What a beautiful week here. The freezing temperatures seem to be gone and signs of Spring are popping up everywhere. If I could wish for one climate here, now would be the one. Cool mornings requiring a sweater and afternoons that are pleasant and sunny. Welcome to yet another Saturday Meanderings where we chat about all good things this week.

A week ago, there was one blossom on the peach tree. Now it is completely covered in pink buds and flowers! Mother Nature is something!

Pool House Remodel

Recently my friend Chas @chascrazycreations and her mom came to visit Phoenix and stayed in our pool house. I don’t know what it is about having house guests but for some reason my eyes finally focus and I “see” my home in a different light.

When the children were younger, the pool house is a place they gathered with their friends. All the “toys” (Xbox, Wii) and two television screens were the big attraction in their teens to their 20s. But much of that equipment is outdated and it’s time to do a pool house refresh. The place looks tired.

Yesterday I met with a contractor and we hope to replace the flooring, lighting, and paint everything. I cannot wait to start and I will take you along on the journey. If you would like to see the original pool house build, you can find it here in Restoration Chronicles~Chapter 4. Though it feels we were under construction just yesterday, it is now 22 years later. Time for a face-lift!

The only part of the pool house that I will not be changing is the hand painted, stenciled floor in the bathroom. It still looks terrific nearly 2 years later. If you missed that post, you can see it here.

Hiking in Sedona

On Wednesday, I did my first hike of 2022, with my daughter and her dog.

There is no place like Sedona, Arizona. From the gorgeous red rocks buttes to the steep canyons and pine trees, it is one BEAUTIFUL place. Approximately 1.5 hour drive north of Phoenix, Sedona is a fabulous place to hike. With an early morning drive, we arrive at the Bell Trail No. 13 where it is 30 degrees. With only one other car in the parking lot, we set off and enjoyed the solitude of the great outdoors. A few hours and 7.4 miles later, we got back in the car (tired and happy) and drove home.

Thankfully, Congress set aside wild places where the land is allowed to retain its natural state, serving as a haven for humans to escape modern civilization and for nature to be itself. With so much land being developed, I am so grateful that someone had the foresight to turn this into a federally protected area.

Since my rib injuries in December, I have been taking it slow with cardio-vascular exercise, so I did have to ice my knee later that day. But what a great opportunity to spend time with my sweet daughter and her dog, Hemingway in such a gorgeous place. If you ever get a chance to visit Sedona, I can promise you will not regret it.

Have you Been to Target lately?

I confess that I do not enjoy shopping. However, a recent visit to Target nearly changed my mind. I did not realize that Target and Studio McGee are collaborating with an exclusive line called Threshold. I follow Studio McGee on Instagram @studiomcgee, however, until yesterday, was unaware of this partnership.

What a delight to finally see it! From the products to the merchandising to the affordable pricing, I am very impressed. And unlike Magnolia Farm, there is a lot of colorful items. The monochromatic look is fine, but it seems to bore me rather quickly. And Threshold is already featuring bright and cheerful items for the Spring and Easter.

Of course, I went to Target to buy plastic tubs and came back with all of this, and more. Wooden bunnies big and small, a wooden bunny cutting board, large candle with 5 wicks, cherry blossoms, Easter pillow and I really love the soft storage tubs in white and black.

My friend, Andrea from Design Morsels recommends this throw and I finally got one. This very soft, cable knit throw in blush will be perfect on the front porch bench.

If I didn’t have to be home for an appointment, I would have spent more time strolling through and seeing the over 4000 items in the Threshold line. If you do not have a Target store near you, check it out online here. I am not a Target affiliate~just impressed with the Threshold line and sharing my discovery!

Also, Studio McGee has a 2 season show on Netflix~ Dream Home Makeover. Has anyone seen it yet?

National Pizza Day

I’m not quite sure who creates these daily celebrations, but National Pizza day was this week. I cannot say enough about these pizzas we get direct from Italy from Talia di Napoli. They are a staple in the freezer (as you get 8 each order). But one pizza seems to serve 2-3 people at our home so making one can last for 2 meals. And they are less expensive than our local pizza joint.

