Spring Has Sprung

Well hello there! I hope this finds you doing well. Are you all set for Easter? I can hardly believe the end of March is upon us...can you? This year sure is flying by! I thought before March is over, I would post since I'm trying to post at least once per month. Life has been pretty busy here on Willie Mae Lane. I was on spring break from school last week and was hoping to have some time to rest but I was so busy catching up on everything that I didn't really get to do much resting. Oh well...summer break is in sight! I'm not complaining in the least. Life is wonderful and I am so very blessed. 

Let me share some of my life with you.....

The first Saturday in March was spent meeting with the photographer for Miranda & Slade's wedding and touring the venue we ended up choosing. It's called the Hilliard Mansion. It's a really pretty place....here is the gazebo where the ceremony will take place. 

The next day, we drove to Ocala to see my mother-in-law and take her out for her birthday. She doesn't live near us now so we had to wait to celebrate with her over the weekend. Both of my kids and Slade also went and we had a wonderful day. 

The next weekend, my sister and I spent the day thrifting and shopping together. It had been a while since we had done that. We had a great time and I found some good deals. Unfortunately I did not take any photos that trip which is very unusual for me. 

My spring break began on Friday the 16th and I had to get an oil change and met the hubby for lunch on that day. The next day, Saint Patrick's Day, we went wedding dress shopping and Miranda picked her dress! So exciting! My mom, sister, and nieces came along for the fun.  After we finished dress shopping, we had a delicious lunch and then we all went strawberry picking. It was so fun...and beautiful!

We came home with strawberries, flowers, and I bought a jar of honey too. 

The following day, I went back to Gainesville to help with Miranda and Slade's engagement photo shoot. They wanted Bell in some of the photos and needed someone to keep up with her the rest of the time. Joey went with me and after we finished, we had a nice seafood dinner out. The pictures turned out beautifully...here are a few of my favorites.

Their photographer does beautiful work. He took dozens of photos and sent them in color and black and white. It was hard to pick just a few favorites to share. 

I spent most of spring break piddling around the house. My teacher bestie, Kaycee came over on Monday and we did a little planning ahead for school. Tuesday morning I met my friends for breakfast and then came home and worked around the house. Wednesday, I called Mama and my Aunt Loretta to see if they were up for a thrifting day and they were. We spent the day in Lake City thrifting and having a nice lunch. I found a few treasures...

The sweet little mushroom found a home on the porch.

I love all of these pieces. I don't do much thrifting these days but it is fun to go every now and then.

Joey took off Thursday and Friday so we could work on our bedroom closet. I'm happy to say we finished it! I love how it turned out. Here is a before shot...the rod used to hang across the back wall of the closet. 

We gave it a new layout and it works so much better now.  The rods are now to the left.

And the right are the two Ikea Kallax shelf units we used to create "built-ins". I love how this turned out! The space in between is used to hang my dresses. We elevated the shelves and I have room underneath for some of my shoes.  

This is taken from the door like the before picture.

The opening in the wall used to be closed off. It was dead space above our hot water heater. As soon as I discovered this space a couple years ago, I knew I would put it to good use when we redid our closet. It is such a nice little space...it holds my huge suitcase as well as a shelf with other bags and things. I am going to cover it with a curtain but haven't found fabric that I love yet. I will update when I do though.

While we're in the bedroom...let me share the pieces I bought to go above our nightstands. I really love how they look!

Last weekend, I spent Saturday with the same group of ladies as the previous Saturday, wedding dress shopping again only this time it was with my nephew's fiance. It was another fun day and she found her dress too. Their wedding is in December and Miranda's is in February so there will be lots of wedding talk &b planning this year. :)

Sunday found me at home piddling and preparing to go back to work. I spent a good portion of the day reupholstering two chairs and an ottoman. I also spray painted a vintage metal shelf that belonged to my Granny Willie Mae. I had been using it in my closet but since it was no longer needed in there, I am using it in my living room. I was going to use it on the porch and it may eventually end up out there but for now I am loving it in my living room. It goes with the boho feel I am into right now. Actually I feel like I have always loved boho...even before it had a name. :) To me it's just a mish mash of everything I love...all styles, different colors, textures, patterns, sentimental items mixed with new and thrifted and things from the past. Nothing really goes together but it looks like it was made to if that makes sense. Anywho...it's what makes me happy and that's what counts....right? Here are a few pictures of my living room refresh with the two chairs, ottoman, and the shelf.

