Butterflies and Birds...Oak Tree Centerpiece

I know Easter has come and gone...

but I wanted to show you what

I did with the centerpiece

for our Easter Brunch.

It's not Easter

specific...you could use

it for Mother's Day,

Birthday's, Showers

Etc.

I apologize that the pictures are

not that great...it's hard to take

pictures on our back porch...

Sweet husband removed a large branch

from one of the oak trees

 (it was hanging over the roof and had to be removed

anyway...no oaks were harmed in the making of this)

He then tied it with a zip tie to the existing hook

hanging from the ceiling....underneath is a

large sheet of florist Styrofoam that the base

of the branch is pushed into.

Then I just went wild...

hanging butterflies, birds and nest everywhere

At the base I covered the Styrofoam with green

and grey moss...to try and resemble the base of

a woodland forest...

Then I added the glittered mushrooms the kids

had made...and more butterflies!



Mushroom and bird glittering...in the process!

It was sooooo messy!



But I think it was worth it..



I don't think the pictures do it justice...

it was much prettier and bigger in person

It was a low cost....Big Impact centerpiece

Honestly the biggest cost was the butterflies..

I was able to get them 1/2 off so I probably

only spent $15 on them.

And I will have them again for next year!

You could do lots of things with this concept...

Take your branch and you could

hang....lanterns, lights, fruit, tags with

quotes or words on them, or flowers.

It would be cute for a dinner party to hang

trivia questions or conversation starters.

as long as you are consistent with the colors,

and style of whatever you are using it

will turn out cute as opposed to tacky!

Alright...i'm off to clean and polish a

dresser that I picked up this morning

because it had no home and begged

for me to give it one...

well at least that's what I heard it say

Shutter Benches and Checkerboard Patio

Okay...so do you remember awhile back

when I told you all that sweet husband

had come across alot of green shutters?

And I promised to show you what he did with them...

well it took awhile but here it is

He built beautiful benches for the garden with all the shutters

 And then he was sweet enough to build me a
 checkerboard paver and grass patio for them to sit on!

I made pretty white ruffled pillows to go on the benches

 Excuse the overgrown grass...we are waiting as long as we can
for it to fill in before we cut it tomorrow...
just in time for Easter egg hunting!!!

We are so happy with the way it turned out...
I have to admit that I wanted to
spray the benches white..imagine that!
But he said we should leave them the lovely
vintage green that they were. 
And lordy no one tell him this...but he was
absolutely right..they are perfect green!

Here is a look at something else we've

been working on...

an old fountain turned into a tiny

succulent garden

If I don't talk to you all before Sunday...
I hope everyone has a blessed Easter!!!
And that you are surrounded with
the love of your friends and family!

Easter Pails and Bunny Noses

Well the Easter pails

are finally finished!

This year I used the pails as

an excuse to buy the

Cricut Machine...

Now doesn't that sound

logical to you...

$1.00 sand pails  +  a $300 Cricut machine =

Very expensive plastic buckets!

Sweet husband bought the logic

and that's all that matters...

Yellow for the gentlemen...

And pink for the little ladies...



And then because the Cricut was on a roll....

Pink Bunny Noses



I found the jars at Michael's Craft Store...

bought baby pink jelly beans from a candy wholesale company...

used the handy dandy Cricut to make labels



And there you have baby bunny noses in a jar...





Now if you will excuse me

I need to go make a few dozen butterflies...

You know that Cricut machine

needs to earn it's keep!

Fairy Ring

What is a Fairy Ring????

Well growing up we always

knew the answer to that...

anytime my Sister and I would

spot a ring of mushrooms our

Mother would tell us that Fairies

had visited us in the middle of the night!

And each mushroom was a seat for one

fairy...and they would laugh and dance

with each other all night long...until the

morning came and then all that was left

was the mushrooms!

Wikipedia defines a Fairy Ring as this...

