The latest addition to my Mary collection...

I have a soft spot for Mary...

...and a great fondness for statues of Mary.

It started with this 1960's ceramic Mary that belonged to my mom, that now hangs in my home.

I then found the most incredible vintage, chippy cement Mary statue for our garden.

There is also my ever-growing collection of vintage Madonna busts and planters.

So needless to say, when I came across this very old, chippy chalkware statue of Mary in a thrift store, I was absolutely smitten.

I'd never seen a piece quite like this before. In addition to Mary, there was an old, chippy chalkware statue of Jesus...

...both of them standing on a base with a Holy Water font, votive candleholder...

...and sweet chippy cherub between them.

It's just the most beautiful old statue and I am so grateful to have been in the right place at the right time to have found it.

And you just know that Miss Social Butterfly was overseeing every photo I took of this statue,...

... peering at me from behind the divider windows!

She never misses a trick,...

... always keeping an eye on what's going on, and this afternoon was no exception!

I'll be posting this over at Cindy's (My Romantic Home) Show & Tell Friday this week. Be sure to pop over and check out what everone else is sharing! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

(NOTE: I have NO clue what is going on with the layout here! It was fine when I typed it, and it's gone crazy. No matter how many times I edit it, it reverts back to this hodge podge! Hope you can make sens of this post! haha)

Donna

The beauty of a candlelit power outage...

Can you tell by the title that I'm really trying to look for the positive in the midst of our nasty winter? New England has been hit hard by multiple snowstorms in rapid succession, but thankfully we've suffered through only one short power outage. BB (before blogging), I'd never have picked up my camera to shoot the following pics, but blogging has allowed me to see things in a whole new light. Literally. So here's what a power outage looks like in our little cottage.

(click any photos to enlarge)

A small votive sits in a chippy religious statue on the dining room half wall. Being chalkware, it's very heavy so Baby isn't able to knock it off (yet).


The scrollwork of the fire screen, silhouetted against the candles that sit inside the fireplace.


Another old chalkware statue, a grey & white kitty, rests on the hearth.

Candlelight illuminates the cherub faces on the cactus planter.

Prisms dance around the candlelight in this beautiful candleholder, a gift from my good friend, Jill.

A small votive surrounded by button jars, a white bird, and my vintage rose lamp.

One of the two prism'd fleur-de-lis candleholders that flank the fireplace. These were one of my first purchases when I switched over from a primitive to cottage decor about 7-8 years ago.

A small Mary statue...

...and a small St. Theresa planter stand guard at the "parakeet cage" on top of the jelly cupboard in a corner of the dining room.

The variety of small votives gave off just enough light to keep us from bumping into - or tripping over - things while the lights were out. Thankfully, the power was restored just as it was starting to get quite chilly in the house. The other morning it was 8 below when we woke! And we were hit with another snowstorm last night (over 12" of snow), so I'll post photos of that soon! Come on, spring! We are sooooooo ready!

I'm linking up to Show & Tell Friday at My Romantic Home so be sure to stop by and see Cindy and all the other bloggers sharing participating this week!

Donna