Bunnies and Chicks, oh my! They are everywhere here at the castle.

Spring is my favorite time of year, mainly because it’s the time of year where everything feels shiny and new.

Now that Spring is here, that means two things. Easter is just around the corner and it’s time to break out the bunnies and chicks.

There are all kinds of bunnies and chicks here at the castle.

Some we’ve had for a very long time, like this music box.

I made it many years ago when the boys were little.

Some of the bunnies are new, like this silver candy dish.

I recently won it at Bunko and I love it.

Well, I love everything about it other than I feel compelled to fill it with candy.

Then I feel the need to eat it!

Which leads to me wondering around the house muttering, I will not eat the Reece’s, I will not eat the Reece’s!

Some of the bunnies are plain, like these sweet little white bunnies.

A few years ago I used them as place cards for our Easter dinner.

Simply, write names on them with Visa markers. The ink comes right off with nail polish remover!

A lot of the chicks are not only old, but have a dual purpose.

This one is colorful, cute and dispenses jelly beans.

Besides the living room, the kitchen is probably home to the most bunnies and chicks.

This is my favorite bunny of all time.

He is also the largest bunny in the group.

In fact, this chick is probably my favorite chick too!

I mean, who doesn’t love a chick who can wear a crown?

These little bunny Mud Pie salt and pepper shakers were a gift from my sister.

I’ll be honest, sometimes I leave them out through out the summer.

They are just too cute to put them up year round.

Many of the bunnies reside on my kitchen hutch.

This little bunny is hands down the newest to the growing collection.

He’s so tiny , he fits just about anywhere!

Gerald is the lone rabbit in the kitchen.

He is right at home hanging out in my mixing bowl.

Yes, occasionally we name them!

If you have followed me for very long, I’m sure that you have seen this little bunny before.

She’s been in the kitchen, the living room and the dining room more than once!

I just let her tell me where she wants to be each year.

That’s it for all of the bunnies and chicks here at the castle.

Do you have a collection of bunnies and chicks? If so, have you pulled them out and proudly displayed them yet? I’d love to know your traditions this time of year. Who knows, maybe there are a few more I need to add to my collection!

Until next time…

Hi Friends! I hope that you all had a wonderful weekend. Temps were mild here, but it finally feels like Spring is on it’s way! Which means that it’s time to break out the spring decor and make a few new items for Spring. Today I’m sharing how to make an Easter Bunny wreath!

Have you seen all of the cute bunny wreaths that are on Pinterest right now?

One of my favorite was one made using pom poms!

So cute.

However, in full disclosure, I’ll admit that there was no way that my attention span would allow me to make that many pom poms.

So this girl decided to go in a different direction.

Supplies for your Easter Bunny Wreath :

One styrofoam wreath

2 feather boas

yarn

felt

1 sheet of white foam

The first step is to wrap your two boas around the wreath, making sure to evenly space them.

The first step is to wrap your boas around the styrofoam wreath, making sure to evenly space them.

I like to reuse this wreath on occasion, so I used pins to attach the boas to the wreath.

Once your wreath is covered evenly, set the wreath aside.

On a separate sheet of paper, I made patterns for the bunnies feet and ears.

If you don’t want to do this, there are ton’s of clip art out there to help with this step.

Once you have them drawn, trace the feet and ears onto the white foam and cut them out.

Next, I drew small ovals, 3 for each foot, and two larger circles onto a piece of pink felt.

Once this is done, cut them out.

Then, glue the felt onto the bunny feet.

This is what my bunny feet looked like when I was finished.

Now, it’s time to make a bunny tail.

I used a pom pom maker and some variegated yarn.

Don’t have a pom pom maker? Now worries!

There are a ton of how to tutorials out there and they are super easy to make.

Last step, using pins attach all of the bunny parts to the wreath!

The pins work great, however if you are wanting a more permanent wreath you could always use hot glue.

