shop for. 

Well, that lasted until we got home to 

"real house", anyway!

The saddest part about leaving was knowing that we will not likely be back until August, as July is the month in which we go up to visit Bob's son in Massachusetts. We are taking the motor home and hope to visit some other places while we are up there, perhaps Vermont and upstate New York. 

On a happy note, for the first time I heard Hubby quietly say: "Maybe we should start checking out permanent real estate the next time we are up there". I can only dream.

The pets we love...

Hello there! When we were at Birdsong I was sitting on the couch and our cat Ollie was "relaxing" behind me. I guess he likes it up there and was enjoying his vacation, too. I couldn't resist shooting this picture!

This cat is certainly a lot more photogenic than I am!!

I hope you are having a wonderful day.

XO

Sue

The Pink House: Shopping for Annie Sloan Chalk Paint...

Greetings from Birdsong Cottage! I mentioned in my last post that I bought some Annie Sloan paint the other day. I located a distributor up in Asheville, so my neighbor, Marti, and I made a day of it up there while Mr. Perch enjoyed a day of freedom! Ha!

The name of the shop is The Pink House, and we were so glad we made the trip. Aside from having a wonderful selection of Annie Sloan products, there were wonderful pieces of furniture and other vintage items that were for sale, telling you what Annie colors were used on the things that had already been painted. And the owner was so gracious in taking the time to give us a waxing tutorial when I told her that my attempts were not great. Following are some photos of this shop...

Of course, I couldn't resist spending some time looking at these gorgeous old photos...

...and knowing my weakness for flappers, couldn't resist buying this one. I think it was a repro, but at three bucks, money well spent for an 8x10...

I love the way there were painted "swatches" of the Annie colors right on the wall so that you could see what they looked like. And the owner was pretty much a walking encyclopedia on all things Annie...

And last but not least, our traveling companion for the day, Marti's little Shih Tzu, Gracie...

Where have you shopped lately?

XO, 

Sue

A baby, a cat, and Easter bunnies...

Greetings from The Perch! I hope that you are well.

This will be a short post. This morning my dentist blessed me with the crown on the tooth that I recently had the root canal on (so far, so good!). Although I feel fine, I am in the middle of a project and don't want it to sit too long before I get too lazy to continue working on it (more about that in my next post).

Just a couple of little pictures to share...

My grandson, Jason, doesn't seem

to think too much of his first encounter

with the Easter bunny down in Florida...

On the other hand, our cat, Ollie, seems

to love the North Carolina version.

Pardon the shadows, but there was really no time

 for picture-perfecting, as he's a little skittish...

I hope that you're having a great day. Thanks for stopping by!

The pets we love...

Good morning friends! I hope that you are all well. This week I'm thinking about pets, and the joy they bring to all of us that have them. I,m also thinking about how much we worry about them when they are not up to par.

Do you ever have a week that just goes badly? Among other things in the past week, and in addition to the drama around dead car batteries and my toothache that comes and goes, we also had to take our little lady, Rosie, to the Vet for oral surgery the other day. (I thought about asking the Vet if we could get a cut rate if I let her deal with my tooth as well, but their cages are not big enough for me to be held in.) She is doing OK, but now our little guy, Ollie, is kind of lethargic. He had also spent some time at the Vet this week having had his annual exam, so I am hoping that his quiet mood is only because of that. These cats do not like being taken out of their home environment, kind of like me (sometimes, anyway).

Rosie...

Ollie...

Of course, the fun part about the dead car battery was that on the way home from taking Rosie in for the surgery, we stopped in at the grocery store to pick up a few things, and when we got out, the battery was dead. We ended up having Bob's sister and brother-in-law come and jump-start the car, and then made lemonade out of lemons by all going back to our house and immediately devouring half of the cinnamon-apple pie that I had just bought. And, I guess that looking on the bright side of things, the battery could have died next month while we were using that vehicle as our tow car behind the motor home on our trip to Florida. Needless to say, we are now the proud owners of a new battery in that car!

Well, that being said, I hope this post finds you and your pets happy and healthy, and having a great week so far!

A moment of cuteness!

Hello friends. I hope you had a great Thanksgiving.

Hubby and I have been kind of busy decorating for Christmas. We've almost finished with the inside of the house, but yesterday was an absolutely beautiful day, so we took advantage of that and decorated the outside.

Today I returned to finishing with the tree, and I no sooner put the tree skirt down, when who should show up by my little tabby cat. Guess where he ended up? Here is the picture that I couldn't resist taking.

I guess that if I ever get done with the decorating, I will share pictures of that too! I hope you're having a great evening.