No Minimalist Here

2805

Open House Party

2012-01-25T17:20:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the Open House Party.

I look forward to seeing what you have to share at this weeks party.
You will find the link at the bottom of this post.

I am thrilled this week to be featuring Pamela, the author of the popular

blog From My Front Porch To Yours . Pamela is also the weekly host of

Treasure Hunt Thursdays, a link party where you can share your finds for

that week.

Enjoy the tour of this beautiful home.

Aren't the curtain brackets pretty?

Love the vintage sofa.

Pamela, thank you for sharing your pretty home at the Open House Party

this week!

I hope you will visit From My Front Porch To Yours to see more of this

wonderful blog.

Even though there is not enough hours in my week to leave comments for

each of you, please know how very much I appreciate you joining the party.

xoxo,

Sherry

Swapping Furniture

2012-01-21T11:31:00.000-05:00

Because our home is for sale I haven't been able to make any major changes around here.

There is nothing like being in the middle of a big project and getting a call that you have

a showing in one hour.

In other words...I am bored!

To help with the boredom I have been moving furniture around and doing some small

projects.

The French style buffet in the dining room now resides in the living room.

The urn is filled with twenty marble eggs that were found at a thrift store along

with the alabaster grapes.

The paper whites were planted before Thanksgiving and they are just now starting to bloom!

Whats up with that?

View from dining room.

The clock was also moved to the living room....

Now the antique Normandy armoire has a new home in the dining room. My

plan is to add shelving inside the two large doors to display more transferware.

Hubby hates it when I get bored because he knows there will be work involved!

If you would like to see decorating plans for our next home visit my

recent guest post at The Enchanted Home .

Thanks for dropping by!

Hugs,

Sherry

I'll be partying at:

A Stroll Thru Life

A Delightsome Life

2805

At The Picket fence

Guest Post At The Enchanted Home

2012-01-20T08:00:00.001-05:00

Hi everyone.

Today I am guest posting at The Enchanted Home while Tina moves into her

beautiful new home. I hope you will visit me there as I show you my decorating

plans for our "someday" home.

See you there.

Hugs,

Sherry

Open House Party

2012-01-18T18:30:00.012-05:00

Open House Party

Welcome to another week of the Open House party!

Each week a different blogger's home is featured and you also have the opportunity

to share your home decor, projects, recipes ect. at the linky party. Thank you

for visiting and I hope you enjoy the party.

Today we are touring the beautiful home of Suzy at Worthing Court. Suzy owns a

custom drapery workroom and you will need to visit her blog to see the stunning

window treatments she has created.

Love the open floor plan and those high ceilings.

Take a look at Worthing Court for more on this beautiful bedroom makeover.

Suzy, thank you for sharing your pretty home at the Open House party this week.

If you are not familiar with Worthing Court please take a moment to visit this lovely blog.

On to the linky party....

Sorry the Linky was not working. Lets try again.

Thanks for visiting

xo,

Sherry

A Wonderful Surprise

2012-01-16T13:20:00.000-05:00

Hi Everyone!

I hope you are enjoying this long weekend.

We were in Florida the week before Christmas visiting family and while there

I played around with my daughter-in-law's new iPad. It was so easy to use

and I love the FaceTime feature. It knew it would be great to be able to see and talk

to my grand kids on it. The $500 price tag was just more than I was willing to pay.

The day we arrived home from our trip I received an email in my spam

folder saying I had won an iPad. It was deleted without opening. Several

days later another email arrived and again was deleted. A few days later

I received another email, this time from a real estate company.

This peaked my curiosity so I went to the real estate companies website

to look around. Sure enough, there was my name mentioned as the winner

of a new iPad.

WAHOO!!

I had completely forgotten about entering this sweepstakes months before.

The best part is now I can FaceTime with my grandchildren in Orlando.

I am having fun playing with this new toy.

xo,

Sherry

Open House Party

2012-01-11T17:35:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the Open House Party.

Thank you for helping make this party a success. I am always in

awe of the creativity and talent shown by bloggers.

You guys never disappoint!

