DIY Projects, Gardening

Making a Mini Greenhouse

Happy weekend, everyone! Over the past couple of weekends, my husband, aka Mr. Ethereal, has been noodling how to make a mini greenhouse for me to protect our summer and winter veggies growing out in the south garden. Winter is coming soon and I hope to grow some vegetables into the wintertime…

This year I have finally had a bumper crop of tomatoes! The roses grew well as did these guys with the super high temps, so I with the milder fall weather, I am hoping to get these little cherry and Big Boy tomatoes to ripen before winter really sets in around North Texas.

***On a side note, sorry about no SYS this week! I had a dentist appointment on Wednesday afternoon late after work, and by the time I was done, I was beat. I’m back painting in the early mornings before school, getting the powder room done while Hubby is gone on a business trip.

Room for more planters!

How to make your own mini greenhouse

  • Mr. Ethereal started with putting four rebar rods into the four corners surrounding an area about 8′ square near our little shed which houses the lawn mower and all of the “stinky” equipment. 🙂
  • Next, he picked up four 10′, 1/2″ PVC plastic pipes from the big box store. He had to figure out long the curves needed to be. He cut each pipe down to 8′, I believe, and used a 1/2″ connector in the middle of each arch to connect each section. He plans on getting two more pipes to add a third arch in the middle soon.
  • From there, Mr. E draped heavy plastic over the top weighted down with 4’x4′ posts holding down the extra plastic.
  • Lastly, we gathered the Harbor Freight clips, used with netting over the citrus trees this spring (2/$1.00 on sale), to secure the plastic to the bent pole arches.
  • He plans of adding more plastic at the back and a slip overlapped piece for the front for a “door.”

I totally love this improvised mini greenhouse!!! Right now, there is room to house the garden cart, which is awesome. 🙂

The southern fence here helps protect all the plantings set there. I hope to create a microclimate underneath this little greenhouse where we can grow more plants to sustain us throughout the year. Kale grows well in winter as does broccoli and cauliflower. Carrots and potatoes can be planted in late winter, and garlic needs to sit throughout the cold winter months to help them set. That’s something I need to still get from the local hardware/farm store!

The wild tomatoes in July.

Peppers and tomatoes do well in the spring, summer and here into the fall. I have baby asparagus growing, too! Asparagus takes three years to mature, so its a long haul with them. 🙂 The asparagus growing in the back planter here above was older to begin with.

The other asparagus I have in another round planter will be three years old next year. I need to pick up one more oval planter and

Planters instead of inground

I love in-ground planters and had two at our last home in California. Here, though, we have nasty fire ants! Those mean little buggers bite me all of the time so to help prevent getting bit and then having to eradicate them while growing veg (possibly making ourselves sick), I thought raised beds would help. So far, so good! They have stayed out of the planters.

Each planter is raised on bricks and I drilled holes in the bottoms of each planter for drainage. I didn’t do that the first year but fixed that last year which has made a big difference in the health of all of the plants growing in each metal planter. 🙂

And that’s our little greenhouse! Mr. Ethereal is thinking of making a little two shelf bench for me to keep terra cotta pots on here to the left built out of scrap lumber. But that’s another project… 😉

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Happy fall gardening, friends!

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Gardening

A Fall Garden Walkabout + Lunar Eclipse Photos

Happy fall, y’all! Acorns have been falling off our backyard oak trees since late August (just a few then, but still pretty early). So each Saturday morning since then, Mr. Ethereal begins mowing the lawns by blowing them off our back patio for me. Then, I go out and rake them all into a monster-size pile and scoop them into our waste bin to go to the dump.

A view from our living room windows after this Saturday’s acorn clean-up

FINALLY we are having cooler weather here in North Texas!! I have heard that this past August and September were the hottest months temperature-wise ever recorded in history, and I believe it. Once it got really hot in late July, I quit going outside pretty much at all during the day to weed in the garden, and just watered plants hoping they’d survive.

A view out our kitchen window of the neighbor’s lovely fall side garden. Do you see the monarch butterfly?

Thankfully, before we drove up to see our son and his family over the third weekend of June, we spent a few days building a drip irrigation system to keep things watered. It isn’t perfect, and needed tweaking, but it sure helped!

