Vintage Button Bouquet and Button Art

Hi friends, welcome to the Lifestyle of Love bimonthly gathering where we share ideas and inspiration using various vintage elements in our décor. Cindy from County Road 407 is our hostess for this vintage loving group, and always comes up with such fun and challenging topics. If you're following the hop and coming over from CoCo's at A Crowned Goat, thanks so much for being here!

Cindy chooses a topic and we share how we use and incorporate that item into our vintage décor. This month the topic is buttons, and I have to be honest, even though I adore looking at them and through them, they aren't something I have much experience with.  

Vintage Valentine Jewelry and Art

Monday at the All About Home Link Party I featured a post with a wonderful piece of Valentine Art. It was created in the style of antique and vintage art pieces created with vintage jewelry pieces and buttons. Traditionally these were created with a black or dark velvet or velveteen background.  Often times we see these for Christmas in the shape of a Christmas tree, but this was done in a heart design that I absolutely fell in love with.

Art in the Living Room

It's taken us awhile to get the framed wall art up on the walls here at our new place. In the past I've zoomed through decorating a new home, but this time, I've taken longer to really think things through. One of my main goals in decorating this place is to not overwhelm it with "stuff" and clutter. That includes the walls.

Playing "Paper Birds"

One of my favorite pastimes when I was a little girl was playing "paper dolls". Do they even have paper dolls anymore? I could spend hours with a new set, cutting out the latest fashions whether it be Betsy McCall or some sort of glamorous Hollywood starlet. Well, I may not play with those anymore, but give me some little scissors and I still want to cut something out!

I made these last Spring and put them in old vintage album pages. That was a lot of fun, but this year I'm just using one of my old windows. Once I get started on these I don't want to quit, and there were scraps of paper and old dictionary pages strewn all over my studio.

Someone else is interested in birds. Miss Jenkins is my little shadow and sticks pretty close. Problem is she wants to walk all over my papers and then smell the musty old pages. yummmm... She found some old pressed flowers in the pages of the dictionary and while I was working I could hear crunch...crunch...crunch". yuck, I was just waiting for them to come back up.

anyway, sometimes I just need a "hands on" paper project.

I'm backing these with brown craft paper to give them some sturdiness, 

otherwise they can be too fragile without it.

I love the old bird prints from the 40's. I recently "unearthed" a set that I'd had stashed in the garage "sell" pile, but I think they'll be used in my "Holiday Cupboard" downstairs soon.

So here it is put together, 

I may hang on to it for a little while and enjoy my fine feathered friends.

The outside birdies are busy nesting around here. Robins tend to be messy nest makers and I had a couple of nests laying on my potting bench from last Fall. They have destroyed them, looting twigs and grass for new nests. 

I'm itching to get my potting area cleaned up and all the furniture out from under the deck. That usually has to wait until we open the pool, which will be early this year, hopefully. Potting some geraniums is on my "agenda" for the day. I'm not a gardener, but I do love me some containers of posies!

If you haven't visited Monday Marketplace, remember it runs all week. You can link up your Etsy and Online Boutique items, and then do a little browsing. Just scroll down to the next post.

Be sure and come back tomorrow because I'm editing the photos that I took at The Vintage Suitcase, a new shop opening this weekend. They'll be tomorrow's post, and let me tell you this place is wonderful!

I'll be linking up to these party places:

Nifty Thrifty Tuesday at Coastal Charm

Knick of Time Tuesday

Tuesday's Treasures at My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia

Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style

Primp Your Stuff at Primp

White Wednesday at Faded Charm

Share the Love Wednesday at Very Merry Vintage Style

What's It Wednesday at Ivy and Elephants

A Daily Cup of Mrs. Olson

Rooted in Thyme

Jennifer Rizzo

Hope you're having a good week,

xoxo,

Vintage Inspiration Friday # 75 A Gallery Wall

I think I'm finished with this little "project"!
(and what might this project be?, you ask)
a gallery wall...

and I've realized that putting one together,
is a little harder than it might seem.

I started with this shabby rectangle mirror. I've had it for ages,

and toyed with selling it, but it never seemed to make it to the booth.

I've tried using it here at the house before, but it never did work out.

So, when I realized I had a good 4x4 space to play with,

what do you think I dragged out...

yep, my shabby, chippy, old mirror.

