Lost and Found, In Time for Spring

 

Hooray, hooray, I finally found my battery charger!  I was getting extremely  vexed about not being able to find it, and had been saying little prayers for days for help in bringing to my mind the whereabouts of the all-important camera battery charger (that usually works immediately, or at least within a couple of hours).  I think Heavenly Father was just waiting for me to calm down and stop making such urgent "demands" :-).  Anyway, late last night, after practically resigning myself to the fact that my charger was gone forever, the thought came to me to look in my bedside table, which I thought was odd because why in the world would I put it in there instead of with all my camera stuff?  Well, guess what...there it was, in a little travel case all tucked away.  I must have stuffed it there "temporarily" while I was trying to de-clutter the bedroom...see what happens when I try and clean up?!  I can't find anything anywhere! 

 

At any rate, I'm very grateful to have my charger again, and very grateful that I don't have to go out and buy a new one (especially considering that our house in Hawaii is STILL vacant, and our latest prospective tenant just fell through). 

 

Aren't these tulips lovely?  Tulips, along with peonies and ranunculus, are my very favorite flowers.  Steve brought these home on our anniversary last week, before dutifully attending his meetings with the scouts and leadership meeting afterward.  I have loved having these tulips in the house, and they have lasted a surprisingly long time.  Thanks, honey!

 

I love taking close-up photos of flowers, it reduces them to almost abstract compositions.

 

Even the foliage is graceful and elegant...

 

I didn't get the focus quite right on this shot (I was fooling around with my manual focus, and I guess my eyesight is failing me because it was really hard for me to tell what was in razorsharp focus and what wasn't).

 

   

I could tiptoe through the tulips all day long!

 

So I've been working hard on Hazel's room, trying to get it all pretty for as little money as possible.  Do you like my $10 dresser?  I bought it on Craigslist (my version of crack cocaine, I'm embarrassed to admit), and it used to look like this:

It was dated, beat up, dirty, and had stickers on it (a remnant is still visible on lower right corner) but the hardware is gorgeous and hey - for $10 how could I go wrong, eh? 

The French Provincial style is really making a comeback these days.  It's a style that is quite a hot commodity on CL in the DC area, and I was very fortunate to have found this for so cheap.  This particular dresser is not top quality, but for the price, it's fabulous. 

It matches perfectly with the other long dresser, nightstand, and mirror I found a month later.

 

Remember the peek at the seafoam green bedroom set I posted last week?  You can't really tell from the photos, but there were chunks knocked out of the trim and dings and chips everywhere (thank goodness for wood filler).  The top of the dresser was that shiny, indestructible formica-type laminate, so that needed some serious scuffing (that stuff is REALLY hard to scuff!) before I put a coat of primer and then many coats of white paint.  My favorite primer is by Glidden (the best on the market, in my opinion, and it's water-based!) called Gripper Primer/Sealer. 

 

This is what it looks like at the moment (still waiting for that hardware to come in the mail).  It looks so fresh and feminine in Hazel's room, I love it.  I chose green accents because I think that's the most universal accent color out there for little girl's things...it goes well with lavender, pink, yellow, blue, etc.  And it's so....springy!  I'm looking forward to accessorizing Hazel's room.

 

Here's the darling little nightstand.  I've been on the lookout for a French Provincial bed, they're pretty hard to come by.  Not to worry, I have plenty of time because Hazel has not yet figured out how to climb out of her crib (knock on wood), although based on her ability to climb everything else in our house, it shouldn't be too much longer.  Now that I think about it, maybe I should look a little harder for that perfect bed!

So anyway, here's my budget furniture project, all for just over $100 (including the hardware that hasn't come in yet) plus a LOT of time and effort! 

 

I am in love with these flowers...they're not real but they sure look like it!  The peonies were a splurge...I bought them at Pier1 for $5 each, but the darling little purple blooms were on sale at Michaels for $1 per cluster!  Michaels, incidentally, is having a big sale on selected floral right now until April 4, I think.  I hadn't been in that craft store in 6 years because they don't have that chain in Hawaii, and when I went in for the first time last week, I about keeled over at the selection of everything crafty.  I had to exercise great restraint in there, but still ended up spending too much money.  Oops.

 

This arrangement, when placed against the lavender wall color, just makes me so serenely happy.  Apparently the color lavender, as well as the scent, has that effect on me.

 

Here is a wreath I made for Hazel's room, with more things from Michaels.  I combined an inexpensive grapevine wreath with a lavender beaded wreath on clearance, and added all the flowers and ribbon by tucking the stems into the grapevine and adhering in place with a glue gun. 

 

Tomorrow I hope to finish some of the other furniture projects I've been working on so I can share those with you too!  Have a great day!

Comments

[Jane]

Wow, you surely have been busy!! I love what you've done with the dressers - they are so petty in white with green trim. And as always, I am amazed at what you get done. Great pics of the kids with the cherry blossoms!! That was inspired, to dress the girls in pink to match! Got my Michaels fix last week when I was in Arizona with Lani & the twins - and now that I see your gorgeous wreath, I wish I had been looking for such things! Well, next time. Much Aloha to you!

[Kristy Erickson]

I missed all the crafty stuff when living in HI too. I forgot how much selection we have over here. Totally do not take it for granted anymore!

[Peggy]

The dressers, flowers and colors are all divine! And I love peonies and rananculus. There are #2 and #3 after my all-time fave of hydrangeas.

I'm glad that you found your charger.