The Devil's in the Details

Holy cow! As much as I have gotten accomplished this past week, I still have a list a mile long of "details" to finish up. The big stuff is done!!! Yay! And, big stuff it was! It all took full days and, by the end of the days, I was so exhausted that I let the "little details" slide. Now that I am back up and running, I am checking off my list! Just got in from a lot of garden trimming and weeding and thought I would try to get my spring decor started for you to see.

Spring from Easter is one of the easiest transitions because a lot of the Easter can remain-it's mostly just pulling out the bunnies and eggs. I will say that in previous years my spring decor was mostly just in shades of green as I am not a huge fan of pastels. But, since I found the lavender Luminara candles and love having as much candle glow as I can get at night, I decided to leave them out through spring and keep a bit more lavender in the decor as well as a hint of pink here and there.

Let's start with the living room. I would normally start with the porch, but that is one of my "catch-ups" I had pressure cleaned it and re-stained it and I was still waiting for it to dry when I started snapping pictures-we'll get back there next time.

This sign usually hangs next to the chest but, since I've added the mailbox in that spot, a move to the scale was a simple fix. I love to use a lot of my outdoor garden things in the house at this time of year.

I love my little Welcome sign given to me by my brother and sister-in-law many years ago. They said it reminded them of me taking care of my three "little ones".

I love the pussy willows-something we can't grow here. And, I still love the old porch pieces that I found in a little garden shop in Mt. Dora a long time ago.

Here are the culprits-those lavender candles and their sister candle in the family room made me change my normal spring color scheme. I think the fact that I get my candle light is a fair trade off!

The picture of a nest on the vintage postcard looks exactly like the little nest I found in a cute shop in Alachua. I don't know why that makes me so happy, but it does.

I'm actually pretty happy with myself that I got this far! Last week was a doozy! I got almost EVERY hard surface in my yard pressure cleaned. That is always a huge job because I have the pool deck, circular drive, straight drive, a number of brick sidewalks and lots of low brick garden walls. It is also a job that I got in right under the wire this year. Even though the temperature reading was in the 80s, there was a nice breeze each day I was out there-this week would be another story!

And, the real killer is the pool deck re-staining. This year my brother and sister-in-law came down for 2 days and helped me get that done in so much less time than it normally takes me. They need to remember not to ask me if they can do anything to help any more-haha. After all of the pool work done last year, the deck was a bit worse for wear and this was a big job that just needing doing.

And, of course, it is spring and nearing the end of the school year so the kids have all sorts of extra things going...3 different things in fact...at the same time...and same night! And so, it was divide and conquer. Dad and my brother and SIL went to Hud's last baseball game...and must have brought good luck because they had a huge win!

Mom and I covered the school spaghetti dinner, art show and spring sing.

And poor Harrison just had lacrosse practice so he was on his own-lol.

So that very busy week is now in the record books. While this week's projects aren't quite as grueling, they are definitely keeping me on my feet. Hopefully I will have a few minutes to take a few more pictures and when I do, I'll be back to share. Stay tuned.

Picture Perfect Easter Weekend!

Wow! We had the most perfect weather weekend ever! I wish I could have bottled it...but, none the less, we were outside as much as we could be and savored every moment.

The three youngest grands spent the weekend with me while their parents and aunt and uncle went to see Garth Brooks in concert. I didn't have as much notice on this as I usually do so I was kind of flying by the seat of my pants but we managed to fill the day with fun and food.

I did my usual gathering of supplies.

Also as usual, this one has to do lots of taste testing. We were in charge of making tomorrow's dessert so we're trying our hand at a cookie cake.

Since we weren't doing any crafts this time, I decided to find a different egg decorating technique to try out. I ended up going with whipped cream tie-dye. It had the right amount of messy but we would still be able to eat the eggs. You can do the same technique with shaving cream-and it would be a lot less expensive-but I saw several places that said these eggs were not recommended for eating. We went the safe route. The initial instructions I found had you putting the cream and egg in a muffin cup. We tried this on one and found it almost impossible to roll the egg and color all over it so we moved on to rolling them on a track of cream on a cookie sheet and this worked so much easier. The eggs were a bit slippery to work with but proof that my grand children are growing up-we did not break one egg this year-even with the cream!

And then we headed outdoors to do our favorite traditional method. The temperature was in the low 70s with a slight breeze and not a cloud in the sky!

Here is our whole collection. I just love all of those colors!

Next, our little baker got busy decorating our cookie cake. We made this for tomorrow's Easter dinner dessert.

Dinner was simple-bunny pizza, bramble patches (broccoli) and bunny tails (cauliflower)-which didn't make it to Presley's plate because cauliflower is not her favorite.

I'm not sure what I was thinking when I decided to go for the bunny bottom pancakes and Peep kabobs when I had three kids and myself to also bathe, dress and get to church on time on an Easter morning, but we did it!

The service was beautiful full of all of the old favorite Easter hymns, the choir singing the Hallelujah Chorus and this beautiful flower covered cross!

After church, we went back to Jen's for a fabulous ham dinner with roasted potatoes, glazed baby carrots, a huge spring salad and dinner rolls-not to mention lots of hard boiled eggs! And yes, one of the horses that the Easter bunny brought found its way on to the beautifully decorated table. Lol

I truly don't think I could have had a more perfect weekend. Now I'm gearing up for a week of outdoor work. Just moved all of the furniture off of the pool deck with hopes of getting it all pressure cleaned in the next day or two-I have to work around the pool guy and the lawn guy so one full day just isn't going to happen. And then fingers crossed for the deck staining to happen-it will still depend on the weather. Throw in the elementary school spaghetti dinner, the Spring Sing and art show and a possible baseball game and it promises to be anything but dull! Stay tuned.