Most of the yards were watered once a day, but the southern side of the house got twice a day watering for some areas.

Let’s see how the garden fared… 🙂

Right outside of the kitchen and dining room windows, in two terracotta pots, are two climbers. This one is Claire Austin. At some point they will get planted in the ground.

We have to finish fixing the sprinkler lines before I can plant them, since we will be moving some lines around. The oak tree on the left grew so much (because someone was actually watering the lawn, that between its own girth and its roots, this oak tree has eaten our #2 valve and three water lines… Hubby isn’t too happy about it and has been working on the lines as he has time. We really need a professional. It’s on the docket for this fall. 🙂

Along the shed, I planted a couple of pink mums and a little trailing vine which can overwinter and is rated for zone 4 for cold (we are 8a here). The tradescantia pallida purpurea has really taken off with the cooler weather. It produces really pretty small purple flowers and hopefully will bloom once more before winter sets in.

Rosemary, a boxwood and more mums loving the 80 degree days… The mums replaced a few plants which died from overwatering. I’ll have to really figure out how to cut back on watering for some plants next season (less drip holes or use a valve to control water better).

Along the shady southern side of the shed, the climbing rose, one lavender and other plants made it. A hydrangea and another lavender were under and over-watered. Go figure! I bought the azalea, which likes more water, to plant in that dead lavender’s place. 😉

This holly is finally taking off and I am not going to clip any of it until next spring. However, did you know that hollies have an anti-freeze type ability? True. I won’t have to worry about wrapping this one anymore.

Last week I posted a video on Instagram of our backyard before I started weeding and the yard was looking really rough… It’s looking much better with just a couple of areas left to weed out. now for a good edging!

A hydrangea I thought didn’t make it is putting out new leaves, so I imagine it will do better next year. I will make sure to put more water lines around it (and closer to its roots) so it won’t freak out in the heat again.

The Lunar Eclipse

Hubby texted me from his mother’s yard at around 10:20 CST that the lunar eclipse was beginning (he drove over to mow her yard next ~ around 9:45am).

About 11am, all of a sudden it was slightly darker outback and then… I was encircled by all these beautiful horseshoes!!!!!

*I realized later that I was facing the wrong way to capture the moon crossing in front of the of the sun. This is photo #2.

This is the photograph I took with my iPhone 12 and I think I captured the moon (dark round object up-left of the sun) coming towards the sun. This was around 10:20am from out front of our house (#1 in chronological order).

This angle clearly shows the moon is now crossing down past the mid-point of the sun’s path. This time I was facing the right way… 😉 – Photo #3

Fixing our backyard sprinkler lines

And here is the beautiful shady oak tree which is slightly notorious for eating our spinkler lines…

Here you can see where the three dug holes are:

  1. The one leading towards the front of the house is covered by a large concrete pot saucer (never used for the monster pot we had our mandarin orange tree sitting in in California, but somehow made it into our household goods in the storage unit).
  2. The water-filled hole under the oak tree which fills every time we water using the system with certain lines.
  3. The last hole is kind of obscured and is in the tree’s shadow to the right, next to the hose leading around the yard (hooked up to water along the back fence).

We purchased a new b-Hyve timer to run the six lines from inside the garage (two of which don’t work because of the valves eaten by this tree out back).

We liked it so much, we bought this second one to run the lines for all of the planter beds. One of the four hoses is set up just as a hose so I can hand-water. We can manually run each line if needed and that worked really well.

Some final images

Cooler temps have really benefitted the butterfly bushes the most as they are producing the prettiest lavender blooms. We have had bees and butterflies coming around so much more and the tomatoe plants are getting pollenated. I am hoping for winter tomatoes! (no photos)

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Enjoy your week, dear friends!

Gardening, Home Decor, Tablescapes

Share Your Style #398

Welcome to this week’s Share Your Style #398, dear friends! We have so many hot features this week to match our summer weather… Let’s check ’em all out!

I am Barbara Chapman and I’d love it if you’d follow me here on my blog and on any of my other social media sites, too.  Thank you!💜 

French Ethereal: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest

I’m back to school this week and it promises to be a good year! I love what I do working in the library and I love seeing how our students grow throughout each year. I’m excited to see what this year will bring.

