Happy Saturday and Easter weekend! We are having picture-perfect weather and our house guests are enjoying clear skies, sunshine and 72 degrees. Everything is in bloom and the air is fragrant with the smells of jasmine and orange blossoms. Thanks for joining me for our weekly Saturday Meanderings where we talk about all good things and fun finds on the internet.

Lots of Character

Isn’t this powder room stunning? Such an interesting combination of classic, contemporary, expected and unexpected. Done by Marie Flanigan in a modern Houston home, I love it all. The rest of the home is too contemporary and a bit impersonal for me, but I do appreciate the style of this bathroom. To see the rest of the house, click here.

Before and After

I love a good Before and After and especially when it involves a $7.00 thrifted cabinet find. As featured on Apartment Therapy, here is the Before of the cabinet.

Here is the After. Isn’t this amazing? First of all, how clever to turn the cabinet over and add legs. But what a gorgeous color and flower treatment. To see more about how this artist person converts this junky piece into something fabulous, click here. Wishing I had foresight like this~to re-imagine a piece this way. What a gift.

I Need Your Help

There are two large wicker chairs in the pool house that are painted black with buffalo check (black/white)cushions and small lumbar pillows. As is, they are not in keeping with the fresh, updated crisp look in the pool house. So, do I:

1. Get rid of them (sell or donate)
2. Re-do them. If so, how?

My thoughts are to paint the wicker a navy blue and find a fun, updated blue patterned fabric for the cushions. They are very comfortable and provide seating to those hanging out in the new kitchenette in the pool house.

I have some of this Blue Radish linen fabric from Radish Moon leftover from the re-do of my son’s bedroom that I could use on the lumbar pillows. To see that bedroom update, click here.

You have such great ideas so I am excited to hear what you think!

Making Eggnog

I know what you are thinking~why are you making eggnog in April? Well, last year we made eggnog in January for our Christmas festivities. We are a little late in doing so this year, but this Alton Brown recipe can be made at any time. But trust me, making it early will provide you with a delicious, creamy and smooth beverage come holiday time.

My sweet husband makes this and the bottles will sit in our refrigerator for the next 8 months. Find the truly fabulous aged eggnog recipe here.

Cute Ideas for a Garden Party

Every spring when our weather is glorious, I dream of having a garden party. It’s yet to happen but this recent post by Michele at Vintage Home Designs has me inspired. Look how adorable this is!

And check out this garden apron which is the perfect place to hold guest gifts or just to add to the garden theme. So darn clever!

To see the entire post on this garden party tablescape, click here.

All Things Decoupage

Who knew you could use napkins to transform a lamp? Well, that’s my friend, Rachel. I bet if I was standing next to her, she would figure out a way to make me into something else! I am always in awe of her talents.

Look at the rather unattractive Before lamp photo:

To this amazing and completely gorgeous lamp:

When you consider all the different napkin (or hand towel) styles out there, think of the possibilities! To see Rachel’s very detailed post on how to transform this $1.00 thrift store lamp, click here.

Speaking of decoupage, I follow My Little White Barn on Instagram (@mylittlewhitebarn)and look at these adorable green bunny Easter eggs Shannon makes. And I happen to have the exact same paper hand towels in my powder room right now. If I have time this weekend, I would love to make these. Here is her blog, though I did not see these eggs posted there.

Happy Easter

Today I am making the annual Lamb Cake, a tradition that has been in my family since I was a little girl. Since we are having quite a few people for Sunday dinner, I may make a chicken cake too. Do you know that in my basement I have molds for lambs, a chicken, a bunny and a turkey. Isn’t that insane? But to make it easier this year, I am trying the boxed Trader Joe’s Meyer Lemon cake. They were completely sold out of the Blood Orange cake I mentioned last week.

This week I could go on and on as there are so many things I want to share with you, but I know you are ready to enjoy your holiday weekend. We had a few not so good things happen this week. My youngest daughter broke her foot and it’s been very challenging finding a doctor who has an open appointment. She’s in a boot and on crutches so we are awaiting the prognosis. But she’s young (21) and will heal quickly.

Cooper, our 9 year old Akbash (a big white dog), isn’t feeling well. The diagnosis is not good, but we are praying that he stays with us for as long as possible. It’s hard to even write about it without crying, but we are keeping hopeful.

Wishing you a blessed Easter and a joyful Spring weekend. We feel blessed that all our children (and their friends) will be spending the holiday with us. It’s all about family, isn’t it? Thank you for sharing your time with me today. I truly appreciate it.

Last week I took a break from blogging as I hosted 3 blogging friends from Texas, Colorado and Washington. Unfortunately, 2 had medical emergencies and were forced to cancel at the last minute. But we forged on and had a very productive, fun and creative 4 days together. I cannot wait to share with you all that we did. But I did miss checking in with you! So welcome to Saturday Meanderings, where we chat about all good things that happened this week. Let’s get started.

