Easter!

 Happy Easter!

I'm sharing a few favorite Easter images from my Instagram below and linking a few Easter-y blog posts below that. I hope your day is blessed with sweet memories and time with people you want to celebrate a glorious Sunday with. Happy Easter!

Chinoiserie Easter Tree

Favorite Easter Images through the Years

A Perfect Punch for Easter

Easter Decorating. Do You or Don't You?

Seasonal decorating... do you or don't you? 

When Mollie was little I let her decorate for the holidays with lots of cute little things - an Easter village or a pumpkin patch and she had a nativity that was all hers to play with and move around as she wished. As she got older I became less of a seasonal decorator and more about adding the "natural" elements from each season. I kept saying I am not much of a seasonal decorator BUT with a little time on my hands over the last couple of years I have upped my seasonal decorating a little bit. Still very little compared to a lot of what's going on out there but it's been fun.

In addition to the Chinoiserie Easter Tree I created this year (and plan to pull out for years to come!) I thought I would share a few other things that I have done around the house.

First of all I have stuck palm branches left over from Palm Sunday here and there. I lean a little coastal/lowcountry in my decor anyway so they fit right in. 

I put some flocked bunnies and chinoiserie eggs at the base of the lemon tree in the garden room.

You may have seen on Instagram that, in addition to my chinoiserie eggs, I marbleized some as well. I used the same spray paint technique I used for my mini pumpkins. 

I created this bunny topiary using a clay pot of bulbs that I had planted in late Winter. Their timing was perfect so I added a little grapevine bunny I purchased at the Target Dollar Spot and tossed in a few chinoiserie eggs. A five minute centerpiece!

This is another little bunny I pull out every year. he's just a flocked bunny on a pick but he's charming in his simplicity. I juts stick him in whatever little planter has greened up already.

And then who doesn't want a giant chocolate Easter Bunny around for Easter dinner? This guy is not edible - he got a coat of spray paint and looks so much like a chocolate bunny that people were fooled!!

My last little Easter project this year was a Resurrection Garden for the entryway at church.

I had seen some on IG and Pinterest. It was easily put together. I used silk greenery because of the location at church but it would be beautiful to create with real plants. Maybe next year.

Happy Easter!

Palm Sunday

A few palm fronds in a thrifted champagne bucket.

 I had polished the large one but the smaller one was still tarnished.

 It seemed like a metaphor for Palm Sunday. 

 

Happy Easter!

 I'm up early (4:30!!!) to get ready for Sunrise Service this morning so I thought I would share some  of my favorite Easter images. 

(If you follow on Instagram you have already seen some of these!)

Mostly chinoiserie eggs, azaleas and some little bunnies I've had for years for our Easter decor this year. It was all what we had on hand but it was cheery to have a round - especially because the two weeks before Easter were rainy and unusually cold! March went out like a lion!

This little moss bunny was very popular on IG. Lots of questions about where to find one like it. I bought this years ago at Pier One. It was listed as a bunny pick in the floral area. Somebody needs to make one next year - it would sell like hotcakes!

This simple one is from Palm Sunday but I'm including it as well.

I hope that however, wherever and with whomever you celebrate that today is full of joy!

Happy Easter!

Punch!

 I love punch.

 It isn't served at events anymore like it was when I was growing up (and now we may feel differently about a community punch bowl altogether.) My grandmother had a frozen punch recipe that she was famous for - it had a steeped tea base with delicious fruit juices and she froze it and then whipped it with a hand mixer before serving. It was so refreshing and she often made it just for our family to enjoy during visits but it was definitely the highlight of all showers and wedding receptions. My mother would make punch for us to have in the Summer when a large group of friends would be in our yard playing in the playhouse or swinging. She used grape juice as a base and there were always maraschino cherries in it!! It was the punch of her childhood - my grandmother used to make a similar punch, when my mom was a child, in a large white enamel container and serve it to the children and anyone who stopped by.

I have very fond memories of happy times and delicious punch. I still have my punch bowl and silver punch ladle. I haven't used it in a long time but I'm hanging on to it. Maybe someday...

The other day I was scrolling through Flower Magazine's beautiful website and one of the editors, Amanda Smith Fowler, was sharing her Almond Punch recipe. The article said it was a family favorite for Easter! It sounded delicious and fun (you can top it off Ginger Ale or  Prosecco for the adults!)

(Do you see Cooper? He's trying to figure out how to get a cheese straw!!)

I really wanted to try it. As I don't have any events in the near future requiring the quantity that this punch bowl filling recipe would serve (see Amanda's family recipe here), I decided to try and reduce the recipe so we could enjoy it relaxing on the porch on a sunny Spring weekend - even if it's just us!!

Marcie's "Small Batch" Version of Almond Punch!

32 ounces of water

1 1/4 cup of sugar

12 ounces of pineapple juice

1/4 bottle of almond extract

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

2 ounces frozen lemonade, thawed slightly

ginger ale or prosecco

fruit garnish, if desired

Dissolve the sugar in warm water- be sure sugar is completely dissolved. Add the pineapple juice, lemonade, almond extract and vanilla extract to the sugar water mixture. Stir well. Pour mixture into a large freezer proof plastic container  Freeze. Pull container out, allow Almond Punch to become slushy and scoop into glasses - about halfway full. Top off each serving with ginger ale or prosecco. Garnish and enjoy. 

