Spring Thyme Style Blog Hop Week 2

Welcome to week two of the Spring Thyme Style blog hop. If you are visiting from one of my blog friends, I am so glad you’re here. I hope that you will click the links at the bottom of the post to visit everyone on the “hop.” Special thanks to Tamyra at Positively Southern for organizing the tour.

Speaking of hop, I am sharing a “Hoppy Spring Table” today. I have quite a collection of rabbits and they hop all over our house in the spring!

I set the table in the sunroom where all of my orchids are blooming.

I kept it simple using a single orchid for the centerpiece. The plates are inexpensive metal picnic plates that I purchased in Paris. I’ve had the cranberry glasses for several years and love using them and the flatware is part of my ever growing collection of vintage silver plate.

The little green tea cups that are holding eggs are special treasures. My grandfather sent them to my grandmother when he was serving in the Pacific in World War II.

The pink flower in the corner of the picture above is a geranium that my mother gave me for Mother’s Day in 2015. I just deadheaded it before taking this picture. It blooms like crazy in this warm, sunny spot and it is still in the same pot that it came in.

I received this pewter salt and pepper set as a Christmas gift this past year. They are so cute!

The big orchid in the floor on the left is just getting ready to bloom. I have had that one for at least 18 years. I bought it on a trip to Hawaii but I can’t remember which trip I bought in on! All of my other orchids are blooming except for one.

Other rabbits are hopping around the room.

The small rabbit above sits at the base of a lamp and yes, that’s a rabbit tray too.

This terra cotta rabbit is about two feet tall and he sits at the base of my giant Norfolk Island Pine tree.

The two carved wooden rabbits above sit on the bookcases in the den.

The rabbit on the chest in the foyer is one of my favorites.

This rabbit tureen is another of my favorites. I’m telling you, rabbits do multiply quickly!

The last one is painted on a wood tray and it was also a gift several years ago. I know that’s a lot of rabbits but they are spread out so as not to be overwhelming.

I hope that you are having some nice spring weather this week. Now hop on over to the other blogs for more spring inspiration.

Clutter Cafe

Viva La Vintage for Your Home

Swirls of Flavor

Confetti Style

Positively Southern

Totally Tailgates

M Jones Style

Linda G Loving Home

Spring Thyme Style Blog Hop

Today I am excited to be participating in a spring blog hop with 9 of my blogging friends. You will find links to their posts at the bottom of this one. If you are here from Totally Tailgates, welcome, and please take time to look around.

I’m sharing a couple of spring vignettes in my home. I have quite a collection of rabbits that stay out most of the year except for Christmas but I add a few more for spring.

One of my favorites is this rabbit topiary. I’ve had it for years and love bringing it out for spring. I usually put it in this urn on the den coffee table and add some live pansies.

Seeing it on the coffee table puts a smile on my face.

Another favorite spring thing is this little basket of Belgian chocolate egg molds that I purchased at Scott’s. I’m heading back to Belgium in a few weeks and hope to find more to add to my collection.

The spring looking floral fabric on my sofas helps remind me that spring is coming during the cold days of winter.

I like to use a seasonal plant or floral arrangement in the foyer but for now I have a silver bride’s basket of Easter eggs that I have collected over the years.

The egg collection includes some big dyed goose eggs that I’ve had for years. It also contains some other handpainted eggs and some ceramic eggs that I made when I was in college many years ago.

Lisa is up next at Clutter Cafe with a recipe for Cheese Babka, a Polish Easter bread. Be sure to click the links to see what all the girls are sharing and come back next week for part 2!

Have a great first week of spring!

Viva La Vintage For Your Home

Swirls of Flavor

Confetti Style

M Jones Style

Positively Southern

Linda G Loving Home

Plum Doodles

Totally Tailgates

Life At Lydias House

Making a Mason Jar Chandelier

A few months ago my son’s fiancee told me that she would like to have a Mason Jar chandelier for the wedding reception and wondered if I could figure out how to make one. I love a challenge so I set out to make one.

Once completed, I loved how it turned out.