Today's featured home belongs to Kelly of The Essence of Home. Kelly and Kim at

Savvy Southern Style are sisters and both these ladies have such wonderful

style. I think they should join forces and begin a decorating business. I bet you

will agree when you see the tour of Kelly's beautiful home.

The Essence Of Home is a beautiful new blog. I hope you will

visit to see more of this gorgeous home.

Thank you Kelly for sharing your home at the Open House Party.

I look forward to seeing what you have to share at the party this week.

xo,

Sherry

$450 Sea Fan Project

2012-01-09T17:28:00.007-05:00

I want to thank everyone that left such kind notes on the post where I

mentioned my health issues. I have faith that 2012 will be a good year!

I have been trying to get a start on my long list of projects to complete in 2012. Today I wanted

to paint a small table and make a new chalkboard but the weather is not cooperating.

You may have seen the picture in my sidebar of the Dyed Sea Fans I have for sale on

Etsy. I have framed four of the blue sea fans in clear illusion frames and they now

hang in our family room. With the illusion frames the color of the wall becomes
the background.

Last year while visiting the beach I wandered into a very high end decor shop. This

was the kind of shop where I rarely buy anything but I do get some great ideas for projects.

The shop had a wall of blue framed sea fans that I fell in love with.

Are you sitting down? You had better be sitting when I tell you the price was $450 each!.

No, that is not a typo...$450 for ONE framed sea fan.

If you have been reading my blog for any time you know I love a challenge and this

project had my name all over it. As soon as I got home I ordered several sea fans

and bought Rit dye, thinking this would recreate the beauties I saw in the shop.

Strike one.

The Rit dye barely changed the color of the fans and left it really blotchy.

There was very little color change even after soaking overnight.

Strike two

Back to the craft store to buy two other brands of dye. No better results.

Strike three

The dye didn't work so lets try spray paint. Not good, the paint clumps

up in the holes and the fan gets stiff and brittle.

Not a person to give up, I tried many methods, finally making my own dye.

The fans you see below were dyed using a three step process I developed.

After much trial and error I am thrilled with the results you see below.

Etsy

Here are some other photos I found of dyed sea fans.

Karen Robertson

The fans look beautiful sitting in a vignette or displayed inside a clear glass lamp.

Houzz

Sally Lee By The Sea

Pinterest
Love the white fans on the blue bead board wall.

My fans sell unframed for $31.00 each on Etsy. The illusion frames are from Michaels and

using a 40% off coupon cost around $21.00. The total cost of this project is

$52.00...sure beats $450!

This is just one of the many projects I have planned for my Etsy shop in 2012. I am

now working on creating other colors for the fans

Any Suggestions?

Thanks for visiting and I would love to hear your feedback.

Hugs,
Sherry

Partying this week at;
Between Naps On The Porch
Thrifty decor Chick
Coastal Charm
Todays Creative Blog
My Uncommon Slice Of Suburbia
Savvy Southern Style
The Shabby Chic Cottage
Home Is Where My Story Begins
Potpourri Friday @ 2805
French Country Cottage
At The Picket Fence

Open House Party

2012-01-04T17:55:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the first Open House Party.

I hope everyone had a wonderful NewYears and I can't wait to see

all your upcoming projects for 2012.

Thank you so much for visiting!

I am excited to be featuring the beautiful home of Rita at May Days as the first home tour for 2012. I was hooked on Rita's blog the moment I saw her header with a wall of amazing blue and white transferware.

Thank you Rita for sharing your lovely home with us.

Enjoy the tour.

I feel like we are kindred spirits.

See the creative way she used a chicken feeder to display plates?

Rita and her husband created all this wonderful storage using cabinets from her nieces kitchen remodel.

aahhh!

I hope you enjoyed the tour and please visit May Days to see more of this

pretty home and Rita's amazing collections.

On to the party...

Thanks for visiting!

Hugs,

Sherry

A Win & Apology

2012-01-04T15:39:00.000-05:00

I was recently the lucky winner of a $100 gift certificate to Gallery Direct sponsored by

Courtney at French Country Cottage. I knew right away I wanted an enlargement on canvas

of a photo taken by my husband on our recent trip to the Greek islands.