I've had fun adding houseplants to my decor recently too. I love the life they bring to a room.

Here's a shot of the spring buffet. I love that it looks like the cow is sniffing the flowers. :)

And speaking of flowers, they are so beautiful this spring. 

I've been enjoying them indoors and out. I have seen some pretty ones on my walks too. 

And my friends...that brings us to this week. I went back to work Monday and let me tell you, it's been a loooong week! It's always rough getting back in the swing of things after a few days off.  But...it has been a good week. I am thankful tomorrow is Friday though. I'm looking forward to hopefully a little downtime on Saturday. The past several weekends have been packed. All good stuff, but I am tired. I hope you all have a lovely Friday and Easter weekend. 

Until next time.....

Craft Room Update Reveal

Hello friends! 

I am so excited to welcome you into my newly redone craft room...aka...my happy place! It is definitely making me happy these days. I have been wanting to repaint and refloor for a couple years now and am so excited that it is finally done. The walls are a very pale grey called Possibility by Valspar. It goes really nicely with the flooring and the existing white walls. I just love it!

Ready for a tour? 

Grab a drink and maybe a snack...it might be a long one!

Here is the view from the door. It makes me smile every time I look in at it.

Come on in....you may want to sit in my new grey butterfly chair. I wanted a comfy new chair for this spot but really don't need to spend the money on one now. I found this one at Big Lots for $35. The color is perfect and it is so soft. I can move that vintage case under the window over for a foot rest when I sit there. I have a blanket over it to make it softer.

We'll start with the Kallax shelf that I have shared on Instagram. I purchased this amazing shelf from Ikea for $109! It is such a well built shelf and was super simple to assemble. The hubby and I were very impressed with the ease of the assembly. This unit holds so much goodness! The 3 blue bins hold fabric. I got rid of some to make it all fit in these 3 bins. They are stuffed but they held it all. The other shelves hold a variety of items.

This cube holds my Crayola collection and my antique teddy. 

This one holds paints and paintbrushes. The box beneath the tray is sand paper and other supplies I might need when working on a paint project.

This one holds a few vintage Pepsi bottles, a wooden box full of colorful fat quarters, and my various twines.

The other cubes hold things like scrapbook albums and papers, my sewing machine and sewing supplies. and a host of other things. Moving to the top, I added this tiered wire basket that used to be in my bedroom closet. I used it to hold my vintage pillow case collection which I love! I also placed a vintage canister beside it with my nesting doll from Prague. The New York apple is a Christmas ornament I picked up on my trip in June. It looks cute sitting here for now. 

Moving to the right is my stub jar and my vintage Polaroid which is sitting on top of my Chatbooks. Chatbooks is an app that places all my Instagram pictures in these little albums. They send them out every 50 pictures. I love them! If you are interested in signing up, let me know. I think I have a referral code that saves you a few dollars on your first book. They are around $8 I think.

Next up is my letter board I found at Wal Mart for just under $10! I was so excited about this since I have been wanting one for months now. I spray painted the frame gold. A little decor sits beside it. 

Last is my marquee "V" and a ceramic dish that houses thread and pins I use frequently. My little TV sits on top of my Dish Network receiver.

I think the top turned out really cute! I especially love the bunting hanging over it all. That was handmade by Kelly-Anne from The Diary of a Country Girl. She sent it to me a couple years ago and I just love it! If you don't know Kelly-Anne, go pay her a visit. She is a precious young lady. She and her family recently lost their home to a wildfire yet she remains so pleasant and full of faith. She is an inspiration. (If you are reading this Kelly-Anne, please know that you and your family are in my prayers,)

Moving around to the right you see this wall to the left of the window. Not much changed here...just a couple pieces of decor. I added that vintage chalkboard that I found at school in one of  the trash piles outside a teachers door.

