Spring is always a wonderful time of year. The dreary winter is melting away and new life is blooming. Decorating is always exciting because of you can put away the winterberry reds and evergreens, which seem so dull and pull out pinks and yellows and purples…. And the baby bunnies and chicks, tulips and hyacinths, all so fresh and new again. So you have family come over to celebrate it all and you want to make it special, but then you go out shopping and realize … wait, I can make that for half the price…. So you do. I am a huge advocate of going out and gathering inspiration and then coming home and making it your own. In this photo I took an old place mat and a broken topiary (thanks to my curious kids) and I broke it down and rebuilt it. It was painstaking but I pulled off all those boxwood leaves and glued them on the place mat one by one. It took a lot of time, but not a lot of skill, so anyone can do it. And the results were spectacular. I got a lot of compliments and a few requests to make more….. which I declined, LOL.