What To Do When Spring Just Won't Come

Okay, friends, here are some facts ---

I live in the sunny South

It is 2 days away from the end of March

The daffodils came up 2 months ago

It was 29 degrees out when I went out walking this morning

At some point, one must ask if spring is really ever coming at all this year or if it will be, in a Narnia-ish way, always winter and never Christmas.

In that spirit, I have come up with a few ideas of ways to continue to keep hope alive that spring may indeed arrive and that there will be days when I will walk out my front door and begin panting, wishing fervently for the chill of winter!

Idea #1 - Fill the house with daisies.

Or whatever flower says "spring" to you!!  Lots of them.

If spring won't bloom voluntarily on the outside, I say force it to bloom on the inside!!

This reminds me that somehow, somewhere the sun is shining and flowers are blooming in that warmth and may it come here quickly.

Idea #2 - Roll out the sugar cookie dough and cut out flowers.  Lots of them!!

And let the kids decorate in colors as bright and bold and (::ahem::) garish as they want, thick with sprinkles in combinations that make the eyes slightly dizzy.

If the grass refuses to be anything other than the color of khaki Docker's and the trees stay bare and brown, at least color and flowers will be exploding on the kitchen table!!

Idea #3 - Drink hot tea.  Lots of it!!

This tea especially.

Oooooh, yummy!!  I have been drinking this multiple times a day with generous ladle-ings of honey and cream, and it seems to be working.  I believe I have successfully tricked my insides into being warm enough to think spring is here and therefore prohibit them from striking and forcing me to stay in the bed, covers over the head, until the temperature outside registers at least a spring-like 68 degrees.

So that's how we're coping with the spring that's slow in coming this year!!

And I do believe it seems to be working.

How about you??  Have you found a way to bring spring inside??

Yellow Daisies and Flea Market Finds

I love daisies.  They are such a very comfortable flower.  They can be stuffed in a broken crock or Mason jar and look quite at home.  They demand neither a fancy home nor artful arranging.

(vintage iron garden art from Shinola)

They look cheerful and accepting, never snooty or bored.

And when other more sophisticated flowers have begun to shed their regal beauty, the commonplace daisy is still smugly fresh and youthful.

Those same adjectives can be applied to flea market finds . . . comfortable, cheerful accepting, fresh.

(small silver pitcher from Pickens Flea Market)

When a little silver pitcher is already colored with the patina of irreversible tarnish or a milk crate is rough, worn  and its handle split, it lets me know I don't have to sit taller or keep my legs crossed at the ankles when it comes in to my home.

(vintage milk crate with original pint milk bottles from Barnyard Flea Market)

So, what better than to combine a big bunch of laid back daisies with several new comfortable flea market finds?

Ah, dreamy!

(passed down from My Mom)

And I think these little chippy, place-card-holding children from Germany, grasping their own imperfect but cheerful and unassuming flowers would agree.

The Good and the Bad of the Signs of Spring

I do feel quite guilty rejoicing over the signs of a coming spring!!  After all, here in the South we've had a very mild winter.  Our neighbors from Buffalo, New York scarcely can bring themselves to call it winter.  I can see them trying to keep the chuckle out of their eyes on the several days where the weather hits freezing.

But, still, when those first daffodils pop their heads up, it's all I can do to keep from squealing, jumping up and down, and ordering bathing suits.

And then there are these shoes, fresh from Target for Youngest Daughter.

If those don't just announce spring and start you packing up your wooly sweaters!

There is, of course, another side to the signs of spring.  And that would be the spring fever that gets in to teen-aged boys when the weather starts to warm and the daffodils start to bloom and the flowery shoes start to show up in Target.  It's the fever that assures them that now that it is warm, surely school is over, surely the play time of summer has begun.

Do you see the child above trying to look diligent?  Five minutes before this picture was taken, he was hurling a pen at the cork board to see if it would stick, wrestling his brother, petting the dog, gazing empty-eyed out the front window.  Not addressing the matter of the comparative and superlative forms of an adjective.

