Mantel Update and Something from Easter I Forgot to Show You...

Recently, I posted about my awkward mantel arrangement and asked for suggestions to make it right. Vivian, Meri and Marie all gave wonderful ideas. I tried each one and ended up with a combination of all three. Thank you friends, for helping me out!

This was the before arrangement...boring and out of proportion...

here are some things I tried...

The suggestion for using the books was a great idea, as was the plan to move the window to the center of the mantel. The mantel is not very deep so it made putting items in front of the window tricky. I was getting closer to the look I wanted here (My family room has the worst natural light  for photos)

This was better but still not staggered enough. I turned the window lengthwise..

and made a banner to hang across the window..(thanks Meri, sometimes the obvious escapes me! When she said "hang or make a banner" I thought "Yikes! That's what I do!!)

So there it is...it looks much better in person than in these pictures. The books are from the Jan Karon Mitford series (if you've never read these, I highly recommend them!) I took the paper book jackets off and the books are nice looking naked.

The long legged bird in the center was a gift from my sweet friend Jacqueline. The curly wire of his tail is for picture holding. I love him.

A closer look at the birdie banner. Dee, I used some of the embellishments you sent...they worked out great!

The links for my decorating friends are as follows...visit their blogs, they all  amazing things!

Viv of Viv Out On A Whim

Meri of ImagiMeri's Creations

Marie of Spun By Me

Jan Karon's Mitford Series books can be found here.

If you need my address to send a bill for your services, just let me know. *wink*wink*

OK-last item for today is something that I never posted. I am an ardent follower of the blog 

Dear Lillie

and have purchased several of Jennifer's pillow covers from her shop.Right now I have this one on for the Spring and Summer season

Her lettering is phenomenal! Last year she decided to offer prints and downloads of her chalkboard signs. All of them are awesome but when I saw this download I had to order it...

I found this great unpainted frame at Michael's. (I think it was $5.99) David spray-painted it my favorite cream color and I used scrapbook paper as a mat because I didn't have too much room to play with. I love the quality of her prints and downloads and she is enlarging her selections all the time. This is still in my dining room..I hate the thought of putting it away. Here is the direct link to her shop..and be sure to check out her blog. So much beauty!

I hope you enjoy your day...we are having some much-needed rain here.

xoxo

Joyce

Random Acts of Kindness

I have spoken many times about wonderful women I've become friends with through blogging. Some have been swap partners and some have been people whose work I've admired and in writing back and forth friendships were formed. My oldest (not in terms of age but length of time we've been friends) and dearest friend is Marie, of Spun By Me. Marie is truly one of the sweetest and thoughtful women I know (but have never met in person)

Another friend I have long admired is Dee. I first became familiar with her through Flickr. Her Flickr ID is Lulu at Home and she used to post wonderful vintage pictures, many from children's books. In 2009, Dee wrote and asked me what a swap was because she had seen photos I had posted on Flickr of swap items I had received or given. We decided to do a little swap and asked Rebekah of Full of Bliss to join us. I wrote about that swap here. I reconnected with Dee when I discovered that she had opened an Etsy Shop.
This is the link to her shop, Skip Along Designs, although she's on hiatus right now. I also nagged her into suggested joining Pinterest and now we follow each other on Pinterest. She uses the ID Duchess Annie on Pinterest. So anyway, Dee's birthday was in April and I wanted to send her a little something. I made a 5X7 inch heavy chipboard tag.

Dee loves vintage things (as you can easily see by her Pinterest boards). She has a magnificent collection of old button cards and she also collects vintage images. I used the Tim Holtz dressform die and My Mind's Eye papers on this tag.

The flower was punched using many layers of vintage sewing pattern tissue with a button for the center. Some vintage lace and a pleated ruffle were added to the bottom of the tag.

A friendship tag was added to complete the tag. I sent a few other things I thought Dee would enjoy but I didn't take pictures of them.

Last week in the mail a package came for me...

If you have peeked in her Etsy Shop (you can see the sold things), you will discover that Dee specializes in digital images...cute animals and nursery rhyme characters and paper dolls and paper for scrapbooking or card making...

Polly the Paper Dolly

A sweet little cupid garland for Valentine's Day

Little Bo Peep papers in various colors...(yes, she made these, too)

These are the backs of the papers!

