Showing posts with label Spring décor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Spring décor. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 14, 2018

Mid-Week Musings

Hi! Happy almost Spring!

I don't have a set schedule of posting here on my blog so it has been awhile since I visited with you all.

So, what have I been up to since my last post?

Musing about this and that. Planning some updates for my home. A little Spring decorating.

Because we are in the middle of another storm I can't seem to erase the Let it Snow sign. It will have to share the side of my dining room with the bunnies.


I was inspired to make this basket when an Etsy buyer bought a similar basket from me and recreated a Martha Stewart design she saved from a magazine years ago. She sent me the picture of hers in her new basket and it was fabulous.


This basket was still in my shop. It is a vintage Harry and David gift basket from Oregon. I quickly deactivated it so I could use it to create my own Easter basket centerpiece. I guess that's a perk of having over 640 items in my shop. No one will miss the ones I keep for myself!

The greens are a garland from Michaels all bunched up inside; I painted the ceramic brown bunny about 40 years ago in ceramics class; the ribbon is new and the eggs are ones I painted last year. Of course I had to change my "Winter" scrabble pieces to "Spring".


My dress form got a new look. I have been searching online for the perfect Spring dress but until I find just the right one, I decided to dress her in this vintage long dress I found at a thrift store in Rochester, NY. I layered some of my personal necklaces with some vintage ones and she's ready for the transition from Winter to Spring.


My window seat in the parlor got Springified too with some new pink pillows added into the ones I have had there for 20 years. Love my new bunny pillow.


My sweet girlfriend Colleen gave me the beaded candleholder for my birthday. She is all about the baubles and bling, and me...I am a little understated in that department. I didn't know where to put it in my home but when I stuck a faux fern in it and put it under my gallery wall, it added just enough elegance to the room. 


One of those updates I mentioned earlier will be done in my parlor. The walls are called Cranberry Cocktail and although I love the color I am tired of it after 21 years. My new rug does not match perfectly to them so I want a fresh look with a more muted color. I am 99% sure I am going with the top color called Portobello. 

I have to decide soon since my painter is coming to paint on the 24th!



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A couple of things I have been musing about are toilet rugs and mug cupboards. Yup, you read that right!

For some reason in this house I have had a toilet "rug" on the seat in whatever color the room currently is. I match it nicely to the rug. 



My husband hates it. It prevents the seat from staying up on it's own and that can be a problem for him if you know what I mean.

The other update we are planning is for this bathroom. It will be pretty much a gut job. That ugly tile? Gone! That ugly floor? Gone! That ugly old thingamajig under the toilet? Gone! Actually the toilet itself will be gone too and now, so will the toilet rug.

My husband asked me why I even have it there. 

I could not answer.

I thought it was the thing to do. You know, match it to the rug. Toilet seats are plain and ugly. Anybody out there with me on this?!

Another thing I have been musing about is my mug cupboard. To clean it out or leave it be.



My kitchen cupboards are tall, narrow and deep with lots of shelves. One of them is filled with mugs. Almost every time my husband goes for a mug he asks me why I keep all those mugs in there.

Because I can.

What if I get a house full of people that all want coffee?!?

I am quite attached to most of my mugs although I only use three of them on a daily basis. I have two 4 cup coffee mugs in two different colors to interchange daily and my tea mug. I have to start my day with a large cup of coffee and I am so afraid of my 4 cupper breaking again that I now have two of them.


Gotta cover all the bases on things you love.

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I went to Trader Joe's recently with my sister and she insisted that I buy myself this huge chocolate bar to stash away and have a piece every day.....like she does.

Since I do like a little chocolate every day, I gave in. 

She twisted my arm after all.

It is my new favorite Trader Joe's item! Really thick chunks of milk chocolate with huge almonds inside.




I decided to give a bar to my husband for our monthly (on the 13th) anniversary gift. It's his favorite kind of chocolate bar. For those that don't know, we exchange a small gift every month on our wedding date. We have been doing it for 21 years.

He surprised me with this book. I actually had it in my cart on Amazon but never ordered it.


I think the two go perfect together......


Having endured three nor'easters with snow still on the ground, I can only hope Spring comes our way soon and gives me lots of ideas for future posts :-)

AnnMarie xoxo



I am linking up to these great blog parties:

Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Spring Musings....



There's not much Spring going on outside my windows so I have forced myself to try and bring some inside. I actually just took the winter décor off of my front porch. The calendar says Spring but I can't say that "Spring is in the air" yet.


We are living in a sea of brown, bare and dirty.  Whatever is green has been all winter. No new green anywhere yet. The beginning of Spring is not so pretty in Upstate NY.





My new black patent rain boots are waiting patiently by the side porch door, ready to get dirty in the garden.


I should have had them on when I went scouting for thistles to fill a basket. I got the thistles on the side of the road, along with a few thorns in my fingers and one foot ankle deep in the swampy brush.
 



My Spring/Easter decorating includes vintage, of course, and lots of bunnies that hibernate all winter in the many cupboards around my home. When they come out to play, they hang out mostly in the parlor (the cranberry/pink room) and my dining room.


I am always delighted when I coax them out of their deep sleep to rediscover what I have. Some just cannot wake up!



This White Rabbit is reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland, a story that I have always loved. My husband bought him for me years ago and Mr. Rabbit was just recently found hiding in the dining room closet.



I changed my mantel for Spring, moving all but one of the pictures of my family to another cupboard top and added some vintage books and architectural pieces, including the paned window I found at a yard sale last summer for $5. The crown candleholder is from Antique Farmhouse.


Of course the mantel had to include a bunny.....my pink mercury glass bunny, a thrift store find.



My bunny banner is from an Etsy seller a few years ago.



The bunnies are hand cut out of thin wood and arrive separate from the string. You string them yourself and hang them however you want to.


This pretty Granny Square lap throw is a recent thrift store find. The colors just say Spring. It is available here.


The first picture is of my dining room centerpiece. It is hand made out of a crystal pedestal and a square metal pan. I filled it with a nest from my yard, eggs I painted aqua, my small lantern and more bunnies including a vintage flocked bunny and a metal chocolate mold. This is a closer look.


and the back.....


The sun is out today and our temps are supposed to rise to around 50 by the end of the week and weekend.

Yup, we are still wearing winter coats and scarves and warm boots.

I have Spring in my heart though!


AnnMarie xoxo

I am linking up with these fun blog parties:




Best of the Weekend