Easter is Almost Here!! AGH!!

By the time you read this it will be OVER!  What?  No more Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Eggs or, much worse, NO MORE PEEPS!  Especially when they are hard and stale!  YUM!

Well, my dear followers, (and I do hope I have some left!) you may want to know what I do that takes up all of my time?  After all, I'm supposed to be retired!  Well, let me tell you it is hard to find free time to do all or even some of the fun things much less the "every-day" stuff...boring laundry, cleaning, errands, etc

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So get yourself a cup of coffee or beverage of your choice and settle in...this will be a long (and hopefully not boring) post.

February and March were just ordinary months here in Northern California,,,all the usual stuff: meetings, (good!), shopping (good!), cleaning, (bad!), more meetings, (good?), errands, (someone has to do it!), lunches out, (good!), MORE MEETINGS!?, (sort of good!), classes, (good!), 

FOLK ART SHOW IN NAPA!. (VERY GOOD!!!),

Dr. and Dentist Appts., (good and bad!)

Three Memorial Services in one month!, (very bad!),

Out to Dinner with S.O. (very good!)

and finally MORE MEETINGS!!!

(these are really getting on my nerves!)

BUT, THE WEATHER STARTING GETTING BETTER, 

BUT THAT WAS AFTER IT GOT WORSE!

Yes, that is HAIL on my deck.  I have lived in California for 30 years and have only seen hail three times; well we did have snow twice...LOL

Well it didn't stay for long and in a few weeks this is what we saw:

we were so happy to see these after all the rain

This Magnolia Bush is in my neighbor's yard and there are lots of them in the neighborhood

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Now, (are you still with me?) I have a question for all:  Whenever I read blogs I am blown away by how neat everyone's house is.  The only thing I think I have ever seen is a "stray electric cord" sticking out but no REAL MESSES!  

Is everyone but me a "NEAT-NICK"???

I consider myself a" normal, but not extreme neat" person, but now I am going to show you what happens when "projects" take over in a small house!"

Before I begin I have to tell you I was asked, along with several other women to VOLUNTEER to create center-pieces for SPRING tables for, (yes,) another meeting!  So of course I said: "YES!"  I love stuff like that and had several weeks to complete my contribution!  

So here's a sampling of how my Dining Room Table looked for a month:

Don't laugh, it is the only large spot I have in my little house!

Sort of speaks for itself, right!  

So here are a few shots of what I did with most of that stuff...

Here I was just figuring out how and what to do...I might add that that is the 3rd basket I tried to fit it all in!  

Here's more...hang in there...we're getting close

This is the "before" 

And this was the "After"

My helper was also from Minnesota 

so our theme was:

EASTER IN MINNESOTA

It was fun!

Had to add a couple of  tilting "melting" snowmen...

after all, it was "SPRING"!

All the "people" on the display wore fleece scarves as did the goblets for beverages.

And then, because I am a "PRIM" person, I had to add a little feather tree!  LOL

Of course these pictures don't really show how it turned out, but it was fun.  Goodwill played a huge part...the little houses (we repainted). the Bunny's jacket and throw made from the top of a pair of women's overalls (a mere $6, I might add!) and I stole the pine trees from my Christmas Village  Birch trees were tiny branches from my back yard painted white with little "black hash-marks." . For the place settings we used Scrapbook paper that looked just like "grass," with a paper doily on top (a Snowflake!).  We used clear glass plates from Ikea onto which we Modge-Podged a picture of a paper bunny.  In the goblets we used napkins pushed into them with Marshmallow "PEEPS" on skewers stitcking out  There is more, but I bet you are dozing off right now.  But never fear..

THERE STILL IS MORE...

As long as I went to all this work (you have no idea how I have struggled with putting pictures on this blog in the right order), etc, etc, etc....

So to all you "sleepy" blogettes who hung in there till now...

HAPPY EASTER TO YOU AND YOUR FAMILIES

I hope you enjoy some normal pictures from around my house!

I found this Burlap Bunny at HomeGoods!  He's really "sassy!"

The Dining Room table at it's best!  Clear!

A T.J.Maxx find added to my sheep

Whoops! (Forget about what I said about "figuring out pictures, etc.)...But Look!

The sheep have turned into a Chick with a Basket of Carrots!  WOW!

A Cross Stitch bunny from one of my daughters, and a little iron one from a flea market

And here's my front door with "BEATRIX saying: "Thanks for visiting

 and  staying awake through these millions of pictures and all my jabbering.  I love blogland and have found soooo MANY FRIENDS out there.

I hope you can come back again.  I can't tell you what a difference this has made in my life!

Prim Hugs,

Joy

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Valentines Day and more

Here's that red hutch again, all decorated for Valentines Day.  I had planned to line the backs of the shelves with burlap to match the Tyler Taupe paint color that is just to the right of it but that never happened.  Some months just get tooooo busy!  LOL

A few "close-ups" for your viewing pleasure

And I am thinking of her, too and I miss her a ton!

(My 14 year old Granddaughter)

And here's a couple of odd shots around the house.

