Ooh La La French Pillow Whimsy

I have had a love affair with these pillows since I bought them. 

First of all, the pillow covers (they are shipped from England, so you add your own pillow form) were not cheap, but I loved them enough to splurge.  I first saw them on ebay but you can buy them online at www.designer-cushions.com. 

One of my sofas is a floral, linen material, slip-covered look, Flexsteel from 1998.  The fabric and frame are still in marvelous condition.  It was love at first sight with my sofa, and I'm not ready to let go of it yet!  But, I can change up the attitude of "little old lady floral sofa" to "ooh la la" English or French Country style. 

I will show the entire sofa soon when I discuss my opinions about pattern, florals, plates, and antiques, and reveal my entire living room. 

So to the pillows...

And my favorite...  (she's a looker)

and my favorite pug pillow...

Fun pillows AND a busy sofa (and I love it).  I hope you enjoyed a little pillow whimsy!

New Hardware for the Desk

A few weeks ago I shared a post of my updated look for an old Eagle desk. 

Basically, I filled the shelves with a collection of Reader's Digest condensed books from the 1950's with very decorative covers, and removed some of my knick knacks. 

This is the recap: 

Before...



After



Then with the new hardware...

I am sure that many of you are shaking your heads wondering why on earth I went with antique brass drawer pulls and not brushed nickel.  They were on sale, but that's not it!  Gold or antique brass simply goes with my non-contemporary living room.  The Sedgefield lamp on the desk is antique brass.  Most of my picture frames are gold.

I could say that brass is coming back in style, but I don't know that for sure.  I read on another blog that yes, the too shiny brass that was overused in the 1980's and 1990's is out of style, but antique brass, solid brass, will always be in style.  Timeless.  Historical.  (That's my story, and I'm sticking to it)

Anyways those tired old wood drawer pulls needed to be changed up!

Canvas On Demand - Vintage Photos

While working on a family history a few years ago, a wonderful old photo of my family surfaced.  My grandma was one of eleven children, and the photograph was one of the few times all eleven brothers and sisters, and some extended family were all together in one place.

The occasion, a 1940's family gathering for a WWII navy seaman.  The sailor, Art, is one of the eleven children. 

Also making the photo endearing, are my 30 something year old grandma and grandpa, and my mom and her two sisters as children. 

I was planning to just enlarge the photo, when I saw an  advertisment for Canvas on Demand.  I scanned and emailed the company my old picture, and they shot me back a price quote, and some advise about how much I could enlarge the canvas without losing photo clarity. 

It may seem kind of unlikely, but I decided to hang my large black and white canvas in my laundry room.  First of all, my laundry room is right off from my kitchen, and sort of the center of the house.  The laundry room has two doorways, so someone is always walking through it.  Secondly, I have a breaker box and some visible wall patching from the old fuse box on that wall.  I used to hang a large tapestry over the area, but I wanted something different. 

Here is what the large canvas portrait ("20 x 30") looks like:

 I was and still am very pleased with the quality of the canvas and the retouching.  The photo was very old and had a slight blurriness at the very edges but it sort of worked.  Like the center was crisp and clear and the edges were a soft focus. 

I also had an old school photograph of my mom made into a portrait for a Christmas gift.

This is the school picture:

A fun little photo of a shy? little school girl in the thirties.

The following is copied from the Canvas on Demand's website - Vintage Customer Showcase.  The retouching was great and the special effects of pink on the buttons and bow made them pop on the black and white portrait.

Vintage Showcase
Carlene made this Great Canvas
Canvas created by: Carlene About My Photo I Turned
into Canvas Art
My mom's school girl picture from the 1930's that we recently discovered in an aunt's photograph collection.

Canvas created by: Carlene


My Experience
with Canvas On Demand
I purchased the photo from Canvas on Demand for a Christmas Present for my mom. She loved the picture!


About My Photo I Turned into Canvas Art: 
My mom's school girl picture from the 1930's, that we recently discovered in an aunt's photograph collection.

My Experience with Canvas On Demand:
Purchased the photo from Canvas on Demand for a Christmas Present for my mom. She loved the picture!




Turn Your Favorite Photographs
into Canvas Art.

End of website showcase.  If you you want to view it online here is the link:  http://www.canvasondemand.com/showcase/vintage/carlene-70437/

I hope you enjoyed my Canvas on Demand family portraits.  I wouldn't be afraid to try them.  I think you would be pleased with their work.  (I am an unpaid spokesperson!)

Fun with my Chippy Chair, Pug Love & Another Suitcase Vignette

My husband really thinks I need to clean off the kitchen table, so I guess I will, and maybe even cook him a nice dinner.  We have been eating off of one side of the table for a couple weeks now while I have been working on some projects. 

But before I clean it off I am going to have a little more fun!

I bought a great pillow at my favorite, local, occasional store yesterday, and also a crocheted heart garland.  They look great on my favorite white chippy chair. 

And I found such a cute pug valentine today at Kmart (I am a pug owner and lover) that an idea came to me for a "pug love" vignette in my favorite creamy white suitcase.  The suitcase was pretty with the Cupid Awake and Cupid Asleep vintage prints vignette, but I am going to punch it up with a little more color and whimsy.

This is Pug Love...

And besides that fun pug card (with all the lips attached to the paper doily on the back of the suitcase), I got another sweet card that inspired the next suitcase vignette along with my "love" pillow and heart garland.

I hope you enjoyed my pre-kitchen table clean up Valentine fun! 

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Quick, Easy and Cheap Burlap Valances

I have been looking at burlap valances for my kitchen lately. 


This is my current valance.  Not too special, red, green, and a mustard gold color plaid. 

I absolutely love the 3 tier ruffled valances on Etsy for $50 each, and I was very close to ordering, but there are no returns.  I think they would have worked but if I ordered a custom size, for sure I couldn't return them.  Ballard's Designs had some standard valances in burlap for $19 each.  I was very close to ordering these too.


I had purchased some wide burlap garland on a 70% after Christmas clearance.  The garland was originally priced at $27.25.  I thought it might come in handy for projects this year. 


I got the idea that maybe the garland was wide enough to work for a valance.  So I tried them on the skinny cafe rods in my kitchen with clothespins.  I liked the look enough to cut the garland in half, and hem the ends with iron on hemming tape.  I also used a stain pen and antiqued the light wood clothespins a bit.  This project is costing me about $8.


Here is the burlap garland/valance I created today.

This is the original price tag.  Remember I got this for 70% off in an after Christmas sale.

The garland was 11 1/2" wide.



And here they are.



Update:  I just added this photo of the other kitchen window as an afterthought when I received a comment about my great spoon above the first window photo.  This window has the matching fork.



Considering the savings, I might just try these out for a while and get my burlap fix!