Some more playing with images...

Happy Wednesday! 

Last week I received some lovely images from an eBay seller that I recently discovered. The seller provides wonderful copies of vintage images printed nicely on 4 by 6 semi-gloss photo paper. The images are nicely packed and quickly shipped. She allows you to use copies for your own personal use and even small commercial projects (but no more than 100), as long as you do not sell her altered images in their digital form (I emailed her to find this out). The seller is Postcard Muse, and you can find her here.

What do you think about these pretties?

Of course, you know how much I love vintage

ballerina photos...

...not to mention old beach photos...

I also loved these fairy images...

And, there was just something about this

lady on this beautiful horse...

OK...so you know what is coming next.

I edited this photo that I took at 

the beautiful old cemetery

seen in this post

and...

...used an iPhone app called Superimpose

 (for 99 cents) to remove the background from

one of the fairy images and substitute my own

cemetery background.

I then applied a texture and border 

from an iPhone app called 

Vintage Photo Frame

(free)...

While I did find that removing the background via

the "tech-y" system took a lot more time than

just cutting it out with a pair of scissors

(that's just old me!),

it was a lot of fun to see what I could do with it.

Have a great day, and show no fear when it comes to trying something new! 

Vintage Village, Part 2 (Beauty in the Mundane)

Good morning!  I hope that you are well.

Today I decided to share some of the other photos that I took while antiquing on Sunday. It was such a lovely day that I decided to roam about outside and try to find some beauty in the mundane. Well, not mundane for me, but perhaps for some other people!

Chipping things...

...and peeling things...

...and old doors...

Juxtaposition.

Window frames against chippy paneling...

...bed frames against peeling walls...

...and against old fences...

All are beautiful to me.

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

One of my purchases is pictured in one of the photos above.

Can you guess what it is?

(Hint: Not an old door, one of which I already have in my studio.

And purchased right here!)

I'll reveal it when my plan comes together.

And hopefully soon.

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

What common beauty have you discovered lately? 

And what could be more beautiful than jazzing up our photos with some photo editing?

Have a beautiful day!

Vintage Village, Part I...

Good morning, dear friends. I hope that you had a great weekend!

For Christmas dear Hubby gave me gift certificates to one of my favorite local antique shops, SuzAnna's, which is located in a cluster of small antique shops called Vintage Village in Raleigh, NC. (You may recall that I bought various items there while we were decorating Birdsong Cottage.)

Yesterday was one of those rare January days where the temperature hit 70 degrees, so while Mr. Perch was busy puttering with some things at the house, I decided to take off and see what damage I could do with my gift certificates. Needless to say, it wasn't a problem at all! I did browse around The Village before I went into Suzanna's, and decided to snap some photos of various vignettes.

 Two Old Birds,

the shop that sells Annie Sloan Paint...

While there, I bought the smaller pitcher

seen on the right in the photo below.

It is Royal International China,

with the most beautiful green

Lily of the Valley design.

I bought it for my friend, 

whose birthday is next month.

She is Irish, hence the green,

and wants to start a collection of

white pitchers...

I loved the way this old green bike looked 

next to the chippy pink bucket...

There was some cool old junk in 

this grouping...

And I thought these old bottles with the rusty

tops in their wire basket were fun.

But the price wasn't...

This was some stuff from SuzAnna's.

Jenny, the owner's daughter, 

does a lot of cool signage...

So the common thread running through these vignettes

seems to be green. 

Except for a little in our downstairs guest room,

and a little in my studio,

I have no green inside my house.

Interesting!

So the question you are probably asking is:

What did she buy with the gift certificates?

Stay tuned on that one!!

Have you stumbled upon any good finds lately?

A New Year Greeting...

"Write it on your heart

that every day is the best day

of the year."

-RALPH WALDO EMERSON

I wish you all a happy and healthy New Year,

with very wonderful and creative days to come.

I appreciate the time that you have spent reading

my blog and the lovely comments

that you have taken the time to write. 

My Family

Hello, dear friends.I hope that you all had a great Christmas with family and friends. I feel a little sad that it is over, and especially sad that my daughter and her family have returned to Florida. 

This was a pretty exciting Christmas for me as it is the first time that any family members besides my dad have come up here to spend Christmas with us. We usually celebrate early just prior to the holiday when we go down to Florida to pick up my dad and bring him back here for a few weeks. This year he was going to come up with my daughter, Kym, and her family,  but at the last minute he decided to stay home, worrying that the hours in the car would be too hard on him. I was sad about that, but we did have a few great days with the kids. 

Following are two priceless photos from Christmas morning.

Tanner, who is 7,

coming down the stairs that morning...

Jordyn, who is 12, after opening a gag gift.

Hubby cleaned out his closet before the 

holidays and found this old yellow touch tone

trim line phone, and thought we would have

some fun with the kids.

Jordyn absolutely loved it.

Either that, or she has already

learned the fine art of diplomacy!

We plugged it into one of our phone jacks

and called my dad (an old phone company

retiree) from it. 

It still worked!...

The day after Christmas we decided to take some nice family photos outside. I am posting my favorite, taken on our front porch.

Shawn, Kym

Santa, Tanner and Jordyn...

I hope that you got to take some great photos of your

own Christmas!

Time moves so quickly and the children change so fast.