Steve and I are both thrilled with this piece and the colors are absolutely amazing!

This beautiful art will hang in our home for many years as a constant reminder of

a wonderful trip.

Thank you Courtney and Gallery Direct for this wonderful gift.

An apology...

I have received several emails from blogger friends asking why I haven't been around

as much. I want to apologize to those of you that haven't received a reply

to the comments you have left me and for not visiting your blogs as often as I would like.

I have been dealing with health issues the last few months that have left me very tired

and stressed. Five doctors, and numerous test, and they still don't know what is wrong

with me. I do have a long list of diseases that test have ruled out...that is a good thing!

I hope you will bear with me during this time and know that I read and TRULY appreciate

every single comment I receive and each time you link to my party.

I can not begin to tell you how much your support and friendship means to me.

xoxo,

Sherry

Partying this week at:

Ivy and Elephants

Potpourri Friday @ 2805

New Look For Cheap Trophies

2011 Top Projects

2011-12-29T20:30:00.000-05:00

Rhoda at Southern Hospitality is hosting a Top Projects of 2011 party and I

thought It would be fun to join in.

My most viewed project this year was Make Your own Chalk Paint

with 189 comments and over 60,000 visits.
I was blown away by the response!

This Pottery Barn Inspired Lazy Susan was the next most popular project.

A close second in views was the post New Shabby Look where I showed you

the transformation of my frenchy sideboard.

For a while there I was Spackling everything in sight! The Altar Candlestick project

was one of my favorites.

Here are some other projects I completed in 2011...

French Anduze Pot

Canvas Covered Demijohn

A Spring Cloche

Trying To Be Organized

New Sign For The Guest Room

Faux Grain Sack Table Runner

Summer Entertaining And DIY Lobster Napkins

Summer Transfer Pillows

Chalk Paint Project

Intaglios I Made For Sale On Etsy

Starfish Christmas Tree

Tissue Paper Transfer Candles

Limpet Shell Tree

The largest project I started this year was hosting the Open House Party each Thursday.

I thank each of you for visiting and for your kind comments.

May you have a wonderful 2012!

Hugs,

Sherry

I'll be partying at:

Southern Hospitality

Between Naps On The Porch

My Romantic Home

Open House Party

2011-12-28T18:00:00.003-05:00

Welcome to the Open House Party.

I am looking forward to seeing what you have to share this week.

You will find the link to join the party at the bottom of this post.

First, we have the fabulous home of Sue @ Sullivan And Murphy to tour.

Sue has created a warm and beautiful home and it is my pleasure to

feature it at this weeks Open House Party.

This is so pretty that I had to throw in a Christmas picture.

What a warm and inviting kitchen!

Isn't this landscaping fabulous?

Sue, Thank you for sharing your beautiful home with us.

I hope you will visit Murphy And Sullivan to see more of this home as well

as the gorgeous vignettes Sue creates.

On to the party...

Hugs,
Sherry

After Christmas Sales

2011-12-27T16:00:00.000-05:00

I hope everyone had a great holiday!

. I normally take the decorations down Christmas night or at the latest the next morning.

I know this is a little strange but once the celebration is over I am ready to have a

clean and organized house. Now that we have a smaller artificial tree I need to get

some of the ornaments sorted and donated. This is no easy job because we have hundreds

and hundreds of ornaments collected over the years. My daughter-in-law has requested

some of the Radko ornaments and I will be keeping a few of my favorites.

I did a little after Christmas shopping, though the store's selections seemed rather limited.

I purchased a couple of sweaters while out shopping Monday and also ordered two things

on-line from Wisteria . This cute tree skirt from Wisteria is perfect for my coastal design

Christmas and at 75% off it was quite a deal.

These little hearts remind me of French memorial markers.

I got away without too much damage to my pocketbook!

The Open House Party starts tomorrow evening. I hope to see you there.

Hugs,

Sherry

Early Christmas Gift & INTAGLIO WINNER

2011-12-22T15:08:00.000-05:00

My dad had a giant clam shell that has been sitting in his rock garden for 30+ years. I have asked him

numerous times if he would sell it to me, and the answer was always NO. He asked me

what I wanted this year for Christmas and I jokingly said the clam shell, but never really
expecting he would let go of it.

