Stair Treads with a Painted Carpet

Designer Raquel Garcia’s Connecticut home. 

Alyssa Rosenheck photo for Elle Decor.

I woke up really early this morning and decided to try to schedule my two Covid-19 vaccinations on the CVS site. When I first logged on around 4:30 there were appointments open in almost every city on the New Jersey site. I think there must have been too many people trying to do the same thing because I kept ending up on a page that said Check Back Later. Sometime around 6:45 all the towns started showing up as FULLY BOOKED but I checked the Appointment Link and still got one for my first shot this Thursday and my second vaccine on April 1st. I am thrilled. Make sure your wallet is handy with all of the required identification card numbers even though there is no cost. The appointment confirmation comes in a text plus an email and it's very comprehensive and there's even a link for directions if the CVS is an unfamiliar town. 

I could walk to the CVS near me but my appointment is around 25 minutes away but I've been to the area before and I don't have to travel on a highway so I am not complaining.  https://www.cvs.com/immunizations/covid-19-vaccine

xo

Flower Basket Engraving

Victorian Flower Basket

Vintage Victorian style flowers in a vase engraving. Original from the British Library.

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1878 Bird Print: My Hawk & Blue Jays

A color lithograph with my Cooper's Hawk and Blue Jays.

STUDER'S BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA

Leather Binding with embossed gilt cover and a detached spine.

Title Page dated 1878

This book was rather a poor man's Audubon's Birds of America because the birds were not hand-colored but printed in color thanks to the invention of chromolithography.

Photoshop Fun: Apple on Leaf

APPLE ON LEAF

I photographed this beautiful apple from one of my antique prints and erased all the background and superimposed the image on a photograph of some leaf veins I took with my Nikon. This was long ago and I couldn't begin to do this again because it was very tedious. I added the shadow on two edges to give a floating effect too. Those were the days when you could buy a Photoshop software disc and use it forever. Then my computer crashed and times had changed. Now you have to rent the use of software and pay a huge fee every year forever and I am not willing to do that. So I do everything in the way of photo editing on my phone or with free apps like Snapseed. I'm thrifty that way. xo

Pancake Supper I Cooked Long Ago

I found this photo I took long ago and I have no memory of this meal. It looks like a large pancake spread with jam and coconut flakes and it looks delicious. That's my coffee table and everything on it is mine too. Remember when I said I lost many photos and more when my computer running Windows XP crashed? Well, I just found some of them saved to Google Photos and this is one of them. Click to enlarge.

Click the link if you missed my morning post about an Equestrian Painter. 

Today was beautiful and unseasonably warm with a high of 52°. There was a lot of melting too, thank goodness. I broke up ice patches that should be gone in a couple of days. See you tomorrow. xo

Equestrian Paintings by Sir Alfred Munnings

Portrait of Lady Barbara Lowther on horseback by Alfred James Munnings 1878-1959.

The artist himself. Read about Sir Alfred in a great article published by Christie's Auction House in London entitled: FROM WAR HORSES TO ROYALTY: THE ART OF SIR ALFRED MUNNINGS. The short biography includes many more paintings for you as well as one painted in 1954 with Queen Elizabeth. He painted continuously and beautifully up until the end of his life! I love the first one with the beautiful landscape in the background. Enjoy. xo

Bluebirds in The Snow

What a thrilling photograph!

Bluebirds are my favorite birds and a winter sighting is always exciting. This shelter is perfect protection from the snow or for feeding them dried meal worms. via

Golfing Snowmen + Siberian Iris in The Snow

Seeing is believing!

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I had beautiful purple and white miniature Siberian Iris at my first house and I miss them. Maybe this will be the year I plant some at my cottage. I normally have tons of snowdrops popping up in late February but they are buried under two feet of snow. I will be lucky to see them by April. The rest of the week will be warm with 40s and even 50s on the thermometer. Let the melting begin. via

Beautiful Quote + Cat in A Box

Beautifully Handwritten Quote

"Painting is poetry

that is seen rather 

than felt.

Poetry is panting

that is felt 

rather than seen."

Leonardo da Vinci

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This cat made me laugh😹