If you follow any Instagram decorating account, you will see a small basket or straw purse hanging on a peg or front door. It has pretty much become a staple in home decorating.
Also, you will quickly see how expensive those baskets or straw items are. But you could buy one at a flea market or garage sale. Maybe you even have an old leather purse hanging around. I had several straw bags back in the day and was thinking how I should’ve kept them for decor items.
We now see that EVERYTHING comes back around, but I would’ve needed a warehouse to keep all my old stuff around!
So when I found a sturdy, straw purse with pom poms, in the local Five Below store, I thought I could easily make something out of it. Especially, when it was only $5.00…score!
Artificial flowers can quickly add up as well, so finding flowers at the Dollar Tree can cut down expenses as well. Each bundle was $1.00
First, I pulled the poms off the purse because I didn’t particularly like blue. (I may use them for a Fourth of July project later. #frugal 😉
Then, I decided to use some old packing paper for filler since my purse was fairly deep. (I didn’t want everything to fall down inside.) You could use old rags or large floral foam also.
I ended up not having to cut the wires nor glue anything but just kept all the flowers in tact and gathered them up like a bouquet to see which flowers looked best around the outside. Then, I just shoved them down in on top of the paper and did a bit of arranging within the purse.
My purse is heavy enough to stand alone, but you could easily put a vase or can of paint in the bottom to help it stand alone. Originally, I was thinking I would hang it on a door knob or on the front door with a wreath hanger…and still may do it. Either way, it’s cute and can be refilled with different flowers or stems for different seasons. You could even add a bow, a small sign or I was thinking I may even glue fringe or some kind of trim on it as well.
So, my total cost of everything was a whopping $11.00! Yep, 11 bucks!
Try looking at every day items in a different way and come up with some unique arrangement or placement. 🤔
What have you made using fairly inexpensive items or unexpected things?
PS Liz Marie Galvin’s book was waiting for me at the post office after we got back from our long trip to Yellowstone and the Tetons. I hope to dig into it today! If you’re not following her, you should. I also hope to blog about our trip soon!
Have you ever been betrayed? Betrayed to the point it will cost you your life? Choices. Today, Maundy Thursday is observed by Christians everywhere…the Thursday before Easter. 🌷It also signifies the Last Supper of Jesus Christ with his apostles prior to his betrayal and ultimately his death. Can you imagine loving another so much that you’re willing to die for them including the one that betrayed you? Heavy, heavy choices. Today I pause to reflect on both the turmoil and burden Christ must’ve had in his heart. Life brings many choices… some, very difficult. You just pray you’re hearing correctly. Yesterday, I had to help make such a choice for my mother who could not make the choice for herself. Seeing her cry, being continually scared 💔(esp since her cardiologist stroked her) just put through SO MUCH since October and now yet another, major, choice followed by surgery. I sure hoped and prayed I was doing the right thing on her behalf. AND praying the doctors were right this time. My heart felt like it would burst. Only time will tell if we made the right one. So today, I lean hard on my Lord and reflect on choices and the heavy decisions that Christ would face as he walked this lone road. 💗 Life can be hard, not at all like we expected and yet we still have to believe this is the path God intended us to walk. Ultimately, he is in control and knows beginning to end. It’s our path to walk. Our story. Our testimony. Hard or not. May I make the right choices and may I be found worthy in the end. 🙌
After experiencing cold, bleak days with no sunshine nor sign of color.
There’s now visible life!
Spring signals Easter is around the corner…bright colors, cute rabbits, and chicks.
Bringing a resurrection story detailing the ultimate sacrifice for a dark world.
It, too, brings change.
Newness.
HOPE.
Warmth is on its way!
I love how it feels on my face.
Oh, I don’t usually go out to enjoy spring as my allergies and asthma have kept me indoors, since childhood, but I still enjoy it from inside unless I get a rare day where the pollen count drops drastically. (That’s usually if a storm has rolled through like today.)
Some years, I miss catching the bluebells in the woods, but here they are!
And I just got an early birthday present from my sweet hubby. A larger iPhone…the 7! (I think he was surprised at how poorly I saw things, too…like his messages to me. 😉 )
So, I just had to test it out!
Physically it’s been a really rough couple of weeks, so I bolted out the door like a puppy that had been cooped up all day!
Enjoy the pictures.
One day, I was walking around my yard and saw this cute, little hydrangea struggling to be a big pom pom. All of the blooms just didn’t quite fill in.
But I loved the shape I saw!
The uniqueness of a heart-shaped hydrangea.
I later thought of an analogy.
If left with our thoughts, we tend to overthink and struggle too much to try and be something we are not. Others often see the uniqueness and beauty (in and through us) but somehow we are just too busy being consumed with trying to be something other than who we were created to be. Why can’t we step back sooner to see this…what others see?
I’m not sure if it’s a lifetime of experiences, age, access to mentors…
But I sure wish I could tell young people these things and have them believe me.
However, as a teenager once myself, I’m sure I would not have believed my wiser self, either.
Why is that?
I don’t know why it sometimes takes so long, but I guess as we age, life has a way of growing us deep and providing a comfortability with self.
So, be at rest young person (or maybe old) in how you were created.
Stop comparing, stop worrying, forget the “what ifs” because the sooner you do, the sooner you will enjoy your life the way you were meant to.
Life passes so quickly, that someday when you get older, you’ll look back and wish you had relaxed with who you were are a lot sooner.
I love being older only for this one reason. I can just be me.
I don’t have to impress anyone or try to be something I’m not.
I guess time and life experiences have a way of teaching us depth and truth that was there all along.
Artificial flowers can quickly add up as well, so finding flowers at the 
then there's two...Morgie & Me 