Nest from Jerri and forced branches

Blown Eggs for the nest

Last fall we had a storm come through and knock a nest down from the top of our Bradford Pear tree. We snatched it up and brought it in the house to save. What a treasure! It made a great lesson for the kids. How often can you really study a bird's nest up close like that?


So, anyway, with Easter approaching, I had planned to prepare some eggs for dying and decorating.

We poked our holes in them. I tried to use a tooth pick, but that didn't work, so I used the tiny tip of my paring knife. If you know me, you'll be relieved to know my fingers are still all intact. :-)


Then I held it gently and blew the insides out, into a pan. Yep, the kids had
eggs shortly after this craft.

I put two of the undecorated eggs in my bird's nest, for decoration.

The rest will be painted and paper-crafted.

shell display, take2

To make my house look a little more fresh for spring, I displayed some shells in the kitchen. This large shell is on a beautiful China teacup my grandma gave me, turned upside down. The vase is full of shells and sand dollars that we collected a few years ago when we went to Washington and Canada. Fred won the blue star candle from his last poker weekend. ;-)
I have this platter on the cupboards above my sink now.

Recovering Chairs

Fred had brought home some extra pillow coverings, that his boss signed out. I guess they were the wrong size or they didn't have enough, so they were just getting rid of them. I had been saving them, to give the living room a different look at some future point. But then it dawned on me that they could get some use right now!

I unscrewed my kitchen chairs, (with help from Isabelle and Ethan) and then we fitted each seat with a new pillow case cover.

Before (chair towards the back), and then after we put a red case on one.

Ta-da!

I only had two soft red ones, two red patterned ones, and three of the heavier floral...so I just mixed and matched. I like the results!

More Window Mistreatment pictures

Shells and pearls

An attempt to decorate for spring using shells, pearls, a serving tray, and star candle. Wish I had some cloche jars... tomorrow the upside down tea cup and serving tray with form another centerpiece.
It's a good thing my kids enjoy "creating" as much as I do!!

The Knife Caddy, hanging in my cupboard