Somewhere Over the Rainbow...

Today is the last "official" day of my birthday "week" celebration. If you remember, I started the week with a lovely outdoor lunch at one of my favorite restaurants with our oldest grand daughter and wonderful phone calls from all of the rest of the family.

This child knows me sooo well. While I truly love all flowers - especially spring flowers - when the St . Pat's stuff is out, my preference is always greenish-white tulips. And, her card for me was right on the money!

She said she had a serious card picked out when she saw this and knew I would love it - which I did! Again, so me!! If you look carefully, you can probably find glitter of every color anywhere in my house from all of the last year's projects. Of course, she added her own beautiful note to me inside that truly made my day!

Tuesday ended up being "errand" day, so we once again enjoyed a lovely meal out - this time breakfast - followed by a long, leisurely lunch outdoors at a new restaurant here in town on Wednesday and pedicures and lunch out yesterday with our youngest daughter. And, just when I thought I was done, hubby says "we are heading out of town today for one last hurrah for your birthday." Seems like we are off for a little shopping spree followed once again by another meal at another of our favorite restaurants. Looks like the next thing on my agenda will need to be DIET!

We also squeezed in another birthday celebration recently. Grandson #1 just hit "double digits"! He had a small family celebration on his real day and then a day of paintball with some of his friends. Since paintball is not a spectator friendly sport, hubby and I stayed home and spent the day with the two youngest kids. Which turned out to be the safest route since Harrison came by afterwards to tell us all about it and show us all of his bumps and bruises...and to declare yet again that this was the BEST day of his life. I love his enthusiasm for life! He finds the best in everything and I am glad he had such a special milestone birthday!

The kids always get to choose their birthday dinner and this year Harrison wanted a "meat buffet". He was very happy with the steaks provided and compromised on the "sides" for those us us who prefer veggies. And, since his mom and aunt own a monogram boutique, a monogrammed steak was all the better!

Since this month seems to be moving so quickly, I have finally started getting my ducks in a row for St. Pat's kid's day...and the rainbow theme usually finds its way in there somewhere so I have just started buying anything "rainbow" I can find. I will look some more today so they have really good "pots of gold" at the end of their rainbow treasure hunt!

A bit more St. Pat's to share so you will just have to stay tuned. And, hopefully some garden updates will be on their way too!

Green, Green...It's Green They Say

I have a few minutes before I have to get ready for lunch with our oldest grand daughter for my birthday! Today is her first day of spring break and she asked if she could come and spend it with me??? She will never know how totally honored I feel...and how old! I actually have a grand daughter who is old enough to drive herself to our house to visit-yikes!! But, before the reveling begins...

Here is this year's "trimmed" down mantle. Yes, believe it or not, in past years it has held so much more!!

I love the simple sign I made last year. I have another one in mind for this year if I can just find the time before the big day actually gets here!

I am still enjoying using both the wooden block and leprechaun hat photo holders the kids and I have made in years past.

I get a lot of pop from this simple banner that I found on  lilluna.com a few years ago. I simply downloaded and printed the map paper and then cut out green hearts, folded them in half, distressed the edges and glued them on along the folds so that they would be 3-D. So simple but one of my favorites.

This is one of two lanterns that I added to my stash this year. I got it at Yankee Candle and with the wonderful coupon they sent, how could I resist? The inside of this lantern is silver so when it is lit at night, it gives off the most beautiful sparkle!

I use these candle holders in almost every decorating season of the year but this vignette almost didn't happen. I like things in threes and I had the two large holders and nothing else of any "weight" that I felt balanced this end of the table. And then I noticed the "cheesy" plastic pot of really fake shamrocks that I had ready to toss out and wondered how they might look if I popped them on another holder to give them a bit more presence. What do you think? I actually like them now...even if they ARE really BAD fakes!

So that is the family room this year. I have a few more things to share but for now, I am off to celebrate another year! Stay tuned.

Onward We Go!

We are having the dreariest weather this week...warm, muggy and overcast. Mostly the kind of weather where you just want to stay inside so that is what I am doing. The perfect kind of weather to sit at the computer and maybe get in another post before something changes my path so, here we go! On to the dining room.

I found this chalkboard download at Chrisyt's Customs and decided it would work well in this vignette...not only did I need something a little St. "Patricks-y" but I thought the black would help ground everything as well. I like it but I am thinking to make it look more authentic, I might need to remove the glass in the frame.

I love this bone china. It was my moms and was given to her by my dad. At one point in his Air Force career, he did much traveling as a flight inspector. He would be gone weeks at a time and whenever he returned, he would come bearing gifts. Many times my mom's gift would be new bone china for her collection and, because of my Irish heritage, the ones with shamrocks or thatched Irish cottages always meant the most to me...although the lily-of-the-valley designs are beautiful too!
 

Finally have the time to start making plans for our St. Pat's weekend with the kids. I am trying to come up with some new ideas but I know we will be repeating the rainbow spaghetti because I had a special request from a special little girl. I love how much they remember and how much these moments mean to them. I love building memories with them! Stay tuned.

Best Laid Plans

I am not sure if it is because we are now "officially" retired or just because I am getting older and lazier but I am seeming to have more and more trouble fitting into my days the things I plan to fit in when I make my morning to-do list. Seems like just when I have a day all planned out, something unexpected pops up to send me down a totally different road. I keep moving the same chores from one day's list to the next and have many, many, many still left to do.

But, since I never actually finished showing you my Valentine's decor, I am going to try to do better with St. Pat's. I am doing this for you...the wash, weeding, vacuuming, etc. will just have to wait-haha.

Now that we have moved the baker's rack into the end of the kitchen and are actually using it for its intended purpose - sort of - I am wondering more and more how I ever lived without it here!? It is so easy to reach for holiday dinnerware every time when it is right here out in the open!

Still "hanging" around from my embellished Bingo card obsession days!

May be time to make some more "napkin decoupaged" plates again. They are pretty foolproof and I always love the end result!

So that is the kitchen this year. There are a few things I am thinking about making so if time permits, there may be a few tweaks still in order. If not, I can live with it. I love the calming effect the color green has on me...and somehow, it makes the house feel cleaner as well. Maybe I should keep the green all year long - haha. Stay tuned.