~TIME TO PLAY WITH OUR DISHES~

Susan @ Between Naps On The Porch is hosting this lovely activity! Another change to play with our dishes...(heaven knows I need the practice! ) :) If you haven't yet, you MUST go see what lovely tablescapes these women put together...I am learning ..and collecting...

A peek inside my curio cabinet on the way to the dining room..

Each of these eggs are painted by a wonderful artist on ebay and every year I collect an egg..

This sparkly little picture is ...hiding my gorgeous teapot lamp...but bunnies are the talk of the town now...

An Easter Brunch tablescape...

Ah yes...another bunnykins~

Chickies and an old vintage post card~

Flowers from my yard~

Just a few Easter eggs for our brunch table~

A pull toy bunny of course~ One can never have enough bunnies...

Champagne glass for the Champagne brunch~

I get to use my garage sale silverware...again...and each time I remember how lucky I am to have found it. Just $10.00 and it's the real thing. Yes, I know you already know the story..but I have to keep pinching myself!! The plates are Wedgewood and I found them in the cupboard when I came to my new home.. there were no other pieces ...just a stack of plates.

The crystal chargers are a recent ebay find... I really like them!

I love these sweet little baskets... I found them a couple of weeks ago at our local Antique Mall.

VERY inexpensive and just adorable. I think they were $3.50 each. A lovely lady makes them.

I really do love those napkins. They really should be white napkins but who cares!

So sweet..I DO love bunnies!


So...all I want to add is that it was not so long ago...that "chargers" were people who used their credit cards too much...OR something you plugged your batteries into. My how things have changed for me. I KNOW I shouldn't tell you that...but...it's true.

I thought I had arrived when I began to always use placemats...all the time. Then came cloth napkins...with seven little ones it was paper napkins. We bought HUGE packages of them at the commissary on the base. Wow, how time has flown...

Love and hugs,

Mona

~EASTER, EASTER, GLORIOUS EASTER~

I am joining our Marty @ A STROLL THRU LIFE for TABLETOP TUESDAY. This is such an

easy one for me. I love it. Thanks for hosting this fun activity for us, Marty.

This is my old hutch. I am enjoying it so much. I missed it. This old hutched housed my little girls ribbon drawer long before I ever thought I would have real silverware to put in it. All you see on the top of this hutch were gifts from my daughter Maryalice over the years. She bought me this tea set a few pieces at a time.

The old Beatrix Potter books you see are tattered and torn and inside there is my youngest daughters attempts to write her name. They are well read...and well used. We keep our boo

These adorable floral cookies and butterfly were baked by daughter Maryalice. She brought them to me today..all boxed and tied with a lovely bow. Daughters! They do make you smile don't they?

The lovely white napkins I found at a garage sale...I bought 26 of them for $5.00. The beautiful place mats, four of them, I bought this saturday for 50 cents. They are cut through and beautifully made. See Spring on my little dish? Yeppers! I ..am..in..the ...mood.

Sigh...the picture turned out way too dark and I should take it over but..what the heck. I am sure you have probably seen a tea set like this one before. Brambly Hedge! Sooo cu

The sparkles didn't show up on camera. Sweet husband scarfed this BIG cookie down! There went our so called "diet" for today! Ah well. later. The little white dish is part of my milk glass collection inspired by Mary @ Little Red House. The table cloth is hand crocheted...a find on ebay. "Mona Two" is the name of the seller. Imagine that! How could I help but buy something from someone with a name like that! Right? :)

Daisy cookies! Sooo delicious! This is the Summer plate. See?

Oh...well...this is Jeremy Fisher naturally. I LOVE this character. I also have a BIG stuffed Jeremy on the guest room bed. And....the video! Loved the scene when the HUGE fish took his minnow bait! Nearly killed poor Jeremy.

Yep...this is the sugar and creamer...LOVE IT! You know, I think it's the colors as well as the sweet artwork that gets me.

Such sweet cups and saucers...the other two are, of course, Winter and Autumn. Ah yes, Autumn.... :)

Fuzzy chickie...uh huh... :)

And more bunnies with roses (sorta) painted yours truely...

Thank you Maryalice darling girl! Mom loves you! These are beautiful. I wish the sparkly centers showed up better...I love them. Thank you!

Spoon is from...MY PRELUDE SILVERWARE SET. We are keeping it in a friends safe now. Thought it might be a good idea.

Well, I made some changes to the dining room table. I took the little fence away..it was just a bit too much though it was cute. I added large cabbage leaves under the Easter Basket and I like it much better. As serious as Easter is...and as glorious...it is so much fun to have the whimsy added in...Tradition is good. Tradition binds us together...something we share. God would approve, I know He would. I know He wants us to enjoy this beautiful life He has given us as much as we can.

