Finally, Spring Flowers...

well, spring officially sprung last week.  i believe it began on march 21st.  and i've been meaning to buy a bunch of spring flowers to sprinkle throughout our house to celebrate.  i just haven't done it yet.

and now i don’t have to.  i spoke again this morning at church.  and when i was done, i was surprised to be handed a sweet bouquet of spring flowers.  guess where they're going?

well, ever since i can remember, i've never just plunked the flowers  down into a vase and called it a day.  nope.  i love to cut them very short and place them in as many jars as i can around our house so that each room has a touch of happy.  

for starters, since i’m always in my kitchen, i love to place flowers beside my sink.  this sweet little rabbit holding a vessel was given to me by our realtor when we bought our house twelve years ago.  and i have treasured it ever since.  and given that i’m always washing my hands and grabbing paper towels, he fits here perfectly.  he's so cute.

by the way, notice my soap and cleaning spray?  i love it!  just recently found these at target for less than half of what i paid for similar products at williams sonoma.  plus i love the look of the labels.  they resemble old-time apothecary bottles.  they’re made by j.r. watkins.  i believe they're less than $4 a piece.

and that “french” flower bucket with a scratch on it holding my paper towels came in a set of three for $15 at costco a couple of years ago.  love it too!

my girlfriend gave me this sweet little jar wrapped in willow for my birthday last year.  and to me, there's nothing better than a sweet jar of flowers sitting by a little lamp.  especially at night.  i apparently have a thing for little lamps. just ask my husband.  i often fall asleep before he gets home from work.  then he has to spend a half an hour turning them all off.  he doesn't have a fondness for little lamps!

and, of course, one of my favorite verses stands in a placecard holder by the jar of flowers:

and under this glass cloche, sits a $1 picture frame from michael's that holds a daily reminder.  the little hands are from a gorgeous website i found called thebeautifullife.com (and the owner is a sweetheart!)

and the same girlfriend who gave me the willow wrapped jar, also gave me this beautiful statue.  she had one on her kitchen island that i always fawned over.  then one day we went to the rose bowl together, and she spied one at the booth ahead of us.  she tried to be sly about it, but i saw it too.  right then and there she bought it as an early birthday gift for me.  gotta love girlfriends!  and it’s sooooo heavy!  trust me, there’s a lot of dust under her toes!

 i took an empty baby food jar and wrapped wire around the neck to make a handle.  so now she can hold a little tuft of flowers in our dining room. 
(i promise you -- the wall color is better in person!  
it looks terrible in this photo.)

here’s another view of this small table in our dining room.  

(just wish that darn thermostat wasn’t there above her head!  

oh, well.)

 i love this little vignette.

i found that tall cubby at a home boutique for $10.  i think it’s suppose to go on the ground, but i like it on the wall.  it's just filled with sweet  nothings.  the floral painting on the left was painted by my mom many years ago.  in fact, it hung in our house while i was growing up. when i went to visit my parents in arizona recently, i told my mom that i wanted one of her paintings to hang in our house.  i picked this one.  i love it.  it nestles in perfectly.  and then there’s the picture of jesus.  ok, this one needs its own close-up and paragraph.

this was sketched BY PENCIL by my sweet friend jamie calvert.  ok, when i saw this for the first time, i about died!  it’s stunning!  i adore everything about it.  a pencil!!!  i can only draw stick figures and sunshines with a pencil!  unbelievable.

i ooo-d and awe-d about this too when i saw it at her house.  then she made me a copy and surprised me by giving it to me for 
my birthday one year.  

she added the verse, 

"be still and know that I am God" to the bottom of it  
just for me. 

(do you see a pattern here?  birthdays, girlfriends, gifts?) 
when is november?

jamie is so gifted that i will feature her gifts on this blog. 

  you should see what she does with chalkboards.  

oh my.   

and finally, there's my little dish of rocks.  

my daughter painted a rock with the word hope on it when i was going through chemo.  see it?  it touched my soul.  soon after, i started making them for a few local cancer centers.  i place them in a dish with a little card that reads "Hope Rocks!"  get it?  i fill the dish with rocks that read hope and sprinkle in a few that read faith.  and i always tuck one or two in that read jesus.  leave it to an eight year old to think of that.  i wouldn’t have.

so this morning was a good morning.  sharing my story with a room full of moms who love the Lord and receiving a sweet bouquet of flowers to sprinkle throughout our home.  

spring symbolizes rebirth.  so does Jesus.  such a special season. 
enjoy!

Thank God for Messy Rooms...

if there’s one thing I hate - repeat hate - it's clutter.   it makes me crazy.  it can take my happiness away real quick.  i am working on controlling my need to have everything in its place, but isn’t that why closets, baskets and boxes were invented?  someone please introduce those items to my sweet family.

well, this week i found a bargain that had my son’s name written all over it.  ok, more my name written all over it, but it’s going in his room.

here’s a beautiful photo of his desk.  lovely, isn’t it?  how could he possibly do homework here?

this mom has a real hard time walking by this desk and not screaming, “clean this up!”   why must my sweet boy keep a straw from a root beer he had last month or keep the tag off of a pair of shorts he received last christmas?  think I’m making this stuff up?  look closely -- you’ll be amazed at what you’ll find!

but before i show you the next  photo, take a long look at the first photo.  does it bring back memories of your old school desk?  a freighbor (yes, you read that right -- half friend/half neighbor) was giving this desk away many years ago and i had to have it.  but who knew my son would collect brochures from the dry cleaner and need more storage space? 

so after a trip to my local consignment store, i found this beauty...

but where is the desk, you ask?

oh, right here -- tucked inside the armoire.  

isn't it brilliant?  

and the price was even more brilliant.  

just over $100 (plus delivery).

notice the latch inside the door?   
just unhinge this baby and it turns into a desk.
yes!

so now when i walk into his room, a little smile comes over my face as there's no clutter to be found -- at least in that corner of the room.  how many armoires can a boy's room have?  seven?  

so the moral of the story is check out your local consignment store.  i was actually running in to see if they had a long, low bookshelf for my husband’s office.  they didn’t.  but boy, did i find some great stuff that i don't have room for.  the owner told me that a lot of home stagers no longer shop there because of the poor housing market so lots of furniture continues to be reduced.  some up to 60%. 
(including my armoire!)  
bad for them, but good for those who need some great buys.

i just found this photo of my son’s room when our house was on a home tour a few years ago.  

look, no clutter!

to be honest, it looks nothing like this now.  i recently gave him the ok to put up posters and move his furniture around.  but at least i have photos of the good ol' days!  but honestly, these are the good ol' days -- 
messy room and all. 
 i thank God for that boy who messes up his room 

(and cleans it up when i ask him to).  


what a blessing to be called mom. 
and find dirty socks on the floor.  
and wet towels in the closet. 
and basketballs in the middle of the floor 
to trip on in the middle of the night.


i have to remember that a clean and tidy house only reflects that i am busy making my house clean and tidy. 
i'd rather busy myself with more important things...


"as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."


joshua 24:15