"Springed Up" Clearance Find

"Springed up"? I guess that probably isn't a real term, huh? Would it sound better if I said "Made Springy"? Or perhaps I should say "Brought spring-like features thereto"? 

Nah, I'll stick with SPRINGED UP! :)

Whatever you want to call it, that is what I did to a recent clearance find. Sit back and let me tell you all about it... :)

A couple of weeks ago I got the chance to swing by TJ Maxx. I was on the search for a fun new purse for the spring/summer. Mind you, I'm not one of those women that has loads of purses. You know the type - switches their purse out daily depending on their outfit, or the season, or the weather, or their plans or whatever. Maybe this is you. But, no, not me. I have one purse. ONE. It is black, leather and rather plain on the outside. But... it has lots of pockets inside to help organize all of my crap stuff. And I love it. LOVE, people. And I've used it every day for the past 3 years (give or take a year). Did I mention that I love it?

However, around Thanksgiving the straps finally started to give way and get all broken and crusty and worn. You know the look I'm talking about. Can we say "Ewwww?" So I headed out to Kohls and bought myself a new one for Christmas. But it didn't have all the same awesome pocketness of the old one. And for some reason I bought a RED one. Yes, red. Maybe I was caught up in the Christmas spirit, but seriously, RED?? For me?? Well, needless to say... it sat on one of our extra dining room chairs for about a month (with the tags still on) while I tried to convince myself to actually succumb to the change.

And it sat... and it sat...

Then in early February I cut off the tags in the hopes that would motivate me to make the changeover. Um.. yeah... no. It continued to sit there on that dining room chair for another month. {Note to self... it's time to host another dinner party}. But the damn straps of my beloved purse got worse and worse and I finally decided I just HAD to bite the bullet and make the change. But as much as I did KINDA like that "new" one, I just couldn't start using a dark red purse at the beginning of spring! Surely a fashion faux-pas!

{ok, yeah, maybe it was an ounce of denial}

So... {as mentioned way too long ago at the beginning of this post - wow, longest sidetrack EVER!}... I headed out to TJ Maxx a couple of weeks ago in search of a new purse.  And while I was there...

I wandered over to the clearance section and spotted this pretty thing...

Love the details on this tall pitcher!

I love the details of it - the texture of the handle, the rim and around the middle. They all add so much character to this plain, white, Ralph Lauren pitcher. And it is big - over 8" tall! But the best part...

Only $10!!

SCORE!! Only $10 for this beauty!! This was the second markdown so really a nice bargain. I snatched it up quickly and headed to the checkout (along with my new purse ;).

I immediately added it to my Spring-decorated mantle when I got home, but I have been thinking that it needed something more (despite all of its fabulous details). So today (while home with a strep-throat-laden SweetPea), I broke out my Silhouette SD and some vinyl and "spring-ified" it.

All "Springed Up"

What do you think???? I LOOOOOVE the font of "bloom" but I'm not sure if I like how the flower looks with it. I like the idea of a flower there, but I think the image I chose may be too heavy with that font. Perhaps something a little more delicate may look better? Then again, maybe the heavy flower adds some balance to the delicate letters. I'm just not sure... What do you think?

**EDIT - See my "Take 2" on this vase HERE



Linked up to these parties:
Someday Crafts
While He Was Napping
A Little Knick Knack
Polish the Stars
Until Wednesday Calls