Spring Fever!

I hate to tell you, my dear, but you had better close your eyes to the daffodils, ignore the warm breezes blowing up onto the front porch, and turn a deaf ear to the chirping of the birds.  We've got all of February, March, April, and May yet to go.

Pink Tulips

I was not planning on purchasing pink tulips when I walked into the grocery store.

As a matter of fact, I was specifically there for three items:  Chocolate Cheerios, bananas, and Peter Pan Superchunk Please-Not-Creamy-This-Time-Mom peanut butter.

And then I saw them . . . right by the ice cream freezer.

Pink Tulips.

My heart swooned.  I steeled myself.  I'm at the end of the grocery budget.  Must focus.

I found my peanut butter and bananas and rounded the corner to head toward the cereal.  And there they were again.  Blush pink, faintly edged in white.

I had just come in from a drizzly, grey outside.  A drizzly, grey day that followed about 13 other drizzly, grey days.  My hope of ever seeing the sun, color, or bloom again was fading quickly.  I couldn't at this point exactly be held accountable for the grocery budget; could I?

Somehow those luscious tulips got into my basket and I made a firm decision.  The children would be eating Honey Nut O's until the end of the month.  No Chocolate Cheerios.  Cost of 2 boxes of Chocolate Cheerios = Cost of Tulips.  Do the math.  These tulips were mine.

I felt like I had found a hidden secret, my own little stash of pink-hope-for-spring.

That afternoon I looked at blogs and found that pink tulips were popping up everywhere.  It seems that others have also found their own private stash pink-hope-for-spring in their own shops.

These were from Uncommon Grace.

These from Beauty Does Matter.  ::sigh::

Can you even imagine looking out your farmhouse window and seeing this sight?  I do believe I'm hyperventilating.

My favorite, from Farmgirl Paints.  Love the blue canning jar, love the rusted turquoise metal "box," love the vintage shakers.  And, of course, love the pink tulips.

The sun is flickering on my tulips, I'm smiling, hope springs eternal.  The kids will never miss those Cheerios.

18 Years of Easter Baskets

This Easter, there were 3 changes that I wanted to make for me . . . just this year . . . but maybe to be repeated.  Just 3 little changes, but they did leave me with a bunch of bubbly happiness on the inside.

#1 - I white-washed the garish, carnival-colored Easter baskets:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Ah, delightful.  

The boys were mortified . . . simply mortified.

Oldest Son's Clemson-orange basket was suddenly a very soft, rosy, bunny-ear color.

Middle Son's screaming purple became a delicate lilac.  

He mourned for a day.

I remained unmoved.

Youngest Son, in desperation took his green and blue basket and headed for the hills.

It didn't resurface until Saturday night.

#2 - I did not visit Target or Wal-Mart to fill Easter baskets:

Instead I went to Fresh Market and bought things like

white chocolate pretzels with Easter-y swirls

mounds of German gummy bears

peanut butter-filled eggs

watermelon taffy

Australian licorice

and Lindt milk chocolate bunnies.

It made me so happy.

A treat just for me.  I'm sure the kids would just as soon have had the
junky stuff!

Because the candy was more expensive, I bought less.

And that was a good thing too!

#3 - No eggs this year.

I know . . . I almost felt criminal.

I just didn't want to do eggs this year . . . in any form.

I didn't color them, hide them, serve them, or decorate with them.

Instead, I gathered the yummy candies into little tissue paper pouches, 

plopped them in the baskets,

and the baskets were waiting on the table Easter morning.

I loved the simplicity, and I think they turned out cute.

It's amazing how refreshing changing up things a little can be.

Taking off the pressure of expectations.

Choosing less but better quality.

Freshening up what looks old and tired, instead of buying new.

Making the holiday special for me too.

And after 18 years of Easter baskets, I needed that.

Birds These Days

There's not much that is more full of promise, hope and expectation than nests in the spring! 

The birds in our neighborhood seem to be quite challenged, however, in their building abilities, site selection and decisiveness.

