May Baskets, New Vignettes, and This Week's Spring Cleaning Commitment

Beautiful, precious, sweet things bring so much joy to my day when I look at them or display them...Yesterday I got this beautiful teacup. I LOVE it. And as if it could get any sweeter, I realized when I got home that it matches the PERFECT teapot my mom gave me for my birtday (you can see it in the background). Thank goodness for the simple loveliness in life...



Here is a little woodland vignette I created this weekend in my kitchen above my sink. I used some of the left over flowers from making May Baskets (see below) on May Day (Beltane) and the most precious, amazing little ceramic mushrooms that my dear friend Gabriela sent me for my birthday. They are the cutest ever!



Also very dear to my heart is this little heart bowl that Gabby MADE for me!! What a treasure! I will have it forever, and then pass it down...

My Dad gave me this little antique cast-iron sea gull that belonged to my great-grandmother. She loved birds and nature, and had many of the same interests I have.

He also gave me this little vintage bird vase that belonged to my great-Grammy as well..

Here is Spoof sitting with my new little collection of antique gardening books given to me by Preston's mom's sweetheart John. They are all still in their original jackets! :)



May 1st was Beltane, or May Day. I love celebrating the earth, and all of its changes and seasons and all they symbolize. Here is my little altar/coffee table decoration for May 1st...

I woke up on May Day buzzing with excitement to create May Baskets to leave for my neighbors. After a few minutes of heartstorming their design, this is what I came up with. I love how they came out, and as I spent the morning making them and delivering them I was so filled with passion and joy and I felt so on purpose. I love giving gifts for no reason. It sets me on fire!! I know I need to use my creativity more to make suprise gifts for others. I am so happy when I am creating!! I loved their design so much that I'm also thinking about selling the baskets as wedding/party decorations . Here they are....

I made the baskets out of used Whole Foods grocery bags inside out, and adorned them with ribbons...

I found the most wonderful flowers to fill the baskets with. They had a wild and woodland look about them...like a fairy gathered them...that was what I was going for...

The heart hanging on the side reads, "Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet, and the winds long to play with your hair" ~Kahlil Gibran (One of my favorite quotes)

I added a bit of moss as well around the top...

And then I delivered them... I was very sneaky, though, somehow a few neighbors guessed it was me and I got phone calls later. I must be putting off the fairy vibe. I told them it was the May Fairy.

This Week's Spring Cleaning Commitment Challenge:

My Spring Cleaning Commitment for this last week was to clean out/organize my junk drawer, and I am happy to report that I did it!! Now the drawer opens, and I can acutally get the things I need without digging... *sigh*

How did you do with this week's commitment to yourself? What will your new commitment for this week be? Leave a comment!

This week I commit to cleaning out/organizing the medicine cabinet and under-sink cabinets in my bathroom. We have a teeny-tiny little bathroom and everything bathroom related goes into that one medicine cabinet and under sink cabinet. So you can imagine that after over a year without attention, well, need I say more? Its a mess. I will be so happy to have it back in order.

Have a wonderful week, and Blessed Spring!

Love,

Abbey

My Spring Mantle and Spring Cleaning Commitment for the Week

Good Morning Friends!

Its time for me to leave my weekly commitment for the Spring Cleaning Challenge! (I hope you will too!) But first, let me share with you some spring-y photographs from my neck of the woods...




A little daffodil pushes its way through the earth...




Tiny leaves emerge on my lilac tree...




Our cactus and succulent (and orchid) collection glowing green in the morning light...


And presenting... MY SPRING MANTLE!!





Actually, I took this picture about a week ago when it was still in progress and it has already changed a little, but here are some photos...I wanted to be sure to share them before spring gets
away! It looks so lovely in the evening all lit up!




An apothacary jar with a tiny nest inside...for Easter, I filled this jar with pastel shabby-chic Easter eggs that I painted and antiqued. It was precious! Do ignore the strange people in the picture frame. I don't know them. They came with the frame, which I plan to fill with wedding photos...






These are my white ceramic bunny rabbits. I searched the town and etsy high and low to find bunnies that were just plain white. (This proved to be harder than expected) Then I found them on the bottom shelf in the corner of a store. I was so excited! They are the perfect symbol of spring, and they are so cute I can hardly stand it :) I'm sure I will cherish them for years to come.

