Spring Mantle

What a crazy week we have had here.  This time last week we were blanketed under 6 inches of snow and today it’s 72 and flowers are blooming!  The buds on our cherry tree in the front yard are opening.  Crocuses are popping up and camellias are blooming.  Our daffodils aren’t quite open yet but I saw several in neighbor’s gardens when I went for a walk this morning.

Edie at Life in Grace had a post on arranging your mantle and since I was feeling like spring I decided to redo my living room mantle as a spring mantle .

My method is to gather  a whole bunch of stuff from other areas of my house or from the closets.  Then I just start putting the stuff up there.  I’ll stand back and look and then add or remove or re arrange it until I like the finished look .

 Since it was such a beautiful spring day I had to start with flowers.  I’ve had this forsythia for a long time and just love it because it looks so real

 More spring flowers, tulips and daffodils.  Sorry to all you purists out there, but, they’re fake too.  As soon as I have daffodils blooming in my garden  I’ll replace them 

So that is my spring mantle. You might think I have too many things on my spring mantle, but I just can’t seem to pull off the simple uncluttered look!

It was interesting when I went to link to Edie just now, I noticed that her post was ” 4 Gifts to Give Your Mantle”.    I must confess that I didn’t read the post the first time. I just looked at the pictures.  Do you ever do that?   Well Edie, you might be happy to know that I gave my mantle all 4 gifts unintentionally.

On Friday Edie is having a “happy mantle day” and encouraging everyone to post their mantles on Instagram using the hashtag #loveyourmantle.  Even if you don’t do a post, come on over to Instagram and post your photos.

Weekend Wandering # 2 Comfort Food in Blogland

We had a major snowstorm here in the south which had everyone stuck in their homes for a couple of days. What do bloggers do when it is snowing and blowing outside?  We make comfort food.  I made soup, chili, and home made bread.

In my weekend wandering I discovered that there was a lot of comfort food in blogland  this week. I wasn’t the only one making comfort food!  Here are a few other bloggers who featured some delicious looking food this week.

 Penny at The Comforts Of Home made Chicken Pot Pie.  I know Penny and everything she makes tastes as good as it looks.

                 Diane at Simply Living and Eating made a Hearty Chicken Barley and White Bean Soup

                                            Patti at  Olla Podrida made Seasoned Beef Chili

  Marie at The English Kitchen  made  cheese and bacon scones.  Everything Marie makes looks like comfort food.  I’ve tried a lot of her recipes and every one has been yumilicious!  Marie has another blog called A Year From Oak Cottage.  Oak Cottage is the name of where she lived when she was a personal chef for a family who lived in a manor house in England.

And Finally… Jennifer at Town n Country Living featured 10 recipes for the ultimate comfort food CHOCOLATE.

I hope you enjoyed my weekend wandering and I  hope you have a good weekend!

Rhondi xo

Tablescape Thursday Valentine Breakfast

We are snowed in here in the south which is a rare occurrence.  I’ve made soup, bread and have chili bubbling on the stove. We seldom have bacon and eggs for breakfast but it seemed like the perfect morning for it.

So here is my Valentine breakfast for Tablescape Thursday

The plate is one I showed you last week.

                   
                         I used my little heart dishes to hold jam, butter, and homemade bread toasted.

So that is my little contribution to  Tablescape Thursday At Between Naps on the Porch.

Rhondi xo

What to Do With Old Buttons: Make Button Heart

Here  in North Carolina people panic when there is a forecast of snow.  Yesterday when it started to snow I decided just to stay inside like a native Southerner.  I made some soup and some brownies and got some extra firewood ready to “ride out the storm” and I decided to do a little project.

Valentines Day is approaching.  I don’t decorate for Valentines day, but I love hearts, so this is sort of a Valentine’s Day post.

  I have always loved the shape of a heart.  I also like buttons and always buy some if I find them at garage sales.  I have lots of button ideas on my Pinterest pages and this idea for the button heart came from there.

