Happy Wednesday, friends! Sorry, no Share Your Style tonight. I didn’t bring my computer and we have been building a shed all day.
Hubby went and picked up a small U-Haul this morning just after 7:00am. By 9:00am, he had it loaded with packed boxes which have been on the back patio since New Year’s, a bucket of tools and drills, and a pile of lumber!
My job most of the day? Scrub and clean every last panel and part of our old 7.5’ x 7.5’ shed… But, I am happy to say that Gramma’s new shed (my MIL Gini, btw) is mostly done! It’s almost 6:00pm and Charles is just screwing in the last of the roof bolts and screws. Woot!!! 😊
Hi ho, there!
Now to get the door on… ☺️
Always one.last.thing. 🤣 Anyway, I hope to get Share Your Style up later this evening for you. I will send out a notice when it is up.
I need your help. Where have you stayed which was beautiful but around $400 or less/night? I did see that we could get bunk beds in a hostel, but would our suitcases and belongings be safe all day while we are out shopping/dining/browsing/touring?
My niece’s wedding is on Saturday in Grenoble, so my thought was take the red-eye to CDG airport on Tuesday/land on Wednesday, check into our hotel, leave our bags and get out right away for sight-seeing in Paris! We land at 1:25pm so hopefully we can get a cab or shuttle to the hotel. We will probably look around a bit, grab an early dinner and head to bed (ha!). (You know me, I’ll be out photographing EVERYTHING!!!)
Amy and I will spend two days ooohing and aaahing over Versailles and the gardens, and seeing whatever we can squish into our days there in Paris. We may have a couple of days on our way back from Grenoble, too. I would love to go and see the lavender fields but I just think there isn’t enough time in one week…
What are your experiences in France with security out on the streets or in the hotels? Can we walk around with our purses hanging around our necks or should we just take small wallets and keep in our front pockets??
Now the fun stuff!
We will arrive on Wednesday and stay in Paris for two days. What are your must see things to do?
Which arrondisement did you enjoy staying in the most? Left Bank or Right Bank?
On that Friday, we hop on a train to Grenoble. How do we do this y’all? Totally excited, but I am concerned about getting to the train station.
I finally got into the USPS last week and my paperwork is sent/uploaded with “expedite” for my new passport’s return. Amy will go right to the main location there in Austin this coming week and get hers done.
So, yes, we will have to travel to Grenoble sometime during the day. I think there is a dinner Friday night for guests and then the wedding on Saturday. I know there is hiking around Grenoble and it’ll be nice to go for a short hike and just ogle over the scenery! What mountains… Hope the roses and lavender will be in bloom!
Well, I am going to fire off this post and listen to all of your thoughts and comments! Please feel free to share with friends who you think might have some tips and advice for a good trip, thank you!!! 💜
Here are a couple of other pre-France posts I’ve shared in the past:
Welcome to this week’s Share Your Style #346! Happy Wednesday to y’all, dear friends!!
This link party is for home decor, DIY, crafts, recipes and the like, but you are more than welcome to share any of your family-friendly posts with us all. Please feel free to share this post too and join my small but loyal band of friends. I appreciate you! I appreciate your subscribing, also. As always, I am glad that you are here…💜
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!💜
It feels sooo good to be finishing up the school year. I love being in school with our students everyday ~ I love watching them learn! But, it is good to have a nice long break to recoup and come back fresh again in the fall. I have been running our library’s PE skills fun program all week long for K-5th, which has been a lot of fun. It’s called student teaching-on-the-job! 😉
After the kids went home at noon, I was able to shoot over for my passport appointment at the local post office; I finally got my passport paperwork submitted! Yeah!!! So timely with this week’s featured posts about beautiful tablescapes and weddings… <3 And of course we celebrate and honor those veterans of war who didn’t make it home from the battlefield this weekend. Wear a poppy in their honor.
Well, let’s get to our features, including one from me!
