Tabletop Tuesday: Spring Floral Bucket

Lately everywhere I go in stores, I've been seeing spring bouquets and decor. I wish I could start seeing some evidence of spring in real life in my yard, but we're still in winter mode here.

While I was shopping for a nice pot at a local garden and gift center to re-pot a cyclamen plant, I found a pretty bucket with French words on it in the clearance area and decided to make my own faux spring bouquet for my kitchen table.

I used some leftover spring-looking florals and twiggy elements that I had. A piece of foam hot-glued into the bucket holds them all in place. Green moss was also added as a fill-in.

It looks so pretty on my kitchen table.

 

I also 'dressed up' some really cute Easter boxes that I bought at Michael's for $1.99.

I added a little moss, a spring floral pick and some glittery Easter eggs.

The other one is purple with cute little chicks on the lid. These will looks cute on my Easter table.

Today I'm joining Marty at A Stroll Thru Life for Tabletop Tuesday!

Crafty Things: Birds & Bees

I just recently received my order from my last stamping club and I can hardly wait to make some cards with my new stuff.

This is one of the stamp sets that I bought. I HAD to have it when I saw it in the catalog. These are the printed images that go on the back of the stamp block.

Here they are mounted:

I have lots of stamp sets:

This is probably less than half of the sets I own! Now you know why I had so much stuff in my craft closet and why it needed to be organized (see HERE)

I also got this cute stamp that works perfectly with a scalloped circle punch:

I make a lot of home-made breads, cookies, candies and the like to give as small gifts to friends and family, or as party favors, so this stamp will come in handy to make a quick and cute tag to attach to home-made gifts.

I love the Stampin' Up stamp sets because they often have designer paper that matches: Look at the beautiful paper!

I made a couple cute cards the same day I received my order.....I can hardly wait to do more projects!

Thanks for stopping by!

Olive Hopes to See A Bird

Poor Olive......she wants spring to get here as much as I do! Last summer a very brave goldfinch built a nest in the very thorny climbing rosebush outside this window. The bush was too thick for us to be able to see the nest or babies and by the time Olive joined our family last August, the babies had already fledged and the nest was empty. Lately, however, a sparrow has been investigating the nest and Olive was delighted to be able to watch the bird close-up (the sparrow didn't seem fazed by her looming on the other side of the window). Now she sits in this window several times a day in hopes of seeing a bird there.

She was so busy at another window, she missed seeing this guy on the squirrel feeder this morning. He was a little bit angry this morning because there was a rabbit eating the spilled corn on the ground.

And there were several birds eating the corn as well.

He sat on the garage roof and scolded.

And when that didn't work, he went into the tree where the birds were sitting and scolded until they went away. Can you see him in the tree? He's almost the same color as the branches!

My corn!

Thanks for visiting!

Vintage Thingie Thursday: Vanity Brush & Comb

It's another snowy day in Wisconsin.......but it's also Thursday and time to share something for Coloradolady's Vintage Thingie Thursday!



I've had this sterling silver holloware brush and comb my whole life....literally.

They are a little bit tarnished...  (ok, it's a lot tarnished...I need to get out my polishing cloth.)  When I was a teenager my mother gave these to me in a pink velvet case. She said that they had been a gift that I received on the occasion of my baptism. She never did say exactly who bought this gift for me, but she had kept them somewhere until I was "old enough", as she said. They were on my dresser in my bedroom when I was teenager and afer I left home, they went with me to all the different places I lived. Now they are back on my dresser in my bedroom.

There are markings on the brush and comb. It says "Gorham Sterling No.23". All these years I've had them I never looked up information on them before....but now I have. This pattern is called the "Victorian-Chased Pattern" and they are sterling silver holloware made by Gorham. Evidently they were offered as part of a 9 piece vanity set that included another comb, a military brush, mirror, powder jar, a matching tray and several other square brushes. I haven't found out any information about the exact date these were made, but I'm going to guess it must have been in the late 1960s and early 1970s (I was born in 1970).

I keep them on my bedroom dresser on top of a pretty vintage handkerchief. I'll have to ask my mom again if she remembers who gave them to me; it might have been my godmother. If so, she sure guessed pretty well what I would like when I grew up!

Thanks for joining me!