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.

Easter Blessings

I'm back sooner than I thought I would be for two reasons: 1. We had more rain last night and probably a bit more soon so raking wet leaves is way more difficult than waiting for them to dry and 2. I just really love this project and couldn't wait to share it with you.

Except for the cross which I picked up in Walmart the other day-not sure how much it cost but it couldn't have been much-I had all of the other supplies on hand.

I didn't have anything that I could use as a background so I decided to make a pallet from the large paint sticks. I could have used pieces of old fencing but for some reason, I wanted this to be a bit "cleaner". I will say that I learned that all paint sticks are not created equal. Lol I only had 7 of the ones I purchased and needed 8 so I grabbed one I got at Lowes the last time I bought a large can of paint. It was a bit shorter and thinner than the others but even all of the others weren't exactly the same so I taped them off making sure the bottoms were even and cut them as one bundle. I love it when I can get my old friend the miter saw out. In fact, I haven't put it away just yet as I'm hoping I come up with another fun idea where it might be needed soon.

 Then I used my large craft sticks to put it together and painted it with a Waverly celery green chalk paint. When the paint was dry, I gave it just a light touch of distressing around the edges and down each seam of the pallet. I liked the "shiplap" look that gave but kept it very subtle.

 Then I painted the cross. I used Waverly "plaster" chalk paint on the back piece and "mineral on the top layer. I also gave all of these edges just a light hint of distressing ink when it was all dry.

Because I wanted the cross to have a bit more presence and pop, I wrapped the pallet with twine before gluing on the cross.

Then I used another craft stick, cut it down a bit, painted it with mineral and added the Easter phrase that I printed out on my computer. That is not the script I would have chosen but, after so many years of not doing any composing like this, I honestly forgot how I went about getting all of the fancy fonts that I have somewhere from my days of scrapbooking. I almost tried it in long hand but decided I could live with this and so it is. Lol I wanted to add the flowers but felt like I had to keep them relatively small so I didn't lose the parts of the cross. I kind of just went around the house and snipped off small pieces of sprays that I have and then added just a few of the flowers that I have from Paper Studio. I like the soft hint of color that they add.

This is where I propped it for the picture but I actually think I like it there so it will stay...at least for now.

So that's all I have for now. Off to do a few little things before I settle in to watch grandson #1's college lacrosse game this afternoon. Stay safe and stay tuned.

 

To the Kitchen We Go

 We are having a typical spring day-nice temperatures, light showers breaking into sun later this afternoon. I am actually very thankful for this rain even though it did change my plans to rake yet again. On the upside, everything looks such a perfect spring green and most of the pollen has washed away. My car is usually in the garage but, because I still hadn't gotten all of my St. Pat's packed up, it has been in the driveway for a few days and literally COVERED in yellow pollen. A quick bath for it was also on my calendar for today but that has now been taken care of. A quick swipe with a sponge before I pulled it in and it is good to go for a bit.

In any case, with Easter fast approaching, I thought we should hop into the kitchen today.

The carpenter's box holds my chocolate and cookie molds and the egg shaped cutting board that I found last year.

And then here is the bunny cutting board that I found at the same time. And I love the candle ring hanging on the handle of the other board-I can never get enough lavender-wish I could grow it. Lol Believe me, I have tried a number of times and done all of the "tricks" to make it flourish...and it didn't!

It seems like I did a number of $Tree sign makeovers last year-this one is kind of cute.

And then the free image that I decoupaged on to a canvas.

So, the cardboard "flying" bunny found a home here. And, I still love the daffodil painting that an artist friend of mine made for me for my birthday one year. I have always loved spring bulb flowers, particularly daffodils, and she told me that is because it is my "birth month" flower-who knew?

And I just found these beautiful purple tulips at the store this morning so they had to get added to the spring color mix.

So that is the kitchen for this year. I actually picked up a different-for me-craft supply yesterday so I might be starting on something this afternoon. And, what a fun day I had yesterday. Grand daughter #5 moved up to varsity for a great game against a major rival...and we won. Then it was in to the car and across town where grandson #2 was cleared to get back to play after his surgery. I must say, he came back with a vengeance and made some incredible defensive moves-and we won this one too!  Both of these kids are serious players and I am so proud of both of them.

 

If Mother Nature is my friend, I plan to be outside the next two days trying to get rid of some of these leaves but I'll be back soon. Stay safe and stay tuned.