To the right of the window I added my corner shelf that holds paint, paint, and more paint!  I placed my Harbor Freight caddy on top which used to sit on my large desk.

A little closer view. I hung a couple things above it. The pink flower painting with the blue background is a recent art project with my kinder teacher team. We all painted the same thing just using the colors we wanted to use.

Moving on around is my big wooden desk. Not much changed here either. I did rearrange a few things on top and on the desk top. This piece holds a lot as well. It holds lots of stationery products, rubber stamps, and many different embellishments. The wire basket on the desk top holds a few future sewing projects. 

Beneath the desk is different now. It used to house bins full of pictures and memorabilia which now reside in the closet. The cart to the right holds scrapbooks papers and embellishments. It sits in front of a cart you can;t see that is full of Christmas craft supplies. The cart on the right holds yarn and a few other things and houses my printer. It rolls out easily when I need to use it.

I was thrilled to find a steal of a deal on this piece. It is an Iris cart. You can find the Iris containers at Michael's. They are $10 each but you can get them on sale 3 for $10 occasionally or 2 for $10 pretty often. I already had 5 of them but they wouldn't fit in the Kallax unit so I needed this cart. It usually costs between $50 and $65 for the cart and 6 containers. I found it on Jet.com for much less and ended up paying $26 for it! Score!! I am taking the containers I already had to school to use for storage there.

The top has recesses to hold things which comes in handy when I am scrap booking my pictures every month. I just finished my June pix a few days ago.

There's the printer cart again.

Here's the left side of the unit...

the middle...

and the right side.

My file cabinet and file drawers sit to the right of the big desk next to the door, My basket of wrapping papers sits beside it. On top of the file drawers are vintage apothecary jars full of embellishments....buttons, beads, rhinestones, and so on.

My Raskog cart sits in the little corner across from the doorway. My trash can sits beside it. 

The cart hold lots of different things. And the trash can is full...sorry! Real life there...I have been using this room a lot lately.

Moving on around you see my desk chair. I placed an afghan on it for some cushion.

Behind the chair are these two little yard sale shelves. They hold things I reach for a lot...my bill pay box, a basket of lotions and tissues, markers and colored pencils and so on.

The glass desk top is held up by two inexpensive shelves. You see this one when you enter the room. I have a variety of books and planners on the bottom shelf as well as camera batteries. The pink box holds cell phone accessories. I recently upgraded to an iPhone 7 plus with loads of storage. I am loving it! A few other things fill the shelves.

Here's the view from the end.I am loving the light we installed. I picked it up on sale at Michael's a while back. I was happy to finally get to use it.

I love the gallery wall above the desk. I already had some of the pieces, but I did purchase the large gold mirror on clearance at Hobby Lobby for $16. The small white peg board to the right was a Target dollar spot find for $5. I would love to have a large per board but simply don;t have the space in my small room. This little one makes me happy though. I just changed it a bit and will try to remember to put a picture on soon.

On top of the two slim shelves are my two vintage mail holders which hold stickers, note pads and so on. I use things in here a lot and like them out where I can see them.

My washi tape drawers are within reach as well. The gold polka dotted container holds things I use in my planners. The acrylic container to the right holds file folders.

I purchased a real succulent at Ikea and have managed to keep it alive so far.

I have had this spinning book easel for a few years. I painted it and now house my current planners on it. The rose gold one is my new fitness planner and the other one is my weekly planner.

A pitcher with sold flowers, a wooden box with jars of pens and pencils and a small picture of me and the hubby taken last summer in Charleston round out the space.

Down the right side is my stapler, tape dispenser, post-it note holder, and coaster as well as my to do list pad.

This is the view of the desk from the window. I placed another chair on the other side. Someone can sit there with me or I can put my feet up on it. 

If you read all the way to the end...thank you! I told you it was long...sorry! I wanted to get it all done at once since I am having a hard time getting around to blogging lately. I have been getting so much done though so it's all good. Another recent project I crossed off the list was cleaning out and organizing the shed. Not fun...hot and sticky in good old humid Florida, but it is done and I am happy about that! I hope you are doing well. I hope you have a wonderful Friday and weekend. 

Until next time.....