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At The Picket Fence with Vanessa Hunt

Where Ideas for your Home Meet Inspiration for your Heart

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May 3, 2017

Lilac Ideas and Inspiration

“It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!”

Ok, ok, so maybe it’s more like the second ‘most wonderful time of the year’ since I know that honor really goes to Christmas.

But, I honestly cannot properly convey to you just how much I love Spring and, most especially, when my lilacs are finally blooming. I snip them and bring them inside and literally bury my nose in the blossoms every time I walk by. It’s like they call out to me. My only complaint is that, like Christmas, it’s over too quickly.

So, I thought that I would celebrate this fleeting moment in time by putting together a little collection for you of lovely lilac inspired ideas and inspiration.

 

Houseful of Handmade has this beautiful Free Printable Vintage Seed Packet Art which would definitely be a great way to keep your love of lilacs alive all year long.

Julie Blanner has a wonderfully simple recipe for making this homemade Lilac Sugar Scrub and I can just imagine how divine my skin would smell after using this on it!

Lilac Room Spray from your’s truly 😉 means you can enjoy the fragrance of lilacs long after they’ve stopped blooming on your tree.

Lucy from Craftberry Bush is definitely crushing on lilacs and incorporates them so effortlessly into her home.

Jennifer from Town and Country Living filled every nook and cranny of this area of her kitchen with lilacs and can you just imagine how incredible the fragrance must have been?!

Our very own contributor Julie from Redhead Can Decorate created this candelabra from ceiling fan shades and filled it with lilacs.

 

And Mila from Jest Cafe gives an amazing step-by-step guide to creating this stunning lilac arrangement.

 

 

Do you get to enjoy lilacs where you live? What is your favorite way to use or display them?

I hope you’ve gotten some fresh lilac ideas and inspiration here today!

 And I’m so glad you met me here at the fence,

7 Comments Filed Under: Crafts, Decorating, Gardening, Good Ideas Tagged With: crafts, gardening, spring, spring crafts, spring decorating

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Comments

  1. Shirley@Housepitality Designs says

    May 3, 2017 at 6:02 AM

    So much gorgeous Lilac inspiration….I would love to see if I can grow it here…

    Reply
  2. Kati says

    May 3, 2017 at 6:55 AM

    What a beautiful roundup. My lilacs are in full bloom and I love bringing them indoors too! Thanks so much for including my lilac printable.

    Reply
  3. Michele (Finch Rest) says

    May 3, 2017 at 7:08 AM

    Our lilacs are just blooming but it got cold again – was nice for a day keeping the windows open and such lovely floral scents wafting in throughout the house – now those windows are closed and my space heater is back on.

    : – (

    But I don’t want to complain because I just hate heat heat hot hot humid heat -so I am inNO RUSH for any of it.

    Reply
  4. Julie says

    May 3, 2017 at 7:52 AM

    Wow! Such beautiful photos and ideas. My lilacs are just beginning to show up. I planted a white lilac bush at our very first house back in 1997. Rick actually took a picture of me planting it (ha ha) because I was so excited to have a lilac bush. About 10 years later I saw the house was for sale and viewed the photos. Oh my goodness, I literally cried when I saw how large the bush had grown and it was full of huge white balls of lilacs. I just remembered this story now after seeing this post. Thanks, friend!

    Reply
  5. Julie Briones says

    May 3, 2017 at 12:14 PM

    Lovely inspiration! And that candelabra piece from Julie… genius! (Guess what’s going on my thrift store list?!) 😉

    Reply
  6. Danna says

    May 3, 2017 at 5:36 PM

    Such beautiful pictures! We had lilacs when I was growing up. We couldn’t bring any in the house because my brother had bad allergies. I would sit next to them and read just so I could smell their wonderful fragrance. I also remember my mom cutting them to put on my sisters grave every year on her birthday (she would be 64 today). It made her headstone look beautiful.

    Reply
  7. Julie Blanner says

    May 9, 2017 at 11:27 AM

    Beautiful ideas! Thanks for sharing my sugar scrub recipe.

    Reply

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“Those who know your name trust in you, for you, “Those who know your name trust in you, for you, LORD, have never forsaken those who seek you.” Psalm 9:10
This is one of my most favorite projects from my b This is one of my most favorite projects from my book Life in Season! 

Because, if heaven has a fragrance, I’m fairly certain it smells like lilacs.

I think that somewhere along the way the verse in the Bible that said, ‘heaven will smell like lilacs’ just got lost in translation. But it HAD to have been in there at some point, right?

When I bury my head in the blossoms (which I absolutely MUST do every single time I walk past them), I immediately feel a stirring in my soul.

It seems like I wait forever for my lilac tree to bloom. Every year I anxiously watch as the buds begin to form on the branches and then when the blossoms finally burst forth I begin that agonizing process of deciding the absolute perfect moment to snip them and bring them inside.

And then, after all of that waiting and watching it’s just over…done. Because, unlike heaven, lilacs don’t last for an eternity. So, making my own lilac room spray seemed like the perfect way to enjoy their fragrance long after the blossoms have faded.

Here’s how to make it! Ingredients: Water, Vodka, Lilac fragrance oil. Directions: Fill spray bottle with 50/50 ratio of water to vodka. Add 12 drops of lilac oil. Give it a shake, spray and if the scent isn’t strong enough, simply add a few more drops of lilac oil.

Once you’ve made this lilac scented room spray you will be very tempted to spray it in every room in your house. And someone may want to use it in the bathroom to cover up other less…ummmm….pleasing aromas.

But, do not, I repeat do NOT, let them.

You’ve captured the fragrance of heaven in a bottle and you wouldn’t want to go and tarnish it now would you? 😉
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Most recently, we let our son pick where we would travel for spring break since this is his senior year of high school and we are trying to make up for lost time. With so much of life ‘paused’ for two years, we have appreciated these moments more than ever. And, since he’ll be heading to college in the fall, we are very aware of how important it is to spend this time together while we still have a modicum of control over everyone’s schedules.

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And, while I’m always happy to look around my home and see rooms that are updated and more reflecting of our style, it doesn’t compare to the joy I feel when I look around my home and see the people I love the most who have been shaped by the many adventures we’ve experienced together.
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What’s the weather like where you are?
“The devil, darkness, and death may swagger and “The devil, darkness, and death may swagger and boast, the pangs of life will sting for a while longer, but don’t worry; the forces of evil are breathing their last. Not to worry…HE’S RISEN!” (Charles R. Swindoll).

Happy Easter! He is risen indeed!
Who has believed our message? And to whom has the Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

For he grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of parched ground; he has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to him.

He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and like one from whom men hide their face, he was despised, and we did not esteem him. Surely our griefs he himself bore, and our sorrows he carried; yet we ourselves esteemed him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 

But he was pierced through for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon him, and by his scourging we are healed.

All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him. (Isaiah 53)
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Isn't it amazing how small gestures can make us feel less invisible? Knowing that someone is thinking of us and takes the time to meet a need that we might not have even realized we had? These little acts can have big impacts. What is something that someone has done for you recently that made you feel valued and seen?

What have you done for someone else to remind them that you are paying attention to their needs?

“No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.”
― Charles Dickens
“The next day the large crowd that had come to t “The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, ‘Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!’ – John 12:9-19
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