Bringing Spring Inside

Colorado Springs hit a record high on Saturday—we were even inspired to hack at the stumps in our front yard. (Ahem…I should say Matt did most of the hacking while I pruned a few unruly bushes.)  Unfortunately, snow decided to rear it’s ugly head on Sunday, dragging us from the 80s to the 30s within 24 hours.  One of my friends told me that she was reading a book in her backyard on Saturday, practically sweating, and then she and her husband went skiing on Sunday!  And yes, for those of you wondering, that is actually pretty typical Colorado weather.  The good news is that today the sun is shining again and the snow will be long gone before tomorrow.

In spite of the recent cold, the tulips poking their heads above ground in our front yard have given me spring fever, so when I spotted these darling plant stakes in the $1 bin at Tar-jay, I decided to bring a bit of it inside.

While I love their simple bird design (I’m into all things bird these days!), I wasn’t all that thrilled with their colors.  But I’ve realized that just because an object might look dowdy at first glance, it often holds great potential—our house is a perfect example.  It’s all about looking past those awkward details and seeing what it could be if you just tweaked it this way or that.  Is anyone with me on this?

My idea?  Name place holders!

Creating these was a snap.  After a quick coat of glossy almond spray paint…

I simply plunked them into one of our favorite mugs so they’ll be ready to go when we have guests over for dinner.

And since you can tuck pieces of paper between their wings, I think it would be fun to use these birds to label food dishes when serving buffet style.  To keep the spray painted portion from touching food, I’d just wrap the stem of the stake in foil.  And who knows?  Maybe someday they’ll grace actual house plants!

How’s that for adding a smidge of whimsy to a dinner party?

What other treasures have you discovered in the $1 bins?