The Alley Rose                          Antique Linens & Textiles                              ~When only the very best will do~     We’re so delighted you’ve stopped by The Alley Rose!  Here is where you’ll find spectacular antique linens for the home as well as beautiful Antique Clothing and Laces.  Whether you’re the serious collector or just looking for a few nice pieces to accent that special place in your home, you couldn’t have found a finer place to search.  You’ll find our merchandise to be extremely high quality and meticulously photographed and described.  It is our promise that when our antique linens arrive at your door they will be exactly what we said them to be with no disappointing surprises. As you browse you’ll find many fun old quotes, articles, Proverbs and customs from days gone by.  Now, simply sit back, imagine and have fun while you’re taken back to a quieter, simpler time… a time when life centered around the home.        We're proud to have satisfied customers from around the globe! International Buyers, please note you are required to pay with PayPal only.  Please contact us prior to ordering for a shipping quote and instructions.      If the young only knew; If the old only could...                     ~French Saying~         Happy Spring!!!  And what a beautiful one it is!  Lately I’ve been putting my linens on hold to do the annual spring clean up out in my yard, wielding nothing more than a rake and pruning shears.  Despite the broken fingernails, sore muscles, slivers, scratches and my allergies going ballistic, I still find it a labor of love.  There is nothing more satisfying than pulling a mat of leaves away from the Lenten roses only to discover dozens of new babies nestled under momma (when they get a little bigger I’ll relocate them to other parts of the yard - of course, something else will have to go but there’s always room in my yard for more Lenten roses).  The clematis all look so joyful when I cut away all the dead vines to reveal the hundreds of new buds underneath.  Everything seems to be leaping out the earth at amazing speed and I am finding that a few annuals have even survived to bloom for me yet another season.     Another thing I love about spring is the birds – basking in the warmer temperatures and singing their hearts out from dawn to dusk.  The battle is on over who gets to occupy the choicest of my 12 rentals (known to most as bird houses).  Last week I watched a pair of sparrows spruce up an old nest in rental #4, only to discover yesterday that a pair of house finches were ripping it all out and starting over.  A pair of blackbirds worked themselves silly making a home in arborvitae #2, then decided it was totally unacceptable and started all over again in arborvitae #3.  I seem to have an abundance of cardinals this year – the males all singing to beat the band (looking for girls, no doubt) and forever chasing away any competitors.  In another week they’ll have begun to pair up and will be coming to the bird feeder – the males striking dashing poses and feeding the ladies the choicest seeds in an attempt to convince them they’d be a fool to choose anyone else.  The wrens have moved into the honeymoon suite and will undoubtedly raise a clatter when I go out to re-roof it to repair the damage the squirrels did over the winter.  Oh, what an exciting time it is for them – and for me, working quietly amongst them and taking it all in.     But, enough with this diatribe about all the drama and goings on in my yard.  I’d best get out there and pick up the mess I raked out from under some bushes last night.  Then, if I don’t get sidetracked, I’ll come in and concentrate on the stack of linens that need to be ironed.             "We should have nothing in our houses which we did not   either know to be useful or believe to be beautiful." ~William Morris~ The beauty of Life lecture, 1880