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!!



Valentine Decor - French Shabby Chic, oui!

Nothing says romance and Valentine's Day like French shabby chic vintage finds... 

 

I wish I had a lovely romantic room like this:

 

And everyone likes chocolate, but since I'm on a diet I guess this would have to do:

 

Available on Etsy here.

 

I added a few new items in my shop that are sweet and romantic:

 

 

 Some wood ornaments on French book paper.  There are different silhouettes on the backs - check out my listing here for more details.

 

And one on antique sheet music.

 

 

Two different silhouettes on one ornament. 

Available here.

 

And this latest pair of framed silhouettes are still my favorite.  I'm finally keeping a pair for myself.  I love the antique silver color of these frames and the romantic details on the frames really suit this pair.  I have a listing for these in my shop, too.  Just FYI.

 

 

 

Available here.

 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day - And some words of Wisdom

Not everyone likes or enjoys Valentine's Day and mine is kind of a bummer this year, but I saw this posted on my Facebook and decided to share it since it made me feel a bit better.


Written by Regina Brett, 90 years old, of the Plain Dealer, Cleveland , Ohio .

"To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me. It is the most requested column I've ever written.

My odometer rolled over to 90 in August, so here is the column once more:

1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.
2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.
3. Life is too short – enjoy it.
4. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends andfamily will.
5. Pay off your credit cards every month.
6. You don't have to win every argument. Stay true to yourself.
7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.
8. It's OK to get angry with God. He can take it.
9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.
10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.
11. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.
12. It's OK to let your children see you cry.
13. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.
15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye But don't worry; God never blinks.
16.. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.
17. Get rid of anything that isn't useful. Clutter weighs you down in many ways.
18. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.
19. It's never too late to be happy. But it’s all up to you and no one else.
20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.
21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don'tsave it for a special occasion. Today is special.
22. Over prepare, then go with the flow.
23. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.
24. The most important sex organ is the brain.
25. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.
26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words 'In five years, will this matter?'
27. Always choose life.
28. Forgive but don’t forget.
29. What other people think of you is none of your business.
30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.
31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
32. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
33. Believe in miracles.
34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn't do.
35. Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.
36. Growing old beats the alternative -- dying young.
37. Your children get only one childhood.
38. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.
39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.
40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'dgrab ours back.
41. Envy is a waste of time. Accept what you already have not what you need..
42. The best is yet to come...
43. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
44. Yield.
45. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift."

Valentine's Day Book Rec

First post of the New Year. Sorry to have been so quiet.

I thought I'd share what I'm reading right now - an excellent choice for Valentine's Day, by the way: We Two: Victoria and Albert: Rulers, Partners, Rivals by Gillian Gill.

A wonderful book that covers one of history's greatest love stories - that of Queen Victoria and her Prince, Albert. Anyone that likes history or romance will find this book rather interesting. It is one of the easiest to read - not dry at all, but more like a novel at times. The author gets you involved in the histories of the two and how they changed and grew through their relationship. I found myself swept away in reading it.

Victoria and Albert eventually had 9 children - five girls and four boys. The youngest, baby Beatrice was only 3 when her father died. Tragically, Victoria had only 21 wonderful years with her 'Dear Albert' and had to live 40 more as a widow - always pining for her dearly beloved. She kept his room exactly as he left it - with fresh hot water for shaving and a new outfit laid out every day as if he'd come back at any moment. A bit morbid, perhaps, but fitting for her passionate love for him.

All of the Victorian values of morality, elitism, religion, industrialism and improvement - all of these come, not from the Queen, but from her husband. He insisted on cleaning up the royal image - imposing much stricter guidelines and rules for running the court, their households and the country in general. In truth we should call them Albertian values - morality, modesty, efficiency, improvement, etc. How different would the world have been had Victoria never fallen in love and married Albert? Historians speculate that if Albert had lived just one more year he may have been able to prevent World War I, which occured many decades after his death. (I won't give away how - you have to read the book! ;)

Even if you've studied this era before (as I have), you'll still find a few interesting new facts and views on it. I'm only halfway through, but enjoying it quite a bit.

