Preppin' for Spring on a Shoestring

I had lots of fun getting the house ready for Spring and Easter.  There's something about sweeping winter out of the house with some bright colors and the hope of new growth and life.

It doesn't need to cost much money either.  With a stash of trims, tired old candles, plastic eggs from WallyWorld, a handful of Hobby Lobby, a dash of Kohls, and a garden with a few good herbs, spring decorations can be done for a mockingbird's song.

Saved ribbon from my gift wrap stash
adorns an old sign salvaged from a Spring storage crate.

Thanks to Pinterest, WallyWorld (eggs), Hobby Lobby (birds)
and Kohls (ceramic lantern), the mantel looks fresh.

When I 'stacked the savings' at Kohls, they practically
paid me to take the orange ceramic lantern!
Old white pillar candles get scrap ribbon stripes
secured with leftover upholstery tacks.
They sit on copper candleholders/vases that
have been faves of mine for at least 5 years or more.

Collected birds from Hobby Lobby make me smile.

Kohl's placemat/napkin sets make a colorful table.
I've been trying to break this white Corelle dinnerware for almost 40 years!
The flatware is our wedding choice from 1973.
Glassware from HomeGoods.

A new dying technique this year:
rubber bands applied to eggs before the dip.
Thanks Pinterest.

Spring centerpiece for our Easter table
is an Easter morning afterthought.
Plexiglass container from the pantry
is filled with lavender from my kitchen garden
and lined with celery and asparagus from the fridge.

Styrofoam eggs are the only purchase for these individual place settings.
Wrapped styrofoam egg with jute dipped in glue
makes a great textured decoration.
Pair with a votive fresh parsley and lavender-filled votive,
and a dyed egg.

Votives pulled from a candelabra
are filled with tiny colored pebbles from a previous project
to support bunches of curly parsley and a sprig of lavender
plucked from outside my kitchen door.

Letter stickers from my stash
are applied to cooled hard-boiled eggs
before dying.  Another Pinterest idea
that turned out really well.

Another rubber band resist dyed egg--
really cool and easy Pinterest project.

Lettered eggs make fun 'place cards'
at our Easter lunch.

I tried ombre dyed eggs for the first time this year.
Pinterest has some good projects complete with instructions.

The vintage hankie bunnies come from Washington County
as well as the old white pillar candles.
A little sheet moss from Hobby Lobby is applied with that trusty glue gun.
The picture?  Some of my amateur photography from our Chappell Hill garden.
Snapfish offered 8x10 prints for $1!

Striped ribbon and upholtery tacks applied to an old wick candle.
Geometric design is on a refurbished flameless candle.
Last year our Towne Lake craft group
decoupaged them with decorative napkins.
Another amateur photo--matted and framed buttercup.

Birdcage from Hobby Lobby holds
a real cardinal's nest from Chappell Hill.
The framed print is cut from one of the
Charles Beckendorff Images of Texas books
we collected in the 1970's.



I do love Springtime.
Gets the creative juices flowing.
Or at least the copy-someone-else's-creativity juices . . .
;~/
on a shoestring budget.