Shabby Roses Pink Dreams Digital Art

We've had a great weekend with family. Cooking and more cooking. Taking pictures. I did a little planting outside with some peony roots that I had and didn't want them to die before they got in the ground. The color of the peonies? PINK.

I've always wanted to play with my photographs and make them more artistic. Tonight I took an old photograph of my silver vases with white roses and merged it with a photograph of my vintage silver platter for texture. Instant charm. These were merged on photoshop and then I went to the channel mixer and made the colors more red and I couldn't believe how dreamy the photo looks now. Digital art. I think I am hooked! It's faded, pink and textured...plus it's of roses. It's a win win!

Sharing with The House in Roses

Pink Cottage Flowers and Pink Paint!

I want to paint something pink. This small bouquet is a nice mix of pink, mauve and carmine flowers. (The perfect color for an English Garden.) It all started when I decided I want to paint something (a piece of furniture) pink. I brought home four paint chips from Lowe's and they all look super against white. Hard choices. Not really but they are all pretty and wouldn't it look sweet with 4 chairs all different tints of pink? Or mix them all together and make a new paint color? More hard choices.

Can you believe it's in the 60's again during the day but down to 23 last night? We're all down on our hands and knees looking for the little signs of awakening shoots and swelling buds outside. Inside for now it's summer with fresh cottage flowers. The nurseries are starting to swell with a few varieties of shrubs and berries.Some nurseries even opened a week earlier because of the weather. That is the nurseries who close after Christmas and then reopen March first.

Back to the bouquet a moment; did you see they only added one rose to it? A very sweet pink one!! We are having a little pink storm inside.

Linking to:

House in Roses

Ivy and Elephants

Color combinations

My favorite color combinations include

pink, red, orange and a purple or violet!

The above are so soft and sweet

on my sweater...

Take the same colors

a little bolder...

Aren't they still gorgeous?
These flowers look brilliant

in a white room.

I guarantee it!

Connecting with:

French Country Cottage

Girls Cotton and Linen Dresses with Lace

If there are pictures to inspire me

to sew and garden I believe these

are them from Vogue Magazine.

I love the country.

The fields of clover and wild flowers

the gentle breezes that fluff our hair

Cotton, linen, lace,

and family.......

L-O-V-E

Romantic Home Dishes-Norway

It's wonderful to discover places to find romantic dishes from Norway and Sweden. Thanks to a darling blog by Emmeline I found these treasures. Be sure to visit her blog.




These are for sale online by Boligfryd.

Against their white dining rooms and white kitchens these are like eye candy. Roses and polka dots .

Flowers and lace. Wouldn't these fit nicely into a farmhouse kitchen? Yes.

Rosa New Dawn and Catmint

A carpet of rose petals waiting to perfume your feet. So dreamy and romantic. So elegant! So English! Garden designer James Doyle has combined two very hardy garden staples into a beautiful allee. The Climbing Rose New Dawn and catmint make a striking duo in this garden in Connecticut.

French Shabby Chic Roses ACEO Painting

Our pink peonies and roses will soon be jolting to life again and making their magical 'parfum!' The bare-leg roses have some swelling leaf buds now. Gardens that overflow with fragrant peonies and roses transform us. They take us to Versailles, France. We feel like we are princesses out for a walk, even if we're muddied up standing with a shovel in hand, clothed in white victorian/edwardian lacy dresses. We feel elegant and light headed...all because of the natural beauty around us. Gardens are magical and enchanting and ours is just starting to wake up.

I painted this oil aceo above titled Blossoming French. The softest colors and brushstrokes were used to portray the romance that gardens make. It is for sale on ebay.

Siamese Cat Nap and Roses

Today I think Spring arrived. I passed a sign today at a nursery that said, "Spring is coming," and I had to smile thinking ..."It's already here." Yay. I painted this watercolor titled Spring Songs and listed it on ebay. It has some of my favorite things in it. Topiaries, roses, gardens, siamese kitties, birds, white table top, paintings...well it has the side of a painting and last but not least the soft lime green color!

Got to Plant some Roses

Yesterday the forecasters said it might reach 70 degrees today. They were a bit off. I want to plant some Louise Odier bourbon roses so badly! First the ground was frozen and now it's a pond in some areas. I shall wait and think of fragrant, pink cupped roses that are hardy. So hardy they have lasted since 1800! That is the kind of roses I like. Super fragrant, strong and vigorous. Plus they are French. Win! Win! Win!

I did some more small watercolors. Since I am in a rose-crazed state you will notice my animal paintngs all love roses too! Hence my new blog banner. I hope you are all well and getting enough gardening.

Victorian Edwardian Dress Aceo Painting

I've painted a few victorian and edwardian clothed ladies on aceos. The soft colors with roses and lace have me wanting to plant as many old-fashioned roses as I can this spring. The lawn dresses these ladies wore were delicate and had yards and yards of lace on the cotton. The bodice, the sleeves and the skirt. How did they not tear it when walking through gardens? You definitely had to be a lady and not race your male friend through the rose paths.

I've got some soft, soft white cotton about 5 yards. Now to assemble enough vintage or vintage looking laces to sew up my own. I can't wait.

Original Watercolor Aceo painting is for sale here.

Florida Gardens and travels

The roses here in Florida are loving life and prove you can grow roses in sandy soil! The one pictured above is Frankly Scarlet from Jackson and Perkins. The gardens left on the tags so we didn't have to guess. A wonderful floribunda that blooms and blooms and the flowers have a rich red color. The nights here are chilly, but it warms up in the day quite nice. I had on my jacket when I took these pictures. (I believe I might be the only one in Florida wearing a down jacket at night.)