And whenever I read about Victoria I find myself wanting to watch certain movies, too. Such as Young Victoria and Mrs. Brown. Two very different times in the queen's life and both fairly accurate (with some artistic licence taken in both in concern for exactly who saved her from assassins, but you have to allow for some dramatic scenes to be altered to fit the stories, I suppose). Both movies are well acted and the costumes and settings are remarkable. Great movies to watch around Valentine's Day as they are very romantic, too.

Happy Friday!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Sweets to the sweet!

A giant M&M cookie for you...

Wishing you all a great Valentine's Day filled with love and a sweet or two.

Cupid is as cupid does...or Life is like a box of chocolates...

I love Valentine's Day decorations and especially love really nice chocolate boxes. Some years it can be slim picking for something cute or different from all the usual red heart boxes so this time I made one of my own. Only problem is - I couldn't pick a color.

White with a black cupid silhouette and red antiqued look??


Or a simple red box with a white cupid and antiqued with white?

I finished these off yesterday and my father saw them and immediately asked to buy one off of me to give to my mom for Valentine's Day. I laughed and told him I'd make another one for him. He's going to fill it with some chocolates for her. Isn't that sweet?

Both boxes are in my shop right now.

Shop Update

Some new items I've posted in my shop lately...


A lovely shabby chic frame with vintage sheet music and a lovely silhouette.

A box I made while thinking of my Yiayia (Greek for Grandmother). She came to his country from a little village in Greece so I papered a box with vintage Greek book paper and stenciled a young girl on it. She grew up very poor and had to pick up olives in all kinds of bad weather, even the snow and cook and clean for her family. She was kind of a Greek Cinderella. She was the younger, prettier sister who was treated badly and whenever a suitor was interested in her the family said they had to marry off the older sisters first. It was a very hard life for her.

To honor her I made this little memento box.

She taught herself to sew and has remained quite crafty - even to her ripe old age of 89 today. (I posted a few months ago a quilt she made me). She still makes crocheted purses, hats, scarves, etc. She can't stand not to do something with her hands.

And in honor of Valentine's Day...

Doesn't this look like a box of chocolates?? Only healthier, I suppose. LOL

My favorite silhouette of a young lady on a heart shaped box. I have some more Valentine's Day related items to finish and hurry up and post.

Have a happy Monday!

Thanks and Sorry and Rambling...

Thanks to Hope for posting her excitement over winning my giveaway - you can see her post here. So sweet, thanks Hope!! And actually she won two - the one she showed is just one with two sides to it and she picked the white silhouetted couple with the plain pink background and already an ornament. I love the postcard feel of that ornament and I have to admit I think she picked the best two - she's got good taste, if I do say so myself. My, what an ego I have.

I'm also sending one to Heather, who gave me such a sweet ornament herself a long time ago and I've been meaning to return the favor for quite some time, so I really hope she likes it as much as I like hers - I keep hers on my bookshelf so I can look at it all the time.

As for everyone that missed the giveaway - it's my own darn fault for being so last minute. It was a spur of the moment decision and I didn't give enough warning. I'm sorry for that. I'm still new at this and I'll do better next time, I promise. Really, a few days is nothing in blogland - real life makes us miss stuff going on like this unless we have lots of time on our hands and especially since there are SO MANY cool blogs to follow. So, I'm really sorry if you're disappointed. I'll do another giveaway soon and give much more time for everyone to have a chance, promise!!!!

Valentine's Day really snuck up on me - doesn't it always feel that way?? It does to me. I'm kinda like those clueless guys you see roaming the stores on Valentine's Day itself hopelessly trying to make it in time. Usually it's a Walgreens, but once it was a Target and I was just shopping and I suddenly noticed, there's an awful lot of guys here in the store (way too much testosterone in the air - Target's got gadgety stuff, but they were roaming the decorative items aisles a little too much)...and they were really looking desperate...ooooooh, it's Valentine's Day! I laughed to myself and it cheered me up that I didn't have a Valentine myself, because it's okay - guys don't buy into it much and even though they are bombarded on TV, Internet, newspapers and any other store they go to - they STILL don't think ahead of it. Only, uh oh - my girlfriend/wife/lover is going to be so pissed!!!

