Thrifty Acres: Spring Fling

Hello! Spring has sprung, and with it thoughts of springtime home decor. 

I wanted a springlike wreath to decorate our front porch, as the wreath I'd hung outside for the winter has been (thankfully) packed away. I do have a wreath decked out with silk-flower tulips, but I like to wait until May and the local festival that honors that flower to hang it up. 

It's not May yet, though, so I pondered making some sort of wreath to display now. I began keeping my eye out for craft supplies at thrift stores, and I meant to browse Pinterest for ideas too. 

But before I bought any supplies or looked at Pinterest, I found a perfectly fine, springlike wreath at a thrift store last week:

How large is this wreath? Well, the base is an adult-size hula hoop, of all things, so it's fairly large. The base had been wrapped in something that's dark green; I think it's some paper twist stuff. But that green is barely noticeable, as the wrapping is covered with various silk flowers, silk leaves and lengths of tulle in several pastel colors. 

A close-up: 

A pretend daffodil with pale pink tulle behind it.


The use of a hula hoop for a wreath base may border on the tacky, but the variety of flowers and tulle colors make for a pretty look. And the price was right: two bucks. Even at thrift store prices, I might have spent just as much, if not more, on supplies to construct my own wreath, and of course would have had to spend time to make it too. I didn't mind that someone else had spent that time and money instead!

I also had spring in mind when I bought these during the same thrift store visit:

We have enough coffee mugs, but a couple of them have snowflake designs on them. I don't want to be reminded of snow this time of year, so I'll pack those mugs away for next winter and use these two instead. I liked the design, especially the one on the right. Its close-up is below:

Very pretty, I thought. 

The bottoms of these mugs are labeled "Norleans Korea". I wasn't familiar with this brand, but felt that these mugs looked 1970's-ish. According to eBay and Etsy, I was right. Perhaps because these mugs are vintage, some sellers are asking as much as ten dollars or more for a pair of them. Needless to say, I was happy I'd only paid 50c for my two. 

So now I'm set for spring with my "new" decorative items - too bad I can't say the same for my spring cleaning!