Celebrate May Day!

May Day is one of my favorite holidays. In most parts of the country, May is when spring becomes truly apparent, with blossoming fruit trees and bulbs bursting forth in a blaze of color.  These heady days of truly warm weather give us all spring fever, a feeling of joy that we naturally want to celebrate.

People throughout the Western world celebrate May Day, and the holiday has a long history harking back to medieval times.  When I was a little girl, my mother showed me how to make May Day baskets from construction paper and took me to fill them with flowers from our garden.  Then we would sneak over to our neighbors' homes, drop the baskets on their doorsteps, ring the doorbells and run away.  When our friends opened the door, a charming handmade basket filled with flowers greeted them.

May Day is the perfect opportunity to spread the joy of spring with your friends and neighbors. Get the kids involved by helping them weave their very own May Day baskets.  Click here to see AllParenting.com's easy instructions on how kids can weave their own May Day baskets for friends and neighbors out of construction paper.

Another super cute and easy May Day basket is this May Day Cone basket from TheIdeaBox.com. After making the cone, simply fill the basket with left over Easter grass, then add fresh flowers the children pick (even dandelions will do) or if you live in a cold climate, with no fresh flowers yet, have the children make flowers using their fingers prints (as pictured).  They can also cut pictures of flowers from magazines or gardening catalogs and glue them to toothpicks and arrange in the basket. Click here for full instructions. 

Adults can get in on the May Day fun by buying a plant at the local garden center or a bouquet of flowers and leaving it on the doorstep of a friend, neighbor or elderly friend. The gesture of celebrating spring by giving a gift of nature is a wonderful tradition that unites us as a community, encouraging us to give of ourselves while cultivating an awareness of the gifts that nature has to offer.

I have one young neighbor who has been ringing my doorbell on May 1 since she was six years old. Every year I'm touched by her sweet gesture and thoughtful heart.

Hope you have a very happy May Day!

Warmly,

R O S A N N A I N C . C O M

Falling for Pumpkins with Girly Obsessions

I've teamed up with Girly Obsessions again! This month I'm guest-blogging about my current Fall obsessions, and Girly Obsessions' is writing all about pumpkins! Take a look!

Hi everyone, it's Ashley here again from GirlyObsessions.com! I don't know about you, but this Fall has been flying by! October came and went in the blink of an eye and now we're in November, with the oranges of Halloween shifting into the browns and reds (and sparkles) of the upcoming holidays.

One of my favorite seasonal activities is taking a drive through the foliage to a local farm for apple and pumpkin picking. (I'm obsessed with all things pumpkin!) There is one in particular I go to every Fall after Hugh Jackman was spotted there a years ago. But, unfortunately, I never see him. Sigh. And this year my husband and I were about three weeks too late for picking anything, but luckily the farm had plenty of pre-picked stock for us to choose from! (By the way, I made sure to bring along my latest bag obsession, my Ink Blot Tote! It's light and roomy and perfect carrying all my fall goodies!)

So after leaving with a bag full of apples and mini pumpkins, and a few colorful mums, I came home to decorate for the season. Better late than never, right? And there is no reason the stash of mini pumpkins you bought need to be tossed out with the candy wrappers! They totally work as seasonal decor well into Thanksgiving. And one easy way to make them last, especially when they start getting a little funky, is to make them sparkle. A little glitter makes anything better, don't you think?

This is a very simple project that requires three things: a pumpkin, decoupage glue, and glitter. I used a combination of fine textured glitter in smoky quartz and onyx along with a coarse gold glitter. But the beauty of this project is you can use any color or texture glitter you like to match your style.

First, brush on the glue and then (generously) sprinkle on the glitter. I would do half the pumpkin, rest it on its side to dry, and then finish the other half. Then once it's dry, repeat the glue and glitter process to get full coverage. Finally, once the second coat is dry, add one last coat of glue to seal it all in. And then done! You now have sparkly pumpkins that will add an element of rustic elegance to your home for the holidays.

www.rosannainc.com