A Paper Series Post 

The latest bulletin board inspiration features a gorgeous, fluffy white rabbit in navy and white. Rabbits are symbols of spring, and a clipping of a white rabbit on a navy bulletin board is a beautiful reminder of Easter.   

Bulletin boards often include a collection of clippings without a planned layout, but in my series of bulletin boards, I share suggestions and design principles for creating boards with a theme. Part of each post in the bulletin board inspiration series is how-to information for my boards to help you create your own boards. 

Bulletin boards are an easy, economical way to decorate for each season and/or holiday in the year. As I was creating this latest bulletin board inspiration for Spring and Easter, I began to wonder how rabbits came to be symbols of Easter and why Easter bunnies deliver eggs for Easter egg hunts. 

French Country Spring Kitchen | Blue Hyacinths

Early spring blue grape hyacinth bulbs were an easy way to bring Spring into my French Country kitchen while skies were still gray over the bare trees in the surrounding woods. 

Blue muscari bulbs, commonly known as grape hyacinths, are the perfect blue color to go with the blue walls, upholstery, and accent pieces used all over my house, not just the kitchen. The plants easily fit into a variety of flower pots and baskets, collected over a lifetime, for displaying inside before being transplanted into the ground outside after the blooms were past their prime. 

Birthday Flowers In Abundance

When your sister is a professional florist, there are always beautiful flowers for every birthday in abundance! And the flowers are in your favorite colors, of course. 

Spring birthdays mean beautiful flowers are always available for birthday party celebrations. The choices include more than the usual fresh-cut bouquets. Bulbs, flowering vines, and greenery topiaries are abundant in a variety of colors and styles. 

French Country Christmas Blue Dining Room

The French Country style dining room has blue handmade raised wood panel walls and a white painted wood joist ceiling. With no large Christmas tree this year, the English pine dining table holds blue and white Christmas packages around a tabletop Norfolk Pine tree. 

The blue and white gift bags and boxes have been collected over the years and coordinate with the blue and white dining room. 

French Lavender in Rustic Blue Box

When you cannot go to France, bring France to you. French lavender is in full bloom in July in the sunny Provence region of France and fills the summer air with a heady lavender fragrance. Bring that French experience to your living room like I did by filling a rustic blue box with lavender plants. 

July brings memories of walking through commercial lavender fields in France once upon a time. Several years ago my sister, a work colleague, and I traveled to France with an itinerary designed to walk through lavender fields, to visit perfume factories, and to stroll stone streets in picturesque hilltop villages around the fields. We continue to reminisce about that trip and to dream about returning to France to make more memories. With no travel plans in the near future, a rustic box filled with lavender brings a little of France to us. 

French Country Pale Blue Hydrangeas

Pale blue hydrangeas in bloom have always signaled the arrival of summer for me. From my mother's home in Alabama, and now in my own French Country inspired home in Texas, hydrangeas bring back nostalgic memories of long summer days. 

Growing hydrangeas in north Texas is much harder than growing hydrangeas in Alabama. Maybe that is one reason the beautiful pale blue flowers bring so much joy. 

French Country Style in Shades of Blue

A new shade of pale blue showed up this spring in my French Country style decor. For years, periwinkle blue has been my go-to favorite blue, and still is, but a different blue has shown up on, and around, the French Country style reclaimed pine dining table. 

A soft, pale blue is not really new to me, but has been hidden away in closets, cabinets, and corners in the bedroom. This spring I decided to bring the pale blue treasures together for the first time in the dining area. 

The first grouping of items together included a large laundry basket, an old stool painted the same blue color as the basket, a European size pillow with coordinating blues, and a vase of blue and white hydrangeas. Together on the country pine table, everything came together with a French Country vibe. 

But, this was only the beginning... 

Bulletin Board Inspiration No. 2 | Moody Blue Flowers

A Paper Series Post

No wonder Bulletin Board Inspiration No. 2 has moody blue flowers. Blue flowers have been my favorites for years which means my collected clippings include dozens of articles about blue flowers. 

If you are new to the blog, you may have missed the previous articles in this series of bulletin board inspiration on a rejuvenated old bulletin board painted ink blue. Links to the previous posts are at the end. 

Recommended varieties with botanical names, how to prepare beds, information about bulbs and seeds, and show-stopping photographs of gardens and flower arrangements are all part of my magazine clippings of blue flowers. The bulletin board inspiration for April is only a small part of my clipped collection of blue flowers.

Handmade Easter Cards | DIY Prints Included

Paper Series Post

Handmade Easter cards are an easy Do-It-Yourself (DIY) with ribbons, card stock, a computer and an at-home printer. Sealing wax stamp and slip-in envelopes make the cards extra special. 

Pin photos to your Spring and Easter Pinterest boards to create DIY cards for future use. 

For lovers of blue and white, there is a print with blue eggs and blue text. For those who prefer traditional colors of Spring, there is a print with green eggs and green text. Links to the two different colored prints are at the bottom of the post. 

Christmas Red and Navy Blue Table Setting

Inspiration for a colorful red and navy blue Christmas table setting this year came from beautiful fabric found in the Montmatre fabric district in Paris, France. Used as a tablecloth, the jewel tones of red and navy are the perfect setting for blue Fitz and Floyd china, red Fostoria glasses, and a collection of blue and red angels. 

Traditional red poinsettia flowers with cedar and fir greenery in a navy ceramic flower pot make an equally perfect centerpiece. 

Inked Blue Bulletin Board Debut

Today is the debut of my inked blue bulletin board. Just in time to create collages for holiday inspiration.  

