The Easter Egg: All Grown Up

A few days ago, I ran across a blog post by Brittany, AKA Pretty Handy Girl.  It was one of those blogs that makes you smack yourself in the head and go, "DUH! Why didn't I think of that?"  I obviously don't think outside of the box much, especially when it comes to thinking beyond traditional uses of items.  Like, Easter eggs. 

In my eighteen years as a parent, do you have any idea how many Easter eggs I have decorated?  Hundreds.  Thousands.  Millions.  Okay, ya got me.  Maybe not millions, but a lot.  A whole lot.  And I never looked outside of the pretty pastel colors that never turn out quite as good as they do on the box.  At least when you're trying to supervise six children at once.

Scott introduced me to the whole poking a hole in the top and bottom and blowing the white and yolk out of the egg back when we were dating.  I had never end heard of that.  Momma always hard boiled the eggs the night before Easter and refrigerated them over night.  Then, after the Easter egg hunt was over the next day, she peeled them and made us gag down the hard boiled egg.  Waste not, want not.  UGH.  There is NOTHING worse than greenish hard boiled eggs.  Although I'm not sure which is worse...  the hard boiled eggs or Scott wanting me to scramble the eggs I have blown out for the kids to eat, which is sure to be mixed with spit.  EW.  Needless to say, I usually blow them out while he is gone, throw them out, and become hard of hearing when he asks if we ate them or not.  There are some things I just won't do.  YUCK.

Anyhoo...

So, I was inspired to make my own Easter eggs for grown ups, last night.  And what says Spring better than a Bluebird's egg?  What I love most about this idea is that the possibilities are endless.

You can make a lovely vignette...

Nestle it in amongst spanish moss in a vase full of flowers...

Be more traditional and snuggle them in real bird's nest that you find in your yard...

Or how about tucking them and some rafia in large glass vessel?

Or how about a feminine Easter egg tree?

Adding painted eggs to a little stick tree with some twinkly lights, paper music garland, and primitive stars left over from Christmas decorating, takes you from snowy temps to...

singing blue birds and warmer weather.

Really, the possibilities are absolutely endless.

From mercury glass...

To decorative nests...

and wire baskets.

Only your imagination is the limit.

Too bad my imagination kept me at kiddie pastels and painted on spots for so long.  ;)  I'm lovin' the Easter egg, all grown up.

XO,

Simply Valentine's

I'm not a big one to get all into the different holidays.  I decorate for Fall and Christmas and that's about it.  But this year, I got sucked into Facebook and Pinterest.  Who doesn't?  LOL!  All the Valentine's stuff is so cute!  So, I decided to jump on the bandwagon and do just a real quick, simple mantle.  Its nothing flashy and really, that's fine with me.  :D  But, it did turn out really cute for not a lot of work, so I thought I'd share.

I gathered up all my supplies:

Glass Vessels
Ribbon
Chipboard Letters
Glitter Scrapbook Paper
Felt
Buttons
Glitter
Spray Paint
Mod Podge
Computer Paper
White Card Stock
And some stray candy that the kids miraculously had stuck in my craft cabinet.  LOL!!! (Hey, it works!)

Y'all are some pretty smart people, so I'm sure you can figure out how I got from Point A to Point B, so I won't bore you with the details.  ;)

Here's the final result:

Like I said, very simple.

The felt rosettes are stuck to the glass with scotch tape, so I can reuse them.  In fact, these same glasses held my bleached bottle brush trees from Christmas.

The little fruit jar came from a last minute desperate attempt to fill space without blocking the bottom half of the banner.  It does the job until I can get somewhere to find something that fits.

Stuffed it with tissue paper and scotch taped the candy on it.  LOL!  Whatever, it works for now.  ;)

All in all, it pretty cute and Eva and Landon love it.  The boys...  Yeah, they made gagging noises.  LOL!

A little glitter and sparkle for Valentine's Day and I feel like I've done my duty for the season of love.  And that'll be as much pink as you'll ever see in my house because I'm definitely not the mushy type.  HA!


