Usually, I am good about this. In fact, I pride myself on this: I do NOT fall victim to those last-minute impulse purchase/"fabulous" sale displays next to the register. 

Except....

It all started with a Christmas wreath for my front door. Those are inexpensive, and I would argue almost expected. If you go to the trouble of putting up lights on your porch and a tree inside, a Christmas wreath is practically a given. Then, I found a really good clearance sale on a faux prairie grass wreath that looked like it go for anytime between September - November. Then came along that grapevine wreath for pennies, and I happened to have some decorative moss left over from another project, and a pretty spring wreath was born.

Which brings us to me, standing in line at my favorite fabric/hobby store, and the well-picked over clearance display of chicken wire wreaths and sparse silk flowers. The trendy thing is to get one of these chicken wire bases (I think there was also a flower and a pineapple shape), stuff a silk flower into every open space, and voila! A textured floral piece to make your wall pop!

As there really isn't that much space between my front door and the storm door, one of those pretty, frilly wreaths would get crushed pretty quickly. That, and while I'm girly, I'm not THAT girly. But the chicken wire frame is wonderfully flat, and it was a fabulous clearance sale...so, I leaned into the country feel. 

The fabric is a scrap from my quilt/apron stash of cotton, the ribbon a leftover piece floating around, and the two small stems of plastic flowers were about all that was left on the clearance display with the chicken wire frames. What I especially like about this little wreath (aside from the price) is that I didn't even use any glue to put it together. This would even make a great project for groups like 4-H or Girl Scouts. 

Here's looking forward to a summer that's as easy, bright, and breezy as this project:

In browsing for miniature kits I might want to put together, my eye was caught by a model that was under a plastic dome. Fantastic! Protect those mini scenes from dust! In particular was a wedding themed one that was adorable. It had a poofy dress! I didn't really have a reason to get it at the time, but it somehow made its way into my Amazon cart...

Then a few months later our dear friend Heidi announced her engagements and asked Kate to be her maid of honor. A bachelorette tea party was coming, and suddenly I had an excuse to put the kit together and give it away!

Like many of the other miniatures by this manufacturer, this one also had a mini music box in the base that you could wind underneath. It played a generic tune, which was pretty nonetheless.