In order to justify my pizza consumption, I try to always put a salad on top. In the garden now, there is an abundance of spicy, fresh arugula. Simple dressed with a lemon vinaigrette, pine nuts and shavings of Parmesan cheese, this healthy salad is just what I need to lower the guilt of pizza eating. Nothing fancy but the right amount of greens and ruffage.

There is so much more to share with you but it will have to wait until next Saturday. Have a fabulous weekend!

In attempts to create a simple, yet elegant look for the very deep and long living room mantel, I just love the look of these amaryllis holiday arrangements. However, due to the depth and width of the mantel, one arrangement would look diminutive. Prices from places like Pottery Barn or Neiman Marcus for these arrangements range from $285 to $399. Purchasing 4 or 5 at these prices just doesn’t sync with my Connecticut Yankee nature.

Here is my inspiration:

Finding the Container

Since I do have blues in my living room, a blue and white container is exactly what I am seeking. However, they can be expensive. I do find 7 1/2″ tall x 8″ diameter porcelain planters handpainted in the traditional Chinese design from Macys….and on sale at 50% off. Plus Macy’s did ship them immediately in early December.

Finding the Amaryllis

This is perhaps the most challenging part of the project because looking for faux amaryllis in early December isn’t easy. Perhaps if I got this great idea back in September or October, faux amaryllis would be abundant.

I order large amaryllis from Etsy and they are not delivered on the specified date. So I wait. Then a small box arrives and I cannot imagine the 28″ tall large bloom flowers fit in this tiny box. Come to find out, I mistakenly ordered FRESH amaryllis bulbs. Arg! Don’t get me wrong as I love the real thing, but I cannot believe I didn’t read the description thoroughly before hitting the Buy It Now button.

Now that I have wasted a few weeks, I quickly order the actual faux 28″ amaryllis stems from Amazon at a good price of 3 for $23.75 (you can see them here) with an even better shipping date. Until the delivery is delayed. I can’t seem to cut a break here and the flowers do not arrive until just a few days ago.

Other Items You Need

In order to complete the project you will need floral foam, greens, moss, small ornaments and pinecones. I also use a jute twine, which is optional.

Assembly Begins!

You would think a 5.9″ foam square would fit into an interior measurement of 7.25″ circle, but it does not. Fortunately, dry floral foam can be cut with a serrated knife and I chop off the corners. The cube fits snugly into the planter but if it doesn’t, you can wedge the leftover pieces of foam around the edges.

With a little muscle, you can push the stems of the amaryllis down through the foam. Or if this is difficult, you can create the hole from both ends that will meet in the middle.

This next step is optional, but I like the look of the two stems tied together. Using a jute twine, I wrap both stems a few times and add a simple knot in the center.

Next, I use a combination of faux greens and ones cut from the yard. By adding moss, you can fill in the blank spaces and reduce the number of green sprigs.

For the final touches, you can add small ornaments and/or pinecones, or maybe a ribbon. Since the theme of the living room is blue and red for the holidays, I use these small ornaments I found at Michaels.

Finally, a little fluffing of the amaryllis blossoms and the arrangement is ready for placement.

With four newly created arrangements, I place them on the mantel in between the oil paintings of our children. I am still debating whether to add garland or not, but I think they are an elegant, yet simple Christmas statement.

Stockings are hung from brass holders.

Final Costs

Here is the breakdown of costs per pot:

• Blue/White Planters. $59.99 ea.
• 28″ Faux Amaryllis 15.84 (total for two per pot)
• Foam Block. 5.99 ea.
• Ornaments. 2.99 for pkg of 8
• Greens/Moss no cost

Total $82.17 each

What a terrific savings and this project took very little time to assemble.

If you are looking for blue and white planters, here is a resource. The size depends will depend on the height of your flowers and, of course, the price will vary too. And an assortment of small ornaments can be found here.

Though getting to this point is a bit circuitous, I am happy with the results. Plus I can dismantle this and use the planters throughout the year.

I hope you enjoy this post. Happy to be back and writing again!

In the last 6 months, I have been on 27 flights. My house is disorganized and it will take weeks to catch up. However, it is November and a month I cherish. I know many people have already moved onto Christmas, but not here at Bella Terra. November is the resting month before the frantic pace of the holidays.  It’s the calm before the storm and a month I hold dear. This quiet month is host to the Thanksgiving holiday which is a time to gather with loved ones and give thanks. No presents, no decorating, just a lovely meal with family and friends.

