Vintage Easter and Spring Decor Ideas

Now that we're counting down the days until spring, it's a good time to decorate for Easter. If you love vintage pieces, you can also incorporate them into your Easter and spring decor even if they didn't start out as Easter decorations.

This 1960s Metlox Poppytrail Lamb cookie jar is the latest piece I've added to my collection. Because it's a lamb, I thought it would fit right in with my Easter decorations. It still has the original crier in the hat and is in perfect working condition with no chips or cracks. We found this at an antique mall a few years ago while on vacation in the fall, so not only was I surprised to find this, but I think Ryan was surprised to hear that I wanted it to add to our Easter decorations (when I'm sure everyone else had their mind set on Halloween or maybe even Christmas decorations that time of year). The owner of the antique mall let us walk away with this guy for $30. We've since found him on Etsy and eBay for $75-$100, so we got a great deal on him, especially since usually the crier is no longer working and ours still works!

The next two pieces also didn't start out as Easter decorations, but that's how I use them now. Both are mid-century planters, so they're a little older than the cookie jar. The first is a lamb planter. These were popular baby shower gifts in the 1950s. I got this at a different antique mall from a vendor that was closing their booth. Everything in the booth was 50% off, so this was $3.00. This one has a yellow bow, but since they were originally baby shower planters, they often have pink or blue bows. All perfect colors to match your Easter decorations! These turn up at thrift stores, and you can also find them on Etsy and eBay, so it's easy to add a few extra lambs to your Easter decorations if you'd like to!

The second is a little chick hatching out of an egg and it's marked Japan. I got this one at a local thrift store for 99 cents. He's nestled into the table decorations and because of his size, he'd make a great Easter candy dish.

Next, we have a few vintage pieces that I've displayed together. I found this 1960s Inarco cake stand at a thrift store for $4. It features an embossed pattern of green apples and daisies, which is perfect for spring decor. I've used it as a pedestal for my trio of vintage 1950s Lefton rabbits.

I've got a few vintage pieces incorporated into the table setting, as well. At each place setting, I have a Depression Glass saucer topped with a vintage Anchor Hocking Champagne/Tall Sherbet Dish in the Wexford pattern. I have the sherbert glass filled with a mini bird's nest and eggs, but you could also fill it with Easter candy or an actual dessert for Easter dinner.

I have also added a vintage Smith Glass Early American Milk Glass Water Goblet in the crosshatch pattern to each place setting.

Bonus Tip:

Here's a bonus spring decorating tip that will work for you if your daffodils are blooming around the same time that you've decorated for Easter. This makes an easy centerpiece if you like the look of fresh flowers. And you can continue to refresh the centerpiece with different flowers from your garden to keep it out past Easter and well into spring. 

I like to collect all of my vintage milk glass bud vases and use them to display fresh daffodil blooms. You could also use your vintage milk glass vases to display other spring blooming flowers, such as tulips, irises, sweet peas, peonies, stock flowers (gillyflowers), lily of the valley, ranunculus, freesia, gardenias, or forsythia branches.

For this display, I used milk glass vases in varying heights to add visual interest. Milk glass vases are available individually at thrift stores, estate sales, and antique malls, but you can often find collections of them on Etsy or eBay if you'd like to buy a whole group at once.

Milk glass vases are easy to decorate for different seasons. You can see these same vases decorated for both Halloween and transitional Halloween to fall/Thanksgiving decor in our Halloween Home Tour. And pop over to our 12 Vintage Days of Christmas post to see how to decorate milk glass for Christmas.

I hope this gives you some ideas about how you can repurpose vintage items to decorate for Easter. For more vintage Easter and spring decorating ideas, make sure to check out Harris Sister Deanna's Spring Home Tour. 

Spring will be here before you know it!

A Valentine-y Dining Room Tour

As promised, here is another look around at more Valentine's Day decorating that I've been cooking up recently- this time in the dining room.  I really do enjoy unpacking my seasonal treasures with each change of season, and carefully helping them to find their place.  If they need cleaning, I clean them up.  Many of these pieces are vintage wares, so I try to take very good care of them now that they have found their home.  

Here's the big picture of the dining room all gussied up for Valentine's Day.

And here's the bird's eye view of the table setting. 

