Hi Friends,
How are you? I hope you are well.
Amid all the crazy of January and February, I found peace and tranquility by sprinkling some spring and Easter decor about the house.
The crazy seems to continue, however. I'll explain at the end of this post.
While we wait and try to plan for Bill's retirement, I pursue cleaning out and purging some of my decor.
This has been a process. I find that I let things go a little at a time. I don't want to regret getting rid of something only to have to buy it back from the thrift store. Ha. (I have done this.)
It's almost as if I'm evaluating each item before I can put it in the giveaway pile. I clean out an area only to revisit the same area again. If we make East Texas our home, I will have to downsize our belongings quite a bit. Bill shouldn't have a problem because he collects tools and books. I collect a number of different things. I collect collections. You know how much I love seasonal and holiday decor. Last fall, I decided to approach the storage of those items differently.
All of my little bits were in bins and totes in the garage. I found the totes too large to handle. The smaller bins were too small to hold it all. When I moved some furniture around last fall, I was about to give away our pie safe.
(It's not really a pie safe. I think it's a 1940's child's wardrobe but I wanted a pie safe and it looked like one.) When it was in the garage, I pushed it against the wall to get it out of the way and I came to two realizations.
1. It would be darling in my future green house so I might regret getting rid of it.
2. It holds a ton of stuff and it would be great to get my seasonal decor out of bins and totes.
It was determined that Easter/spring and fall would fit into the piece. I wished that Christmas decor would fit too but that wasn't going to happen.
I loaded my favorite things onto the shelves and laid softer things in the bottom drawer Other items were donated.
(I've already seen the donated Easter decor on the shelves at my thrift store. It's already sold and I didn't buy anything back.) 😁
This does take up room in the garage but we could still get the little car in should there be a hail warning.
I love this. I can shop my own stash. I can have something on display for a few weeks and then switch it out for something else. I can gradually add things as it gets closer to the holiday.
The antique rabbit on nest is one of my favorite things.
The large Dedham bunny was a 40th birthday gift. It's technically vintage at this point.
A tiny brass rabbit was a thrift store find probably for less than a $1.00. These have gained in popularity so they fetch much higher prices. The tulip post card came from The Tulip Museum in Amsterdam.
We just found these two at a consignment shop a few weeks ago. I will need to squeeze them in.
In the dining room, I placed a clearance find from Hobby Lobby in the center of the table.
Carrots made from chair spindles are a cute addition.
The corner cupboard received some more tulip decor. Tulips seemed very fitting after our recent trip to The Netherlands.
In the living room, the breakfront gets a few seasonal touches.
My aunt gave quite a few of the family members this metal sheep. I didn't get one for some reason and she was going to give me hers. I'd already found this one on eBay. I just love this figure and keep it out all year. I think he goes so well with the vintage Italian Simple Prayer.
Is this an Easter decoration or Christmas? I can never decide.
The snooty bunnies stay out all year. Home Is Where The Boat Is has one like it. It's the only other one that I've ever seen. I got these when my step mother died.
This reproduction majolica teapot was an estate sale find last year. It's darling.
Another teapot was a MacFrugals find. I think they became Big Lots. When this was packed in a tote, I would worry about breaking the ears off of it. The new system will help with breakage.
A darling stone bunny was an antique store find. The candle was from Tuesday Morning. Isn't it sad what happened to them. I still have two stores but my daughter's store is closing.
If we move to East Texas and live in our little farmhouse, I will have to downsize. I hope to have a greenhouse/garden house to display my seasonal decor because I love it so much.
If you follow Susan @ Ash Tree Cottage, she has "Sweet Tea Cottage" and Mary @ Home is Where The Boat Is has her potting shed. Our friend says that my whole house is a she shed so I don't need one. Haha. He's not wrong.
Now for the story.
My husband found a swarm of honey bees around our front porch when he went to retrieve an Amazon package. They were coming for a tulip wreath that I had on the front door.
Once we removed the wreath, they moved and started going in in the corner where the roof meets the soffit.
There is a wasp nest there but that isn't where they were going in. There was a little hole but they were also crawling in under the board.
I called the bee man and he will be here Monday. He wanted to come when we weren't here but I said no.
Bees and a ladder-nope! He will re-home the bees to his apiary and fix the soffit.
This dysfunctional family of bees has moved around the neighborhood. They have the woods and park behind us but two of the neighbors have had them. They had the bees and the queens removed but I think at some point they sent out a new queen when the hives got too big.
I'll let you know how it goes. I hope I can get pictures.
Our son delivers for Amazon. He needs to watch out for bees in addition to dogs!
That does it for me. Thanks for sticking with this all the way through. I hope this was motivation to pull out some sweet bunnies.
Have a wonderful weekend.
Katie