XOXO, :P

A Start On A Prairie Home Christmas

I don't know about you, but I'm ready to kill the turkey and move on to Christmas!

Friday afternoon, I lugged all my Christmas goodies out of the attic and made another run to HL and J-A's Fabs.  A big thank you to Greyson who carried it the rest of the way downstairs for me.  :)

Saturday morning brought another wrestling tournament, but I sat this one out and stayed home with Eva, Landon, and my niece, Hannah.  It was time to get my Christmas on!  I'm happy to say that the living room is coming along slowly, but surely and I have at least one wall of my office done.  The dining room and the north wall of my office looks like the elves went on a bender, but oh well. It'll get there.

Yesterday, Scott took Ian to another tournament with Greyson and Eva along to cheer and I stayed home with Landon and Noah.  I can't really say I got a whole lot accomplished.  Guess I lost my decorating juju.  I made started on and then got bored with a few ornaments and started working on a banner that I got bored with too, and actually did finish up the office wall - sort of...  But that's about it.  I have to admit I got sucked in to Pinterest, Facebook, and blogland.  And I keep forgetting I can pin stuff now.  LOL!

All in all the decorating is coming along.  I have no idea what I'm going to do with the dining room.  It's as bare as a baby's butt. I've pretty much run out of decorations and I'm not buying anymore.  LOL!  I'm going to have to get really creative evidently.

If you're following me via Facebook, then you've already seen what I've accomplished.  If not, here ya go:

The Office:

I kept the office pretty simple...  Chicken wire provides the back drop to an old sled that I found at the local thrift.  On it is hung an old lantern of my mom's and a GW wreath.  The pear, bird's nest, candle sticks, frames, firewood basket, and rug were all thrift finds, as well.  The garland came from J-A's Fab.  The rest was stuff I scrounged around the house for.  Nothing like decorating on the cheap!  :D

Don't you just love the country hearts?  They're bangin'!  Not.

The Living Room:


I have to admit this is my favorite room of the two.  Might have something to do with the fact that the north wall of my office is filled with stacks and stacks of half-completed projects.  LOL!

I used varying sizes of grapevine wreaths to create an indoor snowlady - all thrift finds, except for the big one that I found at HL's.  Her scarf is burlap and ribbon with a bird's nest pick that has the cutest little cardinal in it.  That's what makes my snowman a snowlady!  LOL!!!  I'm sure you remember my barn door from the office.  The candlesticks are from GW, the bucket that used to hold my hydrangeas in my office is wrapped in burlap and tied with ribbon and a hemp string.  The foliage is from my yard with picks from J-A Fabs.  The snowman...  A hand-me down from Mom and the rest was around the house, as well.

Ahhhh...  My Christmas tree.  Decorated with a burlap garland, ornaments I either already had or some that came from a thrift.  The sleigh?  Thrift.  The chair?  Thrift.  The stool?  Thrift.  Books?  Thrift.  Coffee Table?  15.00.  Craigslist.  The suitcases?  Okay...  Ya got me there.  Paid out the nose for the bottom two at an antique store, but the top one was free.  ;)  Everything else?  Already owned.  :D

Still working on the the living room and the dining room, and the north side of the office.  Ugh.  Hopefully I get my Christmas mojo back today.  :)  Ian said that it was going to feel like Christmas on Thanksgiving and Noah asked if we could just do Christmas morning on Thanksgiving.  LOL!  Yes, definitely a departure from past years, but I'm glad I'm ahead of the game this time around.  I might actually be able to enjoy the decorations before I have to take them down this year!

And yes, I'm going to take the time to brag on my sons' wrestling prowess this weekend.  Noah took 1st on Saturday and Ian took 2nd on Saturday and 1st on Sunday.  WOOT!  Way to go, studs!  ;)

Well, time to get at it!  Merry Christmas!  Happy Thanksgiving!  ;)