Here comes Peter Cottontail....

Hi y'all! Can you believe Easter is next week? Where does the time go? I had a lot of big crafting plans for Easter but of course didn't accomplish half of it. I only completed one project & I can't wait to share it w/ you! But that's not what this post is about *grins*...today I want to share my Easter decor. It's been up for awhile...just haven't had a chance to take pics & post. I've told y'all before that I collect vintage sheet music covers & I've shared many of them with you but I don't think this one has ever made an appearance on my blog so I'm sharing it now. Here comes Peter Cottontail! My faux mantel.....not much changes about this from season to season & I like it that way. I keep a "base'scape" of the apothecary jars on the left, the frame, mirror & glittered wish in the middle & the brass mini-curio on the right. I just add seasonal touches & in less than 10 minutes, I can have a whole new look. inside one of the apothecary jars is a sweet box & a tiny leather bound book titled Dreams. So sweet! I never can get a shot of the min-curio w/out glare. I've stashed a couple of carrots inside.

This chick looks vintage but it's not. I bought it @ Tuesday morning several years ago. I paired it w/ a treasured old Easter photo of my kids....still in it's original 80's frame.

This candy dish isn't vintage either...it's another Tuesday Morning buy. They have great reproductions @ great prices!

I covered a styrofoam egg w/ fabric from an old pillowcase & embellished it (it was a tut Casandra Van Curen had last year but it's still available I think). Here it is under the magnifying glass I use for display.

Now this porcelain bunny peeking out of an egg is vintage...love it!

This "pulltoy" is another reproduction, but one I love!

Sometime soon, this dark wood piece is getting a nice, light coat of white & then it won't suck every ounce of light out of the room.

Vintage flocked Easter card.

For my centerpiece this year, I stacked egg cups on a tiered cake stand & paired it w/ my collection of sugar eggs & a playful bunny.

I didn't get a closeup of the chocolate bunnies on my hutch but you can click & enlarge. And I neglected getting pics of the wonderful sheet music cover you see on the wall...it's titled My Choc'late Rabbit & is from the 50's. It's one of my favorites in my collection!

My shoulder was well enough to hang my crocheted carrots from my chandelier. YEAH! It's been a year & a half since I could strech my left arm out high.

I'll be back later to share my one & only Easter 2011 art project...I'm so proud of it!

Hippity Hoppity Easter's on its way!

Hi y'all! Check out the shadow box eggs that my grandson, Connor & I made! We started w/ one of those paper mache egg "boxes" from Germany....only this one had 2 tops & no bottom. ??? Anyway, I covered the inside back of mine w/ wrinkled tissue paper, then inked it...kissing it in spots w/ mica flakes.
click on any picture & then click again to enlarge for details

The outside of the egg is covered in glitter but it doesn't show up well in the pics. I rimmed mine w/ a crepe paper ruffle & then added a piece of grungy, coffee dyed pink ribbon & lace. For the bases, I used a glittered up tart tin but had some technical difficulties in glueing the egg on. So I wound a ring of tulle on the tart tin & glued the egg to the tulle. It's pretty solid now!

For the inside, I made a bunny out of chenille stems.

And added a banner.

This is Connor's egg...didn't he do a good job? Hard to believe that my all-boy, race car-loving, football-playing grandson can design & create something so lovely, huh? The only decision I made for him was to use the tart tin base & I talked him into rimming it w/ tulle. Which he later agreed was a nice touch.

I have to share what he said while we were making them (and I quote) "I think I'm gonna interject some color in mine since all your artwork is old & crusty looking." LOL He says that like it's a bad thing! *grins* I reminded him that my style is old, crusty & sparkly. ;)

He chose vintage wallpaper to line the back of the inside.

Adding a dolled up a tree w/ easter eggs & a porcelain boy bunny, offering an egg. It's appropriate since he is making this shadowbox egg has a gift for his mom.

Love the trim he picked out to use!

I'd also like to share the mini-Easter baskets all the grands made for their mom. We started off w/ nut cups...some chose a neutral & some chose silver. For this project, Connor said he was going to go w/ my "old & crusty style". I told him not to forget "sparkly". ;) From left to right it's Connor's (he did nail "my" style...the only thing I would have changed would be to omit the pink gems), Caeden's, Caralyn's & Coleson's.

Caralyn chose a sugar bunny to decorate her's with & Coleson wanted a fuzzy chick.

Love Caeden's idea of hiding an egg under the grass...so creative!

Shilah's favorite candy is jelly bellys so we'll add a few to each basket before giving them to her...won't she be thrilled when the Easter bunny comes to see her again, after all these years?

The Enchanted Tea Cottage....

I'm finally sharing pictures of the Tea Cottage we remodeled for Caralyn's birthday last August. Better late than never right? ;) Cute, huh? Look at the before!!!! We've had it for years but it was only being utilized as a giant toybox for the grands. So 2 weeks before Caralyn's birthday (back in August in 104 temps!) I decide that I'm gonna remodel it for Caralyn's 5th birthday. I promised you pics then but am just now following through....sorry! We ripped off the log cabin roof & added shingles, put in a new floor & painted it white.

