Friday, February 27, 2009

Spring Cleaning Sale...

You must come and see all the items that I have marked down....sweeping out the old, to make room for the new!....And the best part is, I am offering an extra 15% bonus discount on any sales over $100.00, excuding shipping......even sale items!......just email me at Joanne@Mycottagepretties.com, with the items you have chosen , and I will send you an invoice reflecting the 15% off !!!

This is the perfect time to buy the items you have been looking at!! But, hurry the sale items are going fast!!!!!

Joanne
www.Mycottagepretties.com

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

February 3rd. Still Snowing in Mass...Yikes!!









Well, here is it the 3rd. of February, I am as usual sitting in front of my computer, and looking out at my front yard, and all I see is SNOW ! !....Of course I have just read an email from a seed company, and am all set for spring...starting seeds, planning, wishing, and dreaming of how my new backyard garden will look...but back to reality !....this is the perfect time to work on my painting and all the other inside projects I have scheduled....Like painting my bedroom....Yikes, I can't do it now...I have to keep the windows open....good excuse ! !..
So I am going to my new sewing room, that I did just paint and decorate with the curtains, table skirt, and bed cover I sewed....I love it, it is cozy, warm and cheerful!....I am sharing a photo of it, so feel free to comment !....
The only window in the sewing room looks down on my back yard and my new picket fence and little wooded area behind it.... it makes me happy...
I am going to work on an antique beadboard cupboard door that came out of a beautiful Victorian Barn ....I have finally decided on a design, it is all prepped, and waiting for me to paint ....





Thursday, January 29, 2009

Flea Market Friday Offerings !








Here are a few Antique Winsch Valentine Postcards, perfect for your cottage home.....they are all perfectly romantic , with simple sentiments, lovely ladies, roses, & red, green & gold hearts.....I have put them in frames in the Shabby & Chic manner, and added embellishments of old lace, velvet, pearls, and silk roses, to make them even more beautiful to display ......you may not want to put them away after Valentine's Day......


Come over for coffee!


My Linen Stash !!





I would love to be able to invite everybody to my house for coffee or tea, but the restraints of geography, house size, and a few other small matters makes it impossible…however, since so many of you have invited me into your homes via photos, I thought I would do the same..
My husband and I bought this house 10 years ago…it was, at that time a 10 room, 200 year old house…since we have moved in we have added a 4 season sun room ( the room with the wrought iron table and chairs, and all the windows…and knocked down a wall between the dining room and kitchen, added a huge window seat with glass shelving, backed with mirrors on either side ( to display all my beautiful flow blue and cobalt glass)…I also built, yes me, the corner bookcase in the dining room…and it was hard, because the house is so old and the walls are so uneven….
Andrew, my nephew/son has come back to live at home and he put the picket fence in the back yard, last summer (my dream) and I worked feverishly trying to get all the plants from my front yard into the back, but I was not able to start until July, which is really not the best time to do transplanting in New England!!….My darling husband who is having his 4th back surgery on the 13th of February also built a two story barn, with the most beautiful stairway, to the second floor…a very large potting shed, and a green house…which, unfortunately is deterioitang from the heat and cold of New England…We are also adding on a master bath, and have a huge Jacuzzi tub which I have used a lot, especially after gardening, and with lots of bubble bath….but we still have so many projects to do and finish, I often wonder if they will ever be done ! !

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Hello Sister Bloggers!


Hello sisters, here I am sitting in front of my computer, looking at the snow…..and wondering what to say….I’m sure my friends, husband and kids would get a chuckle out of that….but I just want to share, a bit of me, as all of you have…here on the blog…some of you, like me, are still learning the mysteries of computereeze….
I have just turned 68, and have already traveled through what most of all you younger members are now going through…bringing up children, jobs, husbands, houses, moving, and now, sharing the same destiny of surviving in a shaky economy…
One thing that seems to be a constant, is our friends, and hopefully our families…even though as we get older, we lose loved ones, but friends…they are the ones who get us through tough times, and celebrate through the good times…and I don’t necessarily mean childhood friends, but the ones that no matter where you live, they travel with you, in your hearts and minds…..the ones that come into our lives, sometimes just for a day, and hour or a season….they too can be the ones who comfort us and make us laugh….the person you met at the craft store, and discover that you both sell on ebay, the lady you set up with at an antique show in Brimfield, Mass, who turns out, after a rocky start, to be one of the funniest and nicest people…the woman you met many years ago, after making a huge move, that becomes your very dearest friend and the one you can always call, even if you have not talked in months and gab, just as though you talked to her yesterday….
And now we are all sharing a whole new world, literally, of people that we get to know, via the internet…sometimes, the best, (I think) because there is little or no judgement of the physical…unless, of course, you exchange photos…which is great if you are young and beautiful…LOL…and the thing that I have gleaned out of this, is that no matter how different we are, in age, background/heritage, spirituality or geography, how very much alike we are…sharing a love of family, home, and life…wanting to be great parents, loving partners and decent human beings and still have time to find out who we are and to define ourselves, in our own eyes, and to the world…so we are creating, exploring and learning and communicating with each other and becoming friends, while bouncing ideas off of each other….browsing each others stores…getting decorating ideas about things we can do, finding perfect items to decorate out houses, and discovering each other and new things about ourselves…for me, a very exciting, fun and stimulating time in my life…a reason, even at my age, to think and dream about the future, as though I were young again…
I love to look through all the shops, and see the beautiful treasures they have to offer, and of course, reading about the shop owners, and how and why they do what they do…and in the process, they too become friends, and sisters as we share a common bond….
I thank Debbie Schrodt who owns The Pink Pig, for having directed me to Shabby Lane Shops, in our brief encounter at the Brimfield Fall Antique show last September…and Charlotte from Mrs. Charlotte’s for tirelessly helping me, via telephone (until our ears fall off) to be better able to negotiate the blogging thing…
I always thought that life is like a crocheted spread…all the small pieces are a design in themselves, but when put together they touch and become attached to make a larger, more beautiful and functional piece…..as we all do with each other….