Here at French Ethereal, I am excited about seeing you here every week. 🙂 This week I’ve got a forgotten post, a look at the gardens at Versailles, which I started last year but never finished. I think I published a version of it, I’m not sure, but here is the post I should have written. I hope you will stop by to read it!

Here’s what I shared this past week at French Ethereal…

Retourner en France: Les Jardines de Versailles

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And here are this week’s featured posts…

Penny from Penny’s Treasures shared this lovely basket in her summertime post ~
Designing a Picnic-Themed Pocket Tobacco Basket for the Front Door. Beautiful!!! And this looks so cool with all the summery pastels…
It’s a little early but that’s the life of a blogger, isn’t it? (Plus at this point, I think we are all hoping for a bit of fall weather!) DeeDee over at Clover House is sharing a sweet craft DIY ~ Revamp Your Dollar Store Pumpkin: Budget Friendly Makeover Ideas.
HUH, RVERS PUT THEIR TOILET PAPER WHERE? #rv #motorhome #camper #travel #camping #toilet #convenience #ToiletPaper #DieselPusher #TravelTrailer
Grammy Dee from Grammy’s Grid brings us this funny post called appropriately…
Huh, RVers Put Their Toilet Paper Where??! I love it! After four years living in two RVs, we went up to clean and reset our Prairie Home RV’s stabilizers a couple of weekends ago. Makes me laugh to read this!
Ephesus-Turkey-Celsus-Library-arches
If you are looking for a wonderful trip destination, check out Debbee from Debbee’s Buzz post ~ Aegean Cruise: Visiting Ancient Ephesus, Turkey. We all need places to visit, even if vicariously. 🙂
Plum Hand Pies using 2 Ingredients Dough Recipe @ treatntrick.blogspot.com
We are getting hot in the kitchen with where Trick’n’Treat shared this incredibly yummy recipe for Plum Hand Pies Using 2 Ingredients Dough. Delicious!!!
How To Make A Lemon Wreath For Front Door (Budget Friendly)
Meredith from Arts & Classy shared this really fun wreath in her post ~ Discover How to Craft a Fabulous Lemon Wreath for Your Front Door – Inexpensively! Soooo pretty!!!
Last up for this week, Sally from Within a World of My Own shared her rendition of a recent Style Imitating Art party ~ Pink & Blue Summer Outfits with a Magenta Viva Tee. Love it!!!

Thank You so much to everyone who linked up this past week. A special thank you to everyone for always promoting Share Your Style on your blog and on your social media channels! I do see it when I stop by and I appreciate the love. 💜

If you’d like to follow my Share Your Style board on Pinterest I’d appreciate it, thank you! I do post all of the featured posts from each week’s SYS there plus usually other photos from those posts to my boards. 💜  Thanks so much!!! If you are new to French Ethereal, I hope you will think about subscribing to my blog.

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Blessings to you,

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Gardening, Home Decor

Share Your Style #396

Welcome to this week’s Share Your Style #396, dear friends! I am sooo sorry that I did not get Share Your Style out on Wednesday. I am getting used to my husband coming home from work at a “normal” time, and I just really forgot! I am back painting in the house again, and it’s really hot and humid this week, as it is across much of America, so there’s my excuse, friends.

But I thought I’d put SYS up anyway and share your features, just a day or so late. 🙂

I am Barbara Chapman and I’d love it if you’d follow me here on my blog and on any of my other social media sites, too.  Thank you!💜 

French Ethereal: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest

And with more painting, finishing up working on the sprinklers at my mother-in-law’s home, I didn’t get a post out over the past week, so…

Let’s get to this week’s features!

