Tag: spring

Seasonal Inspiration

Find Your Spring

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Emerging flower buds. Pleasant sunshine. Tiny nests with even tinier eggs. Springtime embodies hope year after year. This spring, however, adds the significant layer of hope for humanity, as vaccines become available and the return to so much of what we’ve missed is within reach!

This spring reminds me of a springtime tea last year, in honor of my friend Heidi.

These pictures are bittersweet because it was the last time this house hosted anything remotely resembling a party, and I miss those! Just a week or so after this event, we were all quarantined.

And then hope–hope became a lifeline. That which we craved, sought out, and spread like wildfire wherever it was found. (Anyone else love John Krasinski’s ‘Some Good News’ on YouTube? Seriously. Gathered the whole family. New Yorkers simultaneously applauding frontline workers each night at 7? Cried. Every. Time.)

Because hope is so beautifully powerful and powerfully beautiful.

Enter: S-P-R-I-N-G

Signs of spring remind us that gray seasons end, and change is possible. And that’s a message our pandemic-weary souls need right now.

“Wait, I thought this site was about home and design???”

Yes! I promise they relate:

Homes thrive on hope!

(With or without a pandemic.) –And we can manifest hope through the environment we create around us. Our surroundings are visual cues to our hearts and minds about what is true and possible. It’s worth considering then, what our most influential spaces are saying to us–and more importantly, what they could say.

So, what represents spring and hope to you?

Find it! Rummage through boxes, forage the backyard, brave the wilds of Amazon–just get it, and make that hope visible this spring.

Flowers?

Daffodils don’t know any other disposition but cheerful!

The promise of new life?

Blooming teacups?

Lovely teacups represent slowing down, sharing secrets with a friend, or fondly remembering the giver of this tiny treasure.

Picnic supplies ready for the perfect spring day?

Maybe a collection of recipes or ideas for that much-needed gathering of friends would represent a hopeful spring to you. Just looking at these pictures and the happy memories they represent offer me inspiration for future time with friends.

Herbed Cucumber Sandwiches
Blooming Floral Tea
Scones, Scones, Scones!

Let spring inspire hopeful moments in your home. It doesn’t have to be enormous, and it doesn’t have to be a permanent fixture. But tangible reminders of the good, possible, and redemptive in this world, help us access that part of the brain (and soul) where hope can really be transformative.

So, find your spring.

(And consider a tea party. It’s always a happy place to be!)

Photo Credits: Featured Image (pink flowers)–  TOMOKO UJI; Picnic Basket– Evangelina Silina (Both from Unsplash.com)

DIY, Seasonal Inspiration

DIY Blooming Branches

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I love the look of forced spring branches.

As winter comes to a close, people bring budding branches indoors to tease open the blooms and beckon a much-needed spring.

I’ve always wanted to try this, but I live in the desert.  While the desert is beautiful, bringing in branches from my mesquite tree would declare “BBQ!” more than “spring.”So, I’m making my own.  This arrangement only cost $2 to make.

Supplies:

  • 1-2 bouquets of artificial flowers that speak “Yay! Spring!” to you.  For the most organic look, shop for flowers which naturally have smaller blooms.  Determined to spend as little as possible on this untested brainstorm, I found mine at the Dollar Tree.
  • Twigs or branches (presumedly free)
  • A large vessel.  I used an antique ceramic pot, but a tall vase, metal florist’s bucket, watering can, or anything tall and sturdy could work.

Directions: 

This is so easy to make, it’s hard to keep a straight face pitching this as a tutorial.  Seriously.  Two steps.  Both rather obvious, but here we go:

  1.  Pull the buds off the stems.
  2.  Hot glue them to sticks and twigs.

Tips: 

  • Arrange branches in your vase first.  This allows you adjust the twigs into an even arrangement and see where blooms should be added to make the most natural looking display.
  • It helps to select twigs small enough to fit into the holes under the artificial blooms.  Dab hot glue into that hole, and pop the bloom atop a twig.  A few blooms in my arrangement are glued directly to the side of a branch, but the ones that fit directly on top of the twigs look the most natural.
  • I also glued the petals of some blooms together to look like younger buds.)

Admire your handiwork and a happy dose of spring anytime of the year!