 Dee also included some bird-themed embellishments and little gummed tags...

The grand prize in the package was a button card from her personal collection

Isn't it dear?

All of the treats are wonderful and will be cherished but none more than the card that Dee tucked in the package.

Isn't she just the happiest little girl? She made me happy!

I have saved every card sent to me from blogging friends. Handmade or just hand-signed...they are all treasured. Thank you my friend..I loved our little swap.

xoxo

joyce

Around Here...

I have tweaked and tweaked my mantel for Spring and I'm still not happy with it...it looks unbalanced to me.

I like my wire and glass bird cages and I always use my whitewashed window...I added the white ceramic tray to set off the nest (I hate the color of the brick wall) and added 2 other white birds but it's just not doing it for me this year.

The little patterned soft bird in the cage was made by my friend Mary Lou at House of Whimsey.

Here are a few more bird-related items on my shelves.

Any advice?

Now the "G" wall, on the other hand, has shaped up very nicely I think.

I love monograms and I started to collect G's a few years ago. I love the way they look against the Latte colored wall. 

I think my favorite G is the black lower case funky one. Can you read the plaque? It says "There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort." We love our home and before we retired, home was the place we most wanted to be at the end of the day. 

                Isn't it strange how different the wall color looks in these 2 photos? The true color is closer to the first picture.

I saw this original watercolor on a charity auction on eBay last Fall and fell in love with it. I love the treatment of the light and shadows cast by the moon. I know it's a Winter scene but it's staying right where it is year round. It's hard to photograph because of the glass but if you click on it to make it bigger, you can see it better.

This plain Jane G has been hanging on a different part of the wall for about 2 years. I've never done anything to it and I need to. I'm thinking about book page decoupage..it needs some personality.

My friend is checking her watch and saying it's time to stop for now.
I hope you're having a good week!

xoxo
joyce

We will never forget...

On this Memorial Day, 2013,

We give our thanks to and for all who have served our country in the past to protect our Freedom.

We pray to God to guide and protect all of our men and women who are now in the military.

Keep them safe dear Lord we pray.

(photo courtesy of the Graphic Fairy)

In My Mail Recently...Tinkered Treasures, Toms and World Market

It's been a long time since I've posted (again!) but I wanted to share some things that have come in the mail over the past 2 months.

I have written several times about my blogging friend Elyse Major.

She has a delightful blog and Etsy store both named Tinkered Treasures.

She has had numerous magazine articles published in Romantic Homes, French Country Homes, 

Flea Market Decor and Cottages & Bungalows, just to name a few.

Elyse is a tinkerer. 

After selling her creations on Etsy for a number of years, she decided to write a book...a cuter than cute book with....well, uh, tinkered treasures! Easy to do projects with very clear, illustrated instructions. Charming, totally charming! As soon as it was available to pre-reserve a copy at Amazon, I did so. In March, I received my copy. This is the book and some of the treasures I have received from Elyse over the years.

There are instructions for these and many more (35 in all) projects in the book. 

These are the only peeks I can show you right now...but trust me, this book is lots of fun. I don't think it's available at Barnes & Noble but you can find it at Amazon or in Elyse's Etsy store.

Another item that showed up in my mail are these adorable shoes from Toms Shoes.

Do you know about Toms shoes? For every pair of shoes purchased from their company, they will give a new pair of shoes to a child in one of 50 countries. That's a pretty neat policy. The link to the classic shoes is here, but I don't see the pair I ordered...maybe they sold out. It wouldn't surprise me. They are beautiful! Anyway, I have to thank my friend Heidi for pinning a picture of these shoes on Pinterest. I couldn't fly over to Toms website fast enough. What do you think? Now I just have to find some protective spray for them so they don't get dirty.

Another friend posted a picture of a French glass drying rack on Facebook and I fell in love with it. The only problem was that it was very large and very expensive...Pottery Barn maybe. My dear friend Marie pointed me toward World Market where they have a smaller version for EEK! $14.99. When I went to order it, I was given a 15% discount because it was my first order. Can't beat that! (You can find it here)

Thanks Heidi and Marie for your enabling  advice and guidance!

Now I've passed it on to you, my readers.

XOXO

joyce