That’s it for my how to make an Easter Bunny wreath!

I love it when a project turns out exactly how I imagined it.

This one was super easy, fun and fast.

My kind of project!

Until next time….

This has been such a busy week. So busy that getting ready for Easter has been a struggle. We’ve had company, made a road trip and waded through tons of rain!

Don’t get me wrong, it’s been a fun week. Just super full! However, I DID manage to get a  little done.

It’s spring at the Castle. Finally! Spring is my favorite season, tied with summer. There are a couple of reasons that I love spring so much. First, my birthday is March 20, the first day of spring. Woo Hoo!

Second, after a long winter there is nothing like my garden blooming and all things spring making an appearance inside the castle.

I have been so busy painting that Easter in the kitchen is going to be low key this year. At least the decor part anyway!

I shared my white painted hutch, chalkboard and partially finished small cabinet with you last week. While I am so thankful that these projects are finished, I am still running behind on just about everything else. I decided to give myself a break. What gets done, gets done. If it doesn’t, oh well!

My Easter table reveal is here! I love Easter, don’t you? All of the beautiful spring colors, plants, easter clothes, egg hunts and family time. It just puts me in my happy place.

One of my favorite parts of family time is Easter dinner. It’s probably why I spend so much time thinking about my Easter table decor. Recently, I polled all of you dear readers and asked for your help deciding which place setting to use on my Easter table. Today I’m sharing the results of that poll!

<a href=”https://www.bloglovin.com/blog/12269663/?claim=x3xchgpmuza”>Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

I’m giving Bubble Wands for Easter to all my littles! I was recently at a link Party surfing around and found the cutest enchanted bubble wands. I had to make some. Not gonna lie, if you want a tutorial that is creative and fun keep reading. However, if you want an EXACT and informative one Rena Klingenberg at Jewelry Making Journal.com has a fantastic tutorial.   I am gonna warn you right up front, this post is a little long and has a ton of pictures. So get a drink, settle in and enjoy!

Supply List

16 or 18 gauge wire – 9″ long for a large wand or 6″ long for a small one (copper or brass)

24 gauge wire for stringing beads

beads

wire cutter

file for smoothing wire ends

Round nose pliers

Flat nose pliers

Chain nose pliers

Ring mandrel – don’t panic if you don’t have one of these – I didn’t either! I just used a piece of PVC

Fine Sharpie

Danger Will Robinson! Read this entire post before attempting to make a wand. Trust me. you’ll thank me later! Your welcome.

I wanted a large wand so I cut my wire 9″ long.  The tutorial called for a file, but I was too lazy to hunt one up so I just used sandpaper to smooth out my wire ends. No sharp ends for my littles!

Next, using my fine sharpie, I marked the wire 2″ from one end.

Sorry this is a little blurry! It’s time to make the bubble blowing loop. This can be any shape, but I felt like since I was a bubble wand novice the circle would probably be the easiest.

Leaving the 2″ end of wire straight, wrap the wire around the PVC to form a circle. Now don’t panic like I did if the circle isn’t super tight. Mine wasn’t. It still turned out cute!

Using your flat nosed pliers make a bend in the stem below the circle you just made. You want to center the main wire stem directly under the circle. Like a lollipop.

Using your flat nose pliers firmly grip the circle and wrap the straight 2″ wire ( two or three times) around the main stem of your bubble wand right below the circle. You can use pliers, but I found it was just as easy to use my fingers.

Cut of any excess wire. Use your chain nose pliers to squeeze down the cut wire end so that it doesn’t stick out and catch or scratch something.

Time to make the handle. This step is super easy. It’s also where I messed up! Find the half way point of your bubble wand stem and mark with a sharpie. Place the mid point wire against the handle of your sharpie marker and wrap the end of your wand stem around the marker making a round or tear drop shape.

