Friday, February 29, 2008

My Front Yard Raised Flowerbed


This is my front yard raised flowerbed. My hubby put this in for me right after we moved here(Arkansas) from Oregon about 5 years ago. Some of the rocks around it even came all the way from Oregon. We loaded a HUGE U-Haul up with all of our favorite things, including our cats, rocks and our favorite plants and brought them 3000 miles to their new home. This flowerbed I get to change every year with different annuals. There are a few perennials planted there as well, daffodils, dahlias, & hyacinths. On the fence behind the dahlias are 2 different colors of clematis, purple and burgundy.

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Gorgeous Shabby Cottage Pillow & Sachet Set


Here is another of my latest creations now available in my Etsy shop, JRaesShabbyCottage.
This one features a beautiful Victorian era print by artist of that time Harrison Fisher. She is from his famous American Beauties series of paintings.
The pillow features a gorgeous fabric with pink roses and I used an antique crocheted lace down the side for the trim.
The sachet features a vintage doily at the bottom and is filled with polyester filling and real French lavender buds enhanced with lavender essential oil and vanilla essential oil for optimum fragrance. The link to my Etsy shop is at the right. Please take a look at my offerings on both Etsy and eBay. This item is now sold, but stay tuned for more wonderful Shabby Cottage creations coming soon!!!

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

My Bleeding Hearts


I just adore bleeding hearts!!! I moved these with me all the way from Oregon to Arkansas 5 years ago....put the pot right in the back of the U-Haul truck. They are among one of my favorite perennials. Their beauty and gorgeous foliage never cease to amaze me.
I think that the Shabby Cottage Hanging Heart Sachet Pillows (seen below) are modeled after them. I look forward to every spring when these beauties come back to visit for the season!

More of My Wonderful Gardens

I love hunting for treasures to decorate my gardens. Most of my items are found in flea markets and yard sales, a few of them are even rescued from people that are going to throw them out. The flowerpot is in a plant stand that one of our neighbors was getting rid of...it was missing the top holder, so we flipped it upside down and planted it in the ground and added the flowerpot with the cute little bird drinking from the faucet figurine...one of my yard sale treasures. The sweet little rustic birdhouse planter was at an outdoor flea market. We have a lot of those in our area. I planted some sort of a little plant in there that dies off in the winter..but seems to come back every spring as soon as I add water. It flowers with little tiny yellow star shaped blossoms, and it dangles down out of the little planter. Of course my potted bleeding hearts are always a wonderful display. I have them planted in various locations around my back yard...but none of them do as well as the potted one that I moved to Arkansas with me from Oregon.

Monday, February 25, 2008

Besides designing and making all sorts of shabby cottage treasures to sell on eBay & Etsy, My second passion is for a beautiful garden full of many different varieties of flowers. This was what one of my backyard gardens looked like last summer. It changes every year because I plant different annuals.
In the background is our raised garden area where we plant out vegetable garden every year. Last year we planted a salsa garden and I canned loads of homemade salsa.....mmmmm yummy it is wonderful, and I'm sure there will be more to can this year.

Friday, February 22, 2008

Now Available In My New Etsy Store JRaesShabbyCottage

I have now opened a shop at Etsy.com as well
as my eBay store. I don't list as many things on
Etsy as I have in my eBay store, but I will be

adding more a little at a time. Etsy is a site for the sale of all things handcrafted. My shop name on there is JRaesShabbyCottage, and I have included a link to it to the right.
This beauty is now available on Etsy.com. I made it with a gorgeous blue fabric with pink roses and pink floral embellishments. At the bottom is a vintage blue and white doily. This one is Lavender Vanilla scented.
Please check out both my eBay store and my Etsy.com shop...Links for both of them are to the right!
This item is now sold, but there are more like it available in both my eBay store and in my Etsy shop. There are links to both at the top right of this page. Blessings!!!

One of My New Items Available in My eBay Store






This is one of my latest creations, a Shabby Cottage Hanging Heart Sachet Pillow, now available in my eBay store : J.Rae's Shabby Cottage Designs (see the link to the right). I used a vintage pink chenille and a gorgeous wide white lace trim. Embellished with satin ribbon roses, organza ribbon and an antique white doily dangling from the bottom. This one is Lavender Vanilla scented.

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Pretty One of a Kind Pillow & Sachet Set



Here is another one of my sweet pillows with a matching sachet. This is a Victorian era print by famous artist Maud Humphrey(mother of famous actor Humphrey Bogart). It has this sweet baby and a bunch of pink roses.
I love making these matching sets, they are always a hit!!!

Adorable Stacking Sachet Pillow Sets



Here it is....one of my stacking sachet sets in graduating sizes of 5", 4" & 3" little mini pillows tied together with pink satin ribbon. These are lavender scented. They smell so pretty and the pillows can easily be separated for use in a pretty bowl or basket. They can even be place separately in your dresser drawers.

Stunning One of a Kind Shabby Cottage Pillow


This is a one of a kind pillow that I made recently. It is made with a gorgeous Barefoot Roses fabric and Victorian inspired Venice laces. The print is by a famous Victorian era artist, Maud Humphrey (mother of famous actor Humphrey Bogart), and is called "Tea and Gossip". I usually use vintage chenille on the backs of these pillows.

Sweet Little Girls Dress Hanging Sachet


This is a precious little girls dress that I turned into a beautiful hanging sachet. I love making these sweet sachets from frilly girlie dresses. I had 4 boys and did not get to buy all the sweet frillies, so now I enjoy having them around all the time in one creation or another. This one was Lavender Vanilla Scented. I use only REAL lavender buds, rose buds and petals and 100% PURE essential oils in my sachets.

Gorgeous Hanging Heart Sachet Pillow


I just LOOOOOOOOVE this one!!! Another of my pretty Shabby Hanging Heart Sachet Pillows. This one is scented with REAL French lavender buds, vanilla essential oil and lavender essential oil. It looks just lovely hanging from a bedpost or peg shelf, dresser drawer knob, or the corner of your dresser mirror. I love making these and adding the vintage doilies at the bottom, and the dangling beads is one of my favorite embellishments. This one was made from a Gorgeous Barefoot Roses fabric in cream with big pink roses and lots of green foliage.....just stunning!!!