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And here are this week’s featured posts…

First up this week, I am totally loving Debra’s post from Common Ground sharing all these seashells!!! Look at this buffet! Perfection bringing the beach home ~
Coastal Vibes with Seashell Buffet.
Woman standing in the lobby of the St Regis in Rome.
Newcomer Rosemary from Distinctly Southern Style shares What I Wore on the Plane to Italy. It’s all about comfort, isn’t it? Welcome, Rosemary!!! Enjoy your trip!
cat kissinger
Next up we have the cutest cat!!! I can’t wait to screenshot this cutie and send him to my cat-loving daughter… Kissinger the Cat is coming over from Aleksandra at Cats & Dogs (pets876.blogspot.com ~ I know he is huge and those tuffted ears!!! You’ll have to check out Aleksandra’s posts. She features many furry friends. 💜 
Popular Types of Residential Fences
Kathryn from The Dedicated House shared a nice post on types of fences ~ 3 Most Popular Types of Residential Fences. Love this! I am still on the hunt for another iron or aluminum fence to finish off the backyard. 🙂
Coco from The Crowned Goat brings out her summer whites on her cool and comfortable front porch ~ Cottage Inspired Summer Porch Tour. Lovely!!!
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Last up for this week, we have another of Coco’s posts and this one shares 11 Architectural Salvage Decorating Ideas. Love all the stained glass!!! I’ll take the tall triple window with the ethereal lady in the middle… 😉

Thank You so much to everyone who linked up this past week. A special thank you to everyone for always promoting Share Your Style on your blog and on your social media channels! I do see it when I stop by and I appreciate the love. 💜

If you’d like to follow my Share Your Style board on Pinterest I’d appreciate it, thank you! I do post all of the featured posts from each week’s SYS there plus usually other photos from those posts to my boards. 💜  Thanks so much!!! If you are new to French Ethereal, I hope you will think about subscribing to my blog.

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Enjoy the party!

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Gardening, Home Decor

Share Your Style #387

Welcome to this week’s Share Your Style #387, friends! I hope you are all enjoying springtime in your neck of the woods. Spring has been really long here in North Texas ~ I think you’ll enjoy my garden post featuring some early spring into full-on springtime blooms!

However, the HEAT is coming this Friday!!! (ugh!) I am NOT ready for 90 degree days… How about you? I am grateful for a beautiful spring and everything I covered or overwintered indoors survived the winter, yeah!!!

Here’s to a cooler summer than last year! 😉

I am Barbara Chapman and I’d love it if you’d follow me here on my blog and on any of my other social media sites, too.  Thank you!💜 

French Ethereal: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest

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Here’s what I shared this past week at French Ethereal…

What’s Blooming: My Spring Garden 2023 in North Texas ~ a look around our backyard garden’s blooms.

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And here are this week’s featured posts…

First up this week, we have Debbie from Debbie-Dabble Blog who brings us her Early Spring Patio & Fairy Garden in Pennsylvania. Love all of the color and pavers!!
Our friend Penny from Penny’s Treasures shares her beautiful yard in New Mexico in this post ~
2023 Spring Back Porch. Soooo airy and cheerful!
Debra from Common Ground highlights spring’s beauty with a change-up in her home’s decor ~ Spring Themed Prints in the Hearth Room. Lovely!!!
faux hydrangeas for french country floral basket arrangement
Niky from The House on Silverado shared a lovely styling she did for this month’s Pinterest Challenge ~ French Country Floral Basket Arrangement. So lovely!!
Lynne! Esme from Thrifting Wonderland shared her adventures in Italy ~
The Delightful Vico Equense. Please enjoy!!
*My mistake! I KNEW Lynne wrote Thrifting Wonderland, but saw Esme’s comment or something and I blew it. I do apologize, Lynne. A gorgeous destination… <3
urban-rooftop-garden-cabbage-plant
Our final feature for this week comes from Debbee from Debbee’s Buzz. Debbee shared her son’s Philadelphia Rowhouse Urban Rooftop Garden. Fun!!!

Thank You so much to everyone who linked up this past week. A special thank you to everyone for always promoting Share Your Style on your blog and on your social media channels! I do see it when I stop by and I appreciate the love. 💜

If you’d like to follow my Share Your Style board on Pinterest I’d appreciate it, thank you! I do post all of the featured posts from each week’s SYS there plus usually other photos from those posts to my boards. 💜  Thanks so much!!! If you are new to French Ethereal, I hope you will think about subscribing to my blog.

