Colors Around My Yard

My beautiful pansies on the front porch.

 My Dianthus coming back from last year.

 My wild Violets in the back yard.

More Violets and Periwinkle.

And two pretty red tulips that I brought in from the yard. Stay safe and stay in. This too
will pass.

First Day of Spring

Thursday was the first day of spring and the temperature
was higher than usual. I was at work in Charlottesville helping
a customer decorate her den on line, she just had surgery. I sent
her three or four options and I had a customer call and ask me to send
him a picture of an IMG chair that was on the floor. So I got the call
I knew was coming, they shut my store down for 11 days or two weeks
with no pay, the other store will remain open. Life sucks for me right
now, but at least I safe and not exposing my self to this virus. I have been
working on things that I had put off, I did my taxes, billed my client for
my hours and the trim I ordered for her and I sent fabric sample to my
client in Richmond for her chairs. I have a few sales on ebay that need to
ship and some items that I need to list. I snapped a few pictures from around
the house for you.

 I picked some flowers from the yard, love Daffodils, they smell so good.

 Here are the pansies I put in a few weekends ago, I love the mix of color.

The Easter wreath I made last year, hopefully the world will be a better place by then
and people will be able to go to church to celebrate.

My collection of Easter eggs on me dining room table, some home made and some
given to us.

Speaking of giving things, I ran into an old friend and co-worker at the funeral I went
to in December. Her name is Missy Goode, and she is now a great artist, she goes to
church with my dad and asked for his address, she wanted to bring him a painting for
me. How sweet is that, as you can see in the picture above how talented she is.

I moved the goats to the dining room, they came from the Beverley Street Co- op Art
Gallery in downtown Staunton. My new painting went in its place in the den. Please
stay safe and pray that this thing will pass soon.

Come To Work With Me

In case you missed the memo, I have been working in Charlottesville since last summer.
The company is called Ann Arden and I am on Emmett Street near Barracks Road Shopping
Center. This store specializes in selling Bassett Furniture along with a few other lines.

This is the Bella bedroom group, I did the fabric version in a king bed for my daughter
Ellie's house.

You can customize your dining room chairs in any fabric you want and the table is Bassett's
Live Edge Table made in Martinsville, Va. in Appalachian Maple. You have several stains to
choose from.

Above is the Bridgewater Designer Comfort Sofa.

Bassett has a great design center with tons of fabrics to choose from, along with wood stains
and trims to choose from.

One side of the building is a wall of windows with great views from the second floor.

More views of the furniture on the second floor showing more of the lines that we carry.

Above is Bassett's  CU. 2 section and chair and custom ottomans.

More sofas with options and sizes, you choose it and it is made for you in Virginia and
North Carolina. And speaking of custom made, below is some trims I ordered from Stout
for my client in Staunton.

And here we have a Schumacher fabric, Citrus Garden, pillows I ordered on Etsy for my
daughters bridal shower this weekend.

Last but not least, since I am spending a lot of time at home, i decorated with Spring flowers.

Stay safe and healthy,
Margaret

Bridal Luncheon For My Daughter Ellie

Next month my sisters and my sister in laws are giving a bridal luncheon
for my daughter Ellie. Her is a picture of the invitation.

The event is at my sister Helen's house, which I have never seen. Excited for that.
As you know, March can be a tricky time of year, it can be cold, windy and maybe warm.
Today it was 60 degrees, but a snow storm is coming tomorrow night in the higher
elevations along with 30 to 50 mile wind gust. My sister Beth said they are all wearing
dresses, very spring like. I decided to go for something more practical. I have been burned 
several times when I had a cute dress to wear to an event in May and had to cover it up with
a borrowed or unfashionable jacket. I saw this outfit on Eloise's website in Charlottesville
and created my own on my budget.

It was a beautiful navy floral blouse and slimming black wide leg pants. Floral blouses
are very in this season and this is an outfit i can wear to work.

The high waist wide leg cropped pant I found at Ann Taylor for under $100.

The blouses I found on Amazon for a dirt cheap price, the blue was the one that I
wanted for the outfit, but the yellow one could work two and was so darn cute. They
both have cute details and look very expensive.

,I spotted these cute kitten heel mules by Issac Mizrahi with the pearl details at Stein Mart
and thought they would be so cute with the cropped pant. I am kinda excited about this
new more feminine wardrobe. After spending the winter in turtlenecks, tights and boots,
I am ready for florals, color and a more feminine look for my transition to spring. So I did
a little more shopping.

This pretty dot sheer blouse was in Sundance's clearance catalog and I found a cute blouse at
my TJ Maxx with lots of ruffles on the sleeves and back of the blouse.

I am ready for spring and a more colorful wardrobe to go with it.

What I Have Been Up To

At my local Foodlion a couple of weeks ago I spotted this beautiful
Hyacinth near the flowers.

Please excuse the blue paper, I couldn't find a pot big enough to hold this but boy did
it make my kitchen smell good and the blooms bring a little Spring to the room.

Remember this picture, after organizing my closet, I read an article about these new
storage bins that Walmart carries for Better Homes and Gardens and I found a few at
Home Goods.

The beaded handled baskets are three sizes from Home Goods and started at $5.99'
the two gold pattern baskets are from Walmart and were around $9.97 each, love the
clean look.

I was running errands  in Waynesboro and ran into there Walmart to see what they had
that the Staunton one didn't have. I need two more baskets for my pocket books.

This is what the ones look like from the Staunton store in the box.

The top picture shows the old plastic containers I will repurpose in my kitchen cabinets.
The bottom picture shows the big plastic containers with my pocket books in them.
Here is what I found in Waynesboro to replace them with.

These are the ones that I saw in the article, love the tassels, they are also by Better
homes and Garden. The even hold more than the old plastic containers. I love the
look of mixing and matching these baskets. This gives my closet a more elegant look.
On to my next project.

New Year Means New You and Less Clutter

It is a new year and a good time to time to clean out the clutter.
I am starting with my closet. As I am doing my cleaning, wiping
down the shelves and wiping the base boards, this is good winter
cleaning, I am pulling things to donate or list on ebay. This is a time 
when there are a lot of people who rely on places like Goodwill for
warm clothes, gloves and hats. I no longer ski so it is a good time to
donate ski gloves and hats.

  I will also do a little reorganizing and straightening.

I am lucky enough to have a walk in closet with a dressing table, so I need to keep
it clean and organized. I keep the door open because there is no heat or air conditioning
in there and the big window adds light to the back hallway.

I have had the shoe shelves and those plastic bins for years, I would like to find
a more attractive and eco friendly type of  bins or baskets to freshen my look up.
As I move from room to room cleaning, I will continue to declutter my house. What
a great way to start the new year.