Of course there has to be a cloche involved with anything French! I placed this upon a plateau mirror. Inside is an Itallian tole floral inside a pink Depression glass cereal bowl.


I went a little overboard with photos--the lighging was so good! My kitchen faces South so the afternoon light is wonderful!

You can see my collection of Johnson Brothers Old Britain Castles Transferware. I'm doing a post on that in the next few days.

I got this French mustard pot in a thrift shop at the beach!

These great reproduction fruit crates make wonderful shadow boxes.


White ironstone and lemons for a pop of color.


Of course I have to include hydrangeas--my favorite.





I'll be back early next week with some more visual goodies for you!

~Mikey @ Shabby French Cottage

Gone is the Valentine's Day Tree....In its place are a cloister of cloches full of Spring goodies!



This pair of topiaries started out as much smaller, inexpensive arrangements originally from Marshall's that my grandmother gave me one day. I placed them in beautiful perfectly crusty cast iron garden urns I scored on eBay and added some additional faux ivy and moss.


I filled cloches with Easter and Spring inspired goodies I've collected. I tucked in the ceramic bunnies for good measure!


I got this cute sugared string egg from a thrift shop and added shredded paper Easter grass, two pink glittered bottle brush trees, and a vintage chalkware bunny. The little touch of vintage makes a rather new display appear antique!


I found this urn/nest arrangement for a quarter at a yardsale last summer. I filled it with a few tiny faux robin's eggs and two vintage chenille chicks.


Above are some die-cut reproduction Victorian greeting cards. The little boy's hat is hinged and moves. I like how the chic without a parasol looks grumpy or even jealous of the smiling chic with a parasol!


This is the first time I've decorated the top of my altar not involving a Christmas tree! I really loving having the tiered surface to work with. I didn't have to paint or distress this--it came with natural patina!


I've got more Spring ideas coming your way! Please check back to see more.

Mikey @ Shabby French Cottage

Sorry for the temporary hiatus.... here is some of what I've been up to recently.


I've gotten my mantel in the mood for Spring! You may notice that I've recycled several of my Christmas decorations for this. Since I use lots of pink at Christmas, and I hadn't taken the garland down, I re-used it!


I swapped out the obviously Christmas items for bunnies, ducks, and chicks! Tres Chic



I also had to figure out what to do with the urns at the mantel. I looked and looked at options here there and everywhere...but alas, I used what I had. I filled some rather large cloches with spools of thread (from the attic) and plopped them on top of the urns! What do you think? Something different, at least.



The cloches happen to fit perfectly! Serendipitous!



I'm thinking of using the image above as my computer wallpaper!


To update the Christmas garland, I removed the Christmas postcards and added Easter postcards and this plaque:


I'm really not sure where I got the plaque, but I've enjoyed it for several years now.


One last pic of the goodies for Spring! I'll have several more posts this week! Check back often! If you haven't already, please follow me so you won't miss anything! For new readers--there is much more!

(you can see a sneak peek of my altarscape)

You can go through older posts from the Archives link in the left hand column or click the older posts link at the bottom of the page!


That's it for now! I'm off to clean up what I cropped out of the photos! (See image below...) Ahh the joys of decorating--the mess you create when changing things up!!!

~Mikey @ Shabby French Cottage

FYI--the above image is the inspiration for the candy box tutorial coming soon--I still have to make the prototype, then photograph the steps making one! I hope to have that done by tomorrow.


Cupids, hearts, and beautiful Victorian Lithography.


She must have a broken heart this Valentine's Day!



Hopefully Cupid will liven things up!





This reminds me. . .though I'm too late posting this for you to do it, you can mail your stamped, addressed Valentines all packed up to the post office in Valentine, VA and they will post mark them there with their famous heart-shaped post mark. This is a Virginia tradition--many local businesses have drop boxes for them and a local radio personality goes around and picks them up and takes them to the Valentine's post office!