I think I've tried about 20 different elements before I finally decided on this,

 the finished product, and that was about an hour ago.

(that's why I had so many nail holes...trial and error)

I've Googled and checked on Pinterest for "gallery walls",

but most were of photographs or paintings,

not many were a mix of objects AND art.

I found I had to stay with the golds and creams to make it work,

I had a lot of beautiful prints that were within the subject matter,

but they were either the wrong size, color, or shape.

It was harder to find the balance in all that, than I imagined.

My advice for creating a gallery wall would be to gather all your possible elements first, trying to keep color and subject matter complimentary. Find your larger pieces to anchor your arrangement, then you can build around it.(them). On this light wall and with this shabby white frame, I found darker pieces, or ones with too much color just didn't look right; they were too "jarring" and very distracting. I wanted this space to flow.

Plus I tried to stick with "vintage".

That's the feel I am going for; vintage and a little bit French.

hmmm...looks like there's some extra space at the bottom.

I'm sure it won't be empty for long!

More bathroom photos coming up...

and just so you know I'm not a fibber,

the Sunburst Mirror post took a back seat, 

once the paint fumes took over!

Let's see what was happening last week.

Andrea from the Opulent Cottage showed us how Victoria Magazine

inspired her to create a winter themed potting bench.

Mary Alice from Chateau Chic, has a wonderful garden theme

 going with some Springy inspiration in her study. 

Eileen from Cottage Beach House shares a window display

 she did for an antique store, 

where her coffee filter rose Valentine Heart takes center stage.

Eileen will be doing a tutorial post on making this coffee filter heart,

be sure and check back on her blog for it!

Nita of Mod Vintage Life has a beautiful home and some fab ideas.

Check out her use of silver casserole servers that she has turned into

amazing spice racks...calling all magazines!! 

And Andrea from Town and Prairie

has a frozen winterscape of her garden elements.

just beautiful!!

Hope you'll join in for the party today,

so many of you do vintage related posts,

I'd love for you to come link up!

Please be sure that you have a visible link within your post,

and I'd love for you to join Common Ground as a follower.

Also, would you like to share the fun with this image for your sidebar,

and invite everyone to join in for the Valentine Party coming up?

the rest of the bathroom next post!

I'm joining in for these great parties:

Creative Things Thursday at the Vintage Farmhouse

French Inspiration at the French Cupboard

Farmhouse Friday at LaurieAnnas

Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage

Fridays Unfolded at Stuff and Nonsense

Inspiration Friday at the Picket Fence

Home Sweet Home at The Charm of Home

Show and Tell Friday at My Romantic Home

Potpourri Friday at 2805

French Inspiration at The French Cupboard

xoxo,

...in the Eye of the Beholder

You never know what you'll find at a flea market

estate sale,

or antique mall.

That, to me, is part of the excitement...

looking through boxes,

digging in drawers,

turning over old pages in a dusty book.

What to me holds magic,

can be discarded

by another.

But for just a few dollars

I made them mine.

We found these very old lithograph prints

last year in the back of a furniture booth.

Undoubtedly they had been hidden

in a dresser drawer

for many years.

When found, they were more of a bother than a treasure.

So there they were,

for a tiny fraction of their worth;

beauty,

grace,

divine inspiration...

art

for me

to find,

 enjoy,

 behold.

Their age is showing...

foxing covers the fragile paper,

but they are timeless.

An unexpected gift

for me.

I'm joining in at the French Cupboard
for Vintage Black Friday.

And if you haven't entered the

Design Your Own Give Away

click Here

Have a wonderful weekend!

love,

Debra

Altered Art Party

I have two mediums of art that I love to create with.

Paper collage and repurposed vintage items in jewelry.

So I thought I'd combine the two for this fun party over at

The French Cupboard.

I'm a hopeless Bird Romantic

and I just love any kind of bird prints.

And I've always loved this print of two sisters.

It reminds me of my sister and I.

The paper collage are in my personal stash,

but the jewelry pieces are all for sale

 in my new Etsy Store!

yea...

Common Ground Petite Boutique

and

Debras Vintage Design

I'm linking back to all the other party gals over at

The French Cupboard

Next week I'll be announcing my Give Away

to celebrate My Etsy Store Opening.

Have a wonderful weekend!

love,

Debra