Now, let's zoom in to see the close-ups.  The blue dishes that you see here are our every day dishes. We have had them for several years now, and I still enjoy them.  I accent each place setting with our Irish linens that we brought back from our trip to Ireland a few years ago.  I always add roses to the Valentine's Day table- just because.  And the tea cups and saucers are new to me this year.  They were a Mother's Day gift from John and Lexi last year.  Their pretty pink floral pattern made them a no brainer to add to this table setting. 

Here's a closer look at some of the tea service pieces.  I remembered that I also had a couple of pretty tea strainers in my kitchen cupboard so I also added those to a couple of the tea cups. 

I like to sprinkle the Valentine's Day table liberally with "love birds".  Here are a few of them now!

This little creamer bird is new to me this year.  He is small but very sweet.  I thought he matched this table well. :)

And remember my pink nursery rhyme glassware?  I decided to display it in the dining room along with a few other vintage finds. 

It would seem that I have a thing for old children's cups and plates.  I found this one recently in a little antique store and couldn't pass it by. The image in the center of the little girl feeding her teddy bear is just darling, but what makes it for me is that the sides of the plate say "I go here, says the Fork" and "I go here, says the Spoon".  I swoon. 

On that same antiquing trip, I also found this gorgeous pink poodle bank.  It's ceramic, and it doesn't have a stopper in the bottom.  The head actually comes apart to access your coins inside.  You can see the two pieces are tied together with a ribbon to hold everything in place. 

And finally, I also found this huge antique German Valentine's Day card recently.  It is a 3-D card that stands about six inches tall, with pop up and honeycomb features.  These cards were popular in the early 1900s, but aren't super rare.  Most of them feature scenes like this one.  Very pretty, and very Valentine-y.  They sure don't make them like this anymore. 

So there you have it.  My Valentine's Day dining room is ready for big day.  As you can see, this room is decorated very differently from the kitchen.  And it's not a traditional red and pink decor with hearts everywhere.  I used my soft blue dishes and accented with other pastel pieces, sprinkling in lots of floral and lots of vintage finds.  Decorating is highly personal.  It doesn't have to be precise or to anyone else's liking but your own.  It should always be fun and always be filled with things you love.  :)

For more Valentine's decorating, be sure to take a look at these other blog posts from the Harris Sisters:

A Valentine-y Kitchen Tour

Pink Depression Glass

Sugar and Spice, and Everything Nice

Vintage Playing Cards Turned Valentine's Garland

Valentine Decor, Galore

And we wish you are your sweetheart a very Happy Valentine's Day!

A Valentine-y Kitchen Tour

Can the calendar be right?  It's already February, and Valentine's Day is just around the corner.  Oh heavens!  Wasn't it just Christmas yesterday?  Thankfully, I started my Valentine's Day decorating right after I put away all my Christmas decor, so even though I don't feel quite ready, I guess I am more so than I thought. 

Here's a look at my Valentine's kitchen tablescape this year. 

And here's the bird's eye view of the whole thing in action. 

Now, let's zoom in on a few favorites for you.  This is one of my very favorite pieces, added last year. It's a shelf sitter set of salt and pepper shakers.  These kissing kiddies are adorable and fit right in to the tablescape.  I sit them atop a vintage pink depression glass cake stand. 

Here's another favorite- probably my MOST favorite- it's my vintage Humpty Dumpty cookie jar, and I have shown him on the blog several times before.  I always look for reasons to bring him out.  I think his pastel colors match this table perfectly, and with the addition of my "new" vintage nursery rhyme table glassware this year, I think my Valentine's decor is starting to take on a new theme. 

Here's another look.  He sits atop another cake plate.  You will see lots of pink depression glassware, candy conversation hearts, and vintage Valentine Cards on display.  It's fun to find these treasures through the year and bring them all together for this tablescape.  

Oh, and my mini chalkboard now advertises "Kisses" for only 25 cents.  It's been fun dressing it up with each change of seasons. 