Happy Spring linking,

Barb 🙂

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Click here to enter
Gardening

What’s Blooming: My Spring Garden 2023 in North Texas

Welcome to spring in North Texas, friends!! I am so excited to share what’s growing outside, the process of adding mulch into the flower beds and a progression of blooms… Come see!

At this point now, it’s not really “early spring,” but I liked the title so there’s that! These photos were taken about a month ago now ~ March 15th. It’s interesting to see how just a few short weeks into the season, so much changes.

I planted no tulips in the fall but in the back flowerbed behind our bedroom, these beauties came back all on their own!

Yoda is hanging in there and has really enjoyed the long spring. He enjoys warm afternoons outside while I pull weeds and baby oak trees (definitely weeds here in our yard). He is having more and more bathroom issues, so lots of laundry washing his many blankets, carpet cleaning, mopping the kitchen.

I need to invest in doggie diapers, lol! 😉 He’s a good boy, though, and he enjoys his cuddles…

In the greenhouse shed

At my favorite grocery store, Winco, I found bibb lettuce heads with their roots still attached, so…

I planted them! I tried cutting them off and letting them re-leaf. I had mild success. I tried the same trick with a celery stalk, but the local squirrels or rats knocked off my wire cloche and ate the three.

Not sponsored: I ordered three chicken wire garden cloches last year from Gardener’s Supply. I really like them!

Linda Vater has some new ones available on QVC, if you need some, too. She has one which is taller (the 22″ one), which I think would be good for protecting tomatoes. They were on sale but I didn’t get one then. Next time!

The baby bibb lettuces I sprouted worked really well, but it turned into more of an experiment for this year. I had issues with fungus gnats… Definitely a learning process! 🙂

I am able to get sprouts growing, now I just need actual planting beds and a small cold frame.

Mr. Ethereal has mentioned we ought to build a wooden garden bed. Hopefully this summer.

I might need to totally rearrange the garden with more garden beds for veg! XD

ranunculus ~ trying them this season!

You know how the grocery stores carry some plant bulbs and corms? I am trying ranunculus but found out late that they like really gritty soil with lots of drainage. I need to invest in gravel for planting here in North Texas!

Here is a pot of ranunculus which I purchased at a local garden center in California ~ probably Lowe’s, Home Depot or Armstrong Nursery in Temecula. I didn’t know that you could save the corms and repot them the next winter, so I tossed them out… Live and learn! 😉

Even if my experiment doesn’t quite work out, I’ll dig up the corms and save them for next year.

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Pelargoniums

Yesterday (4/29/23) I created a really gritty, well draining mix for some geraniums from my sister-in-law Jodi’s garden in Rancho Cordova, California. These guys are really used to super draining soils, super dry air compared to Texas’ humid summer air, so I need to be especially vigilant about NOT overwatering, even when it is hot here in the summertime.

Last year, I killed the bunch my mother-in-law had brought the winter before when she moved to Texas by overwatering and not having super well-draining soil. We had a sprinkler issue, too, which contributed to their demise. Those geraniums’ parents were originally from my old gardens in Southern California.

I am getting the hang of growing plants here in Texas, but I am still learning.

These should be hardy geraniums but in the temps here getting down to the single-digits, I’m not sure. I will put these guys in the shed overwinter. 🙂

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The citrus trees

Would you believe that a rat, or several, gnawed on the bark of this poor mandarin orange tree’s branches?? Yes! I had to immediately put bird netting all over it and pin it to the dirt to keep them out. I also pruned it back, fed it heavily to give it strength to recover from this devastation.

The sweet Japanese maple I bought half-price last year was girdled the same way and I was NOT going to let this happen to this sweet tree. I also moved it out to a sunnier location in the yard. It’s leaves are growing back nicely and it has finally put out blossoms and little dark green orange buds are just forming!

The two lemon and the new lime trees are also doing well. They are all tented for now. 😉 Happily, pollinators are still able to get to the blooms. Hoping for more fruits!

The garden now

Two weekends ago, we drove down to pick up our car which had been in for repairs, and on the way back we stopped for groceries at Costco.

Costco had delphiniums for $16.99!!! If I had had unlimited money, I would have bought at least three plants. I am happy with the one beauty I was able to purchase…

Our roses have had a beautiful first series of blooms. They are all really still babies (second season in the ground), so I expect next year to be their magical year to shine!