For the past year, dark inked blue and gold have become a favorite color combination for my home. Navy blue has always been a favorite paired with white or red or both, but recently I started plans to update an old wood-framed bulletin board with  a blue cork board and gold wood frame. 

Read about why and how I transformed an old inexpensive bulletin board into a freshly painted blue cork board with gold wood frame and get ideas for your own bulletin board. 

Midnight Blue and Gold Fall Decor

Instead of relying on tradition for colors with which to decorate, branch out from the usual fall color palette, and select colors that coordinate with your home's everyday colors. Not only does all of the decor harmonize, a fresh color palette of midnight blue and gold creates an upscale decor for fall and Halloween. 

Midnight blue instead of black and gold instead of orange are perfect substitutions for traditional fall colors. Subtle touches with pumpkins, chrysanthemums, birds, feathers, and Halloween message signs add items distinctive for the season. There is no mistaking fall and Halloween are in the air, just not in the expected colors. 

Instead of black crows, how about midnight blue birds with gold crowns and white feathers stamped with gold French script? Just a slight shift on the color wheel from black, midnight blue works to give the dark tones of Halloween, but coordinates with blues found in my home and garden shed. 

DIY Easter Paper Cone | Blue Speckled Candy Eggs

Easter Paper Cones

A Paper Series Post 

Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Easter paper cones to hold blue-speckled chocolate candy eggs are easy to make. Attention to details makes them special favors for an Easter table setting. A fleur de lis wax seal adds a French Country look. 

Creating traditions for special times are meaningful for both family and friends. As we mature, we look back on the traditions in our lives with love and happiness.  

I am joining some good blogging friends who are sharing special ways they celebrate Spring and Easter in a Spring DIY & Craft  Round Up Party. Thank you to our hostess, Barb of French Ethereal, for organizing us in time for you, our readers, to get some good ideas to try for your own Spring or Easter celebrations. 

Welcome to readers coming from Cindy at County Road 407, where the fun and creativity never stops. 

Keep reading for instructions on how I made an easy beautiful paper cone to fill with Easter candy as Easter treats for my family. Then, see more Spring and Easter ideas from my friends at the end. 

French Country Christmas Mantel With Dark Blues

Styling a French country mantel with dark blue colors to go with jewel-tone colored needlepoint Christmas stockings took several makeovers. 

Arranging, re-arranging, adding to, taking away, repeatedly, over several days before this year's mantel came together and made my eyes clap their hands. 

The final design includes a custom-printed framed inspirational Christmas quote. A post is in the works to explain how to create the custom quote. 

Blue O Holy Night Shelf Decor

A blue handmade O Holy Night wood sign is the center of a stone kitchen shelf decorated for Christmas. Christmas cards set the scene for the three wisemen following the guiding star. 

Christmas cards have beautiful scenes that tell the Christmas story and are an inexpensive way to create memorable Christmas decor. 

French Country Blue Christmas Presents

Blue gift-wrapped presents sit in a French country white pedestal urn at the end of the stone fireplace in my country home. Presents do not have to sit under the tree awaiting Christmas Day to be opened. No, presents can sit in a beautiful white urn with garland decor and be part of your holiday decorations. 

Blue and white Christmas decor includes gift-wrapped packages on display. Using gift wrap paper and bags is an easy, inexpensive way to add a splash of your favorite color to your Christmas decor. 

Collect over years, and save to re-use time and time again. My family all know to save their wrappings and hand them back to me if they don't want to keep them.  A little eye rolling on occasion, but good-naturedly. 

Or, gift the presents without saving the wrappings, and collect different colored bags and paper for next year's Christmas decorations. This is an easy way to change your whole color scheme for Christmas from one year to the next. 

White Poinsettia Beautiful Christmas Entry

Beautiful Flowers 

and 

An Early Christmas Present 

White poinsettias in a stunning glass navy wine bucket make a beautiful arrangement to greet guests in an entry during the Christmas season. 

Decorating for Christmas is extra special when you are hosting a party for friends or for family. And, welcoming guests with a large flower arrangement in the entry sets a festive mood for the whole party. 

Welcome Fall | Front Porch, Table, Centerpiece, Mantel, Kitchen

Welcome Fall into your home with your front porch, table, centerpieces, mantel, and kitchen. I gathered up Fall decorating ideas at Botanic Bleu, right here in one post, to give you the newest ideas of how to celebrate Fall at your house. Plus, instructions and DIY tips are in every post to help you create similar Fall decor in your home. 

Fall is just a week away in the Northern Hemisphere and begins September 23. Pumpkins arrived at my favorite local nursery this weekend, and I am ready to decorate for Fall at my house. 

A look back at how I decorated for Fall in the past inspires me to try something new and different each year. I hope these ideas will do the same for you! 

If you receive my posts in an email sent directly to your inbox, click on the title of the post in the email to continue reading the entire article. 

Rustic Blue Box Paint Refresh

A rustic blue trunk on my back porch needed repainting with an exterior paint to protect it from further damage from the weather. New paint refreshed the looks of the box we use as a coffee table / serving table. 

The new paint color is a little lighter than the previous paint, and I may add a darker coat of blue to the box later. The most important thing is getting the box painted with an exterior paint before Fall and Winter rains set in. 

Readers who receive my posts as an email should click on the title of the post in the email to continue reading the entire article. 

Summer Courtyard Blue Hydrangeas

Blue hydrangeas were one of my mother's favorite flowers and from loving her summer gardens filled with blue hydrangeas, they  became one of my favorite flowers, too. When I found Nantucket Blue® hydrangeas on sale over Memorial Day weekend, I bought several plants for both my semi-shady front entry courtyard and my back porch. 

The entry to our home is a smallest-of-small courtyards, somewhat hidden from the country road, and a challenge for garden plants.