Spring Break!

Does this little girl look bored to you???

Maddie is on Spring break.

And Maddie came to gram and papa's house because her mom had things to do.

In these pictures she is watching a movie while she waits for me to get out into the studio.

She knows that when we get out there she will be able to talk me out of some of my

'special stuff' and she will pack it home (much to her mother's dismay)

I think my two daughters...with daughters...blame me for all the extra clutter in

their houses.

WHO ME?

Isn't that what grandmothers are supposed to do?

Pawn off all the 'special stuff' they no longer want?

That's what my mom did, and her mother before her.

It's tradition I think!

This movie must be boring, because now she's almost asleep!

Can you see her through the door?

We did get some grape hyacinths dug and planted.

I had to scrape the snow back to find them.

And there they were...almost 2" tall under the snow.

I took advantage of the little bit of sun that was coming in today to

get some pictures of the living room.

I haven't shown many broad shots of my home on this blog

(probably because it's too much trouble clearing away my junk

and the stacks of magazines that I have around constantly

 to keep me sane through the Winter)....as I was saying, I don't take many

full room shots because I love focusing in on the little things in a

 home that make it what it is.

What makes a home a home to me are the personal things we choose to

keep around us. For me it is an old pot that belonged to Dale's grandmother.

The old books my mother collected for years and then passed on to me.

Or the iron garden angel I saved up to buy because at the time I bought it I needed it

to remind me of this promise 

"He shall give His angels charge over thee,

to keep thee in all thy ways.
 They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone"

 Psalms 91:11-12

Or little green shoots from a hyacinth bulb.

I know I keep saying this but...

I am craving Spring weather...and when it doesn't come to my outside world...

(it is snowing outside right now as I type this post) 

well,

 I just have to find a way to bring it into my inside world.

Just a few sprigs of anything will do!

As long as it is green.

And even better if it comes with a little pink attached.

These pretty tulips are from the market, not my garden.

It will be another month, maybe longer before my tulips bloom.

I know you will probably be shocked to find out I won two more awesome giveaways ; ) 

The first giveaway win was a French inspired surprise from Debbie-Texas Daisey

 from the beautiful blog

Glory Feathers, Star light, and Roses 

Debbie also has a beautiful garden blog Behind My Garden Gate.
That is how Debbie and I met. I love garden blogs, and found hers not long after

I started blogging myself.
Debbie takes me to garden centers in Texas that I will
never have the chance to visit in person, and she grows things
in her garden that I can't grow here.
 A trip to her garden is such a pleasure for me.

So do you want to see what I won?

A lovely Eiffel tower necklace and three petit Frency boxes.

The necklace is beautiful!!!!!!

I already have two of the boxes full of stuff in the studio

and one I have in my bedroom to hold those stray things that seem to 

find their way onto my bedside table.

Thank you Debbie...I love everything! 

I also won Lili M's beautiful OWOH giveaway.

She was giving away 12 months worth of hand written, snail mail correspondence.

Can you believe I get a lovely card from Lili for the next 11 months?

This was my first month's handwritten note from dear Lili.

She wrote me a sweet note on the back of one of these beautiful note cards from one of her

favorite Dutch design studios pipstudio.com

and then sent an extra one for me to use myself.

and tucked inside the envelope where two bags of Dutch Pickwick tea.

Thank you so much Lili...

it will be wonderful enjoying this giveaway over the next year.

What a brilliant idea this is!

~

Well in case you are a little curious about what Maddie talked me out of in the studio...

all I can say is...

she left with her arms full!

White Wednesday...I just needed some pretty...

Oh boy, did I need a shot of something.

I have been living in the grey for too long. Our Winter has

brought very little sun, and a whole lot of grey.

SO...

I had to get out of town for awhile.

I had to go where there was no snow.

I had to go looking for light!

My daughter Ember lives in Boise and she was having a birthday,

so I thought..'hey, Boise doesn't have snow...

it may even have some sun...

and it has Ember!