Be Still My Heart!

If there is anything better than purple tulips this time of year, it has to be a purple hyacinth! Have I told you how much I love spring flowers? And how fabulous they smell. These beauties are currently on the kitchen bar but, as soon as I am done for the day, they are moving to the table next to my favorite chair for a night of TV watching!

Today has been another busy day but I did find time to squeeze in a few small projects.

The first involves chalk paint-which I adore. It is just the easiest paint ever to work with and it goes on anything so flawlessly. I have a small, round table in the family room that I picked up years ago. It is just perfect for that tight spot where you still need a surface for glasses or food. I can't remember where I picked this one up but it was fairly inexpensive and the wood on top is non-descript. I have always called it monkey pod wood but I'm really not sure. What I do know is that it stains and gets rings if you just look at it. And, apparently, that didn't bother me...until it did! Darn those "new eyes"!! Yesterday, I looked at it and knew I couldn't stand it another second!

Lucky for me, I had a very little bit of the chalk paint I used on the LR chair left-albeit VERY watered down. I was afraid it might not work, but true to form, the chalk paint did not disappoint!

Here's how it started...

 All I did was tape off the metal side...

...and go to town. Here it is after 1 coat. I probably only needed 2 coats because the paint was so thin.

And, here is the final product. I distressed it a bit and then gave it a slight rub with some MinWax Finishing Wax.

And then, I tackled the chair that I had painted last week. I think I told you that I just painted it without following any of the recommendations on Google...that's how I roll sometimes. I just really felt like I could soften it up at a later date. And, if I couldn't, then I would sit in that chair and not subject any of my guests to its scratchy surface.

When I finally did do a Google search, I saw most of the sites recommended sanding between paint coats. I'm not sure if that is to help with the texture, but I would think so. The fabric on my chair is very nubby so I wasn't sure this would work at all but I gave it a shot and, SUCCESS! The fabric is now soft and fairly smooth without compromising the integrity...I hope.

And then, I think I have settled on my Saturday plans with the kids. I know we are going to be dying a lot of eggs. We will do some the traditional way but I think we may try this as well:

craftymorning.com

And then, we are going to make the dessert for the Easter meal. Since we do regular cakes so often, I thought I would try to find something a little different and I think I just may have. My gang loves a cookie cake so I think we will try this:

kitchenfunwithmy 3sons.com

I am off to make my grocery list so I will be ready when the fun begins. Stay tuned.

Road Trip

There has been so much going on lately that I feel as if I have lost a week of April. Somehow I thought Easter was the last weekend of the month and that I still had plenty of time to get some plans brewing. It was only when my girls started talking about it that I comprehended they meant this coming weekend! Yikes.

We all know my house is decorated and ready but I really haven't thought the first thing about food. And, since my son-in-law surprised my daughter with tickets to go see Garth Brooks (because he didn't realize Easter was this weekend either), the kids will be with me all day Saturday. We're going to do some Easter prep...although at this moment, I have no idea what!!

I guess it's a good thing I had such a lovely, relaxing weekend because this week promises to be "full steam ahead". I was even hoping to get my pool deck pressure cleaned and re-stained but a predicted, rainy Friday has put a bit of a damper on that.

Grand daughter #2 is in Alpha Delta Pi sorority at FSU and this was Mother's Weekend. She invited her Nana and aunts as well. Daughter #3 couldn't make it but the rest of us piled into the car on Friday afternoon and off we went.

We spent Friday afternoon and early evening downtown-which is always fun in a college town. Many happenings going on on a Friday evening and we had a front row seat at Centrale where we enjoyed some appetizers.

After walking around and taking in the sights, we hit Table 23 for a late dinner.

We started our Saturday at the sorority where we were treated to a wonderful brunch and enjoyed looking at the house and meeting some of Caitlin's sisters and their moms. And, since this was a house FULL of women, they gave us LOTS of photo ops! Lol

By early afternoon, we were off to Thomasville, Georgia. It is the cutest little town and Caitlin knew we would love it. It is full of so many adorable shops and wonderful restaurants...and the whole town is very seasonal/holiday oriented. I loved all of the decorations in all of the windows.

There were beautiful wrought iron benches up and down all of the streets. Many of them had sculptures next to them. This guy was so realistic, I had to take a second look! He even has a real bowl of water to share with any visiting puppers.

Believe it or not, we got a bit hungry by mid afternoon so we stopped by Sweetgrass Dairy Restaurant for one of their "famous" cheese boards and a glass of wine.

When we got back into Tally, we headed to Cascades Park and the Edison Restaurant. There was a bit of a wait for a table but since there was a music festival going on in the park, we were able to sit and listen to some music before we were called in for dinner.

Caitlin met us for breakfast at our hotel on Sunday morning and then it was back on the road for us. It was a lovely get-away and we were able to squeeze in a little celebration for Caitlin's 21st birthday coming up in a few days.

I am having a super busy week but getting back on schedule and looking forward to our Easter weekend. I also got to go blueberry picking with a friend but I will save that post for another time and show you what I am doing with my "harvest". Stay tuned.