Here’s what I shared this past week atFrench Ethereal…
Recent newcomer Judy from Life in Kentucky shared this lovely Mother’s Day Tablescape with us. This table setting looks lovely for the upcoming Memorial Day weekend with its soft colors and was beautiful as well for Mother’s Day… Gorgeous! Judy also shared a fun boating post from Kentucky Lake…
Jeanie from The Marmelade Gypsy shared her sweet post updating life over at the ditch near her ~ Mother Goose. Awwwwwwwwwww!!! If you enjoy reading, do check out Jeanie’s post The April Book Bunch. I am sooo ready for summer reading, how about you?
Lynne from Thrifting Wonderland shared her pretty table with us for the upcoming holidays ~ Peony Centerpiece Tablescape. Lovely in its patriotic colors!!!
Lynn from Living Large in a Small House shared her daughter and son-in-law’s story about Getting Married Twice During Covid. Very timely, indeed!
How to Make the Best Baked Beans are on the menu for summer cooking over at the home of Renae from Peacock Ridge Farm. Something wonderful to add to our menus this weekend with our bbq’s going full bore. Delicious!!!
And because the unofficial beginning of summer starts this weekend, Claire Justine shares a fun post about her week in this post ~ 2 for 1 Cocktails at Slug and Lettuce, Nottingham. Love all the patterns and her new birthday dress!!! Do stop by and check out what she and her family have been up to!
Claire also shared her recipe for these patriotic treats from across the Pond ~ Great British Cupcakes! Yum and perfect for both of our Remembrance Day weekends…
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.
Welcome to this month’s Pinterest Challenge, friends! Cindy of Country Road 407 has gathered us all together once again to celebrate the arrival of summer with a challenge using Patriotic Colors! (Don’t you just love our national flag’s red, white and blue?!!) If you are just coming over from My Family Thyme with Lynne, welcome!
OMGosh, I can’t wait to get to know Lynne!! Her style is wonderfully warm and welcoming, plus she paints gorgeous watercolors… Lynne hails from Connecticut (Go UConn!), where my parents last lived, and my youngest brother and his family still live right next door to my mother and father’s former home in Woodbury.
Cindy of Edith & Evelyn Vintage found this on the internet and used in her post Patriotic Decor Ideas.
There were a ton of great photographs to choose from with lots of inspiration in Cindy’s post and I just loved this faded Old Glory she shared; it really spoke to me…
Cindy also had this incredible chair in the same inspiring post:
I loooove this chair and it is really a stunner with the Americana theme boldly proclaimed in its fabric choices! Plus it’s a French chair! (What’s not to love?) So I guess I could have gone soft or bold in my color choices this time. 😉
But my personal penchant is to use the softer versions of these colors this year.
Like what’s-blooming-in-my-garden-right-now-colors…
I haven’t been writing much lately because I have been working hard in the garden. I do have an upcoming post with what’s happened since the last time I shared the garden. I’ve been planting and digging a lot on the weekends, plus visiting with my mother-in-law at her new home. She is really enjoying her new garden. We will take a trip over there this summer so you can see it, too!
My hydrangeas have come into their own this year! A glorious year for hydrangeas… Actually, I learned the secret here in Texas is consistent watering, just about every day. 😉
Back to our patriotic basket
The past couple of years I went with our country’s bold colors in my Pinterest Challenge posts, like this outdoor patio patriotic decor post.
I do tend to hop back and forth between soft patriotic colors then bold, then right back! Here in this post, I gathered a number of patriotic ideas together, if you’d like to check them out:
Which leads me back to today’s project ~ making a softly colored Patriotic Basket to hang on your front door, set on a table as part of a tabletop display, or to hang on your garden shed like I’ve done here. 🙂
For this mont’s Pinterest Challenge, we have the freedom to create anything patriotic we want, so I thought about bringing out my French style basket and filling it with faux flowers!
Making this basket is simple:
Add spagnum sheet moss to the bottom and sides of the wire basket.
Place a piece of floral foam inside (or bunched up chicken wire) to support floral stems.
Poke in soft pink faux hydrangea blossoms, along with daisy stems and lavender and cornflower-blue larkspur wands.
Tuck in more moss, like this spring green reindeer moss, to fill up the empty spaces after you’ve added your flowers and foam.
Hang up and enjoy!
