A Giveaway Made For Me

 We live in a white house with blue trim

and you can spot a little blue and white in every room in the house.

So when I read about a giveaway hosted by Juliette @englishwife, 

Karina @corishwareartist and 

@cornishware, I knew I had to enter.

I was so excited when Juliette notified me that I was the winner and in shock when the package arrived from Somerset, England in just a few days.

I'm a sucker for packaging - the blue and white striped boxes each held a sweet mug and the message from Juliette was lovely.

I am so happy that Cornishware UK offered the giveaway world wide.

  

I had no idea that they had anything except blue and white - the yellow is so fun!

In addition to the 2 mugs, the package included a lovely teapot and the cutest little pitcher.

Of course the gift had to include tea and I love the cute message on the box.

I had to style the entry in blue and white - my old classroom stool came down from the attic for spring.

I love that I once again have a bit of Cornishware - I had one little bowl brought to me by friends who live in Penzance, Cornwall, but sadly I broke it.

Yes, this giveaway was made for me.

I'm sitting at the dining room table writing this post (wearing a blue and white striped sweater), the muffin and grapes are long gone, but my cup is full today!

Spring Door Decor

It's time again for the monthly Pinterest Challenge hosted by Cindy of County Road 407.

I was up for this challenge because we definitely need a new look on our front door.

Photo by Tracy's Treasures found on Pinterest  

I have been using a canvas tote filled with faux flowers for ages.

I need to use faux blooms because fresh die too quickly and dried flowers wilt.

My first thought was to make a new tote from one of the many blue and white tea towels I hoard.

But, this navy and white towel is the only duplicate that I was willing to cut up and the navy clashes with the blue of our house trim.

I really wanted to use something I had on hand and I realized that the sap bucket that hangs on grandpa's old pitchfork would be perfect.

I headed out to the garden shed to see what faux blooms I had that would work for a spring arrangement.

I would have liked to have used the yellow blooms in the striped bag, but they are paper and would quickly turn to mush in the ocean air.

I found a nice variety of colorful blooms to use in the rusty bucket.

I expect a lot of my fellow bloggers on this challenge will be using more spring like blooms in pinks and purples, but those colors don't work with our bright red door.

Although a red chair didn't stop me from using pinks and purples on the porch.

So that's my take on the Pinterest Challenge for April and now it's time to see what everyone else created.

County Road 407

Follow the Yellow Brick Home

Our Southern Home

Decor To Adore

Bluesky At Home

Art And Sand

Stilettos and Shiplap

Sweet Pea

Decorate And More With Tip

French Ethereal

Let's Add Sprinkles

Le Cultivateur

Lora Bloomquist

A Heart Filled Home

Thanks, Cindy of County Road 407 , for organizing the challenge.

This Little Piggy Went to Market

This little piggy didn't really go to market, but I did. 

I missed the last two markets Lorzel of @barnhousechicksmarket organized and I was determined to make it to the market last Saturday.

 I prepared a shopping list, before I headed out, but there were things I didn't find and of course items I wasn't looking for.

At $5 each, I could have gone crazy at this booth, but all I bought was a set of pillow shams, a table runner and a small tablecloth.

After taking a pic of my goodies, I spent the next couple of days playing house and finding spots for everything.

The flowers are from Trader Joe's and I love them in the bucket - that's the small tablecloth I found.

Sadly, the next morning I discovered that the bucket had a hole in it - I rearranged the flowers in a smaller container and swapped the tablecloth for the little runner I bought.

Do you see that rusty bucket holding gerbera daisies?

It's in the trash and was replaced with the leaky bucket.

I have always wanted a dough bowl, but I have only seen huge bowls that were just too big for our little cottage.

This small dough bowl is a perfect fit for our house - the little wooden pool balls add a pop of color.

The old hospital cart serves as a desk in the guest room 

and the small frog I found is perfect for holding pencils.

The stubby architectural piece is sitting on the cabinet in the entryway for now - not sure how I will use it, but I'll find a way.

I haven't found a spot for the soap dish or the green bottles - I should have picked up at least one more of the bottles.

I love the detail on pillow shams which are now on our bed

 and Steve is happy to see all the throw pillows go.

After being used as a prop for the bedroom pics, the galvanized container needs to find a home - it was such a good deal that I had to buy it.

If you have any ideas on how I might use it, please share.

Bunnies and Blooms

Spring is here and it's almost Easter which makes it a perfect time to join the Hop Into Easter blog hop hosted by Amber of Follow the Yellow Brick Home.

 

If you are following the hop in order, then you were just at Let's Add Sprinkles - Katie has such a fun style and I love those blue and white dishes.

I don't do a lot of Easter decorating - my look this spring is mostly about flowers, but you will spot bunnies tucked here and there around the house and garden.

I stood back in the kitchen to snap this pic to show you how tall my grandmother's step back cupboard is so you probably can't spot the bunny in the entry.

She is standing in the straw basket surrounded by my new favorite paper flowers.

One thing thing that is guaranteed each Easter season is that my wire chicken, purchased in Tijuana over 40 years ago, will be somewhere in the house filled with chalk eggs.

It was a quick fix to change the box of flowers into an Easter arrangement 

by simply adding a bunny.

This silly paper rabbit is new this year 

and the green chairs in the living room were the perfect place to let the carrot leaves hang down.

I usually decorate my old Underwood for holidays, but I just added the quote last week

so all I did was pop Mr. Rabbit into the vignette.

We are spending much of our day outside so of course we need a bunny or two in the garden.

It's easy to spot the white bunnies, actually salt and pepper shakers,

but I bet you didn't see the metal rabbit tucked into the plants.

I was going to tuck more bunnies around the garden, but I made the mistake of baking croissants.

Maybe tomorrow I'll find a spot for the rest of my bunnies.

Now it's time to send you off to visit Linda of Itsy Bits and Pieces.

Thanks for visiting today 

and enjoy the rest of the posts on the hop.

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