The Review: Reducing the recipe worked well. It's delicious, slushy and refreshing. It's delicious topped with Prosecco but it's very, very  yummy going the non-alcoholic route and using ginger ale. I tried it both ways :)

It's the perfect, refreshing Spring punch and would be equally delicious with brunch or in the afternoon with cheese straws and nibbles for Happy Hour!

Be sure to let me know if you make this punch!

Chinoiserie Easter Eggs

UPDATE: Post your Easter Egg GIVEAWAY comments on this post. Details on Instagram.

I'm not an over the top seasonal decorator but painting is "my therapy"

 and there's a lot of crazy going on right now so late night painting sesh it is!!

I purchased plain white plastic eggs.

 They aren't the slick, shiny plastic ones that open into 2 parts.

 They have a matte finish.

They are actually pretty realistic looking 

and the same size as a real grade A large egg, I think. 

I used a small (very, very small) paintbrush and acrylic craft paint.

This is a very quick and simple project. 

The matte finish is very easy to work with and dries very quickly. 

I painted a dozen eggs in one sitting!

If you "hunt" around you will find Chinoiserie Easter eggs 

tucked in here and there all around the house!

See my blue and white Chinoiserie Christmas ornaments here and here. 

And my Chinoiserie Pumpkins here. 

The Hunt Is On!!

 via

 

I love all the Easter mantels, Spring décor and cute tablescapes for Easter dinner out there on blogs and Pinterest

but the truth is that I was lucky to get a

 bunny banner on the door.

 

 

via

 

I was just reading a favorite blog, The Pink Clutch,  and she commented

 that it's hard to think of things for Easter baskets once your kiddos get older.

It's true and the older they get the costlier their items are

and this is not Christmas or a birthday, after all.

 I also do not like to spend money on inexpensive, silly trinkets that don't serve any purpose other than to fill up a basket.

 But I do not want to stop filling a basket for CG either.

It's fun for both of us.

I'll head off to Sunrise Service and our early service and they will all join me at 11 o'clock service.

We'll "do" baskets when we get home.

 

 

via 

 

So to get back on track. I responded to Paige at The Pink Clutch with the following.

 This was my "big kid" solution to the Easter goodies dilemma a few years ago

and it is a big hit (and gets them off their iphones) :

via

 

A few years ago, the 'children' in our regular Easter dinner get together group (no family in town) decided that they were in HS and college

and too old to participate in my traditional Egg Hunt.

Challenge taken.

 

via

 

 

 I filled plastic eggs with loose change that I collect in a jar

 and my car console and numbered slips of paper.

The numbered slips of paper corresponded to numbered

$5.00 and $10.00 gift cards to favorite places like

QT for gas, Target, Chi-Fil-A, of course, and Starbucks.

 They scrambled like we hadn't seen them move since they were little

and the adults laughed at their antics to find the eggs and collect the goods.

 

(College Girl counting up her "egg money" after a hunt a couple of years ago)

 

 Hard to say if they were happier about the change which added up or the gift cards.

 Here we are 4 years later

and the first thing they tell their dates and friends, who now come along on Easter, about 

 is the Egg Hunt.

 If the weather is great. then outside it is.

 If it is rainy then you can hide less eggs, avoid crazy running in the house and possible breakage of treasures and just give them a list with clues to find their 10 or 12 eggs.

 They can even be color coded if it's just your own kids.

They really love this as much or more than the goods in the basket!!

And it's pretty easy, too - change and a run to one place with lots of gift cards

 and a quick drive thru for tea, gift cards, and a salad for you for lunch at CFA!!

 

Happy Easter!!

Burlap and Bunnies

While the burlap and paints were still hanging around

 from the Quick and Easy Burlap Banners

 I made last week for a friends' Girls Night Out activity,

 I decided I should at least make an effort to put something on the front door that would give us a little Easter decor before it's too late.

 

 

So Burlap and Bunnies it is!

 

 

A quick outline on the burlap runner remnant.

 I just use a flat paintbrush about 1/2 inch wide and paint the shape.

 

I filled it in with a larger brush and then while the white was still wet,

 I gave the bunny pale pink insides of his ears and cheeks.

I love to paint leaping bunnies.

 

 

I sketched in some carrots at the bottom

 and started painting grass in multiple shades of green.

All very quick and simple.

 

I painted lots of blades of grass.

Then I used a Spouncer and added yellow polka dots all around the bunny.

 

I gave him a pink nose and a black dot for an eye.

After he dries I will erase the chalk outlines you can see around the carrots.

I'll use a sharpie to draw a few whiskers!

 

And it's on the front door -and it's not the day before!

Time to spare.

 

I didn't have a dowel rod long enough so I used a fairly straight branch from the yard.

 We've been pruning so plenty of branches on hand.

 

 

It was impossible to get a non- shadowy picture on the front door yesterday so I took one of it flat on my kitchen table so you can see the branch.

I just added a hanger from orange gingham ribbon.

 I had it on hand and it looks good against my SW Urbane Bronze front door.

So quick and easy with the hemmed burlap table runner.

Other than drying time this whole project takes less than an hour.

So, hop to it and get one made before Easter!!