Friday, January 31, 2014

Bead board and art...

Happy Friday evening! I hope that you are all on your way to a great weekend. Today I actually felt like some things were accomplished around this house.

While Mr. Perch worked on the bead board 
in the bathroom...


I decided to do some work up in the studio,
since there was nothing that I could do today
to help with the bathroom update.
So I made some greeting cards using 
scraps left over from other projects 
along with the photo downloads that
 I recently purchased from Etsy sellers.

A birthday card for a friend...


A Valentine's Day card for
guess who?...


A thank you card for our friends in
Florida who we stayed with earlier
this month
(she loves blue)...


And another page in the art journal that I 
am working on...


Did you have fun getting something accomplished today?

Thursday, January 30, 2014

A face lift for our master bathroom!

Good morning friends! My posts may be a little bit scarce in the near future, as we have dived into a bathroom project. 

I have yearned for an all-white master bathroom for quite some time now, and that was just not possible with the maple cabinetry in this house put in by the builder when the house was built in 2007. My husband had some choices at the time that he had this house built, but I was not yet in the picture, so of course, had no say about it. After we tackled the bathroom up at Birdsong, he realized how much he liked white vanities and cabinets, so after taking more than a year to decide whether or not I wanted to get a new vanity or take a chance painting the one we had, I finally decided to take the latter course. We hope to complete the job on a budget, so decided that we would put our money into some other things that will hopefully give it the farmhouse look that we want.

Here are a some "before" photos, and some glimpses of what we've done since the weekend (nothing done yesterday as we needed to get to Lowe's for some additional materials, but didn't think it was worth venturing out on the roads that were not yet plowed).

The vanity in its original state.
The maple wood was too red and it
was virtually impossible to get any wall color
or shower curtain to look good with it.
It is also way to grainy...


This was the toilet alcove before...


...now showing where Mr. Perch removed the
 baseboards and the builder's vinyl flooring...


Here is the lovely builder-grade lighting 
and the large mirror that wasn't even
centered over the vanity. 
Both drive me nuts...


Here you see the vanity with just the coat 
of primer...


As you can see, I painted the vanity doors in the bathroom,
as the garage was much too cold...


Our beautiful new tiles,
which are sitting on the living room floor
right now...


I have put the first coat of paint on the vanity, with a second to be completed shortly, and Hubby is working on something else which I will share with you in another post. 

Hooray for pretty bathrooms!

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Another snowfall...


Our garden shed covered by yet 
another snowfall in North Carolina!!
The pink flamingos seem to be enjoying it. 

Sorry I haven't had much time for posting. Since we are cooped up inside due to very cold weather, we decided to take on another home decor project, this time in our "real" house instead of at Birdsong Cottage. More to follow on this adventure in my next post. In the meantime, I did manage to make one greeting card, this one for my daughter-in-law's baby shower, which I will, sadly, not be able to make the trip to Florida for.

Had to keep it simple, since it was
going through the mail...


I hope you're staying warm in your part of the world. Have a great evening!

XO
Sue

Friday, January 24, 2014

Daphne's Diary...

Greetings from the frozen Perch! It's still really cold here, and my "girl cave" is on a separate heating system, so I haven't spent too much time up here these past few days.

But the other day I went to Barnes and Noble at the mall and poked around a little, finding a magazine that I had never seen before (I think that this one was only the second issue). It is called Daphnes's Diary and it's published in the UK. What a load of inspiration in this magazine! This one happens to be the Christmas issue, as I guess it takes a little time to arrive stateside, but well worth the wait, and I am looking forward to seeing the next one. Here are a few photos. Click to enlarge so you can take in all the beauty!!

The cover...


Poems, and vintage postcards that you can remove and use...


Another poem...


Baking...


The history of chocolate...


Jewelry-making...


Things to make...


Home decor...


More pretty things to make...


...and some materials to use in paper art...


Are you on the way to your bookstore yet? Have a great evening!!

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Etsy sources for vintage photo downloads...

Good morning friends! I am still thinking about spring and bright colors, so I thought that I would share three sources of lovely vintage images that you can purchase on Etsy to download and save.

If you follow this blog, you know that I have a huge collection of original vintage photos. They are mostly from the 1880's to the 1920's and generally of  a sepia color. Most of my home decor is very neutral and traditional, as is my recent artwork. I guess that I follow the trends like everyone else, which seems to feature sepia photos and lots of vintage lace.

Lately I find myself yearning to veer off in a different direction and work with some different images in pretty colors (not that I won't always love my sepia beauties!). So, I discovered some great sellers on Etsy. Who doesn't love Etsy??

Below are some photos from the sellers that I just bought from. Please note that these were all purchased as individual images, and are not purchased in sheets. I like this idea as it gives you the opportunity to buy only the images that you want. (My printer printed them out as it is programmed to do so that a certain number fit on each page.)

The images below are from Thrifty Images,
and at $1.00 per image, a great buy!
This gal is a new seller, and I think she will get 
popular very fast...


...these were from French Kissed
Also some beautiful images...


...and these were from MDR Graphix Postcards.
This seller spends hours perfecting old photos, 
so she charges a little more, but well worth the price!
(Her images remind me of those that you get from
Paper Whimsy)...


Have you recently discovered any new sources for photos? Many thanks for coming by today!