METAMORPHOSIS INTO MOTHER’S DAY 2017

“And mothers, they never stop believing in the miracle of metamorphosis. Because believing in the miracle of metamorphosis is the sum total of a mother’s job. The theological term for that is faith.” (Ann Voshkamp)

My friend Ann is very wise and so very right with her above comment. 

No doubt at all that the greatest miracle of metamorphosis is faith; hands down; but the second greatest metamorphosis is seasonal decorating!

Guess what?

IT IS TIME TO GO PINK

Please don’t mistake that remark for a suggestion to have a fund -raiser!  LOL.  No way!  I will not go into my political thoughts here; but I will go into my Mother’s Day decorating scheme, and the main subject is “PINK.”

Mother’s Day is about the only season of the year that we can go totally pink and get away with it; so pull out all stops! 

Let’s get pink.   Here are a few tips on “getting pink” from Lisa Bradburn.”   https://www.lisabradburn.co.uk/journal/decorating-with-pink/

PINK FLOWERS, PILLOWS, PHOTOS, AND FOOD

It is all about the pink, the pillows, the flowers, the photos and the food!

Really folks?  That’s not true!

You know it is all about the LOVE and the HUGS and the SMILES; but those other things are hanging in there this week and running a close second.  We are having so much fun rearranging the house a bit for Mother’s Day.  

The flowers, pillows, photos and food actually get to take a bow and make their entrance right before the hugs, smiles and love arrive.

Do you have your house all pink yet?

A TRANSFORMATION (METAMORPHOSIS) IS TAKING PLACE

My home’s Mother’s Day transformation is happening even as I write this article.

This year most of my inspiration came from pillows, flowers, photos and food.  That just seems fitting for Mother’s Day; so I’m going full steam ahead with the whole theme.

CREATING A HAPPY ENTRANCE

I wanted to make a nice, warm, bright and cheerful entrance.  It started on the outside with the process of adding some pretty spring flowers on the front porch.  I added a nice colorful door greeting.  Next, I continued the flower theme as you open the door, cross the threshold, and come inside the foyer.

MAKING THE FOYER SAY “WELCOME”

The little white chair with the bicycle pillow scream of a woman’s taste and presence; doesn’t it?

Those black and white photo boxes beside the chair are a thoughtful little present to my Mom from one of my sweet daughters.

A THOUGHTFUL MOTHER’S DAY PRESENT EXISTS WITHIN THE FURNISHINGS OF THE ROOM…

Along with the pretty boxes, our daughter is also dedicating hours of her time to help Mom put together and organize all of her BOXES and BOXES of old family photos.

Together, my mom and her sweet grand-daughter, will add notes and names to all the photos and place them in date and event order inside the pretty boxes.  Later they will properly label the photos for the sake of all future generations to know and remember.

My daughter will gain some valuable history lessons from this experience.  Also, My Mom will love every minute of the telling.  I just hope I get a chance to take photos of this labor of love.

YEP; IT IS SORT OF ABOUT THE PHOTOS

In the meantime; I’m keeping the boxes here until Mom comes over for her Mother’s Day Luncheon/Tea at our house.  We will all be going to church together with her on Sunday morning.  Don’t they just look natural by the chair?  I may have to go buy some for MY photos when they haul them away!

YEP; IT IS ALL ABOUT THE PINK

The rabbits from Resurrection Day spring décor just wanted to hang around.  So I gave them permission. However, I added a touch of pink just for Mother’s Day.   Hence; the faithful old sofa table joined in with the fun and festivities.

When I first painted and refurbished this old piece of furniture, I thought it would be useful for a few months then fade into the background.  Now it has become a very important focal point in the living room.  It has progressed to becoming a much cherished part of all of our family gatherings over the last several years.  One daughter has requested to own this piece after we are gone.  The other daughter quickly spoke up to claim our sofas as an important part of her heritage.  The third daughter said she would just love to have the green chairs we moved into the kitchen.  I took notes, and hoped we lived a while longer to enjoy them ourselves.