And that’s all there is to creating this basket. 🙂
I spent $0.00 on this project… right up until I needed more moss… The reindeer moss I found at our local Calloway’s Garden Center this past weekend and it cost $16.99 for a large box, which is still quite full. I will get a lot of use out of it for the price!
To make this basket more patriotic, just tuck in some little American flags! When the holiday is over, just pull the flags back out for a casual summertime door basket display.
Thanks for stopping by on the tour today! Next we swing back up toCindy from County Road 407and I know you will love all of her patriotic decorating ideas!! Do stop by and check out all the wonderful decor pieces our friends have put together for you.
Welcome to this week’s Share Your Style #345! Happy Wednesday to y’all, dear friends!!
This link party is for home decor, DIY, crafts, recipes and the like, but you are more than welcome to share any of your family-friendly posts with us all. Please feel free to share this post too and join my small but loyal band of friends. I appreciate you! I appreciate your subscribing, also. As always, I am glad that you are here…💜
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!💜
Welcome to another Wednesday Share Your Style, friends!!! I apologize for getting the party up late this evening. I have no excuse other than I got five hours of sleep and it’s the end of the school year. No posts for me with the heavy work outdoors schedule but I will be back writing and sharing what’s new here soon!
I hope you had a wonderful Mother’s Day either for yourself or celebrating with the significant women in your lives. My daugher sent a Tiff’s Treats box of chocolate chip cookies and another of truffles. They are getting eaten sparingly!
Later on Mother’s Day, I was out planting again in the 90 degree heat and thankfully there was a great breeze. The soil is well roto-tilled and now it is just a matter of just digging holes, fertilizing and getting plants in the ground. It was pleasantly comfortable outside, even if hot. All of the plants are doing well with water every morning or every other day, depending. Trying this new strategy this year. A post with the south fence all planted will be coming soon!
Well, this week’s party is all about patriotic crafts, tablescapes and some travel ideas for summer holidays!
Last up this week is a trip to Verona, Italy’s City of Love… with Mary from Pots and Planes. Ooooohhhhhh!!! Look at that gorgeously clear water!!!
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.
Welcome to this week’s Share Your Style #344! Happy Wednesday to y’all, dear friends!!
This link party is for home decor, DIY, crafts, recipes and the like, but you are more than welcome to share any of your family-friendly posts with us all. Please feel free to share this post too and join my small but loyal band of friends. I appreciate you! I appreciate your subscribing, also. As always, I am glad that you are here…💜
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!💜
Good Wednesday evening, friends!! No new post this week but I do have a couple of photographs to share with you. I was out in the back garden last weekend, rototilling, raking and planting a couple of small trees…
Got the second Jane Magnolia planted near the left corner! This baby will only get to 15′ tall and about 10′ wide. The Thuja/Emerald Green Arborvitae will grow to about the same height but only about 3′ wide. Perfect for this corner spot and just adding color to the back fence!
The roses have been doing sooo well this year! Along the south house wall, all five roses are in bloom. Here is the Miranda Lambert deep pink rose in bloom just before a rainstorm last weekend. I quickly cut some of the roses and plunked them in a glass vase to save them from the incoming rain. So glad I did!!! Love them!!
Miranda Lambert ~ which has a lovely light scent!
We have some wonderful Mother’s Day features for you this week. So excited for Mother’s Day!! Hubby bought me some Ear Buds for this year’s MD so I’d be able to watch movies when I fly next (hopefully our trip to France this summer!).
Alright, let’s check out our features..
And here are this week’s featured posts…
Definitely flowers for Mother’s Day! Jeanie from The Marmelade Gypsy brings us around Michigan ~ Waking Up at Home and Beyond. Check out where she shot this… You’ll be surprised!
Jennifer from Curated by Jennifer collected some things here ~ Mother’s Day Gift Ideas #2. Fun choices!!!
Looking for a good movie to watch this weekend? Joanne from Aging with Ardor brings us ageing gracefully in this post ~ Andy and Red ~ from Shawshank Redemption with Tim Robbins as Andy and Morgan Freeman as Red (not sponsored, but my account).
If you are a painter, perk up your mother or mother-in-law’s dining room with this lovely idea ~ A Beautiful French Country Wall Mural ~ from Renae at Peacock Ridge Farm. Gorgeous!!!