Dad could not understand why in the world I would even want the "old, dirty shell"

and he said all the times I asked to buy it he thought I was kidding. He even said he

would be so embarrassed if anyone knew he gave me an old shell for a Christmas gift.

Last week while visiting my family for an early Christmas, Dad gave me the giant clam shell as

well as the largest conch shell I have ever seen. He had cleaned and bleached both shells

and had them ready for me to take home.

The only problem was they weighed between 60-70 pounds and couldn't be checked as luggage.

Shipping them home would have been really expensive, so I had to leave my shells there

for now. Can you believe I forgot to even get a picture? I plan on getting them

next time we drive to Florida, or if we get moved there anytime soon.

Until I can get my Christmas gifts home here are some photos for inspiration.

A beautiful vignette created by Tot at Time Worn Interiors.

Decorno Blog

House Beautiful

Via Cote de Texas

Courtesy of Color Outside The Lines

photo via Knotting Hill

Photo courtesy of Centsational Girl

Do you like to decorate with shells? Any creative ideas appreciated.

GIVEAWAY WINNER....

Thank you to everyone that entered the giveaway for the framed intaglios.

Random.org selected #42 as the winner.

Congrats to Kim @ Savvy Southern Style

In honor of my new product I am offering a 10% discount on the custom intaglios

in my Etsy shop. Email me if interested.

Happy Holidays to you and yours!

Christmas hugs,

Sherry

Joining the parties this week at:

The Charm Of Home

Between Naps On The Porch

Open House Party

2011-12-21T16:23:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the Open House Party.

I have another fabulous home for us to tour today. Jenny at Evolution Of Style has

graciously opened up her home for the party. As an added bonus we get to see Jenny's

home beautifully decorated for Christmas.

Enjoy the tour!

The kitchen cabinets were recently transformed with paint.

Jenny and her husband added the board and batten to the hall.

Jenny, Thank you for sharing your gorgeous home at the party.

I hope you will visit Evolution Of Style to see more of this beautiful home and blog.

Today is the last day to enter the GIVEAWAY for three framed intaglios.

A winner will be announced tomorrow.

On to the link party....

Merry Christmas to you and yours.

xo,

Sherry

Early Christmas & GIVEAWAY

2011-12-20T15:11:00.000-05:00

Thanks to everyone that linked to the Open House party last week. My laptop was

in the shop all week but I was able to sneak a peek at your

links on my daughter-in-laws ipad.

We got back from our vacation last night and we had a fun early Christmas with our family.

One of the highlights of the trip was Family Night at a chocolate shop to make our own chocolate

candy...total of four pounds worth! I LOVE chocolate but after all the sampling I don't think I

will want it again for a really long time.

Steve & I with our granddaughter Sadie. At this point we were in chocolate

overload and I was not feeling so well. That should teach me that there is a limit

on the amount of chocolate any one person should eat.

Just a reminder...

The giveaway for the framed intaglios ends on 12/21. There is still time to enter HERE.

The Open House party starts tomorrow evening and I hope to see you there.

Take care,

Hugs,

Sherry

Open House Party

2011-12-14T18:20:00.002-05:00

Welcome to the Open House Party!

If you haven't entered the giveaway for three framed intaglios there is still

time to enter HERE.

Today I am featuring the home of Jan at The French Tangerine. If you like decorating with

a French touch, then you will love Jan's beautiful home.

I am a relatively new follower of The French Tangerine and I have spent hours

browsing through the archives. I am now a huge fan !

Enjoy the Tour

Jan, Thank you for sharing your gorgeous home at the Open House Party this week.

In Lieu of leaving comments here, please visit The French Tangerine and take

a look around this delightful blog.

As you read this I am in Florida spending time with four of my beautiful grandchildren! My

laptop is in the shop , so no blogging for the next six days. I have this set to post on Wednesday

evening, so I am keeping my fingers crossed that the linky works.

xo,

Sherry

On to the party...

My Intaglios Hung

2011-12-09T16:53:00.004-05:00

Thank you for the great response to the framed intaglios GIVEAWAY.

