Outdoor Boxwood Balls and our Easter Egg hunt for the big kids

The warm weather finally arrived this week, and it sent me heading out to

the garden nursery to pick up some pansies for the containers and urns.

A new ruffled variety of pansy is all the talk of the garden town, which 

I helped myself to a double twelve pack, and then threw in a six pack of tiny 

pink and purple violas.  They are the first thing I plant after our long New England 

winter is over, and if there is any cool weather to come, the pansies are hardy

enough to withstand the low temps.

But a few weeks ago, back when there was no sign of spring to be had,

I found myself redoing one of the boy's bedrooms so I popped into HomeGoods.

They didn't have the sheets I wanted, but they did have these amazing and large

faux boxwood balls.  My husband was tagging along, and while he was checking out

the mens section for more clothing that he doesn't need, I put two of the big

round green spheres into my cart. I walked back to the men's department and casually

announced that they didn't have the sheets I was looking for....I noticed his eyes 

go right for the green balls, and then, "WHAT are THOSE?" 

Me: "Oh those are for the urns outside.  They are faux boxwood spheres, and 

normally they are pretty expensive.  I just saw them in a catalogue and I think

they wanted about $100 for each one!!"

Hubs: " How much are THOSE?"  Me: "$16.99"

And off we went to the register....

I forgot to mention, I also bought a pair of lilac wreaths at Joanns the week

before, trying to will Spring to come. But it was pointless.  However 

I am glad I bought them with one of their great coupons, because now that

it is Springlike I was happy to hang them on the French doors, and I thought

they looked really great with the boxwoods.  We won't even talk about that thing

that is next to the urn, and that it has been there for four days now.

My idea about these boxwoods, is that they will likely go in different urns,

either by the front door, or up by the little garden shed.  The front door gets

full sun, and no matter what I plant out there, it won't survive the summer.

But these are the answer, in a very chic way!! So if you have a tricky spot, and you

have some empty urns, run to HomeGoods to get yourself these things.  They won't last,

because like I said, they are featured in all the fancy outdoor living catalogues.

Colby and I spent the morning in the yard filling up various planters 

and in this one you can see the ruffled variety in the back.

The entire yard has no greenery yet, and not a leaf on a tree.

Piles of leaves are wedged into spaces and we need a group effort to 

get the spring clean up done.  But for now, I am loving these pansies.

Since there are no young kids at home anymore, my son Colin asked me

to please do an egg hunt for him and his little bro.  After thinking of 

the traditional egg hunt, where the eggs are filled with candy, we decided to do 

an egg hunt that has eggs filled with money!  I found this great set of 47 white eggs

and one GOLDEN egg!! The golden egg will have the big prize, and the white eggs will

have coins or smaller bills.  It will be a lot of fun to watch the "boys" scurrying around looking

for the eggs that their dad and I will be hiding in the backyard.

And that big cross on the table?  That was hand carved two generations ago for the 

little church my husband grew up attending, and the one where we married.  

Mr. Maison Decor's grandfather carved it by hand!! 

It was recently found in the basement by the current

minister, who asked me if I could refurbish it, give it's gilding a little touch up.  

We will bring it back to church this Easter, making this year's service a little bit more special.