Articles                                     Cottage Style Decorating      One of the more popular decor today is cottage style decorating.  It is well suited for today's informal lifestyles.    Be on the look out for odd things that can be used for accessories in cottage decorating.  For example:  Pretty plates, interesting frames, vintage hats & furniture.  Begin collecting your favorite treasures.  The only rule in Cottage Style collecting is to buy the things you LOVE.  Whether you prefer Shabby Chic, Rustic Camp, Country French, Contemporary Victorian, English Country or Southwest. YOU are the creator in Cottage Style.    Save money on accessories that you can pick up at flea markets or yard sales, time worn pieces that have a distressed finish and interesting aesthetic appeal. Anything that has a unique shape and nice texture to it will add to your Cottage Style.      Window treatments are light and breezy.  White sheer or a valance with light weight material is a good choice.     Cottage furniture needs to be light, not heavy and stuffy.  Wicker furniture goes well with the cottage decor.  If you are on a budget, consider using slip covers on furniture you already have.  Of course make sure to use Romantic Hand painted Roses in your Cottage Decor.                                                          History of a Rose     Roses have a long and colorful history. They have been symbols of love, beauty, war, and politics. The rose is, according to fossil evidence, 35 million years old. In nature, the genus Rosa has some 150 species spread throughout the Northern Hemisphere, from Alaska to Mexico and including northern Africa. Garden cultivation of roses began some 5,000 years ago, probably in China. During the Roman period, roses were grown extensively in the Middle East. They were used as confetti at celebrations, for medicinal purposes, and as a source of perfume. Roman nobility established large public rose gardens in the south of Rome. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the popularity of roses seemed to rise and fall depending on gardening trends of the time.                                                  History of Chenille Bedspreads    The bedspread some of us remember as a child (me included) started in the 1890's by a young girl named Catherine Evans. She was inspired by an older tufted bedspread which had gone out of fashion. She started making them by hand when she was just 15 years old near Dalton, Georgia. She started out with cotton sheeting and stitched thick yarn in her own created patterns, mostly taken from quilt patterns. Then the finished product was boiled to make the sheeting shrink and hold the tufting in place. It’s very easy to spot a homemade one as they are not exactly symmetric, examine the back and you will see. I’ve seen simple lightly tufted ones and some with almost all over tufting. In the 1930's the bedspread making went to the factories and were much easier to obtain. There were many well know companies making them including Cabin Crafts, Bates, Morgan Jones, and Hoffman. Many of the spreads aren’t marked by company name or the labels have been removed. Then in the 60's they went out of favor again only to be revived again. There are many retailers selling new chenille bedspreads on the market now so if you don’t want used, you can have new.