So far so good right? WRONG! You are suppose to have enough leftover wire  after wrapping the end around the sharpie to get creative and make a fun design. Where did I go wrong? I should have made the adjustment for using the PVC instead of the mandrel at a ring size of 15. Yeah… math was never my strong suit. Back to the drawing board.

This time I cut my wire 12″ long. Now repeat all of the steps up to and including wrapping your wire around the sharpie. NOW, you should have plenty of leftover wire to get creative!

See the difference? Now if you want a no fuss teeny, tiny end do the 9″. If you want to go all out and make yourself a really enchanted bubble wand you want the 12″. Up to you.

Now is when you use your 24 gauge wire and the beads to embellish your bubble wands. I left some plain and really blinged out some of the others. I made some wands big and some little. What I realized that you don’t have to be exact with any of this. Thank goodness or I would have had a mess. It’s so hard for me to color in the lines people!!!

I bought some bubbles and tied the wands onto the bottles with coordinating ribbon.

Then I packaged them up in these cute bags, added some eggs, chocolate and a few other toys.

I tied it all up with some tulle and my bubble wands for Easter were ready to be delivered to all of my littles!

I think my bubble wands turned out pretty cute. Maybe not as cute as Rena’s, but I’m happy with them and hope that my littles are too! If you decide to make any, I would love to  know how yours turned out!

Until next time…

                    Tammy

Hey you! Don’t forget to Pin it!

You can find me at these fabulous parties:

Flaunt it Friday #297

The past few weeks have been CRAZY y’all! After a fun weekend with my sister, things have hopefully settled back into what I consider “normal” and I can get back to the business of sharing fun things with you. Today I am going to share my kitchen Easter table with you!

I would tell you that I go a little more “simple’ when decorating the kitchen easter table, but the last time I did a sweet blogger told me, in a really sweet way, that my simple was different from her simple. That made me smile. I guess it’s all relative.

To me it is simple. And easy. If it wasn’t I wouldn’t do it, cuz I’ve got things to do! I don’t use a table cloth – I would be washing it every day. Whose got time for that? I do start with a clean table and add layers.

For me it’s easiest to start with my centerpiece. Once I have that done I build outward. This year, like last year I started with this white bunny. I love him. I added some grass, eggs and a few natural elements and my centerpiece was done. I always have my centerpiece on something that can easily be picked up and moved. I have to be able to clean the table. Yes, you are seeing a trend here…we can be messy!

Once I have the centerpiece down, I add my placemats, napkins, chargers, plates, glassware and silverware.

After I have these I like to add some whimsy to the place setting. This time it was with egg cups that I also made into my ” place cards.”

I found these egg cups this year at my local Kroger grocery store. One BIG problem though. They only had three!!!

So I bought these plain white ones and added green polka dots. I used chalk paint that I already had. I chose chalk paint because I knew that chalk paint  adheres to just about everything. PLUS – my placemats, chargers and china hutch are all the same duck egg blue color. Perfect!

To make the egg cups into my place setting cards I simply chose a ribbon and slapped an initial of the special person who will be sitting here on the ribbon. A little grass and an egg finish this place setting.  Really simple and easy!

My napkins were placed into the stemware and hold a surprise – a tiny egg. I may replace these eggs with a chocolate egg on Easter morning. Since the boys have grown up, I have to add chocolate wherever I can!! No Reeces peanut butter eggs or chocolate bunnies to mooch from them. Parent of the year, I know…

Of course, y’all know that I am gonna have my chalkboard art.

My kitchen easter table is set and ready for Easter morning honey bunnies. I can’t wait!

I think that it is fun and practical at the same time. I love that. Now that my table is ready, I can focus on other life shattering problems. Like what kind of pendants I want to hang over my island!

Until next time….

                 Tammy

Hey you! See anything you liked? Don’t forget to Pin it!

