Deleting/Restoring A Blog, Faux Lavender Wreath & Crafting W/Thrifted Finds, For You Baseball Fans!

Deleting/Restoring A Blog-

I can't even begin to tell you how much I hate Google. There are NO words. When you have someone start buying up every smaller company their "customer service" (and your privacy) evaporates. It's their nature. Here's the short version with some helpful info in case something happens to your blog!

I backed up my blog and theme before I went to delete an old junk email account last weekend. After recreating a new blog, because google closed mine, I also had to choose a new URL, or web address. I chose something similar- "The" little homestead in Boise. When you Import your blog it still misses quite a few things- links, photos, etc. so you may want to create a back up word Doc for that. It would save a LOT of time restoring or recreating. You might also document the size of the side bar, etc. if it's not the default. I like mine a bitter narrower. I finally realized I could restore the junk email I deleted and within 1 or 2  minutes my blog reappeared. I disconnected the junk email from it and added my main email. This took me 7 hours!!! And a lot of tears. I did find this fix after I published this- How To Change Blogger Login Email Address  Additional instructions I figured out- send the invite then log out. Log on with the new email, THEN accept then invite. Then log in with the old email and make the change. It worked! Pretty easy. I also deleted the new-recreated blog.

When you have blogged for several years, and create a following, it's really sad to lose all that. PROTECT YOURSELF FROM GOOGLE, ETC!!! Backup, or archive your stuff. Lesson learned :(

My faux lavender wreath

Faux Lavender Wreath & Crafting W/Thrifted Finds-
I'm getting some spring fever, with 2 inches of snow forecast tonite! We had an inch this morning. I've been loving Provence French Country colors for a while with their famous blues and yellows. I've always loved sunflowers, and I'm going to plant some BIG ones this summer. I have a tendency to put these kinds of things only in my kitchen dining room, so I'm going to spread them out into the living room and our main bedroom. This summer I'm giving our bedroom a fresh, much-needed coat of paint. I'll go with white or cream and use a lot of these kinds of blue/yellow items to brighten it up! I'm going for a rustic, shabby chic bedroom with pops of color. With blue being my fave color and loving lavender (I grow a lot!) I stumbled on to this fun lavender wreath project. It's easy- no glue, and only took me about 15 minutes. I used these 2 components, a fake lavender "bush" and a twig wreath (+wire cutter), total cost about $8.00 with a coupon from Hobby Lobby. I LOVE that place, great prices and very helpful staff. Their lavender is very realistic-

Directions here from Confessionsofaplateaddict

I saw this on Joss and Main for $60.00 and laughed! A jar, pebbles and fake sunflowers. I'll be making one. For a LOT less!

I saw this too at Confessionsofaplateaddict and loved the tin house look for winter decor. You take paper mache houses and spray paint them with "hammered paint", how cool! Also from Hobby Lobby.

My thrifted pile of components-

Recognize the house? Ready to paint and stash for next winter!

My thrifted print I just found, $1.99! Sorry, no no-glare glass :( 

The blue/yellow vase will hold a topiary ($2.00) and I found a new French butter dish. It was a steal at .99 cents, since they run about $25.00 new. They work great!

My fave new ceramic teapot (not kettle), got it from eBay for $8.00 great condition! Reminds me of Swedish country style designs -

And Santa's (me) new French tin postcard sign will go up, but where??? Hmmm...

I finally re-habbed my real Birch Yule log that I got for about $3.00 with really ugly 70's-style greenery. I stripped it down, left the candle holders as is. It has nice heavy metal feet underneath. I deconstructed a small swag I'd made and re-used it, nice! I may add something else, we'll see...

My simple winter goodies are out now, with berries from the garden. Soon sunflowers & lavender crafts and decor will emerge from my pile of thrifted supplies! Stay tuned!

For You Baseball Fans!
Dave and I are both baseball fans, so when I bought him the new James Taylor CD Before This World (excellent!) for Christmas we were both thrilled! He has a great new baseball song that he took 10 years to write. It's about the 2004 world series game, won by the Red Socks, the 1st win since 1918. It's called Angels Of Fenway, luckily he did a great music video too! Enjoy!!!