inside, outside, upside down

i love spring.

i love spending all day out in the gardens.

getting the flower beds ready,

planning what to plant in the vegetable gardens.

but.

then the inside suffers.

and other things get put on the back burner.

i just can't help it.

i am so drawn to long days in my gardens.

inside, outside, upside down...cest la vie!

the last few years i simply had chicken wire around my beds to keep the rabbits out.

but this year my early spring project was to build a fence to keep our black lab puppy out.

i cranked it out in a weekend.

not bad for never building a fence before.

shear determination to not have my garden dug up by our lab

is what got me to get it done so quickly.



i'll show some more garden photos next week.

enjoy the Easter weekend and thanks for stopping by!

for the boys

my eight year old is in cub scouts and i am the leader of his den.  our group is large with 14 boys.  we recently had our annual banquet, the Blue and Gold.  this is a special night for the boys (the entire pack, not just our den) as they receive their advancement badges.   i (with my co-leader) was in charge of the centerpieces for this year....18 of them.

we needed to be creative, as there is very little budget for centerpieces.  we also wanted to create something special for the boys.  they all love to camp, so we focused on a camping theme.  this is what we came up with:

we started with the wood bases.  my dad, and his chain saw, helped with this part of the project.

(thanks dad!)

then with a power drill, i drilled holes for the flag and the evergreen branches.

the tents were made out of blue card stock.  i took photos of our pack number and american flag and then pulled them through my print shop program.  printed them off and taped them to the tents.

for the other side of the tent i used a giant fleur di lis rubber stamp (found at michael's for 99cents) and then stamped it on a gold stamp pad.

the fire pits were made out of small rocks and cut branches.  each rock was glued to the wood base as well as the fire sticks.  this made setting them up at the event so much easier.

creating 18 of these wasn't so bad, if you just tackle it assembly line style.

the boys absolutely loved them!  we had tables of 8 and on one chair at each table i placed a piece of tape.  whomever was sitting in the chair with the tape on it, got to take the centerpiece home.

the cost was minimal.  the flags, the paper for the tents, rubber stamp, gold ink pad and a bag of rocks.

and as if making 18 centerpieces wasn't enough....

i also volunteered to bring dessert.  so in keeping with the

 camping theme i whipped up these s'more cupcakes.

oh. my. gosh. they were sooo yummy!

all of this for the boys! 

such a great group of kids and glad i get to

 be part of their childhood.

to my boys in blue...cub scout salute to you!

give it a shot

i find brass chandeliers at just about every garage sale i go to.

they have never been my favorite type of light fixture, and to some, these days they are considered dated.

but give them a shot of spray paint and you've got yourself a new statement piece.

(now for sale in my burlap junktion booth)

joining white wednesday at faded charm

blooming

i found some lovely spring fabrics to make
a large batch of spring flower pins.

these will be blooming in my booth within the next week or so.

it seems overwhelming to get all of these cut out.

but once i start to put them together, and they come to life,

it's easy to get them finished up.

i hope flowers are blooming in your world.