Spring Has Sprung!

I know many of you, myself included, are more than ready for spring to arrive!

So today I thought I'd share with you the gorgeous spring blooms at our local botanical gardens

As members, we were invited the other day to a pre show, and WOW, what a show it was!

 We are so fortunate to have the gardens nearby, and walk Katie their nearly every day on their many trails and scenic drives.

  I snapped alot of pictures, so I will let them do most of the talking:)

 The scents were amazing!

 The conservatory had tons of stunning amaryllis, more than I have ever seen before!

 Isn't this flower fairy, below, charming and sweet?

 So many colors, it was a feast for the eyes!

 Just look at these gorgeous orchids!  They all are on one plant!

 Daffodils are favorites of mine, so cheery, I think!

 Wish you could smell everything!

 Ok, this isn't a flower, but I had to share.  The huge kumquat tree in the tropical dome was loaded!  I was oh so tempted to stuff one in my mouth:)

 Kites hanging from the ceiling add a fun and festive touch!

 The amaryllis blossoms were huge, each bloom larger than my outstretched hand!

Thanks for joining me on my little tour today!

Here is wishing spring comes early for us all!

Dreamy Tags

As soon as I spotted the latest gorgeous tags that Becky from Timewashed had created, I could hardly wait to buy them for myself!

The tags are even more beautiful in person, full of so many details and layers of creamy, dreamy lace.

If you haven't visited Becky's blog or Etsy shop, you are in for a treat!

I purchased two of her tags, and they are truly works of art.

The base of each tag is wood, so they are sturdy and substantial.

I really love Becky's idea of white washing the burlap background!

I've been drooling over all of the gorgeous trims, lace, and bling.

 Love the butterfly.

 Let your faith take wing..........................

 And I love the fine tuile "fringe" on the bottom!  It makes me think of a ballerina's tutu:)

 The second tag that I purchased is heart shaped, and features a gorgeous creamy fabric flower.

 It looks perfect here in the little vignette I created in our bedroom.

 It's obvious that Becky puts her heart into all of her creations!

 Just look at the snippets of gorgeous vintage lace, petite pearly buttons, velvet ribbon, and even a silk sari ribbon.  And don't forget about the bling!

Thank you Becky for inspiring us all!

Spring Blooms

Ok, so it's not exactly spring yet in our neck of the woods, but it's beginning to look like it inside!

Isn't this rose amazing? Last week I treated myself to a bouquet at Trader Joe's.  For just $3.99, I couldn't pass up these beauties!

Pinky coral roses have always been one of my favorites.  What they lack in scent

(sadly, most of today's cultivated roses aren't fragrant), they more than make up in beauty!

 The buds were just starting to open when I bought them, and I've been amazed at how big they have gotten.  Each day they open more and more, and are actually bigger today than when I snapped these photos yesterday.

I also really love the hot pink roses.  The yellow alstroemeria have never been my favorite flowers, but they do make good fillers, and they last for weeks!

 I've put them in one of my favorite vintage milk glass vases, and placed them on our bistro set in the sunroom.  We eat breakfast and lunch here every day, and it's our favorite room in the house!

(well, my craft room is actually my very favorite!!)

And since my friend Diana loves multiple views of the same thing (I think she said "the more the better"), this post is dedicated to her, tee, hee:)

 Here's a view of part of the sunroom.  Sorry for the poor quality, with all of the light coming in the windows it was hard for me to get a good shot.

 Ok, now on to totally unrelated stuff!

All of the cold and snow from this past winter has left me longing for warmer days.

That must have been what inspired me to chose the bright and vibrant shades that I painted some of my latest Etsy shop offerings.

I was super excited to find this giant vintage wooden fork and spoon while thrifting on our Savannah trip!

 At nearly 2 1/2 feet tall, they are huge!

I couldn't wait til we got home to paint them this fun and cheerful aqua chalk paint.

 The color makes me think of the beach!

 And speaking of the ocean, while we were on our trip I had fun painting these cute cast iron sea horse hooks.

I mixed up a bunch of different colors to create this pretty aquamarine shade that I love.

Then hubby helped mount them on vintage wooden plaques that he found for me

(he makes a great picker!!)

which I also painted beachy blues and aquas.

