Friday Five: the spring decor edition

It's probably a little "high-falutin'" to title this the "spring decor edition," but I've had fun tackling a few areas around the house to freshen things up for spring, and couldn't think of a better title.  Last week I showed you my sugaring decorations, which will stay up till sometime in April, but since now I'm starting to get itchy for real spring weather and colors, plus the fact that we're gearing up for a busy April, I decided to change up a few other areas now.

1. Easter hutch: 
I really had fun coming up with this, with a little help and inspiration from Pinterest!

2. Dry erase calendar:

I found this brand new (though slightly warped 😆) dry erase calendar/bulletin board at the dump this week.  I decided to brighten it up with some washi tape and hung it up on our chalkboard wall in the office.  I'm sure April's calendar will look more interesting, but I just wrote the March dates on for now.  I hope to add some pictures and maybe some of Ari's artwork on the bulletin board part.  Certainly it's nothing fancy, but kind of a fun addition to the office area.  I'd been thinking about buying one of these sometime, so it's neat that I can try one out for free.  We can always get a nicer one if we end up using it a lot.

3. Spring chalk wall:
Ever since we painted our office/hall area with black paint and let the kids use it for a chalkboard, we've had this note that Jim scrawled up there for fun (and Sam later added to...it originally just said "kiss the cook"😉):

Around Christmastime I thought about changing it up and having Sam draw a vintage truck with Christmas tree scene there, but we never got around to it.  Today I decided to do something springy, and I totally copied this idea from this link that I found on Pinterest: 

I really like how the darker chalk lines make the wall and the artwork stand out more!  While I'm certainly no chalk lettering artist, I didn't think this was too bad for a first attempt.  Now I'm looking forward to searching out more inspiration for future seasonal designs.

That's all for decor, so moving on to two random things to round things out:


4. Girls are feeling better!  
There's still plenty of coughing and sneezing going on, but fevers are lower and Julia was even able to do a little bit of schoolwork today.  Her appetite is coming back and I'm hopeful that a restful weekend will help them be back to full health again next week.

5. A new book to read:
Actually, I have PLENTY of books to read, but I got this one on sale from CBD last week, and it's kind of messing with me in a really good way.  I'm only a chapter or two in, but I'm finding it's turning some of my preconceived ideas upside down and making me really stop and think about hospitality in a new light. 

I have several other books on hospitality on my wishlist as well, and I'm thinking maybe this will be an area I can dive more deeply into over the next year or so.  It's something that's been on my heart for a long time, but we aren't so good at actually practicing it as I would like!

And that's it for this week's Friday Five...thanks for reading!