Collecting Victorian Ephemera & Memorial Day Move

One of the many things that I have collected passionately over the years is ephemera.

I have a bazillion old postcards and have them arranged neatly in albums according to content. Perhaps I will photograph them when I share my Studio during Karen's (My Desert Cottage blog) Where Bloggers Create Party (see sidebar for info).

I have quite a few Victorian scrapbooks that are filled with old trade cards and such. Many of them were put together by children, as these two were..........

In my travels to France, I have picked them up at the French Flea Markets whenever reasonably priced. Here are a couple of pages from a French scrapbook in my collection dated 1901. I scanned these for you and feel free to copy and clip and use in your artwork if you like.......

This French calling card is so pretty and romantic, I just love the pink roses!.............

Below are a couple of floral scans out of another scrapbook that I have from someone in Boston. These enlarge nicely so I hope that you can use them..........

Lastly, I hope that all of my American blog friends have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend!

Moving On.......

Our daughters will be here visiting and helping with a family project, at least for part of the weekend. We are going to help Mom (Grammie to them:-) move into a lovely new apartment. After many decades of residing in her old apartment it's definitely time for a change! Sadly it's become quite isolated where she lives and there isn't much to see or do out there in far away suburb. Most of her other widow friends are gone and now she is going to be living right near my sister and right across the street from the beach. She reads this blog (hi Mom!).....so if you want to wish her luck, please do....I know that she would love it!

Thinking of my WWII Vet Dad today too on this Memorial Day weekend. Here is a photo that I scanned of my parents when they were very young. My beautifully fashionable Mom with movie star looks and my late Dad with curly blonde hair and sky blue eyes.

It's never too late to make a fresh start and we are so excited for her!

That's it for today......enjoy the weekend my friends!

~xoxo~

Janet

Shabbyfufu Shop Talk

Hi friends! Did you enjoy your weekend?

Thank you kindly for the lovely comments and emails about our treasured beach retreat. I truly appreciate it so very much and would love to have you'all come and visit if I could!

We were busy in the "Fufu" household this past weekend with our girls both in town and with them comes the boyfriends too! Mr. Fufu was busy building a trade show booth for one of the boyfriends this weekend and also assisting me in my teacup lighting projects. It definitely takes a village around here to get things done right!

I am going to be listing some "Exquisite Adornments For Romantic Living", the tag line of my website @ SHABBYFUFU! and

I should be finished either late today or tomorrow, depending on what transpires here today. A boatload of goods coming....to include

Two gorgeous Teacup Chandeliers

Some of our Nighteas, the ORIGINAL Teacup Nightlight

Chic Vintage treasures

French market items..........and more

I hope that you enjoy this petite slide show, and do pop over to my Website soon for a visit!

Have a beautiful week ahead..............

~xoxo~

Janet

Chic Beach Decor & Winner Of Our Giveaway

Greetings bloggers! As mentioned in my previous post I have been missing in action at our place of rest on the beach. I apologize that I had not gotten to visit any of you while I was there, but our internet connection was slow as molasses on our island and I never could get on to any blogs....including my own! Thank goodness for my iphone!

Our beach home is a place for family.........

It's very quiet and private here..........

You could take a walk for miles and see very few people at times. It's literally a thing of beauty.......

We have had this place for about 7 years now.

Had another smaller place prior to this one, but as our family gets older we needed more room.

A snippet of some of our decor.

The dining room is my favorite, if I had to choose.

We really need a larger table, but it's hard to find a harvest table here. I keep looking though!

The floor plan is very open, which works well.........

The master bedroom......

One of the bedrooms has a daybed. The antique stained glass windows have the beach colors that I am drawn to, and I topped the bed with blue ticking, white European shams and some ticking pillows........

This is the room that I am fighting to change, but may not win! Not a huge fan of the big leather couch.....but we needed practicality in this climate and Mr Fufu is Mr Practical. I have my white slipcovered furniture at home!.............

Do I have a favorite piece? Yeppers......it's this antique French chandelier over the dining table. Love, love LOVE.......