You can find me at these fabulous parties:

Wow Us Wednesdays #264

Thoughts of Home on Thursday #5

Share Your Style Link Party  #56

Weekend Retreat Link Party #162

Flaunt it Friday

Inspiration Monday Party, Redhead Can Decorate

I finally did it! I figured out how to decorate my Easter table using blue tones. I’ve tried and tried to get it to work, but it just wouldn’t come together like I envisioned. Until this year.

What made this year so different? My killer awesome, blue and white bunny plates! Thank you Home Goods! At $2.99 each, these plates were a steal!

I also found these white placemats at Home Goods ( no, sadly they do not pay me to say how awesome they are, I just love them!)  Only problem? They just didn’t show up. No pop.

I had these green ones from last year and loved them. So it occurred to me that I could just spray paint the white ones blue.

This is how they turned out. I LOVE them! I used the square polk -a-dot placemats and napkins from last year. White dinner plates, blue glasses and silverware finish off this place setting. I could not be happier!!

I recently bought a large wooden dough bowl and I couldn’t resist using it as a centerpiece.

Complete with bunny, hydrangeas and ribbon. I did use a little color!

I did purchase two other super cute items – these tiny jar lanterns.  A little bit of rustic glamour! These were $2.99 – less 40% off at Michaels.

I use these sweet little salt and pepper shakers every year. They are so tiny – they are perfect for my easter table.

My easter table is a little more simple this year, I ‘m kinda of lovin’ that. I am really excited that for the most part my easter table is all of the blue and white tones that I use in my dining room. Finally!

Until next time….

                         Tammy

Hey you! See something that you liked? Don’t forget to Pin it!

You can find me at these fabulous parties!

Wow Us Wednesdays #236

Stone Gable The Scoop #213

Early in the month I shared with you my Easter/Spring table scape with the promise of sharing my Easter Kitchen Table  with you …. Ladies and gentlemen….(drum roll please!) here it is, along with a few other kitchen Easter surprises!

Just in case you missed it – this is my Easter/Spring centerpiece.

This year I am trying to tie in the existing decor with my holiday decorations.  Who wants to spend days changing everything out when they could be painting furniture? Me! Me! Oh, ME!

My St. Patricks day table used green, gold and black.  I really liked it.  Since it had a lot of the colors I would use for Easter I decide to keep a lot of the same things.

I changed the centerpiece.

I kept the placemats, charger, plates and napkin.

I added a beautiful soft yellow flower napkin rings and my favorite Easter decoration of all time, duck and bunny salt and pepper shakers in white and the same soft yellow as the napkin ring.

That’s it! How easy was that? Just a few simple changes and my table is ready to roll.

Here is a shot of the entire table.  I left off the silverware and glassware because let’s be honest – I DO leave it set as you see it, but I DON’T  leave the silverware or glasses on the table on a daily basis.  I like that I can pick each place setting up as a whole and move it to clean. Easy peasy. Just keepin’ it real for my peeps! If that makes me bad, so be it.

Of course my kitchen wouldn’t be complete without my chalkboard art…

I’ve shared this sweet little bunny with you earlier, but couldn’t resist showing him again… so. darn. sweet!

I used this as my formal dining centerpiece last year. I loved that little rabbit so much so I HAD to use it  somewhere. I think it is perfect on my island… I have a few more small surprises tucked here and there around the kitchen – a faux chocolate bunny, a tiny basket of eggs, birds nests – just little things to remind me that spring and Easter are really here.

So how about you? Are you going all out on your Easter decor this year or are you like me and are scaling back a bit? I’d love to hear!

Until next time…..

                       Tammy

Woo Hoo! It is the First Day of Spring. Finally! Take that you crazy groundhog! Also, Happy Birthday to me! Yup, I am a true spring chick. I love this time of year. For me, my birthday starts it all off. Warmer weather, Easter, flowers blooming, baseball. Hey, it’s almost flip flop weather y’all!

While I love being outside and working in my yard this time of year, I also try and bring some of that color and spring feeling into the house. One way to do that is with a spring/Easter table centerpiece.

