Romantic Homes Magazine: The August issue...

Hello friends. I hope that your weekend has gotten off to a great start!

Yesterday I received the current issue of Romantic Homes magazine, and this issue is dedicated to flea marketing. Not that I ever do any of that. Ha! What a source of inspiration this one is. Below are a few glimpses into its pages.

The cover...

One of the featured blogs...

An article about someone who loves to flea... 

...and the treasures that she finds...

An article about the best romantic flea markets in America...

...where on the same page there are two that I have been to,

Raleigh and Renninger's!...

And an article about flea markets along I-75...

Plus a tutorial on a mannequin facelift...

And some ideas for small room and guest room decorating...

This is a great issue, and I think you will enjoy it!

Wishing you a wonderful July 4th holiday!

Wishing you and your families a wonderful July 4th celebration!

Whether you watch a parade, eat good food, or just take it easy,

let's remember what it's all about.

Following are a few goodies for your art.

An old postcard showing sweet children

enjoying their day...

...and a beautiful patriotic girl

in a photo booth...

Enjoy!

Welcome to Birdsong Cottage!

Good morning! Well, if you haven't guessed by now, we bought a little getaway place in the mountains while we were up there last week. Have you ever had a burning desire to buy a little home that needed some love and make it your own? Well, quite unexpectedly, that's what we did! We came upon this place for a steal, and couldn't resist the opportunity.  The area we bought it in is actually Hendersonville, NC (see my post of a few days ago), but we are actually right down the street from Flat Rock, featured in my post of yesterday. We love, love, love this area!

Birdsong Cottage is not really a cottage at all, but a humble little single-wide mobile home built in 1969. Heavens! I was still in college when this sweetie was born. Though old, she has been nicely cared for over the years, but we plan to update her and make her as pretty as possible. The mobile home park that she is in is well-maintained with strict covenants that ensure that it will stay that way. Most of the folks that live there are new retirees coming up for the summer and vacations. What we love is that it is quiet and peaceful with lots of old trees and the sound of birds everywhere, hence the name that we chose. Also, our lot rental fee pays for all maintenance of the grounds, so we don't have to worry about it when we are gone.

Following are some pictures.

The entrance to the community...

A view from the entrance...

A view from the clubhouse and pool...

Our street, with our "cottage" on the right...

Another view...

...and another...

A redeeming factor is white cabinets and neutral ceramic tile

 in the kitchen (and also in the bathroom)...

The table and four chairs came with it.

They will be "cottaged" up...

The living room looking into the kitchen.

We liked the fact that the breakfast bar could sit four.

Those things on the left side of the beams are amber

"mood" lights...the weirdest things in this place!

They will be saying goodbye.

The sleeper sofa and two side chairs came with it.

Not our taste, but they will get beige slipcovers...

Two sinks in the bathroom. Not bad!

The porch was recently re-done, except for the yucky

green indoor/outdoor carpet, which will have to go...

Beautiful hostas along the side, with a few daylilies and iris mixed in...

But the best part is this funky old sixties porch rocker with

a matching chair. Initial thought was to chuck it. After I

sat in it and realized how comfortable it is, I am thinking

paint the aluminum part and re-cover the cushions...

An example of how large the trees are...

We first plan on ripping out all of the carpeting, then painting, then installing laminate flooring. If you want to see what we are thinking in the way of decor, I have started a new Pinterest board titled "Creating our Cottage", which you can access on my sidebar. I will post the ongoing improvements to this blog.

Well, I guess if ladies can go "glamping" in their restored vintage travel trailers, we can go "cottaging" in our soon-to-be-restored vintage single wide trailer. After all, life is what you make it!!

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great day.

Flat Rock, NC: "Little Charleston of the Mountains"

Flat Rock is an historic village established in 1807 by wealthy Charlestonian plantation owners trying to escape the oppressive summer heat of the Carolina Low Country. Many of their beautiful old homes still stand. Poets, playwrights, artists and entrepreneurs now call it home. (Carl Sandburg lived in the village from 1945 until his death in 1967, and his home is now a major tourist attraction here.) For a long time Flat Rock, just a few miles south of Hendersonville, has been one of my favorite towns to visit. Its elevation is about 2200 feet, so this whole area is the best of both worlds, being in the Blue Ridge mountains, but just north of the South Carolina border and not getting as cold in the winter as the mountains further north.

