A little srping time decoration.

I love to decorate. Even as a little girl, as my mother will attest to, I had to decorate my room for every holiday. These would be decorations that I bought with my allowance money or made myself. It was not important if some of these decorations never got seen by others outside the family, they were primarily meant for me and my personal enjoyment. Besides, by age 10 and up, my girlfriends would be more interested in what posters I had on my bedroom walls, David Cassidy, Jack Wild and David Soul, than a basket of eggs, heart wreath or Christmas Tree. But I enjoyed it.

Decorating my dorm room was no different, but there I had a bigger audience to showcase my talents. My roommates would just roll their eyes and let me play Martha Stewart. Even as broke newlyweds, with our meager hand-me down furniture and tight space, I would always find a table or bookcase that would hold my holiday vignettes. As we got established, with work, house, family and life in general, I really got to decorate. Of course you can have a Christmas Tree in the bathroom (doesn't everyone?) and cupids and hearts on the bedroom fireplace mantle (that seemed a fitting choice for the room). So now that we have had Christmas, New Year's, Valentines Day (sorry didn't do anything for President's Day --- that would be too much even for me) we now have St. Patrick's Day.

I wanted to pull something together for the dining room mantle, my primary place to decorate for just the minor holidays. I already had a bunch of green materials that I had just used on my Christmas Peacock Tree (please see my December post for photos) along with some nests and eggs that I found awhile ago at Goodwill. I planned on putting together more of a spring theme design as my base, with a green emphasis for now, that would be all Easter after March 17th. So this is what I created.

I only bought two items to add to what was already collected. I found some decorative excelsior at Michael's for .49 cents. I used just one bag of this as my base and also a filler for this nest.



I cut up a spay of silk white with a tinge of green tulips that I pulled out of a box destined for Goodwill. I never liked them for a flower arrangement, but used as singular blooms looks better and has greater impact as well as bringing in a touch of Spring. By the way, yes I donate as much to Goodwill as I buy and bring back home!




On either end of the mantle, I placed small nests again to set the spring theme. This nest sits upon a spring yellow pedestal (a Goodwill find as is the basket with eggs and moss).

Addendum to this post: I decided to remove the pedestal and put the nest and basket flat on the mantle.





The second item purchased were these little leprechaun hat picks (6 for $1.00 at the Christmas Tree Shop). Notice the green grapes and artichokes from my Christmas Peacock Tree.

Unfortunately, the photos do not do justice to the decorations. It is not a sunny day today and the flash was needed. But like me, in all things, please use your imagination and think spring.