 Aren't these little guys cute?

 Finally we are thawing out this week, with temps in the 50's.  That will seem like a heat wave for us!

Thanks for stopping by today.

Think Spring!!

Petite Decoupaged Trunk

Bonjour Mes Amis!
Today I thought I'd share with you this petite trunk which I decoupaged with spring time blooms.
When we were in Savannah, I found the wooden trunk at Hobby Lobby, and instantly fell in love with it.  The color was perfect, a nice antiquey aqua.  And I thought the aged brass and leather trim was super cool, too!

When I first purchased it, I really didn't know what I would do with it.  Initially I thought of maybe just adding a tag, but you know me, I love to embellish!  And since I was wanting to work on a crafty project while we were on our motor home trip, I thought this would be the perfect blank canvas.
Then one thing lead to another, and I decided to decoupage it!
I happened to have pretty scrapbook paper that I brought along, so I cut out the lovely floral and butterfly motifs.

Then the fun began!
I didn't want to totally cover the trunk, as I wanted the wonderful antiqued aqua to still be visible.
So I really tried to use a bit of restraint:)

Just looking at these pretty blossoms gives me spring fever!

You can't see it in the photos, but I added a bit of glitter to the butterflies, to give their wings a gossamer appearance.
I didn't want to use regular glitter that would shed all over the place, so I just mixed a small amount of clear iridescent glitter glue (I love "Stickles" brand!) to the Mod Podge.

As a fun little surprise, I even added the decorative paper and a butterfly to the inside!

Here is a shot of the back.

You know how much I love tags, so I just had to add one to the trunk.
I used the same scrapbook paper to fashion my tag, stamped it with a pretty crown, added a tiny rhinestone for a bit of bling ('cause you know how much I love bling!!)
and then stamped the word "bonjour", to give it a bit of a French accentt!
Here is one last look.

Thanks so much for visiting today!  I hope this inspires you to create a little bit of spring in your house!!

From This to This.................

Hi everyone, hope your week has been a good one so far!

Well we went from this, 

sunny, relatively mild Savannah with stately moss draped live oaks, 

to this.............

Yep, we made it back to the arctic zone!

While I am happy to be home after such a long trip, I really could do without the snow and cold!

This is (or, should I say "was"?) our front deck, where you can get a peek a boo glimpse of our now snow covered motor home!

So today I thought I'd share with you a few photos that I snapped from the road trip home.

I couldn't get a good pic of the entire span of Talmadge Bridge in Savannah which we crossed, so I found the one below, on line.  It is pretty impressive, and much, much bigger when you are driving over it, especially in a motor home!

source

Notice the huge freighter.  Hubby and I had alot of fun enjoying drinks at our favorite place downtown overlooking the water, where we could marvel at the giant cargo ships arriving from all over the world.

And here is  pic that I snapped going over the bridge!

Thankfully hubby does all of the driving!

On long trips like this, we always pull hubby's car, so that makes us a whopping 47 feet long!!

 Hold your breath, and don't look over the edge!!

 I always get a kick of of goofy signs when we are traveling.  This was next door to the gas station where we stopped to refuel, in South Carolina.  Not sure if "Chickin Lickin" is really world famous, as the sign says.................

And once you are finished with your Southern fried chicken,

you can hop next door for some fireworks!

For some reason, the people of the south seem to love their fireworks!

 This is Katie's favorite perch when we are going down the road!

 The beautiful mountains near Asheville, North Carolina.

 The roads were perfectly clear and dry as we drove thru Asheville.

Another Asheville view from the road.

 It got colder of course the further north we headed. 

Just look at these huge icicles along the road in Tennessee!

 Going thru the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee.  Even though I wasn't excited to see snow again, I must admit it was pretty!

  Thankfully, we didn't have any snowy conditions on the roads til we reached southern Ohio, where we woke up to several inches of freshly fallen snow, and it was still coming down!

And this last shot is a pic of our back yard that I snapped this morning

(from the comfort of inside, I might add!)

Yes, home is sweet, but in truth I am hoping for an early spring!

Not so sure we will be getting it here in the Midwest!

Stay warm and snug!