I know I have a pic of Caralyn in her playhouse somewhere but I can't find it so I'll share one of my favorite pictures, of my beautiful Caralyn Camille.

OK, back to the tea cottage. This is the view as you look through the dutch door & as you can see, we painted the inside pink. But I didn't go w/ the more muted, subtle pink I did in my studio. Caralyn likes her pinks bold & strong! It's actually a brighter color in person than it appears in photos. It lights inside & out at night.

The tea set I gave her to use out here. The little boys enjoy this cottage also (Noah calls it "the baby house") but neither bother any of the breakables. They are only allowed to play w/ the babies & a plastic tea set I keep in there for them. And believe or not...they leave all the china alone.

Looking through the front window. The tea cottage is cute but is it ever tiny!!! Even when I can squeeze my big butt in, I can't stand up. ;)

It's full of ballerina stuff...this is a thrift store frame than I hung a tutu (actually intended to be an ornament) on.

Most of her tutus are in the house in her dance drawer but this one is just for play.

Even these boys love the tea cottage. LOL

Hope everyone has a great weekend. I've got crafting plans w/ the grands. Connor & I need to finish up some shadow box eggs we started over Spring Break & then all of us are going to make mini-Easter baskets for their mom. I'll share pics of their creations next week. As well as pics of my Easter decor. It's all up & I am very happy w/ it this year.

Want a creative, beautiful gift card holder?

Make one out of a toilet paper tube. ;) I saw these little "pouches" in one of the Somersets & knew they'd be great gift card holders. And they are! The cards fit just perfect in them. Just flatten the cardboard tubes, glue the bottom shut, paint & decorate. I gave them a light coat of beeswax before decorating & it realllllllly took them to a higher level. Made them look much more professional! (Don't be afraid of the beeeswax...it's super-easy!) I slipped the gift cards inside & then tucked a piece of tulle in also. One daughter loves pink so this one is her's.....

And my other daughter (Clifton's wife) loves blue so this one was for her. I used a cream chalk to tint the decorative paper blue.

I was very blessed in having the one daughter & then God blessed me again with Stacie. I couldn't love her more if I had given birth to her myself. And I'm pretty sure she feels the same about me as she calls me Mother. She & I are spending some girl time together this weekend & I'm really looking forward to it.

I've been spiffing up the Enchanted Tea Cottage & it occured to me that I never shared the make-over w/ y'all. So I'll be sure & get pictures tomorrow morning when the light is good.

Update...I didn't feel right not giving credit to the artist responsible for the toilet tube pouches idea so I went through my Somersets to find out who the artist is...it's Becky Shander. She does some amazing stuff!

Gotta love junkin'!

And you gotta love a man who loves junkin'!!!! I'm very fortunate that my hubby likes to junk, nearly as much as I do. It's one of our favorite quality time activities. And a couple of weeks ago, we spent a whole day hitting the cattle barns flea, a thrift store, an estate sale & some garage sales....look @ all I came home with!

The cattle barns is a great place to find cheap bling!



The old rulers were a thrift store find, the old photos from the estate sale; as were the sterling S & P shakers....$3!!!!! And check out the old notepad paper...another thrift store find & only 39 cents.

Beautiful sugar bowl...garage sale...$1!

This perfume bottle was at the same garage sale as the sugar bowl & was also only a $1. It's beautiful now that it's clean & sparkly.

The lace pillow is already employed as a display/storage piece for my vintage, rhinestone brooches. LOVE the vintage bird print & I cannot seem to resist cheap china. I gotta get into mosaics.

All kinds of dolls & doll parts! And a lovely pink tatting trimmed hankie...only a quarter!

The little crystal bowl is already filled w/ mica flakes & the "pearl" hearts are actually button covers but I'll use them in art projects.

I have plans for the thimbles for my girls for Mother's day...shhhhh! Mum's the word!

I snagged the watches @ a garage sale for 25 cents a piece....they'll be used as mini-shadow boxes in jewelry designs.

I asked one of my favorite dealers if she had any super cheap bling for me to use in my art projects. She gave me 2 boxes of junk to dig out of. I spent over half an hour going through them but it was worth it...alll the bling on this sheet music was only $3....TOTAL! And as you can see...there was some good stuff mixed in w/ the junk!

Speaking of sheet music, one of the dealers @ the flea had a box w/ a 3" stack of sheet music in it. One dollar for the whole box!

Found this wonderful old doll dress, slip & bonnet @ a garage sale for $4.

And this old, fabulous christening gown was another cattle barns find but I had to pay $10 for it. I'm planning on using my collection of vintage baby garments (didn't pay more than $3 for any of them) as a valance in the guest/baby room & this nice piece will be the highlight of it.

Found this vintage cake topper @ the thrift store for only $2.99.

And I somehow neglected to get a pic of the other one I scored....for the same price & @ the same thrift store...but you can see it here behind the little leather bound books.

Quite a haul, huh? I am almost done w/ my Easter decor...then it's on to the Easter crafting....can't wait! I have big plans for Easter crafting this year.