Oh, but my piece de resistance are these amazing vintage honeycomb wedding bells.  I hung them from the kitchen chandelier this year overlooking my Valentine's tablescape.  I LOVE them so much. And I have to say a HUGE thanks to Magpie Ethel for her inspiration of vintage bells that she uses for her New Year's display.  When I saw them on her blog, I nearly did a backflip.  They are amazing. She is amazing.  If you love treasure hunting and decorating with vintage items, read her blog.  It is everything.  Enough said. 

Here's a peek at the table with the wedding bells hanging down in the center.  I really do like the effect.  They were such a cheap thrill, and are pretty readily available on both eBay and Etsy.  And what's more, they fold flat for storage, so they take up very little room in the storage box. Another plus!

I usually add a special piece of two of depression glass to this table setting each year, but this year I opted instead for new napkins.  The napkins I previously used with this table were nothing special, so I had this set embroidered from an Etsy vendor, and I love how they turned out.  The "Be Mine" napkin is my favorite.  So I placed it at hubby's spot at the table.  Now that's true love.  Speaking of which, that's one of the other napkins.  The set included "Be Mine", "True Love" , "XOXO", and "I Love You".

I used the "I Love You" napkin for my own place setting. 

So that's the quick look at this year's Valentine's tablescape.  Stay tuned for more Valentine's decorating in the dining room too. How are you gussying up for Valentine's Day this year?

***UPDATE***

Just when I thought I wasn't going to add any new pink depression pieces to the collection this year, these lovelies found their way into my life.  I was out window shopping in one of my favorite shops this weekend when I spied two of these gorgeous sherbet glasses. 

There were only two, and the shop owner said he just put them out.  They came from Ohio and had only been on display for a couple days  when I found them.  He also told me this pattern in the Miss America pattern, which was very helpful so I can keep an eye out to hopefully find a couple more one day.  What a wonderful find!

Decorating for Autumn: Thanksgiving Tablescape

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, I felt like it was high time to share another tablescape with you.  And you got it- just in time for Turkey Day, it's my Thanksgiving tablescape for 2015.   Actually, the whole dining room transforms this time of year.  I'm talking pumpkins, leaves, and turkeys galore.  Here's the high level overview pic for you.  

And here's more of a bird's eye view down on the table itself.  

But as always, let's take a closer look at the details.  Each place setting has four plates at it.  I layer them because I like the look.  Too much of the turkey plates is overkill, but layered with my light aqua plates, now that breaks it up nicely and pulls it all together.  I also add our Irish linen placemats at each setting, along with a covered turkey soup bowl. 

Here's another look at the place setting in action.

And here's the centerpiece.  It takes up a good chunk of the table!  But I do love it.  Large varying sized candles, flanked with two huge hurricane globes at each end.  Add in some fall floral and a gigantic turkey, and there you have it.  :)

Here's a straight on photo of the centerpiece.  No room for food on this table.  No worries, we usually serve from the kitchen anyway.  It's a good thing!

 And just for my favorite father-in-law, who always (jokingly) complains of the lack of spoons around our house...  This is a vintage spoon holder.  I always point it out to him.  But seriously, I swoon every time I see it.  It's just so lovely.

Here's a look at our hutch all decked out for the season.  It sits in our dining room, and graciously holds my collection of vintage table linens and silver pieces, collected over the years.  It once belonged to my husband's grandmother.  Lots of love and history here. 

Here's another look.  Such a pretty piece.

And here's a close up of some of the items adorning it.  This cow creamer is new this year.  It's part of the Pioneer Woman collection that was recently launched this year.  I promise, promise, promise to tell you more about that soon, in case you still need details.  This particular pattern on the creamer is part of her "Flea Market" collection.  I loved the pattern so much to start with but when I discovered the name of the collection, I loved it EVEN more!

Since the table isn't fully set yet, I am "storing" my turkey shaped napkin rings in my vintage gravy boat.  Non-traditional, but I like the look.

Now for a vintage creamer.  This turkey shaped cream and sugar set once belonged to my mother-in-law.  She paired down her collection years ago, and these beauties now reside with us.

 More from our hutch...  Lots of floral, oversized acorns, and such...

This is the very first turkey I ever purchased.  Bought six years ago when we hosted our first Thanksgiving dinner at our house.  The décor was a little more minimal, shall we say, back then.  The butter dish in the foreground is vintage.  Add some seasonal gourds and this shelf is all set.

