Basket Dayz

I am joining Kim for Basket Dayz at her site Cheap Chic Home.  If you have made a basket for Easter or spring she would love you to join her.  I can't get enough of this bright apple green color.  I just love it.  So when I saw this little basket at the thrift store I just knew it would transform into the best Easter basket project.  This is very similar to what I did last week (you can view that here) but when you change up the colors and do different embellishments you can get a very different look. Here is how I did it.
Supplies:
Basket
3 yds. of ribbon of choice
Embellishment to basket ( Example- flower)
1 1/2-2 yds. of coordinating tulle (depending on how full you want basket) 

 

I first looped the coordinating ribbon on the stem of the basket.

Before I started wrapping I put a good knot in it.  Then I wrapped the ribbon all along the basket stem.

Then once I got to the other side of the basket stem I put another good knot in it.

I then took a 4 inch wide strip of the tulle and folded it back and forth like so.  (I got ahead of myself and cut a notch out of the left side, just ignore that.) 

Then you fold your tulle rectangle over and cut the corners off of of each side of the top of the rectangle, your cutting on the fold.

Then you unfold that rectangle again and tie it into the ribbon you left on the basket.  Here you can pull out the tulle and "fluff" it into a bow, just like you do when you make a homemade ribbon.

Now take some form of embellishment.  I picked out some flowers and I cut the stems much shorter.

 

Here I folded up the stem even smaller and I would wrap it with floral tape to secure and keep any sharp edges from little fingers.

Before I applied the flowers I pulled out the tulle making it look just like you would a ribbon you have made.  Then I tied in the flowers with a good knot and then I finished up with a bow in front of the flowers.

Now Your ready to stuff your basket with the rest of the tulle.  Just cut it up into small (10"x10") squares.  They don't have to be perfect.  The tulle makes a fantastic filler and it cushions the eggs.  

Please go over to Kim's site and see all the basket projects going on.  I will also link this to the Spring/Easter Party at Life As Lori.

I will also be linking this to:

Toot Your Horn Tuesday at Silly Little Sparrow 

Trash to Treasure Tuesday at Reinvented 

Talented Tuesday at My Frugal Family 

Penny Pinching Party at My Thrifty Home 

 

Happy Spring Break & Some Good News for Friends!!

Hello!!! We're off this week for Spring Break and I might literally have to duck tape my laptop shut so I don't work.  ;)  But that's the goal. 

I also just wanted to share some awesome things going on with a couple of bloggy friends:

Brooke & Steve Giannetti's {insanely beautiful} Home is being featured on the cover (and of course inside too! ;) of the May isse of Romantic Home Magazine!!  I am crazy over everything they touch and of course theirs is a perfect dream house:

And Kayce Huges's {fun &fresh & gorgeous}home is featured in this month's Country Living!!:

Kayce just recently became a sponsor of Pure Style Home & I am so happy she did!  I'm constantly drooling over a particular dress she designed at her store Pears + Bears.  (I wont' tell you which one because I don't want it to sell out!! ;) ;)   Her company, Pears + Bears also makes beautiful children's clothing.  How freaking adorable?!!!:

Oh if I ever get a girl....

And finally, Eddie Ross is making a pilot for a TV show!!!!  He's looking for a room to makeover for the pilot episode and is accepting submissions!!  Just click here for details.  I am soooo  excited for Eddie!! He can do it all {perfect tables- interior design- styling- photography- craft projects- budget- high-end- etc.} & with his sense of humor & charisma I KNOW he's going to succeed!! yay!!

Ok, so I am pretty much OFF-  no I'm OFF-  for the week but we will be having another super-duper guest blogger before & after!!  Have an awesome week & a Happy Easter if I'm not on before then.!!
xoxo,
lauren
 
ps- I wanted to thank everyone soooo much for the awesome response to my last post on roman shades.  I appreciate each & every one of your emails & comments.  Many of them contained questions about specific window situations & I wish I could answer all of them, but I hope you can understand the time it would take for me to give good, specific advice for each situation.  Right now I'm pretty overloaded with home life, clients & blog & I really hope you can understand that I'm just not able to do this right now.  I offer e-decorating services (you can click on the link at the top right of the blog)  if you're interested in specific advice for your home.  I will work on getting a price on the e-decorating page for general window treatment queries/ advice.  Again, I hope you can understand and thank you for your response!!
xoxo,
lauren
(again ;)

Mosaic Monday: Happy Easter

I am joining Mary for Mosaic Monday at her site Little Red House.   Today I did a mosaic of all the Easter images I had been saving up.  