For example, one bird worked away diligently in our zelcova tree and then later in the day, as Youngest Daughter and I walked under the tree, the nest came down with a plop right in front of us.  Back to Engineering 101 for that bird.

Youngest Daughter filled it with little pink flowers instead of the eggs for which it was meant.


And then you may remember the mourning dove that chose our hanging pansy planter in which to begin her nest and then left in a flurry of stress and distraction.

Well, apparently not having found any other spot to suit her completely, she is back and has laid 2 adorable eggs.  She's become used to children, dogs, and life going on just under the bottom of her basket.  Papa Bird, however, has not become accustomed and cannot reconcile himself to Mama's indecisiveness.  He sits up on the roof ledge just waiting for Mama to grow exasperated again, so he can say, "I told you so."  Humph.

And then there is the bird with the impaired site selection ability.  This bird chose, of all places, the 24' x 45' fenced area in which we keep our two large, boisterous, and bird-o-phobic dogs.  Somehow this bird built its nest within dog-reaching range and managed to get an egg laid before she realized that she must have had a migraine when choosing her location.  She abandoned her nest while her life was still her own.

Youngest Daughter and I rescued it, and it sits on a shelf in her room, looking sweet and springy.  Just love those touches of blue the bird chose to weave in her nest!  Nest built right in the jaws of danger . . . but it sure was beautiful.

Really . . . what are they teaching birds these days!!

Flowers in Bottles

I just love these beautiful green bottles in which my very favorite salad dressing comes.

So, I was delighted when I had enough to put some large, bold Gerber daisies in.

A bit of simple twine around the neck and a few baubles and beads and it's complete.

 

Sweet and simple way to decorate a spring table.

Hopeful Signs

In spite of the fact that the weather teased us with two days of sun and warmth, I can now feel cold air once again moving in, with its gray skies, low clouds and chilling of the bone.

However . . . I will not despair!!

I have seen the little daffodil shoots beginning to poke their green heads up through the ground.

 

The pansies are once again lifting their heads and taking courage.

And I bought a delightful pair of ruched summery flats at Target.

With all these hopeful signs, spring can't possibly be far away; can it??!!  (And yes, I'm putting some lotion on those parched feet right away!)

Happy soon-to-be-spring weekending!

Flowers, Flowers . . . Everywhere!

After a bout with some serious spring fever several weeks ago, I have made a pact with myself to endure the rest of this winter with a stiff upper lip and a very vigorous attempt at contentment!

No sense in grouching at grey, cold skies; complaining about bare trees; or cursing the frigid air as I roll out of my cushy, snug bed.

Nope, I've made up my mind. I'm going to embrace what's left of this winter and love it.

And wouldn't you know, all of my world has conspired against me to rob me of this contentment! From my mailbox to the shelves of retailers to the very ground beneath my feet, I've been wheedled, cajoled, and manipulated into laying aside every last shred of contentment and falling headlong back into the arms of some serious spring longings.

Look at what has come across my path in the last week!

Are these not just THE cutest spring earrings you've seen in your life???






Yes, these are right outside my front door . . . every day bursting a little further up . . . mocking my attempts at sober winter acceptance.





Oh, my. If you can resist the adorable jug of narcissi, you're going to find yourself totally ensnared by that luscious strawberry pavlova. Wonder if I could challenge myself into attempting that recipe??!!





Sweet roses from a sweet friend. Now, if this doesn't make you want to get on your knees and bury your head in your mother's summer rose bushes, nothing will . . . thorns notwithstanding!





Even flowers showing up on my fun E-Zine from Teresa McFayden. (Of course I'm right on schedule in completing my sampler; why do you ask? Okay . . . I've stitched the first letter in the word "Bloom." ::sigh::)

Flowers even showing up on Youngest Daughter's new headband. Temptation.

But never fear . . . I will conquer.

Snow and rain forecasted for today.

Now, where are my flannel pajamas . . . hot tea . . . afghan? (Wait a minute . . . I don't even own flannel pajamas!)