Little Girl Grown Up

Today I found myself, last minute, going through the many pictures of Meg trying to pick just seven of her growing up for her upcoming Highstepper Senior Banquet slideshow.  Sounds easy enough, but it wasn't.  Trying to find so few pictures to tell the story of her life was more of a challenge then I expected.  For weeks I have been putting it off, for more reasons then I have time to tell.  Today was the deadline so I found myself spending hours sorting through pictures and reminiscing of those years that have slipped by so fast.  Where did the time go?  How did this little girl grow up so fast?

I remember how it felt when Brit left four years ago.  It was tough but I had Meg to help me get through it.  Can't be depressed too long when you have an active teenager still at home.  So now here I am, facing the reality that her time to leave is just around the corner.  I'm so excited for her and what her future holds.  However, there's still a big part of me that wishes I could hold on to her just a little longer. 

Spring Spruce Up ~ Front Porch

I noticed this past week while working in the yard that our front porch was looking a little bare and in need of some TLC.  So, this weekend, despite the rainy weather, I started a plan to spruce it up and add some touches to make it more welcoming.

(The view from our front porch)

I started with a little necessary cleaning.

Then repainted our metal doormat from white to black.

As I posted before, I made a wreath from my Easter centerpiece to go on our door.  I bought the wreath hanger for $2 at Wal-Mart.

Every porch needs some flowers so I made a quick stop to Home Depot and found these.

 The pot I put this little plant in was another purchase from

Wal-Mart for $10.

So our front porch went from this...

to this...

More inviting, don't you think!

Before and After

I love the flowers I bought for our Easter table.  Since then they have been stuck in a box in my closet.  Well, this weekend I got a "wild hair"  and thought I would convert them into a wreath for our front door. 

So, this...

(with a little creativity, hot glue and patience) became this...

What do you think?  Let me know...

Making a Front Door Wreath

I'm all about easy so making this wreath had to be quick and simple.  I started by gathering the items needed...

flowers, a wreath, reindeer moss, wire cutters, and a glue gun.

To begin, I tucked and glued the moss around the wreath.  Then, I took my largest flowers, (hydrangeas) and glued them around the wreath.  I pictured the wreath as a clock and attached them at 12, 3, 6 and 9 o'clock.

Next, I took the smaller flowers and glued them in between the hydrangeas until the wreath was filled. 

So when I was done, the final product looked like this...

Now it's ready for the front door...

Good News!

On a dreary, rainy, evening Meg received good news. 

She had been accepted to LSU last fall, but was waiting to hear if she would be picked as one of only 100 applicants to be accepted into the Mass Communication Residential College.  We have been patiently waiting for word.

Being accepted into this program would mean she would dorm with fellow first year Mass Communication students and attend half of her classes right in the same building.  What a great, supportive experience for a first year student!

Well, today we found out she was accepted!!!!  We all were relieved and elated at the same time.  I feel just a tad bit better about sending her off to college.

Goes to show that every cloud has a silver lining!

Easter Table~Part 2

In attempt to find some last items to make my Easter table just right, I spent yesterday driving from store to store trying to find some finishing touches.  Well, I never found everything I wanted so I was a bit disappointed.  However, I did find a couple of things to add to the table so it's a tad bit different.  The first thing I bought was some reindeer moss that matched the greens in my flowers.  It was $4.99 at Garden Ridge.

I used it to place around the bunny on the pie plate to make it look as though he is sitting in a little green field.

I also bought from Garden Ridge a small glass dome with a pedestal (originally $29.99 but %50 off) to house my other bunny and placed the green moss around it as well.  The little bunny didn't fit sitting up so I had to tilt him to make it look like he's laying on his back. 

Coffee mugs from Kroger that match my plates were the final things I purchased for $1.99 each.

Great for an Easter morning breakfast!

So, all in all I spent about $85 for everything on the table.

What I would like to add next year are some pretty linen napkins & placemats like these from Pottery Barn:

 some colorful wine glasses like these from Target:

and cute bunny napkin rings like these from Arthur Court:

Even though it didn't turn out exactly as I had envisioned, my family thought it looked wonderful and we all enjoyed our Easter meal together on the festive little table I created.  Happy Easter!