The Purple Pear ~ Portland, Oregon ~ Annie Sloan Paints ~ Jeanne d'Arc Living Magazine

Oh but I love to paint. And painting furniture, for me, has never been more fun, since I discovered the incredible Annie Sloan chalk paints through The Purple Pear in Portland. 

Phyllis deVries has her shop filled with all that Annie Sloan offers including the special waxes one uses with her paints, and special brushes and lovely books and of course, Phyllis teaches how to use these paints to their best advantage.

But that's not all. Phyllis also offers the incredible Jeanne d'Arc Living magazines that seem only to be bought through dealers. In other words, this beautiful magazine that is published in Denmark in many languages, may not be something you can subscribe to. You must procure it from the dealers. Phyllis has these beautiful inspirational wonderful magazines for us! Meanwhile, an old acquaintance recently informed me that one may subscribe to it, because she does and has for years. I am looking into this and will keep you posted in a later blog post.

Also throughout the shop are stencils for sale and lovely home decor specialties from artists like Wendy Addison, and beautiful cards by Wendy Paula Patterson as well as charming things from France. Her coffee table book selection is enchanting as well.

Below are some shots I took at the shop just the other day. Scroll through my pictures and see!

Some of My 'Children'

I do love old dolls, and I do have a few of them. The dolls pictured below dwell throughout my house and I am happy to share some of them today.

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 Three lovely porcelains in a buggy in the entry hall.

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 My Emma sits on the little marble table top of our dining room pier glass. This doll is a very old one, circa 1820's. She is known as a milliner's model. Her forearms and lower legs are made of wood. Her head and bust are maché which, incidentally, was a liquid material poured into moulds.

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I found Faith in Waynesville, Ohio at Olde Glory, a beautiful shop owned by Bea Sparrow. Faith is holding a Jennifer/Norma Schneeman doggy, found at the same shop. The old baby photo is of my dear father, the late Joseph Warren Pedersen. Also pictured is Daddy at around age 4. The little girl pictured is my Grandmother at age 7, not Daddy's mother, but Mother's mother. She was Agnes Verniece Bird Nelson.

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Hannah is my very first maché head doll. Below you can see her sitting in a Civil War era rocking chair in our dining room.

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Hattie and Maggie are both maché head pre-Greiner dolls. Little Maggie is a doll's doll. They sit in our dining room in this beautiful Renaissance Revival chair. Maggie is an antique doll. Hattie is one that I made.

Below are Hope and Amy, two maché head dolls that I enjoy as they sit prettily in our entry hall.

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I found Jenny, pictured below, at an antiques mall for a ridiculously low price. Her forearms and her legs were not attached and she is missing a tooth. I did what I could to repair the limbs and to put something on her until I will have the time to make her something prettier to wear. I pretend she is seven years old and lost that tooth, and that she is thrilled at what the tooth fairy has brought her.

The following bevy of cloth dolls are dear to my  heart. The large one was found at Olde Glory. It is not an antique. The one in the light blue plaid was made by the amazing Pam Haber of Ghost Island Primitives. The one in black is a very old doll that I bought at A Simple Life show in Tennessee at The Museum of Appalachia in the fall of 2012. The other doll also procured at the same show is hand made by a lovely doll artist from Tennessee, but alas, I do not have her name. She did not sign it. The dress is made from very old fabric.

Ah Prue, my dear little peg-wooden that I made long ago and named Prudence Jane Plumb. Little Prue resides in our entry hall on my precious, small Eastlake desk.

Pretty Rebecca also resides in the entry hall across from the Eastlake desk. She was found at Stars & Splendid Antiques Mall in Portland, Oregon back in 2009 in a plastic bag, all parts unassembled. I put her back together and dressed her in a modest but beautiful dress made by the wonderful doll maker, Kathy Patterson of Babes From the Woods. I apologize for failing to get a full length picture of the dress. I promise, I will one-of-these-days.

Lastly shown, also in the entry  hall, is my Queen Anne doll named Tess. Tess is my little movie star, for you see, two of this doll were bought by Warner Brothers for the delightful film, Felicity. My dolls are featured in the scene in the town store, as the two little actresses talk to one another.  My Tess below is obviously overseeing the dolls in the entry hall.

Garden Work and Bamboo Rhizomes

Whoever planted bamboo on this property did a horrible thing. I suspect it was done owner-before-last. We've lived here now seven years. The owners before us were here for six years. The one before they, lived here for seventeen years. 

Sheesh! I have for two years now, throughout our "yard" been eradicating bamboo, the kind with tenacious taking-over rhizomes. Mind you, I use a pickax and lots of muscle. Gregory doesn't have time for this sort of thing. He is always writing, and he needs to. I do not believe I could locate anyone for hire to do this work. So, peace meal I go about it when the mood strikes. I'm almost done in two parts of the yard. Spring is the best time for this job.

Our property was built on an area of much rock, and some say it is basalt. I don't really know for sure what it is, nonetheless, I am digging out mass rocks. I've not been able to really garden, but I will have my gardens come what may.

Below is a picture of the bamboo rhizomes. Greg does mow the tall stalks. I then dig up the rest.

On a happier note, we have a beautiful bumper crop of bluebells in the lovely Willamette Valley this year. They are everywhere and so gorgeous. Below are some from my yard interspersed with honesty, a lovely plant also called money plant. I love its pink blossom in spring and summer and the silver dollars come autumn.

Chinese forget-me-not is also ALL over our yard. It is so gorgeous. Here is a peek of a wee part of one that sneaked into a grapevine wreath that hangs on this little piece of fencing all year long.

Below is dirt that I have freed from the bamboo as well as the many rocks that were way deep down. There is my trusty pickax.

More bluebells!

See that yard debris container below. It is full to the brim for what seems like the 30th. time this year with the rhizomes. We have a HUGE yard debris container not pictured, that I pour the stuff into, and then every week our local garbage service removes it when we put it out with the garbage and the recycling.

Anyway, gardening season has begun, and I am diligently working with every intention of having my old-fashioned cottage garden replete with herbs, flowers, fruits and some vegetables.  I will keep you posted!