Spring Has Sprung

 Not much on the calendar today until I have to get ready to head to my grandson's lacrosse playoff game so I thought we could head into the living room. I have made a few small changes in here this year but still trying to fit in some of my favorite pieces as well.

I love this plaque that I found in the cutest little garden shop in Savannah many, many years ago. We almost always stayed at a hotel down near River Street when we visited and I just happened upon this place on one of our visits as we were walking to Clary's-our favorite breakfast spot. It was a bit off the beaten path but once I found it it became a "must" on each visit thereafter. I'm sorry to say it is no longer there and I miss it. I always found some kind of a unique treasure to bring home with me.

My brother and sister-in-law gave me this "welcome" piece years ago as well. My sister-in-law said it represented me with my three "chicks". It is still the perfect piece for my spring decor.

My spring decor is when I bring out lots of pieces that I actually originally bought to use as garden accents. All of them have been found in special favorite shops in many different cities and always bring back so many special memories each time I bring them out. Both of the two pieces of bracketing below were found in a sweet shop in Mt. Dora-also off the beaten path and also no longer in business. They are both chipped, broken and weathered and that is why I love them so much!

This wreath is the reason I am still incorporating some pink and purple in this room. I bought it at "Julies" in Indian Rocks Beach and her things were made so beautifully. Her faux flowers were the closest to "real" until the "real feel" recently came along. As much as I would love to, I just can't not use this wreath...at least this year.

This picture that I found at HL last year kind of set the pace for this entire vignette. The pitcher closely resembles the one I put in the shelf that daughter #3 gave me a long time ago. And then the white hydrangeas...I have had faux white hydrangeas for many years but they have not been my favorite. I use them when I need to and I actually had an arrangement here that I wasn't thrilled with so I added in the peonies for a bit of a punch. And then, as I was walking through the 4th of July section at Walmart the other day, I happened upon the new "My Texas House" decor and they had "real touch" hydrangeas and they are beautiful. This is the first place locally that I have found them and even though they were almost $7 a stem, I grabbed seven. Now I wish I had grabbed four more because this arrangement would be gorgeous with just a few more added to the mix. Since I use these flowers for several of my decor themes, I am OK with spending that much. They just look so real!

And, since my inspiration picture had a bird sitting on a stack of green books, I grabbed the books I painted for St. Patrick's Day and put my little framed bird on them.

I added the purple flowers to my "coffee" tulips because I just felt like they needed a pop of spring. The purple might be too much but I love those tulips so much that I am living with it until a better idea comes my way. Lol

So that is the living room for this year. While it isn't "perfect", it does makes me feel as if it is reading as a season instead of a holiday and that is what I want since I will be living with this decor for a bit before I can jump into the 4th of July. A lot of the decor blogs that I follow are already decorating for the 4th because this is such a big, birthday year but I'm not ready to jump that far ahead just yet.

I've got a few things to do before I leave so I am off for now. Hope to be back soon. Since I use this blog as a bit of a family journal, I like to include family milestones as well as decor and crafts and this weekend saw two in our family. Grandson #1-who is a junior at the US Coast Guard Academy-had his "ring" dance. Apparently that is where they get presented with their class ring before entering their senior year. He sent this picture and it's looking like he hasn't had to wear this uniform since the beginning of the year and he must have grown because those pants sure look short to all of us. At this point, I guess there was nothing he could do. Lol

And grandson #2, his brother, had one of the two proms he will be going to this year as he and his girlfriend attend different high schools here in Ocala. They make such a beautiful couple and will both be heading to the University of Florida in the fall.

That's it for me today. Stay safe and stay tuned.

Spring, Spring

 I finally got all of the guest room Easter stuff packed up and put away and almost have all of the heavy Rubbermaids back where they belong so, I was able to get out and get the porch photos before the sun was glaring too brightly. We had a few days of rain last week and, although we are still in severe drought mode, things did green up a bit so the gardens are not looking quite as bleak as they were. I do have a few more outside chores waiting so that will be for tomorrow but I thought we could start our tour today with the porch.

Of ALL of the burlap door hangers that I made, this one is my least favorite and, again, I have to think it is because of the colors. I think I comment about it every year and you think that by now I might have made one more to my liking but....Lol

So, have you heard the old expression "put your money where your mouth is"? As I was writing the above sentiment, I realized that all of my craft supplies were a mere few feet away and there was nothing stopping me! And so...

VOILA!!!

There...that is SO much better-at least to my eyes. I'm not sure where or when I got such an aversion to yellow but, apparently I did. Now that the flowers are all in shades of lavender or pink, I am good to go...whatever took me so long to see the light?! Lol

So that is the porch for this year. Tomorrow is "booked" but I think the only thing on the calendar for Monday is grandson #2's lacrosse playoff game so maybe I can get back and show you the living room before heading out. Until then, stay safe and stay tuned.

Yikes!!!

 So we had a change of plans around here! I was supposed to head out for a lot of errands Monday but I awoke to some pretty heavy rain that wasn't going to stop for awhile and it was also a bit chilly-which in my book is usually a good thing but I wasn't in the mood to be wet and cold and so, I ended up starting my decor swap-from Easter to spring.

