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.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

I must have flowers . . .

Like Monet, I must have flowers, but it can get expensive buying fresh flowers every week 

and it is time consuming fluffing the bouquets each day as flowers wilt.

More important, I need to be spending my time taming the jungle.

So, I was really excited when I came across a variety of great paper flowers

 and sweet dried flowers at Tuesday Morning a few weeks ago.

I took time away from the garden to style the flowers - 

mostly in the guest room.

Maybe I should call it the Flower Room.

I'm using the old hospital cart as a desk these days.

The baskets have been around forever, but only used for storage - I like them on the old door filled with flowers and books.

I have lots of real plants on the porch and remember to water them because I walk past them multiple times every day.

On the other hand, I would put fresh flowers next to the guest room bed and forget about them so a bouquet of faux flowers is perfect.

Paper flowers are fun in the old typewriter

because I don't have to change them as they wilt.

I had no idea how many faux flowers I have until I started switching out for spring.

For now they are all sitting on a chair in my shed - it's nice to know I have a fallback when I can't get to Trader Joe's for flowers or my garden is depleted.

And now it's time to get back to garden.

and the winner is . . .

I almost forgot to draw a winner and post the Canvas Factory print winner today

 because I went a little crazy on Friday at the nursery and I've been working in the garden each day to deal with all those flowers.

I'm still not finished planting, but fortunately I have containers to set them in around the garden until I finish.

And now, to the winner.

The number 20 randomly came up out of 29 names - there were 32 comments, but one friend wrote two different comments, another was an anonymous comment and another person sweetly said she won my last Giveaway so she would not enter this one.

Terry of Sharing Divine Inspiration is the winner and I'm so happy because her comment was that she has had trouble navigating websites and I think she'll be pleasantly surprised at the ease of the Canvas Factory website.

Thanks for following Art and Sand - I truly appreciate all of you.