November is our fall. The temperatures are cooler and the leaves will start changing soon. It’s back to wearing long sleeved shirts and a light jacket. Fall decor will stay up until Thanksgiving and then the transformation to Christmas begins.

Dining Room Mantel

I’ve been sharing tidbits about making the dining room’s fall decor blend with the shades and tones of the room. Well, I am finally happy with the results. It helps to have talented friends. During my recent visit to Florida to see my blogging friends, I stayed with my dear friend, Chloe from Celebrate and Decorate. Her fall decor is stunning and it gave me the inspiration to think outside the box this year when decorating mine.

Using eucalyptus sprigs, magnolia leaves and dark red hydrangeas helps to add abundance to the deep mantel. The fabric pumpkins in shades of pink, burgundy and greens tie into the colors of the dining room rug. Once I buy fabric in these tones, making the pumpkins is a fun and easy project. You can see how to make them here.

Stepping back you can see the impact of the fall mantel on the room. Now I hope to create a Thanksgiving centerpiece that will be complementary. Copper mercury glass votive candle holders from West End provide a soft glow at night. Unfortunately they do not carry them anymore, but you can find a similar one here.

The faux orchids helps with some height and weight at one end of the mantel. Coral Flower pot is from Dear Keaton. A stack of books with a few sprigs and pumpkins adds some balance to the other side.

Living Room Mantel

The biggest challenge in decorating the living room mantel is the depth and length. With over 112″ in length and 17″ deep, it is a lot of mantel to fill. Typically, my mantel decor is too small in scale. So this time, again channeling my friend, Chloe, I went for a bigger impact.

Using the large ginger jar (from The Enchanted Home)and a styrofoam cone and fall items, I create height near the oil painting of my son. This is my first time doing it and I wouldn’t suggest using my technique. Using clear packing tape, I secure the cone to the top of the jar, which proves to be a bit unstable. Adding long wooden skewers helps a bit, but until I perfect this, I don’t want to show my DIY. Precariously, it all comes together.

Adding these gorgeous blue and copper velvet pumpkins from The Caroline Chateau (I believe they are now on sale), faux fall garland, magnolia leaves and other natural material pumpkins fills the space. I wasn’t sure about adding the faux white pumpkins, but I think it does perk the color scheme up a bit.

Here’s an overview of the living room ~ I am really happy with stepping it up a bit this year.

Coffee Table

Since the living room is filled with creams and blue colors, the pop of orange is perfect here. Adding a few throw pillows to the living room sofa gives it a seasonal feel. Fresh marigolds in my blue and white tulipieres is fresh and fun. Tulipieres are from The Enchanted Home.

On the glass coffee table, is a plant terrarium. Filled with the velvet pumpkins from The Caroline Chateau, I just love the blend of blues and fall leaves. See similar terrarium here.

I am glad that I can keep up the fall decorations for a while longer. Do you keep up your fall decor or are you already onto Christmas? I do admit that I will be thinking about the Christmas holidays earlier this year because of our compromised supply chain. But I am clearly not ready for it yet.

Wishing you all a happy Wednesday. With the exception of a funeral this weekend, I am in town for the next 6 weeks. Hopefully will be posting regularly again. I’ve missed you!

Everyone probably already does this, but I am just recently discovering the flexibility one has with combining both real and artificial flowers in floral arrangements.

When I think of all those years of being a purist on fresh flower arrangements, combining fresh and artificial really makes sense. Faux flower quality is significantly better than ever. Artificial flowers last forever and over time, can be the more affordable choice. Access to a wide variety of faux flowers is now available on the internet. When real flowers are pricey, filing in with artificial ones gives you an abundant arrangement at less cost.

For our Easter table centerpiece this year, can you tell which flowers are real and which aren’t? The blue hyacinths and the white peonies are the artificial flowers. The pops of blue and white help complement the blue Indian block tablecloth and china. Faux blue hyacinths here and beautiful faux peonies in many colors can be found here.

These faux peonies are found in many of my photos as I always have a good looking arrangement available to enhance my shots.