Here are a few pictures that I took in the village while we were up there this past week.

The Wrinkled Egg is a lovely shop that sells beautiful home goods

and houses a bakery with outdoor dining.

You can get delicious sandwiches, salads, and pizzas there...

Another shop...

A sweet BBQ place, also offering

outdoor dining. It was down the

hill on the left...

We didn't have time to go into this one,

but I loved the building...

And this was a great antique shop.

Mr. Perch was thrilled to be able to purchase a

vintage, and still working, telescope, complete with a tripod.

The lady there said it had belonged to her dad for many years,

but he was in the process of down-sizing and wanted to sell it.

And it was here that I bought...

...this old and very cool wire basket.

I took these photos on the bed in the upstairs guest

room and tossed the throw pillows inside

just to give you an idea of the size.

Pardon the bad lighting...

I think I may use the basket for fabric storage. What would you use it for?

Well, we ended up not having as much time as we wanted for sight-seeing, as the telescope and basket were not the only things we bought here. Remember I told you the other day that we bought something too big to bring home? Take a guess! Stay tuned....

Drying flowers, Part One

Good morning friends! Today I thought I'd offer you a break from all of the pictures of the mountains. While I was getting ready for our trip, I was looking at the bouquet of flowers that I had used as a centerpiece on our dining table when my husband's family was in town. It was one of those cheap little arrangements from the grocery store, and though it was starting to get a little limp, quite a few of the flowers still looked quite pretty. I also noticed that my hydrangea bushes were still in full bloom, but didn't think that they would look so good by the time we got home.

So the day before we left I told Mr. Perch that I was going to dry some flowers. To spare myself odd looks and strange comments (he made it clear that he thought it was weird that I would spend the time cutting hydrangeas when I had so much to do-HA!), I got up early on the morning of our departure, before he woke up, ran outside with scissors and vase in hand, and cut and trimmed several hydrangeas. I also took the tired bouquet up to my studio and prepared the flowers for drying.

Following are some photos of my ventures in flower-drying!

As the sun is coming up...

...I set out in search of which hydrangeas

I will want to cut.

These are Blushing Bride.

White with a touch of blue.

Certainly beautiful, but not enough there to want to cut them...

I decide to cut some from a variety of other bushes,

leaving long stems, trimming the leaves,

and putting them in a vase of water.

I have read that you should leave them

this way until all the water has evaporated.

If the blooms are not dried out by this time,

keep adding water until they are.

They are placed on the screened porch...

...along with some white hydrangea,

prepared the same way.

Then I trot into my studio to work on the bouquet.

Here are some that I have chosen to use,

along with some others in pink and white...

I find a large, heavy book with pages in it that I don't care

that much about...

I open it up to a page near the back,

and add two paper towels to the top of the page...

I begin with these pink blossoms.

The stems have been removed.

The one on top is face up.

The one on bottom is face down,

and shows where I have cut the stem

near to the blossom,

so that it lays flat,

but not so close that the petals come apart.

They have been placed on the two

paper towels...

I cover the blossoms with two more paper towels,

and cover that first layer with a few more pages

in the book...

I add two more paper towels and more trimmed blossoms,

again covering them with two more paper towels,

flipping more pages on top, and...

...do the same thing for the next blossom,

which is quite large...

I now have three layes of flowers.

I close the book, and end up with this.

The book will not close all of the way...

...so I stack several more heavy books

on top, forming a pile.

I also pile some books behind these

so that the stack will not topple over...

By the way, I placed the below book on top.

It is one of my favorite old books and will share some of it

with you in a future post...

Here is my ravaged bouquet...

I hope that this doesn't become an exercise in futility! I have successfully dried flowers in books before, but must confess that I have never dried hydrangeas this way. I'll keep you posted. If it doesn't work, I guess there's always Michael's!! Have a wonderful day.