I painted a double-decker bird house for the mantle. In this pic I had not yet distressed and antiqued it, but you can get the idea.





Spring-green and lavender candles light up the mantle...

My sweet ceramic birds from Ventura, CA :)

My real birds nests collection, one I found and one Audrey found for me, along with other bird fancies, including the art print in the back (I am looking for the right frame for this), called "Nesting Material" made by an Etsy artist Anna Ruby King in Athens, Greece. If you love it, you can get one too here:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/62799572/nesting-material-limited-edition-hand?ref=sr_list_1&ga_search_query=nesting+material+print+&ga_search_type=handmade&ga_facet=handmade

Some of my favorite things :)

And now...

My personal Spring Cleaning Commitment for the week:

This week I will clean out and organize my "junk drawer" Right now its hard to open and close because things are always getting caught. Its a mess. I hearby commit to making it functional this week!

What is your commitment for this week?! (Leave a comment!)

Love,

Abbey

Winter Magic: My Christmas Mantle

If you've been reading, you know by now that decorating my mantle with the coming of each season is something I absolutely LOVE to do, and I daydreamed and really looked forward to bringing life to the mantle for Christmas.

I think one reason decorating the mantle is so special to me, is that this is Preston and my very first house together. We've lived both in our parents houses and in an apartment, but this year, we share the sweetest little cottage. And decorating our very first house for Christmas??? Even more joy. So putting mantle and Christmas together in the same sentence, you have one very very happy me.

Another reason I love decorating the mantle, is that to me, it is like a special altar in our home (and the only place our cat Spoofer cannot get to) and I love having a special altar to the seasons. It is a warm, wonderful ritual to decorate it. This precious earth is so special to me, and it is one way in which I can honor the cycles of the earth, and honor each season and the way it touches my own human cycles, and honor the changes that take place in and all around me with each new season.

I put a lot of love into this mantle design and really dreamed it up over a couple months time, looking high and low in shops and online for the perfect elements to compliment it. So sharing it with you has been a much anticipated thing. Of course I only wish you could see it in person, and see how it sparkles in the low light of the evening, because its even better than the pictures can express. But here they are, my very special Christmas Mantle...

Ta-dahhhh! Ok...now let me show you some close-ups...

A sweet sparkly winter bird (yes, I definitely have a bird obsession)

A little snowflake candle...

Little trimmed trees on each end...

Silver branch garland that I bought to decorate for my holiday trunk show, but ended up getting some more when I realized it was the missing element in my Christmas mantle...

The beginning of a winter vignette I've started to the side of the fireplace...I've already changed it a little since this photo...

A precious tiny decoration my sister Annie got for me when she was living in France...

Spoofer wishing she could knock everything down... ok...maybe she's just daydreaming, waiting for spring to arrive so she can eat grass in the yard...

The star atop our little tree...

And put it all together.....

Christmas Magic!

I wish for you a holiday season filled with warmth, love, and all the things that make you happy! Thank you for reading my blog and allowing me to share with you the joys of my life.

Love,

Abbey

Nesting

Lots of natural and nature-inspired materials to work with...

And I repurposed some little grapevine wreaths that used to be filled with fresh flowers and laced with cream satin ribbons that never quite made it to our wedding ceremony and ended up in a box. Now they have new life! I soaked them and uncurled them...

And created a special frame out of wire...

And got to work building...

And something new and inspiring was born...

If you love it, it just might be available as a one-of-a-kind art piece in the Love's Garden Spring Collection ;)...available within the next couple of days... and stay tuned for a Love's Garden Spring Giveaway on this blog this week!

Various Spring Vignettes

My decorating is very nature-inspired, and I especially love this time of year...



I have been picking up a boquet of Ranunculus flowers from Whole Foods each time I go shopping, and they bring moments of joy and pure presence to me each time I see them. They are one of my very favorite flowers and I love to arrange them in all my little vases...