I have been working on over-drive to get these ready for the party.

There is still time to join the Holiday Dining party and to enter the giveaway.

I wanted to walk away from the Christmas decorating and show you how I have displayed

the intaglios in our living room.

I can't show you the rest of the living room just yet. There are painting projects going on

right now, but I promise to reveal the entire room after Christmas.

This is how the wall looked previously with the framed botanical prints.

I really like the botanical prints but it was time for a change. I'll put them aside until summer and

then change things around.

I am working on several new products for my Etsy Shop and the soon to be opened

on-line shop. In addition to the intaglios I have also added some wonderful hand colored

sea fans to Etsy.

We leave Tuesday for an early Christmas visit with our family in Florida. My laptop is

going to the shop while we are gone so I will be MIA for a little while. The

Open House Party will still be held starting Wednesday evening. Keeping my fingers

crossed the automated publishing works!

Thanks for visiting.

Happy Holidays to you and your family.

I am partying at..

My Uncommon Slice Of Suburbia

Last of the Christmas decor & GIVEAWAY

2011-12-08T17:30:00.000-05:00

There has been quite a turn-out at the Christmas Blogger Block Party so far. I truly appreciate
everyone that visited the Holiday Dining Party and those that linked up your beautiful Christmas
decor. I am in awe of the talent and creativity I see from bloggers every day and I thank you

so much for inspiring me.

There is still time to join the party and you can enter the GIVEAWAY

HERE.

Just a quick post to show you the last of the Christmas decorations. This year we

opted for a smaller tree than usual. We normally have a seven and a half foot tree in which

I load with hundreds of lights and ornaments. I have been collecting ornaments, especially

Radko, for many years and I probably have around six hundred or so.

We leave next week to spend time with our family in Florida so these two little trees

work just fine..easy peasy!

5" flocked tree in family room

This mini tree is in our morning room adjacent to the kitchen.

I also changed out the transferware on the bakers rack to a more festive red. You can see it

with the blue transferware in the blog header

Thanks for coming by and please visit the other Christmas Blogger Block host.

Hugs,

Sherry

I'll be partying at:

2805

Enter the Giveaway HERE.

Holiday Dining Block Party & GIVEAWAY

2011-12-07T15:46:00.000-05:00

It's time for the Christmas Blogger Block Party and I am hosting Holiday Dining!
I am so happy you could join me.

Thank you so much Vanessa and Heather from At The Picket Fence for including me

in the Chrsitmas Blogger Block Party! I am honored to be participating along with

such talented ladies.

I want to share our dining room dressed in a Christmas coastal theme. I grew up in Florida, and
our previous home was on a small island, so I have always loved seashells and everything
to do with the beach. Though Steve and I no longer live close to the beach, we still like to
add some coastal touches to our home.

I made the little tree from my collection of starfish.

A large glass vase was filled with water, a floating candle, seashells, coral and a sea fan. I love the

way the objects are magnified in the glass.

Now you see where I placed the green limpet tree I made for the Copy Cat party.

I made the candles using the tissue paper and hair dryer technique. There are quite

a few tutorials posted on other blogs and it is a easy, inexpensive way to dress up plain candles.

As you can see I have replaced some of my mercury glass since the mantel disaster last year.

This vignette is on top of the buffet. I filled a vintage frame with faux snow and added more of

my seashell and glass float collection.

I hope you enjoyed the tour of our dining room.

NOW FOR THE GIVEAWAY....

The giveaway item was inspired by our recent trip to Italy and Greece and it is a

product I have been working on for a couple of months to perfect. I hope you

like it as much as I do!

Up for grabs is a 8x10 wood frame with three mounted Intaglios. Each Intaglio is

hand cast by me from original Grand Tour molds from the late 1700's.

They are lightly hand glazed to bring out the detail and then framed

so the Intaglios sit away from the glass.

A little History

Grand Tour Intaglios ( pronounced in-tal-yos) were marketed in Italy for wealthy

travelers as souvenirs in the late 1700's and 1800's when tourism opened up between countries

. These were purchased as mementos of their trip by aristocrats and wealthy gentry and

brought home to be studied and mounted in frames or books. The Grand Tour Intaglios

have become very rare and expensive, as they have been sought by serious collectors.

