A look back at Easter

Wanted to share a few pictures from Easter. It was a good, busy day! :) As I mentioned in my last post, I took over the dinner for some of the family because of an illness in the family. My mother usually hosts Easter, but she wasn't able to do it this year. We don't have a very large family, so moving it to our house was easy!

A peek at the new chalkboard door in the kitchen:

 

I've been on a tulip kick lately - I am so tired of everything being brown and crunchy outside!

I found a lovely set of late 1940's dishes by Homer Laughlin (you know my love of Homer Laughlin from earlier posts!) It's called "Cashmere" and is part of their Eggshell Georgian line. It's not complete yet, but I had enough to lay out the "grown up" table. I'm looking forward to this weekend, when I pick up the rest of the dishes I need from a seller I found on Craigslist. :) I will end up with a 12 piece set plus a variety of serving pieces - I can't wait!

I really need to buy some nice table linens...we don't usually have a tablecloth on our table but for Easter dinner I needed something! :) I found this light blue linen cloth at a local thrift shop last year but it wasn't long enough for the table, so I found a vintage floral bedsheet that also came from the thrift store when I was working on this project.  I didn't use it for the project so it has become a sheet for forts, sleepovers, and now a table cloth.

The kids had a egg & basket hunt first thing in the morning before I had to go to work. It was a gloomy morning with a bit of sprinkles, but then it cleared up and we had a sunny day with temps in the low 50s. Perfect chance to open the windows and go outside! They spent the majority of the day playing outside and when I got home and started cooking, my husband, brother and brother-in-law set up another egg hunt for Davin & Abby and their cousin Emily in the backyard. Since I was cooking I didn't get any pictures unfortunately, but throught the windows I could get a peek of the hunt - the kids were so cute!

We ended up with a total of 7 for dinner. Because I had to work, the menu was going to be simple: ham, potato dumplings & mashed, fresh green beans, corn, and breads. A selection of brownies, pudding and ice cream for dessert kept the kids happy - how could it not? :)
A day full of playing, a full tummy and a comfy couch, and we found Abby like this at about 7:30:

(via my Instagram)

Love that little face!

It was a pretty hectic weekend, but we were so happy to spend it with our family. We aren't a religious family, but holidays like these are just as important to us as a way to celebrate the importance of the special love that family and close friends bring. It's something that can feel routine, that they will always be there, but my moms illness this weekend was a timely reminder that we can never take for granted the time we have with them. Thankfully it turned out to be much less serious than it could have been, but even so, it was a wake up call that the time we have together is always precious.

I hope you had a lovely Easter as well, and no matter how you celebrate the day I hope it included all the love that you could possibly have, whether from family and/or from faith.

Crochet Bunny Peeps!

I wanted to share one of my favorite Easter/Spring crochet projects. Crochet Bunny Peeps!

This pattern is not mine, but was shared by Ryan at Scarlett Design in 2010. I LOVE this pattern - so easy to follow and the project came together for me really fast! Swing by her blog and check out her great patterns and other goodies!

My favorite yarn for this project ended up being Simply Soft by Caron...it's easy to find, has lots of bright colors (you need bright colors for that Peeps look!) and is really soft. It also helps that I have quite a bit of it in my yarn stash so it was a great way to use up some of the yarn that was piling up. I also used other worsted weight yearns...really anything will work!

For the eyes I used the plastic safety eyes that you can find at any local craft store (I got mine at Joanns). Quick tip - put them in your project before you put in the stuffing and reduce your rounds so much you can't get your fingers inside to attach the back. Not that I know this from experience of course... *wink*

Anyway, go check out Ryan's blog, which also has links to her Etsy shop.

By the way, how is it possibly only 6 days till Easter? I have done NOTHING to prepare! Work has been too crazy, but I made it through the weekend in one (relatively unscathed) piece and am really looking forward to my day off tomorrow. How are your Easter/Spring plans going?

Easter crafts

I am such a scatterbrained mommy! Here it is, 5 days before Easter and I haven't put up any decorations or done any crafts. But today I was doing a bit of surfing and checking out some great blogs full of family crafts. My Google Reader is full of new blog posts to check out. :)

One of the blogs I happened upon was Moments of Mommyhood which had a post for Footprint Ducklings. Super simple, but sure to bring out the giggles. So after I got home from work and we had dinner I grabbed 2 sheets of paper, some yellow craft paint, a foam brush and lots of paper towels. I started with my son and the promised giggles and squeals were plentiful as I brushed the paint on the bottom of his foot. A quick press on the paper and VOILA! Next came my daughter, who suddenly became shy and didn't want to get her foot painted. Well eventually we got the deed done and even the cat came to check out the activity on the kitchen floor. Naturally she got right in the way and is still sporting a yellow-tipped ear. lol

Then came the fun part, creating the scene for these little ducklings. See the pics below. In the first my daughter is working very hard on the spread wings that her duckling got, and in the second, my sons final picture. All in all a quick and easy craft that the kids are very proud of!

Tomorrow, a few more decorations hopefully!