Here is what you are gonna need…

A little fluff. You know the “filler”. I like to use natural seasonal things and some natural elements.

Fresh flowers or plants. If you can’t do fresh then use realistic fake ones.

A container to hold very thing . I like to corral everything so I can easily move it to clean.

I started with a crown – what else? I think that another important thing in your arrangement is varied heights or as Christopher Lowell ( HGTV’s first decor diva) used to say “lifts and levels!”.  The lifts and levels don’t have to be pretty, you’re not going to see them. Today, I used a small dish turned upside down.

I placed my cute rabbit on top of my lift. I had already given him a sassy black and white plaid bow and placed greenery and robins eggs in his backpack.

Next, a live plant and this awesome burlap cabbage flower. I placed them in a triangle. Visually this gives it texture, weight and symmetry. In other words – it looks good!

Place the “fluff” around the “triangle” that you just created to hide all of the stuff you don’t want to see and talk about texture? This crushes it. Be sure to go all the way around, especially since this is going on the table as a centerpiece. No empty spaces, no ugly spots.

If there are any empty spaces or holes add greenery or moss to these spots. Also, add in any extra small seasonal items – like the robin’s eggs I added here – to finish out the centerpiece. I wanted to tie my centerpiece in with the colors of the kitchen so I added a black and white bow to the front of the centerpiece.

I am done! Simple and easy.

Here is a shot of the side…

And a shot of the back… NO ugly spaces!

If you were paying attention you can see that I have been playing with different place settings to see which one I like the best. Decisions, decisions!

As soon as I make up my mind all I have to do is set the kitchen table and I am ready to rock spring and Easter! I will be sharing part II of my kitchen table soon!

Until next time……

                         Tammy

I wasn’t looking for Easter decor, it’s too early! I was in HomeGoods browsing and came across the cutest table linens. Usually I am lucky to find just ONE thing I love. And for those of you who are lucky enough to have a HomeGoods in your area , you know that if you find it, you had better pick it up NOW or it won’t be there when you go back. This is how my Easter decorating dilemma began!

The first thing I found were these awesome square polka-dotted placemats.  The turquoise would be great in my kitchen, but the light blue would be awesome in my dining room.  Maybe I should go with the coral for a contrasting color? Plus, they even had matching napkins.  Rick rack.. I love rick rack. Although I rarely do matchy-matchy stuff. But these were so cute….

And then I heard the Angels start singing when I found these . They all matched the polka-dot colors! AND THEY HAD RUFFLES on them. Sigh… Go Matchy-Matchy or go with a solid? Love the sherbet colors!

While I was pondering matchy-matchy or contrast napkins, I saw these really sweet seersucker napkins. AGAIN, they were the exact colors and I love stripes….

I almost had my decision made when I found these…. OMG! So. Darn. Cute!  The dilemma is getting bigger by the minute! Neutral tones go with everything.

It was bad enough that there were cute little bunnies, but then I found these with nest on them… I LOVE bird nests! Dang it!

And last, but certainly not least, I saw these. I immediately loved the color and knew that they would be awesome in my black and white kitchen.  I could just cry…

I gotta tell you that for a girl who usually knows her mind, I spent a lot of time deciding which ones of these to take home! I wanted them all. If I were a kid, this is where I would throw a hissy fit! PLEASE…CAN I TAKE THEM ALL HOME MOM???? PLEASE…. I NEED THEM…

What a dilemma! They were all pretty, all a really great price and I knew that they would all work in my home. But which ones to take home?

I spent a lot of time in HomeGoods. I figured after awhile I needed to make a decision before they though I was up to no good. So I flipped a quarter – several times- to help me make my decision. HEY! Don’t judge… I didn’t have my magic eight ball with me or I would have used that instead.

I am still not sure what I am going to do with what I brought home. But just like Scarlet O’Hara…As God as my witness I will think about that tomorrow. And then I will share it with you.

Until next time…..

                    Tammy