 I had a photo in this lovely frame.  So I removed the glass and covered the cardboard back with some  pinstripe fabric that came from an old sheet.  I just taped it on the back.  Then I lightly painted the frame with Annie Sloan pure white, leaving some of the original color to show through

 I drew the shape of a heart on a piece of white paper and then hot glued the buttons on it.  When I finished I glued the heart to the pinstripe back.  There are so many online instructions for this  that I’m not going to give you a step by step tutorial.  You can google it 

    Here is the finished button heart.  At first I was going to put it on the mantle in our living room.  It looked good there.

            But as I usually do when I have something new, I walked around the house trying it in different places.

I decided I liked it best on the desk beside my bed, next to the little cherub which was already there.  As I am writing this, I just realized that without even thinking I just made a Valentines Day vignette: hearts and cherubs!

    I am always on the lookout for heart shape stones and I put the few I have in a dish in front of the heart.

                     Here is a close up.  if you ever see a heart shaped stone and don’t want it, send it to me 

My daughter and I have done several button initials as gifts.   They are so easy once you get the hang of it and are great for personalized  baby shower gifts, or a gift for the bride.  She did for me one Christmas and I have it hanging on my gallery wall in the TV room.

 Speaking of the TV rom, do you remember the button heart garland I showed you that was on the winter mantle in our TV room?   Now  that I had my  little button heart in the bedroom, I decided to bring it in there.

 I randomly draped it over the plates on the wall. I think every room in our house has plates on the wall   Maybe it looks a little corny but I like it for now.  It adds some whimsy to the room.

Because it’s white, my button heart isn’t just for Valentines Day.  It can stay around all year.  And we all need LOVE all year long, not just at Valentines Day.

**As I have been writing this post, it has started to snow again and they say so we are in for a bad storm again.  Good thing I’ve got some bread ready to put in the oven and some homemade soup for lunch.

Rhondi xo

Joining the parties at

Anything Blue Friday

Wow Us Wednesdays,

What’s It Wednesday,

Be Inspired Wednesday,

Work It Wednesday

Show and Tell Friday

Weekend Wandering On Tybee Island

                                Weekend wandering the internet and dreaming about summer. 

 Maybe I’ll spend the weekend on Tybee Island GA.    There are so many wonderful places to stay!

                                                                      Mermaid Manor

                                                                    Weil Atkinson House

                                                                                Fish Camp Cottage

 

                               You could even stay in Paula Deen’s Savannah Beach House  y’all.

All these photos came from the Mermaid Cottages website.  Many of them have been redone by designer Jane Coslick and they are BEAUTIFUL!!

This is my first visit to Tybee Island but I’m definitely coming  back again.  Next time I may even really go there!

The Secret of My Success in Watercolor Painting

I am excited because I am taking a 6 week watercolor class starting next week.  I puttered around with watercolors many years ago but never took any lessons so it will be fun to learn how to use the paints properly.

Last night, in anticipation of the class I was puttering around and did these watercolor paintings.

                                                                    my dainty blue tea set

                                             red polka dot tea set from the Valentine tablescape 

                                                               Pitcher full of daisies

                                                               mantle in our TV room

   I did all this watercolor painting in one night.  What is the secret of my success?  Maybe you guessed already.   The secret of my success is an app called Waterlogue.  You pick a photo and Waterlogue turns it into a painting right before your eyes!  It’s amazing !

                                                                               living room

                                                                 window in our  sunroom

                                                                   fern in the sunroom

                                                           table in the living room

      I think this is the most amazing watercolor painting of all the ones I did.  Here is the photo it came from.

Isn’t it amazing how it can make some broken bits of china on a newspaper look like a painting you would be glad to hang on the wall.  I am in love with this Waterlogue app.  I want to turn every photo I  know into a watercolor painting using Waterlogue. If you try it, let me know how you like it.    Maybe I could host a Waterlogue Wednesday Party and we could all post the pictures we painted.  Anyone interested in that?

                                                                            Rhondi xo