Click on image to enlarge

Here is another mosaic I did for a post on Saturday.

I hope you enjoy all the Easter images. Please go over to Mary's site and view all the mosaic fun.

Vintage Easter

I am joining Joan at her site Anything Goes Here for a Vintage Easter Party.  I will also add this to 2nd Time Around Tuesday at A picture is Worth a 1,000 Words.  Please click on the link and see what vintagey goodness everyone is sharing.  I have collected my vintage paper about 20 years ago.  Never did I realize how popular it was going to be today.  My husband says I have a knack for this trend stuff.  I'll let you be the judge, here are my Easter vintage postcards I collected a while ago. 

Click on any image to enlarge

In this postcard the colors are amazing.  

 The leaf and violet lifts up to say something underneath.  I try not to handle them too much so I'm not sure what it said .   The top has "Greetings" written in glitter and that is a real bow on the left, and the white trim is die-cut like lace.

Who doesn't love an old vintage bunny.  Looks like a few of his eggs hatched.

When I was in my 20's I embellished the next two cards with lace.  Yes, it was a no-no!  

They looked like they belonged to a set.  I just loved the black trim around them.

 Again, here is what not to do to your vintage paper.  The date on all of these ranges from 1910-1915.

This one isn't in very good shape but I love the little girl.

Now I have been promising Joan I would show her my prized paper find.   Again, with all the popularity of scrapbooking today did you ever wonder if any one did it say, over 100 years ago?  Well they did and this is what scrapbooking looked like in 1883.

Okay, there is always a great story to go with a find such as this.  Of course, I have one.  I was at an estate auction with a friend and they were going to bid on the contents of the attic.  Yes, if ever you see that listed in an auction go up to the attic and look around.  It will surprise you.  This one surprised us a lot.  Originally all that was to look to be of much value was some Saturday Evening Post magazines, valuable for those who collect their cover art.  Some Life magazines were up there to.  Major dusty up there not sure what else we were going to get into, but being the adventurous type I was all for bidding on it.  The contents of the attic went for $35.  I got this 1883 scrap book and a lot of the vintage Valentines I showed you at Joan's Vintage Valentine party.  You can see those here. 

So, here is some of the scrap book.  I won't put every page on here it would be a really long post.  But, I will try to show you the highlights.

This is the inside cover of the scrapbook.  This was given to a girl; Alma Blair, for Christmas 1883.  Those are her initials her middle name was with an M.  Victorian children, not having TV, or video games, were very into to collecting, trade cards from dry goods stores, pictures, from magazines, and calling cards.  They then organized and glued their collections  into these scrapbooks.

Here is some trade cards from a dry goods store.  You can click on any image and it will enlarge.

Detail of a little die-cut image in the corner of the scrapbook page.  The book is full of these. Victoriana.com  has a nice article about these scrapbooks and it describes perfectly the collecting habit of the Victorians and their scrapbooks.  

Don't you love the children's faces?

This page has calling cards on it.  Evidently in polite Victorian society if you were to come to call on a friend you left your card.  Even if they were there.  It was a memento  from their visit. The owner of the scrapbook's calling card is in the top right.

More trade cards.

I love this.  We all know how girls love shoes right.  I guess that craze has been around awhile.  And, the scantily clad young lady in the top right would have been something in those days- showing her ankles.

 Fashion was important to women then also.

This one is neat.  A couple in love from seven, seventeen, and till seventy.

 

Baby Moses in the bottom picture with angels all around.

 

 This little girl is writing a letter to Santa.

 

 Love the cats, trade cards I think.

 These images with oversized heads are very neat also.

 There were also state and country collecting cards.  As true to the Victorian times, Alma arranged her scrapbook with like objects together.  It is a wonder to me this still exists.  Such a treasure from a  life lived so long ago. 

Please go over to Joan's Easter party and see what other vintage treasures bloggers have to share.