~Decorating for Spring~

I've had my house decorated for the Spring season for several weeks now and figured it was about time I shared with you what I have done.  Better late than never, huh?  Plus, you get to see a little  more of my home...just a little. :)  Let's get started, shall we?

 This little area is in the main hall going into the living room.  I bought this piece at an open market antique sale in Iowa (my son and his family live about an hour or so away in Nebraska).  I was told that this is called a linen press.  Funny quick story here...went all the way to Iowa to buy this and the seller lives in a small town about 30 minutes or so from my home here in Oklahoma!!

 Anyway, I was wanting something to go into this little nook and this piece is perfect.  It's also the perfect place for the grandchildren to play.  The door on the right is where the heating/air unit is housed.

 I needed something to dress up this area as well along with some lighting as it gets kinda dark in this corner.  I created this vignette with the main pieces staying up all year long and change out the greenery and flowers with the seasons.  The ivy is stapled to the picket fence and stays up during the seasons.

A small string of Christmas lights is used for back lighting.  Much better, don't you think?  I connected the lights to a timer so that they are on late in the evening and all night long as it makes a great night light.

 I love my little birds who protect their nest of eggs.  I think I got these through The Country House (one my favorite online shops) along with the picket fence and bird house.

The flower urn is used during Spring and Summer.  I push it to the back during Fall and replace it with a large pumpkin and gourds.  At Christmas, I use a small decorated Christmas tree.  The bird cage once belonged to one of my daughters.

 This is the fireplace mantle in the living room.  The upper part is an antique that I bought years ago but had no idea what I was going to do with it...until we built our house.  The middle part is a new piece that the builder created to make it look like one large piece.

 Lots of greenery and flowers make everything look so lush just like Spring is supposed to be along with my small collection of birds and birdhouses.

 I like to call this my Birdhouse Village :) and looks perfect with the picture above it that stays up all year long.  

 Ivy can be used in so many ways and I love having it hang down or going up the wall.  I used my trusty little staple gun to keep it upright around the picture.

To create the idea that a flower garden is growing on the mantle, I used a small section of floral foam and inserted different flowers and greenery that I had cut apart from several clusters that I bought and was able to use all around the house.  Well, I guess I bought a LOT of clusters.

 It was kind of tricky getting the floral arrangement from falling over so I had to make sure it was leaning securely against the wall and filled it in with more ivy.  The birdhouse helped, too.

 I love the little birdhouse condo that I bought years ago at a craft fair.  I don't remember where I got the little bird eggs and painted them white as I originally used them in a vignette with some chicken figures that I have.  I need to speckle paint them so that they will be more realistic with the birds, don't I?

 I did the same floral arrangement on the opposite end of the mantle to balance it out.

 I wasn't sure what to do with the mantle shelf until I saw several decorating ideas using ironstone and vintage crochet doilies.  Both of which I have!  So I pulled several of my ironstone pieces out of my display cabinet from the dining room and went through my collection of doilies.

 I love collecting ironstone and especially look for pieces from the Homer Laughlin collection.  You can read more about my collection here.  Several months ago, I hit the jackpot when I had the winning bid on a collection of vintage doilies and lace pieces.  You can read more about that here.  I really like how this little vignette turned out.

 I can't decide whether or not to paint the candlesticks.  What do you think?

The softness of the doilies against the crackling patina on old ironstone makes my heart go pitter patter!
Goodness!  I'm in love.

Hi Banjo!  This is my baby.  He is a Havanese; a cross between Bichon Frise and Maltese.  He's supposed to have long, beautiful hair but he has more of the Bichon in him and I think he's adorable!  The breed was created in Cuba for the aristocrats there and came to the United States when the aristocrats fled during the Cuban Revolution.

 Okay, on to the dining room.  Just a little bit of Spring going on here but I wanted to give you a quick look of this room but I plan to show and tell you more about it at a later date when I do my house tour.  The highchair on the right is over 100 years old.  I bought it at an auction and, yes, I do use it.

Here's my touch of Spring in this room.

 I got this watering can from Michael's a few years ago.  Not quite the antique look but I thought it was a great contrast against everything else.

The TV and DVD player in the corner are for the grandchildren to use when we have our family get-togethers.  So, this is how I have decorated my home for Spring this year.  I hope that you like what you see.

Spring is in full bloom in my home and it won't be too long before it will be the same outside.  Temperatures are much warmer than normal here in Oklahoma.  What's it like where you live?

Have a glorious day!

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