Getting back to the chest/couch table, I paid NOTHING for this old piece of furniture behind our sofa just inside the entrance to our foyer.   I wouldn’t take a million dollars for all the usefulness and fun this little table has brought into our home.  It was one my father was going to give away if we didn’t take it off his hands.  I’m sure he smiled from eternity the day I painted it and changed the handles.  Refurbishing the old chest was one of my best moves.  Many memories have centered around this simple piece of furniture now.  On Sunday it will once again help us to celebrate another special day.

YEP; THE FLOWERS DO MATTER

I’m planning to put vases with pink roses in the entrance foyer.  We will also need the same on the dining room table.

Actually, I’m still shopping for those ( I want them to be very fresh on Sunday.)  So, the plan could change at any moment.  (I’ve considered a few ferns too.)

To add those ferns, I would need just the right shade of pink in the roses to.  I may change my mind and go with tulips instead of roses; just for the sake of the right colors.

THE TABLE WILL BE THE PRETTIEST TABLE EVER

Anyway – tulips are already popping out from the placemats I put down on the dining room table.  They are the perfect accent to the colorful napkins I’ve folded into our pink tea glasses.

Do you know how impossible it is to find old-fashioned pink cloth napkins?  I finally found these on sale for nearly nothing.  I guess pink is so seasonal that many people don’t ever use it.  This was all the more reason for our Mother’s Day décor to be unique and original!  We set our own trends here; and we are not about following the crowd.  If we stray from professional decorating, it is on purpose.

CHINA IS A GIFT FROM MOM

These beautiful plates and salad bowls were a gift from my Mom.  My Dad gave her this set of very pretty dishes years ago.  She passed them on to me when they downsized and moved from the family farm.  The lovely pink and white china pieces just fit my Mother’s Day decorating schemes.  I’m also going to use the pretty set of silverware she gave to me.  The silver has been passed down through three generations now. The set was originally owned by my grandmother on my Mom’s side of the family.

As you can see; we are all set for having a nice cozy little luncheon for four.  This will happen after church with my Mom; just Mom, my brother, my husband and I for this year.

THE CAKE

Later in the day we will be serving Blueberry Lemon cake and ice cream to anyone who wants to join us at our home.  The door is always open.  Our welcome mat is serious!  If you don’t like tea; we will have coffee and lemonade too.  EVERYONE likes my Lemon-Blueberry Cake!  If you want the recipe, check out this link:  https://theinseasonlifestyle.com/seasons-menu-mothers-day-luncheon/.

A SURPRISE BASKET

I’ve made a cute little “tea-basket” for my Mom in honor of the occasion.  What lady doesn’t enjoy having a basket full of fine tea and all the accessories to go with them?

She can share her tea with “the girls” from her Sunday School class and the Senior Center.  You know; there really isn’t a lot of “senior’’ about those ladies.  They are busier than bees and are having the most fun absolutely all the time.  I can’t keep up with them!  I’m very glad they all get to enjoy each other’s company.  Also, I’m happy that my Mom is a member of two such fine people groups.

THE FOOD IS A SUBJECT FOR ANOTHER DAY 

I’ll post the menu and recipes for the lunch and tea-time treats in a separate article.  You may find a few things you can add to your own ever-growing collection of fine recipes there.

THE FAMILY TREE

Speaking of photos of Mom’s;  you might have guessed that I would be using our family’s kitchen tree for Mother’s Day photos.

I’ve used this tree in so many ways.  The old tree is always busy celebrating family events and telling important stories.

This year, for Mother’s Day I’ve covered the branches with little pink flags.  I’m going to paste photos of all the Mom’s in our family on the pink flags.  I have quite a cute photo collection of Moms in action.  You know, I can’t wait to see how this turns out.   I’ll pin them on the tree with tiny little pink clothespins.

Now I had better get busy being crafty!  Mother’s Day is almost here.  I wonder if I should glue lace around those photos?  Hmmmm…..

Here is a pic of the start of the project; the “before” shot.

Be sure to check out my later blogs for the finish and the “after” shots.   I’ll try to post these results with the luncheon/tea menus and recipes.