Here is a David Austin rose Gentle Hermione.

A really pretty soft pink rose fading to cream. I just went out to look at it and all the blooms have faded. I’ve been feeding regularly with hopes of getting them to go for it with continuous blooms. 🙂

Along the south wall, the Generous Gardener is stretching its legs with longer canes this spring. Here are a few buds on it.

At the front of this south-facing bed a couple of the lamb’s ears are shooting up their spring blooms! With a few oak babies mixing in… Always weeding this year! ;)’

And the smaller Spanish lavender is just finishing up its first blooms while the larger lavender is just coming in (left).

The tiny white with yellow center wildflowers are done for the season but if the grass gets long later on, they will pop up now and again. You can see the two lavenders in the background.

And I think I’ll sign off here with a shot of David Austin’s Tranquility, a rambling rose. It is just stunning…

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope your garden is blooming extra beautiful this season!

Spring hugs,

Barb 🙂

crafts, Fashion, Gardening, Home Decor, Tablescapes

Share Your Style #385

Welcome to this week’s Share Your Style #385, dear friends! I am so glad you are here as we have a really nice bunch of features to share with you…

I am Barbara Chapman and I’d love it if you’d follow me here on my blog and on any of my other social media sites, too.  Thank you!💜 

French Ethereal: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest

No features from me this week! Last weekend was all about cleaning up the yard, clearing piles of leftover oak leaves and nuts (which have been in big piles for a couple of weeks), and laundry… ugh! Hubby was up in the attic looking to block where the evil rats had been getting into over winter. He vacuumed (while wearing protective gear) in the attic cleaning up “that yucky stuff.” Looking better! 🙂

So let’s get to this week’s features…

And here are this week’s featured posts…

First up this week is this DIY project lovingly redone by Debra from Common Ground. Such a nice job painting!! Favorite Antique Furniture: Sideboard Dressed for Spring.
Debra also scores in this double-header post ~ Peter Rabbit and Friends in the Cupboard. Just a little leftover fun from Easter… <3
Esme from Esme Salon shared this wonderful dessert ~ South African Microwave Milk Tart (Melktert) ~ love custard desserts!!!
dulce de leche brownies and a cup of tea in a white cup.
Elizabeth from Pinecones & Acorns shared this wonderful recipe for Dulce de Leche Brownies… I love recipes with dulce de leche and this looks just delicious!!!
Decorate Your Master Suite
Kathryn from The Dedicated House shared 7 Ways to Decorate Your Master Suite. Love how it turned out!!! So classy!
Niky from The House on Silverado shared this post which is sooo timely for summer’s coming heat ~ Setting Up an Automatic Watering System for an Outdoor Plants & Hanging Baskets.
Love this table from Debbie at Debbie-Dabble ~ Easter Tablescapes & Easter Wrap-Up. Love the rabbits and the Easter tree!!!
Oh my goodness! I LOVE this post as part of Style Imitating Art… Sally from Within a World of My Own created an outfit and her amazing DIY beaded jewelry ~ you need to go check out the beads she makes!
Styling a Tonal Column of Color for SIA: Redouté Roses + DIY Paper Bead Page to Bead Examples. Lovely inspiration!!!
10 images of spring front porch decor ideas
Wendy from WM Design House shared this great post ~
35 Simple & Easy Spring Front Porch Ideas. Great round-up!

Thank You so much to everyone who linked up this past week. A special thank you to everyone for always promoting Share Your Style on your blog and on your social media channels! I do see it when I stop by and I appreciate the love. 💜

If you’d like to follow my Share Your Style board on Pinterest I’d appreciate it, thank you! I do post all of the featured posts from each week’s SYS there plus usually other photos from those posts to my boards. 💜  Thanks so much!!! If you are new to French Ethereal, I hope you will think about subscribing to my blog.

Happy linking!