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.
Welcome to this week’s Share Your Style #343! Happy Wednesday to y’all, dear friends!!
This link party is for home decor, DIY, crafts, recipes and the like, but you are more than welcome to share any of your family-friendly posts with us all. Please feel free to share this post too and join my small but loyal band of friends. I appreciate you! I appreciate your subscribing, also. As always, I am glad that you are here…💜
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!💜
Well, there are a lot of neat features this week to share with you! Really, all month long has been lots of fun! All of the Easter decorating and table setting ideas have been so pretty… I know all y’all will have loads of beautiful garden posts to share soon, and I am looking forward to seeing how your gardens have changed since last year.
I’ll be sharing more from mine, soon.
But, for this time, my posts are all indoors, so let’s begin there, shall we? Then we move onto spring projects for the home, fun fashions and healthy cooking ideas.
All good stuff!
Here’s what I shared this past week atFrench Ethereal…
Springtime in the Hutch ~ an offshoot from Tuesday’s Pinterest Challenge and sharing more of my Limoges tableware.
And here are this week’s featured posts…
Debra from Common Ground shares this good fix for any thrifted painting which needs a little TLC ~ Easy Repairs to a Vintage Oil Painting. Great ideas!!!
Shelbee from Shelbee on the Edge shares this month’s fun fashion challenge in her post ~ The Thrifty Six in Bold Monochrome. Totally loving these outfits for spring!!!
Lynn from Living Large in a Small House shares her secret to living well ~ What is In a Scratch Cook’s Kitchen. This is right up my alley this year as I wean myself (slowly) away from fast food trying to live a much healthier, less arthritic/less inflammation lifestyle.
Beauty abounds over at Lynne’s from Thrifting Wonderland in this gorgeous, blooming post ~ Sunday Flowers on Saturday. Love this!!!
Last up for this week is this sweet Tiny Rooster Stool project from Robin over at Junk is My Life. Great update!!!
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.
Totally missing springtime indoors with all the work we were doing helping my mother-in-law move-in, and then spending a lot of time out-of-doors moving the fence, digging, planting, and tilling, I am excited to share a second post from inside…
Yesterday we shared this month’s Pinterest Challenge spring baskets and I thought about sharing this photograph… But then I thought, no, I wanted to save it for today. A different view than what was shared in that post and a view I really love!
Down on the hutch top, I’ve placed the new-to-me Limoges creamer and sugar bowl. Such a lovely gift!!! I literally gasped when I pulled the sugar bowl out of its newspaper wrapping.
These were found at the IOOF thrift shop in Latrobe, California ~ a monthly event open to the public when the lodge members host their monthly fundraiser breakfasts. This is the lodge my mother-in-law and sister-in-law have attended for years and years. Gini now attends ours here in North Texas. 🙂
This cupboard only gets an update every couple of months or so as the seasons or holidays change, but I do enjoy “playing house” with it! The new creamer and sugar inspired putting up all the pretty Limoges pieces ~ like the small dessert plate (above right) with its ruffled and gilded edges. Love the pink roses strewn around the inner border!
Favorite vintage cards add their bit of pretty along with lovely mercury glass baubles plus one sweet springtime rabbit…
He’s a little salt and pepper shaker!
Besides the Limoges, the theme here is sugar bowls. I think I put four in the hutch this time.
I have been looking for a larger china cabinet, because we really could use some more storage, but I will never sell this one. I love how it was made around this vintage picture frame! It will go into the craft room and house fabric and things if I do ever find another one.
Really pleased with this springtime hutch’s look! What do you think?
Hello, dear friends! Springtime baskets are on the menu for you in this month’s Pinterest Challenge. Thank you to Cindy from County Road 407 for hosting this hop and for giving us this basket challenge!
If you are stopping by from Michelle of Thistle Key Lane for the first time, welcome! Didn’t you just love what Michelle has created with her basket? Sooooo pretty!!
Well, our inspiration photograph this month comes from Emily at Le Cultivateur. I love her style and this centerpiece is just up my alley!
Love all the greenery with the whites and silver ~ which is what I picked up on!