To enter the giveaway...

Leave a comment on this post and let me know you are a follower.

For an additional entry add the giveaway to your sideboard and leave a

separate comment.

The winner will be chosen on December 21st. The giveaway is open to

everyone..outside USA and non-bloggers welcome.

The Intaglios are for sale now in my Etsy Shop and will soon be available in a new

on-line shop.

Now on to the Linky Party.

Thanks to all the sponsors of the giveaways.

Please feel free to grab a button to show you participated in the party.

Hugs,

Sherry

I'll be partying at:

Sally Lee By The Sea

Between Naps On The Porch

The Shabby Creek Cottage

My Romantic Home

Blogger Block Christmas Mantels

2011-12-05T12:27:00.000-05:00

This is day two of the Blogger Block Christmas Party and Kristin at

My Uncommon Slice Of Suburbia is hosting Christmas Mantels.

Some of you may remember my mantel disaster last year where most of my
mercury glass ended up in the trash. Thank you Command Hooks! I was
not about to make that mistake again so you will not find any glass on the
mantel this year.

My fifty cent Santos take center stage on the mantel. I temporarily added the wings to

them taken from other decorations. I love these little guys and they have to be one of my favorite

thrifting finds ever.

The mantel is decked with faux and real greenery. I always add the real greenery for the

wonderful fragrance. The altar candlesticks are the ones transformed last year

using Spackle and the candles were painted silver and then glittered.

A special Thank You to Vanessa and Heather for organizing the Blogger Block Christmas Party and to Kristin for hosting the Mantel Party.

If you missed day one of the party you can still check out Copy Cat decor at Debbiedoo's.

Below is my Copy Cat project.

*Please join me starting the evening of 12/7 for the Holiday Dining Linky Party. I'll be having a great GIVEAWAY starting that evening for all my followers. Here is a little hint....

The giveaway item was inspired by our recent trip to Italy and Greece.

Please note the Holiday Dining Party will be held in lieu of the Open House

party for that evening. Hope to see you there!

Partying at:

My Uncommon Slice Of Suburbia

Debbiedoo's Blogging & Blabbing

Thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

Sherry

Christmas Blogger Block Party

2011-12-04T15:16:00.000-05:00

Welcome everyone.

Tonight is the kick-off of the Christmas Blogger Block Party sponsored by the lovely ladies

who write At The Picket Fence. Thank you Heather and Vanessa for all your hard work

putting this party together.

Each day a different blogger will host a themed linky party and there will be lots of giveaways.

The fun starts now at Debbiedoo's Blogging & Blabbing with the theme Holiday Copycat.

I have been dying to show you my Christmas decorations but I wanted to wait and share them

at the Blogger Block Party. Tonight you only get a sneak peek of what I have been up too. You'll

have to check back each day of the party as I reveal more.

I saw the picture of this shell tree and I instantly knew this would be my Copycat project.

Original

BHG

My Copycat

Side by side

The original tree from BHG used green moss as a base. I wanted to keep mine lighter so I

sprayed the Styrofoam cone with adhesive, and rolled lightly in faux snow. The green limpets

were applied with hot glue, starting with the larger shells on the bottom and working up.

This project used a lot more shells than I thought it would. I had ordered

seventy limpets on-line and I had to go back and order thirty more to complete it. I do love

the way the shell tree turned out, and it is perfect with the rest of the Christmas

decorations in our dining room.

Please visit Debbiedoo's Blogging & Blabbing to see all the copycat decor.

I will be hosting HOLIDAY DINING beginning the evening of 12/7 and there will be a great GIVEAWAY starting then. Get those tablescapes, dining room vignettes and recipes ready to share at the party. Any type of Christmas decorating in the dining room is welcome. *The Holiday Dining linky party will be held in lieu of the Open House party for that week. I hope to see you there and please check out below the other parties starting this week.

I'll be partying at:

xo,

Sherry

Open House Party

2011-11-30T18:44:00.001-05:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Thank you for visiting this weeks Open House Party. I look forward

to seeing what you have to share.

