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

My Favorite cookbook

The Joy of Cooking just got a new look:

Garage sale and flea market finds

These are the items on my "to do" craft list. I bought all of these things in the last week. Isabelle and Ethan are helping me "design" them. We have some drawings of ideas so far. I'll keep you updated on our progress. :-)