Lindsay Ballard, Author at Makely

Every time I open my mailbox and find a new Pottery Barn catalog waiting on me, I do a little happy dance right there at our neighborhood’s mail kiosk. I’m sure my neighbors think I’m insane, but I’m also sure it’s not the first time that they have thought that about me.

I never actually buy anything at Pottery Barn. In fact, I can probably count on one hand the number of items we have in our home from the store, and most of them were given to us as gifts. You see, my neighbors may think that I am insane, but I think the prices at Pottery Barn are what’s really insane.

Why do I get excited about the Pottery Barn catalog then? Well, because I use it as inspiration, of course! It’s easy to get Pottery Barn style on a much more reasonable budget. Starting today, I’m going to begin showing you how, and I’ll have more examples in the coming weeks and months ahead. I think I’ll even make a little series of it.

In the most recent issue, one of the layouts I was particularly drawn to was this one:

As a cyclist, I love the tandem bike stretched over the four canvases. As a starfish fan, I love the collection of white starfish in the glass display box. What I really love about this photo, though, is the floral arrangement.

I might be biased as peonies are my favorite flower, but I absolutely love the combination of the flowers and the seashells at the bottom of the vase. How gorgeous! I knew I could easily put this arrangement together in my own home, and you can, too.

I found a small bouquet of freshly cut pink peonies at the grocery store. I just bought one small bouquet since I wanted to put together a smaller scale version of the Pottery Barn arrangement. Maybe one day, I’ll plant some peonies in my backyard and I won’t have to buy the blooms at the grocery store. Sigh…

Next, I added a few handfuls of seashells to the bottom of a small, fishbowl style vase. I have a ton of seashells lying around that I purchased at my last trip to the beach, but you can buy them at craft stores or even dollar stores if you don’t have any on hand.

I filled the vase about three-quarters full of water and cut my flower stems so that the blooms were just above the top of the vase.

I added the arrangement to the top of one of the end tables in my living room. It looks very, well, Pottery Barn, doesn’t it?

I am absolutely in love. The peonies are very fragrant and fill the entire room with their deliciousness. I rarely treat myself to fresh flowers, but I think I may have to start doing so more often!

Inspiration is everywhere – even right there in your mailbox. You just have to know where to look!

Once upon a time, there was a hard-to-live-with mother and a wild 3-year old son who were extremely excited to give their wonderful husband/daddy his Father’s Day gift. You see, the man in their lives loved to work with his tools in the garage but hated the Texas heat more than most anything. The pair decided that an outdoor misting fan would be the best gift ever.

The father was very touched by the gift, but embarrassingly reminded the mother that the misting fan would make all of his tools rust. Um, oops? So, the threesome set off on Father’s Day to Lowe’s to return the misting fan and to let Daddy pick out something he could really use.

However, instead of picking out some new power tool or a brand new set of drill bits, the father chose something the entire family could enjoy – a new tree for their backyard. Until then, the family’s backyard was a barren wasteland of nothing but old farm land turned into a developers dream. Nothing but poorly laid sod covered the ground, and the Texas afternoon proved too hot for the family to enjoy being outdoors with no shade. Even the poor grass with suffering from the lack of shade.

So, on his fourth Father’s Day, the daddy put a wet Crate and Barrel embroidered dish towel on his head to keep him cool and dug a giant hole with his shovel.

Okay, the beautiful mother did help with the manual labor, just in case you were keeping score. You can tell because she dropped her sunglasses inside the hole. She also may or may not have actually fallen into said hole at one point, but that’s really just speculation.

It wasn’t much longer until that wonderful tree was in the ground. The family lives in the windiest place on Earth (Chicago has nothing on this flat, former farmland), so the tree will be staked in place for at least a year.

Lest you think that the little family of three is all work and no play, the boys found some time to have a little fun while watering in the new addition to their home.

That little tree may not look like much now, but it is just the beginning of the transformation of that backyard from hot Texas misery to a wonderful family playground. It will soon be joined by a few more trees and later – possibly next Spring – by gardens and flowerbeds.

What’s now not much more than a leafy stick…

…will transform before our eyes into a gorgeous, fast growing flowering pear tree, our very own Giving Tree.

I’m proud to call that wonderful father, the one who gave up his Father’s Day present and spent his special day digging in the yard, my husband. Our son, Zack, is even prouder to call him his Daddy. In our eyes, he’s just like that Giving Tree in the Shel Silverstein story. He gives and gives until he must feel like he has nothing left to give, and yet we continue to ask for more. As the years pass, I’m learning more of what it means to give back to the man who gives so much of himself to us. I’m hoping that my son is learning this lesson, too, and will be the same kind of father to his children years and years (and years!) from now.

Until then, we’ll always have our Giving Tree as a reminder. Thank you, Tom.

Photo Credits:
-Misting fan courtesy of Backyard City
-Mature Cleveland Flowering Pear courtesy of Dave’s Complete Lawn Care

Pottery Barn Style on a Grocery Store Budget

The New Giving Tree