Our favorite place to buy vegetables and fruit along the road. The prices are wonderful. The grapefruits are delicious, oranges are dirt cheap and so sweet. They have to load most of the produce back up at night and store it safely away from the frosts.




The bismarck palms are the shabbiest grey color. I love how the threads from the palm leaves stand out in the sunshine. These can take a frost which they've had here the past few nights.




Santa was spotted in a store carrying a surfboard and sunglasses. His shirt said, "Ho, Ho, Ho, Dude." His beard had a frost or two. I'll post more pictures when I can download and resize easily.

Town and Country Gentleman - Westie Art

Most days my westie dog is the perfect gentleman. He looks handsome in a black bow tie with his football linebacker neck. He loves his gardens and protects them...soaks up the sun and scents in calm and quietness...most days. The only time he loses his graceful calm is when he hears foxes yipping...and when he smells peanut butter. Other wise he is a perfect Country Gentleman.

This large 16 x 20-inch paintng is up for sale on ebay now.

French Rose: Marie Folk Art Painting

History is full of interesting people. Fictional books are written about their lives interwoven with some true facts and that makes the person even more fascinating. Take Princess Marie Antoinette who had an arranged marriage, missed home, loved flowers and ate cakes. (We do share those last two loves.) She also made powdered grey hair very popular. The more the merrier and we thought it was the 60's that gave us that look of teased hair and ringlits cascading down.

I painted this folk art portrait of Princess Marie because she loved roses and wee animals. It's titled "FRENCH ROSE: MARIE" and you can read more about it here.

Cottage Garden

To go outside is a beautiful thing. All of the roses are waving their heavy perfume. We are drunken on it. Alas the combination of honeysuckle and roses makes one forget alot of things...

What exactly you went outside to get and also that you were to be taking pictures for show off your cottage monday post. Instead you (me really) wander about aimlessly with a camera and stagger about. Natural aroma therapy.



This soap here is so heavenly. It's apricot and freesia. Now that is a combination made in heaven.


The dusky pink rose of mine is a floribunda named Simply marvelous (an understatement) and the magenta garden phlox is Nicky. The variegated lavender is Silver Edged Lavender which is so airy in color and just as fragrant leaves and flowers as the gray leaved lavenders. It still has the lavender colored flowers. I white-washed the clay pot and it instantly had an aged look...like it's one of the old-timers in the garden.



Our sweet little gardener kitten had on strapless rose petal slippers. She had a great time jostling the petals around.

I am linking to "Show off your cottage Monday".

Is anyone else have trouble loading pictures on blogger?

Show off your Cottage Monday

I am joining in on some fun and sharing some pictures of a taste of our cottage home started by a house in the roses. Each Monday you can post a picture of your garden, home or items that bring happiness and that cottage feeling.

We have some sweet siamese kittens that are purrr-fect. Look how she's looking up and enjoying our company! ...And we just bought a serger sewing machine on Saturday (my first one ever!) so I added my rose skirt fabric under my gardening hat which is under one of my siamese kittens. Layer up your display items with love and you usually end up with a nice little arrangement.

Won't you join in on the fun?

Westie and Girl Art Collage Painting

Soft romantic linens that have that washed slightly faded look...well I am in love with them. They say, summer in the country, in such a sophisticated-romantic way. So if my clothes are like that so are my girls in my paintings this week. When you live in the country, are a gardener and raise sheep, have quite a few linen dresses lined up for a day so you can change when:

the lambs jump up to say hi and soil the front

puppy jumps up to say hi and soils the front

you spill coffee

you spill orange juice

you start painting and forget to change

you snag it on a rose bush

you get the idea... ironically sometimes all three happen at once when you are carrying orange juice and coffee

The title of this painting is "Sharing a Walk." It looks like she is sharing her hair bows, too! Walking with a dog is like having a listening friend who never questions or berates what you are saying. I remember reading about Robert Pattinson practicing, telling his westie what he was going to say to his girlfriend the next day....and Patti, his westie, was very patient and a good listener.

For sale on ebay.

English Roses: The language of love

Roses are so heady with fragrance and their lush cups of ruffled opulence dazzle us all. The english roses of David Austin look like the roses of the old masters paintings. They are made from some of the same bones, if you will.

I found my 2010 catalog unopened hidden in with some mail. The pictures make you a bit giddy especially if you love roses. David's display gardens in England are perfect! The foxgloves, the catmint, and the campanulas all mixed in and overflowing with happiness!

Our ground is still frozen. But we can surely dream.... To see his beautiful rose selections go to www.DavidAustinroses.com

SHABBY CHIC Frida Kahlo Valentine Hearts Painting

My new Frida painting has those soft colors in it that we love Shabby Chic for. Especially the Shabby Chic sheets...the tiniest little soft pink roses sprinkled generously about on the white clouds of cotton. If you look closely Frida's bodice has some of those roses on it. Handpainted.

The pink heart swing is like a dream...who would want to sit on the dull black and gray ones when you can sit swing on this one for the romantics. Frida has yummy chocolate valentines, a red, rich-fragrant rose in her hair, fresh air whistling by her cheeks and a bluebird perched on her toe! That is love!

This cute heart painting is up for grabs on ebay today. And I think I have had chocolate myself every day for the last week which was around for grabs. That just comes from painting valentines and standing in lines at stores and of course, I love it.