Spring Tour

 My last post posted although the pictures definitely left much to be desired-even more than usual. But, at this point, my goal is to at least get all of the pictures I have been able to download posted even if they can not be edited. Let's see how the living room turned out. If I had known this would happen, I would have taken a bit more care when snapping the pictures but, it is what it is!

As much of a problem that I have in decorating for Easter, spring is even harder for me. Again, I think it is the pastel colors that speak spring...and, I love them so much outdoors. But, not so much in my house. Of course, there are places where they can't be denied-like my favorite wreath from a favorite shop down in Lake Alfred. And so, I had to let a little bit of the those colors sneak in but, in the end, I realized that I am still mostly using greens and purples-I guess you can't teach an old dog...Lol This is also where I bring out all of my garden features-lots of old and chippy things that make me happy.

I also realized after decorating for spring that I don't have a lot of "spring crafts". I actually had some new ones lined up but, alas, my printer is also down for the count so any printing isn't happening for awhile either!

I made this "spring" sign last year and I kind of like how it matches the flower arrangement.

It is really hard to get a good picture-especially when you can't edit-of this cloche but I love that the image inside is almost an exact duplicate of the nest beside it.

So that is it for the living room. Again, I'm not sure these posts are anything anyone wants to see, but with all of the computer issues, it just feels even more urgent for me to get these pictures on. My next decor doesn't come until about the third week of May so fingers crossed something will be figured out by then. The next in line is "patriotic" and one of my favorites-even if it does feature a lot of red. Lol

Grandson #2 is coming over this afternoon to see if he can help at all. He is quite versed in computers but not necessarily dinosaur computers like mine. I think the aim is to not have to buy a new computer because I don't even have any idea of what I would need to buy. It's going to be an interesting afternoon because I know he wants so much to be able to help but....you'll be the first to know. Lol Fingers crossed I'll be back. Stay safe and stay tuned.
 

 

testing1,2,3

I have definitely been MIA. I have had one of those "when it rains..." kind of weeks. It seems as if all of a sudden everything I need to fill my days has decided to break! Some of them are easier to fix than others...my computer being the one I am most upset about.

My desktop computer started doing "weird" things over a week ago. I had no idea what some of the messages meant but, being totally computer illiterate, I did the few things I knew to do-like try rebooting-and none of that worked until one time it did and things that hadn't worked for a long time suddenly worked again. I sent my sister-in-law a message telling her that my "dumb luck" apparently came through on this little mishap. And, I went to bed happy.

The next morning when I went to edit my latest photos, they were in the downloaded file but could not be moved to Picassa...and my Picassa icon now had a "lock" on it...as did other icons.

I knew I would have to address this issue when I could get someone here that knew more than I but I felt like I could still get to my blog-sometimes my only communication with the outside world-especially when my car is also in dry dock-and post unedited pictures-not the perfect answer but an answer none the less.

And then I took a few more pictures and discovered that I can no longer download pictures at all. That means that once I post the pictures I have in that file, I am at a standstill unless I just want to post blogs with no pictures...and wouldn't you love that? Lol

I am going to use this post as a test and see if I can get it to work using just the porch pictures to begin with. My house is now in "spring" mode and changed up a bit so I was very anxious to share with you...we'll see how it goes. Let's start here and keep our fingers crossed.

My purple petunias and pink geranium seem to be happy here and match the door hanger pretty well. The plant in the small pot is pretty but I don't remember what it is. Lol

 

So that is really all I have for you today. Again, I'm sorry for the pictures. I can't download them to Picassa where I usually edit and editing any other way was just way too tedious! Let's see how-and if-this will even post and keep our fingers crossed that by the time I have shared the pictures I was able to download, I will have found someone to help me with this dilemma. I'm off to rake leaves. Stay safe and stay tuned.

In Decor Limbo

Easter is now over and we could not have asked for a more glorious day. The weather was absolutely perfect and the company even better. Daughter #2, her hubby and his mother came over for brunch and we had the nicest time just quietly visiting and catching up. It was very different from Easters past when all of the kids would be here and things were so much fun but a bit hectic. Nothing hectic about this visit with the possible exception of my two huge grand dogs trying to play with the visiting, very small dog. But it all worked out and we had a beautiful day-even spent a bit of time sitting out by the pool until the sun got a little too warm for the way we were dressed in the afternoon. It seems weird but lately, the hottest times of our days seem to begin at about 4 PM instead of high noon that I was used to.

In any case, I totally forgot to take any pictures of people-or dogs-once we put the food on the table. We had quiche Lorraine, broccoli quiche, hash brown casserole, homemade lemon-poppy seed muffins, chocolate chip muffins, fresh fruit and bunny sugar cookies for dessert. I didn't go overboard with the table but once my daughter arrived with those beautiful irises and tulips, I did switch out the centerpiece I had originally thought of using. There is absolutely nothing prettier than fresh spring flowers!

I think I have mentioned that I will probably be leaving Easter up a bit longer since it has only had its 2 weeks of fame...but, I am a bit holiday themed OCD so we will see how long I can stand it. I think I will probably change my porch right away so my neighbors don't think I've forgotten. Lol

That being said, I have been going back over last year's spring decor and it may possibly be my least favorite decor of the year. I definitely need to change it up and now would be a good time to start planning. I perused my Pinterest spring board and found lots of "nests". I actually did tons of nests years ago and got tired of them but this might be the time to bring them back out just maybe in different ways. These are cute. I don't actually like the candle stick nests pictured here but put the pic in there to remind myself that I could do something similar more to my liking.