A fairy ring, also known as fairy circle, elf circle, elf ring [1] or pixie ring, is a naturally occurring ring or arc of mushrooms. The rings may grow to over 10 metres (33 ft) in diameter, and they become stable over time as the fungus grows and seeks food underground. They are found mainly in forested areas, but also appear in grasslands or rangelands. Fairy rings are detectable by sporocarps in rings or arcs, as well as by a necrotic zone (dead grass), or a ring of dark green grass.

 If these manifestations are visible a fairy fungus mycelium is likely to be present in the ring or arc underneath.

Fairy rings also occupy a prominent place in European folklore as the location of gateways into elfin kingdoms, or places where elves gather and dance. According to the folklore, a fairy ring appears when a fairy, pixie, or elf appears. It will disappear without trace in less than five days, but if an observer waits for the elf to return to the ring, he may be able to capture it. 

Well since this Easter i'm going with a Woodland Theme...

and I subscribe to the philosophy of  if you build it they will come...

I asked sweet husband if he could

make me concrete mushroom seats

for the garden and of course the children. 

He thought about it for a week..came up

with a way to do it and got straight to work

So here are sweet husband's 7 concrete mushrooms that form

our garden's Fairy Ring...



 The morning after St. Patrick's Day we woke up

to find green leprechaun glitter everywhere..

guess it's not just the fairies who get use

out of the new mushrooms...

We even have a fairy door on the Oak tree...because you know

they prefer to gather around Oak trees...



And because I just can't stand it any longer...

here is a sneak peek at the other project we've

had going on...

But you'll have to wait till next time to see the

full reveal!

Falling off the face of the earth...

I swear...as some people have asked

I have not fallen off the face of the earth!

I just needed to fix some things...

myself..our house...our garden....

you know stuff!

I joined a gym...

the scale and I came to an impasse...

it said I was way over my limit

I told it that it was full of lies...

unfortunately the scale was right..

so the gym is where I have spent

 most of my time for over a month now

The children needed reeling in...homework

was in a disarray...things were out of line...

so that's where another portion went.

And last but not least...the yard was horrible!

So with Easter coming up....

I was motivated!!!!!

BIG TIME!

So here is the first in a long line

of garden updates...

We cleaned up the glass house...

and added two green shutters

that hold sconces

And sweet husband built me a bench out of

an old headboard and footboard...

just need to add a few pillows

Then he took me antiquing down on Dixie Highway
near Palm Beach and we found this great old rug...

So once the glass house was in order we
moved on...to making a fairy ring
around the oak tree...

here's a sneak peek...

Fairy ring in the making

A quick peek at a portion of the fairy ring...

Will show you the rest next time!

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend...

Raindrops and Boots...

Raindrops kept falling on my head...

and falling and falling

and my feet were soaked

sooooooo......

I finally bought rain boots!

Hot Pink ones in honor of

Valentine's Day coming up

And a cute scarf to tie them in with my purse...



Five straight days of rain...and today sunshine..of course!

Now i'm going to do a little rain dance

and hope for rain so I can wear them again!





If the rainclouds come your way...

I hope you find something that

makes you smile until the sunshine

finds its way back to you!

Hope you are having a wonderful weekend!

I'm headed to Ikea...YIPPEEEEEEEE

p.s  found the boots and scarf at Target

love Target!

Burlap and Muslin Patchwork Board

Looking through the Pottery Barn Kids

magazine the other day I fell in love with

the wall they did with patches of fabric

did you see it?

Isn't that so cute

Well I came across this corkboard for $5 at

Goodwill yesterday...and I had a thought...

bet I could do like PBK but on a smaller scale

I took left over fabric and cut it into squares...

and stapled them onto the corkboard

Then made a little banner for Valentines

and strung it across..

I had to fix the middle square with the fleur de lis..

because I tried to spray adhesive it and it left a mark.

So don't do that!

Such a quick and cheap project...

And it turned out so cute~



I know I promised to show you the redecoration of the

Glass house...but it's done nothing but rain here and

I can't seem to get good pictures in this dreary weather

But I promise as soon as it stops raining i'll show you!