It's beginning to look a lot like Easter...

Not much time for blogging lately, but this morning I'm not starting work until 10 am (instead of the more usual 8 or 8.30 am). This change of starting time is so I can work much later than I normally would. 

 Today is the last day of pre poll voting at the office ( the election is tomorrow) and we are open for an extra hour of voting. And just like those in retail find, people will arrive with '5 minutes to spare', just getting in the door before we close. But I digress...starting later means I have time for a short blog post. 

One night last week, I brought out my box of Easter 'stuff'...

And I started to put out some knicknacks...

Some of the old egg cups from the 1950s, who share space with some that are much newer...

My Easter Mini made for me by Anorina in a swap a few years ago and my lovely Easter mug rug which was in a big bundle of goodies ( donated by Helen McCulloch) which I won in a Sunday Stitchers raffle last year...and the little bunny also was a gift one year! 

 

Again most of these are gifts in blog swaps. The little bunny in the white mug was a gift from my roommate Judy at last year's Let's Get Stitched retreat...the bunny is exquisite! 

I haven't decided where my new Easter banner will hang yet, and it's still too hot here, to fill the white China bunny with little Easter eggs...by the time friends and neighbours were offered a chocolate egg, they would have melted somewhat! 

The decorating has started...

This year I enjoyed reading about how other bloggers make lovely displays in their homes. Tanya over at Suburban Jubilee  sure knows how to make a set of shelves look magnificent and she changes the display with the change of seasons too! Jeanetteann over at Heirloom Treasures is another person whose blog has inspired me to greater efforts. A few months ago I rearranged my rather untidy hutch, and brought out on to display some of my 'good' china which had been languishing in the bottom of a cupboard. The hutch looked so much better...

So with the beginning of December on Saturday, it seemed like a good time to change the hutch display...

The pale blues, pinks and mauves were 'given the flick'.... lol

I decided to put a tea set out on display that my former MIL gave me, piece by piece, for my birthday (it saved her the dilemma of knowing what to buy me for quite a few years, and I ended up with a beautiful teaset! But it has been hidden away in a cupboard for too long as well, although DsD2 used the set for her engagement party this year. 

Interspersed with the 'Old Country roses' teaset, are bits and pieces from my Christmas decorations ' collection

So one of my decorating jobs is finished and tomorrow I really must get the tree out of storage, set it up in the lounge room and hang all those decorations on it. 

Oh how I've changed! Once I would have gone out and bought some china with Christmas patterns on it to decorate that hutch...now I just use what I already have and feel quite content doing that :-) .