Marché Maison's Spring 2017 Home Tour, Part 2

Welcome back to Part 2 of my 2017 spring home tour! I decided to start off the tour in my dining room with this chalkboard. I found this empty hall tree frame at a yard sale for $15 I think? It has been a few years...all the yard sale purchases are now blurring together! ha! I had a piece of masonite cut to size at Home Depot and painted it with black chalk paint. I absolutely love changing it every season. I look for inspirational quotes or verses that speak to me. At Christmas, my daughter drew a wreath of words with all the names of God, I hated to erase it! Yes, as this quote says, it has been a long winter, but what type of "winter?" Yes, snow, cold wind, ice, etc. But what about a winter season in life? I feel like I have been in a winter season for quite some time now. God has brought us through our own winter here of career moves, a house move and the passing of my mother! The analogy my husband has used is that we have been in a storm on the sea floating on a piece of driftwood and and the skies are now clearing and we see a beautiful island beach up ahead. We are still paddling but there is hope. Ultimately, that hope at the core is my belief in the Alpha and Omega, the creator and sustainer of all things! No matter the storm, he has a plan and a purpose for all things (Romans 8:28) Nothing is wasted! So that was a long way to say that this quote is deeply meaningful to me!

Zoomin' in here on some detail that is hard to see in the big pic! Here is a soft birds nest made of feathers and grasses, and what nest would be complete without an egg or two, right?! I also put these light and airy wire bird cages into the vine. I love this grape vine because it is neither purchased nor manufactured looking but discovered. I found it while I was getting Christmas greens a couple of years ago.

Actually a cool story - we had just moved (and as I mentioned above, a heart breaking move) in to our Allentown town home in October of 2016, my mother passed away November 30th 2016. I had nothing in me to do Christmas decor. I was at a client appointment and noticed there were large pine trees being cut down and the workmen were laying the branches on the side of the road. This vine was all over the branches so I had to untangle it. So thank you God for my 2016 Christmas greens - the workmen even cut up the branches for me with their chain saws!

So the vines had been torn away from the pine branches and had a mind all of their own. I had to train them to relax and be purposeful over this chalkboard! I added some princess small leaf green garland for a splash of green. I even like the green as it is the color of new budding leaves.

If you haven't seen this antique before in a previous blog post...this is a Gates belt holder, probably hung in a factory somewhere getting all chippy, rusty and old. Too bad, I get to take this forgotten "junk" and make it a marvelous tea cup display! I am sure I could use it for many things - do you have any ideas? Comment me below, I would LOVE to hear them!

I had mentioned in Part 1 of the Spring home tour that I had another bucket and they came with an accessory. So bucket #2 is here full of blooms and whimsically hanging. The accessory is the wooden gear looking thing which has an iron hook which is now hanging on the chalkboard/hall tree hook. Yes, don't worry, I will most definitely reunite them together and do something where both buckets are hanging from this gear thing. For now they both have important jobs where they can shine separately! The buckets came with that multi string jute which I have enjoyed as it has a different look than typical jute or burlap. Oh, and in case I forgot to mention it, I got the buckets, gear and cool rope ensemble at a thrift store for $6! Score!

These table grape cartons have a story behind them. When you are a Picker as I explained in Part 1, everything has story! I volunteer at a local crisis pregnancy thrift store. For you Lehigh Valley, PA readers, the name is Divine Resale, Allentown, PA - if you live in Allentown - give them some love with donations of household items or clothing AND/OR your patronage by shopping to turn anothers hand-offs into newfound life in your home and wardrobe! So, I try to go there weekly to merchandise the donated items and junk. It has been challenging to work with peoples give-aways such as brass lamps (gasp!), 1970's throwback brown dishes or 1960's lunch thermoses - you get the picture! Really, anything can be donated so it is not completely unthinkable to be working all the aforementioned items into a display. One of the things I do is I make basement runs to get anything new that has come in during the past week. Last week I saw these crates sitting there. Well, look where they are now - no I didn't steal them - ha! One of them has compartments and one does not. I thought this crate would be adorable as a 3 dimensional item hanging on the wall - it has shelves, so very practical too - maybe the next house. I filled the compartments for spring with eggs, nests, moss rocks and old letter blocks.

I know, I am one of those ridiculous people who sets my table all pretty and leaves it that way for the season. So today, when we decided to eat our family brunch in the dining room - yes it was a pain. It gives me a little feeling of joy to come down the steps and see it set everyday. The simple things, right?

