Home Front

By JUDY STARK, Times Homes Editor
© St. Petersburg Times
published April 19, 2003

Briefs and news of note

[Times photo: Patty Yablonski ]

Speaking of decorations, this carrot-top bunny, 11 inches tall, is $8.99 at Sisters’ Secret Garden, 19309 U.S. 41, Lutz, (813) 949-3038. Hand-crocheted chick, 7 inches tall, is $8 at Bliss, 405 Central Ave., St. Petersburg, (727) 825-0373.

That's a lot of crepe paper eggs

Happy Easter weekend! In 1996, Americans spent $255-million on Easter decorations. By 2001, that number had hit $440-million, according to a report by Unity Marketing, which monitors consumer spending. But those numbers were down from 1999, when we spent $620-million. Amy Ashworth, a buyer for Michaels, the craft store, said Easter had been the biggest decorating holiday, just behind Christmas, but then Halloween took off several years ago to surpass it. A desire for nesting and cocooning, and the wish to make one's home stand out from similar houses in the neighborhood, inspire Easter decorating, retailers say.

Ready to head north?

Those with a summer home north of here will soon be opening the place up for the season. Joanne Palmisano's Camps, Cottages and Cabins: Tips and Ideas for Getting the Most Out of Your Seasonal Home (Happy Hollow Promotions) offers 180 pages of suggestions for opening up your summer place: stocking, repairing and maintaining it; renting it; enjoying it; closing it up at summer's end; and passing it on to the next generation. It's $19.95 at www.loveyourcottage.com or through bookstores.

A tour of artwork, architecture

Easter weekend keeps us busy enough, but this is also Mainsail Art Festival weekend in St. Petersburg, at Straub Park on the city's downtown waterfront. And today is the Old Southeast Neighborhood Tour in St. Petersburg, when nine homes in the waterfront neighborhood welcome visitors from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tickets are $5 at Lassing Park, on the waterfront at 20th Avenue and Beach Drive SE. The homes were built between 1908 and the 1960s. This is an up-and-coming neighborhood of hex-block sidewalks, shady streets and lots of enthusiastic renovation. Information: (727) 898-4823.

High style, low prices

Wear your sneakers and get there early. From 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and April 26, the Florida Orchestra Guild/Tampa will hold UpScale On Sale at the West Tampa Convention Center, 3005 E Columbus Drive, Tampa. Interior designers will sell accessories and decorative pieces at what are described as "rock-bottom prices": vases, lamps, pillows, furniture, silk plants, garden statuary, art and more. The sale benefits the orchestra guild.

-- Compiled by Homes editor JUDY STARK

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