Here is another arrangement in a pedestal bowl. Can you tell which flowers are real? Actually in this one, only the creamy white roses are fresh.

Even the sprigs of greens and the alstroemeria are faux.

Once the white roses are past their prime, it was easy to fill in with new fresh pink ones.

Using the same base of faux flowers, it is fun to branch out using more vibrant and vivid colors. Isn’t it interesting how different this brightly colored one looks compared to the previous two?

The red geraniums and tulips are not real. If you don’t have an attractive pedestal bowl, there is a wide assortment here.

Even for my recent Valentine dinner party where I tend to go all out with fresh flowers, in the areas that need beefing up, you can spot a faux peony or two. To see more about this Valentine dinner party, click here.

Recently I did spend a bit much on box of 26″ long faux lilacs from The Enchanted Home. I LOVE real lilacs but they do not grow here.

The quality of these branches is very good and I actually did spray the faux flowers with a French Lilac micro-batch perfume by Pacifica.

My friend, Karen says this is the closest fragrance to the real lilac scent so I bought some here. Since these lilacs are a close replica, it is fun to watch our guests walk over and sniff them.

My first choice is to create beautiful arrangements with real flowers, if for nothing else, the scent. But if you are like me, my home looks better with multiple flower arrangements. Like the pedestal bowl ideas above, faux flowers can be the framework and each week you can add a variety of fresh ones.

Have you tried combining and artificial flowers? If so, share your experience.

Flowers always make people better, happier and more helpful; they are sunshine, food and medicine to the soul.” – Luther Burbank

Happy arranging!

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This post shared with Between Naps on the Porch Tablescape Thursday #622

After putting up the new tulip wreath on the front door, the rest of the porch looks a bit tired after winter. If you missed yesterday’s post on how to make the front door tulip wreath, click here. Inspired by the pinks of this wreath, I am excited to come up with some new Spring front porch ideas.

Since I do not like to waste anything, many of the plants and colors from Valentine’s Day will continue on through the Spring. The pink geraniums and Latinia Rose cyclamen from Whitfill Nursery still look healthy and colorful. The stone rabbit will wear the pink polka dot ribbon for a few more months.

By the door, we have an iron bench and it is fun to place a blanket or pillow on it to soften the edges. The blue thrown has some of the same tones as the front door. Below, the Rose Bible by Reyford C. Reddell is one of my favorite rose reference books.

The two 5 foot cedar trees (artificial) flanking the front door are holding up well and require NO maintenance! I almost want to convert everything to faux plants because they are so easy! The quality is superb and can anyone really tell the difference?

Before you step up to the front door, the planting bed is looking exceptionally good this year. Only one plant didn’t survive the winter, but the rest are healthy and abundant with lavender, geraniums, scented geraniums and snapdragons.

If you have been following me for a while, you may recall the re-do of the rocking chairs on the porch. Repainting the chairs makes such a difference. Click here to see that post on sprucing up the front porch. It’s fun to see the before and after photos.

I was tempted to head to Target to buy some new spring pillows, but felt a bit lazy. Convinced I must have something here to use, I find these two sweet red/pink tulip pillows from my store. The colors are just perfect with the tulip theme. If you didn’t know I have a store, check out the Store tab at the top of the page.

The extremely heavy stone and concrete table is a yard sale find. Luckily we have two of them and they are weather-proof. And just big enough for a couple of cocktails and nibbles. Perfect for cashews are the fluted porcelain bowls by Epure, a recent treat in My Stylish French box subscription.

Scrounging the house and property for old items to put in new places is part of the fun. These two ducks have always been sitting by the front fountain….for years. Now they are integral pieces of the front porch spring decor!

So with minimal effort, I am able to transform the front porch from Valentine’s Day to Spring without any significant, additional cost. The wreath is less than $20 and the rest is just re-imagining my old stuff in new places.

This front door just makes me happy! I hope like my Spring-inspired changes.

It is typical of March to be warm one day and chilly and drizzly the next. Just when I pull out my first pair of shorts of the season, I am back wearing multiple layers. Crazy weather!

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

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This post shared with Farmhouse Friday Link Party #197, Between Naps on the Porch Metamorphosis Monday #635