March

I love March. I do. It's a special month to me, a bit of brightness as winter heads to spring. That it contains my birthday, I'm sure had nothing to do with it!

I love to change the decor around with the changing months and seasons. Am I the only one? Maybe it's the former schoolteacher in me. How I loved to change the classroom bulletin boards, decor and calendars! It always freshens things up to me. Now that I'm at home, I am able to do these little things with all sorts of treasures we have.

After the Christmas decorations are packed away, bits and pieces of pink and red add bright spots to our home for Valentines. With the passing of that, I find little bits of green adding touches of spring here and there. A bit of ivy, a shamrock coffeepot, vintage postcards all find their ways to new places to shine. It cheers up cleaning as well as I take an extra moment to find the perfect home for a little treasure.

Side Note: An early Birthday gift from Sweetheart. A 1915 edition of Little Women illustrated by Jessie Wilcox Smith, on of my favorite artists.

This makes my heart sing!

I just finished reading a copy from the library last week and this arrived yesterday.

Here's a peek inside at some of the illustrations.

I rarely buy things for specific holidays, preferring to just use what we have. Though I do find an occasionally new spool of ribbon can really add a lot in a simple way. Bits of fluff and fancy move all around the house all year long. I love finding natural treasures, too. Squash from the gardens, flowers, seed pods, nests, pine cones, and what-all are used in abundance.

Things move around even within a season as squash are used for dinner, seed pods are played with to the point of destruction, and sometimes just because I decide I don't like how I put something out the first time. I took a few picture a couple of days ago, and have since switched teapots around and added some bits of ribbon other places. This to me is one of the joys of homemaking.

Of course, so is finding gorgeous plates for five dollars while out with my Sweetheart! So lovely.

Here's closeup of the copy I bought of Pilgrim's Progress for Sweetheart a few years ago. As it was such a huge part of Little Women, I decided I should be reading it a bit each morning as the girls did throughout the story. I'd better get back to reading it!

What do you like to do to brighten your home?