Hopping Right Along

As the tour continues, we head into the kitchen.

I miss the days of just being able to randomly stroll through stores and happen upon things. With the virus, I pretty much know what I want when I head into a store and don't do much dawdling. Occasionally I will see something on passing but I can't help but think that I have missed numerous "too good to pass up" items the last two years. That is what happened with this small cutting board. I happened upon it two years ago (pre-covid 2019) in the Target Dollar Spot. I think it was $3. I simply used a black paint pen in Rae Dunn fashion to write the words.

This year, everyone on the craft blogs is going crazy over fill-able "chocolate" bunnies from WalMart that they are taking apart, painting and adding cardboard to to make them look like antique chocolate molds. They are also now COMPLETELY sold out everywhere.

The frenzy for those bunnies reminded me that I actually have old molds. They're probably technically not antique but, I have had them for many, many years and I am an antique so, close enough. I actually used to make beeswax bunnies as gifts from them. I also had an old Brown Bag cookie mold that I used to do paper mache' in. I dug them out and put them in my old wooden carpenter's box. Who knows, maybe I'll try my hand at molding some soap or wax again soon?

I also love that little bunny tin tray I got at HL the other day. And, I left the orange carrot bowl in the box as I was now going to introduce some more orange carrots into this room. I made so many carrots this year that I had to get inventive as to where they would be used! Lol I guess in the past, I have had the carrot in the box and no other orange anywhere in the kitchen...not sure how I let that happen. I actually still think the orange fights all of the other Easter colors but, it is what it is. I only have so many rooms that I can decorate!

So, with an orange rubber scraper in the utensil holder and the orange carrot in the box, I reluctantly brought out my foil wrapped bunnies once again and gave them some carrots along with the pot of carrots where they were growing. I know, I know, this story really makes no sense but I need to have some kind of justification for my design...even if it's only in my head! Ha-ha Now your eye can follow the orange around the room. These are those little candy filled carrots from the $ Tree that I spent WAY too long making and got so many hot glue burns that I was determined that they were going SOMEWHERE!

Then there is the adorable little coiled basket that my cousin made for me.

And, on the floating shelf is the bunny Mason jar that I made last year. I found some lighter napkins this year so, if I can find just the right glass container in my stash, I might be making another one of these...and hopefully it will be a bit brighter. I love the old bunny but I think it is a bit too dark for this area. We shall see.

So that is pretty much the kitchen for 2021. We are still not sure how Easter will play out this year but I sure hope I get to use some of my dinnerware and serving pieces to feed someone before it all goes away. Stay safe and stay tuned.

Hippity Hoppity

St.Pat's is down and all put away and I am finally on to Easter. Join me in the start of our 2021 tour.

Once we step through the door, you should begin to see some of this year's changes. Last year I used a small amount of "orange" (that I had added in the Mr. and Mrs. Rabbit statues) in the livingroom. When I began making all of the orange "carrot" things this year, I just assumed that they would be in the livingroom as well but, that just didn't work out. And so, there has been a lot of changing up...and I am starting to like it.

I am finally happy with where this big guy is sitting now. I bought this bunny many years ago in SteinMart and even though I always loved his size and presence, I never quite found a way to use him that I was happy with. I put him in this large tin dish and then started surrounding him with the flowers and still didn't like how it was looking until I realized that the top egg was throwing me off. I can't even remember what color it was but it just wasn't right. Since I have so many purples in the arrangement, I grabbed my lavender chalk paint and painted it. Then I used a paint pen to add some detail. Lucky for me the detail on the others is kind of "freehand" because it was not easy to do with him already in the arrangement and I had fiddled with those flowers so many times that there was NO way I was taking it apart just to paint that egg. When the paint was dry, I brushed on some Elmer's glue and then threw some glitter onto it. And that was all that he needed. I love him now.

I found this pillow at Target the other day. It is very rare these days that I buy an actual pillow versus just a pillow cover because they need so much more room to store. But, this one spoke to me. The white bunnies are actually embroidered on the flax linen pillow and I think it is just so pretty.

I love this old bunny. I bought him many years ago at a favorite shop in Gainesville.

So that is the first of the tour for this year. This is usually where I would be saying things are as they are until I "tweak" them. But, truth be told, we are less than two weeks away from Easter. Most stores are all pretty much sold out of their nice Easter things and most of the craft blogs that I follow have moved on to 4th of July ideas...so, things are probably going to be staying just like this.

We are having an incredibly chilly day even though it is spring. But, the temps will be soaring later this week so, I'm not sure where the week will take me, but you'll be the first to know. Stay safe and stay tuned.

 

 

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

The much awaited day has finally arrived. In my house, it is usually less celebrated than it is on the previous weekend but, I still adhere to the "wear green" rule and you can be sure my dinner will be matching as well. I'm not a fan of corned beef and cabbage but I will be having spinach ravioli with pesto and a big green salad. And, I will be celebrating with my fur grand, Hazel, while her family is off on spring break.