This is usually not a difficult swap because many of the the same candles and florals stay out. It is mostly removing the bunnies and adding birds and nests until....I knew I wanted to change some things and then holy cow, this swap became worse than the Easter one.

I think you know that I am very sensitive to color. There are some colors that no matter how they fit a theme, I just have a hard time accepting in my home. I finally settled on mostly pink and purple throughout much of the house for Easter with a bit of orange in the family room...and I could live with that. And, I thought I would travel the same path for spring except that I have a few pieces of spring decor that include other colors and some that have their own schemes and I have just had a really hard time with this swap. 

I think I ended up kind of having a different color scheme and decor scheme in each room and it has me a bit unsettled. As we tour the house I will try to fill you in on what my starting points were and how my color scheme came from them and maybe it will make sense and the house will eventually feel more cohesive. I do have to admit that I jumped ahead to see the next swap which will be to the 4th of July and even though red and blue are not favorite colors of mine, they will ring true in every room by virtue of the fact that almost ALL 4th of July decor incorporates those colors. And so, I know that if I can just live with what I have for the next five weeks, life will go back to normal soon enough. LOL

So here I was with the house done for spring but the errands were still there so that happened toady and by the time I got home, the lighting was even worse than usual so no start of the tour just yet.

But, I did snap a few pictures to give you an idea of what I am struggling with and maybe a glimpse into how my mind is working and why I am still having difficulty with my schemes. Here's why I have to let a bit of pink still creep in.

There is also a hint of purple and a darker pink that I am calling "orange-ish" because I HAVE to have these in here. I am obsessed with the coffee colored tulips!

Can you tell that I am working hard to convince myself about what I am saying? LOL The kitchen has more of my rose prints but then also this at the end...

And then, because I love this pillow in the sunroom-you know...words and postage markings...

...I feel like I can't bring the purples into this room so the floral looks like this...

...which to me is totally uninspired. Are you starting to feel my pain? Lol I really am all over the place on this swap but, I have convinced myself that when I look out the window towards the gardens, I am seeing lots of green and then variations of all sorts of other colors so...maybe my house does say "spring" a little bit after all. Ha!

While I was out this morning, I stopped into Target. There really wasn't much new but I did spy some candles for Mother's Day and this beautiful antique gold tray. I've told you before that I was never much for gold in my decor but since I've picked up so many of the rechargeable lamps, I'm liking other touches of gold in the rooms.

For the moment, I have the tray in the family room but we'll see where it finally lands.

The candles smell good but I am most obsessed with those boxes. I love the colors and patterns and I think that they kind of combine my spring decor colors-with just a few imitations thrown into the mix. Lol I don't have a clue what, but, I am going to find a way to use those boxes somehow. I only wish the jars of the candles had the same design on their labels. 

I'm off to cut some basil and make some pesto before I start getting blooms on my plants. Guess I know what I will be having for dinner tonight.

 It is still raining pretty hard out there but they're saying tomorrow will be better so maybe we can get the official start of the spring decor tour underway. Stay safe and stay tuned.

I'm Baaccckkk

 I am back and trying to get back into routine but after the week I had last week, things seem too quiet and mundane. Lol There were five lacrosse games (four of which I attended including one that was grandson #2's Senior Night, granddaughter #5's soccer banquet where she received her award, Easter and granddaughter #1's Surprise 30th Birthday Bash where the theme was "13 Going on 30" from the movie of the same name. It was held at an arcade and was fun for every age that was at the party-Nanas included. Lol Granddaughter #3 did most of the planning for her sister's surprise and she did an amazing job.

We had an Easter brunch at my brother and sister-in-laws house the following day before everyone had to had head home.

I am just going to post some of the many pictures I took all in one post because, even though the plan had been to start my decor swap today, that did not happen...and won't happen tomorrow because I have a ton of errands to run so I need to get this post done so I can get moving forward on the next time I visit. With that in mind, we'll start at Easter and work backwards.

We were actually able to surprise her!

I will have to admit my ignorance. I had not only never seen the movie, I didn't recognize the theme as a movie title so I didn't fully "get" any of the decor, color scheme, props, etc. until granddaughter #3 clued me in. And then when we watched the movie before the party, I GOT it all...including the dress bought for Hannah to wear which is an identical replica of the one worn in the movie. And, "Poise Magazine" is the heroine's work place so the magazine covers with Hannah as the cover model were genius. We purposely used photos from her "awkward" age to follow the movie's theme. They were used as centerpieces on all of the tables-just wish I had photos of all of them for you but I did get some.

We were missing daughter #3 and her family but they were having just as much fun up in Boston for my grandson's college lacrosse game and then Easter in the city all together. It just gets harder to find us all in one place as the "kids" grow and their lives take them farther away from home.

And then for our week full of sports!

Before Becky and I headed to Gainesville on Friday, she got up on my roof and cleaned it and all of the gutters. Because we had so much to do, we left most of it on the ground so I spent a bit of my morning raking all of that up. Now I'm off to catch up on some laundry and make out a grocery list so I can get some "real" food back in the fridge. Lol And then, on Wednesday, I'm hoping to start my swap. The spring decor will be up until the very beginning of June when the 4th stuff makes an appearance so there really isn't a rush but I'm anxious to see if I am going to be able to make any changes. With that said, I'll be back as soon as I can. Stay safe and stay tuned.