That being said...have a beautiful week. Enjoy what you can and what you cannot...give it over to God.

Love to all,

Mona

~A LAZY WOMAN'S FLOWER BED'S~

I am joining Tootsie's FLAUNT YOUR FLOWERS and Cindy at SHOW AND TELL FRIDAY. Both such really wonderful blogs!


Yep. This is just clover..and it grows wild here and there..actually considered a weed. But..I leave it and it blooms and...that works for me.

I know what this is but I can't spell is. No matter. It's pretty and I planted it last year and it LIVED!

I was ambitious last year..and smart. I planted perennials!

Well..I know the lovely pink is a Geranium. There is a bit of a Mum in there. Don't know how it got there but as long as it shows green it can stay. Flowers are optional in my garden.

Alive is good!

Below is the back yard...


These little white flowers are Argyranthemum-white. Or..as I call them...button mums.
See those Petunia's? Those are from last summer. The hardy little things are annuals and these just went right through the winter...and being garden lazy, I just leave them alone.

YES! The blasted fence is falling down..and YES we have propped it up with boards! Just pretend that they aren't there. I do. :)

The hedge hid it so we didn't know... Well....we didn't!


We are having it replaced. Don't know when.. :) Sweet husbands in charge of that. But for right now...this is how it looks.


I think I will paint the boards..lol ...and paint vines and roses on them :) I'm kidding, I'm kidding!!


The sprinkler is going...so..

As you can see, even though the lawn has been fed it is still just beginning to turn green once again.

The new little tree's in our yard are White Birch. Two species actually. One has the multiple trunks and the center on has just the one. As you can see, the middle one is way ahead.


Below is the front yard..

I don't know what this tree is...it borders our property and is our neighbors yards...just thought it was so pretty..

This tree is ours and is out front of our home. It is a Fruitless Pear tree. Why on earth did they plant a "fruitless" ??? (I'm always so proud when I remember the name of ANY plant.)

Below is eventually going to be a long flower bed. Son in law has it on his agenda! :)

I planted these last year and had to cut them back. My daughter visited today and told me they needed trellis' so...I will buy them some. The delicate little rose like flowers are so precious. What is it? I am just not a gardener and I buy what appeals to me and hope for the best. I am going to start saving those name tags! It starts with a V I think. Verbena??

Verbena...I think. Please remember I am "plant challenged." Now Tootsie...I could learn a lot from her!

I love these! They are in both the front and the back yard. They bloom most of the time and began to really be in their glory about a month or so ago. I posted them before....but took more pic's tonight. They are also Argyranthemum-red's

More of the same....these grow and bloom like crazy. Once established they have a nice health root system and you just cut them back to the very bottom and in no time they are back up.

Perennials are fantastic! Just plant them...and let them go. Cut them back when spent and your bed is ready to go the next year. I have only recently realized plants should be fed...makes them prettier...and "amend" in the soils does amazing things.

I cannot remember what these are called...but I have had this plant for years and now it is finally really making me proud. Food? :) Probably.

My love to all of you out there!

If I could I'd play James Browns "I feel GOOD!" and do one of those dances...

I feel GOOD.... Eeeeehaaaa!

Mona

~A TINY HUTCH, BUT SO SWEET..~

Our sweet Marty @ A STROLL THRU LIFE is our wonderful hostess!

This tiny hutch belongs to my husband and I feel I am just it's caretaker. It is so small that a dinner plate cannot be laid down on the shelves. Still..it's so sweet and very much from the past when "maple" furniture was the thing to have.

This little velvet bunny with an egg strapped to his back is an addition to my Easter things this year. I am drawn to the velvet I think.

This little wooden egg was painted by a local artist here in Riverside. I love her things. The bunny is a little distorted in the photo. He is perfect actually. It's my photography....well...it lacks a bit.. :) One of my favorite things...

The simply beautiful faux cake was made by a wonderful artist on Etsy. Her name is Rhonda @ Ronda's Rose Cottage Designs and I love her work. The little spoon was by an Ebay artist who's name I have forgotten. I have a collection of eggs from this woman and will look up her name when I post the little eggs. Anything hand painted or hand made, to me, is wonderful.

This tiny chickie in it's shell is another creation of that same artist. I really MUST look up her name. The eggshell is real! See the tiny bit of shell stuck to the baby's head?

This is a slice of cake...I just loved the colors she uses...and it looks adorable in the little hutch.

This hand painted bunny and the eggs are also hand made. The eggs were from a booth in the Mission Galleria here in town. .. foil covering real eggs.

...and this is my contribution to Marty's TABLETOP TUESDAY...Thank you Marty!!

Love and hugs,

Mona