Tag Archives: spring

Road Trip To Eureka Springs, Arkansas

Getting ready to leave on a girls’ getaway. Oh, those words have a sweet sound in my ears. The word getaway is like medicine right now and the phrase girls’ trip always puts a thrill in my heart. I can put the frustration of things not happening fast enough out of my mind and get a fresh perspective moving forward.

It’s a road trip and we’re headed south for three days in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Blooms should be bursting forth even more there than they are here and when I return I anticipate the leafing of the trees to be in full swing. Love this time of year, don’t you? I’m taking my “good” camera and promise to share photos of my trip in a future blog post.

But for now there’s this.

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I’m happy I get to enjoy the blooms of this three year old magnolia before we move.

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I find it interesting that the younger the bud, the more saturated the color and as it grows and unfolds it becomes a paler shade.

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Next week I’m going to share what I’ve been working on for the past few months. I’m really excited about it and can’t wait to tell you.

I’ll be on Facebook while I’m gone and would love to connect with you there. Just click on the little “f” to come over and chat.
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Ombre Vase Fillers

A few years ago I put together these ombre vase fillers for a quick spring project. With spring coming soon I thought it would be a good time to re-post this project that was originally a part of my Girls Want Pearls series. It was a lot of fun choosing the colors to use and creating a custom look using my own shading.

Are you as ready for spring as I am? I’m done with winter and to prove it I’ve got a fresh new pearl project to welcome in warmer weather when it finally gets here. Welcome to Girls Want Pearls #29!
I want to show you a super easy project with high visual impact.

You’ll need:
3 straight skinny clear vases (you can find them at most dollar stores), pearls and beads in various colors, water, and 3 flower stems.
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I love ombre shading! I knew I wanted to create an ombre effect with dark to light colored pearls / beads. I went to shop for the perfect combination of colors but wasn’t quite coming up with what I needed. What do you do when you can’t find what you’re looking for? You make it!
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I did some paint mixing with my craft paints to create 4 of the colors in my design: the cocoa brown, the bright green, and the two lighter shades of pink. I would have much prefered to buy what I needed, and I’m sure you can find the exact right colors online, but in case you can’t, or you like to dabble in paint mixing, here’s the solution I came up with. I placed a dollup of the mixed color in a small plastic container with a lid (butter tub, coffee can, etc.). I dropped in the desired amount of white pearls, put the lid on and shook them up. Then I poured them out on waxed paper and let them dry, jiggling them periodically to keep them from sticking. If you want a more translucent color, add a little water to the paint.

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Once the pearls are dry, place them in the vase, add water and flowers. BTW, I did get lucky when it came to my flower purchase. I knew I wanted light pink tulips for this project. Any color would be lovely but that’s what I pictured. I went to Walmart and they had them! Exactly what I needed at the first place I looked! Bam!
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So there you have it, an inexpensive way to bring a good dose of spring to your home using pearls.

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Easter and Spring Décor 2015

It’s officially spring and now that I’ve got some Easter and spring decor up my home feels happier! The photos I am showing you in this post will be some of the last few I will show of my dining room / kitchen with pumpkin and charcoal colored walls. The next time I show it will be the “before” photos of the whole room. We are in the process of painting now. I say “we” but my husband does all our painting. Right now, each of my first floor rooms ~ living room, entry hall, kitchen, dining room and bathroom ~ are a different color. At the beginning of this year I decided to change all the rooms to the same color to improve the flow and make it feel more cohesive.

But now I’m getting ahead of myself and into my next post! In this post I would like to share some spring inspiration with you from my “old color” dining room.

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Wow, the above photo really makes the wall look orange! The first two photos are more representative of the true color. The buffet sits in my dining room next to the trestle table. With the exception of the pastel eggs, everything is non-holiday enough to keep it out as long as I like. I think it could be improved with a big spray of “something” in the silver trophy urn . . . maybe later.

Around the corner from this buffet, halfway between the dining room and kitchen sits a second buffet.

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You may remember this one decked out for Christmas.

As you can see, I have decorated this buffet in much more of an Easter theme than the other one, with my vintage papier mache bunny, vintage cardboard egg half and pussy willow eggs.

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The cross is something I will leave out year round as well as the birdhouse and candlestick, so this vignette could stick around with just a little tweaking after Easter.

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How do you decorate with the change of seasons? Do you have Easter décor or do you keep it holiday neutral?

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