Gotta have a couple of "Chocolate" Cookbooks, right! 

And, now after all those lovely hearts and so much love,

 here is the darling

 "Save The Date" magnet for

First Granddaughter's Wedding on June 11, 2011

Well my dear blogger friends, I hope you enjoyed these last few "heart" pictures and will forgive my short post for tonight.  I have several more pictures to post (on another subject, thank goodness!) and l hope to get  to that soon.  I am supposed to be retired but I have to say, "I don't know how I ever had time to work!"  Having fun takes up a lot of time.  

Stop by and tell me how you get everything done.

Hugs

Joy

Happy February and a Few Hearts Around my Home

Here are some pictures of  Hearts from around my home.  This is a potting bench on my front porch with a Pot of Cyclamins...see their heart-shaped leaves.  They are so cheerful after a drab winter. I really love them and they do well in a pot or in the ground here.  The little boots were a GW find and I painted them, with "dot flowers" using the wrong end of an artists brush.

This "Prim Lady" has been with me for years.  I hope my brain isn't as blank as her face!  LOL  She makes a nice front door transition from Christmas to Valentines Day

Then this is the inside of the front door.  I was poking around in the attic the other day and found this berry heart.  Cute, eh?

This is on top of a blue framed mirror and I love the :Love-Birds"

More "Flea Market Finds and it looks like it's 8:35...I must be going somewhere to be up so early! LOL

Boxes I painted years ago.  Seems like it was another life, Hmmm!

This gathering is on the mantel.  See the tiny heart cutout near the top of the box.  Another GW find  (for $1.00) and painted bright blue.  Got the label on-line.

A great little dish to hide the margarine container (when I have company, of course!  LOL) and a great iron trivit that is use for boosting up everything from lamps that are too short to a pile of books..

My husband made this chair for me many years ago.  It was a Christmas where "each one of us" had to "Make" something for the other.  I made big, jointed 18" Teddy Bears for my daughters (teen agers at the time) and my hubby made them each chairs.  Of course I had to have one, too!

This is a carved wooden bowl I picked up in Tennessee on a vacation a long time ago.  Of course Hubby had to know, "Why do you need that?"  LOL  Ever heard that before??

A little gathering on a kitchen counter.  Can you see the little Hearts on the napkins...they are from IKEA!  Who knows where we can find  "Prim Stuff!"

That's all for now...have another bunch of pics to post in a while.  Don't want to spoil you (or bore you to death!)

Come back soon and leave me a comment...am I doing this blogging thing right or what can I do better.  I really love it when you become my followers and/or leave me a comment and try to reply to each of you (by the way, Google gives me an ugly message sometimes when I try to "reply" to you and I don't understand that, SO if you haven't heard from me when you have become a follower, it's all GOOGLE'S fault.)  I love all my new blogging friends and now check my blog as often as I check my E-mail!  

"Til next time,

Keep warm and keep reading!

Joy  

The New Life-Long Dream Pencil Post BED!!!

Here is this new beauty with a pair of old kitchen tab-top curtains hanging straight and all-white shams

Here's another shot for your viewing pleasure! LOL

So here I tied the curtains back with that burlap-py ribbon from Pottery Barn and changed the shams to solid red matlesse and red/white floral toile with buttoned red checked ends.  I thought it needed to be warmed up a little (here in CA.  Don't laugh, it gets cold here, too!)

Here's almost the same shot.  I LOVE THIS BED!

Had to show you this:  in my last post I said I get tons of stuff with my name.  How's this for identifying whose bed it is!  (My cat doesn't seem to be able to read but he wasn't around when I was doing these photos.)

So I thought I'd throw in a couple of shots around the room, even if there is more to be done.  These dressers are between a pair of built-ins and there is a wonderful peg shelf that will go above the pictures.  Just haven't gotten around to it.  LOL  I also plan to spray paint the hardware black soon.  Have to wait till the rainy season is over as I do it outside.

This is a $30.00 wicker bench I got at Cost Plus and it was first in my bedroom as purchased (white) with a beautiful floral cushion made out of Ralph Lauren sheets, Then it moved on to my front porch with a red and white checked cushion but then I wanted a more "old" look so I dry-brushed it with brown and green craft paint and put a grungy taupe cushion on it.  Then ,last year I had this space under my bay window in the bedroom so I brought it in and painted it black.  (I was WM's best customer in the paint dept. for a while!  Pretty bad when they know you by name at WM, huh!)  But considering that, I think I have really gotten my $30 use out of it, eh?)

Well, this rocker is the only piece of furniture I have that we purchased for our first apartment outside of Chicago over 50 years ago. (Does that make it an antique???  If so, then I must be antique, too???)  Ha, ha!.  It was black then and over the years I have painted it red and now it is white and I think it will stay that way...I think!!  The kitty underneath is not real but I love him anyway and everyone who sees him thinks he is real.  Hey, no litter box and no waking me up at 4 am.  But if someone gave me a cat, I' take it in a minute. The pillow reads: "AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT."  so until the next time...

Hugs,  Joy