Gleaning the Citrus

It’s that time of year when the citrus trees are showing new, fragrant blooms. Within a short time, we need to remove this year’s fruit to direct the nutrients into the next year’s crop. Since many of our citrus trees have been on our historical parcel for decades, we honestly have the BEST juice orange tree. Several containers of juice are squeezed for our neighbors and we are finally picking the last of the fruit.

But isn’t this French wire basket adorable? It’s a large size and I purchased it from The Enchanted Home. I do not receive any kind of commission for sharing this with you~it’s just a pretty and useful container. White is available and it appears the green is sold out. You can see it here.

Just Pretty

Every now and again, a photo will make a lasting impression on me. Don’t you find this image very soothing and elegant? It is staged perfectly and I thought you would like looking at it too.

Grand Canyon University

Lately I am tossing around the idea of going back to school for continued learning. Ten minutes from our home is Grand Canyon University, which I had never visited before. How fun to be on a college campus again to spend the day learning about the university. Phoenix is very lucky to have a variety of educational institutions available. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to have my picture taken with their mascot, Thunder the Antelope! Ah, to feel young again!

New Cake at Trader Joe’s

I do not know if this is a seasonal item or not, but I made it for my guests and they loved it!. Super easy as is. Typically I will add other ingredients (for example their pumpkin bread I add dried cranberries or chocolate chips), but I didn’t do anything but follow the directions.

It’s pretty, tasty and it would be an easy thing to serve to your guests or over the Easter holiday.

Gorgeous Painting from Sundance

The Sundance Catalog is filled with treasures, but check out this painting from Santa Barbara artist Erika Carter. Inspired by her cultural influences from her grandparents and her travels to Mexico.

Here is another one available on Sundance that is 4 feet by 7 feet~just amazing! I may try my hand at copying one of these. Check it out here.

Sephora Sale

I am in need of some make-up and toiletries. At Sephora until April 11, there is an incredible sale going on with up to 30% off. Here is a link if you are in the shopping mood. You get fun things and I get a small stipend and we all win!

Getting Ready for Easter

Can you believe that next week the Easter holidays begin? Yikes! And we are expecting our son and 7 of his friends to arrive on Wednesday. Quite honestly, I haven’t even thought about how to decorate the table or what meal to make but like Christmas, it all magically comes together.

Check out Janine at the Happy Happy Nester and her spring-like, pastel Easter table. Isn’t it the sweetest? Next week I will share some Easter tables and ideas.

Hopefully this week you did read (and maybe had a chance to make?) my decoupage Easter eggs. I hope to pull those out and use them again this year.

Ah friends, it is getting a bit warm here. The mornings are still lovely, but it is always a sad day when we have to close the windows and turn on the air conditioner. I try holding off for as long as possible, but when it gets in the 90s, there is not much choice. However, next week the temperature will drop again and hopefully will be perfect for our house guests.

Have a terrific weekend! So much is happening in the garden and I can’t wait to share all of that too! This concludes another episode of Saturday Meanderings. Thank you so much for joining me.

I have always wanted to try decoupaging eggs with pretty napkins for Easter and Spring. However, I couldn’t find any appropriate napkins laying around the house to do this. So instead, I find paper hand towels with a pretty peony pattern. Since you can do this with any napkin, check out the rather large display of pretty decorative paper napkins at Walmart here. This is a relatively easy DIY project and would be so fun to do with children or grandchildren too. Keep reading to find out how to make decoupage Easter eggs.

Materials

After you find the perfect napkin or paper hand towel (mine is from Hester & Cook) you will need scissors, Mod Podge, eggs and a paint brush. You can find Mod Podge here or at any craft store. If you have not used Mod Podge before it is a water base sealer, glue and finish. Mine is a Matte finish, but if you like glossy, why not?

Regarding eggs, since we have SO many laying chickens I am using our fresh eggs. However, craft eggs would work, maybe even plastic or wooden eggs (see here). A neutral color would be my suggestion as I only use white eggs vs. the brown or blue eggs our chickens lay.

Blowing out the Eggs

This is a relatively easy process. First of all, prepare your work surface. A good size piece of parchment paper is taped to the granite counter as my work area. With a metal or wooden skewer (or you can use a knife), I gently tap a hole in both ends of the egg at the tips.

If the egg cracks a bit, don’t worry as you will be covering it. Make sure you take a skewer or wooden pick and pierce the inner membrane of the egg. It will be MUCH easier to remove the contents if the inside of the egg is not whole. Last time my husband blew out the contents of eggs for me, he ended up bursting a blood vessel in his eye.

There is no need for this be difficult. A gentle, steady breath will release the contents of the egg easily. If not, try shaking the egg to “scramble” the insides.

After all the eggs are empty, I gently rinse them and wipe dry with a paper towel.

Adding the Paper

Depending on the design of your napkin/hand towel, cut out a section. My hand towels are 3 ply so remember to check for that. The first one I did the white paper backing stuck to the egg, but the peony design did not. Remove the other layers and just work with the layer with a pattern.

Using your foam brush (or any brush) paint the Mod Podge to the egg. I like using these disposable foam brushes as you can discard them when you are finished.

