Irises and lemons

Whew - I'm so far behind with this blog. These last couple of weeks have been SUPER CRAZY BUSY and I haven't been able to play very much. Yuck! Still, I have certain priorities and tablescaping has become one! I couldn't NOT participate in Susan's party - she's always such a gracious hostess!! (http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/)

Last week, I teased everyone with my dark purple irises. They have been so beautiful this year. As soon as they started coming up, I knew I had to design a table just for them. The pictures don't really do it justice. The table is really beautiful.

The table is a mix of purple, silver, and yellow. I layered a dark purple lace cloth over my white tablecloth. Yellow cloth napkins match back to the fresh lemons.

Bottom layer is a sparkly purple charger. China is our wedding china - Mikasa Parchment. We LOVE it!! The silver swirls are light and add just the right touch of elegance to any color scheme. The silverware was from my maternal grandmother. I think it's called Remembrance. It has a sweet little flower at the tip of each piece.

I love the contrast of the deep purple flowers with the yellow lemons.

Where's the Calgon when you need it??

What a morning! Between 9:30-11:00, ALL of this happened.....

* A sub called in sick
* A teacher had her contact roll to the back of her eye
* A teacher had a sick baby
* A lady came to talk to a teacher and look at our clay. (Sounds funny, but she's going to do a special Mother's Day craft with our kids and she wanted to see the condition of our clay.)
* Our Child Care Licensing Representative made an unannounced follow-up visit. We were using a Sunday School room that we are not authorized to use. Yikes!! Luckily, she didn't write a citation - just a big warning!
* 2 different people came in to apply for jobs.
* The Speech Path came to conduct a hearing screening on 7 children.
* 2 reps from the temp agency we work with stopped by on a courtesy visit.
* A tour of 9 high school girls came through
* A photographer visited all the classrooms. (We are making posters for the church Mother's Day Love Offering.)
* Don't forget all the phone calls!

Whew - I'm exhausted just from writing all of that!

Easter table

These pictures aren't the best, but hey - at least I managed to post them fairly close to Easter!!

I chose a light purple tablecloth and then layered a "spring" colored smaller cloth on top. I found the smaller cloth while thrifting last year. I think it was about $2. It's closer to dish cloth size, but I liked it centered on the table. Purple sparkly chargers are first, then the dinner plates. The end places have light green plates and the four side places have glass purple plates. The green plates came from Ross about 2 summers ago. I've had the purple plates for a long time, so I don't know where they came from.

The napkins match the tablecloth. The napkin rings are super cute little bunnies. They are all different. Four of them were purchased (on sale of course) at HL. The others were a lucky thrifting find last year.

Love the carrot dishes?? Me, too! Found those at Pier One sometime in January. They were on clearance and I have no idea why!! Someone obviously wanted ME to have them!

The centerpiece is a fav birdcage. I use it in quite a bit of my "home decor". Sweet little bunnies, some Easter eggs and grass, a ribbon and purple candles are enough to set the mood.

SUPER cute s&p!! Also a great thrifty find last year. (Sorry for the photo. I didn't get a good shot while the table was actually set. I had to grab this one later.)

I had to keep this table fairly simple because we were actually going to serve the food on it. (Not a buffet as we sometimes do.)

That's it for the Easter table. Now, it's on to my next one. Here's a hint........

Here are my irises today!

The irises are starting!

I am so happy - the irises are starting to bloom! I've been watching the stalks get taller and taller - then all the buds starting to appear. Just yesterday, there were still only buds. When I got home from work tonight, there were 2 blooms and several others on their way. YEAH!

The dark purple come up first. The lighter purple will bloom in a couple of weeks. I know they don't last all season, but they sure put on a show while they're here.

I can see a tablescape in the very near future!

Christ the Lord is RISEN TODAY! HALELUJAH!

Happy Easter everyone! What a glorious day - the day our Lord ROSE! We are forever and always blessed. Praise be to God!

Today was a beautiful day. The sun was shining, the temps were in the 80's, and there was very little wind. That's pretty remarkable for April in West Texas. Dr. Dave and I attended the Sunrise Service at Oakwood (our regular church), followed by a delicious breakfast! I don't even know how many breakfast casseroles I tasted!! Then, we ran home for a short nap before heading down to my Mother-on-Love's church for the 11:00 service. Home to change clothes and then back to her house for a wonderful lunch. The Odessa part of the family came up, so there was a full house.

Dr. Dave bought me not one, but two new Easter outfits. Wasn't that romantic?? He's done it for the last 3 years and it's something he always wants to do. Yup - he's a keeper!!

That's all for today. Always remember that the tomb was empty - We serve a RISEN SAVIOUR!

Happy Easter!

I've had all my Easter decorations up for quite a while, but with the last 2 weeks I've had at work, I haven't done much blogging. Oh well. For those of us who love to decorate, it's never too late!! Hope you have fun looking at the treasures.


This is just a simple sign to say Happy Easter!! It's just some pretty scrapbook paper - one design for the background, one for the egg, and one for the letters. It was a happy accident that the papers went so well with this sweet little bear.




The Easter Village lives just inside our front door. Everyone looks so happy living here. You think they get to eat all the chocolate they want?? And not gain weight??




Quick shot of the top of our entertainment center.




Everything looks more elegant when it's elevated on a glass cake stand. Add some pink Easter grass and plastic eggs and you're really talking Easter fun!

Full view of the mantle.

I just like the shadows in this picture.

And this one! : )
I bought 2 of these Easter trees at Dollar Tree this year. My plan was to paint them off-white and then apply an antiquing glaze. I ran out of time and just put them up in their original terra cotta pots. Now I think I like them "au natural" best.

I'm not sure why this candle looke off center. Hmmmm. Anyway - more scrapbook paper. I found a cute paper with rows of bunnies. I just wrapped the candle and then added brown ribbon with white polka dots. Super easy and cute.

I love my bacchelor's chest. It holds all my table linens and placemats. Today it's all dressed in Easter finery.


Ooops - I should've have gotten a better picture of these little votive holders. One is Mr. and one is Mrs. Rabbit. They are dressed in shiny pastels - definitely ready for a party.

Easter treasures in the china hutch. If you look closely, you can see my Easter tea set. It's behind the glass door on the right. I bought it at Cracker Barrel last year. Behind the doors on the left, you'll see 2 tiny egg candles peched on silver candlesticks. The candlesticks belonged to my grandmother. They are precious to me.

Have I told you how much I lurrvvee my Cricut!!!

I made the bird with the Home Decor cartridge and the Easter letters with Opposites Attract. I am crazy about all the beautiful scrapbook papers. Oh yeah - I added an Easter egg ribbon around a small glass votive.

You've seen this arrangement before - think back to St. David's Day and to St. Patrick's Day. I just slightly revised it for Easter. This fun "bunny on a stick" was all over blogland last year. I went right out and bought a couple - I just wasn't blogging then so I could show you.

Of course the Guest Bath had to have some holiday touches. I love my egg tree. I bought it on clearance at Pier One last year - same time I bought the bunny topiaries. Can you see the tiny little bunny soaps - one is purple and one is white.

Everything looks better in an apothecary jar!

Well, that's all the Easter fun -- not a bonnet anywhere! In a couple of days I'll get my tablescape posted. In the meantime, have a joyous Easter Sunday!!!!

Remember the true meaning of this glorious day -- OUR RISEN SAVIOR!!!

Playing ball

There no day so bad that playing ball with your dog can't fix.

Yup - this has been another really challenging week. Yup - I still love my job.