French Cottage Style - Valentine's Day Decor

This may be a bit early, but in between Christmas and Valentine's Day the days can seem so gray and dreary.  So I'm skipping ahead to Valentine's Day and I've already done a bit of decorating and inspiration - cottage style - that I thought I might share with you...

First, you have to decorate your mantel - I love the touch of French chic and the red antique books. 

 

Cliched, but true - red roses are very romantic.  ;)

 

 

 

 

These are my lovely and amazingly delicious sugar cookies - nothing says Valentine's Day like a heart shaped cookie.  I love the red and white fabric underneath, don't you?  So sweet!!

 

Add some romance to your walls with pretty still life portraits - I love this little painting I got at a flea market.  All it needed was a painted and antiqued white coat of paint on the frame to turn it from '60's drab to Shabby Chic fantastic!

 

And no cottage is complete without a country kitty offering you a Valentine...

 

 

 

Hope this brightens your day!  ;)

 

Happy Monday!

 

French Christmas Picks on Etsy - 2013 - Joyeax Noel

It's been awhile since I posted something other than my own shop items so here is some French Christmas Inspiration/Gifts on Etsy...

 

 

Available here. 

It's a download Post card - super cute - works for Valentine's Day, too!

 

 

Available here.  Gotta love a good sign!!

 

 

Another Download - Available here. 

I'd rather have the original, but this is cute, too.

 

 

I love this even more!!  But only if it was the original post card.

 

Available here.  (Same store as last one).

 

 

And last, but not least - something sweet!!

 

Available here.

Silhouette Ornaments and Last Minute Orders

I've been so busy keeping up with listings for the shop and shipping I've been too busy to update ye olde blog, but I thought I'd take a minute now to do so...

First, I have new ornaments in the shop:

First up:

This is the loveliest, I think.  Making papered ornaments is difficult, especially the round ones.

This ornament SOLD just the other day.

 SOLD

These are lovely ornaments with two different couples stenciled on each side, the background is French Text.

 

The great thing about these ornaments is they aren't 'Christmasy' - they go well year round - make great presents and can be used as tags on gifts or special Valentines.  I love these.

This is a Custom order made for a customer who wanted facing silhouettes in 5x7 frames, but you'll note they face opposite of what I usually offer.  You can always request a custom order if you see something you like, but want it a little different.

SOLD

These will go on either side on the wall of above a bed - so cute!!

And to be different I made some beautiful dark red ornaments with white silhouettes this year - this is a set of three ornaments sold together with SIX different silhouettes - three couples all together.  They look much lovelier in person...

Available in my shop HERE

For those of us who like hearts...



Stenciled different ladies and gentlemen on each side.


These are the PERFECT Valentine!  ;)


The long promised last medium sized French Text house with a black roof is finally up:

Available HERE

Available in My Shop HERE

 

 

Happy Holidays!!



Fairy Houses for Holiday and Everyday Decor - Just in Time for Christmas!

EDITED to add:  As of 12/4/13, my banner of my blog shows most of the houses that are up in my shop (and one just about to post) all together on my fireplace mantle as part of a Christmas/Winter Display.  Aren't they adorable??

***

I promised better pictures, here they are:

These are the houses that are available in my shop as of today.

 

They make an impressive display on my book shelves in my bedroom. 

 

This is the largest of the houses - it's beautiful.  The paper on the front is the title page of the song - 'Savoyarde' by Carl Reinecke.  It has the same dark red roof that the other two music houses have - all three look beautiful together.

 

 

Available in my shop HERE.

This picture shows the medium sized house inside the large house - they fit each other perfectly.  You can put the small house inside the medium and then all three will take up the room of only one house.  Great for storage and shipping.  If you buy two or all three sizes I can combine your shipping.  Convo me for details.

 

 

I very rarely make these big houses - this is currently the only one available.  You can really show off the Antique Sheet Music with this house.  So beautiful.  You can store and play with some dollhouse furniture with this house.  It is not for small children to play with, though - older children, maybe.  ;)  I think it looks great on a shelf or above a fireplace.  Just about anywhere.  Great at Christmas and anytime.

 

The lighting kind of washed out the color of the pictures a bit - it is darker in person and better able to see the music.  I'm not sure why the pictures just don't do it justice.

 

Here are all three music houses together...

 

 

 Not only do they nest inside each other - you could even stand them on top of each other - they balance easily on their chimneys.  Not sure why you'd want to do that, but I thought it was cute so I thought I'd share it:

 

 

And don't forget the two little French Lit houses - they are still available right now, though the medium size sold out fast last month.  I am making one more medium French house right now before I stop for the holidays and I don't know when I'll make more - they are very labor intensive.

And if you want more details on your house - this is in my shop as well...

 

Available HERE

 

It's covered in pages from a Vintage English book on composers.  Very cute!  It has black shutters, a Floral vintage design paper door and a button door knob.