The finished chandelier measures nearly 3 feet from top to bottom and about 30 inches across. So, how did I do it? I don’t have a step by step tutorial because I was pressed for time finishing it just a couple of days before the wedding!!

The chandelier started out as 2 separate brass chandeliers that I purchased for about $15 each.  I found one at an antique booth and the other at a Habitat Restore.One of the chandeliers that I bought was just like this one from my dining room with 2 levels. The other was a very large single tier chandelier.

Those types of chandeliers are screwed together on threaded rods. To disassemble one, you simplyhold it at the top and bottom and twist counter clockwise.

I disassembled the two chandeliers and turned them upside down and ran the existing wires out the bottom. Next I moved the bottom ornament to the top and the top ornament to the bottom basically flipping it upside down.

Next, I removed the bottom from one chandelier and the top from the other and screwed them together to add another tier. One note about reassembling. The first time I put them back together I twisted them too tight causing the threaded rod to cut through the insulation on the wire which caused it to short out!!! Not good!!! I had to unscrew the whole thing and repair the wire and put it back together again, being very careful not to over tighten! I added a plug in lamp cord to the end so that it could be plugged into an extension cord in the top of the tent.

Next, I gave it a couple of coats of oil rubbed bronze spray paint. Then I took off the sockets by unscrewing the wires and unscrewing the sockets. I drilled a 3/8” hole in the top of each mason jar. I put the jar tops on the end of each arm then replaced the sockets with shorter ones and attached the wires again.  I purchased these 1 1/2” sockets on Ebay. Then I purchased these Edison style bulbs on Ebay and put them in. Next I screwed on the jars and she was complete. The bulbs were the most expensive part running about $100 for 18. The sockets were about $30 and the jars were about $10 bringing the total cost to around $170.

My niece Haley made a very similar by simply flipping a single tier chandelier as pictured below.

I don’t include a lot of family photos on the blog but I am adding just a few that were taken before the wedding.

I hope you are enjoying your summer. It is blazing hot here but I am loving the sunshine!

I am linking to Thoughts of Home on Thursday at Decor to Adore, to Grace at Home at Imparting Grace, to Pretty Project Party at 11 Magnolia Lane, to Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch and to The Creative Circle at Domestic Charm. Click the links for lots of inspiration.

Lazy Susans or Efficient Susans?

My son recently got married and my husband and I hosted the rehearsal dinner. Of course I had to complete a couple of DIY projects. I decided to make lazy Susans for the tables.

I very quickly snapped a couple of pictures just before everyone walked in the door. I wish that I had better pictures but I think you can get the idea.

I purchased the precut 24 inch circles of wood from one of the big box home improvement stores for $9.72 each. You can see them by clicking here. Since our big box stores are very close to each other I decided to check the price at both stores. I was shocked to find that the other store price was $18.49 for the exact same piece of wood! You can see that one by clicking here! You can see in the photo above that I marked the center and drew a circle where the turntable or spinner would go.

I purchased the turntables on Ebay for $6.99 each. You can see them by clicking here. I applied a generous amount of construction adhesive and affixed them to the wood. By the way, you can purchase a Lazy Susan already made from Lowe’s for $70.98 but it’s only 14.75 inches in diameter. You can see it here.

Then I gave them a quick coat of primer, paint, stain, and polyurathane.

Unfortunately I was in a really big hurry and I failed to get a good close-up shot of the tables. For centerpieces I used my go-to tool caddies stuffed with annuals and a little Spanish moss.

The next 2 pictures are how I used the tool caddies at another rehearsal dinner.

This one is particularly sentimental.

If you look closely you will see the groom’s name on the bottom. He made this at Home Depot almost 20 years ago! I wish that we had written the year on there too!

Several years ago I updated the kids’ tool caddies with fresh paint so that we could continue to use them. You can see that post by clicking here.

I hope you are enjoying these first days of summer! I surely am.

I’ll be linking to Thoughts of Home on Thursday and to Metamorphosis Monday. Click the links to see lots of inspiration.