Barb 🙂

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Click here to enter
Gardening, Tablescapes

Evening Tea in the Garden

Good evening, friends! I used some comp time today and left work an hour early heading to my mother-in-law’s home to check on it while she is away. As I came out into the backyard to water, immediately I caught the scent of two large roses perfuming the entire garden …

After I finished watering all of her backyard plants (and seeing that I need to help her with a ton of prickly weed removal), I came back out with her heavy duty scissors and snipped as many stems of these soft blush roses as I could.

Previous owners planted this heavenly scented rose and its twin on the opposite side of the garden. Funny, Gramma “plays ball” with a 2-year-old boy who lives on the other side of the fence when she is home. I found a good 12 balls of many sizes and types in amongst the roses and crepe myrtle along this shared back fence!

I tossed them all back over. 😉

After a quick run through the grocery store, I came home and promptly recut all the rose stems and created this lovely arrangement. Creamy white Iceberg roses from my garden filled in the gaps…

Then it was time for tea!

I brewed a cup of Constant Comment and set two lemon Girl Scout cookies on a plate. Nothing fancy! Just a paper napkin, the tea and those cookies.

I love that the cookies have upbeat sayings on them to boost girls’ self esteem nowadays!! They made me smile. 😉

Two of our newer rose bushes in their pots, getting ready for their first blooms…

As I cleared away the dishes, I took a few shots just with my iPhone 12 Pro. It takes quality photographs and I didn’t have to mess with the lighting, which my Canon was being finicky this evening (the overblown whites in some photos, lol!).

But it was a lovely 72 degree evening, perfect for a few minutes enjoying the back gardens as the sun was going down…

A few early iris are blooming, too! Just noticed this beauty as I was snapping away… I gave them all a good feeding yesterday.

Here’s hoping for lots of blooms to come!

Thanks for visiting & sharing a cup with me,

Barb 🙂

Gardening, Home Decor

Share Your Style #382

Welcome to this week’s Share Your Style #382 ~ a bit late this week (I haven’t been sleeping well; taking care of our very old dog takes its toll…), so… I thought I’d get the party up here on Saturday! I am soooo looking forward to your beautiful Easter and springtime posts!

I am Barbara Chapman and I’d love it if you’d follow me here on my blog and on any of my other social media sites, too.  Thank you!💜 

French Ethereal: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest

Last weekend I was outside working on getting a few plants in the ground plus spreading mulch to protect all the plants’ roots from summer’s coming heat. I was BEAT but it is looking good so far! I will share that post soon. 😉

Just one post from me this week, and I was busy recovering from the weekend (plus, just going to work everyday at school as you know!) so I apologize for not getting SYS on time this Wednesday! I fell asleep by 7:00/7:30pm every night this week until Friday evening. I had a hard time visiting all of the folks on the Pinterest tour, too!

I don’t know if you all know, but I get up with our Yoda every night during the night to take care of his restroom needs, save him from whatever he has got himself stuck underneath (i.e. our bed, my dresser, behind the toilet, etc. — he has Dog Alzheimers), and get his bedding laundry going. We love him and it’s just what we do for our fur babies! 💜 

So, let’s get this party started!!!

Here’s what I shared this past week at French Ethereal…

Two Spring Chair (Decorating) Ideas to Inspire ~ part of this month’s Pinterest Challenge hosted by Cindy of County Road 407. So fun!!!

And here are this week’s featured posts…

A Spring / Easter table setting including a nest of (candy) eggs sitting in a basket of raffia. www.redshuttercottage.com
First up this week is this fun post from newcomer Kristine from Red Shutter Cottage ~
A Whimsical Spring Tablescape ~ just adorable!!! (I’ll probably use this phrase a lot today!) Welcome, Kristine to the French Ethereal family! <3
I learned a new word today and here it is in Sandra from Dinner at Eight‘s cutest post for spring ~ A Fluffle of Bunnies! Just precious!!!
Pinterest container gardening ideas & inspo
MaryJo over at Master”Pieces” of My Life shared this lovely garden post ~
Container Gardening Ideas & Inspiration. Can’t wait for all the blooms!
Lori from Dining Delight created this beautiful post ~ Inspiration for Decorating an Easter Brunch Buffet. Simply beautiful!!!

Stephanie from Steph Creates shared this sweet DIY Dollar Tree Birdhouse Decoration post. Love little birdhouses for decorating around the home!