When I first went over to view Emily’s post, I saw her Easter centerpiece version of this basket with it’s large white rabbit and it is still perfect (to me, anyway) for an after-Easter springtime table topper!
Here is the photograph I decided to copy:
This tableau just says, “Spring has sprung!”
What I loved about this basket
Whites everywhere! ~ a large white basket to hold spring plants, a large white rabbit with his adorable lace bow, the painted white raised board. A rumpled, white dresser scarf with lace around its edges added its softness.
Silver ~ I love silver candlesticks and they add just that touch of elegance!
Greenery ~ inside the large basket, live plants are nestled together with a grapevine hoop added as a “basket handle.”
What I put in my ethereal springtime basket
Whites ~ I looked at my handled baskets but they were too small, so I went with this whitewashed flat tobacco basket as my “board” and basket. I tried it with a white wood cake plate but it didn’t look right, so I just added my newer Lowe’s stone rabbit, a white paper mâché rabbit, a small white plant pot, white inside a clear tealight holder, plus a white birdhouse.
Silver ~ copying our inspiration, I chose two silver mercury glass candlesticks plus one white metal one to hold softly pink tapers. Depending upon the lighting, each of the rabbits and the basket take on a silvery glow.
Greenery ~ This lavender-pink amaryllis stalk is the first to bloom in our northern sideyard and was my inspiration for this laying out the table in month’s challenge! It’s simple beauty paired with a faux paperwhite in a white plant pot bring in some of the greenery from our inspiration piece.
Table runner lace ~ I have dresser scarves but would have had to wash the one from our bedroom, so I looked in my linen closet and found this sweet, tatted window curtain to use on my table instead! I love its French Country farmhouse look and the rumpling on either end adds just the right look to this tableau.
Not having any Spanish moss to add to my basket, I added a garden saucer with moss balls I made last year paired with a couple of woven grass balls. This helped bring in more greenery to my table’s look.
I love the simplicity of this basket centerpiece and for me it is simple, ethereal elegance! If you are looking for something to decorate your table for Mother’s Day, just replace the rabbits with a bowl of garden roses or other flowers. That will give you more greenery and less of an Easter look.
Welcome to this week’s Share Your Style #340! Happy Wednesday to y’all, dear friends!!
This link party is for home decor, DIY, crafts, recipes and the like, but you are more than welcome to share any of your family-friendly posts with us all. Please feel free to share this post too and join my small but loyal band of friends. I appreciate you! I appreciate your subscribing, also. As always, I am glad that you are here…💜
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!💜
Happy Wednesday, friends! No posts this week since I was recovering over the weekend from that horrible cold. I did manage to get out on Monday and move a small tree forward ~ I’d planted it in the dark the week before and got it too close to where the eventual second iron fence will go. So… it had to move! I got another shrub planted, too. Doesn’t sound like much, but between the cold and major allergies going on, it’s a wonder anything can get done here in North Texas!
But, I am starting to feel much better, the allergens are going down, and we had our first 90 degree day today. Nice to come home and water plants. 🙂 With Easter weekend just passed (I hope you had a wonderful time celebrating with family and friends!), we have lots of fun Easter features.
So, let’s get to this week’s wonderful decorating ideas…
And here are this week’s featured posts…
Happy to share this early springtime post from Jeanie from the Marmelade Gypsy ~ Birds, a Blog Book and a Book Signing. You’ll love the sweet squirrel!!
Linda from Paper Seedlings shared this sweet Easter card… Bunny and Eggs. Very sweet!
Spring is blooming over at MaryJo’s from Master “Pieces” of My Life in this post ~ Spring Garden Plans. Love the yellow rose!
Maya from Little Treasures brings us these adorable Easter Chicks and Eggs Appliques – Free Crochet Pattern. So fun to make and use as coasters, add onto jeans as patches or onto the kids’ and grands’ spring and summer outfits!!!
Coco from The Crowned Goat shared her easy to copy idea for decorating an Easter cake (but, of course, this could be for an upcoming Mother’s Day cake or some other fun occasion, too!) in her post ~ How to Decorate a Store Bought Cake for Easter. 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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