I like the holiday for the colors and the hokey romantic idea of it all - romance needs a holiday, even for us lonely singletons. I'll just pop in an Austen film and pretend I'm marrying Mr. Darcy or something hopelessly needy like that.

(Why do you think I'm silhouette crazed lately?? It's all BBC's fault!! They've put Austen in my brain and it won't go away!)

And while I'm on that topic.... Have you seen the new Emma on PBS? I saw parts of it because, I have to admit, it isn't my favorite novel/film. Especially the Paltrow one. But I kinda liked the ending I saw - I (hopefully successfully) tivo-ed it to watch next time they play it. And they advertised a new Persuasion! Hmmm, I doubt they can top the Amanda Root (do I have the right name?) version - her Captain Wentworth just is soooo convincing. And that sister Mary - boy she gets me everytime, I wanna shake her and smack her one - Anne is a little too doormat for my taste. But, those uniforms! Those dresses and the jackets! Swoon. See, I don't need anything, but my dvd player to enjoy valentine's day - and maybe some chocolate.

Giveaway Winner....

Gee, it's a toughie, but the winner is, let's see....ummmm. HOPE! Thank you Hope for commenting. I hope you really do like the valentines because you get two of them. And I even waited til 2 in the morning to see if anyone else had even the slightest interest.

Please email me the details - which ones and if the one or both aren't ornaments and you'd like them to be I'll fix them up in a jiffy.

And that concludes my sad, sad, sad little giveaway.

Hope, don't forget you can just scroll past the hallway post to the post on the Valentines to see both sides of each one and in bigger size for detail. Thanks again for your support. :)

Giveaway!!!!!!!!!! - Valentine's Day Gift

One week until Valentine's Day - no time to finish my other items much less post or sell them so I decided to give one away. You have your pick.

Here's a pic of them, but for more pictures look at the post a few down from here and make your choice when/if you win!!

I'll pick a winner on first thing Wed. Feb 10th so hurry! I'm hoping it'll get to you by Valentine's Day, it should, it'll fit in a regular envelope, at least if you live in the US, otherwise I have no idea how long it takes.
Once the winner is announced, please let me know which one you want and if it isn't the ornament one and you want it to be - let me know ASAP!!! :)

Edited to add: In fact, let's be more generous - there will be TWO winners. Double your chances!

So Happy Valentine's Day a little early - comment for your chance to win!!

Valentines - sneak peek

I've been working on a few Valentine related items, but these are the first to be finished.

You may notice they are all different shades of pink, light to dark and with different backgrounds, one is mixed media with Mona Lisa's eyes and crowns and a heart cut out of vintage music paper, the rest are silhouettes. I was just having fun with them. One was already made as an ornament, but the rest are not, I can alter them to be ornaments or leave them alone.

I love pink and am becoming a bit obsessed with pink and white, I think. :)

Those captivating eyes, the medieval writing on the background makes me think of da Vinci's journals and sketches - like it is his handwriting. It's one of my newer stamps and I love it.

On the back, vintage sheetmusic, my favorite medium, cut in a simple heart with another crown. Just because. :)

A typical silhouette by me, French text, black silhouette of an Austen style young girl. On the back, her bethrothed? Her husband?

Another silhouette, this one in white. I like the play of white and pink and antiqued brown writing. Just seems to go so well together...

On the back, another Austen style man. All of these rectangular silhouettes are on wood, the general size of a standard playing card. They have teeny tiny holes so you could thread a piece of thread through them or ignore it, they just come that way. Or, if you'd like any of these as ornaments with wider thread I can drill a slightly bigger hole as is already done in the ones without text back grounds. Please note - all are different shades of pink. I've been playing around with the colors and I like the varying shades of pink.

This one was completed just as I was finishing up Christmas ornaments. It has a very pretty white ribbon as you can see, there's a glimpse of the other valentines in the side, you can see how much darker a pink this ornament is from the others. I like the postmark stamp and the Bonjour and little fancy fleur de lis stamps on these.

Oh, also, thanks to tip on how to remove spam, I've removed comment moderation for new comments, older comments are moderated just so I can see them and read them or otherwise I'd miss them. So feel free to comment!