There is the back staircase that I come down every morning and see my nicely set table. My coffee station is actually right below all the hanging tea cups under the chalkboard, so a lovely place in which to be in half asleep coffee making mode. This galvanize feeder is adjustable! absolutely love that I can also remove the handle and have an awesome long galvanized trough. I just got it back from being in my window display in Allentown for 6 weeks! That was a long time to go without seeing this little cutie. It is full of blooms for my spring table.

faux chocolate eggs taking a spin in a little rusty wagon place card holder.

I fell in love with these cotton/linen napkins at Homegoods. I am actually using 4 as napkins and 4 as placemats. The white lacey detail along the edge is what drew my eye.

So, that's all folks for the dining room!

So here is a little corner of my teeny kitchen. Cutting boards are out because they have to be. Storage is scarce - easier on the eye to look at cutting boards than cereal boxes! But, I do love them being out aesthetically and it is practical as well. The old mixer on carrara marble - Paris flea market find. I rewired it for US electrical sockets and it now has an Edison bulb. I also got at the same flea market, the large glass jar with the big cork top which now holds straws and cute cupcake liners. And then, last but not least, there is the oh so sexy white aerodynamic generic Cuisinart blender. I use it maybe once a month - I just had a light bulb moment here folks - that blender will be banished to storage - it is just not "cutting" the style muster here.

This is my Paris shrine shelf. The bracelet is very special to me as it was the last birthday gift given to me by my mom before she died of lung cancer. The bracelet has the latitude and longitude of Paris. The closure has come undone on me before and I am scared to death I will lose it so here it sits.

This is on top of a French wire storage shelf we purchased for this teeny kitchen. I used the backs of bunnies my friend fave me from the Target dollar section and washed them with brown stain and added cotton tails. Here is another one of those vintage wire department store sign holders holding bun bun. You will see more of these bunnies when we move our tour to the Parlor.

I have fun changing out these sets of shelves in my kitchen every season. They would look great with dishes, pitchers, cutting boards, etc, however, they are very high up - we have 10ish foot ceilings so whatever is on these shelves has to be for decor in my mind. Okay, maybe I could put my crockpot there because I don't use it daily, but who wants to look up at a crockpot!? More fun to look at cute little grassy in an old mini drawer.

The antique black box is also from a Paris flea market for 1 or 2 euros. The antique pitcher - Goodwill $3. Shall we go to the Parlor, as I type that, I am thinking "Pahlor." It has a nice snooty ring. It makes you want to go and check out what on earth is in the Pahlor.

Here it is, this is where we have our cozy fam time watching Fixer Upper and traveling around the world through House Hunters International! A Mountain Sage wreath hangs on the mirror for spring. This shaggy looking awesome wreath is available in a set of 2 in my online store. I know ordering a pair can be a drag, but they are made to order and that is the way they are sold - but I look at it as an opportunity as many many times I am looking for a pair of wreaths to hang on french doors or a set of shutters, etc. I spy a 3D subway map hanging on the wall - I actually found that at Hobby Lobby - there was only one and needless to say it was mine upon discovery!

Above the white sofa in the Pahlor, is a pair of shutters. For spring, I have hung bunnies and more hand made seed packets (which I blogged about in Part 1 of of the spring tour), little grassy and mini gardening tools from this alligator clip chain. This clip chain is so versatile. If it is a must have for your decor, event or art wall, I have made this available in my online store for you as well.

Here is what the pack of bunnies looked like. They are adorable really - the colors are happy and spring like. It just didn't go with my weathered, neutral spring decor. I was just going to flip them over and go with white backs, but I wanted more texture. I decided to take this antiquing stain and dry brush the backs.

So...about Waco....

Can you see yourself relaxing here at the Magnolia House Inn...decorated by Joanna Gaines herself...or...

How about shopping at the Magnolia Market? Did you know they have a UPS section right there on site? How smart were they - they knew visitors would just HAVE to have items and need to ship them back!

I have looked into the Inn and they do not release the Inn for reservations until this summer. It has to be rented out in its entirety. Here is what I am thinking - get a group of 7 other Joanna Gaines, Fixer Upper, or Farmhouse style friends and fly on down and stay in the Inn 2 nights. I am figuring the cost to be around $250 per person (airfare NOT included in that-hopefully you are privy to frequent flyer!) for the Inn for 2 nights and car rental. I will even look into seeing if we can arrange to meet either Gaines - with God, all things are possible! It will most likely be for next spring or summer 2018 because it books out so far in advance. If this is something that you would like to do, email me through the contact form on this website or direct message me on Instagram @marchemaision!

Once again, thank you for coming to part 2 of the Marché Maison 2017 spring home tour. As I mentioned in the beginning about our long winter, we are paddling toward the sunny beach. I believe we are on the cusp of exciting things. Stay tuned for an exciting announcement!

Be light as a feather as you blow into spring :)

Michelle