On the coffee table, a beautiful slate my husband rescued from being taken to the landfill, with a little nest (nests are my favorite symbol right now), and a sweet cast-iron feather I bought at a wonderful shop in downtown Ventura, California called B on Main that I always insist on visiting every time I go to see my sister Annie and her husband.



Little built-in shelves to the side of our fireplace provide the perfect space for creating little worlds of interest. Here, a wild turkey feather I found several years ago while walking the trails at Unity Village in Missouri, a beautiful gold-leafed frame my dad hand-leafed and gave me one Christmas that just seems to be art enough by itself, and two lovely stone candle holders given to us by our brother-in-law Kevin.



Precious treasures: One of my favorite little books in the world, Keep Life Simple Therapy, an Elf-help Book, and a little ceramic deer my dad gave me.

A beautiful photograph taken by my husband Preston that he framed and gave to me for Christmas this year. It adds so much brightness to my day whenever I see it. Visit his Etsy shop to order this photograph, or choose from many other beautiful and unique fine art photographs: http://www.stohsphotography.etsy.com/

I always get so much joy from filling my fruit bowl full of fresh fruits right after grocery shopping. When I shop for fruit, I look for the colorful and interesting ones and arrange them in the bowl as if it were an art piece in itself. :)

Sweet little hand-thrown miniature vases I bought this summer while we were visiting Zion National Park in Utah. Tucked inside one of the pots is an absolutely precious and beautiful hand-painted matchbox by MaryHanks on Etsy, that I fell in love with, and my sister and her husband got me for Christmas last year. I love and cherish sweet little things that could be ordinary, but are made extraordinary. It always brings me joy to use my little matchbox.

A Little Creative Inspiration For You: Spring Wreath Project

Because we just moved, and we are partially still in boxes, I didn't think too much about how to decorate for Spring and Easter, but I could hardly stand it and I had to make something to add a little touch of special preparation for this time of year...

I decided to keep it simple, and for about $8- $10 or less I created this sweet little wreath for our door. It was really fun, and with all my work on pieces for Love's Garden, I haven't made as much time to make things for myself lately, so it was a good opportunity to make something pretty for the cottage. Maybe you will be inspired to make one of your own creation!

A Little Spring Wreath:

Materials:

• Grapevine wreath 16-18 in, mine was $2.99

• a sprig of faux flowers (I chose a single branch of white cherry blossom flowers) with lots of little heads or stems to be removed, mine were $3

• faux eggs, craft stores sell many kinds this time of year, but mine were paper mache eggs in a pack of 12 for $2, robin's egg size, and I painted and attatched wire myself

• craft paint for the eggs if needed (I already had some)


• wire for the eggs if needed (I also already had this)
  

How to:

1. Gently remove flower stems from branch. Every type of faux flower is different, but most are easy to remove. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of faux flowers, but I've found that if used minimally and if you choose the right ones, they can have a pretty result. And they are good for a quick project. So I decided to use them in this project. In the future I may try making my own from paper...

Leave on enough stem to use for tucking in to wreath for the easiest project. You could also use old scissors if needed and you can always glue the flowers, but I plan on using the same grapevine wreath and switching out the decor each season so I didn't choose to glue.

2. Gently tuck flowers in around the wreath as evenly spaced as you like, keeping a balanced look, unless you are going for the wild and crazy look which I'm also in support of, so if that's the case, knock yourself out... ;) Its your wreath!

This is my majestic, beautiful, funny cat, Spoofer. She likes to be very involved in/sit on all my projects. In this case, I'm pretty sure she thought this was a spring-themed nest that I made just for her. In any case, I was able to capture this portrait of her, and I particularly love the look in her eyes. Its like she knows she's sitting on my work. Of course.





3. I then painted my eggs in off white and tan. I really wanted some of them to be robin's egg blue, but I didn't have that color in craft paint, so I'll probably add some in that color later.

4. My eggs didn't come with wire already in them, so I added some by poking the wire through the bottom of the egg.

5. I then twisted the wire around itself,

to make thicker wire to work with,

And there you have it.

6. Then like you did with the flowers, tuck the eggs around the wreath however you like.

Your wreath is done! Hang in somewhere inspiring!

Here is my finished wreath which I hung on our cottage front door:

Have fun crafting!

Love,

Abbey