One more corner to share this go round.  I bought this ceramic pumpkin years ago, initially at Halloween time, but I've always used it as part of my fall/ Thanksgiving decorations instead.  The turkey platter is old.  We found it in an antique shop years ago.  The cow-shaped soup tureen is new to me as of this year.   I purchased her at an estate sale over the summer.  Now cows don't typically scream Thanksgiving, but the colors are perfect.  And I love her so much.  I was just waiting patiently to take her for a spin.  That's the fun part of decorating.  There are no rules.  It's what you like and what works for you.  And this works for me. 

2017 Facebook Live Thanksgiving Tablescape Dining Room Tour

For those of you who missed it when it originally aired, I've included the full Thanksgiving Dining Room Tour video.

Make sure to take a peek to catch the bonus Thanksgiving decor that we feature in the video. And you don't want to miss the tips and tricks for:

• layering new and vintage pieces to create a unique look in your home
• where to find vintage and retro looking Thanksgiving pieces
• displaying and grouping your Thanksgiving pieces
• how to fit roosters into your Thanksgiving decor
• and more!

And of course, we also have tips for Preparing Your Home for Holiday Guests or if you've been assigned a dish to bring to a Thanksgiving get together and you need a new recipe, check out our Thanksgiving Recipe Roundup. Make sure to pop over to check out those tips!

As I sit here typing this very minute, my little 18 month old babe is gobbling at me. "Gobble, gobble!"  There is so, So, SO much to be thankful for.  It's the little things.  Let's all celebrate this wonderful season with a heart filled with thanksgiving.  Here's to the happiest of happy holidays to you and your family!

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Decorating for Autumn: Halloween Tablescape

It's that time of year again!  Fall is nearing; the sun and shadows play in new patterns as the days grow shorter. There is a coolness to the breeze, hinting of things to come.  Pumpkins, squash and apples ripen to their finest.  And so we begin to long for a change of seasons and all that autumn brings.  

For me, as always, a change of seasons also marks the change of my kitchen table setting.  And this time of year I bring out my Halloween table.  It's a lot of fun, a lot of orange, and not at all scary.  :)

Here's a bird's eye view of the Halloween table in action.

But let's break things down and bring you in a for a closer look.  This giant candy bowl came from Sam's Club years ago.  I haven't seen one there like it since.   It sure is a treasure though, and I'm glad I found it back then.  

Next to it is a vintage owl pitcher.  It's got some age on it.  We found it while out treasure hunting in North Carolina a few years ago.  Since there's nothing particularly Halloween-y about it other than the fact that it's shaped like an owl, I get other use out of it too.  But I do think he looks just right tucked into this table.

Now, let's take a closer look at the individual place settings.  This is my seat at the table, hence the owl plate.  I'm an owl lover from way back- before owls were as "cool" as they are today.  Each place has it's own different Halloween plate.  There's also a pumpkin, a bat, and a black cat.  The spider web napkins came from Pottery Barn.  The Jack O'Lantern mugs were a flea market find.  And I found the pumpkin-shaped place card holders in Lexington, KY at Christmas time one year!  

I've had this little bronze colored owl for as long as I can remember.  The acorn shaped bowl and spoon came from Hallmark last year (gift with purchase), as did the acorn candle beside it.  But that one is new to table this year. 

The copper colored squirrel came from Walmart, of all places, last year.  I think he was literally $3 or less.  You just never know where inspiration will strike!

And I'm in love with this bowl of vintage Halloween noisemakers!  The bowl itself is part of the set of tin Jack O'Lantern mugs that I just mentioned, but makes a nifty home for these old Halloween toys!

The table is full of pumpkins too.  I love, love, love the pumpkin bucket in the background of this pic. The candy bowl in the foreground is another favorite.  I usually fill it with candy corn, which doesn't last long in this house!

And check out my placecards!  I decided to print some and add them to my pumpkin card holders this year.  I thought "Samantha" seemed appropriate for the witch.  Here's the link to these retro Halloween placecard printables.  They are free and they are fabulous!

 

And finally, remember my vintage mini blackboard?  I last used it for my cherry table over the summer months.  Now it's back on the table again, this time for Halloween.  

So there you have it!  Hope your Halloween decorating is off to a good start too!