Today we are touring the pretty home of Kelly from the blog Eclectically Vintage. Kelly, her hubs and their twin daughters live in this charming 100 year old home. Looking at the pictures before renovation the home was NOT exactly charming. There was extensive water damage, crumbling walls, cracked plaster, termites ... the list goes on and on. They took on this huge challenge and created a beautiful home.

Enjoy the tour.....

Kelly was looking for inexpensive artwork for the dining room.

These are actually pages from a child's coloring book.

If you are a regular reader of No Minimalist then you already know

how much I love these demijohns.

The sun room is where you would normally find me.

How cute is this little chest turned into an Advent calendar.

We can't leave the tour without me showing you this wonderful s'mores

wreath that Kelly made.

Kelly, Thank you for opening up your lovely home for the Open House party.

Kelly is a brand new blogger so I hope you will visit and welcome her into our little community.

Eclectically Vintage.

Thanks for visiting.

xo,
Sherry

Joe Or Joanne?

2011-11-29T17:34:00.000-05:00

I was cracking up reading your comments on my $3.00 painting! Reading your reactions

was well worth bringing this portrait home.

Consensus is that the subject in the painting is Joanne, rather than her brother Joe. Some of you said she looked like a grandma and some said a young lady. A few of you agreed with me that it was a male with a somewhat feminine appearance. I think Joe, or Joanne as she will be known from now on, may have been on the way to the dump because she didn't like the way the artist portrayed her. Maybe she thought she looked a little to masculine in the painting too.

Joanne, so sorry I thought you were a man.

I should have known better!

Sandy left me this comment about my new acquisition.

As an artist who does lots of portraits, I agree....this is an older woman. The lighter brow ridge, no beard shadow, softness of the lips ....everything says female to my eye...including her clothing. I'm guessing this is an oil on canvas done by a fairly amateur artist, but one with training under their belt...perhaps a student piece from the model. It shows a lot of talent, especially in the expression and loose treatment. If it's unsigned, it may be a student piece...or unfinished. I would guess it's 50-60 years old".

Thanks for the info, Sandy.

I don't guess I'll ever learn the story behind the portrait but I think it deserves a good home. For now SHE seems quite happy in the upstairs hall....I can tell this from the look in her eyes!

Thanks everyone for visiting and I enjoyed reading all your funny comments. Have a great week

and I hope to see you at the Open House Party starting Wednesday evening.

xo,

Sherry

A Lucky Find...Or Was It?

2011-11-29T01:11:00.000-05:00

Last week while out running some errands I pulled into a parking space at a local store. There

was a truck parked next to me full of junk that looked like he was on the way

to the dump.

Among the junk I could see the top half of a very large painting. It was a portrait of a man and all
that was visible above the junk were his eyes. There was something about those eyes that just

drew me in and I really wanted to get a better look at the painting.

I waited patiently for the owner to return and I asked if he was interested in selling the painting.

There was a little bit of a language barrier but when he realized what I was asking he jumped on
the back of the truck and handed me the large painting. It stands over five feet tall and four
feet wide. I asked how much he wanted for it and he told me

I could have it.

I couldn't just take the painting and not give him anything so I reached in my wallet and saw I only

had three dollars cash left. He kept insisting he didn't want money and for me to just take the
painting. I believe he finally took the three dollars just to get away from me!

I couldn't wait to get home and show my husband my newest purchase and guess what....
He hated it!

You may remember this post about the Chromolithograph I purchased that he thought was just
weird. That piece now hangs in our dining room and it is one of my favorite things in our home.

My new painting has been leaning on top of the console for a week and I stop and look at it every time I walk by. The eyes show a vulnerability and sadness that really appeals to me.

Before I show you my painting here are some examples I found of decorating

with vintage portraits.

Houzz

http://www.strangeclosets.com/

http://www.melongings.com/

Country Living

I need your totally honest opinion with no sugar coating.

Is he a keeper or would I have been better off spending the $3.00 on a

diet coke and candy bar?

Here is the portrait of my instant relative, Joe.

Be honest and tell me what you think.

Joe and I will be partying at:

Coastal Charm