I actually have a lot of old wood boxes from all of my years of antiquing. For some reason I am always drawn to them. Lately I have been using them more as risers but this year I might try something like this.

 And I really love these topiaries. I could probably replicate something close to the pots using the baking soda and paint technique that I used recently on the vase. The lady who posted the instructions said it may be difficult to find the correct greenery to use so I guess I will have to start there. 

So now I have those ideas on my list for the week as well as LOTS more yard work...but, they may have to wait as well. I was right. Just found out we have a lacrosse game tonight and then I literally have something scheduled for every day this week. Guess I'll just wait and see how things play out. I'll be back. Until then, stay safe and stay tuned.

Whew!

 I honestly don't know why I continue to be so confused as to when Easter will actually arrive this year. Perhaps it's because of all of the other things I have had going on as well as the fact that we really aren't having as big a celebration this year as we usually do so I didn't have a lot of preparation on my plate. Much of the family is out of state so it will just be daughter #2, her hubby and his mom here at my house. They are bringing the brunch and about all I am contributing is the venue-lol. I am going to make some of my bunny sugar cookies this afternoon if time permits.

In any case, I just realized that we haven't finished our tour and Easter is tomorrow. Although it will probably remain up in my house another week or so-maybe-I thought we should finish up the tour today...so, let's head into the family room.

This was the one room that I really wanted to change up this year...the carrots aren't working for me anymore. But, since I need time for trial and error, a change this year just wasn't in the cards with the short amount of time I had to get decor out after St. Pat's came down. And so, I will live with this this year and maybe I will get the time to change it up next year. At least it will give me something to think about for 12 months. Lol

Part of my dilemma in the change-up will be this cutie. I really love this guy but, since I'm kind of leaning towards mostly green and purple for Easter decor, his blatant orange just doesn't quite fit in for me. I'm not sure how I will solve this dilemma. He does have a purple bow so maybe if I just stick in some purple flowers as well I could live with it.

I like some of the "carrot" things in the shelves but I could probably live without them if necessary. But, for this year, they will remain.

Here's another place where my dilemma becomes apparent. I love the bunnies with my pallet sign-which is seriously one of my favorite things I have ever made-but again, orange pops out at you. I'm getting confused just writing about it. Not sure how I will solve this problem. Good thing I have a whole year to think about it. I left the new greenery garland up on the mantle and just "beefed" it up with more greenery picks that I had on hand. I actually just noticed that some of those picks have a hint of purple to their leaves. Maybe if I could find more of that I would be happy with a green, purple and orange color scheme next year. Then I could keep the "orange" things that I like and not feel so much conflict.

And our last stops will be the bathrooms-guest bath first.

Since I added that vintage wreath this year, I decided to group all of my vintage feel decor in this area. Since they have so much pastel color, they don't really fit in anywhere else now that I've gone purple and green.

And again, a quick nod to the holiday in the master.

That is the end of our Easter tour 2024. I am off to try to do a bit of vacuuming-which is almost impossible to do with my huge grand dogs velcroed onto my legs and then make the cookies and come up with a pretty table. I hope everyone has a blessed Easter holiday and I will be back when things start back up. I'm guessing there will be at least one lacrosse game this week and I have Grandparents Day at the high school so I should have some things to share soon. Until then, stay safe and stay tuned. Next decor up will be spring.

Tempus Fugate

 Since Easter is so early this year, I don't know why I am surprised that it is coming so fast but, I am. I just realized that it is this weekend and I still have half of my tour left to go. So, with that in mind, I think we'll hit both the dining room and sunroom today.

Look carefully at the bunny in this picture and then see if you can catch the difference in the next picture. 

 For some reason, I haven't been too happy with this bunny the last few years. I kept looking at it and trying to figure out why. Those of you who are true followers may have figured it out before even I did. I am just not a fan of yellow. I don't know what that says about me because yellow is supposed to be a happy color-I think I'm happy but I will never be convinced to like yellow. I think that might be one of the reasons that I have so much trouble decorating for Easter and spring. Most Easter and spring decor includes yellow and mostly pastels-just not my liking. I do LOVE forsythia and, I do use it a bit-sparingly. But, I digress-back to the bunny. I actually thought about painting the whole bunny brown to resemble the one on the canvas but I thought that might be a bit too drastic so I painted his basket with "mineral" chalk paint and then came back with the antique wax to distress the indentations. And, I had painted the egg a few years ago but it was too harsh so I toned it down with a violet chalk paint. And then I removed the ribbons and flowers he came with and replaced them with ones more to my liking. When I looked at it next to the canvas, the ribbon and flowers colors truly complement each other and I like him a lot more.

And, of course, I still love the little bunny drawing that grand daughter #5 made for me four years ago when she was just 10.

This is where the faux tile egg ended up.

This little cutie now hangs by the door out to the pool. I had completely forgotten it when I took the original pictures.

And, of course, more pictures with the Easter Bunny.

So that is the tour for today but I will be back soon. My grand dogs are coming back tomorrow to stay while daughter #3 and her family head to CT to visit my grandson for Easter and a lacrosse game. Then on Easter, daughter #2, her hubby and his mom are coming here and bringing an Easter brunch. This will be the first year that we will be celebrating without any of the grand children but, as they get older and move farther away, we just have to cherish any time we do get to spend with them. At least I don't have to hard boil 60 eggs this year! Lol

I'll be back soon-until then, stay safe and stay tuned.