Did I mention that I also love flamingos?

The beach is a great place to mix textures. My style here dictates mixing chippy French pieces with old wood, seashells and touches of aqua or turquoise throughout........

Let's take a walk........

It's windy today!...........

What will we see out over the ocean?........

Mr. Fufu said that if we stayed any longer our brains would turn to mush.

Like wet sand......

Shall we go for a swim?.......

Perhaps read a book?.......

My DIY projects are scattered about........

Seashell goddess (next to a photo of our own two beauties:-)........

Paint on the nightstands in our master bedroom. I had to add a touch of aqua.......

Lamp is made out of an antique French beverage tap.......we love to create lighting out of old parts, and often do lighting for the website @ Shabbyfufu

I made this table out of an antique sewing machine iron base and an antique printer's block. Filled the printer's block with seashells (and sand) that I collected down on the beach and had a glass top cut to fit. The den is a bit dark, so I apologize for the photos........

Now........we have a winner of the Tea Party Giveaway that was drawn at random.....Debby of the blog The Gathering Nest! Congrats Debby and please contact me (you can do it thru my website Contact page) and send me your mailing addy.

Thank you to all who left a comment...I truly appreciate each and every one of you. Now that I am back in the "real world" I will visit you soon!

~xoxo~

Janet

Sweet Victorian Tea Party, Laduree Giveaway

This doesn't look very much like a tea party, does it??

That's because I am at our beach home at the moment for a bit of relaxation and, well......this is a very casual place with tea parties not generally part of life on this chillzy island~so scroll down and join me virtually if you please.........

Tea for two in the late afternoon has been prepared. It's a beautiful Miami day and I made a fresh pot of yummy sun tea for the occasion with a selection of my favorite herbal teas from Tea Noosh........

Shade is necessary as summer has arrived early in South Florida and will burn all fair maiden, so kindly bring your chapeau......

Our idyllic spot poolside awaits you, with a scattering of antique French chairs and petite bistro table covered in layers of old lace.....

Fine porcelains, cherished heirlooms from my collection~pink roses in bloom......

Let's try and be good today and just sip from this pot of what we in the south call "unsweet tea". Sweets are out of the question if we wish to stay on task and fit into those dainty summer frocks. Our sweet tooth confections will be candy for the eyes only. Faux fixin's if you will.........

A tutorial provided for you from Romantic Homes Magazine on creating some of these SWEET TOOTH CONFECTIONS, written and crafted by me a couple of years back. Enlarge below, should you care to get your creative groove on.......

And lastly my friend.....a GIVEAWAY for you that I hope you will enjoy!

You will receive;

An assortment of greeting cards and tags from my shop at SHABBYFUFU

A lovely vintage pink tea towel with birds (she's a beaut!)

A vintage Battenburg lace and bleu linen roll basket liner from my mother in law's estate

A waxed canvas print of teacups from the shop at SHABBYFUFU with image from Gail McCormack...the renowned Australian artist

A sampling of tea bags from Tea Noosh that smell like heaven and have a delicious flavor. (Tea Noosh is owned by our very own Porcelain Painter Farnaz and her husband:-)

And lastly........everything will be tucked into.....

A paper shopping bag for you from Laduree, Paris!

I would imagine that unless one has been living under a rock in Timbucktwo, surely y'all have heard of their world famous Macarons! I did manage to devour every last one of the macarons that filled the bag before I even arrived back from Paris....I'm so sorry:-)....

For a chance to win:

1. Leave a comment (no anonymous comments and if you don't have a blog I will need your email address si vous plait!)

2. Post my giveaway on your blog for a second entry

3. Do you Twitter? Follow me on Twitter (see sidebar) and post this on your own Twitter for a third entry

4. Become a new follower of my blog

Winner will be chosen at random when I am back from vacation


Please don't forget to visit the other blogs participating in Cielo's "Victorian Tea Party" by clicking on the link in my right side bar!

~xoxo~

Janet