Add your paper cut-out to the egg, smoothing the wrinkles and edges. You can also paint the Mod Podge right on the paper too. It will dry clear and keep the edges fastened to the egg.

Keep adding pieces of your paper to the egg. My peony paper is very thin and any overlap can be seen. It may not matter but it all depends on your pattern and how you want it to look in the end.

Letting them dry

The eggs will need to dry to set the glue. I get better at this with each application.

What is nice about these eggs is that they will keep forever. And I can use these pretty eggs in my table decor if I ever do another peony themed tablescape like the one I did last spring. See it here.

These eggs are so cheerful and fun. Now I am inspired to look at other napkins and for future projects. The possibilities are endless since there are now many papers especially for decoupage. See some ideas here.

And the best part? Using all the fresh eggs for a homemade quiche! I love it when there is no waste.

Thank you so much for joining me today. It feels good to accomplish something that I have been wanting to do. I hope you like this simple DIY project. We will more than likely dye our eggs the traditional way but it’s fun to have other egg options.

Happy Wednesday, my sweet friends!

If you enjoy this post, please share on Pinterest.

Well, I’m a little late on posting this today but thanks for being here with me! Have you ever had one of those weeks where the minute you open your eyes until your head hits the pillow your day is chock-a-block full? That was my week! Every single day. So little time for blogging and beautiful things, but now we get a chance to look back at the week’s events and cherish the good stuff. It’s time for another Saturday Meanderings.

Daffodils

Check out your local grocery store to see if they have daffodils. Here at Safeway, you get 2 bunches for $5.00 (10 stems each) and quite honestly, they look a bit dead. It’s hard to even notice them as they are in a large cardboard box sitting next to the floral displays.

But after a quick stem trim and an overnight in water, look how they perk up and show their gorgeous yellow faces! Now where can you get such a cheerful bouquet for just a few dollars these day?

Also, if you are feeling blue, yellow is a wonderful healing color. Just having these in a vase that I can view several times per day makes me smile.

Another Target find

Even though I am trying to downsize, there are just some things at Target that I cannot resist. In searching for a new wreath look for the front door for March, this Threshold this preserved boxwood wreath is a winner. And it’s priced at $45.00, which seems reasonable to me. It is approximately 22″ wide and you can find it here. What is nice about this wreath is that it is so versatile for multiple seasons.

For March, I did add a leprechaun, a pot of gold and a few shamrocks (carefully as I did not want to damage the boxwood). I am hoping it is not too juvenile, but perhaps whimsical?

In the dollar section by the entrance, you will find these adorable moss flocked bunnies in various sizes. It will be fun to use them in Spring or Easter decorations.

Nothing says spring like cherry blossoms and these stems are so life-like. And you can’t beat the price at $5.00 per branch.

New Netflix Series

This new Netflix documentary is one everyone should watch. Especially those of us who are very trusting. Definitely something I want my children to watch and learn not to seek a roommate from Craig’s List.

It reminds me of the Netflix series Dirty John and The Betty Broderick story, both true stories and a 2-part series. Some people are not who they portray. Those are must sees too!

Flowers

In light of all the terrible news and strife in the world, here are some pictures of what is blooming in my yard. I find joy and peace in knowing that nature continues to provide us with gifts of hope.

Don’t you feel like petunias and pansies don’t get the attention they deserve? Right now, I have various colors of both flower showing their delicate petals. There is something about their softness that radiates a sense of calm.

When walking by the bulb garden, you can sniff the intoxicating scent of the hyacinths. To me, they are the first sign of Spring here.

I hope to do a post on my rose garden as it beginning to be so beautiful this time of year. Here’s just a glimpse at the Julia Child yellow rose that is blooming.

Chicken Mentality

Our hen house has four large nesting boxes for the hens to lay their eggs. Help me understand why the chickens need to fight for the same box? Here are 3 hens trying to lay their eggs on top of each other. They aren’t happy and peck at each other, but it must be a hierarchy thing? Go figure.

Fun New Shoes

Buying shoes is a bit of a challenge for me as I have a bunion on my right side. Narrow shoes pinch and hurt so it’s a bit of a gamble to buy shoes online. However, I like the look of these Cole-Haan, feather-weight shoes. The color combination is fun and so far, they are comfortable with the right socks.

An Amazing DIY

My friend, Rachel from The Pond’s Farmhouse, is so incredibly talented and seems to have endless energy. Look how she transformed this thrift store lamp into something that resembles a lamp you would spend hundreds of dollars on at Pottery Barn.

I only wish I had an ounce of Rachel’s talent. Her post will make me look at thrift store lamps in a different way. You can see it here.

Well, that’s another wrap up of Saturday Meanderings! We are heading to the opera tonight, compliments of my daughter, Julianna. This was one of my Christmas presents and we are looking forward to going out.

Have a wonderful weekend. I hope it is filled with relaxation and peaceful moments.

If you missed my posts this week, you can see them below.

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!