Lynne from Thrifting Wonderland shared a sunny tableau here in her post Cheerful Tablescape. Love how Lynne uses thrifted items in her home!
And a huge CONGRATULATIONS to DeeDee from Our Clover House on a sweet bedding line affiliation ~ My New Bedding is Named After Me! Really pretty!!

Thank You so much to everyone who linked up this past week. A special thank you to everyone for always promoting Share Your Style on your blog and on your social media channels! I do see it when I stop by and I appreciate the love. 💜

If you’d like to follow my Share Your Style board on Pinterest I’d appreciate it, thank you! I do post all of the featured posts from each week’s SYS there plus usually other photos from those posts to my boards. 💜  Thanks so much!!! If you are new to French Ethereal, I hope you will think about subscribing to my blog.

Happy spring, y’all,

Barb 🙂

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Gardening, Holidays, Home Decor, Pinterest Challenge

Two Spring Chair Ideas to Inspire!

Welcome, dear friends!! This month’s Pinterest Challenge has us creating a fun Easter-time Spring Chair. Yes, a chair ~ totally fun and unexpected! Our host and friend Cindy from County Road 407 has found a really fun idea from Jamie at Anderson + Grant!

Our inspiration ~ what I see

Welcome to everyone coming over from Michelle at Thistle Key Lane for the first time! Isn’t this beautiful antique chair so pretty with this gorgeous woven harvest basket filled with tulips, a sweet rabbit scouting the scene, and a soft white afghan cascading out of the basket and over the chair Lovely!

I loved it so much that I thought It’d be fun to create a couple of spring chair ideas to inspire you in your springtime decorating.

Love Cindy’s springtime Pinterest Challenge graphic!

I shot these photos with my cell phone so they are a bit fuzzy and I apologize for that. Since then, I’ve shot only with my Canon. 🙂

My first Spring Chair & Basket

I began this sweet vignette with a Longaberger cake-carrying basket set onto a chair I bought from my longtime friend Kathy. I recovered it with fabric from a dress I wore back in the late 1980’s to one of my brother’s weddings. I filled this basket with a small glass cake plate used as a riser for Momma & Baby rabbit.

Nestled in with our rabbits, I’ve scattered some soft green shredded paper used as Easter grass, glossy bright plastic Easter eggs, and a spring bouquet of mums and other flowers my husband just bought me! He’s a keeper… 🙂

The last thing I added was a lace curtain I hang up in our bedroom every year for summertime. I love its softness plus it added dappled light. Here this curtain adds its softness and texture to the scene!

Now let’s check out our second Spring Chair out in the Garden!

Our garden

Over the past four seasons, I have worked really hard creating small planting beds around one of our backyard oak trees, under the primary bedroom window and out here along the edging of the western and southern fencing.

This spot is against our new garden shed/greenhouse (how I am using it) and faces south.

Let’s check out Chair #2!!

Since my roses aren’t in bloom yet, I brought out some dried roses and set them inside our flower girl’s basket.

This outdoor spring basket vignette has lots of texture

This chair came as a set with a small end table we picked up at last summer’s end-of-summer sales. I call it my Titanic chair…

All of the dried florals add their own special fluffiness and refinement…

The sun was rapidly going down when I came out to film after school last week. It had rained the day before so everything was fresh and clean! And here is our second chair.

One of our cement rabbits came out to play, too. A little nod to Jamie’s sweet cement rabbit! In the background, one of our David Austin climbing roses is being trained upwards on jute twine. Fingers crossed it grows more canes on the other side!

The vintage tablecloth takes the place of the white afghan in the inspiration photograph. Sorry the whites are blown out. I had some trouble getting the light balance correct while photographing.

And those are my two second chairs for today’s challenge. 🙂 I hope you’ve enjoyed both of these chair stylings! If you like what you see, please consider subscribing to my blog and following French Ethereal on my other platforms. Thank you for stopping by! <3

Up next is Niky from The House on Silverado and her green vintage chair looks absolutely adorable with its floral bouquet and sweet rabbit! Please see below for links to visit everyone on today’s tour.

Happy spring, friends!

Barb 🙂

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