 

Maybe the Borrowers live there!  ;)


Don't forget to buy Homemade and Upcycled gifts for Christmas!  Support Small Businesses and give One of a Kind gifts...all available at 58Cherries on Etsy.  ;)

Big, Medium, Small - All the Sizes of the Fairy Houses Together

I'm going to be posting the largest sized Music Fairy House soon in my shop and I wanted to give a little preview/overview of how the houses look in relation to each other...



This is just from my camera on my phone late at night - much better pictures to come.  But on the middle shelf you can see big, medium and small houses in relation to each other - all red roof and Antique Sheet Music.  They look adorable together, no?  And bottom shelf has the two black roof Vintage French Book papered houses. 

Hope you all had a happy weekend.  Busy finishing up orders to ship and new items for the shop before Christmas.  Busy, busy, busy.  Orion is helping, of course.  ;)



Or maybe not...

Here he is around Halloween doing his Hitchcat pose:




And here he is just hangin'





If you look at his baby pics a few months ago you'll notice he's much fluffier and pretty!  He's growing up very handsome, indeed.  In fact, he's very smart and visual - he's watching me type this right now - sitting on my knee watching the letters go across the screen.  He's telling me to be careful with my spelling and my grammar is atrocious.  ;)

10 more days until Thanksgiving!!  Gobble Gobble

New Fairy Houses - Shop Update - Music and French Book Paper - Great Christmas Gifts and Decor

Hi, the last set of Fairy Houses sold out of the Medium sized FAST so I am putting up the next batch I have ready.  Only one medium sized one this time (last time I put two up and they sold together super fast), but I'm working on one other.  It will be a French house, but for now - here are two more Sheet Music houses and one more small French house being put up in my shop today and tomorrow...

The largest house in the middle is a beautiful house made of Brahms Sheet Music - It has his name in the upper right corner and Opus 117.  It's music inspired by a Scottish folk song.  It has many beautiful details.  Check out the listing HERE in my shop for more.

The smaller house was made with paper from the same book - they look adorable together.


Here I added the other small French house to the grouping, but there is also another medium French house with a red roof and black shutters available in my shop, too.  So be sure to check out my other listings for more. 

And I thought it would be cute to take a photo of the three small houses together.  Three little piggies could live in them...  ;)

 

 

So be sure to check my shop as I add the other houses.  I am making just one more house right now (medium sized French house) and I might add another one or two if the demand is high, but these are so much work and I have a lot of other items to work on so these will remain limited in number as usual.  Snatch them up while you can! 

Remember:  each one is unique - I use only real antique sheet music and book paper - I make no photocopies - they are each unique and all hand painted, antiqued all over, sealed with a matte finish.  They make GREAT gifts or Christmas displays or year round decor.  They are even cuter in person and every time I sell one it hurts to give it up.  I've yet to keep one for myself as I always want to make them available to customers as I don't make many, but one of these days I really will have to promise one for myself.  :)

Just in...New Houses in my shop!! Sheet Music and French Papered Fairy Houses Available Again!

It's been nearly two years since I had some Fairy Houses available in my shop, so I wanted to be sure to let you guys know as soon as they were available, which they now are!

I am currently making just a few more, but after this crop I don't know how long it will be before they are available again.  They are quite a bit of work.  I currently have one medium Chopin Sheet Music house with a black roof available...

SOLD

I usually make the music houses with a red roof, but I decided I liked this Chopin house with a black roof for a change.  So pretty!  It has all original (no photocopies or scrap book paper) pages from a turn of the century sheet music book - this particular book had Chopin music and I used 'Valse Brillante' for this house.  Check out the details!

SOLD

As always, the houses are made of paper mache and you can open the roof and store items inside, the smaller houses fit perfectly inside - or you can cut put a fake candle inside to light it up in a display.  Alternatively, you can cut a whole and put a small string of Christmas lights inside.  You can display miniatures or figurines around or inside it.



Truly a beautiful piece - so much nicer in person - pictures can't do it justice!

Available HERE.

SOLD

And also available is this pair of medium and small vintage French book papered houses...

 

 

 

They are so adorable together I would keep them together...  ;)

But these are available seperately.  They are made from the same vintage French book.

 

 

Available in my shop HERE.

 

 

SOLD

Check out the listing in my shop for more details.

Available HERE.

 

SOLD

I will be adding just a few more houses soon.  I have a few red roof ones coming up.  I hope to get them all up for Fall/Christmas season as they are so beautiful to display then, but really all year round.  Be sure to grab one while you can!!

Edited to Add:  Both Medium sized houses are SOLD - to the same customer!  Thank you for your business!!  Only the small house is up for now, but I'm working on more now - gotta get a few more up before Christmas - I know there are plenty of others interested in a house so have no fear I will have a few more up soon, but like I said - they go FAST!  And they take quite a bit of work and time to make and each one is unique.