Spring Crafting - Butterflies and Flowers

Yearning for sights of spring, I decided to make a butterfly garland for our dining room.  I dug up an article from last spring's 'Romantic Country' magazine on how to create one.  The article featured Tara of the blog http://www.blondiensc.typepad.com/.  She made a gorgeous butterfly garland for her dress form.

I decided to make my garland with both vintage music paper and spring-themed fabrics. 

The instructions are pretty easy.  Simply find an image of a butterfly you like (scan google for free clip art), and cut out a bunch of butterflies from paper.  If you want to use fabric like I did, iron some fusible interfacing to the back of the fabric, then cut out your butterflies.  This helps the fabric stay stiff enough not to droop.  You can fold your butterflies for dimension, then hot-glue to a length of ribbon.  Simple!

The garland adds some interesting texture to this shutter I leaned in our dining room corner:

The butterfly colors blend in well here.

In a crafting mood, I also made more crepe paper peony flowers using Dear Lillie's tutorial you can find here.  They're an unconventional baby blue, but what else would I have in this room? 

More dashes of my favorite light blue:

Dreaming of spring, while here it is March 1st with snow on the ground!

Sharing with:
Show and Tell Friday
Feathered Nest Friday
Air Your Laundry Friday

Adding Pops of Color to All White

It's White Wednesday again!  I haven't shown our living room for a while, so here it is today.  After the calming all-white look in winter, I'm starting to add some pops of color. 

The pillow and quilted throw have been borrowed from our daughter's room:

So has this heart ornament:

During our children's school vacation last week, we visited our local garden center to get a taste of spring.  These purple hyacinths came home with us, and I potted them for indoor enjoyment:

They liven up this corner desk in the room.  I also added a bag (won from Karen's giveaway) with dried lavender hanging on the chair:

The garden store also had the prettiest begonia with soft pink flowers....

I couldn't part with the roses from Trader Joe's, so here they are hung to dry:

Instead of scattering old books about, I stacked and wrapped them in torn muslin:

Dried sprigs of lavender and hydrangea topped them off:

Hope you are enjoying adding pops of spring color to your home, too!

Lighter and Brighter

The sun is shining brightly today and our dining room is splendidly reflecting all that light.  This room gets the best light in the house. 

The white tulips my dear husband got me for Valentine's day brightened up the room even more:

I love the new look of the light gray lower wall, which you can see closer in the background of this next photo.  The sculptured paste wall stencil now has a more subtle effect, but still gives dimension:

It looks especially calming behind these pretty china pieces:

These pink roses from Trader Joe's are still going strong:

The corner hutch got a cleaning-out and now displays all the blue and white pieces I've collected, as well as our wedding china.  Here it is, with the arched window glass door closed & opened:

Little details...

...and a reflection of the room in this vintage mirror:

This room is such a happy place to be, that I'm seriously considering turning it into a multi-purpose library/dining room.  I am embarassed to admit that a gorgeous antique French daybed is being held captive in our dark basement.  We never had any place to put it on our upper levels.  It's been down there far too long, and needs to relish some daylight.  Would it be crazy to line it up against a wall in here next to the dining table and use it as a reading area?  Hmmmm...
I'll be sharing this bright room with White Wednesday, Feathered Nest Friday and Show and Tell Friday.

St. Valentine's Day

Pink perfection added to the neutral whites here (sharing with White Wednesday).  Such happy pinks, don't you agree?  I hope you are enjoying your St. Valentine's day.  I'm feeling incredibly blessed for the loves in my life - my dear husband, children, family and friends (including you!). 

I'm sending special prayers out today for those I love who are struggling with illness, job loss and sadness.  My dear college friends and I just spent the weekend in Vermont.  A beloved spouse of one of these friends is living in the advanced stages of ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease).  The strength of the love in that family holds them together, day by day.  I'd appreciate any prayers you could offer for Frank, Heidi and their two boys.
All I can think about today is the power of LOVE.  It defies despair and has no end.
Thank you.

Flowers and a Beautiful Saint

St. Valentine's day is the perfect time to celebrate LOVE.  I can't help but add some romantic details in our dining room, and what is more romantic than pink roses? 

The dining room did indeed get a new coat of paint under the chair-rail (as I hinted at in my last post).  I used a mix of leftover paint, and am happy with the soft gray-ish result. 

It contrasts better with the dark mahogany pieces.  I'll show more of the wall later, but today I'm sharing all the little Valentine touches before the holiday has come & gone. 

a simple request

And of course I had to display our St. Therese figure amongst all these roses. 
Humble and lovely...

A gift tag from Rosemary, saved from last year:

Fun with papers & boxes, and another lavender heart sachet:

Hope you are all enjoying this romantic time.  See you at:
Vintage Inspiration Friday (Vintage Valentine party!)
Feathered Nest Friday
Show and Tell Friday
Pink Saturday