THE KITCHEN TREE AS A FOCAL POINT

This little white lighted kitchen tree has become a cherished part of my kitchen.  We call it “the family tree.”  The Family Tree is how the grands hear about many of the old family stories.  What we put on this tree changes constantly according to the occasions we are remembering for the seasons we are living through.  There seems to be no reason to ever take it down anymore.  Constantly we find there is always a new way which we can use the little tree in the process of decorating our home.  This tree is famous for helping us to remember our certain family memories and traditional celebrations.

Each fall I do a family tree with a leaf for each family member.  On Valentines Day we decorate it with hearts and/or red birds.  Come spring-time the tree fills up with spring flowers.  Today, we are putting photos of our Mom’s on the tree for Mother’s Day.  

I couldn’t be happier with how this little tree speaks of all the “special” in our family.  The IN SEASON Lifestyle blog has plans for marketing many of these “family tree kits” in the future.  Our orchard is still in the process of growing.  It is going to be full, abundant and beautiful when we are done.

The little ones love helping me decorate this tree for each changing season.

EVEN MORE FLOWERS

What would a Mother’s Day house be without flowers? 

I’ve tried to scatter them everywhere, both fresh, potted and in vases.  Pink is the main color for our theme; but we have allowed a lot of green and purple, yellow and white too.

So; yes, it has been a lot about the pink, the flowers, the photos and the food.

AND SOME MEMORIES FROM A METAMORPHOSIS OF THE PAST

One photo item I included in the main living area of the house is my latest collection of family photo books.  I had a lot of fun putting these books together with Shutterfly.  

The on-going plan is to TRY to do a book a month; but the key word is TRY.   Most times I put three or four months together and call them a season.  By the end of the year, we have a collection of nice little photo books. I tie the year’s worth of book together with different colored ribbons for different years.

The family member’s love browsing through these memory books.  I’ve also laid out a book that was written about My Grandfather and Grandmother from my Mom’s side of the family.  It is the larger book on the bottom of the stack of all the little books.  (There seems to be a message in that statement.)

MEMORIES OF MY MOTHER’S PARENTS

Many, many years ago, these two grandparents of mine helped to establish and manage the retirement community that has now evolved into The Village At Cook Springs, as well as the old Baptist Camp called Windsong.    A book was published several years back with the history of how that community of Cook Springs evolved.  

We went as guests to that book signing; where my Mom was an honored guest standing in her Father’s place.  Of course, I bought the book to pass on to our children one day.  I had the author, Mrs. Betty Smith, to autograph them for us.  We certainly appreciated her labor of love for the old Cook Springs, AL community history.  

So, this is a cherished and adored book in our home.    

This book has been resting safely on my bookshelves for some time now.  I thought Mother’s Day might be a good occasion to bring it back out and flip through some of the family history.  My grandmother has found a way to include herself in these family photos we are displaying.  I wish I had been given the chance to get to know her before she died many years ago.  She suffered with cancer during the time when Mom was pregnant with me.  

ONE MORE THING PERTAINING TO FLOWERS

Another thing I did during the preparations for this year’s Mother’s Day season was to clean up and plant a few new plants outside on our back deck.  If the weather is pretty on Mother’s Day, we will have our hot tea and cake outside.  That way we can enjoy the afternoon while listening to the birds sing.  I love that we can view our beloved Oak Mountain in the distance.  

WHEN A PLAN COMES TOGETHER

I think a nice plan for a great day is shaping up here!

We are going to have so much fun with all of our loved ones on Mother’s Day.  Getting ready for this little family gathering has been almost as much fun as the event itself.

Be sure to watch for my next post.  I’ll give you my Mother’s Day menu and recipes. Hopefully by that time I’ll have some pretty photos of a delicious Lemon-Blueberry Cake with Cream Cheese Icing.  Also, I hope to post several photos of the finished photos for decorating the Mother’s Day Family Tree.

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY TO ALL OF YOU!

MAY YOUR HOME BE FILLED WITH ABUNDANT BLESSINGS  AND A WONDERFUL METAMORPHOSIS OF OVERFLOWING LOVE FROM YOUR FAMILY ON YOUR VERY SPECIAL DAY.