As I have said, I am chomping at the bit to put up Easter but since that won't happen until tomorrow, I've been staying busy by making some new Easter decor. Yesterday, I tackled a decorated egg.

I used a fill-able egg from Dollar Tree and started by painting it lavender.

I used lavender chalk paint in hopes that it would adhere well to the plastic of the egg. It did OK but it did scratch a bit just in moving it so I gave it a coat of clear acrylic to see if that might help. Then, I coated the whole thing with Elmer's glue and sprinkled on a fine lavender glitter. My hope was that it would remind me of the sugar eggs of days gone by.

After that it was all about the embellishments. I wish I could have found beautiful silk ribbons but I had to go with what I could easily find. I did come upon some pretty paper viola looking flowers and an embroidered lace to use as the edging. 

I was pretty happy with it until I realized that the weight of the embellishments was gluing to the paint and glitter but lifting completely off of the egg itself. It took a bit of patience to re-glue and HOLD everything for a lot longer than usual but, at least for now, it is still all together. I know it is a pastel color but it is the one pastel that I do add in quite a bit at Easter time...I will admit that it is almost impossible to avoid all pastels and still be able to use pretty Easter things...especially vintage! In any case, I'm happy with it and I'm sure it will find a home soon.

And, while I was at it, I had two little pieces of wood that were carrot shaped that came from the scrap pieces of cutting the actual carrots. I decided to just paint them up and use my trusty Dremel to drill into the wood (I love my Dremel for small drilling jobs-so much easier to control than my big, heavy drill) and put in some greenery. And then, because I didn't like the look of the bottom of the plastic greenery, I added the same black and white ribbon that I used on the rabbit head. I'm thinking these three will probably end up together somewhere tomorrow.

They're kind of cute for being wood that would have just been tossed.

And, spring has sprung. I can not tell you how happy I am that I was able to protect my bougainvillea from this year's couple of freezing temps. I have worked too hard to lose them now. I will say that only one is blooming. We're guessing maybe the one in the corner doesn't get enough sun but, I am the eternal optimist. I check it out carefully every time I'm out there and I just know one day it too will reward me with some beautiful blooms. This is exactly what I envisioned when I got my brother and sister-in-law to help us build this trellis about four years ago.

I'm off to enjoy the rest of the day and then tomorrow I hope to start getting my Easter on. Stay safe and stay tuned.

 

 

When Life Hands You Lemons...

Perhaps I should have titled this "when you do something stupid"...I am not big on too many of the Dollar Tree crafts these days. If I am going to spend my time making a craft and my money (albeit at the Dollar Tree) for supplies, I want it to be for something that will look good and last. But, I also am always looking for things to make to keep me busy and, of late, my eye has been caught by a lot of tinsel bunny head make-overs that are kind of cute. I saw one where the head was wrapped in twine and then put on a candle holder and embellished and I thought I might give it a try. 

Unfortunately, my Dollar Trees were out of the head I needed but I found another and thought I could make it work. I was WRONG. This is what I bought...there were three heads on the hanger thing.

I took one head off and hoped it would work. I knew it was larger but thought I could get away with that. What I couldn't get away with was that it was flat where the other was three dimensional. I kind of knew even at this point that this wouldn't work, but I soldiered on. I took off the tinsel, snipped off the little tabs and covered it in twine-which is NO easy task and results in MANY hot glue burns! As if that shouldn't have been a sign to just throw in the towel. But no, not for me.

At this point I held it up to the candle holder I wanted to use and it was horrible. I tried a thin vase...nope...and a few other things but nothing was speaking to me.

As luck would have it, when the kids and I were cutting the wood for the craft we made on Saturday, I happened upon another piece of wood and decided to go ahead and cut it up for future use while the saw was out. So glad I did because this morning it hit me. How about gluing the head flat on the wood? And so, I painted the edges of the plaque and ModPodged on a piece of paper. I know it isn't the traditional Easter colors but I am not a pink, baby blue or yellow fan so I decided to go this route.

I sanded off the edges, hit it all with the antique gel and then distressed a bit more.

Then, it was just a matter of making a little burlap "collar" and a "messy" bow and hot gluing it all on the wood with some greenery, a little carrot and the tag I made the other day and didn't use. I still can't say it is a favorite but I think I saved it enough that I will be able to find a shelf to prop it on.

As I was moving all of the recent Easter projects around I realized that I have a theme going...can you see it?

It doesn't surprise me that there is so much orange - as it is a favorite color for me even in the spring - but the carrot theme kind of does. But, I did use mostly naturals with brown bunnies and greens in my living room last year and I'm pretty sure that all of this will fit right in with that. We'll see how it looks in just a few days. Until then, stay safe and stay tuned.