Em took me to some wonderful shops, and we found some great things.

I think I found the light I was seeking.

These are just a sampling of some of what I found.

I bought some of this...

but a lot of it came from Ember's own stash.

She thought I needed it more than she did...

(and because she knows she will find a lot more of it once the yard and estate sales start)

Ember has spools and spools of bias tape and I was able to talk her out of several yards.

need it!

love it!

gotta have it!

She gave me a lot of bling too.

(I know, I know...it was her birthday, but...)

I do try to not take advantage of her goodness too often...

lest she catches on...lol!

We went to some antique and vintage shops while I was there as well.

This shop was beautiful!

It was called Warehouse Beautiful

I saw so many things I wanted to bring home for the garden.

She had beautiful iron pieces. I love iron in the garden!

A visit to this shop really helped make my life a little less grey!

This trip to Boise was so wonderful.

I needed a break from my routine. I needed a change.

I needed NO SNOW!

(thank you so much Dale for taking care of everything at home)

Em took me so many great places including my favorite ice cream parlor Goodys.

I also got to go see my mother who lives in Oregon and my sister who lives in Idaho,

but only thirty minutes from where my mom lives.

We had the best visit.

Sadly, it was while there that I heard about the news of Japan's disaster.

All I wanted to do then was to get back to my own home.

It put everything back into perspective for me.

How quickly our lives can change. From happiness to sadness in an instant.



I had to share this with you too.
(and they have white on them)

A few days before I left to go to Boise,I saw this pair of antelope alongside

 the road as I was driving to the bank.

Aren't they beautiful????

I wish they wouldn't stand so near the road.

They are too pretty to be so close to danger.

Another beautiful thing to come into my life before my trip was this package from

Shelley at Sweetpea Home.

Wrapped up so pretty! With a beautiful charm attached.

Shelley has been doing some purging around her house and thought that I would love these

amazing metal letters that spell ROSES.

Oh do I ever love them!!!!

I felt such gratitude that she would think of me to now care for this treasure that

 I knew she enjoyed for so long in her own home.

I decided for now to hang them on a piece of jute

and string them in front of the mirror in the living room.

These are so perfect for my home and I love them!

Thank you so much Shelley!
You know I adore them and you!!!

I want to thank Kathleen at Faded Charm for this opportunity to show all the whites in my world.
and the not-so-whites....

White Wednesday!

I am joining Kathleen at Faded Charm today for another White Wednesday.

Can you believe that this is number 89 for her????

Not for me however, because

it's been awhile since I have played along.

This week I went looking for whites in my home and studio that I hadn't already shown

here on my blog, and this is what I came up with.



My friend Suzan sent this pretty little gift a long time ago when we first met through blogging.

It came in a package crammed with beautiful things that she had made and that I have

shown here before.

I love the simplicity of it.

I have an inner battle going on constantly within myself over how I choose to decorate my spaces.

One of my personalities would love a home packed full of nic nacs...

and so many pictures and beautiful things hanging on the walls

 that there would be no wall showing at all!

And then there is a part of me that needs a serene surrounding...

a calmness...

space to breath...

Having a studio apart from the house has satisfied a little of the struggle.

In the studio I cram as much visual stimulation into it as I can.

Having so much out and around me helps with the creative process.

It keeps my mind full of ideas and dreams of the next project.

 I know I don't share a lot of the things I make here on my blog...and I am trying

to get braver about showing them off. In the future I hope to do a post or two

about the things I make for my home.

I'm not at all shy about sharing the great finds I unearth though,

like this beautiful old light fixture part I discovered on one of my hunts.

I have been making more of the collage tags that I showed earlier using the garment tags I save.

My husband thinks I am buying new clothes just to make the tags. 

In truth,

I make the tags to lessen the guilt over buying so many new things for the closet!

(I say for the closet because my kids don't think I could possibly ever wear everything

that's in there) I don't get rid of anything))

Just a few of the thousand I'm working on.

I told you the closet was full!!!!!!