Who is ready for winter to be over!?
(All the hands went up and the hearts said yes). Especially the ones in the northern mid-west of the United States. We got more ice and snow last night in Indiana, so it felt like the perfect time to show you what I did at our art studio yesterday.
I set up spring.
It was time to take down the winter-Valentines decor…
I went straight to warm colors, softer textures, and crafty bits for spring. It was inspired by these two baskets I found thrifting last weekend.
I wanted to use the baskets as little shelves to hold a vase of flowers in our new mantel display. Although I had this idea, I knew the vases needed to be light since the baskets are thin.
Since this mantel is at our art studio I constantly am trying to think of how to keep it easy, cheap, creative, crafty, yet not tacky. I want it to inspire others that pretty doesn’t have to be expensive and that you can mix some easy crafty bits into decor to look pretty and feel personal at the same time.
I decided for the light flower vases I would use old soup cans. To soften their metal look and give another texture, I simply wrapped some thick yarn around it a couple of times and knotted it off.
I stuck some fake flowers in the can, and my light vase to go in my basket was complete. I wrapped some wire around my new vase and stuck it through the basket and twisted the wire behind the basket to get my vase to stay in place.
I ended up putting the vases in the middle of the baskets, so the baskets look more like a frame than a shelf. It looked better to scale this way. If I had bigger “vases” I might have kept with the shelf idea. I like this process of creating where an idea might start as one thing, but as you create, you take it somewhere else.
It’s part of the fun of creating. We aren’t tied to our original ideas we see in our brain.
I strung up a clearance banner I found at Target for $0.50, put some Dollar Tree succulents in some wood pots we sell at the studio for people to paint, and hung up two umbrellas (for that spring rain) that I found at Hobby Lobby for $7.00 each and my spring mantel was complete.
Do you ever find one item that inspires a look? I had a bunch of random ideas in my head for this new mantel, but once I found the baskets- it all came together!
Do you remember what last spring’s mantel was with the butterflies!? Take a look here and let me know which one is more YOU!
Happy day friends! Spring will come, but until then we can make the most of each day for the gift that it is!
What little girl doesn’t love fairies?
Next, come up with your activities and crafts. This was my schedule.
I painted my guests each a little wooden butterfly name tag. They were pretty cute and would make great bookmarks after our event.
As my guests arrived, we started creating our fairy wands. I had attached a painted wood heart to a dowel rod prior to the event and placed them around the table, so every guest could find a seat and have a wand ready to go. It was so fun to watch the kids personalities come out in how they decorated their wand. Some made patterns with the different colors and others tried to get as many sparkly things on it as they could.
Once we had finished with the wands, we talked about fairies. How beautiful they are…how small they are…how colorful they are…what movies they are in, etc. They girls were really animated and excited. It was so fun. We then painted their fairy houses (small craft bird houses) and fairies that they would later use for their fairy gardens.
While we waited for the paint to dry, we had a snack and played some fairy games. We created an obstacle course that the girls had to run through to “earn” their own fairy wings. We also squeezed in a few rounds of fairy-fairy-fly (which was simply a remake of duck-duck-goose). They were excited to run around, and it was fun to see them cheer one another on.
Finally, I showed them an example of a fairy garden creation that my Caleb had made for the party. We talked about how the rocks could be used to create paths, the moss to create a forest, and so on. They were all so eager to start. I then showed them all the materials I had out and they went at it.
Each girl was so proud of her garden. It was so fun to watch them carry them around and keep adding to them but also proudly show them off. I loved watching their imaginations come alive. One little girl thought to sprinkle glitter over her rocks like fairy dust. Another girl made a pool of blue sequins for water. How creative is that!? I have so much to learn from these girls.
Each of their creations was so beautiful and fun. These girls had a blast, and I had a blast helping them have a fun afternoon. At one point I asked my Reagan if she was in her happy place and she smiled proudly and said yes. There is something truly special about creating and hanging with friends.
While the girls waited for their parents to pick them up, the played with their gardens and it made my heart want to explode. I mean seriously. How cute is this!?
You too can host a fairy party and make some girls’ days. The feedback from this event has been so fun.
Although it is again one of the hardest things I have had to do, these are lessons I never want to tire of learning. I want so badly to teach my kids patience. This includes my foster son. We need to show love by being patient with our words and actions. We say that often, as you may remember from reading this 
Love is patient. I will be patient with allowing myself to be a never ending piece of clay that needs molding. I can admit I don’t have it all together. I need Jesus. I need his grasp on the bigger picture in all the hard moments. I need him to speak truth to me, through me, and around me. I can’t do this, but I know the one who can. I call him my Savior. He has not forgotten us. He will sustain, and we will be his hands and feet to the hurting in our home. It is the mission field we prayed it would be.
